The Off-Meta Standard: 5 Decks to Try Out!

Standard is in one of the best spots it's been in years. After two seasons dominated by a few archetypes—mostly in Izzet colors—the format has settled into a wide-open state with plenty of viable decks and a Metagame that regulates itself through rock-paper-scissors dynamics.

There are still top decks, like any competitive format, but the current card pool has shown it can solve the problems that pop up in tournaments and make room for emerging strategies to post results.

Those are the strategies we're highlighting today: five lesser-known archetypes that have proven themselves in Leagues and Challenges.

Rakdos Looting has become a real competitor with Moonshadow, and recent lists have even started cutting Monument to Endurance in favor of Cool but Rude. Some versions splash for Quantum Riddler and Winternight Stories. So what happens if you drop red entirely?

Dimir Monument borrows the Rakdos shell and adds a full set of Quantum Riddler to profit from the discard/draw interactions between Gran-Gran and Springleaf Drum alongside Cycling effects. The list also includes Scrounging Skyray as an evasive threat, and while this build doesn't run many, adding blue also makes it easier to play stack interaction.

Gaining ground week by week, Boros Pingers uses the Mobilize mechanic alongside Warleader's Call and Shocking Sharpshooter to deal damage whenever creatures enter the battlefield, all while applying typical go-wide pressure.

This is the best shell for Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might, since each creature ETB will deal four damage to the opponent if he's on board. To push that interaction even further, the deck runs Fanatical Firebrand—with any of the pingers and Axonil, that's up to eight damage outside of combat for one mana.

By the time this article goes up, Momo Weenie might already be an established archetype; it's currently the cheapest competitive deck in Standard and easy to build on Magic Online, where most of the data comes from. It's a classic White Weenie shell built around cost reduction from Momo, Friendly Flier, using Nurturing Pixie and Starfield Shepherd to consistently trigger Sage of the Skies and Cosmogrand Zenith.

This is one of the most innovative strategies to come out of Standard recently in how it uses Springleaf Drum. With Momo lowering costs, Shepherd and Pixie become "free spells" when tapped for mana, which helps trigger payoffs and pay for higher-cost cards like Elspeth, Storm Slayer.

Player suyasome noticed that a lot of "Robot" creatures care about artifacts and built a dedicated deck with Cavern of Souls and Secluded Courtyard, resulting in the closest thing to Affinity we're likely to get in current Standard.

The obvious payoffs are Pinnacle Emissary, Ravenous Robots, Krang, Master Mind, and Memory Guardian, but everything in the list has synergy. Improvised Arsenal is the Cranial Plating of the deck, working with Fugitive Droid—which can't be blocked if an artifact entered the battlefield—while also protecting other threats.

Tokens from Robots and Emissary help pay the Station for Synthesizer Labship to turn any artifact into a 2/2 Flyer, and Chrome Dome pumps all artifact creatures while giving you an easy mana sink. Gene Pollinator and Springleaf Drum help copy any artifact on the board—including Improvised Arsenal or Krang, Master Mind for card advantage.

Go Ninja Go has enabled a new Jeskai Midrange variant using Quantum Riddler and Shiko, Paragon of the Way as part of the Blink package. This list runs Ashling, Rekindled to fuel the graveyard while its transformed side helps pay for those creatures, and also makes Gwen Stacy's transformed side much more consistent to cast.

That's all for today!

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

Thanks for reading!