Magic: The Gathering Mythic Invitational Decks Revealed For Group A & B

Day one of the $1 million Mythic Invitational for Magic: The Gathering has come to an end, and decklists have been released. We get to see how each player planned on beating their opponents and compare them side by side. You can check them out by clicking here. All of the decks were played in the Best of 1 Standard format on Magic Arena, and each competitor brought two different decks to the event.

First, let's take a look at the overall picture. As seen in coverage, there were a lot of Esper control decks as well as fast aggro decks. The majority of non-red aggro decks had anthem effects to counter mono-red's Goblin Chainwhirler and gain an upper hand over other aggro decks.

The control decks usually included Nezahal, Primal Tide. They featured Planeswalkers or Nezahal, but there didn't appear to be a lot of overlap with both. There is only one deck that uses both Planeswalkers and Nezahal. There were also a few control decks that were black/green and only a few that were not in the aforementioned decks. The decks of those who made it to the Top 16 were very similar to each other.

There were a lot of super-fast, red aggro decks that were based around being able to play cards from the top of the deck. The main goal of these decks is to out-tempo the opponent. For these decks Experimental Frenzy and Light up the Stage were common. There was some variation within the red aggro when competitor Ondrej Strasky added Legion War Boss and Skewer the Critics.

Here's a look at one of the many Esper Control Decks:

Some unexpected and fun decks were the Naya Angels deck and Temur Reclamation control deck used by player Jesstephan and the blue/green disruptive aggro used by streamer MTGNerdGirl.

Overall, the decks that were most successful were those that were predicted by pro players Luis Scott Vargas and Matt Nass prior to the event, those that were mono-color or Esper decks. They were decks that made the game quick. This was a good strategy because of the lack of knowledge about what type of deck the opponent would bring. By Sunday, we will see which deck trumps them all (at least for now) when playing Duo Standard.

For a full look at all of the decks being played during the Mythic Invitation look here, and for more articles on a breakdown of the overall bracket look here.

Did you enjoy day one of the Magic: the Gathering Mythic Invitational? Leave us a comment below!