Now that Thanksgiving is over and Black Friday is behind us, I can finally get back to my local game store for some Friday Night Magic. Sure, I could just dust off the deck I played with a couple of weeks ago, but if you know me you know that I enjoy trying out new things. And while I'm particularly fond of aggro decks, I will occasionally pick up a midrange or control deck just to shake things up. That's why I enjoy writing this column so much. It allows me to look for signs of innovation in Standard and share those decks with you all. This week I've found a few new decks for you so let's get started.

Rakdos Burn

Like I mentioned, aggro decks hold a special place in my heart, and when I found this Rakdos Burn deck, I knew I'd have to sleeve it up and see how it plays. Let's take a look at the deck:

Rakdos Burn - Guilds Standard | RAIBUGO, (5-0) MTGO

• Creatures (19)
• 3 Electrostatic Field
• 4 Fanatical Firebrand
• 4 Ghitu Lavarunner
• 4 Goblin Chainwhirler
• 4 Viashino Pyromancer

• Instants (15)
• 3 Risk Factor
• 4 Lightning Strike
• 4 Shock
• 4 Wizard's Lightning

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Sword-Point Diplomacy

• Lands (22)
• 13 Mountain
• 3 Swamp
• 2 Cinder Barrens
• 4 Dragonskull Summit

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Banefire
• 3 Cast Down
• 3 Experimental Frenzy
• 3 Lava Coil
• 3 Price of Fame
• 1 Swamp

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This deck also features three copies of Risk Factor. Thanks to jump-start, it's kind of like having access to six copies of the spell. If you cast Risk Factor early on, your opponent is much more likely to take the four points of damage than they are later on. However, with this deck it doesn't matter whether they decide to take the damage or not, because you have other spells that will allow you to draw cards and deal damage.

Sword-Point Diplomacy is a great card to play alongside Risk Factor. Your opponent won't want to give you any good cards with Sword-Point Diplomacy, so they will generally pay 3-6 points of life to make sure you don't get anything good. Follow that up with Risk Factor and they'll be regretting paying all that life. To make matters worse for them, all of the burn spells in the deck (Lightning Strike, Shock, and Wizard's Lightning) all deal damage to any target. Keep that in mind when declaring your attackers, because you'll generally be able to get a victory by dealing direct damage from a spell to your opponent as opposed to winning via combat damage.

Dimir Quasiduplicate

The next deck I have for you is a midrange deck that's trying to break the power of Quasiduplicate. Let's take a look at the deck:

Dimir Quasiduplicate - Guilds Standard | TROYGG36, (5-0) MTGO

• Creatures (26)
• 1 Midnight Reaper
• 2 Dusk Legion Zealot
• 3 Doom Whisperer
• 3 Hostage Taker
• 3 Ravenous Chupacabra
• 3 Stitcher's Supplier
• 3 Thief of Sanity
• 4 Dream Eater
• 4 Seekers' Squire

• Instants (2)
• 2 Necrotic Wound

• Sorceries (8)
• 1 Gruesome Menagerie
• 1 Ritual of Soot
• 2 Thought Erasure
• 4 Quasiduplicate

• Lands (24)
• 6 Island
• 7 Swamp
• 3 Memorial to Folly
• 4 Drowned Catacomb
• 4 Watery Grave

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Disdainful Stroke
• 2 Duress
• 2 Moment of Craving
• 3 Negate
• 3 Ritual of Soot
• 2 Vampire Sovereign
• 2 Vraska's Contempt

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Thought Erasure is a great way to remove a counterspell or threat from an opponent's hand while also allowing you to surveil. Surveilling allows you to possibly put a creature into your graveyard which increases the potency of Necrotic Wound. You can then return that creature with either Memorial to Folly or possibly Gruesome Menagerie. That creature can then be Quasiduplicated for even further value. Since there are so many great targets to cast Quasiduplicate on in this deck, you might have a hard time choosing which one to make a copy of, so be conscience of this during your games to avoid wasting time.

Boros Control

The final deck I have for you this week is a Boros deck, which usually means aggression. But not this time. Let's take a look at Boros Control:

Boros Control - Guilds Standard | SCAPPIE, (5-0) MTGO

• Creatures (5)
• 2 Dire Fleet Daredevil
• 3 Siege-Gang Commander

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Karn, Scion of Urza

• Instants (4)
• 2 Settle the Wreckage
• 2 Shivan Fire

• Sorceries (12)
• 1 Cleansing Nova
• 1 Lava Coil
• 2 Banefire
• 2 Star of Extinction
• 3 Deafening Clarion
• 3 Pirate's Pillage

• Enchantments (5)
• 1 Seal Away
• 4 History of Benalia

• Artifacts (7)
• 1 The Immortal Sun
• 2 Azor's Gateway
• 4 Treasure Map

• Lands (25)
• 6 Mountain
• 7 Plains
• 2 Arch of Orazca
• 2 Boros Guildgate
• 4 Clifftop Retreat
• 4 Sacred Foundry

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Adanto Vanguard
• 1 Banefire
• 1 Deafening Clarion
• 2 Invoke the Divine
• 2 Ixalan's Binding
• 1 Lava Coil
• 2 Lyra Dawnbringer
• 1 Star of Extinction
• 1 Seal Away

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This deck has a ton of ways to get rid of your opponent's creatures. Settle the Wreckage exiles all attacking creatures, but is easy for your opponent to play around. When that happens, you have spells like Cleansing Nova, Star of Extinction, and Deafening Clarion that all can destroy multiple creatures. There are also ways to target individual threats if you need a scalpel instead of a sledgehammer. Shivan Fire, Lava Coil, and Banefire all fill this role.

If your local meta is filled with creature-based aggro or midrange decks, you might want to give this deck a try. While it might be more difficult for this deck to do well against a control deck with few creature-based threats, it still looks very capable of winning thanks to the mana acceleration provided by Sanctum of the Sun, Treasure Map, and Pirate's Pillage. You can use all of that mana to cast an uncounterable Banefire right at your opponent for the win.

Wrapping Up

It's very refreshing to still see new innovation happening in Standard so many weeks after the release of a new set. How long will it last? I'm not sure, but I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

Which of these decks is your favorite? Let me know by leaving a comment below or you can reply to me directly on Twitter, or email me directly at mikelikesmtg@gmail.com. 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