Not long ago Standard was rocked by the ban-hammer being taken to some of its top cards. Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki was a key cog in the machinery of basically every style of Black-Red and Grixis type of deck. Whether you were using a three-to-five Treasure token bump to cast Invoke Despair or actually utilizing Chapter Two to dump Atraxa, Grand Unifier along the way for a fourth-turn The Cruelty of Gix, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker was maybe the best Black card in the format. Speaking of which... Invoke Despair? Also cracked upside the noggin by the ban-hammer. Don't get me started on the stalwart three-of if not four-of friend to every kind of mid-range control deck, Reckoner Bankbuster...

All this is to say that black has to be dead in Standard, right? Took away its draw engine. Took away its best (if borrowed grinding card). Took away its signature high end! Left hateful opposing numbers like Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity.

What's a Black mage to do?

Oh, I don't know... How about dominate Standard like never before?

There is perhaps no better illustration of this seemingly ridiculous reversal of fortunes than the Top 8 of a recent Magic Online Standard Challenge. It looked a little something like this:

• Dimir - *11
• Mono-Black - 111
• Esper - 1
• Domain - 1

While Dimir tied with Mono-Black for number of Top 8 spots (but got the win) I think it is more useful to start with Mono-Black as kind of the bedrock this version of the format is built on. The three Mono-Black decks (and for that matter at least two of this Top 8's Dimir decks) all look very similar to one another; we'll see in a moment for pretty intuitive reasons.

Mono-Black Midrange | MAT Standard | Gul_Dukat, 1st Place MTGO Standard Challenge 7/9/2023

• Creatures (19)
• 3 Tenacious Underdog
• 4 Evolved Sleeper
• 4 Graveyard Trespasser // Graveyard Glutton
• 4 Phyrexian Fleshgorger
• 4 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Liliana of the Veil

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

• Sorceries (3)
• 3 Gix's Command

• Lands (26)
• 22 Swamp
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 3 Mishra's Foundry

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Duress
• 4 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Parasitic Grasp
• 2 Path of Peril
• 2 Razorlash Transmogrant
• 2 Sheoldred's Edict

Buy This Deck Export text format Export Arena format

With Fable of the Mirror-Breaker banned, Graveyard Trespasser // Graveyard Glutton has risen as arguably the most important three-mana threat in Standard. The Human Werewolf, re-upped for another year in Standard, has a lot going for it.

A 3/3 creature for three mana (that is sometimes a 4/4), Graveyard Trespasser boasts decent size for a combat creature. But its value shines with the titan-like ability to gain life while disrupting the opponent's graveyard. Since it's such an annoying threat, the opponent usually has to at least respect its existence. In the past, a Black mage could get around this with Invoke Despair... But no longer. Today, you either have to give up an extra card to kill a Graveyard Trespasser with removal, or resort to something special.

You'll notice that today' Mono-Black decks all pack all four copies of Liliana of the Veil. Lilly has multiple uses of course, but by far the most important is destroying an opposing Graveyard Trespasser without spending an extra card. In fact, Liliana sticks around for at least the tune of one loyalty after taking out her first Human Werewolf.

Thus Graveyard Trespasser, and its position in the format, gives rise to a three-way dance between two and four mana. One game is just the interplay between the Trespasser and Liliana... But the other is about how a player can get rid of the opponent's Liliana of the Veil without going down in resources.

Tenacious Underdog is perfect for that! And, it's worth nothing, pretty good at trading straight up with a Graveyard Trespasser. The down shot, of course, is that Graveyard Trespasser can exile Tenacious Underdog forever... Kind of gaining a little card advantage while gaining life at the same time.

The loss of Invoke Despair seems like something that Mono-Black has been able to weather. In these decks, Gix's Command commands the 5-drop stage. While "worse" than Invoke Despair on some levels, Gix's Command is at least great against both one big creature or against lots of little ones. It has always been able to swing a game with a single life gaining attack.

Positionally, Mono-Black is just one of the best decks against beatdown. Four copies of Cut Down start the party at . Its threat cards at three and four are everything a Red Deck would never want to see: not just Graveyard Trespasser but also Phyrexian Fleshgorger! Finally, Sheoldred, the Apocalypse has always been the bane of beatdown. This whole setup is just a mess for anyone trying to reduce your life total to zero.

