So, there were some bannings in Standard recently, largely designed to increase the perceived diversity of the format. Reckoner Bankbuster was in lots of different decks - from Green-based Ramp decks to every kind of mid-range or slow deck. How the disciples of Watery Grave navigate a future without that efficient 2-drop is going to be an interesting journey for the next few months.

The biggest winner in Standard must be Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity.

I am personally quite frustrated with the banning of Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki while ignoring Wedding Announcement. Don't get me wrong: Fable of the Mirror-Breaker was probably the best card in Standard prior to bannings; but Wedding Announcement was close on its heels (while also being a much less interesting card).

Fable was primarily a "Stupor" in that the opponent simply had to use two cards to deal with its first and third chapters. If they didn't, they ran the risk of being run over a tidal wave of Treasure tokens, machine gun-style Bloodtithe Harvesters (and neverending Blood tokens), or even just a lethal army of 2/2 Goblin clones. But Fable's greater sin may have been that it made good players win even more.

Chapter Two was increasingly good the better the player behind the Fable was; and of course it sometimes enabled novel strategies like reanimating a 7/7 Draw Seven (with Lifelink and several other keyword abilities) on... Let me see here... turn four.

So, Fable is good. Got it. Not news to anyone. Wedding Announcement has always been nearly so, as well as a more consistent and concrete source of card advantage. If the opponent is playing cards like Cut Down they probably don't love them against a Fable of the Mirror-Breaker deck, but are not-too-unhappy to trade these not-great cards for Chapters One and Three, the alternative being pretty grim. Compare any point removal at all to Wedding Announcement. The card is extraordinarily punishing of one-for-one trades. Even more so than Fable. Worse, Wedding Announcement is four total pieces of material instead of three. When you Go for the Throat The Reflection of Kiki-Jiki, that's cardboard for cardboard. Even if you kill all three 1/1 creatures from a Wedding Announcement, its flipped "Glorious Anthem" mode is still going to impact the balance of the game.

I predict Wedding Announcement will be even more of a problem in Standard than Fable ever was. Part of this is that it is literally the best card White decks can play against a resurgent Mono-Red; and part of that is because Invoke Despair - one of the only ways Black decks could interact with enchantments - was also banned.

If we look at an emerging Standard as "more diverse" in that incumbent Rakdos will be splitting off into (at least) future versions of Rakdos, Mono-Black, and Grixis... None of those decks is particularly well set up for Wedding Announcement fights. I guess we'll just have to see what the new performers are going to look like.

And the winner of the June 11 Standard Challenge is...

A surprise to literally no one?

Esper Legends | MAT Standard | Gul_Dukat, 7th Place MTGO Standard Challenge 6/11/2023

• Creatures (22)
• 2 Ao, the Dawn Sky
• 4 Dennick, Pious Apprentice // Dennick, Pious Apparition
• 4 Raffine, Scheming Seer
• 4 Rona, Herald of Invasion
• 4 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 4 Skrelv, Defector Mite

• Instants (8)
• 2 Cut Down
• 3 Go for the Throat
• 3 Make Disappear

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

• Lands (26)
• 1 Plains
• 1 Shipwreck Marsh
• 2 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 3 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 3 Otawara, Soaring City
• 4 Caves of Koilos
• 4 Darkslick Shores
• 4 Plaza of Heroes
• 4 Seachrome Coast

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Disdainful Stroke
• 2 Cut Down
• 2 Ertai Resurrected
• 2 Loran of the Third Path
• 4 Razorlash Transmogrant
• 1 Surge of Salvation

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Esper Legends was arguably the top deck in Standard just prior to the Pro Tour. It was a boogeyman of the Regional Championships. It lost literally nothing in the bannings; in fact, it is now arguably the best Sheoldred, the Apocalypse deck.

Gul_Dukat has made a kind of interesting design choice here: There are just more spells.

Normally an Esper Legends deck is going to get free wins with Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. So, you might see only two - or maybe even zero - main-deck non-creature spells. Creatures in Standard (including Goblin Shamans of various varieties until just recently) were too good to ignore. Pure beatdown decks were often stuck playing Lay Down Arms (which gives the opponent life) or Ossification (which turns on their removal) out of respect for great creatures. Even a 4x Sheoldred deck that doesn't want spells-spells at all might play a couple of copies of Go for the Throat.

Here we see zero copies of Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. Reasonable, I suppose, as there are no longer Reckoner Bankbusters to bust up to three; nor Fables whose stories will be how they couldn't land until turn four. Rather, Gul_Dukat adopted the White Fable of the Mirror-Breaker - Wedding Announcement - into the Esper Legends family, along with light counterspells and more creature interaction.

