This past weekend was an absolute blast. I’ve been eagerly anticipating the TCG Player Invitational all year. It was a long time to wait because I was qualified early on in the year, but it’s such a great event, it’s worth waiting for.

The main reason I loved this tournament was for it’s unique split format. There was never another high profile event like this that focused on both Standard and Modern that I’m aware of and I loved this Invitational because of it. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case, but I was still looking forward to the event. Additionally, Indy is one of my favorite places to travel to. I have lots of friends in the area and the city has amazing food and places to hang out.

So, this past weekend, I set off on my journey across Ohio. The only problem? I didn’t make it into Indiana. Instead of playing in this sweet tournament, I was in the wedding of one of my best friends. Although I had to miss my favorite event, I doubt I could have had more fun there than hanging out with my girlfriend and all my friends.

Some interesting things happened at the TCG Invi though. Most importantly, Mardu Midrange emerged victorious from the event and put multiple players into the Top 8 of that event. Before this tournament, Mardu was mostly just a dream I had that wasn’t taking shape. I’ve worked a ton with the wedge and the deck but I always felt one step away from the correct list.

If you’ve read my article on Mardu, you’ll notice a lot of similarities between the decks that were successful and mine, but the main difference is this version focuses on red and white with a splash of black whereas mine was geared more towards red and black with a splash of white. Take a look at the winning deck.

The biggest difference between this deck and previous versions is the allotment of removal spells. Note the distinct lack of burn spells. This deck has no Stoke the Flames. Previous to this event, not including Stoke in your red deck would be considered heresy. Instead it’s running cards like Crackling Doom and Chain to the Rocks in order to deal with the large threats presented by decks like Abzan Midrange.

The second place deck was also Mardu! This archetype springing out of the woodwork butchered its way to 1st, 2nd, and 5th with two more copies in the Top 32! The only copy of this deck that played Stoke the Flames was the lowest placing one in the Top 32, and it only ran two copies. So, it seems that for this deck to be successful, you can switch up your threats and removal spells a bit, but your removal spells need to get rid of large threats.

Another part that sticks out to me about all of these decks is the limit to the number of planeswalkers. Using results-oriented thinking, the right number of planeswalkers for this strategy is four to five. Although these cards are extremely powerful, you do not want to draw them in multiples. Only playing a few top end cards like this allows you to have more consistent and less clunky draws. There were plenty of games I played with this archetype where I would lose with a bunch of cards in hand. This signals that you need additional cheaper cards in your deck so you are curving out more often.

Finally the key piece that I was missing for this deck was actually a sideboard card. End Hostilities is the perfect sideboard card against any other midrange deck. The games you lose to other midrange decks are the ones where you start behind on the board and they amass a large army of big bodies and beat you down with them. By adding End Hostilities to your arsenal, you cut down on this scenario happening. I like this plan so much that I would probably play a third copy in my sideboard if I were playing this deck.

Another deck that stood out to me was one by Craig Wescoe. I took note of this deck because it’s quite similar to the one I’ve been working on. Here’s what Craig used to top-sixteen this event as well as another copy that was mislabeled in the Top 32.

Monastery Swiftspear is not a card I like in Standard. Maybe I need to give it more of a chance than I already have, but every time I see this Goblin Guide impersonator in Standard decks, my first thought is what can I add in place of him. For one mana, this is a reasonable creature, but I don’t think it does enough unless you are playing Mono-Red Heroic. I tend to gear this type of deck more towards midrange when I play it because it’s more fitting to my play style so that is part of why I don’t want Swiftspear in my deck as well.

This is the first version of this deck that I’ve seen that runs Wingmate Roc. I’ve thought a lot about mini-Broodmate in this deck but I always concluded that Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker was the better choice. It’s possible that I have too high of an opinion of Sarkhan. I seem to put him on a pedestal above all other five cost spells in the format right now and that’s quite possibly wrong. Wingmate Roc is clearly powerful as well and also fitting for what the deck is trying to accomplish. I’m not sure I agree with the full four copies being included though and I would look to shave one almost right away.

One card I did not consider for this archetype is Eidolon of Countless Battles and I’m surprised that Craig had this guy in his deck which is noticeably lacking Raise the Alarm. Ryan also ran this bestow creature to good effect as well. In this spot in my version, I have Brimaz, King of Oreskos, but changing that to the Eidolon is an interesting choice. Going forward, this is one of the parts of the deck I’m eager to try out. I wonder how many games end because you cast turn five Wingmate Roc and then on turn six, bestow the Eidolon to fly over for the win.

Chain to the Rocks is back again. I recently removed my copies of this card due to a lack of mountains. These new versions chose to play Evolving Wilds in place of Wind-Scarred Crag. Both lands add consistency but this generic fetch land bumps up the effective mountain count such that playing Chained to the Rocks is a viable option again. I think this is a great switch that I will be making as well.

Finally, Ajani Steadfast made an appearance in Ryan’s deck and I think new Ajani looks great in this deck. Not only can you give evasion to your Goblin Rabblemaster, but you can also pump your whole team. Make room for this planeswalker in your deck. The exact number of copies will need tested, but my inclination is that two copies would be the correct number.

One other deck stood out from the crowd at this event and that was the return of Red-Green. The great thing about this deck is how different it is from the previous mold of R/G Monsters that we couldn’t break out of for so long.

As you can see, the deck does resemble our old deck. The difference: four main deck Hornet’s Nest. The fact that Caleb was successful with four defenders like this says a lot about the aggressive nature of the format. The Nest is particularly great against the 1/1 tokens from Rabblemaster, but is also good against other decks as well.

Another key aspect of this deck is the return of Chord of Calling. Most players know how much I love this card and it’s great to see it here also. I’ve been playing one Hornet’s Nest in my Chord decks for a while now and it’s a great target for your tutor.

Notice the number on the planeswalkers again. This is the same type of thing we saw with the Mardu Midrange deck. There are lots of cards to play in the first three turns of the game and then lots of options for turns four to six. This type of deck building will help you be successful in this metagame. There are so many different board states that come up, you need different options available to you in order to be successful.

Finally, Caleb takes the threats in this format seriously by using one of the most undervalued cards in his sideboard, Magma Spray. I’ve spoken before about how great this card is and he shows off exactly how important it is to him as the only four of in his sideboard.

Standard is evolving. I can wait to see what happens in the metagame this weekend!