Scores of Magic tournaments and weekly competitions take place every weekend, with a wide range of organizers hosting a variety of events ranging from open-entry tournaments to invitationals awarding thousands of dollars in prizes. The results and metagame snapshots from these events offer us a good picture of the competitive scene in various Magic formats. In this series, we compile the results and decklists from the most significant Standard and Historic tournaments from the weekend in one convenient place.
Insight Esports is a major tournament host on MTGmelee. They run events across a range of formats every week, including Standard and Historic tournaments with prize money. This weekend saw two separate Standard qualifiers with a $1,000 prize pool each, and an invitation to Insight’s Tier 1 Invitational $5,000 tournament on July 31 for the top 8 finishers.
Metagame
Archetype
Number of Decks
Percentage of Field
Winrate
Sultai Ramp (Yorion)
10
17.2414%
33.3333%
Naya Adventures (Jegantha)
10
17.2414%
38.4615%
Jeskai Cycling
6
10.3448%
44.4444%
Izzet Dragons
5
8.6207%
63.6364%
Mono-White Aggro ❄️
4
6.8966%
33.3333%
Temur Adventures (Obosh)
3
5.1724%
0%
Mono-Red Aggro ❄
3
5.1724%
25%
Jeskai Mutate
3
5.1724%
92.3077%
Top 8
Rank
Player
Deck
Record
1
toru H
Jeskai Mutate
6-0
2
Kevin Houde
Sultai Nest
5-1
3
Riley Hicks
Jeskai Mutate
4-1
4
hogpog_98
Jeskai Mutate
4-1
5
Hoshino Tomoyuki
Izzet Ramp
3-1
6
Phillip Mahr
Jeskai Cycling
3-1
7
samsoni1
Mardu Fury
3-1
8
Jonymagic
Izzet Dragons
3-1
There’s nothing surprising in the overall meta from this tournament, with Sultai Ultimatum and Adventures decks making up a large portion of the field along with other well-known decks such as Jeskai Cycling, Izzet Dragons, and Mono White. However, the top 8 is pretty interesting, with Jeskai Mutate continuing to put up impressive results in a competitive environment. In addition, Sultai Nest managed a second place finish overall, likely due in part to the deck’s strong matchup against Sultai Ultimatum decks.
The metagame for the second Insight IQ looked largely the same as the first, albeit even more dominated by Sultai Ultimatum and with a higher share of Mono Red decks. Ultimatum players finshed the tournament in first and second, and three Mono Red decks made the top 8. Like Sultai Nest, Mono Red decks have a notably favorable matchup against ultimatum.
BIG MAGIC is a major tournament organizer based in Japan. On Sunday, they hosted a Swiss style Standard tournament for players living in Japan as a part of their Sunday Challenge series.
Metagame
Archetype
Number of Decks
Percentage of Field
Winrate
Sultai Ramp (Yorion)
7
17.0732%
53.5714%
Mono-White Aggro ❄️
5
12.1951%
57.1429%
Jeskai Mutate
4
9.7561%
47.0588%
Jeskai Cycling
4
9.7561%
33.3333%
Temur Adventures (Obosh)
4
9.7561%
50%
Gruul Adventures
3
7.3171%
76.9231%
Naya Adventures (Jegantha)
3
7.3171%
60%
Sultai Titans’ Nest
2
4.878%
37.5%
Top 8
Rank
Player
Deck
Record
1
Kazuki Yashiro
Sultai Ultimatum
6-0
2
Kensuke Kato
Naya Adventures
5-1
3
Iori Kusunoki
Jeskai Mutate
5-1
4
blackchocobo
Gruul Adventures
5-1
5
Yuki Abe
Gruul Adventures
5-1
6
Ryoichi Tamada
Mono White Aggro
4-2
7
Shingo Takada
Temur Adventures
4-2
8
takuya akahira
Mono White Aggro
4-2
It’s common for the meta in Japanese tournaments to look a little bit different than those in the US, but for this event, things are largely the same. Gruul Adventures had a good showing relative to other tournaments this weekend, but otherwise the top 8 looks pretty familiar.
The Gaming Stadium (TGS) is a Canadian esports venue and event organizer that is celebrating it’s two-year anniversary with its first Historic MTG tournament. The event was free to enter, but featured a prize pool of $1,000 CAD.
Metagame
Archetype
Number of Decks
Percentage of Field
Winrate
Jeskai Control (Kaheera)
24
15.3846%
50%
Azorius Auras (Lurrus)
21
13.4615%
54.2553%
Izzet Phoenix
17
10.8974%
52%
Selesnya Company
10
6.4103%
44.898%
Five-color Niv-Mizzet
8
5.1282%
54.5455%
Jund Food
7
4.4872%
46.1538%
Mono-Black Aggro
6
3.8462%
48.1481%
Rakdos Arcanist (Lurrus)
5
3.2051%
50%
Top 8
Rank
Player
Deck
Record
1
FRANCISCO ALAN JONES BARROSO
Mono White Aggro
10-1
2
Sam Beaulieu
Azorius Auras
9-2
3
Noriyuki Mori
Jund Food
8-1
4
Ben Zahneissen
Jeskai Control
8-2
5
Nam Dang
Izzet Phoenix
7-3
6
Kenneth Bodenbach
Azorius Control
7-2
7
Paulo Henrique de Farias
Izzet Combo
7-2
8
Mauro Sasso
Izzet Phoenix
6-3
The metagame for the TGS Anniversary tournament features many of the usual archetypes- Jeskai Control, which is considered by some players to be the best deck in the format, made up the greatest share of the meta, with Azorius Auras and Izzet Phoenix not far behind. It’s interesting to see Azorious Auras take more of the meta share than Phoenix, which has been the most popular deck at many recent tournaments including the Strixhaven Championship. The most interesting story from this tournament, however, is probably the top finisher Francisco Alan Jones Barroso and his Historic Mono White Aggro deck. With only 13 of the 60 maindeck cards not currently legal in Standard, it seems that Barroso was able to “break” the meta of this tournament to an extent. The deck reads very much like its Standard counterpart, with a host of threats that are both aggressive and disruptive such as Elite Spellbinder, Archon of Emeria, and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. This hard-hitting list appears to have been a great meta call against the Historic format which is largely made up of control and midrange decks.
