Hello everyone! With a set of bans and a whole new set being introduced into Standard, I think it’s safe to say that a good amount has changed in Standard. As the metagame begins to settle in its place and with larger tournaments yet to start, we’ll be focusing on best-of-one (bo1) in this week’s metagame snapshot.
Alrund's Epiphany wasn’t necessarily a huge part of Bo1 Standard, but Divide by Zero and Faceless Haven were definitely huge components of Bo1 Standard’s identity. All that said, there’s been a good amount of mobilization going on in Standard and I think we have enough to work off of to start firing off some takes that are half factual, half hot takes. Let’s get into it.
You may be shocked to hear this, but the creature decks are over performing in Bo1 right now. I know saying creature decks are good in Bo1 is about as novel of a statement as water is wet, but there’s a difference between performing well and orchestrating the entire metagame. In the games that I’ve been playing, creatures are the absolute overwhelming majority on what I see on ladder, but it’s no real surprise why.
First off, we have our top contender of the format Naya Aggro acting as the main gatekeeper to the format. This deck is fast, interactive, can grind somewhat well, and can roll over any untested brew with absolutely no issue. If you’re not familiar with this deck, the mana base may seem a bit wacky, but making those minor concessions to play Halana and Alena, Partners definitely seems to be worth it. Why? As I stated just before, you are barely giving up any mana equity to go Naya.
Faceless Haven was the previous draw to staying monocolored, but with that gone, now it’s mostly just consistency issues and access to Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire (which is far from necessary). Second, Halana and Alena, Partners make you really strong in the aggressive mirrors as it’s functionally a Luminarch Aspirant on steroids. Instead of some of your threats slowly outpacing the opponents, you’ll be able to make every threat better than the opponents in short order and quickly win from there. Your mana may be less consistent which is a valid concern in Bo1, but it’s been more than acceptable considering that this deck is the top of the format right now.
What if you aren’t convinced with the wonky 3 color mana base or having issues affording it? Don’t worry, Monowhite is still just as good as before. Realistically speaking, Monowhite more or less takes the number 1 and 2 spots for Bo1 as Naya is just Monowhite with a double splash. That’s a weird place to be, but these two are the definitive top of the format with their speed easily covering up any shortcoming the deck could naturally have.
If it was just White aggro decks that were the top of the format, I don’t think it would be accurate to say that creature decks are dominating, but that’s far from the only flavors I’ve seen. Monogreen is still alive and well preying upon the clunkier decks of the format and some of the decks looking to beat White. There’s the brand new Monored that’s starting to find its bearings in the new format. We even have wackier aggro decks like Boros Artifacts/Equipment showing up in non-negligible numbers.
All in all, Bo1 was always a format that was defined by the creature decks, but there aren’t many times when it’s this overwhelming.
If the metagame was only creature decks, well that wouldn’t be much of a metagame at all, would it? In any good format, you always have a best thing to be doing, but you can play a counter to that as well. In Bo1, those counters are the Black midrange decks of the format.
Orzhov Midrange has been very quickly picking up popularity as the premiere interactive deck in both Bo1 and Bo3 standard. Between an abundance of exile based removal, solid threats, and a ceaseless ability to grind, it’s no wonder the deck has been popular. In terms of new additions though, Orzhov also has quite an abundance of solid choices. The most impactful card for Orzhov thus far is the rather innocuous The Restoration of Eiganjo. This card certainly wasn’t on my radar during spoiler season, but it makes a lot of sense here. It lets you find a Plains, functionally play a cheap permanent for free (discard the permanent you want to reanimate), and then get a really annoying creature to round out the saga. That is a good amount of abilities for 3 mana and also plays perfectly into Orzhov’s infinite grind game plan.
Dockside Chef is another nice, but less impactful inclusion as it functions as an additional way to get value from the random creatures you’re privy to have lying around. Interestingly enough, a lot of lists have yet to include The Wandering Emperor, but considering how flush this deck is with removal already, it’s not a huge surprise. Emperor is great at grinding in a creature dense or creatureless deck, but in a deck that already has the interactive suite covered, it can be a bit underwhelming. Having planeswalkers that draw cards definitely seems like the correct move for this deck. Overall, this deck is so effective against creatures as it has so much removal, all their threats are expendable, and they will happily go into the late game every time.
