The competitive peak of Magic’s Final Fantasy expansion has arrived! Pro Tour Final Fantasy is, without a doubt, the biggest Standard event this season. Pro Tour metagames commonly shape formats for months to come and have been the determining factor in banning many of Magic’s most controversial, broken archetypes.
That last note is the most important one for this particular Pro Tour. Some of Magic’s biggest boogeymen haven’t had a metagame representation even close to Standard’s Izzet Prowess. This might be one of the most lopsided Pro Tours in recent history.
Standard Needs Help
At Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3, Nadu Combo, one of the strongest Magic decks the game has ever seen, had roughly a 26% metagame share. This dwarfed the previous Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis metagame representation of about 21%. Both of these decks were considered problematic to the point of receiving bans, and Izzet Prowess is way worse.
42.3% of Pro Tour Final Fantasy’s metagame is Izzet Prowess. That’s more than double the representation of Hogaak from the infamously dubbed ‘Pro Tour Hogaak’ event. To quote MTG Hall-of-Famer Frank Karsten, Izzet Prowess “boasts the highest share of any deck since the Pro Tour’s return in 2023, surpassing even Esper Midrange’s 31.4% showing at Pro Tour Thunder Junction.”
While Cori-Steel Cutter, Stock Up, and friends remain central to Izzet Prowess’s strategy since the release of Tarkir: Dragonstorm, Final Fantasy’s Vivi Ornitier is a significant addition to an already problematic archetype. 91% of Izzet Prowess players have added Vivi to their deck, backing the card’s explosive power. This unlocks massive turns where Prowess players can chain a ton of draw spells, burning out the opponent in one go. Vivi Ornitier also dodges the biggest anti-Prowess card in the format: Temporary Lockdown.
In terms of Final Fantasy cards appearing at the Pro Tour, Vivi is the clear frontrunner, with a staggering 374 copies. A majority of Izzet Prowess players appear to be playing 2-3 copies of Vivi in their deck, and most of those appear in the main deck. There are some others to watch for, like Dark Confidant, but Vivi clearly shines above the rest.
Izzet Prowess was already the most powerful deck in Standard, and it got an upgrade powerful enough to see even Modern play. Standard players likely expected Izzet Prowess to be the tournament’s frontrunner, but perhaps not by quite this much.
A Large Ban Announcement?
The outrageous metagame percentage for Izzet Prowess sorely suggests that the archetype will need a ban in the coming days. This metagame representation, at least in the current era of Pro Tours, is unprecedented. Unless Izzet Prowess performs horribly, players should expect a ban for the archetype at the end of the month. Sadly, the problem doesn’t quite end there.
Izzet Prowess aside, Omniscience combo and Mono-Red Aggro both make up a decent percentage of the metagame. Of these three decks, Mono-Red Aggro might be surprisingly well-positioned for this tournament. The variant running maindeck Magebane Lizards has a notably positive matchup going into Izzet Prowess, and Vivi Ornitier is unlikely to change much. Omniscience combo, in comparison, is typically slightly unfavored against Prowess, but not a bad choice for players who don’t want to play mirrors all day.
Pro Tour Vivi is a name that’s quickly beginning to float around the community, and with how massive of a metagame representation Izzet Prowess has, it’s hard to deny that. Even past the Prowess problem, however, the top three decks in this tournament represent 72% of the metagame. This has a lot of players talking about the need for extensive bans going into Standard’s rotation.
Banning cards out of just Izzet Prowess might not be enough if one of these other decks just fills the void. It’s also important to note that, in a way, Izzet Prowess is also keeping Dimir Midrange in check. That deck tends to beat all of the other decks, except maybe Red, and has a very strong Omniscience matchup. That deck could also become an issue should Izzet be forced to step away from the metagame.
Hopefully, this metagame representation is all the proof Wizards of the Coast needs to make some extensive bans on June 30th. That said, we still have a tournament to play, and if a rogue deck takes down the whole thing, Standard’s metagame may be upended in a way that no one expected.