This set launch has felt weird, and it has nothing to do with the cards. I have become accustomed to a certain way of experiencing a meta. The set is revealed, everyone tries cool new things, a SCG event or a Pro Tour or a Mythic Championship or an MPL Split or whatever happens, and the full time grinders and pros show us filthy casuals what the competitive scene is all about. Once this happens, most of us pick the deck(s) we like and the deck we are going to complain about, and we spend the next two months adjusting a few flex slots and sideboard plans. Some of us complain about netdecking and broken cards and a solved meta, and some of us never stop trying to make that Dimir Mill pile work, but we all have played along with this Standard system for years.

Until now. Theros Beyond Death Standard has no MPL Split play, no Pro/Players Tour, no SCG event, no Mythic Championship, not even a Fandom Legends or a Twitch Rivals event, to show us what the pros think we should play. The result has been interesting. On one hand, a lot of players keep grinding with Jeskai Fires, Jund Food, Simic Flash, and Rakdos Knights without adding any new cards. Perhaps they are waiting for a big tournament result to choose what to purchase or craft. On the other hand, all kinds of bizarre strategies keep appearing and succeeding, and frankly who are we to tell if they aren't the next big thing? Anyone could be playing the next big deck in Standard, and knowing that has kept me glued to Twitter, Twitch, and decklist sites watching for signs that someone broke it. Here are my favorite brews that I found this week.

Sultai Graveyard | THB Standard | HGRose_ 01/24/2020

• Creatures (26)
• 2 Hydroid Krasis
• 3 Arboreal Grazer
• 3 Polukranos, Unchained
• 3 Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
• 3 Voracious Hydra
• 4 Cavalier of Thorns
• 4 Ilysian Caryatid
• 4 Rotting Regisaur

• Planeswalkers (5)
• 2 Tamiyo, Collector of Tales
• 3 Nissa, Who Shakes the World

• Artifacts (3)
• 3 The Great Henge

• Lands (26)
• 1 Island
• 1 Swamp
• 3 Forest
• 1 Castle Garenbrig
• 1 Castle Locthwain
• 1 Castle Vantress
• 1 Temple of Deceit
• 2 Temple of Mystery
• 3 Temple of Malady
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 4 Overgrown Tomb
• 4 Watery Grave

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Return to Nature
• 3 Noxious Grasp
• 4 Mystical Dispute
• 3 Cry of the Carnarium
• 2 Vivien, Arkbow Ranger

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Polukranos, Unchained is a card that I was unsure about. It looked like a huge, mana intensive monster without a home, and I didn't feel it would fit into Simic since the deck has no shortage of busted cards. This Sultai Graveyard list quickly put my fears to rest. Cavalier of Thorns, Tamiyo, Collector of Tales, and Rotting Regisaur fill the graveyard to make Escape costs easier to pay. The real gas of the deck is The Great Henge. My first game with the deck featured turn one Arboreal Grazer, turn two Rotting Regisaur, turn three The Great Henge and Tamiyo, Collector of Tales filling the graveyard. Turn four was Polukranos, Unchained escaping from the yard and getting buffed by The Great Henge into a 13/13. This is just one example of the busted draws this deck can pull off. There's more, much more.

Ilysian Caryatid is a card I dismissed quickly. Green already has Paradise Druid, Growth Spiral, Leafkin Druid, Maraleaf Pixie, Incubation Druid, and more. How would this little plant make the cut? In this deck, the card produces two mana instead of 1 early and often. Turn two Ilysian Caryatid leads to turn three Rotting Regisaur and The Great Henge (and another Ilysian Caryatid for style points). You can also do a fun trick with this card and a Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath. On MTG Arena you have to turn on full control, so get your big brain plays on kids. Cast Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, and with the sacrifice trigger on the stack you can tap the Ilysian Caryatid for two mana because it sees the 6/6 Titan in play!

I like that this deck turns to the proven team of Nissa, Who Shakes the World and Hydroid Krasis for a plan B. These cards are a lethal combination, and it seems wrong to play decks without at least 3 Nissa and 2 Krasis in the 75. Eventually an opponent will stop your graveyard shenanigans, and then these two heavyweights can step up.

I would make a few adjustments to this list, especially if you plan to play best of one or an aggressive meta in general. Voracious Hydra feels like the most awkward spot, and I want to run a card that is more efficient. Sideboard cards like Noxious Grasp and Aether Gust can be perfect for this, but for the maindeck I am thinking Assassin's Trophy. I hate giving my opponent a land, but since it is hard to go over the top of this deck I think the downside will be limited. That is, as long as the opponent isn't ramping up to Agent of Treachery. This deck also needs a way to beat Dream Trawler. The super sphinx is already the talk of the Theros meta, and combined with Elspeth Conquers Death you can't keep it at bay with Polukranos, Unchained. I want to work a Liliana, Dreadhorde General or two into the 75.

If you play as much best-of-one MTG Arena as I do, then you will need to adjust your mana base. Temples are great for a slower format and postboard grindy games of Magic where finding your sideboard cards makes a huge difference. Take away the ability to sideboard into a deck with all the right answers, and you are left with slow lands in a hyper-aggressive meta. Play less Temples and shift your mana base to play more basics and Fabled Passage. This applies to every three-color midrange deck you play in a best-of-one setting.

