Regionals is drawing near and now is a pretty ideal time to make your final decisions and revisions, to allow yourself some time to become acquainted with your deck. Below are twelve of the most popular deck types for Regionals. When possible, I found the most successful and refined lists; when that wasn't available (see Dissension guild decks), I took the most streamlined list that I could find.

This article isn't the place to look if you're checking for new and exciting innovations; it's just a recap of where we're at, and what knowledge is available.

Heezy Street

Gruul Beats A Standard deck, by Mark Herberholz 1st place at a Pro Tour tournament in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States on 2006-03-05 As reported at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/pthon06/alldecksek Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Burning-Tree Shaman 4 Dryad Sophisticate 3 Frenzied Goblin 4 Giant Solifuge 4 Kird Ape 4 Scab-Clan Mauler 4 Scorched Rusalka Enchantments 3 Moldervine Cloak	Instants 4 Char 3 Flames of the Blood Hand Basic Lands 6 Forest 7 Mountain Lands 4 Karplusan Forest 2 Skarrg, the Rage Pits 4 Stomping Ground	Sideboard: 2 Rumbling Slum 2 Tin Street Hooligan 4 Blood Moon 1 Flames of the Blood Hand 2 Naturalize 4 Umezawa's Jitte
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Pro Tour Honolulu, the last major individual Standard tournament, saw a streamlined R/G beatdown deck crowned champion. The deck has subsequently been quite successful in the Team Qualifier season. This coupled with the fact that the deck is quite good will lead to this being a common deck choice for Regionals.

Rakdos

Rakdos Aggro Featured by Steve Sadin on 2006-05-21 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/11944.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Dark Confidant 4 Gobhobbler Rats 4 Plagued Rusalka 4 Rakdos Augermage 4 Rakdos Guildmage Enchantments 4 Seal of Fire Instants 4 Char	Legendary Creatures 4 Lyzolda, the Blood Witch Sorceries 1 Demonfire 4 Volcanic Hammer Basic Lands 6 Mountain 5 Swamp Lands 4 Blood Crypt 2 Rakdos Carnarium 2 Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace 4 Sulfurous Springs	Stats: Average mana: 1.28 Average creature mana cost: 2.17 Average creature power: 2.17 Average creature toughness: 1.50 Deck Composition: Lands: 20.00% Basic Lands: 18.33% Sorceries: 8.33% Creatures: 33.33% Legendary Creatures: 6.67% Enchantments: 6.67% Instants: 6.67%
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Keep in mind that this is an unrefined list; however, this archetype will surely be represented at Regionals. Unfortunately, the lists that I have encountered online seem to be little more then strictly inferior versions of Kird Ape decks, and unfortunately I think that I've fallen into the same trap with the list that I've build. If I had to guess, I would say that R/B decks based on heavy disruption will be the most successful Rakdos deck to come out of this year's Regionals.

Zoo

Zoo A Standard deck, by Takuya Oosawa 3rd place at a Grand Prix tournament in Hamamatsu, Japan on 2006-04-09 As reported at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/gphama06/top4decks Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Kird Ape 4 Savannah Lions 2 Selesnya Guildmage 3 Tin Street Hooligan 4 Watchwolf Enchantments 2 Moldervine Cloak	Instants 4 Char 4 Lightning Helix 4 Shock Legendary Creatures 4 Isamaru, Hound of Konda Sorceries 4 Volcanic Hammer Lands 4 Battlefield Forge 2 Brushland 3 Karplusan Forest 4 Sacred Foundry 4 Stomping Ground 4 Temple Garden	Sideboard: 4 Loxodon Hierarch 2 Selesnya Guildmage 4 Glare of Subdual 2 Seed Spark 1 Selesnya Sanctuary 2 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
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Not much to say about Zoo: all the cheapest best threats and burn spells put together in one nice tidy package. If you're going into Regionals without much practice, this would be a pretty safe choice as you don't have to worry much about matchups and what your opponents overall strategy is. All that is required is tight technical play, and a good bluff here and there, and you should be golden.

