The Standard metagame has been changing rapidly, even though there have not been recent bannings or set releases. Instead, as some decks fall in and out of favor, others pop up to try and attack that metagame.
Last week, I was able to 6-0 two of the online Mythic_Society events using the two deck lists below.
Standard Bant Tempo
Sorcery (3)
Enchantment (4)
Land (29)
Standard Rakdos Sacrifice
Creature (25)
Sorcery (4)
Artifact (4)
Enchantment (3)
But this week, I’ve seen two other decks pop up that are pretty tough opponents. Pretty much all the matchups in Standard are close, so I’m not saying Bant and Rakdos are now off-the-radar, but you might want to make tweaks with these new decks in mind.
Temur Flash
Michael Bonde 6-0’d one of the MagicFest Online qualifiers using a Temur Flash list that he attributed to Zan Syed.
This deck has put multiple players through to the weekend championship at 5-1 or better. It has the cores of two decks, Simic Flash and Temur Reclamation. This lets the deck play a powerful, proactive, go-over-the-top-of-your-opponent’s-midrange-stuff using the Temur Reclamation + Expansion // Explosion strategy in some games. In other games, it gets to play a Draw-Go style with Frilled Mystic if the opponent casts something nasty, or Nightpack Ambusher if they don’t. Thassa’s Intervention plays both ways, and some players are now using 4 copies rather than Bonde/Syed’s 3.
This is a deck worth familiarizing yourself with.
Sultai Escape and Sultai Control
At the same time, several players have also qualified with Urlich (Grzegorz Kowalski) Sultai Control or the spinoff Sultai Escape deck that mills itself more with Cavalier of Thorns.
The core of Growth Spiral + Uro + Nissa + Krasis etc. isn’t going anywhere, whether it shows up as Bant, Sultai, or straight up Simic.
Cards like Treason and Disdainful Stroke might need to come out of the binder to help fight these ramp decks. Aether Gust continues to be a multiple matchup all star that is totally maindeckable.
Is there something that the metagame will evolve towards in the coming week to attack these two decks as well as Rakdos, Bant, etc.?
