This past weekend gave us more information than any opening Standard weekend that I can remember. There were two separate Star City Opens in two different cities and a TCG Player 5k. That gives us eighty deck lists to go by to get a sense of what the metagame looks like.

In case you haven’t had time to check those out, I’ll give you a hint. The format is green and I don’t just mean that it’s new. We all knew this would happen. The block format was all about different green decks whose core was Sylvan Caryatid and Courser of Kruphix. There may be many different archetypes within that shell, but the truth is that if you are going to be playing Standard, you’ll be fighting against many green decks.

The best way to approach a new format is to see what everyone is playing. If you have that information, then you have something to base your deck choice on. I’ve analyzed the data for us and here’s what I came up with.

Standard Week 1 Metagame Numbers:
Monsters – 21
Green Devotion – 17
Abzan Midrange – 12
Mardu – 7
Control – 6
Jeskai Tempo – 5
Mono Black Aggro – 4
Abzan Reanimator – 3
Mono Red – 2
Ascendancy Combo – 2
Sultai Delve – 1

Standard Week 1 Metagame Percentages:
Monsters – 26%
Green Devotion – 21%
Abzan Midrange – 15%
Mardu – 9%
Control – 7%
Jeskai Tempo – 6%
Mono Black Aggro – 5%
Abzan Reanimator – 4%
Mono Red – 3%
Ascendancy Combo – 3%
Sultai Delve – 1%

[cardimage cardname='Sylvan Caryatid'][cardimage cardname='Courser of Kruphix']

If you put them together, green decks make up a whopping 66% of the metagame! That number is staggering. Granted there is quite a diverse population of green decks, but the Courser/Caryatid core is still the same in all of them.

Within archetypes there is even diversity. Take Monsters for example. You may be playing Monsters but you could be playing R/G, RGW, RGB or RGU. That’s a lot of different versions for one archetype. The same can be said of Green Devotion. There were plenty of mono-green decks, G/R, and even a G/U deck.

While these types of differences are typical, especially in the first week of a format, it’s still important to identify the major archetypes that players are choosing. Next week, we will see the format evolve more. As players hone strategies and try new ones, we will see the metagame grow and develop. The green decks aren’t going anywhere but we will certainly see growth in other archetypes.

[cardimage cardname='Mantis Rider'][cardimage cardname='Stoke the Flames']

Jeskai Tempo is the deck that got the most attention this past week and you can tell how much players love this deck by the price spike of Mantis Rider. You can be certain that there will be a much higher percentage of players playing this deck than there were last week.

This archetype is basically an evolution of the R/W Burn deck from last season but with some new powerful spells from Khans. Here’s the deck that won Star City Edison, NJ.

There are a lot of cards in this deck that I did not expect to see, but the one that seems obvious is Seeker of the Way. This solid two-drop flew under the radar for the whole spoiler season and then showed up in many decks this past weekend. This guy is a solid threat and I expect we’ll be seeing a lot more of him in the coming weeks.

With the format being all about midrange green decks, it’s no surprise that a deck focused on burn spells was successful. Players will adjust and start including more Nylea's Disciples in their decks but with the potent number of threats this deck packs, that may not be enough. There are a number of other good ways to gain life in Standard, including Sorin, Solemn Visitor and Ajani Steadfast. The main issue for green decks is their relatively few ways to deal with Mantis Rider. Green decks will need to change gears if they hope to compete with this new deck.

[cardimage cardname='Ajani Steadfast'][cardimage cardname='Battlefield Forge']

Thoughts on Control

For the first week of this season, control decks were drastically shut down. Many formats begin the same way because it’s hard to predict the threats that will need answering. This season had an unpredictable week one metagame and so only six decks found success at the three big events. Although I grouped them all together, these six decks couldn’t have been more different from one another. These are the six different decks that sailed through the sea of midrange and onto the sunset.

• B/W Control
• R/W Control
• Esper Control
• Naya Planeswalkers
• Jund Planeswalkers
• 4-Color Control

[cardimage cardname='Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker'][cardimage cardname='Kiora, the Crashing Wave']

The one commonality in these decks is mass removal combined with planeswalkers. Many have more of a midrange feel to them and only the Esper Control deck had blue mana for the more traditional counterspells and card drawing.

Moving forward, although your manabase might be more consistent with only two colors, I think the four-color model will turn out to be the best. You will be able to customize the deck according to what you think you’ll be playing against and have access to the most powerful spells in the format. Sphinx's Revelation and Supreme Verdict are no longer here to force us into colors. We can expand and determine which colors are best to play on a week-to-week basis.

One of the lists stood out to me as the most powerful and seemed like a great starting point.

This deck seems to have found the sweet spot in the metagame. There are enough removal spells to control the aggressive and midrange decks as well as enough threats to overwhelm other controlling decks. In addition, this seems like the best Courser of Kruphix deck because with eight fetches plus scry lands, you have a ton of control over what cards you are going to draw over the course of the game.

There are some changes I want to make to the deck even before I put it together. First of all, Magma Jet is amazing but with the emergence of Mantis Rider as a predominant threat, we are going to need a removal spell that deals with it. The scry will be sorely missed but I think it’s a necessary change. Other creatures like Herald of Torment make this change less harsh.

If Magma Jet leaves the deck, some more temples may be in order, but that’s alright because I want to add black to the deck right away for Garruk, Apex Predator. Our new Golgari planeswalker does everything we are looking for in this deck. He lets us remove opposing threats while also creating threats of our own. It’s possible that leaning more towards Jund Planeswalkers is the way to go but I think this Naya build splashing black seems like the best for now.

[cardimage cardname='Garruk, Apex Predator'][cardimage cardname='Stormbreath Dragon']

Control needs some time to develop and find its identity. I’m glad for the breath of fresh air after the prevalence of Esper Control last season, but it won’t be long before a control enemy develops to oppose all the proactive decks. With the Pro Tour coming up, we will see some major developments in the metagame.

Standard is new and exciting again. There are a ton of awesome looking decks as well as many unexplored strategies. Sultai Reanimator, for example, had a poor showing this weekend but it’s a strong strategy. Will it evolve in order to survive in the metagame? What about Mardu? Will there be a consensus best version or will there continue to be a plethora of good builds? Are other devotion decks possible in the format other than green?

There are so many interesting questions to answer and so many fun new cards to try out. So get out there and start brewing! You never know when you find the right list and your deck will show up in my article.

Until Next Time,

Get ready to Unleash the Khans Force!

Mike Lanigan
MtgJedi on Twitter
Jedicouncilman23@gmail.com