This Week in Standard: Wednesday, February 12

Posted on February 12, 2025

Welcome back to another week of "This Week in Standard!" While I was out on vacation last week, I'm back to talk Aetherdrift and some initial thoughts on the new Standard format.

First, let's look at a couple of winning Aetherdrift Standard decklists from this weekend's past events. While Aetherdrift only just released this past weekend, there were two major events to pull decklists from: the Standard 5k at SCG Portland and the Japan Standard Cup: Aetherdrift. While a lot of the same decks showed up in spades, such as Esper Pixie, which won the SCG 5k, and Azorius Oculus, which won the Japan Standard Cup, there were a few interesting surprises, most notably a Gruul Exhuast deck that placed second in Japan.

First off, the winning Esper Pixie decklist:

Esper Pixie | DFT Standard | Ryan Hayes, 5k Standard RCQ SCG CON Portland/1st

Planeswalkers (3)
3 Kaito, Bane of Nightmares

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It's worth noting that only one new card shows up in this list, and that's two copies of Grim Bauble that appear in the sideboard. Spell Pierce also makes a timely resurgence to Standard as well, with two copies showing up in the board here. All in all, I'm not shocked that this 75 only has 4 copies of cards from Aetherdrift - because it didn't need it! Esper Pixie is such a streamlined deck that it's hard to make new adjustments. While Momentum Breaker is definitely an upgrade to Tithing Blade, and did see some play across lists in both events, Spell Pierce and Grim Bauble are probably the two most important upgrades from Aetherdrift.

Although with Spell Pierce, I'm not exactly sure how many matchups I'd want to bring it in against. I think it's worthwhile in the mirror, because of how important your mana use is, since every spell is so cheap and Pixie only plays around 23 lands total. I think I'd probably board this in against Azorius Oculus and various Omniscience decks as well. Overall, Spell Pierce won't always be an auto-include in a Pixie 75, but I think it's definitely better than Negate in that sideboard slot.

Spell Pierce in general will be a major Standard player, as it also showed up as a two-of in the winning Azorius Oculus deck from the Standard Japan Cup event. However, the deck I'm more interested in is the runner up at that event - Gruul Exhaust!

Gruul Exhaust | DFT Standard | Daisuke Iwabuchi, Japan Standard Cup: Aetherdrift/2nd

Planeswalkers (2)
2 Wrenn and Realmbreaker

Instants (8)
4 Seed of Hope
4 Torch the Tower

Enchantments (4)
4 Dredger's Insight

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This is an interesting take on Gruul Delirium. Similar lists have come up in the past with cards like Patchwork Beastie, Fear of Missing Out, and Wrenn and Realmbreaker. However, this list features three key new cards from Aetherdrift: Draconautics Engineer, Afterburner Expert, and Dredger's Insight. With Dredger's Insight you can turbo Delirium early, and get some extra value by leaving around Afterburner Expert in your graveyard while picking up a Draconautics Engineer. I also like that you can use Engineer to give your Fear of Missing Out haste. I also like the idea of giving my Exhausted Afterburner Expert trample with Inti, Seneschal of the Sun.

I think I'm skeptical if lists like these are better than traditional Gruul Aggro, with the mice package and Monstrous Rage. I think this deck gets some interesting edges against aggro decks, with Seed of Hope and Dredger's Insight gaining a few points of life over the course of a game and Patchwork Beastie and Draconautics Engineer providing some larger bodies. I feel like I'd also want Llanowar Elves in this type of deck to power out my draws, since this deck has a bunch of 2-drops - I'd want to be able to play two cards on turn three.

Nevertheless, it's important to note we're only a few tournaments into a brand new format. At the very least I'll always appreciate a spicy deck that takes a tournament by surprise with inclusions of brand new cards. It's gutsy to play a deck with cards you're only sleeving up for the first time that weekend - so I give Daisuke Iwabuchi respect points for that.

One other card from Aetherdrift that showed up in a few decklists from this past weekend that I'm keeping my eye on is Oildeep Gearhulk. This is an interesting card to evaluate on a couple of different levels. I'm a big fan of this card dodging Go for the Throat, as well as having Lifelink against the various Red decks of the format. Sheoldred, the Apocalypse is arguably a better 4-drop, and easier to cast. However, I think the static Lifelink on this creature, as well as its dodging of Go for the Throat, combined with its ETB ability make for it to be a serious consideration in any Dimir deck's 4-drop slot.

While not an exact copy of Vendilion Clique, I like the fact that you can choose yourself as the target for the discard ability, helping you push away an extra land in favor of drawing a spell. While the home for this card might just be normal Dimir Midrange, I do like the idea of casting this card as a follow-up to a couple of Hopeless Nightmares in the Dimir Bounce decks. I'm a big fan of this card, and I think itt's one people should be keeping an eye on over the coming weeks as the new format develops.

To wrap-up this article, here's a shell of what I'd play at an event this weekend: