Simic Ramp Comes Out on Top in Both Aetherhub Release Tournaments Yesterday

Congratulations to all the competitors in yesterdays Aetherhub release tournaments, with an extra congratulations to the winners Madonai and Will. These tournaments were some of the first major events after the release of Theros, and a lot of eyes were awaiting the results to hopefully get some clarity on the meta game. The top 5 actually varied quite a bit from one tournament to the next, with the glaring exception of Simic Ramp coming out on top in both events. Here is the leaderboard for both tournaments, as well as the top 4 decks from each!

(This leaderboard is a screengrab, for the interactive page click here)

Tournament #1 Top 4 Decks

1) Simic Ramp by Will

2) Azorius Control by theshehl

3) Bant Control by Jkyuk

4) Azorius Control by MTG_Daymion

Tournament #2 Top 4 Decks

1) Simic Ramp by Madonai

2) Sultai Graveyard by HGRose_

3) Temur Reclamation by cas9

4) Red Deck Wins by ttruble56

As you can see we have some pretty fascinating results which leads to the conclusion the meta is still wide open. In tournament #1 we had 3 Azorious Control and a Bant control rounding out the top 5, while in tournament #2 neither of those archetypes made the top 8. Some other notable results include the lack of success by Esper and Mono Black Devotion, two archetypes which were anticipated to be very powerful after the first few days of Theros.

The two Simic Players proved the deck is still the top dog however, and some of the new cards like Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath are just as good as advertised. Both our winners decks appear to be inspired by Andrea Mangucci's Simic Ramp deck from the last Mythic Championship, and this tried and true archetype clearly still holds up!

Outside of the top 4, there were some other pretty sweet decks which posted high results I would like to recognize.

First, we have Hush Titan by Emdrazi which finished 5th-8th in tournament #2.

This deck attempts maximize the value of Hushbringer by using it as both an offensive and defensive weapon. On defense, it shuts down the abilities of many popular cards in the meta right now. I have found this card specifically good against Simic Ramp decks, as it prevents a lot of the powerful cards in the deck from activating such as Risen Reef , Cavalier of Thorns , Agent of Treachery and End-Raze Forerunners . Additionally, many other decks like Mono Black Devotion and Temur Elementals are also severly affected. On offense, it allows you to play Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger as a creature right away without having to sacrifice it, and Clackbridge Troll without giving your opponent three goat tokens to sacrifice. A really sweet deck I think has a lot of potential!

Next I would like to shout out Orzhov Doom by Zorratsu.

This deck is an ambitious evolution of Esper Stax, minus the whole Esper part. That means the deck does not run Dance of the Manse , Omen of the Sea , Dream Trawler and any other blue cards you typically see with the strategy. Instead, Zorratsu opted for cards such as Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis , Cavalier of Dawn and Liliana, Dreadhorde General as the top end. As a big fan of the Esper Stax archetype, I love the innovation that Zorratsu brings to the table here. When Doom Foretold gets going its a force to be reckoned with, and Im happy the deck posted a relatively high result!

Thanks to everyone for participating in the tournament, and I am very excited to see what the future of the Theros competitive landscape looks like!