Update: Watch our recaps of Day 2 and the Top 8 of the Magic World Cup.
On Today’s Minute: Day 1 of the 2017 Magic World Cup is in the books. Energy, Ramunap Red, and UW, oh my!
Day 1 of the 2017 Magic World Cup is in the books. It was a crazy day full of surprising successes and failures and some…not so surprising deck choices.
At the end of 7 rounds, Italy, Belgium, Germany, and Wales were the four undefeated teams. Other notable Day 2 teams are Japan, who have made Day 2 just once out of the five previous World Cups, China, which had never made Day 2 before, and the United States.
Shockingly, Brazil, a team made up of Hall of Famer Paulo Vitor Dama da Rosa and two other Pro Tour winners, Carlos Ramao and Lucas Esper Berthoud, failed to make Day 2. Likewise, Canada fielded a strong team of Eduardo Sajgalik, Kale Thompson, and Lucas Siow, but failed to win more than a single match and thus failed to make Day 2.
To no one’s surprise, the Team Unified Standard metagame was dominated by Energy and Ramunap Red decks.
65 of the 73 teams showed up with an Energy deck, and the Sultai version was the most common choice with 26 copies. Temur was next with 22 copies, while the 4-color version was played by 17 teams. Similarly, 58 of the 73 teams played Ramunap Red, with the old standby Mardu vehicles coming in second with a mere 6 copies in the tournament.
Teams’ third deck choice relied heavily on White, which isn’t present in Energy or Red decks, and Blue, which is a minor color in the Energy decks. Therefore, 58 of the 73 teams showed up with a UW strategy, with 25 of those choosing UW God Pharaoh’s Gift, 17 teams choosing UW Cycling, featuring Drake Haven, and 16 teams choosing UW Approach of the Second Sun.
Day 2 starts Saturday at 3am Eastern, and hour earlier than Day 1, on Twitch at twitch.tv/magic.
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Read Frank Karsten’s 2017 World Magic Cup metagame breakdown here.