With the release of Zendikar Rising now behind us, standard has seen many trends come and go in that short time. Cards have entered the arena that alter interactions of the game as a whole. It has been awhile since we have seen what is wrecking hard out there. With some of the recent bannings out of the way now is the perfect time to explore what is out there. Here are 15 decks that are wrecking hard on MTGA!
15) Simic Mutate
The swarm that still isn’t banned
One of my favorites in the arena right now, this deck takes advantage of the mutate mechanic from Ikoria. Mutating Scute Swarm allows for explosive turns and tons of bugs to spawn on your field. This is a fun deck to play that is surprisingly consistent.
What is fun about this deck?
- Consistent combo power
- Explosive token spawning
- Mutate allows your tokens to become absolute monsters
- Landfall constantly
- The swarm may get banned use it while you can
How this deck is played
- Deploy lands and ramp
- Play the swarm as early as you can
- Mutate the swarm as much as possible
- Watch the board become swarmed
- Swing for game with the tokens you create
Cards
8 Island
4 Auspicious Starrix
2 Vivien, Monsters' Advocate
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Gemrazer
1 Pouncing Shoreshark
4 Scute Swarm
4 Fabled Passage
2 Evolving Wilds
3 Tangled Florahedron
3 Parcelbeast
9 Forest
4 Gilded Goose
4 Dreamtail Heron
1 Chainweb Aracnir
4 Pollywog Symbiote
4 Migratory Greathorn
14)Mono Black
Life drain can be classy
This deck is filled with removal and life drain. A perfect representation of what it means to wield such dark magic. Watch their creatures die and their life total deplete to nothing. A classic mono black deck utilizing the removal from the current rotation of cards
What is fun about this deck?
- Play with everyone’s favorite zombie Gary
- Removal for all threats
- Creatures you play act as removal
- Hand destruction
- Gain life from draining their life
How this deck is played
- Deploy your swamps for mana
- Start draining your opponent as early as you can
- Use hand destruction to take away their plays
- Use the removal to destroy their creatures
- Drain and destroy till you can swing and win
Cards
4 Bloodchief's Thirst
2 Witch's Cottage
4 Serrated Scorpion
4 Whisper Squad
4 Kitesail Freebooter
1 Ayara, First of Locthwain
1 Fiend Artisan
4 Foreboding Fruit
3 Underworld Dreams
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Peer into the Abyss
23 Swamp
4 Grasp of Darkness
13) Mono Green Food
Let them eat cake
Are you hungry for those wins? This deck is wrecking hard right now utilizing those lovely tokens. Ramp up to cast big boys and stomp on your opponents. Oh, and don’t forget some snacks in case you need to gain life.
What is fun about this deck?
- Mono green power
- Solid ramp
- Play big powerful creatures
- Feast on the food
- Life gain if you need it
How this deck is played
- Deploy the forests
- Use the mana to ramp with cards like the goose
- Start casting large creatures and swinging
- As you cast spells you will produce food to buff your board state
- Use the food to feed the creatures and swing for game
Cards
4 Gilded Goose
3 Castle Garenbrig
4 Gingerbread Cabin
4 Trail of Crumbs
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Kazandu Mammoth
4 Wicked Wolf
4 Feasting Troll King
4 Ram Through
2 Vivien, Monsters' Advocate
17 Forest
1 Thrashing Brontodon
4 Wolfwillow Haven
2 The Great Henge
1 Crawling Barrens
12) 4 Color Cycling
Zenith of cycling
Using all but blue this deck has been rising in the ranks. Cycling allows you to discard and draw. This deck allows you to do that over and over til you draw your value. Play the value and the match is yours.
What is fun about this deck?
- Plays an interesting color scheme
- Has amazing draw power
- Can one shot kill when you load up your grave by cycling cards
- You can even cycle lands
- Contains removal and even hand destruction
How this deck is played
- Deploy lands and get your colors
- We do not have ramp instead we need color fixing to cast our spells find it
- Start cycling the moment you can
- Play creatures that benefit from card draw to have blockers
- Continue to cycle and use the draw triggers to overwhelm your opponent or kill them with spells that profit off the loaded grave
Cards
4 Flourishing Fox
4 Valiant Rescuer
4 Memory Leak
1 Savai Triome
4 Brightclimb Pathway
4 Cragcrown Pathway
4 Zenith Flare
4 Drannith Stinger
4 Fiend Artisan
4 Branchloft Pathway
4 Imposing Vantasaur
4 Needleverge Pathway
4 Drannith Healer
4 Go for Blood
1 Legion Angel
2 Skyclave Apparition
2 Footfall Crater
1 Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse
1 Indatha Triome
11)Azorius Blink
It is said the sky serpent’s song is by blink 182
It is time to watch all your cards disappear, then return for devastation. Exploit those enter the battlefield triggers and watch the wins come your way. This deck knows how to control and conquer, have fun with it.
