The local and online Magic: the Gathering tournaments are running at full blast with the various events posted and a few major events to consider. While The Brother’s War has produced a new batch of artifact-based Standard decks, the metagame that has stirred with the new set has continued to be dominated by the top-tier tri-color midrange decks. 

Based on the Magic: the Gathering Standard tournament results posted at the MTG Top 8 website, here below are the cards that have been on the top performance of the decks and reflected on the tournament results for the December 1st week. 

Fifth in rank is Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. This three-mana enchantment is an auto-inclusion of the playset to most Red-based decks or tricolored such as Grixis, Jund, and Jeskai. Nothing to explain further as it provides only pure card advantage to these builds. 

In Fourth place, the card is Cut Down. This one-mana Black instant removal is now a staple in the curve of the top-tier decks and is even used in Mono-Black Aggro and Rakdos Anvil decks. It has the most relevant targets in the current metagame, mentioning some are Reckless Stormseeker, Raffine, and Goblin Shaman tokens. At least two copies are included in the main deck and one more is on the board for aggro matchups. 

In Third place is the most played artifact in the format: Reckoner Bankbuster. I consider this a unique card that provides various advantages in both card draws and board. Providing mana sink card draws is relevant against other midrange and control decks while having the opportunity to attack with a 4/4 with just an easy Crew 3 ability. It averages from 2-3 copies main deck in midrange decks. 

Second in card popularity in Standard is Go for the Throat. This is now the spot removal choice of the Black-based Tricolor Midrange decks over Infernal Grasp, as the latter’s life loss is more of a liability in most situations. Personally, I’d prefer variance in my spot removal list as there are relevant artifact creatures that can be dealt with by the grasp. The card’s average use in these decks is between 3 to playset copies.

The first and on top of the list on the cards widely used in Standard as of the recent is surprisingly a nonbasic land. It is the Takenuma, Abandoned Mire, and while it is usually just a copy on the main deck, its Channel ability really is your late-game gas in midrange attrition matchups. You can get back a Sheoldred or relevant planeswalkers such as Liliana of the Veil or The Wandering Emperor to help do the finishing moves on opponents.

There are your Top 5 cards for the Standard format, and with this format’s metagame might not be changing in the coming weeks, we can expect some similar cards but the percentage of use might not be the same.

That is a wrap for now, until the next blog post.