With Phyrexia: All Will Be One coming, here are a few potential deckbuilds for Magic: The Gathering (Image via Wizards of the Coast)

5 Standard decks to try in Magic: The Gathering Arena for Phyrexia: All Will Be One

By Jason Parker

Modified Feb 02, 2023 14:04 GMT

Magic: The Gathering Arena is about to see Phyrexia: All Will Be One begin, and that means it’s time to brew new decks. There will be an Early Access event taking place on Thursday, February 2, 2023, where I will take part, trying out decks, drafting, and seeing how the expansion handles.

With that in mind, I’ve been doing some thinking and researching about decks that might be fun to play in Magic: The Gathering. While fans will still have to wait until February 3, 2023, for pre-release events in physical MTG, a select amount of players will begin their journey today.

I have not tried out any of these Magic: The Gathering decks yet, as I do not have access to the servers, but it seems like they could be a great deal of fun. It’s worth noting that these are not guaranteed to be Tier-1 decks. We’ll have to see how the meta shakes up over the next few months.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's views.

Simic Rotpriest, Gruul Aggro/Oil, and 3 more Standard decks to try in Magic: The Gathering Arena’s expansion

5) Simic Rotpriest (Blue/Green Aggro)

I really love the idea of Venerated Rotpriest in Magic: The Gathering, so I want to see what it can do. A 1-drop with Toxic 1, you give an opponent a poison counter whenever a creature you control becomes the target of a spell. This means you technically don’t even really need to attack with this deck.

The deck packs some control and single-target spells. Fading Hope bounces a creature back to your hand, Slip Out the Back gives a creature +1/+1 and phases it out, and Tyvar’s Stand gives +X/+X, hexproof, and indestructible.

With this Magic: The Gathering deck, you can easily slow players down and hit them with poison counters, or buff a creature or two to be a one-turn kill, thanks to Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief. You can also keep attacks going with Bloated Contaminator to proliferate and make sure damage ticks over.

Deck

4 Venerated Rotpriest
2 Crawling Chorus
4 Skrelv, Defector Mite
4 Jawbone Duelist
4 Bloated Contaminator
2 Tamiyo's Safekeeping
4 Tyvar's Stand
4 Valorous Stance
2 Infectious Bite
4 Homestead Courage
4 Skrelv's Hive
4 Forest
4 Plains
4 Brushland
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Overgrown Farmland
1 Boseiju, Who Endures
1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire

4) The Filigree Sylex + Urabrask’s Forge (Red/Blue Combo)

The Filigree Sylex is another Magic: The Gathering card I’ve talked about a lot. That you can use it, alongside some oil counters, to deal 10 damage to a target is incredible. With enough production, you can use it to easily win games if you have two of the legendary artifacts in question.

So you combine that with Urabrask’s Forge, which generates an oil counters for every one of your turns. It also creates aggressive Phyrexian Horrors that are also sacrificed. The idea is to generate plenty of oil, specific spells, and tons of proliferate effects.

We also make creature tokens through the forge and Third Path Iconoclast. This should be a powerful, but effective aggro/combo deck.

Deck

3 Electrostatic Infantry
4 Experimental Augury
3 Island
5 Mountain
1 Otawara, Soaring City
4 Play with Fire
3 Reject Imperfection
4 Sawblade Scamp
4 Serum Snare
4 Shivan Reef
1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
4 Stormcarved Coast
3 The Filigree Sylex
4 The Monumental Facade
3 Third Path Iconoclast
3 Urabrask's Forge
4 Vindictive Flamestoker
3 Volt Charge

3) Gruul Aggro/Oil (Green/Red)

Migloz, Maze Crusher is another potentially devastating card in Magic: The Gathering. This deck is all about creatures with oil counters on them.

You will want to keep ramping into creatures that either come into play with oil counters, or gain them for other effects. That way, you can drop a pair of Cinderslash Ravagers for 2 mana, instead of 6. They are 5/5s with Vigilance, and deal one damage to all of your opponent’s enemies when they come into play.

You have a nice array of creatures with decent mana costs, and it has the potential to do plenty of damage. You have Evolving Adaptive, which gains +1/+1 for each oil counter it has, and this deck naturally runs proliferate and ways to generate oil counters.

It features Halana and Alena, Partners, which you can temporarily buff to make one of your creatures very intimidating. It can preferably be the Bloated Contaminator, since it has Trample. I don’t know if this deck will be Tier 1, but I think it could be deadly with some tinkering.

Deck

4 Armored Scrapgorger
3 Bloated Contaminator
1 Boseiju, Who Endures
3 Cankerbloom
2 Cinderslash Ravager
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Evolving Adaptive
4 Exuberant Fuseling
2 Forest
3 Free from Flesh
2 Halana and Alena, Partners
4 Karplusan Forest
4 Lightning Strike
3 Migloz, Maze Crusher
2 Mountain
4 Rockfall Vale
1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
2 The Filigree Sylex
4 The Monumental Facade
4 Thundering Raiju

2) Mono-Black Aggro

Archfiend of the Dross is another one of my favorite creatures in Magic: The Gathering right now. Mono-Black Aggro has the potential to be a real threat right now, mostly thanks to that card. A 6/6 Flyer for 4? It puts you on a timer though, because if it runs out of oil counters (you remove one each of your upkeeps), you lose the game.

In Magic: The Gathering, this creature forces your opponent to try and find cheap blockers, while you continue to ramp up with Blade of the Oni and Tenacious Underdog. You also have the powerful Phyrexian Fleshgorger. I would probably pay the Prototype cost and then equip it with Blade of the Oni.

If you combine the constant damage with Invoke Despair, Gix, and Yawgmoth's Praetor, this deck will be obnoxious. Now, if only I could find room for Phyrexian Obliterator in this Magic: The Gathering. That’s the next step.

Deck

4 Archfiend of the Dross
4 Blade of the Oni
4 Cut Down
4 Evolved Sleeper
3 Gix, Yawgmoth's Praetor
3 Go for the Throat
2 Infernal Grasp
4 Invoke Despair
4 Mishra's Foundry
3 Phyrexian Fleshgorger
19 Swamp
2 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
4 Tenacious Underdog

1) Vraska’s Sting (Black/Blue Control)

Control is my favorite way to play Magic: The Gathering, but it hasn’t felt very impactful for me in a while. It’s very much an aggro-focused meta, or at least it seems that way to me. However, Blue/Black control, with Proliferate and Vraska, Betrayal’s Sting seems like it has a lot of potential to dominate players.

It runs a lot of my favorite cards in this expansion - Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus (Double Proliferate), Vender, Corpse Puppet (rewards proliferate), and Voidwing Hybrid (proliferate, toxic, early-game poison counter).

Then, you proliferate like a madman and get the win condition with Vraska’s ultimate. From there, you simply need one more easy proliferate or poison counter, and the game is over.

Deck

2 Blast Zone
4 Bring the Ending
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Distorted Curiosity
4 Drown in Ichor
4 Experimental Augury
2 Island
2 Mirrex
1 Otawara, Soaring City
4 Shipwreck Marsh
2 Staff of Compleation
2 Swamp
1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
2 Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus
4 Underground River
2 Venser, Corpse Puppet
4 Voidwing Hybrid
4 Vraska, Betrayal's Sting
4 Whisper of the Dross
4 Xander's Lounge

There are so many decks that you can run in Magic: The Gathering Arena. Whether you play Standard, Historic, or Pioneer, there are plenty of options. Phyrexia: All Will Be One will be available starting February 10, 2023, with in-person pre-releases starting on February 3, 2023.

Edited by
Abu Amjad Khan