MTGA | Friday Night Meta | May 2021 Week 4 | God Speed


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.

This week we saw one major tournament, and the release of Anthology 5 for those historic players!  We are also about to close out the May Strixhaven Season.  I wish you the best of luck in your ranking, casual play, and to have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend here in the US.

I slice and dice weekly data using untapped.ggs companion app for BO1 & BO3 standard, cover a key deck for the week, and we talk about some key meta impacts!

Last Week’s Episode

Last Week’s Piece

(HOT OFF THE PRESS) 

Strixhaven May Tier Lists :

Standard BO1 & BO3: Video & Piece

Mystical Archives May Tier Lists:

Historic BO1 & BO3: Video & Piece

Strixhaven April Tier Lists:

Standard BO1 & BO3: Video & Piece

Week Highlights

I made it through my surgery earlier this week, and am now looking past the last 48 hours plus and doing well.  I was very fortunate compared to past knee surgeries; this one hasn’t been too rough.  However, maybe they just cut out all my nerves the first time!  All in all, doing very well, and appreciate everyone that has been checking in on me.

In Magic & Community News: Most of this week aside from surgery was focused on getting you the top notch Tier List content as we close out the season.  That information is above if you are interested.

 I was unable to stream Tuesday due to surgery; however, I was already back at it yesterday! You can check me out on Twitch here.  We had a blast at least initially going 8-2 with mono white life gain in BO1.  That dang shuffler always pulls you back to even.  What was even more awesome was the fact that I built off this form hitting Mythic on Mobile!  Here is the proof!  I went through pretty much all of Diamond this way, and a great way to do it when you are injured and can’t sit in front of your computer!  I also learned a few nuances I plan to share at a later time while mobile gaming.

We are almost 200 strong in the Discord, and this week there have been debates on the purchasing of Anthology 5, as well as players coordinating fun free tournament play for next weekend!  A couple of the fun decks covered this week were BIG RED, Esper Control, and a fun throwback look at Mono White Enchantments!  Lastly, of course we had to dive into Izzet Dragons because of the massive upshot.  So, the question is does it continue for this week !?!?!

Recap

Mono White Lifegain reagins the coveted #1 in BO1.  The big news is the increased play and focus in both BO1 & BO3 on Izzet Dragons!  The deck has certainly made an impact coming out of the past weeks Strixhaven League Tournament play.  I cover Gruul Aggro as a deck to play.  Additionally, closing out with keeping an eye on Mono White Aggro due to some recent tournament as well as MTGA successes.

Please note: This Week I did another cut in the episode, where I spend a little more time breaking down each tier by itself based on some community feedback.  Please let me know your thoughts!

BO1 

At an aggregate level Boros Winota has regained the crowned title.  Mono White Lifegain primarily continues to trail, and is facing pressure from both Cycling as well as Mono Red Aggro decks.  

Rogues are starting to creep up a bit more in terms of play, however over the last week the big uptick was with Winota.  So, if you are looking to beat the meta take note of the top four played decks above and position accordingly.  This should help aid you as you close out the May season!

BO3

This is always an interesting cut, and this week it isn’t anything less than what we would expect.  Izzet Dragons/Midrange continues on with its upward momentum.  A lot of the other decks in the top 8 also start heading back up in terms of percent played archetypes.  The big thing here is to acknowledge that the decks outside of these ones are being played much less.  Why we see upward traction across the board.

Sultai Ultimatum continues to be at the forefront of the most played decks.  You need to be positioned against this one if you don’t plan to play it, same with Izzet Dragons.  The deck doing well against both of these currently is our friendly Dimir Rogue friends, hint hint.  

All in I would expect some last minute shifts as people race to month end, so be on the ready, and God Speed my fellow planeswalkers!

God Speed – Mono Red Aggro

Mono Red Aggro continues to be a dominating force.  I wanted to share this deck and list this week as many may need a final boost to rank up, or pivot on what they see in the meta!  This was my secret sauce to hitting top 1200 two months ago when I recognized a change, and it allowed me to participate in the MQ.

Deck List

Deck Video

You definitely can change this list up the way you like, however I am still a fan of the Hall Monitor, and it fits well with the theme.

Event Impacts

This weeks feature was an Insights Esports 5K tournament that was both Standard and Historic.  The numbers that were put up are certainly interesting to take a look at.  Even though once again Sultai Ramp/Ult was the key deck it’s win rate was horrible.  I talk about this in the Tier List video.  On the flip side Izzet Dragons crushed it, and mono white aggro continued to do very well.

Also again a shout out to check out a free tournament here if you are interested by a fellow redditor!

What’s Next

We get a smattering of tournaments next week that I look forward to drilling into what could be next!

Feel free to join us in ongoing real-time discussion or to hang out on the  discord server.  You can also find this week’s article here.

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, MTGData,  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, Mythic Unique decks down to Plat2Mythic Decks.  Feel free to hop in the discord server and share your successes or PM/DM me!  Lastly, a great fun way for us to interact is on Twitch where I currently stream x2 a week, and plan to do more in the future.

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!