This past weekend featured Pro Tour Aetherdrift at MagicCon Chicago, and with it some exciting changes to the Standard metagame. In my last article we took a look at the metagame breakdown for the event, with Red-Aggro variants the most represented archetype at the event with Domain and Esper Pixie trailing close behind.

There were a couple new decks that made appearances at the event, most notably Jeskai Oculus, Orzhov Control, Golgari Graveyard, and my favorite archetype in Magic, Azorius Control.

With the Top 8 showcasing five different archetypes, long-time pro player Matt Nass emerged victorious, with his take on Domain Control - sporting no Cavern of Souls! Let's take a look at some of the best performing decks of the weekend and how the meta is going to shift going forward.

Domain Overlords | DFT Standard | Matt Nass, Pro Tour Aetherdrift/1st

• Creatures (13)
• 1 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 4 Overlord of the Hauntwoods
• 4 Overlord of the Mistmoors
• 4 Zur, Eternal Schemer

• Instants (6)
• 2 Get Lost
• 4 Ride's End

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Sunfall
• 2 Analyze the Pollen
• 2 Day of Judgment

• Enchantments (11)
• 3 Temporary Lockdown
• 4 Leyline Binding
• 4 Up the Beanstalk

• Lands (25)
• 1 Forest
• 1 Island
• 1 Plains
• 1 Swamp
• 2 Razorverge Thicket
• 2 Wastewood Verge
• 3 Floodfarm Verge
• 3 Hedge Maze
• 3 Shadowy Backstreet
• 4 Hushwood Verge
• 4 Lush Portico

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Negate
• 1 Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines
• 2 Nissa, Ascended Animist
• 2 Rest in Peace
• 1 Elspeth's Smite
• 1 Tear Asunder
• 3 Obstinate Baloth
• 1 Pawpatch Formation
• 1 Stock Up
• 1 Atraxa, Grand Unifier

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First up is Matt Nass' winning Domain Overlords deck. The Domain deck has evolved a lot over the last year, and this version showcases a more streamlined take on the archetype. This decks feels more like a Selesnya Control deck than anything else. With less tap lands and no Cavern of Souls you get more leverage against the aggressive decks, with Day of Judgment, Sunfall, Temporary Lockdown, Get Lost, and Ride's End all showing up in this list. You also get a copy of Beza, the Bounding Spring which helps out immensely against Red variants.

With a format with so much Red-Aggro and Esper Pixie variants, this deck definitely aims to stabilize and go over the top of both archetypes. I think Matt's version of Domain was very well tuned for this metagame and it's no surprise that he took home his first Pro Tour trophy this past weekend.

Golgari Graveyard | DFT Standard | Zevin Faust, Pro Tour Aetherdrift/ 5th-8th

• Creatures (32)
• 2 Chitin Gravestalker
• 2 Harvester of Misery
• 4 Cenote Scout
• 4 Gnawing Vermin
• 4 Hollow Marauder
• 4 Huskburster Swarm
• 4 Molt Tender
• 4 Overlord of the Balemurk
• 4 Souls of the Lost

• Instants (4)
• 4 Overwhelming Remorse

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Up the Beanstalk

• Lands (20)
• 1 Forest
• 4 Swamp
• 3 Llanowar Wastes
• 4 Blooming Marsh
• 4 Underground Mortuary
• 4 Wastewood Verge

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Terror Tide
• 1 Cut Down
• 1 Harvester of Misery
• 2 Obstinate Baloth
• 4 Scrapshooter
• 1 Starving Revenant
• 1 Duress
• 2 Haywire Mite

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Next up is Golgari Graveyard by Zevin Faust. This is a deck I've seen pop up on Arena now and again, especially after Bloomburrow with the printing of Huskbuster Swarm. This deck can pump out Huskbuster Swarms very fast, with Overlord of the Balemurk acting as your engine to fuel your graveyard. I also like how low to the curve this deck is, with Cenote Scout, Gnawing Vermin, and Souls of the Lost acting as good early defense, along with Harvester of Misery acting as another removal spell.

I also just like how much this deck can stay in a game. With Up the Beanstalk and Overlord of the Balemurk you have a lot of card draw. I think while this deck is strong, I do worry about its chances against decks stocking up on Day of Judgment effects going forward. I think there's enough value in this deck to stay in the game, but I think overall Domain just goes too over the top. Maybe you want more Starving Revenants post-board with the advent of Azorius Control.