Ghazi Chord

GW Chord A Standard deck, by Nathan Waxer 1st place at a Pro Tour Qualifier tournament on 2006-05-21 Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Loxodon Hierarch 1 Nikko-Onna 4 Selesnya Guildmage 1 Viridian Shaman 4 Wood Elves Enchantments 3 Glare of Subdual Instants 3 Chord of Calling 4 Shining Shoal Legendary Artifacts 3 Umezawa's Jitte	Legendary Creatures 3 Kodama of the North Tree 3 Yosei, the Morning Star Basic Lands 4 Forest 2 Plains Lands 4 Brushland 3 Selesnya Sanctuary 4 Temple Garden 3 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree Legendary Lands 1 Eiganjo Castle 1 Miren, the Moaning Well 1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers	Sideboard: 4 Pithing Needle 4 Giant Solifuge 1 Silklash Spider 3 Congregation at Dawn 2 Seed Spark 1 Kodama of the North Tree
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Mike Flores designed this deck for a team PTQ that we needed to 2-0. The only requirement that was needed for his deck was for it to have game against B/W and Red-based aggressive decks. In that sense, the deck was quite successful, and it became a cornerstone deck for numerous qualifying teams. However, it is unlikely that it will be as popular at Regionals, as it was at the end of Team season and many people may shy away from the deck as it has very difficult matchups against Blue control and combo decks.

Greater Gifts

Greater Gifts A Standard deck, by Andy Probasco 1st place at a Pro Tour Qualifier tournament on 2006-05-21 Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 3 Sensei's Divining Top Creatures 3 Loxodon Hierarch 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder Enchantments 3 Greater Good Instants 3 Gifts Ungiven 3 Goryo's Vengeance 1 Reclaim	Legendary Creatures 1 Keiga, the Tide Star 1 Kokusho, the Evening Star 3 Yosei, the Morning Star Sorceries 4 Farseek 3 Kodama's Reach 1 Recollect 4 Wrath of God Basic Lands 5 Forest 1 Island 2 Plains 2 Swamp Lands 3 Brushland 1 Godless Shrine 2 Overgrown Tomb 3 Temple Garden 2 Tendo Ice Bridge 1 Watery Grave Legendary Lands 1 Miren, the Moaning Well	Sideboard: 1 Ghost-Lit Stalker 1 Loxodon Hierarch 2 Faith's Fetters 1 Greater Good 1 Gifts Ungiven 1 Mortify 1 Putrefy 1 Wear Away 1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni 1 Kagemaro, First to Suffer 1 Cranial Extraction 1 Life from the Loam 1 Nightmare Void 1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
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Current Greater Gifts, descending from Frank Karsten's Worlds deck, has possibly the highest power level of any Standard deck. It's difficult to play and the tricky matchups against Magnivore, Zoo, Husk, and Heartbeat are good reasons not to play the deck... Those are likely to be four of the five or six most popular decks at Regionals.

Ignoring those points, Andy dealt my teammates and I quite a painful loss when he beat Flores in the finals of the first team PTQ of the season. Mike was playing G/W/B House Guard control, and we thought the matchup would be extremely favorable for us, but Andy made some brilliant plays with powerful cards to take the tournament. This resulted in us being forced to purchase our own airplane tickets, which is something I should probably take care of in the immediate future.

URzaTron

Izzetron A Standard deck, by Osyp Lebedowicz 5th place at a Pro Tour tournament in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States on 2006-03-05 As reported at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/pthon06/t8decks Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 4 Izzet Signet Enchantments 2 Confiscate Instants 4 Electrolyze 4 Mana Leak 4 Remand 2 Telling Time	Legendary Creatures 4 Keiga, the Tide Star 4 Meloku the Clouded Mirror Sorceries 1 Blaze 4 Compulsive Research 1 Invoke the Firemind 2 Pyroclasm 1 Tidings Lands 4 Shivan Reef 4 Steam Vents 2 Tendo Ice Bridge 4 Urza's Mine 4 Urza's Power Plant 4 Urza's Tower Legendary Lands 1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge	Sideboard: 4 Giant Solifuge 4 Annex 2 Repeal 2 Smash 1 Ryusei, the Falling Star 2 Pyroclasm
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This deck fell out of favor during the Team Qualifier season, as the format was fairly well defined; most players chose to go for consistency rather than raw unbridled power. With the release of Dissension players are somewhat likely to return to this style of deck especially if they don't think they have a great read on what the format will look like.

