I was just wondering what the best standard decks of each season were possible with a link to some going back as far as we can. I only started following standard when Caw-Blade was dominating, and have seen Valakut, Wolf-Run and Delver do well. I am interested in learning more of the standard history.
Thanks for the help:)
I guess OP wants it to be 'keyworded' like "dies" was. What word would you replace ETB with though?
When Aegis Angel is born?
When Huntmaster of the Fells arrives?
When Kitchen Sphinx lands?
When Faerie Imposter busts in?
When Dread Cacodemon pops in?
When Malfegor shows up?
I started playing competitively in Invasion/Odysses standard, but I don't remember any of those decks. I'll just list the ones I remember playing against a lot.
Odyssey era - Upheaval + Psychatog, Mirari's Wake based decks, and Mono Black, Squirrel Opposition
Onslaught Era - Goblins, Goblin Bidding, Astral Slide/lightning rift, Zombie/Reanimators, Elves
Mirrodin - Tron/Post/Tooth and Nail, Affinity (broodstar, then ravager/clamp, then krark ironworks), Sligh.
Of course, being standard, there is bleed over. I played Goblins in Ons/Mir standard, and it could kill just as fast as affinity, but it wasn't as consistent at doing it. Tron got upgrade in Kamigawa block with Kiki-Jiki. Sligh was pretty popular in my area, using stuff like arc slogger and blistering firecat.
Naturally, there's decks I don't really remember too well. I know Mind's Desire was fairly popular, but my storm deck involved vedalken archmage, retract, 0 cost artifacts and Brainfreeze. I'm not sure if Charbelcher decks were super powerful in standard, but I don't think so. I know there's at least one major Mirrodin era deck I'm drawing a blank on.
There is a thread on here where they are doing just that, it takes a bit to dig through and find since it hasn't been bumped in a bit, but if you can find it, its a good read.
That seems like a ripoff. Why would anyone play that when the next spell you cast will make your opponents draw a bunch of cards? It does not even look good for mill decks.
I was hoping to see the best or top couple of each season instead of the same old debate of best ever.
Sorry, forgot my list.
Before mirrodin, I have no clue
Mirrodin: Affinity, tooth and nail
Kamigawa: UB control with top and jitte iirc
Ravnica 1: very diverse
TSP: honestly, not a clue
Lor-Mor: Faeries, and I believe some other tribal stuff
Shards: Jund, things that beat jund
<--I started playing about here-->
Zendikar: Valakut titan -> early caw lists that used argentum armor and not swords/batterskull
Scars: fiddlesticks.dec (preceded by some other stuff)
Innistrad: WRR, delver, zombies occasionally
Rav 2: welp umm, a lot UW flash and some other things too
I guess OP wants it to be 'keyworded' like "dies" was. What word would you replace ETB with though?
When Aegis Angel is born?
When Huntmaster of the Fells arrives?
When Kitchen Sphinx lands?
When Faerie Imposter busts in?
When Dread Cacodemon pops in?
When Malfegor shows up?
It's hated to say. What would be cool would be a format where all the standard decks of each season could play against each other.
Then we would be able to do more than guess.
It doesn't really work. Meta's make decks. If Shatterstorm were legal in Mirrodin, Affinity would have been the worse deck ever.
You can't pluck a standard deck out of it's meta and compare it against anything. Take a top standrad dck and play it in a Lgacy tournamanet. You won't do very well, because the meta is completely different
Well, let's go backwards from Caw.
In Caw's season (Zen-SOM) we had the dominance of:
RUG/BUG ramp (T2 Lotus cobra) vs. Caw (T2 SFM) vs. Valakut (Not as popular, but killed JTMS + equips with Terastodon)
Before that was SOA-ZEN
Dominant deck was Jund, there were a few competitors: Vampires, (strong but lost to Jund), White Weenie (Tons of Pro Black/Red stuff, strong vs. Jund), Gx Aggro (Vengevine + BBE = Sick), and American Control (Jace, Elspeth, Ajani V and Gideon had a band together)
Before that was LOR-SOA
Dominant deck was Fae, had competition from Jund (almost entirely a SOA deck), 5cc (Incredible colorfixing at this time, had access to Chameleon Colossus and Cloud thresher), and a few others
Before that was TSP-LOR
Storm. Storm everywhere. Almost every deck ran 4x Bogardan Hellkite.
