Mythic Championship VII Qualifier Weekend Metagame Analysis

The first day of Mythic Championship VII Qualifer has concluded, with over 2000 players competing for a spot for their place on the second day of the tournament. Now that the top 102 decklists have been released, we can see what the current Standard metagame has settled at after the banning of Field of the Dead.

View all 102 Mythic Champonship VII Qualifier Decklists here!
Check out the final standings of the top 16 and the players in day 2, with links to their individual decklists.

Deck Archetype Breakdown

A more simplified look at the statistics of the current metagame:

• 96 of the 102 decks (94.1%) contain green cards in some form.
• 90 of the 102 (88.2%) decks use green as one of their primary colors, if we exclude Grixis Fires and Temur Reclamation decks.
• 68 decks (66.6%) using Oko, Thief of Crowns with its Food and Ramp variants.
• The top 16 consists of:
  • 7 Sultai Food
  • 3 Simic Food
  • 2 Bant Ramp
  • 1 Rakdos Aristocrats
  • 1 Temur Reclamation
  • 1 Azorius Control
  • 1 Golgari Adventures

We will now breakdown each archetype and use that as the basis for updating our Standard Metagame Tier List in the next day or so.

Sultai Food – 37.3%

This version of the green/blue ramp/food deck featuring Oko, Thief of Crowns splashes black for maindeck Noxious Grasp – some decks have all 4 copies and some players opted to go with 2. This is usually reserved as a sideboard card, but the metagame is warped so much towards green decks that it becomes a premium removal spell that can usually find a target. This version is clearly the best choice as long as Oko and Nissa is around.

Simic / Bant + Food / Ramp – 25.4%

The other half of the Food deck variant is occupied by the Simic and Bant versions. Simic is more streamlined and a bit more consistent, where as the Bant versions have access to Teferi, Time Raveler and Deputy of Detention. Each has their benefits and is still a leader in the metagame, but is a little bit disadvantaged against the Sultai version in best-of-three matches, simply due to their maindeck Noxious Grasp.

Adventures – 9.8%

The next most popular decks involve Edgewall Innkeeper. For just one mana, you are able to draw cards continuously. Golgari version has been showing the most consistent results in recent tournaments, as it has access to premium removal such as Murderous Knight and other disruption. The Selesnya version is also worthy of mention as it is good against the Oko decks that don’t have boardwipes and you can keep pumping out your creatures.

Decks with Instants – 8%

The current metagame also means lower than usual amounts of Teferi, Time Raveler which allows decks with instants to shine again!

• Temur Reclamation: This deck archetype has been around for a while since its inception and only played in fringe numbers ever since. This was a great meta call by Levunga (who also won Mythic Championship III with Simic Nexus) and the 3 other players.
• Simic Flash: Another deck that is always around in small numbers, and is better in an environment with less aggro decks.
• Izzet / Azorius Control: These are both singular rogue decks that is a good metagame call.

Aggro Decks – 7%

This is the worst spot for aggro decks in recent times as Oko and company makes it incredibly difficult for them to get ahead and win. The 6 Gruul Aggro decks and the sole Mardu Knights made their way to the second day, but the field looks rough to them as Noxious Grasp also has relevant targets. There is also no sign of Mono Red, which was one of the most represented deck archetype in the previous Standard.

Aristocrats – 3%

Being one of the only decks to not have green, the Aristocrats – decks that revolve around the sacrifice synergy – has more tools to play with than ever in this Standard. The Cauldron Familiar and Witch's Oven engine aside, Korvold, Fae-Cursed King is a Brawl deck exclusive card that is starting to show its strength outside of Brawl.

Is Green Just Too Powerful?

Throne of Eldraine would have been an excellent set to augment each of the individual five colors of Magic in Standard, but the power of green cards have been skewed too much and have been tipped over as we can see here. It can do the following:

• Mana acceleration (Gilded Goose, Nissa, Who Shakes the World)
• Draw cards (Hydroid Krasis)
• Selection and filtering – for free! (Once Upon a Time)
• Kill planeswalkers (Questing Beast)
• Kill creatures and hard to kill (Wicked Wolf)
• Do everything (Oko, Thief of Crowns)
• Counter (Veil of Summer)

Which brings us to the boiling point we have at the moment. Now that Field of the Dead is not here to keep Oko decks in check, we now have another deck on its own tier compared to the others.

The next banned and restricted announcement is set to happen on November 18, just after Mythic Championship VI (Standard format) on November 8. Will we see another emergency banning before the next big tournament? Join us tomorrow as we find out the top 16 players that qualify for Mythic Championship VII in December.

Wrapping Up

What do you think about the results of the tournament so far? Discuss in the comments below, or as always, you can join us in the Discord and keep up to date on the latest news on our Twitter!