There seem to be some decks that are regional favorites. Dallas always has a high percentage of Valakut Ramp and, in St. Louis, Red Deck Wins always comes out in force. In fact, both StarCityGames.com St. Louis Standard Opens have seen Red Deck Wins, well, win. In December, it was Richard Wayne blazing out to an early lead in the StarCityGames.com Open Series and this time Joey Mispagel’s Red Deck Wins took down Joe Bernal Jund in the finals to keep St. Louis Red.
Let’s take a look at the field:
After a few events below the 20% mark, Jund showed up in numbers that we haven’t seen since before Rise of the Eldrazi. In St. Louis, you were more likely to face Jund than all of the decks with less than 10 representatives in the field combined. St. Louis had a resurgence of the Boss Naya builds from Pro Tour: San Diego, with a Rise of the Eldrazi twist: Vengevine. Ranger of Eos provides an easy way to power the plant out of the graveyard and Stoneforge Mystic is still powerful hunting out Basilisk Collar and Behemoth Sledge. An over 50% win percentage suggests that Naya may find its place in the current metagame.
This is where I usually highlight some of the stars of the lesser archetypes, unfortunately, there weren’t many. Traditional Mythic builds were the only archetype with 4-10 representatives to post a winning record on the day and it looks like players are picking the right decks as the strong win percentages pretty closely coincide with the most popular decks.
Jund — 26.04% of the Field — Won 55.11% of Matches
Example:
Standard Build: Joe Bernal,2nd
No Blightning: Alex Bertoncini, 42nd
Jund came out in force and posted a strong Win Percentage, but the deck’s records against the top archetypes was not stellar, suggesting that Jund continues to mop up Rogue decks, but that many of the top tier decks have figured it out. The 60%+ win percentages against the field are probably gone for good, but Jund should still be the first deck in your gauntlet and any deck that can’t push close to 50% against it probably isn’t worth bringing to a Standard event for the next three months.
Sovereign Mythic — 8.28% of the Field — Won 61.18% of Matches
Example:
Standard: Phillip Jones, 11th
(+R): Brian Edgar, 3rd
Sovereign Mythic wins the ‘Deck of the Event’ title by being the only deck to break the 60% barrier for Win Percentage. This is made even more impressive because Sovereign Mythic was the second most numerous deck. Sovereign Mythic continues to beat up on U/W Tap Out, but it also found a new punching bag in St. Louis in the upstart Eldrazi Monument decks. Tipping the Turboland match-up in its favor from the 50-50 in Seattle puts Sovereign Mythic in a great place in the current Standard metagame.
Red Deck Wins — 7.40% of the Field — Won 54.64% of Matches
Example:
Joey Mispagel, 1st
Welcome back Red Deck Wins! It is worth noting that this is the second event in a row where Red Deck Wins has out performed Devastating Red. Being dead on arrival to U/W Tap Out is never good, but with that deck dropping in popularity, it is possible to avoid it, especially in a large event. It looks like Red Deck Wins remains the clock on the format and will only gain ground as Sovereign Mythic and Turboland, both strong match-ups, continue to be major players.
Eldrazi Monument — 6.51% of the Field — Won 47.27% of Matches
Example:
R/G: Gregg Keithley, 24th
Beastmaster: Kevin Ragsdale, 64th
Almost out of nowhere, Eldrazi Monument decks, primarily R/G, showed up in force at St. Louis. Splitting with Jund and U/W Tap Out seems to place the deck well, but with no other favorable match-ups against the big guys there’s not much to say about these results. Be aware of this deck, but expect it to fade away almost as fast as it showed up.
U/W Tap Out — 5.03% of the Field — Won 53.85% of Matches
Example:
Scott Ruggiero, 17th
This deck has been losing market share and it is not hard to see why. As a dog to the two new kids on the block, Turboland and Sovereign Mythic, it is tough to justify choosing U/W Tap Out these days. The Jund match-up has stayed over 50% for a few events and U/W owns Red Deck Wins, so expect it to continue to be a player. However, with the top tables filling up with Sovereign Mythic (Four Top 16) and Turboland (Two Top 16) ambitious players may not want to bring U/W Tap Out as their weapon of choice.
Under the Radar:
If there is one thing that I love, it is a Rouge deck creeping up the standings to surprise the top tables. Usually, by the time that you make it through a few rounds, if you are still in contention, you start seeing the usual suspects. Zach Levinson was able to continue to bring the element of surprise with his 25th place performance Summoning Trap deck.
Creatures (22)
- 2 Baneslayer Angel
- 3 Iona, Shield of Emeria
- 4 Perimeter Captain
- 2 Terastodon
- 3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
- 4 Overgrown Battlement
- 4 Wall of Omens
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (24)
Spells (12)
With wins over Jund, Turboland, U/W Tap Out and twice over Devastating Red, Zach had no shortage of Tier 1 opponents. It is important to note that this deck can easily push out a turn 4 Summoning Trap as well as use Overgrown Battlement to power up to hard casting the creatures that find their way into your hand. Polymorph has been the default way to cheat big creatures into play for a while, with Summoning Trap sometimes playing second fiddle, but maybe this list can provide a starting point for Summoning Trap to break out on its own.
As we head into the summer, the StarCityGames.com Open Series is going to have a bit of a break. We’ll be back with our Denver event on August 21st and 22nd, but that doesn’t mean that TMI is going away. In fact, I have some big plans for compilation articles of both Standard and Legacy. The Standard article will appear the week leading into Canadian Nationals and Legacy will appear in the week before GP: Columbus. Also, just because the Open Series is taking a month and a half off doesn’t mean that I am. I wish everyone a great summer and I hope to see many of you at GP: Columbus and GenCon!