Preparing to go to college for the first time was exciting, scary, anxiety inducing, and an unforgettable experience all wrapped up in an awkward three hour drive with my parents while Blink 182 played in the car. With Strixhaven’s release on the horizon (and even sooner on Magic: Arena), every Magic player is going to be introduced to a whole new world taking place in a Magic College. Thankfully, this is not my first rodeo, and thanks to my time spent with both Standard and Historic during Kaldheim, I feel much better prepared to take on the challenges Strixhaven may throw at me. For those that have not been playing for the past few months, or for those that would like to be more prepared than I was my first time at college (I should have brought more than the one CD), I would like to share what both of those formats look like right before we get an influx of new cards. 

Standard 

Mono-Red

Otherwise known as Red Deck Wins, which is aptly named as this time around it has been doing a lot of winning lately. The differences between the iteration of the deck now, as opposed to when this deck was tier 1.5 in Zendikar Rising Standard are the introductions of both Frost Bite and Faceless Haven. Lightning Bolt does not need to always go upstairs to be a great addition to any deck. Like Fiery Impulse before it, Frost Bite is proof yet again that 3 damage for R is an amazing deal. Not to mention that Frost Bite simply lines up well with most of the creatures in Standard, save for Elder Gargaroth and Goldspan Dragon. Luckily, the addition of Faceless Haven has been allowing for Mono-Red to get in just enough damage in the late game, usually after an opponent casts a board wipe, to deal enough damage to opponents to put them near death right before they get to cast either Elder Gargaroth or Goldspan Dragon. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how much you like playing against Mono-Red), the deck is pretty jam packed with insane creatures, so the bar for entry into this deck is pretty high. Moreover, the strength of Embercleave will keep the creature count of this deck higher than most, and therefore may struggle when looking at good instant and sorcery options, as well as for ways to abuse the new Magecraft mechanic in Strixhaven.

Sultai-Yorion

While it's tough to say which is the best between the two, Mono-Red and Sultai-Yorion, Sultai-Yorion certainly has my vote for one of the most fun decks in Standard in quite some time. This deck started off as a ramp/combo deck that used insane value cards such as Binding the Old Gods to buy time until casting finishers like Emergent Ultimatum to get a pile consisting of: Valki, God of Lies, Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider, and Alrund’s Epiphany. However, it has dropped most of the ramp and combo elements in favor of creating a large amount of value on the battlefield via cards like Elder Gargaroth, Eskika’s Chariot, and Shark Typhoon. Moreover, being in Sultai colors allows for some of the best removal in Standard right now. Running 4 copies of both Eliminate AND Heartless Act will allow for the consistency that the 80 card Yorion deck so desperately wants. Being an 80 card deck, there is a lot of room for creativity and room for exploration only grows larger with every set introduced to Standard. Esika’s chariot is only in the deck as a way to snowball a potential lead and exist on the board after the deck's own board wipe (Extinction Event). The card can be easily replaced by just another value card of the player's choice, and I am sure Strixhaven will present many opportunities for card choices for this deck.

While Standard is currently a tug of war between the two previously mentioned decks, strategies that were once the top of the meta-game are still finding success.

Dimir Rogues

Once considered the best deck in Standard, Rogues has taken a solid backseat to other dominant forces. The deck struggles both with Milling out Sultai-Yorion, due to the increase of deck size, and out tempo-ing mono red, as Frost Bite can kill every creature in UB rogues. Because of this, the deck has taken the mantle of gatekeeper rather than boogeyman. The deck can still be a powerhouse of card advantage by drawing four cards out of nowhere, and by having the inevitability of a Lurrus of the Dream-Den while still having access to some of the best cards in the right conditions such as Drown in the Loch. Where the deck suffers is its lack of good creatures currently. Both Thieves’ Guild Enforcer and Soaring Thought-Thief can certainly snowball a player to victory if left unchecked, but are too easily dealt with. Moreover, with the introduction of more graveyard mechanics from the RW college, Lorehold, it may take more than just a good creature or two being printed to get this deck back up to where it used to be.

