This article was originally going to be a new Foundations-Standard roundup; but the format is so lousy with cool, often surprisingly nuanced, and just plain different strategies that I ended up feeling like I was going to shortchange... Everyone.

Like, did you know that Zur, Eternal Schemer provides your enchantment creatures hexproof along with all those other abilities? I mean what kind of unstoppable slashing is that? Did you also realize that it is Zur that gives the abilities, so if you take out the 1/4 Wizard, those Overlords suddenly become mortal again? (I mean, as mortal as a 6/6 Nekrataal for can be... But when you crack these cards, it sure feels good.)

Zur Overlords | FDN Standard | Bazaar_Decks, 5-0 MTGO Standard League

• Creatures (14)
• 3 Zur, Eternal Schemer
• 4 Overlord of the Floodpits
• 4 Overlord of the Hauntwoods
• 3 Overlord of the Mistmoors

• Instants (4)
• 4 Get Lost

• Sorceries (6)
• 3 Herd Migration
• 3 Sunfall

• Enchantments (8)
• 4 Leyline Binding
• 4 Up the Beanstalk

• Artifacts (2)
• 2 Glass Casket

• Lands (26)
• 2 Forest
• 1 Island
• 2 Plains
• 1 Swamp
• 1 Undercity Sewers
• 1 Yavimaya Coast
• 2 Brushland
• 2 Hedge Maze
• 3 Cavern of Souls
• 3 Floodfarm Verge
• 4 Hushwood Verge
• 4 Lush Portico

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Boon-Bringer Valkyrie
• 1 Crystal Barricade
• 3 Elspeth's Smite
• 1 Lyra Dawnbringer
• 2 Negate
• 2 Outrageous Robbery
• 2 Pawpatch Formation
• 2 Rest in Peace

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Or how good a solution Sunspine Lynx in the Mono-Red deck can actually be?

Mono-Red | FDN Standard | Nammersquats, 1st Place MTGO Standard Challenge 11/24/2024

• Creatures (24)
• 4 Emberheart Challenger
• 4 Heartfire Hero
• 4 Hired Claw
• 4 Manifold Mouse
• 4 Monastery Swiftspear
• 4 Screaming Nemesis

• Instants (15)
• 3 Witchstalker Frenzy
• 4 Burst Lightning
• 4 Lightning Strike
• 4 Monstrous Rage

• Lands (21)
• 17 Mountain
• 4 Rockface Village

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Lithomantic Barrage
• 3 Sunspine Lynx
• 4 Torch the Tower
• 3 Twisted Fealty
• 3 Urabrask's Forge

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My initial thought was that it was too clunky for a strategy with only 20-21 lands, but the first time I came back against an Overlord of the Hauntwoods with nine Everywhere tokens in play I became a believer.

The decks in Standard right now are varied. A lot of them are not just good, but downright playable. But of them all? This strategy is my favorite:

Mono-White | FDN Standard | Dooter611, 5-0 MTGO Standard League

• Creatures (9)
• 1 Overlord of the Mistmoors
• 4 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 4 Enduring Innocence

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Archangel Elspeth

• Instants (10)
• 2 Soul Partition
• 4 Get Lost
• 4 Sunfall

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Lay Down Arms

• Enchantments (6)
• 2 Virtue of Loyalty
• 4 Caretaker's Talent

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Carrot Cake

• Lands (25)
• 18 Plains
• 3 Sunken Citadel
• 4 Fountainport

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Authority of the Consuls
• 2 Boon-Bringer Valkyrie
• 4 Elspeth's Smite
• 2 Exorcise
• 3 Rest in Peace
• 1 Split Up

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This deck might look largely unchanged from pre-Foundations but I assure you (especially in the "Opportunites" section) that it is the recipient of one of the strongest upgrades in current Standard.

Strengths

The biggest incentive to playing Mono-White is simply that it is more-or-less the only deck in the format that gets to play Lay Down Arms. Lay Down Arms isn't quite Swords to Plowshares, but given the tenor of Standard, it does a pretty good impression.

On turn one you get to whack a Heartfire Hero without tripping its death trigger, and late in the game - after you've accumulated some number of Plains (probably basic Plains, depending on build) - you can even snipe Atraxa, Grand Unifier or Overlord of the Mistmoors.

