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How it started:
I hope this is good. I used 35 rare and mythic wildcards on just the main deck today! https://t.co/VQRpShCVty
— Michael Flores (@fivewithflores) July 9, 2025
How it's going:
6-0'd the @MTG_Arena Qualifier Play-In with the best deck in Standard
— Michael Flores (@fivewithflores) July 12, 2025
Which is going to be awkward because the actual PTQ thing is literally during my biggest #premodern tournament of the year next week. Champagne problems, am I right?@fireshoes @roman_fusco @thepchapin pic.twitter.com/PXjFdDxCSF
Let's take a step back, shall we?
Like a lot of you, I was a little unsure of what I should be playing in Standard coming out of the recent bans. Going into the last Pro Tour I was more sure that Blue-White was the best deck than I was that Naya was the best deck prior to Worlds 2009. Mine had a monstrous advantage over both the archetypes that actually made the Top 8, and I thought it was also literally the best anti-Omniscience deck in the format. It's still puzzling to me that some of the best Pro teams think that matchup is 75% in favor of Omniscience!
Well anyway, I saw Ali's Tweet and decided to splurge on a new way to play Standard on Arena. It seemed kind of an odd time to part ways so many wildcards (with rotation looming) but I figured that most of the Final Fantasy rares and mythic rares (plus the odd Overlord and dual land I hadn't yet collected) were going to age in my collection well.
Thirty-five it was!
I found the Yuna Reanimator strategy...
Middling.
Well, better than middling; but I wasn't winning as much as I like on MTGA. 62% ain't gonna cut it in the long term. 62.5% MAYBE. My whole economic strategy around keeping that software ACTUALLY free-to-play is by keeping returns infinite in Events. For comparison, my win rate prior to Final Fantasy with the Blue-White deck I posted here a while back was around 77%. The difference between 77% on MTGA and say 61% is "an infinite rate of return" versus "losing all your gems, if slowly."
I saw a couple of videos by the great Pro Tour Champion Gabriel Nassif saying he also thought Yuna Reanimator might be the best deck. I tried Gab's version and did a bit better, but nothing out of the ordinary realms of possibility.
I love playing Standard almost every day. But I also hate feeling like I'm just spinning my wheels. I decided to go back to at least try the deck I knew Knew KNEW to be the best before seemingly everyone else was disempowered.
Blue-White was weird insofar that a lot of its advantage in Standard previously came from being perfectly attuned to the metagame. You know how people talk about vibes? It was on the right vibrational frequency relative to what was popular, or other people thought was winning. Do I think that Temporary Lockdown and Beza, the Bounding Spring are the best cards you can possibly play in a control deck? Actually no. In the abstract I don't even like Beza. But it is one of the best cards for catching up against an opposing Cori-Steel Cutter. That's why it was good before. Do I think that Soul-Guide Lantern is the Prince That Was Promised of 1-mana spells? No. But you kind of had to play a card that let you interact with the opponent's graveyard (sometimes) and Soul-Guide Lantern hit that perfect overlapping vibe of "not completely dead if the opponent just played a Manifold Mouse" and "gets an outsized number of free wins when the opponent bins an Omniscience with a Meticulous Archive on the first turn" that you just can't accomplish with a Rest in Peace or Ghost Vacuum; besides which the Blue-White deck's main way to close out games was with Jace; and Rest in Peace slows down your own Jace... Not a great main-deck card by comparison.
The challenge going into the post-bans (but also lame-duck) format was to try to hit that same perfect frequency if I didn't automatically know Know KNOW my opponents were going to play Manifold Mouse, Emberheart Challenger, Cori-Steel Cutter, and Insidious Roots... You know: All cards where Temporary Lockdown and Beza end up three-for-one or better. As we've implied earlier in just this article, five, eight, and even nine cost permanents has become popular.
I tried a bunch of different builds of blue-white before I got to the best one. There are three main considerations:
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I wanted to play Coil and Catch as my secondary card draw spell. When I won a Regional Championship Qualifier $2K last year I did it with Deduce. Today people are for some reason playing Dreams of Laguna, which is worse than Deduce in two important ways. But I wasn't into either of those cards. I was going to inevitably have a bunch of bad cards in my deck in almost every matchup; meaning in a long game (i.e. most games I'd have a chance to win) I'd have a bunch of bad cards in my hand... So I valued the repeated selection aspect of Coil and Catch on top of its two-for-one-ness. Plus making a Dragon seemed cool. I have always had a soft spot for tapping out for a Dragon, you know.
In the abstract, the deck wanted even more copies but the one thing I learned from playing Ali and Nassif's decks was that Jace was going to be almost at its best in the lame-duck metagame. A ton of predictable strategies are out there dealing massive amounts of "deck damage" to themselves to set up Yuna, Valgavoth, or Insidious Roots. LET them give you a one-hit Jace kill. They're begging for it!
