RQ Sydney 2026: Results, Archetypes, Card Spikes and What It All Means for Australian MTG

Quick Answer

The ANZ Super Series Cycle 11 Regional Championship wrapped up in Sydney on 13 March 2026 with 208 players competing for Pro Tour qualification, World Championship slots, and a share of US$15,000 in prize money. If you were not there and you play Standard, here is everything you need to know, including what it means for card prices in Australia. See current prices at /cards/mtg.

The ANZ Super Series Cycle 11 Regional Championship wrapped up in Sydney on 13 March 2026 with 208 players competing for Pro Tour qualification, World Championship slots, and a share of US$15,000 in prize money. If you were not there and you play Standard, here is everything you need to know, including what it means for card prices in Australia.

Full decklists are available at MTGTop8 and Melee.gg.

The Result Nobody Expected (But Should Have)

Champion: Simon Linabury, Mono Green Landfall Runner Up: Ryan Jonns Lewis, Mono Green Landfall

A mirror final. Two players running essentially the same 75 cards, grinding it out for the title and the Pro Tour invite. It is a clean summary of where Standard sits right now: Mono Green Landfall is not just a good deck, it is good enough that two players piloting it found each other in the finals of one of Australia's most competitive events.

That said, the story of this tournament is not just the winner. It is the metagame breadth underneath, and the specific cards that are going to matter for the next few months.

Full Top 16 Results

Archetype Breakdown and What Each Deck Is Doing

Mono Green Landfall (3 copies in Top 8)

This is the deck that won the event and it is worth understanding exactly how it works because it is not just a pile of big green creatures.

The core engine is Badgermole Cub as the primary accelerant, with Llanowar Elves enabling explosive early turns. Earthbender Ascension is the enchantment that ties the ramp plan together, adding counters while growing into a Trample threat. The combination of Mightform Harmonizer with any fetchland creates lethal attacks out of nowhere because Harmonizer doubles power mid-combat, and the landfall trigger from cracking a Fabled Passage resolves at instant speed.

Sapling Nursery is the grind engine. In long games it generates Treefolk tokens off every land drop, making the deck resistant to removal sweepers that would normally stop an aggro plan cold. Simon Linabury's winning list ran four copies.

Simon's exact list:

Lands (26): 3 Ba Sing Se, 4 Escape Tunnel, 4 Fabled Passage, 13 Forest, 2 Promising Vein

Creatures (24): 4 Badgermole Cub, 4 Icetill Explorer, 4 Llanowar Elves, 4 Mightform Harmonizer, 2 Mossborn Hydra, 4 Sazh's Chocobo, 2 Webstrike Elite

Other Spells (10): 2 Archdruid's Charm, 4 Earthbender Ascension, 4 Sapling Nursery

Sideboard (15): 1 Keen-Eyed Curator, 4 Meltstrider's Resolve, 2 Mossborn Hydra, 2 Pawpatch Formation, 2 Soul-Guide Lantern, 2 Surrak Elusive Hunter, 2 Torpor Orb

The sideboard tells a story. Torpor Orb and Meltstrider's Resolve are the answers to Izzet Prowess. Soul-Guide Lantern handles graveyard strategies. Mossborn Hydra comes in for mirror matches and ramp matchups where you need a must-answer threat that dodges Sunderflock.

Izzet Prowess (4 copies in Top 16)

The global metagame leader going into this event with 22% of the overall Standard field, Izzet Prowess underperformed relative to that share in Sydney. Four copies made Top 16 but only one reached Top 8 and none reached the Top 4. That is a notable result.

The deck runs Slickshot Show-Off and Stormchaser's Talent as its payoffs, fuelled by a dense suite of cheap spells. Burst Lightning and Stock Up are the engine cards. The current builds have moved away from the older Izzet Lessons shell, trading long-game flexibility for speed and tempo. Eddymurk Crab has entered many lists as a mirror-match edge piece.

The deck's weakness at Sydney is probably matchup selection. Mono Green Landfall is not a terrible matchup for Prowess in theory, but in a field that skewed heavily green, the Prowess pilots may have run into prepared sideboards with Meltstrider's Resolve, which handles the Slickshot angle cleanly.

Izzet Lesson / Izzet Spellementals (multiple copies in Top 32)

Two closely related archetypes. Izzet Lesson uses Hearth Elemental as its graveyard payoff alongside cheap spells that stock the bin. Izzet Spellementals is a denser version of the same shell. Both appeared in the Top 32 at Sydney, with Izzet Lesson putting two players into the Top 8.

These decks are harder to hate out than Prowess because the gameplan shifts post-sideboard. They are the reason Mono Green's Torpor Orb and Soul-Guide Lantern are in the board.

Superior Doomsday (2 copies in Top 16)

The most interesting archetype in this Top 16. Superior Doomsday is a combo deck that assembles a winning position through a chain of card selection and graveyard interaction. Two players including Jacob Harvey at 3rd/4th show it is not just a rogue choice. If you are preparing for FNM or RCQs and you have not tested against this matchup, do it now.

Simic Nature's Rhythm (Ben Parker, 5th/8th)

Nature's Rhythm is a midrange strategy built around land acceleration and payoff creatures. Ben Parker's finish is notable because the deck is not heavily represented in the broader global metagame but clearly has a workable game plan against the Australian field. This may be one to watch for the next cycle.

