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.
What To Buy For Magic: The Gathering
There's a lot of Magic: The Gathering, and knowing what to buy is important.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 October 11, 2023 by Joe Parlock: Thanks to the move from a two-year to a three-year rotation schedule, we're now in the biggest Standard format for many years. Wilds of Eldraine has had a big influence on the format, even if it is still mostly dominated by Midrange piles and the ever-present shadow of Raffine and Sheoldred.
These are the top decks in Standard as identified by deck aggregation site MTGGoldfish.
10 Selesnya Enchantments
|
Selesnya Enchantments |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Generous Visitor (x4) |
Jukai Naturalist (x4) |
Spirited Companion (x4) |
Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr (x4) |
Commune With Spirits (x4) |
|
Royal Treatment |
Seed of Hope |
Rite of Harmony (x2) |
Ossification (x4) |
Teachings of the Kirin (x4) |
|
The Restoration of Eiganjo (x4) |
Hallowed Haunting (x3) |
Virtue of Loyalty |
Boseiju, Who Endures |
Brushland (x4) |
|
Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire |
Forest (x6) |
Plains (x4) |
Razorverge Thicket (x4) |
|
|
Sideboard |
||||
|
Circle of Confinement (x2) |
Destroy Evil (x2) |
Rite of Harmony (x2) |
Knockout Blow |
Wedding Announcement (x2) |
|
Hallowed Haunting |
The Wandering Emperor |
Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines (x2) |
Vanquish the Horde (x2) |
|
White/Green enchantments have been in Standard for a long time now, having creeped in with Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty and not really leaving since. With the extensions of rotation to three years, and the introduction of Wilds of Eldraine and its enchantment subtheme, the archetype has had a big boost in popularity.
The core of the deck is the same as before, with Generous Visitor and Jukai Naturalist. The biggest change is the introduction of Royal Treatment and Virtue of Loyalty from Throne of Eldraine: the former is a great way to get an enchantment Role token to enter the battlefield, while the latter helps buff up your creatures even quicker, while still being an enchantment itself.
The goal here is simply to play lots of enchantments, and have Generous Visitor make your creatures big in the process. Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr is your primary beater, getting bigger the more enchantments you play.
9 Mono-White Aggro
|
Mono-White Aggro |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Hopeful Initiate (x4) |
Recruitment Officer (x4) |
Skrelv, Defector Mite |
Coppercoat Vanguard (x4) |
Intrepid Adversary |
|
Spellbook Vendor (x4) |
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (x4) |
Adeline, Resplendent Cathar (x4) |
Anointed Peacekeeper (x2) |
Extraction Specialist (x2) |
|
Ossification (x4) |
Virtue of Loyalty (x2) |
Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire (x2) |
Mishra's Foundry (x4) |
Plains (x18) |
|
Sideboard |
||||
|
Lay Down Arms (x3) |
Destroy Evil (x3) |
Invasion of Gobakhan (x3) |
Wedding Announcement (x4) |
The Wandering Emperor (x2) |
White aggro, the old faithful of Standard, just creeps its way back in to the format, thanks mostly to the tools introduced in March of the Machine and Phyrexia: All Will Be One, like Ossification; Skrelv, Defector Mite; and, Coppercoat Vanguard.
A big addition to the deck from Wilds of Eldraine is Spellbook Vendor, which lets you put a Sorcery role token onto a creature you control. Combine that with Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, and you have a constant stream of 2/2 creatures every turn.
Virtue of Loyalty is also in the deck now, serving a similar role to Victory's Envoy back in the day and buffing all of your creatures all at once. The end result is a deck that can hit fast and hard, while also having the creeping, rebuilding long-term strategy white is so good at.
8 Bant Control
|
Bant Control |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Horned Loch-Whale (x3) |
The Wandering Emperor (x4) |
Lay Down Arms (x4) |
March of Otherworldly Light (x2) |
Syncopate (x3) |
|
Make Disappear (x2) |
Negate |
Brokers Charm |
Dissipate |
Memory Deluge |
|
Sunfall (x3) |
Up The Beanstslk (x4) |
Leyline Binding (x4) |
Boseiju, Who Endures |
Dreamroot Cascade (x3) |
|
Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire |
Island |
Jetmir's Garden (x2) |
Mirrex |
Otawara, Soaring City |
|
Plains (x6) |
Raffine's Tower (x3) |
Spara's Headqarters (x4) |
Yavimaya Coast (x4) |
|
|
Sideboard |
||||
|
Elspeth's Smite |
Destroy Evil |
Disdainful Stroke (x2) |
Negate (x2) |
Sunset Revelry |
|
Chrome Host Seedshark (x3) |
Knockout Blow (x2) |
Memory Deluge |
The Eternal Wanderer |
Hullbreaker Horror |
The first of three different control decks currently dominating Standard, all primarily using white and blue.
