By: James Chillcott
@mtgcritic
Don’t miss this week’s installment of the MTG Fast Finance podcast, an on-topic, no-nonsense tour through the week’s most important changes in the Magic economy. And if you enjoy playing Magic, make sure to visit https://scry.land to find PPTQs, SCG Opens, and more events on an interactive map with worldwide coverage. Find Magic near you today.
Note: Travis is on vacation this week, so I’m covering his slot. – James
Let’s take a look at what the weekend results can tell us this week, shall we? There were two major Standard GPs outside North America this weekend, GP Shizuoka in Japan and GP Porto Alegre in Brazil.
GP Poroto Alegre featured a Standard meta of just 570 players, and a Top 8 with few surprises for those who have been following Standard since the release of Aether Revolt. Here’s what made the playoffs this weekend in Brazil:
- Temur Tower
- Mardu Ballista
- Golgari Constrictor
- Golgari Delirium
- 4Color Copycat
- 4Color Copycat
- 4Color Copycat
- Mardu Ballista
And here are the results for Japan, via the much larger 2719 player GP in Shizouka:
- Mardu Aggro
- Mardu Aggro
- Mardu Aggro
- Temur Tower
- Jund
- Mardu Aggro
- Mardu Ballista
- Mardu Ballista
Sadly for those of us excited by constant metagame shifts and fresh brews, this format continues to revolve around the Jeskai Saheeli deck and the Mardu or GB variants that can table enough disruption and early pressure to keep them off their combo. If we look deeper in the results Jund Energy Aggro, Temur Aetherworks Marvel and Dynavolt Tower decks are still fielding occasionally good results, but there’s no denying that thus far this is largely a two or three deck format for anyone serious about winning a tournament.
Nevertheless, this week it was Temur Tower that was able to take things down, a deck that also managed to Top 4 in Japan in the same weekend.
With a format this stale, odds are good that attendance is down across the continent as many players opt to focus on other formats leading up to Amonkhet. Once we have a new large set in the mix, and the likely banning of Felidar Guardian behind us, I would expect the format to open back up and to see some limited rejuvenation in Standard/FNM attendance. Thing is, after the shortening and subsequent lengthening of the Standard format last year, the bannings before Pro Tour Aether Revolt and the the solved nature of the current format, Standard is likely to offer up limited financial opportunities for the foreseeable future. That being said, there are a couple of cards on my radar for Standard based gains this year.
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Where is Travis vacationing? Going on spring break next week and would love some ideas!
Back to the finance platform: There’s been already some movement on the enemy fetches. The general strategy is to wait a month before buying-is that too long?
I’d rather hold here than get in early, but we’re within 10-20% of a likely bottom, so buying for personal use is no huge failing.
I see. I plan to get mine (to finally begin my Modern deck construction) not this weekend, but the weekend after that-this will hopefully be enough time for the supply to be maxed out enough to move in. Death’s shadow seems to be a good introductory build for those of us that want to be competitive.