Insight on Silverblack, Part Two

As promised, today I have Part Two of Luc3k's article on his thoughts and experiences with the Silverblack format, which we used for Season 4 of the MPDC League which just concluded this past weekend. As I've mentioned now several times, if you would like to contribute your own voice to this blog, I would love to have you send me something. Contact me at gwyned at gmail dot com. So without further ado, here is the rest of Luc3k's thoughts on the format:

Lucky for you this is the end of my whining, as after a month I’ve earned some experience and had some new thoughts, as well as the format changed and narrowed to Tribal. I saw the chance for the ever present Energy to collapse. Back to times of Standard Pauper it was easy to observe that Artificers had some serious potential and worked well in UW colors. I was taking into consideration this variant, because it seemed like some novelties from Ixalan might appear in this new format, mostly Dinosaurs and Pirates. On the other hand I had some serious sentiment towards my old deck and a approach of a 6-year old kiddo: “I. Want. My. Cars!” So what better I could do than a mix of Artificers and Vehicles? (List and description from Gwyned: http://writeradept.blogspot.com/2017/11/1st-place-in-week-five-of-mpdc-league.html ) I lacked cards like Unclaimed Territory and surely I would put Abrade in the place of Lightning Strike, but I simply didn’t have them in my collection. What I had though was a bit of luck in form of my opponents taking mulligans. Also the deck was able to reward me for obvious misplays. Best example: I’m on the draw, kept a hand consisting of 2 Swamps, Ramunap Ruins, 2 Sky Skiffs, Unlicensed Disintegration and Aether Chaser; draw Inventor Apprentice but clicked Swamp in a rush. I was annoyed with my misplay but than I top-decked Inventor’s Goggles. It allowed me to put Ruins on the battlefield and have a 3/5 Apprentice on the battlefield in the second turn.

First week was a 5-0 win ratio for my deck, without a single game lost, so I am confident to say that I’ve managed to build it neatly with some nice synergies. Lack of sideboard in the format was definitely a bonus for me. I wasn’t afraid of lots of artifact hate and removal in main decks. I don’t want to sound too confident, I am aware of the fact that the first week of Tribal was experimental, which was easy to see from the second week results. It was a comeback of Energy, based on Vedalken tribe. But I have to say that with those constraints the game was much more leveled out, where in contrast to classic Silverback I knew I was able to compete and it wasn’t a one sided game. When the dust of first week fights wear off and the whole situation was more stable I’ve finished my second week of Tribal with the 3-2 result. Unfortunately during third week I’ve played only 3 rounds, due to lack of time, so the final result from 3 week Tribal was 9-4 for my Artificers. So the deck is solid, but only in those specific constraints of the format.

Obviously after 3 weeks of Silverback Tribal I had a much more positive approach towards the whole situation. Still I don’t want you to think that I suddenly fell in love with the format because I started to win. It is an important ingredient though, everyone can get fed up if he or she constantly loses. The first month was crucial to me in understanding the format. At the very beginning I was afraid of those new, much more used to the format players and the fact that I will be an easy prey for them. Which actually happened :) I was afraid dealing with the bigger pool of card and it was a thing for me I really needed to overcome. But the ending thought is that in the end it wasn’t that bad. Actually it was pretty good. I needed to get some beating up, look at how better players play and introduce some improvements. Which I think at the end makes me a little bit better as a player.

When I am writing this text we are at the end of first week of Mono Color Silverback and of course I’ve taken the chance of coming back to my B Vehicles. No idea how those fractions of percents allowed me to win, again had some luck. My deck was lacking some of the basic black uncommons, so I incorporated replacements from Standard Pauper. Once more I am in my comfort zone and I feel quite good. I am playing with the deck I know throughout. But when talking about the future, meaning next season:

1. Is Gwyned right that commons in Ixalan are weak and do not push Standard Pauper forward? Definitely. 
2. Would I want to go back to Standard Pauper nevertheless? Probably yes, but not 100% sure on that. 
3. Can we do something to make Silverback a little more diverse? I think it is worth to play one more season with the current scheme, maybe even cut down Tribal and Mono to two weeks each. Observe if we can adapt in order to prevent Energy from being dominant deck. Maybe even wait for the next expansion and see how it will shape metagame.  
4. And what is your opinion on this matter?

 Regards and till next time on #MPDC