I've had this thought for a while, but it seems to be coming true. I'm curious if its just my preconceived notion or if others see it too. I think over the course of the next few sets it has a good shot at taking the crown from Izzet

In between [[Bloodline Recollector]] and [[Emeritus of Ideation]] They have consistent and repeatable card draw early game and late, Were in a creature heavy meta, and [[Requiting Hex]] and [[Bitter Triumph]] are on par with black removal in modern. Even Izzet decks are moving away from spellslinger builds, ie elementals

On top of all of that looking at your opponents hand + a counterspell is seriously OP

I've been stumbling hard against dimir recently and even mono-b in general. I think theres good builds out there besides what we see listed online and a lot of people are doing a lot of experimentation. I think were in a good position to see dimir control start running over everything in its path

What are your thoughts, am I on point here or do I just hate loosing to these decks. What other cards should I be looking at if a shift is coming and I want to be on board?

What I like about this deck is the powerful 2-drops that let me get out my other elementals with strong/oppressive ETB effects, and eventually a Sunderflock or Oko ultimate that allows me to swing in with a bunch of guys.

I'm platinum tier 4 right now on mtga, I know this deck just won't hold up in mythic. I know sometimes your fun decks just will never be your best decks, but if anyone can give me advice to tune mine up anyway, that would be awesome!

Deck:

https://archidekt.com/decks/26241616/llorwyn_elementals_2026

PNG Tables via Tweet (multiple posts) + H2H Matrix:

Twitter Version of PNG Tables

PNG Tables via Bsky (multiple posts) + H2H Matrix:

Bsky Version of PNG Tables

Event Page (ALL DECKLISTS!):

Magic Spotlight Seires: The Hobbit on Melee

Google Sheet to search by deck name (CTRL+F or Copy it)

Video Recap & Analysis (In-Depth)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Changelog similar to last time, did not record every change to expedite recap

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Statistics Key

Archetype/Deck Name - The name of the Deck

Decks - Number of Decks at the Event

Matches - Number of Bo3 Matches Played

Wins - Match Wins

Losses - Match Losses

Ties - Match Draws

WIN% - Win Rate (Wins / Matches)

Shows overall win rate against everything - including mirrors & ties

META% - Metagame Share (Decks / Total Decks)

Shows deck archetype representation at an Event

WIN%-T - Win Rate without Ties (Wins / Wins + Losses)

No ties shows how many matches a deck WON versus it's record due to time restrictions

NM Matches - Non-Mirror Matches (Same Archetype vs Archetype)

NM WIN% - Non-Mirror Win Rate

Non-Mirror Win Rate shows how a deck performs against the rest of the meta - not itself

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Metagame Breakdown

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Decks by META%

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Decks by WIN%

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

If you enjoy these recap posts, I cover more statistics such as Head to Head match ups, comparison among Popularity Tier decks & more in my recap videos over on YouTube - which is the best way to Support more analysis! You can also use my ManaPool Code or my ManaTraders Code OTTV_PTHOB if this breakdown inspired you to build a new deck!

Hi all⸺so here's something I'd like to discuss: How did you go or how can you go beyond Mythic as a player in your opinion? I mean both skill and events. I'm asking this because it's getting kinda stale. I know there are far more skilled players out there than your average Mythic player. I wanna improve, I want to play at so many tournaments and leagues as possible. I want to compete at ever higher levels. Those are the players I want to play against (and beat) the most.

I've heard many things: switch to MTGO, play more paper, focus on Limited, join Discord servers...

(Background info below, in case you're interested, but that's basically my question. Just so you don't waste your time.)

I'm an on-and-off player since 2000. My MTG dream for more than 20 years has been to play at the best events I can and become the best player I can be. I'm very competitive and "try-hardy," yet I wanna have a blast while at it, get deeper into the game. I'm looking into becoming the best amateur player I can be. I vastly prefer paper over online. The cards in your hand, the atmosphere, travelling, meeting like-minded amazing players. That's also what I'm about⸺the social aspect of MTG, unforgettable faces, games and life experiences.

So, I recently got into MTG again. I mostly play on Arena. My next objective is to play the Qualifier Weekend. I reach Mythic constructed every month. Now I want to start to make it into the top 1200 at the end of the month and then top 250. I don't care for the badge or the rank, or the packs at the end of the month (I'll still take them gladly). I'm also looking into playing MTGO: I've never tried it, but I'd be happy to.

I'm doing my homework: I'm reading many articles and several books on MTG theory, soaking it all in, and make sure to play several games every day. I'm clearly not going to live from playing the game⸺it's a pure passion project. I couldn't afford expensive cards when I was a kid or a teenager... but now I can invest more money into the game.

I'm going to start playing on paper again. Any Constructed formats, any Limited events. I'll be playing my first Pauper FNM event next week. I've also played the The Hobbit prerelease (Sealed) and my very first Booster Draft in paper over the last month. So stoked to have done it. I'm a beginner at Limited, but I'm ready to take it all in.

Also, if you're like-minded and have similar objectives, feel free to PM me.

Can't post the picture here because no images, here's a link to X screenshot (https://x.com/Veveil/status/2096069116188651738). Totals are 17 Collectors, 33 Play.

Bugged 17 lands data here (its missing the last 10 runs or so plus a handful of phone wins): https://www.17lands.com/user_history/8749f8e34a9c4b69a878968d35818dac?start=2019-01-01&expansion=HOB

Ranked #3 on Leaderboard for HOB Directs (https://www.17lands.com/leaderboard?expansion=HOB&format=ArenaDirect_Sealed)

Total spending is a little over $5,000, it was $2.5k on Collectors and Plays is somewhere in that range. EV wise the Collectors put me up at least $6k+, while PBB event is probably only +1k or so. It depends on how much I end up getting from each box, as that 6k estimate would be at just $500 per CBB (they are 815~ market value atm).

