With plenty of new decks and archetypes, the Standard MTG format is in the best shape it’s been in years. Between MTG Foundations laying the groundwork for the next five years and the revolutionized release calendar, Standard is headed toward another golden age. With a huge number of competitive events scheduled throughout 2025 and beyond, there’s never been a better time to get into Standard.
Whether you’re looking to dip your toe in or are already a seasoned veteran, the Standard metagame is always changing. Thanks to new sets releasing every few months, and rotation too, there are always new decks and archetypes to contend with. As such, it’s always worth keeping abreast of the latest developments in the metagame so you’re not caught off guard.
Here are all the best decks in the Standard MTG format right now.
10 | Jeskai Convoke
Considering Boros Convoke was once the go-to Standard deck this archetype has fallen from grace somewhat. That said while the deck isn’t a meta-defining leader anymore, it’s nonetheless still competitive. Offering a versatile horde of bodies and an extra splash of removal, this deck can put in serious work.
Much like its Boros predecessor, Jeskai Convoke wants to flood the board with as many permanents as possible. The best options for this are Novice Inspector and Spyglass Siren who both create extra artifacts. Said artifacts can be used as fuel for Gleeful Demolition which nets you even more tokens.
Should everything go according to plan, you should have more than enough fuel for a Knight-Errant of Eos on turn three. Able to be Convoked in surprisingly easily, this card keeps your hand stocked with relative ease. Grabbing an Imodane’s Recruiter or Warden of the Inner Sky threatens a whole lot of damage depending on your board.
To round out this otherwise very aggressive list, Sheltered by Ghosts and Case of the Gateway Express both provide removal. While both of these cards need creatures on the board, they’re nonetheless capable of keeping you ahead. Should they not be enough, however, the sideboard can house no end of answers thanks to the Jeskai color identity.
Sadly, while Jeskai Convoke is a pretty competent deck at the moment, it does struggle against some matchups. Golgari Demons, for example, is a terrible matchup for this deck as you’re constantly outvalued. Given that Golgari Demons is one of the best and most popular MTG decks in Standard right now, this seriously impacts Jeskai Convoke’s competitiveness.
9 | Boros Auras
If you’re looking for an aggro deck, there are plenty of archetypes to pick between in Standard right now. You can either go wide with Jeskai, fast with Mono-Red, or tall with Boros Auras. Each of these archetypes has proven capable of putting up good results, so you can’t really go wrong.
As the name suggests, Boros Auras focuses primarily on building up a few powerful creatures, rather than all-out aggression. Optimistic Scavenger, for instance, promotes a slightly slower game plan which makes your creatures more resilient. Their ability also handily pairs well with Valiant which appears on Emberheart Challenger and Heartfire Hero.
Alongside Kellan, Planar Trailblazer who can scale into a surprisingly huge threat, these three creatures are your bread and butter. Pumped up by Valiant triggers and auras like Sheltered by Ghosts and Demonic Ruckus, these creatures can get scary surprisingly quickly. This becomes even more true if you have Manifold Mouse in play, which can give a creature Double Strike each turn.
While aggro is all well and good, consistency is typically the make-or-break factor for this kind of deck. Thankfully, Boros Auras doesn’t struggle in this regard. Not only are there plenty of ways to create auras, like Role Tokens, but there’s a decent bit of removal too. With Burst Lightning in the main board and Lightning Helix in the sideboard, the deck can hold its own.
Sadly, while Boros Auras can put up decent results, it’s hardly infallible. Against other aggro decks, the slightly taller strategy can often fall behind and be left in the dust. The trade-off is that Borus Auras tends to be slightly better against more midrange-focused lists, which are currently everywhere in Standard.
8 | Simic Terror
If you’re looking for a true budget deck, Simic Terror might be what you’re after. With some lists available for less than $100, this deck is a unique and easy entry point into the format. Thankfully, you’re not wholly compromising on competitiveness while sticking to a budget, as Simic Terror is surprisingly potent.
Despite the somewhat unorthodox color identity, Simic Terror is a fairly typical spellslinger deck. Through casting a ton of cheap spells, Simic Terror looks to make both Tolarian Terror and Eddymurk Crab surprisingly cheap. From here, the deck can fall back on bounce-based removal to let these threats steamroll over opponents.
Beyond just casting instants and sorceries to get them into the graveyard, Simic Terror has some mild mill effects. Appearing on Cache Grab and Seed of Hope, both these cards let you fill your bin while finding what you need. Should you need lands, Simic Terror easily has that handled with Bushwhack and Analyze the Pollen.
Despite starting out as Simic, this deck can pivot to Sultai if needs be thanks to Gloomlake Verge. Not only does this land allow Rona’s Vortex to be Kicked, but it puts treats like Nowhere to Run and Go for the Throat into the sideboard. Alongside a smattering of counterspells, graveyard hate, and removal, this keeps Simic Terror surprisingly competitive.
