Standard Changes: Future Impacts and August Format

Standard Changes: What it Means Going Forward, and What the Format Will Be like in August

Discover the upcoming Standard changes in Magic: the Gathering, their impacts, and what to expect in August. Get insights on strategies and key cards.

Pro Tour MH3 has ended, and we have plenty of things to say about the eternal formats as they await possible bans. Standard has kind of become somewhat of an afterthought for competitive play, but everyone will have to be mindful of the new changes to the format, and the players who frequently play Standard are ready for the format to feel fresh again. We can't really say that the format itself has gotten stale - many would tell you that Standard is in a good place right now. The main thing is that it's simply time for some cards to rotate out, as people are starting to get sick of them. It feels as if a lot of us have forgotten what it's like to play in the format when there are only five sets available to choose from. Three years after the release of Kamigawa, New Capenna, and Innistrad Block, we are ready to take a look at the new Standard.

Foundational Changes to the Format

We already know that we are going to have a three year period, as announced last year. Somewhat of a bomb that was dropped at Pro Tour MH3, however, was that we are going to get a Foundations Set for Standard. So just WHAT is Foundations? My best advice is to think of it as a core set, but at the same time, it still does its own thing. It appears to be what will take the place of the core set, as they are no longer printed. Ok, so now you are probably wondering "Hm, I wonder what cool new cards they will print for Foundations that act as good core cards for the format." Well, that's the funny thing. Based on the information we have so far, it appears that Foundations will actually feature reprints of old cards that have not been legal in Standard for a few years. What is even more noteworthy about this phenomenon that the cards in Foundations will be legal for years in Standard. We will receive more information on this as we approach the release date of Foundations on November 15, 2024. Let's take a look at a few that we know of so far:

This is a card that a lot of people have been asking for. Llanowar Elves is one of the original mana dorks that simply help us ramp into playing big dumb creatures way sooner than they should be played. They are a staple of Mono Green in Pioneer, and it is entirely possible that they could be one of the key cards that help make Mono Green relevant again in Standard - something it hasn't been for close to two years now.

So we know that we are losing a board wipes with rotation at the end of the month. It's interesting that they would print more (yes, I am using the word interesting as a euphemism here, I'm clearly unhappy with this). Day of Judgment is one of the original board wipes that many pseudo-reprints of the card often replicate. What I can only hope by this card being legal in Standard for as long as it will be is that we will hopefully see fewer board wipes printed in each set.

This one is another head-scratcher. Many people are hoping that it is just a trap card that isn't too relevant, or maybe just a fun collectible card. It probably didn't need to be reprinted. We can think of plenty of other staples within blue that we would rather see. Before we get too ahead of ourselves though, we have only seen five cards from Foundations spoiled so far. It is highly likely that we get plenty of cards from every color that are format-impacting and overall useful.

Important Dates Coming Up In Standard

Bloomburrow will be released on August 2nd. Note that on Arena, we will see the new cards on July 30th. There will also be pre-releases starting July 26th. Standard Rotation will also happen at this time, so we will get the freshness that our format is craving. There aren't a ton of Bloomburrow Spoilers yet, so I held off on showing any of those cards until I have a bunch of goodies to show.

We also recently learned that Duskmourne will release on September 27th. It is possible that the Arena release is a few days before this, but that has not been confirmed or denied by WOTC, as it is a little farther away. Something that is noteworthy, however, is that these cards are being released before the Regional Championship in DC where Pioneer will be the format for the event. We will have to see the short time period from 9/27-10/4 shows us a big swing in the meta given the new cards that we will have access to.

Ok, I know this is the dates section, but there is a card from Duskmourne that I cannot wait to show you. It is a bomb. Indulge my terrible attention span really quick and check out this card:

This is my absolute favorite way to play magic. The gain and drain effect is the chef's kiss to me. We haven't seen a card like this in Standard since Vito, and before that it was Sanguine Bond. This card effectively bridges the gap between both of them, as one was an enchantment one was a creature, and they respectively cost three and five mana. This is an enchantment creature that costs four mana, starts as a creature, then comes back as an enchantment. It is one of the most exciting cards I've seen printed in some time.

As mentioned above, we will have our new Foundations set on November 15th. This one is noteworthy, because it will give us some time to mess around with the two previous sets while they are still new and there are no foundational cards to make the meta different.

It's both an exciting time and somewhat of an anxious time for Standard right now. We know changes are coming, and things are exciting, but it is another BIG change to the format. We are also anticipating some very unique cards to be printed. The perpetual spoiler season is upon us, and we are here for it - even if we do all have a little extra anxiety.

