For the last week or so, there have been Standard Champs qualifiers on MTGO, providing us with a lot of Standard tournament results. For the greater good, I decided to grab a piece of paper and start keeping track of which decks posted a 4-1 or 5-0 record, to get a feel for which decks were performing the best. What follows doesn’t necessarily prove which are the best decks-to figure that out, I’d also need to figure out how many copies of a specific deck entered the tournaments, which, with the amount of Champs qualifiers, wasn’t feasible to do in the time I have to write articles.

What the following chart does tell you is how likely you are to run into certain decks when you get to the top of a MTGO Standard tournament, and we can assume that the decks that did really well in these tournaments are indeed good decks, capable of taking down a small tournament at least-perfect for PPTQs and those kinds of tournaments!

Now, without further ado, these are the results, current as of 28 November:

* Because Abzan Aggro and Abzan Midrange are sometimes hard to distinguish, I grouped them together. Overall, my impression was that decks without aggressive two-drops but with [card]Sylvan Caryatid[/card] outnumbered the aggressive decks about 3:1, but the 5-0 decks were split evenly.

** I included Jeskai Combo because it’s a well known deck and got a reasonable amount of 3-2 finishes, but it looks like the best build has not been found yet. Out of the three 4-1 finishes, one looked like the “Umbrella Revolution” deck with green mana creatures and [card]Dragon Mantle[/card]s; one was a heroic build with [card]Akroan Crusader[/card]s and [card]Springleaf Drum[/card]s; and one was an aggressive tokens build with [card]Monastery Swiftspear[/card] and [card]Hordeling Outburst[/card]s.

*** Other decks included RW Aggro (à la Brad Nelson’s MAC deck from the Pro Tour), Sultai Control, Four-Color Midrange, Narset Control, RG Nykthos, and RG Bees ([card]Hornet Nest[/card] + [card]Setessan Tactics[/card]).

So, what do we notice from the above? Well, first off, the top three decks you are likely to face at the top of a tournament are Mardu, Abzan (either midrange or aggro), and some form of Whip deck. I have Abzan Whip as fifth in the table, but considering it’s basically a green-black deck that splashes for [card]Siege Rhino[/card] and [card]Banishing Light[/card] (and often [card]Soul of Theros[/card]), it doesn’t seem that much different from the GB constellation decks that don’t or the GB decks that splash for Sidisi. The three Whip decks together have 34 finishes, almost the same amount as the Abzan decks. Here’s an example of what a Whip deck looks like:

[deck title=Abzan Whip by Zapgaze]

[Creatures]
2 Elvish Mystic
4 Satyr Wayfinder
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Courser of Kruphix
1 Eidolon of Blossoms
4 Siege Rhino
2 Doomwake Giant
3 Soul of Theros
3 Hornet Queen
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Commune with the Gods
2 Banishing Light
3 Whip of Erebos
3 Murderous Cut
[/Spells]
[Lands]
1 Plains
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Caves of Koilos
3 Temple of Malady
4 Forest
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Sandsteppe Citadel
4 Windswept Heath
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
3 Thoughtseize
1 Glare of Heresy
1 Suspension Field
4 Fleecemane Lion
1 Reclamation Sage
3 Drown in Sorrow
1 Utter End
1 Whip of Erebos
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

The Whip decks seem to have some trouble 5-0ing a tournament. Only one of the variants (Sidisi Whip) made it to the top, and it happened only once, whereas Mardu had seven 5-0 finishes and Abzan five. Jeskai, the next deck on the table, had four 5-0 finishes, but it had only half the amount of top finishes overall. The deck with the most 5-0 finishes compared to their overall top finishes was RG Aggro, which, for those of you unfamiliar with the deck, looks a lot like a Temur deck without blue:

[deck title=RG Aggro by Dazai (5-0 in Champs Qualifier)]

