Hello Planeswalkers!
We have just completed our first season with Dungeons & Dragons Adventures into the Forgotten Realms! I hope many of you are enjoying this flavor set as much as I am. Hope everyone fared well this past month as well as the previous two seasons, and I look forward to potentially playing you this weekend in the MiQ.
I am excited to kick this month off with a fresh new take on Standard with this Month’s Tier List. I just wrapped up over the weekend on my Arena Open getting to Day 2, however unfortunately getting stuffed early! Next time. A couple of notes as always. I definitely read ALL comments, and take into account feedback. Several players asked me to include decks that they have felt should be included. Traditionally, I have only covered decks that I had an opportunity to play fresh in the season. I have decided to pivot here and will include core decks if I haven’t played, and or include the cores with a slightly older version if it hasn’t changed too much! I would love to hear what you think.
One last PSA before getting to the meat of this month’s piece! The community is hosting a Standard 2022 League! We would love to have your participation and see your Standard 2022 BO3 decks. If you have questions let me know, and look forward to your participation. Lots of friendly and recognizable names already, folks whose decks I have covered, so thank you!
You can find this month’s Tier List here:
As always the article is below, along with observations, trends, and the list! Enjoy! As always appreciate your comments below, and feel free to hop on the Discord server as well!
Tier Lists
July Standard 2022 BO1 Article / Video
July Historic BO1 & BO3 Article / Video
June Standard BO1 & BO3 Article / Video
Friday Night Meta – Weekly Series
July Week 5 (Article, Youtube)
July Week 4 (Article, Youtube)
July Week 3 (Article, Youtube)
July Week 2 (Grinding New Set)
July Week 1 (Article, Youtube)
I pull these lists together to help give us an alternative competitive angle, as well as trends, with a nice little timestamp as I believe being competitive there is a long term knowledge angle we need to take as well 🙂
Additionally, I like to provide a competitive MTGA Landscape, those who like a visual or just to discuss! You can find the observations along with the tier list below. Please share your thoughts as always, and feel free to comment on the new format or decks I should consider that I missed.
TLDR: A few new impacts to Standard with Dungeons & Dragons Adventures into the Forgotten Realms. Class Enchantments, and Treasure making a splash. Mono Green & Winona defining the current atmosphere. Keep an eye on Standard 2022 for those looking to the future of Standard.
What it is, current meta observations, and deck overviews! Additionally I love sharing the observations and recent changes we have faced in an ever evolving fast paced format.
Items of Interest & Considerations:
- Why Not A? – Honestly, it is extremely difficult to not be playing this deck right now as a competitive player. Albeit, I did not play it for the Arena Open, however the point still holds. Both Naya, and Boros Winota are powerhouses right now. Naya got the perfect upgrades in terms of mana smoothing, and good dig enablers for Winota with things like Prosper Innkeeper. Additionally, after we have have IronicVelvets #1 take we are beginning to see a whole slew of variations of the archetype. This deck did help power me into the Top 500 finish last month!
- Stomped – Unarguably one of the core defining archetypes of Dungeons & Dragons Adventures into the Forgotten Realms. If Rumti wasn’t a household name yet, it certainly is now. With Mono Green Stompy being one of the strongest decks out of the gate, and consuming a large portion of the standard meta I don’t know what else holds true save Why Not A?
The deck got some key upgrades in the two drop slots with Ranger Class and Werewolf Pack Leader. This slot has given rise to additional card advantage with draw or playing creatures off the top of your deck! Beware my friends we may continue to see weathered runestone!
- Classy – One of the most impactful new cards, types, and or mechanics from the latest release is the Enchantment Class. Cards like Paladin, Ranger, Bard, and Cleric have made marks on this standard meta. I would most likely argue that their initial as well as over time value will be here to stay for a bit. We can easily see this on the impacts from Standard 2022 as well. I have thoroughly enjoyed how these have helped sculpt our current gameplay.
- Treasure Hunt – One other mechanic I think worth keeping an eye on will be Treasures. We have seen some early successes with Grixis, Rakdos, and Mardu Treasures. The big takeaway here has been a T3 Goldspan. Yes, T3 and I can attest to it personally. Delmo certainly thought this was a T1 deck, sorry Delmo. The SCG 5k was a good test on this, and the meta rejected that notion. All in all though it is commendable and will continue to be a formidable deck archetype to keep an eye on as things evolve.
- Escape Room – Personally enjoying the MTG WOTC short, and personally sucking at the first time I took on an escape room I found this rather fitting for this month’s piece. Despite it probably really throwing back to Theros I wanted to make it work. In reality, minus some of the previous mentions with Class Enchantments and Treasures, Dungeons & Dragons didn’t come in and send the meta into an upheaval. The meta escaped intact! How was that?
