Welcome Magic lovers!
With the Standard Regional Championship Qualifier season about to begin, the metagame has been heating up, with tons of experimentation happening, both on Magic Arena and Magic Online. Now, the large, in-person events are starting, first with The Japan Standard Cup happening this past weekend.
When looking at the top 8 and seeing five Azorius decks, it may not seem like Standard is really that diverse after all. However, once one digs into the various lists, one discovers that there are no less than three distinct archetypes represented in that color pair alone!
Today we will be focusing on the Azorius Reanimator list that legendary Magic professional, Shuhei Nakamura piloted to a top 8 finish.
At its core, the deck is a tempo deck, leveraging cheap cantrips and interaction into a scary, three-mana threat like Haughty Djinn or Abhorrent Oculus, which can take over the game if one is able to protect either of them.
Since both of the threats in the deck are three mana, Helping Hand shines here, alongside the similar Recommission, allowing one to reanimate either creature for only a single mana. This lets the pilot leave up interaction for the inevitable second removal spell.
Speaking of removal, the only board interaction that this deck plays is tempo-based. Into the Flood Maw and Soul Partition not only provide a cheap way to create the window one needs to strike for lethal with a giant, evasive Djinn, but can also be turned on either the Haughty Djinn or Abhorrent Oculus to save them when the opponent points a removal spell their way. Getaway Glamer also makes an appearance here as only one of two 'hard' removal spells, and as a crucially important way to deal with enchantments. The second removal spell actually also doubles as creature protection, as Shuhei opted to try a single copy of Getaway Glamer to fill both roles.
Stack-based interaction in the form of Phantom Interference and Three Steps Ahead allow the Azorius pilot to lock up the game once one of its potent threats is in play, as leaving up a counterspell with a Djinn in play is as simple as not tapping one's last island. If Haughty Djinn or Abhorrent Oculus can be protected with a hard counter like Three Steps Ahead, it's very difficult to find a way to lose the game.
The deck packs plenty of velocity, not only to quickly find its powerful three-drops, but also to fill the graveyard as rapidly as possible for two main reasons. First, it pumps up the potentially massive Haughty Djinn. Second, it allows the Abhorrent Oculus to be cast quickly, and if one can slam a three-mana, dragon-that-spits-out-zombies into play on turn four, it tends to be pretty good. Picklock Prankster // Free the Fae is the best of the bunch, not only finding more action or interaction, but also putting a huge glut of cards in the graveyard in one fell swoop. Moment of Truth also does great work here as card filtering which is also capable of putting key spells in the graveyard to either reanimate with a Helping Hand, or to pump up Haughty Djinn. Sleight of Hand and Chart a Course are cheap, effective card draw, though neither fills the yard.
With only twenty lands, the deck plays on a knife's edge with its mana, with its pilot often having to keep starting hands with only a single land, then using the cantrips like Sleight of Hand to try and ensure that the mana keeps flowing off the top of the deck. The advantage of this mana-light list, however, is that the deck is extremely spell-dense, meaning most of its draws will be action once it gets the ball rolling. One won't find any Restless Anchorage here, despite its inherent power and color-fixing, as having more than four come-into-play-tapped lands would ruin the powerful early game that the deck employs. While Meticulous Archive does come into play tapped, it's necessary as a way to ensure the new Duskmourn dual land, Floodfarm Verge, makes both blue and white mana.
The sideboard is fairly straightforward, with Loran of the Third Path to deal with the ubiquitous Overlords, Talents and all the other assorted enchantments currently running around the Standard format, such as Leyline Binding.
The pair of Monastery Mentor come in against late-game decks like Domain Ramp or Azorius Control, as it's another three-mana threat that can take over the game quickly and can only be dealt with via a sweeper such as Sunfall. It also allows the deck to neatly dodge powerful graveyard-hate cards like Rest in Peace or the new Ghost Vacuum.
A playset of Elspeth's Smite is here alongside a trio of Temporary Lockdown as a concession to the fastest deck in the format, Gruul or Mono-red Aggro. Having to shift gears into the control role in those matchups is something this deck can do with ease, as its 'sweeper', Temporary Lockdown, won't take out its own three-mana threats.
The final few slots are taken up by a trio of Negate plus a single Disdainful Stroke, which are both great against opposing sweepers or giant, swingy sorceries like Herd Migration and Doppelgang. Negate can also come in against midrange decks playing problematically powerful, three-mana non-creature spells, like Liliana of the Veil in Golgari Midrange, or Caretaker's Talent and Urabrask's Forge out of the Boros Control decks.
With only a single copy of Kutzil's Flanker as a slight nod to the presence of other graveyard-based decks, this list is clearly signaling that it is confident in its ability to power out a powerful threat before its opponent's can reanimate theirs.
The deck is sleek, proactive and powerful, making it a serious contender for best deck in the current Standard format, as evidenced by its performance this past weekend. It's an excellent choice for any upcoming Standard tournament though, as usual, I caution any readers interested in trying it to get your reps in with the deck first as it's a tricky, tempo-based deck that is capable of switching gears from aggro to control on a dime. Have you taken Azorius Tempo for a spin yet? What did you think about the deck? Let me know in the comments below!
