MTGO Standard Showcase Challenge – October 21 & MTGO Standard Challenge – October 22, 2023 – Top 8 Decklists and Breakdown

Hi! My name is Vertyx and I will go over the top finishes of the Magic Online Standard Showcase Challenge that took place on the weekend: October 21st and the Magic Online Standard Challenge that took place on October 22nd 2023!

October 21st, Top 8 Decks

1st place was taken down with Domain Ramp which is a deck that aims to survive the early turns while also ramping its manabase into 7 mana. At that point it gets to cast its bombs which should hopefully take over the game!

2nd place was taken down with Esper Control which is a deck that aims to win the game by controlling the opponent with various types of interaction and then slowly take them out while denying everything they try to cast!

3rd, 4th and 7th place were taken down with Esper Midrange which is a deck that tries to win the game with some of the most powerful Esper permanents in the format while also having an access to strong interaction to go with it

5th place was taken down with Dimir Faeries and 6th place with Esper Faeries where both decks aim to win the game with a midrange strategy full of cheap and evasive creatures, but also cheap interaction that synergizes well with it.

And 8th place was taken down with Mono-Red Aggro which is a deck that aims to take over the game quickly with its cheap, fast paced creatures and burn spells to take their life total from 20 to 0!

Lets go take a look at the decklists!

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

This deck aims to do 2 things in the early game and that is to most importantly survive and also develop itself by ramping its manabase. The ramping part is straightforward and includes cards like Topiary Stomper or Invasion of Zendikar where both of them develop your manabase, but also provide a threat for the late game. And the way you survive the early game is with removal spells like Leyline Binding or Archangel of Wrath, but also boardwipes like Sunfall to take out the whole battlefield!

The turning point for this deck is 7 mana where it becomes able to cast its finishers and those include cards like Herd Migration or Atraxa, Grand Unifier which should hopefully take over the game with value!

2nd place was taken down with Esper Control by Terribad!

This deck aims to win the game by controlling the opponent with various interaction spells that deny their resources! Those include cheap removal spells like , Go for the Throat or even The Wandering Emperor to remove problematic threats, counterspells like Make Disappear or Dissipate to counter anything scary and also mass removal in the form of Sunfall or Farewell when a single removal spell isn’t enough.

Its not difficult to run out of cards in a deck that wants to have every possible interaction up its sleeve and for that reason you also have access to instant speed card advantage like Memory Deluge so you can refuel your hand whenever you get the change!

When it comes to closing the game out you got cards like The Wandering Emperor, Restless Fortress or Mirrex to finish the opponent with. Most control decks do it slowly and this one is not an exception, but its usually not a problem since you already got the game under control anyway.

3rd (by BERNASTORRES), 4th (by M_LIT) and 7th place (by MJ_23) were taken down with Esper Midrange!

This deck plays some of the strongest esper permanents in the format and backs them up with interaction to take over the game with value! The permanents include creatures like Faerie Mastermind, Dennick, Pious Apprentice or Raffine, Scheming Seer which are the main way of winning the game, while sometimes also disrupting your opponent.

The permanents also include planeswalkers like The Wandering Emperor (which mostly serves as a removal spell) and enchantments like Wedding Announcement or Virtue of Loyalty which make your threats even stronger!

As previously mentioned, the above mentioned cards are backed up with interaction and that includes removal like Go for the throat or Cut Down to remove problematic creatures, but they also include counterspells in the form of Make Disappear which will help you in dealing with problematic spells.

5th place was taken down with Dimir Faeries by CharLy!

This deck wants to finish the game with a lot of cheap and evasive threats that also work well with its interaction spells by providing additional benefits!

Lets start of with the threats itself and those include cards like Faerie Dreamthief, Picklock Prankster or Talion's Messenger where all of them provide a cheap threat with powerful abilities. The threat package even includes some more expensive cards like Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor or Sheoldred, the Apocalypse but with only a few copies

Faeries also have a lot of strong interaction spells that work well with its threats and those include cards like Ego Drain, Spell Stutter or Faerie Fencing where all of them provide strong effects that become even stronger if you control a faerie!