Doran (BGW) aggro was also very popular.
-Where I got into competitive MTG-
Before that was RAV-CSP-TSP
Snow White was very popular, storm was still around, but Ravnica is well loved due to how diverse the metagame was. Rakdos sligh was popular through all stages of Ravnica.
Before that was Kamigawa - RAV
Rakdos sligh was strong here, still all of the ravnican power in all colors. Some spirits got to see play with The great glass spinner, a couple snake decks here and there. Kamigawa's time in standard may as well have never happened, as it was always overshadowed by the other block it was in standard with. People played Kamigawa on purpose, to escape:
MDN - Kamigawa
Da_Boogeyman.dec (Affinity), this deck was dumb. I quit magic for the first time because it was the strongest deck in every format it seemed (You could take your standard deck to a type 1 tournament and still do well). Sligh was okay, Tooth was Affinity's only real competitor, as it could do degenerate things at the same speed as Affinity, if affinity didn't draw very well. There was no stopping affinity, short of banning nearly every single card in the deck. (5 artifact lands, Skullclamp, Disciple of the Vault, Aether vial and Ravager. And the deck still showed up. with less than half the deck remaining.)
ONS - MDN
Same decks. Affinity, sligh in the form of Goblin tribal, and tooth.
ODY - ONS
Tribes everywhere. Goblins and Slide were the best to my knowledge, but I was young here. We had all of the weird tribes from Odyssey with all of the normal tribes from Onslaught. This was a good time to be Timmy in standard. Most casual players of my age group (20ish) started playing here.
How about "You may discard your hand, pay 5 life, rip this card, remove 3 digits from any number of target fingers you control, and concede at the end of the next end step rather than pay It Will Go Through!!'s mana cost.
Before that was TSP-LOR
Storm. Storm everywhere. Almost every deck ran 4x Bogardan Hellkite.
Doran (BGW) aggro was also very popular.
-Where I got into competitive MTG-
Before that was RAV-CSP-TSP
Snow White was very popular, storm was still around, but Ravnica is well loved due to how diverse the metagame was. Rakdos sligh was popular through all stages of Ravnica.
Maybe this is a case of different regional metas, but I remember these days very differently!
Shortly after Time Spiral release, the meta was mostly Dragonstorm, with Boros Deck Wins as the main challenger, but after Planar Chaos entered the format, things settled into mostly draw-go with Dragonstorm and various aggro strategies still kicking around the sidelines. I remember Dralnu du Louvre and Soggy Pickles as the defining decks in this format. The Future Sight release brought a vibrant meta with various blue control decks and zoo-type aggro. I can't remember any serious Rakdos decks during this block.
When Lorwyn hit, Dragonstorm went obsolete. Gigadrowse rotated out, leaving the deck too vulnerable to countermagic. Following was a cute and unsolved meta of mainly tribal aggro decks, Doran being the most interesting one, until Bitterblossom was printed, at which point the entire meta was Faeries and I stopped playing Standard.
I dont ever remember Rakdos sligh being a popular deck during kam/Rav and Rav/TSP standard enviorments.
I remember Zoo, Heezy Street, Enduring Ideal, Solar Flare, Heartbeat combo, Deathcloud and glare of subdual control for kam/Rav, and magnivore.
And for Rav/TSP era, Lots of Zoo and Heezy still, Dragonstorm, Tefari control, glittering wish control and mystical teachings control. And yes soggy pickles, that deck was bonkers.
That seems like a ripoff. Why would anyone play that when the next spell you cast will make your opponents draw a bunch of cards? It does not even look good for mill decks.
I dont ever remember Rakdos sligh being a popular deck during kam/Rav and Rav/TSP standard enviorments.
I remember Zoo, Heezy Street, Enduring Ideal, Solar Flare, Heartbeat combo, Deathcloud and glare of subdual control for kam/Rav, and magnivore.
And for Rav/TSP era, Lots of Zoo and Heezy still, Dragonstorm, Tefari control, glittering wish control and mystical teachings control. And yes soggy pickles, that deck was bonkers.