Naya Adventures

While the deck may have just been a flash in the pan, Naya Adventures shows some promise that may accelerate it into tier 1 once Strixhaven is introduced. Naya Adventures is a product of many players attempting to find a home for Goldspan Dragon after UR tempo first fell out of favor in the metagame. Utilizing the incredible combo of Showdown of the Skalds and Shephard of the Flock, as well as everyone’s favorite cards from Throne of Eldraine (Embercleave, Bonecrusher Giant, Lovestruck Beast, Edgewall Inkeeper). The only thing the deck lacks is real meaningful ways of interacting with their opponent. While Naya Adventures may have a Plan A of its own, it struggles to keep up with other grindy decks that can disrupt its powerful Showdown of the Skalds and Shephard of the Flock combo.

Jeskai Cycling

Otherwise known as ol’reliable. The deck that is never the best, but never the worst. While the deck can feel a little coin-flippy at times based on when you find your Zenith Flares and how many you find, some additions help to curb against that frustrating aspect of the deck. Irencrag Pyromancer is a wonderful addition that is insane as a 0/4 blocker against Mono-Red, and a consistent source of damage at instant speed against… well everything else. One of the most exciting parts of the deck that I have found is having 1 cycler in hand with 2 mana open and one Irencrag Pyromancer out on the opponent's turn. That extra damage can be key to winning that game, or just staying alive one more turn to hope you draw that Zenith Flare that you swore you have 4 of in your deck list. The deck list is pretty tight in how many cyclers it needs to have to be functional so I do not expect all too much to be playable from Strixhaven in this deck. Consequently, I do not expect the deck to get any better or worse until it rotates out.

Standard has gotten a bad rap in the previous sets for always needing a helping hand from the ban announcements to help straighten things out. Things were different this time, and Kaldheim brought in many decks that were seemingly flavors of the month until things finally settled down to Mono-Red Aggro and Sultai-Yorion. I still expect for many of these decks to have great results for some time until Strixhaven cards really find their own homes, but overall I would say that this has been a great time for Standard.

Historic

Before jumping into any singular deck in Historic it is important to note that the Historic metagame drastically changed when Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath was banned February 15, 2021. This changed the format wildly, and therefore this snapshot of Historic will be from the Uro ban announcement up until Strixhaven and the release of the Mythical Archive onto Arena. Additionally, there are so many decks in Historic that it would be impossible to cover even half of them here. Therefore, I am choosing the approach of “what are you likely to see if you jumped into a ranked queue of traditional Historic” and analyzing the format from this point of view.

Jund Sacrifice

The addition of Sagas in Kaldheim allowed for some great options for Jund sacrifice. The two real reasons why are: Korvold, Fae-Cursed King, and Trail of Crumbs. Korvold can sacrifice your Sagas (usually Binding of the Old Gods) after their second chapter, when most of the value is already spent on them, while Trail of Crumbs can go digging for them. Other than that, the deck is still the same old-value engine it always has been. Witch’s Oven + Cauldron’s familiar + Mayhem Devil is just a sweet combination of cards that lets any player easily take over a game. While the deck is usually on the losing end against control decks, there may be some inclusions from the Strixhaven mystical archive that can help with this (see Inquisition of Kozilek).

Orzhov Auras

Many players are quick to compare any Aura deck to modern Boggles, and when done, these decks usually come up short when compared to their modern counterpart. However, this deck still supports itself quite well with the toolbox available to Historic. Both Kor Spirit Dancer and Sram, Senior Edificer are insane value engines. If either are in play long enough for the Aura player to untap with them, it almost is assuredly game over for their opponent. This is only further supported by Thoughtseize (and soon to be Inquisition of Kozilek) to help clear the path for their 2 drop to survive for the turn, as well as recursion effects like Claim // Fame and Lurrus of the Dream-Den as a companion. In addition to helping its own Plan A of attack (making a huge creature and swinging for lethal), it also heavily interacts with creature based strategies by casting removal based Auras such as Dead Weight, Mire’s Grasp, and Heliod’s Punishment. While Strixhaven does not have an aura theme, it could be possible that the deck is weakened by many players casting fewer creatures, making the removal aura’s borderline useless. Consequently, at that point, many would just swap back to Azorious Auras instead, which substitutes counter spells for discard effects.

