Table of Contents
This weekend saw the first Magic tournaments featuring the newest set, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms. Not only were there the usual Standard and Historic events, but many organizers chose to hold events for the new format Standard 2022, which only includes cards that will be legal after rotation in the fall. We’ve gone through the results of the competitive events from over the weekend and compiled the most significant ones here with decklists for your convenience.
TL;DR: Standard 2022 is the hotness right now, and Izzet Dragons and Mono Green Stompy seem to be two of the most potent decks in the format. The Book/Haven combo has not showed up substantially in Standard 2022 tournaments, where best-of-three gameplay allows for sideboarding against the fragile strategy. Regular Standard, featuring cards as far back as Eldraine, has not been heavily impacted, but most players and event organizers are focused on Standard 2022 for the time being. Historic is largely unchanged as well, although Demilich is seeing some play in Izzet Phoenix decks.
Quick Links:
- [Standard 2022] Insight Esports Standard 2022 Open (Saturday 7/10/21)
- [Standard 2022] Hooglandia Standard 2022 Open (Sunday 7/11/21)
- [Standard] D&D Forgotten Realms Tournament hosted by Black Pearl Club (Sunday 7/11/21)
- [Historic] Insight Esports Presents: Friday Historic! (Friday, 7/9/21)
Standard 2022
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 was host to several Insight tournaments surrounding the hype of the AFR launch, with most of them featuring the Standard 2022 format. The Tier 1 Open featured a substantial $5,000 prize pool.
Metagame
| Archetype | Number of Decks | Percentage of Field | Winrate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Izzet Dragons | 26 | 40% | 46.8% |
| Mono-Green Aggro | 12 | 18.5% | 72.2% |
| Dimir Control | 5 | 7.7% | 41.2% |
| Rakdos Midrange | 3 | 4.6% | 57.1% |
| Mono-White Aggro | 3 | 4.6% | 45.5% |
| Orzhov Midrange | 2 | 3.1% | 37.5% |
| Grixis Midrange | 2 | 3.1% | 33.3% |
Top 8
| Rank | Player | Deck | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sam Beaulieu | Mono Green Aggro | 5-0 |
| 2 | Omri Khaykovich | Mono Green Aggro | 4-1 |
| 3 | Tomas Pokorny | Izzet Dragons | 3-1 |
| 4 | Tian Fa Mun | Dimir Control | 3-1 |
| 5 | Brunz Costa | Mono Green Aggro | 2-1 |
| 6 | Norbie Mendoza | Rakdos Midrange | 2-1 |
| 7 | Luca Moretti | Izzet Dragons | 2-1 |
| 8 | Dominick Paolercio | Izzet Dragons | 2-1 |
As mentioned in the TL;DR above, Mono Green and Izzet are poised to be quite powerful in this new format. Nearly 60% of the field from this event was made up by those two archetypes, and both are strongly represented in the top 8. Dimir Control, Rakdos, and Mono White are all striving for position as well.
Decklists
The Hooglandia Open series events are hosted by Jeff Hoogland, a well-known Twitch streamer. The events usually have a low entry fee and few other restrictions, and often include incentives for players to play interesting or unique decks. It’s no surprise that they chose the Standard 2022 format for this event rather than the somewhat stale current Standard. The prize pool was made up of CoolStuffInc store credit amounts up to $150.
Metagame
| Archetype | Number of Decks | Percentage of Field | Winrate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mono-Green Aggro | 10 | 19.6% | 69.4% |
| Izzet Dragons | 8 | 15.7% | 59.3% |
| Mono-White Aggro | 3 | 5.9% | 53.8% |
| Orzhov Angels | 3 | 5.9% | 53.8% |
| Azorius Control | 2 | 3.9% | 42.9% |
| Dimir Control | 2 | 3.9% | 33.3% |
| Golgari Aggro | 2 | 3.9% | 33.3% |
| Golgari Tokens | 2 | 3.9% | 0% |
| Orzhov Aggro | 2 | 3.9% | 20% |
| Rakdos Control | 2 | 3.9% | 42.9% |
Top 8
| Rank | Player | Deck | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | JayGravy | Mono Green Aggro | 9-0 |
| 2 | prototypeinsession | Mono Green Aggro | 7-2 |
| 3 | Phillip M | Orzhov Angels | 6-2 |
| 4 | Ashkan Paykar | Izzet Dragons | 5-2 |
| 5 | William Davies | Mardu Midrange | 5-2 |
| 6 | Chris VanMeter | Mono Green Aggro | 5-2 |
| 7 | Tom Maxwell | Mono Green Aggro | 4-2 |
| 8 | Ross Martikke | Izzet Dragons | 4-2 |
There really isn’t too much to say about these results that I didn’t already say about the Tier 1 Open. Izzet and Mono-G seem to be rulers of the format for now, but Mono White and Orzhov Angels both managed positive winrates. Both decks earned representation in the top 8 as well. Interestingly, an aggressive Mardu build featuring the hardly-played planeswalker Nahiri, Heir of the Ancients did quite too, managing a 5th place finish overall.
