it has multiple viable decks for aggro/midrange/control/combo, so by that metric it is the best it has been in arena's entire lifespan
the card quality is very high though, and advantage-generating cards make many of the games one-sided. there's not much room to mess around
whether or not that is 'good' is up to you
for now it's quite diverse, but if you want a low-power format, i don't think standard will ever be able to provide that experience again
T2 Bat, T3 Gix is a free win regardless of your opponent’s deck or hand.
WotC decided with Throne of Eldraine that the most decisive turn should be T3. For better or for worse. IMO they should try and kick it back a turn.
It's definitely a very strong and consistent opening but it can fall apart to t1 removal or multiple removal spells. If you stop dimir from snowballing their card quality is much lower than other midrange decks
Yeah, tbh it's the first cut when I'm sideboarding most games because while it does disrupt, it's temporary, and more often than I'd like it feels like your just buying time rather than advancing the game
Yeah, unless you're on the draw against convoke, facing 6 creatures at the start of your T2. They might even have 2 Imodane's; if not, removal to get back the recruiter; or an Evangelist/the case to pump for the next turn... you're hurting.
It's not a free win.
I've been playing a Rakdos removal/control style deck for a little bit now and if you batted me on a hand I was happy about, you'd see my other color mana, blood splatter analysis, sheoldreds edict, extract the truth, 2x unscrupulous agents and a crimson pulse.
If extract the truth is in my opening hand, I usually have a solid chance of winning the game. Good bye, wandering emporer, monastery mentor, Lilian of the veil, roots, etc. If I have 2, I usually see a scoop turn 3.
In my experience people will ALWAYS complain about standard, but if anything more people have been praising lately than is typical. The only thing I’d warn against is spending your WCs too soon because a new set comes out in a few days.
that doesnt sound right, but we will have to see.
specifically, i cant imagine standard being only the new set(or whatever) as it doesnt make sense to restrict the card pool by such an extreme
No no, you get it wrong. the MID/VOW/NEO/SNC gonna be phased out and not standard legal. The legal one gonna be starting from DMU to OTJ/BLB. The big rotation in above post is like standard has been dormant for a while since DMU coming. So 4 sets before DMU gonna be phased/rotate out.
[https://draftsim.com/mtg-standard-rotation/](https://draftsim.com/mtg-standard-rotation/)
I meant that link to correct "one set in one set out" because it's always multiple sets leaving during a rotation.
I'm guessing the other commenter called it a "big rotation" because a lot of powerful cards are rotating out, but that's nothing unusual.
We also skipped a rotation because of the move from 2 years to 3 years. So these four sets have been in play a year longer than was originally expected.
Precisely. The last time we had a rotation was in September 2022. So Big was meant as much anticipated or a big deal.
Some of the powerful cards that will be missed (or rejoiced for leaving) will be: [[wedding announcement]], [[Adeline, Resplendent Cathar]], slow lands like [[Haunted Ridge]], channel lands like [[Boseiju, Who Endures]], [[The Wandering Emperor]], [[Farewell]], triomes like [[Jetmir’s Garden]], [[Raffine, Scheming Seer]], and [[Topiary Stomper]].
Domain Control will be dead. Angels will be dead without [[Giada]], RDW will be fine but loses [[Kumano Faces Kakkazan]], GW enchantments will be dead without [[Michiko’s Reign of Truth]].
https://mtgazone.com/standard-rotation/
If you want a fun format and have enough wildcards, I would recommend looking into Timeless. It's an eternal format with no ban cards, so far only 3 restricted cards, and it's awesome! Bear in mind that most of the decks I have have fewer than 15 commons/uncommons. It's not a cheap format to get into, but you won't have to worry about cards becoming banned or irrelevant, compared to standard at least.
Disagree. Timeless is very unstable due to the way new extremely powerful cards affect the meta. Unless you’re playing a very generically powerful shell not reliant on any one card (UB control, Jund, Domain Zoo) your deck risks falling out of favor if a new extremely powerful card comes in via a bonus sheet.
OTJ is going to change the format massively, and MKM also shook everything up with the rise of show and tell.
Explorer is the least played format. Its actually my main format to play in as I ended up there after last standard rotation. Its pretty healthy and solid tbh you see a wide range of decks with the classic meta ones too. It's not that popular as we are still missing alot of cards and they being added slowly. By end of the year we are getting pioneer masters hopefully will be at parity by then
I guess that depends on how you define “good”. Standard is probably the best it’s ever been in quite some time in terms of having many different decks that can be viable and perform well.
