The Best Decks For Standard In MTG

Magic: The Gathering’s premier format is Standard. It’s the one Wizards designs for the most and is the one more intricately linked to each major set release of the year. It’s also likely your gateway to Magic, being one of the primary formats played not just in-store, but also on the likes of MTG Arena.

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Standard is known for its rotating nature, where sets enter the format, and then leave a few years later. It helps keep things fresh, with each new set often bringing major shakeups to the format. Whether you’re a veteran wanting to climb the Standard ladder, or a newcomer wanting to see what everyone is playing, here are the current top decks of MTG’s Standard format.

Updated February 17, 2023 by Joe Parlock: Phyrexia: All Will Be One brought with it a huge shakeup to the Standard format. While we’re still firmly in a Midrange-heavy environment, cards like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse have been pushed out of favour in exchange for new bombs like Atraxa, Grand Unifier. White has also reclaimed its top spot with a new, Wanderer-driven midrange deck.

10 Orzhov Midrange

It’s rare to see a deck go completely without creatures, but the black/white Orzhov Midrange is more than able to keep up thanks to its powerful token generators.

Between The Wandering Emperor’s and The Eternal Wanderer’s Samurai; Kaya, Intangible Slayer’s 1/1 Spirits, and the Pilots Reckoner Bankbuster can create, you’ve got enough ways to keep blockers up without needing to cast a single creature.

Keeping up blockers definitely is the goal here, though. You can either win through just swinging in with a horde of tokens, or, more scarily for your opponent, you can use Vraska, Betrayal’s Sting’s ultimate to put them on the very brink of dying to poison. Normally you wouldn’t factor in a planeswalker’s ultimate in how good they are in a deck, but there are enough ways to control the board that there is a very real chance you can stave your opponent off long enough to use it.

For control, you’ve got targeted removal like Cut Down and Fateful Absence, while also having full board wipes like Depopulate and Farewell. On the slim chance your opponent does manage to connect with Vraska, Soul Transfer is there to get it right back into play.

9 Mono-Red Aggro

A true mainstay of Magic: The Gathering, Mono-Red Aggro is often one of the cheapest decks to build and one of the easiest to play.

After a long time struggling in the format, The Brothers’ War has brought Mono-Red Aggro back into the big leagues in a huge way. Monestary Swiftspear; Feldon, Ronom Excavator; and Jaya, Fiery Negotiator are all significant parts of the deck, thanks to how quickly that can dish out damage.

Kumano Faces Kakkazan and The Fable of the Mirror-Breaker are incredibly popular cards thanks to their ability to either give you more mana to throw out more creatures, or buff the ones you cast. Burn spells like Play With Fire and Lightning Strike also perform well here, especially when you have four Monastery Swiftspears in play to trigger prowess.

Bloodthirsty Adversary is finally getting its time to shine too, after being a promising card from Midnight Hunt that struggled to really find a foothold until now. A 2/2 with haste is always good, but Bloodthirsty Adversary lets you dump more mana into it if you don’t draw it until the later game. Being able to cast spells for free is always good, and it’s even better here with all those new Swiftspears.

8 Rakdos Midrange

Phyrexia didn’t have much of an impact on the black/red Rakdos Midrange. It still has that Sheoldred and Reckoner Bankbuster, although it did lose Liliana of the Veil and the once-leading Tenacious Underdog.

There’s loads of interaction here, with Invoke Despair, Cut Down, and Go For The Throat being joined by cards like Duress for hand destruction, and Brotherhood’s End as a way to destroy all those pesky Treasure and Blood tokens currently running amok in the format.

Fable of the Mirror-Breaker is still one of the best red cards in the format, thanks to its ability to make copies of things like Bloodtithe Harvester and Graveyard Trespasser.

For cards likely to seep into this deck over time, keep an eye out for Sheoldred’s Edict, Capricious Hellraiser, and Blackcleave Cliffs.

7 Five-Colour Invoke Justice

Everyone who theorised that Atraxa, Grand Unifier wouldn’t be as good as the older Atraxa card were dead wrong, as Grand Unifier has completely blown up multiple formats as one of the best reanimation targets ever printed.

The whole purpose of this deck is to find ways to get Atraxa into play ahead of schedule, be it through things like Portal to Phyrexia or the titular Invoke Justice. From there, you’re able to easily get access to the various other card types in your deck.

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Nahiri, the Unforgiving is a surprise bomb in this deck, as it allows you to make a copy of Atraxa (which you could then copy with Reflection of Kiki-Jiki) to keep your engine running.

Sanctuary Warden will be your main hitter here, though. By using Invoke Justice, you can take counters off of either Atraxa or your Wardens to make creature tokens that maintain the pressure on your opponent. Invoke Justice, once again, is a powerhouse here, as you can then spread four +1/+1 counters across your attacking force.

While this deck is very focused in what it does, when you’ve got a card as good as Atraxa lying around, you have room to be a bit more linear in your strategy.

6 Jund Midrange

One of the biggest shakeups the launch of Phyrexia: All Will Be One caused to Standard was massive drop in decks running Sheoldred, the Apocalypse.

While this black, red, and green deck would’ve previously used her as a key focal point, now she’s just relegated to the sideboard. Instead, this deck makes use of plenty of graveyard recursion with powerful bombs like Titan of Industry to keep your opponent at bay.

Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler has emerged as one of the surprise winners of All Will Be One’s ten planeswalkers, thanks to his ability to let creatures like Armored Scrapgorger and Bloodtithe Harvester use their abilities a lot quicker.

This is still a midrange deck, so make ample use of removal like Go For The Throat, Unleash the Inferno, and Invoke Despair to whittle your opponent down until you’re ready to drop that Titan and go for the win.

5 Azorius Soldiers

After being one of the main draft archetypes for The Brothers’ War, blue/white Azorius Soldiers have crept into Standard as a force to be reckoned with.

Borrowing some elements from the ever-popular White Weenie decks, such as Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Brutal Cathar, it also adds plenty Soldier-matters cards like Myrel, Sheild of Argive; Harbin, Vanguard Aviator; Valiant Veteran, and Siege Veteran.

Phyrexia: All Will Be One added in Skrelv, Defector Mite to the mix. While it isn’t a Soldier itself, its ability to make things protected from a colour – and thereby unblockable – makes it utter gas for combat-heavy decks like this.

While Azorius is usually known for its control strategies, this deck completely eschews instants and sorceries, and instead uses hatebear pieces like Thalia and Dennick, Pious Apprentice to control the board. It also can’t be understated how much of a powerhouse Brutal Cathar is in Standard, with its ability to easily remove potential blockers just by entering the battlefield.

4 Mardu Midrange

Phyrexia: All Will Be One has had a big impact on this deck, thanks to the introduction of Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines. Doubling triggered abilities is incredibly powerful, especially when combined with the likes of Archangel of Wrath for big blasts of damage, and Inspiring Overseer for lifegain and card draw.

Regardless of this Phyrexian incursion, the deck is still primarily led by Giada, Font of Hope, and makes use of lots of the Angels that are currently big in Standard. It’s worth noting, though, that as Giada’s ability is static, rather than triggered, Elesh Norn won’t double the number of counters your Angels get.

Red only has a little influence here, mostly in Standard staples like Abrade, Bloodtithe Harvester, and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. Even black is pretty uncommon, with it more being used for removal through Path of Peril, Go For The Throat, and Cut Down.

3 Grixis Midrange

Although it has dropped, the blue/black/red Grixis Midrange is still a very powerful deck. It combines everything that makes the other black-using decks so powerful to make an utterly terrifying threat for your opponent.

Bloodtithe Harvester and Corpse Appraiser are the two main creatures of the deck, but it does also run a Sheoldred, The Apocalypse for good measure. Like most Midrange decks, it’s pretty slim on creatures, with the majority of the deck being used to control your opponent as you build up your board state.

Everything from Cut Down, Abrade, and Go For The Throat, right up to Brotherhood’s End and Invoke Despair is here. There’s even a Fable of the Mirror-Breaker to make Treasures and double up those Bloodtithe Harvesters and Corpse Appraisers later on.

The goal of this deck is to use things like Sheoldred and Bloodtithe Harvester to whittle down your opponent’s life, before dropping a few Invoke Despairs to destroy their board and swing in with a particularly big Bladecoil Serpent. It’s a flexible and monstrous deck that fully justifies its top spot in the format.

2 Esper Midrange

The white, blue, and black Midrange deck is one of the most-changed by Phyrexia: All Will Be One. Gone are Tenacious Underdog and Sheoldred, The Apocalypse, and in are a whole load of new planeswalkers.

Joining the ever-popular Kaito Shizuki and The Wandering Emperor are The Eternal Wanderer, and even Vraska, Betrayal’s Sting, thanks in particular to its -2 effect of turning creatures into Treasure tokens.

The core of the deck is still the same, though, as it makes use of Raffine, Scheming Seer to connive, both filling up your graveyard and making Raffine a much more powerful threat. Wedding Announcement and Aoi, The Dawn Sky are used to either make creature tokens to allow Raffine to connive more, or buff your attacking creatures to help close out the game.

Dennick, Pious Apprentice also pops up a lot in these decks. Partly, this is because it’s a good way to shut down some of the graveyard hate prevalent in Standard at the moment, like Graveyard Trespasser. It’s also something to connive into your graveyard and cast Dennick, Pious Apparition for its disturb cost. With how often things will be going into your graveyard, having something that can give you Clue tokens is always nice.

1 Mono-White Midrange

Mono-White Midrange is all about playing the long game by exiling and destroying all of your opponent’s threats until they ‘run out of gas’. From there, you can easily build up a board of creature tokens to quickly finish them off.

This deck runs more creatures than earlier versions of it did, with the likes of Ambitious Farmhand for mana smoothing, Ao, the Dawn Sky for a splashy flier, and Steel Seraph as a way to keep your life total up while building up your plans.

You’re going to be primarily relying on Wedding Announcement and The Eternal Wanderer to make creature tokens (and then crew the Reckoner Bankbuster for more damage). Then, when Wedding Announcement transformers, it provides a buff to your sizeable board state to take the win.

To control the board in the early stages, Lay Down Arm is an incredible one-mana exile spell that scales based on the amount of Plains you control. Meanwhile, Ossification can be a tricky enchantment for your opponents to get rid of, and Destroy Evil will help you out in a pinch. Of course, The Wandering Emperor is also still a big part of white in Standard, thanks to its instant-speed removal of any tapped creature.

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