[Creatures]
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Heir of the Wilds
4 Boon Satyr
4 Fanatic of Xenagos
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
2 Polukranos, World Eater
4 Stormbreath Dragon
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Crater’s Claws
4 Lightning Strike
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
[/Spells]
[Lands]
7 Forest
2 Mana Confluence
7 Mountain
4 Temple of Abandon
4 Wooded Foothills
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
4 Magma Spray
4 Destructive Revelry
2 Barrage of Boulders
2 Fated Conflagration
3 Xenagos, the Reveler
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Instead of [card]Stubborn Denial[/card] and [card]Temur Charm[/card] main and additional counters in the sideboard, this deck has more burn and Chandra to get its creatures through. [card]Fanatic of Xenagos[/card] and [card]Goblin Rabblemaster[/card] help make up for the hole that [card]Savage Knuckleblade[/card] leaves, and the manabase becomes a lot less painful.

Overall the deck might just be more consistent than Temur. Having fewer mana dorks helps smooth out the draws later, and needing only two colors of mana definitely helps there too. You do lose a way to protect your threats, but perhaps even that is solvable. The above list just plays more threats, but if you wanted to protect your creatures a bit, [card]Gather Courage[/card] is a great way to save your creatures from [card]Lightning Strike[/card], [card]Stoke the Flames[/card] or [card]Bile Blight[/card], in many cases, and I don’t think anyone will play around it until they’ve seen it. You probably don’t want too many, but having access to one or two might be fantastic.

Going back to the top performing decks, this approximately is what the most popular Mardu list looks like:

[deck title=Mardu by psychologist (5-0 in Champs Qualifier)]

[Creatures]
3 Seeker of the Way
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Butcher of the Horde
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
3 Chained to the Rocks
4 Lightning Strike
2 Magma Jet
4 Crackling Doom
4 Hordeling Outburst
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Murderous Cut
3 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
1 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
[/Spells]
[Lands]
3 Battlefield Forge
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Caves of Koilos
6 Mountain
4 Nomad Outpost
1 Swamp
3 Temple of Silence
3 Temple of Triumph
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Glare of Heresy
3 Anger of the Gods
4 Read the Bones
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Utter End
2 End Hostilities
1 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Still very similar to the deck Brad Nelson played in the Grand Prix where Mardu showed up for the first time, Mardu is a deck chock full of removal and a few efficient threats. A card like [card]Hordeling Outburst[/card] might not look like much, but when sweepers are at an all time low, three dudes out of one card can do a lot of work on an empty board. With the amount of removal Mardu plays, keeping the board mostly clear isn’t too hard.

Because the most popular decks play a lot of targets for removal spells, Mardu isn’t really punished for the abundance in creature removal. Abzan, the Whip decks, Mono Red, Temur: they all play a lot of creatures to kill. Even against a deck lighter on creatures, like Jeskai, you really want to have a removal spell for just about every creature they play, because all their creatures can kill you almost single-handedly (and they definitely can when supported with a few burn spells). The first deck in the table where a deck like this gets punished for all its creature removal is UB control.

UB control is the only real control deck on our list, and it often plays a single creature at most, like this list:

[deck title=UB Control by thekid (5-0 in Champs Qualifier)]

[Creatures]
1 Pearl Lake Ancient
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Despise
4 Bile Blight
4 Dissolve
2 Divination
2 Drown in Sorrow
4 Hero’s Downfall
4 Perilous Vault
1 Silence the Believers
1 Jace’s Ingenuity
1 Interpret the Signs
3 Dig Through Time
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Dismal Backwater
4 Island
4 Polluted Delta
3 Radiant Fountain
4 Swamp
4 Temple of Deceit
1 Temple of Malice
1 Temple of Mystery
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Thoughtseize
1 Cranial Archive
3 Disdainful Stroke
2 Negate
2 Pharika’s Cure
2 Drown in Sorrow
1 Jace’s Ingenuity
2 Prognostic Sphinx
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

