Welcome back to your favorite weekly column on all things Standard - This Week in Standard! I'm your host, Roman Fusco, and as always we're here to talk about the Standard metagame - shifts, upsets, and everything in between. Standard has been in a constant state of ebb and flow, with the most recent Pro Tour introducing some new takes on decks in the format, and giving us a pretty defined metagame.

I've actually been upping my Standard game, as I try and sneak an invite to the next Regional Championship. While I'm not qualified yet (I've been busy!) I did make the semifinals of the last RCQ I played with trusty Azorius Control, punting miserably but thankfully losing to a good friend of mine, Noel, on Gruul. Noel ended up besting Azorius Oculus in the finals and punched his ticket to the next round of Regional Championships. Hats off to him - you can even see us getting close and personal in our Top 8 photo:

Competitive Magic has definitely been on the backburner for me as of late, but I make up for that with my first major success in another area - my professional work in Game Audio. For those of you who don't know, I actually work in games, as an audio designer for a post-production studio out in Los Angeles. My team and I recently won a Golden Reel award for our dialogue editing on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention it at least once in one of my articles. So, while I may be busy with other facets of my life, I'm still keeping a close eye on Standard and the movements in the meta - which is why I registered Azorius Control for that event!

Despite my piloting of the deck, I do think this is my favorite deck in the current meta, but you have to be aware of metagame shifts.

Azorius Control | DFT Standard| Roman Fusco, Odyssey Games RCQ/3rd

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

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Jace, the Perfected Mind

• Instants (16)
• 1 Change the Equation
• 1 Destroy Evil
• 1 Elspeth's Smite
• 2 Deduce
• 2 No More Lies
• 3 Get Lost
• 3 Ride's End
• 3 Three Steps Ahead

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Sunfall
• 3 Day of Judgment
• 3 Stock Up

• Enchantments (2)
• 2 Temporary Lockdown

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

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Jace, the Perfected Mind
• 1 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 1 Boon-Bringer Valkyrie
• 1 Negate
• 1 Elspeth's Smite
• 2 Rest in Peace
• 1 Mirrex
• 2 Authority of the Consuls
• 2 Loran of the Third Path
• 2 Obstinate Baloth
• 1 Wilt-Leaf Liege

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This is pretty close to the deck Eli Kassis and co. played at Pro Tour Aetherdrift. While I made a few minor changes, the overall shell of the deck is pretty intact. I added a copy of Boon-Bringer Valkyrie in the board as I expected a lot of Mono-Red variants locally, which I was correct on! Boon-Bringer isn't the end all be all to Red, but it does stave off Urabrask's Forge, can give you lots of life points to work with, and can be a sick one-two punch as a follow-up to a Beza, the Bounding Spring.

I also never leave home without at least 2-3 cards against Esper Pixie. I really wish you could easily cast Obstinate Baloth in this deck, and I'd be convinced to run some Green Surveil lands, but ultimately you need some buffer against Hopeless Nightmare. I've played enough games where I essentially win on turn one with Baloth against Pixie that I'm convinced - otherwise it's not the worst thing in the world if they board their Nightmares out against you.

The last consideration was a card for the mirror, and while I had four Jaces in the 75, a lot of games come down to land wars. You not only want to hit all of your lands in the mirror but you can win these mini-games by just making a bunch of fish tokens with Fountainport. Mirrex works in a similar regard here, and can be pretty brutal if your opponent doesn't draw their one or two-of Demolition Fields. I'm not certain this is the best card to board in, but hey I figured hitting your land drops is important, so why not? Again, you can always tune your list based on what you expect your local meta to be. I love Azorius Control as a deck choice for any remaining RCQs or upcoming Store Championship events you want to attend.

Taking a look at some other lists, there are a couple of unique decks I want to call out across the Top 8 of challenges this week:

Dimir Midrange | DFT Standard| OinkMage22 Standard Challegne 32 3/6/25/1st

• Creatures (22)
• 1 Mockingbird
• 1 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 2 Faerie Mastermind
• 3 Enduring Curiosity
• 3 Preacher of the Schism
• 4 Deep-Cavern Bat
• 4 Floodpits Drowner
• 4 Spyglass Siren

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Kaito, Bane of Nightmares

• Instants (9)
• 1 Anoint with Affliction
• 1 Phantom Interference
• 1 Shoot the Sheriff
• 2 Go for the Throat
• 4 Cut Down

