Is 6 out of 18 decks a lotus dominant format? It's not even half! Which is why Artifact Blast would have fared just about as well as Channex.

It was just a weird meta. The most obvious decks all lost to Walkers.

I did my experiment last night. If you swap out lotus for Bottomless Vault, I end up losing 3 points to Curious, 6 points to Dr_D and 3 points to Sand_Crab. All other scores remain the same. I end with 78 points. Dr_D probably wins the round (by blowing up all the new storage lands), but I get 2nd place. Clearly, Lotus was the problem.

Edit: I will say that 6-0ing Rush's deck was a lot more complicated though . Actually had to use Ob's Emblem.

Edit2: I also had to pretend Mark used Door's deck, since it doesn't work when you swap out Lotus.

You'd lose 6 to me also as ajani would lock down the vault forever (well, until destroying it then proceeding to win).

I can't really even imagine my deck in storage land mode though. Part of what makes my deck work is the squire ability which gets me mana and makes a 2/2 threat. Tinder Farm plus City could land AV on turn 2 but without the secondary threat.

I always forget Ajani can lock down lands. I think I only lose 3 to you and Door though, if I go first, I can actually play Ob and then I win. I think I actually 6-0 Curious too though, the Demon doesn't die from blocking. SO I end up with 75 points.

I had the Tinder Farm version in my non-Lotus round maybe queue, I forgot that would be the fastest version, you would def 6-0 then.

You know what? Complaining about variety in 3CM is pointless. This is why most of the time people on other sites do this via vanishing or alt rounds.

An Epiphany! Lol, I'm drunk...how do you think the meta will shift...Door makes me think creatures, but that seems transparently easy to beat given the wealth of bridge variants...

Well, all non-titan lotus decks are still around. Between smallpox, a few walkers, and a few specific creatures, I see no reason why that won't make at least a showing.

On top of this, the chasm and bridge decks, which btw most people outright explicitly ban in their competitions, are also unbanned and usable due to workshop's presence. They too, will make at least a showing (heck jack may just resubmit the same deck if he can't come up with anything better). Chasm will be better if a lot of people don't play force of will or artifact blast. Bridge will be better if a lot of people do. It's a meta call which you would want to go with if you chose to go with something.

Channex, and mana tax in general, is going to do bad because we've banned the best lotus targets. Without grave titan and frost titan around, people don't have to play more than 5cmc threats. Before, if you played a walker you would just outright lose to the person who played grave titan, so there actually was an rps relationship going on within lotus meta and channex. Without titans...... nope channex just doesn't work any more. On the flip side, artifact blast and force of will will be surprisingly well placed depending on how many people play Lotus. If you want to play lotus hate (or general hate), force of will + slippery boggle + dryad arbor is probably going to be your best bet.

Storage lands MIGHT be a good play. Karn is the obvious winner, but form of the dragon is a close second.

^^ On a similar note, rakdos carnarium + dreadbore + either keldon megaliths or ghitu encampment is a strong play. However if for some reason you think storage lands are going to be a real problem (or lands in general), you can try to race instead with fulminator mage. This deck is notably weak to ajani, but again ajani is then weak to other planeswalkers, so rps and so forth.

And on a similar note, inkmoth nexus decks might be a really strong thing this round.

Finally, I think necrotic sliver will be strong but situational depending on who runs what.

Then we have a bunch of tier two decks that may do well like starke and gut shot depending on the meta. But it's unlikely we are going to see some creative deck break through.

Hmmm, last time this happened the same deck won a second time. That's an extremely relevant point beyond "what are the good decks". The burning questions are: Will people react the same way (aka: Ob is the best play), will people knee jerk (aka, bridge variants are the best), or will people be conservative (aka: ...Ob is still good?)

Why would you do double Lotus over Lotus-City of Traitors? Why even give Chancellor decks a chance?

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

There. I cast a magic spell. Channex is now going to win the round.

I think Bugh represents a significant advance in spambot technology

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

I've got the ultimate meta choice this week. Y'all toast.

I'm playing a deck that is (mostly) serious, expecting to get an average score that's better than 2.00.

i was told my deck was the winning deck

You're all winners to me.

Woo! Closest I'll come to winning a round.

the person who sent it to me

I put in a terrible deck this round, but I like it. I didn't have much time early, so I put in something dumb. Now that I've had time to think about it, I think it's gonna be a bunch of Heavywieghts and Broodmothers smashing points out of the decks that aren't playing FoW/Foil.

So, I've got a good idea for a powerful deck, but it's in the realm of "not in the spirit of the alt round"...which makes me ask what the spirit of this alt round is?

Mill?
Land Matters?
Medallion with alt wincons?
Discard and tax hate?