Our Hero initially started with no copies of Beza but realized that you kind of have to play it. I mean Beza is at least potentially one of the best cards on rate in the format; but Tishana's Tidebinder is also a good card on rate and that card is unplayable. It has almost no relevant function in the format that doesn't translate into just discarding a card, but so many good players swear by it. This is straight up baffling. I wish someone could explain this to me. If your opponent isn't Ultimate Jace I don't know why you would ever want to have Tishana's Tidebinder in your deck and I play Standard nearly every day. You Wrath it away in almost every game you can win. You need to hold up 3 mana for it to be relevant (let alone good). Whereas the same players all hate Get Lost even though you have Temporary Lockdown and Ultima to mop up any Map tokens that you leave lying around.
Anyway, Beza was good on rate but kind of annoying contextually. Horned Loch-Whale is the finisher you want (in part because you can instant speed it against certain opponents to pick a fight on their turn), and I would hazard saves you more life than Beza gains you because of its relevance against pump spells + sheer speed. The problem was I kept having Red decks completely under control. I'd have six cards in hand against no cards and an empty board. And then they'd Boltwave me or topdeck an Agatha's Soul Cauldron with like seven lands in play.
I was actively not playing Three Steps Ahead, so I kept dying to an 11th Hour un-kicked Burst Lightning or whatever when I had five cards in hand and was ahead on every metric but life total. So Beza just became the cheapest way to pre-empt Red opponents from crossing the finish line. It was fine. I think I might have made 2 total 1/1 Fish my entire 6-0 run; but I gained life a ton against Izzet Cauldron decks that can kind of kill you from 20, and I was very grateful to attack with my Beza and then play another one on top of it just for 4 life to keep the game going. I also had a cute play where I let an Izzet opponent hit me with a Tersa Lightshatter on turn three, and then cast Get Lost... Just so I could net one life point the next turn with Beza. Every part of the buffalo am I right?
The downside of this deck is that because it is both so specific and relatively complicated to play you can lose almost any matchup, most often to goof grabs. I once emptied my Reanimator opponent's graveyard with Soul-Guide Lantern and then drew a card with Jace right before casting Ultima. I knew Jace wasn't going to be under pressure the next turn due to Ultima, but even though I had just emptied their graveyard, I was about to put a few cards in with the sweeper, including a Fear of Missing Out. I really didn't realize that I was about to bin an Ardyn, the Usurper with the Jace-draw. I probably should have just targeted my self.
Yeah, so they combo-killed Our Hero with Fear of Missing Out and multiple attacks the next turn. I learned then not to randomly mill my opponent for three even if it looked like the coast would be clear.
Another goof you might make with this version is to just run out Soul-Guide Lantern on turn one (on the play). The deck doesn't have a lot of one-mana plays, so just saving a future mana might seem like a good idea. But sometimes you're up against Jeskai Oculus or one of the Reanimator decks and that would have been a free card. Maybe two free cards!
Interestingly those are both lessons I already knew tuning Blue-White to be the best anti-Omniscience deck in the field prior to the bans but had somehow just forgotten all that the second Abuelo's Awakening got banned.
In my actual 6-0 run I played against a fairly narrow band of opponents:
1 Hop to It Selesnya Bunnies
1 Mono-Black Demons
3 Izzet Cauldron
Eep, whelp.
— Michael Flores (@fivewithflores) July 12, 2025
Hope I don't screw this up.@MTG_Arena #MagicTheGathering pic.twitter.com/5MtJ7iPLsV
... And 1 Boros Convoke
I was really sweating the "I hope I don't screw this up" on the Convoke matchup. I had No More Lies in my opening hand, but was on the draw. I think you win almost every game you have No More Lies in your hand (presuming you can cast it) and you are on the play. Well, I was playing for the chip but sadly not on the play.
First turn Nesting Bot.
They got in with the Nesting Bot and then did nothing on second turn. This became Resolute Reinforcements during my end step. I wasn't tempted to cast the No More Lies for even a second. The last thing I needed was a big combo turn while I was tapped out. I'd at least be able to keep a Recruiter off the 'field. But to be fair I already wasn't sure how I was going to contain... What's that? Three 1/1s.
So instead of attacking on third turn my opponent did 100 things including a Knight-Errant of Eos revealing (of course) Imodane's Recruiter. They emptied to just the Recruiter in hand; because power and toughness, I guess. I'm super dead even though I can No More Lies the Imodane's Recruiter next turn. They have approximately 1,000 power in play and soon it's going to be 3,000 power. I Get Lost the 4/4.
... and draw Temporary Lockdown. No Maps for you!
Never.
Didn't.
Have.
It.
My opponent conceded two turns and one more Temporary Lockdown later. I was still on 17.
That's how I got the 6th win! Though to be fair I had a loss to give at that point.
The Demons match was super easy, mostly because of my opponent. I like the Demons matchup in general but you can definitely lose it, especially if the opponent draws a lot of Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber and Duress.
Well, my opponent in this case drew no Duress and no Deep-Cavern Bat. They did draw three Unholy Annex but played all three as Ritual Chambers (never picking up even a single extra card). And let me tell you the difference between 3 mana cards and 5 mana cards. It's about thirty-6 mana in value and six extra cards. I think I won that one on 20.
