by KingOfTheDepths
It's October, and another Quarterly is upon us, which means it's time for another format metagame report! The last few months have been extremely exciting for commons and uncommons, with several new high-impact sets bringing powerful new additions to the format. Let's highlight a few in particular!
New Cards to the Format
Lord of the Rings was an overall high-powered limited environment, with the mechanic The Ring Tempts You at the core of the set. The biggest wave-maker in eternal formats by far, however, was the cycle of "basic landcycling" cards printed at common. Designed for fixing in the limited environment, they are the perfect balance of impactful early and impactful late, providing fixing, finding utility lands, and on top of that just being reasonable spells for their mana values. The impacts were far-reaching, especially for the green, blue, and black landcyclers, and they are seeing play in a multitude of Noble decklists. Generous Ent has almost singlehandedly put Cloudpost back on the map, Troll of Khazad-dum has become a core component of both fair and unfair reanimator strategies, and standing head and shoulders above the others, Lorien Revealed has completely redefined control decks in the format for its ability to fetch Mystic Sanctuary. These cards have also had the secondary effect of diminishing the effectiveness of Wasteland, as slower decks are able to more reliably find their basicss to play the game.
Land cyclers aside, there were several other cards from LOTR which became sideboard staples of the format. Stone of Erech is the most potent Skullclamp hate the format has seen, and is a 1-sided stax piece, one of only a small handful at Uncommon. Fear, Fire, Foes! doubles as a sweeper and a way for red decks to break a fog lock. Samwise the Stouthearted created the format's third potential Wasteland loop when paired with Karakas, and is also just an incredible mid-to-late game value engine on an efficient creature with flash. There were also a number of archetype-specific printings, like Food or Humans, which have led to innovative decklists and deckbuilding all around.
There were two other high-impact sets that came out since last Quarterly: Commander Masters and Wilds of Eldraine. Commander Masters brought a slew of downshifts to the format, most notably Squee, Goblin Nabob; a huge boon to madness and self-mill decks. Wilds of Eldraine saw a re-visit to the historically broken Adventure mechanic, with a slew of new powerful uncommon creatures that double as spells, such as favorite Hearth Elemental (which does an fantastic Bedlam Reveller Impression) and sleeper pick Picklock Prankster, which has ridiculous synergies with Treasure Cruise while being a solid value creature. The Faeries archetype got its first relevant printings in years; and the new "Bargain" mechanic boosts the sacrifice strategies significantly. The most relevant printing in Noble, like in every other format, is Up the Beanstalk, a 2-mana value engine that makes Force of Will draw a card, which...there isn't much more to say than that, is there?
Metagame Report
Despite these fun new additions to the format, Noble continues to be a format defined by the same things it was three months ago: extremely efficient interaction paired with overabundant card advantage options, counteracted by cheap threats and cheap-to-free disruption. There have been no changes to the ban list since last Quarterly. This is the format where Gitaxian Probe, Skullclamp, High Tide, Wasteland, Gush, Force of Will, Berserk, Ancient Tomb, etc... are all legal, and I highly recommend that you play with and experience all of these cards in a setting where the threats are adjusted to their power level!
We've seen a big shift in the metagame overall, away from the turbo-aggro and turbo-combo decks of the past and into a space much more dominated by Midrange and Control, with a huge representation of Baleful Strix and Swords to Plowshares at the top of the format. The last three months have been a absolutely crushing performance by player Bones, who has tallied a 3-0 or 2-1 win in almost every single tourney since bringing Humans to the Quarterly last June. These wins were largely on the backs of their signature "Bones Control" Dimir Control list, and Orzhov Kitty a.k.a. Dead Gates. These two decks pack an endless stream of early interaction and pivot into an unbeatable card advantage engine in the form of Mystic Sanctuary or Skullclamp. The performance of these two lists speaks volumes about the place interaction holds in the format. The runner-up slot, on the other hand, has seen a diverse range of offerings quietly pulling the 2-1 slot, with exciting brews like Abiding Grace (now featuring Sylvan Library!), Mono-Blue Delver, Cascade, and Grixis Midrange all putting in top finishes. New decks Chasm Lock and Cloudpost, previously thought to be impossible in the format, both also represented with impressive 2-1 finishes during the summer season, and fan favorite Esper Vial, the grindy midrange gameplan that took down the June Quarterly, has pulled in a string of consistently positive results, indicating that the menace is far from gone.
