Standard is in a really exciting place right now. There are certainly a handful of decks at the top of the format, but there’s so much more space for exploration now that Aetherworks Marvel isn’t exerting undue pressure on the format. The result? We’re seeing the rise of all manner of interesting things, like Temur Energy, Temur Emerge, and a number of controlling, aggressive, and midrange strategies that previously couldn’t keep up with the raw speed, tempo swings, and card advantage of Aetherworks Marvel. There is perhaps nothing more emblematic of the exciting new state of Standard than the deck that won the MTGO Standard PTQ last week:

W/U Reanimator ? Hour of Devastation Standard | Olivetti, 1st in MTGO Standard PTQ

• Creatures (22)
• 3 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
• 3 Mausoleum Wanderer
• 4 Angel of Invention
• 4 Champion of Wits
• 4 Minister of Inquiries
• 4 Thraben Inspector

• Sorceries (8)
• 4 Refurbish
• 4 Strategic Planning

• Artifacts (7)
• 3 God-Pharaoh's Gift
• 4 Gate to the Afterlife

• Lands (23)
• 4 Island
• 5 Plains
• 2 Irrigated Farmland
• 4 Ipnu Rivulet
• 4 Port Town
• 4 Prairie Stream

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Crook of Condemnation
• 3 Declaration in Stone
• 4 Dispel
• 2 Fragmentize
• 1 Linvala, the Preserver
• 3 Void Winnower

Buy This Deck

The idea behind this deck is to use Minister of Inquiries, Champion of Wits, and Strategic Planning to help stock your graveyard full of exciting creatures; Cataclysmic Gearhulk in particular early in the game. Thraben Inspector and Mausoleum Wanderer help you buy time while you get set up and can easily end up in your graveyard. Once you make it through the first few turns of the game, things start getting interesting.

Your end game is to cheat a God-Pharaoh's Gift into play and reanimate Angel of Invention and Cataclysmic Gearhulks until your opponent dies. You can get things going two different ways: either by activating Gate to the Afterlife once or twice and resolving one or two cantrips, or just by putting a God-Pharaoh's Gift into the graveyard and Refurbishing it onto the battlefield. You even have the option of Refurbishing a Cataclysmic Gearhulk directly if you’re under excessive pressure early in the game.

Once you have a God-Pharaoh's Gift on the battlefield, winning is sort of trivial. You can re-buy Angels and Gearhulks to put the board at parity, and then every turn you’ll pull further ahead. Even Thraben Inspector is a real threat, while Mausoleum Wanderer becomes a hard counter to help protect your Gift.

If you’re looking for a crazy deck that’s not too tough on the budget, this seems like an exciting choice. You certainly can’t say that the deck isn’t capable of performing in this format since it took down a large PTQ; the real question is whether the deck will see a large enough increase in popularity that people will begin packing their sideboard with additional ways to interact. Even if that’s the case, it’ll take the metagame some time to respond, and I’d definitely want to get my graveyard shenanigans in while I can!