Standard: Dominaria United's first week!

Dominaria United is finally among us on digital platforms, and the Challenges brought the first sampling of the new Standard!

Today, we'll be dissecting the format's top Metagame competitors right now, as well as a breakdown of what we can expect in the coming days. Without further ado, let's get straight to the results of last weekend's events.

Last Saturday's Standard Challenge ended with the following Top 32:

6 Rakdos Midrange

6 Rakdos Anvil

3 Orzhov Midrange

3 Jund Midrange

2 Mono Black Midrange

2 Mardu Midrange

2 Esper Midrange

1 Grixis Vampires

1 Gruul Aggro

1 Mono Black Aggro

1 Mono Red Aggro

1 Izzet Delver

And the Top 8 was composed of: 3 Rakdos Midrange, 1 Mono Black Midrange, 1 Orzhov Midrange, 1 Grixis Vampires, 1 Rakdos Anvil and 1 Mardu Midrange.

So, the first thing we can conclude is that Black-Based Midrange is extremely popular, which was expected since most of the base that composes it remained in the format, and Dominaria United brought a variety of high-quality cards, such as Evolved Sleeper and, of course, Liliana of the Veil.

Unlike the Innistrad-Return to Ravnica format, where a Metagame with Thragtusk, Voice of Resurgence and Loxodon Smiter was extremely hostile to Liliana, the current format makes her incredibly well-positioned: Not only we have more ways to add value with Tenacious Underdog and keep resources coming with Evolved Sleeper, the Planeswalker shines primarily in attrition matchups against other Midrange archetypes — represented in abundance in the first week of the new season.

Betting on a multitude of 2-for-1 effects to stay ahead with your resources with efficient removals and powerful draws, basically all Black-Based from the current Standard can further improve Liliana in their lists.

Rakdos Midrange

The most famous archetype of this week, with approximately 23% of the Metagame was the Rakdos Midrange, which boils down to the most effective use of the best cards of that color combination. There is variance between late-game slots, but its core is made up of the following cards:

These are its main threats, and they are typically supplemented by Graveyard Trespasser, Sorin the Mirthless, Ob Nixilis, the Adversary, Jaya, Fiery Negotiator and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse — each offering unique qualities compared to the others.

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse is a powerful threat, as it blocks a variety of creatures well, doesn't die easily to Bloodtithe Harvester and dodges Voltage Surge, in addition to offering the inevitability of turning each opponent's draw into a Shock, while delaying their clock each turn.

A card that is also heavily played in most Black-Based Midranges is Invoke Despair for its ability to offer a 3-for-1 that responds simultaneously to a creature, a Planeswalker, and often to Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, making it one of the most powerful spells in the current Metagame.

Rakdos Anvil

The other variant of the Rakdos archetypes relies less on the individual value of each card and bets on the interaction between them with Oni-Cult Anvil alongside Experimental Synthesizer and The Meathook Massacre to have the inevitability of winning the game, 1 damage at a time.

While notably less powerful when it comes to individual raw power, Rakdos Anvil has more attack angles and manages to play well around the opponent's Liliana of the Veil and keep their most important creatures in play. Also, triggers from multiple copies of Oni-Cult Anvil easily get out of hand, and the list still manages to abuse Braids, Arisen Nightmare quite well, turning her into a mini-Invoke Despair at every upkeep.

Mono Black Midrange

Trading the variety of answers for consistency and the possibility of running some utility lands, the Mono Black Midrange is the archetype with the most consistency to cast Invoke Despair at the right time without relying too much on variance.

However, the mono-colored variant of these strategies doesn't leave much to be desired because most of the high-value permanents are precisely of that color, making it a strong competitor in the Metagame and opening up space for a variety of more narrow answers in the Maindeck and Sideboard.

Orzhov Midrange

The Orzhov Midrange, however, relies on two more distinct strategies: one is entirely creature-oriented and operates close to what an Aggro would, but with each threat generating a 2-for-1 effect while turning a Serra Paragon into a value engine.

Other versions, however, seek to take more advantage of the black core to establish an efficient late-game plan with Planeswalkers, while Reckoner Bankbuster allows recurring draws while being a threat, and Farewell is the perfect answer to the most varied threats in the format.

In addition, white also provides access to some of the best removals on Standard today, such as March of Otherworldly Light and Fateful Absence, essential for dealing with Planeswalkers at a low cost in a format that feels like it's being dictated by them.

Jund Midrange

Finally, one archetype that has stuck after the rotation is Jund Midrange, now looking to harness one of the most powerful creatures in Dominaria United — Soul of Windgrace.

The advantage of Soul of Windgrace is that it transforms every land in your hand into some other more useful effect while allowing you to ramp up during combat, turning it into a must-answer threat which adds extra value every turn and helps accelerate the cast of the largest bomb available in Standard today, Titan of Industry.

In addition, Llanowar Loamspeaker is a powerful mana dork that also turns your lands into threats and helps you cast Soul of Windgrace or Unleash the Inferno a turn earlier than expected, as well as correcting the mana.

