Pro Tour Secrets of Strixhaven Top 8 Recap & Decklists | MTG Picker

Pro Tour Secrets of Strixhaven: A Landfall Coronation in Las Vegas

Pro Tour Secrets of Strixhaven concluded on May 3, 2026 in Las Vegas, capping three days of high-level Standard play and Secrets of Strixhaven Booster Draft. Out of a field of more than 300 competitors, the Top 8 was dominated by green-based Landfall decks, with four of the eight finalists registering some flavour of the archetype. The remaining four slots split between Izzet Lessons, Selesnya Ouroboroid, Izzet Spellementals and Azorius Tempo — a healthy snapshot of where Standard sits as the format absorbs the new college-themed set.

This is your full breakdown: every Top 8 decklist is now playable on MTG Picker, the metagame numbers behind the dominant Landfall package, the standout cards of the weekend, and our take on the strategic story of the Pro Tour.

The Final Standings

Reigning Pro Tour champion Nathan Steuer claimed his third career Pro Tour title — adding to his World Championship and prior PT trophy — by defeating Christoffer Larsen in a Selesnya Landfall mirror in the finals. Below is the complete Top 8, with a one-line summary of each pilot's archetype and a direct link to the full, playable decklist on MTG Picker.

The Metagame Story: Landfall Eats the Top 8

If you only look at the Top 8, this Pro Tour belonged to Landfall. Across 300+ Standard decklists, Izzet Prowess and Mono-Green Landfall accounted for nearly half the field, and Landfall closed the deal: four of the eight finalists, both finals seats, and three of the top four prizes. The deck punishes durdling — it can curve out turn-one mana creature, turn-two threat, turn-three land trigger payoff, and apply a clock the rest of the format struggles to keep up with.

The remaining slots were a triumph of preparation over the field. Rui Zhang's Izzet Lessons looked like a fringe deck two weeks ago and won three feature matches against Landfall. Matt Nass continues his decade-long tradition of bringing a combo deck nobody else thought to register. Maxx Kominowski's Spellementals build leverages every cheap spell in Standard to keep tempo against everything green. Zevin Faust slid into eighth with the only pure tempo deck in the Top 8.

The Most-Played Cards of the Weekend

Here are the cards that defined the Top 8 of Pro Tour Secrets of Strixhaven, ranked by the number of Top 8 decks that registered them:

1. Earthbender Ascension — 4 decks, 16 copies

The single most important card of the weekend. Every Landfall deck in the Top 8 — that is half of the entire Top 8 — played the full four copies. Earthbender Ascension turns every fetch trigger into a free Rampaging Baloths-style payoff and quickly snowballs games out of reach. If you want to beat Landfall, you need a removal spell that can target an enchantment for two mana or less.

2. Llanowar Elves — 5 decks, 20 copies

The all-time classic mana creature was a four-of in every green deck in the Top 8: both Selesnya Landfall builds, both Mono-Green Landfall builds, and Matt Nass's Selesnya Ouroboroid. Twenty copies across eight decks. Standard remains a format where turn-one Llanowar Elves is one of the strongest opening plays available — and at this Pro Tour, that fact decided the metagame.

3. Badgermole Cub — 5 decks, 20 copies

Tied with Llanowar Elves at twenty copies, Badgermole Cub is the perfect curve creature for the Landfall plan. A 2/3 for two mana with an upside on landfall is already strong, and once Earthbender Ascension is online the cub starts attacking for absurd amounts. Every green deck in the Top 8 ran the full four.

4. Sazh's Chocobo — 4 decks, 16 copies

Final Fantasy crossover meets Standard tournament magic. Sazh's Chocobo is the build-around four-drop the deck is named after, and every Landfall deck in the Top 8 ran four copies. The combination of evasion, body and mana value make it an unmissable inclusion.

5. Mightform Harmonizer — 4 decks, 14 copies

The Edge of Eternities artifact creature anchors the mid-game for Landfall: every land trigger turns into incremental value and selectively power-spike threats. Steuer and Larsen ran four; Schutz and Stefansson ran three. Fourteen copies between them.

6. Fabled Passage — 4 decks, 16 copies

Fabled Passage powers the entire Landfall plan. Every Landfall deck registered the full four — the cheapest way to manufacture a second land trigger per turn, and the reason the curve works at all. Combined with Sazh's Chocobo and Earthbender Ascension, it is the manabase upgrade that pushed the archetype past the rest of the field.

7. Erode — 3 decks, 11 copies

The format's premier removal spell at the Pro Tour. Both Selesnya Landfall pilots ran four copies main, and Matt Nass squeezed in three. Erode is flexible enough to remove early threats, late finishers, and even artifacts and enchantments — the all-purpose answer green-white was crying out for.