What is fun about this deck?
- Blink everything
- Allows you to exploit ETB triggers
- Constantly have creatures leaving the board
- You can even blink your opponents cards
- Blinking can be used to save your permanents from being targeted
How this deck is played
- Deploy your islands and plains
- Load up your board with permanants to be able to blink them
- Play your companion Yorion
- Yorion allows you to blink as much as you want every turn
- Blink everything till you win from the staggering amount of effects you have resolve in a turn
Cards
4 Yorion, Sky Nomad
10 Plains
1 Castle Vantress
9 Island
4 Raugrin Triome
4 Temple of Enlightenment
3 Ondu Inversion
4 Skyclave Apparition
3 Omen of the Sun
4 Emeria's Call
4 Glass Casket
4 Mazemind Tome
3 Elspeth Conquers Death
4 Omen of the Sea
1 Dream Trawler
4 The Birth of Meletis
4 Banishing Light
4 Charming Prince
2 Shark Typhoon
3 Shatter the Sky
4 Solemn Simulacrum
10) Selesnya Blink
Oh temple of plenty
That's right, we are blinking again. We still are using white but this time let's swap out blue for green. We still have a controlling approach but now we can ramp too.
What is fun about this deck?
- Green and white blinking might
- Contans decent ramp
- Makes use of yorion
- More aggressive than asurious
- Plays large green stompers
How to play this deck
- Deploy your islands and forests
- Ramp up with the goose
- Cast creatures with ETB triggers and other permanents to give yorion targets
- Play yorion to watch the blinking barrage
- Wait for the right opportunity to swing for game
Cards
2 Charming Prince
4 Wicked Wolf
4 Yorion, Sky Nomad
2 Llanowar Visionary
4 Temple of Plenty
3 Turntimber Symbiosis
4 Skyclave Apparition
3 Emeria's Call
3 Elspeth Conquers Death
5 Plains
8 Forest
4 Glass Casket
4 Trail of Crumbs
4 Branchloft Pathway
2 Banishing Light
4 Gilded Goose
9)Mono-Green Aggro
It's the nature of the beast
Time to stomp on standard with the latest incarnation of mono green aggro. Slam those big boys onto the board and use combat to decimate your opponents. If they aren’t big enough you have ways to make them bigger and crush everything in your path.
What makes this deck fun?
- Aggro as hell
- Plays large creatures
- Can stomp hard early game
- Has the ability to survive with bulky blockers
- Fighting as removal
How this deck is played
- Deploy forests
- Cast creatures and start stomping
- Keep stomping while you get more mana
- Use the mana to cast even more creatures
- Do not stop stomping till your opponent is dead
Cards
4 Swarm Shambler
16 Forest
3 Scavenging Ooze
3 Wildborn Preserver
3 Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig
4 Kazandu Mammoth
4 Castle Garenbrig
4 Lovestruck Beast
3 Gemrazer
2 Turntimber Symbiosis
2 The Great Henge
4 Stonecoil Serpent
3 Primal Might
2 Questing Beast
3 Inscription of Abundance
8)Dimir Rogues
Rouges even work underwater
Time to get sneaky with removal and mill. Rogues love evading danger with flying and making themselves unblockable. Use that to synergize and pulverize your opponent while looking edgy while doing it.
What makes this deck fun?
- Blue and black at your disposal
- Removal stocked up
- Mills your opponent
- Rogues can buff themselves
- Drawpower and counters
How to play this deck
- Deploy swamps and islands for your colors
- Start off by casting rouges when you can
- Swing early on to get that extra damage in and to trigger the mill
- Play more rouges and watch them get stronger as you swing
- You will either kill them with damage or mill whatever comes first remove threats as needed
Cards
4 Agadeem's Awakening
4 Soaring Thought-Thief
4 Thieves' Guild Enforcer
3 Jwari Disruption
4 Zareth San, the Trickster
4 Drown in the Loch
3 Heartless Act
2 Castle Locthwain
4 Clearwater Pathway
6 Island
4 Merfolk Windrobber
4 Temple of Deceit
6 Swamp
4 Into the Story
4 Zulaport Duelist
7)Esper Doom foretold
Oh no they tried to let a spell resolve!
