Hey all. Strickles here, back with Week 6 of our Standard Meta Reports. To give you all the latest info without having to dig through decklists and events, each week I will be going over the top events of the weekend and provide analysis of how the meta is evolving. As all of these tournaments are Best of-3, keep in mind that these meta changes only reflect the Bo3 meta and not Bo1.

With all that said, let’s dive into the top decks of the weekend. This weekend we have four Standard Challenges on MTGO, and one Standard Super Qualifier to look at. There were a lot of new decks that broke into Top 8s this week, and outside of two strong performers and two medium performers, all decks only put one or two copies into Top 8s, even with an additional event to cover this week compared to most weeks. So let’s cover those top performers and then go over the most interesting decks of the weekend!

Top Performers

Orzhov Midrange

Orzhov Midrange has emerged as a dominant force in the meta, with nine copies into Top 8s this weekend, including winning one Standard Challenge and the Standard Super Qualifier.

I think what makes this build of Orzhov Midrange so appealing is that it can play both offense and defense. It is packed with removal, lifegain, and good blockers to play defense, but can also curve out with efficient creatures to pressure the opponent, and can go long and grind it out.

I expect this deck to continue to perform well because I’m not sure the best way to attack it. But if it continues to hang out at the top of results, it will get a target on its back and players will figure out ways to attack it.

Gruul Prowess

Gruul Prowess has continued to perform, with eight copies into Top 8s this weekend, including winning two Standard Challenges.

I’m not sure what else to say about this deck. It has good redundancy with its creatures and its spells, making it very consistent. It is fast, and usually resilient to the first removal spell or two. It’s just good, and while other aggro decks have had highs and lows, Gruul Prowess has established itself as the current best aggro deck in the format.

Medium Performers

Rakdos Lizards

Rakdos Lizards had an okay weekend, with four copies into Top 8s this weekend. I say this is a medium result because there was an additional event this weekend and the deck had around the same number of Top 8s as previous weeks.

Rakdos Lizards is another consistent aggro deck, but has failed to have a breakout weekend, and I’m worried that it isn’t getting any new tools from Duskmourn. For now, it continues to rank as a great choice for any given weekend, but we’ll have to see how it performs moving forward.

Golgari Midrange

Golgari Midrange is the last medium performer, with three copies into Top 8s this weekend.

Golgari Midrange is another deck that I have talked a lot about, and it continues to be just a solid average deck. It hasn’t had a breakout weekend, but has always put up results, just like Rakdos Lizards. If you are looking for a deck that has a shot against everything, try learning Golgari Midrange. It is the kind of deck that rewards skilled and practiced pilots.

New Decks

This week we had a lot of new decks that put up one or two copies into Top 8s, so let’s see what awesome new brews took the weekend by storm!

Caves

Welcome to coverage of the Lost Caverns of Ixalan limited event. Wait, this isn’t a limited event? Not only is it not a limited event, not just one, but two players put this Caves deck into Top 8s this past weekend in two different events. Let’s break it down.

This deck is forgoing ramping into big plays in favor of making their big plays cheaper. The deck plays three different big creatures that all get cheaper based off of certain cards in your graveyard. Tolarian Terror and Hearth Elemental for instants and sorceries, and Gargantuan Leech for caves in play and in your graveyard.

The goal is to mill your self using Seed of Hope and Cache Grab to both find your threats and fill up the graveyard, making your threats easy to deploy way ahead of schedule. Up the Beanstalk is a nice addition to the deck, because while all of your threats will be cast for cheap, their mana value is still very high, so they will trigger the beanstalk to draw a card.

Rounding out the deck is good removal in Anoint with Affliction and Tear Asunder, slowing down aggro decks and answering a variety of problematic permanents, and Calamitous Cave-In to sweep up the board, especially since it also cares about the number of caves in your graveyard and in-play.

While the mana base is mostly caves, I like that almost all of them come into play untapped, meaning you can cast your spells on curve, and most of them have a way to make colored mana, even if it costs mana or life.

So, will Caves become a recurring player? Maybe. I think the deck attacks from an angle most of your opponents aren’t going to be prepared for when you drop two huge creatures into play on turn three or four. Regardless, if you are looking for a fun new deck to try on the ladder, that is quite easy on wildcards as there are no rares or mythic rares in the deck, give Caves a try!

Dimir Rats

Dimir Rats is a midrange deck looking to curve out with Rat creatures and control the opponent’s board with removal. It put one copy into a Top 8 this weekend, but it looked sweet enough that I had to cover it.

The curve of this deck is really tight and starts on turn two. Persistent Marshstalker is a great recurring threat that scales up as your board grows. Azure Beastbinder, a card that I was high on when it was spoiled but has failed to find a home, is great against opponents who are relying on one or two creatures to stabilize the board. Shoreline Looter can help you find removal or stay on curve, and Nezumi Informant attacks the opponent’s hand.

