MTG's Standard Meta Has A New Big Baddy, Which is a Good Thing

We just had the first round of Standard tournaments on Magic Arena and Magic Online with the inclusion of Innistrad: Crimson Vow over the weekend. These tournaments were very important as it will help dictate the early metagame for Standard, and answer the question of how much things would change from Midnight Hunt Standard. Today we’ll take a look at some of the results from the weekend and see what’s happening in Standard

The State of the Meta

Looking over the various tournaments from the weekend, things actually look pretty good! Across the various small to midsized events, there is a high degree of variety in the top 8 or top 16. Where there wasn’t a big diversity was in the Red Bull Untapped event. There we saw a lot of the same kinds of decks from last week in the top spots. What’s interesting here is what’s actually on top.

The New Top Dog

In a surprise to me, Mono White Aggro comes in as the top dog across a LOT of the events, either outright winning events, and/or having multiple copies within the top spots.

Here is the first place list from the Redbull Untapped event. This all looks very familiar, and it seems that the addition of Thalia, Guardian of Thraben Thalia, Guardian of Thraben First strike
Noncreature spells cost {1} more to cast. really gave the deck what it needed to forge ahead in the meta. Mono White was training at a distant 3rd in terms of popularity towards the end of Midnight Hunt standard.

Izzet is Still Strong

Alrund's Epiphany — Wizards of the Coast

Both Izzet decks are still going strong despite Mono White taking over the top spot. During the first couple of events during the weekend, Izzet decks were no where to be found in the top performing decks, but as the weekend progressed Izzet decks came out to play and had a very strong showing.

Mono Green is in a Slump

One thing that was of note of the weekend is that Mono Green Aggro is in a bit of a slump. While there was quite a bit of people who came out to play the deck, it didn’t perform nearly as well as some would have expected which is interesting. Mono Green was the best deck to combat Izzet Turns, but fell short against Mono White.

It appears that Thalia was enough to put Mono Green on the back foot, taking some of the power away from Esika’s Chariot Esika’s Chariot When Esika's Chariot enters, create two 2/2 green Cat creature tokens.
Whenever Esika's Chariot attacks, create a token that's a copy of target token you control.
Crew 4 and Wrenn and Seven Wrenn and Seven +1: Reveal the top four cards of your library. Put all land cards revealed this way into your hand and the rest into your graveyard.
0: Put any number of land cards from your hand onto the battlefield tapped.
−3: Create a green Treefolk creature token with reach and "This token's power and toughness are each equal to the number of lands you control."
−8: Return all permanent cards from your graveyard to your hand. You get an emblem with "You have no maximum hand size." just by making them be case a turn later than expected. That being said, there were still some top finishes for the deck, so it’s still a very viable option for tournament play if you’re comfortable with the deck.

The Break Out Cards of the Weekend

There were a few true break out cards from Crimson Vow from the weekend. Thalia we’ve already talked about in Mono White Aggro. Hullbreaker Horror Hullbreaker Horror Flash
This spell can't be countered.
Whenever you cast a spell, choose up to one —
• Return target spell you don't control to its owner's hand.
• Return target nonland permanent to its owner's hand. showed up quite a bit in various control decks, from Dimir, to Grixis or Jeskai, this massive flash threat was the missing piece that control was looking for, and was often paired with Lier, Disciple of the Drowned Lier, Disciple of the Drowned Spells can't be countered.
Each instant and sorcery card in your graveyard has flashback. The flashback cost is equal to that card's mana cost. .

There were a couple new staple in Mono Green showed up as well. Ascendant Packleader Ascendant Packleader This creature enters with a +1/+1 counter on it if you control a permanent with mana value 4 or greater.
Whenever you cast a spell with mana value 4 or greater, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature. and Ulvenwald Oddity Ulvenwald Oddity Trample, haste
{5}{G}{G}: Transform this creature. provide the deck a lot of new power. Packleader acts almost like a Pelt Collector Pelt Collector Whenever another creature you control enters or dies, if that creature's power is greater than this creature's, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
As long as this creature has three or more +1/+1 counters on it, it has trample. for the deck, while Ulvenwald Oddity almost fills a Questing Beast Questing Beast Vigilance, deathtouch, haste
Questing Beast can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less.
Combat damage that would be dealt by creatures you control can't be prevented.
Whenever Questing Beast deals combat damage to an opponent, it deals that much damage to target planeswalker that player controls. role.

One card that I didn’t see coming that shined this weekend was Voice of the Blessed Voice of the Blessed Whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
As long as this creature has four or more +1/+1 counters on it, it has flying and vigilance.
As long as this creature has ten or more +1/+1 counters on it, it has indestructible. . We actually saw quite a few variations of Orzhov Clerics show up this weekend. The only new card in the deck was Voice, which gave the deck another strong pay off for all the life gain, as this acts as a better Ajani’s Pridemate Ajani’s Pridemate Whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature. .

