Magic: The Gathering Foundations will be released on MTG Arena on November 12, 2024, while the paper release date is November 15, 2024. The spoilers of the set have already started a while ago, and now most of the cards of the set have been revealed. In today's article, we will talk about some of the revealed cards already available on Arena and try to understand if they fit well into the current standard or if their time is now past. In essence, will there be room for these cards in standard in the coming months?
What is Foundations?
Before we start talking about cards, I think it's worth mentioning what Foundations represents and will represent for Magic players.
Magic: The Gathering Foundations is a Standard-legal set and will remain in Standard until at least 2029.
Foundations is all about the fundamental cards of Magic. In the MagicCon: Amsterdam preview panel, the developers described it as a set that encompasses the basic, core elements of Magic.
In simple words, Foundations aims to be a set for all—new and old players—with the goal of starting from the basics of the game and establishing a new way to approach draft, standard, or more generally learning the game.
Planeswalkers
We all remember the War of the Spark trailer and how it immediately raised expectations for Liliana, Dreadhorde General.
Unfortunately, our beloved necromancer has never shone as a 6-mana planeswalker. In fact, such a high cost was already prohibitive 5 years ago, in a period where the power level of standard was very far from today. The sad truth is that such a high cost must necessarily give us a huge help to win the game. To be honest, this was never a card that won games and never will be.
In the current metagame, the situation is, from my point of view, even worse than a few years ago. In the current standard metagame, there are way too many ways to get much more value than that generated by Liliana, Dreadhorde General while also spending less mana. Also, if we exclude the -9, none of the other two abilities are really too inviting in the current meta. Getting 6 mana against Mono-Red and making a 2/2 is not the best. At the same time, we have better tools to remove two creatures.
In all honesty, if this card has not managed to impose itself 5 years ago, I do not see why it should now, with a faster meta, which creates more value and at a lower cost. Test FAILED!
Very different situation for Vivien Reid, a card that has been played a lot for some time.
It should be said that in that period, green had better ways of ramping than those available to date (coff coff Llanowar Elves coff coff), and in general enjoyed strategies very different from those currently used.
However, it will be possible to play Vivien on turn five with the release of Foundations.
Leaving aside the ramp talk and focusing more on the planeswalker’s strength, she seems a bit obsolete as well.
In fact, in the past, playing a 5-mana planeswalker in your deck was much less punitive than now for many different reasons.
If we look at the current metagame, we can see that enchantments are very popular, and this is a remarkable point in favor of Vivien. The -3 is certainly very relevant in the current meta. The real problem, from my point of view, is that I have trouble seeing this card played in a midrange deck as at the moment the drop to 5 seems too expensive for the meta.
As for her partner Liliana, I think that it will be very difficult for Vivien to find space in the current standard. Among the two cards, I see a lot of difference, and Vivien seems to me strongly advantaged if we consider the sideboard as well.
Creatures
My passion for Magic started with the release of MTG Arena, and in the first months of the game, I only used two decks: Mono-Blue and Mono-Red. I remember with pleasure the first months of farming thanks to Mono-Blue before and Mono-Red after. I remember the fun of increasing my collection and being able to afford new decks as if it were today.
I started with Mono-Blue because it was, among tier 1 decks, the cheapest, and then because there was a card that really made me crazy, and it was Tempest Djinn.
With great regret, I must admit that I do not see this card playable in the current meta. My beloved Djinn is hardly playable outside of Mono-Blue decks for both its mana cost and effect. It's sad to say, but at the moment Haughty Djinn is incredibly stronger and more flexible than my old friend. Play them together? In theory, it would be possible, but from a practical point of view, Mono-Blue has always been a deck that gave its best immediately after the rotation, and since the format was stretched, this has not happened. A real shame!
After Mono-Blue, I played a lot of Mono-Red, and Lyra Dawnbringer was perhaps the number one enemy of that deck. I hated this card because it often represented a game over for Mono-Red.
Fortunately, I think that at the moment the card is not even so good in sideboard as Mono-Red is able to win games much faster than before. Getting to 5 mana may not be an option in many games. I think that the attempt should be made, but I am aware of the fact that now decks like Mono-Red must be faced in other ways. Should we try to play her? Absolutely yes. Do I have high expectations for this card in the current standard? Absolutely not!
After Mono-Blue and Mono-Red in 2018/2019, I was also very fascinated by Mono-Green, an archetype of which Ghalta, Primal Hunger was the king.
12/12 with trample on turn 4 was a big problem at the time, but maybe it is not now. Why? Because I think that at the moment in the standard metagame, there are so many removals that we will hardly see Ghalta, Primal Hunger being played on round 4 as in the past. Mono-Green has also been a very bad archetype for several years now.
An alternative might be to play this card in some deck that uses Smuggler's Surprise, but even then, there are much better alternatives now. While I am intrigued by the chance of seeing our beloved dinosaur played again, I have to admit that this will hardly happen in competitive environments.
Conclusions
Over the last 5 years, the power level of standard has increased dramatically, and cards that were fundamental a few years ago may not be so now.
While the chance of giving new life to some iconic cards is very tempting, on the other hand, the risk that the set may be less effective on the standard is real.
My hope is that this set will still have many surprises (and old acquaintances), and especially that it will bring back many old (nice) memories.