This version of the deck runs the full blue/white control suite, with cards like Make Disappear, Negate, Leyline's Binding, and Sunfall - itself also a way to get big creatures out to close out the game.
Horned Loch-Whale is a newcomer to the deck from Wilds of Eldraine, serving as a bounce spell as its Adventure, before entering with flash on a later turn to be a hard-to-remove beater.
The Bant version of this deck includes green, but only really for one card: Up The Beanstalk. This is a real powerhouse in this deck, as lots of the cards you'll be casting are expensive enough to trigger it and draw you a card.
7 Esper Control
|
Esper Control |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Teferi, Who Slows The Sunset (x2) |
The Wandering Emperor (x2) |
Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim (x2) |
Invasion of New Phyrexia |
Go For The Throat (x3) |
|
Make Disappear (x3) |
Sheoldred's Edict (x4) |
Silver Scrutiny (x3) |
Dissipate (x3) |
Void Rend (x3) |
|
Sunfall (x3) |
Farewell |
Virtue of Persistence (x2) |
Demolition Field (x3) |
Deserted Beach (x4) |
|
Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire |
Island (x2) |
Mirrex (x2) |
Otawara, Soaring City |
Plains (x2) |
|
Raffine's Tower (x4) |
Shattered Sanctum (x4) |
Shipwreck Marsh (x3) |
Swamp |
|
|
Sideboard |
||||
|
Duress (x2) |
Siphon Insight (x2) |
Sunset Revelry (x4) |
Unlicensed Hearse (x2) |
Chrome Host Seedshark (x2) |
|
Temporary Lockdown |
Sheoldred, The Apocalypse |
Hullbreaker Horror |
||
The white/blue/black Esper Control completely forgoes creatures in exchange for a planeswalker-heavy strategy.
By removing permanents with The Wandering Emperor, Void Rend, Cut Down, and Sheoldred's Edict, or countering spells with Disdainful Stroke and Negate, your goal is to stall your opponent out. Again, the big play here is using Sunfall to wipe the board, before swinging in with the resulting Phyrexian token for big damage.
If you're struggling against creature-heavy strategies, the sideboard does run Chrome Host Seedshark, and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. Oddly, this is the first time Sheoldred appears on this list, and it's in a sideboard, showing how much the bans of Reckoner Bankbuster and Invoke Despair had on its power.
6 Esper Legends
|
Esper Legends |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Skrelv, Defector Mite (x4) |
Dennick, Pious Apprentice (x4) |
Faerie Mastermind (x2) |
Rona, Herald of Invasion (x3) |
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (x4) |
|
Adeline, Resplendent Cathar (x3) |
Raffine, Scheming Seer (x2) |
Ertai Resurrected (x2) |
Sheoldred, the Apocalypse (x4) |
Go For The Throat (x3) |
|
Caves of Koilos (x4) |
Darkslick Shores (x4) |
Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire (x3) |
Otawara, Soaring City (x3) |
Plains |
|
Plaza of Heroes (x4) |
Restless Fortress (x2) |
Seachrome Coast (x2) |
Shattered Sanctum (x2) |
Takenuma, Abandoned Mire (x2) |
|
Sideboard |
||||
|
Cut Down (x2) |
Disdainful Stroke (x3) |
Make Disappear (x2) |
Sheoldred's Edict |
Loran of the Third Path (x2) |
|
Lord Skitter, Sewer King (x2) |
The Wandering Emperor (x2) |
Virtue of Persistence |
||
The white, blue, and black Esper Legends deck tries to steamroll your opponent with value. There aren't a whole lot of legends-matter cards in here, simply a huge ball of powerful creatures ready to smash.
You've got cheap creatures like Skrelv, Defector Mite and Rona, Herald of Predation, which lets you keep on drawing cards until you hit Ertai Resurrected and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. Wilds of Eldraine also introduced the non-legend Faerie Mastermind as a way for extra card advantage.
Your main aggro tools will be Adeline, Resplendent Cathar and Raffine, Scheming Seer – two legendary creatures that have consistently been big in Standard since their debuts.
