Hello, and welcome back to Metagame Mentor, your weekly guide to the top decks and latest Constructed developments on the path to the Pro Tour. This past weekend featured Magic Spotlight: Spider-Man: a high-stakes, two-day open tournament where 546 competitors gathered to test their Standard mettle. On the line were eight Pro Tour invitations, a $50,000 prize pool, and special promo cards and prizes with a unique thematic flair.

Congratulations to Alexandre MacIsaac, winner of Magic Spotlight: Spider-Man!

MacIsaac beat the field and took home the Infinity Gauntlet trophy playing Rakdos Aggro (with a single Poison Dart Frog in the sideboard) pic.twitter.com/jKTGRqBxVt

— PlayMTG (@PlayMTG) October 27, 2025

Congratulations to Alexandre MacIsaac, who blazed his way to the trophy with a Leyline of Resonance aggro deck! Alongside the rest of the Top 8, MacIsaac secured a coveted invitation to Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed in 2026. As champion, MacIsaac additionally walked away with a $10,000 cash prize and the Infinity Gauntlet winner's trophy—a fitting prize for a true champion of Standard.

Just like at Magic Spotlight: Planetary Rotation in August, an aggro deck proved it had the firepower to take down the format's top predator: Izzet Cauldron. In this article, I'll take a closer look at this weekend's metagame, the win rates across archetypes, and the standout strategies that managed to score favorable records against Izzet Cauldron.

The Standard Metagame and Win Rates

Standard, the rotating 60-card format that currently allows expansion sets from Wilds of Eldraine forward, is one of Magic's premier competitive formats. The table below presents the raw metagame numbers from Magic Spotlight: Spider-Man, along with the match win rates for each deck archetype (excluding mirror matches, byes, and draws). For clarity, I set aside the archetype labels from Melee.gg and applied my own classifications, based on the specific contents of each list.

In this table, each archetype name hyperlinks to a top-performing decklist that closely reflects its aggregate build. The "Other" category collects decks with one percent metagame share or less, including Jeskai Control, Golgari Midrange, Mono-White Tokens, Four-Color Graveyard, Mono-Red Leyline, Simic Landfall, Jeskai Artifacts, Dimir Control, Grixis Reanimator, Mono-Green Landfall, Azorius Aggro, Sultai Control, Gruul Landfall, Esper Mill, Orzhov Sacrifice, Orzhov Pixie, Izzet Proft, and more.

Overall, the metagame closely reflected the expectations outlined in my metagame snapshot from early October. The most notable shifts were a slight decline in Dimir Midrange and a steady rise in Sultai Reanimator. Yet it was Izzet Cauldron that ultimately defined the weekend.

6 Island 2 Abrade 4 Agatha's Soul Cauldron 2 Torch the Tower 4 Vivi Ornitier 4 Winternight Stories 4 Into the Flood Maw 3 Mountain 4 Multiversal Passage 4 Marauding Mako 4 Fear of Missing Out 1 Soulstone Sanctuary 4 Riverpyre Verge 4 Spirebluff Canal 4 Proft's Eidetic Memory 3 Quantum Riddler 3 Steamcore Scholar 1 Disdainful Stroke 1 Essence Scatter 2 Torch the Tower 2 Spell Pierce 2 Obliterating Bolt 2 Unable to Scream 2 Annul 1 Pyroclasm 1 Quantum Riddler 1 Broadside Barrage

The most prominent deck at Magic Spotlight: Spider-Man, by a large margin, was Izzet Cauldron. Starting at 31.9% of the Day One field, it climbed even higher in share after the cut to Day Two and again after the cut to Top 8. With an incredible 61.3% non-mirror win rate and five of the Top 8 slots, it dominated the tournament. Etai Kurtzman's 2nd-place list is a prime example of the archetype.

Over the past three months, Izzet Cauldron has been the clear deck to beat in Standard. It can pressure opponents with aggressive starts—say, curving Marauding Mako into Proft's Eidetic Memory—but it can also settle into a longer game, drawing cards and ultimately exiling Vivi Ornitier with Agatha's Soul Cauldron for an explosive burst of mana.

