Howdy, everyone. If you’re looking to construct a new Standard deck, having an understanding of not just the new cards, but all the playable cards in Standard and their relative power levels is very important. Lucky for you, I love you enough to spend hours making this.
Remember, these are rough classifications and will likely not completely conform to how strong you believe a card is, but this is where me and my testing partner MPL member Chris Kvartek think each card roughly lies. Again, we’re talking GENERAL power levels, if you think that a card I rated should be higher or lower, that’s fine. Certain decks or synergies can make a card better or worse, just use this guide to help guide you in what you have available to you.
The card order in each section is just by card age, not power level within the tier. The best Standard decks tend to utilize as many S Tier and Role Player cards as possible so that’s an easy way to get baseline powerful decks in new metas. Delve deeper to see if you can interlock good cards for powerful synergies and cool stuff like that.
If you don’t see a card on the list, despite me being overly generous on what is Standard playable, I did not find it playable enough to include. This is largely the case for Commons and Uncommons as I believe functionally every Rare and Mythic in Standard is placed here somewhere.
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Happy brewing!
THE S TIER “Best Cards in Standard”
White
Elspeth Conquers Death
Blue
Brazen Borrower
Shark Typhoon
Black
Murderous Rider
Red
Embercleave
Bonecrusher Giant
Green
Questing Beast
The Great Henge
Edgewall Innkeeper
Elder Gargaroth
Scavenging Ooze
Lotus Cobra
Multicolor
Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath
Winota, Joiner of Forces
Colorless
Lucky Clover
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
THE ROLE PLAYERS “Not the Absolute Best but Powerful”
White
Shatter the Sky
Black
Rankle, Master of Pranks
Woe Strider
Extinction Event
Heartless Act
Massacre Wurm
Nighthawk Scavenger
Bloodchief’s Thirst
Nullpriest of Oblivion
Red
Robber of the Rich
Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
Storm’s Wrath
Anax, Hardened in the Forge
Terror of the Peaks
Nahiri’s Lithoforming (Synergy with Ancient Greenwarden)
Green
Lovestruck Beast
Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse
Ancient Greenwarden (Synergy with Nahiri’s Lithoforming)
Multicolor
Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger
Dream Trawler
Chevill, Bane of Monsters
Zenith Flare
Fiend Artisan
Lurrus of the Dream Den
Yorion, Sky Nomad
Korvold, Fae-Cursed King
Omnath, Locus of Creation
THE ROLE FILLERS “Solid Cards that you’ll see often or integral cards in some strategies”
White
Realm-Cloaked Giant
Kenrith, the Returned King
Acclaimed Contender
Charming Prince
Giant Killer
Worthy Knight
Shepherd of the Flock
Venerable Knight
Faerie Guidemother
Heliod, Sun-Crowned
Archon of Sun’s Grace
The Birth of Meletis
Banishing Light
Luminous Broodmoth
Lavabrink Venturer
Flourishing Fox
Valiant Rescuer
Basri Ket
Baneslayer Angel
Basri’s Lieutenant
Glorious Anthem
Seasoned Hallowblade
Selfless Savior
Emeria’s Call
Archon of Emeria
Archpriest of Iona
Luminarch Aspirant (I think this card is very good, but probably not Role Player good)
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.
