Messages

Cheers everyone,

thank you very much for your replies! I really appreciate you as Council-Members taking the time to respond to my thoughts. Sorry for taking my time to respond, but I wanted to wait and see if someone else might chime in. For the sake of brevity and finding common ground in the discussion, let me just address some of the points most pressing for me.

In regard to TNN - I get that people became increasingly annoyed by the card and now came to accept this as a valid reason to ban a card. Nevertheless, I think - in hindsight - we banned it at a time when it actually would have become less and less of a problem in light of the new printings. Honestly, I am currently wishing for such a resilient boardpresence that helps to get back into planeswalker-centric early and midgames..

Your responses to Birthing Pod were quite interesting and I did not expect such a reserved stance towards reintroducing the card. For me, it is not clear how much of an additional shot in the arm Birthing Pod would be for Hermit as this deck is already saturated with cheaper tutors for their main line that also require less setup (of course they would play it, but it is located at a similar and even later spot in the curve than the deck conventionally wins anyways and is more prone to being disrupted). On a second note, of course Birthing Pod grows in powerlevel the more mature the format eventually becomes, but this is already factored into my plea for unbanning the card. In my point of view, this card (re-)introduces so many cards and playpatterns and has the potential to revitalize players' interest in different strategies or even getting back into the format in the first place. This is something that we shouldn't underestimate regarding ban-related decisions, and out of all my proposals, BP can make its presence felt the most. After three years of not having an unban, i think that would be a positive sign to the community from the council. It might well prove very strong, but why not giving the playerbase some new food for thought, let them explore their deckbuilding skills and enjoy the potential experience of "having broken" the format?! What is there to lose if you can simply ban it in the next installment? A quick poll on facebook might reveal whether more people would be satisfied than dissatisfied with a potential unban (?!)

Regarding the equipments: I am fine with both Jitte and Clamp. However, I do strongly believe that Clamp would be played in much more decks than Jitte. Outside of Mana-Elf-decks, this card will 100% show up in jeskai/+b decks as they already play Young Pyromancer, Bitterblossom, Lingering Souls, Monastery Mentor (and Clarion Spirit) - decks which are already centered around drawing cards for cheap and are better equipped into converting small advantages and create an avalanche out of steady cardflows. This, i think, will overall outweigh the occasional benefit green decks get from it, which does not stike me as something the council intends with this unban. Umezawa's Jitte, irrespective of how powerful it is, would not and does not slot into every "fair" deck. I would even go so far as to say unless you play Stoneforge Mystic (and a correspondingly creature-heavy shell), you do not touch the card. It still consumes a decent amount of mana given how compressed the early game sometimes feels and is much more matchup-dependend than Clamp (while also suffering from the traditional problems of the equipment-cardtype). Overall, I do think Jitte adds more to the format than Skullclamp as it only clearly strenghtens one strand of decks (which deserve some powerup).

In sum, I am urging you to please not take this criticism on a personal level. But given that in your announcement you were explicitly asking for people to make suggestions regarding potential unbans, your responses are conveying a very hesitant (conservative even) basic attitude. I get that this stems from your degree of responsibility for the format, but at this point I think the community deserves more trust and tools to actively shape the face of the meta and counteract dominant strategies. Apart from Uro and Thassa's Oracle, the metagame has been comparatively stagnant, while some decktypes seemed to have overtaken others to a degree of insurmountability unless competitive alternatives emerge.

["unbanning cards in time"]

This is a concise response to the recent watchlist announcement (01/02/21), specifically directed to a passage that - surprisingly - so far has not been picked up on by the broader player base. Perhaps because it sounded rather unusual, but this is not supposed to be a rant. The passage that really got me excited was labelled "unbanning cards in time", and here I am quoting directly from it:

"Currently we are discussing and want to discuss with you, if this might be the right time to unban cards for half a year to test the impact on the format. Length, cards etc. will of course have to be decided at a later point, but we want to start the general discussion with you now."

