Mythic Championship VII is in the books!

And, despite some missing aggro decks, the tournament did not disappoint in terms of cool decks and the best players winning.

Here are some of the best ones:

Simic Flash was the Deck of the Tournament

Three superstar players of the Pro Tour… Onetime Player of the Year Brad Nelson, former World Champion Seth Manfield, and the hottest player in the world Javier Dominguez all made Top 8 with their Simic Ramp Flash deck.

This build of Simic Flash incorporates some elements of Ramp decks. So while it has some of the Brazen Borrower / Nightpack Ambusher action we’re used to from Simic Flash decks… It is also a Paradise Druid-driven main phase deck.

The big payoffs to this wonderful new take are Nissa, Who Shakes the World and Hydroid Krasis like so many of the successful decks of the previous format. 

One of the best features of Simic Flash? An utterly dominating matchup against the popular Jeskai Fires of Invention strategy.

Simic Ramp, or… What was That About Quasiduplicate Again?

Andrea Megucci played a novel new Simic Ramp deck that kind of went the other direction from the successful Simic Flash players.

Mengucci had the Nissa / Krasis action (of course)… But pushed the engine to an unbelievable degree.

He went with Leafkin Druid over Paradise Druid… Because it’s an Elemental. Do you know what else is an Elemental? Risen Reef. And Cavalier of Thorns, fo course.

When you Quasiduplicate a Risen Reef, you get a second copy of Risen Reef. Both –that is, both cards — trigger! You get the trigger from the old Risen Reef because the incoming token is an Elemental; and you get the trigger from the new one because it’s a Risen Reef.

Then when you Jump-Start Quasiduplicate, you now get three triggers!

Cool, huh?

Yes, Mengucci made the biggest Hydroids.

How about the Champ? Jund Sacrifice…

Patrick is a huge fan of Piotr Głogowski’s build of Jund Sacrifice. Not only did this strategy eliminate all three superstars with their Simic Flash decks in the Top 8, Glogowski took a subtle and effective route to replacing Once Upon a Time.

Beanstalk Giant does everything in this deck! It gets you to Casualties of War a turn more quickly in the mirror (spoiler! The Champ played all four copies of Casualties of War)… It finds your solo Mountain for the red splash, and it can win the game with its seven drop mode a few turns later.

Plus some hot tech that didn’t make the Mythic Championship at all, like…

Not sure what deck would want to sleeve up an Arkbow? You can find out right here:

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Jeskai Fires Does Away with the “Fancy”

Now that Oko, Thief of Crowns has been banned in Standard, Jeskai decks with Fires of Invention have positioned themselves among the top strategies. These decks have been present since Throne of Eldraine debuted… But were overshadowed by Simic and Sultai Oko decks.

The new-ish technology for Jeskai Fires?

Sphinx of Foresight.

This strategy is simply no longer interested in “fancy” Silver Bullet Magic around Fae of Wishes. It’s all about using Sphinx of Foresight for greater consistency + maximizing the likelihood of getting Fires of Invention on the battlefield as quickly as possible (ideally turn four).

This deck is like two different decks: It’s optimized to drop Melokus and Keigas assuming Fires of Invention is on the battlefield… But it’s a clunky control deck without Fires.

Conventiently for Fires players, “enchantment” is a tricky permanent to remove once on the battlefield. Which brings us to…

Casualties of War Might be the Best Top End in Cat Food Decks

Cat Food seems to have survived as a possible archetype choice. Oko was a great source of Food… But it turns out that Witch’s Oven has a lot of things it can do still.

Cauldron Familiar and Gilded Goose still open up the Cat Food decks, but they are divided as to what they should be doing deeper in a game… Everything from Garruk, Cursed Huntsman to Liliana, Dreadhorde General.

… But can we recommend 4x Casualties of War?

First off, Casualties of War is simply the most devastating card for the mirror. Artifact. Creature. Enchantment. Land. Planeswalker.

Most Cat Food decks play all those kinds of permanents. Witch’s Oven is a great artifact to blow up… But if you have to settle for a Food token, that might not be that bad… At least as long as you can nab some of the other stuff.

There are no shortage of creatures. Massacre Girl cost the opponent five mana, and some maniacs are even summoning Feasting Troll King! Trail of Crumbs is an ideal enchantment to destroy; but like we intimated before, Fires of Invention (not in the mirror, presumably) has a singular position in this format, and Casualties of War can help you destroy that with value.

Everyone’s got lands. Lots of folks have Planeswalkers. Punish them, any and all!

Also in this Podcast: Why You Should Play 4x Gadwick, the Wizened

… And in a variety of color combinations!

