Hello my fellow Planeswalkers! I am The MTG Hero, and Standard just took a slice of pizza and a flying roundhouse kick thanks to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) Universes Beyond set. The set officially hit Arena this week, bringing new threats, new engines, and most importantly… new problems for the existing meta.

So today we’re doing what we always do during launch week: breaking down what’s actually winning, what’s overperforming, and what might become the real long-term threats in Standard.

Standard Affinity?

If you queued up Standard this week, chances are you ran into Izzet. But there’s a good chance it wasn’t the usual Lessons build.

The most prominent deck actually using TMNT cards so far appears to be Izzet Affinity.

This deck is awesome. It’s extremely aggressive, yet it also generates a surprising amount of card advantage, a combination that can get very scary very quickly.

The deck aims to abuse Pinnacle Emissary and Ravenous Robots, using cheap artifact creatures to flood the board and build an army of attackers that get boosted by Chrome Dome.

From there, Krang, Master Mind pulls double duty as both a game-ending threat and a way to refill your hand for what often feels like just two mana.

Meanwhile, Improvised Arsenal does a very convincing impression of Cranial Plating from Modern, and in the late game it can spiral out of control by copying itself repeatedly.

I absolutely love this archetype and think it could become a serious contender once the community finds the optimal build.

Dimir’s Sneaky New Combo

Dimir has already been a strong deck in Standard thanks to its access to:

• The most efficient disruption
• Excellent value creatures
• Top-tier card draw
• Powerful late-game inevitability

Cards like Kaito, Bane of Nightmares alongside tempo tools such as Floodpits Drowner allow Dimir to control the pace of the game before turning the corner with evasive threats.

But with a few new additions, we’re starting to see a very sneaky combo deck emerge.

We’ve already watched the high-risk, high-reward Dimir Excruciator lists push out traditional Dimir Midrange with their explosive combo potential. Now, however, players have discovered a simpler package.

Enter Kitsune Mill.

This deck looks to combo Kitsune Technique with Riverchurn Monument.

Some players may recognize the interaction because Monument previously comboed with Singularity Rupture, but Kitsune enables the combo much faster thanks to the sneak mechanic.

Against control decks, this creates a nightmare scenario. Your opponent can never safely tap out because they must respect every creature you play. Previously they only needed to hold up interaction once you hit six mana.

Aggro decks also struggle to race the combo.

The engine becomes deadly consistent with Splinter’s Technique, which effectively functions as a Demonic Tutor, and Donatello's Technique, an absurd tempo draw spell.

This deck already looks terrifying in Best-of-One, and with the right build and sideboard plan, I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes a major Standard contender.

Mono-Red Won’t Stay Down

Despite multiple rounds of bans, Mono-Red is still alive and kicking. It hasn’t dominated the format the way it once did, but it did gain a very interesting new finisher from the TMNT set: Raphael, the Nightwatcher.

Previously, many red decks relied on Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might combined with ping effects to suddenly end games. But the burn god often felt like a “win-more” card. At worst it would simply get removed, flip into a land, and rarely transform back into a creature.

Raphael, the Nightwatcher on the other hand, is an immediate source of pressure. He can crash into a board of blockers, wipe them out, or simply end the game on the spot.

To support Raphael, we include Stadium Headliner which has been a card on the cusp of Standard success.

Headliner gives the deck two bodies for one card and means that they can’t always block all of our creatures so Raphael can come in easier and if that’s the case, they really have to think about how to block and if it is even worth it since they can lose all of their threats.

I also added Full Bore to my list. This is an addition that Boros has been playing for a while since they often include Slickshot Show-Off and Boros Charm as a combo.

While we don’t have that huge hit with a Slickshot, we do get to just go wide with an army that hits twice and that three power can easily become six.

I still need more testing before I’m convinced Raphael belongs in the hyper-efficient Mono-Red builds, but so far I’m definitely impressed.

Wrap-Up

Week one of a new set is always chaotic, and TMNT is no exception. The format looks like a battlefield of experimentation, with old pillars like Izzet and Dimir still holding strong, but sometimes in a new “shell.” While new archetypes try to carve out their place.

Decks like Izzet Affinity and Kitsune Mill show that the set may have somereal engines here that could shape Standard moving forward.

As players refine their lists and the weaker decks fall away, the true contenders will start to emerge and I am excited to see where we end up.

Until next time Planeswalkers, Hero out!

Links

youtube.com/themtghero

patreon.com/themtghero

twitch.tv/themtghero

x.com/themtghero