Standard: Aggro dominance drives player exit.

Standard currently sits at a Final Health Index of 60.4, placing it firmly in the middle of the pack. The main story this week is a contrast between strong metagame variety and collapsing player engagement. While the Archetype Distribution Score is high at 83.9 and Metagame Diversity holds at 73.3, the format is struggling severely to retain its community, demonstrated by extremely low Growth scores. The format might be healthy in principle, but the data suggests players are exiting quickly.

Digging into the metrics reveals who is running the show: Aggro. Aggro decks now consume a massive 69% of the super-archetype share, a sharp jump from the historical 63.3% average, while Control has been severely suppressed, sitting at only 18% compared to its historical average of 34.2%. However, the real warning signs are in participation. Event Growth Score is a meager 22.8 and Player Growth is 14.6, with Paper participation declining 23.3% per month and MTGO dropping 8.3%.

This aggression is led by Dimir Aggro, which takes the top spot at 15.2% of the meta, followed closely by UR Aggro (13%) and Simic Aggro (11%). Looking at the Top 10 list, the word "Aggro" appears almost everywhere across eight different color combinations, confirming that speed is the single defining factor of Standard right now. The format is wide, but it is uniformly fast.

Community discussion confirms this tension, centering on whether hyper-aggressive strategies like Boros Convoke—leveraging cards like Gleeful Demolition and Knight-Errant of Eos—can consistently beat the format’s premier ramp strategy, Domain. Domain leverages the power of five-color mana bases and high-end threats like Atraxa, Grand Unifier, which remains the most complained-about card due to its sheer resilience. On the flip side, the community universally praises the versatility of Get Lost as an essential stabilizing removal piece. Regarding the recent shake-up, the B&R Health Score sits high at 80.0, suggesting the extensive bans achieved their immediate goal of attempting to increase diversity and reduce early pressure, even as the metagame remains fiercely fast.