As the deck attacks from different angles, it's difficult to answer or match against favorably. The return of Torch the Tower to the main deck gave Izzet Cauldron enough cheap removal spells to answer Razorkin Needlehead, ultimately tilting the matchup against Mono-Red Aggro back in Izzet Cauldron's favor.

1 Swamp 4 Mob Lookout 4 Scout the City 4 Starting Town 2 Underground Mortuary 1 Hedge Maze 4 Town Greeter 4 Bringer of the Last Gift 4 Awaken the Honored Dead 4 Breeding Pool 3 Bitter Triumph 3 Ardyn, the Usurper 4 Superior Spider-Man 2 Cavern of Souls 4 Wastewood Verge 2 Blooming Marsh 1 Watery Grave 1 Disruptive Stormbrood 3 Terror of the Peaks 1 Botanical Sanctum 4 Overlord of the Balemurk 1 Marang River Regent 3 Intimidation Tactics 2 Duress 1 Cavern of Souls 2 Spider-Sense 3 Heritage Reclamation 2 Soul-Guide Lantern 1 Mister Negative

Sultai Reanimator was the biggest climber over the past few weeks, powered by a new card from Magic: The Gathering | Marvel's Spider-Man: Superior Spider-Man. When cast, it can enter as a copy of Bringer of the Last Gift and bring along a Living End effect. As Sultai Graveyard rapidly fills its graveyard with cards like Town Greeter, Overlord of the Balemurk, and Awaken the Honored Dead, that effect can basically win the game on the spot, especially if Terror of the Peaks is among the returned creatures. Alternatively, Superior Spider-Man can enter as a copy of Vivi Ornitier from your opponent's graveyard, immediately granting you four mana from your 4/4 creature and exiling their Vivi Ornitier.

The top-performing Sultai Reanimator pilot, Kenneth Segura, finished in 42nd-place with a 10-5 record. His list stood out as the only version in the tournament to include Mob Lookout and Scout the City. With these additional Magic: The Gathering | Marvel's Spider-Man cards to accelerate filling the graveyard and card selection, the deck could pull off turn-four kills with impressive consistency.

Still, Sultai Reanimator struggled against Izzet Cauldron. Additionally, Mono-Red Aggro and Dimir Midrange, the two other heavily played archetypes, were unable to muster a favorable record against the format's dominant deck.

However, three archetypes did rise to the occasion, each posting a positive record against Izzet Cauldron across at least seven matches. All three also managed to place a player in the Top 8, so let's take a closer look.

Mono-Red Leyline Blazes to Glory

1 Bulk Up 4 Leyline of Resonance 4 Callous Sell-Sword 4 Emberheart Challenger 4 Might of the Meek 4 Stadium Headliner 18 Mountain 1 Blazemire Verge 4 Hired Claw 3 Dreadmaw's Ire 1 Kellan, Planar Trailblazer 4 Slickshot Show-Off 4 Full Bore 4 Turn Inside Out 4 Razorkin Needlehead 1 Sunspine Lynx 1 Poison Dart Frog 3 Fanatical Firebrand 1 Dreadmaw's Ire 1 Electro, Assaulting Battery 2 Screaming Nemesis 2 Ghost Vacuum

While more than 100 players registered traditional Mono-Red Aggro decks, only three players opted for Mono-Red Leyline. Among them was Alexandre MacIsaac. Although he could technically cast his copies of Callous Sell-Sword, the card is essentially a mono-red card capable of ending games out of nowhere. In the dream scenario, an opening hand featuring two copies of Leyline of Resonance can turn a humble one-drop into a 10-power behemoth with Full Bore or Turn Inside Out on turn two. Combine that with an attack followed by Callous Sell Sword's Adventure, Burn Together, you've got lethal damage before the opponent can blink.

"I started playing Leyline when it was a bit more popular," MacIsaac explained, recalling how his journey with the deck began about a year ago. "I fell in love with Leyline. I think it's a very underrated deck."