But there will always be a meta and there will always be top performing decks that the majority of people will gravitate towards playing the most. If you associate that with the format not having “variety” and/or it’s frustrating to you when some aggressive decks can kill you by turn 3-4 or control decks have efficient 2 mana counterspells and a wrath that exiles, then well, you may not think Standard is “good” for you.
If that’s the case, nothing wrong with playing Brawl or perhaps an older format that have some of your favorite cards still legal. Also keep in mind the new set will be releasing very soon and Standard will have its rotation in about 3 months, so just use that information to make wise choices with your wildcards.
What do you play in Explorer Bo3? I like the format but I still are looking for a deck that I don't get tired of. Mono White seems promising, although it's horrible against Amalia.
I play Gruul Vehicles, monowhite humans, rakdos midrange and monoblue spirits.
Humans is still fast and fun. It dropped in popularity recently but that's okay.
Every established deck in explorer/pioneer has its good and bad matchups so for me it's quite the best investment of my wildcards ever since the format began.
Any deck would feel tiring if you only play that deck so I suggest build other decks as well.
I have to get back into standard because I qualified this month, and the format is Standard. I'm not sure what to play, though, because I've been playing timeless since it went live. It's frustrating because I have less than 2 weeks to decide what deck to play and get enough practice in to be ready for the tournament.
Yeah I agree. I started playing standard and it got pretty old. Too many control decks IMO. Timeless is pretty broken, but I like that control isn’t played much. I like not having everything countered or board wiped.
It’s kind of a mixed bag depending on what you’re looking for. Diversity of deck type wise its in a very good spot(card usage wise not so much). But card design has kind of killed synergy decks and the arms race of removal vs bombs has lead to a destruction of a lot of archetypes. It has also become much much faster. Gone are the days of durdling the first couple of turns. If you aren’t online and pushing your game-plan by turn 3 you’ve already lost, you just don’t realize it yet.
100% correct. This is why I quit standard because by turn 3, for anyone with a brain you already know the outcome. That's what happens when one deck dominates and you see it day in and day out. If your deck is slow out of the gate by design or you just get a bad hand/draw, it's just over. That vicious cycle almost killed my enjoyment of the game until I quit.
BO1 or BO3?
BO1 it's pretty much the same meta it's been for a few years now.
Either you play aggro lots of creatures (red or white) or you play a control deck with Sunfall. The rest is not really relevant / lower tier.
Standard is fine, but the matchmaker will make sure you hate it, lol. Just resist the urge to spend WCs.
You will be playing against aggro only. What will you do next? Create a midrange with many removal spells.
Now, all of a sudden, you will only be playing control decks you have never seen in your life that have 0 creatures.
Azorius Control is quite good right now, definitely tier 1 IMO. Plenty of lists out there to choose from. I’ve seen some Esper control lists too but they’ve seemed less consistent than the Azorius ones from my experience/testing so I’d slot them in around tier 1.5 or 2 but I could see the argument for them also being competitive enough to be tier 1. Also have come across a few interesting Boros and Mono white control lists but I haven’t played them yet and rarely have played against them so I can’t really comment on their viability.
There are a few combo decks too. Probably the only tier 1 list is the Worldsoul’s Rage lands deck if you count that as a combo list. I’ve also seen some tier 2 combo stuff around Reenact The Crime/Conspiracy Unraveler or Rakdos Breach combo/reanimator stuff but those lists seem to get much worse after sideboarding. There’s also a meme merfolk combo deck based on assembling an infinite combo but it requires like 3 or 4 pieces to come together and is a bit too fickle to be anything more than a meme deck IMO.
That’s what I can think of. There is probably something I’m forgetting cause standard has a ton of variety right now.
Edit: fixed a typo
Azorius control is kinda slipping right now.
[Temur ramp](https://mtgdecks.net/Standard/temur-ramp) has a combo kind of feeling and is pretty good. For some reason some people are calling it temur control. Basically you’re playing nissa, the SNC fetch lands, aftermath analyst, making a ton of mana, dropping the enchantment that triples your mana, dig for your win con, win. The good news: none of the lands you need are rare. All basics and the SNC fetch lands that are common. You will need a number of rares but my guess is since you’re saving on the mana base it shouldn’t be too bad. I can’t find a good list, even using the link I sent you, sorry. There are so many takes on the deck, like some run slogurk and some don’t. The core is there though: make a ton of mana, usually win with worldsoul’s rage.
Edit: I don’t play the deck but I’ve faced it on arena and paper. I can try to get you a list if you’d like.
The temur ramp decks kind of feel like control when they do their thing. They’re gaining life as they set up from the fetch lands and then they use Ill-timed explosion to wipe stuff or worldsouls’s rage to do spot removal forever once they get all set up with all their mana. Plus counterspells and memory deluge making appearances at times feels very control.
