While seemingly a top contender in the format for best Black-based deck, Orzhov’s popularity has shrunk over the last week (down to 7.7% at the time of writing) as Golgari has stayed steady. Orzhov has some of the same elements as Golgari but lacks the combo kill that helps close games. You can go a lot of different ways with the deck:

Tokens – take advantage of Virtue of Loyalty, Lord Skitter, Sewer King and Beza, the Bounding Spring to build up a board presence alongside value engines such as Caustic Bronco, Zoraline, Cosmos Caller and Preacher of the Schism.

Traditional Midrange – Similar concept but more focus on removal, Liliana of the Veil and a powerful top-end with Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal and/or Season of the Burrow.

Fae Blade – Using a lot of cheap cards to generate small value so Tithing Blade, Hopeless Nightmare and Novice Inspector alongside Nurturing Pixie, Braids, Arisen Nightmare and Rottenmouth Viper to get on the board quickly and build value over multiple turns. Check out this list, the deck looks a lot of fun!

Domain has gotten weaker as losing the Triomes really hurt the consistency of the deck but it’s still one of the top dogs. Heaped Harvest has been established as the go-to ramp spell allowing you to ramp into Atraxa, Grand Unifier on its own over 2 turns while gaining you 3 life on the way. The core of the deck is usually focused on the Bant colors but there are builds popping up that dip more into black for Deadly Cover-up and Urgent Necropsy. It’s still Atraxa, Grand Unifier, Archangel of Wrath and Herd Migration alongside sweepers to get the job done, while Jace, the Perfected Mind is a great win condition in some matchups. While excellent against a lot of the token-based decks, the Golgari decks have gotten much better at grinding and access to the Vraska combo kill can give Domain fits.

Here is a list that is a great starting point for lovers of the archetype!

While a traditional favorite with multiple flavors, the metagame seems quite hostile to red aggro at the moment and players have tried to adapt.

The classic red aggro shell is still here but Urabrask’s Forge has become commonplace and Sunspine Lynx has started to make more and more appearances as a top-end win condition. Planeswalkers such as Koth, Fire of Resistance are sometimes popping up in maindecks as well. Additionally, we have seen more and more Jayas make an appearance as well to transform the deck into a more resilient post-sideboard build.

Gruul is here as well with much of the same cards but Questing Druid providing the card advantage and green Talents work really well with Heartfire Hero and Emberheart Challenger. I have enjoyed this build in particular! 

If you like Lizards, Rakdos Aggro is looking to establish as well with Flamecache Gecko enabling blazing fast starts, reminiscent of Burning-Tree Emissary!

Convoke decks have morphed into 3 various decks. You have the traditional Boros Convoke that did lose Voldaren Epicure and didn’t gain any new cards which made the already inconsistent deck even more inconsistent, though the overall power level of the format has decreased as well.

Jeskai Convoke is the new hot thing and while it did show up in previous Standard, it never really took a hold prior to the rotation. Spyglass Siren replaces the Epicure quite well, but your mana becomes even more of a challenge.

The other deck that I would classify under this category is UW artifacts. It uses a lot of the same cards, but I love that this archetype can add Mockingbird to a shell of good cheap creatures, such as Novice Inspector, Warden of the Inner Sky and Regal Bunnicorn. The latter is particularly scary once you copy it and give it flying. You get a lot of resiliency thanks to Zoetic Glyph and Subterranean Schooner but the popularity of Temporary Lockdown will be an ongoing issue.

The new hotness in the meta is here! After winning the Japan Open at the hands of Yushi Uzuki, Boros Forge has become the new boogeyman of the format, with Caretaker’s Talent as the main engine and win condition of the deck. Combined with Urabrask’s Forge, Fountainport and, as surprising as it may be, Carrot Cake, the deck is very solid. Hence, it wasn’t a surprise that it immediately made a dent in MTGO challenges and started being a difficult deck to dodge on the MTGA ladder.

Yushi’s deck will have to evolve in terms of the removal suite. It does struggle against Domain, but it still feels very adaptable in the current metagame with strong removal and lots of resiliency thanks to its land package – Fountainport being an absolute all-star in the mid and late game.

The other approach is my current favorite right now and I will share with you my latest list. Traditional UW control does not have the tools to keep pace with the board heavy metagame right now, so it has morphed into a Caretaker’s Talent deck itself! Between Deduce triggering Talent (and Level 2 being able to copy Clue tokens!), Sunfall, Season of the Burrow, Elspeth and Fountainport you have enough tools to repeatedly keep triggering the Talent and counterspells seem particularly well-placed in the metagame.

My current list is an evolution of the Japan Open list by Yoshihiko Tokuyama. It features a more robust counterspell package and the addition of Stormchaser’s Talent has been surprisingly effective – being able to generate a token on the cheap for Caretaker’s Talent, returning a sweeper of counterspell with Level 2 and then with a win condition on Level 3. Season of the Burrow has also been an over-performer in grindy matchups and allowing to close the door by making five rabbits.