As this is my first formal article for CoolStuffInc, allow me to introduce myself! My name is Roman Fusco, I'm a Magic player from Los Angeles, California and former (current?) apprentice of Michael J. Flores. I've been playing Magic competitively for almost a decade now and if there's a Constructed format I've enjoyed the most, it's Standard.

I always took a liking to how much Standard fluctuates on a week to week basis. The deck you register for your first weekend of a format might be completely different than the deck you register for your last. It's a format that's always changing and requires its players to be highly adaptive.

I'll be honest, it took me a while to find my "identity" as a Standard player. In my first years as a Standard player I registered a lot of Abzan Aggro and various other janky Midrange decks. I usually found myself getting outplayed by better Midrange players, losing to the luck of the draw against Aggro, and promptly getting my ass kicked by control players. It wasn't until the Summer of 2017 that I found a deck that I truly found a connection with.

Enter: Azorius Approach

Azorius Approach | Standard | Roman Fusco, SCG Standard Classic Syracuse

• Instants (21)
• 2 Unsummon
• 3 Hieroglyphic Illumination
• 4 Blessed Alliance
• 4 Censor
• 4 Glimmer of Genius
• 4 Supreme Will

• Sorceries (7)
• 3 Approach of the Second Sun
• 4 Fumigate

• Enchantments (7)
• 3 Cast Out
• 4 Aether Meltdown

• Lands (25)
• 9 Island
• 6 Plains
• 2 Blighted Cataract
• 4 Irrigated Farmland
• 4 Prairie Stream

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Authority of the Consuls
• 1 Descend upon the Sinful
• 1 Hour of Revelation
• 2 Linvala, the Preserver
• 2 Negate
• 2 Regal Caracal
• 1 Summary Dismissal
• 2 Torrential Gearhulk

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While I scrambled to get the cards for this deck the night before the tournament, I was able to pilot my way to a nice Top 8 finish, promptly losing to current #WotcStaff Carmen Klomparens who aptly played around my Blessed Alliance (unlike every other opponent that day). While I didn't win the event, Azorius Approach gave me realization as a Standard player - I enjoyed decks that play from behind and eventually ensure victory.

This brings us to December 2023, when I tricked Flores into registering for a local Standard Store Championship event even though he hadn't updated his Mono-Red deck in a few sets. Looking at this list and my list from the SCG event, it's actually funny how similar they are in design, despite being built years apart

Enter: Azorius Control

Azorius Control | LCI Standard | Roman Fusco, Store Championships

• Creatures (2)
• 1 Chrome Host Seedshark
• 1 Horned Loch-Whale

• Instants (19)
• 1 Impulse
• 1 Negate
• 1 Quick Study
• 2 March of Otherworldly Light
• 3 Dissipate
• 3 Make Disappear
• 4 Get Lost
• 4 Memory Deluge

• Sorceries (4)
• 1 Farewell
• 3 Sunfall

• Enchantments (2)
• 2 Temporary Lockdown

• Artifacts (1)
• 1 The Celestus

• Planeswalkers (6)
• 2 Jace, the Perfected Mind
• 4 The Wandering Emperor

• Lands (26)
• 5 Island
• 5 Plains
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 2 Mirrex
• 2 Restless Anchorage
• 2 Seachrome Coast
• 4 Adarkar Wastes
• 4 Deserted Beach

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Boon-Bringer Valkyrie
• 1 Change the Equation
• 2 Chrome Host Seedshark
• 2 Dennick, Pious Apprentice // Dennick, Pious Apparition
• 1 Disdainful Stroke
• 1 Elspeth's Smite
• 1 Hullbreaker Horror
• 1 Jace, the Perfected Mind
• 1 Negate
• 2 Temporary Lockdown
• 2 Treasure Map

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As I was preparing for the Regional Championships that week, what better way to prep than to build my RC deck in Standard? I actually ended up winning the store champs, knocking over various White creature decks and then splitting with a funky Slogurk deck in the finals.