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I am a Magic The Gathering competitive player, and streamer. I specialize in homebrew decks. My favorite formats are: Standard, Pioneer (Explorer on Arena), and EDH. I first started playing MTG in 2001, and have played on and off since then.

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Discover the controversy surrounding Magic: The Gathering's Play Booster Box changes, impacting draft and pricing strategies in the upcoming Aetherdrift set.

A Product Change is Coming to Play Booster Boxes, and People are NOT Happy

Although we are still getting used to the new cards brought to us by Foundations, we have begun to get announcements about the next Standard-legal set, Aetherdrift. Aetherdrift will be the first set to come out in 2025, and it will also be the first Universes Beyond Standard-legal set. For those who aren't familiar, Universes Beyond sets are the ones that do not exclusively involve the traditional MTG characters and planes, although they can still be incorporated. What they do for the characters in the Universes Beyond sets is to have somewhat of a crossover between MTG and another universe in popular culture. We have seen them do Lord of the Rings, Assassin's Creed, etc. What is unique about the Universes Beyond sets going forward is that they will now be Standard-legal - something that has not been the case up until now. In fact, almost all of the Universes Beyond sets were strictly Commander, Legacy, and Vintage-legal up until now, with the exception of Lord of the Rings also being legal in Modern. That is a change that we did know about , however, but the latest updates follow up on the new changes that we will see starting next year. Changes to Play Booster Boxes So what is this big change? How will it affect MTG?

The Overlords Have Spoken! GRUUL is Surprisingly Fun!

It's no secret that in Standard we have some absolutely monstrous creatures right now. There are multiple ways to cheat them out, and the most immediate one that comes to mind is reanimator. With Foundations, we also get a bit more access to ramp, and the overlords from Duskmourn have been pretty impactful in the format as well. So the idea is that we can center a deck around having a bunch of enter-the-battlefield effects or attack triggers that allow us to commit some serious shenanigans. In Gruul Surprise, we are going to cheat out the big guys as best we can, be it ramp, or with a card that says we can simply put them on the board. Since we can sometimes do this at instant speed, it insulates us against board wipes, and allows us to set up one-turn kills. The idea is that we can get around control decks and punish opponents who didn't leave up any blockers. We are also looking to ping our opponents for tons of damage just by having creatures enter under our control. Since we are playing 7 overlords, we are also going to play Up the Beanstalk because it will allow us to draw a bunch of extra cards. OK, I have hyped up this fun deck enough. Let's take a look at the list! The addition of Llanowar Elves has really helped this deck to be more consistent and possibly try to keep up with the fast meta. We have access to the smaller board wipes that deal with aggro decks, while not killing all of our stuff. The deck does a great job of going over the top and running away with the game if left unchecked. Most of the time, playing against it feels like a ticking time bomb. We are able to deal pretty significant damage that forces the opponent to be very selective with when they attack, and when they leave up mana for removal. Let's take a look at some key cards. Relevant Cards

Reviewing the Standard Metagame and the Domination of Aggro

We are a couple of weeks into Foundations, and it feels like the meta is starting to respond. There were some good staple creatures added to the format, and we even got back some nostalgic burn spells. Midrange is still pretty good, but the decks are forced more and more into a sideboard plan that is almost entirely geared toward dealing with aggro. If you hadn't noticed how prevalent aggro has become recently, it now accounts for 74% of the decks that are listed in major tournaments in Standard. The most recent MTGO Challenge actually featured an entire top 8 consisting of assorted aggro decks. One could make the argument that some of the decks were more tempo than aggro, but the decks have aggressive creatures nonetheless, and they also all tend to have a low curve. We could also conclude that the addition of Llanowar Elves makes the Golgari decks that much faster, and then in some instances they could have been considered an aggro deck. Mono red is also taking up more and more of the competitive metashare, and is positioning itself as a deck to be reckoned with ever since its strong showing at the World Championships. We will look over some of the archetypes in Standard right now that are consistently performing well in challenges and other tournaments. Red Deck Wins This has remained a relevant deck for over a year now, and has endured many changes. It seems that the deck can always find a worthy replacement once a card either rotates or becomes subpar. There are a few new burn spells in Foundations, so it has become evident that burn could be here to stay for the next few years. It's going to be strong most likely for as long as Bloomburrow is in Standard. I think this is good for the game, and lines up with what Wizards wants. You want people to get into your game and garner new players with Foundations, so why not make sure mono red is good? It is one of the preconstructed decks on Arena, and it is one of the easier archetypes for a new player to learn. It lines up with everything that they want, and also allows for newer players to have a positive experience with a good deck that can win games early on in their journey. It is also pretty helpful that a lot of the cards are on the cheaper end. Just make sure you save up for your sideboard - Screaming Nemesis is steadily climbing and could get to fifty bucks soon!

