Welcome Magic lovers!
The story of the Standard format is told in numbers, and the numbers don't lie.
The data from the last two weeks of Magic Online Challenges, Regional Championship and Showcase Qualifier tournaments, in addition to in-store events such as Standard Store Championships, has all pointed to one conclusion: Dimir Midrange is currently the best deck in Standard.
Making up just over 20% of registered tournament decks, it's not only the most played archetype, but it also boasts one of the highest win rates, despite having a rather large target on its back. How does it manage to still put up stellar results in spite of the other top decks’ efforts to curb it? In a word, adaptability.
Dimir Midrange is in the rare position of not only having a plethora of powerful cards to choose from when determining the final configuration of the deck, but it can also shift back and forth between whichever build seems most potent for any given tournament.
For example, when the red aggressive decks were on top of the metagame, the Dimir deck moved away from countermagic and Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor, and instead packed a playset of Preacher of the Schism in the main deck.
When the Mono-white control decks rose up to feed on all the Mono-red and Gruul decks running rampant, the Dimir deck simply swapped out its Preachers for the full four Kaito, Bane of Nightmares and more cheap flying threats to enable them, such as Mockingbird and Spectral Sailor. Are Domain Overlords keeping the Dimir Pilot down? Try a couple of main deck Tishana's Tidebinder.
Not only are these swaps easy to make, but the cards being added still play perfectly with all the other cards in the deck and still contribute to the deck’s overall plan, unlike other decks that must dilute their main game plan in order to run what essentially amounts to sideboard cards in their main deck.
It's this unique adaptability that gives Dimir Midrange the tools to weather any storm, and that makes it very tough to take down even if players are gunning for it. The deck also gets to pick up any new tools in its colors from every set, and there have been a couple of great additions recently. With aggressive red-based strategies starting to decline in popularity, the current versions of Dimir Midrange are all-in on Kaito, Bane of Nightmares, and this is reflected in many of the other choices in the deck.
New Additions
For example, one new addition that's been incredible for Dimir has been Soulstone Sanctuary, the beefed-up version of the classic Stalking Stones from Tempest. This creature-land is vaguely reminiscent of the insanely powerful Faceless Haven, which eventually had to be banned in Standard. Unlike Haven, however, Soulstone Sanctuary needs to be activated only once, allowing the pilot to untap the following turn and use their mana to play more spells, rather than having to pump it into attacking each turn. Fountainport, the previous utility land of choice in the deck, also suffered from requiring mana each turn to activate it, and has been cut entirely to make way for the new Sanctuary.
This does create a downside; namely, the Soulstone Sanctuary is susceptible to sorcery-speed removal, such as spells like Sunfall and Lay Down Arms, among others. However, it's not difficult to reach a game-state where the opponent has had to spend all of their removal on other threats, allowing the Sanctuary to remain safely on the battlefield.
In addition to being a powerful creature-land, Soulstone Sanctuary's true benefit comes from the emblems created by Kaito, Bane of Nightmares. Since the Sanctuary counts as all creature types, it is conveniently a ninja which gets buffed by Kaito's +1 loyalty ability. This frequently makes it a dragon-sized creature (or larger), with vigilance in the late game, which is often enough to push the Dimir Midrange player across the finish line.
Other recent additions to the deck that have seen high-level play in Dimir include the new rat rogue from Bloomburrow, Azure Beastbinder, which saw its debut during the World Championships back in September, and can still be a great choice against other midrange decks, shrinking and turning off powerful three-drops like Glissa Sunslayer and Preacher of the Schism.
Floodpits Drowner is currently the two-drop of choice to play alongside the irreplaceable Faerie Mastermind as it provides a big tempo boost in the early game while also being an incredible creature to swap out for Kaito on turn three via ninjutsu.
This past weekend we saw yet another two-mana creature with flash show up in the Showcase-Qualifier-winning list on Magic Online, Saiba Cryptomancer, which not only protects a key threat from an opposing removal spell, but can also be neatly reused by picking it up with Kaito.
The removal suite is also very malleable and can be adjusted to tackle whatever the pilot believes the format will throw at them.
Typically, Cut Down and Go for the Throat have been the most crucial spells when it comes to dealing with the opponent's threats, though a rise in the number of Anoint with Affliction being played speaks to a need to deal with things like Enduring Vitality, Enduring Innocence and even the odd Unstoppable Slasher running around. It also does great work against creatures with death triggers, like Heartfire Hero and Mosswood Dreadknight. Playing at least one or two makes sense at the moment.
Another removal spell that's seen its stock rising recently is Sheoldred's Edict, mostly as a response to the power of the Domain Overlords decks and in particular, Zur, Eternal Schemer and his ability to create large, hexproof creatures.
Again, notice the similarities between these various options: they are all cheap to cast, have identical costs, and all of them are instants or have flash. This means swapping from one to the other, or playing a mix of several, costs Dimir nothing in terms of deck composition and the overall plan it's trying to execute, and this is why the archetype is so hard to pin down and beat.
Sideboarding
Sideboard choices are plentiful, and careful consideration should go into each one before locking it in. With the sudden resurgence of Jeskai Convoke due to white decks eschewing Temporary Lockdown in favor of Authority of the Consuls against aggro, the Dimir Midrange decks have found it necessary to play not one, but two Gix's Command.
Three or four Preacher of the Schism in the board is a must against all the aggressive decks still running around, while a single Sheoldred, the Apocalypse also pitches in against them.
Three Tishana's Tidebinder in the seventy-five is also a must, though these days most pilots are opting to start with a pair of them in the main deck due to the power of Domain Overlords.
A pair of Ghost Vacuum still seems to be the weapon of choice against the graveyard-based decks, although we've seen a drop in popularity among decks like Azorius Oculus and reanimator lists recently.
Conclusion
Dimir Midrange certainly deserves its crown as the best deck in Standard, as demonstrated by the data, but how long will that continue to be the case? The archetype has already proven how resilient it can be, shrugging off the format's best efforts to dislodge it. Perhaps it will remain the best choice in Standard until the next set, Aether Drift, drops in the new year. All I know is that this is what I would be playing if I was heading to a Standard Magic tournament in the next few weeks.