We now have just under a week until the end of the February 2020 ranked ladder season (click on the link for more information)! Standard is looking pretty much well settled after Magic World Championships, but there’s always room to navigate your way through the metagame. As usual, this week we will update you on how the metagame has changed and how other people are beating it. You can click here to jump straight to the deck lists for this week!

Also be sure to check out the other Mythic Theros Beyond Death Standard decks from previous weeks for more decklists:

DreamHack Anaheim Metagame Breakdown and Top 16

Currently, a $100,000 prize pool MTG Arena tournament is being held at DreamHack Anaheim. The final day will be held tomorrow where the winner will be going home with $30,000 as well as an invite to a Mythic Invitational in May. Despite this, only 94 players registered for the event but consisting of some high profile players. You can check out all the decklists here along with their rankings, and the metagame breakdown was as follows:

In the top 16, this was more pronounced as 50% of the decks were Azorius Control:

As you can see above, Azorius Control is the deck of choice for the top players following PVDDR’s victory at World Championships, followed closely by Jeskai Fires and Mono Red Aggro. Temur Reclamation is now less played due to its weakness to aggro strategies and the presence of Teferi, Time Raveler in the mentioned decks.

The MTG Arena ladder environment is of course more diverse than this, but Azorius Control and Mono Red Aggro will still be abundant. Two of the decks in this tournament looked to have a good chance against these decks – Jund Sacrifice and Temur Adventures – which we will discuss below, along with other decks that has a role in the metagame at the moment.

Jund Sacrifice

Jei took his version of Jund Sacrifice (decklist here) to a 9-1 record with four copies of Wildborn Preserver. This is a great card that looks to solve the matchup against Azorius Control. It provides early pressure and gives you another late game mana sink. The ability triggers with each instance of Cauldron Familiar to grow big, and because it has Reach it can block Dream Trawler and Archon of Sun’s Grace favorably.

Temur Adventures





Temur Adventures has been faithfully piloted by littlebeep, also known as Aaron Gertler, ever since he discovered it during Throne of Eldraine Standard and he took to it #1 Mythic this season as well as a 9-1 record at DreamHack. The deck had been somewhat hidden until now because it added almost no cards in Theros Beyond Death. However, the Adventure mechanic is still powerful as ever at getting value out of every card and outlasting Azorius Control.

Since Temur Reclamation is being played less now (one of its main weaknesses since it can “combo” off faster) and Mono Red Aggro is being kept in check by Azorius Control, this deck is in great position in the metagame. If littlebeep takes down the tournament tomorrow in a field of Azorius Control, no doubt a lot of players will be trying the deck out.

Jeskai Walkers

Here’s a non-meta deck that has been making the rounds recently, which DanyTlaw took to the high ranks of Mythic this season. Similar to the Adventure mechanic (which this deck also uses), Planeswalkers are another source of great value that control decks may be overwhelmed by. It also has components that are strong against aggro decks (Defeaning Clarion) and most importantly, does not rely on Fires of Invention to work. Magic Pro League member Rei Sato also took this deck to a 6-4 record for DreamHack.

This is a strong point because getting it countered, bounced or removed is not too hard these days. That is not to say Jeskai Fires is not a strong deck because it still is top tier (and of course can back itself quite well with its own Teferi or other counterspells), but being a non-meta deck has its advantages since your opponents will be less prepared against it.

Simic Flash

Here’s another deck that is quite polarizing – whether it’s on the play or draw or whether it’s facing a control deck or an aggro deck. Now that Azorius Control and Jeskai Fires are high in the food chain again, Simic Flash can prey on them. It will be quite weak to Mono Red Aggro (though less so than its counterpart Simic Ramp – at least you can interact with them), so use caution when laddering.

As you may know the hybrid ramp version with Nissa, Who Shakes the World popularized during Mythic Championship VII is the one still used by many, but it may not be ideal for this meta since it could be too slow and not enough impact against the control decks. We have examples of both versions with and without below, so be sure to check them out.

MTG Arena Mythic Standard Decks of the Week

Here is the full list of known Mythic decks over the past week shared by the players, sorted by the deck archetype name with their highest placement noted!

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Join us tomorrow at 10 AM PST for the final day of DreamHack Anaheim where the winner is crowned, and next Saturday February 29 we will be back with decklists and results from Mythic Point Challenge – Ikoria.

If you want to escape the Standard metagame for now, be sure to check out our decklists and guide to the Standard Artisan – Festival of the Gods: Fires of Purphoros Event going on in MTG Arena for the next three days. We will be sure to add more decks for you to try!

This column is our weekly roundup of Standard and Historic decks players are using to climb the ranked ladder on MTG Arena! Our goal is to curate and post a variety of deck archetypes and interesting card choices at the end of each week to help you keep up to date with the latest trends in the metagame. If you have any decks you wish to be featured, please tweet us at @mtgazone or give us a shout at our Discord.