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Williams, Selesnya Ramp, Wins Standard Hooglandia Open

First Innistrad: Midnight Hunt Standard event on MTG Arena following rotation won by Selesnya Ramp.

Storm the Festival
Storm the Festival, illustrated by Yigit Koroglu

Christopher Williams won the Standard Hooglandia Open on Sunday with Selesnya Ramp.


Williams went 10-1 to win the first Standard tournament on MTG Arena following the release of Innistrad: Midnight Hunt and the format’s rotation. Williams’ lone loss came in Round 8 of the 95-person, double-elimination event to James Rutherford on Orzhov Midrange, but he was able to get revenge in the last match to claim the virtual trophy. The final match was a lengthy affair where Rutherford outlasted Storm the Festival being played six times in the second game and he had the chance to win the tournament, but ran out of time when attacking for lethal in Game 3.

Williams combined a landfall package with ramp spells and huge payoffs like Wrenn and Seven, Storm the Festival, and Emeria’s Call to go over the top of most opponent’s playing midrange strategies centered around Goldspan Dragon, Esikia’s Chariot, and Arlinn, the Pack’s Hope. Williams had his own Chariots, of course, and had three copies of Field Trip to ramp and gain access to cards in his sideboard like Mascot Exhibition, Environmental Sciences, Containment Breach, and Reduce to Memory.

Rutherford’s deck was able to keep up with the value from Storm the Festival with Blood on the Snow often returning Lolth, Spider Queen while having his own Lesson package thanks to Eyetwitch. The deck has a slight ramp feel it to it as well, with many cards producing treasure tokens that allow one-shot mana acceleration to the payoff spells.


The Top 10 decks only had one duplicate in Izzet Dragons, finishing in sixth and ninth place. The third and fourth place decks were Mono-Green Aggro and Jund Midrange, respectively.

See the Top 10 decklists from the players who reached five or more wins in the event.