Overperforming MTG Standard Deck Abuses Spicy Skeleton Synergies!

Over the weekend, another round of Regional Championships has been taking place. Players in the U.S. as well as South America and Southeast Asia are competing for glory, prizes, and the opportunity to earn their spots at the upcoming Pro Tour and World Championship. There’s a ton at stake here, so unsurprisingly, the vast majority of participants are wielding top-tier Standard decks.

However, as we’ve seen before, some players have chosen to stray from the norm. In a recent Regional Championship in Australia, one player piloted a unique archetype built around the power of Calamity, Galloping Inferno Calamity, Galloping Inferno Haste
Whenever Calamity attacks while saddled, choose a nonlegendary creature that saddled it this turn and create a tapped and attacking token that's a copy of it. Sacrifice that token at the beginning of the next end step. Repeat this process once.
Saddle 1 and Smuggler’s Surprise Smuggler’s Surprise Spree (Choose one or more additional costs.)
+ {2} — Mill four cards. You may put up to two creature and/or land cards from among the milled cards into your hand.
+ {4}{G} — You may put up to two creature cards from your hand onto the battlefield.
+ {1} — Creatures you control with power 4 or greater gain hexproof and indestructible until end of turn. all the way to top eight. This weekend in Southeast Asia, another player barely missed top eight utilizing a sweet Orzhov midrange deck abusing the power of Hunted Bonebrute Hunted Bonebrute Menace
When this creature enters, target opponent creates two 1/1 white Dog creature tokens.
When this creature dies, each opponent loses 3 life.
Disguise {1}{B} . This deck is too cool to ignore, so let’s take a closer look at what it’s trying to accomplish.

Maximizing Hunted Bonebrute

Orzhov midrange is a strong strategy right now in Standard. However, most decklists feature playsets of cards like Caustic Bronco Caustic Bronco Whenever this creature attacks, reveal the top card of your library and put it into your hand. You lose life equal to that card's mana value if this creature isn't saddled. Otherwise, each opponent loses that much life.
Saddle 3 (Tap any number of other creatures you control with total power 3 or more: This Mount becomes saddled until end of turn. Saddle only as a sorcery.) and Wedding Announcement Wedding Announcement At the beginning of your end step, put an invitation counter on this enchantment. If you attacked with two or more creatures this turn, draw a card. Otherwise, create a 1/1 white Human creature token. Then if this enchantment has three or more invitation counters on it, transform it. that help you win attrition battles. This deck deviates from this plan and is a bit more focused on synergy and aggression. No card highlights the deck’s main objective more than Hunted Bonebrute.

Hunted Bonebrute hits hard but is a bit awkward for most decks to make use of. Even though it technically costs three mana, most decks won’t want to cast it as a three-drop face-up. This is because the opponent will then get two blockers out of the deal that can conveniently trade for your Menacing 6/2. The typical work around is to pay three mana to Disguise Bonebrute, then flip it up to make sure the opponent doesn’t get any tokens. Unfortunately, this exchange requires a lot of mana investment, which isn’t ideal in a format dominated by cheap removal like Go for the Throat Go for the Throat Destroy target nonartifact creature. .

Luckily, this deck has a few tricks up its sleeve. First and foremost, a full playset of Doorkeeper Thrull Doorkeeper Thrull Flash
Flying
Artifacts and creatures entering don't cause abilities to trigger. makes an appearance here. Doorkeeper Thrull messes with enters-the-battlefield triggers from Artifacts and Creatures. This effect can be useful against Archangel of Wrath Archangel of Wrath Kicker {B} and/or {R} (You may pay an additional {B} and/or {R} as you cast this spell.)
Flying, lifelink
When this creature enters, if it was kicked, it deals 2 damage to any target.
When this creature enters, if it was kicked twice, it deals 2 damage to any target. decks and Boros Convoke, but it also shuts off the downside of Bonebrute. Curving Thrull into Bonebrute puts a ton of pressure on the opponent if they can’t kill Bonebrute right away.

The second card that combos well with Bonebrute is Corpses of the Lost Corpses of the Lost Skeletons you control get +1/+0 and have haste.
When this enchantment enters, create a 2/2 black Skeleton Pirate creature token.
At the beginning of your end step, if you descended this turn, you may pay 1 life. If you do, return this enchantment to its owner's hand. (You descended if a permanent card was put into your graveyard from anywhere.) . Corpses of the Lost is a sweet card that creates a Skeleton token upon entering, then provides a permanent buff to all of your Skeletons and gives them Haste. This Enchantment is a solid value engine that you can often return to your hand and replay in the late game.

On top of that, though, it works well in conjunction with Bonebrute because Bonebrute is a Skeleton. If the opponent ever taps low on mana and doesn’t have multiple blockers back, you can slam Bonebrute and get a huge swing in the same turn. As such, despite being a midrange deck, this package allows you to close the game quickly when necessary.

