SAGE Benching #2: The Post-Mortem

The release of Omen’s of the Third Age saw the start of a new SAGE season and, with it, also saw the unbenching of Chane and his return to the format, a fan favourite that received a developer ban during the PEN season due to its overperformance in events prior to the format's launch.

The OMN’s season for SAGE was dominated by one word... lightning…

Hot off the unbans of Lightning Press and Burn Up//Shock, Andrea Mengucci took down the first showdown of the season with Briar on LSS home turf in Auckland. Briar would continue to perform well through the OMN Season, seen most in its win at the one Calling of the Season: Calling Bangkok. An event I was very sad to not attend. Chanon Puttaree, off his recent Top 8 at Pro Tour Yokohama, took down the event on the elemental runeblade, piping Enigma in the finals.

With it performing very well in Classic Constructed, there were rumblings of Oscilio being a force to be reckoned with; however, it would take until Showdown Edinburgh for him to rear his lava lamp head, putting 3 players into the Top 8 cut. A big draw to the Lightning Wizard was the mix of lists, which can be seen in the top 8 lists. Mark Henderson and Matthew Foulkes sported all arcane damage lists in comparison to Vincent Weinzierl, a mix of attacks and spells akin to the Classic Constructed ‘Gone in a flash’ lists. Vincent would fall in the finals to Alexander Reichhart, on Briar, cementing the lightning supremacy. From this point, it was All Wizard Baby!! With Oscilio going on to win EVERY showdown after Edinburgh, in the hands of David Yau, Florin Vanbrakel and Kevin Murphy.

Both Briar's consistent runeblade output and Oscilio's wizard shenanigans firmly placed them at the top, shown in them collectively winning 38% of events in Skirmish Season 15 and filling out 24 of 72 total places in top 8s at the various Showdowns and 1 Calling this season.

Quietly in the background of all the loud flashes of lightning was a bogeyman for both of them, though. Oldhim. Oldhim historically had always been a thorn in the side of Briar. Within the SAGE format, her generally only anti-fatigue weapon was a copy of Evergreen and being a redline deck, the 3 cost wasn't always a straightforward game plan. Oscilio presented a different axis for Oldhim, needing to bring a high amount of arcane barrier and navigate a long game of mixed damage and recursion in the form of Tap Lessons Past and Omnious Excavation, great inclusions to the decklist from OMN. Oldhim, however, has a big thorn: board state. Dromai asks the question of whether you have brought enough ‘Poppers’ (6+ power cards to trigger phantasm) and Enigma… o.. Enigma. There is a term in TCG’s called a ‘Lunch Matchup’ meant to refer to a matchup where you lose so badly you might as well use the round to take a lunch break and be refuelled for the next one. Oldhim Enigma is one of these said matchups; Oldhim, with a lack of Go Again and reach, struggles to remove Enigma's Spectral Shield and will amount to a larger and larger board the longer the game continues.

Anyway, enough about Omens; that is old news. Usurp is my new friend.

With a new season comes the un-benching of previously benched heroes and a new vote for which heroes to remove from the format. 3 community picks and 1 developer ban. This means going into the IAR season, Ira, Kayo and Kano will return from their hiatus. (There was no developer ban during the OMN Season.) With the removal of key cards such as Beaten Trackers and Harmonized Kodachi, how well these heroes will perform is yet to be determined.

But for every un-bench there must be a benching. On the 14th of September, players who had participated in SAGE events across the world were invited to vote for a hero they would like to see leave the format. Strong arguments for removal of the lightning heroes were made across social media, and mentions of Oldhim’s gatekeeping of certain decks was proclaimed.

Once the results were tallied, LSS, alongside the Scheduled Banned and Restricted Announcement, announced that Briar, Oscillio and Oldhim would be benched by community vote during the IAR Season. 3 results anyone following the developing SAGE meta would not be surprised at. These were my 3 expected benches, and I feel they will shake up the meta the most. Additionally, LSS chose to bench Chane, an unexpected bench after his under-the-radar performance in the OMN season, but not one I am against. Chane is a hero that has the cake and definitely eats it too. With a strong hero text and deep card pool of both shadow and runeblade buckets, which will only get deeper with the addition of Usurp the Shadow Throne. LSS clearly feel its detrimental to the format. The benefits to this benching are the return of Beckoning Haunt and 2-Cost Runegate cards, a welcome return for runeblades a-like specifically Runegate-centric Vynnsett.

So what now? Who are the winners? What do I play?

If your main hero was benched, you’d imagine you’d be looking for a new deck for this season and here’s where I come in.

