With the release of Magic’s first ever space set in Edge of Eternities, another frontier was also crossed: that of the Standard rotation.
Standard is magic’s premiere tournament rotating format, and formerly its most played format. While the casual play of Commander has taken that crown, Standard is still played, especially online and it is the regional qualifier format come August. While the format was recently played at Pro Tour Final Fantasy, the decks from that event will need changing because of Wizards banning 7 cards after the event, and standard rotation happening with the release of Edge of Eternities.
What is MTG Standard Rotation?
When a format rotates, certain sets stop being legal for the format. Generally speaking, a number of sets rotate at once, in a predefined pattern. Previously, Standard had been on a 2 year cycle, meaning that it would rotate a year worth of sets at the start of the Magic year (traditionally September), leaving behind 3 or 4 sets along with the newly released set.
However, in 2023 Wizards of the Coast announced that Standard was moving to a 3 year rotation schedule. Thus sets will be legal for at least 3 years (Foundations stays legal through at least 2029), before rotating. They further refined it in 2024 with the release of Foundations, announcing that following the Edge of Eternities rotation, there will be no rotation until 2027 so that rotation is moved to happening at the start of the calendar year.
What sets are rotating out of Standard with Edge of Eternities?
The following sets will cease to be legal following the official release of Edge of Eternities:
- Dominaria United
- The Brothers’ War
- Phyrexia: All Will Be One
- March of the Machines
- March of the Machines: The Aftermath
What Magic: The Gathering Sets are legal in Standard?
With the release of Edge of Eternities, the following sets will be legal in standard:
- Wilds of Eldraine
- The Lost Caverns of Ixalan
- Murders at Karlov Manor
- Outlaws of Thunder Junction
- Bloomburrow
- Duskmourn: House of Horror
- Foundations
- Aetherdrift
- Tarkir: Dragonstorm
- Final Fantasy
- Edge of Eternities
With that knowledge, we’re going to take a trip through some of the best decks in the format and how they are changing with having over 1100 cards leaving the format.
Dimir Midrange
One of the top-decks post-bannings, Dimir Midrange aims to set up small value creatures, often with evasion to hit your opponent and sneak in Kaito, Bane of Nightmares to help create overwhelming card advantage along with Enduring Curiosity, and then sit back and control the game as it pushes through.
Losing From Rotation
Yuta Takahashi’s World Championship card had been a strong card in the deck as it helped provide an evasive threat that could be flashed in and was particularly good against cards like Fear of Missing Out as it gained the deck free card advantage.
Some of the biggest and baddest black threats to walk the format are rotating out. While Sheoldred is no longer the monster it was early in its run in Standard, it would see play either main or board for these decks and was especially strong against Izzet Vivi Cauldron. This loss, and the next, also impact other black midrange decks like Demons.
Black Removal Spells – Cut Down / Sheoldred’s Edict / Go For The Throat / Blot Out / Anoint with Affliction
The removal package Dimir Midrange decks were running is getting gutted with rotation. The biggest loss here is Cut Down for all the black decks, as this was the little 1 mana answer that could, answering a huge variety of threats up to about 3 mana at instant speed. It was particularly useful against Izzet Cauldron as it could kill all their threats.
Replacements
For Faerie Mastermind
Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel: Perhaps the most straightforward switch is adding another 2 mana flier that provides some card quality advantage with its looting.
Deep-Cavern Bat: Some of the Dimir Midrange Decks had been cutting down on Bat counts, but the leaving of Faerie Mastermind seems like a good reason to up it again to keep having enough early evasive creatures.
For Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
Harvester of Misery: One way the black decks may try to fill two holes with one card is Harvester of Misery, who is a sizable 5 drop, but also can be discarded earlier in the game for some cheap spot removal of -2/-2.
Elegy Acolyte: From Edge of Eternities, this acolyte is a 4/4 lifelink for 4 giving a passable body for this role, but importantly it can help you draw cards (also replacing Gix for those lists that ran it), and make tokens if a non-land left the battlefield.
For Black Removal
Shoot the Sheriff: While there are some creatures that this will randomly miss, Shoot the Sheriff hits most of the important creatures in Standard and is importantly a 2 mana instant.
