Multiple Broken Mythics Finally Make Green Competitive in Standard

Last updated on November 25, 2025

Ouroboroid | Illustration by Samuel Perin

Magic's Standard meta has changed a lot in the last two weeks. For starters, the bans from Nov 10 wiped out Izzet Vivi Cauldron and Mono-Red aggro, which had a 50% share of the metagame. And Avatar: The Last Airbender, which launched last week, has brought a handful of powerful cards which are both reinforcing some of the strongest Standard decks that survived the bans unscathed, and making brand-new decks possible.

It's still a bit too early to tell which of today's decks may end up among Standard's strongest, but here's an overview of what has been working well since Aang landed in MTG.

The Old Guard: Dimir Midrange and Simic Ouroboroid

Kaito, Bane of Nightmares – Illustration by Joshua Raphael

As it's usually the case after a bunch of bans, whichever decks were good pre-bans and survived unscathed tend to shine in the following weeks – and that's precisely what Dimir Midrange and Simic Ouroboroid have been doing last week.

Dimir Midrange

Dimir Midrange was the third most popular deck before the Nov 10 bans, and by last week's start it was overwhelmingly the most popular Standard deck: The MTGO Challenge 32 on Nov 18 was Dimir, Dimir all the way down.

Source: MTGTop8

Things have changed quite a bit then, and Dimir Midrange's dominance is far from assured, but it's still the most popular deck in Standard, representing around 20% of the metagame in the last 7 days, and still getting very good results: A Dimir Midrange deck ended #2 in the MTGO Challenge 32 yesterday, and another ended #3 in the Standard Showcase Challenge against a field of 231 players.

With the exception of a single copy of Heartless Act in some builds, Dimir Midrange doesn't seem to need too much from Avatar. The main change when comparing with pre-ban Dimir decks is that current decks are playing full playsets of Deep-Cavern Bats more often.

Simic Ouroboroid Aggro

Ouroboroid[card] | Illustration by Samuel Perin

Simic Ouroboroid is, like Dimir Midrange: It's a deck was already strong pre-bans that dodged the banhammer completely… but with one key difference: In this case, it did get new toys from Avatar.

And not just any toy, but what's clearly Avatar's best card thus far: [card]Badgermole Cub. 

Badgermole Cub is becoming a multi-format powerhouse, seeing play in Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, and cEDH. And, after a price spike of more than 35% during the weekend, is TLA's most expensive card right now.

If you were wondering which one's the second most expensive, that would be Wan Shi Tong, Librarian…

… and Simic Ouroboroid is playing both of them right now. Which, on top of making it the Most Dangerous Standard Deck to Upgrade right now, it may also allow it to inherit Vivi Cauldron's “Most Unfair Shenanigans in Standard” title, above all when you can pull boards so wide and tall that you could think it's Commander… by turn three!

To be fair, its competitive results are good but not that broken thus far, which may indicate it's more of a “Fair, strong deck that can pull a crazy start sometimes.” A Simic Ouroboroid deck ended #3 on the MTGO Challenge on Saturday, and another got the first spot last Friday, but in spite of being the second most-popular deck it ended outside the Top 8 in yesterday's Showcase Challenge.

Banned, but Not Broken: Izzet Discard Aggro, Izzet Splash Prowess, and Mono-Red Aggro

The bans from Nov 10 specifically targeted two decks… but news of Izzet's and Mono-Red's deaths have been somewhat exaggerated.

Izzet, in particular, has mutated into two different shells. And both of them have gotten very good results in the last seven days.

Izzet Discard Aggro

The Izzet Aggro shell with Marauding Mako and Fear of Missing Out is well and good, and kicking butt and taking down tournaments – in particular, Do0mSwitch defeated 230 other players to end up #1 in yesterday's Showcase Challenge, on top of the same deck doing very well on Saturday's and Friday's challenges.

Avatar has contributed Tiger-Seal, and Boomerang Basics to work both as tempo tools,letting you draw extra cards in a pinch. Duelist of the Mind and Quantum Riddler round things up in the air, and you get a very aggressive deck once again puts Izzet at the top of the Standard food chain.

Izzet Splash Prowess

Proving that Izzet's prowess this year is not just because of a couple of broken (and now banned), Izzet has another extremely strong shell doing well in Standard. This one is a bit hard to name: MTGTop8 calls it “Izzet Control”, MTGGoldfish prefers “Izzet Prowess”, so let's just point at it and say, “The Izzet deck that plays Splash Portal and tons of Otters.”

Which, as we reported last week, is also doing extremely well…

… and has kept the pace: It landed #4 in yesterday's Showcase Challenge.

There are some overlapping cards with Izzet Aggro, but here you're going for a bit of a longer game (the “Control” angle are its red removal tools, and its blue counters and bounce spells), plus Ral, Crackling Wit as top-end to let you play Storm… in Standard!

Or, you can Splash Portal a warped-in Quantum Riddler on turn 3, to end up with a huge 4/6 flier and drawing two cards in the process. May not be exactly what control decks do, but it does put you pretty much in control of the match, so I guess it counts!

Mono-Red Punisher

Mono-Red is definitely nowhere near of what it was pre-ban, but it's still a thing in Standard by having mutated to a more punishing playstyle (with “punish” being MTG slang for “Cards that ping my opponent for doing things like drawing cards, or casting spells”).

In spite of some good results yesterday, it does look like Mono-Red has fallen down a tier – but you really can't discount this archetype in Standard.

New Kids on the Block

Toph, the Blind Bandit | Illustration by Yueko

There are quite a few other decks that have pulled great results in the last few days. It's still a tad too early to tell which ones are one-hit wonders, and which have staying power, but there's definitely a look to pay attention to right now.

Gruul Leyline Aggro

This is really Mono-Red cosplaying as Gruul just to sneak in a couple of hexproof spells… but it's working! A first spot on one of last Saturday's Standard Challenges, some earlier Top 4s, and a Top 8 in the Showcase Challenge yesterday makes Gruul decks with Leyline of Resonance a threat you need to respect. 

Mono-White Aggro

Speaking of one-hit wonders, a mono-white aggro deck ended second in yesterday's Showcase Challenge. It goes for a self-bounce angle with Parting Gust and tons of creatures with good enters triggers.

Avatar Allies

Some of the best Standard decks have included a couple of Avatar cards.

But then here's one deck that's pretty much all Avatar cards!

As Andy reported last Friday, Avatar Allies is a real deck…

… and it's nothing but creature spells from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Only the lands and a couple of sideboard cards are not from the newest Magic set!

Wrap Up

Airbender Ascension | Illustration by Shiren

With the release of Avatar, and most recent B&R, Standard finally got the shake-up everyone's been hoping for. A couple of pre-ban decks are still coming out on top, but a bevy of new contenders is bringing a new sense of adventure to the format. Will Badgermole Cub prove to be too broken? Will “Oops, All Creatures” rise to Tier 1 status? We'll be back with another Meta Report soon to let you know!