Just a few days ago, Director of WotC R&D Aaron Forsythe said of the current Standard environment, “The format has opened up quite a bit and has been getting lots of kudos,” and, “In general there are a wide variety of decks winning that feature all five colors, cards from every set in Standard, and the gamut of play styles from beatdown to control.” Strong words, Mr. Forsythe. How do such claims hold up under scrutiny?
Alternatively, maybe you don’t care about what WotC thinks. Instead, you had a really busy fall and haven’t gotten to play much Standard since Return to Ravnica came out, but your New Year’s resolution is to get back out to FNM or on Magic Online and crush some games of Standard. What should you expect, knowing that in about a month the environment will gain a new large set? Regardless of whether you want to check up on WotC or just see what’s floating around in Standard, this article is for you.
The metagame feels a little wonky this time of year, as the major tournament scene is quieter because of the holidays. In the last month (that is, December), there were no standard GPs and only three SCG Opens, but there was a SCG Invitational and another $50K tournament at the beginning of the month. I’ve surveyed those results as well as those from Magic Online Premier Events and the 4-0 lists from Daily Events over the last month. I’m not going to catalog everything, but hopefully I can convey the overall feel of the scene.
And the scene is…highly chaotic. There is no single “deck to beat” in the format—gone are the days of single deck hegemony. Furthermore, we have the full range from hyper-aggressive beatdown decks to pure control decks, but the current environment is really dominated, at least in terms of numbers, by midrange strategies ranging from two to four colors. So let’s start there.
Midrange
Not aggro, not control, but something in between (and not combo, of course). The presence of the shocklands (though incomplete) and the M10 duals with the Innistrad duals means color fixing is plentiful, enabling a broad palette of multicolor decks. It’s hard to say any one of them is dominant, but there are a few that have been showing up slightly more often than others. These decks have a tendency to feel like “good stuff” decks: that is, pick some colors and play the best cards from those colors. Synergy and the metagame have shaped that a little, but these decks in general tend to play a pretty even balance between creatures, spells, and lands and simply lean towards cards that are powerful in their own right.
U/W/R Midrange
So what is the “good stuff” for this wedge? A prototypical answer comes from the SCG Invitational in Los Angeles:
Creatures (14)
Lands (24)
Spells (22)
Big hitter creatures mostly from Innistrad block (plus wrecking ball Thundermaw Hellkite) and a lot of spells, mostly from RTR. Turns out a Geist of Saint Traft on turn 3 is still good. RTR has provided a nice suite of spells to go with the ghostly legend, and many of them can be used again and again thanks to Snapcaster and, if fortunate, a Snapcaster reset with Restoration Angel. Notice the full eight burn spells as well. It’s flexible, can be fast, and is pretty resilient.
Jund Midrange
Everyone’s favorite (or least favorite, depending on how you felt about the Bloodbraided menace) Alara shard also supports a strong midrange deck in this format. Here’s a good example from a recent Open:
Creatures (18)
- 4 Vampire Nighthawk
- 2 Olivia Voldaren
- 4 Huntmaster of the Fells
- 1 Wolfir Silverheart
- 4 Thragtusk
- 3 Thundermaw Hellkite
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (24)
Spells (15)
Running green provides access to Farseek for further mana fixing, and the creature base is a suite of value creatures like Thragtusk and Olivia. Decks very much like this were played almost right away once the format came out and, if they stick with Jund colors, haven’t evolved all that much. (This is not because they’re bad, but because that initial deck was solid right from the get-go.)
Naya Midrange
This seems to have increased in popularity lately. Brian Page is the current king pilot of this deck, having won an Open and finished in the Top 16 of the Invitational with it. Here’s his Invitational list:
Creatures (25)
- 3 Borderland Ranger
- 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
- 4 Huntmaster of the Fells
- 4 Restoration Angel
- 4 Thragtusk
- 3 Angel of Serenity
- 3 Centaur Healer
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (23)
Spells (10)
It’s similar to the Jund list in that Farseek, Huntmaster, and Thragtusk all play key roles, but this deck eschews Jund’s black to play white, allowing for Restoration Angel and the flexible Selesnya Charm. Centaur Healer is also useful against the current suite of hyper-aggressive decks I’ll cover. I have seen versions of this deck that top out at Armada Wurm for a monstrous finisher.