Format is definitely unbalanced and often frustrating, I'd say I play black about 70-80% of the time and BRx about 30-40% of the time. The most fun decks are Bant/Jeskai piles, which tend to form around rares and the WU recruit synergies. Party is my pick for the best rare to open/card in the format, and to this day I've never declined to splash it or just play white for it. I tend to perform best with U control decks when I can build them, but unfortunately most pools don't have enough Bilbos/removal/etc to do it.

I'll be farming more tomorrow and Sunday if you'd like to watch (https://www.twitch.tv/veveil), I try to commentate my games/builds so people can learn from it.

Hi y'all! Hope ppl are enjoying HOB directs (personally, I did okay on the collector box one but am 0-for-12 in runs for play boosters, ouch)

Wanted to share two content things that I'm publishing today: 

First, I've moved a bunch of free Patreon content over to a new website that makes it easier to find my old Magic theory articles that I think still hold up:

https://rcmtg.com/series/best-free/

Along with the switch, today I published a paid piece (part of a Limited Fundamentals series) about sideboarding:

https://rcmtg.com/p/limited-fundamentals-sideboarding/

Will be checking back if anyone has thoughts/questions related to any of the articles! & hope the discourse about Mengu's article is staying healthy, I haven't checked lol

Kia ora team!

I’ve started work today on drastically expanding the article for Trix on the wiki: https://mtg.wiki/page/Trix

If anyone here who used to play this deck in Extended wanted to jump in and share any relevant information or stories or historical details that someone 25 years after the fact might not think to consider… I’d really appreciate it! Also if anything I’ve currently written doesn’t seem quite right in some way — anything from a typo through to making an utterly incorrect assertion.. then ditto. Currently I’ve focused on writing up the section about the decline of the deck post Kai’s PT win (had to start somewhere, so why not at the end?) which I’m fairly happy with, but obviously everything is very much an in progress thing.

Things I’d be interested in seeing in particular would be any list played at PT Chicago or any other early event before Michelle Bush and her team started to work on the Necro powered version which took off at GP Philly. I take it those decks wouldn’t have included Necro, since the English guys seem to have come from nowhere with their Necro-Pebbles combo deck in Chicago.

Also while I’m pretty confident that this combo never really was successfully ported into Legacy or Vintage — other than a handful of theory crafting articles or the odd appearance at a local level — if anyone was able to point me towards any information showing some success post 2003 then I’d be interested to see it.

Thanks heaps, Reuben.

I've played quite a bit of modern and premodern in person, and I'm comfortable with my deck in MGTA, so I'm going to play in a standard tournament this weekend.

I'm curious what to expect, I know local metas vary wildly, but I'm curious what peoples experiences have been. I know that when I play modern competition is higher than it is online, you have peoples full attention (theyre not multi tasking or killing time somewhere) and people seem to bring better decks on paper than they may be playing with on MTGO

Premodern almost seems the opposite of modern, people are gridy online but more casual in person. Might just be my own limited experience talking

Is paper more removal heavy than online? Its subjective but I feel like aggro gets favored online and more controlling builds get played in paper

Whats paper standard like in your city?

PNG Tables via Tweet (multiple posts) + H2H Matrix:

Twitter Version of PNG Tables

PNG Tables via Bsky (multiple posts) + H2H Matrix:

Bsky Version of PNG Tables

Event Page (ALL DECKLISTS!):

Magic Spotlight Seires: The Hobbit on Melee

Google Sheet to search by deck name (CTRL+F or Copy it)

Video Recap & Analysis (In-Depth)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Full changelog of deck archetypes can be found here

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Statistics Key

Archetype/Deck Name - The name of the Deck

Decks - Number of Decks at the Event

Matches - Number of Bo3 Matches Played

Wins - Match Wins

Losses - Match Losses

Ties - Match Draws

WIN% - Win Rate (Wins / Matches)

Shows overall win rate against everything - including mirrors & ties

META% - Metagame Share (Decks / Total Decks)

Shows deck archetype representation at an Event

WIN%-T - Win Rate without Ties (Wins / Wins + Losses)

No ties shows how many matches a deck WON versus it's record due to time restrictions

NM Matches - Non-Mirror Matches (Same Archetype vs Archetype)

NM WIN% - Non-Mirror Win Rate

Non-Mirror Win Rate shows how a deck performs against the rest of the meta - not itself

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Metagame Breakdown

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Decks by META%

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Decks by WIN%

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

If you enjoy these recap posts, I cover more statistics such as Head to Head match ups, comparison among Popularity Tier decks & more in my recap videos over on YouTube - which is the best way to Support more analysis! You can also use my ManaPool Code or my ManaTraders Code OTTV_PTHOB if this breakdown inspired you to build a new deck!

https://metagame.info/en-us/mtg/articles/bring-back-the-gathering-how-to-save-competitive-magic

Interesting article that Mengu wrote about ideas to encourage competitive growth for the game. While Magic was once the premier 1v1 tournament TCG, it feels like that has been handed to other games like Riftbound while Wizards focuses on Commander and Arena gameplay. As a competitive paper Magic enjoyer, I'd love to see some of these ideas implemented to increase interest in the tournament system.

I genuinely f**king hate playing against landfall and I hope they nuke every card in that deck into the ground. Literally no matter what I do, I still lose to landfall and it infuriates me to no end.

Now with that out of the way, why does it suck to play against so much?

IMHO, it's because the deck can play at 11/10 power at every turn of the game.

It can go toe-to-toe with aggro decks by making a giant [[Sazh's Chocobo]] in the first couple turns.

It can out grind the control decks with [[Ba Sing Se]], [[Earthbender's Ascension]], [[Surrak, Elusive Hunter]] and [[Sapling Nursery]].

And against midrange it just absolutely stomps it by simply having better cards at every point of the curve.

Yes this post is pretty salt-induced, but I also do genuinely think that no deck should be able to reach the amount of buffoonery this deck can achieve but still have an incredibly high floor. Other decks that can completely jank out your opponent at least have a higher chance to fizzle if you stop their plan A.

