on metamorph;
If metamorph was such a game changing card, why didn't sculpting steel catch on earlier? To quote you from a response in your original espresso stax thread:
"Sculpting Steel is a very reasonable card in the right metagame. It's a solid enough answer out of a Shop Aggro deck to an opposing Shop deck, but it's just not enough to get the job done...Steel isn't a threat in and of itself, merely a response to a threat. It only gives you what you already have. If you were going to fight BSC aggressively, it would be better to remove the threat, outright, than to chance that your opponent has the artifact bounce that would still make him lethal"
What changed? The two things I most often do with metamorph that I can't do with steel is copy a trygon and bust bridges against ichorid. Is that really the tipping point? Additionally, with MD tombs, the addition of dismember, and the rise of creature decks, the additional cost of 2 life does matter.
This is not an all inclusive reply, and I'd recommend reading what Chris and Rich had to say.
At a given event, you're likely to see some, if not all, of the following in your Swiss rounds:
Dredge - Metamorph pops Bridges, Steel does not.
Fish - Metamorph can hit all their creatures. Steel does not. Metamorph can also legend rule a Gaddock Teeg or a Kataki.
Big Blue - This match is one in which your threats aren't guaranteed to stick around forever. Copying your threats is cool, but the ability to copy theirs (BSC, Bob, Trygon) is also pretty cool.
Storm - Metamorph and Steel are pretty much the same in this match, unless they're running Bobs.
Shop - Metamorph and Steel are very similar here as well, though Metamorph plays through Thorns, which is an important distinction as the Shop deck will probably be running between 2-4 of them in the main.
There are little things that Metamorph does that Steel doesn't do. Steel is still a very powerful card and in the proper metagame I would certainly run it in my sideboard. Metamorph stole almost all of Steel's thunder, but Steel is still a very real card in a Shop heavy metagame.