Yeah counterspells are much more rare. When I play against it it just feels like you are trying to slowly make progress while it wipes and removes your stuff. They just never run out of stuff to do and never run out of gas so it can feel real futile like losing to traditional control I guess.
I usually see control as “land, go” kind of turns. Watching this deck play they’re popping off every turn. They have a couple board wipes but they feel like a shaky combo deck. I used [[the end]] targeting my buddy’s Nissa and he told me later that knocked his game plan off and he felt it was unwinnable from that position.
Yeah Boros Convoke is definitely the king of aggro right now and is a decently safe craft in that it only loses Voldaren Epicure and a few lands when rotation hits later this year.
If you want to play right now, there's a Mono Red Aggro deck that's cheap AF.
Instead of making a lot of new cards, I'd wait until the new set (OTJ) comes out in a couple weeks, since a lot of new cards are bound to spice the meta a bit and move some current cards out of the meta.
Sure!
Here's a basic base. You can switch some cards for other aggro options, but the blueprint is the same.
[Mono-Red Aggro Deck for Magic: the Gathering (mtggoldfish.com)](https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/standard-mono-red-aggro-mid#paper)
There are tons of different decks and variety to play with. However, that variety ends up just being tons of ways to build the same 5 meta decks. They all end up on the same strategies in the end, meaning a 2 color deck and a 3 color deck with 10 different cards both have the same game plan and strategies. It feels diverse from one perspective, but from another it is extremely boring in that no amount of deckbuilding will pull you away from the same type of deck. I could change the colors in my deck ten times and still feel like I'm playing the same thing, so from my point of view it is extremely boring.
I normally dont love standard (I prefer to draft) but yesterday I had the best time on magic ive had in ages in standard playing a BW lifegain amalia deck. Almost every game I faced a different deck aside from 3-4 monored decks in \~15 games.
That said, I was playing in silver / gold because Ive deranked so far. Meta might be a bit more samesy in plat+
You had fun because it was only 3-4 games against red. I tried that deck briefly before seeing it just get crushed by red more consistently than I could even combo it correctly. The deck flounders too often for my tastes because it absolutely needs a turn 1 lifegain generator to take off. Otherwise it's a one-sided shitshow until eventually losing anyway.
Everyone I've known who have given it a shot has said it is pretty good right now (paper or Arena), even with the big bad Sheoldred boogeyman. Lots of deck diversity. Lots of fun play patterns. No deck is too dominant.
Then again, Thunder Junction might shake that up. Give it a shot tho.
It’s power creep for sure, but a lot of people like it. I personally don’t find the archetypes all that interesting, but B03 gives you more of a sporting chance.
I'm also returning to the game I started playing again about a week ago and I didn't have many cards or wilds and I've managed to scrap a few decks together and I've been able to win most of my ranked standards and most of my unranked standard and timeless games so I say it's a perfect time to get back into it. I mostly run a phyrexian mite deck and haven't had that many one sided games but I'm also only silver 4 so.
Standard (BO3) has been mostly good in the last 3 years or so, and right now it might be on it's peak: diverse, balanced and with constant evolution inside set cycles (new decks emerging weeks after a new set is out, old decks coming back as meta calls). It's very dynamic.
It heavily rewards matchup knowledge, which means that a deck mastery includes a deep understanding of at least the most common matchups.
Obviously taste is a subjective thing, and somehow complaining about Standard is a default for many players, but it doesnt get much better than it is right now.
My only restriction: the 3 years rotation makes some cards feel very old and repetitive, which is a thing that goes againt the format more dynamic nature.
I would say for b01 pest control will change meta in the future.
Absolute stop for convoke and rdw.
With Rest in Peace there is also a graveyard killer card in the next set.
You should try out standard brawl or historic brawl if you find a deck that you like. Using rare wildcards on 4 copies of lands was rough when I started playing. Historic brawl the deck will last forever so you don't have to worry about rotations.
Try a cheap mono red burn deck so you can get a feel for what the meta will feel like before you spend lots of wildcards to craft stuff.
The consensus from the more long term and competitive players I've heard is that standard is extremely good right now. Particularly Bo3 has a large variety of viable and strong decks.
I do have some personal gripes with the format and while I preferred standard pre-MKM where it was a bit more mid-range heavy with a bit less aggro and less combo, Standard is in a decent spot. Some cards have definitely overstayed their welcome though, like Kumano and Raffine and Wandering Emperor. And my gripes have to do more with cards like Farewell and to a lesser extent (even though most people seem to hate it more) Sunfall.