The Adrian Sullivan school of UB seems to be the most popular version of the deck, if I interpreted the signs correctly. Sometimes even skipping the [card]Pearl Lake Ancient[/card] main, this deck can punish an opponent for having 8+ creature removal spells in their deck. It’s no wonder that a popular variation on the Mardu deck shaves creature removal for [card]Thoughtseize[/card]s, which can be good against just about everybody. It’s even possible you want to move further in that direction, as trying to cast [card]Thoughtseize[/card] on turn one while also being a [card]Chained to the Rocks[/card] and [card]Hordeling Outburst[/card] deck is challenging. Some lists decide to eschew both those cards for a more black-heavy, aggressive approach with Bloadsoaked Champion:

[deck title=Mardu by MichaelBonde (4-1 in Champs Qualifier)]

[Creatures]
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Brain Maggot
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Butcher of the Horde
2 Stormbreath Dragon
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Thoughtseize
3 Lightning Strike
3 Magma Jet
4 Crackling Doom
4 Stoke the Flames
[/Spells]
[Lands]
1 Battlefield Forge
4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Caves of Koilos
3 Mana Confluence
2 Mountain
4 Nomad Outpost
2 Swamp
4 Temple of Triumph
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Erase
3 Magma Spray
4 Anger of the Gods
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 End Hostilities
1 Murderous Cut
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Probably a lot stronger against decks that have no creatures, this more aggressive version of the Mardu deck (which popped up a few times in the 4-1 lists) uses [card]Brain Maggot[/card] and [card]Thoughtseize[/card] to mess with the opponent’s plans while pressuring them with some removal resilient threats (either through haste or because they leave something behind or come back for more). The plethora of burn spells help finish off an opponent who stabilizes. With this variant, only [card]Crackling Doom[/card]s are truly poor if your opponent plays no creatures, and they can at least be cashed in for two damage if need be.

The two decks left with a significant number of performers are Temur (à la Kibler’s list from GP Los Angeles) and Heroic (generally Tom Ross’s UW version, but I’ve seen an RW list once or twice too). Both more aggressive decks, they characterize this current Standard, slanted towards creatures bashing each other’s heads in, making it logical that decks like Abzan and Mardu reign supreme. They are both solid midrange decks that are great at stabilizing against creature decks thanks to a plethora of great removal and threats that regain you life, namely [card]Siege Rhino[/card] and [card]Butcher of the Horde[/card] backed up by [card]Sorin, Solemn Visitor[/card]. They also play a bunch of creatures that provide a ton of value over time in [card]Courser of Kruphix[/card] and [card]Goblin Rabblemaster[/card], which are must-kill threats for Control decks and cheap enough that they can often sneak under counterspells. Both these decks in a way feel very similar to the Mono Black deck of last season, and at the moment, there is no [card]Sphinx’s Revelation[/card] or a Thassa deck to compete with.

It’s possible that the Whip decks are the answer, as they play a similar game to the Abzan decks, but they go over top of the midrange decks with [card]Hornet Queen[/card]s.

I don’t think you can go wrong with Mardu or Abzan if you are capable of playing them well, as both decks have plenty of tools to take on all comers. Just make sure you have a plan for the mirror. Abzan seems like it’s a bit less likely to go undefeated, making me think more people are prepared for it. Out of the four 5-0 Abzan decks, two were the more aggressive type, with two drops that don’t tap for mana, so perhaps you’ll want to be playing some of those if you’re looking to win a PTQ or something like it.

If you like playing something even more aggressive, Jeskai Aggro and Mono Red are still here for you, but you’ll want to make sure you have a plan against [card]Siege Rhino[/card], Butcher, and [card]Whip of Erebos[/card]. You will see plenty of those at the top tables. Jeskai Aggro did post as many 5-0s as Abzan did, which had way more winning decks overall, so with the right build, it is possible to destroy a tournament.

For the free-range chickens among us, you can play UB Control and … Yep, that’s about it actually. Maybe you should try some other format? Modern? No, actually, there’s not really a good control deck in Modern either. I guess Legacy or Vintage is where it’s at for you-power is in the creatures nowadays. Good luck and have fun!

Jay Lansdaal
iLansdaal on Twitter