Standard: The Post-Ban Week & Potential Changes with Avatar

The first week of Standard after the bans is a rather peculiar event this time: the Magic Online Challenges served as an intersection between the format trying to adapt to the changes while preparing the ground for Avatar: The Last Airbender, whose digital release is scheduled for this week.

The results, however, don't show many surprises: Dimir Midrange was the most played archetype by a wide margin, while other relevant competitors in the pre-ban Metagame, such as Simic Counters and Jeskai Control, remained among the strategies with the greatest presence in the Top 32.

On the other hand, some surprises or adaptations emerged: Izzet Prowess became more popular without Vivi Ornitier and Proft’s Eidetic Memory in the middle to overshadow it with Izzet Cauldron, while Mono Red Aggro is still looking for a version without Screaming Nemesis, and perhaps won't have to wait so long to find it.

Below, we analyze which archetypes stood out the most in the Magic Online Challenges this weekend, and also which Avatar cards might show up in the coming weeks!

As expected, Dimir Midrange became the most played deck in this first week. The archetype already showed solid results in the past Metagame and is also a reliable choice for most players, in addition to being notoriously popular.

In total, it made up just over 30% of the Top 32 presence in all the weekend's Challenges, and there didn't seem to be enough adaptations from the rest of the format to deal with it — perhaps because Avatar is already knocking on the door and this wave of tournaments only served to structure where to start in the new set's season.

Speaking of Avatar, new tools for Dimir in the format include Crashing Wave as a possible Tempo play, as well as Ty Lee, Chi Blocker which has the function of "locking" a creature while she remains in play.

The Unagi of Kyoshi Island is a card that, despite costing more mana than ideal, is a powerful threat that punishes Looting and Draw effects, which, as we will see shortly, still have the potential to establish their own archetype.

Wan Shi Tong, Librarian has the potential to be a flexible tool in the early game as another enabler for Kaito on turn three, while in the late game it will have the potential to generate card advantage — while not great today, its ability to punish library searches can make a difference against Landfall decks.

In the black spectrum, Day of Black Sun could become a sideboard sweeper if more go-wide archetypes become common, while Epic Downfall and Heartless Act are conditional removals that can grow or decrease in number according to the format's demands — for example, with Simic Counters being the second most played archetype today, it seems like a bad time to consider Heartless Act in the maindeck.

The biggest highlights, however, are Raven Eagle and its possible interaction with Spyglass Siren and Obsessive Pursuit. Eagle is an excellent creature on its own: graveyard hate in the maindeck, an evasive threat for Kaito, and a constant source of card advantage if we exile creatures every turn, but perhaps adding another generator of sacrificeable tokens would offer reasons to try a copy or two of Pursuit to increase board pressure and also generate more value for a low mana cost.

Simic Counters delivered some impressive results over the weekend and showed that it's much more than just a meta call for a Cauldron format with its combination of cheap drops with Jackal, Genius Geneticist and Ouroboroid to pressure the board.

As with Dimir Midrange, Crashing Wave and The Unagi of Kyoshi Island are options that can be considered in the sideboard for specific matchups, and Wan Shi Tong, Librarian interacts with the +1/+1 counters theme and the number of ways to access quick mana that the archetype possesses, in addition to being an evasive threat that guarantees extra resources during the game.

Boomerang Basics has to compete with Into the Flood Maw, which is a notorious challenge, but this allows some interactions with Jackal, Genius Geneticist where we reuse a creature to copy it while drawing a card with the Bounce.

In green, Badgermole Cub puts two bodies on the board and doubles the mana generated by Llanowar Elves and Gene Pollinator, enabling more explosive plays from the second turn onwards, while The Earth King and Ba Sing Se may be worth testing if played together, to offer more lands combined with a recurring source of threats for longer games.

Without Vivi Ornitier, Izzet Cauldron disappeared, making way for the Prowess variants again, but with a very different look from what we knew: instead of a more aggressive stance, this variant is more Midrange-oriented with Quantum Riddler and Ral, Crackling Wit combined with Stormchaser’s Talent and Astrologian's Planisphere as win conditions — this package of Otter-type creatures also helps turn Splash Portal into a cheap cantrip in addition to blinking Quantum Riddler.

Accumulate Wisdom is an interesting card if we consider using at least twelve Lessons to ensure some consistency in the draw 3 effect, but the extra mana to function on its own makes it a less effective option than Opt when we want to be aggressive, which can be a problem in the medium term.

