I have observed the recent lack of participants in the recent Standard tournaments at Pro Rei’s place. This was also obvious during the Rivals of Ixalan Store Champs wherein the player count was only at 16 at Pro Rei and about 9 players at Critical Hit. That is despite the recent archetypes that were introduced in the format. The schedule conflict might be the main reason but I think it is more than that.

People are tired of Standard. That I think maybe is caused by the stagnant dominant Tier 1 decks i.e. Energy, Blue Black control and Mono-Red. The metagame still continues to revolve around these three deck archetypes and that related builds are also defined. For instance, Black Red Aggro is much like Mono Red in terms of strategy, though it has more advantage in creature removal I.e. Unlicensed DIsintegration and discard spells like Duress. It solves most of its bad matchups and so it was the recent deck choice of most Pros in the recent Standard Grand Prix.

Anyhow, for a preferred choice of a competitive player, they would still stick with the TIer 1 deck and just make little adjustments on the sideboard. That will then cause most mirror matches in the local tournaments which will then rely on who got the better luck and play skills. I find that boring and uninteresting.

The coming of Dominaria will introduce new cards and possible new archetypes in the format, but I think the dominance of the previous sets will be challenged a bit. Instead, they might get even more powerful with new possible interactions with their current strategy. We will know in the coming weeks.

For now, I would suggest you play other formats or dedust that kitchen table brew of yours and gather your friends for a game night of Pizza, Beer and Magic. You can also drop by the local game store for the Dominaria Prerelease this weekend.