Yup, I remember it this way as well. CHK/RAV also had Greater Good based Gifts decks, Ghost Dad, Worldfire decks...
MIR/CHK had Tooth and Nail, KCI, Mono U Control, and Affinity dominated everything.
Well, let's go backwards from Caw.
In Caw's season (Zen-SOM) we had the dominance of:
RUG/BUG ramp (T2 Lotus cobra) vs. Caw (T2 SFM) vs. Valakut (Not as popular, but killed JTMS + equips with Terastodon) This is accurate, though not in chronological order.
Before that was SOA-ZEN
Dominant deck was Jund, there were a few competitors: Vampires, (strong but lost to Jund), White Weenie (Tons of Pro Black/Red stuff, strong vs. Jund), Gx Aggro (Vengevine + BBE = Sick), and American Control (Jace, Elspeth, Ajani V and Gideon had a band together) UGW Mythic Conscription was actually the best deck for the last few months of that format. It was like playing a Modern deck in Standard.
Before that was LOR-SOA
Dominant deck was Fae, had competition from Jund (almost entirely a SOA deck), 5cc (Incredible colorfixing at this time, had access to Chameleon Colossus and Cloud thresher), and a few others. The 5cc control decks of that era did not play Colossus nor did they play Cloudtresher. They were mostly UWRb control decks, with the black splash being mostly for Cruel Ultimatum.
Before that was TSP-LOR
Storm. Storm everywhere. Almost every deck ran 4x Bogardan Hellkite.
Doran (BGW) aggro was also very popular. TSP block, LOR, 10th: There was not a clear boogyman of the format, but it was probably BG Elf Midrange.
TSP block, LOR, MOR, 10th: UB Faeries, BG Elf Midrange, UW Reveillark control/combo
TSP block, LOR, MOR, SHM 10th: UB Faeries, BG Elf Midrange, UW/UWr Reveillark control/combo
TSP block, LOR, MOR, SHM, EVE, 10th: RDW
-Where I got into competitive MTG-
Before that was RAV-CSP-TSP
Snow White was very popular, storm was still around, but Ravnica is well loved due to how diverse the metagame was. Rakdos sligh was popular through all stages of Ravnica. First time I get into some form of competitive magic as well.
I vaguely remember as following
RAV block, TSP, 9th: Boros Aggro, UR Dragonstorm, UWB control Solar Flare
RAV block, TSP, PLC, 9th: UR Dragonstorm, Ub Teachings, UR/UW Tron, UWB Solar Flare
RAV block, TSP, PLC, FUT 9th: Dragonstorm, UR/UW tron, RG Aggro (Goyf Sligh), BR aggro (Bob Sligh), UWR midrange/control
RAV block, TSP, PLC, FUT, 10th: pretty diverse, though I think UWR midrange/control might have been the best deck.
Before that was Kamigawa - RAV
Rakdos sligh was strong here, still all of the ravnican power in all colors. Some spirits got to see play with The great glass spinner, a couple snake decks here and there. Kamigawa's time in standard may as well have never happened, as it was always overshadowed by the other block it was in standard with. People played Kamigawa on purpose, to escape: UB Counterbalance was the clear best deck after Coldsnap, however the deck was only legal for about 3 months before Kamigawa rotated along with Sensei's Divining Top.
MDN - Kamigawa
Da_Boogeyman.dec (Affinity), this deck was dumb. I quit magic for the first time because it was the strongest deck in every format it seemed (You could take your standard deck to a type 1 tournament and still do well). Sligh was okay, Tooth was Affinity's only real competitor, as it could do degenerate things at the same speed as Affinity, if affinity didn't draw very well. There was no stopping affinity, short of banning nearly every single card in the deck. (5 artifact lands, Skullclamp, Disciple of the Vault, Aether vial and Ravager. And the deck still showed up. with less than half the deck remaining.)
ONS - MDN
Same decks. Affinity, sligh in the form of Goblin tribal, and tooth.
ODY - ONS
Tribes everywhere. Goblins and Slide were the best to my knowledge, but I was young here. We had all of the weird tribes from Odyssey with all of the normal tribes from Onslaught. This was a good time to be Timmy in standard. Most casual players of my age group (20ish) started playing here.