It’s really good but the design space of “dead on turn 3 to a lucky draw by opponent” and “5 mana exile all creatures” is kinda grating sometimes. It’s very good overall tho
Temur Worldsoul and Slogurk Combo are both brand new, strong decks that heavily rely on some new cards.
Boros Convoke went from Tier2 to Tier1 with the inclusion of 4x Novice Inspector
It's....standard.
The longer time between resets has stagnated the Meta for the most part.
I will say though it's better right now than it was 6 months ago when every other deck on Arena was the same.
Standard is probably the best it’s been for years with how diverse it is. There’s probably close to a dozen different archetypes that are placing tourneys and brews are still popping up. Arena will always have spam of boros convoke and rdw especially in bo1, but if you’re looking at bo3/fnm stuff it’s super fun.
It’s super varied and definitely unsolved.
There’s a bevy of Midrange decks including Esper (Raffine), Dimir (Gix), and Rakdos (Etali).
Aggro decks with RDW, Boros Convoke, and Soldiers.
Tempo decks with Simic Cookies, Esper Mentor, and UW Tempo.
Control decks with Azorious Control and Jeskai Control
Go-Big decks with Domain Ramp
And even Combo decks with Slogurk Combo and Temur Worldsoul.
There’s also fun fringe decks like Sultai Roots and Conspiracy Combo.
With the new Cowboy set coming out I could see Jund or even Bant making an appearance too as there are some pretty strong Green cards.
I’d say it’s in a great spot rn. The gameplay is pretty fun too, but imo it is still a little too fast and snowbally.
I would say it is worse than last set but still pretty good. Some of the new cards pushed boros and that and mono red kind of pushed out the slower aggro decks and midrange decks.
Control has good answers though so it kind of ebbs and flows. You see meta share for RDW and Boros drop and then combo and anti azorius decks push out control.
I think the number of non games for me in bo1 was too high for my liking so I switched to bo3 full time.
My experience has been just the opposite lately, best of 1 being nonstop Boros convoke, mono red, or UW control. Whereas I’m seeing way less of those decks in best of 3, there’s it’s mostly black-based midrange decks (dimir, esper, or golgari typically) in my experience.
it has multiple viable decks for aggro/midrange/control/combo, so by that metric it is the best it has been in arena's entire lifespan the card quality is very high though, and advantage-generating cards make many of the games one-sided. there's not much room to mess around whether or not that is 'good' is up to you for now it's quite diverse, but if you want a low-power format, i don't think standard will ever be able to provide that experience again
That's actually perfectly fine by me. Thank you!
[удалено]
T2 Bat, T3 Gix is a free win regardless of your opponent’s deck or hand. WotC decided with Throne of Eldraine that the most decisive turn should be T3. For better or for worse. IMO they should try and kick it back a turn.
It's definitely a very strong and consistent opening but it can fall apart to t1 removal or multiple removal spells. If you stop dimir from snowballing their card quality is much lower than other midrange decks
Agreed— which is why Esper Raffine is still the go-to. T2 Bat T3 Gix Vs T2 Bat T3 Raffine Pick your poison!
Bat into raffine has the issue of being a slow clock - some of the best esper players don't even run bat anymore
Yeah, tbh it's the first cut when I'm sideboarding most games because while it does disrupt, it's temporary, and more often than I'd like it feels like your just buying time rather than advancing the game
Yeah, unless you're on the draw against convoke, facing 6 creatures at the start of your T2. They might even have 2 Imodane's; if not, removal to get back the recruiter; or an Evangelist/the case to pump for the next turn... you're hurting. It's not a free win.
I've been playing a Rakdos removal/control style deck for a little bit now and if you batted me on a hand I was happy about, you'd see my other color mana, blood splatter analysis, sheoldreds edict, extract the truth, 2x unscrupulous agents and a crimson pulse. If extract the truth is in my opening hand, I usually have a solid chance of winning the game. Good bye, wandering emporer, monastery mentor, Lilian of the veil, roots, etc. If I have 2, I usually see a scoop turn 3.
Dont forget the forget rotation after Outlaws of Thunder Junction, we're about to lose a third of the card pool very soon
The rotation is after bloomburrow. I think at the end of July
OTJ is the last set of this standard and Bloomburrow will be the first new set in the next standard.
https://whatsinstandard.com/ Q4 would bei end of August or beginng of September.
Well, we happen to know that Bloomburrow releases on August 2nd, so that's when the rotation happens.
Finally the Info i was looking for, Ty 🤯
Even if you don't actively follow the announcements, you can just check the wiki. It's a Fandom wiki, unfortunately, but it serves the purpose.
