Innistrad: Midnight Hunt – Day 1 Standard Decks from Across the Web

Continue to decks from day 2 to see how they have evolved!

Innistrad: Midnight Hunt is one of the most anticipated sets in the last year, not only because it takes place on the much beloved gothic horror-themed plane, but also because of what else the set release has brought upon us: Standard Rotation!

With Midnight Hunt’s release earlier today, Eldraine, Theros: Beyond Death, Ikoria, and Core Set 2021 have all left the format, bringing the power level of Standard down to levels not seen since before Eldraine’s release notoriously broke multiple formats.

However, there’s no lack of excitement in Standard as Midnight Hunt has brought quite a bit of power along with it! In this article, we’re going to look at a wide compilation of decklists we’ve collected from content creators and brewers across the internet. We’ve got new archetypes, existing archetypes with significant upgrades, and everything in-between.

Let’s get started with a brief rundown on some of the most popular archetypes that have been showing up so far.

Werewolves! Gruul, Mono Green, and More

In the Standard format that has just come to a close, Gruul Aggro has been one of the strongest archetypes in the format for several months thanks to the power of cards like Embercleave, Bonecrusher Giant, and Lovestruck Beast. In Standard 2022, where only sets that would be legal post rotation were included, Gruul decks still had access to Goldspan Dragon and Magda, Brazen Outlaw, but lacked the raw power to compete with the best decks in the format.

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Now, Midnight Hunt has provided Gruul decks with a suite of powerful new options, including the new planeswalker Arlinn, the Pack’s Hope and Reckless Stormseeker.

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Additionally, while Gruul decks weren’t great in Standard 2022, Mono Green was one of the strongest archetypes, and there are plenty of powerful new cards to play with in Mono Green and Gruul alike. In particular, Primal Adversary and Briarbridge Tracker have been showing up in new decklists, along with the versatile Outland Liberator, a threat that’s also a removal tool when it needs to be.

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Control

Control decks across several colors have also received new tools in Midnight Hunt. While midrange and ramp decks were quite powerful in Standard 2022, more traditional control styles – other than Orzhov Control, which is non-traditional in its own right – were largely pushed down in the format. Many of the removal options available were limited in some way and/or expensive in terms of casting cost. Now, a host of new removal options may be putting control decks back on the map in Standard.

In white, Fateful Absence is an unconditional removal spell that comes with the downside of giving the permanent’s controller a Clue token. In black, Infernal Grasp is a Doom Blade that can hit any creature at the cost of 2 life. Many have pointed out that both of these cards are actually stronger in aggro and midrange shells that can provide constant pressure, but they’re still applicable to control and have been showing up in some number in the lists we’ve seen so far.

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Blue control decks also get a nice draw spell in the form of Memory Deluge, which seems to be a significant upgrade to preexisting Standard 2022 options, most comparably Behold the Multiverse.

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Tempo/Spells

Spells matter decks have been at least a small part of Standard 2022 since the format was introduced thanks in large part to Strixhaven’s Magecraft ability, along with the Learn mechanic which fetches more spells from the sideboard.

Thanks to Midnight Hunt, interest in these archetypes has soared largely due to the much hyped reprint of Delver of Secrets. Another new card that’s in a similar vein is Poppet Stitcher, although whether the latter is powerful enough to compete in the format remains to be seen.

Midnight Hunt also brings us Consider– a nice upgrade to Opt, which would probably have been good enough to see play itself.

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In the list below, you’ll find a couple different Delver decks that players have come up with so far, and there’s no doubt that the archetype will continue to be refined as time goes on.

Midrange and Other

These are just a few examples of the decks which are being created for the new Standard format, but there are a wide range of archetypes and variants that can be found in the list below. Midrange decks of various sorts are also showing up in number, with Golgari in particular being a popular choice.

This is only the first day of the new format, and the stream of new decklists has just begun. Existing archetypes will be further refined, and new archetypes are likely to form as players discover the most powerful new synergies in the format. We’ll be back again tomorrow with more Standard lists, so be sure to check back.

A quick note on Historic: much of the playerbase has been focused on Standard because of the hype surrounding rotation, but we are actively collecting Historic decks as well. Be on the lookout for a similar compilation of new decks in Historic which we will include when we have more to review.

We hope you enjoy the new set and the new Standard experience as much as we have been! Having good results with a new deck? Let us know in the comments, or Tweet us @mtgazone on Twitter with your decklist. Thanks for reading!