I am not sure what it is about Japan, but they just build decks different over there.

A deck from a "small Japanese tournament" has been a meme in the content world for a long time, but a very large tournament happened in Japan last weekend called the Japan Open 2024. With a whopping 462 players, this event was the first major post-rotation Standard event to use Bloomburrow, and what an event it was!

It's always cool when a cool brew does well in a big tournament, but looking at the Top 16 of this tournament there are almost a dozen awesome decks that could be classified as "sweet brews" which is incredible! Standard has been arguably the best format in Magic for the last year, but it looks like with rotation and Bloomburrow it is only getting better.

Today we are going to take a peek at the Top 8 decks from this event and see all the awesome new things going on. And remember, these are not just decks from some random Magic Online league or something. This was a huge tournament that had many of Japan's biggest Pros like Shota Yasooka, Rai Satio, and more!

So, let's dive in!

Boros Token Control | BLB Standard | Yushi Uzuki, 1st place Japan Open 2024

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Archangel Elspeth

• Instants (11)
• 3 Get Lost
• 4 Lightning Helix
• 4 Torch the Tower

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Sunfall

• Enchantments (9)
• 2 Temporary Lockdown
• 3 Virtue of Loyalty
• 4 Caretaker's Talent

• Artifacts (8)
• 4 Carrot Cake
• 4 Urabrask's Forge

• Lands (26)
• 1 Mountain
• 4 Plains
• 1 Mirrex
• 1 Restless Bivouac
• 2 Demolition Field
• 2 Elegant Parlor
• 3 Battlefield Forge
• 4 Fountainport
• 4 Inspiring Vantage
• 4 Sunken Citadel

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Temporary Lockdown
• 2 Destroy Evil
• 2 Serra Paragon
• 2 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 2 Abrade
• 2 Loran of the Third Path
• 1 Brotherhood's End
• 1 Bonehoard Dracosaur
• 2 Rest in Peace

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

Yushi Uzuki took the whole thing down with a Boros Token Control deck that is nothing short of high art.

Caretaker's Talent was the breakout card of the tournament (which we will be seeing more of later), and Yushi's deck used it to absolute full effect. While the card looks like a sort of Tocasia's Welcome card draw engine for creature token decks, the important factor about the card is that it draws off any token, not just creature tokens.

Want to tack a card draw onto your Sunfall? Sounds pretty good to me! Aside from just working great with already good cards like Mirrex, Fountainport, and Virtue of Loyalty, Caretaker's Talent also turns cards like Urabrask's Forge and Carrot Cake into actual engines.

It is unusual to see a non-Blue control deck do so well, but this deck draws a ton of cards, has great board control elements as well as powerful threats - it's the real deal.

Azorius Mentor | BLB Standard | Soohan Yoon, 2nd Place Japan Open 2024

• Creatures (12)
• 4 Haughty Djinn
• 4 Monastery Mentor
• 4 Picklock Prankster

• Instants (17)
• 1 Shore Up
• 1 Surge of Salvation
• 2 Three Steps Ahead
• 3 Into the Flood Maw
• 3 Phantom Interference
• 3 Soul Partition
• 4 Moment of Truth

• Sorceries (11)
• 1 Recommission
• 2 Chart a Course
• 4 Helping Hand
• 4 Sleight of Hand

• Lands (20)
• 6 Island
• 2 Plains
• 4 Adarkar Wastes
• 4 Meticulous Archive
• 4 Seachrome Coast

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Temporary Lockdown
• 2 Doorkeeper Thrull
• 2 Negate
• 1 Soul Partition
• 1 Surge of Salvation
• 1 Sunfall
• 1 Sword of Once and Future
• 2 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 2 Anointed Peacekeeper

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

In second place we find Soohan Yoon, playing a deck that was actually a mild player pre-rotation, Azorius Mentor.

Monastery Mentor is a very powerful card, but often only sees play in the most powerful of formats where it can leverage cards like Moxen and free counterspells like Force of Will. When played straight up as a 2/2 for three mana it's often just too slow to get going. Well, what about casting it for one mana? Helping Hand is here to save the day, and with all the graveyard dumping going on with Picklock Prankster and Moment of Truth you can set up Helping Hand while finding the cards you want.

There are almost no Bloomburrow cards in Soohan's deck, but it just goes to show that a lot of times a Standard Rotation isn't always about the new cards, but more so about what cards left the format and what cards get to step into the spotlight to take their place.