First, I want to acknowledge that the tone in which the council addresses the community has noticeably changed to a more inclusive and engaging demeanor and that this organ seemingly cares more about creating a tangible understanding of their decision amongst the players. I am also seeing signs of progress regarding a clearer vision on where the format is supposed to be headed powerlevel-wise. The council shares some sentiments of the community, most urgently that we need to think thoroughly about how combo should be governed and how to direct bannings accordingly. Thus, before jumping to the actual point of the paper, let me just briefly state this: if the council feels that imbalances exist in the overall metagame, then what needs to be done is an appropriate scaling of powerlevel between deck archetypes; either by weakening the consistency of the best performing decks or by offering competitive alternatives. I am fine with both ways, but since the task is to offer an opinionated response to the council's request, I am going to make the case for three unbannings that I firmly believe would be both very beneficial to achieving greater diversity within the meta and relatively safe to release.

*A quick disclaimer: I am not going to follow the policy that cards are first placed on the unban watchlist before they are allowed to enter the format. The reason being that the unban watchlist is sadly rather short and that we haven't had an unban in years, so change is already hard to come by. That being said, I try to account for the worst possible scenarios an unban would have on the meta to keep things in the right perspective. *

Birthing Pod.
Looking into other Highlander variants, Birthing Pod decks are experiencing serious competitive success without homogenizing creature-based strategies. This observation is important to take notice of, because this seems like the most immediate downside to releasing Birthing Pod to the public. Although this is not my area of expertise, you can build around individual combos, combine some synergistic and intersecting combos, or simply play this as a value card always finding you the right piece to react and advance. This would propel strategies and cards which have fallen out of favour into competitive limelight and give players that enjoy such gameplay a reason to keep engaged with the format. Both due to reasons of power-creep as well as limitations in the card's design, I am confident that Pod would not take over the format. Apart from the recent influx of flexible removal options (Assassin's Trophy; Kolaghan's Command; Drown in the Loch; Oko; you name it), the following things are keeping the card in check: it can only be used as a sorcery; you have to have enough fodder or the correct pieces to get a chain going; it requires at least 4 mana to come down and activate, thus realistically starting from turn 3 the earliest (which is on par with if not slower than established combo decks and easier to disrupt); and people are currently flying on Opposition Agent. Additionally, although at first this might sound a bit odd, there is value in helping players reap the rewards of unusual card choices. Players seem to be longing for a card like Abrade to be a more respectable card choice. Incidental artefact removal is always something you want to load up on, but overall, there are not enough playable artefacts to rationally justify playing more versatile yet a bit underpowered removal spells. Maybe a certain degree of satisfaction might result from this as well. Of all the cards presented here, Birthing pod is by far the most sensible choice if the aim is to encourage creature-strategies or diversify the shades of combo currently available.

Umezawa's Jitte.
People should play Stoneforge Mystic more often. Considering the amount of pseudo Elvish Visionaries currently seeing play, this one is probably among the best, yet people forgo playing SFM because there are not many attractive options to tutor for. Even though Batterskull's stock in the format is rising due to Uro allowing for higher mana curves and generally longer games (plus a recurable 4/4 lifelink vigilance body being a more than roadblock for many snowballing threats of the earlygame), players avoid the cards as it seems quite clunky without its natural companion. Instead, they opt for cards with a lower ceiling that are less taxing on the mana. Umezawa's Jitte would round up a competitive Stoneforge-Mystic package and allow for a more flexible toolkit to decks that otherwise lack removal options or ways to surmount boardstalls. It is that powerful that I think a slight shift in the metagame would happen to white-x decks; at least their overall performance would improve. Thinking of what could have held the card back for such a long time, it could be that a creature-mirror with one side having Jitte is not that great of an experience, to put it mildly. However, the metagame is somewhat diverse and the format inherently variant, making it that not every game revolves around Jitte. Considering what has been printed in the last couple of years, something akin to Umezawa's Jitte is definitely in the realm of imagination.

True Name Nemesis.
This is more an aesthetic argument, but also exemplifies some important points regarding the development of the format. First, I do believe it is not a good testament to the format if a three mana 3/1 creature is on the ban-list while some of the cards I am going to mention in the last section are allowed to roam free. TNN is not impressive, stats-wise: it does not race particularly quickly in light of the Uro/Oko lifegain inflation and the increased loyalty of planeswalkers; against combo, it often consumes too much mana and does too little too late; and seeing how many great (green) midrange threats have entered the format, its board presence is relativized. Contrary to what people think, the creature density in blue tempo isn't actually that high, and in the context of what I just said, it fills several important roles at once. Of course, it will have its good matchups and scenarios where it seems nye unbeatable, but that has to be expected from three mana cards these days. Even if you don't have dedicated removal for Nemesis, a competitive board-centric deck should by now have several strategies of dealing with it, for instance by swarming the board, presenting bigger or long-lasting threats or just forcing the opposing nemesis out of its current offensive or defensive role. Powerlevel-wise, I think the card is less impactful now than it has ever been. If I were to decide, this card would for sure be unbanned.

