Hello everyone. Once again, I have returned from my journey through the series of tubes that is the Internet, on my search for interesting Standard decks for you to play. This week I have a few more decks that come from users on Magic Arena that have triumphed in six or more matches in a row during Ranked play by players that are at Platinum or Mythic ranking. Let's get started

Jeskai... Um, Stuff

We start this week with a deck most interesting. It's a Jeskai deck that... does quite a lot of things. Here's a look at the decklist.

Jeskai... Um, Stuff | ZNR Standard | Unknown Platinum/Mythic Ranked Player

• Creatures (14)
• 1 Bonecrusher Giant
• 1 Giant Killer
• 1 Luminous Broodmoth
• 1 Relic Robber
• 1 Stormwing Entity
• 1 Tectonic Giant
• 1 Terror of the Peaks
• 1 Thryx, the Sudden Storm
• 2 Dreamstalker Manticore
• 2 Ruin Crab
• 2 Umara Mystic

• Instants (14)
• 1 Banish into Fable
• 1 Spoils of Adventure
• 1 Sublime Epiphany
• 2 Cinderclasm
• 2 Deliberate
• 2 Opt
• 2 Scorching Dragonfire
• 3 Shock

• Enchantments (10)
• 1 Anticognition
• 1 Double Vision
• 1 Elspeth Conquers Death
• 1 Felidar Retreat
• 1 Improbable Alliance
• 1 Ominous Seas
• 1 Shark Typhoon
• 1 Whirlwind of Thought
• 2 Griffin Aerie

• Lands (22)
• 4 Mountain
• 5 Plains
• 7 Island
• 1 Needleverge Pathway
• 1 Raugrin Triome
• 1 Riverglide Pathway
• 1 Temple of Enlightenment
• 1 Temple of Epiphany
• 1 Temple of Triumph

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I'll be the first to admit, I don't completely know how to play this deck. This deck has so many moving parts, it's not even funny. It has a landfall theme, a card drawing theme, a flying theme, a noncreature spell theme, and more. We'll start with the landfall theme. Both Ruin Crab and Felidar Retreat have landfall abilities; however, they are the only cards in the deck that do. Ruin Crab mills your opponent for three cards when you achieve landfall, and since there's only a couple of copies of Ruin Crab in the deck, it's very doubtful that you'll come close to milling for the win. At lease Felidar Retreat can create 2/2 Cat Beast creature tokens or put +1/+1 counters on your creatures when landfall happens for you, but with only one copy of it in your deck, you might never see it during the course of the game.

Moving on, let's take a look at the card drawing theme. The payoffs are Ominous Seas and Improbable Alliance. Both of these create creature tokens when you draw additional cards. Deliberate, Opt, Spoils of Adventure, and Sublime Epiphany all allow you to draw extra cards, so you might be able to create a fair amount of tokens that you can use as attackers. However, this theme once again is not very focused, so building up a sizeable force might be challenging. The Faerie tokens created by Improbable Alliance do fit into the flying theme, however since the majority of nontoken flying creatures in this deck are one-of's, the flying theme seems to be a minor theme at best.

Perhaps this deck is a case where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Maybe this deck works so well not because it has a singular focus, but because it has many things that it slightly focuses on. Imagine playing against this deck. How difficult would it be to know which spells to counter? Which creatures are okay to leave on the battlefield, and which should you destroy posthaste? Are there certain enchantments you can leave in place, or should you eliminate them all? I plan to build this deck on Magic Arena to see if the six consecutive wins it got were justified or a fluke.

Azorius Control

Moving on to our next deck, we have a more traditional choice. Let's take a look at Azorius Control.

Azorius Control | ZNR Standard | Unknown Platinum/Mythic Ranked Player

• Creatures (13)
• 2 Archon of Sun's Grace
• 2 Brazen Borrower
• 2 Dream Trawler
• 3 Archon of Emeria
• 4 Skyclave Apparition

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Teferi, Master of Time
• 1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

• Instants (6)
• 2 Negate
• 2 Neutralize
• 2 Unsubstantiate

• Sorceries (4)
• 1 Emeria's Call
• 1 Sea Gate Restoration
• 2 Shatter the Sky

• Enchantments (10)
• 1 Ashiok's Erasure
• 1 Omen of the Sun
• 2 Shark Typhoon
• 3 Elspeth Conquers Death
• 3 Faith's Fetters

• Artifacts (3)
• 1 Heraldic Banner
• 2 Mazemind Tome

• Lands (22)
• 7 Plains
• 8 Island
• 1 Castle Vantress
• 1 Crawling Barrens
• 2 Temple of Enlightenment
• 3 Castle Ardenvale

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Jace, Mirror Mage
• 2 Seasoned Hallowblade
• 1 Heliod's Intervention
• 2 Sublime Epiphany
• 2 Shatter the Sky
• 2 Banishing Light
• 2 Omen of the Sun
• 3 Glass Casket

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Since this is a control deck, you'll want to utilize your counterspells, such as Negate, Neutralize, and Ashiok's Erasure, to keep your opponent's side of the battlefield free of threats. These aren't the only tools you have available to help with this, however. Elspeth Conquers Death, Skyclave Apparition, and Faith's Fetters can also help keep you safe from problematic permanents. You can also use Unsubstantiate and the adventure portion of Brazen Borrower to return threats to your opponent's hand, and counter them when they replay them, if possible. You'll also be able to slow things down if you have Archon of Emeria in play. Archon of Emeria allows each player to cast a single spell each turn, and nonbasic lands your opponent controls enter the battlefield tapped. Both of these abilities will certainly help slow down an opponent's progress.

