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Midweek Magic is a weekly event from Tuesdays to Thursdays in MTG Arena where players can enjoy casual games of online Magic in many formats with no entry cost. Players can earn individual card rewards (ICRs) and in-game cosmetics for wins. This week we will play Standard with a twist.
In this format, featured in Magic: The Gathering Arena events, each player begins the game with a Maelstorm Nexus that has the following Cascade ability:
Maelstrom Nexus Emblem:
When you cast your first spell each turn, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Other than that, the usual rules for Standard Constructed decks apply:
- Minimum of 60 cards in the main deck (maximum 250 cards for main decks).
- Up to 15 sideboard cards (most Midweek Magic events are Bo1).
- No more than 4 copies of any individual card in your main deck and sideboard combined (except basic lands).
Event Information
Bring your 60-card Standard deck. The first time you cast a spell each turn, you’ll get to cast another less expensive card from your library without paying its mana cost. What a bargain!
- Start: March 18, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. PST
- End: March 20, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. PST.
- Format: BO1 Standard Pauper.
- Entry Fee: Free.
Rewards
- 1 Win: Rare Individual Card Reward.
- 2 Wins: Rare Individual Card Reward.
- 3 Wins: One Random Cosmetic Item.
Decks
Standard has many interesting decks and the format lets you tackle your games with many approaches. You have aggressive options like Gruul and Mono-Red, midrange and ramp powerhouses like Domain, some combo top tiers like Omniscience and 4/5 Color Legends, and even classic UW control lists made the top cut occasionally.
In this sub-format, you may play almost everything you want, however, playing decks that can maximize the cascade effect with more powerful cards than your opponents have the upper hand.
I'm not saying you can't play decks with cheap cards like Mono-Red, nevertheless, playing midrange seems the most appropriate way to achieve victories.
For example, playing Emberheart Challenger and getting a free Monastery Swiftspear is amazing, but playing many one-mana cards that don't cascade into anything is horrible.
Now imagine impending Overlord of the Hauntwoods, cascading into a Day of Judgment or Temporary Lockdown. It looks incredibly powerful, right?
With this in mind, I will recommend some of the best aggressive strategies for the event for our aggro-devoted readers, but playing something bigger than faster has better payoffs in this event.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Aggro isn't good, but I prefer to play Gruul or Mono Black instead of Red Deck Wins.
Note: I will share decklists with sideboard cards for you who want to try these decks on your regular ladder games or paper events.
Jeskai Oculus
This archetype plays more than one-mana cards, however, with fifteen two-mana spells, you have better chances for cascading into those cards than playing one-mana spells that cascade into nothing every turn.
Likewise, with four Abhorrent Oculus and four Steamcore Scholar, finding those two-mana spells is not a problem.
Dimir Aggro
Dimir and Golgari have some time balancing between aggressive and midrange lists. In this case, with 22 creatures this more Aggro-oriented list would be what I prefer to play for this event as an Aggro devoted player.
The reason for this is the number of one-mana cards compared to Mono-Red. Four Spyglass Siren, four Cut Down, and two Spell Pierce instead of 16+ one-mana cards Mono-Red plays, Dimir have a better curve for this sub-format.
You have answers for fast aggression and playing Enduring Curiosity or Sheoldred, the Apocalypse cascading into Preacher of the Schism or Kaito Bane of Nightmares is crazy.
Esper Pixie
Esper Pixie has tons of value in this event. Imagine playing something that cascades into Nurturing Pixie and then bouncing anything for playing it again and cascading into something again. That provides more value than almost any other play in this sub-format.
Spells that have ways of discounting their mana value are great for Cascade. This Town Ain't Big Enough works great in this format, and the same is true for cards with Impending like Overlord of the Balemurk.
Spell Pierce may not be the best card for the format, however, it may stop certain broken interactions when your opponent casts free non-creature spells thanks to the Maelstorm Nexus emblem and don't have mana available for paying Spell Pierce. If you want to change this counterspell, you may play more Overlord of the Balemurk
Omniscience Combo
Omniscience is another deck that can provide amazing results in this sub-format. Fallaji Archeologist can give you enough time for a turn 3 Confounding Riddle or Stock Up. Both can cascade into another Fallaji Archeologist, Moment of Truth, or Chart a Course.
This will surely lead to a turn four Abuelo's Awakening, and with it, most of the time a win. Reanimating Omniscience lets you free-cast anything, and that will cascade into more cards, which will bring Invasion of Arcavios into the stack.
Then, Invasion of Arcavios will give you a win condition or an answer that you may also free-cast thanks to Omniscience, which will cascade into another card. And the cycle will continue until your opponent concedes; something that will surely happen after you cast Abuelo's Awakening.
Mono Black Aggro
Like Duskmourn's overlords and cards that can discount their cost, rooms like Unholy Annex are fantastic for this event. The mana value known before as the converted mana cost of rooms or any subtype of split cards is the combined cost of both halves.
If you cast Unholy Annex for three mana you will cascade for anything that costs less than eight; this means all of your deck.
Your two-drops like Starscape Cleric and Deep-Cavern Bat go for Cut Down and your discard spells which slow your opponent and with a low curve with not many one-mana cards almost any card is a two for one in your favor.
Boros Mice
If you like to play Mono Red, I would prefer this instead. With Mabel, Heir to Cargflame and Seedglaive Mentor you have more three-mana cards that would help you cascade into your two-mana spells.
You have more or less the same number of one-mana cards, but if you want to make a bigger change than this list I'm proposing for this format, you may change a pair of Burst Lightning or the two Flowerfoot Swordmaster for the extra copies of Mabel and Seedglaive Mentor.
Zur Control
We already talk about creatures with impending. With this in mind, playing a deck with 8 overlords put this idea to another level.
Here you may not just only cas Ovelord of the Hauntwoods into Temporary Lockdown or Day of Judgment or even Zur, Eternal Schemer. With Overlord of the Mistmoors you may cascade into Layline Binding or even the Green overlord.
Golgari Graveyard
🚧👷🏻♂️ Work in progress 👷🏻♂️🚧
