In this corner we have maybe the best one-mana removal spell since Swords to Plowshares:

If you've been playing Standard at all you probably know how good Lay Down Arms is. Well, "good" might not quite cover it. Lay Down Arms is a card that has grown a whole archetype around it: Mono-White Control!

Plains matter! Plains matter, man. In fact "a" might not quite cover it. Lay Down Arms has spawned at least three sub-archetypes of Mono-White. Some goofballs have taken the word "Plains" really literally...

... So they can effectively "double up" the Swords to Plowshares-ness available in Standard, without even leaving [technically] Mono-White.

Lay Down Arms is important in Standard not just because its existence is responsible for what I consider the best deck to play (Mono-White)... But also the degree to which it influences all the other archetypes' specific build decisions.

Mono-White Control | BRO Standard | _GGN_, 5-0 MTGO Standard League

• Creatures (6)
• 2 Loran of the Third Path
• 4 Sanctuary Warden

• Planeswalkers (7)
• 3 Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim
• 4 The Wandering Emperor

• Instants (1)
• 1 Fateful Absence

• Sorceries (8)
• 2 Depopulate
• 2 Farewell
• 4 Lay Down Arms

• Enchantments (8)
• 4 The Restoration of Eiganjo // Architect of Restoration
• 4 Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Reckoner Bankbuster

• Lands (26)
• 9 Plains
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 4 Adarkar Wastes
• 4 Deserted Beach
• 4 Raffine's Tower
• 4 Spara's Headquarters

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Fateful Absence
• 2 Temporary Lockdown
• 4 Disdainful Stroke
• 4 Sunset Revelry
• 2 Unlicensed Hearse
• 2 Negate

Buy This Deck Export text format Export Arena format

I guess this is technically an Azorius Control deck. I mean... It even has Counterspells in the sideboard. But What we really see here is a Mono-White Control deck splashing for Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim to help go over the top in the mirror. The creature selection is downright bizarre. Not "bad" per se... But it's very deliberate. When you replace curve-smoothers like Ambitious Farmhand // Seasoned Cathar or Spirited Companion for Loran of the Third Path, you telegraph a lot of assumptions.

Like, you plan to hit your land drops without help. Or maybe you don't. Perhaps you think not hitting three on three just won't matter. Because if you don't make your third land drop unassisted, you might instead plan to live long enough to recover. You know, because the opposing deck is probably a slow-ass Mono-White Control deck that doesn't put an overabundance of damage pressure on you early. Tellingly, _GGN_ has added Farewell - arguably Standard's best "catch up" card - and one that won't accidentally destroy their own Planeswalkers but will kill an opposing Sanctuary Warden, regardless of Shield counters.

I have a really soft spot for the Mono-Red deck in Standard. Phoenix Chick has been a revelation; and I find myself cheering for the opponent (at least a little bit) every time I get dinged by an End the Festivities. But there is no denying that one of the main incentives in Standard is just to play Mono-White because it performs so well against Mono-Red.

This brings us to...

"I'M STILL HERE!"

Invoke Despair has been one of the best cards - removal cards or just plain haymakers - since it was printed last year. We've seen it in a wide variety of decks from Mono-Black Aggro to Mono-Black Control to Rakdos or especially Grixis builds. Invoke Despair was the centerpiece of the best deck pre-The Brothers' War, which brings us to Lay Down Arms's opposite number.

I play about two-thirds Mono-White; one-third Grixis Control in Standard Events. Mostly because I want to understand Grixis better.

Intuitively, Grixis should be one of the best decks in Standard. It was THE best deck a hot minute ago, winning the World Championships and forcing many deck-builders to re-examine their assumptions.

From one dimension, it "should" be going furthest over the top in the format. Like, shouldn't the card quality in a three-color deck be better than that of a one-color deck? Again intuitively... Yes?

But that's not really how it bears out.

This card is spectacular.

Spectacular, as in it creates a spectacle. It actually does that. You draw. They discard. It swings over. Sometimes for tons of overload mana!

But casting Bladecoil Serpent for a lot of value often requires you to take something like four damage from your own lands. Here's a secret: You don't actually have to be Grixis to get a lot of value out of Bladecoil Serpent... The colors of Crosis, the Purger offer flexibility more than raw power here. I fear it may be a Grixis-baited trap.

My general conclusion is that the swap away from Sheoldred, the Apocalypse to Bladecoil Serpent and Phyrexian Fleshgorger has been mostly a mixed bag. A lot of the time I just wish I had Sheoldred. Playing from the other side of the table (almost regardless of deck) I find Sheoldred to be the creature I care about dealing with most. I don't know if I've ever even lost to an opposing Bladecoil Serpent.

