So… it turns out that all those MTG fans complaining about the state of Standard may have been onto something. Pro Tour Final Fantasy was held at the weekend at Magiccon Vegas, and not only was the top 8 extremely lopsided, Izzet Prowess made up 42% of the field.
In fact there were only two decks in the entire top 8 of the tournament: Izzet Prowess and Mono Red. That's pretty bad in itself, but what flips it from poor to shocking is that these two strategies are extremely similar. They're both aggro decks in red and they even feature several of the same cards.
We've covered both of these archetypes before in our MTG Arena decks guide, and the only major change with the newest MTG set is the addition of Vivi Ornitier for the Prowess build.
Mono Red, same as it ever was, is about attacking with fast, efficient creatures backed up by burn spells and combat tricks, and it uses Bloomburrow's valiant mice to great effect. Its only new card is Self-Destruct, which gives an amusing way to get extra value from a Screaming Nemesis or Heartfire Hero.
Meanwhile, Izzet Prowess is all about non-creature spells and making lots of tokens with prowess. Its allstar card from Tarkir Dragonstorm is Cori-Steel Cutter, an absolutely busted artifact that can pile on a ton of pressure.
Amusingly, the way the top 8 players were paired up meant the final day of the Pro Tour featured mirror match after mirror match, with six bouts where a deck faced off against a nigh-identical clone. Basically the best four Red decks fought each other and the best four Izzet decks fought each other, until the strongest example of each was chosen to go forth to the finals. I don't know who I pity more, the audience who had to watch this or the commentators who had to try and make it interesting.
Ultimately, Mono Red came out on top, with Ken Yukuhiro beating Ian Robb in the final match. The fact the Red players were maindecking several copies of Magebane Lizard - which should definitely be a sideboard card - just to fight off Prowess shows just how warped the Standard MTG format has become. With more than two-fifths of competitors running the same spell-heavy deck, slotting in Magebane made perfect sense.
As the dust settles after the Pro Tour, players are obviously cracking wise about how 'fair and balanced' Standard has become. We're now just waiting for the next MTG banlist update, scheduled for June 30, to come and fix everything.
The question is: what card(s) should be banned. Monstrous Rage sticks out like a sore thumb as a combat trick that is just too good and has powered up every aggressive deck in Standard ever since it came out.
But canning just one card may not be enough. No doubt losing Rage would hurt Mono Red especially, but Izzet Prowess doesn't need this spell as badly and its massive overrepresentation at the weekend indicates that this is the deck Wizards should be targeting the hardest.
Sadly, I don't see any way of nerfing this deck without killing it off entirely. The problem is clear: Cori-Steel Cutter is too good and has to go.
Surely, surely Wizards will make the right decision this time? It's honestly a shame it didn't act sooner. All these endeavours to save paper Standard count for nothing if you don't manage the format effectively.
What format are you playing the most of right now - let us know over at our Discord. You should also check out our great guides to the best MTG commanders and the MTG release schedule.