Magic: The Gathering

Hello, I'd like to begin with a brief self-introduction. My name is Jason Pitts, and a few years ago, I decided to get competitive with Magic: The Gathering. I have been grinding PPTQs, Grand Prixs, SCG Opens, and any other tournament that I can.

The latest event that I attended was MagicFest: Denver. I've had several people ask my what I think of the standard format and what I thought of the event in general. This is my first attempt at writing an article communicating my thoughts and experiences during the event.

Grand Prix Participation Numbers

The biggest news in the Magic world coming out of Denver wasn't a new deck, or a new player, but the size of the main event, the Grand Prix. The participation numbers for Grand Prix have been declining over the last few years, and Denver was no exception. The participation number for Grand Prix Denver was 616. This was the smallest Grand Prix in many, many years and is causing concern in the Magic Community. I just want to point out that while the participation in the actual Grand Prix was small, attendance to the MagicFest was high. There were thousands there, playing side events, dealing with vendors, and participating in cosplay. The atmosphere and the experience was in no way diminished by the poor numbers of the main event. However, it is still a cause for concern and should be examined. Why are people choosing not to participate in the main event? I have some thoughts on some reasons why.

First, the "pros" have stopped traveling to the Grand Prix. Wizards removed the pro point system and have yet to replace it. This has removed any incentive to travel and earn points to gain pro levels. This has impacted participation numbers immensely.

Second, and maybe more impactful, the prize support for side event and the fanatic packages are just much more rewarding. I had a friend who participated in the Kansas City Grand Prix. He worked his way through day one with zero byes. He made day two and played all day the second day, as well, but he fell short of the threshold needed to win a cash prize. My friend played two full days of magic, 15 rounds, and came home with nothing. A month later, I bought the constructed Fanatic Package at MagicFest: Dallas and came home with four boxes of cards (about a $400 value). So, players are attending MagicFests, but not participating in the main events. How can Wizards and Channel Fireball change this trend? My suggestion is to award every player who makes day two with 600 tickers or one booster box of cards, in addition to the cash prizes players already earn. Now, on to my experience.

My Grand Prix Experience

After the spoilers for Core 2020 were spoiled, I narrowed my deck down to four choices. The first was an Angel/Lifegain deck that was a homebrew. I tested the deck Friday in the MCQ but went 0-3 drop. My weekend was not starting out well, but I had just driven 13 hours and was awake for almost 36 hours at that time. I don't know if the deck is bad, or if I played horribly. The other three decks I was considering were Jund Dinosaurs, Orzhov Vampires, and Simic Flash. In the end, I chose the Jund Dinosaurs because at the open the previous week, the top two decks were mono blue and mono red. I felt like Jund Dinosaurs had a very strong matchup against both those decks, and everyone likes to copy the top decks from the week before. It was the right call. I played mono red twice and mono blue three times. I won all five games. I also beat Scapeshift, and Esper Control. I lost to the mirror once, esper hero once, Orzhov Vampires twice, and a sweet Selesnia good stuff deck.

I was able to make day two and reach the $250 cash prize threshold; I finished the tournament at 92nd. After playing Jund Dinos for 12 rounds of Magic, I have decided that I do not like the deck. It has very strong matchups in the meta because of Shifting Ceretops, and many decks have very little interaction right now, but when they do, the deck is not favored. One kill spell, one boardwipe, one mass manipulation, and you're in trouble. It has very powerful draws and mulligans well, especially with the new London Mulligan rule, however, I will not be playing this deck again. It's a "here are these big threats... can you deal with them? Yes? Okay I lose. NO? Okay I win" deck. If you do pick up this deck, be wary of a few things.

1. Don't miss your triggers on Rotting Regisaur. People were missing this trigger all weekend long. I missed it once myself. This was probably the highest reason for judge calls in Denver.
2. Be careful about playing your Shifting Ceratops if you have two Marauding Raptors. Your raptors will kill your ceratops.

After I dropped from the Grand Prix, I finished with weekend playing standard side events with Orzhov Vampires. I made a few of my own changes to the deck. The biggest change is that I cut Ajani from the sideboard and added the War of the Spark Sorin. I went 4-2 with the deck in side events and earned enough tickets for a little over half a box. I really liked this deck, much more than Dinos, and it will probably be my deck of choice until rotation.

Thoughts on the Format

I think the best deck in the format overall is Feather. God's Willing pushed this deck to tier 1. I'm not sure if Boros or Naya is better, but the deck can be incredibly fast and resilient. It's weak to Settle the Wreckage, Liliana's Triumph, and Gideon's Triumph, but these cards are not particularly strong against many other decks, and Settle will be rotating.

I think the Scapeshift decks are strong right now because of Teferi, Time Raveler shutting off interaction. This deck attacks you multiple ways, but Teferi is the linchpin that keeps you from interacting. Don't let Teferi hit the board, and if you do, kill him ASAP or you're dead.

Mono blue is not in a good place right now. Shifting Ceratops is unbeatable for them. They can't block it, and nothing they have can get through it. You can even give him reach so he can block their Tempest Djinns and he doesn't die. If you play mono blue, you are running a huge risk of losing to this card.

I also don't think mono red is in a strong place. It has a hard time getting through the big bodies in Gruul and Dino decks.

Nexus decks are still strong and they were still around in Denver, but I think some of the Nexus plays switched to Scapeshift.

Esper Hero is the midrange king. This is a strong deck and is probably the choice for players who like to "play magic." If you like interaction, back-and-forth, swingy games... Esper Hero is probably the deck for you. It takes a skilled player to pilot these decks well.

My favorite deck right now is Orzhov Vampires. I am a huge fan of Knight of the Ebon Legion. I was very impressed with the War of the Spark Sorin, and am considering moving him main board. They synergy between the two Sorins is busted. You can +1 Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord, sacrifice a vampire to lightning helix any target. Then you can -X Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord and bring the sacrificed Vampire back. There are a lot of fun interactions that this deck has built into it. I had a blast playing it, and at times it felt like the deck was unbeatable.

I want to mention one more deck that I have seen popping up here and there. It's very powerful, and I think it will become more popular in the coming months before rotation. Its a re-animator deck built around cheating Drakuseth, Maw of Flames into play from the graveyard with Blood for Bones and Bond of Revival. This deck is very deadly, and you should have a plan for it.

This concludes my first article. I hope you found it insightful and informative. Please give feedback. Your feedback will determine if I continue doing these or not. Thank you so much for your time, and I hope you find it useful.

Jason Pitts