The Standard Metagame

Here is a breakdown of the deck archetypes that have finished in the Top 16 of a major tournament over the last thirty days.

It is still a two-deck race in Standard with Jund Midrange and Reanimator way out ahead of the pack. From there, it is a pretty diverse metagame, with eighteen other decks capturing at least one Top 16 spot over the last month.

Tournament Review

Here are the Top 16 decks from StarCityGames Open: Charlotte. The graphs display the colors and most-played archetypes of the Top 16.

Jund and Reanimator each have their requisite slices of the Top 16. There are two copies of a Bant Control deck playing four Advent of the Wurm and four Snapcaster Mage for all sorts of suddenly-trampling Wurms. The decks also play four Azorius Charm and three Unsummon, which help to keep combat interesting.

Card Catalog

The charts and graphs below provide some information about what creatures and removal saw the most play in the Top 16 decks of SCG Open: Charlotte so that you can build and plan accordingly.

Voice of Resurgence saw an uptick in Top 16 play this week and was included in five decks, though it shifted almost entirely to the sideboard. Sire of Insanity was played in two fewer decks this week but still made the cut in all four Jund Midrange lists.

Other creature-related news:

• Advent of the Wurm saw plenty of action and is a big threat. Eight copies were played in the Top 16, four in the main deck of each Bant Control list. It is likely to find a home in any Bant Control or Tempo deck at a minimum, and it is certainly in contention for other lists as the metagame moves forward.
• Eight copies of Sin Collector were played in three decks total: Reanimator (twelfth and fourteenth place) and The Aristocrats (thirteenth place). Five copies were main-decked, and three were in the sideboard.
• Unflinching Courage saw another ten copies played this week in three decks: Bant Auras (fourth and eleventh place) and Naya Blitz (eighth place).

Pillar of Flame remains firmly entrenched in Standard, finding a home in half the Top 16 decks to combat the return of Zombies and arrival of Voice of Resurgence. Putrefy and Abrupt Decay are likely to be a heavily played one-two punch so long as Jund Midrange and Reanimator dominate the metagame.

Also worth noting: Renounce the Guilds had four copies played, two in the sideboard of each Bant Control deck. They are great against Falkenrath Aristocrat, particularly without access to Tragic Slip, and there is no shortage of multicolored threats in this metagame.

Card	Archetype	Average	Avg Main	Avg Side
Tragic Slip	BR Dragon Zombies	2.0	2.0	0.0
	Jund Midrange	3.5	2.0	1.5
	The Aristocrats	4.0	4.0	0.0
Pillar of Flame	BR Dragon Zombies	3.0	3.0	0.0
	GR Aggro	3.0	3.0	0.0
	Jund Midrange	2.0	0.0	2.0
	Naya Blitz	2.5	0.0	2.5
Bonfire of the Damned	BR Dragon Zombies	3.0	0.0	3.0
	Jund Midrange	3.0	3.0	0.0
Liliana of the Veil	Jund Midrange	3.0	1.3	1.8
	Reanimator	1.0	0.0	1.0
Searing Spear	BR Dragon Zombies	3.0	3.0	0.0
	GR Aggro	4.0	4.0	0.0
	Naya Blitz	4.0	4.0	0.0
Abrupt Decay	Jund Midrange	1.0	1.0	0.0
	Reanimator	2.0	0.0	2.0
Putrefy	Jund Midrange	2.0	1.8	0.3
	Reanimator	1.0	0.0	1.0
Azorius Charm	Bant Control	4.0	4.0	0.0

Leading Indicators

In this section, I shine the light on cards that were included in a Top 16 deck last weekend but have seen little to no play in Standard top 16 decks prior to then.

Card	Total Copies	Total MD	Total SB	# Decks	Decks
Act of Treason	1		1	1	The Aristocrats (13th)
Bloodgift Demon	2		2	1	Jund Midrange (6th)
Gaze of Granite	1		1	1	Jund Midrange (6th)
Profit // Loss	1		1	1	The Aristocrats (13th)
Progenitor Mimic	1		1	1	Bant Control (15th)
Pyrewild Shaman	1	1		1	GR Aggro (1st)
Spare from Evil	2	1	1	1	Naya Blitz (8th)
Thrill-Kill Assassin	3	3		1	BR Dragon Zombies (3rd)
Wear // Tear	1		1	1	The Aristocrats (13th)

Players dipped their toes in the water with some new cards this week, mostly with one to two cards in the sideboard. The biggest arrival in the Top 16 is Thrill-Kill Assassin. The Human Assassin has seen action in Magic Online as an aggressive 2-drop in Zombies lists.

By the Numbers – The Source of Standard

The following graphic is based on creatures played in the Top 16 decks of major tournaments since the format rotated in October 2012. It shows the percentage of total cards played by expansion set.

The biggest piece of the metagame pie belongs to the large Fall sets that kickoff a new block—Innistrad and Return to Ravnica make up nearly 40% of competitive cards. The Magic 2013 core set is close behind with 18%. It will be interesting to see if Dragon’s Maze captures a bigger share over time and what impact Magic 2014 has as the metagame moves toward rotation.

The Close

That’s it for this week’s article on SCG Open: Charlotte. Join me next week as I track the metagame and impact of Dragon’s Maze at SCG Open: Nashville. Thanks for reading!

Nick Vigabool

@MrVigabool