Tragic Trajectory: A general step down from Cut Down, Tragic Trajectory is the closest to the 1 mana kill an early creature with some flexibility that there is. The fact that it’s only -2/-2 with potential for more as well as a sorcery may doom it, as missing 3 toughness misses key creatures like Fear of Missing Out, and Vivi.
Long Goodbye: If Tragic Trajectory can’t fill the hole, it’s possible Long Goodbye may as it is able to take out some of the cheap creatures that cost 3 mana or less that Trajectory can’t. It is also an instant, and it might occasionally matter that it can avoid counters from Izzet decks.
Izzet Vivi Cauldron
The other seeming top tier deck with Dimir Midrange is centered around everyone’s favorite little wizard. This is an aggro-combo deck aiming to win either by beating you down quickly with giant creatures, or do combo works with Agatha’s Soul Cauldron.
Core to the deck are cards like Proft’s Eidetic Memory, and Marauding Mako that take advantage of all the draw and discarding in the deck, which the core of cards are aimed at producing to let the deck punch face. If that plan gets stalled or stymied, it merely relies on it’s combo plan it is setting up of getting Vivi Ornitier on Agatha’s Soul Cauldron and then using its creatures pumped with counters to generate mana. From there, drawing cards is generally easy for more, and the deck finishes with Voldaran Thrillseeker if huge creatures aren’t enough.
Losing From Rotation
Having dodged the post-PT bans, Vivi Cauldron also dodges losing almost anything to rotation, although it does lose its combo finisher of choice. Thrillseeker was an easy way to launch the deck’s giant creatures at an opponent, and also served as an enabler by handing out counters.
Replacements
Draconautics Engineer is nowhere as good as Voldaran Thrillseeker for Vivi, as it lacks the direct clean finish punch that Thrillseeker gave, and the additional counter synergy it functioned with, but the Engineer’s pair of abilities will work with him under Agatha’s Cauldron to let team Vivi make a bunch of dragons and haste them. It seems unlikely though that it will get the same 3of spot that Voldaren had before.
In part because the Vivi decks may choose to diversify their finisher options some, or seeking cards that can provide additional value. Geralf doesn’t work with the Cauldron himself, but instead the way the deck’s engine works with wanting tons of spells played on its key turn to make tons of tokens.
Our last option here is a little sneaky, but Gingerbrute’s use here would be that it could essentially grant unblockability to the creatures for 1 mana. This would serve as a way for them to get past things like token hordes from Mono White.
White Based Control (Mono White, Azorious, Jeskai)
Control decks containing white come in a lot of variety in Standard now, from the mono-white token control decks making use of Caretaker’s Talent, Elspeth, and a variety of similar token makers alongside removal, to decks that are based in blue and white (as pictured above), or going into Jeskai with white, blue, and red.
All of these are losing some of the same cards, with Mono White losing an additional card that might cause the deck to abandon its previous mono-white status. That may cause these decks to homogenize, especially as the metagame stabilizes, into just two decks.
Losing From Rotation
Lay Down Arms
A loss only for Mono White Token Control, Lay Down Arms was a major reason for the deck staying in mono-white as it gave it a 1 mana removal option. The ability to exile creatures based on your land count, and gain 3 life for it was a significant advantage in a format with a pair of notable decks that care about graveyards.
A loss also for the Orzhov/Esper Fairy Bounce decks, Temporary Lockdown has been a format staple. While not quite as prominent as it was a month ago when it was fighting Cori-Steel Cutter, Temporary Lockdown is still seeing a lot of play in white decks that don’t make tokens and want to exert some control over the game. It is an early game stopper and its ability to remove anything that costs 2 or less was highly prized.
Previously the go-to top end mass wipe, Sunfall’s ability to exile creatures, and give a token back to the control player to hit back at the aggro player or block in the future. The key loss here is the exile portion for these decks.
Replacements
For Lay Down Arms
There aren’t really any direct replacements for Lay Down Arms that would encourage the deck to stay mono-white. Instead you could see the deck merge some with Azorius or explore other options like black, but nothing matches the removal efficiency they got with Lay Down Arms.
