Formato: Standard - Tipo 2 Data: 28 Agosto 2010 Numero di giocatori: 240 Fonte: StarCityGames

Standard Open Metagame Breakdown

There are 240 players here at the StarCityGames.com Open in Minneapolis. StarCityGames.com Events Manager Jared Sylva found some downtime in between the early rounds of the tournament and managed to compile a full breakdown of the archetypes players are playing here today (check Jared's article archives for his exhaustive statistical analysis of each StarCityGames.com Open throughout the season). We're going to go over some of the numbers he compiled and what they mean for Standard right now.

Leading the field with the most players supporting it was Jund. In previous months that deck has been considered the evil step-mother of Standard, utterly dominating early tournaments and forcing some to question whether or not the deck was TOO powerful. It even drew comparisons to decks of Standard past like Faeries and Fires of Yavimaya. So does that mean this weekend's 29 players of the deck mean it is still winning too much? Not at all. Those 29 make up only 12% of the total field, a far cry from the 30+% of players who showed up to battle with Jund just a few months ago. With new cards like Obstinate Baloth in Magic 2011 and a host of new archetypes being spawned by the completion of the Zendikar block Jund has finally been put in its place. While it is the most popular deck in the tournament, the archetype's popularity in the event overall is a far cry from the deck's heyday.

In second place and making up just under 9% of the field is Red Deck Wins. Mountains and burn spells are as old as Magic itself, and the deck has taken the top slot multiple times throughout the StarCityGames.com Open series. The true question is whether the deck can compete in a world where Soul Sisters exists as a deck following its debut in the StarCityGames.com Standard Open Top 8 last weekend in Denver. Some 20+ players seem to think it can and opted to take their chances today.

Right behind RDW's 21 players is Fauna Naya at 20. Fauna Shaman is the card that has made that archetype possible, though prior to Magic 2011 Naya was a competitive deck if not as powerful as it has become after the base set's release. The goal of the deck is to beat down, and a healthy Plan B of activating Fauna Shaman to fill up the graveyard with Vengevines, then cast two creatures in a single turn to bring them all back allows it to beat past control opponents.

It's two combo decks that round out the top five with Pyromancer Ascension and Valakut Ramp both fielding 15 representatives. The Ascension deck is more in line with what one thinks of when they think "combo deck" as it attempts to resolve Pyromancer Ascension, then to resolve burn spells, Time Warps, and cantrips to finish the opponent off. Valakut Ramp, on the other hand, can play like a control or even beatdown strategy by building up its manabase using acceleration spells. The goal is to survive to an endgame cut short for the opponent as Primeval Titan plops Mountain after Mountain onto the battlefield while multiple copies of Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle trigger over and over again to wipe the board or the opponent's life. Up to that point it clogs the ground, taking out attackers with burn spells and casting its own creatures to hold the fort until it can put enough land triggers onto the field at once.

Of interesting note is the surge in Soul Sisters players. Jake Lehmkuhl took the monowhite lifegain strategy to the Top 8 of last weekend's StarCityGames.com Standard Open in Denver, and the strategy has caught on. With 12 players here running it in Minneapolis it comprises a full 5% of the total field, not a bad spot to be when you consider it came into the world just a single week ago.

So what deck is best? Find out as we determine who the StarCityGames.com Standard Open Minneapolis champion is throughout the weekend, and make sure to read Jared's upcoming Too Much Information starring his trademark statistical breakdown of the mind bogglingly large amount of information he analyzes after each event!