The Standard season is in full swing and I’m gearing up to play at RIW’s RCQ this weekend. Despite Modern being the headlining competitive 60 card format, many players boast about the health and fun of Standard and I have to say they’re right. There’s a strong deck for many styles of play and you can take down a tournament playing one of the best decks or a well timed metagame call.
Today I’m going to discuss the Standard metagame as well as what I plan to play at RIW’s RCQ- Golgari Midrange. I split the finals of an RCQ last weekend with Golgari and I’m feeling confident running it back.
Dimir Midrange is the current deck to beat. Here’s an example piloted by ringer, Mogged, in a recent Magic Online Challenge:
The basic idea of Dimir Midrange is to resolve evasive threats and pave the way for Kaito and Enduring Curiosity to generate card advantage.
Dimir Midrange is unique compared to prior versions of the strategy in that it only plays two copies of Phantom Interference as counters. This deck is primarily evasive creatures and removal.
Black is a very deep color in Standard as it provides tools to keep the aggressive decks in check. Cut Down not only kills cheap red creatures, but also many of the pesky fliers in the mirror. It’s easy to include a playset in this style of deck.
Preacher of the Schism’s stock has gone up recently as Esper/Dimir bounce decks pick up Nowhere to Run repeatedly. A creature with 4 toughness that also blocks red creatures profitably in the face of Monstrous Rage is desirable.
Go for the Throat is the premier Doom Blade of the format because there aren’t many artifact creatures played and Shoot the Sheriff doesn’t kill Faerie Mastermind and Soulstone Sanctuary.
Floodpits Drowner is both an enabler for Kaito and Enduring Curiosity as well as effectively a removal spell. A cool trick is to attack with Drowner and activate the shuffle ability after no blocks are declared and then ninjutsu Kaito to keep your creature in hand instead of the deck.
Spyglass Siren is not only played in decks that take advantage of generating artifacts and small creatures, but the premier midrange strategy. It’s strange to say, but this is just one of the strongest creatures in the format. There can be a game of holding up mana to kill a creature at the right time to fizzle a map activation.
Soulstone Sanctuary looks like a strange inclusion, but beware it’s a ninja for Kaito’s emblem.
The sideboard, in true midrange fashion, can transform against any type of matchup. When you’re playing a defensive role against red you can board out tempo elements, such as Kaito, for Sheoldred. Negate and Duress can be swapped for Cut Down against slower decks.
Ghost Vacuum is strong at the moment because it can keep linear decks such as Azorius Oculus and Simic Terror in check. Standard also has tools available for sweet reanimator decks thanks to Zombify.
Another way to build DImir-based decks is in the Esper Shard to take advantage of bouncing value enchantments repeatedly. Here’s a list from streamer, Nicole Tipple:
Temur Otters began the craze of combining This Town Ain’t Big Enough and Stormchaser’s Talent.
It turns out this combo can be ported into a wide array of other blue decks, too. Simply level up Stormchaser’s Talent to level two and bounce it and something else with This Town Ain’t Big Enough to generate tempo and card advantage.
Esper Bounce is the new and exciting Standard deck that has been doing well, but can be exploited with proper preparation.
Nowhere to Run can be cast numerous times each game making creatures with less than four toughness a liability. Beware Nowhere to Run also makes attacking into Esper’s value creatures difficult as -3-3 can be used at instant speed.
The static ability of Nowhere to Run is also highly relevant in the format as it shuts off protection from Kaito, Thrun, and green instants.
Hopeless Nightmare means you need to be conscious of the number of cards in your hand. You also lose two life when it enters making the chip shots from value creatures add up faster than you may first expect.
Despite value enchantments being the engine of the deck it’s not a good idea to try and kill them one-for-one as that also generates card advantage and tempo for your opponent.
The stock of Azorius Oculus has gone up due to the positive matchup against the various bounce strategies.
Dimir is not the only color pair that has an edge in Standard as Gruul is a great choice for aggro pilots.
