- Pearl Division Decklists
- Sapphire Division Decklists
- Ruby Division Decklists
- Emerald Division Decklists
Division races are heating up with just two weeks left in the Spark Split. Brad Nelson and Seth Manfield face off at 4-0 in a huge match in the Emerald Division during a double-match week, with one hoping to head into Week 5 at 6-0.
The Sapphire Division is also on a double-match week with 3-1s Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa, Piotr Głogowski, and Rei Sato pacing the field. With Jessica Estephan and Janne "Savjz" Mikkonen making their debuts this week, the Ruby Division is quite crowded with a full regular slate plus lots of make-up matches. Over in the more stable Pearl Division, Brian Braun-Duin and Eric Froehlich sit atop the standings at 4-1 apiece.
Broadcast and Coverage Information
Week 4 stream: Saturday, June 1 at Noon PT/3 p.m. ET/7 p.m. UTC
Casters: Marshall Sutcliffe, Paul Rietzl, and Becca Scott
Channel: twitch.tv/magic
Schedule
Format: Best-of-Three Traditional Standard
Pearl Division
- Brian Braun-Duin defeats Lee Shi Tian 2-0
- Javier Dominguez defeats John Rolf 2-0
- Andrew Cuneo defeats Eric Froehlich 2-1
- Shahar Shenhar defeats Luis Salvatto 2-1
Sapphire Division
- Rei Sato defeats Piotr Głogowski 2-0
- Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa defeats Andrea Mengucci 2-0
- Rei Sato defeats Mike Sigrist 2-0
- Andrea Mengucci defeats Autumn Burchett 2-0
- Jean-Emmanuel Depraz defeats Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa 2-0
- Mike Sigrist defeats Márcio Carvalho 2-0
- Jean-Emmanuel Depraz defeats Autumn Burchett 2-1
- Schedule note: The Márcio Carvalho vs. Piotr Głogowski match has been rescheduled to Week 5.
Ruby Division
- Carlos Romão defeats Jessica Estephan 2-0
- Jessica Estephan defeats Lucas Esper Berthoud 2-0
- William "Huey" Jensen defeats Carlos Romão 2-0
- Janne "Savjz" Mikkonen defeats Jessica Estephan 2-0
- Jessica Estephan defeats Reid Duke 2-0
- Ken Yukuhiro defeats Jessica Estephan 2-1
- Ken Yukuhiro defeats Ben Stark 2-1
- Reid Duke defeats Janne "Savjz" Mikkonen 2-1
- William "Huey" Jensen defeats Janne "Savjz" Mikkonen 2-0
- Carlos Romão (1-3) defeats Janne "Savjz" Mikkonen 2-0
Emerald Division
- Brad Nelson defeats Seth Manfield 2-1
- Grzegorz Kowalski defeats Shota Yasooka 2-0
- Martin Jůza defeats Christian Hauck 2-0
- Shota Yasooka defeats Christian Hauck 2-0
- Seth Manfield defeats Matthew Nass 2-0
- Martin Jůza defeats Grzegorz Kowalski 2-0
- Alexander Hayne defeats Matthew Nass 2-1
- Brad Nelson defeats Alexander Hayne 2-1
Week 4 Metagame and Decklists
| Archetype | Number |
| Mono-Red Aggro | 11 |
| Esper Midrange | 4 |
| Gruul Midrange | 4 |
| Four-Color Dreadhorde | 2 |
| Jeskai Walkers | 2 |
| Simic Nexus | 2 |
| Dimir Control | 1 |
| Izzet Wizards | 1 |
| Izzet Phoenix | 1 |
| Rakdos Aggro | 1 |
| Sultai Dreadhorde | 1 |
| Simic Mass Manipulation | 1 |
| Sultai Midrange | 1 |
Week 3 of the Spark Split saw the emergence of a brand-new deck in Four-Color Dreadhorde. This deck proved to be the deck to play if you want to crush other midrange strategies. Running Command the Dreadhorde gives the deck a sense of inevitability where players will often win if they can be at a reasonable life total when they finally cast it.
One deck that looks to put a ton of pressure on players' life totals is Mono-Red Aggro and many of the MPL competitors seem to have come to the same conclusion. Players' deck choices for Week 4 are particularly important because they are locked in to that deck for the rest of the split — this is done to ensure players don't metagame against a specific opponent, due to the nature of round-robin play and the process of elimination to know exactly who you're playing in Week 5.
More than a third of the competitors submitted Mono-Red Aggro for the home stretch, with a whopping 11 copies of the deck being played. On top of that, zero copies of the previously popular Azorius Aggro deck were submitted this week, suggesting that Mono-Red has earned the spot as THE aggressive deck to play in the current metagame. As Dreadhorde decks have been rising up in Arena Ranked play, Mono-Red is well suited as a metagame counter to that deck, along with any of the other planeswalker-heavy decks.
Another riser this week was a Gruul Midrange deck that many top players have been having success with on MTG Arena. This deck features some of the heaviest hitting creatures in Gruul with some nice new additions in Domri, Anarch of Bolas and The Immortal Sun. The Immortal Sun has been seeing much more play recently as the Standard format has been dominated by many of the planeswalkers from War of the Spark.
There were also some unique decks this week submitted by two of the MPL's newest competitors. Jessica Estephan's Dimir deck is somewhere between midrange and control with access to a ton of disruption along with Thief of Sanity in the maindeck. Janne "Savjz" Mikkonen submitted a Simic Nexus deck similar to the one played by Piotr Głogowski last week. With Teferi, Time Raveler being played everywhere, Wilderness Reclamation seems to be a liability to play so the Nexus decks have adapted and are now all playing Nissa, Who Shakes the World as the primary way to generate enough mana to cast Nexus of Fate and gigantic Hydroid Krasises.
Last but certainly not least is Andrew Cuneo's spicy Izzards deck (Izzet Wizards). Wizards was considered the best archetype to draft in Dominaria but hasn't exactly put up any results in Standard. Andrew is looking to change that with Adeliz, the Cinder Wind and Naru Meha crashing in while pumping all the other wizards.