That being said, I don't think this is a particularly good choice for Regionals, in fact, I'm not even sure it's amongst the four best Steam Vents decks (Wafo-Tapa control, Magnivore, and Kamiel-style control have a solid hold on the top three slots). The mana issues and lack of significant answers are only slightly redeemed by the deck's potentially high power level.

Magnivore

Magnivore Featured by Steve Sadin on 2006-05-21 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/11944.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 3 Magnivore Instants 3 Mana Leak Legendary Creatures 1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror	Sorceries 4 Compulsive Research 4 Demolish 4 Eye of Nowhere 3 Pyroclasm 4 Sleight of Hand 4 Stone Rain 3 Tidings 3 Wildfire Basic Lands 7 Island 7 Mountain Lands 4 Shivan Reef 4 Steam Vents Legendary Lands 1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge 1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds	Sideboard: 4 Goblin Flectomancer 2 Genju of the Spires 3 Threads of Disloyalty 1 Mana Leak 1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror 4 Volcanic Hammer
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Man, do I love this deck. Derived from Nikolas Nygaard's 10th place Honolulu deck (which is in turn derived from the deck played by Anton Jonsson and company at World's), this deck has been incredibly successful during the Team Qualifier season. I was able to qualify with a list that is almost identical to this one, only dropping one match out of nine played; needless to say, I was very happy with this deck.

No doubt many other players have had similar experiences with the deck, and will as a result choose to run Vore at Regionals. Heck, I know if I had to play in Regionals, this would almost certainly be my choice with exactly the above list.

Ghost Husk

BW Husk A Standard deck, by Osyp Lebedowicz 1st place at a Pro Tour Qualifier tournament in Charleston on 2006-04-09 Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 3 Pithing Needle Creatures 4 Dark Confidant 3 Kami of Ancient Law 4 Nantuko Husk 3 Orzhov Pontiff 4 Plagued Rusalka Enchantments 4 Promise of Bunrei Instants 3 Mortify	Legendary Creatures 3 Ghost Council of Orzhova 4 Isamaru, Hound of Konda Sorceries 3 Castigate Basic Lands 3 Plains 5 Swamp Lands 4 Caves of Koilos 4 Godless Shrine 4 Orzhov Basilica Legendary Lands 1 Eiganjo Castle 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse	Sideboard: 3 Mindslicer 1 Orzhov Pontiff 3 Last Gasp 4 Shining Shoal 3 Eight-and-a-Half-Tails 1 Castigate
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One of the top decks from the Team Qualifier season, Ghost Husk has more than proven itself to be one of the powerhouses of the format. In terms of sheer dominance during the Team season, the only deck that challenged it was Heartbeat, the other major powerhouse of the format.

If you want to qualify for Nationals, you'd be well advised to bring a deck that has considerable game against Husk and Heartbeat. Unfortunately, there's a reason why Husk and Heartbeat have been so successful: it's because they're really, really good.

Ghost Dad

Ghost Dad A Standard deck, by TIm Bulger 1st place at a Grand Prix tournament in Madison, Wisconsin, United States on 2006-03-26 As reported at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/gpmadi06/welcome Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Dark Confidant 3 Descendant of Kiyomaro 3 Kami of Ancient Law 3 Plagued Rusalka 4 Tallowisp 4 Thief of Hope Enchantments 3 Pillory of the Sleepless 1 Strands of Undeath Instants 4 Shining Shoal 4 Sickening Shoal Legendary Creatures 4 Ghost Council of Orzhova	Basic Lands 7 Plains 5 Swamp Lands 4 Caves of Koilos 4 Godless Shrine Legendary Lands 1 Eiganjo Castle 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse 1 Tomb of Urami	Sideboard: 3 Pithing Needle 3 Hand of Honor 1 Kami of Ancient Law 1 Enfeeblement 1 Pillory of the Sleepless 3 Cranial Extraction 3 Persecute
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Ghost Dad is quite strong against aggressive strategies and, many players have claimed favorable matchups against Magnivore and Heartbeat. However, my experience has been quite different. In preparation for (and during) the Team Qualifiers that I played in, I rarely dropped a game against Ghost Dad with Vore, and my teammate Paul Jordan was similarly unscathed by the Tallowisp army with Heartbeat. That being said, this deck has become quite the fan favorite; it will most likely see considerable play this weekend.

