The Arena season is now over. A lot has changed within Standard since my last article. Gruul won the Mythic Championship in the hands of Javier Dominguez, Field of the Dead was banned and Oko, Thief of Crowns has taken its place atop the Standard pile. (I guess he really has stolen crowns.)
With my quest to reach Mythic not over, it was time to re-hit the ranked queues before the ladder reset at the end of October. At the end of my last article, I reached Gold 1; while that is an improvement from where I started, Mythic remained a long way off.
After taking the weekend off, my quest continued on Monday the 21st, following the announcement that Field would be banned starting the 24th. The announcement meant that Gruul’s triumph the previous day would not last much longer, because Gruul built its success by beating Field of the Dead. Thus began a race to see how far I could progress during the final three days of the pre-ban metagame. After the 24th, I would have to find a new deck to continue my climb.
This is where problems began to appear—Gruul was now a known quantity. Opponents knowing 95% of the deck meant that surprise Embercleaves were no longer possible, Domri’s Ambush would very rarely succeed, and Wildborn Preserver would never grow. Golos still appeared on the ladder, but players began shifting to new decks to prepare for the post-ban metagame shift. I managed to hit platinum, but progress slowed to a crawl.
Once the ban took effect, I put my trusty Gruul deck away. Fortunately, the wild cards provided for Field of the Dead went straight into crafting four Wicked Wolf. Now I had the full deck for Bant Ramp:
Bant Ramp BO1
| Creatures (26) 4 Gilded Goose 4 Paradise Druid 2 Leafkin Druid 4 Hydroid Krasis 3 Deputy of Detention 4 Wiicked Wolf 4 Questing Beast 1 Agent of Treachery Spells (10) 4 Oko, Thief of Crowns 4 Nissa, Who Shakes the World 2 Once Upon a Time | Lands (24) 3 Fabled Passage 4 Breeding Pool 4 Temple Garden 4 Hallowed Fountain 6 Forest 2 Island 1 Plains |
With Oko ramp decks emerging shortly before the ban, I knew I wanted to play a deck revolving around Nissa, Who Shakes the World and Oko, Thief of Crowns. The list seemed perfect: it provided versatile answers with Deputy of Detention and Agent of Treachery, while also playing the core ramp shell that is so effective against aggro and control.
Post-ban my fortunes did not change, with progress minimal. After playing over 35 games with the deck over the course of a few days, I was sitting at around a 54% winrate. Reaching Mythic seemed to be out of reach.
So in the last week, I decided to change my plan of attack. On the advice from a friend, I switched to Best of Three and swapped decks. Playing with sideboards would help me leverage my skill while relying less on winning dice rolls. It would also be a better representation of how the decks play out in paper Magic. Taking to Twitter, I came across the a list I liked.
Sultai Food BO3
| Creatures (18) 4 Gilded Goose 4 Paradise Druid 4 Wicked Wolf 4 Hydroid Krasis 2 Massacre Girl Planeswalkers (10) 4 Oko, Thief of Crowns 4 Nissa, Who Shakes the World 2 Vraska, Golgari Queen Spells (8) 4 Once Upon a Time 4 Noxious Grasp | Lands (24) 4 Fabled Passage 4 Breeding Pool 4 Watery Grave 4 Overgrown Tomb 5 Forest 2 Swamp 1 Island Sideboard (15) 4 Lovestruck Beast 1 Massacre Girl 1 Tamiyo, Collector of Tales 2 Veil of Summer 1 Legion’s End 1 Disdainful Stroke 3 Mystical Dispute 2 Casualties of War |
As the format warped around Oko, Noxious Grasp became a main-deckable card. I also liked the addition of Vraska, Golgari Queen—not only a good answer to Oko, but also a draw engine when combined with your own Oko.
While I did not give up hope of reaching Mythic, I adjusted my aim to hit Diamond. It would still be a respectable effort to climb from Silver to Diamond, but with only five days of the season left I was not optimistic.
Heading into the ladder, the Sultai deck really began to shine. Sultai Food really impressed: converting Witch’s Ovens into 3/3 elks, ramping into turn three Nissas, and milling out Temur Reclamation players. There were no matchups that felt unwinnable and, of course, Oko, Thief of Crowns is truly a busted card. In one evening I climbed from Platinum 3 into high Platinum.
Then in the space of four hours on the 28th, I amassed an incredible 94% win rate with the deck, storming through Diamond dropping only one match. Reaching Mythic 98%, my goal for this mini series had been accomplished with three days to spare!
Could I manage to hit top 1,200 to earn a spot in the Mythic Championship Qualifier? It would be a challenge with a full time job, but with the luck i had been riding it was possible. In the final days I was able to climb briefly into the top ranked spots, but a losing streak at the end knocked me back down to 95%. So close, and yet so far.
While the run ended with a sour note, I’m incredibly proud of my performance this month. I hit Mythic in my first month! While I couldn’t also grab that Mythic Championship Qualifier slot, I have a good target for next month.
Daniel Roberts (@Razoack) is a UK based player writing about all things Standard. Playing since the release of Gatecrash, he loves nothing better than travelling to European GPs with friends and losing in the feature match area. His best record is 12-3 at GP Barcelona 2017, but he’s aiming for that one more win.