Jim Davis - Martin Juza's Week Zero Rakdos Domination

The new Standard format is coming and we have a tool we've never had to work with before. MTG Arena has been offering a Standard 2020 queue, which is essentially post-rotation Standard without Throne of Eldraine cards, and it is giving us a glimpse into the future of Standard. Not only that, but there were two big online tournaments last week using the format!

One player dominated both of those tournaments, losing the finals of Tuesday's Twitch Rivals event to Jeff Hoogland and then winning Thursday's Fandom Legends event beating me in the finals. That player was Martin Juza and his deck was Rakdos Aggro:

Time Stamps:

Match 01 - 00:05:06

Match 02 - 00:12:35

Match 03 - 00:17:05

Match 04 - 00:21:44

Match 05 - 00:28:15

Match 06 - 00:32:23

Match 07 - 00:37:13

Match 08 - 00:43:25

Match 09 - 00:48:52

Match 10 - 00:56:51

Match 11 - 01:04:14

Match 12 - 01:07:43

Match 13 - 01:10:31

Rakdos Aggro | Standard 2020 | Martin Juza, 1st Place Fandom Legends

• Creatures (23)
• 3 Spawn of Mayhem
• 4 Dreadhorde Butcher
• 4 Fireblade Artist
• 4 Gutterbones
• 4 Knight of the Ebon Legion
• 4 Rotting Regisaur

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Chandra, Acolyte of Flame

• Instants (4)
• 2 Bedevil
• 2 Shock

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Lava Coil

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Experimental Frenzy

• Lands (24)
• 11 Swamp
• 9 Mountain
• 4 Blood Crypt

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Bedevil
• 2 Chandra, Acolyte of Flame
• 4 Duress
• 4 Legion's End
• 4 Noxious Grasp

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Considering the strength of each field (almost half the MPL was in Twitch Rivals and 25% of the Fandom Legends field were World Champions), this is a very convincing result.

As we saw in the games, the power is there but the mana is rough. It's a tough world out there for allied two color decks without Dragonskull Summit and friends, which makes me wary of the double colored cards in the deck. Bedevil, Chandra, Acolyte of Flame, and Spawn of Mayhem all need to be examined closely, and the deck should probably skew to one side colorwise. Spawn of Mayhem was very good and all of the 1-drops are Black, making Black the obvious choice to skew toward more.

While we didn't have as much luck, Rotting Regisaur was a house across both Twitch Rivals and Fandom Legends. Decks with Red based removal have an extremely difficult time killing it and when it tops off a good early curve it's often lights out.

As for possible Throne of Eldraine upgrades, Bonecrusher Giant is the first card that jumps out as it is one of the best cards in the set and a great aggressive tool. Stormfist Crusader is also an interesting Dark Confidant variant that helps to enable spectacle as well.

It's entirely possible that aggressive decks skew towards knight tribal synergies, but this is a great look into the future for what Throne of Eldraine Standard has in store for us. It's also a serious reminder that when it comes to the first week of a format, aggro is king!