Hey Planeswalkers!
Welcome to this week’s Friday Night Meta update! The goal is to equip you faster with information in a fast evolving game, and to get you the right information to help you make the decisions you need to make! This is intended to be a comprehensive view with a lens from Magic the Gathering Arena with impacts from the MTG gaming scene.
On a Personal Note: First off, I truly just want to say thank you, for your friendship, support, and enthusiasm of the contributions I have made as a content creator. I look at you as part of my family, and the VERY reason I do what I do. It is for the love, and enjoyment of this community which has given me sooo much over the course of my life. I think many of us fail to recognize that at times, and one of the things I find to make the MTG community so unique is the multi-generational aspect of its very nature. Something, I am extraordinarily proud of, as there shouldn’t be barriers in my opinion.
For those of you that know me or don’t, here is some quick background. I have been contributing pretty steadily to the community now for the better part over a year. Things have definitely evolved, and I am almost up to 500 videos! Additionally, I have transformed my channel from the invaluable ideas you have shared with me that have evolved into key topics from a daily Top Deck, Weekly Meta Analysis, and Monthly Tier List. Again, it is your loyal support, encouragement, and kind words that I most appreciate. For me, it is a vendetta to always do the best that I can, be an advocate of this community, and certainly right by others ALWAYS!
If you have been with me since the beginning, or recently you know that I don’t get much into my personal life. I do share bits and pieces on Twitch if anything or in the discord server. However, today’s piece is truly unique. I wanted to share with you some heartwarming, and felt personal things, as it will impact my work over the next few weeks. First, I am not going away, however what I strive to do may be interrupted at times, and I hold my value in delivery in high regards.
First, we have made a decision to move. We are uprooting our family, from where we currently reside for some much needed change to our lifestyle. The plan is currently to attempt to sell our house, and hopefully move in some time in August of this year. The second part of this is my wife, and I are blessed to be welcoming our third miracle into our household (and a new planeswalker into this multiverse) also due around August. We couldn’t be more excited!
I wanted to share these personal notes to you to only strengthen my commitment to this community which has given me sooo much. Particularly, in this unprecedented time. I have found many new connections, and don’t take them for granted. I mainly wanted to make you aware that with all this exciting craziness, it may impact some of my contributions. I promise I am not disappearing, and you will know what happened to Mythras if you notice some inconsistencies.
Back to Friday Night Meta:
This week in particular I wanted to have things come full circle, and close out Kaldheim. There are some movements to take a look at for our snapshot, and how to align strategically as we move now towards the Strixhaven standard world.
You can check out the weekly coverage here:
Last Week’s Episode
Last Week’s Piece
April Tier Lists:
Standard BO1 & BO3: Video & Piece
Historic BO1 & BO3: Video & Piece
Week Highlights
It has been a fun, and exciting release of Strixhaven. I have been heads down, focused primarily as a F2P doing sealed and drafting to prep for all the Top Decks coming your way! This week I also released two Tier Lists both for Historic & Standard to also close out Kaldheim. You can check them out above.
Recap
The major item from last week was the re-rise or continued rise of mono red snow aggro in both BO1 & BO3 in the Meta. This is primarily, a natural progression of the format smoothing out off the back of Kaldheim Championship. The big catch for this week was an upshoot in Naya Jengatha Adventures really making waves in some of the recent tournaments.
BO1
Certainly some natural progression and leveling out in the BO1 space this week. There are a few key points in this week’s note to dive into. First is the rise of mono white lifegain again, this is a healthy check in the meta against aggro decks like mono red. Additionally, on the flip side we see rogues backing off a bit in the space.
The next rise in decks is one that has a story for the week. That deck is the naya adventures archetype surging back into the meta. You can read more on this later. This is probably the biggest change up this week in the BO1 space. The last note is really around getting through about 10 days of the season which also runs pretty heavy aggro focused usually for those trying to zoom to #1.
BO3
This week in BO3 there really are three key items. The first is the tight knit race between Sultai Ultimatum and Mono Red Snow aggro. It’s a very close race across the board, and when we drill into the more competitive top end of the tiers, red is emerging again as a clear winner.
The next piece is the recession of dimir rogues. The Arne effect is starting to wear off, as we move further away from the Kaldheim Championship. The last part here is the flip side of the Championship effect and rather the newer impact effect from this past weekend’s events I cover below. These events have led to a rapid rise in Naya Adventures. This is they big upshot this week we will watch going into next week.
Spotlight Deck Strixhaven
This week, since today is really Day One instead of giving you a deck to beat I wanted to highlight a fun top deck! This one is from CGB, who is piloting a Prismari Deck in the Top 500 currently. Hats off to CGB on his very successful Twitch session as well!
Is our traditional beloved Izzet now turned Prismari going to be gas? We will keep an eye on this!
Event Impacts
This past week all focus has been on the new Strixhaven set. There were really no key reports to cover, and so we will keep an eye on the future! If I missed something please feel free to comment & share.
What’s Next
Strixhaven has now been released, and we are at the beginning of the intersection of much change.
I look forward next week to closing out a nice balanced set, and gear up for the ever fast approaching transition we will all begin to navigate.
Feel free to join us in ongoing real-time discussion or to hang out on the discord server.
Sources
I leverage multiple sources like untapped.ggs companion app stats, MTGAzone, Aetherhub, twitter, personal gameplay, tournament matches (mtg melee, magic.gg), this reddit as well as others, personal stats, and consistently hitting Mythic and Mythic Qualifiers.
One last thought I would like to share:
If you have a competitive deck (different than one featured) I am always happy to do a piece on it time permitting. I have several folks that ask, and have done several player featured decks. I rather enjoy this so please don’t hesitate to reach out or ask. I always try to prioritize with the following and timing or relevance – MTGA Rank (1500s)/Top Tournaments down to Plat2Mythic Decks.
One other piece, I have recently started doing collaboration videos. If you are interested please let me know, and I would love to partner!
I wholeheartedly welcome any feedback on how to meet your needs as well as improving your experience! Additionally, for the near term my focus will be on Standard, and I hope to organically add in Historic in the future.
Thank you for your time, and hope you enjoyed this week’s piece!