Before Secrets of Strixhaven even came out, the once balanced Standard metagame had started to show signs of cracking. Izzet started to become more and more dominant as time passed, simplifying the Standard metagame into a tale of two camps. Sadly, new Izzet support cards in Secrets of Strixhaven have only made this problem worse. Judging by the newly released breakdown for the latest Pro Tour, Izzet decks might not be going away anytime soon.
Izzet Will Continue Until Morale Improves
Izzet’s dominance in Standard was hardly a secret coming into this event, but few expected it to be just this dominant. Between Izzet Prowess, Spellementals, Lessons, and the new Maestro deck, 48.9% of the metagame is Izzet decks. Notably, this is an even higher percentage of players than those who registered Badgermole Cub at the last Pro Tour.
While many MTG players knew that Izzet would be a problem in some capacity, this just makes its dominance that much more concerning. Since it wasn’t a secret, there was plenty of time for players to brew around the color pair and bring a meta-breaking deck. The fact that so many pro players didn’t choose to do this shows just how powerful these decks are.
Obviously, players being disheartened about this metagame breakdown is an understatement. While these numbers are better than some players expected, they do indicate to many that yet another Izzet Summer is on the way.
The Not-So Underdog
While Izzet’s metagame share has many concerned, the decks to watch in this Pro Tour might be the green ones. Mono-Green Landfall remains the second-most popular deck, and it might actually be the best choice for this weekend. Not only has the deck taken down many tournaments since the release of Secrets of Strixhaven, but its matchup spread looks great.
Sadly, even if Badgermole Cub does dominate Pro Tour Secrets of Strixhaven, we’d just be back to square one. Players have already grown tired of the Badgermole Cub vs. Izzet metagame, after all. Thanks to this, it’s no wonder that many MTG players are already asking for a shakeup. Some players, in fact, are already going so far as to call for bans to fix the stale state of Standard.
Calls for Bans
Right now, Stormchaser’s Talent seems to be the key card up for debate, and it doesn’t sound unwarranted. Between its aggressive nature and its insane grindy value with Boomerang Basics, this card is a core pillar to many Izzet decks. This ban would still allow some Izzet archetypes to remain competitive, but the dominance of the color combination would be significantly reduced.
Fortunately, should this ban actually be needed, players won’t need to wait long. Thanks to Wizards of the Coast’s new ban windows, Standard’s various Izzet cards could leave the format as early as May 18th. While that date is still a few weeks away, it’s still far better than the five-month lifespan of Vivi Cauldron, which basically killed Standard for a period of time.
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