The post ban format is always more swingy than the solved one. The decks that usually shine in the first 2-3 weeks are either strong decks that did not loose anything or aggro decks which this top 8 exactly has! Lets go take a look at which specific decks made it (spoiler alert! It is very similar to the top 8 from the Saturday Challenge).
A very similiar top 8 to the one from Saturday. 4 Copies of Esper Legends which had an awesome weekend and is forming into the strongest aggro/midrange deck. 2 Copies of Mono-Red aggro which is a good choice into post bans formats to catch people off guard. 1 Copy of Orzhov Midrange and 1 copy of Azorius Control at 1st place which I am glad to see because we did not have any strong control decks in standard for a while.
So let’s take a look at the specific decklists starting of with first place Azorius Control piloted by Oscar_Franco!
I am glad to see another copy of Azorius Control in the top 8s from both weekends. As I said, its nice to have a control deck in the format since there were none for a while. The deck’s gameplan is pretty straightforward consisting of controlling the board with removal (Sunfall, Lay Down Arms) and counterspells (Make Disappear). And right after the opponent starts lacking resources, slam a big planeswalker like Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim and slowly win the game from an unlosable spot!
At second place we have Esper Legends piloted by Arianne! This pilot also managed to win the Saturday Standard Challenge so it was an awesome weekend for them and their deck!
They chose to play a version of Esper Legends that is more slow and less dissruptive but more grindy and resilient to other midrange decks. The way they achieve this is by cutting down on Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Skrelv, Defector Mite and instead upping the count of cards like Toluz, Clever Conductor, Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor and The Raven Man which are all good at accumulating additional advantage either by card draw, looting or tokens. I have seen this similar list idea piloted by other people and it also lead them to good results!
At third and fourth place we have Mono-Red Aggro piloted by Coly2 and LucasG1ggs! Both of the lists are pretty straightforward. It looks like players have started playing Phoenix chick again instead of some versions with Shivan Devastator in that slot. Aside from that the lists are almost the same.
The rest of the Esper Legends decks at 5th, 6th and 7th place piloted by _Batutinha_, Etniesbmxer and canepis16! They share the same idea as the second place list of cutting down on Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Skrelv, Defector Mite and instead playing more grindy cards like Toluz, Clever Conductor, Gix,Yawgmoth Praetor and The Raven Man. This variant had much better results than the more aggressive one so it looks like it might replace it going forward.
At 8th place we have Orzhov Midrange piloted by KarnageKardsENT! The deck consists of a Mono-White Midrange shell splashing black for Breach the Multiverse as a strong top end. It lost its best card in the form of Reckoner Bankbuster which was the best card advantage engine for them but they managed to top 8 the challenge anyway! The time will tell if they can survive the bans or if the absence of the best card advantage engine makes them fall of the meta.
Thanks for reading this article and I hope you liked! Esper had an amazing weekend and swiftly climbed into the “deck to beat” category by putting in 8 copies out of 16 decks from both of the top 8s! Lets wait and see if others adapt or if Esper dominates the format for the upcoming weeks!
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Hi! I am Vertyx, I am 18 years old and I am from the Czech Republic. Most people know me due to my results on MTGO. I have countless Challenge Top 8s and a handful of wins with a wide variety of decks. I manage data from Magic: The Gathering events on MTG Arena Zone and MTG Meta.
