Metagame: Every Wizard Needs a Cauldron

Standard has been resolved. In the age of social media and the advent of a gaming platform like Magic Arena to expand game sampling tens or even hundreds of times, an event that would normally take about a month takes just two weeks to occur—and apparently, there's a new-old problem.

The week before Cori-Steel Cutter was banned, we mentioned there was still a glaring red flag that Wizards of the Coast would overlook in their Banned and Restricted announcement: Vivi Ornitier. The card had been released just weeks earlier, was one of the main stars of the most recent set—and the best-selling in Magic: The Gathering history—and could prove its worth as the Metagame adapted to the interventions and rotation that would occur less than two months later.

While the spotlight at Pro Tour Final Fantasy was on Red Aggro, especially on Izzet Prowess, in which Vivi debuted, the most charismatic Black Mage was also present in another archetype that didn't gain prominence at the time but was the deck of choice for players like Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa: Izzet Cauldron.

The archetype combined the mage's ability with Agatha's Soul Cauldron and creatures that gained +1/+1 counters or cards that offered counters like Proft's Eidetic Memory, thus circumventing Vivi's limitation of using the ability to generate mana only once per turn by activating it in multiple creatures. Previously, this same mana was used with Voldaren Thrillseeker exiled with Cauldron to sacrifice the creatures and perform a combo-kill; now Draconautics Engineer offers an army of dragons with Haste.

Izzet Cauldron was the most picked archetype at the Arena Championship—the closest thing we'll get to a Pro Tour before Spider-Man's release—with 54% of the Metagame and occupying seven spots in the Top 8. That same week, the Standard Showcase Challenge took place with 273 players, and six of the Top 8 spots were Izzet Cauldron, with 12 copies also in the Top 16.

Standard definitely has a new best deck, and the numbers, at this point, are clear. There's a full cycle that we'll see unfold in the coming weeks, and it's very unlikely that an intervention will occur before November 23rd. So, where do we go from here?

The social media discourse is almost entirely focused on Vivi Ornitier at this point, and for a reason: the card was already troublesome when Prowess was the best deck and is now the star of another archetype equally detrimental to Metagame diversity.

Free mana will always be a problem, and Vivi offers plenty of it in the right list. When every spell you cast can be played for free because Vivi "compensates" for its mana value, and when you can activate high-cost abilities like Stormchaser's Talent earlier and without deckbuilding concessions other than those your list already makes naturally—you don't need mana dorks or ramp spells when Vivi already speeds up these cards while also acting as a win condition and enabling spell sequences with the extra mana it provides.

However, it wasn't a mistake not to ban Vivi on June 30th, just as it might not be a mistake not to ban him on November 23rd.

Despite the community's targeted hate for him from now on, Vivi requires a specific list to work and is easy to interact with for most strategies. Cori-Steel Cutter was banned because it invalidated any kind of one-for-one interaction and was too efficient at turning the "air" of Turbo Xerox decks (cantrips and the like) into extra threats on the board.

At the time, Vivi offered a way to punish the main choices opponents made to punish Cori-Steel: Temporary Lockdown meant very little against it, Abrade was easy to counter, and together, they created situations where it was necessary to combine more answers than practically most archetypes could manage while maintaining a coherent game plan.

Without Cori-Steel, Vivi had, and still has, an important role in Izzet Prowess and needed to prove its potential to keep the archetype relevant—which it did—and if we look at the circumstances of Standard today, while Prowess is a good deck, it's far from the dominant space, and the Izzet Cauldron, revealed as the "problem archetype" this season, has as its main issue, besides its numbers and notable results, its difficulty in being answered.

This deck is essentially an Aggro/Midrange that leverages the interaction of Proft's Eidetic Memory with Looting effects to increase the power of its creatures while somehow extracting value from the graveyard. The difference is that we've moved away from Helping Hand with Abhorrent Oculus to Vivi Ornitier with Agatha's Soul Cauldron, which opens up many other lines and possibilities. After all, Agatha's Soul Cauldron is also a broken card.

Nothing fair has come out of Soul Cauldron in any competitive format. In Standard, its presence began with a combo between Sleep-Cursed Faerie and Kami of Whispered Hopes, while it already presented interactions in Modern that entirely changed Yawgmoth, Thran Physician combos or gave decks like Hardened Scales a potential combo-win with Walking Ballista and Arcbound Ravager.