What really matters here in this segment for short is we didn’t get Adventures into the Forgotten Realms meta defining deck on its own accord. However, one fun and cool deck that I do want to mention is Azorius Artifacts. Mainly because I did call this out as a potentially competitive archetype and was one that took down the Standard Challenge!
- The Non Forgotten Realms – The real winners here are all the past archetypes. Most of what we had poured our hearts and souls into the last meta are still looking to be in good shape. So, the other sets were not forgotten! What has been interesting to watch is what has risen to the top, and others that have sunk. It has been an impressive rise with Naya Winota, while Izzet Dragons wings have seemed to have been clipped a bit in the short term.
- Rotation & Bridge – As we prepare for an ever encroaching rotation I highly encourage you to keep your eye toward the future. Pay attention to Standard 2022. I just released a tier list on this, pre-data, and was pretty close net! You can check out the latest in my Friday Night Meta videos as I will continue to cover Standard 2022 here as well. Last, we are running a community League focused on the format because that’s what you voted for! I highly encourage you to participate and I’m looking forward to your BO3 decks as well as covering the winners.
Right now Mono White and Mono Green are well positioned!
What goes into this list?
For returners or those that are new I have been asked before on how I pull these together as well. BO1 is a slightly different beast vs. BO3. Here I rely heavier on win rate stats at very competitive levels starting at Mythic then work my way backwards through the tiers if needed for additional POVs. It is also based on gameplay – and I myself favor BO1 until I usually hit Top 1500 🙂 – I take into consideration untapped.ggs companion app stats as they tend to have a great amount of data, and a good ability to slice and dice decks. One additional call out again is due to the vastness of decks or newest additions not all data is readily available so for the gaps I try to expand where I can via experience, tournaments, and other data driven sites available.
BO3 has much broader impacts when it comes to data. You can find all the sources, experiences, and information I take into consideration in the Additional info spot.
THANK YOU & Additional Info
I have produced this list from a culmination of a few things. I have reached this point by pulling together research data from multiple sources like untapped, MTGAzone, Aetherhub, twitter, personal gameplay, tournament matches, this reddit as well as others, personal stats, and consistently hitting Mythic over the last year and participation in the last Mythic Qualifier.
Again, Happy to discuss or talk about decks not included! Feel free to hop in the Multiverse Discord Server. Tier list below plus deck lists (shells – tweak to your heart’s content) if you are looking for some options most all top 1500 at some point many at the #1 Rank, and multiple top end tournament results!
One last thought I would like to share: If you have a competitive deck (different than one featured) I am always happy to do a piece on it time permitting. I have several folks that ask, and have done several player featured decks. I rather enjoy this so please don’t hesitate to reach out or ask. I always try to prioritize with the following and timing or relevance – MTGA Rank (1500s)/Top Tournaments down to Plat2Mythic Decks.
If you would like to do a collaboration feel free to reach out as well.
All Full Deck lists consolidated below!
Note: Decklists same for both BO1 & BO3 – Mainboard is for Best of One
MTGA Standard BO1 August 2021 Tier List
Tier 1 (4)
Naya Winota (Deck Link)
Boros Winota (Deck Link)
Mono White Aggro (Deck Link)
Mono White Lifegain (Deck Link)
Tier 2 (10)
Temur Lukka (Deck Link)
Mono Green Stompy (Deck Link)
Dimir Rogues (Deck Link)
Mono Red Aggro (Deck Link)
Mono Black Auras (Deck Link)
Gruul Magda (Deck Link)
Sultai Ultimatum (Deck Link)
Izzet Dragons (Deck Link)
Mono Red Goblins (Deck Link)
Tier 3 (5)
Grixis Treasure (Deck Link)
Orzhov Humans (Deck Link)
Mardu Treasure (Deck Link)
Azorius Artifacts (Deck Link)
Selesnya Adventures (Deck Link)
MTGA Standard BO3 August 2021 Tier List
Tier 1 (4)
Naya Winota
Gruul Magda
Mono Green Stompy
Temur Lukka
Tier 2 (10)
Mono White Aggro
Mono Red Aggro
Naya Adventure (Deck Link)
Boros Winota
Sultai Ultimatum
Dimir Rogues
Jeskai Mutate (Deck Link)
Mardu Sacrifice (Deck Link) *needs update
Izzet Dragons
Tier 3 (6)
Mono Red Goblins
Grixis Treasure
Orzhov Humans
Mardu Treasure
Azorius Artifacts
Selesnya Adventures
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed this slice of competitive Magic the Gathering on Arena or if you are lucky right now in paper. Thank you for your time, and feedback is always welcome! As previously mentioned happy to discuss deck choices, decks, and lists as always!