Time for the most controlling three color deck in standard. Use noncreature spells to assert dominance and remove threats. You will blink everything you play and either make them concede or win from ridiculous effects.
What makes this deck fun?
- Ridiculous amount of removal
- Multiple board wipes
- Blink your permanents with Yorion
- Great draw power
- Tri color deck
How this deck is played
- Deploy Swamps,Islands, and Plains for your colors
- Start playing low cast spells with ETB triggers
- Yorion is back, you know what that means? Time to blink!
- Using the absurd amount of enchantments you have blink them for profit
- You will either make them forfeit because they can't respond or kill them with damage.
Cards
2 Clearwater Pathway
2 Temple of Deceit
1 Hagra Mauling
3 Island
3 Swamp
3 Fabled Passage
3 Griffin Aerie
6 Plains
2 Skyclave Apparition
3 Omen of the Sun
1 Temple of Enlightenment
1 Bloodchief's Thirst
1 Yorion, Sky Nomad
1 Brightclimb Pathway
3 Elspeth's Nightmare
4 All That Glitters
3 Doom Foretold
3 Dance of the Manse
3 Heartless Act
4 Omen of the Sea
1 Erebos's Intervention
1 Castle Ardenvale
4 Glass Casket
3 Elspeth Conquers Death
3 Golden Egg
2 Extinction Event
4 Temple of Silence
2 Banishing Light
2 Ondu Inversion
3 Raugrin Triome
2 Sea Gate Restoration
3 Palladium Myr
1 Shatter the Sky
6)Golgari Adventures
Cast the raven on turn 4
Black and green love to raise a hoard. Using adventure spells you get to pull off some incredible respawns and use the creatures to do what you wish. Remove threats at will and profit off of death.
What makes this deck fun?
- Solid removal
- Green allows you to run big creatures
- Black lets you destroy and drain life
- Can even mutate creatures
- Viven allows you to cast creature spells at instant speed
How this deck is played
- Deploy swamps and forests to get your colors
- Play creatures that benefit off of adventures
- Start to play adventure spells and buff your creatures
- You will draw and make an army from the adventure spells
- You overwhelming odds that you build to attack and kill, remove threats as needed
Cards
3 Agadeem's Awakening
1 Heartless Act
3 The Great Henge
4 Temple of Malady
4 Swamp
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Gemrazer
2 Polukranos, Unchained
2 Order of Midnight
4 Murderous Rider
4 Lovestruck Beast
4 Kazandu Mammoth
2 Indatha Triome
4 Foulmire Knight
5 Forest
4 Fabled Passage
4 Edgewall Innkeeper
1 Castle Locthwain
2 Bloodchief's Thirst
2 Vivien, Monsters' Advocate
1 Elder Gargaroth
5)Temur Ramp
Send in the flock
Using green,red and blue, we are going to ramp hard to wrecking results. This deck is all about building up power and out pacing your opponent. This is done with ease because of the cards we have right now and landfall is just the extra push we can exploit
What makes this deck fun?
- Harcore ramp
- Burn your opponents
- Use the ineffable ugin
- Landfall helps you ramp and stomp
- Aggressive play style
How this deck is played
- Deploy forets,islands, and mountains for your colors
- Play lotus cobra to ramp
- Use land search and the extra mana from the cobra to cast massive spells
- Creatures go stomp
- Use burn damage when you can kill either threats or your opponent
Cards
4 Cragcrown Pathway
4 Fabled Passage
4 Forest
4 Ketria Triome
3 Island
2 Mountain
1 Riverglide Pathway
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Bonecrusher Giant
3 Llanowar Visionary
3 Kazandu Mammoth
2 Glasspool Mimic
4 Terror of the Peaks
4 Beanstalk Giant
4 Cultivate
2 Shatterskull Smashing
4 Genesis Ultimatum
2 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
1 Elder Gargaroth
1 Spikefield Hazard
4)Rakdos midrange
It has teeth on its kneecaps
Black and red unite for some burn and turn standard action. Remove threats and burn your opponents. Rakdos decks love to put on a show and in your hands you can be the entertainment til rotation.
