Let's start with an easy one.

Look at this new take on Mono-Red from a recent Standard Challenge:

Mono-Red | MOM Standard | varal, 11th MTGO Standard Challenge 5/14/2023

• Creatures (22)
• 2 Feldon, Ronom Excavator
• 4 Bloodthirsty Adversary
• 4 Falkenrath Pit Fighter
• 4 Furnace Punisher
• 4 Monastery Swiftspear
• 4 Shivan Devastator

• Instants (5)
• 2 Lightning Strike
• 3 Play with Fire

• Sorceries (2)
• 2 Nahiri's Warcrafting

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Kumano Faces Kakkazan // Etching of Kumano

• Battles (4)
• 4 Invasion of Tarkir // Defiant Thundermaw

• Lands (23)
• 17 Mountain
• 2 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 4 Mishra's Foundry

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Chandra, Dressed to Kill
• 3 Bloody Betrayal
• 2 Obliterating Bolt
• 3 Koth, Fire of Resistance
• 4 Lithomantic Barrage
• 2 Nahiri's Warcrafting

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For sure this deck has some weird stuff going on. Two copies of Lightning Strike? Three copies of Play with Fire? (I don't know that I've ever seen anything but four and four for either of these in the past)

But varal didn't "just" cut key burn staples... The missing cards were replaced with some new additions.

In varal's deck, Invasion of Tarkir // Defiant Thundermaw fills some of the gap left by Lightning Strike and Play with Fire. The card never costs more than Lightning Strike; and thanks to the presence of Shivan Devastator, can often do more damage than either of the burn cards it replaced.

But that's not the one-two punch!

Don't get me wrong: If Sheoldred, the Apocalypse weren't the single most dominating creature in Standard, Nahiri's Warcrafting would not likely be played in this deck's main deck. After all, it does no damage to players!

But for varal, especially turn two into turn three, Nahiri's Warcrafting can immediately win the Battle to flip Invasion of Tarkir. You'll note Nahiri's Warcrafting does exactly five... Which is of course the starting defense on this Invasion.

Don't worry if you kinda sorta "took the turn off" ... Flipping the Invasion of Tarkir feels very similar to just spending three mana for a 4/4 Dragon with three very good abilities. You can defend yourself in the short term, and given how the Invasion got on the battlefield to begin with, could very well have started defending yourself the previous one.

On the subject of "burn" let's talk about the deck that Nathan Steuer used to win the Pro Tour recently:

Rakdos Midrange | MOM Standard | Nathan Steur, 1st Place Pro Tour March of the Machine

• Creatures (9)
• 2 Graveyard Trespasser // Graveyard Glutton
• 3 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 4 Bloodtithe Harvester

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Chandra, Hope's Beacon

• Instants (8)
• 1 Abrade
• 3 Cut Down
• 4 Go for the Throat

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Light Up the Night
• 2 Duress
• 4 Invoke Despair

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

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Reckoner Bankbuster

• Lands (26)
• 1 Mountain
• 10 Swamp
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 2 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 4 Blackcleave Cliffs
• 4 Haunted Ridge
• 4 Sulfurous Springs

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Liliana of the Veil
• 1 Abrade
• 1 Rotten Reunion
• 2 Lithomantic Barrage
• 2 Duress
• 1 Cut Down
• 2 Razorlash Transmogrant
• 2 Glistening Deluge
• 1 Obliterating Bolt
• 1 Soul Transfer

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Last week I talked about how this deck was built for a so-called "Winners' metagame" rather than the average one. Nevertheless, I was super excited to touch a mite of greatness myself and loaded the champ's deck up on Magic: The Gathering Arena straight after the Pro Tour.

I lost my first flip but that was okay, right? I had a decent curve starting on Bloodtithe Harvester into Fable of the... Oh spit is that a basic Mountain into a Monastery Swiftspear?

I just shook my head.

This deck is in fact too good for the ladder.

I lost that first "Burn" match but what sets the Handshake deck apart from the average Rakdos Midrange deck is, in part, it's "burn" sub-theme.

We talk about how this version is a bit less prepared for aggro like Mono-Red than the typical Rakdos. It only has three copies of Cut Down and two copies of Graveyard Trespasser // Graveyard Glutton - You know, the cards that beatdown fears the most.

It has more lands and main-deck Duress, so it is more liable to flooding out, or being a little less able to defend itself against an already-developed battlefield.

But what does Steuer's deck have in exchange for all those cuts?

This Fireball update has a little more to it than might immediately meet the eye. First of all, it's a bit more efficient at killing creatures. Cool. If that was all Light Up the Night had going for it, it is unlikely it would have been as dominant at the Pro Tour.

The real incentives come from combining it with Chandra, Hope's Beacon.

Chandra's ability to add two mana is obviously helpful with any version of Light Up the Night (an x-spell). But the real gold is just in Chandra's passive ability.

Imagine you successfully untap with Chandra on turn seven, and make your land drop. Two mana from Chandra herself gives you nine. With Chandra's passive online you'll be sending two "Fireball"-type effects for that mana. 8 + 8 = 16 damage to the opponent's face (presuming you want to).

Chandra helps you both coming and going though! Theoretically any Planeswalker can be synergistic with a Light Up the Night you've already cast, but Chandra, Hope's Beacon's pairing assists in two ways. If you've already set up the "big Fireball" we discussed, above, you don't need much loyalty to finish the game. But what if you randomly topdeck this Planeswalker on turn... Eight?

