Standard Metagame Snapshot: Top Decks for the Week of June 1, 2022
Our weekly metagame breakdown for the Standard format. We cover the movers and shakers, complete with decklists for both best-of-one and best-of-three.
Hello everyone! We want you to have the most up to date information on Standard, and initially, we did that by providing deck guides to fill out your knowledge. However, we realized that we could still do more so we’re looking to be updating Standard’s tier listweekly as well as provide analysis on the standout decks, whether they stand out for their strength, weaknesses, or they have a large change in positioning. As always, you can find the link to the complete tier lists below.
To compile this report, the first metric that I look at the most is recent tournament successes. Following tournament trends is generally the best way to dictate what decks are overperforming for the week and can cut through the noise of inaccurate data.
The second metric I use is it’s inherent positioning in the metagame with what decks it’s good at beating and what beats it. The third metric is then win rate data where I see how the deck has historically done over it’s tracked life cycle.
Finally, I have the fourth determination of personal bias where I let my feelings fly on why I like a deck that isn’t necessary empirical. This could be deck feel, perceived matchup strength, or any other metric I would discuss that’s not already covered.
If we’re talking about the big winner for this week, it’s easily far and away Jeskai Hinata. A real zero to hero story, Jeskai Hinata went from functionally unplayed to one of the best decks around.
Off the back of not one, but two consecutive Standard challenge wins in the hands of Jaberwocki, Hinata has cemented itself firmly as the deck to beat this week. With it’s continued success between this week and the Pro Tour, it begs the question, was Hinata always this busted or did it need the right metagame to flourish? Personally, I think it’s a bit of both.
Comboing people out with Hinata and Magma Opus is obscenely powerful and a strategy that I think too many people undervalued. While the deck may be a bit reliant on making that happen, it still has plenty to do in the interim and both combo pieces are fine cards on their own. That said, Hinata also struggled beating a wide gambit of decks as having a control deck that can be solid versus the fastest and slowest decks a meta has to offer is no easy feat. Since the meta has mostly coalesced around decks that are relatively slow, Hinata has a clear target to take advantage of and can focus it’s deck building on being strong there.
While Hinata is absolutely dominating the metagame right now, there are enough tech cards that can be played that I feel it won’t stay at the top for long, but will remain an extremely good choice as long as the meta remains this speed.
So here’s an interesting development. Last week I slated Jeskai combo as one of the decks of the week, but also figured that the deck’s popularity would mostly be gated by it’s complexity. So my opinion last week was more so that the deck is excellent in theory, but may not necessarily translate to the meta. Imagine my surprise when the Standard challenges were absolutely populated by combo players!
Despite it being a known factor, it seems the metagame hasn’t completely adjusted yet. When there are still slower decks to capitalize on, Combo will be there to do so. The deck isn’t very fast nor can it handle much disruption so it’s certainly beatable, but until the meta actively decides to do so, Combo can continue to be a strong force.
That said, between Hinata and Combo doing well, I think the meta is going to adjust and fast. Stuff like Go Blank, Soul Shatter, Riveteers Charm, Test of Talents, Disdainful Stroke, and so on are all great against both so expect a large uptick in these effects and if you’re in colors that can play these colors, highly consider packing a bunch in your sideboard.
The Deck’s Looking To Break In / Next Best Options
Continuing the trend of Izzet decks absolutely rocking Standard, for my first next best option, I have to hand it to Temur Control.
When making this snapshot, I was actually struggling with the decision on where to place Temur Control. On one hand, the deck has been having some success, but isn’t a super popular option. On the other hand, I think this deck is just as good as the Jeskai decks which makes it so surprising that it hasn’t been a more popular option. I can’t put my finger on it, but I feel that this is mostly due to Temur not being particularly flashy.
Temur is a deck that is very simple in premise and game plan. It’s a control deck that has a good late game backed by Goldspan Dragon, Titan of Industry, and Koma, Cosmos Serpent. It’s simplicity lends to it’s strength as it doesn’t need a lot to go right to work, but it definitely pales in terms of flashiness compared to casting two mana Magma Opus or killing the opponent in one turn. Best yet, unlike the Jeskai decks, Temur is substantially harder to hate out as it isn’t reliant on one particular card to work. If the opponent tags you with a Go Blank or Test of Talents, it’s not like the deck falls apart in any capacity.