Jeskai Control (Kyle Gibson, 9th/16th)

Control showed up but did not break through the Top 8. Jeskai's tools are well-suited to a format full of creature-based aggro, but the speed of both Izzet and Mono Green may be putting a ceiling on how far pure control can go in the current format.

The Roundtable: Six Perspectives on What Sydney Means

The C3 team runs a roundtable across six personas to cover every angle of what happened at RQ Sydney.

Maya (data and finance): The most important signal from Sydney is that Mono Green Landfall punched above its global meta share at the top tables. Globally the deck sits at about 9% of Standard events. At Sydney it had three of eight Top 8 spots. That overperformance suggests either the field was miscalibrated for it, or Australian players have specific expertise in the archetype, or both. For card prices, this matters. Any card that is a four-of in both the winning list and the runner-up list is a price target this week.

Dan (competitive player perspective): Winning a Regional Championship mirror means one of those players read the field better in terms of sideboarding. The decks are 60 cards of essentially the same things, so the sideboard and in-game decisions separate first and second. Torpor Orb over Veil of Summer is a specific meta call. Simon either made those calls correctly or got the better side of variance in a 50/50 mirror. Both are legitimate paths to a title.

Priya (content and community): What stands out to me is Weenie White in the Top 16. Jason Yan piloting a budget-adjacent deck into the Top 16 of a National qualifier event is a story worth telling. The deck is accessible. That result will pull people toward it who cannot afford Izzet Prowess or the full Landfall list.

Sam (finance and singles market): Superior Doomsday placing twice in the Top 16 without significant global representation means cards in that deck are underpriced relative to what they may become if the archetype gets further coverage. Worth watching.

Ren (new player): I watched this event on social media and honestly the archetype names are confusing. What is a Superior Doomsday? What does Simic Nature's Rhythm actually do on turn three? The coverage for new players is basically non-existent and that is a gap.

Kai (the contrarian): Two players made the finals running the same deck and the community is calling it a solved format. That is overcorrection. One mirror final is not a solved format. It is one result. Izzet Prowess still won more than a quarter of global events this month. Jeskai Control is still a real deck. The format has options.

Key Cards to Watch After Sydney

These are the specific cards that featured prominently across the Top 8 and are worth tracking for price movement in the next two to four weeks.

Sapling Nursery: Four copies in Simon's winning list. A core piece of the Mono Green engine that can generate a board state no removal sweep can clean up efficiently. If Mono Green's results continue, this card's price in Australia will move.

Earthbender Ascension: Four copies in every Mono Green list at the event. The ramp and pressure piece that makes the deck function. Watch this one.

Mightform Harmonizer: The combo kill piece. Four copies across every Mono Green build. It is the card that turns a board of 2/2s into a lethal attack without warning.

Slickshot Show-Off: The Izzet Prowess core payoff. Still in demand despite the deck's underwhelming Sydney result. Globally it is the most-played archetype in Standard.

Torpor Orb: The sideboard hate piece in Simon's winning list. Fringe demand but specific enough that it could see price movement if Landfall's prevalence drives more players to build it.

You can compare prices on any of these cards directly on the C3 Card Compare tool to track AU pricing versus global benchmarks.

What Happens Next

The players who finished in the Top 8 at Sydney earned qualification to Pro Tour Magic: The Gathering Marvel Super Heroes at MagicCon Amsterdam, taking place 17-19 July 2026. That Pro Tour features Standard Constructed, which means the Australian qualifiers are now playing in the global conversation about where the format goes from here.

For the rest of the ANZ player base, the next Regional Championship cycle will shift to Modern Constructed. RCQs for that cycle began 4 April and run until 2 August.

If you are building toward a future RCQ, the data from Sydney is clear: in a Standard field that skews green, your sideboard needs answers to Mightform Harmonizer and Sapling Nursery. If you are on green, your sideboard needs to handle Izzet graveyard strategies and mirror-match threats.

For card singles from any of the archetypes featured at Sydney, check the C3 eBay store where Standard staples are listed daily.

Full decklists: MTGTop8 | Melee.gg | ANZ Super Series

The C3 Take

The decisions you make with your TCG collection matter more than most guides suggest. Whether you are buying, selling, or holding, the difference between a good outcome and a poor one almost always comes down to checking current AUD prices before you act. Use the live data at /cards/mtg to make price-informed decisions every time.

What to Read Next

• Browse MTG singles and prices at /cards/mtg
• Find your MTG colour identity at /quizzes/mtg-colour
• Calculate booster box expected value at /tools

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the ANZ Super Series?

The ANZ Super Series is the primary regional competitive circuit for Magic: The Gathering in Australia and New Zealand. Regional Championships award Pro Tour qualification, World Championship slots, and prize money. Cycle 11 ran in March 2026.

What is Mono Green Landfall and why did it win?

Mono Green Landfall uses land-based triggers to generate creature tokens (via Sapling Nursery), accumulate counters (via Earthbender Ascension), and create lethal attacks out of nowhere via Mightform Harmonizer doubling power at instant speed. The deck is consistent, resilient to removal, and rewards tight play.

Where can I find the full decklists from RQ Sydney?

Full decklists from the ANZ Super Series Cycle 11 RC Sydney are available at MTGTop8 and Melee.gg.