If you already have a Light Up the Night in your graveyard, with eight mana you can do a pretty cool thing. Six goes into Chandra. Then if you make two mana using Chandra's [+2] ability you can end up with the four mana you need for Light Up the Night's flashback.

You can now remove as many as seven counters from Chandra (5 from starting Loyalty, 2 from the +2). The way the timing works, Chandra will "see" Light Up the Night to copy it despite going to zero loyalty as a result of co-paying the flashback cost. That's up to 14 damage to the face from nowhere!

Of course you can do other stuff like split Fireballs, or simply not use up all of Chandra's Loyalty in one big and exciting salvo. But it's nice to know what is possible at the outer end of the range, isn't it?

Five-Color Ramp | MOM Standard | David Olsen, 4th Place Pro Tour March of the Machine

• Creatures (14)
• 2 Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness
• 4 Archangel of Wrath
• 4 Atraxa, Grand Unifier
• 4 Topiary Stomper

• Sorceries (6)
• 2 Sunfall
• 4 Herd Migration

• Enchantments (8)
• 4 Leyline Binding
• 4 Ossification

• Artifacts (2)
• 2 Reckoner Bankbuster

• Lands (26)
• 1 Island
• 1 Swamp
• 2 Mountain
• 3 Plains
• 4 Forest
• 1 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 2 Mirrex
• 4 Jetmir's Garden
• 4 Spara's Headquarters
• 4 Ziatora's Proving Ground

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Tyrranax Rex
• 4 Lithomantic Barrage
• 2 Unlicensed Hearse
• 1 Sunfall
• 1 Mirrex
• 2 Vanquish the Horde
• 1 Temporary Lockdown

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Variations on Olsen's five-color deck are some of the most successful at the top ends of online tournaments at the time of this writing. "Why" is intuitive... Rakdos is the most popular deck overall online, and the five-color deck has a generally positive win expectation against it.

The Handshake deck has that powerful Light Up the Night addition, but for the most part, Rakdos Midrange decks top up on Invoke Despair on power level. If there is one deck that can withstand multiple copies of Invoke Despair... It's Olsen's. Most of this deck's threats are naturally card advantageous; and a lost Ossification will often have just been covering a Goblin Shaman token anyway, meaning that Domain's concessions to Despair will be minimal coming out of an Invoke.

But what can this strategy offer other than an anything-but-glass jaw?

It more-or-less goes biggest in the field, with not only Atraxa and Etali as reasonable hard-casts at seven... But Herd Migration as well.

On the way to getting climbing to seven mana, make sure you know how these two enablers 1) work together, and 2) can go from sidekicks to butt-kickers.

Topiary Stomper is not very impressive on three. It's three mana instead of two; and even though you theoretically get a 4/4 vigilance for your Rampant Growth, it can't attack until you have seven lands in play.

But on turn three, it will take you from three lands to four.

Then on turn four, you can play Invasion of Zendikar // Awakened Skyclave - an updated Explosive Vegetation that is also very little more than an Explosive Vegetation to begin with - that will take you from four to six.

But what if you have a natural land drop, too?

That's seven right there!

So Topiary Stomper + natural land drop + Invasion of Zendikar // Awakened Skyclave is a predicted seven lands in play on turn four. Seven not only turns on your Stomper, but your Stomper has enough natural power to win the Battle over at Zendikar to give you Awakened Skyclave.

If you can win that Battle, you'll not only have two 4/4 creatures - both capable of playing both offense and defense - but even more mana available to make even bigger plays the next turn.

Olsen probably played the highest profile Archangel of Wrath deck at the Pro Tour, but there was one other that offers a compelling pairing of peanut butter and chocolate.

Quick!

Describe Autumn Burchett's deck from the Top 8!

I'm waiting...

Most people would have said something like "Orzhov Midrange" or "Orzhov Control" ... Either would I suppose be technically right in terms of archetype description... but maybe not descriptive.

Autumn's deck is really just an extra slow Mono-White Control deck with a weird "splash" at the very top end for Breach the Multiverse. This is a very different kind of "splash" than we have seen in the past. Autumn isn't smoothing anything out early; isn't getting faster; arguably isn't "splashing" much at all given the double-Black in what is a deliberate end game spell.

Breach allows this deck to go bigger than many others; but principally, to overwhelm other White Control decks. Most of its incentive is in getting there. It can shrug off Invoke Despair with Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity, and zero out large threats with everything from Lay Down Arms to Sunfall. But come seven? You're talking about stealing an opposing Etali or The Eternal Wanderer. What great fun! Chaos.

The two-card combination I wanted to highlight is in the sideboard. Tell me when you can see it:

Unlike David's deck, Autumn's has no lands that can produce Red mana. Black mana isn't a problem. Obscura Storefront does a lot of work in this deck, and even combines well with Serra Paragon for 3-4 life points a copy. Basic Swamp and even one Caves of Koilos can help with the Black kicker.

But what about Red?

I assume you see it now.

All you have to do is use your Reckoner Bankbuster three times, and you'll end up with a Treasure. Save that Treasure if you can, and you should be able to double-kick Archangel of Wrath like a proper Ramp deck!

Burchett's deck is typically happy with single-kick for what it's trying to do (or really defend itself from); but again, it's nice to know if you need a double-kick that 1) it can be accomplished, and more importantly 2) how to accomplish that when your back is against the wall.

LOVE

MIKE