Get Lost felt like the removal piece that a Control deck was missing in Standard, and even though map tokens were a bit of a detriment, Temporary Lockdown and the other wraths swept up any lingering threats. The maindeck Jace, the Perfected Minds were my consideration for the Domain matchup, as you can stall out long enough with Sunfalls and Get Losts to kill Atraxa to then eventually piece together a two-card combo to mill for 30!

A few days before the event, Flores and I discussed the various matchups the deck could face. Flores concluded that Red, by far, was the deck's worst matchup. Even though we have cards like Temporary Lockdown, The Wandering Emperor, and even March of Otherworldly Light, the Mono-Red deck gets under you too quickly. Even if you can turn the tide against their creatures, they can kill you out of nowhere with a variety of burn spells, and post-board, Urabrasks's Forge.

I went into the weekend not changing many cards, thinking I had enough tools at my disposal to dismantle Red. I was confident in my Domain matchup, various Black Midrange matchups, and felt that my sideboard had enough various threats and answers to dismantle Aggro. However my tournament was anything but the metagame I expected.

In round one I lost in three games against Domain Cascade, the version of the deck that plays Invasion of Alara // Awaken the Maelstrom and combos with Bramble Familiar to instantly flip it. This was the version of the deck I was least prepared for, as it attacks from multiple angles. I won Game 1 in close fashion, but I made a sequence in Game 2 that was too risky.

On turn four my opponent had four open mana and two Bramble Familiars in play. I could either hold open Change the Equation or tap three lands to cast The Celestus, which would also net me mana to cast Change the Equation if it resolved. I needed the mana and while I could've played around Negate in this spot, I lost to a channeled Mirrorshell Crab.

In Game 3 while behind, I made the wrong decision off a Memory Deluge, opting to take a Tishana's Tidebinder over a The Celestus. The Tidebinder countered an Atraxa trigger, but then was swept away by a Sunfall. Instead, I should have let my opponent draw cards from their Atraxa, and have the Celestus as an extra mana source that could draw me into continuous wraths and potentially Jaces to use to mill my opponent out, seeing as they had drawn about half their deck at that point in the game.

It wasn't a matchup I was necessarily prepared for, but it felt winnable. In round two I dismantled Mono-Red splashing Green for Questing Druid - Chrome Host Seedshark helped stabilize Game 1 and Boon-Bringer Valkyrie easily won Game 2.

In round three I lost to a similar Gruul deck, I flooded out pretty hard and couldn't find any of my reputable sideboard cards in the post-board game. I did draw my copy of The Eternal Wanderer to lock down an Urabrask's Forge, but by the time we got to that point in the game my opponent was one step ahead in assembling lethal.

My tournament was over after three swift rounds. I was so desperately hoping to play against Esper Midrange, Esper Mentor, and Domain - but got paired against three decks I wasn't as equally prepared for. It was honestly very frustrating, as I watched a Mentor deck take down the event (I cannot stress how easy that matchup is).

While I was bummed to be out of the RCQ I still had the fire to figure out how to make the most of my situation. I still liked my deck, but maybe the Red matchup was too difficult. Did we need to include more sideboard cards just for Red? Or was it time to adapt to a different deck entirely?

An unexpected case of the flu gave me the perfect opportunity to think about my next move, as I lay in bed watching various Standard Twitch streamers.

DarkestMage, one of my all-time favorite streamers and Limited masterminds, was streaming his take on Rakdos Ramp, so I downloaded the deck, made a few adjustments, and found myself enthralled with a totally new archetype.