All of this is to say: while Control has been very good recently, the Noble metagame is still very open. I would say that there is no clear "best deck" in Noble; rather, there are multiple good options in each archetype which are worth exploring for yourself. There are strong offerings in aggro, control, combo, midrange, etc.. and instead of arriving at a "Rock Paper Scissors" metagame like many other Magic formats find themselves settling into over time, we have found a "Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock" meta where every list has multiple strong and weak matchups, and even bad pairings are winnable with lucky draws and solid sideboard plans.
Instead of recommending what to play, I'm going to call out and showcase a handful of decks in each archetype, and talk about the different strengths and weaknesses of each list! This is not a comprehensive list of playable decks; but all of the decks in this list are playable and, in my honest opinion, capable of winning the next Quarterly. I intentionally chose "unrefined" versions of some of these lists, as they can all be further fine-tuned to have even better performance. If you don't see your favorite deck on this list, never fear! It may be a "sleeper hit" that the rest of the format hasn't caught onto yet.
Decks will be presented in six general categories:
Combo
Midrange
Control
Aggro
Tempo
Off-Axis
Overall, I hope this list of Noble decks showcases the wide swathe of competitive options in the format, highlights important considerations for sideboarding in the current format, and also inspires someone's deck choice going forward into the tourney.
Combo Decks:
Combo decks are, generally speaking, the glass cannons of the format. They devote many resources to resolving a key spell, with the intent of winning the game once it resolves. Combo decks always ask tough questions, rather than trying to present answers. Combo decks generally have an "Achilles Heel" weakness that is exploitable, which they trade off in exchange for having enormous explosive one-turn-kill potential. Noble's combo decks are myriad and diverse, and may of the best builds are likely still to be solved. Combo gamers, you already know who you are!
Reanimator
The Gameplan: This deck is the format's nightmare under the bed, pun intended. Reanimator wants to check the opponent's hand for interaction, then put a difficult-to-answer humongous threat onto the board as quickly as possible.
Key Cards: Reanimate, Duress, Pathrazer of Ulamog
Best Archetype Matchup: Combo
Worst Archetype Matchup: Tempo
Strengths: Being extremely fast. Beats a single piece of interaction easily!
Weaknesses: Grave Hate, Counterspells
Elves
The Gameplan: Put a bunch of Elves into play, draw a bunch of cards, profit?? Heritage Druid and Nettle Sentinel generate near-infinite mana, Skullclamp converts that mana into cards, and Rocco, Cabaretti Caretaker either ends the game or helps you dig into the late game. Go wide for the win!
Key Cards: Skullclamp, Heritage Druid, Rocco Cabaretti Caretaker
Best Archetype Matchup: Tempo
Worst Archetype Matchup: Combo
Strengths: Resilience. This deck can go off turn after turn, and has a strong beatdown plan.
Weaknesses: Sweepers, storm hate
High Tide
The Gameplan: This deck makes So. Much. Mana. Find and cast High Tide, use the plentiful untap spells in your deck to generate enormous amounts of mana, and eventually go infinite for the win by using Split Decision to copy Bond of Insight, buying back an untap spell and Split Decision and milling your opponent out.
Key Cards: High Tide, Frantic Search, Ideas Unbound
Best Archetype Matchup: Midrange
Worst Archetype Matchup: Tempo
Strengths: Interaction. What kind of combo deck gets to play Force of Will? Notably this deck is not weak to grave hate, the combo is instant speed.