His first deep run with Leyline of Resonance came at the Regional Championship in Montreal in May 2025, where he finished with a 10-4 record. "Then rotation happened, and that's when no one played Leyline anymore," he continued. "I just decided to stick with it because no one's sideboarding against it."

MacIsaac followed that up with a 10-5 record at Magic Spotlight: Planetary Rotation two months ago, where he couldn't find a Razorkin Needlehead for his sideboard and decided he didn't need that many sideboard cards anyway. Instead, he added a Poison Dart Frog as a lucky charm, and it stuck. This weekend, still carrying that same mascot, he took home the trophy. His persistence and faith in the deck paid off spectacularly as he swept through the semifinals and finals, toppling Izzet Cauldron in both matches.

Simic Ouroboroid Makes the Top 8

4 Gene Pollinator 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Ouroboroid 4 Spyglass Siren 3 Floodpits Drowner 3 Jackal, Genius Geneticist 3 Keen-Eyed Curator 3 Pawpatch Recruit 2 Azure Beastbinder 2 Tyvar, the Pummeler 1 Quantum Riddler 1 Tishana's Tidebinder 1 Snakeskin Veil 4 Innkeeper's Talent 5 Forest 4 Botanical Sanctum 4 Breeding Pool 4 Willowrush Verge 3 Multiversal Passage 1 Soulstone Sanctuary 4 Repulsive Mutation 3 Dragon Sniper 2 Insidious Fungus 2 Tishana's Tidebinder 2 Unable to Scream 1 Floodpits Drowner 1 Quantum Riddler

Simic Ouroboroid can unleash fast, aggressive starts that ramp into a turn-three Ouroboroid with Llanowar Elves and Gene Pollinator. Ouroboroid rewards you for flooding the board with cheap creatures, and its power can spiral to astronomical levels when combined with Genemorph Imago or Innkeeper's Talent. This relentless growth allows you to distribute +1/+1 counters at a breathtaking pace, and Kellen Pastore rode this list to a Top 8 finish at Magic Spotlight: Spider-Man in Baltimore.

The newest addition is Jackal, Genius Geneticist. Once Jacakal is on the battlefield, a typical chain of Spyglass Siren into Floodpits Drowner will grow Jackal into a 3/3 creature that has effectively added three mana's worth of additional threats. That's already an extraordinary return on a two-drop. If you manage to keep the chain going and copy Ouroboroid, the resulting board may require a cosmic supply of dice to keep track.

Across all players, Simic Ouroboroid went 24-22 against Izzet Cauldron. That slightly favorable matchup, paired with an even stronger performance against the rest of the field, gave the deck an excellent overall showing with a 56.4% non-mirror win rate for the weekend.

Boros Mice Squeaked Into the Top 8

4 Cheeky House-Mouse 2 Valley Questcaller 4 Inspiring Vantage 4 Burst Lightning 3 Rockface Village 4 Sheltered by Ghosts 2 Mountain 2 Shardmage's Rescue 2 Restless Bivouac 4 Manifold Mouse 4 Lightning Helix 4 Emberheart Challenger 4 Sacred Foundry 3 Plains 4 Flowerfoot Swordmaster 2 Dreadmaw's Ire 4 Screaming Nemesis 4 Sunbillow Verge 2 Agatha's Soul Cauldron 2 Abrade 2 Get Lost 2 Boros Charm 2 Magebane Lizard 3 Case of the Crimson Pulse 2 Fire Magic

Nearly a dozen players registered traditional Boros Aggro, complementing the familiar mono-red creature base with noncreature spells like Lightning Helix and Sheltered by Ghosts. Yet only one competitor brought Cheeky House-Mouse, Flowerfoot Swordmaster, and Manifold Mouse to the tournament: Benji Leaf.

His remarkable Top 8 run stood as a testament to the enduring synergy and explosive potential of the valiant Mice. With Dreadmaw's Ire and Shardmage's Rescue ready to target Flowerfoot Swordmaster or protect key creatures from Torch the Tower, the deck could set up lightning-fast kills.