U/G Aggro Control

Critical Frog Featured by Sean McKeown on 2006-05-14 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/11907.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Cytoplast Root-Kin 4 Plaxcaster Frogling 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder 4 Vinelasher Kudzu Instants 4 Mana Leak 4 Spell Snare 4 Voidslime Legendary Artifacts 4 Umezawa's Jitte Legendary Creatures 4 Meloku the Clouded Mirror	Basic Lands 5 Forest 6 Island Lands 4 Breeding Pool 2 Tendo Ice Bridge 4 Yavimaya Coast Legendary Lands 1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge 1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds 1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers	Sideboard: 1 Pithing Needle 4 Jushi Apprentice 4 Threads of Disloyalty 4 Naturalize 2 Shadow of Doubt
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This type of deck always finds considerable popularity, as it has basically the best threats in gigantic undercosted creatures, and the best answers in cheap counterspells. This is an incredibly powerful deck, from what is quite possibly the most powerful Guild in the block. If you're looking for a new deck to take to Regionals, U/G aggro control is probably the way to go.

Azorius Aggro

Azorius Aggro Featured by Boxy Brown on 2006-05-21 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/11944.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Azorius Guildmage 4 Hand of Honor 4 Kami of Ancient Law 4 Paladin en-Vec Instants 4 Remand 4 Spell Snare Legendary Artifacts 4 Umezawa's Jitte	Legendary Creatures 3 Eight-and-a-Half-Tails 4 Isamaru, Hound of Konda 3 Meloku the Clouded Mirror Basic Lands 4 Plains Lands 4 Adarkar Wastes 3 Azorius Chancery 4 Hallowed Fountain 4 Tendo Ice Bridge Legendary Lands 1 Eiganjo Castle 1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge 1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds	Sideboard: 4 Azorius First-Wing 3 Empty-Shrine Kannushi 4 Mana Leak 1 Eight-and-a-Half-Tails 3 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
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“Boxy Brown” posted this list in a response to my article on Azorius Aggro. I was very impressed with the way he has taken the deck, building towards the natural advantages by running the best cards instead of going for a tricky or gimmicky plan. I will, however, maintain my position that Mana Leak is preferable to Remand for preboarded configurations of Azorius aggro, as you simply need permanent answers to big time spells like Wildfire and Meloku.

I'm not sure how many people will adopt this deck, as it is quite underpowered compared to the current top decks, but historically this style of deck is quite successful at some point during the span of its legality. Is that time going to be Regionals? That, I don't know.

Heartbeat

Heartbeat Combo A Standard deck, by Paul Jordan 2nd place at a Pro Tour Qualifier tournament on 2006-05-21 Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 4 Sensei's Divining Top Creatures 4 Drift of Phantasms 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder Enchantments 4 Heartbeat of Spring	Instants 4 Early Harvest 4 Muddle the Mixture 4 Remand Legendary Creatures 1 Maga, Traitor to Mortals Sorceries 1 Invoke the Firemind 4 Kodama's Reach 1 Recollect 1 Savage Twister 1 Train of Thought 1 Weird Harvest Basic Lands 10 Forest 10 Island 1 Mountain 1 Swamp	Sideboard: 3 Carven Caryatid 2 Gigadrowse 2 Naturalize 1 Umezawa's Jitte 2 Keiga, the Tide Star 2 Meloku the Clouded Mirror 1 Ryusei, the Falling Star 2 Savage Twister
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Last, but certainly not least, is the juggernaut of the format: Heartbeat. It's not that the deck is particularly degenerate - in fact, it has considerable difficulty defeating faster decks like Zoo, and decks with considerable disruption and a quick clock, such as Husk. Heartbeat might find itself faced with more resistance in the forms of Azorius Guildmage and Voidslime... but even with those barriers in place, Heartbeat is going to take more than its fair share of slot at this year's Regionals.

As a parting note, I present you with my 2006 Regionals metagame prediction:

20% B/W beatdown
15% Steam Vent decks
12% Kird Ape decks
10% U/G Aggro
10% Hierarch Beatdown decks (Glare, etc.)
8% Heartbeat
5% Hierarch Control decks (Greater Gifts, Roxodon Hierarch etc.)
20% Misc. decks representing less than 5% of the field.

Good luck!

Steve Sadin