• Sorceries (1)
• 1 Gix's Command

• Lands (25)
• 4 Swamp
• 4 Island
• 1 Fountainport
• 2 Restless Reef
• 2 Soulstone Sanctuary
• 4 Darkslick Shores
• 4 Gloomlake Verge
• 4 Underground River

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Anoint with Affliction
• 3 Duress
• 1 Ertai Resurrected
• 1 Faebloom Trick
• 1 Faerie Mastermind
• 2 Ghost Vacuum
• 1 Gix's Command
• 1 Negate
• 1 Sheoldred's Edict
• 1 Spell Pierce
• 2 Tishana's Tidebinder

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First up is Dimir Midrange, winning yesterday's Standard Challenge. As much as I love Azorius Control, Dimir is definitely one of its worst matchups. With four Cut Down main this looks a little more tuned versus Pixie and Red decks, with Deep-Cavern Bat slowing down Domain. I think a turn three Kaito, Bane of Nightmares on the play is still just good, and that's what Dimir will always be - good. It's definitely not my favorite deck to win the tournament, but I think it's always a solid choice if you play a lot of Standard, especially if you've piloted a lot of Midrange decks in your life.

At the end of the day, however, I still just feel like you can get run over or out-drawn by Gruul. Decks like Azorius Oculus that can recur a snowballing threat like Abhorrent Oculus also seem like they can go bigger than Dimir. While this deck is always a fine choice for your event, it's neither the right or wrong one. However, with the format stabilizing after the Pro Tour maybe Dimir will make a stronger comeback and off-set its sub 3% representation at PT Aetherdrift.

Another deck that's shown up a few times this week is Azorius Omniscience:

Azorius Omniscience| DFT Standard | Lathyrus, Standard Challenge 32 3/6/25/2nd

• Creatures (6)
• 2 Oracle of Tragedy
• 4 Fallaji Archaeologist

• Instants (10)
• 3 Confounding Riddle
• 3 Ephara's Dispersal
• 4 Moment of Truth

• Sorceries (10)
• 3 Chart a Course
• 3 Stock Up
• 4 Abuelo's Awakening

• Enchantments (7)
• 3 Temporary Lockdown
• 4 Omniscience

• Battles (3)
• 3 Invasion of Arcavios // Invocation of the Founders

• Lands (24)
• 3 Plains
• 3 Island
• 2 Blast Zone
• 2 Cavern of Souls
• 2 Seachrome Coast
• 4 Adarkar Wastes
• 4 Floodfarm Verge
• 4 Meticulous Archive

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Day of Judgment
• 2 Disenchant
• 3 Grand Abolisher
• 1 Heroic Reinforcements
• 1 Johann's Stopgap
• 2 Negate
• 3 Riptide Gearhulk
• 1 Season of Weaving
• 1 Temporary Lockdown

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This is another deck that I'm never sure of when it's right to play. Combo decks haven't really been a thing in Standard as of late, but I do think this archetype got a lot stronger with the addition of Stock Up. Stock Up doesn't mill the cards, similar to Picklock Prankster, which is absent from this list. However, I do think finding your combo pieces is important, and a mini Dig Through Time can easily help you achieve that.

I also really like Oracle of Tragedy here as a way to pitch your Omniscience if you end up taking it off a Stock Up or draw it off Chart a Course. This is one of those decks that can really take an event by storm if people aren't prepared for it, but I think at times it's too fragile and slow to be consistent.

If you want Domain to be a bye, give this deck a shot ?@fireshoes pic.twitter.com/u7V2TIbsMB

— Joey DiGiacomo (@JoeyNubzy) March 7, 2025

Lastly, Dimir Demons is a deck I've seen players post about recently, as Joey states here, for how good the Domain matchup is. While I've never played this deck myself, one thing I remember is that it has a pretty rough time against Red decks. The good news here is that the majority of your deck is removal, even with a couple of Harvester of Misery! So, if your metagame is chock full of Domain and you'd rather save yourself the headache of playing the mirror, Dimir Demons is something I'd keep my eye on.

While Standard is in a good spot now, Tarkir: Dragonstorm releases in just about a month! As I've mentioned in past articles, with the rate of Standard sets being printed at almost once every two months, Standard is going to be changing at a much quicker rate. Original Khans of Tarkir was one of my favorite Standard formats of all-time, so I'm hopeful we'll get some sweet midrange-y cards in this one. I'll definitely be talking spoilers once we get a couple more.

As always, thanks for reading!

-Roman Fusco