How it started:

How it's going:

Made the run to Mythic on @MTG_Arena for the first time in I don't know how long with a new deck to beat the top of the metagame. Which it does. #ama #MagicTheGathering pic.twitter.com/hIOHwU1RbS

— Michael Flores (@fivewithflores) December 10, 2025

I was worried for a second - just a second mind you - that Standard was going to suck eggs after the Worlds results came in.

Five Izzet decks - seven Izzet decks if you count Temur Otters as "Izzet with Badgermole Cub" - and one Superior Spider-Man combo? I have to admit that like many top teams, I missed the optimal versions of Izzet.

After some up and down attempts with ALL the new decks (Simic Cub was the best, Izzet Lessons was the worst) I can safely say if you never want to lose another match play Roman's RCQ winning deck. https://t.co/XorihYYL2S pic.twitter.com/9uL1WtdENU

— Michael Flores (@fivewithflores) November 23, 2025

For me, Izzet Lessons was the most exciting deck I wanted to try, but I just couldn't win with it. Well Seth Mansfield &co. didn't have that problem.

From the other side of the metagame, I ended up hating the Superior Spider-Man decks. They always felt super formulaic and un-fun to me. It seemed like they always had their dumb on turn four, and if you play online, he doesn't even look like Spider-Man. Worse, they always Always ALWAYS had Bringer of the Last Gift in the graveyard. If I were playing Roman Fusco's Azorius Control that wasn't necessarily a big deal... But I was mostly playing Simic prior to Worlds.

The reason?

The two decks won about as much as each other (if I'm honest, maybe Simic won a bit more)... But it took 22-27 minutes to win a game with and 3-5 minutes to win a game with Simic. So from an Events return perspective, Simic was the more economical choice.

Anyway, I hated Superior Spider-Man because the opponent also always seemed to have Cavern of Souls on turn four! The online lists I had seen (and Ken Yukuhiro's list from the Worlds Top 8) all listed only one Cavern of Souls. But on turn four? Like clockwork.

So even though I had tech'ed my deck out with Repulsive Mutation, I wasn't stopping the Superior reanimation.

It also looked like Superior Spider-Man was going to run through the Worlds Top 8; because neither the Izzet decks nor the Otters ones were very good at stopping the combo, either. But two-time World Champion Seth Manfield would not be denied!

This didn't initially look like it would translate to us normies grinding it out at home (or the LGS) though. Was Standard going to de-volve to the Red v. Vivi wars that so diminished the popularity of the format prior to Avatar: The Last Airbender?

I really hoped not.

For the weeks running up to Worlds, I was super enjoying playing lots and Lots and LOTS of Standard. Was I just living in blissful ignorance? Like the Tweet says... I couldn't even win with Izzet!

So, for a day or so I was sort of breaking even playing with Gran-Gran like everyone else. I'd lose if the opponent got a Monument to Endurance lead on me. I'd win if they didn't pull off their Superior Spider-Man combo in time. It didn't feel fulfilling. But was there a way?

This 2019 podcast with Roman Fusco about the best deck in 2005 starts at about minute 36.

Some years ago there was a format called Kamigawa Block Constructed. About 80% into the PTQ season, the format was largely a fight between Gifts Ungiven board control decks and White Weenie decks that famously had 2/2 creatures at 1, 2, 3, and 4 mana. Black weenie and mid-range decks that kind of homogenized together were gaining purchase but the format was really about White's ability to gain a lead with their one and 2 mana 2/2s; and hold it with their 4 mana 2/2.

From the other side, Gifts Ungiven was so powerful. They drew tons of cards, finished with the most powerful Legendary Dragons, and could lock the game with recursive and frustrating combos... As long as they could untap their mana.

But then I figured out Simic with Gnarled Mass.

If half the format was about managing the battlefield with 2/2s... What about playing a 3/3? If they didn't have a lead, they couldn't hold a lead.

If the other half of the format was about powerful end games - but constrained to a relatively narrow band of actual cardboard in a deck - why not just Counterspell those few cards that mattered? I would by definition have the lead with my 3/3; and could use the full array of Counterspells to answer threats, hold that lead, whatever!

Critical Mass was born: I won the last PTQ of the season, and Gerard Fabiano took the deck to the last Grand Prix, where he finished in the Top 8.