Weaknesses: Storm hate, getting aggro'd out
WitherSmog
The Gameplan: Full Cheese Mode. Deplete your opponent's resources with Cabal Therapies and Raven's Crime, then win suddenly with Witherbloom Apprentice + Chain of Smog or Quandrix Apprentice + Chain of Smog to stack your entire library.
Key Cards: Chain of Smog, Witherbloom Apprentice, Quandrix Apprentice
Best Archetype Matchup: Off-Axis
Worst Archetype Matchup: Tempo
Strengths: Threading the Needle. This deck is notoriously difficult to hate out with Stax pieces, and can use discard to find a window and end the game, while also having high grinding potential and redundancy thanks to the 8x Apprentices.
Weaknesses: Abundant targeted removal, getting aggro'd out
Red Storm
The Gameplan: A classic take on Storm. Draw a bunch of cards, cast a bunch of spells, make a bunch of Goblins.
Key Cards: _____ Goblin, Empty the Warrens, Galvanic Relay
Best Archetype Matchup: Midrange
Worst Archetype Matchup: Tempo
Strengths: Plays through Stax very well for a combo deck, wins very explosively and can play around common answers.
Weaknesses: Sweepers, Storm Hate
GushBloom
The Gameplan: Accelerate ahead with Explore + Risen Reef + Summer Bloom, then go infinite with Summer Bloom, Gush, and Mystic Sanctuary for the win. Risen Reef + Zendikar's Roil can also combo to make near-infinite creatures and draw near-infinite cards, making this deck feel incredibly busted while it's comboing off.
Key Cards: Summer Bloom, Gush, Mystic Sanctuary
Best Archetype Matchup: Off-Axis
Worst Archetype Matchup: Tempo
Strengths: Explosiveness. This deck easily gets ahead on mana and cards, and can take some of the most ridiculous turns possible in Magic once it's up on resources.
Weaknesses: Getting aggro'd out, Storm Hate
KCI
The Gameplan: I heard you like artifacts, so we put some artifacts with your artifacts so you can...*cough* anyways! Cast or Tinker Krark-Clan Ironworks into play, then go near-infinite with Ichor Wellsprings and Grinding Station or actually-infinite with Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek.
Key Cards: Krark-Clan Ironworks, Tinker, Thopter Foundry
Best Archetype Matchup: Off-Meta
Worst Archetype Matchup: Tempo
Strengths: Explosiveness. This deck wins the game out of nowhere and from very low resources.
Weaknesses: Artifact hate, storm hate, grave hate
Midrange Decks:
The name of the game for Midrange decks in Noble is value. Lots and lots of value. Whether you're going off with Soulherder, making tokens with The Lost and the Damned, or drawing cards with Up the Beanstalk, the midrange decks are here to take more game actions than their opponents. Treading the line between control and aggro, they generally eschew the classical Control mindset of "just drawing cards" by instead pressuring the opponent with grindy engine cards and threats that replace themselves. The key hallmark of Midrange is having ~ok matchups across the field, with very few polarizing cases. All hail Baleful Strix!
Esper Vial
The Gameplan: No deck breeds a fanatical fan base like Esper Vial does! The combination of a host of cantripping low-power creatures, high-impact and efficient interaction, and a crazy value engine in Soulherder and The Monarch is enough to overwhelm many lists.
Key Cards: Aether Vial, Soulherder, Palace Jailer
Best Archetype Matchup: Midrange
Worst Archetype Matchup: Tempo
Strengths: This deck has game against everything, thanks to its powerful blue/white interaction suite
Weaknesses: Extremely slow to close games; can get out-valued by true control decks
Cascade
The Gameplan: The name almost says it all. Typical Cascade decks are trying to ramp into big cascade spells that effectively act as an army in a can, while always finding a powerful 2-mana spell once the chain resolves, generally with the goal of burying opponents in value.
