Standard: 5 Decks to Play Best of One

After the release of Outlaws of Thunder Junction, we can say that Standard is “complete” - that is, all sets that could be present in the format until the next rotation are released, and the months leading up to Bloomburrow will be made up of how players explore each possibility until the last day of cards like Raffine, Scheming Seer and The Wandering Emperor comes.

Typically, these weeks lead to a dozen innovations that will eventually carry over to the next season as players prepare and test archetypes whose impact on rotation will be smaller, but for others, it's the ideal time to play quick matches and aggregate the most of possible rewards to prepare an extensive pool for the next season.

In this second case, it is common for players to invest more time in Magic Arena's Best of One, where matches tend to last less than half the time of Best of Three and where more straightforward game plans are rewarded - often, the interaction is sideways for the sake of speed.

In today's article, we present five decks to explore Standard's Best of One before rotation, based on frequency, results and/or ability to deal with the rest of the format's Metagame!

Mono Red Prowess

Best of One is a format strongly dictated between Aggro decks that are too quick to hold, and other strategies aimed at responding to Aggro, and in this case, Mono Red Prowess has proven to be the most efficient among them lately.

Slickshot Show-Off was the main reason for developing this strategy more focused on threats that grow with each spell you cast each turn, making it a little more explosive and better adapted to the Best of One Metagame than the variants that play on the board, especially due to the high interaction capacity of damage spells against small creatures and the favorable trades that Prowess triggers allows.

Mono Red Prowess, like the Aggro version, is the format's “fun police”. Your deck must play at the same speed as it or interact to delay its game plan long enough until the opponent runs out of steam, while being a solid and safe choice for anyone looking for quick matches and free wins on Ranked.

Mono White Humans

Despite its disappearance in Best of Three given that Boros Convoke is the main “go wide” in Standard, Humans remains a great strategy in Best of One, where the decent body of its creatures and the interaction between them guarantees a good match against other Aggro decks while cards like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Knight-Errant of Eos help in grindy matchups.

Humans is, in essence, your classic deck with small synergies that make a lot of difference over the course of the game while each creature has a relevant impact to keep the pressure on while cards like Case of the Gateway Express and Brutal Cathar help you interact with the battlefield without giving up speed.

It is a great choice for the current format and should remain that way until the rotation. However, most of the creatures that make up its shell will leave Standard, making Humans only viable in the Explorer format, where it makes some occasional results and has good redundancy for Best of One.

Selesnya Enchantments

Selesnya Enchantments is another of the format's main Aggro decks, focusing on increasing the power of your creatures using enchantments and/or the synergy between them to stabilize the battlefield and pressure the opponent.

Because it is a two-color strategy, it tends to be slower than other aggressive archetypes. However, its combination of creatures and enchantments that can suddenly turn the game around make it a viable option in Aggro mirrors and a little more resilient against other matchups, especially in versions running Hallowed Haunting as its curve-topper.

Like Humans, Selesnya Enchantments is also at risk of imminent rotation, and its current versions don't seem to have the same impact on Explorer or other Magic Arena formats.

Naya Fight Rigging

Naya Fight Rigging is a Combo-Midrange aimed at the interaction between Fight Rigging and Pugnacious Hammerskull to cheat on mana costs and put Etali, Primal Conqueror or any other bomb in play as early as in the fourth turn.

If this plan doesn't work, it can hold the game with low-cost removals like Lightning Helix and Temporary Lockdown and accrue value with Geological Appraiser and Trumpeting Carnosaur, allowing it to handle the pressure set up by Aggro incredibly well.

Its combination of cards is made specifically to punish decks with small creatures and/or creatures that don't have enough resilience to keep up with removals or sweepers, but its mana base and tapped lands can create situations where it lacks speed, being significantly vulnerable if the opponent has a very explosive early game.

Temur Analyst

One of the decks with the highest winrates in the Pro Tour Outlaws of Thunder Junction, Temur Analyst is an option for players who prefer to escape the Aggro spectrum to follow a combo line. Its game plan is to use the interaction of Streets of New Capenna lands with Aftermath Analyst to ramp and end the game with a huge Worldsoul’s Rage

One of this deck's advantages over the Best of One Metagame is how well its creatures block and how its lands allow a slight life gain every time they come into play, enabling interactions to hold back the more proactive archetypes while also not taking too long to end the game - a chronic problem for archetypes like Azorius Control in this format.

Ill-Timed Explosion is another excellent feature against Aggro as it helps filter the hand in longer games, while Nissa, Resurgent Animist adds consistency to finding Aftermath Analyst, making this a one of the most consistent strategies for Best of One, as well as being a great option for Best of Three.

That's all for today!

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!