As the council itself seems to notice, now is probably a good time to let some of these cards see play. Competitive stakes are low, people are enthusiastically brewing and gathering online, players report and communicate their experiences more frequently and the winds of change are blowing stronger throughout the community. I would go so far as to say that unbanning Birthing Pod and Jitte is almost a no-brainer, as they tilt the existing balance of power and allow for more creative deckbuilding, reintroduce cards to the format that have fallen off the wayside. Unbanning True Name is probably contentious, but I think that my case for it has been solid. So I hope that my article resonated with some parts of the community. Maybe together we can work towards a more balanced format.


Concludingly, I couldn't help but to mention some cards whose continued legality thwarts most well-intended efforts to create a diverse metagame and enjoyable play experience. Therefore, before responding to my article, please be reminded these are also the values that guide my contributions to the European Highlander format and that I am very much willing to exchange opinions regarding the substance matter of my proposal.

The first, and hopefully less controversial one, is Oath of Druids. Let's face it, this card belongs in a quadruple Force-of-Will format or one that can counter its combo potential turn 2 on the backswing. Oath is, in a theoretical world of Highlander, better than Thassa's Oracle or Hermit Druid and it's a major miracle that this card is not seeing more play in the format. I am not going into too much detail here, but instead opt for a broad brushstroke overview of its brokenness: it is very well positioned in the meta (the vast proportion of decks ultimately try to win via combat damage), it requires virtually no setup and has two tutors that can provide access to it on turn 1; its so cheap that it slips through most disruption and also requires very specific answers AND, most frustratingly, it basically stops you from playing your game (a reason that, on even weaker cards, has sufficed to enact a ban). So please talk more about this abomination of a Magic card. As things stand, the format is not equipped to handle it (and yes, for those who thrive on that fact, also tempo is not in most scenarios).

The second one is Demonic Tutor. DT is the best card in the format by a wide margin because it fundamentally cheats the system. Looking into other Highlander variants, it is among the highest pointed cards for good reasons. It has no deckbuilding cost, is easily splashable, grants immediate access to any card and is on top of that way too cheap, mana-wise. While I am not a member of the "ban more tutors camp", I think the format would be in a better state if Demonic was banned. The consistency boost it grants is not equally distributed between deck archetypes, as it disproportionately increases the consistency of decks that are already trying to leverage tutors to their fullest advantage. Simply put, tutors in a combo deck are there to kill you outright. Therefore, reducing the density of game winning spells (in particular one that has no limits as to what it can find and is competitively priced), would result in lower numbers of consistency and fast combo kills. In the future, it might well be that a ban of DT could prevent the constant banning of "problematic" combo-pieces which dissatisfies players that were basically playing the format for the possibility of playing exactly this or that combo. In my assessment, if you are generally badly (or positively, for that matter) positioned against combo, losing Demonic Tutor in your average "fair" deck is less severe. Of almost equal weight is the argument that it completely distorts fair matchups as well – don't tell me you never had a "feel-bad" when your opponent topdecked DT, thus immediately getting the mirrorbreaker while you would have loved for to slowly grind back into the game. I am a big fan of tutoring in decks in which it is sensible to do so and would love to see a meta which is more defined by deck-specific tutors.


Thanks for reading the piece. I hope the style of argument presented here as well as the undertone were in accordance with the community guidelines. Stay healthy and safe!

Hi,

I am the original author of the article. I am thankful for any kind of feedback, so I feel the urge to respond. I will try to reply to most of the points you raised in chronological order.

Just to give another point of view on this article or whatever this is ...

"This" is an excerpt of an article I have written for metagame-masters.eu, a website that for a long time now has been publishing many interesting articles about EU-Hl and for which I have also written in the past. The original article is much longer, and this take on the bannings is just a tangent to the actual topic. I am under the assumption that you haven't read it in its entirety, because some issues you have would have been resolved if you had read them in the context in which they belong. The creator of this threat has just copy-pasted this passage because they seem to like it; i have no relation to her/him/them and did not ask for it to be posted here.

