Where to Watch
The Strixhaven Championship occurs starts on Friday, June 4th and ends on Sunday, June 6th. It starts at 12:00 pm EST on each of the three days. The tournament can be watched on Magic's official Twitch channel here: Magic Twitch
Tournament Structure
The Strixhaven Championship is attended by all members of both professional leagues (MPL and Rivals), along with qualifying Challenger players. Both traditional (best-of-three) Standard and Historic are played at the Strixhaven Championship. The players submit one decklist for Standard and one for Historic and cannot change their decklists after submitting. In other words, they play with the exact same Standard deck for all the Standard rounds, as for Historic. Below is a more specific analysis of what to expect from each of the three days of the Strixhaven Championship.
Day One (Friday, June 4th)
Day One consists of seven rounds of swiss. For those unfamiliar, swiss means that the players play whoever is their same record: for example, if you currently have three wins and two losses, you will play against another person with three wins and two losses. The first three rounds of Day One are Historic, while the other four rounds are Standard.
Day Two
All of the players' wins, losses, and "tie-breakers" are carried into Day Two. On Day Two, there are eight swiss rounds, with the first four being Historic and the last four being Standard. After that, the top eight is chosen based on record and "tie-breakers".
For those unfamiliar, tie-breakers in MTG are used to determine which players with the same record place higher in standings. These are determined based on the quality of their opponents. If the opponents that they faced do better, they have better tie breakers, and vice versa. Thus, it is generally more favorable for players to lose later rather than earlier in the tournament (since players may just drop the tournament if they lose several early rounds in a row).
Day Three
Day Three is played entirely in Historic. It is only for the top eight players in the tournament. The top eight works as a double-elimination bracket. In addition, the final match is a best two-out-of-three matches match.
Generally, the most exciting games occur on the last day of the tournament, as that is the top eight players competing for the top prize. So if you are limited on time, I recommend watching the game on Sunday, especially if you have MTG Fantasy players in the top eight.
Meta Analysis
Whenever a new set is released, the meta for the constructed formats typically changes, as new cards can create new decks. Knowing the decks that are good can help one decide which MTG Fantasy players are better pickups, as some players may focus on one deck over the other in their practices leading up to the tournament.
Standard
The Standard meta has not changed much since Strixhaven has been released. The top decks in the format are still relatively the same. Below is the list of decks and their archetype below.
- Temur Adventures (Midrange)
- Gruul Adventures (faster Midrange)
- Rogues (faster Midrange)
- Sultai Ultimatum (Control)
- Mono-Red Aggro
- Mono-White Aggro
Historic
Like Standard, Historic did not change a lot due to Strixhaven. That said, Historic had some additional exclusive cards added to the format, giving it a lot more power. Specifically, Faithless Looting and Brainstorm are recent additions that changed the format a lot.
Below is a list of the most prominent decks to watch out for in the format.
- UW(r) Control
- Gruul Aggro
- Auras (Aggro)
- GW Company (faster Midrange)
- Rogues (faster Midrange)
- Jund Sac (faster Midrange)
- Oracle Pact (combo deck)
- Storm (combo deck)