Mini testing results - Red with Phrexian Metamorph

I did some testing with Phyrexian Metamorph this weekend, and I was pretty impressed.  I played two main, and three side, and in most matchups, I was reaching for the third in my sideboard as the first thing I put in.  Now, maybe this was just a gut reaction from trying the card, but it seemed quite powerful, and I was often in the scenario were I just wanted to draw a metamorph off the top, for the win.

I brought it in against control decks, especially Blue/Black and Esper, because you can copy Shrine, which is probably your best card against them. (Copying Grave, Sphynx, Wurmcoil, Batterskull out of their deck are all good as well)

I brought it in in the mirror, because copying the protection from red guy, when it can't be shattered (or blocked, etc) is pretty good.

I brought it in against ramp, because it was a way to kill Thrun (I killed a Thrun in most every game with this), as well as copying Primeval (then taking their swing, then swinging in for the win)

I brought it in against the random combo decks, because they are trying to cheat something out, and you just copy it. (but bigger, often).

I brought it in against a Mayor of Avabruk human deck.  Let me tell you, letting their mayor flip, then copying it, and IMMEDIATELY GENERATING A TOKEN to block their Mayor is good times.  That game was almost over on T3, but it did last another 4 or so turns, since he kept playing guys that I'd either kill, or that would have to chump block my army of wolves.  (The copied flipped mayor won't flip back, it just keeps pumping out tokens for you)

The one matchup where it didn't seem phenominal was UW Delver.  I'm not sure I can play any of the life payment cards (except Gut Shot, and probably Growth), because if they counter them, or bounce the Metamorph, you're probably just dead, and that deck is all about redundancy in bounce/counter/attack.

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Other problems:
It doesn't combo all that well with Koth, and copying a (1/1) Vampire isn't that hot, but I was never in the scenario of having a Metamorph in hand I couldn't or didn't want to cast (except against delver perhaps, and even then I probably should have run it out w/o fear to copy a delver or snapcaster).  I did run into one scenario against mono red where I couldn't afford to cast all my phyrexian mana stuff, but I think what I should be cutting in that scenario is the Gambits, not the Metamorphs. 

If I had played more games, I might have run into more situations where my only metamorph target was destroyed in response, but that only happened once (UB opponent virulent wounded his own Snapcaster in response, which was fine by me)

My first day of testing I was making mistake after mistake.  Post-combat Koths, Koth +1ing a summoning sick mountain.  Getting distracted and not winning with a ultimate Koth.  (Just don't do anything against U/B but kill them, eventually I'll learn this.  Don't turn on their dead cards in hand!)  I was racing in scenarios I was clearly losing in.  (Block Geist with 3/3 Vampire?  Nah, attack!  3 turns later, I'm dead)  I'm pretty sure my mulligan decisions were pretty bad too.

On the second day, I didn't feel like I was making nearly as many mistakes.  I was mulliganing a bit more, but I was also winning perhaps twice as much.  So maybe taking a month off actually playing the deck didn't do all that much for my ability to play the deck =)

I do need to play the delver matchup more.  Their tempo/aggro is no joke, and simply siding up to 4 arc trails and 3 1-damage spells isn't doing the trick.   Snapcaster -> Vapor Snag was brutal every time, so I need to make sure I'm winning the race if I try to get aggressive.  I've watched alot of SCG live games where the delver opponent thought they could race, and just lost, with more (and less) aggressive decks than mine.  I found I was using my arc Trails on T2 to kill their one threat, and in this respect, Geistflame is probably a better answer.  (I have 4 AT 2 GF now)

Anyway, it felt good to play the deck again, and the metamorphs really seemed sold.

P.S.:
I made alot of terrible plays (and alot of terrible keeps, and sideboard decisions), but one that I liked was when I had 5 mana, a shrine, and a Berserker.  You can cast the Berserker, get the counter on the shrine, and also use it to deal damage to your opponent, and get the Bloodthirst on the Berserker.  I'm not sure if it actually won the game for me, but it was nifty.