I did it! I qualified for the upcoming Regional Championship in Milwaukee, WI! Typically the Regional Championship is far enough away from Michigan that I take more store credit in exchange for giving away the invite, but things broke in a way where I could snag a golden ticket.
The last time I played a big tournament out of state was before my son was born so it has been about three years. It’s going to be fun to see old friends and compete in a two day event once again. The format of the Regional Championship is Modern which happens to be my favorite format.
The current RCQ season is Standard, here’s the Vivi Cauldron list I played to an invite:
I played Vivi Cauldron because I wanted to take a crack at playing the broken deck for once. Dimir Midrange is great and all, but it was deceptively weak to Mono Red.
This was a nerve-wracking tournament because it was my first foray into playing the Vivi Cauldron deck in paper. Arena can only take you so far when it reminds you of all the different triggers. Thankfully, I don’t think I missed any triggers, but did have some points where more deck familiarity would have served me well.
Most of the spells are locked in, but the last few flex slots were built with the mirror in mind. I played three copies of Vivi because it’s a serious liability to discard them in the mirror when an opposing Soul Cauldron can steal the powerful ability. I also didn’t want to play the fourth Agatha’s Soul Cauldron with only three copies of Vivi. Wild Ride is typically the last card which I wanted to exclude since I’m less focused on the primary combo.
The fourth Into the Flood Maw can lead to flooding, but it’s the best way to fight the mirror as it undoes turns of hard work by Proft’s Eidetic Memory or Agatha’s Soul Cauldron. It also shines against Mono Red as there aren’t too many ways to interact favorably with Screaming Nemesis.
The twenty-third land, Hidden Grotto, served as a way to keep more seven card hands as there are plenty of ways to filter away cards if you can cast spells. I was happy with the extra land as it provided some extra flexibility.
A third maindeck Quantum Riddler is my final flex slot. I’m less focused on the Vivi Cauldron combo, but have additional payoffs once I find myself with ten spare mana. We all know by now the power of Quantum Ridder, but what they don’t tell you is that it just feels good to cast. Smooth like butter.
The Spiderman set has plenty of negative qualities, from an alternate set online to only a few powerful cards, but I do love the design of Multiversal Passage. It’s a great bandaid ahead of all shock lands being printed into Standard and just seems so obvious once you see it; like all great inventions. I was happy with three copies as it fixed my colors nearly every time and works well with Riverpyre Verge. Certainly better than Starting Town in Vivi Cauldron, but each has their place in the format.
One paper trick I used to help keep the game organized was using Water and Fire Energy Pokemon cards to track mana and also served as a marker for Multiversal Passage.
I played a Negate in the sideboard, but should have gone with another Spiderman card in Spider-Sense. Most of the enchantment-based removal has a trigger and it stops the scariest trigger against Vivi Cauldron in Kona, Rescue Beastie.
Simic Kona is a cool Standard deck I would champion if you expect a Vivi-heavy field, but can fall short against Mono Red. The Standard RCQ season feels like it should be littered with Vivi decks, but the high price tag and early expiration date has prevented players from investing. This does mean that some of these tournaments are deceptively diverse despite having the reputation of being stagnant.
THE PROBLEM WITH STANDARD AND RCQS
I plan to play at least one more Standard RCQs before the season ends and some combination of Vivi, Cauldron, and Proft’s Eidetic Memory is banned on November 10. Initially I was hopeful the Mono Red Aggro deck would keep Vivi in check, but it was able to adapt leading my take on keeping the format unchanged to age like sour milk:
I was wrong, there should have been an emergency ban.
Cauldron was initially weak to Mono Red, but was able to adapt by playing a slower game plan of removing creatures and stabilizing with Quantum Riddler. In the future, WOTC should build in an emergency valve if metagame-slaying decks end up not shaking up the format as expected.
While it’s true that I’ve seen a small amount of Vivi decks in RCQs, the negative perception of the format has led players to simply skip the season. The entrenched players that invested in Vivi would likely play the next best deck, but the more casual players are far more likely to simply not play which is bad for everyone.
Attendance for these Standard RCQs have been horrendous. I have played in three RCQs this season with the following turnouts:
RCQ #1 – 11 players
RCQ #2 – 8 players (includes 3 conscripted players with precons to fire)
RCQ #3 – 8 players (includes 4 conscripted players with precons and borrowed decks to fire)
I wasn’t able to attend another RCQ on my list that also ended up firing with 11 players. This has never been an issue with Pioneer or Modern RCQs. In fact, I have never played an 8 person RCQ prior to this season.
Nine players means five rounds with a cut to top 4 while eight players go straight to single elimination. It feels awful to drive an hour to an RCQ only to lose round one and then go home. Making the top 8 of an RCQ was a cool achievement in the earlier seasons because the promos were cool and attendance was much higher.
I have been playing Magic tournaments since 2001 and Standard was extremely popular at the beginning. The prices of Standard decks were not only lower, but two years of sets was a relatively larger percentage of the overall card pool.
An oppressive Standard metagame leads to lack of participation, but even a “good” Standard metagame is not without fault. An evolving Standard metagame means the deck you invested in two weeks ago may fall hard out of favor leading to reinvesting into a new archetype.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
There are plenty of problems with both Standard and the RCQ system, but I am hopeful for the future. WOTC/Hasbro does continue to invest in both organized play and R&D. Regardless of your feelings on the job these groups are doing, putting money into these initiatives does speak to their intent. It will take some time to turn the ship due to lead time on developing new sets and programs, but they do hear our frustration which is important.
Standard has gone from a card pool of two years to three which is not without issue, but this is a dial they can continue to adjust. If Pioneer was not yielding the right result they can perhaps find the new sweet spot that allows a format to be both fresh and not constantly rotating. This will always be a moving target, but moving it once means it’s more likely to happen again.
The current RCQ promos are laughable and we have been heard on this as well. I would like to see special promos for each RCQ a store runs to make each card more demanded. For example, if a store runs three RCQs in a season then each one will have a different participation and top 8 promo.
The current entrenched player base is exhausted on Universes Beyond sets. I would be surprised if WOTC/Hasbro can constantly capture new collectors and players if the specific IP scratches someone’s itch at the expense of long time players feeling disenfranchised.
“A picture says a thousand words.”
The 2026 release lineup features four Universes Beyond sets and three Magic planes. Time will tell if this take also ages badly, but I think this is a smoking gun. Spamming something that worked in the past instead of leaving us wanting more is a better approach for long term growth. I don’t expect the 2027 lineup to feature as many Universes Beyond sets, but will likely continue to have an aggressive release cycle.
COOL THINGS HAPPENING IN MTG
There need to be some fixes to the status quo, but some cool things are happening today.
Fellow Michigander, Jaren White a.k.a. mtgdrip, took down an RCQ after many attempts. Smaller RCQs are not sustainable, but the short run problems we’re experiencing pave the way for new folks to make it to the Regional Championships (myself included).
Card Titan also put on a hell of a show with Eternal Weekend. Magic players find a reason to gripe about most things, but it’s hard to hate watching players cast Black Lotus. Players with decades-long passions for collecting and playing certain archetypes is something to behold. Their coverage can be found on Twitch.
The Regional Championship circuit made a stop in Houston last weekend featuring the Modern format and it’s a healthy metagame with once again top notch coverage. It does make me excited to play the upcoming Regional Championship.
I was glued to the coverage last weekend:
Magic commentary no longer has Cedric Phillips and Patrick Sullivan on tap, but the bench is now deeper than ever.
