MTG Salvation

Another 3-0-1 with Sultai Midrange at a Monday night Standard Showdown. Pulling an M19 Vivien from the Showdown pack means that I should play the deck at the coming MCQ, right? Probably not, but unless my Arena testing goes horribly, I am liking it. All the grinders look scornful, so I don't think it will be wearing the target.

Beat a Naya Aggro brew 2-0, Bant Hero 2-0 and Wb Aggro 2-0 before chopping with Esper Control. Massacre Girl was quite good out of the board against Bant Hero and WW. Davriel was solid and Nissa took over in a game against Bant Hero. Otherwise, a pretty stock list taking some inspiration from Yellowhat.

The Tier rankings I see:
Proven (Tier 1-1.5): Esper Control, Wx Aggro, Mono-R
Established: Mono-U, GBx Midrange, Gruul, Nexus, Bant Mid/Flash, Esper Mid, Grixis Control

Based loosely on: SCG Richmond Open/Classic, Fandom Legends 5/9, MPL Week 1

Corrections, improvements? I expect to be wrong on some borderline situations and don't want to create a problem, so please let's just try to get this approximately right (or if someone wants to go nuts on this, PM me with a proposal).

I expect to implement this (with corrections based on feedback) on Wednesday.

The next significant results seem like SCG Syracuse Classic, MPL Week 2.

Since the MPL decks are submitted a week in advance and are not actually played very much in the league, I am not sure how up-to-date and significant they are. My assumption of their significance is thinking that the pros test them heavily before submission. I think time will tell whether they are a trailing indicator, a leading indicator, an inbred metagame or some combination.

Edit: I left Phoenix in Established also. It looks to me like we need Nexus, Bant Midrange/Flash and Esper Midrange threads if anyone feels inspired.

Edit 2: The (MOCS?) Standard Premier #11866401 seems like a relevant tournament result.

MCQ top 8 tournament report for a Boros version here.

Llanowar Elves into t2 Davriel has been great against Esper Control. It seems kinda bad aginst Mono-R, particularly on the draw, but I have only faced Esper Control with it so far.

I am evaluating Sultai myself. Threeferi doesn't seem like a problem, but Narset hoses Krasis hard and Tibalt hurts the lifegain on Wildgrowth Walker and Krasis. I am hoping the early creatures and Vraska, Golgari Queen will help keep Narset and Tibalt in check. I am interested in Yellowhat's list from the Fandom Legends tournament, although I wonder about Karn and the second Nissa. I have an MCQ in a week myself.

Esper is probably the better deck, but you better be ready for the mirror and play quickly, as it isn't fast.

Drakes and Phoenix both seem hurt by Narset and Threeferi. I wouldn't want to be on either, but if you have a good plan to deal with the Esper 3 mana planeswalkers, you could profit, I hope. Is there a good 1-2 mana flyer? Does Pteramander give enough pressure?

Yellowhat (Gabriel Nassif?) took down the Fandom Legends tournament on May 9th with this spicy Sultai list.

Magic Pro League Week 1 is Standard. It will take place 5/11. Cool! A new thing! Prerecorded matches of top pros. Can decklists submitted a week in advance and prerecorded matches be fresh enough?

Coverage will begin at 3:00pm ET (noon PT).

Promotional article on the Mothership here. The matches seem to be listed, but I can't tell when I should watch to see Ben Stark play Huey Jensen, for example. Hopefully, they will post subsequent VODs.

Week one decklists are here.

Coverage for the event is here.

You can discuss the event below. Please remain on topic. Off-topic posts will be marked as spam.

Thanks!

-- hoser2

SCG Open Syracuse is Standard. It will take place 5/18-19. I guess 3feri and Narset in Esper along with all of Mono-R were able to keep Nexus from dominating despite an overall good showing. Can Bant or Esper make a case for midrange? Can Grixis demand diversity in the control ranks?

Day 1 and Day 2 coverage will begin at 10:00am ET (7:00am PT).

