Season 8 Week 1 Metagame Update
128 players are competing in season 8 of the VML for a $7,000 prize pool and an invite to the Regional Championship. With Meathook Massacre’s banning a few weeks ago and the World Championship last weekend, Standard has gone through a few metagame shakeups leading up to the league. So let’s see what people brought for the first week of the season.
Week 1 Decks
It’s no surprise seeing Esper and Grixis Midrange as the most popular decks this week. Esper is arguably the best deck in the format and dominated the World Championship last week, comprising 3 of the top 4 decks. Thanks to its access to some of the best cards in Standard at every mana value, it’s able to play a flexible game depending on the matchup.
Tenacious Underdog
Tenacious Underdog
,
Raffine
Raffine, Scheming Seer
and
Sheoldred
Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
put a lot of pressure on the opponent while
Infernal Grasp
Infernal Grasp
,
Destroy Evil
Destroy Evil
and
The Wandering Emperor
The Wandering Emperor
help control an opponent trying to go faster. However, Grixis was the deck to win it all and has gained popularity as a result (many of the Grixis lists registered this week are Nathan Steuer’s winning deck), Grixis trades
Raffine
Raffine, Scheming Seer
,
Wedding Announcement
Wedding Announcement
Wedding Festivity
and
The Wandering Emperor
The Wandering Emperor
for
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
Reflection of Kiki-Jiki
,
Corpse Appraiser
Corpse Appraiser
and
Invoke Despair
Invoke Despair
, the latter two being especially good against Esper. “Other” decks round out our top 3. Those who’ve played in past seasons know they’re usually among the most popular decks and continue the trend into this season.
Outside of the top 3, Izzet and Mono Blue Tempo are the next most popular decks. Both are similar, built around
Haughty Djinn
Haughty Djinn
and cheap instants and sorceries. Mono Blue plays
Tolarian Terror
Tolarian Terror
and
Delver of Secrets
Delver of Secrets
Insectile Aberration
as additional threats while Izzet has two main builds: an aggressive version also playing
Tolarian Terror
Tolarian Terror
or
Balmor, Battlemage Captain
Balmor, Battlemage Captain
and a controlling version that plays
Lier, Disciple of the Drowned
Lier, Disciple of the Drowned
.
Selesnya Enchantments is an aggro deck built around
Generous Visitor
Generous Visitor
and
Michiko's Reign of Truth
Michiko's Reign of Truth
Portrait of Michiko
. Thanks to
Borrowed Time
Borrowed Time
and
Circle of Confinement
Circle of Confinement
being enchantments, it’s able to play more removal spells than an average aggro deck, and
Wedding Announcement
Wedding Announcement
Wedding Festivity
and
Serra Paragon
Serra Paragon
allow the deck to keep up in the mid-late game.
Hallowed Haunting
Hallowed Haunting
in the sideboard gives the deck a different angle of attack that doesn’t rely on keeping creatures alive.
Orzhov and Rakdos Midrange are variants on Esper and Grixis respectively, losing the Blue cards in favour of a more consistent manabase.
Raffine
Raffine, Scheming Seer
and
Corpse Appraiser
Corpse Appraiser
are the best Blue cards from the 3 colour versions, but
Graveyard Trespasser
Graveyard Trespasser
Graveyard Glutton
fills that slot decently well. The better manabase is notable for Rakdos, which does play
Invoke Despair
Invoke Despair
.
Featured Decks
Our first deck is this Mardu Midrange/Combo
deck from Lemon Cassidy. At first, this looks like another take on Rakdos Midrange, playing
Bloodtithe Harvester
Bloodtithe Harvester
,
Invoke Despair
Invoke Despair
and
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
Reflection of Kiki-Jiki
. But there’s a special combo involving Jaxis the Troublemaker and
Ratadrabik
Ratadrabik of Urborg
. By copying
Ratadrabik
Ratadrabik of Urborg
with Jaxis the Troublemaker then sacrificing the token to the legend rule, you’ll get a second nonlegendary
Ratadrabik
Ratadrabik of Urborg
token that stays around. By repeating this once every turn, you’ll net a
Ratadrabik
Ratadrabik of Urborg
token. If any of them die, the other will trigger and you’ll get a token copy. Adding Sheoldred to this kills the opponent very quickly. While
Ratadrabik
Ratadrabik of Urborg
isn’t amazing on his own, Jaxis the Troublemaker still has value, copying Bloodtithe Harvester or
Virus Beetle
Virus Beetle
. A cool twist on an otherwise traditional midrange deck.
Jodah, the Unifier
Jodah, the Unifier
got a lot of hype during spoiler season, though it was directed at Commander not Standard. Nonetheless, Vivian brought a sweet Human Tribal
deck built around
Jodah
Jodah, the Unifier
and other legendary humans. The humans of choice have a lot of utility.
Thalia
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
,
Adeline
Adeline, Resplendent Cathar
,
King Darien
King Darien XLVIII
, and Halana and Alena, Partners, push through damage early, helps fix your mana and ramp to Jodah the Unifier, Ertai Ressurected and
Lagrella
Lagrella, the Magpie
interact with opposing creatures/spells and
Dennick
Dennick, Pious Apprentice
Dennick, Pious Apparition
and
Shanna
Shanna, Purifying Blade
give the deck mid-game card advantage. Thanks to
Plaza of Heroes
Plaza of Heroes
and
Secluded Courtyard
Secluded Courtyard
, the manabase isn’t that bad for a 5 colour deck. I’m a huge fan of this deck and hope it does well this season.
If there’s anything I love, it’s 5 colour control decks and Ailee did not disappoint with her Domain Control
deck.
The Kami War
The Kami War
O-Kagachi Made Manifest
and
Herd Migration
Herd Migration
are the main win conditions, with the latter providing mana fixing in the early game.
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
Reflection of Kiki-Jiki
and
The Wandering Emperor
The Wandering Emperor
are excellent mid-game threats, and there are a lot of removal spells to slow opponents down.
Drag to the Bottom
Drag to the Bottom
is a card I would’ve initially expected to see in the deck, but Ailee does play 9 creatures that would die to the
Drag
Drag to the Bottom
. The most surprising inclusion to me is
Llanowar Greenwidow
Llanowar Greenwidow
, but it trades with a lot of threats and opens up a possible aggro plan if multiple are drawn. This deck looks like a lot of fun and
The Kami War
The Kami War
O-Kagachi Made Manifest
is one of my favourite cards from Kamigawa, so I’m happy to see it played.
That wraps up this week’s metagame update. Next week I’ll be going over the results from this week. Will Esper and Grixis perform well or will players find adaptations to stop them?