Gruul takes the power of the mouse package and adds green for card advantage and larger threats. Mono Red is faster, but runs the risk of being defended into the ground.
Emerheart Challenger and Heartfire Hero are some of the strongest and most aggressive creatures in the format. Both creatures synergize with the third mouseketeer, Manifold Mouse.
There are various flavors of Gruul, but the strongest version only plays the most powerful cards pound for pound. For this reason, Monstrous Rage is the only pump spell as the card is so aggressively priced.
Sentinel of the Nameless City is played over the third and fourth copy of Screaming Nemesis to solidify a slow and steady beatdown plan. Sentinel importantly evades Nowhere to Run.
The card advantage beatdown continues with Questing Druid; I’ve seen versions that sideboard up to four copies as they will play out better once the opponent has access to all of their removal and the game slows.
Soulstone Sanctuary once again pops up and this time because it’s a mouse to gain double strike from Manifold Mouse. This is a serious threat in the mid game.
Lithomantic Barrage in the sideboard is important against Simic Terror and Azorius Oculus as killing big blue creatures for one mana is an excellent deal.
Another key pillar of the Standard format is based around controlling the battlefield with Sunfall and generating card advantage. Two key engines exist in this category- Mono White Tokens and Domain.
Here’s Gray Payne’s top 4 list from Spotlight Foundations.
The overlords from Duskmourn power the domain deck. They trigger Up the Beanstalk even when cast for the impending mana cost which creates an insane early curve.
Zur, Eternal Schemer is able to top off the curve by animating the overlords ahead of schedule while also granting lifelink, deathtouch, and hexproof.
Leyline Binding is the glue to interact, generate card advantage with Up the Beanstalk, and kill with Zur.
Domain is looking to draw out most games and does so with Sunfall, Day of Judgement, and Beza. I personally enjoy this deck because it goes over the top so hard. It’s fun to win games where the effects are so much more powerful than your opponent’s.
The other flavor of Sunfall control is looking to create tokens and reward you by drawing cards for the trouble. Here’s a list that also made the top 16 of Spotlight Foundations piloted by Austin Graham:
Remember how I said the red cards were powerful in Standard? White has the tools to keep them in check.
Four maindeck Beza sets the stage for not only stalling out the game, but wanting a lopsided red matchup.
Caretaker’s Talent and Enduring Innocence encourage creating tokens from Fountainport, Beza, Carrot Cake, and Overlord of the Mistmoors. I wouldn’t want to focus on sweeping their creatures, but be prepared for a grindy fight.
Not only does Sunfall sweep the board, but also Split Up which has some room to play around. Elspeth’s Smite out of Domain and White Tokens is yet another reason creatures with less than four toughness are at risk.
Just because this is a Mono White deck does not mean the manabase is bland. Sunken Citadel juices up Fountainport and Demolition Field to reward you for the game going long. It’s risky for most decks in the format to try and go over the top of Mono White.
I mentioned previously there are plenty of cool strategies in Standard. Here are a few other decks you may encounter to get a sense for the types of sideboard cards to include:
Jeskai Convoke-swarms the battlefield with tokens to power out a quick Knight-Errant of Eos or make a big swing with Immodane’s Recruiter. Small sweepers can keep the deck at bay, but Convoke is able to rebuild a couple times.
Selesnya Tokens– spams the battlefield with creatures to enable cheating a cheap Overlord of the Mistmoors with Collector’s Cage. Spot removal is weak if you spend more than one mana and Pawpatch Recruit can make it even more punishing.
Azorius Oculus– mills cards to reanimate a quick Oculus or Haughty Djinn. A great case to include Ghost Vacuum and exile-based removal.
Temur Otters– is a deck that combines Valley Floodcaller and Enduring Vitality with This Town Ain’t Big Enough and Stormchaser’s Talent to generate large amounts of mana and attack with big otters. Not only is this a combo deck, but can generate card advantage from their pieces individually.