The mana is a non-zero factor. Think about the in Invoke Despair combined with the greedy incentives to buffing Bladecoil Serpent and its many colors of X. BTW you might just lose to playing a second Shivan Reef accidentally. Watch out for that.

This card is very good. It's a hell of a Gnarled Mass, for sure. The problem in Grixis is that you don't need to be Grixis to play it. In fact, in a world with Shivan Reef alongside Sulfurous Springs... Some of those pips can be punishing.

The really weird thing isn't that Mono-Black can hang... It's that Mono-Black is surprisingly card advantageous! You give up the single biggest incentive from Grixis (Corpse Appraiser)... But gluing together a bunch of Gix triggers and Underdog re-buys results in plenty of card draw. So, since Mono-Black tops up on the same sick five, it's kind of only a question of if Grixis can catch the opposing Invoke Despair with Make Disappear.

There are two big takeaways to Grixis from my experience:

First, Grixis tends to be very, very bad against Mono-Red. Half the time you're taking a point to cast Go for the Throat, which feels spiritually awful even when it's right. In the rare cases that you've lived long enough to cast Invoke Despair, they're usually just sacrificing a Phoenix Chick as they salivate over the Lightning Strikes in their hand.

Secondly, it is shockingly not that over the top relative to Mono-White! You'd think that the deck with Corpse Appraiser into Invoke Despair drawing into the singleton Bladecoil Serpent would have more card advantage. And it does! Every time they have to use two cards on Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki is kind of a moral victory. But that card advantage isn't necessarily backbreaking.

The problem is that Mono-White is really loaded with card advantage itself. It doesn't take too many Sanctuary Wardens to make up all of the Grixis card advantage. I think the biggest breaker is that Grixis is using real cards (e.g. Abrade) to handle MWC's Reckoner Bankbuster while White is often using half-cards (e.g. Cathar Commando from the graveyard) to do the same. Add in the fact that Cathar Commando will often do something like block or crew before taking out a Reckoner Bankbuster OR that the Bankbuster itself will often come out of the graveyard and you can see the problem for Grixis. It's not that White's card advantage engine is better: It's not.

In long games, the Grixis card quality translates to life total very effectively. But tempo positivity at the lower mana tiers can go a long way; as can eking out a little more advantage from the already advantageous The Restoration of Eiganjo // Architect of Restoration or Serra Paragon.

The other issue is that Invoke Despair is quite poor at aiming at a particular creature. A Serra Paragon or Sanctuary Warden is very rarely alone. Congratulations on killing a 1/1 Citizen or a re-buy candidate with your five-mana ace. The inability to aim becomes a liability in the strangest way long game. Sometimes you just want your Invoke Despair to deal six and draw three cards. But sometimes it's a three-for-one, gobbling up The Wandering Emperor and two other cards. HOWEVER, those two other cards are often a Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity that has already gotten value and a random token. What you REALLY wanted was damage. The Grixis advantages are substantial on paper but just don't bear out the way you want them to when you're under pressure.

The worst example? You Invoke Despair into open mana. They cast a fresh The Wandering Emperor and make a 2/2. You keep getting brained.

I predict the context created by these two very good - and very different - removal spells will incubate a truly strange world. Here is one of the first windows into the future:

Red/Green Portal to Phyrexia | BRO Standard | FazerX73, 5-0 MTGO Standard League

• Creatures (4)
• 4 Titan of Industry

• Instants (6)
• 2 Abrade
• 4 Big Score

• Sorceries (9)
• 2 Obliterating Bolt
• 3 Strangle
• 4 Chaotic Transformation

• Enchantments (14)
• 2 Careful Cultivation
• 2 The Elder Dragon War
• 3 Bitter Reunion
• 3 Jugan Defends the Temple // Remnant of the Rising Star
• 4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki

• Artifacts (3)
• 3 Portal to Phyrexia

• Lands (24)
• 4 Forest
• 6 Mountain
• 1 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 4 Karplusan Forest
• 4 Rockfall Vale
• 4 Ziatora's Proving Ground

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Brotherhood's End
• 1 Fade from History
• 2 Harmonious Emergence
• 1 Burn Down the House
• 1 Abrade
• 2 Turn the Earth
• 2 Visions of Phyrexia
• 3 Tamiyo's Safekeeping

Buy This Deck Export text format Export Arena format

Here is a deck full of creatures - if only creature tokens - where Lay Down Arms is kind of terrible across the board. Of course, you want every Sokenzan and Human Monk for Chaotic Transformation into Titan of Industry.

Perhaps more importantly are the artifact tokens via Big Score or Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki. Again Chaotic Transformation is your best buddy. The powerful, but eminently fair, Lay Down Arms and Invoke Despair are themselves despairing at the prospect of playing against Portal to Phyrexia.

LOVE

MIKE