All players with 18 points made Day 2, meaning 100 players would return to battle for a shot at the Top 8 of the Standard Open at #SCGRICH. The second week of Standard with Aether Revolt has highlighted the rise of green and black decks and Jeskai decks – the two most popular archetypes at #SCGCOL last weekend. Of the 100 decks to make Day 2, 63 of them were either G/B or Saheeli Rai/Felidar Guardian decks. Despite Brennan DeCandio winning the Open in Columbus last weekend with B/G Delirium, the more popular G/B Aggro deck from #SCGCOL took the top spot in Richmond.
G/B Aggro led the way with 21 copies, followed by B/G Delirium with 18 players taking the #SCGCOL winning deck to battle. G/B Aggro differs from B/G Delirium by opting for more aggressive green creatures like Longtusk+Cub or Lambholt+Pacifist along with Nissa%2C+Voice+of+Zendikar instead of Delirium cards like Grim+Flayer, Mindwrack+Demon, and Traverse+the+Ulvenwald. Some of the G/B Aggro decks use an energy theme to use Glint-Sleeve+Siphoner or Bristling+Hydra, while both decks rely on black removal spells like Fatal+Push and Grasp+of+Darkness.
Jeskai Saheeli clocked in as the third most popular deck with 18 copies on Day 2, followed by the Four-Color variant in fourth with eight players using green splash. The correct build of the Saheeli Rai/Felidar Guardian combo still hasn’t been locked down as multiple builds show up in the metagame. Some players focus more on the combo while others look for the control plan with the backup combo kill. The Four-Color Saheeli deck uses green for more value and can move into an energy or delirium-based strategy to complement the combo.
Jeskai Control and U/B Control come next, with five and four copies, respectively. The Jeskai Control moves away from the Saheeli Rai/Felidar Guardian combo and relies on Planeswalkers and Torrential+Gearhulk. U/B Control is a typical draw-go strategy, looking to kill creatures, draw cards, and close the game with the Gearhulk.
Mardu Vehicles and B/R Zombies show up next. Both decks synergize around Scrapheap+Scrounger, where Mardu Vehicles in the only pure aggressive deck in the format, focused on one-drops while B/R Zombies goes for synergy with madness cards and graveyard interactions.
G/W Tokens with three copies and U/R Control with two copies on Day 2 round out the decks with multiple representatives, leading to a bunch of one-ofs to fill out the field. Rogue builds like Temur Eldrazi, U/W Reservoir, Grixis Control, Jeskai Colossus, and B/R Constructs all managed to make Day 2.
The full metagame breakdown looks like this:
G/B Aggro – 21
B/G Delirium – 18
Jeskai Saheeli – 16
Four-Color Saheeli – 8
Jeskai Control – 5
U/B Control – 4
Mardu Vehicles – 4
B/R Zombies – 3
G/W Tokens – 3
U/R Control – 2
Esper Aggro – 1
Temur Control – 1
Grixis Control – 1
W/B Midrange – 1
Temur Eldrazi – 1
Temur Energy – 1
U/R Emerge – 1
U/B Colossus – 1
Jeskai Colossus – 1
Esper Control – 1
U/W Spirits – 1
W/R Humans – 1
Temur Aetherworks – 1
Mono-Red Aggro – 1
B/R Constructs – 1
U/W Reservoir – 1
