The Gathering Standard decks are broken by this avatar card

Although Universes Beyond as a whole has received a mixed reception among fans, especially after Magic: The Gatherings Spider-Man set, the various cards dedicated to Avatar: The Last Airbender seem to fit right into the game's world and loop. Lesson cards take the best of their counterparts in Strixhaven without the Learn gimmick, and allies as a subtype come back with a vengeance on powerful cards like Great Divide Guide, making all allied creatures mana dorks. Now, Magic: The Gathering is about to see its meta completely changed by two major events: the Banned and Restricted post by Wizards of the Coast tomorrow, November 10th, and the release of the Avatar set.

As it stands, most of the game's formats have a distinct meta, with certain decks significantly better than the majority and accounting for the bulk of the meta. This is especially true for Standard, which has two dominant decks in the form of Izzet Cauldron and mono-Red aggro. The percentage for the top 10 MTG decks, based on tournament lists and participation seen on mtgdecks.net, are as follows:

Izzet Cauldron (about 22% meta share)
Mono-Red aggro (about 19% meta share)
Dimir midrange (about 11% meta share)
Simic aggro (about 6% meta share)
Sultai Reanimator (about 5% meta share)
Azorius control (about 3% meta share)
4-color control (about 3% meta share)
Jeskai control (about 3% meta share)
Orzhov Pixie (about 2% meta share)
Boros Burn (about 2% meta share)

This accounts for about 76% of the meta, and almost 4% is for rogue decks.

Things will change soon though, as the Avatar set introduces a card called Zhao, Moon Slayer. This is a 2-CMC (1 generic, 1 red) 2/2 creature with Menace that causes non-basic lands to go into socket, basically ruining the curve for any non-monocolor deck in MTG.

This Magic: The Gathering Avatar Card makes standard decks virtually unplayable

The problem with Zhao, Moon Slayer isn't even that players can spend 7 mana of any suit to put a conqueror counter on it, which then turns all non-basic lands into mountains. This is a very strong effect, and it fits perfectly with Avatar's firebending mechanic MTGbut what makes Zhao, the Moon Slayer, broken is the fact that it makes all non-basic lands enter.

Most of the standard plays in the game, incl MTGThe Izzet Cauldron deck, which still dominates the format, includes some form of dual lands, meaning lands that can be tapped for one of two colors (or both). This is because they make the mana curve more manageable for multi-color decks, even decks that only have two colors, and they provide a lot of utility and flexibility. In addition to that, utility areas like Rockface Village and Soulstone Sanctuary could also see play to have more options for action.

All of these lands are rendered mostly useless by Zhao, the Moon Slayer, because no matter what, they enter the game lost. This singlehandedly slows down all non-mono decks, and then Zhao also has the ability to spend 7 mana to make most non-mono red decks unplayable.

How MTG's Mono-Red Aggro Deck May Change After Standard Banning

Magic: The GatheringDefault bans may crop up options for mono-Red, which isn't guaranteed to happen, but there are a couple of candidates:

Screaming Nemesis can be banned in Standard because it's a very strong, problematic creature that single-handedly kills lifegain decks and makes mono-Red's curve much more consistent and aggressive.
Sunspine Lynx is normally a sideboard pick, but it's incredibly strong at 4-CMC for a 5/4 that blocks life gain and makes damage impossible to prevent, while also damaging players based on non-basic lands they control, further punishing opponents if used with Zhao.

If these cards are banned, mono-Red may be less consistent even with the upcoming Zhao, Moon Slayer, but the Avatar set also contains incredible mono-Red cards like Fire Nation Cadets and Firebending Student that can prove incredible in the meta. The bans will inevitably change Standard, but Zhao is about to make a pretty big splash if monochromatic decks don't start popping up.