Abzan Ramp | BLB Standard | Gen Shinoshara, 3rd place Japan Open 2024

• Creatures (12)
• 1 Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal // Temple of the Dead
• 2 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 2 Hostile Investigator
• 3 Atraxa, Grand Unifier
• 4 Spinewoods Armadillo

• Instants (10)
• 2 Urgent Necropsy
• 4 Go for the Throat
• 4 Pawpatch Formation

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Deadly Cover-Up

• Enchantments (4)
• 2 Temporary Lockdown
• 2 Virtue of Persistence

• Artifacts (5)
• 1 Tarrian's Journal // The Tomb of Aclazotz
• 4 Heaped Harvest

• Lands (25)
• 3 Forest
• 1 Island
• 3 Plains
• 3 Swamp
• 1 Concealed Courtyard
• 1 Razorverge Thicket
• 1 Shadowy Backstreet
• 1 Underground Mortuary
• 2 Cavern of Souls
• 2 Demolition Field
• 2 Restless Fortress
• 2 Restless Cottage
• 3 Lush Portico

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Obstinate Baloth
• 2 Temporary Lockdown
• 2 Tear Asunder
• 3 Binding Negotiation
• 2 Outrageous Robbery
• 2 Kaya, Intangible Slayer

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

In third place we have got Gen Shinohara with another banger, this time an Abzan ramp deck.

In a lot of ways, this could be seen as a collect evidence deck, with both Deadly Cover-Up and Urgent Necropsy front and center as the primary interactive elements. Furthermore, cards like the surveil lands and Spinewoods Armadillo both do a great job at putting fuel in the graveyard to help power these cards up. Urgent Necropsy is particularly good against decks like the winning Boros Token Control deck and is one to watch going forward.

Otherwise, we see a lot of the usual sort of ramp/control suspects, leading into the ultimate endgame of Atraxa, Grand Unifier. New Bloomburrow cards in the mix are the excellent Heaped Harvest, which is one of the best ramp spells printed in a long time, as well as the ultimate stabilizing creature Beza, the Bounding Spring.

It will be interesting to see how this deck stacks up against Domain as the ramp/control deck of choice, but more on that in a bit.

Mono Red Aggro | BLB Standard | Kensuke Kato, 4th Place Japan Open 2024

• Creatures (19)
• 2 Charming Scoundrel
• 2 Emberheart Challenger
• 3 Sunspine Lynx
• 4 Hired Claw
• 4 Monastery Swiftspear
• 4 Slickshot Show-Off

• Instants (11)
• 3 Monstrous Rage
• 4 Lightning Strike
• 4 Shock

• Sorceries (3)
• 3 Obliterating Bolt

• Artifacts (3)
• 3 Urabrask's Forge

• Lands (24)
• 18 Mountain
• 1 Fountainport
• 1 Rockface Village
• 4 Mishra's Foundry

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Brotherhood's End
• 2 Jaya, Fiery Negotiator
• 1 Obliterating Bolt
• 1 Urabrask's Forge
• 2 Abrade
• 3 Koth, Fire of Resistance
• 1 Witchstalker Frenzy
• 1 Sunspine Lynx
• 1 Fountainport

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

In fourth place we have Kensuke Kato with a pretty normal looking Mono-Red Aggro deck.

There are few new cards in here like Hired Claw and Emberheart Challenger, as well as the potentially format-warping Sunspine Lynx, but nothing major to report here.

Azorius Token Control | BLB Standard | Yoshihiko Tokuyama, 5th Place Japan Open 2024

• Creatures (3)
• 1 Tishana's Tidebinder
• 2 Beza, the Bounding Spring

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Archangel Elspeth

• Instants (18)
• 3 Get Lost
• 3 Three Steps Ahead
• 4 Deduce
• 4 Elspeth's Smite
• 4 No More Lies

• Sorceries (6)
• 2 Season of the Burrow
• 4 Sunfall

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Caretaker's Talent

• Lands (27)
• 4 Island
• 5 Plains
• 2 Demolition Field
• 2 Fountainport
• 2 Meticulous Archive
• 2 Sunken Citadel
• 3 Adarkar Wastes
• 3 Seachrome Coast
• 4 Restless Anchorage

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Tishana's Tidebinder
• 2 Loran of the Third Path
• 2 Negate
• 3 Temporary Lockdown
• 1 Chrome Host Seedshark
• 2 Annex Sentry
• 1 The Eternal Wanderer
• 1 Kutzil's Flanker

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

Caretaker's Talent shows up once again!

Remember what we said earlier about Caretaker's Talent not caring about what type of token you're making to draw a card? How about a clue token from Deduce? Or a map token from Restless Anchorage? Alongside Sunfall these are all premium cards that an Azorius Control deck would want to play anyway, porting Caretaker's Talent over as a card draw engine to replace the rotated Memory Deluge.

There are a few concessions to the token theme that might not normally see play in an Azorius Control deck, but they're perfectly serviceable even without Caretaker's Talent. Archangel Elspeth is a fine threat that can also produce a parade of chump blockers, while Season of the Burrow is surprisingly effective at doing a lot of different things.

Is this the new face of Azorius Control in Standard?

