If you had asked me a few weeks ago what the most important Legendary Creature in Standard would be, I would probably have said Atraxa, Grand Unifier.

Not because it's the "best" card... It is a heck of a card, don't get me wrong! It's how important I thought Atraxa would be. Whole strategies across multiple colors have been developed just to get Atraxa into the graveyard. Okay, okay... Everyone is on Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki already... But what else can we do? Should we go big with Big Score? Should we borrow the flexibility of Cathartic Pyre? What about other colors than Red?

And other colors were in fact involved! Atraxa decks were most popular in the Fable of the Mirror-Breaker-equipped and styles... Sometimes including Green to help with hard casting Atraxa sometimes (and hard-casting Titan of Industry more often). But it wasn't just about getting Atraxa into the graveyard.

For Black decks the switch from Invoke Despair to The Cruelty of Gix was somewhat cosmetic. Five mana card advantage bomb for different five-mana card advantage bomb. All good! I'd say they didn't even have to revisit the mana base, but mana probably got looser for most. You saw more basic mountains now that the Black mana bases weren't so slaved to for Invoke Despair. Bloodtithe Harvester was already in every deck from Standard to Pioneer; but you might have been surprised by just how not-awful Scrapwork Mutt turned out to be.

The sub-games around Atraxa also became telling. Main deck Unlicensed Hearse was not unheard of. Crazy yahoos like Yours Truly were publishing articles claiming that Graveyard Trespasser is the best card in Standard, largely for its ability to upend a Black mirror.

But that was a few weeks ago.

Now?

It's not just that Atraxa has largely left the winner's metagame in Standard. It isn't even clear what the best Legendary Creature is! That said, can I interest you in twenty-four or so?

Esper Legends | ONE Standard| DarthStone, 1st Place MTGO Standard Challenge 3/19/2023

• Creatures (26)
• 1 Ludevic, Necrogenius // Olag, Ludevic's Hubris
• 2 Razorlash Transmogrant
• 3 Adeline, Resplendent Cathar
• 4 Dennick, Pious Apprentice // Dennick, Pious Apparition
• 4 Raffine, Scheming Seer
• 4 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 4 Skrelv, Defector Mite
• 4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

• Instants (2)
• 2 Go for the Throat

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity

• Lands (28)
• 1 Plains
• 1 Shipwreck Marsh
• 2 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 3 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 3 Otawara, Soaring City
• 3 Seachrome Coast
• 3 Shattered Sanctum
• 4 Caves of Koilos
• 4 Darkslick Shores
• 4 Plaza of Heroes

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Disdainful Stroke
• 2 Malicious Malfunction
• 2 Destroy Evil
• 4 Cut Down
• 3 Loran of the Third Path
• 2 Go for the Throat

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To be fair, if you had asked me what my runner-up for best Legendary Creature in Standard, I would have slammed Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. I've felt that card underplayed in Standard since at least The Brothers' War, especially in Grixis decks. Here, of course, you'll find four copies.

Increasingly it seems like Esper Legends is The Deck to Beat in Standard. It started picking up maybe two weeks ago and just keeps performing. But what makes this deck tick?

1. The Legends are awfully good - Sheoldred is close to the only creature you really need to worry about removing in Standard; and this deck packs the maximum number. Thalia, as we know, ruins everything. It is kind of beyond me that Stone Rain at three is too powerful but Thalia is just fine. Prior to Esper Legends, Thalia was mostly played in White Weenie decks. It is scary to see her in a framework with more play, more elegance, and less predictable backup. There are versions of this strategy that don't even play Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity (which can be Thalia-taxed); but DarthStone won the most recent event.
2. The Legendary Lands get even better - Look at this deck's mana base. It has almost 50% lands! And that's not just to pay for stupid Thalia. With so many Legendary Creatures, cards like Otawara, Soaring City and Eiganjo, Seat of Empire just become efficient "spells" that can help ensure you hit all your land drops. This is a big draw to the deck.
3. Built-in resistance to that other, absent, Legend - When you play four copies of Dennick, Pious Apprentice // Dennick, Pious Apparition (something Soldiers doesn't even do right now) you are setting yourself up for success in a variety of matchps. A 2/3 lifelink creature is actually just very good against Mono-Red, and can contain Squee and Feldon without batting an eyelash. But you're also kind of pre-sideboarded for Atraxa! Good luck reanimating your Phyrexian Angel without first dealing with Dennick.

