Metagame Mentor: The Top Standard Decks to Expect at Magic Spotlight: The Avatar

Hello, and welcome back to Metagame Mentor, your weekly guide to the top decks and latest Constructed developments on the path to the Pro Tour. While the round of Standard RCQs continues, the new year is kicking off with an exciting weekend of Standard events. On January 9–11, Magic Spotlight: The Avatar will take place in Lyon, France, and Atlanta, Georgia, each awarding a $50,000 prize pool, special promo cards, and eight coveted Pro Tour invitations.

Standard has recently been reshaped by the results of Magic World Championship 31 and has kept evolving ever since. Today’s article provides a metagame snapshot of Standard along with a closer look at the dominant archetypes you’re most likely to encounter. Whether your sights are set on conquering a local RCQ or chasing glory at Magic Spotlight: The Avatar, this article can serve as a useful guide to get you up to speed with the format.

Standard is a rotating 60-card format that currently allows expansion sets from Wilds of Eldraine forward. To capture a snapshot of the metagame since the World Championship, I analyzed over 1,000 successful tournament decks. My dataset drew from every published Magic Online list from scheduled events held between December 7 and December 30, along with Top 8 lists from well over a dozen Standard Regional Championship Qualifiers held across the globe in that same time period.

To show which decks are dominating the top tables, I assigned points to each deck based on its rectified number of net wins, calculated as the number of match wins minus losses, with negative values adjusted to zero. By combining these points across all events, each archetype’s share of the total rectified net wins blends popularity and performance into a single, comprehensive metric: the winner’s metagame share.

The “Other” category collects decks with less than one percent winner’s metagame share, including Temur Lessons, Golgari Graveyard, Orzhov Demons, Esper Pixie, Temur Otters, Mono-Green Landfall, Mono-Red Leyline, Gruul Ouroboroid, Boros Mobilize, Simic Landfall, Boros Dragons, Mono-Green Aggro, Azorius Fliers, Temur Ferocious, Mono-White Tokens, Golgari Landfall, Azorius Midrange, and more.

Compared to the metagame at Magic World Championship 31, Temur Otters, Bant Airbending, and Simic Ouroboroid have nearly vanished. Badgermole Cub underperformed at the World Championship stage, struggling against Izzet Lessons, and many strategies built around it have fallen out of favor as a result.

At the same time, various decks surged ahead. The most striking development is the rise of Selesnya Landfall. As I will explore in more detail later, the core engine of Icetill Explorer, Fabled Passage, and Esper Origins generates relentless late-game value, while Mightform Harmonizer threatens sudden, one-shot kills out of nowhere. It is reasonable to expect that the biggest metagame climbers (Selesnya Landfall, Dimir Midrange, and Sultai Reanimator) will hold favorable matchups against Izzet Lessons. Although Izzet Lessons performed dominantly at the World Championship, it has seemingly plateaued; it has not sustained an upward trajectory.

To highlight the most relevant Standard contenders, I constructed aggregate lists using an algorithm that balances popularity and win rate of individual cards. Let’s now take a closer look at the nine archetypes that each captured at least five percent of the winner’s metagame.

7 Island
4 Riverpyre Verge
4 Spirebluff Canal
4 Accumulate Wisdom
4 Boomerang Basics
4 Combustion Technique
4 Stormchaser’s Talent
4 Gran-Gran
4 Firebending Lesson
4 Multiversal Passage
4 Artist’s Talent
4 Monument to Endurance
3 Abandon Attachments
2 Mountain
2 Iroh’s Demonstration
1 Agna Qel’a
1 It’ll Quench Ya!


2 Soul-Guide Lantern
2 Annul
2 Negate
2 Quantum Riddler
1 Iroh’s Demonstration
1 Ral, Crackling Wit
1 Spell Pierce
1 Torch the Tower
1 Pyroclasm
1 Abrade
1 Broadside Barrage

Izzet Lessons, filled with commons and uncommons from Magic: The Gathering® | Avatar: The Last Airbender™, was the breakout deck of Magic World Championship 31. The deck is built around a dense suite of Lesson cards, including several efficient removal spells, which makes it easy to put three Lessons in the graveyard. With Gran-Gran on the battlefield, Accumulate Wisdom effectively becomes Ancestral Recall, while Combustion Technique reads like Swords to Plowshares.