Briar:

A long-standing fan favourite, I can imagine a lot of people need a new home. I feel Briar can be distilled to 2 themes: mixed damage and go again. Having access to the lightning talent, she has always been attributed to be 4 Go-Again. Deck sprinkle in some arcane through the dual-talent class cards Arcane Seeds//Life and Burn Up//Shock, and you have Briar.

Do you like the aggressive ‘Go Again’ Nature of Briar? Then try Fai.

Fai isn't a runeblade, I know, but hear me out. Within Sage, Fai is a strong Aggro deck, chaining headjab to extract extra value through his Phoenix Flame. He also has access to some of the most BROKEN SAGE armour: the Tiger Triplet of Blood Scent, Tearing Shuko and Pouncing Paws.

Look, Ok! I get it, you stan Runeblade and dont want to play a stupid Ninja. In which case, I suggest Viserai and Vynnsett. Presenting mixed damage is an axis that Runeblade has always done well, and with the injection of additional options from Usurp the Shadow Throne and the unbanning of key cards, I think both these heroes will make a strong splash during the IAR Season. Give them a Try.

Oscilio:

If you thought Runeblade was good at mixed damage, may I introduce Lightning Wizard. Throughout Flesh and Blood’s history, both this talent and class have been on the receiving end of much public outcry, so when the talent- class combo got printed in Rosetta, it was only a matter of time before it broke the format. Aside from the potential to be multiple different variants of the deck, the core of lightning go again attacks paired with a large arcane haymaker makes for an explosive game in the smaller life totals of SAGE.

If you like dealing arcane damage, I am sorry, but it's not looking good Post-Ban. With the removal of not 1 but 3 key cards from the Wizard class, it will likely be slim pickings for the IAR season. Prior to the announcement, I was planning to suggest Kano or Blaze, but my suggestion would be Iyslander. OMN added additional sources of ‘Tall’ arcane in the form of Turn to Mindfire. She feels the least affected by the snapback and Absorb in Aether bannings; I was cutting the former a lot from my lists.

If you like the mixed damage element of Oscilio the most, then like above I would suggest the transition to runeblade. Briar may be sitting this season out, but another Rosetta Hero in the form of Aurora is not someone to be scoffed at. Combining the strong go-again nature of the Lightning talent with some Sigil of Voltaris + Flash of Brilliance shenanigans can catch people who dont respect your arcane damage with a rude awakening.

Oldhim:

Oh Oldhim, Oldhim, Oldhim, my beloved. I know many will be cheering from the roofs about this benching, but this deck is close to my heart and something I worked hard on during the OMN Season. So let me grieve, ok... Fatigue King is how Oldhim is regularly dubbed, and no defensive deck can be mentioned without him emerging in the same sentence. I see two avenues for Oldhim lovers:

Carry on down the same road and look for a new defensive fatigue-oriented strategy. Enigma has always been a deck that liked to play defensively due to the advantage of generating additional value through blood state, but with the benching of your BEST matchup, I struggle to suggest it. I would personally be looking at Florian and Decimator Great Axe, both strategies that will benefit from the powering down of the format through the benching of 3 aggro decks and banning of key strong cards like Lightning Press and the wizard class in general, a recurring thorn in the side of both decks.

OR PIVOT!

Oldhim is a guardian; I know sometimes it's easy to forget, but he is and has access to strong disruption in the form of boulder drop, disable and alike. If this sounds more your speed, then Bravo Flattering Showman (Flavo) and Terra await! Flavo’s access to on-demand and Terra's access to the Earth card pool allow them to be aggressive when needed but still have access to the defensive nature of Guardian in the form of cards like staunch response, the Clash cycle from Mastery Pack Guardian and a strong armour suite.

To Conclude

I believe the choice of bans from LSS paired with the community benches were all I could ask for from the conclusion of the OMN Season. LSS are approaching the SAGE format, unlike CC with sweeping changes that will not necessarily stick around season to season but present a new and fresh puzzle each Season. I encourage anyone who hasn't tried, or maybe is on the fence about trying SAGE, to get down to your LGS and try the format more. It's a format that is increasingly deep and generally underexplored.

Silver Age is a massively wide format, and your local meta will govern your choices more than the worldwide meta, but branch out and try some new decks; you will be surprised by the level of playability of conventionally unsung heroes.

Since you read this far, I'll drop some of my picks for the IAR Season going forward…

• Levia
• Fai
• Dromai

…and that's all you are getting from me.

Looking forward, I’m very excited to play some SAGE at Bilbao to test out a completely fresh format.

Ben Westmore