The Decks Dominating the Post-Ban MTG Standard Meta

Last updated on July 8, 2025

Kaito, Bane of Nightmares – art by Joshua Raphael

One week ago, Magic's Standard format saw one the largest bans in MTG history. WotC's Banned and Restricted Announcement from June 30 banned a whopping seven cards in one go, targeting the four most popular decks in the recent Pro Tour Magic The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY (Izzet Prowess, Azorius Omniscience, Mono-Red Aggro, and Domain Overlords) while also prevenatively nerfing what use to be the best decks before Tarkir: Dragonstorm (Pixie Bounce) to avoid its comeback.

In this article, we'll look at six decks that have been doing very well in MTGO's Challenge 32 in the last few days. Please bear in mind that, first, the current Standard meta is brand-new so it's definitely too early to tell which decks are truly the strongest. And, second, we're just four weeks away from getting a new Standard set (Edge of Eternities) and a full rotation, so there's no way to know what the Standard Magic meta will look like in August.

Dimir Aggro/Midrange

Most of the forerunners in this brave new Standard meta are tried-and-true decks that used to shine in some earlier metagame. The majority of players have clearly picked up whatever used to work at some point in the past and are running with it now.

Dimir Aggro/Midrange is the current top choice: It was already the fifth most-played deck in the last Pro tour…

Source: Frank Karsten on X

… and it was by far the most-played archetype back in January, during Magic Spotlight: Foundations in Atlanta:

Source: Frank Karsten on X

Untouched by the bans, and with its Pixie Bounce nemesis unlikely to return, Dimir Midrange has been on a tear as of late, very often topping the Challenge 32 events on MTGO, and sometimes even claiming every spot in the Top 8.

Source: MTGTop8 – MTGO Challenge 32, Friday 4th

The deck has a very aggressive gameplan in the first three turns, which is why it's often labelled Dimir Aggro: Play 1- and 2- drops, then follow up with the deck's main star, Kaito, Bane of Nightmares. But between Kaito and Enduring Curiosity it can grind long, more mindrange-y games.

Dimir Aggro's Red Flag: Black Removal Gone Next Rotation

Unless reprinted in Edge of Eternities, Go for the Throat and Cut Down will be gone from Standard. These are two of the most efficient removal spells in the format and allow Dimir to stay ahead in tempo – unless EOE brings some similar tools, Black decks will lose a lot of punch.

The upcoming rotation will also take away Faerie Mastermind, which is a key 2-drop. Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor, two midrange options that sometimes make their way into Dimir lists.

And Dimir will also lose Darkslick Shores and Underground River from its mana base, although it will get Watery Grave (and shock lands have two basic land types, so they work will with the Verge lands like Gloomlake Verge).

Fires of Reinvention: UR Soul Cauldron

Izzet Prowess is dead. Long live Vivi Soul Cauldron!

Proving that a retired King is not a dead King, Magic Hall of Famer Paulo Victor Damo da Rosa did bring Izzet to the last Pro Tour… but his list was a very, very different take than the massively popular Izzet Prowess list:

And, what do you know: PVDDR's brew didn't just work for him, it just plain works. Even taking down the latest MTGO Challenge 32 last Saturday!

PVDDR's Vivi Cauldron list is a pretty aggressive brew, that can then pivot to either a “Go tall” plan thanks to Agatha's Soul Cauldron counters, and finish things off with a Voldaren Thrillseeker to the face (or us the Cauldron to give Thrillseeker's activated ability to any other creature, and then burn your foe down).

But other players are experimenting with builds with mostly no creatures except Vivi Ornitier, like HouseOfManaMTG did to take the #1 spot in Saturday's challenge.

Red Deck Still Wins

Mono-Red Aggro, aka “Red Deck Wins,” was one of the archetypes targeted in the last round of bans. It lost two key cards (Monstrous Rage and Heartfire Hero)… but it looks like it has absorbed the blow and pushed forward, getting a couple of Top 8's in the recent Challenges:

The plan is always the same: Play red creatures, point red removal to blockers or face, profit! Urabrask's Forge has shown up again in the sideboard, as it tends to do when RDW expects to find several control decks in the meta.

Red decks still wins, but will lose some of its tools in the upcoming rotation: Monastery Swiftspear, Obliterating Bolt, Lithomantic Barrage and Urabrask's Forge will all be rotating out. But if EOE has a couple of new toys for red, this could be (again!) a strong choice in Magic's Standard.

Return of Gruul Aggro

Speaking of aggro decks, Gruul Aggro is another archetype that used to be pretty strong not too long ago. It was the second most popular archetype during Magic Spotlight: Foundations in Atlanta, right after Dimir Midrange. After being pushed out of the meta, it's making a triumphant comeback.

You have a similar play pattern to Red Deck Wins, but can go much taller thanks to Innkeeper's Talent.

Mono-White Control

Mono-white control was all the rage when Bloomburrow made it a thing, thanks to the introduction of Carrot Cake, Caretaker's Talent, and Fountainport. It was even part of reason for some price spikes back in its heyday, thanks to how well white-leaning control decks were positioned.

The core of Mono-white control has remained pretty much the same since then, just adding a couple of cards from Tarkir: Dragonstorm and Foundations. 

Mono-White control's main deck and mana base will survive mostly untouched through rotation, including Demolition Field since it's been reprinted in Foundations. The main loss will be Sunfall, but most decks pack a single copy.

It does lose some sideboard tech cards, though, like Destroy Evil, The Stone Brain and Temporary Lockdown, and sideboards tend to matter quite a bit for control decks.

Jeskai Control

Players have been refining Jeskai Control for quite a while, and it even got one Top 16 spot in the last Pro Tour. It's doing quite well now, and is one deck that as far as we know will get better with Edge of Eternities: its current mana base loses nothing with rotation, but will gain Sacred Foundry, making it objectively better.

Wrap Up

As noted in the intro, please keep in mind that this Standard MTG meta is very new, so it's normal that existing archetypes will dominate early on. And things can change massively in just four weeks, when Standard gets both a new set and a full rotation, so nobody knows how the meta will look like in August.

With that said, most decks in this list lose very little with the upcoming rotation (the only exception being Dimir Midrange).

Choose your weapon wisely, and good luck out there!