MTGO Standard Challenge – November 25 & November 26, 2023 – Top 8 Decklists and Breakdown

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: November 25th and November 26th 2023!

November 25th, Top 8 Decks

The first challenge is a showcase one with a whopping number of 189 players!

1 copy of Domain Ramp, 2 copies of Azorius Midrange, 4 copies of Esper Midrange and a single copy of Azorius Soldiers!

Lets go take a look at the decklists!

1st place was taken down with Domain Ramp by Snusnumrick!

This deck has been the #1 deck according to meta numbers for a while so most of you know it pretty well, but to the people that are new to the format lets take a look at how the deck wins! Its main goal is to get to 7 mana where it can hardcast Atraxa, Grand Unifier and take over the game with the value it provides, but it can get quite hard to get to it in time before the opponent takes you out.

For that you got a lot of ramp in the form of Topiary Stomper or Invasion of Zendikar and you also got a lot of removal like Leyline Binding, Sunfall or Depopulate!

And the rest of the deck is filled with supporting cards like Up the Beanstalk that supplies you with cards or Herd Migration that can either get you colors that you might be missing or if you got enough mana it can get you 5 3/3 tokens!

2nd (by perret) and 5th place (by L1X0) were taken down with Azorius Midrange!

Both of these decks include a lot of evasive creatures, cheap interaction and supporting enchantments that make your creatures bigger!

Lets start of with the threats and they include a lot of cheap flyers like Spyglass Siren, Regal Bunnicorn or Kitesail Larcenist so you can put on a lot pressure early.

As for the interaction it includes only a few cheap spells like Make Disappear and Destroy Evil.

The enchantments/artifacts part is bigger compared to the interaction since it includes Subterranean Schooner as a great way to get the most out of your cheap threats and a combination of Wedding Announcement and Virtue of Loyalty which can make the above mentioned threats bigger!

As for the specific decklists, they do include some bigger differences but ultimately share a similar gameplan!

3rd (by Graciasportanto), 4th (by slaxx), 6th (by Jpsn54) and 7th place (by McWinSauce) were taken down with Esper Midrange!

Another deck that includes a combination of powerful threats, interaction and supporting artifacts/enchantments so lets go straight into it starting with the threats!

They include a variety of creatures like disruption in the form of Deep-Cavern Bat or some generally powerful threats like Raffine, Scheming Seer or Sheoldred, the Apocalypse.

The interaction includes more variety compared to Azorius Midrange and it include cards like Make Disappear, Get Lost or Go for the Throat.

And as for the supporting cards, most of the decks include a combination of Subterranean Schooner, Wedding Announcement and Virtue of Loyalty to make your creatures stronger!

And the last deck to cover from the showcase is 8th place Azorius Soldiers by orantspro!

This deck uses some of the strongest soldiers like Zephyr Sentinel, Harbin, Vanguard Aviator or Recruitment Officer and even some strong non-soldiers like Werefox Bodyguard or Knight-Errant Of Eos!

And to make them even stronger the deck backs those up with Make Disappear to protect them from scary spells and Wedding Announcement or Virtue of Loyalty to make the above mentioned creatures larger!

And that is it for the first Challenge, let’s go take a look at the one that took place on Sunday, November 26th 2023!

November 26th, Top 8 Decks

The second challenge had less attendance but it still had interesting decks and data to show!

The challenge had a single copy of Orzhov Midrange, 3 copies of Esper Midrange, 1 copy of Domain Ramp, 1 copy of Mono-Red Aggro, 1 copy of Azorius Midrange and 1 copy of Mono-White Midrange!

Let’s go take a look at the decklists!

The first deck to cover is Orzhov Midrange by Mogged!

As with most standard midrange decks, this deck also combines strong threats with supportive cards!

The threat part includes only a few creatures and they are cards like Deep-Cavern Bat, Lord Skitter, Sewer King or Sheoldred, the Apocalypse!

The “support” cards could be separated into interaction which includes cards like Go for the throat, Destroy Evil or The Wandering Emperor and Enchantments that include Wedding Announcement/Virtue of Loyalty where they both make your battlefield larger and also other enchantments that provide strong benefits like The Restoration of Eiganjo or Virtue of Persistence.

2nd (by Fwanz), 5th (by Arianne) and 8th place (by xDingusKhan) were taken down with Esper Midrange!

As previously mentioned this deck could be separated into three important parts which include threats, interaction and the rest (artifacts/enchantments). Lets start with the threats.

Those include a lot of generally powerful creatures like Raffine, Scheming Seer or Dennick, Pious Apprentice and also some disruptive elements like Deep-Cavern Bat.

The interaction includes cards like Cut Down, Make Disappear or The Wandering Emperor.

And the rest includes cards like Wedding Announcement/Virtue of Loyalty (which make the rest of your deck stronger) or Subterranean Schooner which lets you attack while still protecting your other threats from combat tricks!

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

The decks only gameplan is to hardcast its top end cards like Atraxa, Grand Unifier or Herd Migration which should help you in taking over the game!

You get to that point with a combination of ramp cards like Topiary Stomper or Invasion of Zendikar and removal cards like Sunfall or Leyline Binding.

And the rest are mostly supportive cards like Up the beanstalk which gets you cards to cast or Archangel of Wrath which can help you stabilize against more aggressive decks.

4th place was taken down with Mono-Red Aggro by deleon91!

This deck uses some of most aggressive cards so it can reduce the opponents life total from 20 to 0! It uses some very cheap cards like Monastery Swiftspear or Kumano Faces Kakkazan, but also some more expensive threats like Squee, Dubious Monarch or Goddric, Cloaked Reveler.

And to close out the last remaining points of damage, the deck has burn spells in the form of Play with Fire or Lightning Strike!

6th place was taken down with Azorius Midrange by Venom1!

Another midrange deck with the same “skeleton” which includes threats, interaction and enchantments! Lets start with the threats once again.

They include a lot of cheap and interactive creatures this time like Spyglass Siren, Dennick, Pious Apprentice or Tishana's Tidebinder.

Interaction includes cards like Make Disappear or Destroy Evil.

And the rest includes cards like Subterranean Schooner which lets you use your threats effectively and Wedding Announcement/Virtue of Loyalty which makes those threats better!

And the last deck to cover is 8th place Mono-White Midrange bless_von!

This deck uses a lot of interaction and permanent based value cards so it can slowly take over the battlefield!

The first big part is the interaction which includes spells like Lay Down Arms or Destroy Evil, but also other types of removal like Temporary Lockdown or The Wandering Emperor where all of them help you in getting control over the opponents creatures and permanents.

The other big part of the deck are its “value” cards. They include cards like Serra Paragon that lets you recast your cards, Wedding Announcement that makes your battlefield larger and wider and also something like Clay-Fired Bricks that gets you mana with a potential late game benefit.

End Step

And that’s it for the article! If you want to read more, I suggest you to check out my Mythic decks of the week article where I cover the most interesting decks that people reached Mythic with every week!

MTG Arena Mythic Decks of November 2023 – Week 3