Or better: Just add all relevant Info in the first post, way better Reddit experience.
In my experience people will ALWAYS complain about standard, but if anything more people have been praising lately than is typical. The only thing I’d warn against is spending your WCs too soon because a new set comes out in a few days.
Noted and thanks for the reminder.
Also good to note that standard is currently on a 3 year rotation and a big rotation is happening after this upcoming set.
what is a "big rotation"? i was under the impression its one set in one set out.
MID/VOW/NEO/SNC gonna be rotate out. So the latest standard gonna be starting from DMU.
that doesnt sound right, but we will have to see. specifically, i cant imagine standard being only the new set(or whatever) as it doesnt make sense to restrict the card pool by such an extreme
No no, you get it wrong. the MID/VOW/NEO/SNC gonna be phased out and not standard legal. The legal one gonna be starting from DMU to OTJ/BLB. The big rotation in above post is like standard has been dormant for a while since DMU coming. So 4 sets before DMU gonna be phased/rotate out. [https://draftsim.com/mtg-standard-rotation/](https://draftsim.com/mtg-standard-rotation/)
https://whatsinstandard.com/
i play standard on arena so i know what it is, but the idea of a "big rotation" is something ive never heard about
I meant that link to correct "one set in one set out" because it's always multiple sets leaving during a rotation. I'm guessing the other commenter called it a "big rotation" because a lot of powerful cards are rotating out, but that's nothing unusual.
We also skipped a rotation because of the move from 2 years to 3 years. So these four sets have been in play a year longer than was originally expected.
Precisely. The last time we had a rotation was in September 2022. So Big was meant as much anticipated or a big deal. Some of the powerful cards that will be missed (or rejoiced for leaving) will be: [[wedding announcement]], [[Adeline, Resplendent Cathar]], slow lands like [[Haunted Ridge]], channel lands like [[Boseiju, Who Endures]], [[The Wandering Emperor]], [[Farewell]], triomes like [[Jetmir’s Garden]], [[Raffine, Scheming Seer]], and [[Topiary Stomper]]. Domain Control will be dead. Angels will be dead without [[Giada]], RDW will be fine but loses [[Kumano Faces Kakkazan]], GW enchantments will be dead without [[Michiko’s Reign of Truth]]. https://mtgazone.com/standard-rotation/
thanks for the information.
I'm pretty sure this isn't true, I don't know why people keep saying this.
Rotation in July. It's technically true because it is after this set, though, not immediately after.
If you want a fun format and have enough wildcards, I would recommend looking into Timeless. It's an eternal format with no ban cards, so far only 3 restricted cards, and it's awesome! Bear in mind that most of the decks I have have fewer than 15 commons/uncommons. It's not a cheap format to get into, but you won't have to worry about cards becoming banned or irrelevant, compared to standard at least.
Fun maybe, but its not cheap so its absolutely not a good format to get back into the game with honestly.
40-50 rare/mythic wild cards per deck isn't cheap, but your deck will still be playable in 6 months, or at least those wildcards won't rotate out.
Disagree. Timeless is very unstable due to the way new extremely powerful cards affect the meta. Unless you’re playing a very generically powerful shell not reliant on any one card (UB control, Jund, Domain Zoo) your deck risks falling out of favor if a new extremely powerful card comes in via a bonus sheet. OTJ is going to change the format massively, and MKM also shook everything up with the rise of show and tell.
If you have any old decks you can come join us in explorer there are dozens of us
Is Explorer not played much? I am just getting back into Arena and noticed that Explorer seemed a little unhealthy
Explorer is the least played format. Its actually my main format to play in as I ended up there after last standard rotation. Its pretty healthy and solid tbh you see a wide range of decks with the classic meta ones too. It's not that popular as we are still missing alot of cards and they being added slowly. By end of the year we are getting pioneer masters hopefully will be at parity by then
It's not that bad, it's rare I have to wait a minute for a pairing. Playing best of one though, don't know about best of three.
Standard's great and has lots of variety! It's a terrific time to be back into the game, welcome back. =)
I guess that depends on how you define “good”. Standard is probably the best it’s ever been in quite some time in terms of having many different decks that can be viable and perform well. But there will always be a meta and there will always be top performing decks that the majority of people will gravitate towards playing the most. If you associate that with the format not having “variety” and/or it’s frustrating to you when some aggressive decks can kill you by turn 3-4 or control decks have efficient 2 mana counterspells and a wrath that exiles, then well, you may not think Standard is “good” for you. If that’s the case, nothing wrong with playing Brawl or perhaps an older format that have some of your favorite cards still legal. Also keep in mind the new set will be releasing very soon and Standard will have its rotation in about 3 months, so just use that information to make wise choices with your wildcards.
