I am a personal fan of the Rakdos midrange deck archetype with the Magic: the Gathering strategy of disrupting opponents’ hand and board while also establishing powerful creatures. In this current setting of the Lost Caverns of Ixalan Standard, the metagame has developed a new version of the Black Red Rakdos deck that has evolved from the set’s mechanic: Discover.

This deck archetype is labeled as aggro as it can curve pretty well, but it feels to me more like a Midrange kind because of its powerful gameplay evidenced during the fifth turns, and onwards.

Here is a sample decklist of the build.

I was able to pilot the deck on MTG Arena via my friend’s account and the feeling of being the role of controlling the game is just the reason why this deck can be considered as a top-tier in the current Standard metagame.

Check out below my gameplay of the deck, recorded and posted on my YouTube channel DeathMarked TV.

Jeskai is one of the five color combinations in the trading card game Magic: The Gathering. It consists of the colors blue, red, and white. A Jeskai deck is a deck that primarily uses cards of these three colors and is focused on spellcasting and control.

Jeskai decks are known for their ability to control the board by countering opponent’s spells, removing their creatures, and disrupting their game plan. They also have access to powerful “Burn” spells that deal direct damage to the opponent’s life total.

In terms of creature cards, Jeskai decks usually have utility creatures with powerful abilities that can help gain board advantage and close out the game. Best examples are Monastery Mentor and Chrome Host Seedshark.

Overall, Jeskai decks are versatile and can be played in different ways depending on the specific cards and strategies used. Some popular Jeskai decks include Jeskai Control, which focuses on controlling the board and winning through powerful spells and Planeswalkers, and Jeskai Tempo, which focuses on quickly pressuring the opponent with efficient creatures and spells.

Here below are the Magic: the Gathering Arena gameplay matches of the current Jeskai Control deck in the Standard format with March of the Machines Aftermath.

Magic: the Gathering Standard deck brews for Strixhaven update are usually found in popular MTG websites wherein they also present a whole batch of decklist in an article. One decklist that I will reference today is the one I found at MTGA Zone and the archetype is Selesnya Counters.

I usually encounter these colors as a powerhouse in the tokens strategy and I can attest when I played a similar deck back in Return to Ravnica Standard.

Going back, the deck got improved with a few Strixhaven cards and you can find the full list below.

Reference list.