Which "straight up" BAN? 'Tolarian Academy' was on the BAN WATCHLIST for how long? 1 year, 2 years or longer?

I am aware it has been on the watchlist for a long time. But this is kind of the point i want to make - in those two years, no one thought of an alternative to weakening a supposedly "oppessive" deck other than banning its namesake card/ centerpiece? Like, aren't there other ways to make the deck less powerful instead of outright dropping the hammer on it?

Banning out oppressive Combo-Decks opening up the format for more "fair" decks, so in the end it offers more deck diversity.

So tell me, then: which fair deck is now better off in the format? Does one less bad matchup automatically lead to increased playability of your deck, especially if the restricted deck was so infrequently played as Academy Combo? If you think it through, banning one combo deck in particular does not restore the balance between combo and the remaining archetypes. Hermit Druid,  Oracle Breach and also Reanimator are still more powerful and consistent than most decks people bring to a tournament and expect to be competitive. On the other hand, there are decks that regularly beat up on them, so its definitely possible to do so.

Affinity decks relying on 'Tolarian Academy' as keycard? As far as I know Affinity trying to operate on a very little amount of mana. Are you sure, you aren't talking about Stax builds

Yes, I am aure that I am not talking about stax-builds for i haven't seen this archetype ever in my life. Having Academy/ Expedition Map allows these small aggro decks to gain a lot of tempo by dumping their whole hand of attackers on the board early, which sometimes enables them to effectively race other strategies. Academy also powers up Ballista and what have you.

'Thassa's Oracle' and 'Underworld Breach' are already on the BAN WATCHLIST, the future will show if they will remain in the format.

Again. I would love to have this and other combodecks in the format, a point that i stressed earlier in the article. The only issue I see is that unless you really commit yourself to beating them, they are too consistent. So unless we adjust their consistency level to a point where more than tempo decks and other combo decks can compete with them, we will just keep banning combo deck after combo deck.

In my opinion BANNINGS are not bad for a format. They just need to be done correctly to protect the format from decks which use an oppressive playstyle or enforcing players to play specific cards to be competitive

This is such a general statement that its not even debatable. I wouldn't and in fact do not argue against it, if you read the piece carefully.

The first point I can agree to a lttle bit. Cards like 'Mystical Tutor' and 'Treasure Cruise' are not BAN worthy cards in my opinion. If you want to hurt the BLUE dominance BAN cards like 'Dig Through Time' and 'Mana Drain' Some long time BANNED cards should be reconsidered again, too. For example 'Strip Mine' or 'Umezawa's Jitte'

The way blue is played currently, Mana Drain is rarely more than a glorified Counterspell and Dig Through Time often a bit slow/ resource-intensive for what it actually gains you in terms of card quality. I do like Strip Mine/ Jitte though.

Here I disagree again. You hurt more different decks with a BAN of certain tutor cards than you hurt with the specific keycard BANs. In my opinion BANs need to be as specific as possible to take out or hurt the least amount of decks in the format

Which deck would cease to exist because you take away Demonic Tutor? Correct, none. "I need DT to find my hatepiece against combo" is basically no argument, because unless you get lucky and draw DT (so a 'two-outer', very low probability of actually happening), you don't match up to their consistency. The discrepancy in powerlevel between DT in a Combo deck and DT in a non-combo deck is extremely wide, and I would argue that all the established combo decks are already pretty saturated on deck-specific tutors that they don't also need the best generic tutor at their disposal.

For me this text shows only a bias point of view. I don't see any valid points for an UNBAN of 'Tolarian Academy' here.

of course it's a biased point of view- is a thinkpiece, an opinion. You are equally prone to being biased and subjective, so this is no accusation that invalidates my point.

My wish for the future of the format is "make it fair again".

Or just make combo a bit less "unfair" overall and/or the fair decks a bit more "unfair".


Again, thank you for engaging with my article, but I couldn't let this stand as is. Maybe our philosophies regarding the format are simply incongruent, which is a positive and productive observation!

