In the last Standard format, Sam Black built a crazy Anointed Procession deck that utilized Hidden Stockpile to go very, very big. Unfortunately, the deck never really took off, in part because of the dominance of Aetherworks Marvel, which could end games before they really started. However, that strategy is starting to gain some traction in Ixalan Standard. I’ve seen a handful of Abzan versions, touching Green for Vraska, Relic Seeker, but this weekend is the first time I’ve seen some Esper builds starting to show up:

Esper Procession - Ixalan Standard | Mundisv, 5-0 Standard League

• Creatures (14)
• 1 Angel of Sanctions
• 2 The Scarab God
• 3 Sacred Cat
• 4 Anointer Priest
• 4 Champion of Wits

• Instants (5)
• 1 Start // Finish
• 4 Fatal Push

• Sorceries (3)
• 3 Fumigate

• Enchantments (12)
• 1 Ixalan's Binding
• 3 Legion's Landing
• 4 Anointed Procession
• 4 Hidden Stockpile

• Artifacts (2)
• 2 Treasure Map

• Lands (24)
• 1 Island
• 4 Plains
• 4 Swamp
• 1 Shefet Dunes
• 3 Drowned Catacomb
• 3 Glacial Fortress
• 4 Concealed Courtyard
• 4 Evolving Wilds

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Duress
• 1 Fragmentize
• 3 Harsh Scrutiny
• 1 Ixalan's Binding
• 1 Lost Legacy
• 3 Negate
• 3 Sunscourge Champion

Buy This Deck

The real question is what the best way to support this engine is. Previously, cards like Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Thraben Inspector, and Westvale Abbey were all you needed. Now, all of those cards have rotated and you need a new approach.

There are two big pickups that you get from adding Blue to this deck. The first is Champion of Wits, which gives you further card selection to get your engine going early in the game. The second is The Scarab God. It turns out that cards that generate tokens of opposing creatures are very good when your plan is to double and quadruple and octuple your tokens.

In addition to this late game win condition, Mundisv has added Treasure Map as a card advantage engine. It takes a little while to get online, but generating a bunch of extra treasure means that Treasure Map draws a considerable number of cards when it flips.

If you’re looking for a powerful engine-based attrition deck, look no further. This deck does a lot of things, generates a ton of tokens and value, and is a very exciting example of synergies from cards across multiple sets rather than some of the other decks in Standard which lean very hard on particular sets or mechanics.