Mono-Black Control | MAT Standard | Squirtle19, 9th Place MTGO Standard Challenge 6/11/2023

• Creatures (8)
• 1 Phyrexian Fleshgorger
• 2 Graveyard Trespasser // Graveyard Glutton
• 2 Sheoldred // The True Scriptures
• 3 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

• Planeswalkers (5)
• 1 Kaya, Intangible Slayer
• 1 The Eternal Wanderer
• 3 The Wandering Emperor

• Instants (10)
• 2 Cut Down
• 2 March of Wretched Sorrow
• 2 Sheoldred's Edict
• 4 Go for the Throat

• Sorceries (4)
• 1 Farewell
• 1 Sunset Revelry
• 2 Sunfall

• Enchantments (6)
• 2 Phyrexian Arena
• 4 Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity

• Battles (2)
• 2 Invasion of Tolvada // The Broken Sky

• Lands (25)
• 4 Plains
• 5 Swamp
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 2 Crystal Grotto
• 4 Caves of Koilos
• 4 Raffine's Tower
• 4 Shattered Sanctum

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Duress
• 1 March of Wretched Sorrow
• 2 Knockout Blow
• 2 Destroy Evil
• 2 Temporary Lockdown
• 2 Cut Down
• 2 Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines
• 1 Sunfall

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One of the decks that I thought would rise as a result of Fable's ban was Mono-Black Control. Yes, it lost Invoke Despair... But Mono-Black seemed to me one of the better decks for fighting a rising aggro tide, especially as it was always a solid Graveyard Trespasser // Graveyard Glutton deck (never messing with those Grixis Vampires on three).

Squirtle19 narrowly missed Top 8 in this event, but went a different way than I had anticipated. Base Black... With Wedding Announcement? Yeah, it's kind of that good.

Okay, maybe that's not 100% fair. Squirtle19's deck tops up on the White Planeswalkers. The Wandering Wanderer twins, and the Intangible Slayer. But! We typically see those cards as high end in a White shell. The first 4-5 turns for Squirtle19 could essentially be a Mono-Black deck... Defending with Cut Down and Go for the Throat; locking down the battlefield while gaining a little life with a 3/3 Ward; Sheoldred (and Sheoldred!)

Invasion of Tolvada // The Broken Sky is an interesting one here: As a non-Red deck in a post-Fable world, you're not going to be getting Atraxa back with any kind of frequency, as the ways to dump a 7/7 Angel have narrowed... On the other hand, this deck has a lot of good permanents that the opponent might destroy fair and square. Invasion of Tolvada doesn't discriminate.

Mono-Red | MAT Standard | Coly2, 32nd Place MTGO Standard Challenge 6/11/2023

• Creatures (19)
• 3 Feldon, Ronom Excavator
• 4 Bloodthirsty Adversary
• 4 Furnace Punisher
• 4 Monastery Swiftspear
• 4 Phoenix Chick

• Instants (8)
• 4 Lightning Strike
• 4 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)
• 3 Bloody Betrayal
• 1 Chandra, Dressed to Kill
• 2 Jaya, Fiery Negotiator
• 2 Obliterating Bolt
• 1 Koth, Fire of Resistance
• 2 Nahiri's Warcrafting
• 4 Lithomantic Barrage

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This is what a Red Deck looks like in Standard right now.

There were four or so top finishing Red Decks within about one card of one another in starting sixties over the two most recent post-bannings events. They're all packing Invasion of Tarkir // Defiant Thundermaw, which was kind of surprising to me. Invasion of Tarkir is a fine point removal card, albeit not particularly exciting in a deck with no Dragons; but with five defense, this Invasion is a perfect pairing to Nahiri's Warcrafting.

Red Decks have always had to pack some kind of deal-five because Sheoldred, the Apocalypse is so overwhelmingly good against them. Most decks have to care about the life loss, but the life gain is poison for Red Decks. Nahiri's Warcrafting is a good compromise card because it can kill Sheoldred without any help, plus card provide card advantage (or interact with an Invasion) the rest of the time.

While their main decks were very consistent, most of the Red Decks played different sideboards. One thing that was consistent among those, though, was a lack of Koth, Fire of Resistance. Only one copy in one build across two tournaments! Of course, that one copy belonged to Coly2 here, who won the June 10 Challenge outright.

For the most part it seems like the aspiring Fire Gods have chosen a different card advantageous 4 mana Planeswalker:

Jaya, especially her [+1] lines up well against Wedding Announcement. The fact that her Monks have Prowess gives them a heads-up edge against Wedding Announcment's 1/1 creatures... without Prowess.

