Presenting the Champions of Season 32

This past week we had the capstone events for this season of both SPDC and MPDC, generally referred to as our WORLDS event. Although the rotation of Standard means that a lot of this past season's metagame won't be directly relevant, I still thought it was worth taking one last look by highlighting the two champions from our WORLDS events. Storm_blade took the trophy in SPDC with his Simic Eldrazi deck, while rremedio1 took the trophy in MPDC with a 4 color Sultai Control deck. Let's take a look at their lists:

Simic Eldrazi

SPDC 34 Champion Storm_blade

Creatures 4 Eldrazi Skyspawner 4 Elvish Visionary 4 It of the Horrid Swarm 4 Primal Druid 4 Scion Summoner 4 Wretched Gryff 1 Monastery Loremaster 2 Eldrazi Devastator 27 cards Other Spells 4 Epic Confrontation 4 Pulse of Murasa 2 Might of the Masses 1 Cathar's Shield 11 cards

Lands 11 Forest 11 Island 22 cards Sideboard 3 Negate 3 Root Out 2 Deny Existence 2 Drag Under 2 Dispel 2 Rabid Bite 1 Bone Saw 15 cards

The strategy of this deck is to play lots of early creatures like Elvish Visionary and Primal Druid, generate mana ramp via the Eldrazi Scions from Eldrazi Skyspawner and Scion Summoner, then leverage all that mana to Emerge either It of the Horrid Swarm or Wretched Gryff, or simply power out the Eldrazi Devastator to overwhelm your opponent. It's mostly a creature-based deck, but it does have a smidgen of removal with Epic Confrontation. It also plays Pulse of Murasa (and Monastery Loremaster as a virtual fifth copy) to keep itself alive and recur its creatures, a couple Might of the Masses to give it an additional angle to win, and a Cathar's Shield to help protect its best creatures from burn-based removal.

Sultai Worlds

MPDC 34 Champion rremedio1

Creatures 4 Elvish Visionary 3 Primal Druid 3 Vulturous Aven 3 Wretched Gryff 2 Eldrazi Skyspawner 2 Pilgrim's Eye 2 Ruin Processor 1 Dutiful Attendant 1 Monastery Loremaster 20 cards Other Spells 4 Pulse of Murasa 4 Reave Soul 3 Oblivion Strike 2 Brilliant Spectrum 2 Complete Disregard 1 Rolling Thunder 17 cards

Lands 5 Forest 4 Evolving Wilds 4 Island 4 Swamp 3 Holdout Settlement 2 Unknown Shores 1 Mountain 23 cards Sideboard 3 Boiling Earth 3 Negate 2 Natural State 1 Caustic Caterpillar 1 Drag Under 1 Duress 1 Monastery Loremaster 1 Roilmage's Trick 1 Rolling Thunder 1 Ruin Processor 15 cards

rremedio1's build relies on a surprisingly similar base of creatures, but having access to Black gives the deck access to a whole host of powerful removal spells like Reave Soul, Oblivion Strike, and Complete Disregard, as well as generating even more sacrifice synergy with the excellent Vulturous Aven. Rather than the big Eldrazi, rremedio instead chose Ruin Processor, which serves a similar role but also sometimes gives you an important boost of Life as well. Brilliant Spectrum is probably the most surprisingly card in the deck, but when you have access to four colors, it becomes quite strong. Finally, it's worth noting that in order to support all those colors, the deck runs two Pilgrim's Eyes as well as Holdout Settlement and Unknown Shores.

Congrats to both Storm_blade and rremedio1 on their victories! I personally can't wait to see what the new format has in store once Kaladesh is released on Magic Online - which, if I recall correctly, starts today!