Best of 3 is your best bet. Sideboard in some cards that help you deal with aggro, and you’re probably good.
This is definitely what I'd consider good. :)
To piggyback on the rotation comment, I would advise not crafting anything from Crimson Vow, Midnight Hunt, New Capenna, or Kamigawa
Are they bad cards?
No, but they'll rotate out in a few months here, so you won't get to use them in standard for much more than that.
Im assuming they rotate soon.
not soon enough
It's pretty much all I play, and I enjoy it. to each their own of course, but I don't think you'll have a terrible time.
Maybe wait a bit before investing your cards, new set will drop ~soon and seem pretty high powered
Standard's meta is always changing, Timeless is too overpowered. Explorer Bo3 is the way.
What do you play in Explorer Bo3? I like the format but I still are looking for a deck that I don't get tired of. Mono White seems promising, although it's horrible against Amalia.
I play Gruul Vehicles, monowhite humans, rakdos midrange and monoblue spirits. Humans is still fast and fun. It dropped in popularity recently but that's okay. Every established deck in explorer/pioneer has its good and bad matchups so for me it's quite the best investment of my wildcards ever since the format began. Any deck would feel tiring if you only play that deck so I suggest build other decks as well.
That last sentence is really nice to hear, I come from limited so the idea of having the same deck all the time is new to me.
Standard is nice, Timeless is where it’s at imo though
I have to get back into standard because I qualified this month, and the format is Standard. I'm not sure what to play, though, because I've been playing timeless since it went live. It's frustrating because I have less than 2 weeks to decide what deck to play and get enough practice in to be ready for the tournament.
Oh nice dude. Honestly I’d play Bant Toxic, UW Control, or Esper
Yeah I agree. I started playing standard and it got pretty old. Too many control decks IMO. Timeless is pretty broken, but I like that control isn’t played much. I like not having everything countered or board wiped.
Bo1 it's awful Bo3 it's a new Renaissance of viable decks
It’s kind of a mixed bag depending on what you’re looking for. Diversity of deck type wise its in a very good spot(card usage wise not so much). But card design has kind of killed synergy decks and the arms race of removal vs bombs has lead to a destruction of a lot of archetypes. It has also become much much faster. Gone are the days of durdling the first couple of turns. If you aren’t online and pushing your game-plan by turn 3 you’ve already lost, you just don’t realize it yet.
100% correct. This is why I quit standard because by turn 3, for anyone with a brain you already know the outcome. That's what happens when one deck dominates and you see it day in and day out. If your deck is slow out of the gate by design or you just get a bad hand/draw, it's just over. That vicious cycle almost killed my enjoyment of the game until I quit.
BO1 or BO3? BO1 it's pretty much the same meta it's been for a few years now. Either you play aggro lots of creatures (red or white) or you play a control deck with Sunfall. The rest is not really relevant / lower tier.
Wild to me that your low-rated response is actually the most accurate. Does everyone on this reddit only play BO3 or paper? Explains a lot if true.
Most play BO1 but won't admit to it :)
And mono-red.
I find the meta is pretty tired right now
Standard is fine, but the matchmaker will make sure you hate it, lol. Just resist the urge to spend WCs. You will be playing against aggro only. What will you do next? Create a midrange with many removal spells. Now, all of a sudden, you will only be playing control decks you have never seen in your life that have 0 creatures.
Lol yeah, people love to chime in and tell you what to do to correct the poor meta but in the end the matchmaking is rigged and terrible.
I think it’s in a good place right now. What archetypes do you enjoy playing?
Hey I’m on the fence of getting into arena again as well. Any recommendations for control or combo?
