Forgotten Realms is out right now on MTG Arena! But before you enter the dungeon, you might be looking for some new Standard decks to add to your collection. So sit back and see if anything strikes your fancy, adventurer. Here are five new decks to try on the Arena ladder this weekend.
Mono-Green Midrange
It feels like every time a new set drops, mono-green gets some new toys. This time around, we got Werewolf Pack Leader, which looks to be a solid on-curve play that also potentially adds some extra card advantage. For more of my thoughts on this card, check out last week’s article.
That all sounds good, but you may be wondering, why even play a green stompy deck? Mainly, this is an easy deck to pick up, and it preys on the decks that other players will be building early in the season. I recently heard about a streamer named Rumti who sat at the top of Mythic for a whole month with a deck like this. One whole month on Rank #1. The deck had virtually no results outside of the first few weeks that a new set dropped, but that isn’t really the point. While you could argue everyone but Rumti is playing the deck wrong, I think the truth is this is just a good early ladder deck. So, if you’re trying to ladder quickly to Mythic and lock up a top 1200 spot for this month, this is a great deck to accomplish that goal.
Clerics
This deck is a bit of a wild one, but I think it has some promise. There has been a lot of new Cleric support in the last year, and I think we might finally have all the pieces to make it work. Heliod and Cleric Class are the big life gain payoffs for the deck; both cards allow you to load up your creatures with +1/+1 counters when you gain life. Trelasarra, Moon Dancer is another big get for this sort of strategy; it’s basically an Ajani’s Pridemate, but the scry that comes along with it is a big deal. These decks often lack card advantage, so dodging that extra land on top can have huge gains.
This deck is flavorful and evocative of playing a cleric in D&D. So while you might not destroy the ladder with this deck, you will have a very fun time.
Mono-White Aggro
Mono-White has been a consistent player in the Standard format. It’s very resilient to removal, and you can apply pressure while being just disruptive enough to cross the finish line.
This build should seem familiar to anyone who’s played Mono-White recently; I’ve only added Loyal Warhound, the newest take on Knight of the White Orchid. Cards like Warhound have traditionally been very strong in these decks — they allow you to start double-spelling early — and a 3/1 is great for curving out and even reasonable on the draw. The other great thing about Warhound is that it makes it even easier to activate Faceless Haven. Sometimes, it can be hard to activate Haven and still present threats in match-ups where racing is important; Warhound does all that, and it slots perfectly into a very solid shell.
UR Dragon Control
This deck is trying to make the current UR Dragons decks a tad more controlling and bigger. In the past, you could sometimes get outclassed and might not have a threat that can take over and win the game. But now there’s Iymrith, Desert Doom, which functions a lot like Dragonlord Ojutai. This deck could run out of cards fairly easily, so hopefully Iymrith helps fix that.
With the addition of Iymrith, the deck has enough flyers that cards like Lofty Denial become much stronger. Combine all this with the new answer spell Dragon’s Fire, and you can keep the battlefield in check and avoid getting run over. With Mono-White (a problematic match-up) potentially making a comeback with AFR, all these cheap interaction spells should help. UR Dragons has been a popular deck recently, and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon.
Winota
Winota is another deck that gets a few new cards with seemingly every new set, but never seems to break through. All that could change with the addition of Flameskull in AFR. It’s another non-Human creature for your curve, and it will help you maintain your board presence and potentially find Winota when you need her. Flameskull is probably a card that will make big waves in its time in Standard, especially once rotation happens in the fall.
We also see Loyal Warhound appear in another deck! Warhound lets us keep more three-land hands with Winota, so we can consistently cast her on turn four.
That’s all the decks this go-round! Enter the dungeon and have a blast, explorers!
Mason Clark is a grinder in every corner of the game who has played at the pro level and on the SCG Tour with Team Nova. Whether he’s competing in Standard, Historic or Modern, Mason plays with one goal in mind: to be a better player than he was the day before. Check out his podcast, Constructed Criticism, and catch his streams on Twitch.