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.
General Thoughts
The metagame has largely stabilised and we keep seeing the same top decks. There also hasn’t really been much innovation and players have focused on refining existing solutions.
In Best of Three, and so also all paper and online tournaments, we see Esper (Midrange or Legends), Five-Color Ramp, and Azorius Soldiers firmly at the forefront.
When it comes to Best of One, Azorius Soldiers, Mono White Aggro, and Mono Red Aggro are king.
We might slowly be entering a format where there is a top trifecta and in order to succeed you either pick one of the three and prepare very well for all the cross-matchups, or pick a deck that tries to exploit this dynamic.
It’s still a super powerful linear strategy that dominates Best of One thanks to how fast it can finish games. Its average card quality is also higher compared to Mono Red.
In Best of Three, it can transition into a semi-midrange strategy with The Wandering Emperorand Wedding Announcement which gives it much more staying power than other traditional aggro decks.
Overall, it’s still a stable choice in the metagame.
Five-Color Ramp was #2 and now it’s #3 so just a slight fallback.
While in Best of Three it’s firmly a top 2 deck, this ranking aims to aggregate both Bo1 and Bo3 for the ultimate deck assessment and in that regard, its Bo1 performance leaves a bit to be desired.
When faced with aggressive strategies, it falls short due to its heavily tapped mana base and expensive spells that it can’t really unload in an efficient fashion.
It performs much better in Bo3 where it happily goes over midrange strategies.
Esper Midrange still stands as the premiere Midrange strategy, outperforming Golgari, Dimir, and Orzhov. It has also dethroned Legends as the best Esper shell.
One interesting development is that some lists try cutting Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, as it provides no utility and dies very easily to ever-present Go for the Throat. I am curious whether this trend gets into the mainstream and stands the test of time.
Overall having the flexibility of a control-ish plan, a go-wide approach, or semi-aggro makes it very adaptable.
This might come as a surprise but the #1 slot goes to Azorius Soldiers! It’s a top 2 deck in Bo1 and top 3 deck in Bo3, giving it the aggregate best performance among other strategies!
Its biggest strength is the adaptability between games. It can open fast and linear but also play a more draw-go strategy with countermagic against haymakers from e.g. Five-Color Ramp. Going-wide is also very effective against point removal presented by Esper decks.
Unless something major happens, I don’t expect Soldiers to go lower than #3 in the upcoming weeks.
Until then though, all hail Azorius!
Conclusion
Overall, the hero of this installment of the Standard Power Rankings – Azorius Soldiers!
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Also known as Skura or IslandsInFront on Twitter and YouTube, Filip started his career upon the release of Gatecrash and has been passing the turn in all formats ever since. He coaches and creates written and video content, mainly centered around the control archetype. He is passionate about Magic game theory and countering spells. Outside of Magic, he is a fan of snooker/pool, chess and Project Management.
