Duel commander May 2023 meta report

If we look at the graph of the most popular decks from the last month we can clearly see the top dogs of the format. Raffine, Feldon, Yoshimaru and Dihada are by far the most popular decks in small and bigger tournaments. Among other popular decks we find Grist, Atraxa and other aggro decks.

This month, Raffine is at the top yet again in terms of popularity even beating Yoshimaru. This commander has always been one of the best decks since being released about a year ago in Streets of New Cappena. Although many decks are catching up with it, Raffine will still remain as one of the best choices for a tournament. I could see her being surpased by Yoshimaru or even Dihada in the near future tho. Either way, we will see plenty more of this card for months to come...

Feldon has helped the mono red list greatly after replacing Kari-Zev in the command zone. This commander somehow puts even more pressure on the opponent and makes mono red a tier 1 deck yet again. The deck is really close to Raffine in terms of popularity thanks to the much cheaper price and difficulty of the deck. I wouldn't be surprised to see it on the top of the tier list next month...

After a few months, Yoshimaru is no longer the most popular deck in the metagame. There are now 2 major versions of the deck. A red/white one with Bruse Tarl as the partner, and a naya one with Tana instead. Both of them are pretty much equally popular. It all depends on your local metagame and your budget. Either version is competitive and I would still recommend it as a strong deck for tournaments.

The newcomer in tier 1 is Dihada. The deck has been slowly rising in popularity for the past few months and has now made it to the top. The deck is just so consistent at it's strategy and the great combination of colours is no short of giant threats and removal spells. The deck could very well become the most popular deck in the format before the next month. Only time will tell tho...

Another surprise is Atraxa, Grand Unifier which now completely beats Niv-Mizzet, Reborn by popularity. This commander has been climbing up the tier list each week similar to Dihada. Atraxa will probably become the best ramp/control deck of duel commander on the top of tier 2. The deck is a bit cheaper compared to Niv-Mizzet, Reborn. So if you like control decks, you can certainly give this deck a try.

The others...

Nothing much has changed in the rest of the tiers. You still have your usualls like Grist, Hogaak, Aminatou etc.. The only newer deck is Light-Paws with 3%. The new commanders from March of the Machine haven't really changed the format in any way just yet. Old Stickfingers has now completely dissapeared after the deck's combo piece Thrazyn, the Infinite got banned at the end of March. That's pretty much all for the lower tiers...

Author: Tomas Solovic

Data is from mtg top 8, May 5th 2023