Mythic Championship V kicks off on Friday and will be the first major tournament to showcase the new Throne of Eldraine Standard format. With the release of Magic’s newest set and Ixalan, Rivals of Ixalan, Dominaria, and Core Set 2019 rotating, what new archetypes would rise to the top of Standard?
The conversation through the first few weeks of the format has been driven by the consensus that the best deck is Bant Golos, which uses Golos, Tireless Pilgrim and Field of the Dead to do its best impression of the Standard Scapeshift deck from last season. And the players at Mythic Championship V seem to have agreed with the consensus, with of 41.2% of the field registering a Golos deck for the event.
But masked by the prevalence of Golos is the dominance of ramp strategies in the new Standard format. The full deck lists reveal that 70% of the decks are ramp archetypes while Golos, Tireless Pilgrim and Field of the Dead will only be the seventh and ninth most-played cards at the Mythic Championship (excluding basic lands). Most of the other 10 most-played cards are either ramp (Growth Spiral and Circuitous Route) or ramp payoffs like Hydroid Krasis.
With that context, let’s take a look at the Top 5 Standard decks to expect at Mythic Championship V. And don’t forget that you can draft your favorite cards or players in one of our Thousand Leagues public fantasy leagues—where you could win a an uncut War of the Spark foil rare sheet—or create your own league and invite your friends!
1. Bant Golos
Bant Golos is the deck to beat at Mythic Championship V. 23 of the 68 players, or 33.8% of the field, registered the most popular take on Golos, Tireless Pilgrim and Field of the Dead despite the fact that it was the deck with the largest target on its back going into the event.
The deck’s game plan is to ramp out as many lands as possible with different names to enable Field of the Dead. Cards like Growth Spiral and Circuitous Route do most of the typical ramp work of adding extra lands to the battlefield, but Golos, Tireless Pilgrim has the unique ability to search up any land—including Field of the Dead—allowing the deck to assemble it’s most important cards with surprising consistency.
Bant Golos by Lucas Esper Berthoud
2. Simic and Bant Ramp/Food
The next most popular archetype at 28% of the field is Simic or Bant Ramp, which has similar contours as Bant Golos but leaves out Field of the Dead for the sake of a much more consistent manabase.
Rather than rely on Field of the Dead to create a horde of Zombie, Simic and Bant Ramp choose to go all-in on the ramp plan and cast Nissa, Who Shakes the World and large Hydroid Krasis as soon as possible. The deck also has a Food subtheme with Oko, Thief of Crowns and Gilded Goose and can just run over opponents with a Turn 3 Questing Beast.
Simic Ramp/Food by Reid Duke
| Creatures (20) 4 Gilded Goose 4 Hydroid Krasis 2 Leafkin Druid 4 Questing Beast 4 Wicked Wolf 1 Maraleaf Pixie 1 Paradise Druid Spells (8) 4 Once Upon a Time 4 Disdainful Stroke Planeswalkers (8) 4 Oko, Thief of Crowns 4 Nissa, Who Shakes the World | Lands (24) 10 Forest 5 Island 4 Breeding Pool 4 Temple of Mystery 1 Castle Garenbrig Sideboard (15) 3 Aether Gust 2 Veil of Summer 3 Lovestruck Beast 4 Voracious Hydra 3 Mystical Dispute |
Adding White gives the deck access to Deputy of Detention, which is very helpful against against Zombies from Field of the Dead, as well as Teferi, Time Raveler to combat control decks.
Bant Ramp/Food by Jessica Estephan
| Creatures (23) 4 Gilded Goose 1 Arboreal Grazer 2 Wicked Wolf 4 Hydroid Krasis 2 Voracious Hydra 3 Leafkin Druid 3 Questing Beast 2 Paradise Druid 2 Deputy of Detention Spells (1) 1 Once Upon a Time Planeswalkers (12) 4 Oko, Thief of Crowns 4 Nissa, Who Shakes the World 4 Teferi, Time Raveler | Lands (24) 4 Breeding Pool 4 Hallowed Fountain 4 Temple Garden 5 Forest 1 Plains 1 Island 4 Fabled Passage 1 Temple of Mystery Sideboard (15) 1 Questing Beast 1 Deputy of Detention 2 Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves 2 Glass Casket 1 Negate 1 Veil of Summer 1 Time Wipe 2 Agent of Treachery 3 Disdainful Stroke 1 Prison Realm |
3. Golgari Adventure
Golgari Adventure was the winner of the Magic Pro League’s Sapphire Division a few weeks ago in the hands of Piotr Głogowski. The deck packs an impressive creature suite with just enough disruption and card advantage to hang with the more powerful strategies.