Other Variants
As noted, mana fixing is so good right now that people are pursuing four-color variants of these as well. I would argue that if the Jund decks have evolved, they’ve evolved into four-color decks. Some of them are essentially combinations of the Jund and Naya decks, as Farseek can enable stretches of the mana base. I fully expect that to be even more common once Gatecrash comes out and we have the full suite of shocklands. There are also two-color variants that seem popular on Magic Online, particularly Selesnya builds.
Aggro
By numbers, there’s a little more aggro in the format than control, though I’m not sure that necessarily means aggro is better. There are plenty of different aggro decks out there as well, as the current Standard is full of fast and efficient creatures. These decks try to win before the midrange decks can cast their four- and five-mana high-value spells. There are really two major players here, both in the same colors: B/R Zombies and R/B Aggro. I’ll cover Zombies first.
B/R Zombies
In my last survey back in September, I noted that not much of the powerful B/R Zombies list of that time was rotating out and the deck had a good chance to come through rotation and still be a contender. Sometimes it’s easy to see, and even I managed to see this coming. Here’s an example of this breed of deck, the second place finisher at GP Nagoya:
Creatures (28)
- 4 Diregraf Ghoul
- 4 Gravecrawler
- 4 Falkenrath Aristocrat
- 4 Geralf's Messenger
- 4 Blood Artist
- 4 Knight of Infamy
- 4 Rakdos Cackler
Lands (22)
Spells (10)
The deck looks very much like the pre-rotation B/R Zombies deck but with Blood Crypts and Cacklers.
R/B Aggro
This is the same colors, so how is this different than the Zombies deck? Well, basically…no Zombies! The deck plays a similar burn and land suite but a different creature base. Here’s the fourth place list from GP Nagoya:
Creatures (26)
- 4 Stromkirk Noble
- 4 Falkenrath Aristocrat
- 3 Hellrider
- 4 Knight of Infamy
- 3 Thundermaw Hellkite
- 4 Ash Zealot
- 4 Rakdos Cackler
Lands (24)
Spells (10)
The decks do share Rakdos Cackler, Falkenrath Aristocrat, and Knight of Infamy. The R/B deck, however, goes for haste over Zombies.
These two decks make up enough of the metagame that no matter what kind of tournament you’re going to, you need to be ready for them. They’re fast, and they have reach. My local FNM is overrun with B/R Zombies at the moment, so if you can’t beat that you might as well not show up.
Mono-Red Aggro
This deck has been somewhat under the radar for a while in the metagame—Thragtusk is probably a solid reason for that—but has been picking up in popularity lately, particularly on Magic Online. It’s very simple: take out all the black cards from the above builds and run less land and even more haste. Here’s an example from the Invitational:
Creatures (28)
- 4 Stromkirk Noble
- 3 Pyreheart Wolf
- 4 Hellrider
- 2 Stonewright
- 2 Lightning Mauler
- 1 Hound of Griselbrand
- 4 Thundermaw Hellkite
- 4 Ash Zealot
- 4 Rakdos Cackler
Lands (24)
Spells (8)
The card I most enjoy there is Pyreheart Wolf. I did not think a 1/1 for three, even with undying, would see Standard play. I guess with Lightning Mauler there’s still value there.
Other Variants
Of course, there are other variants of aggro decks—there is always beatdown. The top candidate is probably Kibler’s G/B deck, though I’ve seen that classified as midrange—where is that line, exactly? There’s a fun Naya Humans deck out there and even a Bant Aggro deck if you go looking. None of these, however, has a particularly large share of the meta. If you’re going to go really fast, the dominant plays are in red and black, apparently.
Control
If you think the Jund versus Naya Midrange matchup can be grindy—and I assure you it can—throw one of the dominant midrange decks up against a control deck and hope whoever won game 1 also wins game 2 because there aren’t going to be a lot of completed game 3s.
