MTG Arena Zone Championship Series Season 1: Week 2 Wrap-Up

We’re now finished with the second week of the MTG Arena Zone Championship Season 1, and it’s time to take a look at the results! While last week’s events featured the fledgling Alchemy format, our attention this week was focused on the venerable, but constantly changing, Historic format. Historic was most recently affected by the addition of powerful, digital-only cards from the Alchemy: Innistrad set.

In this article, we’ll take a look at the metagame and results from our three events from Week 2: two bye events and the Preliminary Set Championship Qualifier (PSCQ). We’re also pleased to present live coverage from the Sunday PSCQ hosted by well-known players and content creators HowlingMines and TheDaninja.

You can use the following links to navigate the page quickly:

• Leaderboard and Community Highlights
• Metagame Review
• Championship Series Bye Event (Tuesday 1/4)
• Championship Series Bye Event (Thursday 1/6)
• Preliminary Set Championship Qualifier 1/9

You can also find coverage from Week 1’s Alchemy events here:

MTG Arena Zone Championship Series Season 1: Week 1 Wrap-Up

Out of the loop? Learn more about the MTG Arena Zone Championship Series over on our announcement page.

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Current Leaderboard and Community Highlights

Rank	Player	Points	Events Played	Wins	Losses	Draws
1	sanetomi	30	1	8	1	0
2	satoshi nakayama	30	2	9	5	0
3	Arya Karamchandani	25	1	7	2	0
4	Tomas Pokorny	25	1	7	2	0
5	Dominick Karmiche	23	3	11	3	0
6	Riley Hicks	23	6	17	10	0
7	sandydogmtg	21	6	17	9	0
8	Dominick Paolercio	20	3	7	6	0
9	Gavin Bennett	20	2	9	5	0
10	James Schlott	20	2	8	3	0
11	Jeff Pyka	20	2	9	5	0
12	Gabriel Nicholas	15	1	4	3	0
13	hironori tanaka	15	2	5	6	0
14	Jim Davis	15	1	4	3	0
15	Max Dore	15	2	4	5	0
16	Noam Zimet	15	1	4	3	0

With the second week of competition now behind us, our leaderboard has been updated. We’ve currently got multiple players tied for points at the top of the standings, but it’s sure to shake out a bit more as we get farther into the season.

In addition to some of the regular tournament grinders who joined us in Week 1 such as sandydogmtg, we were honored to have loads of other talent competing in our Week 2 events including professional MTG player and content creator Jim Davis, who managed to Top 8 our PSCQ with his Affinity deck.

The MTG Arena Zone Championship is open to anyone who wants to play, and features cash prizes of up to $400 at the PSCQs. We’d love to see you there! You can check out our tournament offerings and sign yourself up over at the DotGG MTG Melee page.

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The Metagame

Across all three of the week’s events, we saw a relatively small but highly varied metagame. In the bye events, Golgari Food decks were the most highly represented, although they struggled to perform against the field. That’s not to say that they made up a dominating portion of the meta though: in Thursday’s event, there were just two Golgari Food decks entered and only one example of each other archetype, making for a diverse field that managed to avoid even a single mirror match.

golgari food

51.9% global win rate

7.94% metagame share

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vs orzhov aristocrats

100.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs izzet turns

90.9% win rate

11 tracked matches

vs gruul aggro

87.5% win rate

8 tracked matches

vs bant turbo-fog

80.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs selesnya humans

64.7% win rate

51 tracked matches

vs rakdos arcanist

61.8% win rate

34 tracked matches

vs bant blink (yorion)