8. Hushwood Verge — 3 decks, 12 copies

The dual-land technology of choice for Selesnya. Steuer, Larsen and Nass all ran four. The Verges from Duskmourn continue to define every two-color manabase in Standard.

9. Surrak, Elusive Hunter — 2 decks, 3 copies main + 3 sideboard

The four-mana legend out of Tarkir: Dragonstorm shows up in fewer total copies than the cards above, but every Landfall deck either main-decked or sideboarded Surrak. Hexproof, evasion and a closing clock — exactly the kind of card the Landfall mirror is decided by.

Other notable inclusions

• Hearth Elemental — anchored Maxx Kominowski's Izzet Spellementals at four copies, and was the lone "spell-matters" payoff anywhere in the Top 8.
• Aang, Swift Savior — four copies in Zevin Faust's Azorius Tempo deck. Combined with Voice of Victory, the only realistic plan to fight the Landfall decks on speed.
• Ouroboroid — Matt Nass's flagship, four copies, paired with Sage of the Skies and Brightglass Gearhulk for a recursion combo loop.
• Monument to Endurance — Rui Zhang's secret weapon. Four copies anchored a Lessons engine that nobody else in the field saw coming.

Spotlight: Steuer's Winning Selesnya Landfall

Nathan Steuer's championship list is a clinic in incremental value. Every land you play does at least three things — it ramps your curve, it triggers Earthbender Ascension, and it pumps Sazh's Chocobo or Badgermole Cub. The deck plays only twenty-four lands, but eight of them are Fabled Passage-style fetches that double as triggers, and Mightform Harmonizer ensures you never run dry on threats.

The two-of Bushwhack is the kind of small-stakes innovation that wins close matches: it punches through stalled boards in the mirror and finishes off opponents who think they have stabilised. Steuer also went heavier on Surrak, Elusive Hunter in the sideboard than his finals opponent, giving him the head-to-head edge in long games.

View Nathan Steuer's full Selesnya Landfall decklist →

The Spice: Rui Zhang's Izzet Lessons

If Steuer's deck is the rock of the format, Rui Zhang's Izzet Lessons is the scissor. The deck plays a full four Monument to Endurance and four Accumulate Wisdom as a pure card-advantage engine, then rounds it out with Combustion Technique, Firebending Lesson and Artist's Talent for inevitability. Zhang drew his way to the Top 8 with a deck that simply has more cards than anything green can produce.

The sideboard included two Ral, Crackling Wit, three Flashfreeze and Quantum Riddler to complete the transformation into a control deck against the Landfall mirror — and that flexibility is exactly why the build made it as far as it did.

View Rui Zhang's full Izzet Lessons decklist →

The Combo: Matt Nass's Selesnya Ouroboroid

Matt Nass arrived in Vegas with the only true combo deck in the Top 8. The plan: cast Ouroboroid, recur it through Brightglass Gearhulk, and use Sage of the Skies to bury the opponent under a mountain of triggers. Pawpatch Recruit and Keen-Eyed Curator double as both early pressure and graveyard hate against the format's recursion strategies.

The sideboard Craterhoof Behemoth is a one-of haymaker — a single copy that can end games out of nowhere when paired with the deck's mana creatures.

View Matt Nass's full Selesnya Ouroboroid decklist →

Looking Forward

The story of Pro Tour Secrets of Strixhaven is the story of a format settling into Landfall as the Tier 1 strategy. Expect the next four weeks of Standard tournament magic to revolve around two questions: how do you out-race four Earthbender Ascension on the play, and what is the cleanest sideboard answer to Surrak, Elusive Hunter? Until those questions are answered, every deck registering for a Regional Championship Qualifier should expect the Landfall matchup to be the table stakes.

For drafters, the Booster Draft side of the Pro Tour reinforced what we already saw on the prerelease weekend: the five-college identities are well-defined and the format rewards commitment. Our Secrets of Strixhaven limited guide covers the draft side in depth.

All eight Top 8 decklists are now available as public decks on MTG Picker — clone any of them straight into the Deck Builder, browse the price totals, or just study the lists card by card. Good luck at your next event.

Practice with our free tools

• Community Decks — Browse the eight Pro Tour Top 8 lists alongside the rest of the public deck collection.
• Deck Builder — Clone any Top 8 list and tweak it for your local meta.
• Sealed Simulator — Practice with Secrets of Strixhaven before your next limited event.
• Limited Guide — Our complete college-by-college breakdown for sealed and draft.