This weekend, the Magic Spotlight: Planetary Rotation tournament at SCG Con Orlando took place, showcasing multiple days of high-level Standard. 674 players gathered for the opportunity to win cash, Pro Tour invites, and more. Unsurprisingly, Izzet Cauldron was a dominant force this weekend. After making up 30% of the room for day one, Izzet Cauldron performed so well that the number increased to a whopping 54.1% for day two!
Despite the deck’s incredible performance, though, it didn’t actually win the event. That honor went to mono-red aggro. In addition to the winning deck, four other players in top 16 wielded red aggro. Red aggro proved to be a strong choice to exploit the metagame at hand.
The Winning Decklist
While some red aggro decklists in top 16 featured some unique additions to the archetype, the winning decklist was mostly a stock list. Nonetheless, the pilot boasted an 11-2 record versus Izzet Cauldron on the weekend, which is extremely impressive. This begs the question: what does red aggro do well to attack the best strategy in the format?
First and foremost, mono-red is fast, and plays a lot of creatures that are must answer threats. Hired Claw and Emberheart Challenger both push damage quickly, demanding early removal spells for the opponent to keep pace. Screaming Nemesis is a big hasty creature that lines up well against blockers and damage-based removal, two things the Izzet deck relies on.
In the two-drop slot, Razorkin Needlehead is exceptionally annoying for Izzet to play against. Between Winternight Stories, Steamcore Scholar, and all the other card draw elements that make Proft’s Eidetic Memory tick out of the Izzet shell, Razozrkin Needlehead can deal a lot of noncombat damage over the course of a game.
Of course, as a 2/2 with no built-in protection, you might think Izzet Cauldron is well prepared to answer Razorkin Needlehead on sight. However, because of how prevalent the Izzet Cauldron mirror match is, many Izzet Cauldron players have been trimming cheap removal from the maindeck in favor of other options.
For example, the Izzet Cauldron decklist that got second place in Orlando played zero copies of Torch the Tower in the maindeck. Outside of two copies of Abrade and three copies of Into the Flood Maw, there are no ways to get rid of these assertive red threats when they hit the board. Playing extra copies of Abrade and Quantum Riddler certainly has its upsides in the metagame at large, but the mono-red aggro matchup gets worse.
Once you factor in red aggro’s ability to easily remove Marauding Mako, Steamcore Scholar, and other creatures the Izzet decks rely on in an efficient manner, it makes a lot of sense why the archetype performed well. Add in some copies of Abrade of your own to stop fast combo kills, and you’ve got a solid strategy.
Innovation in the Top 16
Looking into the rest of the top 16 of the tournament, you’ll find four other red aggro players that clearly had success against Izzet Cauldron, too. Interestingly, of these four decklists, three featured even more innovative elements to improve their metagame position.
One decklist in top 8, shown above, alongside two others in top 16 each utilized Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might as a way to combo with numerous other cards. Ojer Axonil pairs perfectly with Razorkin Needhlehead. Any card your opponent draws with both of these creatures out now forces them to take four damage!
Similarly, attacking with Hired Claw will send four damage to your opponent’s dome at minimum. Your burn spells become more threatening, as does Screaming Nemesis’s triggered ability.
To further maximize Ojer Axonil, all three decklists abused Scalding Viper in the two-mana slot. Nearly every card Izzet Cauldron plays triggers Scalding Viper. The top eight decklist goes as far as to play Fanatical Firebrand over Burnout Bashtronaut for the ability to ping your opponent with Ojer Axonil out.
Once again, these play patterns become more reliable when you factor in the lack of removal for the Izzet decks. Ojer Axonil outsizes Abrade and Torch the Tower as well, which is a bonus. Ojer Axonil does line up a bit poorly in the face of Obliterating Bolt in the mirror match, but the upside is definitely there.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Ultimately, it’s refreshing to see at least some innovation amongst the top performing decks in such a large tournament. Mono-red aggro emerging victorious was not on our bingo cards, and it shows that if you have a good gameplan, you can win with a deck other than Izzet.
The problem is that Izzet Cauldron is fully capable of adapting itself. As red aggro grows in popularity, Izzet can add extra removal spells to improve the matchup. Izzet still made up six of the top eight slots and has completely warped the metagame.
Only one player in the top 16 registered something other than Izzet Cauldron or red aggro. If that doesn’t scream that Standard is an unhealthy format, I don’t know what does. With the ban announcement well over two months away, even with the resurgence of red aggro, expect to continue playing against Izzet Cauldron over and over again.
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