Copy of: Tolarian Academy 1998/1999 (Standard)

Magic players don't agree on much, but when it comes to the most powerful Standard deck in the history of the game, not many people disagree: it was the Tolarian Academy decks that brought about the Combo Winter of 1998/1999. None of the decks that we've talked about today come close to Academy decks that were more than capable of winning the game on the spot within the opening turns. As @Supreme_Kitteh put it on Twitter: "The early game was the die roll, the midgame was the mulligans, the late game was T1 when you combo'ed off."

This deck won by landing Mind Over Matter with Tolarian Academy as early as turn one, tapping and untapping the Academy for a billion mana while refilling the hand with wheel effects like Windfall. Then, Stroke of Genius would draw your deck, which you could use with Mind Over Matter for more mana, before a final Stroke of Genius pointed at the opponent would win the game then and there.

Tolarian Academy was banned in December 1998, but it wasn't long before Wizards had to act again on another degenerate artifact-based combo. Memory Jar was emergency banned in March 1999 - a very few weeks after it was released - because of how it could be used fast mana, card draw and Megrim to combo off on the spot.

Wizards immediately banned Memory Jar in both Standard and Extended to bring an end to Combo Winter, but it has lived long in the memory, and anyone who was around at the time will tell you Academy decks (and the Memory Jar lists that followed them) were the most powerful any Standard format had ever seen. This claim holds up, too, I think - Oko is all well and good, but it's pretty irrelevant if you're dead before you can cast it!

https://www.channelfireball.com/article/top-5-most-powerful-standard-decks-of-all-time-riley-ranks