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GoggleBoy's Food4Thought
The Anti-Meta: A Seldom Used Strategy
April 12, 2006

When I say the term "Meta", either one of 3 things go through your mind:

1) [New Players] What's a meta?
2) I run that
3) Hate "Meta". Everyone runs it.

So, the new players will learn quickly what the meta is which leaves two thoughts. These boil down to "I love it" or "I hate it". To love the meta is to play the meta. To play the meta usually brings around victory, thus that idea explains itself. So now some of you are thinking "Why hate the meta? All the top tier players run it and it works, so just run it" or something to that nature. Well, here's where things can get messy.

I'm not a huge fan on when a card game has a meta or a top tier of decks which usually consist of somewhere around 1-5 deck types in a meta. This immediately boils down the "effective" card options to less 5% of all available cards in a game.
Also, games make tons or deck types for players to use, but people will get stuck to very few. As the meta progresses, more and more people run it. People copy of websites of other decks in hopes of winning in their area. Then, in one dark moment...one tournament...everyone is running the same 2-3 decks. At this point, the meta will reset itself, recollect, intro some cards, and the cycle begins anew.

So, is there a point to this rambling? Why of course and I'll put it in the context of a videogame. Say you and your buddy threw in a fighting game. When you start, your friend only uses two moves...let's say a shooting one and a punching combo.
That's it. Only two. Now, when playing them, do you devise a strategy around both moves to then attack your opponent or do you in turn use only the same moves?

I'm hoping you picked the first option. Of course if you see the same thing over and over, you devise a way around it to create a better winning situation. So, if that seems like it makes sense, why wouldn't it in the card gaming world. In InuYasha, if everyone in your area plays Demons, would you in turn play Demons or would you built a Slayer or Priest deck? In FMA, if the top players play Homunculus, would you as well or would you play another faction w/ anti-homunculus (Arcane Prison for example)? To win in a game with meta, it makes little sense to me to fight the metagame with the same metagame. If you know what's being played, wouldn't it make more sense to run something that is the anti of that deck. If the meta is Blue Control, run a Green deck built for anti-control. If the meta became a speed deck, run a deck meant to slow the game down. It really makes sense to me that, if you want to win in a meta environment, you'd run the anti-meta.

I would like to see what people can come up with for anti-meta deck across several games. Post your ideas on the forums and we could start a whole new way of thinking about the game.

~GoggleBoy
Former UMaine Animation Club President
UDE Demo Team Leader, Yu-Gi-Oh LvL 1 Judge & T.O.

"I reject your reality and substitute my own" - Adam Savage