Two weeks and three major events after the banning of Field of the Dead, our initial impressions of the new Standard format were confirmed: Blue/Green-based food decks have taken over Standard as we head into Mythic Championship VI this weekend.
When Wizards of the Coast banned Field fo the Dead two weeks ago, they acknowledged that it wasn’t the only card that was causing problems in Standard. “[W]e’re aware of a few other community concerns regarding the Standard environment,” they said, “including that early acceleration into planeswalkers can be frustrating and that the color green is strong across a variety of Standard archetypes.”
However, Wizards wanted to ban the most problematic card and see how Standard adjusted rather than banning all of the potentially problematic cards at once. “We’ll continue to monitor the health of the environment,” they continued, “but feel it’s important to allow the metagame to adjust to the absence of Field of the Dead before further evaluation. As a philosophy, we prefer that players’ deck-building and metagaming choices drive the evolution of the environment whenever possible, rather than B&R intervention.”
Well, players’ deck-building and metagame choices have provided a clear answer and the UGx Food archetype, featuring Oko, Thief of Crowns, has reached higher levels of dominance than even the Golos decks did.
Last weekend saw two Grand Prix events in Nagoya and Lyon and both had metagames absolutely dominated by UGx Food. In Nagoya, 56.7% of decks that made Day 2 were UGx Food—37.5% Sultai, 17.1% Simic, and 2.1% Bant—and was won by Riku Kumagai on Simic Food.
GP Nagoya metagame breakdown, courtesy of MTGAZone.
Standard Simic Food by Riku Kumagai
| Creatures (20) 4 Brazen Borrower 4 Gilded Goose 4 Hydroid Krasis 4 Paradise Druid 4 Wicked Wolf Spells (7) 3 Aether Gust 4 Once Upon a Time Planeswalkers (8) 4 Nissa, Who Shakes the World 4 Oko, Thief of Crowns | Lands (15) 4 Breeding Pool 1 Forest 6 Island 2 Mobilized District 2 Temple of Mystery Sideboard (15) 1 Aether Gust 2 Disdainful Stroke 2 Kraul Harpooner 2 Mystical Dispute 1 Negate 1 Thrashing Brontodon 3 Veil of Summer 3 Voracious Hydra |
While in Lyon, 41.7% decks in Day 2 were UGx Food—28.8% Sultai Food, 8.6% Simic Food 4.3% Bant—and was won by Antoine Lagarde on Bant Food.
Courtesy of ChannelFireball
Standard Bant Food by Antoine Lagarde
| Creatures (15) 4 Gilded Goose 3 Hydroid Krasis 4 Paradise Druid 4 Wicked Wolf Spells (12) 3 Aether Gust 2 Growth Spiral 3 Mass Manipulation 4 Once Upon a Time Planeswalkers (8) 4 Nissa, Who Shakes the World 4 Oko, Thief of Crowns | Lands (25) 4 Breeding Pool 2 Castle Vantress 4 Hallowed Fountain 4 Temple Garden 6 Forest 5 Island Sideboard (15) 1 Mystical Dispute 2 Negate 3 Teferi, Time Raveler 3 Thrashing Brontodon 2 Veil of Summer 4 Voracious Hydra |
Leading into the weekend, seven of the eight players in the Magic Pro League’s Pearl Division played UGx Food—six Sultai Food and one Simic Food—with Shota Yasooka winning the division with Simic Food.
Standard Simic Food by Shota Yasooka
| Creatures (22) 4 Gilded Goose 4 Paradise Druid 4 Wicked Wolf 4 Hydroid Krasis 2 Questing Beast 4 Brazen Borrower Spells (6) 4 Aether Gust 2 Once Upon a Time Planeswalkers (8) 4 Nissa, Who Shakes the World 4 Oko, Thief of Crowns | Lands (24) 5 Island 3 Temple of Mystery 2 Mobilized District 4 Breeding Pool 10 Forest Sideboard (15) 2 Negate 3 Veil of Summer 1 Questing Beast 2 Voracious Hydra 4 Lovestruck Beast 1 Disdainful Stroke 2 Mystical Dispute |
Every single UGx Food deck is built on a core of four copies each of Gilded Goose, Paradise Druid, Oko, Thief of Crowns, and Nissa, Who Shakes the World, as well as up to four copies of Hydroid Krasis. There are some slight variations, like playing a third color or the number of copies of Once Upon a Time, but each Food deck’s plan is to play an early Oko or Nissa and finish the game with a large Hydroid Krasis.
Aside from pure metagame percentage, the dominance of these UGx Food decks is belied by the number responsive sideboard cards players are including in their maindecks. All three winning lists above have Aether Gust in the main, which can only target Green or Red spells, and many Sultai Food decks maindeck Noxious Grasp, which can only destroy Green or White creatures or Planeswalkers, specifically as answers to the extremely powerful Green cards in opposing Food decks. The maindecking of narrow sideboard cards like these is a strong indication that something is wrong with the Standard format.
While one week’s worth of results aren’t enough to justify a ban—and Wizards announced last week that they would not be making an emergency ban ahead of Mythic Championship VI—two weeks worth of Oko-fueled UGx Food dominance is extremely worrisome. The next Banned and Restricted announcement is scheduled for November 18, 2019, a week after Mythic Championship VI, and if the Food archetypes continue to dominate, it seems likely that next Monday’s announcement will contain more bannings.