There is some legend fun to be had, though. Plaza of Heroes was often overlooked when Dominaria United launched, but has since shot up as a major player. There's also the legendary lands from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, which have a reduced channel cost the more legendary creatures you control.
5 Golgari Midrange
|
Esper Midrange |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Mosswood Dreadknight (x4) |
Outland Liberator |
Tenacious Underdog (x2) |
Glissa Sunslayer (x2) |
Graveyard Trespasser (x3) |
|
Lord Skitter, Sewer King (x2) |
Blossoming Tortoise (x2) |
Sheoldred, the Apocalypse (x3) |
Liliana of the Veil (x3) |
Nissa, Ascended Animist |
|
Cut Down (x2) |
Go For The Throat (x4) |
Sheoldred's Edict (x2) |
Virtue of Persistence (x3) |
Boseiju, Who Endures |
|
Deathcap Glade (x4) |
Forest (x5) |
Llanowar Wastes (x4) |
Mishra's Foundry (x2) |
Restless Cottage (x4) |
|
Swamp (x5) |
Takenuma, Abandoned Mire |
|||
|
Sideboard |
||||
|
Cut Down |
Duress (x3) |
Outland Liberator |
Tear Asunder (x2) |
The Stone Brain (x3) |
|
Phyrexian Arena (x2) |
Sheoldred, the Apocalypse |
Breach the Multiverse |
Nissa, Ascended Animist |
|
We've moved on from the utter landslide of Midrange decks that led Standard through the first half of 2023, but Wilds of Eldraine has bumped up this little relic of the time.
A huge number of Eldraine cards pop up in this pile of great black and green cards: Mosswood Dreadknight, Lord Skitter, and Blossoming Tortoise all are a major part of its creature toolkit, while Virtue of Persistence offers some graveyard reanimation to keep the value engines going.
A big part of this deck is using Blossoming Tortoise and Liliana of the Veil to put big creatures in your graveyard, like Sheoldred, before reanimating them with a Virtue of Persistence to outpace your opponent.
4 Esper Midrange
|
Esper Midrange |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Dennick, Pious Apprentice (x4) |
Faerie Mastermind (x4) |
Lord Skitter, Sewer King |
Raffine, Scheeming Seer (x4) |
Ertai Resurrected (x2) |
|
Sheoldred, the Apocalypse |
The Wandering Emperor (x3) |
Cut Down (x3) |
Go For The Throat (x4) |
Make Disappear (x3) |
|
Wedding Announcement (x4) |
Virtue of Loyalty |
Adarkar Wastes (x2) |
Caves of Koilos (x2) |
Darkslick Shores (x4) |
|
Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire |
Island |
Otawara, Soaring City |
Raffine's Tower (x3) |
Restless Fortress (x2) |
|
Seachrome Coast (x3) |
Shattered Sanctum (x4) |
Takenuma, Abandoned Mire |
Underground River (x2) |
|
|
Sideboard |
||||
|
Cut Down |
Duress (x2) |
Anoint with Affliction |
Destroy Evil (x2) |
Disdainful Stroke (x2) |
|
Negate |
Razorlash Transmogrant (x2) |
Kaito Shizuki |
Knockout Blow |
Sheoldred, the Apocalypse |
|
Gix's Command |
||||
The white/blue/black Esper Midrange deck is effectively another pile of the best cards in the format right now, combining control and value with things like Sheoldred, The Apocalypse, Cut Down, and Go For The Throat.
It also makes use of Raffine, Scheming Seer, which has almost single-handedly been driving Esper decks for well over a year now, thanks to its ability to connive for the cards you want. Combine that with Eldraine's Faerie Mastermind, and hand advantage is a big part of this deck.
3 Azorius Soldiers
|
Azorius Soldiers |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Lunarch Veteran (x4) |
Recruitment Officer (x4) |
Yotian Frontliner (x2) |
Harbin, Vanguard Aviator (x3) |
Regal Bunnicorn (x2) |
|
Resolute Reinforcements (x4) |
Zephyr Sentinel (x4) |
Werefox Bodyguard |
Knight-Errant of Eos (x4) |
Make Disappear (x4) |
|
Wedding Announcement (x4) |
Adarkar Wastes (x4) |
Deserted Beach (x1) |
Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire (x2) |
Fortified Beachhead (x4) |
|
Mirrex (x2) |
Otawara, Soaring City (x2) |
Plains (x4) |
Seachrome Coast (x4) |
Secluded Courtyard |
|
Sideboard |
||||
|
Elspeth's Smite (x2) |
Destroy Evil (x2) |
Lantern Flare (x2) |
Protect the Negotiators (x3) |
Regal Bunnicorn |
|
Tocasia's Welcome (x3) |
The Wandering Emperor (x2) |
|||
An archetype that first appeared in The Brothers' War is still holding on strong almost a year later, with this white/blue Soldier typal deck.
