Top Mythic Historic and Standard Decks – October 2021 Season – Week 3

With another week coming to a close, it’s time once again for us to take a look back at some of the highest-ranked decklists that we’ve seen since the previous installment. This week, things have been a bit quiet in Standard with the meta continuing to solidify around a handful of major archetypes.

Historic, on the other hand, has been picking up some buzz in the community. As a result, I’ve decided to put the emphasis of this week’s article on the Historic decks that have been coming in to keep things a bit more interesting. We’ll give you a quick rundown of the top-rated decks in each format followed by the full list of all the decks we’ve collected over the week.

Looking for even more competitive decks? Take a look at the results from last week’s Red Bull Untapped tournament:

Red Bull Untapped International Stop I: Competitive Standard Results and Bonus Off-Meta Decklists

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MTG Arena Historic Mythic Decks of the Week

Grixis Opus by Seth Manfield – #4 Mythic

Our highest ranked deck of the week comes to us from MTG Hall-of-Famer Seth Manfield. Manfield took this Grixis Opus deck all the way up to #4 Mythic in Historic. Magma Opus decks became notorious in the format thanks to the Jeskai Turns archetype that was so strong it dominated the Strixhaven Championship and ended up getting a card banned. The deck used Indomitable Creativity to cheat Velomachus Lorehold into play which would then cast Mizzix’s Mastery or Time Warp straight from the deck.

Although Time Warp has since been banned from Historic and the Indomitable Creativity shells have largely disappeared from the format, Seth’s deck has a spell reanimation theme that’s reminiscent of the Jeskai Turns archetype.

Interestingly, Manfield has also included four copies of Unexpected Windfall, a card that’s become a staple in the Izzet Epiphany decks in Standard. In the Standard deck, the spell is often copied using Galvanic Iteration to ramp into the Alrund’s Epiphany/Iteration combo very quickly, although perhaps Manfield is proving that the card can stand well enough on its own.

Historic Izzet Phoenix by key – #9 Mythic

We’ve now seen the banning of two cards that have been played in the Izzet Phoenix archetype – Memory Lapse and Brainstorm – but the deck has remained at least on the fringes of competitive Historic throughout all of the changes to the format. Just this week, key worked their way up to the #9 slot with their take on the archetype.

Dragon’s Rage Channeler has given the deck another cheap and efficient threat, as turning on delirium is quite easy based on the deck’s preexisting Arclight Phoenix gameplan. As a result, many Phoenix builds, including this one, have reduced the number of copies of Sprite Dragon in the 75. One thing is clear from our first two decks though: the Izzet color pair is still quite good in Historic.

izzet phoenix

53.7% global win rate

11.19% metagame share

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vs esper control

100.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs bant angels

83.3% win rate

6 tracked matches

vs mono-red goblins

81.8% win rate

11 tracked matches

vs mono-red aggro

80.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs azorius control

75.0% win rate

12 tracked matches

vs azorius lotus field

71.4% win rate

14 tracked matches

vs bant blink (yorion)

66.7% win rate

12 tracked matches

vs dimir control

64.7% win rate

17 tracked matches

vs five-color niv-mizzet

62.5% win rate

32 tracked matches

vs jund food

62.1% win rate

58 tracked matches

vs jeskai control

61.8% win rate

55 tracked matches

vs izzet creativity

61.5% win rate

26 tracked matches

vs gruul aggro

61.5% win rate

13 tracked matches

vs orzhov death's shadow

60.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs rakdos arcanist

56.8% win rate

37 tracked matches

vs azorius artifacts

54.5% win rate

11 tracked matches

vs dragonstorm

53.3% win rate

15 tracked matches

vs jund citadel

52.2% win rate

23 tracked matches

vs heliod company

50.6% win rate

85 tracked matches

vs golgari food

50.0% win rate

74 tracked matches

vs selesnya humans

45.5% win rate

88 tracked matches

vs azorius auras

45.2% win rate

31 tracked matches

vs mono-red madness

42.9% win rate

14 tracked matches

vs jeskai creativity

40.0% win rate

20 tracked matches

vs dimir pact

40.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs simic merfolk

40.0% win rate

15 tracked matches

vs izzet turns

38.5% win rate

26 tracked matches

vs jeskai lotus field

33.3% win rate

9 tracked matches

vs grixis combo

30.0% win rate

10 tracked matches

vs selesnya enchantress

20.0% win rate

20 tracked matches

Historic Five-Color Niv-Mizzet by Val & PL – #27 Mythic

We’ve been seeing an increased number of five-color Niv-Mizzet Reborn decks cropping up in Historic lately, and this example took Val & PL up to #27 Mythic. Five-Color Niv-Mizzet is a bit of an odd deck that plays a midrange/control game that gets massive injections of value from a resolved Niv drawing as many as five cards.

