MTG Standard Top 10 Decks and Meta Tier List – April 28, 2023

The Standard metagame changes week to week, decks get pushed out, and new strategies flow in. It might be difficult to keep up with trends sometimes. This is why I will be making it much easier for you by making a ranking of the best decks for a given period. Let’s introduce the Meta Tier List update for the week and the Standard Power Rankings leading up to the Pro Tour March of the Machine next week!

Standard Best of One (Bo1) Meta Tier List – April 28, 2023

Tier	Deck Name	Guide
Tier 1	Azorius Soldiers	Guide
Tier 1	Selesnya Toxic 🔼	Guide
Tier 1	Mono White Aggro	Guide
Tier 1	Esper Legends 🔼	Guide
Tier 1	Mono Red Aggro	Guide
Tier 1	Mardu Midrange 🔼
Tier 1	Mono Blue Tempo 🔼	Guide
Tier 2	Mono Black Aggro	Guide
Tier 2	Mono Black Midrange	Guide
Tier 2	Grixis Midrange	Guide
Tier 2	Selesnya Enchantments	Guide
Tier 2	Gruul Aggro
Tier 2	Rakdos Midrange	Guide
Tier 2	Mono White Midrange	Guide
Tier 3	Boros Heroic 🔽	Guide
Tier 3	Selesnya Counters 🆕
Tier 3	Rakdos Anvil	Guide

Standard Best of Three (Bo3) Meta Tier List – April 28, 2023

Tier	Deck Name	Guide
Tier 1	Esper Legends	Guide
Tier 1	Rakdos Midrange 🔼	Guide
Tier 1	Grixis Midrange 🔼	Guide
Tier 1	Mono White Midrange 🔽	Guide
Tier 1	Rakdos Reanimator 🔼	Guide
Tier 2	Selesnya Toxic 🔽	Guide
Tier 2	Azorius Soldiers	Guide
Tier 2	Mono Black Midrange 🔼	Guide
Tier 2	Mono Red Aggro	Guide
Tier 2	Mono Blue Tempo 🔽	Guide
Tier 2	Mono Black Aggro 🔼	Guide
Tier 3	Mardu Midrange	Guide
Tier 3	Abzan Legends
Tier 3	Boros Reanimator	Guide
Tier 3	Izzet Artifacts	Guide
Tier 3	Rakdos Anvil	Guide

#10: Mono Blue Tempo

Mono Blue Tempo is a great strategy for players who like passing the turn behind a wall of counterspells. It’s very difficult for any meaningful threat to slip through, since it can get Make Disappear-d or Fading Hope-d. If the opponent gives you any breathing room, you can easily capitalise on it by playing Thirst for Discovery or Flow of Ideas to pull ahead.

This deck gained a ton of traction some time back thanks to being unique to the Standard environment and being really cheap to build. However, it didn’t stand the test of time very well. It turned out that if something does slip under the countermagic, this deck has a really tough time catching back up. It mainly pertains to effects that generate advantage or game objects upon entering the battlefield like Fable of the Mirror-Breaker.

I can see this deck being higher on the list if midrange decks take going over the top too seriously and their curve will start at three.

#9: Mono Red Aggro

Mono Red Aggro is arguably the best deck at punishing people who play very sluggish strategies or happened to keep a hand that’s interaction light. This deck starts applying pressure from the very first turn and does not stop until the game is over. The advantage compounds when Mono Red is on the play. If the opponent planned to start the game on turn two, that plan on the draw might just fall short.

It’s another fan favourite, as who doesn’t like a good Red Deck Wins type of strategy. However, it can find itself in a position that the opponent is at a low-ish life total but it can’t really get across the finish line. The incidental life gain in the form of The Wandering Emperor and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse are tough to combat and sometimes the deck will get out-raced by a reanimated Atraxa, Grand Unifier.

We will see whether some new March of the Machine cards will get incorporated into the deck like Bloodfeather Phoenix, which would tip the scale in its favour. For now, the deck sits comfortably at #9.

#8: Mono Black Midrange

A very popular take on a midrange strategy. It’s much more wallet-friendly thanks to the mana being almost all Swamps rather than all rares. Such a smooth mana base also shows its benefit when faced with aggro strategies that aim to decrease your life total as soon as possible. Other than that, it’s a shell full of efficient interaction, strong threats, and powerful top end.

The main reason it’s not higher on the list is that there are non-mono-coloured versions of that same deck that do what it does but somehow better. Mono Black will be the best choice in aggro-infested metagames but if you have to face off against other midrange or go-over-the-top strategies, you might find yourself lacking.

Mono Black Midrange is claiming it’s well-deserved spot at #8.

#7: Azorius Soldiers

Azorius Soldiers is a deck that seems to come and go, depending on the weekend. It’s a disruptive aggro deck that can play longer games, has access to evasion, and even card draw. There are builds floating around that embrace a more flashy game with countermagic and a higher density of instant speed spells. A turn-two Thalia, Guardian of Thraben on the play can be lights out against some decks. Can you imagine having to pay three mana for Abrade?