Speaking of three-color midrange, here is a deck I bet you didn't see coming.

Mardu Hush Titan | THB Standard | Emdrazi 01/24/2020

• Creatures (27)
• 1 Murderous Rider
• 3 Foulmire Knight
• 3 Order of Midnight
• 4 Bonecrusher Giant
• 4 Clackbridge Troll
• 4 Hushbringer
• 4 Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
• 4 Stormfist Crusader

• Instants (6)
• 2 Mortify
• 4 Scorching Dragonfire

• Artifacts (3)
• 1 Shadowspear
• 2 Embercleave

• Lands (24)
• 1 Plains
• 3 Mountain
• 5 Swamp
• 1 Castle Locthwain
• 2 Godless Shrine
• 2 Temple of Silence
• 2 Temple of Triumph
• 4 Blood Crypt
• 4 Sacred Foundry

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord
• 2 Deafening Silence
• 2 Rankle, Master of Pranks
• 2 Mirror Shield
• 1 Mortify
• 3 Angrath's Rampage
• 3 Consecrate // Consume

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Timmys rejoice! When you control a Hushbringer, you can cast Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger for two mana and it doesn't sacrifice itself! You don't get the discard trigger, but that will occur when the Elder Giant attacks. This deck isn't finished with a two mana 6/6 though, it also has a five mana 8/8 trample haste in Clackbridge Troll. Hushbringer says "no goats for you". To top it off, this deck plays two copies of Embercleave and one copy of Shadowspear to let your big monsters go way over the top. Since Hushbringer already disrupts Mono-White, Mono-Blue, Mono-Black, Rakdos Sacrifice, Jund Food, and most decks without the word "Knights" in the title you have the makings of a potent strategy that can kill an opponent faster than the typical midrange deck.

I love that this deck has Order of Midnight // Alter Fate and Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord to keep Hushbringer around. Creatures with two toughness tend to get targeted by Stomp in this format. I would suggest getting Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord into the maindeck to have a planeswalker presence against sweepers. One of the biggest risks of playing Hushbringer is that your opponent will play their own Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath or Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger before you play yours. This makes me want to include more removal capable of hitting a big body such as Murderous Rider // Swift End.

I couldn't conclude this article without a deck, but it may stun you to learn this deck has no copies of Dream Trawler.

Blue/White Blink | THB Standard | Namifri 01/22/2020

• Creatures (24)
• 2 Agent of Treachery
• 2 Cavalier of Gales
• 2 Deputy of Detention
• 2 Fblthp, the Lost
• 2 Gadwick, the Wizened
• 3 Brazen Borrower
• 3 Thassa, Deep-Dwelling
• 4 Charming Prince
• 4 Elite Guardmage

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Teferi, Time Raveler

• Instants (2)
• 2 Thassa's Intervention

• Sorceries (2)
• 1 Mass Manipulation
• 1 Time Wipe

• Enchantments (2)
• 2 Elspeth Conquers Death

• Lands (26)
• 5 Plains
• 8 Island
• 1 Labyrinth of Skophos
• 2 Blast Zone
• 2 Castle Vantress
• 4 Hallowed Fountain
• 4 Temple of Enlightenment

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Absorb
• 4 Banishing Light
• 3 Dovin's Veto
• 2 Heliod's Intervention
• 3 Time Wipe

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This deck is built around abusing the blink effect on Thassa, Deep-Dwelling, and it has a delicious menu of blinking options. Agent of Treachery will always be the deity's best friend, but Charming Prince is there to give the deck redundancy as well. The ability to sideboard up to four copies of Time Wipe and really capitalize on the built-in bounce that the five mana wrath offers puts the opponent in a tough spot. You are a creature deck, so they have to keep up with the board. But you are also a wrath deck, and if they deploy too many threats they get blown out.

There are a lot of decks that haven't figured out how to deal with a Dream Trawler, so I want the card in my sideboard at least, and I would probably put one in the main deck. Mass Manipulation hasn't impressed me yet, so that is the first swap I would try. Speaking of the killer sphinx, one reason I love this deck is that it manages an opposing Dream Trawler quite well. Thassa, Deep-Dwelling has the ability to tap target creature for , so it goes toe-to-toe with Dream Trawler for the price of four mana per turn. In some long games that will be fine, but in others that will be tough to pay. Fortunately, you are also a four-of Time Wipe deck as we discussed, and you have Gadwick, the Wizened who only asks that you play an instant-speed Blue spell to keep Dream Trawler tapped down.

I would tweak the mana base, playing three colorless lands and Cavalier of Gales makes me nervous. I like Blast Zone a lot because it kills cats and ovens, and it is nice against decks full of 1-drops like Mono-Black Devotion and Mono-White Devotion that are on the rise. Labyrinth of Skophos is a card I love in Control, but in this deck Thassa, Deep-Dwelling has a similar effect for less mana. I would replace Labyrinth of Skophos with a Fabled Passage or a Plains. Did you know a Blast Zone and a lot of patience and mana can handle a Dream Trawler? See, every deck can handle Dream Trawler if they want to!

I can't wait to see what next week brings to this far-from-solved Theros Beyond Death meta. If you have a competitive brew that you want me to write about, tweet at me. @CovertGoBlue