The old saying “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” definitely applies to the current meta in professional Magic: The Gathering. The 32 best players in the world playing in the MTG 2020 Grand Finals have simply chosen to just play the best deck in Standard.
A staggering 72 percent of the Standard metagame is a combination of Omnath Ramp and Four-Color Omnath. Both decks heavily feature Zendikar Rising’s premier card Omnath, Locus of Creation. The past year of Standard featured some powerful decks but Omnath might outdo them all. The last time a card was this prevalent was during Mythic Championship VI, where 69 percent of the metagame was lists centered around Oko, Thief of Crowns.
Omnath is the card to beat going into the 2020 Grand Finals tournament, which takes place from Oct. 9 to 11 on the Magic esports Twitch channel. Today, the decklist breakdown was released on the Magic esports website. Here’s the complete metagame breakdown for Standard at the 2020 Grand Finals.
- Omnath Adventures: 19
- Omnath Ramp: Four
- Rakdos Midrange: Four
- Gruul Adventures: Three
- Dimir Rogues: One
- Temur Adventures: One
Omnath Adventures is favored significantly by players compared to Omnath Ramp for many reasons. Primarily, it’s because Omnath slots well into the Adventures shell, which was already a top-tier deck in Standard.
Historic is a more diverse field at the 2020 Grand Finals, with Omnath making up 34.4 percent of the metagame. Historic has plenty of tools to deal with Omnath. The other established deck, Jund Sacrifice, performed well at the last Mythic Invitational, which bodes well for the strategy. Here’s the complete metagame breakdown for Historic at the 2020 Grand Finals.
- Omnath Ramp: 11
- Jund Sacrifice: Seven
- Four-color Midrange: Six
- Neostorm: Three
- Azorius Control: Two
- Rakdos Arcanist: One
- Mono-Red Goblins: One
- Bant Control: One
Omnath players in Historic preferred a ramp plan over the adventure mechanic. This seems to be the case because Historic has access to Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath, which was recently banned in Standard. Uro is the consistent value piece that’s missing from Standard Omnath lists.
The downfall of Mono-Red Goblins is an interesting storyline going into the tournament. Goblin strategies made up 33.8 percent of the metagame at the last Mythic Invitational but only had one deck make the top eight. The same might happen to Omnath Ramp in Historic. Jund Sacrifice and Four-Color Midrange are generally the same lists that performed well in the previous Mythic Invitational. Four-Color Midrange is the Sultai Midrange shell splashing white for Yasharn, Implacable Earth, who’s static ability completely shuts down Jund Sacrifice.
