With the first US Regional Championship and the Japan/Korea Regional Championship both being only a couple days away, and with the standard RCQ season underway now, there's a lot to look at this week. First we will look at the results of the major modern tournaments, then a couple of cool new decks in Standard.
In regards to the Modern Regional Championships, three took place the weekend of the 25th in Brazil, Europe, and Canada. Additionally, this past weekend, the NRG had a major modern tournament as well.
First, for Brazil’s RC, City Class Games Showdown VIII, Eldrazi won it all. However, the top 8 was incredibly diverse, with a second-place finish from Orzhov Blink, and even Dimir Oculus making it to the top 8. The clear best decks of the metagame, Boros Energy and Temur/4-Color Breach also succeeded and got at least 1 copy into top 8. One Domain Zoo player even placed highly in the tournament, barely missing top 8 on breakers but still landing in 9th.
Second, the European RC in Prague had a similar result but the metagames top contenders took a much greater share of the top 8. Won by Temur Breach by Alex Rohan, an incredibly strong MTGO grinder, 3 Boros Energy Players and 3 Breach Players only left room for 1 Eldrazi player and 1 Broodscale player to sneak in. The Broodscale list that top 8’d Prague was one of few to find real success.
Third, the Canadian RC, was won by Boros Energy with a top 8 consisting of 3 Boros Energy players, 2 Breach Players, 1 Titan Player, 1 Belcher Player, and 1 Orzhov player. 3 Boros energy lists is unsurprising as the deck is a pile of broken MH3 Cards. The 2 Breach players were unique in that they were playing 4-color breach as opposed to the usual Temur Breach, to allow for powerful white options such as Teferi, Time Raveler and Portable Hole. Dominic Harvey unsurprisingly got another top finish with 61-card Amulet Titan. Orzhov Blink finished second, another great finish for a previously very underrated deck, and 1 lone “Mono-Blue” Belcher player made top 8 aswell. (Mono-Blue in quotations because as Tameshi build the deck will produce white mana to loop Lotus Bloom from the graveyard).
Finally, the NRG Seried had a Team Tournament and a Modern Tournament this past weekend in the Midwest of the United States. The winner of the Modern Portion won with Orzhov Blink and 2nd place was Temur Breach, with a very cool inclusion of a single copy of Wrenn and Six.
Major Takeaways
Dimir Oculus is Not Good
Dimir Oculus simply enough in the current metagame. Being reactive, even with a gameplan as unfair as Unearth-ing Abhorrent Oculus, is simply not good enough right now. The presence of Eldrazi Ramp and hyper efficient decks like Boros make Counterspell disappointing. While a few pilots were able to find success from the archetype it greatly underperformed. Recently, Yuta Takahashi, did win a modern challenge with a build of Oculus splashing white for Pest Control, which may prove to be a strong enough innovation to allow the deck to find success in the upcoming RCs. I think this is unlikely though, I would attribute Yuta’s win to his generally incredible play skill rather than Dimir/Esper Oculus being a strong deck in the current Modern meta.
Orzhov Blink is a Real Deck
Only a couple of weeks ago Orzhov Blink seemed like a meme deck. The deck has an atrocious Eldrazi match-up but other than that is incredibly well positioned. It’s a pile of cards that on their own are slightly under modern powerlevel but when combined really shine. Phelia flickering an impended Overlord of the Balemurk generates a massive amount of card advantage. The deck also utilizes Witch Enchanter incredibly well as 4 main deck inefficient answers to Urza’s Saga, Leyline Binding, Moxen or whatever problematic permanents your opponent has. When the deck starts flickering Witch Enchanter, the fact it costs 4-mana seems to not matter as everything your opponent owns starts being sent to the graveyard.
Zoo Surprsing Everyone
Domain Zoo did surprisingly well in the Regional Championships. While not taking any trophies home the deck converted well with multiple top 32 finishes. The deck has a strong Boros matchup because Leyline of the Guildpact + Scion of Draco is incredibly strong and difficult to deal with for Boros. Beyond Zoo’s strong main game plan, being a 5-color midrange deck allows Zoo to play all of the most effectively or versatile sideboard cards. Consign to Memory, Pyroclasm, and Wear // Tear are each efficient and powerful sideboard cards for current tops decks like Eldrazi, Boros Energy, and Breach.
Amulet Titan’s Top Finish
While some may consider Dom Harvey’s top finish to be heralding Amulet Titan’s upcoming success in the Japan/Korea and US RC’s, I think this is simply an example of a deck specialist succeeding when the meta is unfavorable. Dom Harvey wrote a free 80 page, 32,000 word guide to Amulet Titan, he knows everything there is to know about Amulet Titan in modern and as a result he consistently finds success with it.
Standard Innovation
With Aetherdrift releasing soon the meta is certainly going to be receiving a shake up in the next couple weeks. However, before that occurs, people have still been brewing and innovating in the format.
Domain w/ No Sunfall
With the presence of so many aggro decks seeing success and the UB Bounce decks being so resilient interestingly enough this Domain list that won the Challenge on Sunday opted for 0 Sunfall in the maindeck, only 1 in the sideboard and instead a removal suite of Temporary Lockdowns, Day of Judgement, and Seized from Slumber.
Jund Delirium
On Saturday, Jund Delirium won the modern Challenge. Which sounds crazy but when looking at the list makes a lot of sense. The deck splashes black for Go for the Throat, easily the best removal in standard and an instant for delirium, aswell as a black delirium payoff and enabler in Osseous Sticktwister an artifact creature with a delirium trigger that taxes your opponents resources. In the sideboard black also provides some of the best sideboard cards at the moment, 3x Duress and 2x Preacher of the Schism are great at fighting Domain and the Aggro or midrange decks.
I am excited to see how Aetherdrift effects Modern and even more so standard so check out my article in two weeks!