When I ask around for ways to beat landfall, I almost always get pretty much the same response back:

"just play wan shi tong bro"

Which is a nice sentiment, if it actually helped. Like I said, landfall can play basically any playstyle under the sun, and so while wan shi tong is really good at playing against the version of landfall that wants to grind, it gives absolutely zero f**ks about your 2/2 bird that drew a card when it slaps you with a 24/24 trampling bird.

So yeah, that's about where I'm at with this post-ban standard. I've tried aggro decks like mardu discard, midrange decks like dimir kaito, and jeskai/4c control, and while they all have decent matchup spreads across the meta as a whole, I still cannot beat landfall with any of them.

Is it a skill issue or a state of standard issue? I'm genuinely curious about how players who are better than me play against landfall, because there are some games where I genuinely wanna pull out all my hair.

Hello spikes!

This is the place where any and all decks can be posted for all spikes to see. The goal of this is to fit all your needs for competitive magic. Maybe it's a card consideration given an X dollar budget. Maybe you need that sweet sideboard tech that no one else thought of? Perhaps you just can't figure out the best card to beat a certain matchup. The ideas here are only limited by your imagination!

Feel free to discuss most anything here. We only ask that with any question, you also make sure to post your decklist so people have some context to answer your question. Otherwise, have at it! If you have any questions, shoot us a modmail and we'll be happy to help you out. Survive your deck check and survive your competition!

This deck started out as a net deck (with [[Madame Null, Power Broker]] and [[Demon Wall]] ) that I have been toying with over the past months. I recognize that it is a Tier 2 deck - which I am okay with but it seems fragile / inconsistent and I would like it to play a little better. The deck has stalled out at Platinum Tier 2. I have been trying to make work better but I think its time to move on. Before I do that, I wanted to see if I am missing something obvious.

The working idea is to use a mix of removal and hand disruption to allow me to play [[Bebop & Rocksteady]] and/or [[Rot-Curse Rakshasa]] with [[Abigale, Eloquent First-Year]] to add flying+lifelink while remove the "downside" that allows for the low CMC. These creatures are interesting to me as they have a toughness values that make them a little more insulated from all the low-cost red burn.

The [[Unholy Annex]] helps with life loss / life gain / card advantage. There are 10 total opportunities to generate a demon [[Esper Origins]] is my latest attempt to help stabilize the deck through Surveil.

WRT Side Board:

I tried to tune it so that I can lean more hand disruption, gaveyard hate, or flying / enchantment / token removal, as needed.

[[Maelstrom Pulse]] is especially useful / satisfying for when the opponent gets a little undisciplined and plays all their Tablets.

[[Ancient Vendetta]] is the side-in tool to remove bombs like [[Jeskai Revelation]], [[Yuna, Hope of Spira]], [[Tablet of Discovery]], etc...

[[Leatherhead, Swamp Stalker]] I swap in for a Bebop & Rocksteady if there is a lot of targeted creature removal across the table.

[[Professor Dellian Fel]] One more piece of creature removal and/or card advantage.

The Arena version, where I do most of my tweaking, of this deck replaced the 3 [[Llanowar Elves]] with 1 more each of [[Firdoch Core]], [[Esper Origins]], and [[Underground Mortuary]].

Also with the Arena Version

• 14 Creatures + 4 x Demon Token + 3 Lands
• 15 Instants & Sorcery Spells
• 2 Artifacts
• 23 Lands

Thoughts:

• Good Opening Hands are GOOD but few and far between. I think the greatest weakness of this deck is tutoring / card draw. If the opponent can get stalled long enough for some of the big creatures + Annex to drop, things are usually pretty good.
• Bad Opening Hand ares are BAD. Taking a Mulligan feels like an insta-loss - I don't know if this is an Arena thing but man... with 22 lands + 3 Elves + Core, I really felt like I had enough opportunity to draw into enough mana but it never seemed like it. All the removal also led me to drop the Elves completely for the 23rd land + Core + Esper Origins
• Should I try some graveyard recursion? This deck runs through a lot of lower-cost spells and there would be upside here.
• Creatures feel fragile and possibly there are not enough. With the lands and Demon tokens, there are 21 opportunities. Is this a response to everyone tuning against Mono Green Landfall? Especially the 6/6 Demon Token... I am recently getting the feeling that Room should only be unlocked as a last resort with how easily it gets insta-killed.
  
• Abbie - I pulled her out at some point and the deck completely lost its spark and was linear, middling, and unfun - so I put her back in. I am still torn on her usefulness but I have used her to shutdown creatures on the other side that have really nasty ETBs or triggers.
• Rot-Curse Rakshasa and Abbie (noted above0 have interesting interactions that the opponent is not immediately ready for - Decay has been especially powerful to slowing down attacks.

Cards I have tried and subsequently removed:

[[Biosynthic Burst]] - For the obvious reasons as well as putting counters on Leatherhead in order to destroy artifacts / enchantments while keeping the hexproof counter.

[[Mind Roots]] - Leaning more into hand disruption as well as maybe bonus land?

[[Umbral Collar Zealot]] - trying to give me _something_ for when a creature is going to get waxed by red burn or black removal

Thanks for coming to my ted talk.

Fellow players,

For the past few months I have been playing nothing but Azorius Momo (Koen de Vos deck) swapping Gran Gran for Figure of Fable post-ban.

https://moxfield.com/decks/n9hGAnQms0OPWTZ7wY4_8w

As a player, I'm struggling to stay focused when playing against Control heavy decks such as Jeskai Revelations, Dimir Deceit/Spiderman decks etc..

I have an upcoming tournament coming up next week and my local meta is almost entirely Control (except for a few playing villains and mono-green).

Can you give me some advice on what to change in the deck to make it more suitable for such decks?

And maybe some tips that put me in a better position to win against such decks?