The opponent gets three life... But who cares?

Like I've said a couple of times already, there are a lot of cool (and even "good") decks in Standard. Why do I like to play this strategy the best? Because it has the least math.

It probably won't surprise you to learn I've played a lot of post-Tonole Mono-Red; and that as a result, Hired Claw has become my favorite creature in Standard. But that deck wins on very narrow margins. I mean except in the games that it doesn't (Witchstalker Frenzy overkill on your Screaming Nemesis is just high class problems)... But not only are you challenged to measure and count much more precisely than with Mono-White, you're much more apt to lose to a single card, especially main deck.

Mono-White does not care. Are they at 20 or 23? Did they just gain some life from their own Beza? Maybe I should have been paying more attention but it probably doesn't matter. The end game for this deck often involves attacking for more than the opponent's starting life total via multiple Caretaker's Talents, having drawn so many cards you're discarding twice a turn.

If there is some challenging math to Mono-White it's just making sure that you don't accidentally deck yourself in the mirror.

The newer style that has upgraded to four copies of Enduring Innocence has several things going for it.

First of all, I kind of was never on board with Sanguine Evangelist and was always kind of annoyed I had to wildcard that. Random 2/1 for three is a Rare? Gross. This 2/1 for three is much more synergistic with the Mono-White strategy and even provides a lifelinking speed bump for aggro early chump blocks.

Secondly you get a new play pattern. Most of the time you just want to get your Enduring Innocence killed so that you don't accidentally Sunfall it away yourself. That's actually a big thing and if there is anything you take away from this article write that one down. Get it killed (hopefully gaining a little life) so you don't get it exiled.

Lastly it just makes your deck work better in the abstract. You kinda sorta have eight Caretaker's Talents instead of four. This is a deck that can bury the opponent in overwhelming card advantage in games that it wins, but can struggle to achieve exit velocity when they have the right interaction.

The third and fourth Enduring Innocence (and a baseline of Lay Down Arms) aren't new. With Red Aggro shifting from more turn two and three kills to Screaming Nemesis and potentially Lightning Helix and Boros Charm, the math thing is, as are the environmental incentives. The other 1-drop in this deck is particularly great given some of the changes in the metagame.

Weaknesses

The most powerful thing this deck can do is basically Sunfall.

Okay, Sunfall + "draw a card" because the Incubator token just triggered Caretaker's Talent. That feels good in games where those cards are fast enough and relevant... But that's not all the games. Subtly, your most powerful play (and most of your good plays) happen at sorcery speed.

The breadth of decks in Standard almost necessarily means that having Sunfall as your most powerful card - again at sorcery speed - just might not be powerful enough.

The power level ceiling on Mono-White is its biggest weakness. Why? Because Mono-White can basically only win long games... It doesn't have a Monastery Swiftspear draw or an Unstoppable Slasher combo. It needs to set up, build advantages, and then take advantage of those advantages. While it's not accurate to say that it only wins games where it has Inevitability... It's probably accurate to say it rarely if ever wins games where the nother deck has Inevitability.

If your opponent is specifically playing cards that you can interact with - i.e. a bunch of usually quality creatures that contextually die to a Lay Down Arms - you look not only good but mana efficient. There are instant speed one-for-one cards (and you can either try more cards like Elspeth's Smite as DOOTER611 had in their sideboard, or other flexible but flawed options like Parting Gust)... But they all have problems. I love Soul Partition when Soul Partition is good, but when you're using it on the opponent's cards, they necessarily get them back. Get Lost is the king of flexibility, but it really stinks when the opponent draws two.

Mono-White is slow offensively. It's fast defensively thanks to showcase answer Lay Down Arms... But most of the games that it wins take kind of a long time, so give the opponent time to dig out of a weak opener; and any deck with an end game more powerful than a Sunfall is going to find that ace.

There are some solutions to to the Sunfall ceiling, but not really in the standard Standard build.

Opportunities

I obviously like Lay Down Arms enough to get on board with Mono-White. But what gets me over the hump of the Sunfall ceiling are this deck's Opportunities.

There are two big ones and one kind of incidental one.

One: The first is Authority of the Consuls.

This is the definition of a transformational addition from a new set.

