Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “Standard”
Foundations is bringing Core Sets back to Magic (again), and so far it seems to have been a really good idea. I’ve seen many players celebrate that there’s some hard-to-define “classic” feeling to how the set plays, even extending to the parts of the set that aren’t reprints. Part of that might be the power of branding, but Core Sets …
If we’re only to judge by the historical facts, Magic isn’t really sure if it likes having core sets. Nevertheless, it’s about to try and have one again for the first time in several years. Foundations is different in some ways from the classic core sets. It’s got more new cards than reprints, and looks to be a lot more …
The announcement that Universes Beyond sets will be legal in all formats – including Standard – beginning with new sets in 2025 came as something of a shock to the Magic community. Is it actually a good move? You might have been lucky enough to attend MagicCon Vegas this weekend. You might also, like me, have been at home, refreshing …
Caretaker’s Talent has been taking hold in multiple formats, becoming a cornerstone of multiple decks that Tom dives deep into here! The cycle of rare Talents have been frontrunners for Bloomburrow’s best constructed cards right out of the blocks. In the first week after the set released, I wrote about a string of upstart Standard decks that were already emerging …
Graveyard decks have always been a huge part of Magic, ever since the first Animate Dead was used to cheat out the first Lord of the Pit or Shivan Dragon. But if you broaden your definition beyond simple reanimation, almost every deck has some way to get value out of the yard – and if yours doesn’t, you’re probably not …
Standard is in a really interesting place right now – and not least because it’s not the one I or many other people expected. The post-Bloomburrow format has begun to settle after its long-awaited rotation, and while GB Midrange and Atraxa Ramp remain top contenders, they are surrounded on all sides by hyper-aggressive aggro decks! It’s true that aggro is …
Standard is in a chaotic place right now. Even if Bloomburrow had zero cards in it, it still would have been the most impactful set since 2022 – purely because it triggered the first proper rotation of the 3-year Standard era. Many of the cards and decks which had calcified in place at the top of the metagame are now …
Every Magic set goes through an excitable honeymoon phase, and it’s only after the first few weeks of events that you can really measure their impact on the metagame. The top minds in Constructed Magic have had some time to thoroughly explore Lost Caverns of Ixalan, so which shiny new decks have emerged to flash their tournament potential? More importantly, …
The new cards from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan hit Standard this week! Fittingly, they’re about to enter a strange and deadly environment unlike anything ever seen before. Changes to Standard legality have led to a larger card pool and higher standard of card quality than in many other years, which makes it hard for new mechanics and archetypes to …
Even in an epic fantasy card game like Magic: the Gathering, populated by giants, dragons, angels, titans, krakens and demons, labeling something a “god” creates an extra layer of expectation. A god card has to feel powerful, and in a unique way that sets them apart from other high-impact creatures. Some games might elevate them above the mere mortals by …