Between the potential disruption of Liliana of the Veil, the card advantage of Tenacious Underdog and Gix's Command, and the raw power of Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, Mono-Black can hang in most other matchups as well.

I think the sideboard does a pretty good job of acknowledging more controlling opponents... Razorlash Transmogrant is obviously a card that screams offense (after all, it can't block). Duress and Phyrexian Arena kind of pull Black in the opposite strategic direction, but all the cards are good for when the opponent is trying to do something other than mow you down with a critical mass of small packets of damage.

Now let's contrast this with Dimir:

Dimir | MAT Standard | Arianne, 3rd Place MTGO Standard Challenge 7/9/2023

• Creatures (16)
• 2 Phyrexian Fleshgorger
• 3 Graveyard Trespasser // Graveyard Glutton
• 3 Tenacious Underdog
• 4 Evolved Sleeper
• 4 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

• Planeswalkers (6)
• 2 Kaito Shizuki
• 4 Liliana of the Veil

• Instants (12)
• 1 Sheoldred's Edict
• 3 Go for the Throat
• 4 Cut Down
• 4 Make Disappear

• Lands (26)
• 1 Island
• 10 Swamp
• 1 Mirrex
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 4 Darkslick Shores
• 4 Shipwreck Marsh
• 4 Underground River

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Disdainful Stroke
• 4 Duress
• 1 Kaito Shizuki
• 3 Gix's Command
• 2 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Sheoldred // The True Scriptures

Buy This Deck Export text format Export Arena format

Arianne's "Dimir" deck is basically the Mono-Black deck. Shave off a couple of threats each to make room for Make Disappear? Weirdly it doesn't go that much further. Just adding Make Disappear and Kaito Shizuki at the cost of some two-ofs and three-ofs instead of all four-ofs.

... You'll note that Arianne didn't cut a Sheoldred or anything.

ARIANNE's sideboard contains the wannabe Invoke Despair Gix's Commands; and, I think, is overall better. Disdainful Stroke is just a great card to have in your sideboard, and Arianne didn't give up too much to fit it.

The mana in this deck seems perfectly serviceable. The only big concession would be if you wanted to play Corrupt in Standard... Which this week's Black decks did not, by in large, do.

Dimir | MAT Standard | Snapcaster-Bolt, 5th Place MTGO Standard Challenge 7/9/2023

• Creatures (21)
• 2 Ertai Resurrected
• 3 Tenacious Underdog
• 4 Evolved Sleeper
• 4 Graveyard Trespasser // Graveyard Glutton
• 4 Misery's Shadow
• 4 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 1 Kaito Shizuki
• 3 Liliana of the Veil

• Spells (10)
• 1 Sheoldred's Edict
• 2 Cut Down
• 3 Go for the Throat
• 4 Make Disappear

• Lands (25)
• 1 Island
• 8 Swamp
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 2 Mirrex
• 4 Darkslick Shores
• 4 Shipwreck Marsh
• 4 Underground River

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Spell Pierce
• 3 Duress
• 2 Phyrexian Obliterator
• 1 Negate
• 3 Disdainful Stroke
• 1 Cut Down
• 2 Gix's Command
• 2 Razorlash Transmogrant

Buy This Deck Export text format Export Arena format

The winning Dimir list from this Standard Challenge was similarly not too far afield from a Mono-Black deck... Snapcaster-Bolt just shaved a little differently to accommodate a Blue splash, this time taking advantage of the colorless pump option on Misery's Shadow and complimenting four copies of Make Disappear with Ertai Resurrected.

This card isn't the best at anything. It's a 3/2 for four mana, so not exactly great on rate. But Ertai Resurrected can make like a Counterspell, Stifle, or Murder; all of which have text in a pinch. Besides which, the combination of flash and a body - even if it's not the best body you can imagine for four mana - represent meaningful swings in tempo.

