After World War II a critical mass of young men returned home after years away from their hometowns and sweethearts. All of a sudden consumer confidence boomed in the United States, in part as a result of new technologies that had just been developed. The government facilitated another boom, of affordable housing construction, that encouraged couples to marry younger.

But more than anything else? A desire to return to normalcy after a half-decade of war brought people together that, while the oldest story in the book, seemed completely fresh.

The result?

Boom!

-ers

I almost feel like that's where Standard is as of last week. After months of depressing sameness, followed by a largely forgettable Universes Beyond set, Avatar: The Last Airbender is spawning a boom of cool, different, and most importantly new archetypes. But at the same time? There are cards that were just sitting there in Standard that were already available... But weren't nearly as good as they just became. Here come five of them, starting with...

5. Strategic Betrayal

So here I am.

Just minding my own business.

Well, whatever the opposite of minding my own business is, I guess. My draw is a little slow, but hey! This Dragonfly Swarm should probably get its money. I even Abandoned some Attachments on turn two before deploying it 1/3 on turn three.

And then?

Noooo!

Strategic Betrayal saw some play pre-ATLA... But wasn't really strategic the way it is about to be. I think this card is going to carve an important niche for itself, and not just for people who hate 3-drops.

Just look at what happened to my poor Dragonfly Swarm.

1. Strategic Betrayal doesn't target, so my opponent didn't have to pay the Ward tax.
2. It emptied my graveyard, so I didn't have that key Lesson to qualify for the Dragonfly's consolation card.
3. Whether or not your opponent has a Dragonfly Swarm on the battlefield, Strategic Betrayal can empty their graveyard for a not-ridiculous cost. It might not always be convenient (Strategic Betrayal being a Sorcery), but the ability to pre-empt a Superior Spider-Man deck is likely to prove a nice piece of utility. But of course it sucks the most for anyone trying to set up Accumulate Wisdom.

Archetype Deck:

Izzet Lessons was probably the deck I was most excited to play coming into ATLA Standard. It hasn't performed very well for me at all, but BCS8995 seems to have had more luck early on:

Izzet Lessons | TLA Standard | bcs8995, 7th Place MTGO Standard Challenge 11/22/2025

• Creatures (4)
• 4 Dragonfly Swarm

• Instants (20)
• 4 Abandon Attachments
• 4 Accumulate Wisdom
• 4 Combustion Technique
• 4 Firebending Lesson
• 4 Opt

• Sorceries (10)
• 2 Wild Ride
• 4 Boomerang Basics
• 4 Sleight of Hand

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Stormchaser's Talent

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Astrologian's Planisphere

• Lands (18)
• 4 Island
• 2 Mountain
• 4 Multiversal Passage
• 4 Riverpyre Verge
• 4 Spirebluff Canal

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Fire Magic
• 3 Ghost Vacuum
• 3 Ral, Crackling Wit
• 4 Spell Pierce
• 3 Tishana's Tidebinder

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I've tried a couple of Izzet variants so far, including just Xeroxing BCS8995's deck. My biggest concern is just that this deck is hopeless against Superior Spider-Man without It'll Quench Ya! (or any other Counterspells) to prevent the opponent from just running you over on turn four.

4. Ultima

I think Ultima is less of a non-negotiable now and more just differently good.

So, weirdly the archetype deck actually needs less help from Ultima for the Azorius Artifacts deck. The reason for that is this card from ATLA:

A lot of my compatriots in Premodern-land like this card Vindicate. I can't wrap my head around it very well given we are playing a format with Swords to Plowshares; and, I dunno... Dismantling Blow. But I guess the counter-argument is that one of the top decks plays with eight copies of Stone Rain.

Anyway, it doesn't manascrew the opponent very well, but Aang's Iceberg functions like a super-Vindicate. Like a SUPER Vindicate. The card is absolutely transformative for Azorius Control. Azorius Artifacts went from a difficult matchup to a trivial one. You have how many Synthesizers again?

