A few weeks ago, we joked about mulligan-ing to The Stone Brain because -- even though The Stone Brain is more-or-less "card disadvantage" there are some cards (one card in particular) that so dominate a popular strategy that there might not be any other hope.

Well... There is some daylight at the end of this tunnel (and in fact, multiple ways to skin the itty bitty bunny on Caretaker's Talent). Most notably the title of this article [you can probably guess what's coming out of that, next].

But first, the Blue splash's kissin' cousin...

The BlueWhite Splash

Simic Beans | FDN Standard | badgods, 5-0 MTGO Standard League 12/7/2024

• Creatures (8)
• 4 Eddymurk Crab
• 4 Tolarian Terror

• Instants (15)
• 1 Into the Flood Maw
• 2 Unsummon
• 2 Rona's Vortex
• 3 Cache Grab
• 3 Seed of Hope
• 4 This Town Ain't Big Enough

• Sorceries (10)
• 2 Analyze the Pollen
• 4 Bushwhack
• 4 Sleight of Hand

• Enchantments (10)
• 2 Sheltered by Ghosts
• 4 Stormchaser's Talent
• 4 Up the Beanstalk

• Lands (17)
• 1 Forest
• 2 Island
• 1 Meticulous Archive
• 2 Gloomlake Verge
• 2 Hedge Maze
• 2 Hushwood Verge
• 3 Yavimaya Coast
• 4 Botanical Sanctum

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Anoint with Affliction
• 1 Go for the Throat
• 1 Keen-Eyed Curator
• 1 Minor Misstep
• 2 Negate
• 2 Nowhere to Run
• 1 Pick Your Poison
• 2 Shrouded Shepherd
• 1 Swamp
• 2 Tear Asunder
• 1 Tishana's Tidebinder

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Before you start taking anything I write about this deck too seriously, you should probably know that BADGODS has put up multiple finishes with this style of deck in just the last week. There's something here, even if it seems to defy our initial assumptions (and math).

I've said repeatedly that Sheltered by Ghosts is the best card from Duskmourn: House of Horror... But I mostly thought so because of how much leverage it can create in a particular style of deck. In [aggro] Auras, Sheltered by Ghosts can prevent the opponent from stabilizing with Atraxa, Grand Unifier; or dominate an opposing Red Deck by virtue of additional size, resistance to removal, and of course lifelink.

What I did not anticipate was the card being so good that it could buy a splash in an already-mana tight Simic list that only plays eight creature cards main deck.

I am scratching my head at this White splash, kind of wondering what problem it solves. BADGODS cut some Into the Flood Maw (the deck's incumbent catch-all answer) in order to help make room for Sheltered by Ghosts... Or perhaps it was a two one-of cuts of Seed of Hope and Cache Grab.

I kind of don't mind Seed of Hope especially; Seed of Hope being the weakest, least consistent, card in the deck... And also something you can't always cast because of its non-Blue color. Of course, Sheltered by Ghosts is even more difficult to cast consistently on color, and even less consistent if only because you don't always have a creature in play. That said, Seed of Hope and Cache Grab are two cards that actually help find lands if you've accomplished your first ... Making this splash even more difficult.

There are actually two splashes here.

Careful readers may have noticed the addition of Gloomlake Verge in addition to Hushwood Verge. Not only that, but the sideboard includes a basic Swamp, which can be searched up with Bushwhack. The Black and White additions to the deck actually do a bunch of super interesting things. I'm not 100% on Sheltered by Ghosts despite it being one of my favorite Standard cards, but some of the other BADGODS adds are absolutely wild.

You're probably assuming you want to give the opponent's creatures -1/-1. That's the boring way. What actually comes up in basically every mirror-ish game of-slash-against Simic Beans is the fact that everyone has eight 5/5 monsters. Especially in Game 1 you're kind of ramming your 5/5s up against their 5/5s; and it kind of comes down to Otters. That, or one of you has an overwhelming amount of Up the Beanstalk advantage.

Even having more Beans doesn't necessarily do it because of the finite number of 5/5 creatures. You can tap two opposing creatures down. You can try to save a creature with This Town Ain't Big Enough. But without something a la "damage on the stack" bounce and tricks only go so far. Eventually you really are just ramming 5/5s into one another and then somebody runs out.

Believe it or not Shrouded Shepherd can make one of your 5/5s 7/7... Meaning it can win a combat (unlikely because the opponent will see it coming); or more likely (if not super likely) your 7/7 can beat up their 5/5 with a Bushwhack. Everyone is tapping out to gain advantages on the battlefield, so this is less preposterous than it might initially seem, despite all the Unsummons, This Towns, and now Rona's Vortexes between the two decks.

This deck has one Swamp in the sideboard and two Gloomlake Verges in the main deck; luckily Gloomlake Verge taps for naturally, and the deck has no real black cards starting (just the bonus on Rona's Vortex).

It has two Hushwood Verge and a single Meticulous Archive in the main deck to support Sheltered by Ghosts. This kinda sorta turns Simic Beans into a combo deck; and a puzzling one considering that lifelink is an ability I think I'd want to have quickly and on demand. On the fundamentals Hushwood Verge actually makes the non-White / non-Black mana worse than usual. The original build had only a single Forest for non-Blue-producing lands, and that can be found via Analyze the Pollen and Bushwhack.

All that said, BADGODS did in fact have multiple top finishes recently, and Sheltered by Ghosts really is a card that maybe you should bend over backwards to play. In any case, I thought you should know.