Dimir | MAT Standard | Mah_Quintanilha, 2nd Place MTGO Standard Challenge 7/9/2023

• Creatures (19)
• 1 Sheoldred // The True Scriptures
• 2 Ledger Shredder
• 2 Phyrexian Fleshgorger
• 3 Faerie Mastermind
• 3 Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor
• 4 Aven Heartstabber
• 4 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

• Planeswalkers (6)
• 1 Liliana of the Veil
• 1 Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim
• 4 Kaito Shizuki

• Instants (12)
• 1 Make Disappear
• 1 Spell Pierce
• 2 Rona's Vortex
• 4 Cut Down
• 4 Go for the Throat

• Lands (23)
• 4 Island
• 5 Swamp
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 4 Darkslick Shores
• 4 Shipwreck Marsh
• 4 Underground River

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Liliana of the Veil
• 2 Disdainful Stroke
• 2 Graveyard Trespasser // Graveyard Glutton
• 3 Siphon Insight
• 2 March of Wretched Sorrow
• 1 Make Disappear
• 1 Gix's Command
• 1 Phyrexian Fleshgorger
• 1 Sheoldred // The True Scriptures
• 1 Glistening Deluge

Buy This Deck Export text format Export Arena format

While Mah_Quintanilha didn't cut a Sheoldred or anything, this take on Dimir is the furthest afield of a current Standrad Black deck. Neither Tenacious Underdog nor Graveyard Trespasser are present in the main (though respect remains being paid to both main deck and sideboard Liliana of the Veil).

Instead we see a card that we maybe have never seen in a competitive deck before:

A 1/1 flyer for two mana isn't very good.

But one that immediately replaces itself? You're kidding, right?

Luckily it doesn't take overmuch to get Aven Heartstabber into 3/3 range. At that point it's not only a pretty good offensive creature, but it'll both trade with anything and still replace itself when finished. I predict we see more of this card, and probably not even in Standard only.

Esper | MAT Standard | Ignotus97, 7th Place MTGO Standard Challenge 7/9/2023

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 The Wandering Emperor

• Instants (23)
• 1 Disdainful Stroke
• 1 March of Otherworldly Light
• 1 Negate
• 2 Cut Down
• 2 Dissipate
• 2 Go for the Throat
• 2 Sheoldred's Edict
• 2 Void Rend
• 3 Make Disappear
• 3 Siphon Insight
• 4 Memory Deluge

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Farewell
• 1 Silver Scrutiny
• 3 Sunfall

• Enchantments (1)
• 1 The Celestus

• Lands (27)
• 1 Island
• 1 Plains
• 1 Swamp
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 2 Adarkar Wastes
• 2 Mirrex
• 2 Shattered Sanctum
• 2 Shipwreck Marsh
• 2 Underground River
• 4 Darkslick Shores
• 4 Deserted Beach
• 4 Raffine's Tower

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Sunset Revelry
• 1 Siphon Insight
• 1 Disdainful Stroke
• 2 Temporary Lockdown
• 1 Negate
• 1 Cut Down
• 2 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 2 Razorlash Transmogrant
• 1 Duress
• 2 Chrome Host Seedshark

Buy This Deck Export text format Export Arena format

While on one hand just another Dimir variant... "This time with White," the build by Ignotus97 is a massive departure from all the other decks in this Top 8. While we have seen some Mirrex, it is this one that is most apt to actually kill the opponent with one.

The majority of damage in this deck is going to be accomplished via The Wandering Emperor.

Where previously Gix's Command might have swept away a few tokens, Farewell and Sunfall clear out all creatures and they mean it. It doesn't matter how many of them there are - Sunfall likes a challenge - or how big they think they are. Tenacious Underdog and its kin can't even hide from Farewell in the graveyard.

If the Ignotus97 deck has a fault it's that it seems a little under-prepared for beatdown. Clearly a deck with Dissipate is going to under-perform against the little Red folk relative to a deck with nothing but Graveyard Trespasser, Phyrexian Fleshgorger, and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse... But this deck makes little attempt to correct that with the sideboard. You'd expect, I think, to see more cards like Knockout Blow; but instead we see mostly cards that are good in a variety of situations, slowing the game down, or grinding against another controlling deck.

On balance, I think it's nice that this incarnation of Esper Control simply exists. In the previous world there wouldn't have been much room for a deck like this. Either you'd be forced to be more focused, play to the battlefield more with Fable of the Mirror-Breaker... Or you'd have to go truly more "big" like a Ramp deck.

Who wins when they cut out the best mid-range cards? Maybe the color combination that is happy for the tiniest chip shot advantage out of Siphon Insight, who is happy for a three-mana one-for-one like Void Rend.

Given the loss of Invoke Despair, I think it's fair to say Black's demise in Standard was not much of a demise at all. Just ask Mono-Black, Black-Blue, and Esper.

LOVE

MIKE