The big deck heading into Pro Tour Kaladesh were various takes on White-Red Vehicles, Emerge decks, and Aetherworks Marvel. After the tournament, the exciting decks are various Blue-Red control decks touching on either White or Black. But despite the first decks being popular before the Pro Tour and the second decks meeting in the finals, that’s not the whole story. A glance at the top performing Standard decks shows one archetype with multiple 9-1 and 8-2 finishes:

Blue-White Flash - Kaladesh Standard | Joey Manner, Pro Tour Kaladesh

• Creatures (23)
• 4 Archangel Avacyn
• 4 Reflector Mage
• 4 Selfless Spirit
• 4 Spell Queller
• 4 Thraben Inspector
• 3 Rattlechains

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

• Spells (8)
• 4 Smuggler's Copter
• 3 Stasis Snare
• 1 Declaration in Stone

• Lands (25)
• 6 Island
• 9 Plains
• 4 Port Town
• 4 Prairie Stream
• 2 Westvale Abbey

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Declaration in Stone
• 2 Fragmentize
• 1 Linvala, the Preserver
• 2 Blessed Alliance
• 2 Ceremonious Rejection
• 2 Negate
• 2 Summary Dismissal
• 2 Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
• 1 Fumigate

Buy This Deck

It seems like the real winner in Standard was this Blue-White midrange deck that largely plays on the opponent’s turn. There’s a lot to like about what this deck is trying to do. This is a deck that tries to thread the needle between the aggressive decks and the control decks, and it does it by trying to be more mana-efficient while still having the ability to go big.

The key here is that this deck doesn’t waste time with casting spells like Glimmer of Genius or Painful Truths. Instead, you beat down with Smuggler's Copter, throwing away whatever excess lands or dead cards you have in the matchup. This lets you be more proactive in control matchups, or play reasonable defense against aggro decks.

The other exciting card in this deck is Spell Queller. This card is crucial, particularly in a format where players are trying to fight over cards like Void Shatter and Aetherworks Marvel. Spell Queller gives you a way to fight over these cards while applying pressure and dodging counterspells like Ceremonious Rejection and Negate that your opponent might have. You even have access to Rattlechains and Archangel Avacyns to protect your Spell Quellers from opposing removal spells.

And if the early pressure game backed by counterspells and Reflector Mages doesn’t work out? This deck can still play a longer game, featuring Gideon, Ally of Zendikar backed by Westvale Abbey to grind out value and threaten Ormendahl, Profane Prince. With so much strategic flexibility combined with the ability to play so many powerful cards, it’s no wonder that this was one of the top-performing decks of the Pro Tour.