Although Orzhov is great, it isn’t the only anti-creature deck in Bo1. Monoblack was the original antitheses to creatures all the way back to Standard 2022 and it’s still alive and well now. Although it has lost a lot of stock as players move from monoblack to Orzhov, there’s still the ultimate incentive that keeps players locked in to one color: Blood on the Snow. Against creature decks, Blood on the Snow is still just as brutal as a card could be, wiping the board and leaving you with a solid creature. The downside of staying one color is that you don’t get as many new cards you’re thrilled about, but there is one that can somewhat rival The Restoration of Eiganjo.
Soul Transfer is a really nice removal spell as, if Orzhov has taught us anything, exile based removal is quite powerful. However, if you have an artifact and Enchantment out (something this deck can do rather easily), you can even rebuy a creature or planeswalker on top of that for extra value! It’s going to be near impossible for a creature deck to grind through that value making Monoblack remain a viable choice moving forward as well to combat creatures.
If you’re looking to bring the hurt to creature decks and are not sure what to pick, here’s a helpful summary. If you want to make a creature player regret ever queuing up on ladder, go Monoblack. If you want to be strong against creatures, but have a better plan against non-aggro decks go Orzhov. Realistically for Bo1 ladder, both should serve you quite well.
LEVEL THREE: THE BLUE DECKS THAT TRY TO HAVE IT ALL
Of course with any layered metagame, we can keep going deeper! Blue got severely kneecapped with the bans, but we still have two extremely good Blue decks in the metagame. How is that possible? Blue was just pretty nuts for awhile!
The new kid on the block is the Jeskai Hinata combo/control deck that looks to play a typical control game plan and win with a speedy Magma Opus. Magma Opus is particular is a really well positioned win condition in Bo1 as how is a creature deck realistically supposed to beat it? They presumably just lost a creature or two, lost their combat, have to contend with a 4/4, and you drew 2 cards! If you were able to play this turn 5 with a Hinata, Dawn-Crowned or a lot of ramp, that’s an even bigger issue!
However it’s not just aggro that the Blue decks are looking to beat; the Black midrange decks typically had rough matchups against the Blue decks as they fought on a similar axis, but Blue generally had bigger payoffs/more relevant interaction. Although that is significantly less true than it used to be, decks like this should still have a reasonable leg up on the Black midrange decks and hold their own against aggro.
What if you want to go even more traditional of a Control route? Well we can take a look at the deck that won not one, but back to back Standard challenges! Izzet Control is still alive and well and looking to absolutely dumpster the smaller decks of the format. 11 spells to interact with creatures, 2 small board wipes, 3 bigger board wipes, Izzet is absolutely not messing around with beating up creatures. That said, it’s not like it gave up the matchup against the Black decks to accomplish this. You still have 10 sources of card advantage, 6 counterspells, and powerful win conditions that will make any opponent’s life difficult.
It may seem like I’m saying this deck is unstoppable in Bo1, but that is entirely not the case. Although this looks very promising, having so many MDFCs is going to lead to natural inconsistencies in curve that the aggro decks can exploit. Furthermore, you’re definitely more prone to clunky hands when you play 16 cards that cost 4 and up! This perfectly loops us back around to what makes aggro so powerful in Bo1 being how consistent and fast it is, but that’s the ebb and flow of Bo1.
CONCLUSION
That more or less wraps up what’s going on in Bo1 and if you’re looking to approach it from a different angle, consider what level you’re approaching the format at. Since there’s no sideboarding, all the metagaming you can do is in your deck choice and deck construction so understanding what your deck is trying to accomplish will go a long way to improving your win rate. You certainly don’t have to play the decks listed above as you’ll see with the adjacent Bo1 tier list as long as you know what decks you’re looking to beat with what you bring.
Thank you for reading!
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Robert "DoggertQBones" Lee is the content manager of MTGAZone and a high ranked Arena player. He has one GP Top 8 and pioneered popular archetypes like UB 8 Shark, UB Yorion, and GW Company in Historic. Beyond Magic, his passions are writing and coaching! Join our community on Twitch and Discord.
