After a short hiatus to talk about my top 36 performance at the Minneapolis Regional Championship, This Week in Standard is back to go over all the exciting developments in Standard. This weekend is the final Regional Championship for the United States, RC Hartford, and it'll certainly be interesting to see which decks rise to the top.

This past weekend we had two major Standard tournaments, the China and the ANZ Super Series finals (the Regional Championship in Melbourne). In China, the top 8 had a pretty wide spread of decks: 2 Azorius Omniscience, 1 Mono-Red, 1 Orzhov Midrange, 1 Gruul Aggro, 2 Izzet Prowess, and an Abzan Pixie. Abzan Pixie is the most obvious outlier here - it's a deck that I've seen pop up now and again, but it's exciting to see it put someone on the Pro Tour.

Abzan Pixie | TDM Standard | Yimin Zhi, MTG China Open S9 Regional Championship/8th

• Creatures (24)
• 1 Qarsi Revenant
• 2 Deep-Cavern Bat
• 2 Loran of the Third Path
• 3 Sentinel of the Nameless City
• 4 Nurturing Pixie
• 4 Sunpearl Kirin
• 4 Severance Priest
• 4 Yathan Roadwatcher

• Enchantments (11)
• 2 Momentum Breaker
• 2 Temporary Lockdown
• 3 Nowhere to Run
• 4 Hopeless Nightmare

• Lands (25)
• 1 Plains
• 1 Swamp
• 1 Caves of Koilos
• 1 Hushwood Verge
• 1 Wastewood Verge
• 2 Bleachbone Verge
• 2 Blooming Marsh
• 2 Brushland
• 2 Llanowar Wastes
• 2 Lush Portico
• 2 Razorverge Thicket
• 2 Shadowy Backstreet
• 2 Underground Mortuary
• 4 Concealed Courtyard

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Dreams of Steel and Oil
• 2 Duress
• 2 Ghost Vacuum
• 1 Anoint with Affliction
• 1 Go for the Throat
• 1 Heritage Reclamation
• 1 Sheoldred's Edict
• 1 Tear Asunder
• 1 Preacher of the Schism
• 1 Serra Paragon
• 1 Wilt-Leaf Liege
• 1 Gix's Command

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This deck has the functionality of the standard Orzhov Pixie deck, but it has some beefier creatures and can gum up the board fast with Yathan Roadwatcher. I actually like this list more than the original Orzhov Pixie lists because of the creature package. I played the Orzhov Pixie deck a lot leading up to RC Minneapolis, and while I got lots of reps in, I ended up feeling the deck was lacking some power. Sure, you can have fast starts with Hopeless Nightmare into Nurturing Pixie, and close out the game with a Temporary Lockdown and Sunpearl Kirin, but overall it felt like there were too many hoops to jump through to gain control of a game.

With the Abzan build you get lots more utility in your creature package, especially if you're able to Severance Priest away your opponent's big threat or fill up the board with a Yathan Roadwatcher into a Sentinel of the Nameless City. Congrats to Yimin Zhi on their performance with their take on the archetype!

Looking at the ANZ Super Series finals, there's one deck that caught my eye, and it's the deck that almost took down the whole tournament.

Rakdos Midrange | TDM Standard | Benjamin Graves, ANZ Super Series Finals/2nd

• Creatures (29)
• 1 Coalstoke Gearhulk
• 1 Harvester of Misery
• 2 Mishra, Claimed by Gix
• 2 Trumpeting Carnosaur
• 3 Phyrexian Dragon Engine
• 4 Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate
• 4 Deep-Cavern Bat
• 4 Fear of Missing Out
• 4 Inti, Seneschal of the Sun
• 4 Tinybones, the Pickpocket

• Instants (6)
• 2 Anoint with Affliction
• 2 Go for the Throat
• 2 Torch the Tower

• Sorceries (3)
• 1 Wild Ride
• 2 Duress

• Lands (22)
• 4 Mountain
• 2 Swamp
• 1 Blast Zone
• 1 Raucous Theater
• 2 Demolition Field
• 2 Restless Vents
• 2 Sulfurous Springs
• 4 Blackcleave Cliffs
• 4 Blazemire Verge

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Agatha's Soul Cauldron
• 2 Anoint with Affliction
• 2 Brotherhood's End
• 1 Case of the Crimson Pulse
• 2 Dreadmaw's Ire
• 2 Dreams of Steel and Oil
• 2 Duress
• 1 Ghost Vacuum
• 2 Withering Torment

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This is one of the stranger brews I've seen in a hot minute. I'm not new to any of the cards in this deck, but it's certainly an interesting collection. On one hand you have cards that I've seen in Gruul Delirium Aggro decks, like Fear of Missing Out, but you also have the Mishra, Claimed by Gix + Phyrexian Dragon Engine Meld package!

