Singleton is back on MTG Arena this week as part of Week 3 of the War of the Spark Chronicles event series. You’ll be able to win stained glass card styles for The Wanderer, Samut, Tyrant Smasher, and Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord by getting three, nine, and 15 wins, respectively.
New to the format? Don’t worry—I’m here to guide you through the basics so you can get all three of those sweet card styles.
Singleton on MTG Arena
Singleton is a Constructed format where you can only play one copy of any card in your 60-card deck—except for basic lands. On MTG Arena, the Singleton format is limited to the cards that are on MTG Arena, which means the cards that are legal in Standard, so from Ixalan through War of the Spark.
There are two key exceptions—Rat Colony and Persistent Petitioners. Both of these cards have rules text that says, “A deck can have any number of cards named .” This allows a Rat Colony or Persistent Petitioners deck to break the fundamental rule that defines the format: the limit of one copy of a card per deck.
Brew, Brew, Brew!
Just like Standard Pauper, Singleton is only available on MTG Arena during special events. One of the perks of a format that is rarely available means that most people won’t have perfectly tuned lists and are more likely to try and have fun. So don’t worry about your deck being perfect! Just build something that looks interesting and get out there and have fun.
There are a couple of things to keep in mind when brewing for Singleton, though. First, most decks are relatively slow—except for Rat Colony decks and the occasional Mono-Red, Mono-White, or Boros player. There aren’t enough good, aggressive, low-cost creatures in Standard right now to overcome the one copy limit. Second, the format can feel bomb-centric and thus kind of swingy. Because you’re limited to one copy of each card, that means drawing your bombs will have a larger effect than in a normal Constructed match, similar to Limited. Third, card advantage matters even more than in Standard, as drawing a few extra cards means you’re that much more likely to find your bombs.
Let’s explore a few Singleton options. The decks we’ve highlighted here are far from a comprehensive picture of the metagame—what metagame, really?—but try to craft your game plan with these archetypes in mind.
Superfriends
Superfriends is a tried and true archetype in all singleton formats. And with the release of War of the Spark, MTG Arena’s Singleton format just got 36 new Planeswalkers options.
There are two main ways to build Superfriends: go all-in on Planeswalkers or go all-in on Niv-Mizzet Reborn. Both are five-color monstrosities that can easily lose to themselves but are immensely satisfying when the work. The Planeswalker-centric version is basically just all of your favorite powerful Planeswalkers jammed together, while the Niv-Mizzet Reborn version is only made up of two-color cards to abuse Niv’s enter the battlefield trigger. It takes the powerful multi-color Planeswalkers, leaving out the mono-color ‘walkers, and combines then with the best two-color cards in Standard.
Key Cards:
- Niv-Mizzet Reborn
- Chromatic Lantern and Firemind Vessel
- Any and all multicolor lands
- Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
MTG Arena Singleton Superfriends
Rat Colony
If you’re looking to save your Wildcards then the Rat Colony deck is for you. You only need to craft four copies of Rat Colony to be able to include as many as you want in your deck, and then add a few Swamps to taste.
For a little more spice, you can add in some Black removal to help your Rats get through pesky blockers. You could even add Blue for Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive, which make your Rats unblockable, as well as some card draw.
Or just save your Wildcards and jam 40 Rat Colonys and 20 Swamps together, which will be consistent and aggressive, but won’t lead to very many interesting games.
Key Cards:
MTG Arena Singleton Mono-Black Rat Colony
| Creatures (40) 40 Rat Colony | Lands (20) 20 Swamp |
MTG Arena Singleton UB Rat Colony
| 20 Rat Colony 1 Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive Spells (13) 1 Dive Down 1 Skulduggery 1 Cast Down 1 Chart a Course 1 Costly Plunder 1 Negate 1 Severed Strands 1 Walk the Plank 1 Murder 1 Recover 1 Secrets of the Golden City 1 Chemister’s Insight 1 Price of Fame Enchantments (2) 1 Aether Tunnel 1 Waterknot | Lands (24) 1 Drowned Catacomb 6 Island 16 Swamp 1 Watery Grave |
Mono-Green
When everyone is playing inconsistent decks, one of the best ways to win is to play the biggest creatures.
Thanks to the printing of Llanowar Elves, along with an assortment of the usual Green ramp creatures and spells, Mono-Green can go bigger faster than any other deck in Singleton. It really doesn’t matter what five or six mana creature you’re casting on Turn 3 or 4 when you’re opponent is still playing 2/2s and 3/3s.
Key Cards:
- Llanowar Elves and friends
- Carnage Tyrant
- Beast Whisperer or Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
- Nissa, Who Shakes the World
MTG Arena Singleton Mono-Green Ramp
Grixis Control
Grixis Control excels in Singleton because it combines counters, discard, removal, card draw, and amazing threats—all into one deck. It’s no accident that Nicol Bolas is the centerpiece of one of Singleton’s most powerful archetypes.
Key Cards:
Boros Aggro
Aside from Rat Colony, you have three options if you want to play an aggressive deck: Mono-Red, Mono-White, or Boros. Your choice is really between a mono-color deck and a two-color deck, though—do you want to have consistent mana at the expense of more powerful cards, or extremely powerful cards with a less reliable manabase?
Boros Aggro seems to be the best positioned of the options for MTG Arena’s Singleton format because it allows you to play powerful mid-game threats that go over midrange and control decks’ defenses as well as burn spells that give the deck enough reach to end a game before your opponent can stabilize.
Key Cards:
MTG Arena Singleton Boros Aggro
Looking for More Ideas?
There are plenty of other Singleton options for MTG Arena! Check out Mono-White, Mono-Red, Gruul, Merfolk, Sultai Midrange, or even Esper Control.