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By: TheWolf, Shane Garvey
Apr 26 2016 12:00pm
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G'day everyone! Welcome to Main Deck, a new article series. Every fortnight we will take a look at the current metagame for Magic Online, based on the decks Wizards of the Coast publishes for the Leagues (and Dailies for Vintage). We will break down the numbers and have a look at what are the most popular decks, and even show you a decklist or two for each of the formats. 

The article only focuses on Magic Online data; we will be ignoring Grand Prix, SCG Opens, and the like. This is for all us MTGO players! The article also only looks at the most recent week's worth of data, to be as current and up to date as possible.

Anyway, enough rambling!

STANDARD

To the surprise of likely no one, Bant Company dominated the Standard League this week. It made up 22.81% of the decks that were published; 10 % more than the next deck, which was WU Humans. Let's take a look at the break down of the top few decks:

  1. Bant Company 22.81%
  2. WU Humans 12.28%
  3. Mono White Humans and UR Goggles 8.77% each

If we collapse the various Humans decks (WU, WG and Mono White) into one archetype, it actually comes up the same as Bant Company, with 22.81%. Let's have a quick look at the decks:

BANT COMPANY
5-0 Standard League, by Wata
Creatures
2 Archangel Avacyn
4 Bounding Krasis
4 Duskwatch Recruiter
3 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
2 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
4 Reflector Mage
4 Sylvan Advocate
3 Tireless Tracker
26 cards

Other Spells
4 Collected Company
4 Dromoka's Command
8 cards
Lands
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Forest
2 Island
3 Plains
2 Yavimaya Coast
4 Canopy Vista
3 Lumbering Falls
4 Prairie Stream
26 cards

Sideboard
4 Negate
1 Ojutai's Command
4 Declaration in Stone
4 Lambholt Pacifist
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Tragic Arrogance
15 cards

 

WU HUMANS
5-0 Standard League, by FOWM
Creatures
4 Knight of the White Orchid
2 Archangel Avacyn
2 Bygone Bishop
2 Consul's Lieutenant
3 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
4 Reflector Mage
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
4 Thraben Inspector
4 Town Gossipmonger
29 cards

Other Spells
4 Declaration in Stone
3 Always Watching
2 Stasis Snare
9 cards
Lands
1 Island
13 Plains
4 Port Town
4 Prairie Stream
22 cards

Sideboard
1 Island
2 Dragonlord Ojutai
3 Negate
2 Ojutai's Command
2 Silkwrap
1 Bygone Bishop
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Tragic Arrogance
10 cards

 

Of course, these two decks were also the most popular decks at Pro Tour Shadows over Innistrad this weekend, but neither put up a great showing (one Bant Company deck made the top 8). The pros came prepared with decks that could beat these two. Keep that in mind when evaluating the meta this week.

MODERN

The Modern metagame on MTGO has been given a huge shake up with the Eye of Ugin ban. Previously, where Eldrazi and Affinity decks ruled the day, there is now a very even spread of decks being played in the Leagues. In fact, out of the five formats we will be looking at, Modern was the most diverse this week, with 42 different deck variants out of 86 published decks. Maybe this round of bannings (and unbannings) has finally accomplished what Wizards of the Coast hoped.

Let's look at the top metagame decks:

  1. Affinity 8.14%
  2. Naya Burn 5.81%

There is a whole range of decks sitting in the next percentage bracket down, with all of these making up 4.65% of this week's meta: Eldrazi and Taxes, Jeskai Control, Scapeshift, Zoo, Goblins and Naya Aggro.

Affinity was the most published deck though, which is really no surprise as it was being played a lot before the ban of Eye of Ugin. It's not a huge chunk, though, but you should probably be prepared for it.

 

LEGACY

Legacy was dominated by one deck and one deck alone: Miracles. Out of the 27 published decklists, 10 of them were Miracles. It far outstripped the next batch of decks:

  1. Miracles 37.04%
  2. Sultai Delver 11.11%
  3. Grixis Delver and Ad Nauseum Tendrils 7.41% each

 

Basically, it seems to be a case of play Miracles, or play to beat Miracles. However, it should be noted that Delver decks, in various forms, were also popular. There were four different types of Delver in the Leagues: UR Delver, Sultai Delver, Grixis Delver and Jeskai Delver. Combined, these decks made up 25.92% of the meta this week, with Grixis being the most popular. Keep this in mind when playing this week.

PAUPER

This week, Pauper was dominated by two decks. One is considered to be the best deck in the format (and has been for a while), while the other has a very good match up against that deck. Take a look:

  1. Delver 25.49%
  2. Stompy 17.65%
  3. Mono Black Control and Temur Tron 9.8% each

The recent Cloud of Faeries ban has not hurt Delver at all: the deck simply replaced that card with Faerie Miscreant and continued on its merry way. (As I side note, I played in a League recently and ran into 5 Delver decks in a row). Stompy has a great match up against Delver, so it's not much of a surprise that it has also been popular and done well. 

 

DELVER
5-0 Pauper League, by Barathol
Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Spire Golem
4 Faerie Miscreant
19 cards

Other Spells
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Counterspell
2 Deprive
1 Dispel
2 Gush
2 Mana Leak
4 Snap
1 Bonesplitter
24 cards
Lands
17 Island
17 cards

Delver of Secrets

 

 

VINTAGE

Vintage was another format given a shake up recently, with Lodestone Golem being restricted. This has hindered Shops decks, but certainly not stopped them, with Ravager Shops being the 2nd most published deck this week. However, the Vintage Dailies were dominated by one deck:

  1. Jeskai Mentor 41.67%
  2. Ravager Shops 12.5%
  3. Sultai Control 8.33%

Mentor decks are the flavour of the week by far: there was even a 5-Colour Mentor and Esper Mentor deck that finished 3-1 or greater this week. Needless to say, be prepared to face this deck in the Dailies.

 

This exact deck actually went 3-1 twice during the week. If you are looking to play Vintage this week, prepare to face a lot of Monk tokens!

I'll be back in a couple of weeks to see what has changed, if anything, in the metagame. The Pro Tour is certain to shake up Standard, and you should keep an eye on that if you are going into an event online this week. 

2 Comments

Mentor's been around for a by Paul Leicht at Tue, 04/26/2016 - 23:14
Paul Leicht's picture

Mentor's been around for a while in vintage. Not surprising that it is doing well post restrictions as Shops took a big hit. It definitely isn't just the flavor of the week.

You are right by TheWolf at Wed, 04/27/2016 - 01:40
TheWolf's picture

Of course, flavour of the week was probably the wrong term to use. What I meant to see is that they are the main deck dominating the format at the moment; it most certainly isn't a passing fad.