The typal elements have thinned out over the last few sets, but you've still got Harbin, Vanguard Aviator, Recruitment Officer, Resolute Reinforcements, Zephyr Sentinel, and Yotian Frontliner offering a robust Soldier core to the deck.
Supporting it are a large number of knights, such as Knight-Errant of Eos, a great way to get hand advantage, and Werefox Bodyguard, some removal built into an attacker.
2 Mono-Red Aggro
|
Mono-Red Aggro |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Monastery Swiftspear (x4) |
Phoenix Chick (x2) |
Bloodthirsty Adversary (x3) |
Charming Scoundrel (x3) |
Feldon, Ronom Excavator (x2) |
|
Goddric, Cloaked Reveler (x3) |
Squee, Dubious Monarch (x3) |
Monstrous Rage (x3) |
Play With Fire (x4) |
Lightning Strike (x2) |
|
Nahiri's Warcrafting (x2) |
Kumano Faces Kakkazan (x4) |
Mishra's Foundry (x3) |
Mountain (x19) |
Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance |
|
Sideboard |
||||
|
End the Festivities |
Lithomantic Barrage (x2) |
Shivan Devastator |
Torch the Tower (x2) |
Obliterating Bolt |
|
Brotherhood's End |
Nahiri's Warcrafting |
Twisted Fealty |
Jaya, Fiery Negotiator (x2) |
Koth, Fire of Resistance (x3) |
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.
Though ol' faithfuls like Monestary Swiftspear; Feldon, Ronom Excavator; and Mishra's Factory are all significant parts of the deck, it has lost access to Fable of the Mirror-Breaker.
In its place, we have Nahiri's Warcrafting, which can deal damage to battles, and also exile cards off the top of your library for you to cast. It isn't quite as good as Mirror-Breaker, but it definitely gets the job done.
While this deck has remained mostly unchanged since The Brothers' War, it has picked up a few new tools, mostly in the form of Goddric, Cloaked Reveler, which can become a 4/4 Dragon with flying just by playing a few cheap permanents, and Charming Scoundrel, a great toolbox of abilities involving card draw, Treasure tokens, or giving somethign +1/+1 via a Wicked role token.
Monstrous Rage, meanwhile, is a combat trick from Wilds of Eldraine that, for just one mana, gives a creature trample and a whopping +3/+1 buff until the end of the turn. With three of these, you're doing massive damage very, very quickly.
1 4c Ramp
|
4c Ramp |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Topiary Stomper (x4) |
Archangel of Wrath (x4) |
Atraxa, Grand Unifier (x3) |
Invasion of Zendikar (x4) |
Go For The Throat |
|
Sunfall (x4) |
Herd Migration (x4) |
Courier's Briefcase (x2) |
Up The Beanstalk (x2) |
Leyline Binding (x4) |
|
Virtue of Persistence (x3) |
Boseiju, Who Endures |
Forest (x4) |
Island |
Jetmir's Garden (x4) |
|
Mirrex (x2) |
Plains (x2) |
Spara's Headquarters (x4) |
Swamp (x3) |
Ziatora's Proving Ground (x4) |
|
Sideboard |
||||
|
Duress (x2) |
Elspeth's Smite |
Anoint with Affliction (x2) |
Destroy Evil |
Disdainful Stroke (x3) |
|
Negate |
Up the Beanstalk |
Chrome Host Seedshark |
Knockout Blow (x2) |
Obstinate Baloth |
4c Ramp finally takes the top spot of the meta, beating out a period defined by endless midrange and control decks. Instead of being part of a hugely evil reanimation strategy, the goal here is to actually cast Atraxa, Grand Unifier for her regular casting cost by ramping out as many lands as possible.
By using cards like Topiary Stomper and Invasion of Zendikar to ramp, you'll be making enough mana to cast Atraxa and refill your hand. If Atraxa dies, then no worries, you've also got enough Virtue of Persistence to bring it right back.
If all else fails, having a load of Topiary Stompers, Archangel of Wraths, and Sunfall-generated Phyrexian tokens to smash face with is always good.