In the past you kind of had to draw multiple Ultimas AND get a little lucky on your Counterspells to have much of a chance against Azorius Artifacts. Now you can just exile all their Synthesizers no problem.

So, if Ultima is less necessary to beat up on legions of gigantic token artifacts... Where might it get a little extra value?

Until my friend Roman Fusco posted his RCQ-winning deck from over the weekend, "my" best earning deck in the young era of ATLA Standard was Simic Cub. Badgermole Cub of course earthbends.

Earthbending is super frustrating to play against. I actually like how it was implemented because we probably don't want to create 1000 ways to manascrew new players. So, of course, the lands come back when you kill them.

BUT NOT AGAINST ULTIMA.

Ultima kills those animated lands dead.

Archetype Deck:

Iceberg Control | TLA Standard | Roman Fusco

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Overlord of the Mistmoors
• 2 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 2 Marang River Regent // Coil and Catch
• 1 Essence Scatter
• 3 Three Steps Ahead
• 4 Consult the Star Charts
• 4 Get Lost
• 4 No More Lies

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Elspeth, Storm Slayer

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Split Up
• 2 Day of Judgment
• 2 Stock Up
• 2 Ultima

• Enchantments (5)
• 2 Seam Rip
• 3 Aang's Iceberg

• Lands (26)
• 4 Island
• 4 Plains
• 1 Agna Qel'a
• 2 Demolition Field
• 2 Fountainport
• 2 Multiversal Passage
• 3 Restless Anchorage
• 4 Floodfarm Verge
• 4 Meticulous Archive

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Devout Decree
• 1 Sphinx of the Final Word
• 1 Flashfreeze
• 1 Tishana's Tidebinder
• 1 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 1 Overlord of the Mistmoors
• 2 Authority of the Consuls
• 2 Rest in Peace
• 1 Lyra Dawnbringer
• 1 Riverchurn Monument
• 1 Negate
• 2 Voice of Victory

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I've found this to be the best deck in Standard to play so far. The only edit I'd make to the main deck is -1 Split Up +1 Aang's Iceberg.

If this were a list of cards that got worse, I'd list Split Up. Earlier today my opponent Split Up against 4 untapped tokens. I responded by Waterbending on Aang's Iceberg. Okay are you going to kill your own creatures now? Nice deck.

As I said a moment ago, Simic Cub is also a strong contender early, and sometimes you just blow out a Split Up with Floodpits Drowner.

3. Repulsive Mutation

Archetype Deck:

Simic Cub | TLA Standard | Venom1, 8th Place MTGO Standard Challenge

• Creatures (37)
• 2 Tyvar, the Pummeler
• 3 Wan Shi Tong, Librarian
• 4 Badgermole Cub
• 4 Jackal, Genius Geneticist
• 4 Floodpits Drowner
• 4 Gene Pollinator
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Ouroboroid
• 4 Pawpatch Recruit
• 4 Spyglass Siren

• Instants (2)
• 2 Repulsive Mutation

• Lands (21)
• 4 Forest
• 2 Restless Vinestalk
• 3 Multiversal Passage
• 4 Botanical Sanctum
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 4 Willowrush Verge

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Detect Intrusion
• 3 Dragon Sniper
• 2 Keen-Eyed Curator
• 2 Repulsive Mutation
• 3 Tishana's Tidebinder
• 2 Unable to Scream

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I started off using a Simic Cub deck that ran Mockingbird in this deck's Repulsive Mutation slot. But I kept losing to Superior Spider-Man over and over.

I was like "Man, I wish there were a Counterspell I could just play that wasn't too embarrassing." Turns out there is one that sometimes jumps three for Jackal, Genius Geneticist to set up double Ouroboroid and sometimes just Howl from Beyond for lethal.

2. Authority of the Consuls

Kind of.

This card is super weird now. First of all, it's medium irrelevant against the best deck in the format. And it's mostly good in other places either by 1) weird combos, or 2) if the opponent doesn't know that Aang, Swift Savior has a back side.