Key Cards: Cards that say "Cascade, The Lost & The Damned (not pictured here)
Best Archetype Matchup: Control
Worst Archetype Matchup: Combo
Strengths: Party doesn't stop. Cascade pushes the concept of "all my cards draw cards" to a new level with multi-tiered cascade lines that build huge board states out of nowhere.
Weaknesses: Storm Hate, Discard
Grixis Bridges
The Gameplan: Steadily overwhelm the opponent with a pile of the most efficient 2-for-1's in print such as Expressive Iteration, Cleansing Wildfire, and Halo Forager; on the back of a stable, non-wasteland-able mana base.
Key Cards: Dragon's Rage Channeler, Halo Forager, Cleansing Wildfire
Best Archetype Matchup: Aggro
Worst Archetype Matchup: Control
Strengths: A solid clock compared to other midrange decks, backed by excellent disruption
Weaknesses: Artifact exile effects, decks that have a bigger endgame.
Rakdos Oddsmaker
The Gameplan: Use discard effects like faithless looting to power out Kitchen Imps and reanimate other threats; all while maintaining a very full grip of cards thanks to Azra Oddsmaker and Squee.
Key Cards: Azra Oddsmaker, Squee Goblin Nabob, Kitchen Imp
Best Archetype Matchup: Control
Worst Archetype Matchup: Combo
Strengths: This deck is great at playing an aggro gameplan without over-extending, and therefore beating cards that traditionally hose aggro. A great choice for players who want to play 'Red Deck Wins' with more oomph.
Weaknesses: Limited interaction options that synergize with the deck makes unfair matchups difficult.
Beanstalk Midrange
The Gameplan: Play a Golgari Graveyard value pile, juiced by Up the Beanstalk to turn all of the big threats into card draw. Beseech the Queen and Stitcher's Supplier give the deck a toolbox gameplan to shore up traditionally bad matchups.
Key Cards: Beseech the Queen, Up the Beanstalk, Gurmag Angler
Best Archetype Matchup: Control
Worst Archetype Matchup: Aggro
Strengths: Beseech the Queen and Up The Beanstalk make this one of the only true toolbox decks in the format, able to play the perfect card at the perfect time while applying consistent pressure from your 5/5 army.
Weaknesses: Slow; can get out-aggro'd.
Control Decks:
Control decks in Noble want to capitalize off of the amazing removal spells printed at common and uncommon to murder, exile, or otherwise remove every spell their opponent plays until late in the game, where they take over with an overwhelming win condition. The scariest thing to hear from a control player is "uhm, before that resolves". Noble control's hallmark is holding 10+ cards in your hand at various points during the game; and running seemingly infinite interactive spells maindeck.
Dimir Control
The Gameplan: Dimir Control wants to counter or kill all of the opponent's spells in the early to mid game through its heavy suite of interaction, then take over the late game with Gush and Lorien Revealed before finally winning with a huge Rise from the Tides. This was the winning-est deck in the format this summer, so take it seriously!
Key Cards: Mana Drain, Mystic Sanctuary, Gush
Best Archetype Matchup: Midrange
Worst Archetype Matchup: Off-Axis
Strengths: Deck plays enough card advantage spells to go way over the top of almost everything else in the format.
Weaknesses: Playing blue/black leaves you weak to certain card types, like artifacts or enchantments.
Kitty
The Gameplan: Apply moderate, resilient pressure using Sacred Cat, Lingering Souls, and Clarion Spirit while otherwise exiling everything that moves using your 12+ removal spells; before finally winning the game with Basilisk Gate or the most flavorful card in all of Magic, Holy Frazzle-Cannon.
Key Cards: Sacred Cat, Lingering Souls, Skullclamp
Best Archetype Matchup: Aggro
Worst Archetype Matchup: Tempo
Strengths: Kitty gets to run the best removal in the game, paired with a moderate clock and superb grind potential. Plus, every card in the deck pretty much is a 2-for-1 thanks to the flashback mechanic!