Mono-Red does not have a monopoly on Invasion of Tarkir. SPLATTERHOUSE gives that Battle a potentially better home in Jeskai Dragons:

Jeskai Dragons | MAT Standard | Splatterhouse, 5-0 MTGO Standard League

• Creatures (10)
• 1 Ao, the Dawn Sky
• 2 Atsushi, the Blazing Sky
• 3 Chrome Host Seedshark
• 4 Zurgo and Ojutai

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 The Wandering Emperor

• Instants (4)
• 4 Make Disappear

• Sorceries (6)
• 2 Brotherhood's End
• 4 Strangle

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

• Battles (6)
• 1 Invasion of Gobakhan // Lightshield Array
• 1 Invasion of New Phyrexia // Teferi Akosa of Zhalfir
• 4 Invasion of Tarkir // Defiant Thundermaw

• Lands (26)
• 1 Plains
• 1 Adarkar Wastes
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 2 Deserted Beach
• 2 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 3 Shivan Reef
• 3 Stormcarved Coast
• 4 Battlefield Forge
• 4 Seachrome Coast
• 4 Sundown Pass

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Disdainful Stroke
• 2 Deadly Riposte
• 2 Brotherhood's End
• 1 Invasion of Gobakhan
• 2 Sunfall
• 2 Negate
• 4 Lithomantic Barrage

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At the very least, this deck has some Dragons to pair with the Invasion on the way down. And wow what a Dragon March of the Machine has gifted the archetype:

Certainly worth a four-of. You'll be bouncing back this Orc Dragon to save it from removal quite a bit, but when you don't, it'll be nice to have a backup. Each copy - with its haste, solid power, card drawing, and resilience - threatens to take over the game.

Atsushi and Ao aren't exactly chopped liver, either.

The replacement of Fable of the Mirror-Breaker with Wedding Announcement in this deck is kind of seamless. And more, the haste on Zurgo and Ojutai help make this Wedding Announcement more apt to draw cards rather than just make 1/1 creatures on the ground.

What if you removed Red from the equation, though? What might that look like?

Azorius Control | MAT Standard | Radonski, 5-0 MTGO Standard League

• Creatures (4)
• 4 Ambitious Farmhand // Seasoned Cathar

• Planeswalkers (8)
• 2 The Eternal Wanderer
• 3 Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim
• 3 The Wandering Emperor

• Instants (13)
• 2 Thirst for Discovery
• 3 Memory Deluge
• 4 Make Disappear
• 4 Soul Partition

• Sorceries (7)
• 3 Sunfall
• 4 Lay Down Arms

• Lands (28)
• 10 Plains
• 6 Island
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 2 Raffine's Tower
• 4 Deserted Beach
• 4 Spara's Headquarters

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Negate
• 2 Disdainful Stroke
• 4 Sunset Revelry
• 1 Hullbreaker Horror
• 2 Destroy Evil
• 2 Temporary Lockdown
• 2 Chrome Host Seedshark

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One deck style that has largely been absent from the top of the Standard charts is Azorius Control. The various Black-based removal decks, with their faster, more consistent removal against Mono-Red and [opposing] Fable of the Mirror-Breaker Goblin Shamans, tended to occupy the "control" part of the format more. One thing Blue has always been great at is drawing extra cards (say with certain Planeswalkers, or Memory Deluge)... But drawing cards was much less special when anyone with a Reckoner Bankbuster could do it.

This deck seems like it could make some exciting waves in the new Standard. Depending on how you feel about the word "exciting."

Radonski's deck has twenty-eight main deck lands. Sure, some of them cycle and two of them channel; but everyone has some kind of channel effects, and they typically have four fewer lands main deck, or so. More than that, this build has four Ambitious Farmhand // Seasoned Cathars. That's over thirty-two primary mana sources - more than 50% of the deck!

One thing you can say is that this deck is rarely going to be at a loss for Lay Down Arms fuel.

Ambitious Farmhand also helps make Thirst for Discovery more consistent. There is nothing worse than tapping out on turn three for Thirst and having to decide whether you're going to pitch the one land in your hand for the two-for-one or keep the land and pitch the spells you just drew into. Ambitious Farmhand will tend to give you a freebie Plains to discard. I can't even count how much card advantage is represented between your second and third turn plays there.

In addition to Lay Down Arms, Radonski played Soul Partition for "removal" ... Which is where this deck gets even more interesting (if by "interesting" you mean interested in blowing up your own stuff). This deck is all about winning long game with Planeswalkers; which are both nuisances on the battlefield and Legendary. Opponents will often send tons of potential damage at a Planeswalker, and commit (or over-commit) to the battlefield in order to keep pressure on you while trying to keep from being buried under 2/2 tokens or whatever.

Soul Partition allows you target your own Planeswalkers to prevent them from being destroyed!

Speaking of "destroyed" the opponent will almost necessarily have to waltz into Sunfall or Temporary Lockdown, meaning you'll get both time and a barrel of laughs when you untap, sweep, and re-play your Planeswalker for exile.

If I had to pick a singular deck of the week, it'd be this one. Most of the rest of the decks are variations on things we've collectively seen before, but Blue-White with 28 lands and a full set of Farmhands is a slog worthy of long, lost Glacial Fortress. I can't wait to sleeve it up myself.

LOVE

MIKE