Now, on to...

The Blue Splash

Let's cut straight to it:

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

• Creatures (8)
• 1 Loran of the Third Path
• 3 Enduring Innocence
• 4 Beza, the Bounding Spring

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Archangel Elspeth

• Instants (8)
• 4 Get Lost
• 4 Parting Gust

• Sorceries (9)
• 1 Season of the Burrow
• 4 Lay Down Arms
• 4 Sunfall

• Enchantments (8)
• 4 Caretaker's Talent
• 4 Carrot Cake

• Lands (25)
• 15 Plains
• 2 Sunken Citadel
• 4 Fountainport
• 4 Meticulous Archive

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Authority of the Consuls
• 1 Boon-Bringer Valkyrie
• 1 Exorcise
• 2 Jace, the Perfected Mind
• 1 Loran of the Third Path
• 2 Negate
• 3 Rest in Peace
• 1 Serra Paragon
• 2 Temporary Lockdown

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The entirety of "the Blue splash" is two copies of Negate and two copies of Jace, the Perfected Mind... Supported by four Meticulous Archives and a couple of Sunken Citadels. Oh, and I suppose the odd Treasure from Fountainport (which would be a stylish and surprising way to do it).

Setting a Sunken Citadel to "Blue" kind of tips your hand, but in the mirror - the most important time this is ever going to come up - there is precious little the opponent can do about an eventual Jace.

That's kind of the point.

The extremely light Blue mana support for "the Blue splash" is not that big a deal. Again, you're shooting primarily for the mirror; and the mirror takes a million and a half turns to win. You'll draw into your Blue. They probably won't be able to do anything about it.

STEFANOCANCLINI however thought a little ahead and can Negate an opposing shall-we-call-it "must counter" spell.

There isn't a whole lot of craziness to this deck. Parting Gust being maybe the weirdest personal take (largely in place of the more flexible but less permanent Soul Partition). You have fewer ways to interact at instant speed, but Season of the Burrow can do things like remove an opposing Caretaker's Talent permanently.

Variations on a Common Theme

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

• Creatures (12)
• 2 Novice Inspector
• 2 Overlord of the Mistmoors
• 4 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 4 Enduring Innocence

• Instants (6)
• 2 Soul Partition
• 4 Get Lost

• Sorceries (8)
• 4 Lay Down Arms
• 4 Sunfall

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Caretaker's Talent

• Artifacts (5)
• 1 Clay-Fired Bricks // Cosmium Kiln
• 4 Carrot Cake

• Lands (25)
• 16 Plains
• 2 Demolition Field
• 3 Sunken Citadel
• 4 Fountainport

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Authority of the Consuls
• 2 Elspeth's Smite
• 3 Exorcise
• 3 Rest in Peace
• 4 The Stone Brain

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This version is closer to what is near and dear to my heart in Standard. Clay-Fired Bricks is a cool one-of. It is a source of life gain and can also give you something to do with a stray artifact later in the game. Might I suggest an Incubator with no counters on it? Sometimes you have to make one of those to get Caretaker's Talent going, but it has nothing else going for it beyond being one mana.

OSCARPAPA is a Planeswalker who knows the meaning of danger. Though this list has no Jace-splash, there are four copies of The Stone Brain to potentially go after the opponent's Jace. Decking the opponent is eminently possible if you're playing four copies of The Stone Brain in part because you'll often have an overabundance of card advantage to make up for it later in the game; but more importantly because there are so few breakers. Nab their Jace! Amazing! You can take away all their Talents or Innocences and put yourself in a position where you will eventually out-draw them to death.

Just a cool twist that I haven't seen in a lot of decks:

Clues are tokens. Tokens that trigger Caretaker's Talent. Novice Inspector is a good card on its lonesome; but making a token instead of just drawing an extra card like some other options might do actually does something additionally cool here.

White Weenies | FDN Standard | ModiSapiras, 5-0 MTGO Standard League

• Creatures (28)
• 4 Enduring Innocence
• 4 Novice Inspector
• 4 Overlord of the Mistmoors
• 4 Regal Bunnicorn
• 4 Skyknight Squire
• 4 Steel Seraph
• 4 Warden of the Inner Sky

• Enchantments (8)
• 4 Shardmage's Rescue
• 4 Sheltered by Ghosts

• Lands (24)
• 19 Plains
• 2 Soulstone Sanctuary
• 3 Fountainport

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Authority of the Consuls
• 4 Destroy Evil
• 1 Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines
• 3 Elspeth's Smite
• 2 Rest in Peace
• 2 Split Up

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This is a deck I just never would have thought of.

It's White Weenie.

But also has heavy Caretaker's Talent DNA... Despite having no Caretaker's Talent?

Instead relying on Enduring Innocence only for card draw; but also going super hard on four copies of Overlord of the Mistmoors.

I'm just a sucker for any deck with Sheltered by Ghosts, I guess. So, this one brings it full circle: White splash for Sheltered by Ghosts in Simic; variations in Mono-White for beating Mono-White; Sheltered by Ghosts in Mono-White... Along with twenty-eight creatures to put it on. Enduring Fountainport sometimes; Mother of Machines sometimes; just the beatdown most of the time. (Authority of the Consuls to race.)

Standard is cool and varied and often just weird (but clearly in a good way). Let's keep it so.

LOVE

MIKE