Hello everyone. Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty has finally been released and is beginning to see play online. Magic Online (MTGO) recently held a Standard Challenge, so this week I'll be looking at a few decks from that tournament to see what new cards are doing well. Let's get started.

Mono-Red Aggro

We'll begin by taking a look at the deck that came in second place, Mono-Red Aggro. Here's a look at the decklist.

Mono-Red Aggro | NEO Standard | EDEL, 2nd Place Standard Challenge 02/13/2022

• Creatures (23)
• 1 Goro-Goro, Disciple of Ryusei
• 2 Lizard Blades
• 4 Ogre-Head Helm
• 4 Rabbit Battery
• 4 Reckless Stormseeker // Storm-Charged Slasher
• 4 Thundering Raiju
• 4 Voldaren Epicure

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Chandra, Dressed to Kill

• Instants (4)
• 4 Play with Fire

• Sorceries (2)
• 2 Roil Eruption

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

• Lands (23)
• 18 Mountain
• 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 4 Den of the Bugbear

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Cemetery Gatekeeper
• 1 Abrade
• 1 Flame-Blessed Bolt
• 3 Burning Hands
• 2 Thundering Rebuke
• 4 Roiling Vortex

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When choosing what creatures you want to attach your creatures with reconfigure abilities, it's your choice, but it will often be better to attach them to multiple creatures instead of just one. Doing so will allow you to deal more damage to your opponent when you attack with Thundering Raiju. While this damage doesn't count Thundering Raiju if it is modified, you might want to consider attaching Oger-Head Helm to it. That will make it a 5/5 creature, which will be much more difficult for your opponent to block and destroy.

Both Kumano Faces Kakkazan // Etching of Kumano and Chandra, Dressed to Kill can help you out immensely. With Kumano Faces Kakkazan, once this saga has transformed into Etching of Kumano, you'll be able to exile creatures that are destroyed by your creatures and spells. There are a fair number of ways to return destroyed creatures from your graveyard to either your hand or the battlefield, so by exiling them, they're gone for good. Chandra acts as a great source for additional cards. Her second +1 loyalty ability gives you access to an additional card you can cast this turn. Once you're able to create her emblem, you'll be able to deal additional damage simply by casting spells. This will allow you to deal the damage directly to your opponent, or target their creatures and potentially exile them.

Azorius Control

Next, we'll take a look at the fourth place deck, Azorius Control. Let's see what new cards shake up this archetype.

Azorius Control | NEO Standard | KINGHAIRY, 4th Place Standard Challenge 02/13/2022

• Creatures (6)
• 2 Hullbreaker Horror
• 4 Spirited Companion

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 The Wandering Emperor

• Instants (22)
• 1 Fading Hope
• 1 Spell Pierce
• 2 Valorous Stance
• 3 Disdainful Stroke
• 3 Revitalize
• 4 Jwari Disruption
• 4 March of Otherworldly Light
• 4 Memory Deluge

• Sorceries (10)
• 1 Doomskar
• 1 Emeria's Call // Emeria, Shattered Skyclave
• 2 Witness the Future
• 3 Farewell
• 3 Sea Gate Restoration // Sea Gate, Reborn

• Lands (20)
• 2 Island
• 2 Plains
• 2 Cave of the Frost Dragon
• 2 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 2 Hall of Storm Giants
• 2 Otawara, Soaring City
• 4 Deserted Beach
• 4 Hengegate Pathway // Mistgate Pathway

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Hullbreaker Horror
• 2 Faithbound Judge
• 3 Negate
• 3 Test of Talents
• 1 Doomskar
• 3 Sunset Revelry
• 2 Portable Hole

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Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty provides a few cards that this archetype can utilize quite well. Farewell is a replacement for Doomskar, for the most part. Being able to exile all creatures is superior to simply destroying them. However, this deck still runs a single copy of Doomskar in the main deck due to the fact that Farewell costs six mana to cast, while Doomskar can be cast for as little as three mana. March of Otherworldly Light is another spell that will exile an opponent's artifact, creature, or enchantment. Being able to cast it with a reduction to its cost is a great bonus and makes things vulnerable any time you have an untapped White mana source.

