Brewing decks is a large part of Magic: The Gathering. While one certainly does not need to be a good brewer to succeed in competitive MTG, talented brewers can have the earliest access to good, even broken decks and so are best positioned to maximize their use before the rest of the player base catch on (or the banhammer falls).

There are several misconceptions about brewing that I encounter. One is that “brewing is easy; many decks build themselves.” While it may be true that someone can just slap together all the elementals of a set and call it an elemental deck, it is unlikely that this list will actually end up as the best, or even as a working elemental deck in the meta. The actual deck that makes it may be dozens of cards away from the most obvious build. Brewing takes effort and time, and a lot of testing. That said, there are I believe, people who are naturally gifted brewers; people who look at a new set and are able to put together a winner even with little or no testing. Some of these people look back after the meta finally settles and say to themselves (or others), “Hey, that’s the exact deck I was thinking about before.” If you are such a gifted deck builder, then this contest is for you.

I would like to present, the first Death by Variance MTG Brewing Challenge. This is an open invitation for gifted brewers everywhere to take a crack at what the meta will look like with the release of Theros Beyond Death. The goal is simple: brew one of the best decks for this new meta… before anyone else does.

Mechanics

The mechanics are straightforward. Brew a new standard deck (I will get to what is “new” in a bit); a deck that you believe will become one of the new contenders in the MTG standard meta, and post your brew in the comments of this entry. I will be abiding by the timestamps of those posts for determining who posted what list first. Each person can only have one entry. You can identify yourself in the comment by logging in or referring to your handle in either Reddit of the MTGA Forums.

You can post your entry now and until TBD is released on MTG Arena. No further entries will be accepted after TBD has released which is on January 24 January 16.

Criteria for winning

In order for your brew to be considered “new,” it should not be derivative of any of the existing top decks in the standard meta. Derivative is technically defined for the purpose of this contest as being classified under the same name by the Standard Metagame page of MTG Goldfish which is found here:

For purposes of this contest, those top decks are identified as follows:

Jeskai Fires

Jund/Golgari Food

Rakdos/Mardu Knights

Rakdos Aristocrats

White Weenie

Simic Ramp

Simic Flash

UW Control

RG/BG/Temur Adventure

The winning list will be based on the top decks on MTG Goldfish at the conclusion of Magic Fest Detroit which happens on March 13-15. This is the second Magic Fest after TBD releases for which the format is Standard (Magic Fest Lyon happens the week before). In order to win, your list must be among the top 3 in the MTG Goldfish list (excluding all of the decks that were previously mentioned). For example, suppose the list says Jund Sacrifice 16%, Jeskai Fires 10%, “New Enchantment Deck” 8%, “New Devo deck” 6%, then “New Enchantment Deck” and “New Devo deck” both become possible lists that can get you to win. You can claim that your list is the same as this new deck if your list shares at least 80% of its main deck, not counting basic lands, based on at least one of the posted lists under that deck.

Prize and Tie Breakers

Right now, I can only guarantee a prize for one winner. The prize is a modest $20 (paid through PayPal). Ties will be broken (in order) as follows.

The “new” list with the highest meta share on MTG Goldfish wins. For example, if “New Enchantment Deck” has 8% share while “New Devotion Deck” has 6%, the enchantment deck wins.

Between two lists that are the same best deck (for example, both are “New Enchantment decks”), the winner is the list that was submitted first.

I am working on getting more prizes. If anyone wants to pledge additional prizes for the event, they are free to contact me about it.

May the shuffler be with you!