Hi friends it’s that time of the month again!

We are into the second season of BO1, we have seen some interesting items, and others maybe not so noteworthy.  Additionally, I have rolled out my new Mets content that I have been excited to produce weekly now given your asks as well as feedback!  I have finally pulled together an interview with another creator in the community, and I am looking to do more here!

Enjoy this month’s Tier List, and always feel free to let me know what you think!  Stay safe my friends.

February’s Tier Lists & Weekly Meta Updates (Reddit r/spikes articles).  This will help you understand some of the observations & trends.

Tier Lists

February Standard Articles: BO1 & BO3

February Standard Videos: BO1 & BO3

Friday Night Meta – Weekly Series

March Week 3 (Article, Youtube)

March Week 2 (Article, Youtube)

March Week 1 (Article, Youtube)

February Week 4 (Article, Youtube)

Collaboration – Meta Talk

Charizard_James

Personal Record Top 50

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: Aggro maintains but a new mono white is crowned king.  Lots of Tournaments impacting the meta, and giving us some pretty cool decks.  Meta remains healthy!  Starting to see shift in deck types and playing as well.

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:

• Tournament Pressures – This Month we saw a host of tournaments that had some pretty significant impacts on the format.  We had Big Magic starting to peel back Naya, Several 5K SCG events pretty much a revolving door of decks, and Sultai Ultimatum still couldn’t hardly crack 50%+ save for maybe once.  Then we also had our beloved Pros weekend, bringing us some new flavors.  All of these events drove results, and the longer I have been doing this it has been to a varying degree.  What now has been extremely helpful is looking at the shorter term trends in the Weekly Meta Bit, and how it flows to a longer term Monthly Tier List like this.
  
• Impact of Content Creators – I think it is pretty hard to argue that in today’s Magic world, one in which rapidly evolves and unfolds there is a pretty heavy influence we face by content creators.  Personally, I am also one that loves to keep an eye on several of them, and most certainly they shift things time to time.  

I would like to give a heartfelt call out to CGB hitting #1 Mythic in BO1.  His Mono White Lifegain took me to Top 50 as well.  Not only is it in my opinion hard obviously to hit #1 however, I think it is much harder to do it in BO1.  The thing that I liked about his deck was, and why this is important a few small tweaks.  I called it Fountain > Snow.  The land plus two life accelerated the deck’s ability to activate the priest. Honestly, pretty awesome, and how small things can really make a difference in a deck!

• Status Quo – For BO1 things for the most part have been the same at the top end this month.  The biggest note is actually the fact that Mono White Lifegain really over took Mono White Aggro as the best BO1 deck.  We are starting to see some added pressures though from everyone’s favorite Dimir Rogues.  Crippling fear is starting to make a little more of an impact than previously rendered, as well as some of the shifting of Sultai Ultimatum into a more played BO1 archetype.
  
• Cycling to Mythic – Many of you called on me to do a facelift on this deck this month…not only once but twice! Cycling is two things to me:

1. The Best Budget Deck for Competitive Magic right now
2. A deck that can absolutely take you to Mythic

I would highly recommend this deck as one that is both fast, as well as consistent to help you hit that coveted Mythic spot.  At least for the current meta, and it may close fast, who knows.  Just keep in mind that most people think it is an easy deck to pilot, and I would just say that isn’t always the case.  Particularly now, when there are a few variations out there.

• In Diversity we Trust – For me as well as many of you we are living in a fortunate time of standard magic.  After we got through the initial hiccups of Zendikar’s Rising we have had some pretty balanced Meta.  Dare I even say it’s been almost 6+ months now?!?!? Crazy to think that.  I know we are starting to see Strixhaven, and I am looking forward to the change as always.  However, ultimately I am hopeful we continue to see this balanced meta as it allows all of us to be a tad more creative, and actually cycle through healthy natural deck styles.  This is pretty clear in many of the tournament results.
  
• Naya What? – This one is definitely a little confusing.  I just wanted to highlight this because it’s been a pretty big thing this season.  There are like 4 versions of this deck.  Naya Adventures, Aggro, Fury/Fling, and Toski! I’ve had a few questions about this mainly on why the hard drop in play rate from Friday’s Weekly Meta..,and what I would tell you is that the perceived value clearly wasn’t in alignment to the actual value.  Mainly, when players play in a vacuum the sample size is small, and it gets released to the world.We immediately gravitate towards those decks, example content creators above, and find that in a broader ecosystem they just aren’t as good as we first thought!  My experience with it wasn’t the best, I much rather play a flavorful doom deck.

• Late Game Development – Speaking of Doom decks this leads me to another point.  The first season was very aggro heavy, and we are now starting to see a larger influx of late game styled decks.  This month brought us a few flavors of doom, as well as some other newcomers.  All to be expected, and dare I not miss some more midrange decks starting to break into the fold.  Oddly, we have seen a slight reversion of some of the sacrifice decks…for now.
  
• Taking one for the team! – One last point, this month after hitting the Top 50 I wanted to actually see how long it took to decay out of the top 1500.  Additionally, I’m glad I did it despite practically feeling an itch every day for not playing.  I was able to hopefully give some decent guidance to a player who wanted to top 1200 and thought they could camp it out!  I may do a more detailed video on this in the future, but at a high level you lose well over 100 ranks a day.  I will see you in the 99% club 😛

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 hit Top 1500 usually 🙂 – 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.

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! 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.

MTGA Standard BO1 February 2021 Tier List (40ish Decks)

Tier 1 (5)

Mono White Lifegain (New Deck Link) (Old YT Deck Link)

Mono White Aggro (New Deck Link) (Old YT Deck Link)

Mono Red Snow (Deck Link)

4C-Sultai Yorion Control (Deck Link)

Dimir Lurrus Rogues (Deck Link)

Tier 2 (18)

Mono Red Boast (Deck Link)

Jeskai Pyromancer Cycling (Deck Link)

4C Jeskai Cycle (Deck Link)

Rakdos Sacrifice (Deck Link)

Jund Jegantha Sacrifice (Deck Link)

Temur Ultimatum (Deck Link)

Sultai Ultimatum (Deck Link)

Mono Green Stompy (Deck Link)

Temur Aggro aka Wet Gruul (Deck Link)

Temur Turns (Deck Link)

Boros Equipment (Deck Link)

Naya Adventures (Deck Link)

Mono Green Food (Deck Link)

Naya Aggro Adventures (Deck Link)

Izzet Tempo (Deck Link)

Azorius Fable (Deck Link)

Esper Yorion Doom (Deck Link)

Selesnya Toski (Deck Link)

Tier 3 (15)

Mono Green Aggro (Deck Link)

Boros Aggro (Deck Link)

Naya Fury (Deck Link)

4C Yorion Doom (Deck Link)

Golgari Midrange (Deck Link)

Jund Adventures (Deck Link)

Dimir Yorion Control (Deck Link)

Abzan Yorion Control (Deck Link)

Orzhov Doom Tergrid (Deck Link)

Grixis Control (Deck Link)

Bant Mutate (Deck Link)

Abzan Adventures (Deck Link)

Mardu Jegantha Winota (Deck Link)

Jeskai Spells (Deck Link)

Jeskai Fliers (Deck Link)

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!