Hop to It was comically easy. They just make a bunch of things that die to Temporary Lockdown and Ultima and have no haste. I might have gotten a run-leading three triggers off of my Beza in this one. It was not competitive. Would be very happy to play versus White aggro decks every round.
Which leaves us with the Izzet Cauldron trio...
I think this matchup is favorable for Blue-White, but it's not a cakewalk by any means. In fact, I almost goof grabbed the last game; Game Five. My opponent tapped their only creature for a Winternight Stories, cast a naked Agatha's Soul Cauldron, and passed. I had the kill set up and a ton of open mana. I was going to cast a second Horned Loch-Whale they didn't know about and come in for exactly 16. I couldn't imagine they saw that coming.
I very nearly cast Get Lost on the tapped creature at the end of turn, because open mana. This would have gotten me killed. The opponent would have responded by exiling Voldaren Thrillseeker with that fresh Cauldron and like 18'd me in response. Winternight Stories, am I right? Whew. Settle down, MichaelJ. Don't screw this up. I didn't screw it up.
All the Izzet Cauldron matchups came down to managing life total and mostly not letting Vivi live. Soul-Guide Lantern is surprisingly good in this matchup, as it can steal a future Winternight Stories or slow down Agatha's Soul Cauldron while you manage the battlefield.
The one super good play I made was when I had four open mana and both Horned Loch-Whale and Ride's End in my hand. I really wanted to resolve Lagoon Breach for obvious reasons. The opponent cast something pre-combat that I had to use two of my 4 mana to stop with No More Lies and then came in with multiple creatures. I really wanted to resolve Lagoon Breach! I also read them for Spell Pierce. I cast Lagoon Breach, knowing it was going to get countered (it did). But Vivi had been tapped from the attack and I got him with the Ride's End on my turn. If, in my burning desire to at some point in the future have a Ward-ed Whale in play, tried the opposite order, I could very well have lost to Master Ornithier.
Here's the lesson for Izzet: Vivi is a threat that can't be dealt with via Temporary Lockdown. Just know that. Proft's Eidetic Memory, Agatha's Soul Cauldron, and a ton of the other attacking creatures all can. Make sure you plan around this. Get Lost seems painful because the opponent can both Proft and profit from +1/+1 counters, but your follow-up sweepers are specifically designed to help recover, as long as you're still alive.
Last thing about card selection: Get Lost is the best.
People who worry about the Maps don't really respect how the deck wins. Who cares if the opponent gets slightly more power? You're not Burn. You're not playing Elspeth's Smite (awful, particularly against Screaming Nemesis). Who cares how much toughness an attacking creature has? It goes on the top or bottom of their deck the same either way. Whether they draw one more land or not is mostly perpendicular to whether or not you win the game. Your default way to win is by 15 deck damage (maybe twice). The games go so long their drawing not a card but a land extra is very rarely going to negatively impact this line to victory. On the other hand, being able to unconditionally remove Vivi, Storm Slayer, or a giant Saga without worry about its type, whether it's tapped or not, etc. will give you the time you need to build towards your advantages. And your advantages are legion.
That said, I won zero games with Jace milling in my 6-0. As you can see, five of my matchups were ones where Beza and Horned Loch-Whale were relevant not only as buffers but as bodies; and my Demons opponent just conceded when I No More Lies'd their third Ritual Chamber with seven cards in hand.
On that note I did have one game where I chose not to cast Coil and Catch at the end of my opponent's turn because I was going to use it to bounce their only remaining blocker and attack with a 5/6 Beza for the win; but I drew Get Lost anyway.
This tells us very little about which card is better relative to my particular six games of Best-of-One; but I can assure you that if people are burning wildcards to make Yuna decks (like I did), aping Eli Kassis's wonderful rogue strategy from the Pro Tour (as they are at among the highest win rates), or drawing infinite with Caretaker's Talent (because, in an Omniscience-free world, they can again) you really want to punish them with Jace... At least for the next two or three weeks.
If you're not into deck pics, here's the list-list:
Azorius Control | FIN Standard | Michael Flores
- Creatures (9)
- 2 Marang River Regent
- 3 Beza, the Bounding Spring
- 4 Horned Loch-Whale
- Planeswalkers (2)
- 2 Jace, the Perfected Mind
- Instants (11)
- 3 Ride's End
- 4 Get Lost
- 4 No More Lies
- Enchantments (3)
- 3 Temporary Lockdown
- Artifacts (2)
- 2 Soul-Guide Lantern
Export Arena
I included the sideboard, though the actual Play-In was Best-of-One. The main things driving the sideboard are 1) the banning of two of Esper Pixie's best cards gives us four slots to play with, and 2) swapping out one Boon-Bringer Valkyrie potentially raises our ceiling in the games we have both Angels in play. Anyway: Those are they.
This is going to be an exciting weekend for me. The actual Arena Qualifier is literally during the Sacred Torch Showdown this Saturday, which is my most important Premodern event of the year. I plan to bring my iPad to the tournament and try to jam games between games.
You know, Magic as Garfield intended. Literally!
LOVE
MIKE