What makes this deck fun?
- Red burns your opponent
- Black provides removal
- Features hand destruction
- Life drain
- Uses the titan to limit your opponent’s resources
How to play this deck
- Deploy swamps and mountains for your colors
- Since it is midrange you can go aggo or wait to dominate
- Burn your foe fast with your spells
- Remove threats as you need
- Hold out til you burn them down or attack them for the game
Cards
4 Bloodchief's Thirst
4 Bonecrusher Giant
4 Fabled Passage
2 Hagra Mauling
1 Pelakka Predation
4 Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
4 Mire Triton
2 Murderous Rider
2 Ox of Agonas
2 Rankle, Master of Pranks
4 Shatterskull Smashing
2 Liliana, Waker of the Dead
4 Robber of the Rich
4 Mountain
4 Temple of Malice
4 Tymaret Calls the Dead
1 Castle Locthwain
6 Swamp
1 Eliminate
1 Spikefield Hazard
3) Mono Red Aggro
Diggy diggy hole
I love the smell of burning life totals in the morning! Fiery red aggro loves to swing and ping. Rinse and repeat til you kill them.
What makes this deck fun?
- Fast heated play style
- Cheap spells
- Can burn what stands in your way
- Embercleave is always fun
- The dwarf enhances your damage dealing
How to play this deck
- Deploy mountains
- Cast creatures and swing
- Cast more creatures and keep swinging
- Deal burn damage with spells like shock and keep swinging
- If somehow they are still alive use instants for extra damage and swing out
Cards
16 Mountain
3 Castle Embereth
4 Anax, Hardened in the Forge
4 Bonecrusher Giant
4 Fervent Champion
4 Robber of the Rich
2 Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
4 Rimrock Knight
4 Embercleave
2 Shock
4 Shatterskull Smashing
3 Phoenix of Ash
4 Akoum Hellhound
2 Kargan Intimidator
2)Gruul adventures
your advenutre awaits!
Gruul decks always smash the question is what will help them do it? The answer right now is adventures. This deck is similar in concept to the golgari deck but because it is gruul we can do it even faster.
What makes this deck fun?
- Aggro play style
- Burn to remove threats
- Adventures are removal or extra burn damage
- Viven is with us for support with flash for our creatures
- Red and Green dual color deck
How this deck is played
- Deploy forests and mountains for your colors
- Cast creatures that will profit off going on adventures
- Go on adventures as much as you can
- Using them for extra damage during combat is highly recommended
- Use what you need to deal damage and kill your opponent
Cards
4 Bonecrusher Giant
4 Brushfire Elemental
4 Edgewall Innkeeper
4 Kazandu Mammoth
2 The Great Henge
4 Lovestruck Beast
2 Evolving Wilds
4 Fabled Passage
1 Vivien, Monsters' Advocate
3 Mountain
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Embercleave
4 Scorching Dragonfire
4 Shatterskull Smashing
4 Cragcrown Pathway
9 Forest
1 Primal Might
1 Questing Beast
1)Dimir Control
Nothing wrecks harder than a sharknado
What would a standard environment be without a control deck to challenge every other deck on this list. Earning the top slot is a blue and black manipulative deck. Remove and counter what you want, if you don’t like what someone is doing you can stop it.
What makes this deck fun?
- Has a response for everything
- Incredible draw power
- Tons of removal
- Counterspells for days
- Can halt aggro and prevent damage
How this deck is played
- Deploy lands and pass the turn
- You have instant speed use that to your advantage
- To win you can simply respond to everything till they leave the game
- If you want to fight you can by creating opportunities with combat tricks
- Set your opponent up to fail and counter any advantage swing out for the game if they stick around after the fourth counter in a row.
Cards
2 Agadeem's Awakening
2 Cling to Dust
2 Castle Vantress
3 Heartless Act
4 Thieves' Guild Enforcer
2 Zareth San, the Trickster
4 Clearwater Pathway
2 Brazen Borrower
4 Soaring Thought-Thief
4 Temple of Deceit
6 Island
4 Drown in the Loch
3 Zagoth Triome
1 Eliminate
3 Fabled Passage
3 Into the Story
2 Swamp
2 Gadwick, the Wizened
3 Bloodchief's Thirst
2 Essence Scatter
1 Mystical Dispute
1 Lullmage's Domination
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