MTGA Standard BO1 December 2020 Tier List

Hello Planeswalkers Happy New Years Eve 🙂

First off – Have a safe, Happy, and Healthy New Years. I will see you next year. Second, good luck today to those chasing a Mythic Qualifier spot, may one of the decks below help you in your journey.

Of all my tier list posts this certainly has been one for the ages. Not only is BO1 in my opinion the hardest to stack rank, the sheer volume of the 70+ decks some admittedly outside more commonly played decks have proved a healthy nice challenge. I also believe this reflects very well on the current state of magic, despite some of the hiccups throughout the year. I always look at things positively with solutions because I feel it makes the world a better place for all of us 🙂

I look forward to doing one more round in January, and plan to continue the unique deck trend as best as I can into our final month of Zendikar’s Rising. Additionally, I may just have to break my true top deck trend, but I am the guy that’s happy to show up to top 1500 with a T5 deck 😉 (To be fair I think I may slightly be forced to just to the length of Zendikar’s Rising to Kaldheim, and keeping with a daily unique trend)

One thing to call out as 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 hit Top 1500 usually 🙂 – I take into consideration untapped.gg’s companion app stats as they tend to have a great amount of data, and a good ability to slice and dice decks.

Previous Informative Tiers for Reference on Zendikar’s Rising Seasons:

December Standard: BO3

December Historic: BO1 & BO3

November: BO1 & BO3

October Expanded: BO1 & BO3

October Short List: BO1 & BO3

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.

Note: In the Tier list of 70+ decks certainly T1 is a sheer function of the breadth of decks, if you just held T1 as the top decks give or take a few others in the list you could probably split some into T2. Wanted to note before I get a host of comments 🙂 Also for a good laugh – when Hushbringers Back Fire.

TLDR: There has been a bit of a shuffle in T1. Archetypes are solidifying, a spec became mainstream, and it’s cool to be on the plain 😉

MTGA BO1 Tier List December 2020

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:

Top End Shift– What is something extremely noteworthy is the change in the Top Tier of this season vs November. We have actually seen the decline of Rogues and Gruul, and even the Yorion decks losing some BO1 steam. I think in all honesty this is one of the biggest observations in Standard at the moment. Maybe we all are getting tired of playing Rogues, Gruul, and Yorion oh my! I don’t actually think that is the full truth though when we look at the data. Maybe all of us playing those decks are just worse players 😛
The baby has grown into an adult– Additionally, a crucial trend coming out of last month was the influence of Mono White Life gain. At the time I said keep an eye on this archetype as it may have been too early to tell. That certainly has turned out to not be the case. Personally, it was also my deck of choice last month – not this even though I played it fairly heavily. Hats off to Crokeyz on it, and I will always say a nice way to stop aggro in its tracks is tack on more life…and have you seen that 3 drop Kaldheim angel….?!?
Emerging Theme on Solid Ground – I talked a bit about the more aggro plus mono/dual threaded color pairings last season. This certainly has held true as the more popular yorion three color decks have slightly fallen by the wayside in BO1 win rates. Now something to note definitely is the rise and popularity of Naya Winota or Winota decks again. This is something worth keeping an eye on moving into next year. Nonetheless we certainly see the clear winners primarily focused on that mono colored schema.

Purity is Rare – Another noteworthy call out is literally mono white domination. I can’t recall a time this year that mono white was the best deck in bo1 winrate wise. Not only the top spot but two in T1 back to back..and I am happy to be wrong I just don’t recall 🙂 The only other point to this one here is red has been and its interesting to see it paired well with right in a typical boros fashion or stand alone as well.
Challenge the status Quo – We saw this last season with mono white lifegain, and I did get some push back from the community on this earlier this month…however, I would certainly reiterate that maybe there could still be a nice compelling story with Selesnya 4 PWR aggro. It has the makings of a strong competitive deck, and yes the devil will lie within the details so maybe we will see it more heavily played over the next month as well.
January Parting Thoughts – This has certainly been one of the most challenging lists for me to pull together, and through the process I’ve learned of another nice 30+ decks mainly BO1 I plan to put to good use over the next month. I look forward to trying to pull together 100 decks in January. I have had a few people tell me it’s more about a focused meta, and I would tell you meta is the game within the game. That focused meta is there, and I enjoy providing a broader pov because as a competitive player…you absolutely need to be aware of the game outside of the game!
Happy New Year’s Eve – Last but not least, I hope everyone had a happy holidays. I would also like to wish each and every one of you a safe, loved, and happy new year. I look forward to continuing these into the next year. As always – Appreciate any constructive feedback as well.

