Hey all. I’m back with Week 2 of our Standard Meta Reports. To give you all the latest info without having to dig through decklists and events, each week I will be going over the top events of the weekend and provide analysis of how the meta is evolving. As all of these tournaments are Best of-3, keep in mind that these meta changes only reflect the Bo3 meta and not Bo1.
With all that said, let’s dive into the top decks of the weekend. This weekend we have four Standard Challenges on MTGO to look at. First, I’ll quickly go over the decks that remain at the top after last week, and then show off the new decks that shined this weekend.
Domain is the real deal. It had the most copies of a deck in the Top 8, at seven total, with no event wins. There isn’t much new to discuss about this deck, it is just really solid. There does seem to be a bit of variance across the seven decks that put up top results, mostly coming down to the number of Jace, the Perfected Mind to play in the main deck and exact configuration of the sideboard.
Rakdos Lizards put up the second most results this weekend, with six copies finding their way into Top 8s. All six decks are very consistent, with most of the decks embracing Deep-Cavern Bat as their only non-Lizard creature, while one of the six chose to be more aggressive, opting for Forsaken Miner instead.
While Rakdos Lizards didn’t win any of the challenges, it doubled its representation from last weekend, making it a huge rising contender in Standard.
Golgari Midrange held steady at three copies in Top 8s this past weekend. The deck didn’t make any big adjustments from last week, and continues to be a solid midrange deck with a nice combo finish. The deck only appeared in the Top 8 of two of the four challenges with no wins, so it seems that the metagame is more prepared to deal with the combo.
Other Decks from Last Week
Of the other decks we spoke of last week that put up multiple top finishes, almost all of them failed to put up any results this weekend.
Naya Aggro, Azorius Mentor, Orzhov Midrange, and non-Domain Atraxa decks all failed to make a Top 8. Azorius Control put one copy into the Top 8 of one of the challenges.
Dimir Midrange returns to metagame with three copies into Top 8s this weekend, including winning one of the Standard challenges. I guess the deck was just in hibernation last weekend, because the version that has emerged this week is only playing two Bloomburrow cards, one copy of Plumecreed Escort, and two copies of Fabled Passage.
The deck is mostly the same from before rotation. Make Disappear has been replaced with Phantom Interference, and not much else has changed. We’ll see if the deck continues to put up good results or if it adapts to add any Bloomburrow cards moving forward.
New this week we have an interesting Mono-White Token deck that put three copies into Top 8s including one win. The term Control is tacked onto the end there because the deck plays a lot of removal, sweepers, and Beza, the Bounding Spring to control the board throughout the game, while creating a wide board of tokens to finish the game once it is under control.
The key piece is Caretaker’s Talent, which serves as a card advantage engine throughout the game, and then a finisher once it is fully leveled up. While the talent only triggers once a turn, the deck is able to make tokens at instant speed through Carrot Cake, Virtue of Loyalty, Mirrex, and Fountainport, so you can also trigger the talent on your opponent’s turn drawing two extra cards each turn cycle.
Caretaker’s Talent is proving to be a big player in Standard, with players exploring how to best utilize it to keep the cards flowing. We saw this in a Boros tokens deck similar to this Mono-White one last week, and I expect players to keep innovating with it moving forward.
While Boros Mice was absent from Top 8s last weekend, it managed to sneak two copies into Top 8s this weekend, keeping it relevant as a premiere aggro deck in the format. While most of you are used to playing with or against this deck on the ladder, I think it is important to note the evolution of the deck in play Nettle Guard in the main deck and sideboard to answer things like Innkeeper’s Talent, Temporary Lockdown, and Caretaker’s Talent.
Let’s keep the aggro train rolling with Mono-Red Aggro. Also at two copies in Top 8s this weekend, however they both came in the same event. The two builds focus on slightly different things, but both are focused on, as you might expect, cheap aggressive creatures backed up by Monstrous Rage and other cheap spells.
Most aggro players have been moving towards Rakdos Lizards or Boros Mice, but I think that Mono-Red Aggro is a great option to get into the format, as it has a cheap mana base and is still very effective. We’ll have to see if Mono-Red continues to poke into Top 8s moving forward, or if players move on to tune the more popular aggro decks.
Our last deck with two copies in Top 8s is another aggro deck with Gruul Prowess. While similar to Mono-Red Aggro, this build splashes green to make use of Questing Druid for some card advantage, Snakeskin Veil for protection, and Innkeeper’s Talent to keep the creatures growing and trigger valiant on the mice in the deck.
Similar to Mono-Red Aggro, we’ll have to see if this deck continues to be a competitive aggro deck in the format, or if it gets put to the side in favor of tuning the more popular decks, or if it continues to develop and put up results.
While only putting up one copy into Top 8s across all four events, it did come in first in one of the Standard challenges so I want to give it a shout. This deck looks to enable cards like Warden of the Inner Sky, Regal Bunnicorn, and Zoetic Glyph to put the pressure on the opponent in difficult to answer ways. Steel Seraph also hangs out to give flying to any of the big creatures to make it harder to block in combat.
I’m not sure if this deck is the real deal or not, but it did come in and top a Standard Challenge so it is worth keeping an eye on moving forward.
Other Decks
Boros Convoke did manage to get one deck into the Top 8s this weekend, keeping it barely alive as a relevant aggro deck in the format. And the other deck rounding out our Top 8s was a big version of Azorius Artifacts, looking to go big with Simulacrum Synthesizer. You can see those lists, and all of the lists from this weekend below:
Standard was quite interesting this weekend. Decks like Domain, Rakdos Lizards, and Golgari Midrange proved that they have what it takes to stay as top competitors in the format, while Mono-White Tokens, Dimir Midrange, and a variety of other aggro decks put up results to shake things up. Regardless of what happens moving forward, I’ll be here next week to cover all of the action and bring you the newest developments in Standard, so you can stay up to date and feel prepared to tackle whatever the Standard format has to offer.
As always, best of luck in all of your matches, and I’ll see you next time.
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