My Favorite Decks from the Weekend

There were a ton of cool decks that come out to play over the weekend! There’s a couple of them here and I’d say these are sweet options if you’re looking for something a little bit different to try out on the ladder!

Selesnya Humans

First off we have Selesnya Humans by António Abreu, who took 2nd place in Crokeyz Crimson Vow Release tournament.

This deck goes HARD on the humans synergies, while still playing some very powerful cards. We take advantage of some lesser played Midnight Hunt cards like, Join the Dance Join the Dance Create two 1/1 white Human creature tokens.
Flashback {3}{G}{W} (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.) and Katilda, Dawnhart Prime Katilda, Dawnhart Prime Protection from Werewolves
Human creatures you control have "{T}: Add one mana of any of this creature's colors."
{4}{G}{W}, {T}: Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. , but also dip into the new stuff. Notably, Hopeful Initiate Hopeful Initiate Training (Whenever this creature attacks with another creature with greater power, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.)
{2}{W}, Remove two +1/+1 counters from among creatures you control: Destroy target artifact or enchantment. and Hamlet Vanguard Hamlet Vanguard Ward {2} (Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter it unless that player pays {2}.)
This creature enters with two +1/+1 counters on it for each other nontoken Human you control. make a strong showing in this deck.

I took this deck out for a spin on the ladder, and the plays we were able to pull off were pretty gross, in the best way possible. If you’re wanting to play something tangential to Mono White aggro, this is your deck.

Mono Black Zombies

The next deck that looked awesome is one that I didn’t think was going to have the support needed to be good, but turns out it does! This is Mono Black Zombies, which took 7th in this weekends Red Bull Untapped event, piloted by Maciej Szmidt.

This deck plays out pretty straight forward as well, but has some awesome inclusions. We have some obvious cards in here like Champion of the Perished Champion of the Perished Whenever another Zombie you control enters, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature. and Shambling Ghast Shambling Ghast When this creature dies, choose one —
• Target creature an opponent controls gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
• Create a Treasure token. (It's an artifact with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color.") , but that’s where things stop being normal. The deck is playing Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia At the beginning of your end step, if you control no creatures with decayed, create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token with decayed. (It can't block. When it attacks, sacrifice it at end of combat.) to generate consistent bodies, alongside the brand new Headless Rider Headless Rider Whenever this creature or another nontoken Zombie you control dies, create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token. .

On top of that, Archghoul of Thraben Archghoul of Thraben Whenever this creature or another Zombie you control dies, look at the top card of your library. If it's a Zombie card, you may reveal it and put it into your hand. If you don't put the card into your hand, you may put it into your graveyard. and Fell Stinger Fell Stinger Deathtouch
Exploit (When this creature enters, you may sacrifice a creature.)
When this creature exploits a creature, target player draws two cards and loses 2 life. help generate us card advantage through having our creatures die. Our late game involves a couple power houses that haven’t seen a lot of play in Ebondeath, Dracolich Ebondeath, Dracolich Flash
Flying
Ebondeath enters tapped.
You may cast this card from your graveyard if a creature not named Ebondeath, Dracolich died this turn. and Tainted Adversary Tainted Adversary Deathtouch
When this creature enters, you may pay {2}{B} any number of times. When you pay this cost one or more times, put that many +1/+1 counters on this creature, then create twice that many 2/2 black Zombie creature tokens with decayed. (A creature with decayed can't block. When it attacks, sacrifice it at end of combat.) .

It might seem counterintuitive to play The Meathook Massacre The Meathook Massacre When The Meathook Massacre enters, each creature gets -X/-X until end of turn.
Whenever a creature you control dies, each opponent loses 1 life.
Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, you gain 1 life. in a creature deck, but since we can generate zombies when our creatures die from Headless Rider, we break the symmetry. On top of that, our Champion is hopefully bigger than however much we Massacre for so it sticks around. Anything that doesn’t, we have Agadeem’s Awakening Agadeem’s Awakening Return from your graveyard to the battlefield any number of target creature cards that each have a different mana value X or less. as a way to reanimate our creatures.

The standard meta is in a state of flux most certainly. The fact that aggro decks are making their way up to the top of the pack is a very good sign. Traditionally, new formats will see aggro decks be the best things to play week 1 and 2, and eventually normalize as the format ages. We haven’t had that in the past couple of Standard iterations, so it’s good to see a return to normalcy. We’ll see how long this holds, but I do expect that things will be changes for a bit.

Tagged Innistrad: Crimson Vow, magic: the gathering, MTG, MTG Arena, Standard

MTG’s Standard Meta Has A New Big Baddy, Which is a Good Thing