This again seems like another deck that is poised to beat and interact favorably against Izzet Prowess. With maindeck copies of Torch the Tower and Duress, as well as Deep-Cavern Bat, you can clear the way for your creatures by removing your opponent's early Prowess threat or Cori-Steel Cutter. I also like the idea of just buffing up a turn one Tinybones, the Pickpocket into a turn two Inti, Seneschal of the Sun.

I'm still wrapping my head around where Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate fits in. I get that you can discard small creatures early with Fear of Missing Out and Inti, Seneschal of the Sun. At some point you can buff Alesha to enough power and toughness to buy back sizable threats like Trumpeting Carnosaur and Mishra, Claimed by Gix, but I'm curious as to how many times deck designer Benjamin Graves was able to do this over the course of this event.

I did watch fellow CSI content creator CovertGoBlue stream a bit of this deck on Arena... and he did a lot of losing. Overall, I think there are cool ideas here, and I can only assume this deck got the matchups it wanted over the course of a large event. Much like my build of Jeskai Control for RC Minneapolis (which Flores-sensei apparently lost a lot with the week after the event), you sometimes build a deck that's perfect for one event, but isn't actually great in the format at large. I will be keeping my eye on this collection of Rakdos cards for the future though.

Speaking of brews, I also wanted to highlight Makoobi's Dimir Gearhulk list that placed third at a Standard Challenge this past week.

Dimir Midrange | TDM Standard | Makoobi, Standard Challenge 64 5/12/2025/3rd

• Creatures (10)
• 1 Tishana's Tidebinder
• 2 Harvester of Misery
• 3 Marang River Regent
• 4 Oildeep Gearhulk

• Instants (16)
• 3 Anoint with Affliction
• 3 Cut Down
• 3 Dispelling Exhale
• 3 Go for the Throat
• 4 Three Steps Ahead

• Sorceries (7)
• 3 Duress
• 4 Stock Up

• Artifacts (1)
• 1 The Filigree Sylex

• Lands (26)
• 4 Swamp
• 3 Island
• 1 Blast Zone
• 2 Undercity Sewers
• 4 Darkslick Shores
• 4 Gloomlake Verge
• 4 Restless Reef
• 4 Underground River

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Blot Out
• 1 Duress
• 3 Faerie Mastermind
• 2 Ghost Vacuum
• 1 Harvester of Misery
• 2 Negate
• 1 Outrageous Robbery
• 1 Qarsi Revenant
• 1 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 1 The Filigree Sylex
• 1 Tishana's Tidebinder

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Look, Oildeep Gearhulk is a card that I wanted to make work, ever since it was previewed in Aetherdrift, and while I eventually gave up on it I'm happy to see it finally shine. This deck feels like another Cori-Steel Cutter-killer. With Cut Downs and Duresses main, it has action against some of the fast starts Izzet can have. While Control decks sometimes struggle with closing out the game, I like that your threats in this deck are multifaceted. Harvester of Misery also acts as spot removal, Marang River Regent as your card draw/selection, and Oildeep Gearhulk as a Vendilion Clique with a beefier body and relevant keywords.

This also makes Three Steps Ahead all the better in a deck like this, giving you more options to clone that have tangible effects. Making a new Harvester of Misery or Marang River Regent to set your opponent back even further sounds like a dream come true, but don't get me started on how sick it is to make an Oildeep Gearhulk copy in your opponent's draw step.

I also think it's cool that this deck can transform a bit after sideboard, with access to Faerie Mastermind, Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, and Qarsi Revenant. Besides "silver bullet" cards, like Ghost Vacuum, you have easy swaps against decks like Jeskai Control, siding out your Cut Downs, Go for the Throats, and Anoint with Afflictions for threats and interruption. All in all, this is a super sweet list and I'm happy to see Makoobi succeed again with their new take on a controlling deck in this lightning-fast metagame.

That about wraps it up for This Week in Standard. Next week I'll be back to talk not only about the results from RC Hartford, but to take a first look at some upcoming Final Fantasy cards. While the United States Standard Regional Championship season comes to a close, we still have a full on Pro Tour to cover, a brand new set in a few weeks, and an eventual return to RCQs come mid-July. I'll be excited to get my hands on some FF cards myself, but for now we'll take what we can get with some spoilers.

Until next time,

-Roman Fusco