Find out why now:

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We all knew Oko, Thief of Crowns had to Go

Standard was not, in many players’ estimations, in a healthy place.

Oko — along with some of his buddies, many of which are still legal — ushered in an era of unprecedented dominance. Six of the eight decks playing the single elimination rounds at Mythic Championship VI were Oko decks; and all eight were on Once Upon a Time.

There were alternatives to banning the best Planeswalker in recent memory, though. Unfortunately, any effort to keep Oko alive would have necessitated banning an enormous swath of [probably] innocent bystanders.

“A lot of innocent Planeswalkers and Geese would have to be sacrificed,” says Mike.

Here he’s talking about Gilded Goose and Nissa, Who Shakes the World. Nissa’s main offense is just being green. Arguably not even in the best [pre-bans] deck.

Once Upon a Time and Veil of Summer ate the Ban Hammer too

Veil of Summer was even more ubiquitous than Oko! Almost all the Oko decks played it (or even played four), and non-Oko decks also did. For example, Gruul beatdown or Gruul Adventures decks.

Where to go next? one of the big jokes is that losing four copies of Once Upon a Time means that you might have to add as many as four lands to your deck!

You’ll just have to listen to this week’s podcast to find out!

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To Begin With, Mythic Championship VI was “the most lopsided, the most homogeneous, Pro Tour in history”

Right before coverage started, Pro Tour Historian Emeritus Brian David-Marshall called up Mike.

He asked: “What was the percentage of Rebel decks at ‘Pro Tour Rebels’?”

“Pro Tour Rebels” was of course Pro Tour New York 2000… The first and last song of Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero in Masques Block; famous for an overwhelming representation by one archetype (the aforementioned “Rebels”)… Despite being won by a Mono-Blue Rising Waters deck.

Forty-three percent.

To give you a frame of reference, Mythic Championship VI featured…

• Over 70% Oko, Thief of Crowns,
• Nearly that many Gilded Goose, and
• A whopping 75.76% Once Upon a Time!

The top decks were Simic Food, Sultai Food, and Bant Food. Differences among them were not super pronounced; but if you weren’t one of them… You mostly got trounced. For its part, Simic was first, second, and third in this tournament when the dust settled!

All eight decks in the Top 8 — including one dissenting Golgari build and one Selesnya — packed not only Once Upon a Time but Veil of Summer.

Mythic Championship VI was, as Patrick says, “the most lopsided, most homogeneous, Pro Tour in history.”

Despite the Best Mythic Championship VI Decks Being Known, the Format Managed to Break!

Now despite the convergence around the core Food strategy, largely topping up on Nissa, Who Shakes the World and Hydroid Krasis, a dissenting Food — rather Cat Food — deck emerged and distinguished itself.

Somehow, amidst a Caw-Blade like line in the sand at this Pro Tour, Sultai Sacrifice managed to perform even better than its cousins. Trading in a Cauldron Familiar + Witch’s Oven for the default top end, Sultai Sacrifice performed even better than the three main Food decks against other Food decks… And absolutely murdered everyone else.

Playing an important event this weekend? Patrick heartily recommends Sultai Sacrifice!

In Other News, Veil of Summer was Banned in Pioneer This Week…

Basically, we think this is great.

Permission was already terrible in Pioneer; and Veil of Summer made it even worse. It also sets a great precedent for Standard…

What’s Next for Standard After Mythic Championship VI?

Clearly, if we are looking for any kind of a playable, balanced, format at all, Oko, Thief of Crowns has got to go.

The question is… Will anything else?

There are a lot of heavily played cards in Standard… But most of them don’t deserve a ban. Gilded Goose is just a fun creature; banning it would make Standard worse. Nissa, Who Shakes the World is a perfectly balanced, fair — if powerful — card… That just happens to be in the same colors as these broken Throne of Eldraine spells. Wicked Wolf? Come on!

The cards that have to be banned are Oko, and…

Once Upon a Time is an option. Michael doesn’t think this is going to happen in Standard, but maybe Once Upon a Time will become a thing of the past in Pioneer.

Veil of Summer, though? It’s already been banned in Pioneer. Why not Standard? The rate on Veil of Summer is just too good. It’s a permission spell, and an anti-permission spell. It’s a cantrip Dispel… But more flexible. You can just burn it to draw a card! Perhaps least civil of all, think about the poor Thought Erasure people. Oftentimes they have to play Thought Erasure to fix their hands… And then Veil happens?

Exactly.