Esper Legends has a lot of play to it. Its default is kind of like a White Weenie with better middle turn cards. You can come out with Skrelv, Thalia, and Adeline to just get damage in. But if you ever get brick-walled (which you might, having very few spells), Sheoldred gives you a completely different texture than most attack decks come turn four. And I do mean turn "four" given the twenty-eight lands and your likelihood to hit your drops on time.

Speaking of lands, Plaza of Heroes is the card that holds Esper Legends together. Both an enabler and a payoff, the Plaza helps you cast your key cards, then keep them around later.

This card came up on apprentice Roman Fusco's side in a recent play-test session and I actually had to ask him what it was. Well, it looks like Roman was ahead of the curve on this one because the Transmogrant seems to be infecting decks like a veritable Bloodtithe Harvester. It isn't even a Legend... But it made it through DarthStone's deck list as the only non-Legendary Creature in the entire seventy-five.

Razorlash Transmogrant is seeing wider play (hence my Harvester comment). For instance, Grixis!

Grixis | ONE Standard | Rhianne, 4th Place MTGO Standard Challenge 3/18/2023

• Creatures (10)
• 2 Razorlash Transmogrant
• 4 Bloodtithe Harvester
• 4 Corpse Appraiser

• Instants (12)
• 1 Anoint with Affliction
• 2 Abrade
• 3 Cut Down
• 3 Go for the Throat
• 3 Make Disappear

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Brotherhood's End
• 4 Invoke Despair

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki

• Artifacts (3)
• 3 Reckoner Bankbuster

• Lands (26)
• 2 Swamp
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 1 Sulfurous Springs
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 1 Underground River
• 2 Darkslick Shores
• 3 Shipwreck Marsh
• 3 Shivan Reef
• 4 Blackcleave Cliffs
• 4 Haunted Ridge
• 4 Xander's Lounge

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Duress
• 2 Siphon Insight
• 1 Parasitic Grasp
• 2 Disdainful Stroke
• 1 Unlicensed Hearse
• 2 Negate
• 1 Cut Down
• 2 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 1 Go for the Throat
• 1 Razorlash Transmogrant
• 1 Brotherhood's End

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No Apocalypse... No giant Serpent... But a pair of Transmogrants?

Razorlash Transmogrant has the superpower of costing in a deck that is already optimized to make . It's an easy cast at two; and its reanimation cost isn't onerous, especially when discounted.

While "3/1 and can't block" for two isn't anything to write home about, a string of 4/2 creatures for can eventually wear down even stalwart defenses. The secret to this card is just that it's so easy to get into the graveyard.

Start by trading! Razorlash Transmogrant can't block, but no one wants to get hit for three every turn. If they trade, the first domino has already fallen!

Grixis has a wide variety of ways to get the Transmogrant into the graveyard without a loss of card advantage. Fable of the Mirror-Breaker; Bloodtithe Harvester's Blood tokens; even the trigger on a Corpse Appraiser can do it while drawing an extra card!

Sharpen your Graveyard Trespasser // Graveyard Gluttons; because this 3/1 is potent.

The Many Faces of White

White decks are some of the most varied in Standard right now. You still have straight White Weenie, as well as Soldiers variants (generally )... Both of those decks smashing face, often with Thalia, Guardian of Thraben as a disruptive element.

Neither White Weenie nor Soldiers is the premier aggro strategy in the format right now. That title probably goes to Selesnya Poison:

Selesnya Poison | ONE Standard | guiyote, 2nd Place MTGO Standard Challenge 3/19/2023

• Creatures (26)
• 2 Annex Sentry
• 4 Bloated Contaminator
• 4 Crawling Chorus
• 4 Jawbone Duelist
• 4 Skrelv, Defector Mite
• 4 Slaughter Singer
• 4 Venerated Rotpriest

• Instants (7)
• 1 Destroy Evil
• 2 Soul Partition
• 4 Tyvar's Stand

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Skrelv's Hive

• Lands (23)
• 1 Forest
• 2 Plains
• 1 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 2 Overgrown Farmland
• 4 Brushland
• 4 Mirrex
• 4 Razorverge Thicket
• 4 The Seedcore

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity
• 2 Circle of Confinement
• 4 Knockout Blow
• 2 Destroy Evil
• 3 Ajani, Sleeper Agent

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Here is a deck that is cut right out of Phyrexia: All Will Be One. Tons of its cards are simply from the set, most of which have the word "toxic" written somewhere on them.