7 | Red Deck Wins
Regardless of when rotation happens or what set gets released, Mono-Red is always popular in Standard. Often referred to simply as Red Deck Wins, this archetype is consistently competitive, especially on MTG Arena. If you’re looking to grind your way up the best-of-one ladder on Arena, Mono-Red is usually the go-to strategy.
After a brief dalliance with Leyline of Resonance shenanigans, Mono-Red decks are back to a more restrained game plan. Still offering blistering speed with fast creatures and punishing burn, this deck is utterly relentless. While this deck’s only source of card draw comes from Emberheart Challenger, it nonetheless just doesn’t quit.
Empowered by Monstrous Rage, creatures like Monastery Swiftspear and Heartfire Hero can consistently pack a serious punch. This, of course, can be doubled up by Manifold Mouse too for extra offense. Speaking of offense, Burst Lightning and Lightning Strike can come in clutch here, while Witchstalker Frenzy provides removal.
While Mono Red has always been an effective strategy, Screaming Nemesis has pushed it to a new level. After connecting for damage, this card completely shuts down an opponent’s life gain which mitigates counterplay options. This has given the deck a bit of an upgrade in recent months, but it’s still not ineffable.
Ultimately, Mono-Red decks are very much still capable of being shut down and stopped by removal and larger threats. The goal is always to get under these big creatures before they can be played, however, that’s not always possible. Nonetheless, Mono-Red Aggro is always a popular strategy that can put up great results.
6 | Azorius Tempo
Similarly to the Simic Terror decks in Standard, Azorius Tempo is all about putting spells in the bin. Once there, these spells become fuel for Haughty Djinn and/or Abhorrent Oculus which are more than capable of steamrolling games. Costing only three mana apiece, both these cards are early and major threats that only get better with time.
To fuel both of these cards, Azorious Tempo runs a fair amount of self-mill effects. Moment of Truth, Picklock Prankster, and Chart a Course each help to put cards where they need to go. Technically, cards like Picklock Prankster do have the potential to cause more harm than good, but thankfully that isn’t an issue.
Ensuring that you don’t mill away your best threats, Azorius Tempo runs Helping Hand and Recommission to bring back creatures. Whether these were milled on purpose, by accident, or killed in battle these affordable reanimation spells help keep things consistent. Speaking of consistency, Founding the Third Path provides literally everything this deck is looking for.
Unsurprisingly, Azorius Tempo also has access to a hefty chunk of removal and counterspells when needed. The majority of these can be found in the deck’s sideboard, ready and waiting to be used. In the main deck, however, you’ll still find Unsummon, Get Lost, and a Negate or two to avoid being blown out.
Overall, Azorious Tempo is undeniably a capable deck that performs well against a variety of strategies. While aggressive decks can sometimes sneak under its game plan, the sideboard is robust enough to keep competitive. As such, Azorius Tempo is a fantastic choice in the Standard metagame and certainly one of the best decks available.
5 | Temur Prowess
Despite its fairly run-of-the-mill name, Temur Prowess is a vicious new combo deck that has been making serious waves in Standard. Capable of creating an infinite number of infinitely big creatures, this deck can be a real monster. Thankfully, even if you don’t manage to pop off with the Prowess combo, it’s still seriously effective.
At its core, this combo revolves around four core cards. To start with, Enduring Vitality and Valley Floodcaller allow you to ramp exceptionally well with Otters by casting cheap spells. With enough mana, you can even create an infinite loop between Stormchaser’s Talent and This Town Ain’t Big Enough.
This infinite loop revolves around casting Stormchaser’s Talent, bouncing it with This Town Ain’t Big Enough, and then casting it again. From this point, you can level up Stormchaser’s Talent to bring back This Town, which lets you bounce it once more. Every time you complete this loop you’ll get a new Otter token and multiple Prowess triggers. This means you can create an infinite number of infinitely big Otters.
Admittedly, to complete this loop you’ll need a fair few Otters first, but Thundertrap Trainer helps further this goal. Not only is this Otter another creature to untap with Floodcaller, but they help find your other combo pieces too. Notably, to finish off the combo, you’ll ideally need a Haste enabler like Song of Totentanz.
Obviously, opponents can stop this combo by targeting Valley Floodcaller since it’s the weakest link in the chain. Should you manage to get going, however, there’s little opponents can do. Cheap spells like Bushwhack and Sleight of Hand help to create huge amounts of mana while Up the Beanstalk covers card draw.
4 | Domain Overlords
In their own right, the cycle of Overlords from Duskmourn: House of Horror are each pretty powerful. Able to be cast for cheap for their Impending cost, these otherwise expensive creatures can provide huge amounts of value. As if they weren’t good enough on their own, it turns out it’s possible to break these mythic value bombs.