Making this deck even more dangerous is The Wandering Emperor. Since she can be flashed into play, you'll want to make sure to cast this on your opponent's turn. Her +1 loyalty ability is great to use on a blocking creature, allowing you to destroy an opponent's attacking creature with ease. If all of their attackers are too large to defeat with first strike damage, you can opt to use The Wandering Emperor's -2 loyalty ability to exile a tapped creature and gain two points of life. Most of the time, you won't activate her -1 loyalty ability, but it's nice to have available for those times your opponent isn't able to mount any sort of offense.

Rakdos Midrange

The final deck I want to take a look at is the twelfth place deck, Rakdos Midrange. It includes a Ninja, a Dragon, and a Vehicle from our newest set. Let's take a look at the deck.

Rakdos Midrange | NEO Standard | BARAGALLA, 12th Place Standard Challenge 02/13/2022

• Creatures (8)
• 2 Biting-Palm Ninja
• 2 Junji, the Midnight Sky
• 4 Graveyard Trespasser

• Instants (8)
• 2 Hagra Mauling // Hagra Broodpit
• 2 Infernal Grasp
• 4 Abrade

• Sorceries (10)
• 2 Bloodchief's Thirst
• 2 Crippling Fear
• 2 Soul Transfer
• 4 Invoke Despair

• Enchantments (2)
• 2 The Meathook Massacre

• Artifacts (6)
• 2 The Celestus
• 4 Reckoner Bankbuster

• Land (26)
• 1 Mountain
• 8 Swamp
• 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 3 Hive of the Eye Tyrant
• 4 Blightstep Pathway // Searstep Pathway
• 4 Bloodfell Caves
• 4 Haunted Ridge

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Sorin the Mirthless
• 1 Hidetsugu, Devouring Chaos
• 2 Twinshot Sniper
• 2 Lash of Malice
• 2 Check for Traps
• 2 Go Blank
• 4 Duress

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Reckoner Bankbuster is a Vehicle that allows you to draw three cards over three future turns. Once this has happened, you'll be able to use its activated ability to create a Treasure token and a 1/1 Pilot creature token that can crew Reckoner Bankbuster. This deck also includes a pair of very useful sorcery spells from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. Invoke Despair forces your opponent to sacrifice a creature, an enchantment, and a planeswalker. For each they are unable to sacrifice, they lose two points of life and you draw a card. While its casting cost is very Black intensive, it's well worth it. Soul Transfer offers you the potential of both exiling an opponent's creature or planeswalker, and returning a creature from your graveyard to your hand.

This deck also includes a fair amount of creature removal spells. Infernal Grasp and Hagra Mauling // Hagra Broodpit are both instants that will straight up destroy an opponent's creature. Bloodchief's Thirst also will destroy an opponent's creature or planeswalker, but only if that card's mana value is two or less. Crippling Fear gives -3/-3 to all creatures that aren't of a creature type of your choosing, which seems a bit odd outside of a tribal deck. Finally, The Meathook Massacre offers you a way of destroying all creatures no matter how big they are, as long as you have enough mana to spend when playing this enchantment. This deck also includes a playset of Abrade, which can destroy any artifact creatures or vehicles. With all of this removal, you ought to be able to push through enough damage to defeat your opponent.

Wrapping Up

While the results of this early tournament show that some previously established decks are still strong, it's nice to see a fair amount of new cards in a lot of these decks. I'm looking forward to seeing future tournament results to see how things continue to get shaken up by the cards in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty.

What do you think of these decks? Do you have any suggestions for improvements? Let me know by leaving a comment below. Also, feel free to share this article with your friends anywhere on social media. And be sure to join me here again next week as I continue my search for innovative decks in Standard. I'll see you then!

-Mike Likes