Azorious Control

While many players do not like playing UW control lists on the Arena ladder due to how much time it takes to win a match, the deck still has all the perfect answers to deal with just about every other deck. Wrath of God answers wide strategies such as Elves, and resets the board against more midrange strategies such as Gruul Monsters or Collected Company decks. Timely Reinforcements plays strongly against burn. Grafdigger’s Cage against Collected Company and Lurrus decks. Rest in Peace to play against graveyard reliant strategies. All of these cards are answers that are possibly game winning against many of the decks in the current metagame. While many do not like playing the deck for its few finishers (Narset + Commit // Memory, Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, and Shark Typhoon), I find that opponents usually tend to concede games for the sake of time then actually play games out against this deck. It is more or less a waiting game to see if Strixhaven can provide something in this format that this deck cannot answer. However, with the addition of the Mystical Archive, I believe that is likely not the case.

Gruul Monsters

Turn 1: Llanowar Elves. Turn 2: Burning-Tree Emissary, Burning Tree-Emissary, Gruul Spellbreaker. The combination of cards that your opponent always seems to have when they play this deck, but somehow you never see. However, when not having such an explosive start the deck can seem weak until it can rely on the value powerhouses of Collected Company and Embercleave. Getting 2 Haste creatures off of a Collected Company can be brutal for your opponent to answer. More often than not you find them being helpless against it in game 1. As a well-timed Collected Company can already give you a huge edge against an opponent playing board wipes, the sideboard plan here is to just deal with what you expect your opponents to bring in against you. Abrades to deal with Grafdigger’s Cage, Rolling Vortex to deal with life gain strategies, and value cards such as Garruk’s Harbinger and Chandra, Torch of Defiance to eek out card advantage in the early game. As the main-deck is chock full of insane creatures, the bar for new creatures to be added into this list is insanely high. Furthermore, as this deck runs both Embercleave AND Collected Company, it will be difficult to find new cards from Strixhaven that are non-creatures that can be added in.

Bant Soul Sisters

When Historic first started, many strategies attempting to use Soul Warden and Ajani’s Pridemates emerged. While the decks first saw some success in the formats infancy, it has laid dormant until now. The deck may not seem like much on paper as many of the cards just don’t function as well with each other as you would like them too. Bishop of Wings only gains you 4 life and Resplendent Angel requires you to gain 5 life in order to get an angel token. Similarly, Righteous Valkyrie would only gain you 3 life if your life total is below 27 and Resplendent Angel enters the battlefield. When you are looking to get a combination of 2 creatures onto the battlefield via Collected Company, nonbos like these are usually what strays people away from the deck. Where this deck shines, however, is in its ability to snowball. All it takes is one Soul Warden or Bishop of Wings to be on the battlefield when a Collected Company resolves to really see the power of this deck. Unfortunately, both creatures are fairly easily dealt with by opponents, and the more this deck is played, the more wise opponents ought to be against this strategy. Fortunately for this deck, there are many cards that can help enable this strategy.

Historic is currently a fun format with a competitive deck for almost any playstyle. While the Strixhaven Mystical Archive aims to shake a lot of things up, how much fun the format is will hopefully stay the same. Stay tuned for more articles on how Strixhaven and the Mystical Archive impacts the format and what deck to watch out for, and potentially play! Leave a comment down below on what you thought of the article, and your thoughts on how Kaldheim Standard and Historic went! See you all next time.