MTGO Standard Challenge – June 18, 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: June 18, 2023. We got some old classics but also new decks that made it into the top 8! Lets go take a look at it!

Top 8 Decks

Both of the top 8s this weekend were very diverse! Mono-Red Aggro and Esper Legends had less copies in both of the top8s and instead made room for new and innovative decks or older established archetypes to shine in the format! The top 8 has 1 copy of Domain Ramp, 1 copy of Azorius Control, 1 copy of Esper Control, 1 copy of Rakdos Midrange, 1 copy of Azorius Soldiers, 1 copy of Selesnya Enchantments, 1 copy of Esper Legends and 1 copy of Orzhov Midrange! Lets go take a look at the decklists!

First place was taken down with Domain Ramp piloted by Capipf95!

This deck did not have a lot of strong results recently but now it managed to take down the whole challenge! The gameplan of the deck is to ramp and control the board early in the game. When you get to enough mana you want to cast threats like Atraxa, Grand Unifier or Etali, Primal Conqueror to quickly finish the opponent!

The 2nd place was taken down with Azorius Control by slaxx!

The decks gameplan is the same as with every Azorius Control deck that exists. It wants to use removal and counterspells to control the board and when it has enough mana it goes for a strong threat (usually a planeswalker, for example Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim) to slowly close the game out while still in control of the battlefield! The rest of the deck helps you in finding those cards, most of the time as instant speed card advantage (Thirst for Discovery or Memory Deluge).

3rd place was taken down with Esper Control by Ignotus97!

Another control deck! This one chose to also use black as a color that has a lot of strong removal in the format! The idea of the deck stays the same. Control the board with removal and counters and then later in the game get a threat onto the battlefield to slowly finish the opponent! This deck has less threats than the Azorius version but it is still able to achieve the win for example with tokens from Sunfall!

4th place was taken down with Rakdos Midrange by MTGHolic!

Another Rakdos Midrange list trying to replace the banned cards! This one did it a bit differently than the one from the Saturday Challenge. Instead of playing more grindy 2 for 1 cards they chose to register more threats! Good example would be 4 copies of Archfiend of the Dross as a very strong 6/6 flying threat that should get the job done before it gets to the point it would loose you the game because of its ability.

5th place was taken down with Azorius Soldiers by sMann2.0!

A low to the ground aggro deck! This variant goes fully into the disruption plan with Skrelv, Defector Mite, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Dennick, Pious Apprentice. It wants to swarm the board with as many creatures as possible and then pump up your team with cards like Siege Veteran, Valiant Veteran or Harbin, vanguard aviator! This version also chose to play 0 interaction spells in the maindeck and went fully into the creature gameplan!

6th place was taken down with Selesnya Enchantments by J0SE!

This deck is centered all around enchantments! All of the cards the decks play are either enchantments or they benefit from them. The way for it to get the engine going is by getting Jukai Naturalist, Generous Visitor or Hallowed haunting onto the battlefield which give you additional benefits with your enchantments!

The rest of the enchantment spells are able to provide value on their own on top of the benefits from other cards. Another strong threat this deck plays is Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr. The rest of the deck is filled with cards that help you in achieving this gameplan!

The 7th place deck was Esper Legends by David1987!

This is the version that cuts out on Skrelv, Defector Mite and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and instead plays more grindy cards to outvalue the opponent! It achieves that with cards like The Raven Man, Toluz, Clever Conductor or Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor which are all able to 2 for 1 the opponent! This pilot also chose to cut out on Wedding Announcement and instead registered threats like Adeline, Resplendent cathar!

The last 8th place deck was Orzhov Midrange by plaza23! This deck has been putting up at least one list into the top 8s most of the time since the bannings!

Its main gameplan is to control the board with strong removal spells and planeswalkers while slowly getting in damage with your creatures! The creatures this deck plays also provide value either by replacing themselves or giving you additional benefits (for example Serra Paragon lets you cast cheap cards from your graveyard). The top end for this deck is Breach The Multiverse which is also the reason this deck plays black!

The second top 8 this weekend also had less copies of Esper Legends and Mono-Red Aggro compared to the previous weeks which Iam glad to see! Its always nice to see people innovating and winning with their brews! Thats all for todays article! I hope you enjoyed it and see you soon!