MTGO Standard Challenge – July 16, 2023 – Top 8 Decklists

Hi! My name is Vertyx and I will go over the top finishes of the Magic Online Standard Challenge that took place on the weekend: July 16, 2023. Lets go take a look at all of the interesting decks people chose to register this weekend!

Top 8 Decks

We can see the “expected” tier decks like Mono-Black Midrange and Esper Control but other not so popular decks also made it in making this top 8 way more diverse than the Saturday one! We still got 2 copies of Esper control, a deck that utilizes all the mighty control cards in the current rotation which include cheap counterspells, great boardwipes and instant speed removal to create a potent control deck in the Esper colors!

Another well known deck is Mono-Black Midrange! The other deck that we expected to see with 2 copies in the top 8! Instead of being 3 colors this deck chose to be as consistent as possible by being only in Black! Black has powerful threats, removal and disruption to create a mighty midrange deck that is able to gain value by 2 for 1-ing the opponent with its spells while applying pressure!

The next deck is most likely familiar to a lot of people but I would not count it as tier 1 anymore since the meta has evolved. The buzz is about Domain Ramp! this deck has been existing for a while and showing itself from time to time in premier events. Its idea is simple consisting of ramping and removing threats in the early game and then when you get enough mana casts your threats like Atraxa, grand Unifier which should be able to generate enough value for you to take over the game!

The 3 remaining decks are not seen often in premier events but they made it in this weekend! First one is Bant Toxic! All threats of this deck utilize the Toxic mechanic to create an aggro deck that’s main way of winning the game is with giving the opponent 10 poison counters to make them loose the game! The rest is mostly filled with interaction spells that are either straight up counterspells or they protect your creatures in some way either by giving hexproof or phasing them out!

The second deck is Mono-Blue Tempo! Blue always had the best cards for a tempo gameplan and this rotation had enough to create a deck in those colors! Utilizing cheap counterspells, instant speed card draw and big threats makes this deck capable of making it a nightmare to resolve spells for the opponent while slowly accumulating cards and getting closer to its threats that can close the game in one or two turns!

And the last deck is Azorius Control! This deck is not the traditional Azorius Control deck you are used to. The main core of the deck takes an origin in the Mono-White Midrange archetype utilizing cheap removal to get the board under control as soon as possible! Blue adds counterspells to the deck making it able to interact with cards that removal is not enough against. By combining these 2 colors you get a deck that is prepared to handle anything the opponent throws at you either it be creatures or annoying non-creature spells!

Overall the top 8 has: 2 copies of Mono-Black Midrange, 2 copies of Esper Control, 1 copy of Domain Ramp, 1 copy of Bant toxic, 1 copy of Mono-Blue Tempo and 1 copy of Azorius Control!

Whole finals were occupied with Esper Control by Tunaktunak and Ignotus97!

As expected the top tables were taken down with one of the three most popular decks (Dimir Midrange, Mono-Black Midrange or Esper Control). This has started being a normal occurrence since those decks are played way more compared to the rest of the format.

Lets go take a look at the decklists. To those unfamiliar with the deck, its main gameplan goes the same as every control deck. It uses cheap counterspells (for example Make Disappear), strong removal (for example The Wandering Emperor) and premium boardwipes (for example Sunfall) to get a chance to interact with the opponent in every way imaginable so it can get the board under control as soon as possible. When it gets to that spot it can then slowly close the game out since the opponent is unlikely to recover.

The specific decklists are really similar taking an advantage of the same cards with some one of differences here and there. Esper is one of the top 3 decks in my opinion so if you rather want to play control than midrange I recommend trying this deck out before any major tournament!

3rd place was taken down with Domain Ramp by claudioh!

A returning deck that shows up from time to time trying to break through the Black dominated meta. If you are fan of ramping and controlling the board and curving out into your threats like Atraxa, Grand unifier this deck is exactly for you! If you get to survive for a few turns, Atraxa should generate enough value for you to win either with cards or the threat itself! If the idea of this deck intrigues you I recommend trying it!

4th and 8th place were taken down with Mono-Black Midrange by adebevoise and Aardos!

The other deck that is almost certainly showing up with atleast one copy in the top 8! Going straight Mono-Black, this deck utilizes all the broken Black threats like Tenacious Underdog, Graveyard Trespasser or Sheoldred, the apocalypse to put a lot of hard to answer pressure on the opponent! When you need to clear the way you also have premium removal like Go for the Throat or disruption like Liliana of the Veil which attacks the battlefield from different angles making the deck more resilient to board wipes!

The specific decklists are really similar again only with a few one of differences here and there. I would be surprised for this deck to not do well in any major events making it a great choice! If you like consistent decks that go straightforward with its gameplan this deck is the one for you!

5th place was taken down with Bant toxic by guiyote!

I am surprised to see this deck again. Originally starting to exist right after the printing of the majority of its threats (Phyrexia: All Will Be One expansion) this deck saw only a few weeks of popularity and then slowly disappeared. All threats in this deck have the toxic mechanic which gives your opponent poison counters when they get to connect, those threats include cards like Slaughter Singer, Venerated Rotpriest, Skrelv, Defector Mite or even Skrelv's Hive that gives me the Bitterblossom vibes of creating a threat every turn!

When the opponent gets to 10 poison counters they loose the game. To make sure all your creatures get to stay and connect the majority of the non-creature spells in the deck give your creatures protection either with hexproof or by phasing them out. An interesting deck that can get the job done really fast if you underestimate it so stay aware of that whenever you play against it!

6th place was taken down with Mono-Blue Tempo by Soto_!

Blue was always the top color for all tempo oriented cards. This rotation has all it needs to create a tempo deck that exactly utilizes all of these blue cards! Getting to use cheap counterspells (Make Disappear or Spell Pierce), instant speed card advantage (Thirst for Discovery or Flow of Knowledge) and large threats (Haughty Djinn or Tolarian Terror) makes this deck have everything it needs to accomplish a full tempo gameplan! Getting to counter a lot of cards thanks to the cheap counters, accumulate cards at instant speed and finish the game in a few turns makes this deck as tempo as it gets!

7th place was taken down with Azorius Control by Coly2 making it the last deck to cover today!

This deck is not the traditional Azorius Control list you are probably used to. Instead this deck originates in the Mono-White Midrange archetype using all of the powerful removal that white has to offer including The Wandering Emperor and Ossification making this deck capable of removing any problematic threats. That shell could have problems with non-creature spells like planeswalkers since it does not have a good way of removing them and that’s where Blue comes in!

Blue adds counterspells to the deck so it can interact with spells that removal is not enough against. When it gets the board under control and it comes down to closing the game this deck has a few spells like Wedding Announcement or Ambitious Farmhand which can either save you some time but also finish the opponent when you need to! If you were a fan of Mono-White Midrange but wanted to have a bit more ways of interaction this deck is exactly for you!

And that’s it for today! I hope you enjoyed the article, if you had any feedback feel free to reach out to us! Have a nice week and see you next time!