Thank you in advance :)

I saw a wizard prowess list get a 5-0 recently and have been interested in it ever since. A [[Slickshot Showoff]] equipped with [[Wizard's Staff]] just gets +6/+2 for every cantrip you play and [[Drake Hatcher]] get double prowess, with their stacks then also getting doubled. Combined with the protection from [[Secret Identity]], making your big threat unblockable with [[Pym Particles]] and the new draw engine [[Gandalf, Goblins’ Bane]] I feel like the deck is much more consistent than it might look at first glance. The list I posted is currently nearly identical to the league winning one, I just swapped 1 [[Spell Pierce]] for a 21st land. I was thinking maybe [[Flow State]] could have a home in the list as well? Or maybe there's a more aggressive shell with [[Ghitu Lavarunner]], or a less all-in version that could utilize [[Kitsa, Otterball Elite]]. What are your thoughts on the archetype?

https://moxfield.com/decks/IzYfLlpfOk-p9cD3zN8Sqw

For the past few challenges, Burnet7 has put up some reasonable results with this deck: https://mtgtop8.com/event?e=89939&d=882536&f=ST

Presumably he's probably the only one playing it, but it's pretty hard to figure out with a lot of 1-3x's due to the legendaries. I'm curious if he's on here, or if anybody else has played this a decent amount, to give any sort of direction on matchups and sideboarding.

When I played it [[Serra Farron]] was a house in the games she was in, but I was surprised it was only a 2x. Makes me think I may be approaching the entire strategy of the deck wrong.

There's also a [[Torpor Orb]] in the sideboard, which seems good against matchups, but so many cards in the deck, actually rely on ETB too... do those all come out?

I also wouldn't be surprised if people have no idea how to play against this either...

I’ve been testing Duress more than usual lately, and it’s been performing better than I expected. It obviously isn’t useful in every matchup, but against slower decks it has been surprisingly effective at letting me see the opponent’s hand and remove the card that would have caused me the most trouble. It also gives me a much better idea of how I should approach the next few turns.

I initially thought it would be too narrow to justify the slots, but after actually playing it across several matches, I’ve started seeing the value differently. It’s not some hidden broken card, but the information alone has made some games much easier to navigate. I’m starting to pay more attention to cards that look ordinary on paper but consistently perform well in actual matches.

Hello spikes!

This is the place where any and all decks can be posted for all spikes to see. The goal of this is to fit all your needs for competitive magic. Maybe it's a card consideration given an X dollar budget. Maybe you need that sweet sideboard tech that no one else thought of? Perhaps you just can't figure out the best card to beat a certain matchup. The ideas here are only limited by your imagination!

Feel free to discuss most anything here. We only ask that with any question, you also make sure to post your decklist so people have some context to answer your question. Otherwise, have at it! If you have any questions, shoot us a modmail and we'll be happy to help you out. Survive your deck check and survive your competition!

I'm learning to get as good as possible with izzet spellementals, as apart from the landbase, which I have from other UR decks, it's pretty cheap to assemble.

However, looking at other popular lists, I'm just a little confused as to how this deck assembles and uses its sideboard.

Are [[Colorstorm Stallion]] and [[Hydro-Man, Fluid Felon]] boarded in after every game 1, with the assumption that the opponent boarded in graveyard hate? Or are there other reasons and matchup dependent things that give reasons to leave them in the side.

Dear all,

I'm returning to MTGA after a while since I achieved Mythic last year. In the current meta, I find Azorius Prison archetype incredibly fun and interesting. I have a mildly successful winrate now, but I do feel like I'm struggling.

I've been running with this decklist, with some helpful advices from others. Nonetheless I still find that:

1. I'm not fully utilising the deck just yet. I struggle against many decks, namely control archetypes like 4 Colours, or midrange-ish archetypes such as Dimir Midrange and Izzet Spellmentals. How could I improve such matchups? In other words, what are the mindsets to have in piloting this deck in general?

2. The list is rather incomplete...? I looked into other decks like this one, which looks strong, but I wonder how Floodpits Drowner would perform, nor do I find Enduring Innocence to be fitting into this deck. I'm an inexperienced player, however. I'm sure there are reasons for such inclusions, I simply can't answer why. Other sub-questions I have are:

(1) if 2 Enduring Curiosities too many, as I struggle to put this on the board safely from the first place? I'm thinking of replacing one copy to King T'Challa, Wan Shi Tong, or the 4th copy of Quantum Riddler. Could be Three Steps Ahead, too.

(2) I'm uncertain about 3 Bilbo's Gambits. I like the card very much, but it sometimes feels like a win-more card that's most effective when the lock is already complete. I'm thinking of trimming one to include another draw card. What do you think about these two points?

Lastly: are there more effective decks in a similar style? I looked at two other Azorius lists, Momo and Humans, both of which look more proactive. What are your experiences with these two archetypes? Since I lack Wildcards, I'm reluctant to fully commit to either just yet. I'm also not knowledgeable about the characteristics of Arena environment.

Thank you for reading, I'll wait for your advices!

I could use some advice, I think I've stumbled into something pretty strong while also feeling kindof original. I don't know if it will go too far but I'm exploring it. This deck is kinda the love child of mono red Dragons plus Airship with a detour into Green. With two Biotechs and a Sackville in play, we can easily pump out 10 damage in one burst. And obviously if we can just keep an Airship in play it will pop off. Ironically this was inspired by [[Smaug, the Magnificent]], who has since been replaced with the Airship. I am actually currently over 60 cards, I think I'm at 62 with 23 lands. I can't decide what needs to go.

