Standard: Azorius Flash - Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

The Standard season with Lost Caverns of Ixalan is in full swing. The new expansion brought a dozen new features and archetypes to the Metagame, with significant changes to the format's best decks, while players explore cards with potential for the competitive scene.

The Players Convention Open, a Standard event with 370 players, took place in Aichi, Japan on November 25. In it, former MPL Ken Yukuhiro closed the tournament with an 8-1 result running an innovative list, Azorius Flash.

Azorius Flash is a strategy I'm familiar with on Pioneer since Faerie Mastermind came out and the rise of the Izzet Phoenix. So, it didn't take long for me to test and participate in tournaments with this deck. In this article, I present my updated version of the list!

After a week of testing in in-person events and Magic Arena ranked, this is my current list.

The main change was the replacement of Miner's Guidewing with extra copies of Werefox Bodyguard and Cathar Commando from the Sideboard. The white one-drop has advantages alongside Errant and Giada, the key card of this archetype, and also guarantees openings where we can activate Restless Anchorage and cast it to crew Subterranean Schooner and attack with both permanents.

However, Miner's Guidewing is a poor topdeck on more occasions than I would like, and the need to have Sunfall in the Sideboard for specific matchups led me to remove it in favor of making room for Werefox Bodyguard and Cathar Commando to enter the maindeck. Another option would be to include Dennick, Pious Apprentice, but I prefer to keep a total of 25 castable cards with Errant and Giada.

Maindeck

First, let's discuss the reason to play this deck: the interaction between Errant and Giada and the recently released Subterranean Schooner.

Subterranean Schooner is already one of the most powerful cards in Lost Caverns of Ixalan in Standard and, along with Tishana's Tidebinder, has leveraged Azorius Midrange into the third most played deck in the format in the last two weeks. The boat, today, is compared by some with Smuggler's Copter, despite only available on blue decks.

While Esper Midrange seeks to extract value from the artifact with Raffine, Scheming Seer, Azorius Flash uses Errant and Giada to generate more explosive plays with Subterranean Schooner, where we can look at the top card to "manipulate" the result of the Explore ability, drawing an extra card per turn if it is a land, while we can cast creatures with Flying and Flash from the top to guarantee the desired result.

Don't play with fewer than four copies of each.

Spyglass Siren is our only creature without Flash. Efficient one-drops that leave some value have a long history of being good in a competitive environment, and the Siren isn't far behind in this regard, being a good flying threat, creature to crew Subterranean Schooner, and helps with finding a land drop required at the beginning of the game.

Faerie Mastermind is still one of the best two-drops in the format, it helps punish the triggers of Raffine, Scheming Seer and Wedding Announcement while attacking over other creatures in Standard.

Cathar Commando, in addition to an extra creature with Flash, also works as an answer against Subterranean Schooner, Wedding Announcement, Leyline Binding, Up the Beanstalk and Virtue of Persistence.

Werefox Bodyguard is one of our board interactions, and one that we can extract value from by removing creatures that require some setup, or tokens created by Wedding Announcement and Virtue of Loyalty. There are several combat tricks possible with it, and even a brief delay of one turn can guarantee victory.

Tishana's Tidebinder has grown in importance as the Metagame evolves due to its flexibility. The potential to "lock" the abilities of permanents like Subterranean Schooner, Atraxa, Grand Unifier, Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, Knight-Errant of Eos, among others makes it one of the best weapons we have to avoid card advantage bombs.

The Wandering Emperor is still one of the best cards in Standard. Here, we run four copies to maximize the potential of casting it from the top at opportune moments. It is also our only permanent removal, in addition to allowing several combat tricks on the opponent's turn.

Make Disappear is a necessity in the current Standard to protect our creatures, or to prevent more explosive cards from coming into play. Its usefulness against certain decks has been mitigated by the inclusion of Cavern of Souls in the format, but it's still a decent piece of interaction.

Virtue of Loyalty offers an Instant-Speed body, and can be used as a massive pump in later turns. It's a card that I've been considering testing Wedding Announcement instead, but it would be counter-thematic with the list's proposal.

Another change I made compared to the original list was to increase the number of utility lands. In addition to the Restless Anchorage playset, Mirrex was included for its guarantee of having a creature to crew Subterranean Schooner, and extra copies of the Channel Lands were added to amplify the quality of the Explore triggers.

The Seachrome Coast and Adarkar Wastes playset are mandatory for an efficient start to the game, while Deserted Beach increases color consistency but requires a speed concession.

Sideboard

Our disruption package.

While Disdainful Stroke seems to have gotten worse due to Cavern of Souls, Negate has gained a lot of value with the current Metagame changes, and operates as our best way to deal with value engines, in addition to protecting our threats.

Invasion of Gobakhan is an excellent card against Midranges that don't resort to Sunfall to deal with the board. Delaying a key card for a few turns is enough for us to establish an advantage, and we have an easy time transforming it.

One of Azorius Flash's problems is that its concessions leave little room to interact well with "go wide" strategies, so we need a decent removal package for this matchup.

Elspeth's Smite is good against Mono Red Aggro, Soldiers, Boros Humans and also deals with some Golgari Midrange threats for a low cost. Because it is conditional, we need to be careful with how we play other interactions

Get Lost deals with Planeswalkers and any creature, while also being an extra hate against Wedding Announcement and Virtues. Map tokens are more dangerous than they appear in the current Metagame, but the flexibility is worth the risks.

Destroy Evil is a classic Sideboard staple, or even for the maindeck in Standard. It is possible to replace it with more copies of Get Lost, or another card, but its space still seems necessary in the Metagame today.

There are many strategies that can have more efficient creatures than ours on the board, or put pressure on us due to the lack of specific removals. One of the advantages of playing Flash is the ability to adapt to the rhythm of the match quickly, being able to change stance between Aggro and Control - therefore, Sunfall becomes a necessity to capitalize on this potential.

Dennick, Pious Apprentice offers a useful trade-off against removal and holds Aggro decks well, as well as locking in Virtue of Persistence.

Loran of the Third Path is still one of the most efficient answers against artifacts and enchantments in Standard. Perhaps it will lose space to another more targeted card in the future, but it still seems necessary in the current Metagame.

Esper Midrange

IN

OUT

Domain Ramp

IN

OUT

Azorius Midrange

IN

OUT

Azorius Soldiers

IN

OUT

Mono Red Aggro

IN

OUT

Boros Humans

IN

OUT

Golgari Midrange

IN

OUT

Gruul Dinosaurs

IN

OUT

That's all for today.

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments!

Thanks for reading!