Have a good one

[UWB (Esper) – Tier 3]

Three-colored decks that revolve around blue as its main pillar have long constituted the core of the European Highlander format. Traditionally, players were drawn to Bant and Jeskai midrange or Esper and Grixis control as these archetypes were offering quality cards, were highly customizable and had a distinct identity and feel to them. Nowadays, the consensus of the broader player base seems to be that the heyday of such decks is over and ways of deck-construction that were viable two or three years ago now ought to be subjected to substantial reconsideration. The format has become faster, games require more interaction and the knowledge-base of the community is stronger than ever. Nevertheless, blue is still the most frequently used color and the three-color approach has proven a solid route to tackle the Highlander format due to its comparatively stable mana-situation and card quality.

Therefore, I want to attempt to rank all the Uxx variants according to their playability in the current metagame and try to make sense of the recent innovations in Highlander deckbuilding with blue. As I grouped the decks in different tiers, I should first of all define the ranking-criteria:

Tier 3 – These are decks that you can reasonably bring to a tournament and expect to win between 40% to 60% of your matches. They have quality in their core but suffer from structural deficiencies which can be mainly read back to either an ambitious manabase or a lack of focus in their overall game-plan. This shakiness hinders them from realizing their potential.
Tier 2 – In this category I grouped decks that have a realistic chance of top 8'ing a 6 to 7 round tournament. These are established archetypes and well-rounded decks but are generally cold to a certain deck-archetype on the opposite end of the spectrum or are prone to losing to the nut draws of higher-ranking decks.
Tier 1 – These decks are the decks that are known to everyone to have the highest chance of winning any given tournament they enter. Given their consistency and powerlevel, they set the bar for the other decks.

I included some non-Uxx decks in order to give you a point of comparison on how strong each variant is. I hope you enjoy reading this piece and feel the urge to respond. Please note that I am aware that my viewpoint is highly subjective and therefore I do not claim universality; instead, I would be happy to receive some criticism where its due.

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UWB (Esper) – Tier 3
Quite frankly, I don't know what to make of Esper. This color-combination has absolutely no appeal to me in any iteration whatsoever. Starting with the manabase, it becomes immediately obvious that it is disadvantageously positioned compared to all of the other Uxx variants. It does not have a triome, it does not have a blue horizon land (which is mostly relevant as it is one less untapped blue dual at Esper's disposal) and most of its appealing spells require you to spend either double black or double white mana. I am unable to see how you can construct a reasonably low mana curve that shields you from the randomness of the format. Granted, its top-end spells in Palace Jailer, Lurrus of the Dream-Den or Teferi, Time Raveler are insanely good, but its noticeable lack in proactive turn 1 and turn 2 plays renders it a weak choice overall.

UWG (Bant) – Tier 3
In my view, Bant ranks a small percentage higher than Esper as it can access Noble Hierarch, Veil of Summer, Sylvan Library, Oko, Thief of Crowns and Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath. Beyond that, it can muster an early board presence in Tarmogoyf and the likes, which makes it, say, half a turn faster than Esper and to some degree shores up its overall lack of good removal. However, being a bit more proactive does not always compensate for its continued reliance on mana elves in order to make up for the decline in card quality once you attempt to fill the last ten cards of the deck. Similar to Esper, the height of its curve subjects Bant to the same dynamics that make Esper an unappealing choice if you want to play a three-color blue deck.

Other notable decks in Tier 3: RG beats, Mardu midrange, UW control, UR control

***

As I just pointed out, Bant and Esper suffer from not having enough meaningful plays in the first two turns and a comparatively high and color-intensive mana curve. This is not ideal as you are both less likely to determine the pace of the game or adapt to it. Being reactive in nature and having a higher mana curve subjects your draws to the variance of the format and makes you overly reliant upon high impact spells of which there is an insufficient density. This is probably the biggest realization among Highlander players in the last years. Now it becomes to question on how to circumvent this inherent flaw of midrange in highlander, and the answer seems to be found in the redundancy and consistency offered by tempo decks.

Now, I don't think the term aggro-control aptly describes what tempo is about. For me, it is all about role assessment and the ability to play the required game as cost-effective as possible, therefore accruing small mana-advantages in order to bring yourself into a position where it is possible to quickly shift gears. Your best draws of course involve a turn 1 creature on the play, but the strategy is appealing because the low mana curve can often negate the disadvantage of being on the draw. Ultimately, tempo is so attractive because your opening hands always contain cards that fulfill some of the very narrowly defined roles your game-plan demands from them. There is not much background noise and distraction going on, and a high emphasis is put on the raw effect-to mana ratio.