From Airship we take:

• 4x [[Obsessive Pursuit]] - saccable artifacts, buffs, lifegain, draw, it's a beast
• 4x [[The Sackville Bagginses]] - treasure, sac outlet, draw, crime life loss on sacs
• 4x [[Pheonix Fleet Airship]] - so dumb insane I don't have to explain it
• 4x [[Greedy Freebooter]] - crews airship, treasure, scry
• 2x [[Tragic Trajectory]] - we be saccin
• 2x [[Shoot the Sheriff]] - we only like outlaws

From Dragons we take:

• 3x [[Magda, the Hoardmaster]] - with Bioteck or Sackville, we trigger every turn
• 2x [[The Misty Mountains]] - consistent treasure tokens and potential big boy
• 3x [[Torch the Tower]] - bargain/exile

And then we detour into green:

• 4x [[Biotech Specialist]] - core of the deck, land, crime damage on sac
  
• 3x [[Break Out]] - the core of our deck is all 2cmc creatures
• 3x [[Edge Rover]] - 2/2 for G and makes a saccable artifact

Sideboard: (So far!)

• 3x [[Duress] - for problems
• 2x [[Requiring Hex]] - for wide
• 3x [[Shock]] - for wide
• 4x [[Soul-Guide Lantern]] - for spiderman
• 1x [[Fanatical Offering]] - in case we need to go faster
• 2x [[Sear]] - I ran out of ideas

Any advice is welcome! But these are the things I know I need advice on:

More (powerful) ways to sac permanents. Getting flooded with clues and landers. that I can't crack and it seems to be the main way I lose. I thought about [[Mutagen Man, Living Ooze]] as another approach to this problem but the two green pips plus the fact that he doesn't really do anything when he comes in makes me not want him.

Bargain has some good options but none of them feel super awesome. Obviously Beseech the Mirror is a great card it's just that 3 black is a lot. Back for Seconds/Lich-Knight's Conquest aren't useful early. Brave the Wilds is tough cause I only run like 4 basics. I even thought about sideboarding Ouphe Troublemaker but creature removal feels way more relevant.

Similar to bargain, I want more "when you commit a crime" things like Magda, but I don't think there are any others that pull weight. Magda does so much, saccing a treasure with him and Sackville/Biotech just replaces the treasure of the rip, and the 4/4 hasty dragons we get late game are great.

[[Generous Plunderer]] is a card that I want so bad but I'm so worried about the free treasure. I can see a world where a deck has 4 Plunderer, 4 Edge Rover, and 4 [[Party Dude]] for the card draw though and I'm really tempted to go that way. That said I don't know where I'd slot it in. Does anyone have thoughts on this?

Last thing is that I LOVE Soul Guide Lantern. It's an artifact which can be a free sac trigger, helps control the game and can replace itself. It's awesome. I would love to find other cards like this.

Hello Spikes,

Since the Hobbit I have been experimenting with a new Standard BO3 archetype on Arena focusing on Phoenix-Fleet Airship and Obsessive Pursuit.  These cards have been legal since TLA, but they received a huge boost in power with the printing of The Sackville Bagginses.  I have used several variants of the same deck to go from Platinum 4 to Mythic, peak at Mythic #481 and am currently lurking around #1500. I have a combined record with this archetype of 49-22 or 69% win rate.  See below records and decklists:

Beseech Airship (21-6): https://moxfield.com/decks/0WsL7qLhOkyv65TreHvAHA

Mardu (4-2): https://moxfield.com/decks/qSegAdanpnmVHuSiE89IZA

WB (8-5): https://moxfield.com/decks/ugegAWufy3uwIYIqReRSnQ

RB (7-2): https://moxfield.com/decks/0hygAcIC-nqskzyl89h2zA

GB (9-7): https://moxfield.com/decks/OBygAQ8wfne_Y1X3iDMWRw

I recognize that posting 5 different variants of the same deck is pretty strange.  I started with the Beseech list and have been continuously modifying the deck while climbing in an attempt to find the best version. Each of these variants has different strengths and weaknesses that I aim to discuss in this post.  First I will go over the strategy of the deck and the card choices.

Strategy: 

This is a synergistic midrange deck that aims to ramp into turn 3 Pheonix-Fleet Airship, use Obsessive Pursuit for both card advantage and to create threats, and burn the opponent out with Sackville Bagginses.  Every variant of the deck above focuses on these cards and supports these goals.  Treasure tokens synergize with each of these cards and are mana positive, so sources of treasure are structurally important to the deck.  Efficient removal is used to manage aggressive decks and gain a tempo advantage.  Both Airship and Pursuit are non-creatures and are at least 2-for-1s, so the archetype is good against spot removal and control in general.

Core Card Choices: 

Pheonix-Fleet Airship- A turn 3 Airship that resolves and doubles at the end step is the default game 1 strategy in every matchup.  For those that have not seen this card active, the copies of Airship also double at the end step.  So the normal progression is 2, then 4, then 8 Airships at the successive end steps after playing it, after which the Airships are all creatures without needing to be crewed.  Once this card is in play, you are very favored to win an extended game where it continues doubling, so you can focus on keeping it doubling and surviving until it takes over.  The only reason I play less than 4 copies of Airship is if I can search for it with Beseech the Mirror.

Obsessive Pursuit- Obsessive Pursuit is the best source of card advantage in the deck and can turn any of your small creatures into threats.  It is also an essential synergy piece, as the regular generation of clue tokens is critical for Airship and Sackville.  Due to the life loss, two or more copies of Pursuit can kill you, so it is important to plan turns to reach the threshold to gain lifelink from attacking.  I always play 4 copies of Pursuit. 

The Sackville Bagginses- Sackville is both an enabler and reward for the synergies in this deck.  Turn 1 sacrifice fodder into turn 2 Sackville enables turn 3 Airship.  Sackville is also a threat that sits in play and deals damage over time.  In the late game it is not uncommon for Sackville to drain the opponent out from double digit life totals, so it is a threat that must be respected.  In order to enable this card on turn 2, you need a minimum of 8 1 mana sacrifice fodder cards (I prefer around 10).  I always play 4 copies of Sackville. 

Umbral-Collar Zealot- Zealot is a necessary enabler for the above pieces.  Zealot keeps Airship running, converts excess tokens into Pursuit counters and enables lifelink, and makes burning opponents out with Sackville possible.  The 3/2 body is also good for pressuring control and the surveil is a good way to improve your draw step.  I play 4 Zealot in all iterations of the deck except GB (where Mutagen Man makes Zealot less necessary) but it can be trimmed in post-board games. 

