Compact Beatdown Decks Jockey for Standard Dominance

Last updated on December 2, 2025

Marauding Mako | Illustration by Alix Branwyn

As we head into the MTG World Championship, Magic's Standard metagame keeps shifting and evolving!

The bans from Nov 10 opened up the field, and Avatar: The Last Airbender has proven to be quite an impactful Magic set: From staples like Badgermole Cub that's making waves across MTG formats, to a competitive Standard deck which is pretty much all Avatar creatures.

Let's check which Standard decks have seen the most play in recent MTG tournaments, and have been putting up great results.

Three Decks Over 10% Play Rate: Dimir Midrange, Simic Ouroboroid, and Izzet Looting

Fear of Missing Out – Illustration by Cacho Rubione

The last round of Standard bans have left a pretty open metagame. According to MTGTop8 and MTGGoldfish, there are no decks with a metagame share over 20%, and only three decks with a metagame share over 10%

Dimir Midrange

Since the bans from Nov 10, Dimir Midrange has consistently remained the most popular deck, representing about 15% of the Standard meta. And although Izzet Looting and Simic Ouroboroid are breathing down its neck, Kato & friends have consistently placed in the Top 8 of most MTGO Challenges in the last seven days, including a #2 place in one of last Saturday's Challenges.

Dimir's creature shell has remained largely unchanged since last week; where there's quite a bit of variation is in the interaction suit, with some versions cutting a couple of instants to fit Preacher of the Schism as an extra three-drop. 

Izzet Looting

Izzet Looting has had a great week. For starters, it has clearly become the most popular Izzet deck. It has become the second most-popular deck in Standard right now, outpacing Simic Ouroboroid.

It also looks like most data aggregators, including Magic's Hall of Famer Frank Karsten in his Metagame Mentor, have leaned towards calling it “Izzet Looting”, although in some cases you'll still see it labelled as “Izzet Aggro”.

It's also a fairly stable list, with decks reaching the Top 8 in the last few days showing nearly-identical lists, both main-deck and in the sideboard.

Simic Ouroboroid Aggro

Like Dimir Midrange, Simic Ouroboroid was one of the best Standard decks pre-bans, and  Avatar's Badgermole Cub has made it even better.

It has seen a slight dip in popularity this week. at least if you go by MTGO challenges (in the MTGA ladder it seems to be everywhere…). But, on the other hand, Top 8 finishes have improved compared to last week, including a top spot on one of Saturday's Challenges, and several Top 4s yesterday.

There's still some experimentation with the creature shell (some versions include a couple of copies of Quantum Riddler, and/or Sab-Sunen, Luxa Embodied as additional top-end), but the top finishers in the last three days ran the exact same 75 cards, shown below.

Punching Up: Bant Aggro, Dimir Bounce, and Superior Reanimator

When it comes to MTG decks, “Popular” and “Powerful” are not the same thing: There are quite a few decks with a play rate between 2% and 8% that are well represented in the top cuts of MTGO Challenges, and with good odds of claiming a #1 spot.

This week, Bant Airbending, Dimir Bounce (also labelled Dimir Control), and Superior Reanimator have all gotten great results, and are gaining momentum compared with a week ago.

Bant Airbending

Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius is a plot enabler from Outlaws of Thunder Junction, but this Simic bear‘s cost reduction works wonderfully with airbending: It's now free!

Which in turn means that you can go infinite by airbending Aang, Swift Savior and Airbender Ascension with Appa, Steadfast Guardian…

… and you get infinite 1/1 ally tokens due to Appa's cast-from-exile trigger.

The combo is not the only tool, though: The cards are individually good, and Bant Airbending can punch up even without it, as it proved taking down the #1 spot on one of last Saturday's Challenges

Dimir Bounce

Dimir has a second archetype doing very well, in this case going for a more control approach with bounce-able permanents like Grim Bauble, Nowhere to Run, and Tinybones Joins Up to control the board, attack your opponent's hand, and grow a huge Entity Tracker

And it's further proof that the really powerful card in Standard is Stormchaser's Talent, providing bodies both for defense against aggro and as a win condition in the late-game.

Superior Reanimator

With Agatha's Soul Cauldron gone, graveyard decks have a better chance to shine without being hated out of the meta. Spider-Man‘s Superior Spider-Man (aka Kavaero, Mind-Bitten if you play online) had already enabled this Reanimator build before the bans…

… but with Izzet Vivi gone it has gone from a fringe deck to taking down one of Saturday's challenges, on top of claiming a couple of Top 8s.

Other Strong Contenders

Kaito, Bane of Nightmares – Illustration by Joshua Raphael

Izzet Prowess was one of the post-ban frontrunners, and initially seemed like Izzet's successor to Vivi Cauldron. Izzet Looting has taken that mantle, at least for now, but Izzet Prowess is still getting great results by, like Dimir Bounce, leveraging Stormchaser Talent, bounce, removal, and just two creatures. 

While Vivi Cauldron was obliterated by the bans, you really can't kill Mono-Red aggro. The deck's still around, and this week it has even regained its position as “Best Decks with Lots of Mountains,” which last week was briely taken by Gruul Leylines (which is still also a thing, but has failed to place well in the last three days).

As Andy reported a few days ago, Avatar Allies is a real deck and easily the best way to put a lot of Avatar cards into play. Like Gruul Leylines, though, it didn't quite manage to get good placements in the last few days, which may indicate opponents have learned what to expect and how to counter it.

Everything above may shift abruptly during Magic's World Championship this weekend, so we'll have to see what the pros bring to the fight – but as far as fresh, open metagames go, the current Standard looks in a great spot!