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Fade 2 Karma United Invitational – Metagame, Decklists, and Results

The Fade 2 Karma United Invitational tournament took place over the course of this weekend, featuring sixty total players, including major streamers as well as MPL and Rivals League members, battling it out for a $2,500 total prize pool. The tournament took the form of eight rounds of Swiss alternating between Standard and Historic on Saturday followed by a single-elimination tournament the following day amongst the Top 32 players.

The Historic format has just received yet another shakeup with last week’s addition of the Historic Anthology 5, and this is the first major tournament since. Not only that, it has been less than two weeks since the banning of Thassa’s Oracle ended the dominance of Tainted Pact combo in the format, and the Historic meta is still changing from tournament to tournament as players try to find the best decks. Meanwhile, the Standard meta seems to be fairly healthy at the competitive level, with the formerly rampant Sultai Ultimatum decks sitting low in the meta after poor showings in recent high-level events. Read on for a full metagame breakdown from the F2K United Invitational, as well as final results and decklists from the top players.

Standard Metagame

ArchetypeNumber of DecksPercentage of FieldWinrate
Izzet Tempo ❄915%50%
Mono-Red Aggro ❄813.3333%31.5789%
Sultai Ramp (Yorion)711.6667%66.6667%
Naya Adventures (Jegantha)58.3333%57.1429%
Mono-White Aggro ❄️58.3333%68.75%
Gruul Adventures58.3333%55.5556%
Mono-Green Aggro ❄46.6667%71.4286%
Rakdos Sacrifice35%33.3333%
Temur Adventures (Obosh)35%9.0909%

Izzet Tempo has risen to be the most represented deck in the meta at the F2K Invitational, which makes sense given its excellent showing at recent tournaments. Last weekend, the archetype posted a very impressive 75% overall winrate in non-mirror matches at the Insight Esports Tier 1 Invitational. This time around the deck only managed a 50% winrate, which is obviously a huge drop in performance compared to last weekend. This should be no surprise, however, as every player in this event surely came prepared for the matchup with Izzet, and 50% is a fairly respectable showing considering. Indeed, the top player from day one was Arne Huschenbeth who piloted Izzet Tempo to a 4-0 finish in the Swiss rounds.

The rest of the meta looks largely the same except for shifting positions in metagame share, with no archetype presenting as the obvious best deck in the format. Mono Red and Mono White both continue to perform quite well in a field full of slow control decks like Izzet and Sultai. Other aggro archetypes made a good showing as well, especially Mono Green with a very impressive 71% winrate despite making up less than 7% of the meta. However, Jeskai Cycling decks are glaringly absent from this tournament, with only one deck entered. Cycling was one of the most popular archetypes in the Insight Invitational, so it’s notable to see such a precipitous drop in numbers- especially considering the deck did reasonably well.

Interestingly Dimir Rogues, which was once a major player and considered a front-runner in the meta, has hardly been present in recent high-level events. There was only one Rogues deck in the F2K United tournament, although it performed well in day one with a 3-1 record- presumably due in part to the fact that few players were prepared with specific hate to counter it.

Historic Metagame

ArchetypeNumber of DecksPercentage of FieldWinrate
Gruul Aggro1016.6667%37.037%
Jeskai Control (Kaheera)915%56.25%
Izzet Phoenix813.3333%51.8519%
Jund Food610%42.8571%
Selesnya Company58.3333%64.2857%
Boros Midrange35%50%
Jeskai Turns23.3333%71.4286%
Dimir Rogues (Lurrus)23.3333%37.5%

It seems that the Historic meta does not seem to have been shaken by the Historic Anthology 5 nearly as much as it was by the Mystical Archive from Strixhaven, but there are some new cards that are making an impact. In particular, the command cycle from Dragons of Tarkir has been generating a lot of discussion and indeed saw some play in this tournament. Gruul Aggro, which has been a powerful deck in Historic for a long time thanks to powerhouses like Embercleave and Burning-Tree Emissary, has clearly received a boost from Atarka's Command. Atarka’s Command is a highly flexible and efficiently costed card which also plays very well with the aforementioned Burning-Tree Emissary, but it will be interesting to see if Atarka Gruul stays so high in the meta after under-performing so severely. Gruul decks only managed a 37% winrate on day one and there was not a single copy of the deck in the top 12.

Selesnya Company and Jund Food decks are also sometimes running new cards from the command cycle: Dromoka's Command and Kolaghan's Command respectively. Selesnya and other Collected Company-based archetypes seem to be making a comeback after being largely pushed out of the meta by Pact Combo, and performed very respectably in day one. Jund, on the other hand, continues to struggle to find its place in the new meta, with a tepid 43% winrate. It seems unlikely that Jund is going to disappear entirely from the meta any time soon, but it seems equally unlikely that it’s going to be able to reestablish its former place among the top decks in Historic for now.

A relatively unknown archetype, Boros Midrange, has made a showing at the F2K United Invitational based largely around Dreadhorde Arcanist and the aggressive Magecraft creatures Clever Lumimancer and Leonin Lightscribe. Otherwise, the Historic meta looks much the same as it did last weekend, with Jeskai Control and Izzet Phoenix remaining popular and well-performing archetypes.

Single Elimination Top 8

Finishing PlacePlayerHistoric DeckStandard DeckOverall Record
1Matias ArvigoBoros Aggro (Lurrus)Mono White Aggro12-1-0
2KrowzJeskai ControlDimir Control9-4-0
3Kenji EgashiraIzzet PhoenixGruul Adventures9-3-0
4Ronald MüllerJeskai ControlSultai Ramp (Yorion)8-4-0
5Maxim SalminSimic AggroMono Green Aggro8-4-0
6 MystminSultai ControlIzzet Control8-3-0
7Berk ElçiDimir Rogues (Lurrus)Dimir Rogues (Lurrus)6-5-0
8Alexander SteyerBoros MidrangeGruul Adventures6-5-0

In the end, Matias Arvigo took first place in the tournament, piloting his Boros Aggro deck through the Historic single-elimination rounds. Posted below are the decklists from the Top 8 players for both Standard and Historic. If you would like to check out the full details from all 60 competitors, check out the F2K United Invitational tournament page on MTGMelee.

Historic Top 8 Decklists

[sd_deck deck=”sGezlab0B”]

[sd_deck deck=”kEL5hd6di”]

[sd_deck deck=”8aMVUprcw”]

[sd_deck deck=”mPEYz9t3u”]

[sd_deck deck=”ek73XH6Sc”]

[sd_deck deck=”oKgVve4l7″]

[sd_deck deck=”qn7Oljitc”]

[sd_deck deck=”tT3RsQcXE”]

Standard Top 8 Decklists

[sd_deck deck=”d3mLI23mI”]

[sd_deck deck=”-fWsd-lI3″]

[sd_deck deck=”YEZep8AAH”]

[sd_deck deck=”5YjwifTlU”]

[sd_deck deck=”Oitvx9S8b”]

[sd_deck deck=”9OpPcjBO7″]

[sd_deck deck=”-GuPA8B6-“]

[sd_deck deck=”s9nhw-Hgk”]

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Paul
Paul

Dude from Vermont who likes to play Magic and Escape from Tarkov. Musician, writer, and gamer. Submit feedback or corrections to @Paul on the Discord.

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