Wrapping 2025 Standard Into One Commander Deck

Cori-Steel Cutter | Art by Xabi Gaztelua

2025 was an eventful time for Standard. The year started off with aggressive decks based around Mouse synergies from Bloomburrow, alongside explosive midrange decks like Domain Overlords. Unbeknownst to Standard players at the time, the first quarter of the year was merely a prelude to Izzet's reign of terror.

From the release of Tarkir: Dragonstorm all the way to the Magic World Championship 31 at the end of the year, various Izzet decks would rule the format.

In this article, we're looking back at that reign of terror and rolling it up into a single Commander deck. I wouldn't consider this an installment of 60 to 100 as much as I would the inaugural edition of 180 to 100.

The Standard Decks

Izzet Cutter

The first chapter in Izzet's reign of terror was Izzet Cutter, a prowess deck centered around Cori-Steel Cutter. The strength of this deck lied in its versatility. Izzet Cutter was able to play a traditional aggro game, while also being able to sit back, resolve a couple copies of Stock Up, and sculpt a hand that could pull off a one-turn kill against decks with a lot of interaction.

I played a heinous amount of this deck, and it was easily my favorite of 2025. Cori-Steel Cutter's stranglehold on the Standard format was put to an end when the card was banned on June 30th, 2025.

Vivi Cauldron

Vivi Cauldron was the most dominant deck of the year, and an appropriate amount of controversy surrounded it as a result. This was the year that Wizards of the Coast transitioned to a rigid ban announcement schedule with months long gaps between ban cycles. Vivi Ornitier showed up, as if on cue, to exploit this new system, taking over the Standard format and dodging a ban for 150 days!

The Final Fantasy Wizard finally recieved a ban in Standard on November 10th, 2025.

What made this deck so dominant? Vivi Ornitier has one of the most powerful activated abilities ever printed on a creature, and in this deck Vivi generously donates his ability to make mana to creatures with +1/+1 counters on them using Agatha's Soul Cauldron.

Also, Fear of Missing Out and Frostcliff Siege provide the deck with an incredibly fast method of closing out a game in one or two combat steps.

This was the deck that had it all.

Izzet Lessons

The final Izzet deck of 2025 is a fascinating one. Izzet Lessons is built almost entirely out of cards from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Utilizing Lesson synergies from Avatar in combination with Monument to Endurance and Artist's Talent, this deck is capable of pulling off insane turns. It isn't uncommon to see the Lessons deck nearly run out of cards while stringing together a win.

Izzet Lessons won the 2025 World Championships and is continuing to see play online and at RCQs. Also, Izzet Lessons is the only deck of the three I've looked at today that can still legally be played in Standard. Time will tell if the ban hammer will eventually hit a piece from this deck.

Choosing a Commander to Represent 2025

This was the easiest choice I've ever made. Vivi's 150 day long reign over Standard makes it the clear choice to lead my 2025 Standard Commander deck. The hidden perk of using Vivi is that he guarantees the deck will be playable no matter the contents of the 99. The only downside is that it becomes much harder to effectively use Agatha's Soul Cauldron with Vivi in the command zone, as exiling it with Soul Cauldron will lock the deck's only copy of Vivi away in exile for the rest of the game.

This hangup certainly won't stop me from going ahead with it, but it is a potential drawback.

Finally, I'm adding a stipulation to mix things up a little: I'm only allowing myself to use cards that are in Standard-legal sets. The introduction of the three-year Standard rotation cycle will certainly simplify this job, but I'm still cutting myself off from Commander staples like Command Tower, Sol Ring, and Arcane Signet.

This choice also cuts Vivi off from Curiosity and Ophidian Eye, which is a little sad. I'm trusting Vivi to be so powerful that he'll be able to get by without those critical pieces.

The Packages that Make Up 2025 Standard

Prowess

The prowess package fits very well with Vivi Ornitier. Vivi himself basically has "super prowess" as he gets a +1/+1 counter each time his controller casts a noncreature spell. Where the Standard prowess deck was looking to end games with a large Cori-Steel Cutter token or a Monastery Swiftspear, this deck can actually get the job done by attacking just with Vivi Ornitier.

Pump spells like Bulk Up and Monstrous Rage, alongside incremental pump effects like Astrologian's Planisphere can turn Vivi into a game ending commander damage threat.

Cauldron

The Cauldron package enables this deck to create a whole board of creatures with Vivi's activated ability after Vivi dies. The drawback of course is permanently losing access to Vivi, but what fun is Commander without a little risk?

I'm not sure how often this scenario will come up, but all of the cards that go with this package synergize with the rest of the deck very well. Proft's Eidetic Memory distributes counters for Agatha's Soul Cauldron, but it can also be used to grow Vivi and get in the red zone.

Lessons

The Lessons package provides a lot of card draw and selection and several excellent removal spells. Artist's Talent provides an additional win condition with its third level turning every noncreature spell into a Boltwave.

My favorite part about the Lessons package is that there are a lot of "functional" cards that happen to be Lessons that can be slotted into the deck. Redirect Lightning, Iroh's Demonstration, Octopus Form, and Boomerang Basics are all perfectly reasonable pieces of interaction for any deck, and it just so happens that this deck can take advantage of the fact that the cards are Lessons.

Honorable Mentions

Stock Up is my nominee for the best card printed in 2025. This sorcery has seen play in every format from Vintage to Standard, and deservedly so. In essence, Stock Up is a three-mana Dig Through Time, a card that is banned in Modern and Legacy and restricted in Vintage. This card should be a consideration in every blue deck in Commander, and it's going to be fantastic in this deck.

Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might is a fantastic damage amplifier in a Vivi Ornitier deck, giving Vivi the ability to shoot the opponents for four damage with each noncreature spell cast. As an added bonus, this God is unlikely to be permanently removed because of his flip ability.

Lastly, Abhorrent Oculus is a creature that's seen play across multiple formats this year. In Standard, it saw play in an Azorius () tempo deck and most notably in Jeskai () Oculous. Abhorrent Oculus provides even more value in Commander than it does in 1v1 formats, as it gets three upkeep triggers each turn cycle rather than one.

Standard 2025 Commander Deck List

Conclusion

This project is more of a thought experiment than a deck I'd advise anyone to go build. However, I'm in love with this concept as a way to memorialize a year of Constructed Magic. Even though I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, I have found this deck to be surprisingly functional.

The astute readers in the audience may have noticed there isn't a dedicated win conditions section in this write up, and it's very intentional. Piloting this deck involves a lot of fiddling around and stumbling upon ways to win the game. Thankfully, it isn't very difficult to find ways to win when there's a Vivi in play generating a billion mana per turn.