Murderous Rider is the headliner for almost any deck taking advantage of the new Adventure spell type from Throne of Eldraine. Golgari Adventure combines it and other creatures with Adventures with Edgewall Innkeeper to generate the kind of card advantage that is usually restricted to Blue decks, all while attacking the opponent’s life total with efficient creatures like Questing Beast and Rankle, Master of Pranks.
Golgari Adventure by Piotr Głogowski
| Creatures (26) 4 Murderous Rider 2 Order of Midnight 3 Questing Beast 2 Rankle, Master of Pranks 4 Foulmire Knight 4 Edgewall Innkeeper 4 Lovestruck Beast 3 Paradise Druid Spells (4) 2 Find // Finality 2 Legion’s End Artifacts (1) 1 The Great Henge Planeswalkers (5) 3 Vivien, Arkbow Ranger 2 Nissa, Who Shakes the World | Lands (24) 4 Overgrown Tomb 4 Temple of Malady 8 Forest 6 Swamp 2 Fabled Passage Sideboard (12) 1 Legion’s End 2 Noxious Grasp 2 Veil of Summer 1 Massacre Girl 2 Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage 2 Ashiok, Dream Render 2 Kraul Harpooner 1 Cavalier of Night 1 Thrashing Brontodon |
4. Golos Fires
All right, so it’s sort of cheating to combine Simic and Bant Ramp/Food and give Golos Fires its own section, but Golos Fires is distinct enough from the more popular Bant Golos to deserve its own place in the rankings.
The basic game plan of the Fires variant is the same as Bant—ramp out a bunch of lands with different names to get Field of the Dead online. But Golos Fires adds two other angles of attack: Fires of Invention allows the deck to cast its spells for free and use its lands to activate Golos’s ability, and Fae of Wishes gives the deck the ability to use its sideboard as a wishboard filled with targets for the Fae’s Granted adventure.
Golos Fires by Aaron Barich
5. Gruul Aggro
Rounding out the Top 5 Standard decks to expect at Mythic Championship V is our only true aggressive deck, Gruul Aggro, whose goal is to kill its opponents before they can make a horde of Zombies or cast a huge Hydroid Krasis.
The deck is a collection of Red and Green’s most efficient and powerful creatures, like Pelt Collector, Gruul Spellbreaker, and Questing Beast, all of which attack for huge amounts of damage very quickly. This gives Gruul Aggro a very good chance at defeating its Golos and Ramp opponents, but leaves it vulnerable to disruptive decks like Golgari Adventure that can remove its creatures and draw cards.
Gruul Aggro by Gaby Spartz
| Creatures (26) 4 Pelt Collector 4 Zhur-Taa Goblin 2 Kraul Harpooner 4 Bonecrusher Giant 4 Gruul Spellbreaker 4 Questing Beast 4 Skarrgan Hellkite Spells (4) 2 Domri’s Ambush 2 Once Upon a Time Planeswalkers (5) 3 Domri, Anarch of Bolas 2 Sarkhan the Masterless | Lands (25) 4 Stomping Ground 3 Fabled Passage 9 Mountain 9 Forest Sideboard (15) 3 Lava Coil 3 Thrashing Brontodon 3 Veil of Summer 2 Shock 2 Tectonic Rift 2 Redcap Melee |
That’s it for the Top 5 decks in Standard! With this information, you can draft your favorite cards or players in one of our Thousand Leagues public fantasy leagues—where you could win a an uncut War of the Spark foil rare sheet—or create your own league and invite your friends!