
Deck tech
Analyzing the Innistrad Championship's Metagame
Today, I present an analysis of the Standard and Historic decks that stood out at the Innistrad Championship!
By Thiago, 12/08/21, translated by Humberto - 0 comments
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Standard
Izzet Turns
To comment on Izzet, I took the list of the latest world champion, Yuta Takahashi, who was put together to gain Izzet mirrors without leaving aside the aggro matchups. I thought the additions of 1 Saw It Coming and 1 Negate in the main deck were great, excellent cards on the mirror and reasonable against aggro in game 1. What caught my attention the most were the two copies of Behold the Multiverse, a highly synergistic cantrip with Galvanic Iteration copying the spell to scry 4 and draw 4 for just 4 mana.
Mono White
Mono White, the second most played archetype in the Championship, did not show much change from the previously used lists. Perhaps an innovation was the addition of Welcoming Vampire by some players, the only spell that generates card advantage to the deck, in addition to escaping red removals such as Cinderclasm, Burning Hands and Prismari Command.
Mono Green
In turn, Mono Green presented several versions with a few different slots. Some lists didn't use Wrenn and Seven, others had 3 or 4 Snakeskin Veil in the main deck while others only used 1 or 2, some players used Ascendant Packleader and lowered the mana curve, but the core of the archetype remained the same as always, as expected.The rest of the Mategame
The rest of the metagame was irrelevant with few copies of Orzhov Control, alternate versions of Izzet, and random decks like Esper Control, Jund Aggro, Grixis Control, and Jeskai Dragons. I think it's worth mentioning that almost 70% of decks were among the top three archetypes, Izzet Control, Mono White and Mono Green, and we shouldn't see any changes until the next release.Historic
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Golgari Food
Starting with the best deck in the tournament, given the results, and one of the most tiring to play with for the amount of clicks required, Golgari Food is no surprise, and I've mentioned it in other Historic articles. We had the classification of the Brazilian Lucas Caparroz for the Innistrad Championship with the deck, besides players who ranked well with it. From that, the archetype stood out as one of the best options in the format, being bad in few matches, against decks with Mayhem Devil, for example. The deck's ability to suddenly deal lethal damage with Ravenous Squirrel is surreal, especially with Cauldron Familiar + Witch's Oven on the board. In addition to the strong synergy between the creatures, Trail of Crumbs is one of the best cards in the format, easily generating advantage from the food mechanic and unbalancing the game. The Meathook Massacre is a relevant part of the combo to deal 2 damage with Cat Oven per activation and best of all, we still have Lurrus of the Dream-Den to get any permanents back on the board. If there was still someone who didn't respect the deck, it's a good idea to spend sideboard slots on it, as we'll see a lot more of the archetype in the coming weeks of tournaments, although Alchemy's cards will likely bring fresh air to the format, especially with the return of Omnath, Locus of Creation.Selesnya Humans
The most used archetype of the weekend, Selesnya Humans, was much hated by Golgari Food, a natural predator of aggro decks with cheap removals and infinite chump blocks, and Izzet Phoenix with many spot removals. As such, only Christian Hauck did well with the deck over the weekend.
Izzet Phoenix
The second most used archetype, Izzet Phoenix came in strong and very well with 3 players in the top 8 using reasonably different lists. While Yuta Takahashi favored a more focused line on light removals and interactions for the mirror with Aether Gust and Mystical Dispute, Kiihne used a more standard list with Stormwing Entity and Sprite Dragon. The list that surprised me the most was Görtzen's, with Delver of Secrets, which I still believe that's pretty bad. Otherwise, slots are pretty standard on the main deck and sideboard.Ad

Jeskai Creativity
Yo Akaike's Jeskai Creativity is quite interesting as it features the main combo of Indomitable Creativity for Serra's Emissary; however, it has 4 copies of Magma Opus and 3 Mizzix's Mastery, that is, the deck does not depend entirely on Emissary to win the games, in addition to being able to cast Magma Opus on turn 3.
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