Weaknesses: The Bye
(just kidding. Kitty is weak to sweepers, rule of law effects, and persistent grave hate)
Esper Abdel
The Gameplan: Control the early game with classic blue and white interactive spells, before eventually winning at instant speed with a Necromancy reanimating Abdel Adrian and entering a blink-loop to make infinite 1/1 tokens for the win.
Key Cards: Abdel Adrian, Faithful Mending, Necromancy
Best Archetype Matchup: Midrange
Worst Archetype Matchup: Off-Axis
Strengths: Many of the best interactive spells in the format, combined with a very efficient 2-card combo, and a sideboard that can remove or disrupt whatever it wants.
Weaknesses: Grave hate, Karakas, discard
Gates Contol
The Gameplan: Play a "hard control" gameplan with Saheeli as the only wincon; protected by Gates Ablaze, Counterbalance, and a large number of removal spells and countermagic.
Key Cards: Gates Ablaze, Gond Gate, Counterbalance
Best Archetype Matchup: Aggro
Worst Archetype Matchup: Tempo
Strengths: The best sweeper in the format, and an extremely consistent mana base that supports a wide range of the best control spells in print, even those with prohibitive mana costs.
Weaknesses: Non-basic land hate, Countermagic.
Aggro Decks:
Aggro players already know their maxim: face is the place. Aggro decks in Noble want to slam annoying, over-sized creatures and kill you as quickly as possible. Aggro has been able to thrive in the format despite the high quality of interaction by just playing amazing threat after amazing threat, with cards like Monastery Swiftspear and Glistener Elf leading the charge. The lack of great board clears in the format means that decks that slam 1-drop after 1-drop are able to go under most other strategies and snag win after win!
Blitz
The Gameplan: Blitz runs a stack of creatures than have a positive effect when non-creature spells are cast such as Sprite Dragon or Dragon's Rage Channeler; paired up with a pile of free noncreature spells and some light burn to close the game.
Key Cards: Dragon's Rage Channeler, Sprite Dragon, Gitaxian Probe
Best Archetype Matchup: Midrange
Worst Archetype Matchup: Off-Axis
Strengths: Blitz is one of the fastest decks in the format, is able to keep the gas flowing thanks to running so many free cantripping spells, and is able to dig deep for interaction when it matters.
Weaknesses: Storm hate, red hate
Initiative
The Gameplan: Use the abundant fast mana options to turbo out a large threat, take the Initiative, and overwhelm your opponents with a fast clock.
Key Cards: Ancient Tomb, Avenging Hunter, Kolaghan's Warmonger
Best Archetype Matchup: Control
Worst Archetype Matchup: Tempo
Strengths: This deck thrives on ETB effects and attack triggers, and snowballs for the win on a very fast clock rivaling the other fastest decks in the format...while dodging many popular removal options.
Weaknesses: Flying, decks that can go faster.
Burn
The Gameplan: Point direct damage spells at your opponent's face over and over again until they run out of life points.
Key Cards: Lightning Bolt, Price of Progress, Fireblast
Best Archetype Matchup: Midrange
Worst Archetype Matchup: Off-Axis
Strengths: Burn is able to ignore a lot of board states and what the opponent is doing; and is very straightforward to play as the only numbers that matter are the life totals
Weaknesses: Life gain, red hate
Artifact Aggro
The Gameplan: Slam difficult-to-answer artifact creatures like Lupine Prototype and Patchwork Automaton, or go wide with Signal Pest and Gleeful Demolition, all accelerated by fast mana to beat down early and fast.
Key Cards: Lupine Prototype, Patchwork Automaton, Ancient Tomb
Best Archetype Matchup: Control
Worst Archetype Matchup: Off-Axis
Strengths: The threats that this deck offers are difficult to answer 1-for-1, meaning that it quickly overwhelms and runs over slower decks that aren't prepared for its aggression.
Weaknesses: Artifact hate, combat denial (fogs)
Tribal Aggro
The Gameplan: Pair powerful creatures that share a card type with other creatures that buff them, and overwhelm your opponent with an army of giant attackers early in the game.