Bant Control
For a while it looked like there was going to be one really dominant control deck and that it was going to become the deck to beat, but things haven’t played out that way. Still, this is a powerful deck and should be taken very seriously. The deck is built around Sphinx’s Revelation, which is an incredibly powerful card:
Creatures (7)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (26)
Spells (25)
The astute reader will note that this is not technically “Bant” since there’s actually an itsy bit of black in there. This is almost entirely to power up the deck’s non-damage win condition, Nephalia Drownyard. More recent variants eschew the planeswalkers entirely and load up even heavier on the spells. This deck can be a beast to play against if you do not get a fast start.
Esper Control (aka Esper Superfriends)
More recently, an Esper version of control has started doing well at larger events. This deck came on my radar when someone from my local FNM started playing it, and he managed to pilot it to a ninth place finish at an Open back in November (good job, Joe!). The deck has evolved some from that version, and I think this is more typical of what you’re likely to find on Magic Online or at FNM:
Planeswalkers (5)
Lands (28)
Spells (28)
It is in many ways not that far off from the Bant version, but of course without the Thragtusks and Farseeks. I am not usually one to prognosticate when we haven’t seen very many cards from the next set, but I suspect this deck will get a huge boost from Gatecrash because I think Obzedat goes straight into this deck and makes it immediately better.
Other Variants
There aren’t really any other major players in the control vein right now, though I will admit a certain affinity for the U/W/R splashing black list that’s been termed Dark America, but that’s probably because I’m a sucker for any list that has Lone Revenant in it. (Impulse is one of my all-time favorite cards—what can I say?)
U/W/x Flash
I’m not sure if this merits a whole section, but it is a significant portion of the meta and doesn’t quite fit the other categories, so here it is. Anyway, since we lost Ponder and Mana Leak, Delver has pretty much fallen out of favor. These Flash decks are, in my mind, the evolution of last season’s Delver decks, just without Delver itself. These are different from the midrange decks in that synergy is much more important than just playing the best cards. For instance, most builds play Unsummon, which is a pretty bad card in isolation but makes the cut here.
U/W Flash
The original build of this deck was only two colors. This is no longer the most common version of it, but it’s still around. A good prototypical build is Adam Prosak from the Invitational:
Creatures (12)
Lands (25)
Spells (23)
- 3 Dissipate
- 3 Unsummon
- 2 Syncopate
- 2 Think Twice
- 1 Runechanter's Pike
- 4 Thought Scour
- 4 Azorius Charm
- 1 Supreme Verdict
- 3 Sphinx's Revelation
Sideboard
Notice the lack of Geist of Saint Traft. There are versions that do run Geist, but I think lately it’s more common for Flash to not play everybody’s favorite ghost. This version of the deck has lately been overtaken, however, with the addition of red.
U/W/R Flash
Why red? I would argue that there are two reasons: Pillar of Flame, which is good against the current crop of aggro decks, and Counterflux, which is great at stopping your opponent’s Sphinx’s Revelations. Three pilots of this deck made the Top 16 at the Invitational; Todd Anderson list is typical of the bunch:
Creatures (11)
Lands (25)
Spells (24)
This version has so completely overtaken the straight U/W build on Magic Online that there was not a single U/W version listed among the decks that 4-0’d Magic Online Daily Events in the month of December, though there was one in a Premier Event.
Other Variants
For a while there was an Esper build of this deck floating around that splashed black in the basic U/W version in order to support Lingering Souls and Ultimate Price, but I haven’t spotted it anywhere significant (other than my own FNM) in the last month or so.
Reanimator
Unburial Rites targeting Angel of Serenity was one of the big decks to make a splash early in the season. It’s not showing up in the same kind of numbers that it was early on, but it is still a reasonably popular and successful deck. Partway into the season, there was an uptick in popularity as people discovered Craterhoof Behemoth, and while that’s still an element of the deck, its popularity has waned some. As of now, there are two popular variants.
Junk Reanimator
For a while prior to rotation, a four-color version of this deck that used Faithless Looting was popular. The current dominant build, particularly online, is a three-color version that eschews the red. A typical build comes from GP Nagoya:
Creatures (24)
- 4 Arbor Elf
- 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
- 2 Restoration Angel
- 2 Craterhoof Behemoth
- 4 Thragtusk
- 4 Angel of Serenity
- 4 Centaur Healer
Lands (24)
Spells (12)
No muss, no fuss: some of the best Junk creatures, ways to put them in the graveyard, and ways to Reanimate them. A trickier variant is next.