Personally, I think Temur will continue to be a less popular option than Jeskai in the short term, but once the meta starts heavily respecting the Jeskai decks, I could see it trend upwards really quickly as a way to keep the power of the Izzet shell without the inherent weaknesses.
Up next on our list, we have one of the newest midrange powerhouses in Standard, Jund Midrange.
While I would like to have something super insightful to say about Jund, I really don’t, the deck is just great! You have an awesome curve, awesome interaction, awesome threats, awesome everything really. The deck doesn’t really have holes as Jund is the color combination that can have pretty much any type of card it wants beyond counterspells. Furthermore, getting access to killers like Riveteers Charm and Unleash the Inferno is just invaluable in a metagame defined by high value permanents.
The only reason I would still say Jund is an up and comer rather than one of the best options is it’s popularity. Since it’s still a relatively new option, I think players are a bit more wary to try it, but with more time and successes, I would be shocked if it doesn’t become one of the best decks around.
For my next entry, we have a similar situation to Temur Control in Grixis Vampires.
Like Temur, Grixis is also looking to fight for a spot at the table between the other powerful midrange options available to us. Esper Midrange is the obvious one, but Jund Midrange has also picking up a lot of stock as well and has been a great option right before and after the Pro Tour. What surprises me though is that out of the 3 midrange decks, I think Grixis may be the best one.
Similar to Jund, Grixis just has everything you could be looking for. Cheap removal? Check. Cheap threats? Check. Good threats? Check. Good grindy cards? Check. Great interaction in general? Obvious check. It just has everything! Every time I’ve been playing it the deck has performed phenomenally well and I never felt like I didn’t have the chance to win the game. The only hole I could speak of with Grixis is the lack of Enchantment removal, but I don’t think that’s a big deal compared to what Grixis does give you.
I may be biased and maybe the deck isn’t as good as it’s been performing for me, but I really think Grixis should be getting a lot more attention than it is right now.
Now that we’re winding down towards the end of the snapshot, it’s time for some spicier inclusions! While Orzhov Midrange in itself isn’t that novel of an idea, the way it’s constructed is!
Right now the metagame is continuously slowing down to become better suited against the most popular decks. To beat up the midrange and control decks, you need power cards, and generally speaking, these power cards are pretty expensive. Furthermore, if you want to beat these power cards, you need to have interaction that’s good against it, and these interactive spells by nature are relatively slow. So while you can keep slowing down with the meta, what if we speed up?
I love this build of Orzhov as it shows how savvy the creator of it is and exactly what they’re trying to accomplish. If they want to slow down to meet the meta, you certainly would play Esper to get a better spread of interaction. However, if you want to try and circumvent the meta, you have to speed up! Orzhov is looking to get on the board quickly, interrupt the opponent a few times, and close the door before they have a chance to come back. Furthermore, if they want to slow down a touch to have more powerful cards, they can easily do that without giving up on the deck’s initial game plan.
It’s hard to say whether or not this version of Orzhov is going to stick, but it does segue into my final deck and why I like speeding up in a meta that’s trying to slow down.
For the final deck of the article, we have to go with a bit of a spicier take!
Boros Aggro, somewhat similarly to Jeskai Hinata, came out of nowhere in Bo1 Standard and rocketed up to the very top of the tier list. The deck is fast, punishing, and has good reach and interaction in the form of burn so it’s no surprise that it’s doing so well in Bo1. However, myself and others have discovered that it’s utility may not be limited to just the Bo1 queues!
Beyond Boros just being a strong deck in general, the main reason it may be time for it to shine is how unprepared the meta seems to be for it. Every week that passes, the decks that do well are getting slower and slower to help keep up with the general direction of the metagame. Right now we have mostly Control and Combo taking the top spots of the metagame so it’s clearly not in someone’s best interest to add anti-aggro cards to compensate!
Boros is fast enough to punish these slow decks and I feel the longer the metagame stays this way, the higher the chance Boros or another aggro deck is randomly going to dominate one week. In fairness, aggro decks success can be gated by how popular Runes is, but considering Runes has been struggling a bit in this metagame, it may be a really safe time to bust out some one drops again.
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.
