Blimey, it's that time of the year when I hide in limited while the Standard meta shakes itself out. Happens four times every year, but this is the most drastic one.

We already have a pro player write an article about Standard: https://www.channelfireball.com/article ... 1565287629 The deck is Izzet Phoenix, which looks like a reasonable deck.

What're people looking at?

Goblin Electromancer? Meh. I think not... but the rest of the deck is okay.

Did you see the Oko deck in the spoiler thread?

Oko, Mardu Knights, some Field of the dead build, Cavalcade, some esper/grixis control is what I am expecting. On the outside a wolf Tribal that may just end up being an Oko deck.

I want so many mythics in this set!!!!!
Oko, Beast, Robin hood, Rankle, Henge, circle...
I'm building Gruul and Rakdos first, then I want to try Dimir artifacts and maybe some Oko

Only thing I'm working on is trying to make Kethis standard-playable again, since I crafted the Kethis deck just before rotation. So far I'm using him with Etrata, but the absence of moxes + diligent excavator + non-shock lands means the deck doesn't function quite as well. The deck kinda can function as a mid-range since Kethis is 3/4 and Etrata is 3/5. Not really sure if the deck can stand up, but playing teferi for 2 mana is a big upside...

What are people building for the use-any-card in standard event? Or are you waiting to see what builds are viable?

When I get home I may try Mardu Knights. Not really my kind of deck, but seems like it may shape the meta. Probably some food deck after...and then I will settle on a control most likely. Probably will see some odd decks that catch my fancy while playing and will brainstorm them inbetween.

Tempted to try some form of RB midrange. Would be fun to get Fires of Invention out with Castle Locthwain to take advantage of the lands that would remain untapped otherwise. Gets access to Angrath's Rampage along with Bedevil and/or Murderous Rider to deal with opposing Okos.

Not sure where I'd want to go with the win cons or curve in general though. Could go Grixis for Bolas - wouldn't necessarily have to wreck the mana base too hard as Fires can assist with getting him out too. A little concerned if Cavalcade or other decks with direct damage are popular though - between shocklands, Locthwain, and Riders I'm looking at an alarming chunk of life payments with not a lot of incidental lifegain in black any more.

Eldraine seems like a huge shake-up in terms of gameplan and wincons. Ravnica, War of the spark, and was core set were a relatively smooth adjustment, but I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed right now with ELD...guess cause of rotation happening simultaneously. Also the painlands becoming the primary manabase tool for multicolor decks has really cut into the planewalker-y control decks that seemed to dominate last set's meta.

Fires of Invention seems like the most broken card in Eldraine. Sure you can only cast two spells, but not having to pay mana for them is tremendous. I'm thinking of a deck with Golos (also gives you a way to sink mana after you have Fires in play), ramp spells, haymakers, idk. Will be paying close attention, for sure.

I like tribes so I'm obviously interested to see if Knights can be as fun as Vampires or Dinos (or Merfolk *sigh*).
From what I've read it's gonna be Orzhov or Rakdos. The mana base for Mardu is probably not there. Even with 12 shocks and the tribal land, you're looking at 12 sources per color that are valid for creatures. Add 2 basics per color and you meet Frank Karsten's requirement of 14 per color for each one-drop. That far you get. But you're not playing Murderous Rider in that deck for it's double black adventure that wants 18 black sources without the tribal land.
So people (reddit) are arguing over white vs red while black seems to be a given. Basically the same discussion as WW vs RDW where you'd rather play WW but RDW sadly is more efficient

Aside from that I have seen one fancy deck that I might try in the 12 game events. Though as an adult I have to say, please skip the first 20 seconds, channel name and his jokes are rather inappropriate..

Aside from those events, I'm with you in Limited, Banedon, but only once Bo1 draft starts. My exams are in two weeks, so that's a natural fit this time. Until then I will at most keep up with dailies and weeklies to not lose too much mastery xp.

So, played a bit last night. Faced a lot of cavalcade, Simic Flash, Field of the Dead variations/Bant ramp, some Oko, some knights, Dmir discard/mill and Grixis Control. Roughly in order of what I faced.

I started with Mardu Knights and think I went 7-5 or 8-4 in the play anything event. It worked pretty well, but I can see the concerns about mana. I think I lost one game due to mana, and a few more were a bit squeezed. I think it is solvable, but it will be a bit less consistent then the two color versions. I am sure mine was not optimized, but seems solid. I was a bit over 50% in ranked.

I switched to Esper and did horribly. Sure it was more a build issue then Esper being horrible, but I decided to try something weird.

I went Dmir Mill. It worked. It was as good or better then knights last night for me (But I am not an aggro player, so take that into account) I actually ran into variations of the deck twice, so not as original as I thought it was. I only won by mill maybe 20%-30% of the time but it is a viable option.