Understand, Dredge is not really a Magic: The Gathering deck. When a card is playable in it, it doesn't mean it's a tournament playable card. It means it's playable in whatever crazy fantasy world that Dredge operates in.
Modern:
Something new every week
Legacy:
Something new everyweek
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Thanks for the help:)
Then we would be able to do more than guess.
How To Keep Your FOIL Cards From Curling: http://youtu.be/QTmubrS8VnI
The Best Deck Boxes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEwgLph_Pjk
The Best Binders: http://youtu.be/H5IauASYWjk
The best of each season is easy to say. The best ever is hard (except that is is academy combo...but)
So going backwards, by my count, we have
Odyssey era - Upheaval + Psychatog, Mirari's Wake based decks, and Mono Black, Squirrel Opposition
Onslaught Era - Goblins, Goblin Bidding, Astral Slide/lightning rift, Zombie/Reanimators, Elves
Mirrodin - Tron/Post/Tooth and Nail, Affinity (broodstar, then ravager/clamp, then krark ironworks), Sligh.
Of course, being standard, there is bleed over. I played Goblins in Ons/Mir standard, and it could kill just as fast as affinity, but it wasn't as consistent at doing it. Tron got upgrade in Kamigawa block with Kiki-Jiki. Sligh was pretty popular in my area, using stuff like arc slogger and blistering firecat.
Naturally, there's decks I don't really remember too well. I know Mind's Desire was fairly popular, but my storm deck involved vedalken archmage, retract, 0 cost artifacts and Brainfreeze. I'm not sure if Charbelcher decks were super powerful in standard, but I don't think so. I know there's at least one major Mirrodin era deck I'm drawing a blank on.
Standard - :symb::symg: Aggro
Modern -:symr::symu: - Storm / :symb::symg::symr: - Dredgevine / :symw::symu: - Eggs / :symw::symu::symb::symr::symg: - Doman Zoo / - Soul Sisters
Legacy - :symr::symw::symg: - Zoo / :symr::symg: - Belcher
On the Standstill Promo
Sorry, forgot my list.
Before mirrodin, I have no clue
Mirrodin: Affinity, tooth and nail
Kamigawa: UB control with top and jitte iirc
Ravnica 1: very diverse
TSP: honestly, not a clue
Lor-Mor: Faeries, and I believe some other tribal stuff
Shards: Jund, things that beat jund
<--I started playing about here-->
Zendikar: Valakut titan -> early caw lists that used argentum armor and not swords/batterskull
Scars: fiddlesticks.dec (preceded by some other stuff)
Innistrad: WRR, delver, zombies occasionally
Rav 2: welp umm, a lot UW flash and some other things too
I don't always post about Rafiq of the Many, but when I do, I cardlink to the original artwork, and not the supplementary product version.
"I trust myself to do my duty, even unto death. It's what comes after that I'm afraid of."
"Just fight without fear. Your soul is protected by the hand of Avacyn and will never submit to evil."
It doesn't really work. Meta's make decks. If Shatterstorm were legal in Mirrodin, Affinity would have been the worse deck ever.
You can't pluck a standard deck out of it's meta and compare it against anything. Take a top standrad dck and play it in a Lgacy tournamanet. You won't do very well, because the meta is completely different
In Caw's season (Zen-SOM) we had the dominance of:
RUG/BUG ramp (T2 Lotus cobra) vs. Caw (T2 SFM) vs. Valakut (Not as popular, but killed JTMS + equips with Terastodon)
Before that was SOA-ZEN
Dominant deck was Jund, there were a few competitors: Vampires, (strong but lost to Jund), White Weenie (Tons of Pro Black/Red stuff, strong vs. Jund), Gx Aggro (Vengevine + BBE = Sick), and American Control (Jace, Elspeth, Ajani V and Gideon had a band together)
Before that was LOR-SOA
Dominant deck was Fae, had competition from Jund (almost entirely a SOA deck), 5cc (Incredible colorfixing at this time, had access to Chameleon Colossus and Cloud thresher), and a few others
Before that was TSP-LOR
Storm. Storm everywhere. Almost every deck ran 4x Bogardan Hellkite.
