The Standard format is in a rather good spot right now. Outside of the recent Best-of-One ban to keep things clean, there’s a good deal of diversity in the metagame. Rotation and Bloomburrow seriously shook things up, and now Duskmourn: House of Horror has brought new spice too. With MTG Foundations on the horizon, it seems the golden age of Standard may be upon us.
Currently. it seems there has never been a better time to get into Standard than right now. So, whether you’re looking to crack the metagame or just scope out the competition, we’ve got you covered. Here are all the best MTG decks in the Standard format right now!
10 | Mono Red Aggro
Kicking things off, it should come as little surprise that Mono Red Aggro has been scurrying around in Standard. Like a cockroach that just can’t be killed, this deck has quickly reinvented itself using new Bloomburrow cards. Specifically, Heartfire Hero is proving to be a real force to be reckoned with.
When everything goes right, Heartfire Hero can kill your opponent in short order. With cards like Monstrous Rage present, your puny creatures threaten to deal a bunch of damage in short order. Monstrous Rage pairs specifically well with Emberheart Challenger, letting you pile on damage quickly.
Mono Red Aggro may have lost some strong pieces via rotation (most notably, Kumano Faces Kakkazan). Nonetheless, Monastery Swiftspear can still put in a lot of work, especially in combination with cheap burn spells like Shock at the ready.
At the end of the day, Mono Red Aggro is always going to be a strong choice in Standard. On MTG Arena, this archetype is great for grinding through the ladder thanks to the incredibly quick games it facilitates. Given how prevalent midrange decks and Temporary Lockdown strategies are in current Standard, though, it’s tough to put mono-red aggro much higher on the list.
Notably, splashing green for Questing Druid and such certainly has its appeal to help in grindier games. There is a lot of overlap between mono-red and Gruul aggro, and there is some appeal to playing both archetypes. With this in mind, we won’t be giving the decks separate sections, but it’s possible Gruul aggro proves to be the better beatdown deck over the coming weeks.
Read More: MTG Best Historic Decks
9 | Rakdos Lizards
Comprised almost entirely of Bloomburrow cards, this deck definitely has the appeal of being new going for it. Alongside this, it also appears to be seriously powerful, with many content creators posting impressive results.
As we noted in our article all about this deck, it’s largely empowered by Gev, Scaled Scorch. Capable of dishing out +1/+1 counters to all your Lizards, Gev makes an already aggressive deck that much more threatening. Speaking of aggressive, Hired Claw and Iridescent Vinelasher definitely pull their weight in that category.
Alongside these cards, Flamecache Gecko provides an excellent source of additional mana that’s very easy to activate. This basically makes them free to play, so it’s no wonder the deck runs four of them. As if they weren’t good enough as a 2/2 for nothing, they can also loot to ensure you’ve always got what you need.
In the three-drop slot, Laughing Jasper Flint and Thought-Stalker Warlock give the deck a bit of staying power. While Laughing Jasper Flint might seem like a usual addition, this deck is almost entirely comprised of Outlaws, so it can steal quite a lot. Regardless of what deck you’re playing against, depriving an opponent of resources while using them yourself is always effective.
Meanwhile, Thought-Stalker Warlock can nab problematic board wipes like Sunfall to ensure you can cross the finish line, Rakdos Lizards has a lot going for it. Having aggressive creatures supported by powerful removal spells is a deadly combination that’s putting up good results. Right now, Rakdos Lizards looks like one of the best aggro decks in Standard.
8 | Azorius Control
Azorius control has taken a bit of a step back since rotation, though it remains a good deck, regardless. The loss of The Wandering Emperor is certainly a big deal. The good news, though, is that the great interactive pieces are still here.
Lay Down Arms is a strong card against aggro decks, given its efficiency. Sunfall is still incredible against any creature deck, leaving behind a potentially enormous Incubator token to start bashing with.
On the Counterspell front, No More Lies and Three Steps Ahead are the cream of the crop. You have the luxury of passing with counter magic up, and if the opponent doesn’t play into it, you can always just cast Deduce on their end step to draw cards.
With The Wandering Emperor gone, Beza, the Bounding Spring has taken over as the premium four-drop. Beza is great at stabilizing the board while adding a big body to play that you can start bashing with. This deck is slow, but it’s very good at playing the long game.
7 | Mono Red Midrange
While we decided not to separate Gruul aggro and mono-red aggro due to overwhelming similarities, we felt that mono-red midrange deserved its own slot. Mono-red midrange does borrow some elements from the more aggressive version, as cards like Monastery Swiftspear and Emberheart Challenger are still reasonable inclusions.
