With the return of the SCG Tour Online this weekend, Standard has returned to the spotlight. Today, we’ll go over three decks that will help get you the 6-0, so you can compete with me at SCG Con later this year. These decks may seem familiar, but they’ve changed in subtle ways in the past few weeks. If you’ve been busy playing 2022 Standard recently, here are the most up-to-date lists you’ll need for this weekend.
Sultai
Sultai continues to be a dominant deck in Standard, and its core cards haven’t changed much in the last six months. If you’ve played this deck before, you’ll be comfortable playing this version, and you probably won’t need too many wildcards to build it.
Sideboards never get enough love, and I have to give a shoutout to this past weekend’s Standard Challenge winner, AndyAWKWARD, for building this very clean sideboard. While players will often play various one- or two-ofs to increase their options, Andy has opted to load up on efficient answers to aggro and control, like Eliminate and Duress. This is especially important in a Yorion deck — when you’re playing 80 cards, you need to consistently find the cards you want.
Sultai is probably one of the safest choices for any of the online events this weekend. While decks like Rogues might pop up to try and ruin your fun, those decks haven’t gotten big upgrades in a while, and they struggle with some of the other great decks in the format.
Mono-Green
Mono-Green has been a huge winner in recent weeks, thanks to Ranger Class. I don’t think I gave the card enough love in my previous article about this deck, and it’s the kind of card that pushes a deck over the line. Ranger Class turns every creature into a real threat, while also being a main deck answer to kill spells. Green decks used to play one copy of Vivien, Monsters’ Advocate, but now that we have a two-drop that lets us play creature spells off the top of our libraries, we can play four copies and still consistently curve out on players.
Combine this with another great two-drop in Werewolf Pack Leader, and now Mono-Green has four consecutive turns’ worth of powerful, must-answer plays. Mono-Green’s ability to present a clock against Sultai decks without folding to removal makes it an excellent option for aggro and midrange fans.
Mono-White
Mono-White has popped in and out of Standard over the last year, and the version we’re talking about today is the most ambitious and promising build in a while. This deck has the classic beatdown cards that you’d expect to see, but it also includes Search for Glory, so you can grab The Book of Exalted Deeds and put an enlightened counter on Faceless Haven. This combo is a huge problem for opponents; if they can’t remove your Faceless Haven — and most decks can’t, if you aren’t turning it into a creature — they simply won’t be able to win the game. In fact, most Sultai decks are resorting to playing Kiora Bests the Sea God again, as a way to steal Faceless Haven and win.
The Haven/Book combo is strong enough that it’s worth playing this build over more traditional Mono-White, and this is the best shell for the combo that you’ll find in Standard. If you enjoyed playing a more traditional aggro game, you still can with this deck. I think Mono-Green is a better beatdown deck, but the combo lets you get out of some situations that would have been game over for you previously.
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Now that Standard is back in the spotlight, we could see some more churn than we have in recent months, and there are likely more innovations ahead. What are you planning on playing this weekend? Tweet at @masoneclark and @Card_Kingdom and let us know!
Mason Clark is a grinder in every corner of the game who has played at the pro level and on the SCG Tour with Team Nova. Whether he’s competing in Standard, Historic or Modern, Mason plays with one goal in mind: to be a better player than he was the day before. Check out his podcast, Constructed Criticism, and catch his streams on Twitch.