Red decks dominated the Top 8 at the recent Spotlight Series: Planetary Rotation event at SCG Con: Orlando over Labor Day weekend. This was one of the first major Standard events to take place post-Edge of Eternities’ release.
The release of the new set and Standard rotation did little to remedy Standard’s Red metagame problem experienced at Pro Tour: Final Fantasy in Las Vegas; the format is still seeing red, just in a different way (see “‘Magic: The Gathering’ Sees Red“). Red Deck Wins still claimed the day, even without the help of any of the cards banned on June 30, 2025 (see “Seven Cards Get Banned“), but it wasn’t the most-played deck in the field. That honor went to the new(ish) Izzet Soul Cauldron, which represented 30% of the field on Day One of the event and six of the top 8 decks on the last day.
The Izzet Soul Cauldron deck abuses two clearly under-playtested cards, Vivi Ornitier (Final Fantasy) and Agatha’s Soul Cauldron (Wilds of Eldraine), to trigger a combo that allows players to use Vivi’s ability a few times per turn. Once the deck gets going, it can overwhelm an opponent quickly. However, it does sometimes need a little bit of time to set up (three to four turns), which is why the speedy Red Deck Wins is able to beat it out occasionally.
Regardless, whatever designers thought they did to curb Red decks via the pre-rotation bannings didn’t make much of a dent in reshaping Standard into a more balanced format. Vivi Ornitier is absolutely the format-warping card because the card’s ‘0’ ability is essentially an open-ended, mana-generating ability that combos with an array of cards and players need to play lightning-fast decks to beat the combos (Red Deck Wins). This creature’s ability has the potential to plague Standard even into future sets, as there are often many non-creature spells in each set that can trigger the ability to produce a positive net outcome.
Banning Vivi Ornitier, of course, presents a bit of problem for Wizards of the Coast. It is a highly desirable card from a blockbuster set, and banning it from Standard could upset fans who likely paid over $50 for the card on the secondary market to play with it (over $200 if they bought four copies for a Standard deck). However, this card needs to be addressed ASAP unless WotC wishes Standard to return to its state of woe that it had been experiencing over the last several years (see “Tabletop Woes“).
Source: ICv2
