All players with 18 points made Day 2, meaning 116 players would return to battle for a shot at the Top 8 of the Standard Open at #SCGRICH. War of the Spark is here and making its mark on Standard! Most notably, the Planeswalkers are finding homes in strategies across the board. Simic Nexus, the most-played deck on Day 2, benefited the most, getting two essential Planeswalkers: Tamiyo, Collector of Tales and Narset%2C+Parter+of+Veils.
Mono-Red Aggro, a deck getting almost nothing from the latest set other than scattered copies of Tibalt%2C+Rakish+Instigator, is still a force to be reckoned with at 19 copies on the second day of competition. The low-to-the-ground aggro deck continues to check anything new with a blistering clock and late-game power of Experimental+Frenzy. Esper decks follow in the third and fourth-most played decks, Esper Control clocking in with 16 pilots and Esper Midrange at 13. Both decks take advantage of Teferi%2C+Time+Raveler and varying numbers of Narset%2C+Parter+of+Veils.
Three decks follow at six copies: Azorius Aggro, Gruul Aggro, and Sultai Midrange. While Sultai Midrange really only added a copy or two of Lilian, Dreadhorde General, the other two archetypes got more new toys. Azorius Aggro benefits from Gideon+Blackblade and Law-Rune+Enforcer and Gruul Aggro got Domri, Anarch of Bolas, Chandra, Fire Artisan, and Sarkhan+the+Masterless.
Feather%2C+the+Redeemed inspired new aggressive decks, but the question has been how to build them. Two versions made Day 2, including Naya and Jeskai builds that take different looks at utilizing the new legendary creature.
Other interesting one-ofs include: Five-Color Control (with Niv-Mizzet+Reborn), Merfolk, Orzhov Knights, and Jeskai Control.
The full metagame breakdown looks like this:
Simic Nexus – 23
Mono-Red Aggro – 19
Esper Control – 16
Esper Midrange – 13
Azorius Aggro – 6
Gruul Aggro – 6
Sultai Midrange – 6
Bant Midrange – 3
Mono-Blue Aggro – 2
Naya Feather – 2
Mono-White Aggro – 2
Orzhov Aggro – 2
Bant Nexus – 2
Grixis Control – 1
Merfolk – 1
Dimir Midrange – 1
Bant Flash -1
Simic Aggro – 1
Selesnya Tokens – 1
Bant Reclamation – 1
Jeskai Feather – 1
Temur Nexus – 1
Five-Color Control – 1
Jeskai Control – 1
Orzhov Knights – 1
Rakdos Aggro – 1
Boros Aggro – 1
