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Standard Meta Imbalance Izzet Cauldron Dominance

1 requestsStarted 9/18/2025, 10:03:41 PM
How cooked is standard?

I'll analyze the current Standard metagame to see how diverse and healthy it is. Let me pull the recent tournament data.

πŸ› οΈGet Meta Report

Now let me get some recent tournament sources to provide context:

Standard is definitely showing signs of being quite unhealthy right now. Here's what the data reveals:

Major Problems:

πŸ”₯ Izzet Cauldron Dominance

  • 26.8% of the entire meta (more than 1 in 4 decks)
  • 56.4% winrate - significantly above the healthy 50% mark
  • Present in 90 tournaments, indicating widespread adoption

πŸ“‰ Severe Meta Concentration

  • Top 2 archetypes (Izzet Cauldron + Dimir Midrange) make up 42.8% of the meta
  • Only 3 archetypes have >50% winrate (Cauldron, Red Aggro, Simic Midrange)
  • Most control strategies are struggling (Azorius Control at 46%, Izzet Prowess at 45.1%)

Red Flags:

  • Izzet Cauldron is both the most played AND has the highest winrate among popular decks
  • Dimir Midrange (16% meta share) has a barely-positive 49.9% winrate, suggesting it's popular but not great
  • Several established archetypes are underperforming significantly

Positive Signs:

  • 15 distinct archetypes in competitive play shows some diversity
  • Mono Red Aggro provides a viable aggressive option at 54.6% winrate
  • No single deck is above 30% meta share (though 26.8% is still very high)

Verdict: Standard is pretty cooked. Izzet Cauldron appears to be warping the format, and many traditional strategies are struggling to compete effectively.

Sources

Data from 103 tournaments: 68% MTGO, 32% Melee. Recent events include Standard Challenge 32, Standard Store Championship, and Vault 509 RCQ.