Rakdos Lizards | BLB Standard | Shota Yasooka, 6th Place Japan Open 2024

• Creatures (32)
• 4 Deep-Cavern Bat
• 4 Fireglass Mentor
• 4 Flamecache Gecko
• 4 Gev, Scaled Scorch
• 4 Hired Claw
• 4 Iridescent Vinelasher
• 4 Laughing Jasper Flint
• 4 Thought-Stalker Warlock

• Instants (6)
• 2 Cut Down
• 4 Go for the Throat

• Lands (22)
• 4 Mountain
• 4 Swamp
• 1 Mudflat Village
• 1 Restless Vents
• 4 Blackcleave Cliffs
• 4 Cavern of Souls
• 4 Sulfurous Springs

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Cut Down
• 4 Duress
• 2 Sheoldred's Edict
• 4 Glistening Deluge
• 4 Urabrask's Forge

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

Hall of Famer Shoota Yasooka, more know for playing slow control decks, brought the most aggressive class from Bloomburrow in Lizards to battle to 6th place.

For the most part, this is almost a Bloomburrow Block Constructed deck. Lizards are all about dealing damage to your opponent, and then getting a bonus for having done so. Gev, Scaled Scorch leads the charge by doing it all himself, allowing every Lizard you play to get its effect immediately without needing the combat step and also giving out buffs. Hired Claw and other aggressive creatures set up payoffs like Fireglass Mentor.

There are a few cards from other Standard sets here, like the perfect Outlaws of Thunder Junction plant in Laughing Jasper Flint, as every Lizard is also an outlaw for some powerful cross over. Deep-Cavern Bat is just too good at disrupting your opponent not to play, and the Black removal is some of the best in the format.

While it is a little more fragile than Mono-Red Aggro, the ceiling on Lizards is very high.

Jeskai Convoke | BLB Standard | Otai_, 7th Place Japan Open 2024

• Creatures (27)
• 3 Sanguine Evangelist
• 4 Imodane's Recruiter
• 4 Knight-Errant of Eos
• 4 Novice Inspector
• 4 Resolute Reinforcements
• 4 Spyglass Siren
• 4 Warden of the Inner Sky

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Gleeful Demolition

• Enchantments (7)
• 3 Warleader's Call
• 4 Case of the Gateway Express

• Lands (22)
• 1 Plains
• 1 Shivan Reef
• 4 Adarkar Wastes
• 4 Battlefield Forge
• 4 Inspiring Vantage
• 4 Seachrome Coast
• 4 Spirebluff Canal

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Protect the Negotiators
• 3 Elspeth's Smite
• 2 Obliterating Bolt
• 2 Invasion of Gobakhan
• 2 Requisition Raid
• 2 Witchstalker Frenzy

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

In 7th place we see Otai_ with a fairly normal looking build of Boros Convoke, with the only wrinkle being a light Blue splash.

Spyglass Siren stands in for Voldaren Epicure which has rotated, and Blue also gives the deck access to counterspells out of the board like Protect the Negotiators, which has excellent synergy with the deck.

Nothing too groundbreaking, but Convoke is definitely a deck that must be respected.

Domain Ramp | BLB Standard | seton9999, 8th Place Japan Open 2024

• Creatures (7)
• 3 Atraxa, Grand Unifier
• 4 Archangel of Wrath

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Jace, the Perfected Mind

• Instants (2)
• 2 Get Lost

• Sorceries (12)
• 4 Heaped Harvest
• 4 Herd Migration
• 4 Sunfall

• Enchantments (11)
• 3 Temporary Lockdown
• 4 Leyline Binding
• 4 Up the Beanstalk

• Lands (26)
• 3 Forest
• 1 Island
• 1 Mountain
• 3 Plains
• 1 Swamp
• 3 Cavern of Souls
• 3 Hedge Maze
• 3 Meticulous Archive
• 4 Fabled Passage
• 4 Lush Portico

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Elspeth's Smite
• 1 Get Lost
• 3 Negate
• 1 Nissa, Ascended Animist
• 1 Temporary Lockdown
• 3 Tranquil Frillback
• 3 Tishana's Tidebinder

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

Rounding out the Top 8 in 8th place is seton9999 with Domain Ramp.

Wait... I thought the triomes all rotated which was supposed to be the death knell for Domain Ramp?

Reports of the demise of Domain Ramp have been greatly exaggerated! It turns out that Atraxa, Grand Unifer, Leyline Binding, and Herd Migration are all still awesome Magic cards, even if you have to do, you know, actual work to enable them.

Heaped Harvest is once again a standout here, providing ramp and lifegain while also helping to set up domain. The surveil lands aren't quiet Spara's Headquarters and friends, but they help, and Fabled Passage also picks up some of the slack here too.

Domain is still a powerful deck, but it feels much fairer watching them put together four or five different basic lands rather than just getting it all off of a Spara's Headquarters and Xander's Lounge.

And So Much More!

And this was just the Top 8!

There were a bunch more awesome decks in the Top 16 and beyond, but we just simply don't have time to cover them all today. Definitely take a look at the tournament results on MTG Melee and see what cool stuff you can find though!

Standard is amazing right now and it's awesome to see the format constantly evolving to get better and better!