Information for the event is here.

Coverage for the event is here.

You can discuss the event below. Please remain on topic. Off-topic posts will be marked as spam.

Root for your fellow MTGS members.

Thanks!

-- hoser2

Here is an article that speaks to this concern.

I guess that I am not supposed to discuss it in competitive, but I have not wanted to pay for Krases until they came down. Finally, I used store credit for a lightly used one and borrowed two more so I could finally play the premier midrange deck after it became obsolete. But enough about me.

I started with this Reddit post but had only 3 Krases and no Ugin. So I put the bad list below together when I ran out of time before Monday Night Magic. This is what I would actually recommend.

Anyway, I went 3-0-1 with the semi-budget version and could have easily been 4-0. I think that this deck is still good and will have a meta moment over the time to come. Hydroid Krasis is as good as expected. I never played Liliana, but I still think she can be good.

Match 1: Izzet Invade the City brew 2-0 (1-0-0)
Opponent deck that seemed to be trying to fill the bin with instants and sorceries like a drakes deck and get there with Invade the City. Don't make decks that invest multiple cards in fragile and non-evasive win conditions without ways to protect them.

Match 2: Esper Control 1-1 (1-0-1)
Opponent is a good player that was extremely pleasant to play against.
Game 1, I got Davriel down early and rode the Vivien card advantage train to Carnage Tyrant and eventually to the win. Weirdly, Roalesk was good when I had a Davriel on 1 and Roalesk got wrathed. The double proliferate on Davriel was great.
Game 2, opponent was going to untap with Teferi at 8 just as time was running out. I was happy to concede since it is a less competitive setting and an opponent that I admired. Had I wanted, I think I could have survived turns and gotten the match win.

Match 3: Grixis Superfriends with Soul Diviner, Bolas creature, Bolas walker, Angrath and Sarkhan. 2-0 (2-0-1)
Game 1: Opponent mulled once on the play and was stuck on one land for a few turns, but made a game of it before I finally ran him over.
Game 2: More of a game with back and forth. The key play was when I had Carnage Tyrant, 2 counter Krasis, 4/3 Jadelight and elf attacking into creature Bolas, Angrath at 3, Soul Diviner, 6 lands and no cards. I attacked Angrath with the Tyrant, went face with the Jadelight and didn't attack with the smaller creatures. I wanted to force opponent to choose between Angrath and Bolas before they would know whether they would be able to flip Bolas. The attack may have been wrong, but it worked out well for me.

Match 4: Grixis Midrange with Phoenix. 2-0 (3-0-1)
Opponent was 3-0 and offered the draw, but my EV differential was too high, so I chose to play.
Game 1: Early Thought Erasure took Roalesk which I got back a few turns later (fighting over bad cards is ridiculous, but sometimes I just draw crap). Eventually I got a Vivien down, drew cards and shot down dragons for long enough to grind them out.
Game 2: I got enough early damage in with explore creatures and Krases at 4 counters that I had them down to 6 against a 3/2 Branchwalker and an elf. They had a Hostage Taker with an exiled Jadelight Ranger. I played Roalesk, put two counters on the elf and presented lethal, forcing a trade that would give me the Jadelight Ranger back. They scooped.

Bad list that I played last night:


What I would have played if I had the cards and more time to put it together:

I think Mono-Red Aggro can get there also.

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SCG Open Richmond is Standard. It will take place 5/4-5. Is this Simic Nexus' time? Can magic survive an Esper Control/Simic Nexus/Mono-Red meta? I'm hoping for lots of successful archetypes.

Day 1 is over. Day 2 coverage will begin at 10:00am ET (7:00am PT).

Information for the event is here.

Coverage for the event is here.

You can discuss the event below. Please remain on topic. Off-topic posts will be marked as spam.

Root for your fellow MTGS members.

Thanks!

-- hoser2

Nice work! Thanks. It took me a little while to realize that the numbers on the options "decklists" were the CMCs, but that is a good way to organize it.