The Sapphire Division MPL pros have predominantly chosen Simic and Adventure archetypes for the first week of Magic: The Gathering competitive play in the Throne of Eldraine season.
With the release of the Throne of Eldraine (ELD) set on MTG Arena last week, the first pro-level competitive play shows players picking Simic and Adventure archetypes. This is surprising considering many of the pros were hyped over Wolves, Knights, and monocolored aggro prior to ELD being released.
Related: MPL Throne of Eldraine season showcases new MTG Standard meta and rule changes
Simic could arguably be the best ELD archetype in Standard right now. And Lucas Esper Berthoud plans on playing a Food/Ramp version of it in the Sapphire Division this week. The Brazilian MPL pro has put together a deck that uses two of Simic’s biggest planeswalkers, Oko, Thief of Crowns and Nissa, Who Shakes the World.
And if the planeswalkers fail to pop off, Berthoud has a solid backup plan in playing four copies of Questing Beast and three Hydroid Krasis. A party of mana dorks featuring Gilded Goose, Paradise Druid, and Leafkin Druid rounds out the deck.
The Adventure archetype is also taking center stage this week during the MPL Sapphire Division tournament with MTG hall of famer Reid Duke building a Selesnya Adventure deck.
Choosing a go-wide approach, Duke is using Lovestruck Beast in combination with March of the Multitudes, which brings out Venerated Loxodon via convoke. To beef up the line, there’s Trostani Discordant giving all creatures +1/+1 and protection against theft.
As finishers, Duke is using Faerie Guidemother to give creatures like Lovestruck Beast flying and Unbreakable Formation for the lethal go-wide swing.
Piotr Głogowski and John Rolf are also playing the Adventure archetype, taking a high-powered approach with Black removal and graveyard retrieval via Golgari Adventure decks.
Using Edgewall Innkeeper for card draw advantage, Głogowski is also playing three copies of the highly-disruptive Rankle, Master of Pranks. By breaking an opponent’s tempo with Rankle and gaining card draw with every Adventure card cast, Głogowski is using Questing Beast and Lovestruck Beast as finishers.
Rolf, however, decided to take a slightly different approach to the Golgari Adventure.
The MPL Throne of Eldraine season begins this week with the Sapphire Division. Round robin matches are being played now and the top-four ELD season playoffs air this weekend on MTG Twitch at 2pm CT.
