The Field: July 2019 CT Metagame Breakdown

Welcome back to The Field, our monthly breakdown of the archetypes present from most recent NRG Series CT. Nearly 150 people showed up to try and take home part of the $5000 prize pool, and they brought nearly 60 unique archetypes to do so. Here’s a look at the most popular decks in the field:

Modern has gone through two major changes since our last CT: the introduction of the London Mulligan rule and the release of Modern Horizons. UW Control, the most popular deck from the May CT representing nearly 13% of the metagame didn’t appear among the top six most popular decks and now only represents just 3% of our metagame. Conversely, Izzet Phoenix has only gotten more popular, increasing from about 7% of the metagame to nearly 11%. Jund, thanks to Wrenn and Six, has also overtaken the part of the metagame represented in May by Golgari Midrange. Let’s take a look at what’s happening among the “Other” decks, representing over a third of the field:

Former modern regulars, such as Burn, Merfolk, Living End, and Mardu Pyromancer each only had two pilots on the day, but Modern Horizons has really opened up the bottom half of the field. Snow-covered lands have become a powerhouse in the format, represented here in Prison decks (Skred Red, Chandra Stompy), Control decks (Sultai Reclamation, UW Control), Aggro decks (UW Death & Taxes), and Combo decks (Temur Snowshift, Simic Taking Turns). Additionally, some individual cards in Modern Horizons have created new archetypes around them, such as Undead Augur in Orzhov Zombies, Lightning Skelemental in Jund Elementals, Giver of Runes in Bant Infect, and Ice-Fang Coatl in, well, every deck that can feasibly cast it. Here’s a look at some of our favorite decklists from the July CT that didn’t quite crack the Top 16:

Dale GamezMardu PyromancerExport to:
Sam BrownCitadel StormExport to:
Jacob Bylon Grixis ControlExport to:
Cameron Byrum RambergDimir MillExport to:
Tetsuya Akutsu Simic Taking TurnsExport to:
Jack Julian UW Death & TaxesExport to:
Dean HomanChandra StompyExport to:
Alex ZurawskiBTL SnowshiftExport to:

 

Mitch WeisrockJeskai SaheeliExport to:
Asa SnyderBant MidrangeExport to:
Phil SilbermanOrzhov ZombiesExport to:
Brandon SearleJund ElementalsExport to:
John McCarrollRG EldraziExport to:

Thanks for reading The Field! We’ll be back next month with a look at the metagame from the $5000 Modern CT in Cedar Rapids, IA. Until next time!

Max Kahn is the Event Manager for the NRG Series and the Judge Manager for all Nerd Rage Gaming events. When he’s not answering your judge calls or working behind the scenes at your local event, he splits his time between Chicago, Seattle, and Twitter.

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Max Kahn