Enter: Rakdos Ramp

Rakdos Ramp | Standard | Roman Fusco

• Creatures (7)
• 3 Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness
• 4 Trumpeting Carnosaur

• Instants (10)
• 1 Bitter Triumph
• 1 Sheoldred's Edict
• 2 Cut Down
• 2 Go for the Throat
• 4 Big Score

• Sorceries (9)
• 1 Light Up the Night
• 2 Breach the Multiverse
• 2 Brotherhood's End
• 2 Burn Down the House
• 2 Duress

• Enchantments (4)
• 1 Virtue of Persistence
• 3 The Cruelty of Gix

• Artifacts (2)
• 1 The Celestus
• 1 The Irencrag

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Chandra, Hope's Beacon

• Lands (26)
• 4 Mountain
• 3 Swamp
• 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 2 Field of Ruin
• 2 Mirrex
• 2 Restless Vents
• 2 Sunken Citadel
• 2 Ziatora's Proving Ground
• 3 Cavern of Souls
• 4 Haunted Ridge

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Abrade
• 1 Extract the Truth
• 4 Gumdrop Poisoner
• 2 March of Wretched Sorrow
• 2 Preacher of the Schism
• 2 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 1 The End
• 2 Unlicensed Hearse

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I was deeply impressed playing this deck. While the deck looks slow, I admired the versatility of some of its cards, like Trumpeting Carnosaur being a faux removal spell that could be reanimated by a Cruelty of Gix a turn or two later. Being able to cast a Breach the Multiverse on turn five felt exciting, but at the same time the deck has built-in resistance to countermagic in the form of Cavern of Souls.

While the Black Midrange and Domain matchups felt solid, I needed a game plan for Mono-Red. One aspect about this deck that I like is that since it has a lot of combo pieces, you don't have to make that many changes to it in the sideboard games. Sure in some matchups you'd much rather have a Duress than a Cut Down, but the fact of the matter is Standard is a bunch of Midrange piles at the moment. You don't actually have to warp your deck to have more removal or more discard because the decks are such a variety of threats and answers.

Rather, I'd like to have a few sideboard options here and there for some matchups, such as boarding in Sheoldred, the Apocalypse versus Esper Midrange in exchange for Breach the Multiverse. Mono-Red is a completely different story, as that deck operates on an entirely different axis than Domain and Midrange - I needed a select set of cards just for that matchup.

I played a ton of Wilds of Eldraine Limited, and one card that was my standout in drafts where I demolished aggressive decks was Gumdrop Poisoner - and it's the perfect threat against the Red menace. Gumdrop Poisoner is flexible in that it gives you a burn counterspell and a threat that has to be dealt with (that can also be a Flametongue Kavu) all in one package. It also gives you more ways to use your mana effectively on the first few turns of the game - sometimes gaining three life can make all the difference if you have nothing better to do with your mana.

Gumdrop Poisoner, coupled with some copies of March of Wretched Sorrow (and some Sheoldred, the Apocalypses to boot) are a Red deck's worst nightmare. While Urabraks's Forge is still a problem, Brotherhood's End and Abrade can luckily dismantle it. By the time it gets multiple counters you might already have an Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness in play already.

While the remaining sideboard slots are still up for debate, as I'm ironing out the deck's hardest matchup, Dimir Midrange, overall I'm happy with where it stands in the metagame. It attacks the metagame in a unique way, having a more interactive matchup against Red but also being able to go way over the top of Domain.

I had grown attached to my Azorius Control deck, but although I wanted to just keep it sleeved and register it for whatever next event I entered, I was hit with one of the most important lessons from one of Flores' most impactful articles, How to Win a PTQ.

At the conclusion section of How to Win a PTQ, Flores writes, "Stay flexible. There are no permanent alliances to colors, to deck preference, to single card choices. Black might be purple, orange, or even Botswana next week. Change or die."

Sometimes it's right to discard your pet deck in favor of a better-winning strategy. With Standard being such a diverse format it's vital to adapt your lists, even if it means playing an entirely different archetype than the previous week. While I failed to clutch the win, or even Top 8 this past RCQ, it at least gave me some perspective on how to craft my approach to winning this season. Those words will continue to echo within me, "change or die."

The last time I won a Standard RCQ I had switched last minute from playing a subpar Orzhov Control deck to my own take on a Rakdos strategy. Time to run it back one more time.

-Roman Fusco