I visited the local Magic scene yesterday a week after Shadows over Innistrad has ascended into Standard. I was somewhat forced to do so because a teammate needed a deck to play and hours before that, I went to Raoul’s place to edit the decks. The first archetype that came into mind was the Mono Red version of Eldrazi aggro. The core components somewhat copies that of the modern decklist but is powered with a late game plan in the form of the Chandra, Flamecaller. The list was based on the one played by Mat Bimonte in the SCG Standard Open in Baltimore last weekend. I was able to 90% complete the deck because we haven’t purchased the Westvale Abbey yet and I wasn’t able to find our playset of Thought-knot Seers. I had to make adjustment and replaced them with Thunderbreak Regents.

Anyhow, there twelve players in the Friday Night Magic tournament that time and my teammate JayR piloted the deck. Round 1 pairings was posted and as I scour through the tables, most of the decks were Red based either with the aggro RDW route or midrange and paired with Black for Kalitas and solid removals. There are also variance of the Eldrazi deck and one that I’ve noticed was a combo version with Brood Monitor and Eldrazi Displacer. There was also a Black White Allies deck which was slightly splashed with the Humans strategy.

I went on ahead and didn’t finished the tournament and late that night I was informed of the top 4 players and here they are:

MtG Iloilo Tournament Results
Friday Night Magic (April 15, 2016)
1st, Mao (Eldrazi Ramp)
2nd, Tonton (Eldrazi Combo)
3rd, Eric (Blue White Tempo)
4th, JayR (Mono Red Eldrazi)

12 players, 4 rounds gameplay

My teammate finished fourth with a 3-1 record and which was somewhat impressive for a first trial of the deck. The results showed a continuous dominance of the Eldrazi as the Standard format is still stabilizing.

Looking forward, once the Innistrad based decks will be completed by the local players, there will be an expected slight shift again in the metagame. We will see what archetype will still come out or discovered most likely by Sam Black as the next Pro Tour approaches.