Key Cards: Secluded Courtyard, Aether Vial, Creature "Lords" (+1/+1 per type)
Best Archetype Matchup: Aggro
Worst Archetype Matchup: Midrange
Strengths: Tribal aggro decks are able to utilize perfect fixing from the creature-type lands, as well as multiple toolbox creatures that double as pumps spells or other utility effects, to quickly pressure and overwhelm any opposing creatures before the opponent is able to stabilize.
Weaknesses: Engineered Plague! Getting out-classed by not-on-tribe creatures.
Infect
The Gameplan: Count to 10, not 20! by deploying creatures with the Infect keyword, protecting them with Vines of the Vastwood and Blossoming Defense, then pumping them up to 10+ power for a one-shot kill.
Key Cards: Glistener Elf, Berserk, Vines of Vastwood
Best Archetype Matchup: Combo
Worst Archetype Matchup: Tempo
Strengths: Infect is the best example of a "goldfish" deck in the format. All speed, little resiliency, Infect usually kills before the opponent knows what hit them... but it was probably a Glistener Elf.
Weaknesses: Decks with loads of removal
Tempo Decks:
Tempo decks in the format occupy a separate place from the midrange decks; giving up late game value engines to have a more dominant early game backed up with interaction and disruption. The hallmarks of Tempo decks in Noble are Wasteland, broken turn 1 creature threats, and a pile of cheap to free spells. Tempo is a great choice for players who want to play interaction, but also want to take plentiful snack breaks.
Note, I am putting DnT under Tempo decks, because it operates on a similar axis in this format and shares a similar matchup spread.
Mono Blue Delver
The Gameplan: Play a flying threat, then ignore most of your opponent's plays while you beat down, holding up interaction and only countering to stop the win or protect your creatures.
Key Cards: Delver of Secrets, Daze, Gush
Best Archetype Matchup: Combo
Worst Archetype Matchup: Control
Strengths: Delver is able to play an extremely consistent gameplan of apply pressure while disrupting the opponent to keep them from digging out of the pressure, thanks to several of the most efficient interaction spells and card draw ever printed.
Weaknesses: decks with loads of removal, discard
Dimir Faeries
The Gameplan: Trade off the sleek efficiency of mono-blue Delver for a more controlling mid-game thanks to the addition of black removal and Baleful Strix. Faeries is planning on 2-for-1'ing the opponent for the win while presenting an evasive clock.
Key Cards: Spellstutter Sprite, Halo Forager, Ego Drain
Best Archetype Matchup: Tempo
Worst Archetype Matchup: Off-Axis
Strengths: If you're expecting a field of mostly low-curve decks, Faeries is built to shred, able to stick on the counter-everything-kill-everything plan while applying constant pressure.
Weaknesses: Sweepers, limited removal options in these colors for certain card types.
Cracked Burn
The Gameplan: Like Delver, but red. Play an evasive turn 1 threat, then deny your opponent the ability to block or cast spells using a robust mana disruption package and a burn removal pile.
Key Cards: Goblin Blast-Runner, Crack the Earth, Shrapnel Blast
Best Archetype Matchup: Midrange
Worst Archetype Matchup: Control
Strengths: Has a similar matchup spread to Burn, but performs better against off-axis strategies, control decks, and certain combo decks thanks to the mana disruption package.
Weaknesses: Red hate, lots of targeted removal
DnT
The Gameplan: Play a stack of creatures that are both aggressive and disruptive, creating a difficult to answer board state that also makes it difficult for your opponent to play the game.
Key Cards: Mother of Runes, Phyrexian Censor, Dawnbringer Cleric
Best Archetype Matchup: Combo
Worst Archetype Matchup: Midrange
Strengths: Deck uses a robust creature-disruption suite to pressure the board and opponent's options simultaneously, making it feel "unbeatable" for many decks; while also having a fairly even matchup spread overall.