If things start to get out of hand, you'll be able to reset the battlefield by casting Shatter the Sky. Doing this will destroy all creatures in play, including your own, so there might be times that you won't want to cast this spell. For those times, you'll want to rely on some help from your fellow planeswalkers. The -3 loyalty of Teferi, Master of Time can be used to phase out an opponent's creature. Since the loyalty abilities of Teferi, Master of Time can be used any time you could cast an instant spell, you'll be able to phase out an opponent's threat right before it is able to attack you. If you happen to have Ugin, the Spirit Dragon in play, you can also use his +2 loyalty ability to deal three damage to any target, which may be enough to destroy a problematic creature your opponent controls.

Ugin also acts as a great finisher for this deck, but there may be times you need something else. Luckily, this deck has a few other ways it can pull off a victory. Archon of Sun's Grace creates a 2/2 Pegasus creature token whenever you resolve an enchantment. Pegasus creatures you control will also have lifelink. With this, you might be able to attack an opponent over multiple turns, increasing the disparity between your life totals. You also have Dream Trawler at your command, which is an evasive threat that can be difficult for your opponent to remove from the battlefield. Dream Trawler also has lifelink, which helps you stay in the game longer while also ticking away at your opponent's life total.

Esper Dance with Doom

The final deck I have for you this week features 20 artifacts, most of which are not creatures when they're initially cast. Let's check it out.

Esper Dance with Doom | ZNR Standard | Unknown Platinum/Mythic Ranked Player

• Creatures (4)
• 4 Solemn Simulacrum

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

• Instants (2)
• 2 Heartless Act

• Sorceries (6)
• 2 Dance of the Manse
• 4 Extinction Event

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Doom Foretold

• Artifacts (16)
• 4 Forsaken Monument
• 4 Golden Egg
• 4 Mazemind Tome
• 4 Sleeper Dart

• Lands (24)
• 1 Island
• 1 Swamp
• 2 Plains
• 2 Labyrinth of Skophos
• 3 Brightclimb Pathway
• 3 Clearwater Pathway
• 4 Crawling Barrens
• 4 Radiant Fountain
• 4 Unknown Shores

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Shimmer Dragon
• 1 Disenchant
• 3 Eliminate
• 4 Negate
• 2 Soul-Guide Lantern
• 3 Midnight Clock

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For this deck to perform well, you'll want to begin casting artifact spells right away. Golden Egg, Sleeper Dart, and Mazemind Tome will all allow you to draw additional cards. These cards can help you find a copy of Extinction Event or Doom Foretold. Extinction Event is a great way to start removing threats from your opponent's side of the battlefield. Once you've cast Extinction Event, the fun is about to begin. By then casting Doom Foretold, you'll be able to begin dismantling the remaining pieces of opposition your opponent has in place. Your opponent will likely be forced to sacrifice a creature each turn, while you can sacrifice one of the numerous artifacts you have on the battlefield. Doom Foretold can make it very difficult for your opponent to be able to mount any sort of offense, as they'll need to cast multiple creatures each turn in order to gain any footing.

Once the battlefield has been cleared some, you can cast Dance of the Manse. This will allow you to return a number of artifacts and enchantments to the battlefield. If you're lucky and you have enough lands in play, casting Dance of the Manse so that X equals six will allow you to make those returned artifacts and enchantments into 4/4 creatures. Even if you can't do this with your first copy of Dance of the Manse, if you're able to cast it a second time, you should have more than enough lands to get this bonus, especially if you've previously played any copies of Solemn Simulacrum.

Not only does casting Solemn Simulacrum allow you to be able to find additional lands for Dance of the Manse, but also those lands can help you cast another great finisher, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. The turn Ugin comes down, you'll be able to use his -X loyalty ability. This will exile each permanent with a converted mana cost (CMC) of X or less that isn't colorless. By making sure that X is equal to the highest CMC of your opponent's creatures, you'll wipe their board clean. Then, on future turns, you can use Ugin's +2 loyalty ability to deal three damage to any target. Use that damage to destroy any threats your opponent might play, or target your opponent directly and lower their life total. In just a few turns, the victory should be yours.

Wrapping Up

Even though the next release is still a ways off, I think it's safe to say that this week's decks show that Standard still has a lot of life left in it. Let me know in the comments what you think of these decks, and any insights you have on the Jeskai deck I showed you at the beginning of this article.

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