The BEST New Deck to Play with Pioneer Masters!

Pioneer Masters is coming in December, and we officially have some spoilers. We won't go over all of the new that were announced recently, as there aren't quite enough to devote an entire article to yet, but we have some good news that confirms the inclusion of key decks and archetypes into the explorer format that will eventually convert to Pioneer on Arena. Something that we have to consider is that Explorer on Arena is far from actually being Pioneer. There are a ton of cards that are missing, and in turn, there are very powerful decks from the format that we have never seen on Arena before. If you don't play Pioneer in paper, or in MTGO, you may not have ever heard of some of the stuff that's coming. I have some advice: prepare yourself. There will be a brand new meta after Pioneer Masters hits Arena, and Explorer will look nothing like it did before. Today I have a deck that I believe to have an incredibly high power level, and also one of the decks that I believe to be the most consistent in the format. It has the best removal possible, has a spell that tutors and allows you to cast the spells for free, access to five colors, and some powerful creatures and planeswalkers that allow you to close out the game. Let's take a look at Niv to Light. Niv to Light is a deck that has been played for a few years in Pioneer, and it seems to get updates here and there. There are some new cards from Foundations that are seeing play in the deck, and I'm not sure if that is the final version of it, or if people are simply trying out some of these new cards. What I will say is that the deck has been doing very well in some of the recent Pioneer challenges on MTGO, with this list winning one just a few days ago on the 23rd. If you aren't familiar, there is a key combo in the deck that actually allows you to tutor out a seven mana planeswalker and cast it for free, amongst a plethora of other value spells. We'll take a look at that particular combo, and then other key cards of the deck. Relevant Combo Cards

This Deck is on DEMON TIME

We went into Foundations knowing that the demon deck was a top archetype in Standard, and even in Pioneer, but the question still remained: with new cards coming, would it still be good? And if it's still good, what could we do to make it better? Foundations gives us some key cards that almost appear to be made for the deck, and we won't scoff at that. The set is made to be a basis for many different archetypes, so it was nice that we got some decent demons with our core set. Something we'll have to worry about going forward is all of the other decks that will be popping up. We will be vigilant about our sideboard choices and stay prepared to make the changes that are needed. We do have some cards in the sideboard from the new set, so let's take a look at the deck itself that will show us main deck and sideboard additions from Foundations. We are following the previous demon archetype, but now we are able to be a little bit more well-rounded, and we have cut down on some of the cost by building the deck in paper. One could also argue that the deck has a better mana curve, as the previous version ran 10 four drops. Since we took out two copies of Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, that lowers the cost of the deck by about $150 USD. While some argue that we have taken out one of the best cards in the format, we are also helping the deck stay more true to its goal, while making it more accessible to newer players.

It's TIME for the Way-Too-Early Mono Black Foundations Deck!

Foundations has almost fully been spoiled, and I believe that it is safe to say that we are in for some fun times in Standard. There will be a lot support that is coming for many different archetypes, and they have made some evergreen cards available in the set that should help the format be very and healthy. There are some that I like, and some that I hate, so we can conclude that they likely made well-balanced decisions with their card choices. Wizards has also come out and stated that they have good consumer support for this set so far, and I fully believe that. Sadly, we will not be having early access for this set, so I will be dropping a lot of decks here in order to get my ideas officially published somewhere. For today, I made a new Mono Black Midrange Deck (like I do for each set) and I think this one is pretty sweet. We are going to be able to do our gain and drain combo for a long time in Standard, and it's about time I get started trying to find the best deck. You know what we are going for here. There are so many tools to resolve our combo, and we can even make a ton of vampires that have lifelink to get extra triggers off of tenacity. We are creating a good bit of ways to gain life in the deck without even having to splash for another color. We also have a sneaky way to add a bunch of mana with the vampire subtheme that we have in the deck. Even if some of our initial game plans don't pan out the way we want them to, we were fortunately able to include a ton of good midrange cards that grind well, and amass tons of value. Relevant New Cards

A Product Change is Coming to Play Booster Boxes, and People are NOT Happy