MTG 2021 World Championship decklists reveal 7 archetypes being played

A total of 16 Magic: The Gathering decklists that were submitted on Oct. 3 were leaked today after Twitter user MTGO Salseo discovered them on MTGMelee and were confirmed by Wizards of the Coast shortly after.

Scheduled to take place from Oct. 8 to 10, the 2021 Magic World Championship will showcase 16 of the best players from around the globe within a post-rotation Standard meta. Leaked on Twitter today by MTGO Salseo, a majority of the 16 decklists are either Control Epiphany or Mono-Colored Aggro based, with Jean-Emmanuel Depraz splashing Blue in his unique Gruul Aggro deck for counterspells. 

Shortly after the leak went public, WotC published the official decklists for the 2021 Magic World Championship.

Here are the 16 players and their decks:

• Eli Kassis: Grixis Epiphany
• Gabriel Nassif: Grixis Epiphany
• Jean-Emmanuel Depraz: Gruul Aggro
• Jan Merkel: Grixis Epiphany
• Keisuke Sato: Izzet Epiphany
• Matt Sperling: Grixis Epiphany
• Noriyuki Mori: Azorius Tempo
• Ondřej Stráský: Izzet Epiphany
• Paulo Vitor Damo Da Rosa: Mono-Green Aggro
• Rei Sato: Mono-White Aggro
• Seth Manfield: Mono-Green Aggro
• Sam Pardee: Mono-Green Aggro
• Stanislav Cifka: Izzet Epiphany
• Yoshihiko Ikawa: Mono-White Aggro
• Yuta Takahashi: Izzet Dragons
• Arne Huschenbeth: Izzet Epiphany

Most notably, over half the competitors in the MTG World Championship have built decks around Alurnd’s Epiphany. The Sorcery speed spell is a direct answer to Mono-Green decks running Esika’s Chariot and provides its controller an “extra turn after this one.”

Gruul builds were popular within the new post-rotation Standard meta with the launch of MID and shifted over to more Mono-Green via the SCG tournament this past weekend. Jean-Emmanuel Depraz is choosing to run a Temur Treasures Gruul build within the Magic World Championship, splashing Blue to run two copies of Negate in the main deck and two copies of Disdainful Stroke in the sideboard. 

Rei Sato and Yoshihiko Ikawa both chose to play Mono-White Aggro with decks that are more tempo-based to deal with Wrenn and Seven tokens, Esika’s Chariot, and Alrund’s Epiphany bird tokens. And the team of Huschenbeth, Stráský, and Cifka chose to play Izzet Epiphany, which is able to have answers to both the Grixis Epiphany builds and the Mono-Colored decks. 

The 2021 Magic World Championship will start at 11am CT from Oct. 8 to 10 with a main broadcast on Twitch.