Use Preordain, Lightning Bolt talking about Cawblade and mono-red.
Six rounds of draft have seriously changed the standings, but from here on in it's Standard all the way. We enlisted the help of Rob Wagner to track down the top twenty players as we headed back to Standard, and take a look at the sixty cards they'll be using to try to secure a top 8 slot.
Let's start with Squadron Hawk. We say 'Squadron Hawk' rather than 'Cawblade' because it turns out that not all the Squadron Hawk decks are running Swords to go with them. In the top 20 there are 6 Hawk decks. Next in popularity is mono-red, which has 3 decks in the top 20. From there, though, it's a case of 'anything you like':
UB Tezzeret
Vampires, with Nantuko Shade
2 UB Control
UG Control
RUG Pod
Mono-Green Eldrazi
Valakut
Pyromancer Ascension
UG Mill
UR Twin
Although we'll have a lot more to go on once these next four rounds are over, the big surprise is surely the near-absence of Valakut decks. Coming into the weekend that looked like being a popular choice, but that doesn't seem to be the case - unless, of course, the highly-skilled Standard Valakut players got buried in Limited...
Stay tuned for more Standard news as we close in on the top 8.