Territorial Kavu has been all over these lists as a Niv hit for the Gruul color pair. It’s good in combat, but it’s also a bit of a toolbox, with card filtering and graveyard hate all on one card. Niv-Mizzet Reborn has been known as a fairly strong archetype in the format at least as far back as the Strixhaven Championship, and it will only continue to get better as more powerful two-color cards are added to the format.

five-color niv-mizzet

50% global win rate

3.26% metagame share

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vs azorius lotus field

80.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs gruul aggro

77.8% win rate

9 tracked matches

vs mono-red madness

75.0% win rate

8 tracked matches

vs heliod company

58.3% win rate

12 tracked matches

vs jeskai control

57.1% win rate

14 tracked matches

vs jund food

54.2% win rate

24 tracked matches

vs golgari food

50.0% win rate

12 tracked matches

vs rakdos arcanist

50.0% win rate

8 tracked matches

vs jund citadel

44.4% win rate

9 tracked matches

vs azorius auras

37.5% win rate

8 tracked matches

vs izzet phoenix

37.5% win rate

32 tracked matches

vs selesnya humans

30.0% win rate

20 tracked matches

vs izzet turns

22.2% win rate

9 tracked matches

vs selesnya enchantress

14.3% win rate

7 tracked matches

Historic Jund Citadel by Altheriax – #29 Mythic

While it hasn’t eliminated archetypes like Izzet Phoenix and Jeskai Control, the banning of Memory Lapse has definitely given a boost to non-blue decks in the format. Since the ban, we’ve been seeing a significant increase in Jund Sacrifice decks, including everyone’s favorite one-drop combo Witch’s Oven/Cauldron Familiar.

Along with the Food decks, we’re also seeing the return of Jund Bolas’s Citadel-based decks. This version of the deck, tuned by Altheriax and played up to #29 Mythic, is built to take maximum advantage of the six mana artifact. Although the Citadel deck still relies heavily on sacrifice synergies, it forgoes the Cat/Oven strategy entirely in favor of four copies of Collected Company and creatures that play well with it such as Woe Strider.

jund citadel

51.4% global win rate

1.63% metagame share

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vs mono-red madness

80.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs izzet turns

71.4% win rate

7 tracked matches

vs heliod company

66.7% win rate

12 tracked matches

vs jeskai control

63.6% win rate

11 tracked matches

vs azorius artifacts

60.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs selesnya humans

58.3% win rate

12 tracked matches

vs five-color niv-mizzet

55.6% win rate

9 tracked matches

vs golgari food

53.3% win rate

15 tracked matches

vs dimir control

50.0% win rate

6 tracked matches

vs izzet phoenix

47.8% win rate

23 tracked matches

vs jund food

41.7% win rate

12 tracked matches

vs rakdos arcanist

22.2% win rate

9 tracked matches

vs jeskai creativity

16.7% win rate

6 tracked matches

Sultai Ultimatum by Seth Manfield – #44 Mythic

Our final Historic deck also comes to us from Seth Manfield; this time it’s a Historic adaptation of the Sultai Ultimatum decks that were dominant in Standard before rotation. A lot of players, including me, were happy to see this archetype go. If you just can’t get enough of the 7 mana game-ending sorcery though, one of Magic’s most influential players seems to think it’s a legitimate competitor in the current Historic.

That wraps it up for our Historic spotlight this week! The full list of decks can be found below, and further down we’ll take a look at what’s been happening in Standard.

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MTG Arena Standard Mythic Decks of the Week

Grixis Turns by Flavio Ausilio – #231 Mythic

In Standard, our top-ranked submission from the week comes to us from Mythic grinder Flavio Ausilio. The Galvanic Iteration/Alrund’s Epiphany combo decks have become one of the strongest archetypes in Standard, making up a big part of the meta at the World Championship and other recent tournaments.

Nothing has changed in the format to make the turns decks any worse, and this week Flavio piloted his interpretation of the deck up to #231 Mythic on the Standard ladder. For those interested in learning more about the archetype, see also our recent Grixis Turns deck guide written by DoggertQBones.

Selesnya Midrange by Sasha Coulter – #298 Mythic

Up next we have a Selesnya Midrange deck by Sasha Coulter, who achieved the #298 rank with the deck. Selesnya decks that are heavy on ramp and include landfall synergies like Felidar Retreat and Scute Swarm have been in and out of popularity in Standard since the rotation. Similar to other Storm the Festival-based archetypes, Selesnya decks like this one tend to be strong against the aggro decks of the format but struggle against Epiphany.

Thanks for reading! That’s it for our Mythic spotlights of the week. Check out the full list of Mythic Standard decks below:

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This column is our weekly roundup of Standard and Historic decks players are using to climb the ranked ladder on MTG Arena! Our goal is to curate and post a variety of deck archetypes and interesting card choices at the end of each week to help you keep up to date with the latest trends in the metagame. If you have any decks you want featured, please tweet us at @mtgazone or give us a shout at our Discord.