On the flipside though, the fact that it does a bit of everything makes it fall short at times. Maybe you’ll draw the more card drawing half with Skystrike Officer when you really need to put the pedal to the metal. Or you happened to draw Thalia against a green stompy strategy. Sometimes you can get such a wrong-half issue which is not what you want in a linear shell.

#6: Selesnya Toxic

Highest placing pure aggro deck on the list. This deck is fast, linear, proactive, and has all the tools to get the job done. As it operates on the toxic angle, it puts immense pressure on the opponent since they have to try to protect both their life total and the poison count. If you get the opponent up to 8ish counters, they won’t be able to treat their life total as a resource and will hence be forced to take care of each threat, even as small as a 1/1 Phyrexian Mite.

This is my top choice for an aggro deck if you like placing your cards sideways. A strong curve represented by 12 one-drops is going to take you far. Skrelv's Hive can outgrind 10 Cut Downs if the opponent’s plan has holes in the face of this cheeky two-mana enchantment. Getting you Go for the Throat countered by Tyvar's Stand and receiving two poison counters in the process thanks to Venerated Rotpriest is a nightmare scenario.

#6 goes to Toxic.

#5: Rakdos Reanimator

One of my personal favourites coming in at #5 is Rakdos Reanimator. It’s an amalgamation that tries to combine all the best from the midrange decks with an additional plan that can beat even the grindiest strategy. After Atraxa, Grand Unifier hits the board, it’s difficult to lose when you are the one reanimating it. Even if it gets Go for the Throat-d, the cards it’s drawn will allow you to very quickly enact that plan again.

The main weakness of this approach is the wrong-half issue that’s further exemplified. Not only can you draw removal when the opponent is drawing cards or grindy elements when you should be removing the opponent’s threats but you can also naturally draw Atraxa or too many The Cruelty of Gix and be unable to do anything productive. On top of that, the Atraxa angle can be easily disrupted with cards like Unlicensed Hearse or Graveyard Trespasser.

I like the fact that Atraxa breaks midrange mirrors and provides a unique angle to such a strategy.

#4: Mono White Midrange

While slowly getting pushed back, Mono White Midrange still stands, as the best non-black deck in Standard. Its mana is super consistent, painless, and even allows for some utility effects like Roadside Reliquary. It plays early creatures that can chump opposing threats to keep your life total high to bridge the gap between the early and the mid game.

Being restricted to a single colour though limits the options severely for the deck. It can only interact sorcery speed, doesn’t have efficient answers to enchantments or artifacts, and can easily be outplayed with counterspells that heavily punish a main-phase-based gameplan.

This deck shines when it knows what decks it will play against and can prepare hate pieces, interactions, and threats accordingly. In an open meta, it has to give way to its black counterparts.

#3: Grixis Midrange

The previously biggest kid on the block. Grixis Midrange has everything you might want out of an interactive strategy: efficient removal, powerful threats, countermagic, and card advantage. A curve of removal into Reckoner Bankbuster into Fable of the Mirror-Breaker is admittedly very powerful and has been one of the main reasons why the deck has been so well-represented at the top tables.

However, over time the shortcomings of a tri-colour manabase have started to resurface. Between awkward fast lands past turn three, pain lands decreasing the life total when it matters, and drawing too many slow lands too early can make or break a game.

When the mana comes together, Grixis is the top deck. However, it won’t always be a guarantee and players now tend to choose a more stable option.

And so coming it at #2…

#2: Rakdos Midrange

Here comes the more consistent brother of Grixis. Rakdos plays two colours which naturally makes the whole mana situation more painless and it’s much easier for all the colours to be on line when needed. On top of that, it has a tad more aggressive slant with each version playing Bloodtithe Harvester and Graveyard Trespasser, and some going deeper into Tenacious Underdog.

This early-game pressure can swing games completely, as you’re not just trading resources forever, but you’re actually threatening the opponent, making them adjust to you not vice versa. Getting the opponent’s life low is also relevant when Sheoldred, the Apocalypse comes down later and just a couple of triggers are enough to get the job done.

The best midrange variant sits comfortably at #2

#1: Esper Legends

Esper Legends treads the line between aggro and midrange but one thing is certain – it’s a full-on creature strategy. It does not interact much pre-board but can become much more reactive if need be. The main plan is to outclass whatever the opponent is doing by playing the absolute best creatures in the Esper colour combination. The manabase is surprisingly consistent, in large part thanks to Plaza of Heroes which is both a painless Mana Confluence and Tamiyo's Safekeeping all in one card.

Despite its strength, it still got a new toy in the newest set in Rona, Herald of Invasion. It provides early card filtering which is at its premium in a deck that can draw too many of the same legendary. On top of that, it can flip into a formidable threat later in the game.

Conclusion

Overall, the hero of this installment of the Standard Power Rankings – Esper Legends! We plan to make full updates on all the guides after this, so stay tuned!