The most successful versions also incorporated the engine of Artist’s Talent and Monument to Endurance. Fittingly, the World Championship finals featured a mirror match between two such builds, where ultimately Seth Manfield defeated Akira Shibata. In this shell, Monument to Endurance is fueled by an abundance of discard outlets such as Gran-Gran, Agna Qel’a, Abandon Attachments, and Artist’s Talent, creating a relentless and self-sustaining flow of value.

10 Forest
4 Fabled Passage
4 Icetill Explorer
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Mightform Harmonizer
4 Esper Origins
4 Hushwood Verge
4 Sazh’s Chocobo
3 Escape Tunnel
3 Earthbender Ascension
3 Lumbering Worldwagon
2 Ba Sing Se
1 Get Lost
2 Seam Rip
1 Colossal Rattlewurm
3 Badgermole Cub
1 Plains
1 Herd Heirloom
1 Conduit Pylons
1 Bristly Bill, Spine Sower


3 Soul-Guide Lantern
2 Seam Rip
2 Sheltered by Ghosts
2 Scrapshooter
2 Felidar Retreat
1 Vivien Reid
1 Get Lost
1 Keen-Eyed Curator
1 Sandman, Shifting Scoundrel

Selesnya Landfall is the most significant innovation to emerge over the past few weeks. At Magic World Championship 31, Ben Stark found success with Icetill Explorer in Golgari Dragons, but no competitor brought a dedicated Landfall deck. Since then, though, this novel archetype has rapidly evolved into one of Standard’s hottest contenders.

At the heart of the deck lies the engine of Icetill Explorer paired with Fabled Passage or Escape Tunnel. Together, they rapidly pull lands out of your library while milling yourself. Along the way, flashbacked copies of Esper Origins provide card selection, life gain, a 4/4 body, additional card draw, and even mana. Given enough time, this engine creates an overwhelming late-game advantage that can outmuscle nearly any opposing strategy.

Meanwhile, Mightform Harmonizer offers the potential of a lethal attack out of nowhere. Consider a simple curve: Lumbering Worldwagon on turn three to fetch your fourth land, followed by Mightform Harmonizer and your fifth land on turn four. After attacking and fetching your sixth land, the landfall triggers for your fifth and sixth lands can quadruple the crewed Vehicle’s power, turning it into a 24-power behemoth. Similarly, a seemingly harmless Icetill Explorer can become a 32-power attacker if you follow up with Mightform Harmonizer, play Fabled Passage, crack it, replay it from the graveyard, and sacrifice the land again.

When facing this deck, you must respect this one-shot kill potential and should always try to keep a chump blocker at the ready. Carelessly tapping out for Stock Up or Monument to Endurance can be disastrous, especially now that most Izzet decks use the sorcery-speed Boomerang Basics and don’t have access to Into the Flood Maw as instant-speed interaction anymore. As Cavedan2, one of the driving forces behind the deck, eloquently explained in an extensive Reddit post: “Mightform can only succeed because of the meta that Boomerang Basics has created … Aggressive decks have the upper hand against Mightform; I don’t want to see Hired Claw, Floodpits Drowner, or Badgermole Cub alongside Ouroboroid on the other side of the table. Currently, Izzet does a great job suppressing these decks.”

There are various ways to build around this green landfall core. While mono-green versions are rising in prominence and alternative splashes are feasible, too, December’s most common approach has been to add a light white splash for removal. Sometimes Seam Rip was in the main deck, and sometimes it was only in the sideboard. In any case, thanks to the deck’s abundance of land-search effects, a single Plains is enough to support this splash.