Where this deck differs, though, is that it goes a bit bigger. Urabrask’s Forge is in the main deck, alongside a more heavily devoted removal spell package. Hired Claw is a noteworthy addition, too, since there aren’t Valiant synergies present.
By going bigger, this deck has a better shot at grinding through removal and board wipes. In the maindeck, Sunspine Lynx gives you a lot of reach, heavily punishing the manabases of midrange decks. Speaking of mana, this deck gets to maximize extra utility lands like Mishra’s Foundry and Fountainport.
In games two and three, you have the ability to play a longer game against opposing aggro decks. Cards like Brotherhood’s End and Koth, Fire of Resistance that typical red aggro decks wouldn’t utilize play a major role here. Mono-red midrange has been putting up decent results lately, and the grindy gameplan contributes to its success.
6 | Boros Convoke
Prior to Standard rotation, Boros Convoke was leading the charge as the format’s best deck. Now, it appears to have retained this position thanks to going through rotation mostly unscathed. Outside of the loss of Voldaren Epicure and a few lands, this deck is basically the same.
Despite the majority of Boros Convoke’s cards making it through rotation, some players have taken the opportunity to experiment. With a splash of blue and more multicolor focus, there are a lot of options available to replace the outgoing Convoke engine. Thankfully, if you’re looking to keep things Boros, the above list has you covered.
Following the rotation of Standard, in straight Boros, Yotian Frontliner sees a bit more play than it used to. Yotian Frontliner doubles as both a one-drop creature for Convoking purposes as well as a target for Gleeful Demolition, which contributes to the most explosive draws this deck has access to. While this obviously isn’t quite as potent as the pre-rotation option of Voldaren Epicure, it gets the job done.
While they are a later threat, Sanguine Evangelist is also an interesting replacement for Voldaren Epicure. Not only do they offer a token when they enter, but Sanguine Evangelist also has Battle Cry to buff your creatures. Alongside a well-timed Imodane’s Recruiter, this can make for a devastating go-wide swing.
At the top end, Knight-Errant of Eos is still this deck’s best value engine. Offering a sizable body alongside slightly tutored draw Knight-Errant of Eos helps round out this deck’s otherwise aggressive gameplan.
Ultimately, it’s unlikely that Boros Convoke will be going anywhere, even as the Standard metagame develops. If you built this deck prior to rotation, you’re definitely in a good place right now. While it might not be as strong as it once was, it’s still a solid choice.
Read More: 5 Things We Want To See In MTG Foundations
5 | Orzhov Midrange
Thanks to Bloomburrow, Orzhov midrange in Standard has received a big boost. Similar to other strong midrange strategies, this deck utilizes some elite black reactive elements to help keep the opponent off-balance.
At the top of that list, we have Deep-Cavern Bat. Deep-Cavern Bat is an incredible piece of disruption that continues to peck away at the opponent turn after turn. As a Bat, it even synergizes with Zoraline, Cosmos Caller. Zoraline joins Preacher of the Schism to fill out the powerful, value-oriented three mana slot.
Besides the mini Bats package, most of the deck simply consists of strong, grindy cards that help you flourish in attrition wars. Cut Down and Go for the Throat help stave off early pressure against aggro decks. From there, beefy threats like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse can help you close games.
Ultimately, this deck is very strong against a large portion of the field. There’s enough removal and high-toughness creatures to keep aggro decks at bay, and the creatures themselves flourish in midrange mirrors. Likely the deck’s biggest weakness is Domain control, which has been on the rise over the last week. As such, Orzhov midrange is a solid deck choice, but it’s far from unbeatable.
4 | Boros Tokens
In recent weeks, Boros tokens has emerged as one of the absolute best decks in Standard. This isn’t your ordinary token deck, either. Rather than looking to beat down, this deck plays very defensively. The goal is to maximize cards like Caretaker’s Talent and Fountainport as value engines.
Any tokens you make from there on out, be them from Beza, the Bounding Spring or Carrot Cake, will help you generate card advantage while simultaneously letting you soak up damage. Undoubtedly, the best token producer this deck has at its disposal is Urabrask’s Forge. Urabrask’s Forge is guaranteed to trigger Caretaker’s Talent every turn cycle. Even though the token doesn’t stick around permanently, you can sacrifice it to Fountainport to draw more cards.
As long as you can keep the board clear, Urabrask’s Forge will help you close the game over time. Fortunately, this deck has ample removal at the ready. Lightning Helix and Get Lost are excellent in this role. Against go-wide decks, Temporary Lockdown and Sunfall can singlehandedly spell doom for the opponent.
