When it comes to dominating the Standard format in Magic: The Gathering, finding the right deck is half the battle. Whether you're prepping for your next Friday Night Magic, climbing the ranks on MTG Arena, or just looking for inspiration for your own build, knowing the best Standard decks can give you a serious edge.
Today, we'll dive into the top-performing decks in the current Standard meta, highlighting what makes each one shine and breaking down the decks that define the format and what their main plan is about.
Intrigued? Let’s dive right into it.
What are the best Standard decks in MTG right now?
The best Standard decks in MTG right now are Dimir Midrange, Gruul Prowess, Boros Prowess, Jeskai Aggro, and Azorius Midrange. These decks stand out for their consistent performance, as shown by recent in-person and online event data. Each of these archetypes has achieved strong, often undefeated, results across multiple tournaments.
Now, let’s take a closer look at each deck and break down its primary strategy.
#5. Azorius Midrange
The main plan of this deck is to fill the board with cheap threats like Spyglass Siren or Novice Inspector and generate tokens that can later be turned into hard-to-deal threats thanks to Zoetic Glyph. The most notable card of this deck, however, is Enduring Curiosity, which serves as a value enabler that's hard to deal with and will make your evasive creatures into card draw engines.
#4. Jeskai Aggro
Similar to Azorius Midrange, Jeskai Aggro relies on some creatures we've already seen on the former, with the slight difference that this version of the deck incorporates red cards like Gleeful Demolition to abuse the artifact tokens generated with the likes of Novice Inspector. On top of that, the deck also runs a solid value card in the form of Knight-Errant of Eos, which replaces Enduring Curiosity for the deck, and a solid finisher on Imodane's Recruiter.
#3. Boros Prowess
The introduction of potent burn spells in the form of Lightning Helix and Boros Charm gave Boros Prowess a perfect fit when run with Prowess creatures like Monastery Swiftspear and Emberheart Challenger. Not only do they trigger our creature's ability, but they also serve as late-game finishers or, in the case of Boros Charm, as a way to protect your board.
#2. Gruul Prowess
This deck is mostly a mono-red version of Boros Prowess, which is significantly cheaper than other decks on the list as you don't need to rely on spending your wildcards or money on your mana base. That said, the green portion mostly serves to power up your sideboard by running cards like Questing Druid or Patchpaw Formation against some other format decks that may require a different approach.
#1. Dimir Midrange
By far, Dimir Midrange is the best deck of the format, as it runs the cheap and evasive creatures we saw in the other blue decks of the list, with cheap removal cards like Anoint with Affliction to control the game. Aside from Enduring Curiosity, this deck also runs Kaito, Bane of Nightmares, which serves as an additional payoff for the deck.
What are the most played cards in Standard MTG decks?
The most played cards in Standard MTG are those that consistently appear in the top five decks and see widespread play across the format. To answer this fully, we'll break it down into two parts:
- Cards that are commonly seen in the top-performing decks of the current meta.
- Standout staples that are consistently played across a variety of decks in Standard.
Let’s talk about the first subset now.
Enduring Curiosity
Arguably, Enduring Curiosity is one of the best cards in the format due to its potential to refill your hand with just a few evasive creatures on the board. It is a staple of blue-based decks like Azorius and Dimir Midrange.
Mockingbird
This versatile card shines in Azorius and Dimir Midrange, where its ability to copy a creature and essentially give it flying is a big game changer, especially when you can copy one of your opponent's most valuable threats. In Azorius Midrange, it helps keep the pressure on by enabling quick board setups by copying the likes of Novice Inspector or Spyglass Siren, while in Dimir Midrange, it supports the deck's control elements like Floodpits Drowner and synergizes with its interactive spells.
Spyglass Siren
Played in Dimir Midrange, Jeskai Aggro, and Azorius Midrange, this card is favored for its early-game utility. It offers a cheap flying threat that can chip away at opponents while supporting Azorius Midrange's token strategies or Jeskai Aggro's explosive game plan. The map token also acts as a good way to pump it or draw extra land, which is always welcome when planning to curve out.
Sheltered by Ghosts
A standout in Jeskai Aggro, Azorius Midrange, and Boros Aggro, this card is a key enabler for aggro decks. It helps by removing key threats while maintaining aggressive pressure, but more importantly, lifelink is a game changer ability against red decks and aggressive strategies as a whole.
Monastery Swiftspear
A staple in Gruul Prowess and Boros Aggro, this card's prowess ability makes it an incredible threat in decks built around low-cost spells. In Gruul Prowess, it pairs beautifully with pump spells and burn, while in Boros Aggro, it accelerates damage output by taking advantage of cheap combat tricks and removal.
Format-Wide Staples
Across the format, some cards have proven to be ever-present and consistently played due to their power and flexibility.
For example, one of the most used creatures across Standard decks is Sheoldred, the Apocalypse.
This iconic black card is a key feature in decks like Golgari Midrange, Mono-Black, and Dimir Midrange due to its combination of a bulky body, life gain, and offensive threat, which makes it invaluable for stabilizing the board and closing out games.
On the other hand, efficient removal spells, such as Go for the Throat and Cut Down, excel at handling threats in aggressive metas and their high usage rate is no surprise given the dominance of prowess strategies like Boros Aggro and Gruul Prowess, where early removal is crucial.
Notable Sideboard Cards
Meanwhile, there are a few sideboard cards that have a particular niche against some of the most popular cards of the meta.
Ghost Vacuum, for example, is a dedicated hate card against graveyard strategies that also excels at removing resilient threats like Enduring Curiosity.
Similarly, Torch the Tower is a reliable option against small creatures and early-game threats that also happen to remove creatures rather than exile them.
Lastly, Destroy Evil is an excellent sideboard card against the likes of Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, and it also deals with enchantments like Sheltered by Ghosts.
Wrap Up
As you can see, Standard’s current meta has no place for Control Decks, and it’s mostly centered around outvaluing your opponents with card draw or getting under them with hasty and deadly creatures.
Do you think Control Decks can make a comeback, or are they truly out of place in the current meta? Share your thoughts in the comments!
As always, take care, and we will meet again in my next article.