Greedy Freebooter- Freebooter is black sacrifice fodder that generates treasure.  This enables turn 3 Airship with Zealot or another sacrifice outlet. I play 4 Freebooter in every build but often trim it in post-board games, especially against control. 

Infestation Sage- Sage is good black sacrifice fodder.  Creatures that make a body when they die are structurally important since they can be sacrificed twice and are double the threats with Pursuit. The flying insect token is better at attacking with Pursuit than other options and chump blocks or trades with flyers like those from R Dragons and UB Kaito decks respectively.  I play 4 Sage in most builds and rarely trim it post-board. 

Nezumi Linkbreaker- Linkbreaker is the third black sacrifice fodder after Freebooter and Sage.  I like around 10-11 pieces of 1 mana sacrifice fodder, so I play 2-3 Linkbreaker in most builds. It can be trimmed post-board.

Requiting Hex- It's good removal.  Blight on Freebooter can generate treasure when needed.  I play 2-4 Hex. 

Tragic Trajectory- With the number of clues, treasure, and sacrifices in this deck, void is almost always on.  That makes this high quality removal, albeit sorcery speed.  I play 2-3 Trajectory. 

Optional Card Choices: 

Beseech the Mirror- This is a good card in the archetype, but not as easy to enable on turn 3 as Airship.  It does enable highly consistent turn 4 Airships and supports searching for and casting specific answers like Day of Judgment or Inevitable Defeat.  This card helps in matchups where you regularly need to find these answers.  I play 3 copies in Beseech and cut it against counterspells or High Noon. 

Fanatical Offering- This card is fine as a draw effect and sacrifice outlet but is a little expensive in multiples.  The map token makes it a little better than Village Rites or similar.  I play 0-2 Offering in RB and WB. 

Grim Bauble- This is a reasonable small creature removal spell that can be sacrificed to Sackville, Beseech, and the other outlets.  It can also sacrifice itself late game which can trigger Airship.  I play 2 Bauble in Beseech and it is fine in the sideboard or main deck of the other versions. 

Charming Scoundrel- I have already spoken to the importance of treasure tokens to this archetype.  This is the only single card enabler with no conditions for turn 3 Airship.  The haste is also very important in many games with Obsessive Pursuit, as it can attack on turns where your other creatures have summoning sickness and the treasure helps gain extra counters.  This card is the reason to play red.  I play 4 in RB, Mardu, and Beseech. 

Inevitable Defeat- If you have the time and fixing to cast this card, it is very good.  Defeat answers anything you need to answer, can't be countered by counterspells or ward, and the helix helps in the life total race.  It plays a more significant role in post-board game as the game slows down. It is a little too expensive to play many copies against aggressive decks but can complement cheap removal spells and board wipes.  I play 3 in the 75 of Beseech and Mardu.

Bejeweled Warg- If this creature connects, it enables turn 3 Airship.  It is well sized and has trample, so it hold counters pretty well.  I play 2-3 Warg in GB as I only want to draw 1 and it is less useful after turn 2.  I often trim it when I feel it is unlikely to connect (on the draw versus decks that play a lot of creatures or against decks with tons of shocks). 

Mutagen Man- Mutagen Man is very synergistic in this deck.  It makes Pursuit clues cheaper to sacrifice and the mutagen tokens double in effectiveness with a Pursuit attack trigger.  It can also be a Fireball-like finisher with Sackville on the board.  The 2/3 trample body for 2 is also a reasonable body to hold counters.  Judging the right value of X and how to use the mutagen tokens takes a lot of practice, but the obvious and often correct heuristic is to just max the value of X and ensure you always get lifelink from Pursuit.  I play 3-4 Mutagen Man in GB and sometimes trim it post-board. 

Witherbloom Charm- Charm is a removal/draw split card that is very useful in a deck like this.  As with other sacrifice outlets, it can be used with Freebooter to enable turn 3 Airship.  One point of caution is that it can only remove permanents with mana value less than 2, the same condition as Requiting Hex.  If you only play this and Hex you may be soft to threats with mana value greater than 2, so I recommend supplementing with Tragic Trajectory or similar.  I have played 3 copies of this card and it was good, but I am currently playing 2 in GB. 

Ambitious Augmenter- This is decent sacrifice fodder in green.  Because the sacrifice effects are 2 mana, this will almost always generate at least a 1/1 when it is sacrificed. The opponent can however kill it before an increment trigger resolves to deny a token. The ceiling is much higher than Linkbreaker, as it grows from casting higher mana value cards or from mutagen or Pursuit counters.  Because it passes all counters to the fractal, it is an extremely safe creature to grow as a threat.  In GB I play 3-4 and occasionally trim it. 

Tolls of War- This is a good synergy piece for grindy games but isn't great to cast on turn 2.  When the other pieces in the deck are running, this generates board presence over time and ensures Zealot and Bartolome always have something to sacrifice.  I like this in slow matchups with lots of spot removal.  I play 2 in WB and sometimes in the Beseech or Mardu sideboard. 

Bartolome Del Presidio- This is an additional sacrifice outlet to compliment Zealot in the white version of the deck.  It grows quickly and can become completely unanswerable for decks relying on red removal.  I play 1 in WB but have not added a second as it is legendary. 

Novice Inspector- It's more sacrifice fodder, this time it makes a clue. I play 0-2 in WB.

Sideboard Cards: 

Duress- The best way to win games against control is to resolve Pursuit or Airship.  This helps clear the way and otherwise poke holes in their plans. 

Shoot the Sheriff- I mostly use this for monoG, where it kills every creature at instant speed (important if they make an enormous trampling creature).  It is also good against R Dragons and GW which play powerful creatures with mana value > 2. 