5 Swamp
4 Gloomlake Verge
4 Island
4 Watery Grave
4 Spyglass Siren
4 Kaito, Bane of Nightmares
4 Floodpits Drowner
4 Tishana’s Tidebinder
4 Deep-Cavern Bat
3 Enduring Curiosity
3 Multiversal Passage
2 Restless Reef
2 Soulstone Sanctuary
2 Cecil, Dark Knight
2 Bitter Triumph
2 Preacher of the Schism
1 Shoot the Sheriff
1 Phantom Interference
1 Stab
1 Tragic Trajectory
1 Heartless Act
1 Spell Pierce
1 Fountainport


2 Duress
2 Annul
2 Stab
2 Day of Black Sun
2 Strategic Betrayal
1 Soul-Guide Lantern
1 The Unagi of Kyoshi Island
1 Negate
1 Ghost Vacuum
1 Essence Scatter

Dimir Midrange disrupts opponents with a mix of removal, discard, and countermagic, all while applying pressure through cheap, evasive creatures. Once Enduring Curiosity hits the board, these creatures can refill your hand, and Kaito, Bane of Nightmares supplies a steady stream of additional card advantage. The planeswalker is particularly strong against Izzet Lessons, as their removal suite cannot touch planeswalkers.

Although Dimir Midrange represented only 1.6% of the metagame at Magic World Championship 31, it posted strong results there and has since surged in popularity. Recent refinements include the return of Tishana’s Tidebinder to the main deck, often replacing Shoot the Sheriff, as it cleanly shuts off Monument to Endurance. Sideboards have also evolved, with Annul and Strategic Betrayal appearing more frequently. Annul efficiently answers Monument to Endurance, while Strategic Betrayal can exile all Lesson cards at once. With its adaptable configuration and broad interaction, Dimir Midrange remains well-positioned in the shifting Standard metagame.

4 Breeding Pool
4 Bringer of the Last Gift
4 Oblivious Bookworm
4 Overlord of the Balemurk
4 Superior Spider-Man
4 Bitter Triumph
4 Awaken the Honored Dead
4 Broodspinner
4 Blooming Marsh
3 Watery Grave
3 Ardyn, the Usurper
3 Analyze the Pollen
2 Underground Mortuary
2 Wastewood Verge
2 Willowrush Verge
2 Harvester of Misery
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Swamp
1 Undercity Sewers
1 Island
1 Hedge Maze
1 Terror of the Peaks
1 Forest


3 Deep-Cavern Bat
3 Intimidation Tactics
2 Urgent Necropsy
2 Glarb, Calamity’s Augur
1 Soul-Guide Lantern
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Disruptive Stormbrood
1 Ghost Vacuum
1 Webstrike Elite

Sultai Reanimator is a graveyard-centric combo deck that intends to fill the graveyard while digging for Superior Spider-Man, which aims to enter as a copy of Bringer of the Last Gift to effectively end the game on the spot. With proper trigger stacking, you can even return the original Bringer of the Last Gift to the battlefield.

The deck impressed at Magic World Championship 31, where 2025 Player of the Year Ken Yukuhiro piloted it to a Top 8 finish. The strategy is well-positioned against Izzet Lessons, capable of going over the top while largely ignoring their creature-focused interaction, and it can answer Monument to Endurance via Awaken the Honored Dead. Although Sultai Reanimator is vulnerable to graveyard hate like Soul-Guide Lantern, its sideboard includes a suite of discard spells and artifact removal to clear the way.

