After the Magic: The Gathering World Championships last month, it looked as though we'd start 2026 with the red-blue color pair clearly in the lead - just as it was for the entirety of 2025. But in the last two Magic Spotlight series tournaments in Lyon and Atlanta, two new decks came out on top. Is the curse finally broken?
Both tournaments, which took place from January 10-11, saw plenty of spellslinging Izzet Lessons decks in the top 20. This build, which sprung up to fill the Izzet hole left by Vivi Ornitier, uses Gran-Gran to make non-creature spells cheaper and wins the game by looting a bunch and draining opponents with Monument to Endurance. It took the Worlds tournament on December 5 - 7 by storm, and has continued to be a powerhouse in Standard ever since.
But it didn't win this time. Instead, in first place for Lyon was Simic Ouroboroid, piloted by pro player Simon Nielson. This deck uses its namesake to pump the board, but the really important part of the deck is Badgermole Cub. The deck runs a ton of mana dorks and uses all the mana the cub makes to play Nature's Rhythm into a single copy of Craterhoof Behemoth.
The tutor can also fetch up a number of one-off creatures to do whatever needs doing, from artifact removal to graveyard hate.
The winner of the Atlanta tournament run by Star City Games is even more interesting. The deck that came in first is a Bant Airbending strategy that was not favored to win, at all. Only four players running this deck made it to Day 2, and the next best result was about 75th place.
But Kye Nelson made the combo deck sing. This strategy relies on Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius to make airbending costs free and ultimately aims to create a combo state where you're producing infinite 1/1 tokens with Appa. But Nelson's list stands out from the rest because it also includes Interdimensional Web Watch, which can provide infinite card draw and mana once your combo gets going.
I'm sure I'll be complaining just as heavily about these archetypes in a few months if they stick around and dominate for a while, but right now it's just such a relief to see decks of different colors pulling off wins!
What's your favorite Standard deck currently? Let us know over in the Wargamer Discord.