Reanimator Wins a Standard Challenge and Boros Dragons Takes the Showcase

pepeteam won the Standard Challenge 32 on October 27, 2026, with Reanimator at 9-1, according to MTGO’s published results. TellKou then won the October 31, 2026, Standard Showcase Challenge with Dragons at 10-1, beating 3 different archetypes without dropping a playoff game in the 187-player event.

Reanimator’s week included 7 Top Eights and 2 wins across 17 published lists. We regard it as an established Standard option, though its playoff record against Landfall remains poor.

Reanimator Has a Consistent Core

pepeteam played 4 Superior Spider-Man and 4 Deceit, with 25 lands supporting a graveyard-value plan. Superior Spider-Man costs 4 mana and can enter as a 4/4 copy of a creature card in either graveyard. Seasoned Cryomancer and Winternight Stories load those graveyards while finding the next threat; Overlord of the Balemurk and Uldaros Theorix give the deck longer-game resources.

The other 2 fifth-place lists kept that core. sedotwc’s October 28 list, which finished 4-2, used 4 Seasoned Cryomancer; tchuco’s 7-2 Showcase list used 3. Both played 2 each of Overlord of the Balemurk and Uldaros Theorix, compared with pepeteam’s 3 each and just 2 Seasoned Cryomancer.

Both fifth-place builds added 1 Harvester of Misery, present in 17.9% of the 67 other lists in their comparison sample. The five-mana creature gives other creatures -2/-2 when it enters; discarding it for 2 mana instead gives one creature -2/-2. That puts a potential Superior Spider-Man sweeper target into the graveyard while answering a small creature.

pepeteam beat Lifegain 2-0, Sacrifice 2-1 and HouseOfManaMTG’s Landfall 2-0. HouseOfManaMTG finished 6-3 after beating Landfall 2-0 and Elementals 2-1. Reanimator lost its other 3 playoff matches across these events: sedotwc fell 1-2 to Landfall, sixth-place chagu lost 0-2 to Lifegain, and tchuco lost 0-2 to Sacrifice.

The 6-week playoff sample puts Reanimator at 1-3 against Landfall and 2-4 against Sacrifice. These are small samples. Mana Riot Games’ October 28, 2026, Reanimator guide recommends extra sweepers and removal against creature-heavy aggro, Duress and card-advantage threats against control, and graveyard disruption for the mirror. Those roles fit pepeteam’s sideboard, which includes Day of Black Sun, Duress and Emeritus of Ideation.

Boros Dragons Changes Its Support Cards

TellKou retained full playsets of Momo, Friendly Flier, Sarkhan, Dragon Ascendant and the established Dragon threats, supported by 24 lands. A turn-1 Momo, Friendly Flier followed by turn-2 Sarkhan, Dragon Ascendant can accelerate a five-mana flier into turn 3 through a Treasure and Momo, Friendly Flier’s discount on the first non-Lemur flying creature spell.

The departures were 1 Lorehold, the Historian, 2 Get Lost and 2 Magda, the Hoardmaster. They appeared in 4.2%, 8.5% and 11.3%, respectively, of the 71 other lists in the 6-week comparison. TellKou omitted Erode, which appeared in 93% of those lists. We see targeted support changes rather than a new version of the archetype’s central plan.

Lorehold, the Historian is a five-mana flying, hasty threat that filters a card on each opponent’s upkeep and gives instants and sorceries miracle . Get Lost answers creatures, enchantments or planeswalkers for 2 mana, at the cost of 2 Maps. Targeting an opposing permanent also feeds Magda, the Hoardmaster, whose Treasures can become another hasty Dragon.

TellKou swept Momo, Sacrifice and Omniscience 2-0 each. Runner-up baconator5000 finished 9-2 after beating Aggro and McWinSauce’s Control 2-1 each; McWinSauce finished 8-2 after a 2-1 quarterfinal win over Landfall. TellKou’s sideboard included 3 Rest in Peace for graveyards and 3 Giant Cindermaw against lifegain.

Lifegain Wins While Boros Dwarves Adds Five Top Eights

Deathmaxx won the 30-player October 28, 2026, Challenge 16 at 7-1, beating Reanimator 2-0, Artifacts 2-1 and Laplasjan’s Landfall 2-0. Laplasjan finished 6-2 after eliminating sedotwc and then beating Momo 2-0.

Dwarves earned 5 Top Eights in the week of October 26, 2026, including yolad and Pompuskaya’s 3-3 finishes in that Challenge. Both played 4 each of Thorin, Mountain-king, The Lonely Mountain, Leyline Axe, Dragonfire Blade, Dwarven Mauler, Kíli the Resourceful and Dáin's Company. Their differences were smaller equipment and support choices: yolad had 3 Chainsaw, while Pompuskaya used 2 Giantcraft Helm and 2 Bofur, Reliable Guardian.

Azorius Momo’s Results Extend Beyond the Showcase

Momo accounted for 20 of 254 published decks (7.9%) in the week of October 26, 2026, up from 6 of 256 (2.3%) the previous week. That measures its share of published lists, rather than the full tournament field.

Only 1 of its 7 Top Eights came from the Showcase, where Dasikk finished 7-2 before losing to TellKou. The other 6 came from smaller Challenges, including 2 at the October 27 event. The increase has repeated results behind it; the Showcase supplied only a small part of the week’s finishes.