The most overrated card in this strategy is Skrelv, Defector Mite. That card is not really great... At least not when compared with Mother of Runes. People played and planned with it poorly for some time, but I think they're coming out of that now. Skrelv is not great for defense; at least not great for blocking. But when it can double up someone else's existing toxic (especially someone like a double striking Jawbone Duelist), you have an inclusion that more than warrants its spot on the one.

Unless of course you compare it to Venerated Rotpriest. WHAT A CARD. Wow this card. The toxic deck versus Infect decks of the past is weaker in that "Giant Growth"-type effects don't poison the opponent more... The opponent just takes more conventional damage. Venerated Rotpriest gives Selesnya Poison a kind of reach that doesn't just close out games, but can disincentivize how most players try to stop an attack deck: By removing its creatures.

There are two really, really good cards in this deck. One of them is the Rotpriest. The other is Bloated Contaminator. This card is good at everything; works out great on rate; does everything; even tramples. The trample is particularly important because it doesn't just get through damage: It gets through at least two points of toxic thanks to Bloated Contaminator's built-in proliferation.

The last card that I think bears special mention is Tyvar's Stand. This card is every Ranger's Guile's dream of what they could be when they grow up. It matters a lot in this deck because giving +X on the front side can help force through trample; but going with our other very good creature... Venerated Rotpriest can poison the opponent while protecting one of the infectious creatures on the board from removal.

Otherwise, this deck is all about deploying creatures and attacking with them. Some of them (like Bloated Contaminator) are actually great on rate. Others (like Jawbone Duelist) can combine with other spells in the deck for outsized returns. Skrelv's Hive actually turns Selesnya Poison into a life gain machine! But what really matters here is that while most of the creatures are slightly lower on rate... They're not that much smaller; and you only have to deal 10 instead of 20.

Also, their "Brutal Cathar // Moonrage Brute" is twice as hard to kill.

When I first looked at BCS8995's list, I wondered at some of the choices for a Mono-White Control deck.

I guess it's "technically" Mono-White despite being Black?

Mono-White | ONE Standard | bcs8995, 4th Place MTGO Standard Challenge 3/19/2023

• Creatures (12)
• 2 Loran of the Third Path
• 3 Serra Paragon
• 3 Steel Seraph
• 4 Ambitious Farmhand // Seasoned Cathar

• Planeswalkers (6)
• 1 The Eternal Wanderer
• 2 Kaya, Intangible Slayer
• 3 The Wandering Emperor

• Sorceries (6)
• 2 Vanquish the Horde
• 4 Lay Down Arms

• Enchantments (8)
• 4 Ossification
• 4 Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Reckoner Bankbuster

• Lands (24)
• 10 Plains
• 3 Swamp
• 3 Demolition Field
• 4 Field of Ruin
• 4 Raffine's Tower

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Vanquish the Horde
• 1 Knockout Blow
• 2 Unlicensed Hearse
• 3 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 2 Go for the Throat
• 1 Loran of the Third Path
• 1 The Eternal Wanderer
• 4 Duress

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In either case, it's awesome.

The payoff is Kaya, Intangible Slayer... But she's a two-of that costs seven mana. How you get there is masterful!

The structure is very "Mono-White Control" down to four copies of Lay Down Arms. This deck uses Raffine's Tower... Which is a Plains but can also make Black. Cool! But the technological innovation comes from Demolition Field and Field of Ruin. These lands are extra powerful in a Standard where many decks have very few basic lands. They might not be great against Mono-Red... But even if the opponent has just a few Roadside Reliquaries or Mishra's Foundries, you can fix your own colors. That's the genius! Manascrewing Esper Legends is just a bonus.

Sheoldred and Duress out of the sideboard give the deck a meaningfully different angle in Games Two and Three that conventional MWC just can't offer.

Standard is... In a really different place than it was a few weeks ago! This is one of the most dynamic formats in recent memory, with decks technically still existing while variants pop up and replace them. Variants that have 75% the same DNA... But do something completely different in Stage Three.

I guess stay weird.

LOVE

MIKE