Impactful MTGA Standard BO3 August 2020 Tier List

Hi Planeswalkers, it’s me again this time with a BO3 tier list for August 2020 Magic the Gathering game play primarily centered around MTGA.

I put together a tier list for BO3 to help with anyone tackling the competitive MTGA Landscape, those who like a visual or just to discuss! As a player I know it can be a tough choice to figure out which deck you would like to play, additionally knowing the importance of playing decks that you don’t play I wanted to share some thoughts!

Additionally, as we wait for the GREAT ROTATION, and post bannings I thought this information would be helpful for everyone. Last, particularly for those of us who still enjoy being competitive even if there tends to be a lul as we patiently wait for more change in the Standard format.

You can also check out the BO1 tier list here.

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

Then there was ONE (Ramp) – Sultai was still a BIG winner for BO3, and interestingly it wasn’t initially the strongest pre-banning when included with Bant & Simic. Bant is dead. The other call out here is I think based on most considerations at this point like recent RedBull Untapped tournaments throughout this season Sultai Ramp has really solidified its spot in T1! (Probably no surprise, but again interesting to see the changes after bans again.
Sacrifice – These decks used to be in a slight league of their own, however that is strongly not the case anymore. Additionally, you don’t see Jund around as much, however there are remmings of bolas citadel remnants floating around. Sacrifice has now fallen into the T2 spot due to its lack of strength in the format with the banning of good old cat oven.
Archetypes coming full circle – This is an ode to oldies but goodies from BO1, but I really want to be clear here and expand a little more. First, off Clover has definitely solidified itself and is VERY rotation proof. The other thing I pointed out was Boros Cycling, another rotation proof deck, however this deck is slightly worse in BO3. Especially, since the surprise goes away, and it is pretty easy to interrupt this deck with graveyard exiling or counter magic. One last key call out here imo Boros Cycle is the most competitive budget/least craft intensive deck for new players in both BO1 & BO3. I did get this question a lot, and wanted to point that out for newer competitive spikers as well! Welcome new & returning players. The other thing I didn’t talk about as much though was the rise of Flash decks, and more knights based decks as well. Both strong deck types started to work their way back into the format.
Mono Colored Decks – In BO1 still strong, but for BO3 became significantly weaker. This isn’t necessarily always the case, and a good example was mono blue tempo from a while back. However, given the current meta after the bannings the real two viable ones I see are mono red and green but they are mid tier. For me this is generally due to a deeper pool of sideboard options usually among multicolored decks, and the ability for the opportunity to switch out cards for broader based removal when most of the mono colored cards tend to run a more linear strategy opening themselves up to be stopped easier over three matches vs the opportunity of surprise.
Deck go Wide Trend – The last observation that I would like to draw on from a trends perspective, and extrapolate from last month’s BO1 tier into a BO3 tier is a broader influx of decks again. I do feel the bans opened up the field a bit more, and why we are seeing more competitive decks. Additional thoughts here is that it opens us up for many more interactions and a closely grouped T2. I could fully expect 1-2 decks still making a good shot from T2 becoming T1. The two I would speculate on again in my opinion would be flash or azorius control. I feel and have said this before already this season, the meta is ripe for a strong control deck (probably why sultai narset control is seeing more play and finding success as well). Clover still provides some issues, but the most effective single hand card that I love would fit into the azorius construct – Heliod’s Intervention – this card is a blowout card and under utilized. A call out here is this is more speculative again given current time snapshot of the meta.

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, twitter, personal gameplay, tournament matches, this reddit as well as others, personal stats ( 500+ games this season and PR of Rank 111), and Mythic over the last 3 seasons with a recent invite to the Mythic Qualifier.

Happy to discuss or talk about decks not included! Tier list below plus deck lists (shells) if you are looking for some options most all top 1500 at some point many at the #1 Rank! One new piece to this Month’s list are some personal very competitive top brews! I wanted to round out some of the missing pieces I had been seeing in Meta over the last two weeks since bans. Last, below the list you can find all the decks with their deck lists all in one spot below!

MTGA BO3 August 2020 Tier List

Tier 1 (2)

Sultai Ramp

Temur Clover/Adventures

Tier 2 (12)

Simic Flash

Orzhov Yorion Control

Tier 3 (12)

Deck lists in Detail

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