Weaknesses: Each spell being a single creature means that decks playing cards that make more than one creature (see - "Midrange") are able to overwhelm you in the late game if unchecked.
Dimir Ninjas
The Gameplan: Stick an early evasive creature, trade it out for a Ninja in combat, then bury your opponent in an overwhelming stream of cards and interaction.
Key Cards: Changeling Outcast, Ingenious Infiltrator, Daze
Best Archetype Matchup: Midrange
Worst Archetype Matchup: Aggro
Strengths: If you like drawing cards while pressuring your opponent, this deck is for you! Ninjas is able to do a mono-blue Delver impersonation, while generally being deeper on the value train.
Weaknesses: lots of targeted removal
Off-Axis:
Off-axis decks operate differently than other Noble decks, often turning the game into a sub-game prison that stretches over many turns. Exactly as the name implies, they cannot be beaten using traditional methods, and specialized tools are needed to combat them. They occupy a different space than combo decks because they do not win all at once, and will instead usually lock the game out or develop and overwhelming advantage over many turns and in a difficult-to-interact-with way. These are the deep cuts, the crazy brews, the wearing-your-evil-wizard-hat decks, and they're here in a big way!
Abiding Grace
The Gameplan: Every creature in the deck is a 1-mana creature with a powerful ability. Resolve an Abiding Grace, and proceed to lock your opponent out of the game by re-buying the effects of your 1-mana creatures over and over again; all supported by a robust enchantment and creature toolbox. Children of Korlis + Sylvan Library allows you to just draw 3 cards every turn, no drawbacks!
Key Cards: Abiding Grace, Stitcher's Supplier, Enlightened Tutor
Best Archetype Matchup: Midrange
Worst Archetype Matchup: Combo
Strengths: Toolbox cards like Stitcher's Supplier and Enlightened Tutor make sure you always have the right card at the right time, and Abiding Grace ensures you'll keep triggering those effects again and again to bury your opponent.
Weaknesses: Persistent grave hate, exile removal, non-damage wincons
Dredge
The Gameplan: Put a card with Dredge into the graveyard, then profit. The deck plays a huge number of creatures that enter the battlefield directly from the graveyard, as well as numerous ways to dig for them and discard them from hand. Direct damage from Smiting Helix and Creeping Chill acts as a powerful secondary gameplan.
Key Cards: Stinkweed Imp, Creeping Chill, Hearth Elemental
Best Archetype Matchup: Control
Worst Archetype Matchup: Combo
Strengths: This deck does not need to cast spells to win the game, which makes it extremely resilient vs countermagic; it also has substantial lifegain plus a fast clock, while really only having one weakness.
Weaknesses: Grave hate
Mill
The Gameplan: Stick a mill crab, then use Daze, Gush, and Reprieve to both protect your threat and also consistently hit land drops to quickly put your opponent's entire library into their graveyard. Soul-Guide Lantern and Ashiok, Dream Render help ensure that your opponent isn't getting any value off of their milled-over spells.
Key Cards: Ruin Crab, Hedron Crab, Ashiok Dream-Render
Best Archetype Matchup: Off-Axis
Worst Archetype Matchup: Aggro
Strengths: Mill is able to do a very solid mono-blue delver tempo impersonation while attacking on a completely different axis, changing its matchup spread to be more positive against decks good at locking out combat, in exchange for a slower clock.
Weaknesses: Gaea's blessing, fast aggro that goes over the top of the blockers
Chasm Lock
The Gameplan: Establish a fog-lock using Glacial Chasm + Power Conduit to prevent all damage from your opponent for the rest of the game, then mill them out over many turns using Binding of the Titans while ignoring everything else they do. The deck can also present a wasteland loop using Power Conduit + Binding.
Key Cards: Power Conduit, Glacial Chasm, Crop Rotation
Best Archetype Matchup: Aggro
Worst Archetype Matchup: Combo
Strengths: This is probably the most off-axis of all off-axis decks; establishing a prison lock using difficult-to-interact-with card types that largely does not use the graveyard or fold to standard sideboard hate. Its strangeness is its strength.
