I have been making my way through testing a number of different Standard decks at home, getting a lot of matches in with my son and wife. I have played and tried all of the following (and more):

• Mono-Red, in numerous variations
• U/G artifacts with Tough Cookies
• R/W/G Aggro burn with Pia Nilaar, Consul of Revival, Quintorius Kand, and Rocco, Street Chef
• Self mill Grim Captain
• Self mill with giant creatures
• Mill
• U/W Artifacts
• U/W Control
• Various planeswalker super friends decks

And while I think that there are probably some highly competitive planeswalker decks, because let's admit it, they can be supremely unfair... I haven't found a good planeswalker deck that actually holds up to the numerous aggro decks yet. So, they are out.

My favorite of the above decks has been the Artifacts decks. Braided Net // Braided Quipu is by far and away the MVP of the deck (until I added Chrome Host Seedsharks), it is the glue that holds it all together, and I am unsure the deck really wins without it. Tapping creatures down is ridiculously important in this environment and the card draw typically will amount to 4-7 cards once it is used which leads directly to wins.

Of course, I needed to work on my own implementation of it. I don't really like playing with over 30 mana sources (I used Candy Trail and Clay-Fired Bricks // Cosmium Kiln to improve mana reliability), and settled on the following:

U/W Artifacts | LCI Standard | Moshe Mann

• Creatures (12)
• 2 Market Gnome
• 3 Chrome Host Seedshark
• 3 Fallaji Archaeologist
• 4 Thrane Spider

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset
• 1 Wandering Emperor

• Artifacts (23)
• 1 Glass Casket
• 2 Clay-Fired Bricks // Cosmium Kiln
• 3 Candy Trail
• 3 Spring-Loaded Sawblades // Bladewheel Chariot
• 3 The Mightstone and Weakstone
• 3 Thousand Moons Smithy // Barracks of the Thousand
• 4 Braided Net // Braided Quipu
• 4 Unstable Glyphbridge // Sandswirl Wanderglyph

• Lands (23)
• 3 Islands
• 6 Plains
• 1 Adarkar Wastes
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 3 Restless Anchorage
• 4 Deserted Beach
• 4 Seachrome Coast

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Glass Casket
• 1 Wandering Emperor
• 1 Tezzeret, Betrayer of Flesh
• 3 Memory Deluge
• 2 Urza, Lord Protector
• 2 Knockout Blow
• 1 Chrome Host Seedshark
• 1 Depopulate
• 2 Destroy Evil

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I want to expand further on Urza, Lord Protector, Chrome Host Seedshark, Thousand Moons Smithy // Barracks of the Thousand, and Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset. Then we will get into my conclusion about Artifacts. Before that though, for me, this version greatly outperforms the main list online, especially against aggro decks, note the 30 mana sources.

I tried Urza, Lord Protector in the main deck, and when he merged into Urza, Planeswalker, it was incredible. However, it was usually a "win more" card without much upside otherwise. Sure, dropping the cost on artifacts and that 4 toughness is nice, but the casting cost on the artifacts wasn't ever much of a problem. Occasionally you would get a turn three Urza and turn four Glyphbridge, but Thran Spider was just as good at accomplishing this feat.

The Thousand Moons Smithy // Barracks of the Thousand is usually the card that actually wins the game with this deck, or more accurately the land after it is transformed. One Gnome Soldier is usually dealt with, but one every turn is too much. A major problem with this card is that it is easy to deal with a non-basic land through Boseiju and Field of Ruin.

This brings me to the theory around playing Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset. I think this card is absolutely amazing, but I want (err, need) to find a place where it actually shines. I figured with all of the artifact mana this deck produces and the Barracks of the Thousand land, it would shine. Though in actual tournament play, it was either destroyed or I wished it was the Depopulate that it would have been.

Which brings me to the new found MVP of the deck. The Chrome Host Seedshark. I think people are sleeping on this incubating shark from The Matrix. I was able to pick up 8 of them for around $2.50 each a few weeks before writing this. I only realized I should play it after playing a friend who was playing Mono-Red against me at a local tournament. After a close loss to me, he said that he was scared I would play the Seedshark. We discussed it some more, I thought about it, and in went Seedsharks. The next week at the tourney, Seedshark led the deck to victory.

Seedshark allows this control deck to become the beatdown at times, and when that happens, yes, I chant it throughout the game. Against Mono-Red, their ideal play (other than lithomantic barrage) is to lose a creature and a burn spell to kill it, often this is enough to push you over the edge to a win. Against so many other decks, it just produces so many high powered creatures to run them over.

The unfortunate conclusion about the Artifacts deck is that when it wins, it plays like and feels like a Control deck. Maybe in one or two games (out of dozens) did I benefit from aggressive Gnome Soldiers, and never in a tournament game. Additionally, the artifacts deck just plays worse versions of the cards found in control. One of the few arguments against this is the crafting with artifacts, and that just doesn't happen much in actual gameplay (even when I played with the 30 mana sources)

• Unstable Glyphbridge // Sandswirl Wanderglyph versus Sunfall
• Glass Casket versus Get Lost
• Anything versus counterspells

While Braided Net // Braided Quipu can be more valuable than the main counterpart in control, Memory Deluge, it requires the playing of the sub-optimal artifacts to make it work. Still, it makes sense to take the main lesson, Chrome Host Seedshark is unfair, and apply that to control for the Standard season at the start of 2024. So, here is the list I am looking at currently, with likely adjustments:

U/W Control | LCI Standard | Moshe Mann

• Creatures (3)
• 3 Chrome Host Seedshark

• Planeswalkers (7)
• 3 Jace, the Perfected Mind
• 4 Wandering Emperor

• Enchantments (2)
• 2 Temporary Lockdown

• Artifacts (2)
• 2 The Celestus

• Instants (16)
• 1 Destroy Evil
• 1 Disdainful Stroke
• 1 Impulse
• 1 Quick Study
• 2 Get Lost
• 2 March of Otherworldly Light
• 2 Syncopate
• 3 Dissipate
• 3 Memory Deluge

• Sorceries (3)
• 1 Farewell
• 2 Sunfall

• Lands (25)
• 3 Island
• 4 Plains
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 2 Adarkar Wastes
• 2 Field of Ruin
• 2 Mirrex
• 3 Restless Anchorage
• 3 Seachrome Coast
• 4 Deserted Beach

• Sideboard (7)
• 1 Chrome Host Seedshark
• 1 Memory Deluge
• 4 Knockout Blow
• 1 Temporary Lockdown

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