6th place was taken down with Esper Faeries by MadHatter1442!

Same as Dimir Faeries, this deck also has a lot of cheap and evasive threats that are backed up with synergistic interaction, but the white touch gives the deck more interesting ways to take over the battlefield!

Starting of with the threats, the deck also has faeries like Faerie Dreamthief or Sleep-Cursed Faerie, but also some more powerful non-faerie creatures like Raffine, Scheming Seer or Sheoldred, the Apocalypse.

The threat package in this deck is also enhanced with white enchantments like Wedding Announcement and Virtue of Loyalty where both of them make your threats even stronger and can also potentially provide threats on their own.

And as for the interaction, the deck also has most of the synergistic cards like Ego Drain, Faerie Fencing or Spell stutter that become even stronger when you have a faerie on the battlefield!

And the last 8th place was taken down with Mono-Red Aggro by esmyth!

This deck goes straight to the point and wants to lower the opponents life total from 20 to 0 as quickly as possible! It does that with a combination of threats and burn spells that together create a very fast paced strategy.

Lets start of with the threats and those include the cheapset cards like Monastery Swiftspear or Phoenix Chick, but also some more expensive creatures like Bloodthirsty Adversary or Squee, Dubious Monarch where all of them provide different abilities, but together share the same gameplan of winning quickly! And as for the burn spells, the deck has cards like Play with Fire or Lightning Strike which help you in winning the game by getting in the last points of damage!

And that is it for the first Challenge, let’s go take a look at the one that took place on Sunday, October 22nd 2023.

October 22nd, Top 8 Decks

This top 8 actually had only 2 of the top decks in the format and those are Domain Ramp and Esper Midrange which shows how powerful they are.

Domain Ramp aims to win the game by hardcasting expensive cards to take over the game with them. Most of the cards cost 7 mana and it can get quite hard to survive to that point and for that reason the deck uses ramp cards and removal spells to get there as quickly and safely as possible.

And the second deck is Esper Midrange which is a deck that combines the strongest interaction and threats in Esper colors. By doing so you get a deck that is able to grind well and be prepared to face a lot of other archetypes in the format.

Let’s go take a look at the decklists!

1st (by Jaberwocki), 3rd (by billsive), 6th (by Bigatti) and 7th place (by fingers1991) were taken down with Domain Ramp!

This deck aims to win the game by hardcasting expensive cards like Atraxa, Grand Unifier or Herd Migration which should hopefully take over the game! The harder part is getting to the point where you become able to cast them and that involves ramping your manabase while also being able to remove problematic threats.

The ramp part includes cards like Topiary Stomper and Invasion of Zendikar which ramp you while also potentially providing a threat in the late game. The removal part of the deck plays single target removal like Leyline Binding or Virtue of Persistence, but it also has mass removal mostly in the form of Sunfall which comes in handy when removing creatures one by one isn’t going to do it.

The above mentioned gameplan is the main core of the deck, but you also got Up the Beanstalk to refuel you so you can achieve your desired gameplan more smoothly!

2nd (by thedoc96), 4th (by Arianne), 5th (by HouseOfManaMTG) and 8th place (by Ale_Mtg) were taken down with Esper Midrange!

This deck uses some of the strongest permanents and spells in the esper colors to create a deck that is able to outvalue a lot of the decks in the format! Lets start of with the threats and those include cheaper creatures like Faerie Mastermind or Dennick, Pious Apprentice, but also some more expensive threats like Raffine, Scheming Seer or Lord Skitter, Sewer King.

The other important permanents include The Wandering Emperor which mainly serves as a removal spell and also Wedding Announcement and Virtue of Loyalty which can provide some smaller threats, but most importantly make your whole team bigger!

The other important part of the deck is the interaction and that includes removal mostly in the form of Go for the throat or Cut Down to remove annyoing threats and also counterspells in the form of Make Disappear to catch anything scary!

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 2