Some simple examples of this: if you talked yourself into playing Opt, then also play Sleight of Hand because it technically provides the same selection, a purpose which you have identified as meaningful to the overall functioning of your deck. If you play Spell Pierce, then also consider playing Flusterstorm or even Miscast because both serve the same role, which is protecting your creature against a removalspell or keeping your opponent off of fresh cards. If you play Daze, then also play Force of Will, Force of Negation and Mental Misstep because if you want to exploit tempo advantages, then it makes no sense skipping these cards.

Another factor that contributed to Tempo's rise as the premier style of playing blue is the increase in card advantage accessible either in the early game or for low mana investment. Here we are talking primarily Dreadhorde Arcanist, Ethereal Forager, Mystic Sanctuary, Wrenn and Six, Sea Gate Stormcaller, and also to some extend Brazen Borrower (as one bounce is almost always enough to render an immediate replay of the card meaningless in the face of all the pressure you subject your opponent to in the meantime). Most of these cards accrue value the longer they stick around, so once you dodge the initial interaction spell of your opponent, it becomes increasingly unlikely for your opponent to handle them while they snowball out of control. So why playing cmc3 or cmc4 threats when you might as well play a cmc2 threat with protection that is nowadays equally likely to win you the game?

The general trend you will notice in my reasoning is that I perceive the blue-red core to be a tiny bit stronger than the blue-black core of those decks. Although discard spells can turn out to be incredibly devastating to starting hands in a 100-card singleton format, there are currently only three of them which are playable on turn 1. Add to this the fact black's removal – while excellent against creature-based strategies – can turn out to be relatively dead cards in some matchups. (I am also not factoring in Demonic Tutor and Tainted Pact all too much in this equation, because tempo decks mainly consist of a few functionally similar card-types, thus mitigating the powerlevel of these tutors.) There is, however, a greater number of playable burn-spells than discard spells which, if things fall apart ingame, can be converted into direct damage and intensify racing situations. This inevitability in the lategame makes your earlygame pattern of creature + disruption more meaningful in the long run.

With that out of the way, lets continue on our list and see what constitutes the pinnacle of Uxx in European Highlander.

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UBG (Sultai) Tempo – Tier 2
Currently, Sultai's midrange iterations are very popular among Highlander players (and found a bit higher on this list). However, there is also some underexplored potential in Sultai Tempo variants, therefore I am mentioning it here. If it was to exist, it would be good. Its strengths are, of course, the amount of quality threats expressed in pure power/toughness-to-mana ratio, discard as well as tutor-spells. Additionally, it makes the most use of Deathrite Shaman and has a corresponding Zagoth Triome at its disposal.

However, there are some inherent problems to the color-pairing that, in my opinion, keep it from being consistently great. During deck construction, you might notice the following three things: first off, the mana-curve is skewed towards cmc2 spells - there is simply too much powerful stuff in blue-black and green-black that you cannot afford to miss out on if you bought into Sultai. You may think that this is a luxurious problem to have, but I perceive it as a structural weakness of the archetype as it reduces the chances of maximizing mana-efficiency during each of your turns. Although the cards are excellent, in some situations they are tempo-disadvantageous or too often tempo even, for instance if you use Abrupt Decay, Eliminate, Drown in the Loch or Assassin's Trophy to deal with cards that your opponent got for one mana or which already created something in terms of card advantage. Moreover, the deck is too graveyard-reliant: you have the problem of choosing between six delve-spells, possibly also Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, keeping Delirium for Traverse the Ulvenwald and Grim Flayer while also trying to make a huge Tarmogoyf. This naturally reduces your ability to effectively utilize Snapcaster Mage, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy and precludes the possibility of leveraging potent turn 1 threats such as Nimble Mongoose and Pteramander. Last but not least, I think the mana-requirements of the deck are too intensive (color-wise) given the current degree of consistency Highlander manabases can ultimately offer. If the mana was a bit more reliable or if there were some more free counterspells, Sultai tempo would definitely rank higher on my list.