The one weakness this archetype has as things currently stand is its ability to apply pressure in games where you don’t draw Urabrask’s Forge early. With this in mind, the Domain matchup can be a bit tricky. Considering how well your cards line up against other midrange and aggro decks, though, this strategy remains a top-tier option.
3 | Domain Ramp
Ahead of Standard rotation, it looked like Domain Ramp was done for. This deck used to heavily rely upon the Triomes from Streets of New Capenna, and they were rotating out. Despite this assumption, Domain Ramp has proved to be surprisingly resilient, successfully falling back on other lands.
Specifically, Domain Ramp now largely relies upon the Surveil Lands from Murders at Karlov Manor for its fixing needs. While this covers the Domain side of things, the ramp in this deck is rather lacking. Thanks to rotation, players turned towards Ancient Cornucopia or Heaped Harvest as ramp engines.
Thankfully, while the ramp may be lacking somewhat, this deck is still able to survive and pull its weight. Utilizing Leyline Binding, Temporary Lockdown, and Lightning Helix this deck has a potent control shell. This helps to buy the deck enough time before bringing out the real heavy hitters.
Just as it was before rotation, the end game for Domain Ramp is casting Atraxa, Grand Unifier. Providing card advantage and a massive threat, getting this Atraxa out typically means the game is over. Even if this colossal creature gets answered, the immediate card advantage they provide makes steamrolling easy. This deck is still a good choice in Standard, beating up on many midrange decks in its path.
2 | Golgari Midrange
Golgari midrange used to be a very solid choice in Standard pre-rotation. As you might expect, Deep-Cavern Bat and cheap black removal spells like Go for the Throat make an appearance here. Playing green opens the door for you to run Mosswood Dreadknight, an elite, efficient beater that’s tough to get rid of long-term.
This portion of the deck is still intact, but the introduction of Bloomburrow gave this shell a whole new angle of attack. This is because of the combo associated with Innkeeper’s Talent and Vraska, Betrayal’s Sting. The goal is to Level up Innkeeper’s Talent all the way before you play Vraska.
Now, permanents entering with counters will enter with twice that many. This means that when you cast Vraska’ it will enter with 12 loyalty counters instead of 6. This lets you use the ultimate ability right away.
However, because Innkeeper’s Talent also doubles counters out on players, the opponent will receive a total of 18 poison counters, ending the game on the spot!
This additional piece of the puzzle has helped Golgari midrange surge in recent weeks. It’s pretty cool to see this unique combo earn its place in a competitive setting.
Overall, Standard is in a pretty good place right now. The metagame is in constant flux. Even though these are what we consider the best decks at the moment, the order is likely to change frequently. Additionally, there are plenty of other decks to choose from, such as Rakdos Cruelclaw or Azorius artifacts. It’ll be cool to see how the format continues to evolve in the near future.
1 | Gruul Aggro
Once easily considered the best deck in Standard, Gruul Aggro just had one of its best cards banned… sort of. Leyline of Resonance is no longer legal in Best-of-One matches on MTG Arena. Despite this, Gruul Aggro is still an absolute powerhouse of a deck and more than worthy of its current crown.
While the lack of Leyline of Resonance does change Best-of-One deck construction. Leyline of Resonance is still legal in Best-of-Three decks. This means it’s still one of the most competitive, and surprisingly resilient, decks out there. On paper, where Best-of-Three play is pretty much all there is, this ban doesn’t even really matter.
So, Leyline of Resonance is still the best card in Gruul Aggro, since it can duplicate single-target spells. In the deck, this obviously means all of your pump spells get twice as effective. Unsurprisingly, getting six power from Giant Growth or Turn Inside Out is a pretty insane deal. The fact you can get this for free from Leyline of Resonance makes this card downright busted.
As if insane value wasn’t exciting enough, this deck has a decent chance of getting you a turn two kill. According to Reddit math, you’ll get all the pieces you need around 11-15% of the time, which is rather consistent. This combo uses either Heartfire Hero or Cacophony Scamp alongside the Burn Together Adventure to deal up to 24 damage on turn two.
While a turn two combo kill is difficult to prevent in Standard, this deck isn’t a one-trick pony. Gruul Aggro has long been a popular and powerful archetype, and Leyline of Resonance makes it even better. The deck is brutally fast and can easily overwhelm opponents without enough removal to stop threats like Slickshot Show-Off.
Ultimately, while Gruul Aggro certainly appears to be the best deck in Standard right now, it’s not ineffable. In best-of-three matches, opponents can easily board in additional removal and counterspells as needed. Alongside this, the meta itself may warp to specifically play around this problematic strategy. There’s also the very real possibility it could get banned, but we’ll have to see about that.
Read More: Best MTG Arena Timeless Decks