From the Lessons perspective, Boomerang Basics seems like an efficient Bounce with Stormchaser’s Talent, but at the cost of worsening the archetype's speed in dealing with the opponent's plays, and it would require another complement, perhaps with Firebending Lesson or Iroh’s Demonstration.

Finally, I believe that Wan Shi Tong, Librarian doesn't deserve so many slots here because it doesn't interact much with Prowess's game plan, but we're still talking about a flexible threat with the potential to generate card advantage while becoming a win condition on its own.

As already mentioned, Firebending Lesson and Iroh’s Demonstration are options if we consider the Lessons package with Accumulate Wisdom, and another mechanic that caught attention during the Prerelease was Firebending, whose interaction with instants is considerably powerful — cards like Ran and Shaw or Fire Nation Attacks are options if we want to follow that route.

Price of Freedom is an interesting sideboard choice for dealing with artifacts and utility lands while guaranteeing another draw. As demonstrated with Path to Exile in the past, the basic land can make a difference, but not as much as the threat we need to resolve on the board.

Among the lands, Agna Qel’a offers more flexibility with the topdeck by filtering your hand, and Dragonfly Swarm is a somewhat poor option initially but may deserve a slot or two if we try to run a Lessons package.

Jeskai Control still has a very solid shell for the new Metagame and should be an archetype with some difficulty to change with the release of Avatar, especially as it need to adapt with the new set to follow a direction — Ultima, for example, continues to be a great sweeper, but far from being a must-have as it was in the past.

This is perhaps the main archetype I envision running the Lessons package to extract value from Accumulate Wisdom while running cards like Airbender’s Reversal—which has the dual function of dealing with an attacking creature while reusing the ETBs from Marang River Regent and Shiko, Paragon of the Way—and Iroh’s Demonstration as flexible slots.

Outside of Lessons, Razor Rings will be important if fast Aggro decks return to the top of the Metagame, especially against Mono Red now that it no longer has Screaming Nemesis, while The Unagi of Kyoshi Island seems like a great win condition for the Control mirror match if more draw effects are played in future lists.

Wan Shi Tong, Librarian should be treated in these lists as a pseudo-Sphinx’s Revelation rather than a threat: we make trade after trade until we need to replenish our resources, something we already do well with Stock Up and Consult the Star Charts, but which can benefit from one or two copies of this card.

Among the other decks, Orzhov Bounce was the most prominent and the only Cosmogrand Zenith archetype with results. It was also the non-Dimir black Midrange variant with the highest success rate in the Top 8 of tournaments, proving that the combination of Nurturing Pixie and Sunpearl Kirin remains relevant in a post-banlist environment.

This, however, is one of the archetypes that initially seems least affected by Avatar: Airbender Ascension and Appa, Steadfast Guardian only exiles creatures, meaning they cannot reuse the ETBs of Momentum Breaker and Nowhere to Run, although they help with Cosmogrand Zenith.

On the other hand, Abandoned Air Temple seems like a great complement to the go wide win condition with Cosmogrand Zenith, while Obsessive Pursuit offers another way to trigger Elegy Acolyte every turn.

Despite losing Screaming Nemesis and having notoriously lost ground in most Top 8s, Mono Red Aggro remains a viable archetype and has adopted a more go wide approach with effects that punish the opponent's actions.

Zhao, the Moon Slayer is probably the best Avatar addition to the deck if it decides to focus more on playing pure Mono Red instead of attempting a splash of for Scalding Viper, which can have its slots replaced by the new card whose ability to pressure, along with one-drops and Tersa Lightshatter or Nova Hellkite, can make a huge difference, especially against archetypes with three or more colors.

There are also some more conditional options: Iroh’s Demonstration makes a good impression of Obliterating Bolt while resolving X/1 creatures with the same slot, while The Last Agni Kai can guarantee the advantage of a more explosive turn if we make a favorable trade, even allowing, in longer games—not ideal, but it can happen—the activation of Zhao's ability to transform all nonbasic lands into Mountains.

Proft’s Eidetic Memory was a considerable loss for Izzet decks, but the archetype still holds up and performs well by leveraging Duelist of the Mind as a new win condition combined with its draw effects, even achieving a Top 2 finish in one of the Challenges.

Sokka, Bold Boomeranger is the only card we haven't yet mentioned in other archetypes. A looting 2 effect for two mana might make it worth testing in the archetype as lists develop, especially if we see more interactions with Lessons in the future.

Other cards, such as Wan Shi Tong, Librarian and The Unagi of Kyoshi Island have relatively fewer interactions now that Proft is banned but are still individually good enough to warrant some testing.

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thank you for reading!