Jeskai Oculus | DFT Standard | Kenta Harane, Pro Tour Aetherdrift/5th-8th

• Creatures (19)
• 3 Inti, Seneschal of the Sun
• 4 Abhorrent Oculus
• 4 Fear of Missing Out
• 4 Spyglass Siren
• 4 Steamcore Scholar

• Instants (8)
• 1 Bounce Off
• 1 Into the Flood Maw
• 2 Spell Pierce
• 4 Torch the Tower

• Sorceries (6)
• 2 Recommission
• 4 Helping Hand

• Enchantments (5)
• 2 Bitter Reunion
• 3 Proft's Eidetic Memory

• Lands (22)
• 2 Adarkar Wastes
• 2 Battlefield Forge
• 2 Thundering Falls
• 4 Inspiring Vantage
• 4 Seachrome Coast
• 4 Shivan Reef
• 4 Spirebluff Canal

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Ghost Vacuum
• 2 Pyroclasm
• 2 Negate
• 3 Destroy Evil
• 2 The Filigree Sylex
• 3 Chandra, Spark Hunter
• 2 Brotherhood's End

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Next up is Kenta Harane's Jeskai Oculus list. I like how midrange-y these Jeskai versions of Oculus have become. With Aetherdrift the deck gets such better mana, giving you access to Torch the Tower against Aggro, but other great ways to put on pressure besides Abhorrent Oculus, like Fear of Missing Out and Inti, Seneschal of the Sun.

Proft's Eidetic Memory also gives you a lot of reach in the late game, making small creatures individual threats on their own. I also really like the inclusion of Chandra, Spark Hunter in the sideboard. Chandra is a great engine that lets you draw cards off random map tokens, or even the vehicle tokens she makes. Her plus ability also helps fuel your Proft's Eidetic Memories.

Azorius Control | DFT Standard | Arne Huschenbeth, Pro Tour Aetherdrift/9-1

• Creatures (6)
• 1 Horned Loch-Whale
• 2 Overlord of the Mistmoors
• 3 Beza, the Bounding Spring

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Jace, the Perfected Mind

• Instants (13)
• 1 Change the Equation
• 2 Negate
• 2 No More Lies
• 4 Get Lost
• 4 Ride's End

• Sorceries (8)
• 1 Sunfall
• 3 Day of Judgment
• 4 Stock Up

• Enchantments (3)
• 3 Temporary Lockdown

• Lands (26)
• 3 Island
• 5 Plains
• 1 Adarkar Wastes
• 1 Demolition Field
• 2 Blast Zone
• 2 Fountainport
• 2 Meticulous Archive
• 3 Restless Anchorage
• 3 Seachrome Coast
• 4 Floodfarm Verge

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Obstinate Baloth
• 2 Rest in Peace
• 2 Overlord of the Mistmoors
• 1 Devout Decree
• 2 Dissection Tools
• 1 Negate
• 1 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 2 Wilt-Leaf Liege
• 3 Tishana's Tidebinder

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Last but not least is Azorius Control, piloted by Arne Huschenbath but built by Eli Kassis. With a more than 70% win rate across the five teammates that played it in the event, Azorius Control is surprisingly one of the breakout decks of the weekend. Horned Loch-Whale is my favorite way to shut down Monstrous Rage without taking a million damage from Heartfire Hero, but Ride's End is a nice way to mitigate that as well.

I also appreciate the switch from multiple Sunfalls to Day of Judgment and Temporary Lockdown. I think if you want to play this deck and survive to the point you're maximizing your Jaces, you have to stifle your opponent's aggressive starts. Sunfall is just too expensive, especially against a deck so efficient as Red, so you need cheaper wrath effects to keep them in check. Stock Up is also a perfect inclusion from Aetherdrift, acting as a mini-Dig Through Time. This has to be the best Divination effect of all time (well best costed card draw for ) which is extremely helpful at hitting your land drops or finding a wrath or Beza, the Bounding Spring when you need it most.

While I think this deck waxes and wanes based on the current meta it's worth noting that Azorius Control gets bonuses if you have an idea of the expected metagame of your event as well as knowing when to mulligan via open decklist. I think this deck definitely gets worse in a RCQ-level event, but at the same time it's great at punishing random decks that aren't prepared for the matchup. If you're going to pick up this deck for RCQs over the next few weeks I'd be careful of playing against the mirror - I think you can definitely leverage this by having four Jaces across your 75, access to a Mirrex in the sideboard as another land, and by understanding how many counterspells you need to protect your Jaces and kill your opponent in one turn. I've also thought about the possibility of Feldon's Cane - wait, Feldon's Cane, really?? While it's a reach, imagine the look on your opponent's face when you only have a few cards in library after they've exhausted most of their Jaces - and now you're right back in the game!

There are lots of new and exciting decks from the Pro Tour, and while I can't talk about them all today I'd suggest taking a look at the decklists. While I still have gripes with some of the cards in Standard (I'm looking at you Up the Beanstalk and Monstrous Rage), I do think it's true that Standard has returned to a spot where there's sort of a deck for everyone. Congrats to the players at Pro Tour Aetherdrift, I can't wait to see what decks make their debut at the next Standard PT.

On the horizon is Tarkir: Dragonstorm, and with it a whole new slew of Standard cards. While I'm going to hold off on talking about spoilers for a bit, Khans of Tarkir Standard was one of my favorite Standard formats of all-time. I'm really hoping we see a return to some great three-color midrange cards, which will help slow down the format a bit. However, what I'm most interested to see is if we get a cycle of dual lands... will fetches make their return?

Thanks for reading!

-Roman Fusco