At three mana the Rats are even scarier. Karumonix, the Rat King, is likely to draw several cards and gives all of your rats toxic 1. This deck has several threats that can’t be blocked and can make a lot of tokens, meaning that a toxic kill is not out of the question. Lord Skitter, Sewer King, makes a rat token each turn and attacks your opponent’s graveyard.

Rounding out the curve is Vren, the Relentless. Vren plays similar to Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, exiling your opponent’s creatures that would die, and giving you tokens for each one that is exiled. These rat tokens scale up in size based on how many rats you have, so they are likely to be quite big.

This build also has a ton of ways to remove creatures, making it easy to make tokens with Vren. The most exciting is Pile On, as in some games you will be able to play Vren on turn four and immediately cast Pile On to exile an opposing creature and get a token. Gix’s Command can also lead to some big Vren turns, or for getting back a big chunk of life by buffing up a Persistent Marshstalker.

So, is Dimir Rats a better choice than Dimir Midrange? I think the benefit of this build of Dimir is that it will have several games where it curves out and kills the opponent much faster than Dimir Midrange could, but still has all of the removal to slow down aggro decks. Only time will tell, but I think this build popping up shows us that there is plenty of room to innovate in Standard, so long as you are bold enough to do it.

Sultai Self-Mill

Another sweet graveyard deck, Sultai Self-Mill put one copy into the Top 8 of the Standard Super Qualifier this weekend. Between this deck and the Caves deck, it seems that players have been slacking on adding graveyard hate to their sideboards.

The main goal of this deck is to mill yourself so that your copies of Urborg Lhurgoyf, Cruel Somnophage, and Souls of the Lost are huge, must answer threats. The nice thing is that Urborg Lhurgoyf and Cruel Somnophage both have ways to mill themselves, so they are both enablers and payoffs.

Other enablers include Gnawing Vermin, Seed of Hope, and Blanchwood Prowler, all adding cards to the graveyard, while the latter two can help find threats or land drops.

Outside of the payoffs discussed above, the deck also has two cards that get cheaper based on creatures in your graveyard. Hollow Marauder can come down cheap, attack your opponent’s hand, and then pressure in the air, and Overwhelming Remorse gives you a cheap removal spell.

What I like about this build is the inclusion of Outcaster Trailblazer. As all of your payoffs are going to have very high power, they are all going to draw cards when they enter thanks to the trailblazer, keeping the cards coming and the pressure on the opponent. Honest Rutstein can recur threats that you have milled or that have been killed, and Glarb, Calamity’s Augur helps keep your graveyard full.

Overall this deck is just sweet. It has a ton of huge threats, making it really tough for opponent’s who are trying to just go one-for-one. Obviously, it folds pretty hard to graveyard hate, but if your opponent’s aren’t prepared for it, you are going to have a good time overwhelming them.

Mono-Black Midrange

Tired of Orzhov? Dimir or Golgari not doing it for you? Why not try Mono-Black Midrange? At one copy into a Top 8 this weekend, Mono-Black Midrange showed that there is something to be gained for just playing a whole bunch of basic Swamps.

There isn’t anything too spicy going on here, just good efficient creatures and good efficient removal spells. I mostly wanted to highlight it just because I think it does show how powerful Black is in this Standard format. All of our top Midrange decks are based on Black, because the best creatures, like Deep-Cavern Bat and Preacher of the Schism, are Black, and the best removal, Cut Down and Go for the Throat, are Black.

So why bother splashing another color when you can just have a consistent mana base and curve out every game? That is what this player thought and it paid off for them. So if you’ve got a lot of these staples but don’t have the wildcards for the rare heavy mana base of a Dimir or an Orzhov, give this deck a shot.

Other Decklists

The weekend also saw a variety of decks that I have previously covered showing up at one or two copies. Various Token Control decks showed up in three different flavors, Domain, Dimir Midrange, Jeskai Convoke, and Azorius Control all had a small presence. And lastly, Rakdos and Mono-Red Prowess had a small showing as well. You can see all of the deck lists below:

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/standard-challenge-32-2024-09-13#paper

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/standard-challenge-32-2024-09-14#paper

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/standard-challenge-32-2024-09-14-1#paper

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/standard-challenge-32-2024-09-15#paper

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/standard-super-qualifier-2024-09-15#paper

Wrapping Up

Standard continues to surprise, with new and interesting decks popping up and doing well in events. Meanwhile, there have been some consistent performers that continue to perform and are what you should be prepared for if you are going to take on an event on MTGO or in paper.

With Duksmourn just around the corner, next weekend we’ll put a bow on Bloomburrow Standard, and look forward to how I think Duskmourn will affect the top performers of the meta moving forward.

Until then, look out for my article reviewing what I think are the best cards from Duksmourn for Standard, and my article going over all of the decks I’ve brewed up for day one of Duksmourn, and as always, best of luck in all of your matches!