State of the Meta: Best Of One (Standard, Magic Arena)

by TheAsianAvenger // May 18, 2019

With the official release of #MTGWAR happening over a few weeks ago, we've now had enough time to play with #MTGWAR a decent amount now. We're seeing how powerful of a set it already is in Best of 3 but what about Best of 1?

We obviously know the pillars of the format will be Mono Red and Mono White aggro.

Turns out having a billion ways to burn your opponent is still good and it looks like the newest addition for RDW has been Chandra, Fire Artisan, but I'm not entirely sure if I would play it over Experimental Frenzy.

The other pillar is Mono-White Aggro. #MTGWAR has added a few cards to this like Law-Rune Enforcer, Gideon Blackblade, and some lists play Teferi, Time Raveler. I actually love the power level of these new inclusions. The Enforcer helps us push through damage as we sometimes get stonewalled by a big body, but now we have a friendly little tapper. Gideon helps us attack a different axis at an early part of the curve which means it's a little bit more resilient post board wipe. As you'll see some decks splash blue maybe for a spell pierce here and there but mostly it's for Teferi! Teferi being able to bounce a History of Benalia while shutting down counterspells and interaction overall is awesome.

Okay, now that we got the obvious decks out of the way...

I myself hit Mythic and climbed into high mythic with Mono Green Tron!

Sometimes you just ramp so hard and assemble NissaTron if you would. Having a card like Karn, the Great Creator pull artifacts from outside of the game really helps the deck control the game. Do you know how good it feels to equip Helm of the Host to a God-Pharaoh's Statue after you use Karn's +1? It's amazing. Your opponent will have to pay 5 mana for a shock and that's just absolutely hilarious. There's also the ability to helm Meteor Golem which can be tough for a good amount of decks to overcome.

I've also got some Esper control for those in search of a new list!

It's almost identical from last season except we've got new tools to fetch with Mastermind's Acquisition! We have The Elderspell to catch up when we're behind on board from our opponent flooding us with planeswalkers. We even have Ashiok, Dream Render to help us deal with Arclight Phoenix decks. I also love grabbing The Wanderer against Mono Red once they've exhausted spells just to force them into playing creatures as you'll find points in the match where they hold back creatures so our removal doesn't gain us any life.

pepepep23 also piloted this for you Orzhov mages out there!

I can always appreciate a sweet Knights list like this. Also having Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord returning cards like Adanto Vanguard seems very powerful as the Vanguard was already a problem to deal with the first time around. Let's not forget how relevant Knight of Grace's hexproof from black is as there are definitely a ton of Esper and black-based decks out there.

hukki-mtgarena also piloted a different a more aggressive mono-green deck.

This is a very streamlined deck that is built to hit the face and flood the board with big bodies. God-Eternal Rhonas is definitely a nice add and a constant threat that could pump any of our small dinky threats into big-time closers.

Lastly, we have the return of Izzet Phoenix (again?)

The deck got two sweet new additions from #MTGWAR in Finale of Promise and Saheeli, Sublime Artificer. The Finale card on its own will trigger all of our Arclight Phoenix in the yard as long as there's at least an instant and a sorcery spell which shouldn't be hard for this deck. We also get Saheeli who will not only flood the board with a bunch of 1/1s but those little 1/1s can copy a phoenix or a Crackling Drake to close the game out of nowhere so be wary of those little critters.

Conclusion

Hopefully, all of you Best of One lovers out there find at least a few new decks to play with on the ladder with this article and good luck on your grind! Hope to see you on the Mythic ladder!

-TheAsianAvenger