Chronic Flooding Reanimator
Chronic Flooding is one of those cards it’s easy to overlook—on the surface, it looks pretty bad. But paired with Reanimation, it can be a powerhouse. The idea behind this deck is not just the usual self-mill and Reanimate, but to mill Humans and then Reanimate Angel of Glory’s Rise. The Human-centric deck changes the creature base a lot and supports the very cute but also effective Nightshade Peddler / Izzet Staticaster combo. If that seems like a lot to fit all in one deck, it is, but it works. Here’s the winning list from GP Nagoya:
Creatures (18)
- 4 Huntmaster of the Fells
- 4 Nightshade Peddler
- 1 Zealous Conscripts
- 4 Angel of Glory's Rise
- 1 Goldnight Commander
- 4 Izzet Staticaster
Lands (23)
Spells (19)
I particularly like the one-of Goldnight Commander for the total blowout when the Angel comes out. Other builds use Kessig Malcontents for similar purposes.
Other Variants
There are four-color versions of the deck that do not run Chronic Flooding but include the Peddler / Staticaster combo, though I’m not sure why. There may also be four-color lists around that still run Faithless Looting, but again, I haven’t seen one lately.
Miscellaneous
There are a few other decks that don’t quite fit into any of the other categories that are still worth mentioning, either because they have enough of the meta or because they’re just plain fun.
Junk Tokens
One of these made Top 8 of an Open literally as I was writing this. However, I was going to stick to December decks, so I’m going with this list from the Open in Los Angeles a few weeks ago—but realize this deck is indeed still around!
Creatures (15)
Planeswalkers (5)
Lands (23)
Spells (17)
Intangible Virtue plus Lingering Souls and other token generators can be a force…
Four-Color Peddler
The Reanimator lists are not the only ones running the Peddler / Staticaster combo. There is another deck, similar to the Jund Midrange deck but splashing blue, that also runs the combo. From the same Open in Los Angeles, here is Cory Burkhart’s deck that really sells the combo:
Creatures (24)
- 4 Olivia Voldaren
- 4 Huntmaster of the Fells
- 4 Nightshade Peddler
- 4 Thragtusk
- 4 Izzet Staticaster
- 4 Deathrite Shaman
Lands (25)
Spells (11)
This deck is a blast to play, and I highly recommend it if you even kind of like decks like this.
Omnidoor Thragfire
This isn’t really a significant part of the meta, but this deck is just too goofy not to include. It runs the Omniscience / Door to Nothingness combo and boards into the Worldfire / Thragtusk combo. I can’t imagine it’s very consistent, but what a blast it must be whenever you do get it to work! Here’s a list that made Top 8 of a Magic Online Premier Event:
Creatures (2)
Planeswalkers (1)
Lands (25)
Spells (32)
- 2 Fog
- 1 Door to Nothingness
- 2 Gilded Lotus
- 4 Farseek
- 3 Increasing Ambition
- 2 Temporal Mastery
- 2 Terminus
- 4 Ranger's Path
- 1 Omniscience
- 3 Chromatic Lantern
- 4 Supreme Verdict
- 4 Sphinx's Revelation
Sideboard
Wrap Up
So was the esteemed Mr. Forsythe right? I’d say he was: the metagame is pretty diverse, both in terms of colors being played and styles of play around. I’d say the most salient criticism that could be raised is that with all the midrange decks, the format can be a bit on the grindy side, which isn’t always fun for everyone. Midrange mirrors with Thragtusks on both sides can go long, and those matchups are fairly common.
If you don’t like that, there are viable aggro decks, so go with one of those. Combo is not really a huge part of the meta unless you count Reanimator decks as combo, which seems at least somewhat reasonable. The good news is that there is no clear “deck to beat” that is consistently dominating events. If you didn’t like the old days of Faeries, Caw-Blade, or even Delver, that’s probably the source of the kudos that WotC is getting for the format.
What will Gatecrash bring? Only WotC knows for sure, but one thing I think everyone could probably agree on is that seriously multicolor decks are likely to be on the upsurge. I wasn’t playing in the days of Five-Color Control, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a resurgence of five-color decks once the full suite of shocklands gets printed. And watch out for Obzedat…