Players have chosen their Magic: The Gathering decks for Pro Tour Thunder Junction, going with either the Esper Midrange build or a variety of decks that could dethrone the most popular build in Standard.
The first MTG Pro Tour featuring Standard as the main format will take place through Thunder Junction from April 26 to 28, featuring a total prize pool of $500,000 and over 200 players. More cards than ever are legal to play within the Standard format since changes to rotation were initiated for the 2023-2024 season. The meta, however, appears lopsided as 65 of the 207 players decided to bring Esper Midrange to the second Pro Tour. But despite the limited data available heading into the major MTG tournament, Esper Midrange might not be the best deck.
Official decklists for MTG Pro Tour Thunder Junction won’t drop until April 26, but one card many are expected to add to the slew of Esper Midrange builds is Duelist of the Mind. The MTG card honoring world champion Nathan Steuer synergizes with Crimes, a new mechanic from Thunder Junction, and card draw. Boros Convoke, the second most popular deck at Pro Tour Thunder Junction, received a boost from potentially one of the best OTJ cards in the set, Slickshot Show-Off. And the third most popular build, Temur Analyst, is a sleeper deck that could overtake the Standard meta.
Decks like Four-Color Legends and Domain Ramp, along with Mono-Red Aggro and Golgari Midrange are also showing potential heading into MTG Pro Tour Thunder Junction. Standing out from the Pro Tour meta are 15 individual decks that range from Mono-Blue Cauldron and Mono-Black Bloodletter to Jeskai Artifacts and Grixis Reanimator.
Draft rounds at the MTG Pro Tour Thunder Junction will start on April 26 at 11am CT and Standard decklists are expected to be released later that day at around 2pm CT.