Giving any ability of any exiled creature to any creature with +1/+1 counters is a bit too strong and made to be broken. The problem with Vivi Ornitier's ability lies much more in the fact that Cauldron turns all creatures into improved Vivis than in the Wizard himself, in a format that has the interactions to deal with him assertively if he were the specific problem.

A ban on either of these pieces would kill the Izzet Cauldron at this point. But suppose a card comes out in Spider-Man or Avatar: The Last Airbender that keeps this strategy—now with an established home and an efficient shell—relevant in the competitive scene, and we would once again question whether it is good enough.

It's not even necessary to go that far: Spectacular Spider-Man could provide Flying and the ability to sacrifice itself to protect creatures constantly, and while that's nowhere near the explosive potential of Vivi Ornitier with Draconautics Engineer, it's more than enough to consider Cauldron as a viable strategy, feeding off all activated abilities for the entire year that Wilds of Eldraine will remain legal.

In the end, no matter how much the community and social media point the finger at Vivi Ornitier, Agatha's Soul Cauldron is just as responsible for the damage as it is, and if anything is breaking the format today, it's the ability to have Marauding Mako and other creatures generate more mana than Vivi can in a single turn while also presenting a game plan that doesn't rely exclusively on this combo to work; it just becomes much more explosive because of it.

Unless Wizards of the Coast decides to intervene urgently with a ban before the end of the RCQ season, the format's Metagame will likely be shaped by Cauldron lists and the strategies that work best against it. Over the next two weeks, we'll see lists adapt, and the competitive landscape will thus shape itself around the new best deck.

In the following weeks, we'll be approaching the release of Spider-Man, and if there are no interventions before the previews begin, it's likely that the set will be released with this Metagame still in effect. At least another two weeks will be needed to assess how the new expansion impacts the competitive landscape. If Cauldron hasn't been resolved by then, it's unlikely that Standard will undergo any drastic changes, unless another broken deck emerges.

If it doesn't happen, it will be a long two months between the release of Spider-Man and the next Banned and Restricted announcement. With Pro Tour Edge of Eternities taking place in the Modern format, it's very likely that Standard players will spend the next few months in a Metagame dictated by Agatha's Soul Cauldron and Vivi Ornitier, and how well their deck choices respond to this archetype.

Despite the long wait, it seems like the most logical step. As much as Magic players hate bad a Metagame, resentment over emergency bans is much greater. Many remember the days when announcements had no warning and could completely invalidate their decks in the weeks leading up to major tournaments. One of the reasons for the current ban window is precisely to avoid interfering with Metagame progression during a Qualifier season, and if the company suddenly changes these rules, consumer dissatisfaction will be even greater.

Furthermore, Izzet Cauldron is an expensive deck (approximately $800 at the time of writing), and one of Magic: The Gathering's priorities with the recent Standard has been to offer investment security and product enjoyment to players. If someone committed $800 to play the RCQ in their region, how motivated will they be to continue playing Standard if their dck gets an emergency ban? The three months between the rotation and the next announcement are enough time for this player to enjoy the product.

There's the flip side, though: maintaining investment stability in this case also means locking Standard into a Metagame that, if left unresolved, will be unpleasant to play for months. This period can demotivate players and even discourage them from trying Standard due to the negative image that a long period of Red Aggro/Prowess/Omniscience dominance followed by a long period of Cauldron dominance can create.

However, for the purposes of RCQs and the competitive season, the rules are clear, and Standard is not Commander: players play what wins, what works against what wins, or what they have the most experience playing with. There is no room for "pet decks" in competitive Magic, especially in a metagame like the one that is beginning to form—that's how competitive Magic works, and if that doesn't appeal to you, perhaps an RCQ isn't for you.

There will come a time when Vivi Ornitier and/or Agatha's Soul Cauldron will be banned, unless, by chance, the format manages to adapt despite the impressive numbers the archetype presented last weekend. Personally, nothing good will come of either card, and while my primary target would be Agatha's Soul Cauldron because it impacts fewer competitive decks in the process while dealing with an inherently broken card, it wouldn't be surprising if Wizards of the Coast reaches the same conclusion with the best Black Mage ever.

Thanks for reading!

Just like every wizard needs the right tools for success in Magic, strategy is also essential in other forms of gaming. For more insights into managing risk and making smart plays, check out our guide to safe and strategic online play.