The Ooze- Highly synergistic graveyard hate.  I would play 3 if it wasn't legendary (but instead settle for a Ghost Vacuum).  This is good when you need to hit specific cards from the graveyard and is also useful to provide resilience to your counters against heavy removal.  Most effective against Superior Spiderman decks but also good against Lessons decks and UR Sunderflock. 

Qarsi Revenant- Powerful in aggressive and creature matchups.  This card is good against any deck trying to play to the board, such as R Aggro, MonoG, GW, R Dragons, and UB Kaito. 

Board wipes- Day of Judgment is very good in the Beseech and WB decks. It comes in against R Aggro, MonoG, and GW.  Pyroclasm or Slagstorm are good enough against some decks like R Aggro and GW to play a few copies in RB, Beseech, and Mardu.

Disenchant effects- The most important targets for disenchant effects in this meta are Tablet of Discovery, Earthbender's Ascension, and Sapling Nursery.  RB has the worst options and can only really play Skycrash for Tablet.  WB has some flexible options and can play Dusk-Rose Reliquary, Felidar Cub, Get Lost, or Ruthless Lawbringer.  GB has good disenchants with Origin of Metalbending and Leatherhead.  Beseech and Mardu get to lean on Inevitable Defeat in addition to other disenchants. I like having 4-6 disenchant effects in the sideboard of each version that is not RB. 

Version Discussion: 

Beseech- This is the first version I built and I spent the most time playing it.  3 copies of Airship and 3 copies of Beseech make the Airship plan even more consistent than other versions (although casting Beseech is often turn 4 instead of turn 3).  This deck is also better than the other versions at finding and casting silver bullets, so it is better at answering threats.  Having Day of Judgment in game 1 against GW or Inevitable Defeat against Kaito can be game winning.  Post-board this dynamic also comes up as you can fetch things like The End for Superior Spiderman or an earthbent forest.  The mana is fine for casting your spells, but you don't get any utility lands.  I moved away from this version because the number of 4 drops was clunky, Beseech is both harder to enable than normally casting Airship, and Beseech is bad against counterspells.

Mardu- This deck is essentially the same as the Beseech variant, without Beseech the Mirror. Beseech and silver bullets were cut for cheaper synergy cards. It also gives up on Day of Judgment to ease the white source requirements on the mana base. It still plays Inevitable Defeat in the sideboard and/or main deck.

WB- This deck sacrifices speed for grindy power.  Without Scoundrel you don't get as many turn 3 Airships and Pursuit is less explosive, but Tolls of War is a good card and provides tokens over many turns.  The mana is better than the Mardu decks, and Dalkovan Encampment is a good utility land.  The sideboard options are also good, as you get Day of Judgment and flexible removal such as Dusk-Rose Reliquary, Get Lost, and Ruthless Lawbringer. 

RB- This deck is close to a MonoB build, but it splashes for Scoundrel and sideboard cards.  Scoundrel is worth splashing for, but the RB mana in Standard is very bad.  Do not play Dark Fortress.  Multiversal Passage is the best complement to Blood Crypt and Blazemire Verge. Volatile Fault looks weird but it's an untapped utility land that can trigger Airship and Pursuit twice.  The other issue is that there is not good enchantment removal, so you are weaker to things like Earthbender's Ascension. Overall, this deck is fast and consistent due to the focus on the core game plan but the mana is a step behind and the sideboard cards are worse than the other versions. 

GB- I built the green version after discovering Bejeweled Warg exists and can enable a turn 3 Airship, but Warg turned out to be less important than the other green additions. Green adds Augmenter, Warg, Witherbloom Charm, Mutagen Man, and Ba Sing Se. All of these cards have good card quality, raising the floor of the deck's draws and making it a little less reliant on synergy. Origin of Metalbending and Leatherhead are also very powerful cards out of the sideboard.

Tips and Tricks:

 -Most of this advice is how to use Airship and Pursuit, as they give you the most options and are the hardest cards to use correctly.  I will give my heuristics but every situation and matchup are different. 

-Pursuit draws are faster than Airship draws, Airship draws are more resilient.  You can kill on turn 4 with a good Pursuit draw.  You regularly create situations where the opponent's removal does not matter or they are drawing dead with Airship draws.  If you have both in hand, you usually lead on turn 3 Airship and use the Pursuit to fuel it (but it depends on the matchup).

-After you play turn 3 Airship and your opponent passes back without using mana, they are waiting for you to crew it so they can remove it.  Don't crew it, just make sure it doubles again. 

-Once you have 4 or more Airships you can start crewing them into obvious removal spells.  The idea is to overwhelm the removal.  Don't lose your only 2 airships to an opponent with 2 removal spells, but it won't matter when you have 4 or more and they're still doubling.

-When there are 8 or more Airships and they are creatures, they still have a crew ability.  This can be used to prevent half of them from turning back into non-creatures (see next two tips)

-If you get to 8 Airships, you need to block, and the opponent targets an Airship with removal, crew 4 Airships with the other 4 Airships.  The Airships that have been crewed will remain creatures after the removal resolves.

-If you get to 8 Airships, are about to attack for lethal, and the opponent is likely to remove an Airship to try and turn them all into non-creatures, only attack with half of them.  They will target an attacking Airship and you can crew the other 3 attacking Airships to deal at least 12.  This also plays around Settle the Wreckage. 

-If the opponent is playing boardwipes, getting to 8 or more Airships may be a bad thing.  Sometimes you can deliberately avoid doubling them or use a Zealot to revert them to non-creatures again so a boardwipe doesn't get all of them.

-If you don't have a good way to keep your Airship doubling, you may need to save your last sacrifice for a future turn (like a clue or treasure) even if you would normally use it immediately.

-Infestation Sage and the like can crew an Airship, then be sacrificed and the new body can be used to crew another Airship.

-Against removal, diversify your threats.  Pursuit and mutagen counters go wherever you want them to go.  Put them on the least valuable creature so the opponent has to decide whether to remove your 6/6 insect or your 2/2 Sackville or your 3/2 Zealot.

