Star City Games is one of Magic: The Gathering’s largest and most prestigious tournament hosts. Last weekend, they kicked off the new season of the SCG Tour Online, a series of competitive tournaments featuring the Standard format. If you missed last week’s coverage, check it out here.
Each weekend, there are up to eight SCG Tour Online satellite tournaments that reward players who perform well enough an entry to the $5,000 Invitational Qualifier that takes place each Sunday. In addition to the cash prizes, the best players from each Invitational Qualifier earn entries into a paper tournament being held by SCG in the fall, as well as an upcoming MTG: Arena Championship.
This weekend, the real star of the show has been Naya Winota, a deck which has benefitted from new cards from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms to the point where it was become one of the best in the format. For a bit more detail on the archetype and how it has improved, see our analysis of the weekend’s Tier 1 Summer Series $5k Invitational.
Concerning the SCG Tour online, Naya Winota was the most played deck in all eight of the satellite events as well as the Championship Qualifier. Not only that, but the deck had positive winrates in non-mirror matches in all of the tournaments except for the Championship Qualifier, where it had a still respectable 48% winrate and a representative deck in the top 8.
Meanwhile, Dimir Rogues seems to be making a comeback in the meta while players are less prepared for the matchup. Sultai Ultimatum, on the other hand, is as low as it has been in recent memory. All in all, the current Standard metagame seems quite healthy as many archetypes are able to compete on relatively equal footing. Although Naya Winota was popular this weekend to the point where it may seem overbearing, the meta is likely to adjust going forward and we may well see a different archetype at the top next week.
Just as last week, we’ll get started by presenting the meta and full top 8 from the 5k Championship Qualifier. Next, we take a look at the metagame tables and the top 4 finishers from each satellite event, along with decklists from each of the first place finishers.