9 Island
4 Riverpyre Verge
4 Spirebluff Canal
4 Fear of Missing Out
4 Quantum Riddler
4 Boomerang Basics
4 Torch the Tower
4 Stormchaser’s Talent
4 Tiger-Seal
4 Multiversal Passage
4 Duelist of the Mind
3 Winternight Stories
2 Frostcliff Siege
2 Mountain
2 Roaring Furnace
1 Abrade
1 Into the Flood Maw


2 Soul-Guide Lantern
2 Annul
2 Pyroclasm
2 Spell Pierce
2 Spider-Sense
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Abrade
1 Get Out
1 Ghost Vacuum
1 Iroh’s Demonstration

The Izzet color pair supports several distinct strategies. Nearly all of them exploit the powerful combination of Stormchaser’s Talent and Boomerang Basics, but they diverge in their supporting cast. Izzet Looting maximizes draw-and-discard effects, known as looters, to untap Tiger-Seal, power up Duelist of the Mind, and enable Delirium for Fear of Missing Out. Together, these elements tie the deck together in a synergistic package.

One notable development in recent weeks is the widespread adoption of Soul-Guide Lantern in the sideboard. With Izzet Lessons and Sultai Reanimator both relying heavily on the graveyard, the artifact stands out as one of the most efficient tools for exiling opposing graveyards. In December, it was the most played sideboard card across Standard. And in Izzet Looting, Soul-Guide Lantern even pulls double duty, helping commit crimes for Duelist of the Mind while adding another card type to the graveyard for Fear of Missing Out.

4 Floodfarm Verge
4 Meticulous Archive
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Get Lost
4 No More Lies
4 Lightning Helix
3 Consult the Star Charts
3 Stock Up
3 Jeskai Revelation
3 Riverpyre Verge
2 Sunbillow Verge
2 Day of Judgment
2 Three Steps Ahead
2 Thundering Falls
2 Mistrise Village
2 Abrade
2 Rest in Peace
1 Plains
1 Marang River Regent
1 Island
1 Elegant Parlor
1 Ultima
1 Cori Mountain Monastery
1 Multiversal Passage
1 Wan Shi Tong, Librarian
1 The Unagi of Kyoshi Island
1 Mountain


2 Fire Magic
2 Annul
2 Beza, the Bounding Spring
2 Voice of Victory
2 Tishana’s Tidebinder
1 The Unagi of Kyoshi Island
1 Negate
1 Riverchurn Monument
1 Rest in Peace
1 Seam Rip

Jeskai Control is a classic control strategy that aims to dictate the pace of the game through countermagic like No More Lies, removal like Lightning Helix, sweepers like Day of Judgment, and card-draw effects like Stock Up. With the rise of Monument to Endurance, Abrade has also become a popular inclusion in the deck’s interactive suite.

Individual card choices vary wildly. While some versions still feature Shiko, Paragon of the Way as a formidable finisher, the aggregate version opts for a main-deck Rest in Peace instead. This effectively prevents Shiko from being used but in exchange provides a powerful answer to the graveyard-reliant decks that dominate the current Standard metagame, even shutting off the Icetill Explorer–Esper Origins engines. These Rest in Peace versions use a different win condition than Shiko. They primarily rely on Jeskai Revelation, often supported by a mix of Wan Shi Tong, Librarian; Marang River Regent; and/or The Unagi of Kyoshi Island.

14 Mountain
4 Hired Claw
4 Burst Lightning
4 Nova Hellkite
4 Lightning Strike
4 Razorkin Needlehead
4 Burnout Bashtronaut
4 Scalding Viper
4 Riverpyre Verge
3 Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might
3 Soulstone Sanctuary
2 Rockface Village
2 Shock
2 Tersa Lightshatter
2 Spirebluff Canal


4 Sunspine Lynx
4 Magebane Lizard
3 Obliterating Bolt
2 Soul-Guide Lantern
1 Iroh’s Demonstration
1 Thunder Magic

Mono-Red Aggro aims to win as fast as possible, relying on haste creatures and direct-damage spells to reduce the opponent’s life total to zero. The classic formula of cheap, hasty threats backed by burn spells remains as potent as ever. In the sideboard, four copies of Magebane Lizard punish Izzet Lessons and any other decks heavy on card draw, while Soul-Guide Lantern protects it from Combustion Technique.

Recent Mono-Red iterations have brought back Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might. It turns every ping from Scalding Viper, Hired Claw, and Razorkin Needlehead into a 4-damage blast, giving the deck a potent mid-game finisher alongside its early aggression.