Weaknesses: Non-basic land hate, abundant artifact and enchantment hate, non-damage win cons.
Soul Sisters
The Gameplan: Gain so much life every turn using Soul Warden and friends, and profit from the abundant lifegain using trigger abilities on cards like Ajani's Pridemate.
Key Cards: Soul Warden, Trelasarra Moon Dancer, Marauding Blight-Priest
Best Archetype Matchup: Aggro
Worst Archetype Matchup: Control
Strengths: This deck attacks from a wide range of non-traditional angles while gaining an impressive amount of life, making it immune to many win-cons. It goes wide, goes tall, and can win without combat.
Weaknesses: Engineered plague, sweepers, other off-axis wincons
Cloudpost
The Gameplan: Ramp and search Cloudposts into play early game, then take over the mid and late game by casting 5+ mana spells ahead of curve. Up the Beanstalk keeps the cards flowing, and it's easy to cast Fireball for 20+ damage for the win!
Key Cards: Cloudpost, Up the Beanstalk, Beanstalk Wurm
Best Archetype Matchup: Control
Worst Archetype Matchup: Combo
Strengths: There is almost no deck with a better late game than Cloudpost, by making enormous amounts of mana and running out large numbers of enormous creatures that dodge many popular removal options.
Weaknesses: Non-basic land hate, extremely fast aggro or combo
Bogles
The Gameplan: The classic in every format, "play a Bogle, then put some pants on it." Hexproof creatures + auras are a nightmare pairing for many decks, who are forced to take huge chunks of damage from creatures they cannot remove and cannot profitably block. Win with cards like All That Glitters and Ethereal Armor.
Key Cards: Invisible Stalker, All That Glitters, Staggering Insight
Best Archetype Matchup: Midrange
Worst Archetype Matchup: Combo
Strengths: Bogles cannot be interacted with by the vast majority of removal spells ever printed, which makes them incredibly difficult to beat in a format where single-target removal is abundant.
Weaknesses: Edicts, off-axis and combo decks that can ignore or race the hexproof creature.
Boros Cycling
The Gameplan: Stick a Flourishing Fox or a Valiant Rescuer early game, weaken your opponent and control their board with a Lightning Rift midgame, and go for the win with a huge Zenith Flare late game; all fueled by the 38 cards with the cycling mechanic maindeck and an enlightened tutor package to shore up difficult matchups.
Key Cards: Flourishing Fox, Lightning Rift, Zenith Flare
Best Archetype Matchup: Midrange
Worst Archetype Matchup: Control
Strengths: Cycling is able to play an incredibly consistent game plan thanks to the majority of the cards in the deck acting as re-draws, and attacks from multiple axes that are difficult for opponents to answer.
Weaknesses: Narset Parter of Veils, well-rounded control decks.
Conclusions
That's a wrap for the state of the metagame post! Hopefully this list has successfully highlighted the format's diversity and has you excited to try out fun and spicy new decks. As stated at the start of the article, everything has checks and balances, good matchups and bad matchups, so what to play in the end comes down to player preference and your expected metagame.
This list could not possibly be comprehensive, and although my goal was to provide a list of decks that I believe are capable of winning it all, I haven't seen every deck! If you didn't see your list here but think it's secretly busted, this is the field to prepare against!
Shoutout to all the players, deckbuilders and archetype innovators whose work makes up this article; and also the players whose decks are amazing but due to space reasons didn't make it; y'all are smart, fun, funny Magic players, and you have made the Noble format what it is today!
That's all for now; happy brewing and good luck in the tourney!
The Noble Quarterly will take place on Sunday, October 16 at 12pm EST on the Noble Discord Server.
-KingOfTheDepths
Special thanks to Avacad0 for helping with the matchup analysis, and generally being a sounding board for ideas!
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