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The Grindy Elements

Besides Bonebrute, this deck also produces evasive Skeletons with Case of the Stashed Skeleton Case of the Stashed Skeleton When this Case enters, create a 2/1 black Skeleton creature token and suspect it. (It has menace and can't block.)
To solve — You control no suspected Skeletons. (If unsolved, solve at the beginning of your end step.)
Solved — {1}{B}, Sacrifice this Case: Search your library for a card, put it into your hand, then shuffle. Activate only as a sorcery. . Case is a great card, but not all decks can maximize it. The card’s main problem is that the Skeleton token you create when it enters can’t block. With this in mind, if your opponent is playing an aggressive deck, they may just be able to ignore the Skeleton token and never give you the opportunity to get value off of the Case’s final Demonic Tutor Demonic Tutor Search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, then shuffle. ability.

Because of this deck’s assertive nature with Corpses of the Lost and Bonebrute in the mix, the opponent will often be pressured to kill your Suspected Skeleton. From there, you have the luxury of tutoring up some elite one-of options like Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal Flying, lifelink
Whenever Aclazotz attacks, each opponent discards a card. For each opponent who can't, you draw a card.
Whenever an opponent discards a land card, create a 1/1 black Bat creature token with flying.
When Aclazotz dies, return it to the battlefield tapped and transformed under its owner's control. or Farewell Farewell Choose one or more —
• Exile all artifacts.
• Exile all creatures.
• Exile all enchantments.
• Exile all graveyards. . In some games, you can even set up Case of the Stashed Skeleton yourself by sacrificing the token to Treacherous Greed Treacherous Greed As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a creature that dealt damage this turn.
Draw three cards. Each opponent loses 3 life and you gain 3 life. . As you can see, this deck is more synergistic than it might appear at first glance.

Of course, this deck is still more than capable of winning longer games. There are ample removal spells present, as well as potent Planeswalkers like The Wandering Emperor The Wandering Emperor Flash
As long as The Wandering Emperor entered this turn, you may activate her loyalty abilities any time you could cast an instant.
+1: Put a +1/+1 counter on up to one target creature. It gains first strike until end of turn.
−1: Create a 2/2 white Samurai creature token with vigilance.
−2: Exile target tapped creature. You gain 2 life. and Liliana of the Veil Liliana of the Veil +1: Each player discards a card.
−2: Target player sacrifices a creature.
−6: Separate all permanents target player controls into two piles. That player sacrifices all permanents in the pile of their choice. . In grindy games, killing your opponent’s threats and replaying Corpses of the Lost multiple times presents a reasonable avenue to victory.

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Strengths and Weaknesses

At the end of the day, this deck has a lot going for it besides just looking cool. This deck is fully capable of holding its own in midrange pseudo-mirrors, and there are plenty of removal spells present to keep Raffine, Scheming Seer Raffine, Scheming Seer Flying, ward {1}
Whenever you attack, target attacking creature connives X, where X is the number of attacking creatures. (Draw X cards, then discard X cards. Put a +1/+1 counter on that creature for each nonland card discarded this way.) and the like in check. However, this deck also gains some extra percentage points against Boros Convoke and ramp the way its constructed.

Against Boros Convoke, Doorkeeper Thrull is just a house. Between Imodane’s Recruiter Imodane’s Recruiter When this creature enters, creatures you control get +1/+0 and gain haste until end of turn. , Knight-Errant of Eos Knight-Errant of Eos Convoke
When this creature enters, look at the top six cards of your library. You may reveal up to two creature cards with mana value X or less from among them, where X is the number of creatures that convoked this creature. Put the revealed cards into your hand, then shuffle. , Novice Inspector Novice Inspector When this creature enters, investigate. (Create a Clue token. It's an artifact with "{2}, Sacrifice this token: Draw a card.") , Resolute Reinforcements Resolute Reinforcements Flash (You may cast this spell any time you could cast an instant.)
When this creature enters, create a 1/1 white Soldier creature token. , and more, this deck relies on triggered abilities from Creatures.

Meanwhile, versus ramp, having access to burly Hasty Skeletons to close the game with is a huge boon. As good as cards like Wedding Announcement are in the long game, you’d much rather have early pressure against ramp decks that can go so far over the top of any midrange strategy. Backing up your pressure with efficient ways to kill Nissa, Resurgent Animist Nissa, Resurgent Animist Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, add one mana of any color. Then if this is the second time this ability has resolved this turn, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal an Elf or Elemental card. Put that card into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. is a decent plan versus Temur. Doorkeeper Thrull is also quite good against Domain ramp, blanking the triggered abilities of Archangel of Wrath, Topiary Stomper Topiary Stomper Vigilance (Attacking doesn't cause this creature to tap.)
When this creature enters, search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.
This creature can't attack or block unless you control seven or more lands. , and Atraxa, Gran Unifier.

Of course, not having Wedding Announcement against other midrange decks is certainly a weakness. On top of that, most of your threats, including Bonebrute, have very low toughness. This makes the mono-red matchup much tougher. Not only are your Creatures bad blockers, but they also almost all die to Play with Fire Play with Fire Play with Fire deals 2 damage to any target. If a player is dealt damage this way, scry 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom.) .

In this sense, there are definitely tradeoffs for building your Orzhov deck this way. Still, given how prominent Convoke and ramp strategies are right now, this deck is pretty appealing. Seeing an underappreciated card like Hunted Bonebrute pull its weight is awesome, too. So, if you’re a fan of spooky Skeletons, look no further. This deck should be right up your alley.

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