Curious what others are seeing and what has been working.

Okay, so played more tonight and went back to Knights, and wow, I think this is legit. Went from Mid Diamond 4 (Have been waiting for new set) to Mythic tonight fairly easily. Can't find a Throne Deckbuilder to do my formatting, but here is the list:

Brutality

x4 Knight of the ebon legion
x4 worthy knight
x4 blacklance paragon
x4 order of midnight
x4 corpse knight
x4 inspiring veteran
x4 Skyknight vanguard
x3 midnight reaper
x4 murderous rider
x1 knights' charge

x1 plains
x3 swamp
x1 mountain
x4 godless shrine
x4 blood crypt
x4 sacred foundry
x4 tournament grounds
x3 fabled passage


This deck puts on early pressure, and with Corpse Knight/Skyknight/Worthy it has reach if things stall. Knights' charge is not great, but gives you an option to recover late game and/or get the last few points through. Blacklane has been useful in a race with it's lifegain and vs some counter decks (looking at you simic flash). I have killed more Questing beasts then I can count with it so far. As a bonus, Midnight rider turns it into free removal. Speaking of Midnight rider, it keeps the cards flowing. Murderous rider can be a bit tougher to cast at times due to the double black, but generally it has worked out. I have enough other things to apply pressure that I rarely need it T3 or T4. With 14 Black sources, it is usually up (18 if you count Tournament Grounds, but you can't cast the Adventure with them) The weakest cards are Order of Midnight and Inspiring Veteran oddly enough. Order at least gets your better stuff back, but Veteran is best used late game as a surprise Pump (or early game to draw fire away from real threats)

Really, this deck has been much more resilient then I originally thought. I will say that I have not gone vs many control decks w/ lots of sweepers though. Midnight and Blacklance have helped when I have though. Luckily, almost everything is a significant threat so you can force early wraths, but still think it is a weakness for the deck.

Anyway, I may change my mind as I get farther up in Mythic, but so far this is the real deal. I didn't record win % but I didn't lose more then 3 games a tier, and T2 I went through w/o losing a game. It may just be a good run, but time will tell.

This **** MM system ... I play the prebuilt decks and run into opponents with picture perfect Simic Flash, B/R sacrifice, Monored Calvacade, etc? So fun.

The joys of uphill battles at release before one has new cards

Oh and with Nexus and Teferi finally gone, it's time to crown the new king of puke: Thought Erasure.

I netdecked a Simic Ramp list and played it a bit in BO1. It's not bad, but it's got frustrating weaknesses. Field of the Dead strategies ruin it, and so does Agent of Treachery. Having twice as many fight creatures was great though, especially since Wicked Wolf can fight as a 4/4 indestructible. I also got crushed by Lucky Clover decks, although that might be fixable post-board.

Of course when I played that deck and queued into someone playing the prebuilt B/R sacrifice deck, I conceded despite a winning position

So we've had some "State of Standard" articles now:

http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.a ... =10-3-2019
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.a ... =10-2-2019
https://www.channelfireball.com/article ... 1565287629

I find the first article pretty funny, since it talks about the midrange arms race and the rotation of Nexus is what caused midrange decks to be viable again.

Simic Ramp is strong - I never thought of Oko as a removal spell, opponent's 3/3 Elks are quite easily stonewalled on the ground, and buffing the 0/0 Hydroid Krasis & 0/1 Voracious Hydra is great too. On the other hand I hate the polarized matchups. Opponent has Ritual of Soot? Bye bye all the Hydras and Krasis, not to mention mana dorks. Snowballing feels bad as well, regardless of whether it's me snowballing or the opponent, and T3 Oko is probably the #1 snowball card in the meta.

The point of hydras and Krasis is that its whatever if they get removed because they already generated value.

Golos mirrors have got to be among the silliest matchups Standard has seen recently. Note to self, how to win:

- Run Agent of Treachery maindeck and steal their Field of the Dead.
- Failing that, get all your Fields out ASAP.
- Hold Fabled Passage to generate instant-speed zombies. Active Teferi with Growth Spiral / Circuitous Route is just as good.
- Don't throw away sweepers because you can. You can use these to generate "value" by killing their zombies while holding on to your lands. Besides you need these to kill Hydroid Krasis.
- Milling is a real win condition.
- Life totals don't matter.

Got to admit, bit worried about this format so far, it feels like you have pretty much two options:

1) Play field of the dead.dek, no deck can outvalue it if the game goes long

2) Play a heavy aggro deck that can kill them before they can really get going

3) Play a Fires of Invention deck that will draw an answer with the Fae or DfD every freaking turn.

To be brutally honest, the Fires/Fae decks give me more toothache than Field.