Welcome to this weekend’s Tournament Report, covering events from October 22-24. Each weekend, we examine the results and decklists from the most significant tournaments in the Standard and Historic formats.
This weekend, both of the largest tournaments to take place were a part of the Red Bull Untapped 2021 series. The first event was a Historic format tournament based in Japan, followed by an even larger Standard tournament. The results from these competitions should give us a nice temperature check on both formats given their large player pools.
We’ll get started with the smaller Historic Japan Country Stop and then proceed to the massive Standard-based International Stop II which saw more than 1200 entrants. You can use the quick links below to navigate to the events:
Despite the number of blue cards that have recently been banned from Historic, Izzet Phoenix is still competing with Jund for the position of best deck in the format, and the two archetypes made up the majority of the field at this event. Both archetypes posted winrates above 50%.
Another of the most popular archetypes that stood out with a relatively high winrate was Simic Merfolk. The deck has been on the fringes of competitive Historic play since it received a nice injection of power from Jumpstart: Historic Horizons from cards like Shoreline Scout and Svyelun of Sea and Sky. Perhaps the recent changes to the format will allow one of Magic’s most iconic tribes to be a real competitor in the format.
Looking at the final results, Izzet Phoenix continues to put up a strong performance, with three players piloting the deck to Top 8 positions. There was one Jund Food deck among the eight as well, along with a number of less-represented archetypes.
One Merfolk deck made it to the number eight slot, along with a Rakdos Arcanist deck – another former top contender in the format – and a Selesnya Collected Company-based Humans deck. Perhaps the biggest surprise in the Top 8 was kiethverin, who took their Golgari Stompy list all the way to the second place position.
You can check out all eight of the top-finishing decklists below:
Meanwhile, the Standard format continues to be largely a battle between the fast aggro decks of the format (Mono Green and Mono White) and the Alrund’s Epiphany decks (Izzet, Grixis, and Dragons). A full rundown of the Standard meta is available through our Weekly Metagame Report:
Despite the fact that aggro significantly outnumbered the Epiphany decks at this event, it was Izzet that took the majority of the highest positions. Both Mono White and Mono Green continue to post solid results as well, with both archetypes finding representation in the Top 8.
Perhaps the most eye-catching detail from this Top 8 is the player luca boldrini, who managed to take their Mono Black Aggro deck to an impressive fifth place finish. We also get a bit more interesting flavor from Michael Carmody, who finished in seventh with their Jund Treasures deck.
You’ll find both of those decklists, along with the rest of the Top 8, in the table below:
