MTG Top 8 Standard Analysis | RCQ

Ladies, Gentleman and Kavu we are due for another Top 8 analysis Standard Edition, this time we are going to Spain, Regional Championship Qualifier at El Nucli Barcelona, RCQs are MTG tournaments as part of the Premier Play Program. This is the First Step in order to make a participation on the World Championship.

5th-8th

Vivi Cauldron – Martí Jordà

First we have our First Vivi Ornitier on the round, paired with Agatha, Soul Cauldron the idea is to have a Vivi removed with the Cauldron and as the late game arrives put counters on creatures with the Vivi ability being able to produce more mana than intended, further manipulating Vivi abiltiy, and to make matters worse it can be put to another Vivi, and the way abilities work each one can be treated differently, and a single Vivi can have more than one (0) ability and use them sequentally, yes that means once the Cauldron is in play its a battle of speed and Fear of Missing Out is a second combat enabler which makes things difficult untapping target creature for another round of attacks.

Simic Aggro – Marcel Sánchez

A really good archetype of Simic, this is the perfect example of early game attrition,Pawpatch Recruit, Spyglass Siren, Llanowar Elves making a great first turn entry, either enabling more damage early, a map token for more topdecking thinking, or a simpler mana guy making the second and third turn more menacing,[ card name=”Jackal, Genius geneticist”] is a great power up creature that will constantly get higher power and toughness on further casts and will copy those spells, si it ends up being a removal target almost immediately, a simple dosage of Ouroboroid that at beginning of combat of your turn will power up creatures with +1/+1 equal to this Wurm Power, so keeping a decent amount of creatures on the table is the way to go, and not to say Innkeeper’s Talent will put a counter at the beginning of your turn, so it can be done first before the Wurm triggers for a better power up.

Jeskai Control – Ferràn Vilà Busquets

Jeskai Control making an appearance, this deck puts pressure on different aspects of the match, early game Authority of the Consuls for a great way to mitigate damage troughtout the match, mid game control with board wipes Day of Judgment and Split Up, also the pressence of Shiko, Paragon of the Way, also in both draw cards and unsummon forms of effects. This deck specializes in messing the opponent gameplans either resetting the board state, drawing cards, unsummon effects and getting the most of Ghost Vaccum at the later stages of the match.

Dimir Aggro – Esteban Ferrari

If you have been playing Standard for some quite time now you probably have been against this archetype of Dimir Aggro ever since Kaito, Bane of Nightmares released, this deck does well on the first turns setting up a control board with Floodpits Drowner stunning creatures and returning them to library, mid game is when it struggles a bit trying to set up Enduring Curiosity but beyond that, Tishana’s Tidebinder is a great form of cards in play control negating outright effects of planeswalkers or cards controlling the attrition on the board.

3rd-4th

Mono Green Aggro – Fernando Peñalba Solís

Mono Green Aggro entering the Top 4 of this list, a high energetic speedy attacks on the first turns by Tiffa Lockhart or a second turn Mossborn Hydra that turns into a possible 16/16 third turn paired with Icetill Explorer with an additional land play each turn, this deck focuses on Landfall Triggers and Bristly Bill, Spine Sower is able to duplicate +1/+1 counters.

Dimir Aggro – Guillem Valle

Very similar to our previous Dimir aggro This one Guillem Valle focuses on more removal and control spells and a non-archetypical sideboard, Ghost Vacuum exiling cards as the game goes on and when the games comes to a halt on board resets and hit the Vacuum reset button for an reappearance of those creatures that were being removed turn by turn. this Dimir archetype focuses on not so lethal combat strikes a slow but certain death.

2nd Place

Soul Cauldron – Arnold Perugachi

Our second Vivi deck of the article, this further reflects on the Vivi Cauldron situation making things for the worse as everybody prepares their sideboard for an almost certain Vivi matchup, a high amount of players just playing the Vivi Cauldron archetype, the only difference for Arnold Perugachi to be running a single Tersa, Lightshatter, I don’t find it a particular reason for Tersa being the differentiator on our previous Vivi in the list, both this decks are practically running the same deck but running quite different sideboards, so in practice it might be a sideboard tech, just food for thought.

1st Place

Red Deck Wins – Yago Vera

Despite the last ban efforts in diminishing Mono Red strong pressence Mono Red is still strong, well kudos to Yago Vera making it 1st Place with Mono Red, not the hate gang what it used to be but a trade on the Burnout Bashtronaut, Hired Claw, Emberheart Challenger is still running the early turns gang Razorkin Needlehead being a hategang newcomer since the ban, a surprising single card Stingerback Terror, a 7/7 dragon that has -1/-1 per card in hand, as this deck archetype ends up being really fast, so getting a 7/7 dragon on play either by 4 mana or plot by 3.

Final Thoughts

There’s always a reason why I pick this particular list, the presence of only 2 Vivi decks or 2 copies of each archetype, so this is a good varied Top 8 standings despite the current overrun Vivi meta, but we will see any further changes on November 10th on the next banlist updates, I foresee the Agatha’s Soul Cauldron getting banned or restricted at the very least, and not to touch Vivi core so much and remain a functional archetype maybe just ditch the artifact and focus on a more sequential power up for Vivi.

Until then Ladies, Gentlemen, and Kavus, Code is out for now, see you around for more upcoming News and spoilers on the upcoming sets.