5 Forest
4 Blooming Marsh
4 Wastewood Verge
4 Badgermole Cub
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Ouroboroid
4 Multiversal Passage
4 Overlord of the Balemurk
4 Gene Pollinator
4 Nature’s Rhythm
3 Swamp
3 Keen-Eyed Curator
2 Deep-Cavern Bat
2 Starting Town
2 Lively Dirge
2 Spider Manifestation
1 Shoot the Sheriff
1 Sentinel of Lost Lore
1 Damage Control Crew
1 Tyvar, the Pummeler
1 Ba Sing Se


3 Duress
2 Intimidation Tactics
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Vivien Reid
1 Black Cat, Cunning Thief
1 Shoot the Sheriff
1 Keen-Eyed Curator
1 Ba Sing Se
1 Gastal Raider
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Pawpatch Formation
1 Doorkeeper Thrull

Golgari Ouroboroid was unveiled at Magic World Championship 31 and has since become the most common home for the mana-ramp core of Llanowar Elves, Gene Pollinator, and Badgermole Cub. Black adds premium interaction through cards like Deep-Cavern Bat, while Lively Dirge ensures more reliable access to Ouroboroid, which can scale your board’s power to astronomical heights. Overlord of the Balemurk and Nature’s Rhythm further reinforce reliable access to the deck’s namesake creature.

The World Championship version ran a single Keen-Eyed Curator as part of a toolbox for Nature’s Rhythm, but the aggregate build since then has increased the count to three main-deck copies. This change reflects a broader trend: graveyard hate is particularly relevant in the current Standard metagame, influencing deck construction across multiple archetypes.

8 Island
4 Riverpyre Verge
4 Spirebluff Canal
4 Stormchaser’s Talent
4 Torch the Tower
4 Quantum Riddler
4 Boomerang Basics
4 Thundertrap Trainer
4 Splash Portal
4 Multiversal Passage
3 Roaring Furnace
2 Get Out
2 Mountain
2 Stock Up
2 Ral, Crackling Wit
1 Fire Magic
1 Thundering Falls
1 Soul-Guide Lantern
1 Abrade
1 Frostcliff Siege


2 Soul-Guide Lantern
2 Annul
2 Spell Pierce
2 Slagstorm
1 Ghost Vacuum
1 Negate
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Pyroclasm
1 Ral, Crackling Wit
1 Fire Magic
1 Into the Flood Maw

Rather than exploiting Lessons or looters, Izzet Blink focuses on creating Otter tokens via Stormchaser’s Talent or Ral, Crackling Wit, then pumping them with a barrage of instants and sorceries. Although it’s played least of the three main Izzet variants, it still packs a punch.

Most Izzet Blink lists also run Splash Portal to blink a warped Quantum Riddler for immediate board presence or a Thundertrap Trainer to gain incremental card advantage. Similarly, Get Out can bounce Stormchaser’s Talent and either Thundertrap Trainer or Roaring Furnace, creating another value loop.

After Magic World Championship 31 established Izzet Lessons as the deck to beat, the Standard metagame has evolved. Decks with a poor matchup against Izzet Lessons have largely faded, while new contenders like Selesnya Landfall have risen to prominence. Overall, the metagame looks healthy and diverse, and plenty of innovation still appears possible.

With a Standard round of RCQs ongoing and a Standard round of Regional Championships coming up, competitive players have ample opportunities to test their mettle in Standard in the coming months. You can find an RCQ near you by checking with your local game store or visiting your regional organizer’s website.

This coming weekend, January 9–11, Magic Spotlight: The Avatar will take place in Lyon, France, and Atlanta, Georgia. Each marquee two-day open tournament features a $50,000 prize pool, awards exclusive promo cards, and rewards the Top 8 finishers with coveted Pro Tour invitations. It promises to be an exciting weekend for Standard innovation and excellence, and I can’t wait to see which strategies emerge.