Other notable decks in Tier 2: UR Tempo, Maverick, White Weenie, Reanimator, 4c Blood, 4c w/o green, Abzan Midrange, Green Ramp

URW (Jeskai) Tempo – Tier 1.5
Jeskai has traditionally been a pillar of the format and continues to be a very solid choice in an unknown meta. The deck is strategically well-rounded, has a lot of cards with unique appeal and a strong base-color, as its splashes are light and revolve around blue to a large extend. Whenever I play another blue tempo variant, I am extremely sad to miss out on cards such as Mana Tithe (as a consistency boost in Force Spike-effects is always desirable), Lightning Helix, the best one mana removal spells in Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares as well as Teferi, Time Raveler. There are other great cards in Monastery Mentor and Geist of Saint Traft, but they are arguably less important to the overall strategy and more directly replaceable by other cmc-3 threats in different color-pairings.
However, what bothers me the most when playing Jeskai is its relative inability to muster an initial board presence, a premise that a lot of tempo's strength hinges on. The black delve-creatures and green onedrops are not to its avail, and the most sustainable board presence is achieved by three-mana investments in some of the cards I just mentioned. You can shore this up to some degree by playing Myth Realized, Pteramander and Grim Lavamancer. Long story short, Jeskai never disappoints, but also has a lower expectancy to quickly shut the door on your opponent.

Other notable decks in Tier 1.5: Red Deck Wins, Scapeshift, Sultai Midrange

URB (Grixis) Tempo – Tier 1
In late 2018, Grixis Tempo really became a trendsetter for how blue decks ought to be constructed going forward. The deck has won multiple high-level tournaments across different communities and continued to be on top of the metagame ever since. It can interact on the highest competitive level with almost every strategy. Its most impressive aspects, in my opinion, are its ability to play the control/value game for an insanely low amount of mana and then, once the situation allows for it, almost equally efficiently transition into closing out the game in quick fashion. However, it can sometimes stumble over its own mana and a good portion of its creatures are relatively feeble, but these are only minor issues to an overall excellent deck.

URG (Temur) Tempo – Tier 1
Temur has similar strengths and weaknesses compared to Grixis. However, the tendencies are more extreme. It seems to win more reliably against the good matchups (combo/ control) due to its faster clock and array of cheap counters. But it loses more against bad matchups (i.e. nonblue midrange/creature strategies) as it is less capable of catching back up on cards once it falls behind. This makes the choice of playing Temur in an unexpected meta generally a bit more risky, but the ability to create a meaningful board presence early and back it up with a large amount of inexpensive disruption is a formidable recipe for success no matter what deck you are sitting across from. If built with discipline, Temur is not a color-intensive deck. Coupled with the fact that it naturally has the lowest overall cmc of all the Uxx variants you will notice that you are only very rarely taking mulligans for strategic or mana-related reasons. Ultimately, the combination of Temur's proactivity and consistency give it the edge over Grixis, but you are sacrificing stamina and individual card quality for it - which will come back to haunt you.

Other notable decks in Tier 1: Oracle Breach, Academy Combo

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There you have it, my tier list of Uxx decks. I argued that some combinations are generally bad, that tempo is the most powerful way to play blue and that red is the first color to add once you transition into this style of deckbuilding. To conclude the article, I think it's a good exercise to reflect on the reasons underlying this development within the format. One self-critical argument would point out that what we are seeing is the outcome of a self-fulfilling prophecy. As this piece exemplifies, much is written on how tempo is a better shell for blue than midrange. This is a statement that dates some years back already and regardless if it is true or not, it definitely influenced how players have constructed their decks – which is reflected by a steady decline in curve by blue decks not entirely explicable by new card printings. Another reason could be that more tournament data and knowledge is being shared within the community, so we naturally progress towards a more competitive environment.

Be it as it may, while I think that blue decks in their tempo-variant are now "better" than blue has ever been played in the format, I do also strongly feel that the reign of blue midrange decks that so long constituted the core of the metagame has ended (apart from Sultai now being its prime exponent) and that more space in the fair middle of the format has opened up. Non-blue midrange is now far better equipped to beat fair blue decks due to having gained more proactivity and card-advantage, often crammed into the same card (think Lurrus of the Dream-Den, Skyclave Apparition, Wrenn and Six, Questing Beast etc.). What hinders them from entering higher tiers, however, is the current banlist. Said decks would either benefit from unbans in the form of Umezawa's Jitte, Skullclamp or Birthing Pod or we would need to see the hammer dropping on Treasure Cruise and Demonic Tutor, possibly Dig through Time and Tainted Pact as well.