Here is a summary on how the Standard metagame post-Return to Ravnica are evolving here in Iloilo. The one word that I can define the meta is “Thragtusk”. It seems that this beast is almost in every deck that the players are piloting. A splash of Green, and you have a set of these in your list.

I’ve observed that most of the aggro decks are curving into late five-drops and six-drops. One archetype to consider is Selesnya. The deck can start fast with Strangleroot Geists, and Loxodon Smiters and also has a late game play with Mr. Popular, Thragtusk. I have checked that five to six person are piloting this archetype, including our card pool.

The second in rank of the aggro decks are the Zombies, with varieties such as Jund (B/R/G), Rakdos (B/R) and Golgari (B/G). Next is the Azorius Aggro or Haunted Humans from Innistrad, utilizing Lyev Skyknights and Precinct Captains.

As for the control, I had previously witnessed one player (you know who) who’s a consistent fan of control decks and he used Grixis powered with Sphinx of the Chimes. This week he piloted a Bant Control deck with Jaces, mass removals, and of course Thragtusks. It went well in FNM with an undefeated record. I’m guessing that this will be the next big thing in the Control decks bracket.

There are also other assorted decks like Izzet Delver, Jund Midrange, Tokens, Frites and other lists that mirror deck archetypes from the recent States.

Next weekend will be Return to Ravnica Gameday and I am pretty sure the decks will still revolve around Thragtusk. As for the preparation for the event, all I can say is “Always carry two spears.”

That’s about it, and I will leave you with a photo slideshow of today’s tournament.

Thanks for reading and until the next post.