Magic World Championship 31 | Top 8 Analysis

Ladies, Gentlemen and Kavus, Magic World Championship 31 happened during the weekend and we are due for another round of Top 8 Analysis and report back the current Metagame related to Standard Constructed format Best of 3.

This particular Top 8 standings are the best players from all over the world and the Magic World Championship being the ultimate standing for glory these are the players:

• Ken Yukuhiro | Sultai Reanimator
• Seth Manfield | Izzet Lessons
• Jean-Emmanuel Depraz | Izzet Looting
• Derrick Davis | Izzet Lessons
• Shaun Henry | Temur Otters
• Arne Huschenbeth | Temur Otters
• Akira Shibata | Izzet Lessons
• Sam Pardee | Izzet Lessons

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5th – 8th

Ken Yukuhiro

Starting off with Ken Yukuhiro, for a Sultai reanimator quite prominent in the format, using Kavaero, Mind-Bitten copying a creature in the graveyar targeting either Ardyn, The Usurper or Bringer of the last gift, high CMC creatures with additional reanimation effects for Ardyn, Analyze the Pollen for ramping is good and more comfortable considering starting hands, and particularly for Ken on the first match against Seth Manfield hurted on the early turns due to the lack of green sources, and matchwise against Manfield Izzet Lessons it showed that consistency pays off big time, first game 1 being mana screwed and scooping with only two lands in play and heading into game 2 with a bettter land evolution through the game but against Manfield’s Monument of Endurance making things harder a Artist's Talent, to a virtual damage output on their turn for 9 and using Combustion Technique for another 9 in their opponents turn.

This matchup is a bit tainted in controversy by, game 3 “can I take it back” from Manfield as he casts Boomerang Basics and completes his thought process with the Monument in play, this particular scenario seems like nothing happened, but it took several minutes with the spell on stack, Yukuhiro could have responded to the spell, which then adds a layer of complexity why was this allowed by the judges at such a high profile tournament.

Arne Huschenbeth | Temur Otters

Arne Temur Otters for a mirror match against Shaun Henry taking two game losses and for game 3, an early Stock Up gets countered opening for Shaun’s next turn Stock Up, and Arne enduring up to late game after surviving a Pyroclasm wiping the board buildup through Song of Totentanz call it bad luck for Arne having a salid chance but ultimately loosing all three games, what this deck wants to produce critters gain draw card advantage and going por haste attacks but Shaun gained the upper hand at every corner.

Jean-emmanuel Depraz | Izzet Looting

This Izzet Looting deck wants draw sources for Tiger-Seal early attacks, a simple attrition tactics for early pressure and solidifying with Duelist of the Mind for the draw card profit attacks, Quantum Riddler helping with the great draw effect, Stormchaser's Talent with the Prowess Otter hitting play, and having recursion options with the second level, but the star here is the Fear of Missing out with the draw discard effect, and later on enabling a second attack with powered-up creatures, Match wise against Derrick Davis Izzet Lessons went lenghty with 2-2 going for game 5 and in contrast to the previous games game 5 went short after Derrick wiped Depraz Otters with Iroh's Demonstration and later repeating it for the 4 damage mode targeting Tiger-Seal.

Samuel Pardee | Izzet Lessons

Samuel with the Izzet Lessons archetype, Gran-Gran reducing non creature spells costs as long you have 3 lessons on graveyard, so this deck aims to spellsling Lessons, Firebending Lesson, Accumulate Wisdom, Abandon Attachments and capitalizing on Monument to Endurance for the damage to opponent when discarding a card, this decks needs the setup with Artist's Talent and Stormchaser's Talent to a proper transition into monument to endurance or it will get stomped, as it was the case on the last game against Akira Shibata Izzet Lesson mirror match, Shibata had a better Talent setup and easier piloting.

3rd – 4th

Shaun Henry | Temur Otter

Shaun Henry with the Temur Otter, winning the Quarterfinals against Arne Temur Mirrormatch, moving to Semifinals against Akira Shibata’s Izzet Lessons, almost going to game 5 as game 4 ended equalizing board play, as Shibata’s Combustion Technique‘s Shaun Henry possible attackers, this decks wants to use Ral, Crackling Wit as there isn’t plenty of Planeswalker removal around in the meta, Badgermole Cub is a recent addition for this archetype as it gives more attackers options while preserving the land alive.

Derrick Davis | Izzet Lessons

Quarterfinals agains Depraz went difficult as Davis went to game 5, but what this deck excels at is the early setup for creatures take the advantage on Prowess triggers which is really scary and it proved to be on game 5, gran-gran hitting the board on turn 4, Iroh's Demonstration removing the Tiger-Seal enabling gran-gran reduce cost effects going for the Accumulate Wisdom and attacking with two 3/3 Otters and reducing Depraz life total to 7, and going for the kill on turn 5.

Now for Semifinals there’s a lot of Mirror match happening, facing Seth Manfield Izzet Lesson mirror match, losing 3-0, a pretty bad progression for game 2 not being able to set creatures for attacks or having talents in play to transition into Eddymurk Crab attrition to bounce the crab each turn and stunning Manfield side of the field.

2nd

Akira Shibata | Izzet Lessons

Akira Shibata with an amazing run during this Top8, exhibiting great piloting skills for this Izzet Lessons archetype winning both matches 3-1, and against Seth Manfield for the finals, Shibata’s Lessons also focuses on Monument to Endurance, early Talents on play and then transitioning into the Monument, but Manfield is the only one getting the upper hand with the Monuments.

1st Place

Seth Manfield | Izzet Lessons

Seth Manfield with the solid streak going all matches 3-0, “are you winning son?” going 3-0 everytime you sit down at this high stakes tournament must feel like walking in the clouds, but this particular standing is a bit tainted by controversy by asking midplay “can I take that back” during Ken Yukuhiro match, Seth Manfield is a great player by all means, but for this particular deck everything that happens on the stack is really important even for all Izzet archetype mostly develop on triggers and proper stack response use.

Final Thoughts

We have been repeating Izzet for a while now, we went from Mono red dominating, into Izzet blends with Cori-Steel Cutter and Heartfire Hero being banned straight away, and then Vivi Ornitier banned recently, I think this is a guilttrip due for WOTC Quality Assurance for further testing their sets inclussions with alternate versions of already stablished cards like Unsummon and Boomerang but in TLA set gets printed into a functional version of Boomerang Basics with a draw effect, I believe is up to the player base to keep looking for solutions Metawise and try to punish more Izzet brews from now onwards, but this is definitely a more healthy Meta status when Vivi took the place.

And with that fellas your boy Code is out, may your spells resolute with no issue, and no take backs are made from now on, see you soon!