An interesting tech from one of the lists is the addition of Diregraf Rebirth to reanimate your creatures if they're discarded by Liliana, having a brutal synergy alongside Titan of Industry to bring it into play as early as turn 4.

On Sunday, the Top 32 of the Standard Challenge was made up of the following decks:

9 Mono Black Midrange

5 Rakdos Midrange

5 Jund Midrange

3 Rakdos Anvil

2 Boros Reanimator

2 Mono White Reanimator

2 Mono Red Aggro

1 Esper Midrange

1 Rakdos Aggro

1 Orzhov Midrange

1 Gruul Aggro

And the Top 8 was composed by: 3 Mono Black Midrange, 1 Esper Midrange, 1 Boros Reanimator, 1 Mono White Reanimator, 1 Rakdos Midrange, 1 Jund Midrange.

Esper Midrange

The Challenge winning list already demonstrates a tendency for the format to evolve and adapt to Liliana of the Veil in seeking to mitigate the impact of her abilities on Midrange mirrors, something done with excellence through Resolute Reinforcements, Serra Paragon and especially Ao, the Dawn Sky — all of them punishing the opponent for giving the option to choose what to sacrifice with the Planeswalker's ability, and with the two-drops helping to protect the archetype's main threat, Raffine, Scheming Seer.

Counterspells also help keep greedier decks in check by punishing them for tapping out to cast a bomb, while Disdainful Stroke is the best answer to Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and Invoke Despair.

Between the high-quality cards, the ability to adapt and respond effectively to the other Midranges and the strategy that manages to take a more proactive course, I believe that Esper Midrange will become the best positioned archetype in this Midrange universe in the future.

Boros Reanimator

However, in a world of Midranges, it's not always the best option to play fair, and there are times when your best route is to get gigantic creatures into play as quickly as possible - that's the idea of ​​the White-Based Reanimators.

Sanctuary Warden and Titan of Industry are hard to kill if you can keep the board stable to minimize a Liliana's -2, and have a massive immediate impact with their shield counters — if you can get them into play a turn or two earlier than expected, you'll be way ahead of your opponent, and for that, we have Invoke Justice that not only puts them into play, but turns them into a 3-turn clock.

To enable this strategy, the archetype has a huge variety of spells that allow its controller to "recycle" their own hand, helping to find combo pieces while placing creatures in their graveyard or getting rid of unwanted spells or lands. Each of them also has another ability that makes them relevant in the game, mostly as creatures, removals, or both.

Since most of its enablers are creatures, Boros Reanimator also works as an excellent Midrange that capitalizes on The Wandering Emperor's abilities, allowing for a "fair" game while looking to cheat on mana with Invoke Justice, making it a solid option in the format today.

The Mono-White version forgoes a more combo-centric plan in favor of an aggressive approach, with quality two-drops that also operate as discard outlets, taking better advantage of the Planeswalker and the distribution of +1/+1 counters from Invoke Justice.

Mono Red Aggro

Mono-Red is back, and with access to different variants, where both bet on dealing as much damage as possible in a few turns, but both builds were made considering that the games will likely end up extending, and soon resort to spells that generate some value.

Squee, Dubious Monarch is another excellent answer against Liliana of the Veil and 1-for-1 removals, as well as facilitating the recast of Phoenix Chick, with this one being another excellent response against the Planeswalker and Sorcery-Speed removals

Another excellent interaction is Electrostatic Infantry with cheap self-replacing spells like Reckless Impulse and Ancestral Anger, operating as a pseudo-prowess similar to what we see in Pauper and in other formats. However, this interaction is extremely fragile against removals, making the dwarf a bad topdeck in this strategy.

Gruul Aggro

Speaking of Aggro, Gruul is still present in the format, and thanks to the ramp provided by Llanowar Loamspeaker and Gala Greeters, the archetype can cast Defiler of Vigor early and, from there, transform its creatures into a mighty army.

Also, some of the core that constituted this strategy in past Standard remains, especially cards like Halana and Alena, Partners and Moonveil Regent, plus early-game additions that forces and punishes opposing reactions, like Quirion Beastcaller.

These were the highlights of the first Challenges weekend after Dominaria United. Other interesting strategies have also appeared in online events, such as Mono Black Aggro, Mono White Aggro, Izzet Delver, Azorius Tempo, Dimir Control and Four-Color Domain, but they didn't do any expressive results so far and likely need more refinement to compete in the current Metagame.

By the way, given the notorious growth of Black-Based Midranges in this early season and the importance of Planeswalkers in them, it's a good time to evaluate targeted answers to these strategies, such as effects to mitigate their value engines, ways to play "over the top" like a Big Mana or Combo deck, resorting to Pithing Needle to stop planeswalkers and especially ways to get value even in the face of a Liliana of the Veil on turn 3.

The Week 1 is always a bit polarized based on the tests that were already done before the start of the season, and we need to wait some time to assess the format's health before we hit the panic button — let's allow time to do its natural work.

Thanks for reading!