Decklists
Standard (Current)
Black Pearl Club is an MTG event host based in Spain. This Sunday, they hosted a tournament in the current Standard format, but with a twist- each deck entered was required to play at least 12 cards from AFR not counting non-basic lands. This forced a bit more diversity in deckbuilding, although Izzet and Mono Green were still at the top of the format just like Standard 2022. The prize pool for this torunament was relatively small, but the event was selected for this list because of high enrollment and the AFR deckbuilding constraint.
Metagame
| Archetype | Number of Decks | Percentage of Field | Winrate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Izzet Dragons | 9 | 13% | 56.67% |
| Mono-Red Aggro ❄ | 8 | 11.6% | 40% |
| Mono-Green Aggro ❄ | 8 | 11.6% | 48.3% |
| Dimir Control | 6 | 8.7% | 41.2% |
| Mono-White Aggro ❄️ | 4 | 5.8% | 50% |
| Mono-Green Aggro | 4 | 5.8% | 58.8% |
| Naya Adventures (Jegantha) | 3 | 4.3% | 83.3% |
| Rakdos Sacrifice | 3 | 4.3% | 62.5% |
| Temur Adventures (Obosh) | 2 | 2.9% | 66.67% |
| Dimir Rogues (Lurrus) | 2 | 2.9% | 25% |
| Orzhov Tempo | 2 | 2.9% | 0% |
Top 8
| Rank | Player | Deck | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jair Farjat | Naya Adventures | 7-1 |
| 2 | Jose Ignacio Quesada | Izzet Dragons | 6-2 |
| 3 | Noé Alessandro Rivera Carvallo | Naya Adventures | 6-1 |
| 4 | Angel Rafael Hidalgo Pimentel | Mono Green Aggro | 5-2 |
| 5 | Taras Kohut | Mono Green Aggro | 5-1 |
| 6 | fernando herrera | Mono White Aggro | 4-2 |
| 7 | Juan Carlos Torres | Mono Red Aggro | 4-2 |
| 8 | Miguel Cuellar | Rakdos Sacrifice | 4-2 |
It’s pretty funny that although this tournament does include all of the cards from current Standard, the 12-AFR-card requirement caused this meta to look quite a bit like the Standard 2022 meta- albeit a bit more diverse. It’s going to be interesting to see if there are other archetypes that gain a foothold against the early front-runners of the new format. The set is brand new still, so the format is still young and there is surely room for brewerst to find new tournament-level decks.
Decklists
Historic
With so much focus on the Standard 2022 format and the release of AFR, there wasn’t much buzz around Historic this weekend. In the interest of keeping up with the format, here are the details of a smaller weekly event from Insight which includes a few Demilich Izzet decks in the top 8.
Metagame
| Archetype | # of Decks | % of Field | MW%* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Izzet Phoenix | 4 | 22.2% | 53.8% |
| Jund Food | 2 | 11.1% | 87.5% |
| Five-color Niv-Mizzet | 2 | 11.1% | 57.1% |
| Dimir Control | 2 | 11.1% | 42.9% |
Top 8
| Rank | Player | Deck | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gabriel Nicholas | Jund Food | 4-0 |
| 2 | sandydogmtg | Izzet Phoenix | 3-1 |
| 3 | Alberto Sánchez Díaz | Bant Midrange | 3-1 |
| 4 | Simón Arboleda Escobar | Five-Color Niv-Mizzet | 3-1 |
| 5 | Luca Moretti | Jund Food | 3-1 |
| 6 | Robert Amuzzini | Colorless Ramp | 3-1 |
| 7 | toru H @outback | Izzet Phoenix | 2-2 |
| 8 | Karl Sarap | Izzet Phoenix | 2-2 |
