^Thanks. Slightly off-topic (I guess we need a Magic Pro League thread), but does anyone know what the rationale is behind these weekly matches, aside from watching pros play casually? Like is there anything at stake (prize money, their pro status)?

Meta summary from latest SCG Tourney
https://aetherhub.com/Article/Tier-1-Wa ... -wildcards

No problem. For YT video to embed just use the last set of numbers after the = sign in the url and paste those between the youtube tags.
You can quote my video post to see what I mean.

Man that Dreadhorde Deck is nice. Been bouncing around between Platinum 1-2 and built this deck this afternoon and just got to diamond. https://aetherhub.com/Deck/Public/116153

Another "state of standard" article: https://www.channelfireball.com/article ... arena-mcq/

I still haven't found a deck I really like, so maybe I'll pick up Selesnya tokens (if Brad Nelson thinks it's good enough to test, why not) and UG Mass Manipulation (haven't seen a lot of that deck).

I'm so confused about the write up for the deck in this article. Unless he's updated the list since writing the article. He talks about Frilled but it isn't in the list at all.

^No idea unfortunately.

Played an entire day and actually dropped one rank to Diamond 2. Seems like I'm worse at this game than I thought.

Re: UG Mass Manipulation:

That was the last deck I played last week and it was quite fun. I suppose the most relevant intel on that is reddit-based:

This got me started and there have been updates since that both from this player and from the original one.

Discussion regarding Frilled Mystic is whether you can run it in a Three-feri meta. Some say "cut it" because of him others say you gotta keep it for it's one of the most impactful plays. I'd lean towards the latter opinion.

Haven't read your CFB-article yet, maybe I can do that later, just wanted to chime in to help you guys.

Solution to 3 mana teferi:
Play completely sorcery decks or run shock/lightning strike to kill it as soon as it minuses.

Thanks. I tried the deck out too. It's certainly powerful, but it's got very noticeable weaknesses:

1. High land count together with 14 mana dorks means you flood a lot, especially with the latest list (https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1942256#online). It's true that if you get to high enough mana, Mass Manipulation or Krasis are superb mana sinks, and not hitting your land drops is just as bad. I am not sure how to solve this issue. The most promising possibility I can think of is to run Finale of Revelation. If you are flooding out hard, drawing that puts all your mana to use.
2. You are hugely disadvantaged against creatures that other decks kill on sight, since you have no kill spells. Particularly bad are Goblin Electromancer and Runaway Steam-Kin (haven't played against Wildgrowth Walker, but it shouldn't be that bad since it's not a fast clock and who cares how much life they have when you cast Mass Manipulation). The latter can't even be stolen very well with Entrancing Melody - if you attempt to use it when it's 4/4, opponent will just respond by turning it into a 1/1.
3. It seems the deck automatically folds to Trostani. It's not a common card, but having this kind of Achilles heel is quite scary.
4. Weak to flyers. Phoenix seems like a bad matchup. Anything with Thief of Sanity seems very problematic as well, although Thief seems to be seeing less and less play thanks to little Teferi.

Other thoughts:

5. No idea why the list isn't running 4x Growth Spiral. It seems considerably more reliable than mana dorks, since it can't be killed, and since it's a better topdeck later in the game. The only drawback is you might not have a land to play (how on Earth do I mana screw with a 27-land deck?) but it's still a 27-land deck.
6. I tried out Frilled Mystic and was unimpressed. The problem is you don't have ways to use the mana if your opponent does not play into it. Chemister's Insight and adapting Incubation Druid are the only possibilities, but the latter is 5 mana and the former isn't even in the decklist (it might not be superior to Finale of Revelation too). Sure, sometimes your opponent won't do anything and you don't do anything either while making your land drops, but if they have any kind of pressure then Frilled Mystic becomes a glorified 3/2 flash creature that is completely unplayable. It's just too unreliable. At best, a sideboard card.
7. Biogenic Ooze or possibly Carnage Tyrant might be the only way for the deck to fight Trostani. Gotta have something. Ooze works well with all the mana that's being generated anyway.
8. Can't tell when to board in Tamiyo. The card seems strong. Digging for or recycling Mass Manipulation makes it really hard to lose.
9. 4x Nissa might be a bit too much. Nissa is a good card, but drawing multiples is not good.

