A Farewell to Standard

Posted on September 26, 2013

Rotation is upon us! It is time to say goodbye to the cards we've grown used to this past year—old friends and old nemeses alike. Theros brings the excitement of a new metagame and a changing of the guard in Standard. I started covering this Standard metagame with an article on the removal played at StarCityGames Open Cincinnati. This was the first major tournament after last year's rotation, and it’s our first look at the metagame. Things have certainly evolved and changed over the last year, as did my articles covering it. I think it is fitting to say farewell to today's Standard in the same way I covered it throughout: with graphs.

A defining characteristic of this metagame has been the mana. The reprinting of shock lands in the Return to Ravnica block enabled a lot decks to play large pieces of the color pie. I analyzed the Top 16 decks in major tournaments from SCG Open Cincinnati, the first tournament of the metagame in October of 2012, through SCG Open Atlanta last weekend to see how many colors they played.

Three-colored decks have been the norm, and two- and three-colored decks combined to make up over 90% of the Top 16 finishes.

Here is a look at the most-played of the metagame.

The power of Thragtusk drove green from the start. Pillar of Flame did the same for red. Jund (black, red, and green) and Junk (black, green, and white) were the most-successful color combinations of the season. As for blue, well, it had an off year for sure.

Here are the top ten decks of the Standard metagame based on the percentage of Top 16 finishes at major tournaments over the entire season.

It has been a very diverse metagame. Jund Midrange was the clear "best deck," but it accounted for only 15% of the metagame and was not dominant the entire season. The top ten decks made up 57% of the Top 16 finishes; the rest were a whole slew of other archetypes.

Each of the top ten decks had their high points throughout the Standard season. This next graph shows just how high.

BR Dragon Zombies, an unholy alliance between the Zombies of Innistrad, Falkenrath Aristocrat, and Thundermaw Hellkite, had a great run. The pinnacle was claiming half of the Top 16 at SCG Open Baltimore—the best single tournament for one archetype. BR Dragon Zombies also holds second place in this category with seven decks in the Grand Prix Nagoya Top 16.

Jund Midrange dominated the most tournaments of the season. It owned six of the Top 16 in three different tournaments: the SCG Opens in Richmond and Minneapolis as well as Grand Prix Quebec City. It also claimed five of the Top 16 in seven different tournaments throughout the season.

It was a long season with well over fifty major events. This next graph takes a look at the consistency of the top ten decks.

Jund Midrange has been the most consistent with at least one deck in the Top 16 in 86% of the major tournaments this season. It's joined near the top by other decks that started strong and remained relevant, such as Reanimator and UWR.

The following graphs identify the top creatures, removal, and other nonland cards of the season based on the percentage of Top 16 decks in which they appeared. These numbers are adjusted for the time each card has been Standard-legal.

Scavenging Ooze rocketed into Standard with the release of Magic 2014 and found an immediate home in Jund Midrange and in many other decks. It provided a powerful answer to Reanimator decks and a strong win condition. Thragtusk has been prevalent the entire season and appeared in between 25% and 50% of the Top 16 decks of any given tournament. It found a home in many different archetypes, including the top two of the season: Jund Midrange and Reanimator.

Pillar of Flame has been a premier answer against many threats throughout this Standard season. It started with heavy-duty Zombie exiling and finished as a way to help keep Voice of Resurgence in check. Doom Blade is a relative newcomer, returning to Standard with M14, but it has gone back to its old role of killing almost everything. Putrefy and Abrupt Decay have been versatile removal options for Jund and Junk decks, and Tragic Slip has been used to battle Falkenrath Aristocrat.

Farseek is the utility spell of the season and a common turn-two play. Burning Earth is a newcomer that punishes heavy nonbasic-land decks, and Sphinx's Revelation was the scourge of Standard in the first half of the season.

Planeswalkers receive the most attention when new expansions arrive, and plenty of them saw play this season. Here are the top ten.

Garruk wins the season with two versions in the top-four list. Liliana of the Veil has been a metagame force for the entire season and is on the short list for title of Second-Best Planeswalker of All Time.