Looking for the best MTG Arena decks? For anyone having a hard time grinding through Magic: The Gathering Arena’s ranked Standard mode, there’s no shame in seeking help to start stacking up the wins.
On MTG Arena, the meta is constantly moving. With new MTG sets arriving at an alarming pace, and old cards rotating out of the format, the best MTG Standard deck can change week to week. If you need help catching up, we’ve scoured recent tournament results to find the decks that can be ridden all the way to Mythic.
We should add that the Standard MTG format is in particular flux right now. Bloomburrow came out pretty recently, but more importantly, Standard rotation took place on August 2, 2024. That means it’s going to take a while for things to settle, and new decks are likely to crop up over the next month.
The best MTG Arena decks in Standard right now are:
Golgari Midrange
Golgari is one of the strongest flavors of midrange you can play on Arena. Like most midrange decks, it pairs aggressively statted creatures that can beat down, with ways to generate value over a longer game, whether that’s casting spells from the graveyard, or drawing cards.
In this particular decklist, the number of ways to draw cards is frankly absurd, and the deck’s going to gain a lot from Sheoldred as a result. There’s also a discard package in the form of Aclazotz, Hostile Investigator, and the MTG planeswalker Liliana. When you play Golgari Midrange, you’ll be generating lots of extra resources while denying your opponent their own cards.
A few cheap removal spells round out this decklist, and you also get the benefit of Restless Cottage, probably the best ‘man land’ in Standard right now.
Gruul Aggro
A pretty new deck that’s weathered rotation very well, Gruul is a rather unique type of aggro build. True, you’re still playing cheap creatures and turning them sideways, but this deck relies heavily on the Prowess keyword. That means you need to be playing spells to land big hits, and Gruul Aggro opts for buffs that allow it to win any combat and force damage through.
Bloomburrow has given a lot of new toys to this archetype. The mice with their Valiant mechanic are a natural fit for the deck: aggressive creatures that want to be targeted. Emberheart Challenger is a particular highlight. It has prowess and haste, but also nets you impulse draw when you give it a buff.
Orzhov Bats
Bats, bats, we’re the bats! Zoraline, Cosmos Caller is the lynchpin card behind the latest take on Orzhov Midrange. This cute Bloomburrow critter rewards you for playing other bat cards like Deep-Cavern Bat, letting you gain a ton of life and then pay some of it to resurrect whatever’s gone to the graveyard.
I’m being a little bit bat-biased calling this a bats deck. It’s really just a Zoraline deck, armed with a bunch of strong black and white midrange cards. In that regard there are some very familiar faces in this decklist, but one newcomer worth shouting out is Season of the Burrow. This highly flexible spell can reanimate Zoraline and make her hard to remove, handle a key threat, or create an army of bunnies to gum up the board.
Rakdos Lizards
The game plan for this deck, which is almost entirely made up of Bloomburrow lizards, couldn’t be simpler. Play as many cheap, aggressive reptiles as you can and attack, attack, attack.
Low cost creatures like Gev and Hired Claw let you whittle your opponent down, inflicting death through 1,000 tiny cuts, and Flamecache Gecko does a decent Burning-Tree Emissary Impression, letting you play multiple two-drops a turn. Deep-Cavern Bat also makes the cut as the deck’s sole mammal – it’s just that good.
Laughing Jasper Flint provides an unconventional top-end for this deck, letting you steal your opponent’s cards when you run out of your own.
Boros Token Control
An innovative new tactic for one of the most traditionally aggressive color pairs in Magic: The Gathering, Boros Token Control sees it trying to win the long game for a change.
The powerful card draw engine, Caretaker’s Talent has enabled this deck – as it lets you draw each turn you make a token. Pair that with reliable token producers like Archangel Elspeth, and in particular Urabrask’s Forge, and here you’ve got a deck that can just keep the value train going.
Aside from token makers, the rest of the Boros Tokens Control deck is just removal – and in particular boardwipes like Sunfall, which are a nightmare for your foe, but great for you: since you have enough tiny creatures to incubate a humongous threat. Alternatively you just keep blowing up anything scary that comes your way and wait for Urabrask’s Forge to take your opponent out.
Azorius Control
My PTSD from ol’ Teferi’s reign of terror must have finally worn off, because I’m actually jazzed to see an Azorius Control deck stepping up to the plate. The eagle-eyed among you may spot that I’ve opted not to include a decklist for this entry. That’s because there are a couple of very different blue-white control decklists jostling for position, so I thought I’d wait a few weeks until one is established as ‘best’.
On one side we have a fairly typical take on the archetype. It’s very light on creatures, and just plays a bunch of counterspells and removal. The new card that makes it all possible is Beza, the Bounding Spring, the ultimate catchup creature card that can create tokens and gain you life.
On the other side we have a rather unique artifact control deck. It’s mostly a bunch of colored artifacts from Lost Caverns of Ixalan, but then we also have Simulacrum Synthesizer, which can shoot out an unending tide of constructs. You might even be able to create the ultimate Urza planeswalker with this deck.
Four-color Control
We thought the loss of the New Capenna lands would spell the end of Domain, but a mixture of Fabled Passage plus the Karlov Manor surveil lands are keeping it alive. While it no longer plays red cards, this deck still does a lot of what it used to: ramping, using Leyline Binding as absurdly cheap removal, and gaining loads of value from Atraxa.
The main news is people are playing Jace the Perfected Mind as an interesting value-engine-cum-wincon, but otherwise you’ll win the game beating down with Atraxa or a big herd of beasts. If you want to play a deck with a ton of mana colors, this one’s for you.
Boros Convoke
In 2024, thanks to a number of powerful new red-white aggro cards, Boros Convoke took the leap from MTG Pioneer to Standard. This deck wants to run out loads of tokens and small creatures, then buff them up and swing with a wide board.
The deck gets its name from the Convoke card Knight-Errant of Eos, which is an essential part of the strategy. It allows you to reload and keep the pain coming, while effectively being a free card once you have creatures down.
The main problem this deck faces is that it’s easily countered by little sweeper effects. It remains to be seen if this deck can hack it in the post-rotation meta.
Azorius Soldiers
We were shocked to see Azorius Soldiers back in Standard, but here it is! One of the only MTG creature type decks in Standard right now, this archetype attacks with a ton of tiny soldiers, hitting hard and fast to whittle an opponent down, while using various cards like Recruitment Officer and Knight-Errant of Eos to reload.
Mockingbird is an interesting new card for this deck. It can come in as a flying copy of any creature you control, filling any role you need it to (or stacking the buffs from Valiant Veteran).
This deck is easy to play but hard to master – as you’ll be left with lots of choices on how to spend your limited mana each turn. But if you want a deck that’s all creatures, all the time, and you like taking advantage of tribal synergies, you’ll get on well with this archetype.
If you’re lacking the cards to craft one of these decks, you might be able to gain a few free wildcards with our list of all the MTG Arena codes that still function. And for more news about what’s coming up in your favorite TCG, take a look at our MTG release schedule guide.
Source: Wargamer
