Jun 1, 2026 · 1 hr 3 min · 11 segments
In this episode, Francis and Jasper discuss a listener question: when a format has a clear deck to beat, how do you prepare for it? They talk through how much weight to give the top deck when choosing…
Francis CowperHost
I think the deck to beat might be something that is variable in how important it is, depending on what sort of event you're going to go to.
... uh, then the impact of the deck to beat, meaning whatever's been doing the rounds, I suppose, in the leagues and challenges, will be quite high, right? It seems very likely that you would play against it because the people who are playing those events are inclined to swap between decks and try to try and next level the other people around in the events, and they, they might be more comfortable doing that than people who have, say, a static paper collection.
So the deck to beat, I say, has a higher impact on online events for a starter.
It just reminds me of what we were talking about last time, which is that there comes a point in a tournament where you might reasonably expect to face the deck to beat, but you also have to play the tournament where you don't play against that deck.
Like, if you tech too hard towards, say, beating in this meta tempo or what- I mean, wherever the meta has sort of settled at the moment.
But say it's tempo, and you then don't play against tempo, or you play against all the other decks that are trying to beat tempo, you may not get the results that you're looking for if you don't get that match up.
So I think there's a, there's a risk in [sighs] assuming that you are well-placed to tech against the top meta deck because that assumption is predicated on the idea that everybody else hasn't also identified that that's the deck to beat and won't be doing things to counteract that.
So I think that I would err on the side of, you know, definitely wanting a clear plan, but certainly not to over-adjusting towards beating a certain meta deck.
Unless you really know, like in a small environment or even a closed environment or an open deck list environment, you really know that there's gonna be so much of, of that deck.
But I think that Legacy very rarely is like that, and in particular, the kinds of Legacy events that I would be most inclined to do more preparation for, which would be large paper events, 'cause that for me is like the most exciting bit of playing big Legacy events are, are the paper ones.
I don't think you can draw too many conclusions based on the meta that we have data about, which is the online meta, and how that's gonna translate into the paper meta.
And it helps to know the decks, the lists, because people do look at those, but I think people make their own deck choices based more on a range of factors than just this deck is the deck to beat.
And I suppose you might come down to seeing what people have available in their collections as well, right?
So more and more events are proxy, but if events aren't proxy, you have to take into account this aspect of these are the cards people own.
They might bring, you know, the best up-to-date version of blue-white control or tempo or dark ritual combo or something to do with Ancient Tomb or, or whatever, but that percentage of the meta game can only change so much, right? The example that's actually given here is four candles-
... uh, as opposed to four handles.[chuckles] Not a lot of people have four Candelabra of Tawnos, and-
I think the deck to beat might be something that is variable in how important it is, depending on what sort of event you're going to go to.
... uh, then the impact of the deck to beat, meaning whatever's been doing the rounds, I suppose, in the leagues and challenges, will be quite high, right? It seems very likely that you would play against it because the people who are playing those events are inclined to swap between decks and try to try and next level the other people around in the events, and they, they might be more comfortable doing that than people who have, say, a static paper collection.
So the deck to beat, I say, has a higher impact on online events for a starter.
It just reminds me of what we were talking about last time, which is that there comes a point in a tournament where you might reasonably expect to face the deck to beat, but you also have to play the tournament where you don't play against that deck.
Like, if you tech too hard towards, say, beating in this meta tempo or what- I mean, wherever the meta has sort of settled at the moment.
But say it's tempo, and you then don't play against tempo, or you play against all the other decks that are trying to beat tempo, you may not get the results that you're looking for if you don't get that match up.
So I think there's a, there's a risk in [sighs] assuming that you are well-placed to tech against the top meta deck because that assumption is predicated on the idea that everybody else hasn't also identified that that's the deck to beat and won't be doing things to counteract that.
So I think that I would err on the side of, you know, definitely wanting a clear plan, but certainly not to over-adjusting towards beating a certain meta deck.
Unless you really know, like in a small environment or even a closed environment or an open deck list environment, you really know that there's gonna be so much of, of that deck.
But I think that Legacy very rarely is like that, and in particular, the kinds of Legacy events that I would be most inclined to do more preparation for, which would be large paper events, 'cause that for me is like the most exciting bit of playing big Legacy events are, are the paper ones.
I don't think you can draw too many conclusions based on the meta that we have data about, which is the online meta, and how that's gonna translate into the paper meta.
And it helps to know the decks, the lists, because people do look at those, but I think people make their own deck choices based more on a range of factors than just this deck is the deck to beat.
And I suppose you might come down to seeing what people have available in their collections as well, right?
So more and more events are proxy, but if events aren't proxy, you have to take into account this aspect of these are the cards people own.
They might bring, you know, the best up-to-date version of blue-white control or tempo or dark ritual combo or something to do with Ancient Tomb or, or whatever, but that percentage of the meta game can only change so much, right? The example that's actually given here is four candles-
... uh, as opposed to four handles.[chuckles] Not a lot of people have four Candelabra of Tawnos, and-
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