MTGA Standard BO3 | March 2021 Tier List | 40ish Decks


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

We are well on our way into our second season of Kaldheim BO3!  BO3 has had a fairly significant change to it relative to last month as a different impact all together from BO1.  Additionally, I have rolled out my new Meta 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 BO3 Tier List, and always feel free to let me know what you think!  In case you missed it here is yesterday’s article and video for the March BO1 Tier List.  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:

  • Wide Open? The big thing here is it does feel at times given the variety of decks winning or coming out on top that the Meta is still  fairly open.  This is a good thing! It represents the health, as well as the ability for us to anticipate, counter, or play against top piloted decks.  To me this is one of the things that best represents magic.  I covered some of the big impactful events and outputs in the BO1 piece you can check out.
  • The Dichotomy – If there is anything most noteworthy it is this as in my opinion the biggest take away.  I covered this in more detail two weeks ago in my weekly series, and it is still worth a double take.  For those of you that follow this piece the number one item is the fact that BO1 & BO3 do not correlate as much.  In fact there has been a fairly heavy shift away from the Aggro Decks into more midrange and ultimately late game.  Both in terms of percent of the field played as well as win rate upward pressure in these late game decks.
  • Temur Turns – I would like to specifically call out Temur Turns this month for a few reasons.  First and foremost it probably is one of the most impactful decks that entered into the meta coming off the back of the Kaldheim Pro League weekend.  This deck in particular when you look at its matchups has a solid win rate in aggregate against almost every major archetype except for rogues!  It is close, and this is something for us to keep an eye on.  Mostly, I could see this getting interrupted by a more streamlined control deck.  However, this remains to be seen even though we have seen a few entries into the Meta this month.
  • Tweaks that make a difference The best solid example here is Mono White Aggro.  This deck continues to put up results, and most of that has been due to slight variations leading to a successful reading against the meta.  Certainly several kudos here to both #1’s in MTGA as well as KHM 5K tournaments! This is a good way to show how a small difference can continue to create upward mobility.  Additionally, it was a very hard 2nd call for this deck this month for me.  Ultimately the difference was despite in aggregate having a higher win rate against turns, it faced a lower mythic win percent.  I would say given its great results though in recent events would give it the boost in the #1 spot on the Tier List this month.  Definitely a deck I would consider showing up with in a big event, and one I have had lots of success with this month in BO3.
  • Fast Paced EvolutionTo add to the health of the Meta we have seen things unfold, refold, unravel, and cycle very quickly.  Again, to address the influx as well as impacts of tournaments plus the readily available information in today’s age has certainly led to a much faster evolution of the meta.  What I also find fairly interesting is really a slight skip over or really a directness in the Meta going from Aggro to late game.  The Mid game hasn’t seen as much love that we saw in the Zendikar’s rising which has been pretty interesting if you ask me.  I mean Mono Green Food didn’t really get worse, and maybe the sacrifice decks aren’t quite as strong, but they aren’t terrible either.  Particularly the fact that it really addressed aggro well.  I found this cycle to be pretty interesting from that perspective.  Then again, we saw a huge influx on the cycle archetype as well!
  • BO1 quick read – I highly encourage you to check out the BO1 article as well.  However, just a couple of bleed over things to mention.  We saw a bunch of new Naya decks, the impacts of tournaments and events played pretty big roles to shape the meta, in particular percent played as well as new decks like temur turns.  Also, impacting are content creators like CGB in particular a massive rise of mono white lifegain – however, to be fair it was already pretty well positioned in the meta, and his #1 Mythic debut didn’t hurt!  Lastly, I am undergoing some competitive science to see how decay impacts top 1500 this month on the back of a PR at top 50.  Not because I think I would top 1200 off it.

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.

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! 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)

Temur Turns (Deck Link)

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

Mono Red Snow (Deck Link)

Jeskai Pyromancer Cycling (Deck Link)

4C Jeskai Cycle (Deck Link)4C Jeskai Cycle

Tier 2 (18)

Dimir Lurrus Rogues (Deck Link)

Temur Aggro aka Wet Gruul (Deck Link)

Naya Adventures (Deck Link)

Naya Aggro Adventures (Deck Link)

Sultai Ultimatum (Deck Link)

Izzet Tempo (Deck Link)

4C-Sultai Yorion Control (Deck Link)

4C Yorion Doom (Deck Link)

Boros Aggro (Deck Link)

Mono Green Food (Deck Link)

Rakdos Sacrifice (Deck Link)

Mono Green Stompy (Deck Link)

Jund Jegantha Sacrifice (Deck Link)

Dimir Yorion Control (Deck Link)

Azorius Fable (Deck Link)

Esper Yorion Doom (Deck Link)

Grixis Control (Deck Link)

Mono Red Boast (Deck Link)

Tier 3 (15)

Mono Green Aggro (Deck Link)

Temur Ultimatum (Deck Link)

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

Golgari Midrange (Deck Link)

Boros Equipment (Deck Link)

Naya Fury (Deck Link)

Abzan Yorion Control (Deck Link)

Orzhov Doom Tergrid (Deck Link)

Selesnya Toski (Deck Link)

Jeskai Spells (Deck Link)

Jund Adventures (Deck Link)

Abzan Adventures (Deck Link)

Bant Mutate (Deck Link)

Mardu Jegantha Winota (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!