Another weekend means another chance to compete in Magic: the Gathering tournaments, whether in your local game store if they are now allowing face-to-face gameplay or on online platforms like Magic Online and Arena for their scheduled events. Our local Magic Iloilo also held an Arena tournament last night though I was not able to check on the results from our TO Rei.

For today’s Standard deck top finishers, we have a list from the recently uploaded Magic Online Challenge at the Starcity Games website. The Finalist was Gruul Adventures and Sultai Ramp (Yorion) deck archetypes while the rest of the top 8 are composed of Mono-Red, Naya Adventures, and Dimir Control. It looks like that these are the trending deck archetypes in the metagame and with a good reason to be so.

The first placer was piloted by Bielzito, and here below is the decklist.

Gruul Adventures Maindeck
Lands (22)
5 Forest
1 Mountain
4 Barkchannel Pathway
4 Cragcrown Pathway
3 Den of the Bugbear
2 Lair of the Hydra
3 Riverglide Pathway

Creatures (26)
4 Bonecrusher Giant
4 Edgewall Innkeeper
2 Goldspan Dragon
4 Jaspera Sentinel
4 Lovestruck Beast
4 Rimrock Knight
4 Magda, Brazen Outlaw

Spells (12)
2 Embercleave
4 Esika’s Chariot
2 The Great Henge
4 Shatterskull Smashing

Sideboard
1 Elder Gargaroth
2 Ox of Agonas
2 Ranger Class
2 The Akroan War
3 Disdainful Stroke
2 Redcap Melee
2 Wilt
1 Toski, Bearer of Secrets

As for the Sultai Ramp deck with the end-game Emergent Ultimatum, the decklist is below. It was played by username Patxi.

Sultai Ramp Maindeck
Lands (32)
3 Forest
2 Island
2 Swamp
4 Barkchannel Pathway
4 Clearwater Pathway
4 Darkbore Pathway
4 Fabled Passage
1 Ketria Triome
4 Temple of Malady
4 Zagoth Triome

Creatures (8)
4 Elder Gargaroth
2 Polukranos, Unchained
1 Valki, God of Lies
1 Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider

Spells (40)
4 Binding the Old Gods
1 Kiora Bests the Sea God
4 Omen of the Sea
4 Wolfwillow Haven
4 Heartless Act
3 Jwari Disruption
3 Power Word Kill
2 Alrund’s Epiphany
2 Check for Traps
1 Crippling Fear
4 Cultivate
4 Emergent Ultimatum
1 Extinction Event
1 Pestilent Haze
1 Sea Gate Restoration
1 Shadows’ Verdict

Sideboard
1 Mazemind Tome
2 Elspeth’s Nightmare
2 Mystical Dispute
1 Power Word Kill
1 Test of Talents
2 Kaervek, the Spiteful
2 Koma, Cosmos Serpent
1 Yorion, Sky Nomad
3 Duress

See the rest of the Top 8 decks on this link.

The Magic: the Gathering Strixhaven Championships has just been concluded last weekend with 250 player attendees and was decided by the current two popular formats: Standard and Historic.

In the Standard format portion of the tournament, I have noticed in the Top 8 decks a new build (in my case) of the Jeskai Tempo deck. It utilized two relevant Izzet Mutate creatures, Lore Drakkis and Vadrok, Apex of Thunder, that get you more value in your Instant and Sorcery spells. Vadrok reminds me of the Mantis Rider, which was also a popular Jeskai beater back in the Khans of Tarkir Standard days.

The deck was piloted by two players who were also Top 8 finishers, David Inglis and Matti Kuisma.

Check out the Standard Jeskai Mutate full decklist below:

Maindeck
12 CREATURES
4 Goldspan Dragon
4 Lore Drakkis
4 Vadrok, Apex of Thunder

26 INSTANTS and SORC.
1 Essence Scatter
4 Expressive Iteration
2 Fire Prophecy
1 Mystical Dispute
2 Negate
3 Prismari Command
1 Scorching Dragonfire
3 Seize the Spoils
1 Sejiri Shelter
4 Spikefield Hazard
4 Unsubstantiate

22 LANDS (27)
4 Hengegate Pathway
4 Island
2 Mountain
4 Needleverge Pathway
4 Raugrin Triome
4 Riverglide Pathway

Sideboard
2 Cinderclasm
1 Essence Scatter
1 Glass Casket
1 Light of Hope
3 Mazemind Tome
2 Mystical Dispute
2 Phoenix of Ash
3 Redcap Melee

Reference: Decklist from the event

I had the time to check on the results of the recently concluded Magic Fest in Kansas City and upon browsing the Top 8 decklists, I found a build that looks to be a major change from the previous Red Green (Gruul) Aggro Warriors tribe deck. The new inclusions are the planeswalkers Domri and Sarkhan from WAR and the underrated Elemental creature Living Twister which didn’t even reached a dollar in price value. I have also found that it was the most popular deck archetype in the event.

Here below is the decklist that made the Top 8 played by Micheal Byars.

Maindeck
7 Forest (347)
1 Gruul Guildgate
9 Mountain (343)
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Stomping Ground

4 Gruul Spellbreaker
3 Living Twister
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Rekindling Phoenix
4 Skarrgan Hellkite
4 Thorn Lieutenant

4 Lightning Strike
2 Shock
3 Domri, Anarch of Bolas
3 Sarkhan the Masterless

Sideboard
4 Lava Coil
4 Legion Warboss
2 The Immortal Sun
3 Thrashing Brontodon
2 Tibalt, Rakish Instigator

Source: https://www.channelfireball.com/gp-kansas-city-top-8-decklists/