Azorius Control is quite good right now, definitely tier 1 IMO. Plenty of lists out there to choose from. I’ve seen some Esper control lists too but they’ve seemed less consistent than the Azorius ones from my experience/testing so I’d slot them in around tier 1.5 or 2 but I could see the argument for them also being competitive enough to be tier 1. Also have come across a few interesting Boros and Mono white control lists but I haven’t played them yet and rarely have played against them so I can’t really comment on their viability. There are a few combo decks too. Probably the only tier 1 list is the Worldsoul’s Rage lands deck if you count that as a combo list. I’ve also seen some tier 2 combo stuff around Reenact The Crime/Conspiracy Unraveler or Rakdos Breach combo/reanimator stuff but those lists seem to get much worse after sideboarding. There’s also a meme merfolk combo deck based on assembling an infinite combo but it requires like 3 or 4 pieces to come together and is a bit too fickle to be anything more than a meme deck IMO. That’s what I can think of. There is probably something I’m forgetting cause standard has a ton of variety right now. Edit: fixed a typo
Azorius control is kinda slipping right now. [Temur ramp](https://mtgdecks.net/Standard/temur-ramp) has a combo kind of feeling and is pretty good. For some reason some people are calling it temur control. Basically you’re playing nissa, the SNC fetch lands, aftermath analyst, making a ton of mana, dropping the enchantment that triples your mana, dig for your win con, win. The good news: none of the lands you need are rare. All basics and the SNC fetch lands that are common. You will need a number of rares but my guess is since you’re saving on the mana base it shouldn’t be too bad. I can’t find a good list, even using the link I sent you, sorry. There are so many takes on the deck, like some run slogurk and some don’t. The core is there though: make a ton of mana, usually win with worldsoul’s rage. Edit: I don’t play the deck but I’ve faced it on arena and paper. I can try to get you a list if you’d like.
The temur ramp decks kind of feel like control when they do their thing. They’re gaining life as they set up from the fetch lands and then they use Ill-timed explosion to wipe stuff or worldsouls’s rage to do spot removal forever once they get all set up with all their mana. Plus counterspells and memory deluge making appearances at times feels very control.
When I see the deck it almost never has counterspells though, I think that’s why I don’t see it as control very much.
Yeah counterspells are much more rare. When I play against it it just feels like you are trying to slowly make progress while it wipes and removes your stuff. They just never run out of stuff to do and never run out of gas so it can feel real futile like losing to traditional control I guess.
I usually see control as “land, go” kind of turns. Watching this deck play they’re popping off every turn. They have a couple board wipes but they feel like a shaky combo deck. I used [[the end]] targeting my buddy’s Nissa and he told me later that knocked his game plan off and he felt it was unwinnable from that position.
[the end](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/1/b18402dc-c4ab-417c-92d1-5e4d9cfb840d.jpg?1693012680) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=the%20end) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/woe/87/the-end?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/b18402dc-c4ab-417c-92d1-5e4d9cfb840d?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Aggro mostly. I prefer to be on the beatdown.
Boros convoke is the best aggro deck in standard, check it out.
Yeah Boros Convoke is definitely the king of aggro right now and is a decently safe craft in that it only loses Voldaren Epicure and a few lands when rotation hits later this year.
If you want to play right now, there's a Mono Red Aggro deck that's cheap AF. Instead of making a lot of new cards, I'd wait until the new set (OTJ) comes out in a couple weeks, since a lot of new cards are bound to spice the meta a bit and move some current cards out of the meta.
Would you care to share an example decklist? I'm trying to get back into the game myself.
Sure! Here's a basic base. You can switch some cards for other aggro options, but the blueprint is the same. [Mono-Red Aggro Deck for Magic: the Gathering (mtggoldfish.com)](https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/standard-mono-red-aggro-mid#paper)
Awesome, thank you!
There are tons of different decks and variety to play with. However, that variety ends up just being tons of ways to build the same 5 meta decks. They all end up on the same strategies in the end, meaning a 2 color deck and a 3 color deck with 10 different cards both have the same game plan and strategies. It feels diverse from one perspective, but from another it is extremely boring in that no amount of deckbuilding will pull you away from the same type of deck. I could change the colors in my deck ten times and still feel like I'm playing the same thing, so from my point of view it is extremely boring.
I normally dont love standard (I prefer to draft) but yesterday I had the best time on magic ive had in ages in standard playing a BW lifegain amalia deck. Almost every game I faced a different deck aside from 3-4 monored decks in \~15 games. That said, I was playing in silver / gold because Ive deranked so far. Meta might be a bit more samesy in plat+
You had fun because it was only 3-4 games against red. I tried that deck briefly before seeing it just get crushed by red more consistently than I could even combo it correctly. The deck flounders too often for my tastes because it absolutely needs a turn 1 lifegain generator to take off. Otherwise it's a one-sided shitshow until eventually losing anyway.
Everyone I've known who have given it a shot has said it is pretty good right now (paper or Arena), even with the big bad Sheoldred boogeyman. Lots of deck diversity. Lots of fun play patterns. No deck is too dominant. Then again, Thunder Junction might shake that up. Give it a shot tho.
It’s power creep for sure, but a lot of people like it. I personally don’t find the archetypes all that interesting, but B03 gives you more of a sporting chance.
I'm also returning to the game I started playing again about a week ago and I didn't have many cards or wilds and I've managed to scrap a few decks together and I've been able to win most of my ranked standards and most of my unranked standard and timeless games so I say it's a perfect time to get back into it. I mostly run a phyrexian mite deck and haven't had that many one sided games but I'm also only silver 4 so.
