Typically, Standard rotation is a much-celebrated event that mixes up the format’s metagame at long last. Thanks to major bans happening just before rotation, however, the format was in a good spot prior to rotation, for change. As a result, the release of Edge of Eternities may have actually made things worse.
Right now, there are a few issues plaguing post-rotation Standard. For starters, mana bases are currently uneven, with some color combinations being significantly stronger than others. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Standard appears to already have a new boogeyman as a new deck looks nigh-unbeatable at the moment.
It’s still early days, but Vivi Cauldron decks are winning a concerning number of Standard events. When it’s not winning, this deck practically has a permanent residence in the top eight of major events. Potentially, this deck might be too strong for Standard without intervention.
Is Vivi Cauldron a Little Too Good?
What started as a fun brew for the Final Fantasy MTG Pro Tour has now completely taken Standard by storm. The bans that took place at the end of June to prepare Standard for Rotation didn’t touch Vivi Cauldron. This wasn’t surprising, considering the deck didn’t really exist before the recent Pro Tour. It was one of the best decks before Edge of Eternities rotation, and now the deck seems to be dominating almost entirely unchecked.
The deck uses a powerful combo between Vivi Ornitier and Agatha’s Soul Cauldron that basically allows all of your creatures to add izzet-colored mana equal to their power, provided they have a +1/+1 counter on them. While the deck may have lost its old Voldaren Thrillseeker finisher, Draconautics Engineer has stepped up and basically made it so nothing has changed.
Since the beginning of August, Vivi Cauldron has taken either first or second place in every single MTGO Standard Challenge. On average, 3 Vivi Cauldron decks are in the top eight on average, with some Challenges having as many as 6 different Vivi Cauldron decks in the top eight.
In fact, this pattern continues all the way to MTGO rotation day on July 29th. Vivi Cauldron never placed lower than second in any MTGO Standard Challenge since rotation, and multiple copies were always present in the top eight. Even before rotation occurred, Vivi Cauldron was still consistently placing in the top two.
It hasn’t been that long since Edge of Eternities rotation occurred on MTGO, but this level of dominance is concerning. Even the other two decks that are clearly ahead of the rest, Esper Pixie and Dimir Midrange, aren’t putting up results like this. In our opinion, Vivi Cauldron is the clear frontrunner in early Edge of Eternities Standard, but if you don’t want to join them, how can you try to beat it?
Trying to Beat Vivi Cauldron
Sadly, part of the reason why Vivi Cauldron seems so unbeatable now is that its worst matchup got a lot worse after rotation. No one has tried to figure out Insidious Roots in Edge of Eternities Standard yet, and the cards it lost are part of the reason.
Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler and Haywire Mite are two very important cards that Insidious Roots combo lost. Both of these had a major impact in the Vivi Cauldron matchup by furthering Roots’ win condition while removing all of Cauldron’s biggest threats. The best replacements to Mite are a whole mana slower, either in mana value or in activating their ability, which is a big downgrade. This means that, in many situations, Insidious Roots might be too slow to contend with the various threats that Vivi Combo can offer. That said Insidious Fungus does provide a mediocre option for Roots players to consider, but it likely won’t be good enough. Players could try to play this deck as a counter to Vivi Cauldron, but at the moment, no variations of it are seeing play.
Annul seems like a strong tool for countering a majority of the cards that Vivi Cauldron cares about. You’ll be able to deal with Agatha’s Soul Cauldron itself, Fear of Missing Out, and Proft’s Eidetic Memory for just one mana. The only deck that seems to be commonly playing this card, at the moment, is notably Vivi Cauldron itself. If Esper Pixie and Dimir adapted some cards like this, perhaps the gap could be shortened between archetypes.
All of that said, however, beating Vivi Cauldron looks like an intensely uphill battle, even when prepared for. There’s a reason why the archetype has been dominating this much. Even with a target on its back, it continues to win.
The Good and the Bad
While things look bleak for Standard right now, there is an event to look forward to in the near future that might change the format’s landscape. Magic Spotlight: Planetary Rotation arrives at the end of August, and it’s the biggest Standard tournament in the near future. With Pro Tour invites on the line, players will bring the absolute best Standard has to offer to this event. If anything proves that Vivi Cauldron’s results are overhyped, it will be this event. Heck, the Standard Showcase Challenge this weekend on MTGO could even highlight an unexpected deck.
If Vivi Cauldron does prove to be too much for Standard, then we won’t have to wait too long for a major shakeup. Spider-Man prereleases start on September 19th, which allows a whole new series of cards to swing into Standard.
Unfortunately, if neither a major tournament nor a set release is enough to deter the dominance of Vivi Combo, we’re going to have to wait a long time before any changes can be made. The next ban window has been announced to be November 24th, 2025, which is still quite a few months away. Even if changes are made to Vivi combo at this point, the deck will have dominated Standard for four months. We would honestly be surprised if it came to this, since there’s so much time and events in between now and then.
All of that said, it’s only been a little over a week since rotation occurred. Vivi Combo has certainly been dominating the playing field out of the gate, but as Standard players begin to adjust to the reality of the new format, stronger counterplay will hopefully rise up to dethrone the menace. So far, however, that looks unlikely.
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