The Hooglandia Open Series is known for putting a spotlight on unique decks in their coverage, so we’re sure to find some interesting lists in the metagame. The format for the event was a double elimination tournament which took place this Sunday, May 30th. Without further ado, let’s dig into the meta and results!
Hooglandia Historic Open Metagame
Archetype
Number of Decks
Percentage of Field
Winrate
Grixis Control
8
6.25%
42.3077%
Jeskai Control (Kaheera)
7
5.4688%
59.375%
Mono-Black Aggro
6
4.6875%
75%
Four-color Reanimator
6
4.6875%
25%
Rakdos Arcanist (Lurrus)
4
3.125%
72.2222%
Izzet Phoenix
4
3.125%
36.3636%
Gruul Aggro
4
3.125%
65.2174%
Boros Midrange
4
3.125%
65%
Boros Tokens
4
3.125%
60%
Jeskai Turns
4
3.125%
61.9048%
Although this meta includes several of the usual top players in Historic such as Izzet Pheonix, Jeskai Control, and Arcanist decks, we can also see a number of new and lesser known decks that haven’t shown up much in high level tournaments. In particular, Grixis Control and Mono Black Aggro were present in force despite both archetypes seeing virtually no play in other recent events. Additionally, the new Four Color Reanimator archetype was well represented; the deck typically looks to cheat the new-to-Historic praetors such as Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite into play with Unburial Rites and similar effects. Overall, the meta was remarkably well balanced with no single archetype making up more than 7% of the field.
Unfortunately, the Four color Reanimator decks, which have caused a lot of excitement since Historic Anthology 5 was released, performed quite poorly overall with only a 25% winrate in non-mirror matchups. The combo is quite easily disrupted and the deck doesn’t seem to have a well-functioning backup plan if the opponent counters the reanimate spell or comes prepared with graveyard hate, which continues to be important in Historic sideboards because of Izzet Phoenix in particular. It’s interesting to note that Phoenix decks did not perform well in this tournament despite the archetype’s reputation as one of the best in Historic. This is probably due at least in part to the prevalence of other fast aggro decks in this meta that can run sideboard answers for graveyard strategies, including the newly added Modern staple Relic of Progenitus.
