One Particular Deck Dominated Magic: The Gathering Players Tour Metagame

On June 1st, Magic: The Gathering banned the cards Agent of Treachery and Fires of Invention from the Standard format. The two cards combined with the Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths Planeswalker Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast and Companion Yorion, Sky Nomad to form an almost unbeatable combination that restricted Standard deck diversity and player enjoyment. Many were glad that the two problem cards got the axe. On the other hand, some pointed out that another four-mana Enchantment card, Wilderness Reclamation, wrongly escaped the ban announcement.

Now, two weeks later, it looks like those players may have been correct. According to Magic: The Gathering‘s website, Wilderness Reclamation completely dominated the first two online Players Tour events.

Wilderness Reclamation decks comprised a whopping 40.5% of decks registered for the first Players Tour event that began on Saturday. 79 players pegged their hopes on the Enchantment, while nearly a third of that number chose to play the second most popular deck, Jund Sacrifice. The third most played deck, Bant Ramp, made up less than 10% of decks registered by the 195 Magic Players Tour participants.

Six copies of the Temur Reclamation deck eventually made Top 8. Twitter user @ajlvi, one of the people behind the MTG Elo Project website that tracks competitive Magic results, commented on this historic dominance as so:

In the 24-year history of the PT, no card had ever put 32 copies into a top 8. Today we had 32 Growth Spirals, 32 Breeding Pools, 31 Fabled Passages. #PTArena1

— ajlvi (@ajlvi) June 14, 2020

Temur Reclamation’s grip on the Standard format continued into the second Players Tour event of the weekend. Out of 242 players, 71 played Wilderness Reclamation and contributed to the deck’s 29.34% metagame share on Day 1. Again, this figure was almost triple that of the second most played deck, which this time was Sultai Ramp. Four copies of the deck made Top 8 in the second event.

The Temur Reclamation deck has been around since the release of the Enchantment in Ravnica Allegiance over a year ago. Versions of the deck have been at or near the top of the metagame at various points since then. Now, it seems that the banning of Fires of Invention eliminated the only deck capable of holding back Reclamation’s power.

Unless something crazy happens, Wilderness Reclamation will still be legal during next weekend’s scheduled Players Tour events. Competitors hoping for diversity in the Standard metagame will surely be disappointed for the time being, then, and if you want to do well at the PT, you’ll have to find a way to beat Temur Reclamation, or join the majority playing the deck.