This card is just insane... But maybe not for the reasons you think.

The big whopper here is that Authority of the Consuls absolutely annihilates Urabrask's Forge. Previously this deck had serious problems with the card Urabrask's Forge, whether main-deck Forge in Boros Tokens or out of the sideboard of Red aggro.

One Authority of the Consuls literally trumps every Urabrask's Forge in the opponent's seventy-five. It is so good that you might want to hold it until after the opponent plays Urabrask's Forge. Why? Because then you basically gain a never ending source of life gain. They will make a token ever turn, which will trigger Authority of the Consuls, and because the token enters the battlefield tapped, it never actually threatens you. If you play turn one Authority of the Consuls they're just not going to play the Forge. Sure, they mulliganed; but if you let them lead off and punch you with the first 1/1, you're going to be happy laughing at the 15/1 or whatever.

Authority of the Consuls is also very good against Red aggro and other aggro decks. Every red aggro deck - multiple Boros decks, Mono-Red, exploding car variants - play both Monastery Swiftspear and Emberheart Challenger. Just taking away their haste shaves off a lot of the reason people play these cards (and these decks). The life gain buys you a lot of time at the same time. I've also found this card to be backbreaking against Screaming Nemesis just because Nemesis decks are so often tight for mana, especially when they're committing the first three. Can you get caught by a Shock or a Burst Lightning when the opponent has four mana? Sure; but sandbagging one of your Get Losts or other instant speed removal cards feels like drawing six.

One-point-five:

I've written multiple times that Sheltered by Ghosts is the best card from Duskmourn: House of Horror.

It's hybridizing decks. Boros decks that are not "Boros Auras" decks are bridging other strategies with it. Azorius Soldiers and Jeskai Convoke are adopting it in attempts to stay relevant in the evolving metagame.

Remember how Mono-White is the deck with the least math? Quite simply the best card (Sheltered by Ghosts) is mostly just not good against this deck. And even when it is good, you don't care that the opponent is gaining three or whatever. Then later your Lay Down Arms with three mana in play still kills their best thing (and the aura it's wearing). The essence of "Opportunity".

Two:

The mana in this deck is fairly customizable.

DOOTER611 played three Sunken Citadels and 18 Plains but as long as you have enough Plains you can do a lot of things with the land base here.

Some people play Elegant Parlor so they can sideboard Imodane's Recruiter, but I've always thought that was kind of medium. I'd rather play Meticulous Archive (which is still a Plains), which alongside Sunken Citadel (on Blue!) can help you sideboard Jace, The Perfected Mind for the mirror. More on that in a sec.

Threats

The biggest threat - the biggest knock on this deck in general - is how vulnerable it is so specifically Jace, the Perfected Mind.

You're behind against every Jace deck.

Want to win the mirror? Light Blue splash for sideboarded Jaces. Your opponent will Will WILL give you the time to draw into your Blue. Then you'll kill them with it. All that card drawing from their Caretaker's Talents and lifelinking Sheep will make it easier to win.

But if the opponent is on Jace? You are way behind almost every time.

I've beaten Jace with Get Lost, but mostly when the opponent was too greedy and trying to one-shot me. They probably should have just brained me for fifteen and trusted I wouldn't be able to beat them on the fundamentals without decking myself.

The worst is because it's not always clear they have Jace main deck. You play for all the value, and imagine you're getting ahead... And then they just Jace you out of nowhere.

But by definition that means you're also WAY behind any of hte egregious Jace decks.

Those decks are all going to kill you very, very dead. You're not a Counterspell deck, so you're basically doomed, right?

What's the title of this article?

I think that one direction to go is to play a bunch of The Stone Brains. Like four, depending on how the metagame goes. It's probably pretty good when you steal the opponent's Caretaker's Talent; and maybe it's good in combination with splashed Jaces of your own.

This isn't a sideboard strategy I've done a lot of work on myself, yet; but I promise you, you're deck is slow and your deck is horrible against every kind of Jace deck. If you're going to win one of the Standard RCQs - like the ones starting up this weekend in NYC - you'd best have a plan for the commonly played Planeswalker.

That, or you just dodge them all the way through the Top 8. You're aces against aggro, after all.

[crossed fingers emoji]

LOVE

MIKE