Doran (BGW) aggro was also very popular.
-Where I got into competitive MTG-
Before that was RAV-CSP-TSP
Snow White was very popular, storm was still around, but Ravnica is well loved due to how diverse the metagame was. Rakdos sligh was popular through all stages of Ravnica.
Before that was Kamigawa - RAV
Rakdos sligh was strong here, still all of the ravnican power in all colors. Some spirits got to see play with The great glass spinner, a couple snake decks here and there. Kamigawa's time in standard may as well have never happened, as it was always overshadowed by the other block it was in standard with. People played Kamigawa on purpose, to escape:
MDN - Kamigawa
Da_Boogeyman.dec (Affinity), this deck was dumb. I quit magic for the first time because it was the strongest deck in every format it seemed (You could take your standard deck to a type 1 tournament and still do well). Sligh was okay, Tooth was Affinity's only real competitor, as it could do degenerate things at the same speed as Affinity, if affinity didn't draw very well. There was no stopping affinity, short of banning nearly every single card in the deck. (5 artifact lands, Skullclamp, Disciple of the Vault, Aether vial and Ravager. And the deck still showed up. with less than half the deck remaining.)
ONS - MDN
Same decks. Affinity, sligh in the form of Goblin tribal, and tooth.
ODY - ONS
Tribes everywhere. Goblins and Slide were the best to my knowledge, but I was young here. We had all of the weird tribes from Odyssey with all of the normal tribes from Onslaught. This was a good time to be Timmy in standard. Most casual players of my age group (20ish) started playing here.
Older than that, I can't help with.
Maybe this is a case of different regional metas, but I remember these days very differently!
Shortly after Time Spiral release, the meta was mostly Dragonstorm, with Boros Deck Wins as the main challenger, but after Planar Chaos entered the format, things settled into mostly draw-go with Dragonstorm and various aggro strategies still kicking around the sidelines. I remember Dralnu du Louvre and Soggy Pickles as the defining decks in this format. The Future Sight release brought a vibrant meta with various blue control decks and zoo-type aggro. I can't remember any serious Rakdos decks during this block.
When Lorwyn hit, Dragonstorm went obsolete. Gigadrowse rotated out, leaving the deck too vulnerable to countermagic. Following was a cute and unsolved meta of mainly tribal aggro decks, Doran being the most interesting one, until Bitterblossom was printed, at which point the entire meta was Faeries and I stopped playing Standard.
I remember Zoo, Heezy Street, Enduring Ideal, Solar Flare, Heartbeat combo, Deathcloud and glare of subdual control for kam/Rav, and magnivore.
And for Rav/TSP era, Lots of Zoo and Heezy still, Dragonstorm, Tefari control, glittering wish control and mystical teachings control. And yes soggy pickles, that deck was bonkers.
Standard - :symb::symg: Aggro
Modern -:symr::symu: - Storm / :symb::symg::symr: - Dredgevine / :symw::symu: - Eggs / :symw::symu::symb::symr::symg: - Doman Zoo / - Soul Sisters
Legacy - :symr::symw::symg: - Zoo / :symr::symg: - Belcher
On the Standstill Promo
Yup, I remember it this way as well. CHK/RAV also had Greater Good based Gifts decks, Ghost Dad, Worldfire decks...
MIR/CHK had Tooth and Nail, KCI, Mono U Control, and Affinity dominated everything.
Fall 2010-Winter 2011 (Zen Block, SOM, M11) RUG ramp control and RG Valakut
Winter 2011 (Zen Block, SOM, MBS, M11) Boros Aggro, Caw-Blade, RG Valakut
Spring 2011 - Summer 2011 (Zen block, Scars block, M11) Caw-Blade
Summer 2011 (Zen Block, Scars Block, M11, M12 post bannings) UW Control, RG Valakut, RDW
Fall 2011 (SOM block, INS, M12) RG WolfRun Ramp
Winter 2012 (SOM block, INS, DKA, M12) WolfRun, UWx Delver, UB Control[not sure if it was...]
Spring 2012 UW Delver
Summer 2012 Bx Zombies, UW Delver, RGx Pod
Modern:
Something new every week
Legacy:
Something new everyweek