60.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs bant company

60.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs dimir control

60.0% win rate

10 tracked matches

vs jeskai control

54.8% win rate

31 tracked matches

vs jund food

53.3% win rate

30 tracked matches

vs orzhov auras

50.0% win rate

6 tracked matches

vs five-color niv-mizzet

50.0% win rate

12 tracked matches

vs izzet phoenix

50.0% win rate

74 tracked matches

vs jund citadel

46.7% win rate

15 tracked matches

vs azorius artifacts

44.4% win rate

9 tracked matches

vs jeskai creativity

42.9% win rate

28 tracked matches

vs jeskai lotus field

40.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs azorius auras

36.4% win rate

11 tracked matches

vs mono-red goblins

35.7% win rate

14 tracked matches

vs heliod company

35.6% win rate

59 tracked matches

vs azorius lotus field

35.3% win rate

17 tracked matches

vs dragonstorm

33.3% win rate

6 tracked matches

vs izzet creativity

28.6% win rate

7 tracked matches

vs selesnya enchantress

27.3% win rate

11 tracked matches

vs bant angels

18.2% win rate

11 tracked matches

vs grixis combo

16.7% win rate

6 tracked matches

During the PSCQ, which sported a significantly larger player pool, we saw Izzet Phoenix and Heliod Company combo decks making up the lion’s share of the meta, with the two archetypes combining to make up around 40% of the field.

izzet phoenix

53.7% global win rate

11.19% metagame share

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vs esper control

100.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs bant angels

83.3% win rate

6 tracked matches

vs mono-red goblins

81.8% win rate

11 tracked matches

vs mono-red aggro

80.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs azorius control

75.0% win rate

12 tracked matches

vs azorius lotus field

71.4% win rate

14 tracked matches

vs bant blink (yorion)

66.7% win rate

12 tracked matches

vs dimir control

64.7% win rate

17 tracked matches

vs five-color niv-mizzet

62.5% win rate

32 tracked matches

vs jund food

62.1% win rate

58 tracked matches

vs jeskai control

61.8% win rate

55 tracked matches

vs izzet creativity

61.5% win rate

26 tracked matches

vs gruul aggro

61.5% win rate

13 tracked matches

vs orzhov death's shadow

60.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs rakdos arcanist

56.8% win rate

37 tracked matches

vs azorius artifacts

54.5% win rate

11 tracked matches

vs dragonstorm

53.3% win rate

15 tracked matches

vs jund citadel

52.2% win rate

23 tracked matches

vs heliod company

50.6% win rate

85 tracked matches

vs golgari food

50.0% win rate

74 tracked matches

vs selesnya humans

45.5% win rate

88 tracked matches

vs azorius auras

45.2% win rate

31 tracked matches

vs mono-red madness

42.9% win rate

14 tracked matches

vs jeskai creativity

40.0% win rate

20 tracked matches

vs dimir pact

40.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs simic merfolk

40.0% win rate

15 tracked matches

vs izzet turns

38.5% win rate

26 tracked matches

vs jeskai lotus field

33.3% win rate

9 tracked matches

vs grixis combo

30.0% win rate

10 tracked matches

vs selesnya enchantress

20.0% win rate

20 tracked matches

Izzet Phoenix has been one of the top decks in the Historic format since nearly the beginning. Even after all of the changes that have come to the format (including bans that directly affected the archetype), it’s still a serious contender – especially thanks to the power of more recent additions like Dragon's Rage Channeler which adds another hyper-efficient threat to the deck.

heliod company

49.7% global win rate

5.77% metagame share

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vs selesnya humans

65.9% win rate

44 tracked matches

vs golgari food

64.4% win rate

59 tracked matches

vs mono-red madness

63.6% win rate

11 tracked matches

vs dragonstorm

60.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs selesnya enchantress

60.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs mono-red goblins

57.1% win rate

7 tracked matches

vs azorius artifacts

57.1% win rate

7 tracked matches

vs dimir control

50.0% win rate

10 tracked matches

vs jeskai lotus field

50.0% win rate

6 tracked matches

vs izzet turns

50.0% win rate

14 tracked matches

vs izzet phoenix

49.4% win rate

85 tracked matches

vs rakdos arcanist

47.8% win rate

23 tracked matches

vs five-color niv-mizzet

41.7% win rate

12 tracked matches

vs jeskai control

41.3% win rate

46 tracked matches

vs izzet creativity

40.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs mono-red devotion

40.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs jund citadel

33.3% win rate

12 tracked matches

vs azorius lotus field

33.3% win rate

9 tracked matches

vs jund food

32.0% win rate

25 tracked matches

vs bant blink (yorion)

28.6% win rate

7 tracked matches

vs azorius control

28.6% win rate

7 tracked matches

vs azorius auras

22.2% win rate

9 tracked matches

vs jeskai creativity

13.3% win rate

15 tracked matches

Meanwhile, decks built around Heliod, Sun Crowned have been an important part of Historic since the printing of Scurry Oak created an easier path to combo. Tools such as Ranger-Captain of Eos, Collected Company, and Inquisitor Captain – a new card from Alchemy – help to make the deck massively consistent.