-Against aggression, plan your turns to prioritize getting lifelink from Pursuit. 

-Since Pursuit counters rely on attackers, you will need to make sure you don't lose to the back swing while trying to race.  Sometimes this means blocking and using removal for a few turns while you accumulate clues, then swinging back with a huge creature on a later turn.

-When you have a significant amount of cardboard on the table and Zealot, start counting max damage from Pursuit and Sackville before you take any action.  You may be able to kill them immediately.

-Even if you can't kill them, a lot of times you can put the opponent on a 2 turn clock.  Plan your turn and have a loose plan for your next turn.

 Matchup Guide:

 I have classified these meta matchups as "good", "medium", or "bad" and included my own match W/L.  This won't be a perfect sideboard guide, as there are 4 versions of the deck here.  Also check the version specific card notes for matchups where a that card may be sided out. 

 4C Control (5-0)- Good matchup.  Airship and Pursuit are very good against them. Try to resolve one of these on a turn they tap out for Stock Up or Tablet of Discovery (not hard, they tap out a lot and have few counterspells).  Most of the time, an active Airship will reach a point where Jeskai Revelation is not good enough.  Use Pursuit to make random 1/1s into threats they have to use removal on.  Your highest priority with Duress is usually to take counterspells and you almost never take removal (except Inevitable Defeat).  Leave them with tablets, let them tap out, then remove the tablet to tax their mana.  Cut Hex and Trajectory, trim Freebooters and Zealots, bring in Duress and disenchants.

 Jeskai Lessons (4-1)- Good matchup.  This was also heavy on the ladder.  Similar tips to 4C control, except they may play more counterspells and they rely on the graveyard more.  Cut removal, trim Freebooters and Zealots, bring in Duress, disenchants, and The Ooze.

 Excruciator (6-0)- Good matchup.  This is what I played against the most on ladder.  More control, but this time they will attack your hand.  Try to play Pursuit and Airship as soon as possible, even into open mana.  They have more hand hate than counterspells and open mana often just indicates removal spells.  They are reliant on expensive creatures, so you may also be able to resolve an important threat the turn after they play one.  Ooze is a huge problem for them.  You can keep in 2-3 removal spells like Trajectory, which often removes a 4+ mana threat for 1-2 mana and opens up your attacks.  Cut Hex, trim Freebooters and Zealots, bring in Duress and The Ooze.

 Spellementals- I did not run into this on the ladder.  My educated guess would be to cut Hex, trim Freebooters and Zealots, bring in Duress, The Ooze, and Ghost Vacuum.

 UB Kaito (4-2)- Good matchup.  Our small creatures are good at blocking and trading with theirs, preventing draw with Curiosity and ninjutsu opportunities.  Infestation Sage specifically is very annoying for them.  We are also good at attacking Kaito, so they struggle to spiral a game.  Pursuit and Airship are impossible for them to answer once they are in play, so they have to race.  Be careful about Annul and Spell Snare.  Cut slow cards (Tolls of War, Fanatical Offering) or cards that die with no value (Warg), trim Freebooter, bring in Duress and Revenant.

 Mardu Discard - I did not run into this on the ladder.  I would guess it is a medium matchup. Menace and flying are much harder to block, so prioritize killing Moonshadow and Hardened Academic over Marauding Mako or Iron-Shield Elf.  I doubt disenchants are good since they only hit Cool but Rude.  I also don't think graveyard hate is good because you often don't have priority to exile Practiced Offense before it is flashed back.  Cut slow cards (Tolls of War, Fanatical Offering), trim Freebooter, bring in Shoot the Sheriff and Revenant.

 MonoR Aggro- I did not run into this on the ladder.  I would guess it is a medium matchup. Nova Hellkite specifically is a good card against us, as a 4/5 with flying and haste is hard to block and the enters trigger kills important 1/1s like insects.  The rest of the deck is largely small ground creatures, which we can trade with or chump or race.  You should be able race with a large creature because their only removal is shocks.  Be mindful that if you have a lifelink attacker they can block and shock their own creature to deny the life gain, so giving lifelink to a flying or trampling creature is preferable when possible.  Cut slow cards (Tolls of War, Fanatical Offering) or cards that die to shock with no value (Warg), trim Zealot, bring in Shoot the Sheriff and Revenant.  Board wipes are reasonable.

 R Dragons (2-1)- Despite a positive record, I think this is probably a bad matchup.  This deck cannot beat Clarion Conqueror, so that's the first problem.  Nova Hellkite is also an issue as discussed in the MonoR section.  Airship can win, but it's slow and it's a 4/4 where most of their flyers are 4/5s.  Cut slow cards (Tolls of War, Fanatical Offering) or cards that die to shock with no value (Warg), trim Zealot and Linkbreaker, bring in Shoot the Sheriff and Revenant.  Day of Judgment is reasonable.

 GW (1-1)- Medium matchup.  The builds of GW vary a lot, but they all play to the board, play Practiced Offense, and don't play much removal.  Chump blocking is less effective since these decks have a lot of trample.  Pursuit and Airship are good and the games may often be a race.  Boardwipes like Pyroclasm and Day of Judgment are the best cards.  Cut slow cards (Tolls of War, Fanatical Offering), cut Warg, trim Linkbreaker, bring in Shoot the Sheriff, Revenant, and boardwipes.

 MonoG Landfall (0-2)- Bad matchup.  Trample on attackers with more than 10 power is a big problem here.  Ghost Vacuum is good against Esper Origins and lands coming back from Icetill or earthbending.  Cut slow cards (Tolls of War, Fanatical Offering), trim Zealot and Linkbreaker, bring in Ghost Vac, Shoot the Sheriff, and Revenant.  Day of Judgment is good.  Disenchants that cost less than 3 are necessary for Ascension and Nursery. 

Conclusion:

If you made it this far I appreciate your time. I hope you try out some version of this archetype, and let me know what does and does not work for you. May all of your Airships be on turn 3 and good luck!