The METAbreaker (revised)

Standard Control Hatebears Midrange WUB (Esper)

Sorin_Markov_1947

Land (23)

• 2x Fabled Passage
• 3x Godless Shrine
• 3x Hallowed Fountain
• 5x Island
• 1x Plains
• 5x Swamp
• 4x Watery Grave

Creature (13)

• 3x Massacre Girl
• 4x Overwhelmed Apprentice
• 3x The Haunt of Hightower
• 3x Vantress Gargoyle

Instant (8)

• 4x Drown in the Loch
• 4x Thought Collapse

Sorcery (10)

• 4x Cry of the Carnarium
• 2x Thought Erasure
• 4x Unmoored Ego

Planeswalker (3)

• 3x Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer

Enchantment (3)

• 3x Ethereal Absolution

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Sideboard

Instant (6)

• 4x Mystical Dispute
• 2x Noxious Grasp

Sorcery (5)

• 2x Devout Decree
• 3x Duress

Creature (4)

• 4x Tithe Taker

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I love anti-meta decks, and this meta is one of the ripest for hate. Aristocrats needs stuff in the graveyard, adventures needs small creatures, flash likes small creatures too, fires lacks interaction, and all of them henge on one card. This deck has a ton of flying, many pseudo-boardwipes, exiling cards, and Unmoored Ego .

I completely redid this deck after realizing that I was putting too much emphasis on large creatures, and the faster half of my deck was slow and clunky.

• Overwhelmed Apprentice is our ideal start. He's just awesome. It wouldn't be inappropriate to mulligan a hand just because he isn't in it. He gives us cards in the graveyard for Vantress Gargoyle and Drown in the Loch, he's a 1/2, scries 2, and is just gooooood.
• Mu Yanling stalls the opponent and gives us more control over the skies. Even if you only minus her when she comes out and you get no more value, it's still a 3 mana 4/4 with flying.
• Thought Collapse gives us another counterspell, and helps get cards in our opponent's graveyard for cards like Vantress Gargoyle or Drown in the Loch .
• Vantress Gargoyle is some of our earliest hits. You won't be aiming to block with him, but 5 mana in the skies every turn starting on turn 2-3 is pretty good.
• Murderous Rider is some of our only spot removal, but he's clunky compared to how this deck likes to roll.
• Drown in the Loch gives us a very powerful tool when we need: a counterspell/kill spell combination. It can be a little tricky to get the cards you need in the graveyard when this deck prefers exiling, but a good pilot can pull it off.
• Massacre Girl is the first of our psuedo-boardwipes (that I've mentioned). Our bigger creatures won't always be affected by it, and it's absolutely insane with The Haunt of Hightower on-board. It's definitely not a small point that she's also a 4/4 with menace.
• Cry of the Carnarium is not only Flame Sweep , it exiles creatures too. Works great against sacrifice and other go-wide strategies, and can also help with some larger creatures.
• Ethereal Absolution is the main reason this deck splashes white. It's just great. It doesn't give cat combos time to activate abilities, it makes our wipes more powerful, it makes our creatures stronger... What more do you want?
• The Haunt of Hightower is great with our wipes. Having a 3/3 flying lifelink for 6 mana is below-average, but start killing a few creatures or milling some, and he's a towering champion!
• Thought Erasure is our hand disruption, allowing us to further control our opponent's gameplay as well as giving us bodies in the grave for other cards.
• Unmoored Ego .... I don't know why this card isn't a 4-of in every deck that contains dimir colors. Take all four copies of a card into exile when every deck in the format revolves around a single card? Yes, please! It's also worth noting that it can target lands, so don't be afraid to target, maybe, the opponent's shock lands (or if you have several at once, go for all their sources of one color).

Sideboarding guide

AristoCats

Unmoored Ego target: Trail of Crumbs or Korvold, Fae-Cursed King for Jund (usually). Mayhem Devil for Rakdos. Our deck is pretty well built for this matchup, so not much sideboarding is needed. I'd still probably go with +2 Tithe Taker , +2 Devout Decree , -2 Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer , -1 Thought Collapse and -1 Thought Erasure .

Jeskai Fires

Unmoored Ego target: Fires of Invention . This is probably one of our worst matchups. You need to keep control of the skies, disrupt their flow, and always play around a Time Wipe . Fortunately, most of their wipe ability comes from Deafening Clarion , which we aren't too vulnerable to. I'd go with +3 Duress , +3 Mystical Dispute (for the cavalier and time wipe), and -4 Cry of the Carnarium , -2 Massacre Girl .

Grixis fires

Unmoored Ego target: Fires of Invention or Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God . This is a little better of a matchup, since grixis plays more around planeswalkers. Take out the key ones, and try to avoid the control cards. +3 Duress , +2 Devout Decree , and maybe some Mystical Dispute s. Again, wipes aren't much use here, so -4 Cry of the Carnarium , probably -1 Ethereal Absolution , and if you need more to make room for Mystical Dispute s, take out another Ethereal Absolution and then start on the Massacre Girl s.

Golgari/selesnya adventures

Unmoored Ego target: Edgewall Innkeeper or Murderous Rider or Lucky Clover are all acceptable. Go-wide strategies are vulnerable to our wipes, so use those effectively and don't let them combo off. +2 Noxious Grasp , -2 Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer would be what I'd go with here.

Izzet flash

Unmoored Ego target: Gadwick, the Wizened . This can be a little tricky, but play the boardwipe game until they run out of counterspells. +3 Tithe Taker +4 Mystical Dispute , and +2 Duress since a big strength of flash is its opponent doesn't know what it's about to play, and duress gives us a peek. And with luck we get one of their counterspells. -2 The Haunt of Hightower , -2 Ethereal Absolution , -4 Thought Collapse (too expensive a counterspell to be effective here), -1 Unmoored Ego (since it'll get countered a lot).

Simic flash/ramp

Unmoored Ego target: Nissa, Who Shakes the World (just be careful of counterspells!). Same thinking as with Izzet flash, but with more wariness. Simic flash is a little heavier on counterspells (although ramp isn't). With ramp, Leafkin Druid is one of our only worries besides Hydroid Krasis , which has been busted since the day it was printed. That's why you need to get it with Unmoored Ego with urgency, or get it with Thought Erasure . Play around the spells, especially Quench , and take the key cards away. For the sideboard, +4 Mystical Dispute , +2 Duress , +4 Tithe Taker , -1 etherial absolution, -2 Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer , -4 Thought Collapse , -2 Cry of the Carnarium , -1 Massacre Girl .

If you're still worried about this deck, and haven't seen Andrew Elenbogen's article on this, I recommend you check it out here: https://articles.starcitygames.com/premium/elenbogen-article/

Rakdos Fires

Unmoored Ego target: God-Eternal Bontu (then Mayhem Devil ). This is a new offshoot of two popular archetypes: Fires decks, and sacrifice decks. It's very hard to play, but from what I've seen it's very effective. The best way to "sideboard" against this deck is to be familiar with it and how it plays. I'd sideboard in 2x Devout Decree and 2x Duress , -2 Cry of the Carnarium , -2 Massacre Girl .

Let me know if I missed any metas or you think the guide is incorrect somewhere!

Top Ranked	Achieved #25 position overall 5 years ago Achieved #1 position in Standard 5 years ago
Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 29 - 4 Rares 10 - 8 Uncommons 4 - 3 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	3.19
Tokens	Elemental Bird 4/4 U, Emblem Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer, Spirit 1/1 WB
Folders	Hey, look at these, Cool decks, good decks