Zur, Eternal Schemer is the key to unlocking the potential of Domain Overlords. Once in play, Zur can turn any Impending Overlord into its full creature self for just two mana. Not only does this give you massive creatures for very little mana, but you get oodles of value too. This is thanks to the fact that each Overlord’s ability triggers when they attack, as well as enter.
Whether you’re animating Overlord of the Hauntwoods, Floodpits, or Mistmoors, the value you can amass is obscene. Arguably, Hauntwoods is this deck’s best engine since it helps ramp you into even more threats. Creating multiple Everywhere tokens is unsurprisingly pretty powerful in a Domain deck that packs Atraxa, Grand Unifier as top end.
Since Domain Overlords is a Domain deck with lots of expensive creatures, there are a few obvious auto includes. Leyline Binding and Up the Beanstalk are both insanely strong in this deck. You’ll also find a fair bit of removal in the form of Get Lost, Sunfall, and Split Up which should give Domain Overlords the edge.
3 | Mono-White Tokens
Historically, Mono-White decks have always struggled in Standard. This is largely thanks to a lack of card draw which has kept the archetype from being too consistent. A good opening hand and curve could be devastating for opponents, but Mono-White had a tendency to peter out. Thanks to Caretaker’s Talent this is no longer the problem it once was.
Providing additional card draw every single turn, provided you make a token, Caretaker’s Talent is insanely effective. As if that wasn’t enough, Enduring Innocence provides even more draw through this deck’s token-focused game plan. Ideally, this will give you all the resources you need to control the game before steadily ending it.
Unlike more traditional Mono-White decks which go down the aggressive go-wide route, this archetype is currently more control-oriented. Utilizing removal such as Sunfall, Split Up, Get Lost, and Soul Partition, it’s easy to shut down opponents and prevent them from getting ahead.
Once you’re in control, the steady stream of tokens created by Overlord of the Mistmoors will do serious work. Even the tokens created by Carrot Cake can eventually become threats thanks to Caretaker’s Talent. Once leveled up enough, the buff this Talent provides helps to close out games with relative ease.
Overall, while Mono-White Tokens is somewhat unorthodox, the deck has proven to be potent against a lot of the best Standard MTG decks. Against aggressive decks, there’s Authority of the Consuls in the sideboard, and midrange is easily handled too. According to MTGDecks, Mono-White Tokens has one of the best average win rates in all of Standard right now.
2 | Golgari Demons
Despite only being in two colors, Golgari Demons decks do it all in Standard. Thanks to a suite of value-rich creatures and spells, there’s card draw, removal, threats, and oppression too. Once this deck gets the ball rolling, it’s incredibly difficult to stop, let alone come back from. With this in mind, it’s no wonder that Golgari Demons has been so dominant in the Standard metagame recently.
On the creature front, all the best Golgari staples are here representing. Llanowar Elves kicks things off with ramp, which can quickly lead into Archfiend of the Dross or Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. From here, you’re threatening constant damage, potentially even lethal, unless an opponent intervenes.
As if that wasn’t good enough, Preacher of the Schism and Glissa Sunslayer offer consistent turn-after-turn value. The same is true for Unholy Annex/Ritual Chamber which operates like an upgraded Phyrexian Arena some of the time.
Unsurprisingly, Golgari Demons also runs a lot of removal to ensure that its opponents are kept in check. Cut Down and Go for the Throat can take care of almost everything, while Nowhere to Run handles tricker threats. There’s even graveyard hate in the form of Scavenging Ooze nowadays which helps against Azorius Tempo.
Overall, there’s no denying that Golgari Demons is one of the best MTG decks in Standard right now. In the hands of Javier Domínguez, the deck did win the Magic World Championship 30, so there’s no denying its strength. That said, it’s arguably not the top dog in Standard at the moment.
1 | Dimir Midrange
Since the release of Duskmourn: House of Horror, Dimir Midrange has quickly been rising up the ranks in Standard. Empowered by new tools such as Enduring Curiosity, this deck is now a card advantage machine. Regardless of the overarching strategy, this allows it to keep up constant pressure to overwhelm unprepared opponents.
For better or worse, there are multiple different directions you can take a Dimir Midrange deck in Standard right now. As you can see above, there are plenty of simple and refined shells that lean heavily into a control-focused archetype. Harnessing the card draw from creatures gives this variant near-limitless removal and counterspells, allowing it to grind out a win.
Should slow and steady not quite be your pace, other lists amp up the number of creatures for extra oppression. Throwing in copies of Sheoldred, the Apocalypse is understandably devastating in this deck, and Unstoppable Slasher does real work too. Even cards like Floodpits Drowner can be ruthlessly effective at shutting down an opponent’s plans.
While each variant of Dimir Midrange is undeniably powerful, the deck’s real strength lies in its versatility. With a well-stocked sideboard, the deck can easily go down either avenue in any match. The deck may not have a perfect matchup against every opponent, but the sideboard certainly helps to even the odds.