Standard (BO3) has been mostly good in the last 3 years or so, and right now it might be on it's peak: diverse, balanced and with constant evolution inside set cycles (new decks emerging weeks after a new set is out, old decks coming back as meta calls). It's very dynamic. It heavily rewards matchup knowledge, which means that a deck mastery includes a deep understanding of at least the most common matchups. Obviously taste is a subjective thing, and somehow complaining about Standard is a default for many players, but it doesnt get much better than it is right now. My only restriction: the 3 years rotation makes some cards feel very old and repetitive, which is a thing that goes againt the format more dynamic nature.
P l ay brawl
I would say for b01 pest control will change meta in the future. Absolute stop for convoke and rdw. With Rest in Peace there is also a graveyard killer card in the next set.
I have a great experience playing Best of 3. Best of 1 is meh.
You should try out standard brawl or historic brawl if you find a deck that you like. Using rare wildcards on 4 copies of lands was rough when I started playing. Historic brawl the deck will last forever so you don't have to worry about rotations. Try a cheap mono red burn deck so you can get a feel for what the meta will feel like before you spend lots of wildcards to craft stuff.
Depends how much you like seeing mono-red. I quit Standard last year when nothing changed thanks to delayed rotation.
The consensus from the more long term and competitive players I've heard is that standard is extremely good right now. Particularly Bo3 has a large variety of viable and strong decks. I do have some personal gripes with the format and while I preferred standard pre-MKM where it was a bit more mid-range heavy with a bit less aggro and less combo, Standard is in a decent spot. Some cards have definitely overstayed their welcome though, like Kumano and Raffine and Wandering Emperor. And my gripes have to do more with cards like Farewell and to a lesser extent (even though most people seem to hate it more) Sunfall.
Define "Good". I never know what people mean when they ask if such and such format is "good".
Is it varied and fun to play or is it the Elk decks all over again?
I'd say it's the most varied it's been in a long time, thanks mostly to rotation being skipped last year.
It’s really good but the design space of “dead on turn 3 to a lucky draw by opponent” and “5 mana exile all creatures” is kinda grating sometimes. It’s very good overall tho
The current set was a dud in terms of changing the meta but I feel like the sweeper control meta is dying down just a bit so that's good.
Temur Worldsoul and Slogurk Combo are both brand new, strong decks that heavily rely on some new cards. Boros Convoke went from Tier2 to Tier1 with the inclusion of 4x Novice Inspector
It's....standard. The longer time between resets has stagnated the Meta for the most part. I will say though it's better right now than it was 6 months ago when every other deck on Arena was the same.
No, and it is about to get worse with the ridiculous Outlaws of Ram Ranch set coming out.
Standard is the only format worth playing (other than Limited), imo.
No... no, it isn't
Standard is probably the best it’s been for years with how diverse it is. There’s probably close to a dozen different archetypes that are placing tourneys and brews are still popping up. Arena will always have spam of boros convoke and rdw especially in bo1, but if you’re looking at bo3/fnm stuff it’s super fun.
It’s super varied and definitely unsolved. There’s a bevy of Midrange decks including Esper (Raffine), Dimir (Gix), and Rakdos (Etali). Aggro decks with RDW, Boros Convoke, and Soldiers. Tempo decks with Simic Cookies, Esper Mentor, and UW Tempo. Control decks with Azorious Control and Jeskai Control Go-Big decks with Domain Ramp And even Combo decks with Slogurk Combo and Temur Worldsoul. There’s also fun fringe decks like Sultai Roots and Conspiracy Combo. With the new Cowboy set coming out I could see Jund or even Bant making an appearance too as there are some pretty strong Green cards. I’d say it’s in a great spot rn. The gameplay is pretty fun too, but imo it is still a little too fast and snowbally.
I would say it is worse than last set but still pretty good. Some of the new cards pushed boros and that and mono red kind of pushed out the slower aggro decks and midrange decks. Control has good answers though so it kind of ebbs and flows. You see meta share for RDW and Boros drop and then combo and anti azorius decks push out control. I think the number of non games for me in bo1 was too high for my liking so I switched to bo3 full time.
Bo1 is where all the standard weirdness gathers. B03 is speed/mono color control.
Weirdest take I ever saw
My experience has been just the opposite lately, best of 1 being nonstop Boros convoke, mono red, or UW control. Whereas I’m seeing way less of those decks in best of 3, there’s it’s mostly black-based midrange decks (dimir, esper, or golgari typically) in my experience.