CFB Pro Showdown is an exhibition tournament organized monthly by Channel Fireball. In October, it boasted the field of 267 players, competing within the single-elimination structure for the prize pool of $1,000 and a right to face off against Hall of Famer Luis Scott-Vargas in the finals. This time, it was Ondrej Strazky who went on a 9-0 run with a Selesnya Yorion brew and emerged as the sole winner of the single-elimination part. However, he wasn’t able to beat LSV’s Azorius Control who remains an undefeated End Boss.
Metagame
Strazky himself shared after the tourney: “Standard is in a great spot right now. I’ve played against 8 distinct archetypes in the 9 rounds today, which is kind of insane.” The metagame table below only goes further to confirm this impression – the biggest share of the metagame any deck has is just 10 percent, which of course is night and day when compared to Omnath times just a couple of weeks ago. However, it must be also noted that CFB Showdown isn’t meant like a high-stakes competitive event, so a lot of players took more of a casual approach, which overall led to a huge variety of choices.
Rakdos Midrange was one of the most evolved archetypes even before the ban, so it’s not a surprise the deck only gained even more popularity after Omnath, Clover, and Escape got kicked out of Standard. However, Kroxa and Co. couldn’t show up with a great winrate on the day – only 44%. The second most popular deck performed even worse – Golgari Adventures had an abysmal 36% winrate. These stats only really go further to show that the metagame is still wide open, and the search for the true ‘top archetype’ is still far from over.
Selesnya Yorion build piloted by Ondrej Strasky to an undefeated finish – right up to the End Boss match – is probably the breakout deck of the tournament:
The archetype brings out the memories of the old Bant Yorion Control deck. The comparison is obviously not 1-to-1, but it definitely has the same feel and similar moving parts. The ramp is still there, but it’s much more toned down to be fair without Growth Spiral and Uro; the control elements of the gameplan – Glass Caskets and ECD’s – are also quite reminiscent. What’s really new is the reliance on Food synergies – Guilded Goose, Wicked Wolf, and Trail of Crumbs are all back to Standard in a big way it seems.
Below, you can see the 11 most represented archetypes of the weekend, and the top 32 decks of the tournament:
Archetype | No. of Decks | % of the Field | Winrate |
---|---|---|---|
Rakdos Midrange | 27 | 10.1124% | 44.4444% |
Golgari Adventures | 26 | 9.7378% | 36.1111% |
Mono-Red Aggro | 24 | 8.9888% | 51.1111% |
Azorius Yorion | 22 | 8.2397% | 37.5% |
Gruul Adventures | 22 | 8.2397% | 59.2593% |
Mono-Green Midrange | 16 | 5.9925% | 53.3333% |
Mono-Green Aggro | 14 | 5.2434% | 33.3333% |
Dimir Control | 11 | 4.1199% | 50% |
Dimir Rogues | 10 | 3.7453% | 43.75% |
Esper Doom | 10 | 3.7453% | 57.8947% |
Temur Ramp | 8 | 2.9963% | 69.5652% |
Decklists
Selesnya Yorion by Ondrej Strasky – CFB Pro Showdown October
Mono-Red Aggro by Silas Groves – CFB Pro Showdown October
Dimir Control by Garrison Fogt – CFB Pro Showdown October
Naya Ramp by lighdar – CFB Pro Showdown October
Jeskai Control by Samuel Brousseau – CFB Pro Showdown October
Esper Doom by Jan-Moritz Merkel – CFB Pro Showdown October
Gruul Adventures by Michael Bernat – CFB Pro Showdown October
Gruul Adventures by Hiroaki Taniguchi – CFB Pro Showdown October
Temur Ramp by Albert Bayrante – CFB Pro Showdown October
Temur Ramp by Eduardo Sajgalik – CFB Pro Showdown October
Mardu Yorion by Akio Matsuzaki – CFB Pro Showdown October
Gruul Adventures by Luke Anderson – CFB Pro Showdown October
Boros Winota by Noah Wallaert – CFB Pro Showdown October
Abzan Midrange by Will Berrington – CFB Pro Showdown October
Rakdos Midrange by Nikolay Prorokov – CFB Pro Showdown October
Golgari Adventures by Rory King – CFB Pro Showdown October
Golgari Adventures by VCRPlus – CFB Pro Showdown October
Gruul Adventures by Andrew Sullender – CFB Pro Showdown October
Mono-Red Aggro by Roman Falk – CFB Pro Showdown October
Azorius Yorion by Sung-Jin Ahn – CFB Pro Showdown October
Temur Ramp by Kenny Uittenbogaard – CFB Pro Showdown October
Dimir Rogues by Kmboggemes – CFB Pro Showdown October
Rakdos Midrange by Lucas Payne – CFB Pro Showdown October
Temur Ramp by Todd Jones – CFB Pro Showdown October
Mono-Green Aggro by joltfx – CFB Pro Showdown October
Esper Doom by Gary Smith – CFB Pro Showdown October
Mono-Green Midrange by Omri Khaykovich – CFB Pro Showdown October
Selesnya Midrange by Nick Prince – CFB Pro Showdown October
Selesnya Yorion by Anthony Cuello – CFB Pro Showdown October
Mono-Red Aggro by Dave Shillingford – CFB Pro Showdown October
Mono-Green Midrange by borosman – CFB Pro Showdown October
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