We also saw a number of other familiar archetypes from Historic showing up to the PSCQ, including Jeskai and Azorius Control and Azorius Auras.

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Championship Series Bye Event (Tues. 1/4)

Metagame

Archetype	Number of Decks	Percentage of Field	Winrate
Golgari Food	3	23.1%	50%
Izzet Phoenix	2	15.4%	66.67%
Heliod Company	2	15.4%	66.67%
Dimir Control	1	7.7%	75%
Azorius Lotus Field	1	7.7%	50%
Grixis Combo	1	7.7%	33.33%
Rakdos Arcanist	1	7.7%	33.33%
Gruul Aggro	1	7.7%	25%
Bant Company	1	7.7%	25%

Top 4

Rank	Player	Deck	Record
1	James Schlott	Heliod Company	4-0
2	sandydogmtg	Izzet Phoenix	3-1
3	Riley Hicks	Dimir Control	3-1
4	Luca Moretti	Golgari Food	2-2

Winning Decklist:

[Top of Page]

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Championship Series Bye Event (Thurs. 1/6)

Metagame

Archetype	Number of Decks	Percentage of Field	Winrate
Golgari Food	2	18.2%	25%
Dimir Control	1	9.1%	100%
Jeskai Creativity	1	9.1%	0%
Azorius Auras	1	9.1%	33.33%
Sultai Combo	1	9.1%	33.33%
Mardu Midrange	1	9.1%	50%
Bant Company	1	9.1%	50%
Grixis Midrange	1	9.1%	66.67%
Azorius Lotus Field	1	9.1%	75%

Top 4

Rank	Player	Deck	Record
1	Riley Hicks	Dimir Control	4-0
2	Albert Chyn	Grixis Midrange	3-1
3	liopoil	Azorius Lotus Field	3-1
4	Armando Corona	Bant Company	2-2

Winning Deck:

[Top of Page]

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Preliminary Set Championship Qualifier (Sun 1/9)

Metagame

Archetype	Number of Decks	Percentage of Field	Winrate
Izzet Phoenix	7	21.2%	61.1%
Heliod Company	6	18.2%	41.67%
Jeskai Control (Kaheera)	4	12.1%	47.1%
Azorius Auras (Lurrus)	3	9.1%	52.9%
Azorius Control	2	6.1%	62.5%
Golgari Food	1	3%	22.22%
Mono-Red Goblins	1	3%	20%
Orzhov Death’s Shadow	1	3%	0%
Esper Control	1	3%	0%
Selesnya Enchantress	1	3%	77.78%
Azorius Lotus Field	1	3%	50%
Jund Food	1	3%	57.1%
Azorius Affinity	1	3%	57.1%
Bant Blink (Yorion)	1	3%	66.67%
Dimir Control	1	3%	66.67%
Grixis Control	1	3%	0%

Top 8

Rank	Player	Deck	Record
1	satoshi nakayama	Selesnya Enchantress	7-2
2	Arya Karamchandani	Azorius Auras (Lurrus)	7-2
3	Dominick Paolercio	Izzet Phoenix	6-2
4	Jeff Pyka	Izzet Phoenix	6-2
5	Riley Hicks	Dimir Control	5-2
6	James Schlott	Heliod Company	4-3
7	Jim Davis	Azorius Affinity	4-3
8	hironori tanaka	Jund Food	4-3

Decklists

[Top of Page]

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Thanks for reading! This article is the continuation of our offical coverage of the MTG Arena Zone Championship Series. We hope to see you at some of our events this season and beyond! You can learn more about the Championship Series over on DotGG. Tournament registration is handled through our page at MTGMelee.