Throughout the event, Leaf went 5-2 against Izzet Cauldron. Though the sample size was modest, the results were undeniably promising. Boros Mice could very well be a strong contender at upcoming Standard tournaments.

The Spice Corner at Magic Spotlight: Spider-Man

Reviewing the Top 32 decks, all of which went 10-4-1 or better, Izzet Cauldron was unsurprisingly the dominant presence, yet two inventive lists stood out from the crowd.

3 Origin of Spider-Man 2 Restless Anchorage 4 Inquisitive Glimmer 4 Optimistic Scavenger 4 Starting Town 4 Sheltered by Ghosts 3 Seam Rip 4 Floodfarm Verge 3 Ethereal Armor 3 Enduring Innocence 1 Island 3 Shardmage's Rescue 4 Multiversal Passage 1 Fae Flight 4 Entity Tracker 1 Meticulous Archive 7 Plains 4 Silent Hallcreeper 1 Proft's Eidetic Memory 1 Disdainful Stroke 1 Seam Rip 2 Tishana's Tidebinder 2 Get Lost 2 Split Up 2 No More Lies 1 Authority of the Consuls 2 Overlord of the Mistmoors 2 Rest in Peace

Ruki Hoda achieved an impressive 11-4 record with a unique Azorius Enchantments deck, built to maximize the power of Optimistic Scavenger and Entity Tracker. Brimming with enchantments, the deck could trigger their eerie abilities with remarkable consistency. Origin of Spider-Man, a key new addition from Magic: The Gathering | Marvel's Spider-Man, proved to be a perfect inclusion as a way to apply pressure while fueling the eerie engine at the same time.

1 Elegant Parlor 3 Marang River Regent 2 Mistrise Village 1 Thundering Falls 1 Dispelling Exhale 1 Three Steps Ahead 4 Floodfarm Verge 2 Seam Rip 2 Jeskai Revelation 3 Get Lost 1 Mountain 2 Consult the Star Charts 1 Island 3 Shiko, Paragon of the Way 1 Rediscover the Way 4 Lightning Helix 4 Meticulous Archive 3 Split Up 4 Sacred Foundry 4 Stock Up 4 Riverpyre Verge 2 Plains 3 Authority of the Consuls 2 Sunbillow Verge 1 Riverchurn Monument 1 Ultima 1 Ultima 2 Abrade 1 Exorcise 1 Three Steps Ahead 1 Beza, the Bounding Spring 1 Obliterating Bolt 2 Elspeth, Storm Slayer 2 Rest in Peace 1 Scorching Dragonfire 3 Voice of Victory

Paul Farnsworth also impressed, finishing 10-4-1 with Jeskai Control. The deck is built to dictate the pace of the game through countermagic, spot removal, sweepers, and card draw. One particularly elegant synergy in this list is the pairing of Authority of the Consuls and Split Up. Authority of the Consuls not only buys time but also makes opposing creatures enter tapped, supercharging the "Destroy all tapped creatures" mode of Split Up and transforming it into a three-mana board wipe.

What's Next for Standard?

Izzet Cauldron remains the clear deck to defeat in Standard, but the three aggro archetypes from the Top 8 showed favorable matchups against Izzet Cauldron this past weekend, so they're well worth exploring. The Standard RCQ season remains in full swing and continues through November 9, offering competitive players a chance to secure their spot in the Standard Regional Championships scheduled for January through March 2026. You can find an RCQ near you by checking with your local game store or visiting your regional organizer's website.

The second and final stop for Magic Spotlight: Spider-Man is this weekend, November 1–2, in Liverpool. Like Baltimore, the main event features a $50,000 prize pool, awesome promo cards, Pro Tour invitations for Top 8 finishers, and an Infinity Gauntlet winner's trophy. If you can't attend in person, high-quality live coverage on Fanfinity's YouTube channel will deliver every highlight, deck tech, and dramatic finish straight to your screen!