For Temporary Lockdown
Jeskai sometimes already prefers Split Up, but it seems like this may be the first replacement option for Temporary Lockdown. That said, Temporary Lockdown’s hitting of various permanent types would be missed by control decks.
Another major replacement option would be Pinnacle Starcage, which functions very similarly. It does miss enchantments however, and artifacts are more vulnerable to destruction generally, especially with Abrade in the format.
For Sunfall
If exiling is needed from a white sweeper, Beyond the Quiet is going to be the answer, as for 5 mana it exiles all creatures and spacecrafts, something else that no sweeper does at that cost.
A mana cheaper, Day of Judgment though doesn’t exile creatures which is a significant difference. It also doesn’t give you a potentially large creature to rebound with, but it's a solid no questions asked board wipe.
Ultima is already seeing some play, and it provides a way to avoid death triggers by ending the turn right there. However it also fails to exile creatures, though it does wipe out artifacts as well - so you don't want to run it alongside Pinnacle Starcage.
Red Based Aggro
I’m cheating here and combining the various red-based aggro decks together. First of all: Boros Convoke is dead, as convoke cards are gone. Second, Boros as a deck is still alive, as are Gruul, Lizards, and Mice as all various takes on getting small little red dudes down and backing them up with burn.
The biggest hits to red happened with the recent bannings, as losing Cori-Steel Cutter took red decks out of the top tier, especially when combined with the further bannings of Monstrous Rage and its best 1 drop Heartfire Hero.
Losing From Rotation
Run by Gruul Delirium, Seed of Hope is a card used to quickly get some cards in the graveyard to help trigger their synergies and essentially cycles. Gruul Delirium needs to find a way to quickly stock its graveyard too.
Various red decks like Monastery Swiftspear as a good 1 drop that grows and has haste. It’s not irreplaceable, but the decks will need to adapt to losing this good creature.
For more go-wide options, especially the dying convoke decks, Gleeful Demolition was a go-to option as it could quickly make several tokens. Nothing matches Gleeful Demolition pure token ratio of 3 tokens for 1 mana, which was an explosive burst these decks relied on to power their aggressive push, and figuring out how to survive its loss is their biggest challenge.
Replacements
For Seed of Hope
Run already by Insidious Roots, Molt Tender lacks the explosive graveyard loading of Seed of Hope, but provides a 1 drop who can help load the graveyard.
Another 1 drop, Cenote Scout’s exploration can functionally mill at least one card sometimes, or help get through land draws.
While it costs 2 mana, the fact that Esper Origins can get 3 cards in the graveyard, and helps smooth draws makes it in some ways a closer fit for Seed of Hope. There is also the upside that in a longer running game, Esper Origins can be flashbacked to provide a body, and eventually an overrun option.
For Monastery Swiftspear
While lacking haste, this goblin provides 2 power for 1 mana and the ability to recharge by dumping excess lands for new cards and grow him up to 3 power later in the game.
From Edge of Eternities, if your deck cares about artifacts at all, this 2 powered 1 drop is another good fill in, and it provides a mana outlet with an additional attacker come the midgame and keeping it relevant.
Another 2 powered 1 drop, Kellan here is a mana sink in the style of Figure of Destiny, and can over time help gain card advantage and eventually be a 3 powered double striker.
Remembering him from my days playing vampires, this guy was reprinted in Foundations, and more creatures are humans than you might think. With a single hit or two, he gets quite powerful and could be an option depending on how the metagame shakes out.
For Gleeful Demolition
While it’s twice as much mana, Frontline Rush only makes 2 tokens, but it also can double as a finisher spell. Some decks have already adopted it, but expect any decks wanting to lean on token strategies to pick it up more.
Nothing replaces the explosiveness or mana to token ratio of Gleeful Demolition, but Stadium Headliner provides a quick 1 drop who can make an additional token each turn it attacks, and essentially an extra Case of the Getaway Express.
A longtime lover of speculative fiction, in almost all its forms, Don joined TechRaptor in 2014 on a whim sending in an application as he was looking for… More about Don