Simic Terror– dumps instants and sorceries in the graveyard quickly to cast Tolarian Terror and Eddymurk Crab. This doesn’t sound exciting on the surface, but it gets out of hand with Up the Beanstalk. Watch out for Stormchaser’s Talent and This Town Ain’t Big Enough as well. This deck is difficult to stop once it gets going, but can be slowed down again with Ghost Vacuum.
Now that we have laid the groundwork for what to expect in a Standard tournament here’s my approach to Golgari Midrange. Huge shoutout to MisplacedGinger for streaming so much with Golgari in recent weeks as I learned a lot from him. You can check out his games on Twitch.
Golgari Midrange seeks to interact with opposing threats while establishing some of the most efficient threats in the format. Even in matchups where Golgari takes a defensive posture it’s able to close out the game quickly.
Llanowar Elves was incredibly powerful in prior Standard formats and it shines in Golgari. They can deploy creatures that generate card advantage ahead of schedule with an ideal draw. Don’t be afraid to sideboard them out for Duress or more removal depending on the matchup because speed is less important when you have targeted interaction.
Golgari has a tight sideboard so I made room for the third Duress in the seventy-five by cutting the fourth Llanowar Elves. The first Duress is even reasonable against aggressive red decks.
Preacher of the Schism and Sentinel of the Nameless City are the key three drops because they don’t immediately die to Nowhere to Run. It’s truly a strange metagame when Glissa Sunslayer doesn’t make the cut, but the tempo loss is too great when she dies early.
Preacher’s deathtouch is helpful against aggressive red decks and Sentinel’s map tokens are versatile. Against red decks I can build a large Sentinel to both attack and block or grow Mosswood Dreadknight and Preacher out of range of my own sweepers. I like to prioritize giving Preacher a +1+1 counter so it deals damage after a Harvester of Misery.
Sheoldred, the Apocalypse is the haymaker of choice instead of Archfiend of the Dross because Kaito’s popularity makes the oil counter drawback a serious liability. The premier demon in the format not making the cut means there aren’t enough enablers for Unholy Anne
Ritual Chamber was previously a nice top end that’s now replaced with Gix’s Command and Harvester of Misery. Command can both generate massive card advantage and end the game against a red deck on the spot.
Thrun, Breaker of Silence is strong against Dimir Midrange as it can’t be targeted or countered. I’m less high on Thrun now that Nowhere to Run has picked up in popularity. Dimir decks will also play cards like Blot Out and Gix’s Command to kill Thrun without targeting.
Harvester of Misery has been impressive against most matchups. It’s a haymaker at the top of the curve that can act as removal in the early game, too. I don’t want to waste real spells killing Otter tokens from Stormchaser’s Talent, but Harvester cleans up the board nicely.
Mosswood Dreadknight is the reason to be Golgari as it can play defense, offense, and generate card advantage.
Cut Down costing one mana allows you to keep up with aggressive and tempo decks. In game one there are times where there are few targets, but keep an eye out for windows to kill your own Mosswood Dreadknight to avoid it being exiled.
Maelstrom Pulse can kill Kaito or a swarm of tokens. Beware Pulse will kill permanents with the same name also controlled by you so use it wisely in the mirror.
Tear Asunder is like Maelstrom Pulse, but can exile Enduring Curiosity for just two mana. It can also exile Kaito paying the kicker, but remember you cannot target him on the opponent’s turn.
Like other midrange and control decks in the format, the manabase is the place to jam additional threats. Golgari has the best creature land in Restless Cottage; it interacts with the graveyard and can be a seven point life swing by cracking the food generated. Mishra’s Foundry hits hard and can cheaply be fired up to attack Kaito after it stuns your haymaker. The stock Golgari deck plays four Foundry’s, but I was getting color screwed too often.
Obstinate Baloth in the sideboard can gain life against red, but most importantly enters the battlefield against Hopeless Nightmare.
Standard is in an excellent place right now and I’m excited to play RIW’s RCQ this saturday. Golgari Midrange has been strong despite the headlines being dominated by Gruul and Dimir.