MTGO Standard Challenge – June 3, 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 3, 2023. This is the first online tournament on MTGO post-bannings which left the format without Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, Invoke Despair and Reckoner Bankbuster.

Many people have been trying to find the best deck that doesn’t use those cards. The fresh meta post-bans is usually either decks that were good or playable before the bans but did not lose any cards, and also decks that are either new because people like to brew in non-solved formats or already existing decks that did not quite get there in the format before bans. This top 8 is exactly that so lets take a look at the specific decklists!

Top 8 Decks

As I said the top 8 consists of decks that were fine even before bans but did not loose anything (Iam talking about Esper Legends – 4 copies, Azorius Soldiers – 1 copy, Mono-Red Aggro – 1 copy and Domain Control – 1 copy), decks that already existed but did not quite get there (Azorius Control – 1 copy) and new freshly brewed decks (Mono-White Domain Control – 1 Copy).

It’s still very early into the post ban format so we shall wait and see what it possibly brings to us in the future. But that doesn’t change the fact that some of these decklists are still very interesting so lets go right into them!

First place was taken down with Esper Legends piloted by Arianne! Esper was the deck that I expected people to try because it did not loose any cards and they for sure did try it (The top 32 had 9 copies of the deck with 4 of them in the top 8)!

This exact decklist cut down on Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and instead played more grindy cards like Rona, Herald of Invasion which lets you go through a lot of cards thanks to most of your spells being legendary.

The Raven Man as a way to generate 1/1 flying tokens because a lot of your cards let you loot, therefore discard cards, Toluz, Clever Conductor as a way to generate card advantage with its death trigger, and Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor as another card draw engine! Overall an interesting way to play the deck and is for sure worth trying.

The other deck in the finals was also Esper Legends piloted by trunks132! This deck variant is the one I would call “stock” before the bans consisting of early disruption like Skrelv, Defector Mite and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and 3 drop and 4 drop bombs like Raffine, Scheming Seer and Sheoldred, The Apocalypse.

Nothing unusual to point out but this lists also shows that the decks have started playing Rona, Herald of Invasion as a good way to filter through bad draws.

At third place we have Azorius Control piloted by ruin000! This deck existed before but did not put up much results but now it placed 3rd in the first post ban challenge! The gameplan is the same as with every “normal” control deck.

Control the board with counterspells (Syncopate,Make Disappear) and removal (Sunfall, Lay Down Arms) and then later in the game cast a planeswalker that can accumulate card advantage (Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim) so the opponent gets “locked out” by cards. Good to see a control deck doing well because we did not see any in the format for a while.

At fourth place we have Mono-Red Aggro piloted by LucasG1ggs! Aggro decks are usually a fine choice post ban because it can catch people off guard when they are trying new brews and this exact choice worked for this pilot!

I want to point out that there is no Shivan Devastator (which has been fairly stock when I looked into the most recent Mono-Red lists) even that it plays Invasion of Tarkir. Aside from that the lists looks standard and is still a fine choice into the format before it settles down!

Another Esper legends lists piloted by ovmlcabrera! A lists similar to the second place one but also playing Toluz, Clever Conductor as a strong filter and card advantage engine and Invasion of Gobakhan as another way to disrupt and slow down the opponent!

A combination of Domain Control and Mono-White Midrange piloted by Rex_Iudex! Mono-White Midrange lost its best card advantage engine by the bannings of Reckoner Bankbuster and this pilot tried to solve it in an interesting way!

They combined the base of Mono-White Midrange with all the strong white removal spells and planeswalkers and took the strong part from Domain Control by playing Leyline Binding and Atraxa, Grand Unifier as a very strong top end that provides a huge threat and card advantage that the deck has just lost with the bans.

The fourth Esper Legends lists piloted by ElfKid! A very clean list with only Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor as a one of flex slot. This being the 4th deck in the top 8 shows that it might be one of the core decks in the upcoming weeks!

At 8th place we have Azorius Soldiers piloted by _BOI_! This exact pilot chose to not include Knight-Errant of Eos and instead went with a more low to the ground oriented deck! This exact decklist is trying to play a more interactive game with flash creature spells (Zephyr Sentinel, Resolute Reinforcements) and counterspells (Make Disappear,Protect the Negotiators).

Another strong part of this decklist is that a lot of the creatures have or can gain flying which makes this deck very good at getting in damage even if the opponent is presenting threats on the battlefield!

Thanks for reading this article and I hope you liked! Its still very early to take conclusions from the first online post ban event but Esper legends crushed this tournament!