Wizards of the Coast recently wrapped up the Pro Tour: Final Fantasy, for Magic: The Gathering, which was dominated by Red-based decks.
After years of reforging Magic’s Standard format post-pandemic to attract new IRL players (see “Revitalizing ‘Magic: The Gathering“), it seems that the most recent Pro Tour tournament may have just exposed a few format balance issues. Pro Tour – Final Fantasy was absolutely overrun by Red decks. Over 50% of the decks registered for the main event were Red-based aggro decks; Izzet Prowess being the leading Red deck in the field with 140 decks registered (42.3% of the field). On Sunday, the Top 8 finalists were evenly split between Izzet Prowess decks and Mono-red Aggro decks; Ken Yukuhiro took home the trophy playing Mono-red Aggro.
Red’s dominance, as a color, also extends beyond Pro Tour: Final Fantasy into other constructed formats. The top decks in Modern, Pioneer, and Pauper are mostly Red-based decks as well. Vintage, Legacy, and Commander formats are generally not impacted by a single color being better than the others, due to the sheer scope and power level of these formats.
Classically, Red, Blue, and Black have been the best colors in Magic over the course of the game’s history; Green and White aren’t bad colors and have plenty of good cards, just the bulk of the most efficient cards lie in the Grixis color scheme. Efficient casting costs and Haste effects make decks quicker, and in games of Magic, “speed kills.” Red was pushed over the edge in Standard, power balance-wise, over the course of the last several sets. Starting with Bloomburrow, Red’s already naturally low-casting cost cards also gained powerful typal synergies (the Mice are out of control). Later on, power and efficiency of Red decks were compounded with Screaming Nemesis in Duskmourn, and Izzet Prowess took off in Tarkir: Dragonstorm with the printing of Cori-Steel Cutter. These cards, combined with a few previously printed cards that have been hanging around due to Standard’s now three-year rotation cycle (see “Tabletop Woes“), made Red decks a little on the overpowered side.
WotC does have an opportunity to fix this issue sooner rather than later. There is a Banned and Restricted Announcement coming up at the end of the month, where they may choose to get rid of a few problem cards from different formats, and Standard rotation is coming up on August 1, 2025 (see “Eternal Weekend 2025 Dates“).
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