Hey all. Strickles here back with Week 2 of our Duskmourn 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.

This week we have three Standard Challenges on Magic Online to review and as I’ll breakdown we saw the meta start to settle down much more compared to last week. We continue to see a divergence between mono-red aggro decks that play Leyline of Resonance and decks that don’t, with both versions having good results, and we can crown a leader in the race for best Azorius deck.

With all that said, let’s dive right in!

Token Control

Mono-White Token Control had a great weekend. With four copies in Top 8s, and two event wins, it has emerged as a key player in the format.

While last week it hadn’t incorporated any new cards from Duskmourn outside of one copy of Overlord of the Mistmoors, this week it has moved to play two or three copies of Enduring Innocence. Enduring Innocence is great with the tokens plan, adding to the card advantage the deck already has with Caretaker’s Talent.

Enduring Innocence can also block early and then return as an enchantment, and you probably want to trade it off early, because Sunfall will exile it if it’s a creature but not if it’s an enchantment.

Lay Down Arms in the main and Elspeth’s Smite in the sideboard give the deck eight one-mana removal spells to help fight against the Leyline of Resonance decks.

This Boros version also put one copy into a Top 8 this weekend. I think this Boros version is more of a meta game call. Torch the Tower and Lightning Helix give you good answers to Leyline of Resonance decks, while Urabrask’s Forge will help in the mirror against the Mono-White versions.

We’ll have to see if this Boros version, or the Orzhov and Jeskai versions we saw last season, rise up to contend with Mono-White, but until then you should have a plan for Mono-White Token Control before you go into any tournament.

Leyline Aggro

Gruul Prowess had three copies into Top 8s this weekend, and there was no divergence among Gruul players between playing Leyline of Resonance or not. This deck is quite similar to the version I covered last week, making me think that this will be the list moving forward, at least until some new innovation breaks onto the scene.

Mono-Red Prowess had two copies into Top 8s this weekend, and was actually outperformed by versions of Mono-Red that don’t play Leyline of Resonance (more on that below).

I think the decision of choosing to play Mono-Red or Gruul comes down to personal preference. Gruul doesn’t have Callous Sell-Sword for the easy turn two kills, but it does have Snakeskin Veil to protect threats from removal.

If you are committed to playing Leyline of Resonance, give both versions a try and see which you prefer. While these leyline decks have a big presence on the ladder, it hasn’t completely dominated these challenges yet, so we’ll have to wait and see if it really is a ban-worthy strategy, or just a frustrating deck to face.

Mono-Red Aggro

This Mono-Red Aggro deck put three copies into Top 8s this weekend, choosing to not play Leyline of Resonance and instead play Squee, Dubious Monarch to grind opponent’s down.

I’m not sure why this version of Mono-Red is popular and putting up results. Squee is a good threat, but outside of frustrating players relying on Cut Down, it is exiled by Torch the Tower and Elspeth’s Smite, which are quite popular.

I think that this deck attacks from a very straight forward angle, and it’s not that opponent’s aren’t prepared for it, but perhaps they are so indexed on dealing with Leyline of Resonance decks that this version is able to overwhelm opponent’s with a variety of threats.

I’m not sure. I’ll have to play some games with this on the ladder to better understand why it is putting up good results. This deck is a good choice if you are an aggro player but are convinced that Leyline of Resonance will be banned at some point.

Azorius Hand

Last week we had three different Azorius decks put copies into Top 8s, and on Friday I broke them down and posed a question: which version will rise to the top over the others? This week we got an answer, as Azorius Hand (or Azorius Tempo) put four copies into Top 8s, while the other two Azorius decks had zero decks into Top 8s.

If this deck continues to rise in popularity, I expect players will start to play more graveyard exile in their sideboards. I do like that this version of the deck has Monastery Mentor in the sideboard. If you are expecting a lot of graveyard hate in the post-sideboard games, Monastery Mentor gives you a threat that doesn’t rely on the graveyard, giving you a way to win the game regardless.

Also remember that Into the Flood Maw can bounce permanents like Leyline of the Void or Rest in Peace, giving you a chance to try to pop off and get an Abhorrent Oculus into play before they can redeploy it.

Dimir Midrange

Dimir Midrange? Playing new cards? Color me pleasantly surprised! Dimir Midrange had a solid weekend with three copies into Top 8s this weekend.

The new innovation here is Enduring Curiosity replacing Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor. The main reason to do this is that despite costing one more mana, Enduring Curiosity has flash, allowing you to hold up removal and counterspells, and then if you don’t need them, flash it in.

This plays really nicely with the other flash cards in the deck, like Ertai Resurrected and Tishana’s Tidebinder, frustrating your opponent’s when you untap, play a land, and say go, as you could have anything from removal, to counterspells, to creatures.

The other innovation in this build of Dimir is to play Disfigure over Cut Down. This is mostly a nod to Leyline of Resonance decks, as a card like Turn Inside Out in response to a Cut Down can fizzle it, as the creatures total power and toughness will be greater than 5, but Disfigure can almost always kill the creature, just make sure you respond to the valiant trigger from Heartfire Hero.

Golgari Crimes Midrange

This Golgari Midrange deck came out of nowhere to win an event, its only copy in a Top 8, and it has given up the Vraska, Betrayal’s Sting and Innkeeper’s Talent combo in favor of a crimes package with Freestrider Lookout and Iridescent Vinelasher to help ramp up and cast big top end cards like Harvester of Misery, Virtue of Persistence, or a big Meathook Massacre II.

Otherwise this is a straightforward Midrange deck. Good threats and good removal, and Ghost Vacuum makes a main deck appearance as both graveyard hate, but also a free way to commit a crime and then create a board later in the game.

We’ll have to wait and see if this is just a fluke or if this version of Golgari beats out the version from last season, but regardless I like that players are continuing to try new things and innovate.

Other Decks

We had three other decks this week that put one copy into a Top 8, but they are all decks we have already covered a lot last season and weren’t playing many new cards. They were Orzhov Midrange, Rakdos Lizards, and Domain. To see those lists and all the decks from this weekend you can check them out below:

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/standard-challenge-32-2024-10-04#paper

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/standard-challenge-32-2024-10-05#paper

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/standard-challenge-32-2024-10-06#paper

Wrapping Up

Standard did settle down a bit this past weekend, which isn’t surprising as the first week of a format is always volatile and ripe for innovation. The main thing we have to keep an eye on now is how does the format continue to evolve? 

While several decks put up three or four copies into Top 8s this weekend, last season we got to the point where decks were putting up six or more copies into Top 8s, solidifying them as key players in the format. 

So we’ll have to see if Token Control decks continue to perform well, and if Leyline of Resonance continues to shape the format. Do midrange decks continue to innovate? Whatever happens, I’ll be back next week to cover it all.

Until then, best of luck in all of your matches.