Was there a Gnarled Mass that could similarly breakthrough in contemporary Standard?

Because it's 2025 the 3/3 costs two instead of three; and has multiple relevant abilities instead of zero. But the concept is similar. If you have Keen-Eyed Curator in play, it's very difficult for an opposing Superior Spider-Man deck to win. You can just gobble their Bringer of the Last Gift and they don't have much of a coherent game plan. At some point all their self-mill just turns your 3/3 into a 7/7 trample and you kill them with it.

So, the other half of the "combo" is keeping your Curator alive.

Remember when I wrote this was going to be a key sleeper?

Well it turns out this is card 2 of 2 of "the difference that makes the difference" for the best deck at beating the best decks in Standard. Because keeping your Keen-Eyed Curator alive through Awaken the Honored Dead is only half the battle.

The other half, of course, is destroying the key permanents in the PT-winning deck.

When you combine these two cards with the third toughness on Keen-Eyed Curator you have a one-two punch that is incredibly difficult for the best decks to compete with, let alone beat. Because Firebending Lesson doesn't kill it; and when they cast Combustion Technique... Well, they kind of have to work on their technique against specifically the third toughness on this creature.

Which, after a bit of tinkering, is how I landed on this:

Mono-Green | TLA Standard | Michael Flores

• Creatures (31)
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 2 Tyvar, the Pummeler
• 4 Badgermole Cub
• 4 Gene Pollinator
• 4 Keen-Eyed Curator
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Ouroboroid
• 4 Pawpatch Recruit
• 4 Spider Manifestation

• Instants (4)
• 4 Origin of Metalbending

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Nature's Rhythm

• Lands (21)
• 17 Forest
• 4 Ba Sing Se

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From a Plan A perspective, we are not unlike most of the other Green decks. We have multiple one mana plays and one of the best two-mana plays in the format. We have more Ouroboroids than anyone else as our payoff. We're not as wide as Simic. We can't go as big as other Mono-Green decks.

But we have Plans B, C, and Zeta. We can Protect the Queen and chip away opponents who are building advantages. We can topple a whole sixty's strategy for . We can prevent some decks from ever going off. Tapped Kona, Patchwork Beastie? Origin of Metalbending kills Omniscience just fine, too.

In my last match of the Mythic run, when I had just one tick left in Diamond, I was on the draw. My opponent opened on Gran-Gran. They proceeded to resolve three Accumulate Wisdom - all for three cards - before I stabilized, and had three Artist's Talents leveled up on the battlefield. Was this going to be a frustrating slide into at least two more fights?

They never actually had a chance.

I wasn't on 20 or anything. They certainly had done a lot of "stuff". But despite the early explosiveness, I knew my guys were going to live, and that no matter how many cards they drew, despite the fact that their removal would all cost one, and that they kept bouncing my Curator, forcing me to reset at 3/3... They couldn't actually kill all my guys. I had drawn two Curators naturally and had the mana to play two Rhythms. Someone was going to get through, and that someone was going to be 7/7 trample.

Of course, this deck has the same broken openers as other Green decks in Standard; and in fact I landed on Spider Manifestation as my secondary Ramp creature because it best facilitates my deck's Plan A. Like, you can tap Spider Manifestation on turn three to make Ouroboroid, untap it for free, and then get in with a free attack (or just play another 1 mana creature that Ouroboroid can buff); and that's hard to beat, especially if you're on the play.

However, because I play Origin of Metalbending I just win tons of games against people actually playing the metagame.

I don't think the Azorius Artifacts deck is very good right now. It's just slow and clunky. And it's embarrassing that they all play Authority of the Consuls main deck. Which is just not good. The deck looks viable because they can blow out the actually good decks on turn three with Pinnacle Starcage. Not Control, but other good decks, like specifically Simic.

The faster a Green deck's draw, the more a Pinnacle Starcage wrecks them.

Only... If you just have a Disenchant in your hand the entire Artifacts deck starts breaking down. Like they set up so hard for these clunky three-mana plays and you knock down a handful of dominoes for only two mana... And then attack for lethal the next turn.