We won’t know entirely what will be banned in Standard until next week; but it sure is fun to speculate. Listen now (but make sure to check back next week!):

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Doom Foretold has drawn some tall comparisons…

• Is it kind of like a Smokestack? Sure… The same total casting cost, but in this case it can’t manascrew an opponent the way Smokestack did. Still, the comparison is apt.
• How about The Abyss? Doom Foretold has some different limitations, but it can at least act like The Abyss… And incidentally, it’s more flexible against more types of permanents.
• When you lose your Doom Foretold, it’s also like a mini-Cruel Ultimatum. A little of this, a little of that; your opponent loses a little something more… Payoff!

There are multiple possible homes for this card; Michael is toying with the idea of putting it in a deck with creatures like District Guide that produce cardboard. Patrick would try it in an Orzhov Knights deck for all the obvious synergies.

But most of all, Doom Foretold is an enchantment for Esper, allowing that strategy to win with Dance of the Manse. Teammates like Wishclaw Talisman and Golden Egg can also help fill out the 4/4 line.

Doom Foretold is increasingly good against increasingly good cards

By contrast, it seems to be less effective against fast Red Deck creatures.

But if you are up against Planeswalkers? Few of them have very good answers to this enchantment. What will Teferi, Time Raveler do? Bounce it?

You’ll probably just re-play the Doom Foretold and eat their hapless Teferi.

Generally speaking, the more, and expensive, cards in the opponent’s deck, the more Doom Foretold can punish them.

The Best of the Rest

With tons to talk about driven by the early MTGO results, we couldn’t focus on just one card. How about…

• The ferocious Red Deck with Cavalcade of Calamity.
• “The Patrick Chapin All-Stars” … Basically all his favorite cards from the last couple of weeks, all in one deck.
• Cauldron Familiar + Witch’s Oven. Boom. (aka “the best Forcefield ever”)
• Jeskai with Fae of Wishes… Is it more funny or just flat-out good?
• An actual Simic Flash deck with Wildborn Preserver

What are you waiting for?

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Scapeshift into Field of the Dead

Scapeshift is a longtime combo enabler. In Modern, it is liable to stack so many triggers from Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle some players have broken the sixty card rule just to cram more Mountains into their decks.

Some enterprising beatdown mages have cast Scapeshift with Steppe Lynx in play to get a ton of short-term buffs. Short, maybe; but you don’t need that many +2/+2 triggers if you’re just going to kill the other guy RIGHT NOW THIS TURN.

Now in Standard with Core Set 2020, Scapeshift combines with Field of the Dead to make a ton of 2/2 Zombie tokens. With any seven lands you can reliably Scapeshift into a two-turn clock. With eight you can get two copies of Field of the Dead and produce over thirty power!

Field of the Dead: Plan B

If for some reason your opponent neutralizes your Scapeshifts (maybe with an Unmoored Ego) you aren’t dead-dead.

I mean, they probably should have named “Field of the Dead” … But that doesn’t work so well if you already played a Field of the Dead. In this case, at some point (provided you have the minimum number of different lands in play) you can make a 2/2 Zombie every turn.

That might not be the best-sounding plan, but the Scapeshift deck is not apt to run out of lands any time soon. It’s real card advantage, and might be inevitable. Otherwise? Leverage your lands into Hydroid Krasis and cross your fingers.

Some Great Ways to Beat Field of the Dead

If no one is allowed to update their decks, Scapeshift with Field of the Dead is the best deck in the format by a wide margin; Bant Scapeshift in particular. There are other viable Scapeshift decks, but Bant’s ability to combo off at the end of the opponent’s turn (or just guarantee that Scapeshift resolves) with Teferi, Time Raveler puts it ahead of other aspiring lists.

But… We are allowed to update our lists! Here are some ideas for how to best Scapeshift (and where to play them):

• Deputy of Detention – If you’re looking to play White Weenie, we recommend splashing blue for Deputy of Detention instead of red (or no second color). This card deals with as many 2/2 Zombies… As the opponent has on the battlefield.
• Unmoored Ego – If you can resolve this card before the opponent successfully casts Scapeshift you can prevent the combo kill. If you can cast it and name Field of the Dead itself (instead of Scapeshift), the opponent will be in a truly desperate situation.
• Ashiok, Dream Render – Our favorite answer! Ashiok prevents the opponent from successfully using Circuitous Route and its cousins to get ahead on resources (let alone a game-winning Scapeshift).
• Simic Nexus – The Wilderness Reclamation strategy is just faster than Scapeshift. If you’re behind the 2/2 Zombie tokens, you can always Root Snare to buy more time.

Tons more in the podcast proper! Give “All the Ways to Play (and beat) Field of the Dead” now!

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