After each new banning shakes up Standard, there begins a cycle of hope. I rush to Arena and go to my maxed-out Decks screen, where jank brews untold await testing and tuning. “This time,” I say to myself. “This time W/B Auras and Mono-U Self-Mill and Vito Aggro will be good!” Then, I take them to the ladder and realize …
Goodbye, Omnath: 5 New Standard Decklists
Welcome to our third week of “Week One” Standard. (Third time’s the charm, right?) Today, I’m going to share some decks you could be playing on the Arena ladder this weekend — but first, I wanted to briefly talk about the bans themselves. I think we can all agree that Omnath needed to get banned. I also think the Lucky …
Temur Adventures in Standard
In my article on Standard last week, I mentioned that Omnath Adventures is probably the best deck in the format given Uro’s banning. Lo and behold, it has since become a dominant force in Standard. Like many players, I jumped right onto the Arena ladder after the announcement with my Four-Color Adventures deck, ready to battle. But as the days …
Building Ramp Decks with Zendikar Rising
Current Standard has more ramp than a skate park built in a multi-level parking garage. Ramp decks have always been a part of Magic, escaping the limits of the mana curve since the first Llanowar Elves tapped to cast Force of Nature. But design changes in the Standard rotation shifted the balance of power, doing away with many of the …
Decks For The Uro Free World
There was a Banned and Restricted list update this past Monday. With it, they banned Uro and only Uro. While I think that might not be enough, we still must get out there and play the games. Uro is a card that has been a terror on standard and made it very hard to play control and non- midrange decks. …
How to Beat Omnath Decks in Standard
Week one of Zendikar Rising Standard is behind us, and there is a huge four-armed shadow looming over this format. Four-Color Omnath has been the breakout deck of the set, and like many decks before it (such as Fires of Invention) it can produce large sums of mana as early as turn four. This has led to a proverbial gold …
Standard Ladder Tier List: Zendikar Rising Week One
This week, we have another edition of the tier list article for you! This Standard format is super fresh — you can play any form of Omnath you like! Maybe things will be different next week? In the meantime, if you’re looking for the best build of Omnath — or how to beat the deck — check out my article …
Week One Zendikar Rising Standard Decks
Standard rotation is here, and we’ll be saying farewell to many format-defining cards. The powerful shock lands, the record-high number of planeswalkers, even the big payoffs for decks like Sacrifice — all gone. Expect some really big shake-ups with this rotation. If you’re looking for a deck to play in the Arena queues this week, I have a couple decks …
5 Zendikar Rising Cards to Watch in Standard
We’re just one week away from the release of Zendikar Rising on MTG Arena and the start of a brand new Standard metagame. The last two years have been defined by amazing mana from Guilds of Ravnica and Ravnica Allegiance and the burst in power that came with War of the Spark — but next week, things will be completely …
A Preview of Post-Rotation Standard
Waiting for Standard to rotate is like waiting for Christmas to come. If you’re excited about it, the weeks crawl by at a painful pace; if not, the big day will sneak up on you before you’ve had time to really think about it! But ready or not, we will soon lose half of the current Standard card pool: Guilds …