Going into the weekend, Ramunap Red was the deck to beat, and quite a few people showed up to Minneapolis ready to meet that challenge. Due to how dominating Ramunap Red was at the Pro Tour, Zombies' impressive showing wasn’t given as much credit. People did take note, though, and Grand Prix Minneapolis was loaded with players bringing the undead hordes. It turns out Zombies stomps the average Ramunap Red build.

And Ramunap Red players didn’t really have a plan for the shambling hordes, with many players bringing stock red lists or just trying to slide by with additional flyers. Perhaps the red deck simply can’t compete with the raw board advantage that Zombies can pump out. Red has no good way to clear out a swarm generated by Dark Salvation, Liliana’s Mastery, Cryptbreaker, and Diregraf Colossus.

The format has become ripe for Walking Ballista to return to the center stage. As the format is filled with X/1s and X/2s, Ballista becomes a key card for multiple decks. Not only has it continued to be the best card alongside Winding Constrictor, Ballista has made its way back into Mardu Vehicles decks as an additional early removal spell that scales late.

B/G Constrictor decks have easily entered into the top tier of the metagame. As red decks begin to lose ground, the number of Abrades to take care of Snakes drops off as well. Not to mention it never had a bad Ramunap Red matchup to begin with. As other decks move into midrange territory, though, B/G once again becomes the go-to deck that can snowball early and throw haymakers late via Verdurous Gearhulk and Skysovereign, Consul Flagship.

While Fatal Push may see more play than Grasp of Darkness, the popularity of Grasp is now within striking distance. What does this mean for you? Well, your large creatures are no longer safe if they have the 4th toughness. Cards like Kalitas, Archangel Avacyn, and Glorybringer get dinged with heavy-black decks maxing out on Grasp of Darkness.

Seeing this as the most played Vehicle in the Top 32 of GP Minneapolis decks was a shock. Despite a handful of Mardu Vehicles players clinging to Heart of Kiran, the card is at its weakest point. The metagame is incredibly hateful toward Vehicles at the moment and it speaks to how valuable the combination of life gain, flying, and 5 toughness is that people are still willing to play Aethersphere Harvester. If it lives, it remains one of the best 3-drops you have against both Zombies and Ramunap Red.

Dan Ward made waves with his rendition of the classic archetype U/W Do-Nothing. While a surprise to see at first, further inspection does indicate a lot to like here. Focused on a lot of cheap interaction and filtering, the deck will rarely clunk out in the early game, one of U/R Control’s tragic failings. It also doesn’t bother with creatures, meaning a certain percentage of the opponent’s deck is going to be completely useless. While unlikely to ever become a major player, it should boost the morale of Standard players looking for a traditional control deck.

Despite a no-show at the GP, G/R Ramp made an impressive run at the most recent MOCS and continues to perform online. The emerging triangle meta seems to be decks that lose to Ramunap Red such as G/R Ramp and other slow strategies, decks like Zombies and B/G that beat Ramunap Red, and then the Ramunap Red players themselves. As the red population declines, it opens up the possibility for Hour decks to be a strong metagame option.