Magic: The Gathering Online (MTGO or "MODO" for the old-school crowd) offers the ability to play Magic whenever you want with opponents from around the world. This makes it a useful tool for testing decks and yourself against the competition. Magic Online features hundreds of events each day across a variety of formats to do just that. If you do well in certain events, you earn Qualifier Points (QPs). Finishing 4–0 in a Daily event earns you 3 points, 3–1 is worth 1 point, 3–0 in a Draft is also worth a point, and finishing in the Top 8 of a Premier Event yields anywhere from 3 to 6 QPs.

Wizards of the Coast, the makers of Magic, maintain Constructed and Limited Player of the Year leaderboards to rank the best of the best online. Aside from bragging rights, QPs also provide access to higher-level tournaments called the Magic Online Championship Series (MOCS). Players who earn 15 QPs in a four-week season are eligible to compete in that season’s MOCS. There are twelve seasons and MOCS tournaments each year. In addition, the top one hundred fifty finishers from each QP leaderboard are eligible to compete in the Magic Online Player of the Year Championship in December. The winners of each MOCS and the Player of the Year Championship receive an invite to the Magic Online Championship, which offers a $100,000 prize pool.

In this article, I will take a look at the top ten Constructed players in the race to collect the most Qualifier Points in 2013. I’ll examine what formats they prefer to play and the decks they have found success with most recently.

The Top Constructed Players

Below are the current top ten players on the Constructed leaderboard. The point totals change daily, and the most up-to-date information is located on the leaderboards page mentioned above.

The username links will take you to the player page on MTGO-Stats.com where you can find some interesting information about any MTGO player. First, you can find many of the events in which a player earned QPs over the last year through a strong finish: 3–1 or 4–0 in a Daily Event or by finishing in the Top 8 of a Premier Event. This is only a partial list, however, because Wizards of the Coast publishes decks that earned QPs in only one Daily Event each format and the Top 8 decks from any Premier Event each day.

A sizable gap separates the top two players from the rest of the pack. Nerney9 has been on a strong run in June, earning 35 QPs from twenty-one published events between June 1 and June 21. _Soku_ appears to be gaining ground as well based on published results, with 11 QPs earned in nine events over the same period. RandomDrooler has earned the second-most points in that time with 30 QPs from sixteen published results.

The Formats They Choose

What events do the top players join to win games and earn QPs? I looked at the 2013 published results for the top ten players to determine what formats were most popular among the Magic Online elite.

Most of these results match up with the number of scheduled events online. Here are the number and percent of Constructed events each week based on the Magic Online Schedule.

Block, Modern, and Pauper published results match up pretty closely with the availability of events. Legacy is less popular online and often struggles to attract the necessary number of players to begin scheduled events, which probably keeps top players from participating. Conversely, Standard is Magic’s most popular format in paper and online and has no issues filling up tournaments.

This next graph shows the published result for each top player by format.

Magic Online’s top Constructed players spend their time playing multiple formats. Nine of the top ten participate in three or more formats and half take part in four or more. Interestingly enough, the only format in which all ten players have had published results is Block Constructed, not Standard. Seven of the ten play Modern, six play Pauper, and half have played at least some Legacy. SpacejAm made the top ten with no published results from Standard. Butakov appears to mix it up the most, with published results closely split between all five formats. Nerney9, the QPs leader to date, has had only Standard and Block published results.

The Decks They Play

What decks do the best players choose for events? Here is a rundown of recent deck choices for each of the top ten players.

Nerney9

• Standard – Bant Auras with a couple copies of Dryad Militant in the main deck
• Block – Esper Control

_Batutinha_

• Standard – Mixes it up quite a bit with format favorites such as Jund Midrange and Reanimator, but also more experimental decks such as Junk Tokens, WBR Midrange, and some of the earlier BG Varolz decks.
• Modern – RUG Scapeshift

xMiMx

• Standard – Has favored Junk Varolz lately.
• Modern – Most recent successes have been with Melira Pod and BUG Infect decks.
• Pauper – Mono-Blue Delver

Butakov

• Standard – Has played UWR Midrange with Aurelia, the Warleader and BG Creature Control with Desecration Demon lately.
• Block – Bant Aggro
• Pauper – Izzet Post

_Soku_

• Standard – Junk Varolz
• Block – Boros Aggro

HopeFails

• Standard – Naya Blitz
• Block – Maze’s End Control
• Pauper – Usually plays Atog Affinity, but most recently played this UR deck with Wee Dragonauts, Kiln Fiend, Nivix Cyclops, Delver of Secrets and twenty-seven instants and sorcery spells.

Zwischenzug

• Standard – Jund Midrange, this one with Flinthoof Boar, and Four-Color Reanimator
• Modern – Melira Pod
• Block – a mix of decks including Esper Control, GW Aggro, and BG Aggro

RandomDrooler

• Standard – Usually plays Jund Midrange, but most recently used this Bant Auras deck with Predator Ooze.
• Modern – Jund. This first-place premier deck includes Lingering Souls and Ajani Vengeant.

SpacejAm

• Block – Lots and lots of Esper Control

_shipitnugs

• Standard: UWR Tempo
• Block: UWR Control and Esper Control

In Standard, the top players are gravitating toward the best decks of the format: Jund Midrange and Reanimator. Three have also played decks featuring Varolz, the Scar-Striped, and two have used Bant Auras of late. Esper Control seems to be the go-to deck in Block Constructed, and Melira Pod was played by two of the top ten in Modern.

More Magic to Come

There’s still a lot of Magic to be played online and many more QPs to be earned before the year is done. Standard will be shaken up by the release of Magic 2014 in July, and the effects could be felt in other formats as well. A surefire way to keep on top of metagame trends and changes is to keep an eye on how the top players adjust. Thanks for reading!

Nick Vigabool

@MrVigabool