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The first week of August 2020 ranked season has already seen both the Standard and Historic formats being shaken up by the August 3 banned and restricted announcement. Better late than never, it is now time to explore a fresh metagame yet again. Let’s find out what decks players have been using for the past few days to rush up the early Mythic ladder, and how everything has been evolving so far!
MTG Arena Standard Mythic Decks of the Week
Standard has added four more cards to the banlist; Growth Spiral, Wilderness Reclamation, Teferi, Time Raveler and Cauldron Familiar. We still have a bit more a month until the release of Zendikar Rising and Standard rotation to see if the players are free from the cards causing Standard problems; or whether some problem cards will still dominate due to the push in power levels over the past year.
Sultai Ramp by MadSalaryMan – #88 Mythic
Sultai Ramp has been one of the first targets to break in the new Standard. It was already a formidable deck before Temur Reclamation and Bant Ramp eventually took over, but now that they have been neutered, it is only natural we flock to the next best thing. Nissa, Who Shakes the World is back on the menu, combined with the powerful Blue-Green monsters Uro and Krasis. It may be worrying for players to see the same cards dominate Standard again, but it is too early to tell.
Temur Adventures by Dafore – #5 Mythic
Simic Adventures by TorinoMTG – #6 Mythic
Temur Adventures was another deck players looked to first. The archetype is all about generating value, value and more value, and now has a good chance of fighting against the slower decks in the metagame such as Sultai Ramp and Azorius Control. You would still need to be wary of other aggressive decks that may look to having their time in the sun now that Rakdos Sacrifice is nerfed.
Boros Winota by Andrea Mengucci – #151 Mythic
There are a lot of potential aggro decks in Standard, such as Gruul, Rakdos, and the Mono colored decks, but there is no doubt Embercleave will be a format defining card in Standard for the foreseeable future, and Winota, Joiner of Forces is still very powerful. Remember that it’s banned in Historic! The Mardu version should still be just as good (if not better), depending on your preference for mana base.
Rakdos Lurrus Sacrifice by cabezadebolo3k – #217 Mythic
Rakdos Sacrifice by Newplayer1 – #264 Mythic
With Cauldron Familiar now banned and Witch’s Oven no longer necessary, Sacrifice deck enthusiasts used this as an opportunity to free up 8 slots in the deck. While the deck is definitely less powerful without the combo, the deck is still decent aggressively and has access to useful tools such as Claim the Firstborn, Woe Strider, and Priest of Forgotten Gods. The two versions featured here this week are distinct. The first one makes use of Lurrus of the Dream-Den as a Companion and naturally is more lower to the ground but has access to Call of the Death-Dweller that combines well with Archfiend’s Vessel, whereas the second one retains the power of Mayhem Devil and makes use of Fiend Artisan and maximizing the creature count.
MTG Arena Historic Mythic Decks of the Week
Just when we thought we could catch some breath after the release of Jumpstart and the conclusion of the Arena Open, Historic has also received two more suspensions – Teferi, Time Raveler and Wilderness Reclamation. We can finally look at things to stabilize once Amonkhet Remastered is released on August 13, but for now, here is where the Historic metagame is at.
Historic Azorius Lurrus Auras by Ondrej Strasky – #4 Mythic
Azorius Auras has now practically replaced the Mono White version, which had many people turn their Arena Open entries into $2000 with the deck. It even had a good matchup against Temur Reclamation, which is now gone, leaving it to be arguably the best deck in the format so far. Demonstrating the power of Kor Spiritdancer from Jumpstart, the deck should still be decent even after Amonkhet Remastered release. It has a great matchup across the board against the next best decks in the format, such as Burn, Field of the Dead and Goblins.
Historic Izzet Wizards by MasterJamin – #37 Mythic
This is a very fun but competitive aggressive tempo deck that MasterJamin also used to achieve 7 wins in day 1 of the Arena Open event. There has been some great additions to the Wizards deck over the past few sets, such as Grim Lavamancer, Lofty Denial and Of One Mind. The deck can be built on a budget as well, making it a great entry point to Historic.
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 use the deck submission form, tweet us at @mtgazone or give us a shout at our Discord.