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! 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.

All Full Deck Lists Below (70+)!

MTGA BO1 December 2020 Tier List

Tier 1 (6)

Mono White Lifegain (Deck Link)

Mono White Aggro (Deck Link)

Mono Red Aggro (Deck Link)

Mono White Auras (Deck Link)

Boros Knights (Deck Link)

Boros-Yore Cycling (Deck Link)

Tier 2 (34)

Naya Winota (Deck Link)

Boros Winota Warriors (Deck Link)

Selesnya 4PWR Aggro (Deck Link)

Mardu Yorion Doom (Deck Link)

Dimir Rogues (Deck Link) – Updated Link

Mono Black Enchantments (Deck Link)

Esper Yorion Doom (Deck Link)

Esper Doom (Deck Link)

Dimir Control (Deck Link)

Dimir Yorion Control (Deck Link)

Orzhov Yorion Doom (Deck Link)

Azorius Yorion Blink (Deck Link)

Mono Green (Deck Link)

Gruul Adventures (Deck Link) – Updated Link

Rakdos Midrange (Deck Link)

Rakdos Escape (Deck Link)

Mono Black Control (Deck Link)

Mono Green Food (Deck Link)

Sultai Yorion Fae (Deck Link)

Selesnya Counters (Deck Link)

Orzhov Auras (Deck Link)

Mono Red Control (Deck Link)

Dimir Flash (Deck Link)

Izzet Draw Two (Deck Link)

Temur Obosh Adventures (Deck Link)

Temur Yorion (Deck Link)

Jeskai Yorion Control (Deck Link)

Selesnya Adventures (Deck Link)

Orzhov Clerics (Deck Link)

Golgari Adventures (Deck Link)

Jund Sacrifice (Deck Link)

Temur Ramp (Deck Link)

Izzet Tempo (Deck Link)

Selesnya Yorion (Deck Link)

Tier 3 (33)

Mono Black Devotion (Deck Link)

Abzan Midrange (Deck Link)

Azorius Party (Deck Link)

Abzan Doom (Deck Link)

Sultai Midrange (Deck Link)

Boros Control (Deck Link)

Orzhov Lurrus Aggro (Deck Link)

Orzhov Aggro (Deck Link)

Orzhov Party (Deck Link)

Boros Warriors (Deck Link)

Gruul Mutate (Deck Link)

Rakdos Aggro (Deck Link)

Grixis Control (Deck Link)

5C Shrine (Deck Link)

Naya Kaheera Control (Deck Link)

Izzet Control (Deck Link)

Abzan Ultimatum (Deck Link)

Sultai Keruga Titans Nest (Deck Link)

Sultai Emergent (Deck Link)

Selesnya Enchantments (Deck Link)

Abzan Mutate (Deck Link)

Simic Mutate (Deck Link)

Bant Control (Deck Link)

Selesnya Landfall (Deck Link)

Naya Ramp (Deck Link)

Mono Blue Devotion (Deck Link)

Azorius Midrange (Deck Link)

Sulati Gyruda Midrange (Deck Link)

Dimir Mill (Deck Link)

Jeskai Mill (Deck Link)

Mono Blue Control (Deck Link)

Simic Kicker (Deck Link)

Jeskai Spells (Deck Link)

Deck lists in Detail

*Note you can copy and paste the specific lists right into MTG, and you are off to the races!