Hello and welcome to my new weekly column on CoolStuffInc.com - This Week in Standard! Before we dive into the nitty gritty of what's happening in the world of Magic's hottest Constructed format this week, as this is the inaugural article of this column I'd like to give a bit of pretext.

Standard is by far the focal point of Constructed Magic at this point in time. With the Regional Championship and Spotlight Series circuits focusing on it as their main format over the next year or so, Standard will be the format to know if you're a diehard competitive Magic player, or even if you're just starting to dip your toes into the format.

With the Standard playerbase growing exponentially I thought it would be a great idea to create a weekly column focusing on highlights each week, not limited to: winning decklists, tournament coverage, hot cards, and upcoming major events. With six new Standard sets coming out this year, Standard is sure to change rapidly over the coming months, with new strategies emerging and evolving as the metagame shifts and adapts.

So, without further ado, let's get into it! Here's what happened in Standard this past week.

Spotlight Series Atlanta

Spotlight Series Atlanta, the inaugural Spotlight Series event, boasted a whopping 1453 Standard players for its two-day event, the largest Standard tournament in years! I actually attended this event playing Dimir Enchantments, and was fortunate to make day two of the competition. This event truly felt like the return to the Grand Prix system, and it was a blast seeing so many friends from across my years playing Magic.

Multiple strategies saw representation with Dimir Midrange, Gruul Aggro, and Golgari Midrange taking the top three most popular decks. It's worth noting that while Gruul was 14% of the metagame, Mono-Red took an additional 5% and Boros took 1%, making Red Aggro the most represented archetype at around 20% of the field.

After the big three, lots of other decks took their share of a couple of percentage points of the meta, with a whopping 25% of the field going to other decks not listed here. After a whopping 15 rounds of swiss a Top 8 emerged of six different decks!

However, one strategy emerged triumphant...

Gruul Aggro | Standard | Nicholas Odenheimer, Spotlight Series Atlanta/1st

• Creatures (22)
• 2 Callous Sell-Sword
• 4 Cacophony Scamp
• 4 Questing Druid
• 4 Slickshot Show-Off
• 4 Heartfire Hero
• 4 Emberheart Challenger

• Instants (14)
• 2 Overprotect
• 4 Inside Out
• 4 Monstrous Rage
• 4 Snakeskin Veil

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Leyline of Resonance

• Lands (20)
• 6 Mountain
• 2 Restless Ridgeline
• 4 Copperline Gorge
• 4 Karplusan Forest
• 4 Thornspire Verge

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Burst Lightning
• 2 Lithomantic Barrage
• 2 Twisted Fealty
• 2 Innkeeper's Talent
• 4 Pawpatch Recruit
• 2 Screaming Nemesis

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

While Leyline of Resonance was banned in Arena Best of One, it certainly wasn't banned in Standard! This unique build of Gruul Aggro, adding in the combo of Callous Sellsword gave the first Spotlight Series champion, Nick Odenheimer an edge in this field. I also appreciate Nick's sideboard, utilizing Innkeeper's Talent and Pawpatch Recruit to go wide and hold the line and push ahead in longer games against midrange decks - interesting enough each of Nick's matches in Top 8 went to three games. Congrats to Nick on being the first Spotlight Series champion!

With Spotlight Series Atlanta in the books there actually isn't a major Standard event in the central United States for some time until the next Pro Tour. However, players are still battling it out in Magic Online events and local Regional Championship Qualifiers, as we move closer to Regional Championship Minneapolis and Hartford, which will award 64 Standard players Pro Tour invites for Pro Tour Final Fantasy later this year. We get a brand new Standard expansion in February with Aetherdrift, leading up to the next Standard Pro Tour at the end of the month at Magic Con Chicago.

Before we go, here's one deck that stood out to me that I think would be a strong choice moving forward: Selesnya Cage!

Selesnya Cage | Standard | SPECIAL_BOY, Standard Challenge 64 1/6/2025/4th

• Creatures (27)
• 1 Toby, Beastie Befriender
• 2 Melira, the Living Cure
• 2 Seraphic Steed
• 2 Wilt-Leaf Liege
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Overlord of the Mistmoors
• 4 Pawpatch Recruit
• 4 Sandstorm Salvager
• 4 Sanguine Evangelist

• Instants (2)
• 2 Get Lost

• Enchantments (3)
• 3 Sheltered by Ghosts

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Collector's Cage

• Lands (24)
• 3 Forest
• 4 Plains
• 1 Mirrex
• 4 Brushland
• 4 Hushwood Verge
• 4 Razorverge Thicket
• 4 Restless Prairie

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Aven Interrupter
• 1 Destroy Evil
• 2 Elspeth's Smite
• 3 Invasion of Gobakhan
• 1 Sheltered by Ghosts
• 2 Split Up
• 1 Thrun, Breaker of Silence
• 2 Wilt-Leaf Liege

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

With Hopeless Nightmares running amok, especially with Esper Pixie having a fantastic conversion rate at Atlanta (about half of day one players making day two), good ol' Wilt-Leaf Liege is making a comeback in Standard - but it's also just a fine card to tap out after an Impended Overlord of the Mistmoors.

I'd also keep an eye (pun intended) on Azorius Oculus in the coming weeks. With Dimir and Esper Hopeless Nightmare gaining popularity, Abhorrent Oculus definitely feels like a strong choice in the metagame. With Oculus seeing play in Dimir in Modern the card has almost doubled its price from a few weeks ago to almost $50! It's still so crazy to me how so many Standard cards have spiked in price, from Screaming Nemesis to Stormchaser's Talent.

Thanks for reading the first of many This Week in Standard articles, and I'll catch you next week with the newest winning and trending strategies!

-Roman Fusco