Let me explain:

1. There are a LOT of decks now playing Authority of the Consuls in combination with Spring-Loaded Sawblades // Bladewheel Chariot. That is kind of a cool combo, right? It's not only AA decks! They always kind of liked Authority for the mirror match (removes the "haste" from The Fire Crystal, and is asymmetrical when both players have Simulacrum Synthesizer going). There is a new Control deck that combines Spring-Loaded Sawblades with Appa, Steadfast Guardian. You can kind of pick up a point removal card over and over and it always hits because the opponent's creatures always come into play tapped.
2. After my first few rounds of getting beaten up with Izzet I played a lot of Bant Bear-Bending Combo; Authority of the Consuls is annoying there because at a minimum getting "infinite" power will still probably take two turn cycles to win the game. Besides it is very difficult to go "infinite" online; you can usually manage like 19 tokens before timing out. Anyway then I figured out I could just flip Aang and the Authority was basically a wasted card.

1. Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius

Come on!

Did you think it was going to go any other way?

I'm sure my opponent was not happy with this opening.

Turn one: Nothing

Turn two: Bramble Familiar

Turn three: Doc Aurlock; Airbender Ascension my Bramble Familiar; play it for "free" as Fetch Quest... Flip over Appa, Steadfast Guardian. Let's gooooo!

If you don't know the combo, the essential parts are Appa and Doc. Doc discounts all your airbending. And Appa provides Allies.

The fungible parts are Aang, Swift Savior, Airbender Ascension, or basically any card that enters to airbend. Airbender Ascension provides a possible turn three kill, but Aang is the best card in ATLA.

The one thing I would say about this strategy is that it is not straightforward at all. I had a pretty good win rate with it, and I think at least 40% of my losses were just misses on my part. Like we often blame going second, bad draws, the opponent having Superior Spider-Man on Cavern of Souls on turn four AGAIN, but Bant Bear-Bending has so much play.

You are under no obligation to try to combo-kill your opponent. You can just play Counter-Sliver with Aang and Appa. You can play a fair tempo game where your cards just have a lot of flash and interplay.

Personally, I like making infinite Treasure with Beza, the Bounding Spring or drawing essentially my whole deck along the way.

This strategy rewards patience and understanding what your cards do.

In a match against Jeskai Control, I carefully looped two copies of Aang and two copies of Appa with two copies of Airbender Ascension before my opponent could untap. They had a full grip, had just cast Mystical Teachings, and had 11 lands in play. It was weird because we both tapped out on our turns; though I guess my tap out was less functional.

They cast Day of Judgment into my 20+ power. I played Aang to "Counter" it. They played it again for two. In response I Waterbent Aang, then played my other Aang to airbend the Day again. With two free Appas in exile.

They went through the motions, but I had already displayed I understood how The Legend Rule works.

You can do other cool stuff like fizzle Inevitable Defeat or just rack up counters on Airbender Ascension to win fair. Deck is wild and the lists are not settled yet.

Here is just one 5-0 example:

Bant Airbending Combo | TLA Standard | Takayama, 5-0 MTGO Standard League 11/24/2025

• Creatures (35)
• 1 Aven Interrupter
• 2 Quantum Riddler
• 4 Aang, at the Crossroads
• 4 Appa, Steadfast Guardian
• 4 Aang, Swift Savior
• 4 Badgermole Cub
• 4 Bramble Familiar
• 4 Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius
• 4 Gene Pollinator
• 4 Llanowar Elves

• Sorceries (2)
• 2 Nature's Rhythm

• Enchantments (2)
• 2 Airbender Ascension

• Lands (21)
• 1 Plains
• 1 Lush Portico
• 3 Floodfarm Verge
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 4 Hushwood Verge
• 4 Multiversal Passage
• 4 Starting Town

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Authority of the Consuls
• 3 Aven Interrupter
• 2 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 1 Coati Scavenger
• 1 Get Lost
• 1 Quantum Riddler
• 2 Reclamation Sage
• 1 Spider-Sense
• 2 Tishana's Tidebinder

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