The Standard Magic: The Gathering metagame is flooded with Oko, Thief of Crowns, but there are still top players winning without him.
Known for his creative deck crafting in Magic, Stanislav “StanCifka” Cifka finished the second MTG Arena Throne of Eldraine season ranked second. And he wasn’t even playing an Oko deck.
Standard is being flooded with Green cards and decks, with planeswalkers like Oko, Thief of Crowns and Nissa, Who Shakes the World as the shell. But there are some pros who are willing to think outside the box and find other archetypes that can beat the elk-turning planeswalker into submission.
Javier Dominguez won Mythic Championship V playing a Gruul Aggro deck, and StanCifka just ranked second in the Arena ELD season. Chris Kvartek also ranked in the top sixteen during last weekend’s Magic Arena Qualifiers with a Golgari Adventure deck.
There are other options to play in Standard, it’s just that Oko-based decks have an extremely high probability of winning. But there are other archetypes advancing quickly in the Arena ladder.
- Temur Reclamation with Niv-Mizzet and Expansion/Explosion as the shell.
- UW Control
- Jund Sacrifice
- Mono-Blue and Izzet Phoenix Mill
- Rakdos Aggro
- Golgari Adventures
- Mono-Red Cavalcade
- Esper Stax
Mythic Championship VI is a week away, beginning on Nov. 8. It’s being played in the Standard format and the meta is projected to be Oko heavy. But if Dominguez could defeat Field of the Dead and Oko at MCV, it’s possible the same can be done again.
