As expected, Oko, Thief of Crowns and the UGx Food archetype dominated the Standard metagame at Mythic Championship VI, making up 63.1% of the field.
There were two Grand Prix ahead of the Mythic Championship, and both events saw extremely high levels of UGx Food decks. In Nagoya, 56.7% of the field was Food decks, while in Lyon, 41.7% of the field was Food decks. Sultai Food was by far the most popular, followed by Simic and Bant.
Those trends held true at Mythic Championship VI, where 312 of the 495 players (63.1%) registered UGx food—37% chose Sultai, 19% Simic, and 7.1% Bant. Unlike Mythic Championship V, where the best deck (Bant Golos) only put one copy in the Top 8, UGx Food decks made up six of the Top 8 decks at Mythic Championship VI—three Sultai and three Simic—with two Simic Food decks meeting in the finals in the hands of Ondřej Stráský and Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa.
Standard Simic Food by Ondřej Stráský
| Creatures (17) 4 Gilded Goose 4 Hydroid Krasis 4 Paradise Druid 2 Brazen Borrower 3 Wicked Wolf Planeswalkers (7) 4 Oko, Thief of Crowns 3 Nissa, Who Shakes the World Spells (10) 4 Aether Gust 4 Once Upon a Time 2 Mass Manipulation | Lands (26) 4 Breeding Pool 2 Castle Vantress 1 Fabled Passage 10 Forest 7 Island 2 Temple of Mystery Sideboard (15) (15) 4 Veil of Summer 2 Negate 2 Voracious Hydra 1 Gadwick, the Wizened 2 Mystical Dispute 2 Questing Beast 1 Wicked Wolf 1 Nissa, Who Shakes the World |
But Oko, Thief of Crowns was played by plenty of decks outside of the UGx Food archetype—69% of the field played Oko, in fact. The dominance of Green is clear as you scan the Standard metagame above—the Top 5 decks all play Green, and the most popular non-Green deck, Jeskai Fires, was only played by 4.2% of the field.
The most-played cards at Mythic Championship VI confirm just how powerful Green is in Standard, with the seven most-played cards being Green: Once Upon a Time, Gilded Goose, Oko, Thief of Crowns, Wicked Wolf, Paradise Druid, Nissa, Who Shakes the World, and Hydroid Krasis.
The dominance of traditional UGx Food decks overshadowed the success of a less-heralded Food archetype, Sultai Sacrifice, which also features Oko, Thief of Crowns and achieved an impressive 68.2% win rate (in 110 matches).
Sultai Sacrifice leverages the engine formed by Cauldron Familiar, Witch’s Oven, and Trail of Crumbs to drain its opponents out and draw cards. That engine proved difficult for other Food decks to disrupt given their lack of maindeck removal, leading to a 59.4% win rate, while preying on the non-Food decks that were built with the Food decks in mind to the tune of an 82.9% win rate.
Sultai Sacrifice by Thomas Ashton
| Creatures (16) 4 Cauldron Familiar 3 Murderous Rider 2 Wicked Wolf 4 Gilded Goose 3 Massacre Girl Spells (6) 4 Once Upon a Time 2 Noxious Grasp Artifacts (4) 4 Witch’s Oven Enchantments (4) 4 Trail of Crumbs Planeswalkers (6) 2 Vraska, Golgari Queen 4 Oko, Thief of Crowns | Lands (24) 6 Forest 4 Swamp 4 Overgrown Tomb 4 Breeding Pool 4 Watery Grave 2 Castle Locthwain Sideboard (15) 2 Duress 4 Rotting Regisaur 1 Vraska, Golgari Queen 2 Lovestruck Beast 1 Negate 2 Veil of Summer 2 Aether Gust 1 Thrashing Brontodon |
The next Banned and Restricted announcement is scheduled for November 18, 2019, a week after Mythic Championship VI, where Food archetypes continued to dominate after the banning of Field of the Dead. It seems likely that next Monday’s announcement will contain more bannings to address the dominance of the Food archetypes and power level of Green in general.