I've played the deck through several constructed leagues now and probably have a <50% record with it, although I'm getting better (once I completely missed that I didn't have 4 blue mana for example). I'm going to try Sam Black's version next (http://www.starcitygames.com/articles/3 ... ndard.html), it meshes better with my experience and seems better tuned.

Seems Nexus is a lot more common in Traditional Constructed than on the ladder. I played against it like 4 times in my last two leagues, that never happens on the ladder. Any theories why?

MC3 decklists: https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/cov ... -decklists & metagame writeup https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/cov ... -breakdown.

Top 5 most-played decks are Esper control, Izzet Phoenix & Esper hero, Bant ramp, White aggro, and Mono R in that order. Among the ramp decks I'm paying the most attention to, roughly half are on the Trostani GWu version, while the other half are on the Manipulation GUw version. Surprisingly, many decks are going down to 25 lands. It seems the decks are adapting to having to cast multiple powerful spells to win the game as opposed to a single, game-winning Mass Manipulation. It's amazing how well Izzet Phoenix has held up. New set after new set and yet the core of the deck proves strong enough to compete. I'm continuously surprised by how resilient that deck is.

Top 4 are one MonoR, one Simic Nexus (!), and two Esper hero. Rooting for the Nexus deck here, I'm no longer playing it but man, I wanted that deck to be good.

God, so much esper hero. I was personally backing Shota's bolas deck. Shame he lost. It gets pretty boring watching Teferi wars over and over again. Interesting that Simic Nexus ended up taking the trophy (piloted excellently by Leveratto, of course). That game pretty much came down to chance, though. I still kinda feel like Esper Hero is the better deck.

A little late but.. still CGB´s write up of the MCIII, pretty good stuff.

https://tempostorm.com/articles/incredible-moments-from-mythic-championship-iii

So old decks got little from this set but there are quite a few new players in standard I have seen:
- Elementals this has at least 2-3 distinct builds the attrition builds like Simic, Temur and the more Aggro ones in Gruul mostly
- Blood for bones in Golgari, Teshar, Dimir stealstuff
- Orzhov Vampires the Paul Vito da Rosa is the best one out there IMO
- Azorius flyers this thing looks promising IMO lots of flash, anthem and tempo
- Chevalier of torns in Command the dread horde
- Simic flood of tears omniscience combo, this looks like it could come together into a T1 deck
- Gruul Dinos
- Chandra tribal, I think the izzet version is quite there -But a big Red also could do the trick, probably with a light Elementals sub theme
Dunno if I'm missing something but this has being pretty fun so far.

EDIT: Still dunno if any of this decks beat Esper Hero or Nexus -probably don't- Also I think we might see RDW back if Nexus becomes prevalent... and Vampires will have something to say in the current standard the deck can be quite grindy and has access to duress and Despark on the SB

I think it's a bit premature. I've not played Standard since M20, but looking at streams, it could be that Manipulation also received a buff - especially Risen Reef (although having to run the 0/3 ramp dude sucks), and Cavalier which is strong against Esper.

As usual I'd wait to see how the meta shakes out

Simic got the biggest buff overall, Risen Reef is one hell of an engine and Brought from Dreams is just insane it even bypass Narset, Chevalier of Thorn and Flood of Tears. This deck has tools to durdle for ages... Its only time until someone figures out the most obscene thing you can do, is either Nexus, Mass manipulation or just Attrition.

It does look like Simic got the biggest buff overall but Simic Ramp has glaring weaknesses compared to Bant ... the biggest are 1) more vulnerable to counterspells, 2) not much cheap removal (Bant has Ixalan's Binding or Baffling End), 3) can't gain life (aka. Tolsimir & Lyra, which gain life much better than Krasis), and 4) crushed by Nexus in game 1. These are substantial weaknesses.

I'm beginning to talk myself into iterating on Bant Ramp again even though I traditionally wait for the meta to shake out ...

Most-improved card in the new meta appears to be Hostage Taker. All these new decks have creatures that are vulnerable to it.