One thing that surprised me about my own deck was how good it ended up being against Jeskai Control. Jeskai has kind of risen on the ladder because it has a lot of good interactions with Izzet. Only, if you're disciplined, it's difficult for them to ever remove Tyvar, the Pummeler.

They Day. They Ultima away a land. They Lightning Helix on your next upkeep when there are no other creatures in play. But Tyvar keeps living. If you just sandbag a support staff, Tyvar will live long enough to defeat Marang River Regent and Shiko in combat; and your opponent will somehow die with 7 cards in hand. But you have to be disciplined! You have to accept dealing 3 damage with the prospect of tanking a Lightning Helix instead of trying to hit for a non-lethal 15. It's all about leaving up Origin of Metalbending and two support guys back. It's all about leaving open mana because they might try to kill Tyvar with damage. But it happens over and over.

The reason it happens over and over, and the reason the deck ends up being so consistent is that I play all 4 Nature's Rhythm. In some cases you Nature's Rhythm for a Badgermole Cub so you can immediately Nature's Rhythm with Harmonize after establishing a mana boost with the team you already have in play. But often you will Nature's Rhythm untapping Spider Manifestation to set up one of your EIGHT Ouroboroids to overwhelm another fair deck.

It's not all wine and roses, obviously. Against the Simic quasi-mirror, they have Jackal, Genius Geneticist and you don't. You're kind of "double Ouroboroid or bust" against them because they go so wide; and sometimes they double Floodpits Drowner you and it's a disaster. You can win, but you'll need good luck if they go first and have a solid draw. This is a matchup where their 1-drop having flying matters a ton. You can often exploit the fact that they have so little trample to stabilize the ground, but one Spyglass Siren might kill you in 2-3 attacks.

You're basically never beating a deck that has Aang, Swift Savior in it. I've never come close to beating Four-Color Allies. I didn't play against BearBending even once on my Mythic climb, but I can't imagine beating that deck. They can just go so wide. They're SHAZAM. We're Batman.

Batman has kryptonite at 3/3 for . He has g-d kryptonite chewing gum to spit in Superman's face after he's torn open Batman's armor. But SHAZAM doesn't have a graveyard vulnerability; isn't balancing a powerful engine on a single key artifact or enchantment we can destroy.

Sure, we can go first and open on Llanowar Elves into Badgermole Cub. I'd argue because we have Spider Manifestation our payoff draws are even better than most of the other Green decks because we can take even more actions quickly. Anyway, it worked for me!

Five with FAQs:

1. Do you have too many copies of Ba Sing Se? Probably. However, I made 2/2s fairly often to break open stalls against either fair matchups or decks with a lot of removal. I think I declared one total mulligan based on having too many Ba Sing Se v. Forest in my opening hand, the entire run.
2. How long did it take you to make Mythic Top 1000 with this deck? Less than one day. You go first half the time (even though it doesn't feel like it) so you have a lot of games where you just run the opponent over. Again, the combination of Origin of Metalbending and Keen-Eyed Curator win something like 75% of the games where the opponent can actually execute their Plan A.
3. Is Reclamation Sage really better than Scrapshooter? Probably not; but I didn't want to burn the Wildcard, honestly. If you have a Scrapshooter in your collection, the Reach is probably relevant a good amount of the time. The important thing is to have a 3 mana Silver Bullet to break up Pinnacle Starcage or Artist's Talent for 5 mana.
4. Why don't you have Craterhoof Behemoth? I started with a version with 1 Craterhoof Behemoth and 4 Fetch Quest instead of Spider Manifestation. I was just worse at executing a big Green plan than decks that are actually optimized for that plan with Tender Wildguide as an additional 2-drop. I decided I wanted to lean into what my deck is good at that other people weren't doing. Instead of going as big as possible I can play a kind of CounterSliver game plan where I have a lead and protect it, instead of just trying to make my opponent's life total -777 or something. 0 is fine.
5. What's in the sideboard? My friend Lanny will make fun of me for playing Best-of-One but I wanted CovertGoBlue to make a video about my SICK NEW DECK and you don't do that by having fifteen cards off to the side.

I found this run really rewarding, even though I don't usually play ladder. It felt great to make a new and different deck (that is still powerful) that lines up so well against a really defined and seemingly unstoppable Tier One.

They can be stopped. Just gotta try.

LOVE

MIKE