MTGO Standard Challenge – October 28 & October 29, 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: October 28th and October 29th 2023!

October 28th, Top 8 Decks

Azorius Soldiers crushed it this weekend with total of 4 copies, putting itself in half of the whole top 8!

1st, 4th, 7th and 8th place were taken down with Azorius Soldiers which is a deck that uses some of the strongest soldiers to create a synergistic aggro deck, that is able to produce value, but also put pressure on the opponent!

2nd place was taken down with Mono-Red Aggro which is a deck that uses damage spells and the fastest red creatures in the format to try and eliminate the opponent before they get a chance to act!

And 3rd, 5th and 6th place were taken down with Domain Ramp which is a deck that aims to reach the goal of 7 mana by combining ramp spells and strong removal so it can get there quicker while surviving the journey!

Lets go take a look at the decklists!

1st (by VictorCarvalho01), 4th (by remf), 7th (by _Falcon_) and 8th place (by ThaisM) were taken down with Azorius Soldiers

This deck aims to quickly take out the opponent with its synergistic creature package filled to the brim with soldiers! Lets start of from the cheapest creatures and work out the way to the more expensive cards!

The first cards you will get a chance to cast are Lunarch Veteran or Recruitment Officer which aim to put pressure on the opponent as soon as the first turn! Moving up the mana curve, the deck also has some more expensive cards like Resolute Reinforcements or Zephyr Sentinel which will help you in making your battlefield wider and you also get Harbin, Vanguard Aviator which gives you the chance to make your newly acquired army bigger!

And the threat package tops out with 2 cards, where the first one is Werefox Bodyguard as a great removal effect for this deck, and the second one is Knight-errant of Eos which will most likely get you more cards to cast on top of providing a 4/4 body!

The non-creature package is not big in this deck, but it still includes a few strong cards like Make Disappear as a catch-all counterspell and also Wedding Announcement which provides an anthem effect over a few turns!

2nd place was taken down with Mono-Red Aggro by Lennny!

This decks one and only goal is to finish the opponent as quickly as it can. It does that with a combination of quick red creatures and damage spells that help you get in the last points of damage or remove problematic threats. Starting of with the threats, they include really cheap cards like Monastery Swiftspear, Phoenix Chick or Kumano Faces Kakkazan which will already start the pressure on the first turn!

Of course the deck also needs some more expensive cards so it can spend its mana efficiently and those include creatures like Bloodthirsty Adversary, Squee, Dubious Monarch or Goddric, Cloaked Reveler which all provide completely different abilities, but they all support the aggro gameplan!

As for the instant and sorcery spells, this deck has cards like Play with Fire and Lightning Strike which can go directly to face when you are missing few points of damage, but it also has 4 copies of Witchstalker Frenzy which will help in removing problematic creatures for very cheap!

And 3rd (by unagieel), 5th (by Jaberwocki) and 6th place (by Venom1) were taken down with Domain Ramp!

This deck aims to reach 7 mana so it can hardcast some of its bombs like Atraxa, Grand Unifier or Herd Migration to take over the game! It acomplishes that with a combination of ramp spells and removal.

Ramp includes cards like Topiary Stomper or Invasion of Zendikar and the removal part includes single-target removal spells like Leyline Binding or Virtue of Persistence, but also mass removal like Sunfall so you can deal with the whole battlefield at once.

Most of the cards in the deck ramp you, help you survive longer or finish the game for you, but you also got Up the Beanstalk which will help you whenever you run out of cards!

And that is it for the first Challenge, let’s go take a look at the one that took place on Sunday, October 29th 2023!

October 29th, Top 8 Decks

Another top 8 that got completely obliterated with Azorius Soldiers taking up 1st, 2nd, 5th, 7th and 8th place which puts it at total of 5 copies in the whole top 8! This deck aims to win the game with its soldier creature package that produces a lot of value when paired together, but also puts on a lot of pressure on the opponent.

3rd place was taken down with Esper Midrange which is a deck that combines some of the strongest threats and interaction in its colors to create a powerful deck that is strong at grinding and interacting with the format!

4th place was taken down with Mono-Red Aggro which is a deck that tries to reduce the opponents life from 20 to 0 as quickly as possible with its fast-paced creatures and burn spells!

And the last 6th place was taken down with Esper Control which is a deck that tries to control the opponent with removal, counterspells and card advantage so it can then slowly take them out when they become unable to act!

Let’s go take a look at the decklists!

1st (by ThaisM), 2nd (by Messias22), 5th (by petomartinez), 7th (by PedroHB) and 8th place (by ashton_evans) were taken down with Azorius Soldiers!

This deck tries to eliminate the opponent with a soldier focused aggro deck that also provides strong synergies between its threats! The threats include some very cheap cards like Recruitment Officer, Lunarch Veteran or Resolute Reinforcements so you can get your battlefield wide very quickly, but they also include some more expensive cards like Werefox Bodyguard to remove problematic threats or Knight-errant of Eos to refuel your hand!

The threat package is the biggest part of the deck, but it still has non-creature spells to support its gameplan like Make Disappear to catch some unwanted spells and Wedding Announcement to provide more threats and an anthem effect over a few turns!

3rd place was taken down with Esper Midrange by etoustar!

This deck combines some of the strongest threats and interaction in esper so its prepared for anything that it might face! The threats mostly include disruptive creatures like Faerie Mastermind, Ertai Resurrected or Dennick, Pious Apprentice, but they also got cards like Raffine, Scheming Seer which filters your cards and potentially makes your creatures bigger!

As for the non-creature spells, the first big part is interaction! That includes cheap removal like Go for the throat or Cut Down and also cheap counterspells like Make Disappear. And the second part are enchantments. Those include Wedding Announcement and Virtue of Loyalty which are able to provide more threats and most importantly make your team bigger!

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

This decks only purpose is to remove 20 life points from the opponent. The main way to do that is with its threats which include some of the cheapest aggro cards like Monastery Swiftspear, Phoenix Chick or Kumano faces Kakkazan to get in as most damage as you can since the first turn. And they of course also include some more expensive creatures like Charming Scoundrel, Squee, Dubious Monarch or Goddric, Cloaked Reveler that will get in even more points of damage and let you be mana efficient!

As turns go by, the opponent starts to stabilize and then it becomes hard for your creatures to connect. For that reason you got removal like Witchstalker Frenzy to clear the way or burn spells like Play with Fire or Lightning Strike that can go straight to the face!

And the last deck to cover is 6th place Esper Control by Glacier7!

This deck uses some of the strongest interaction so it can get control over the opponent and their spells! The interaction consists of removal like Sheoldred's Edict or The Wandering Emperor, counterspells like Make Disappear or Dissipate, instant speed card advantage like Memory Deluge and also mass removal like Sunfall!

By combining these cards you become able to remove most of the opponents creatures, counter anything problematic and refuel at instant speed whenever you run out of cards! And when you get control over the opponent with those cards you can the slowly take them out with cards like The Wandering Emperor or Restless Fortress!

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 October 2023 – Week 3