How does mtg standard rotation work

Disdainful Stroke Illustration by Deruchenko Alexander. There are also reprinted cards that are reintroduced from older sets, sometimes with new art or a different rarity level. Standard rotation happened last with the release of the Innistrad: Midnight Hunt set in September , marking the 89th MTG expansion.

Persistent Petitioners Illustration by Jason Rainville. Now we come to the part where I talk about how Standard rotation affects you and deck building. The first thing to know is that Standard is a constructed format, meaning that you create a deck using Standard-legal cards from your collection. Standard decks must be at least 60 cards, and although there is no specific maximum deck size, you have to be able to shuffle your deck in your hands without help.

You also get a sideboard, which is an optional 15 cards that you can bring along with your deck. That about covers the basics that you should know for Standard deck building. But, what about managing your collections, whether digital or IRL—or both? That being said, I do know a thing or two about finance and trading, which comes in handy for managing your MTG collections.

Selling and buying is part of the game for most players, so knowing when to buy new cards and sets and when to sell your old cards is crucial. Plummet Illustration by Aaron Miller. Right after rotation, most of the popular cards in Standard would have already started to see their value go down. Their demand is mostly tied to their use and legality in this format, after all. There will be some exceptions, most notably cards that are prominent in Commander or Modern. Other things that affect the price of a card are reprints in new sets or being banned.

For cards that work in Commander or Modern, these sometimes see a small dip in price right around rotation, but usually rise back up to more than what they were valued at before. For MTG Arena, managing your card collection is a lot simpler. The best way to manage your collection and keep your spending to a minimum in Arena is by participating in drafts and events to win free packs and cards to bolster your collection.

You can also keep an eye out for discounts and premium bundles in the store that might offer a bunch of stuff for a cheaper total price than if you bought them individually. No longer will we have to consider removing cards to fit Jegantha, the Wellspring in or whether it would be a good idea to go up 80 cards to make use of Yorion the Sky Noodle. Despite the controversy over needing to functionally errata the companion rule because it was far too powerful, I really enjoyed using them.

I will miss having them around in some ways, but them leaving is undoubtedly a good thing. Standard formats have been made or broken by what mana fixing they have access to. This rotation, like all others, will reduce our options. The most painful loss to our mana bases is undoubtedly the cycle of Triomes from Ikoria. The Triomes were our first full cycle of rare tri-lands , and they made a huge impact on Standard. Not to mention showing up in formats all the way down to Modern.

Rogues have been represented in Standard in one form or another ever since Zendikar Rising. Soaring Thought-Thief was a huge boon and some versions also played cards like Zareth San, the Trickster. Despite a lot of cards for this deck being from ZNR and surviving the rotation, three of its best cards are leaving us.

Both Heartless Act and Eliminate have been staples across every black deck in the format ever since they were printed in their respective sets. Seeing them go is a big loss for the format. We do get a new kill spell in the form of Infernal Grasp in Innistrad , but the loss of life might prove to be a little prohibitive.

Fortunately, we have had a lot of people playing the Standard format on MTG Arena to give us a bit of data to work with. So what kinds of decks survive this rotation? Which sets are the best to lean into for buying cards?

Goldspan Dragon Illustration by Andrew Mar. Probably the best deck in Standard that entirely survives rotation would be Izzet Dragons. While the deck loses Bonecrusher Giant and Brazen Borrower , the one-two punch of Galazeth Prismari and Goldspan Dragon is a formidable win condition for any spell-based deck.

The rest of the deck is somewhat immaterial. Kazandu Mammoth Illustration by Grzegorz Rutkowski. Mono green aggro has been a very hit-and-miss deck for some time now, but it seems enough stars have aligned for it to be a contender. While it lacks good 1-mana creatures, there are actively good 2 and 3-drops. Being mono-colored in this new format also brings the benefit of being able to play snow basics and eight creature-lands thanks to Faceless Haven plus the rare lands in AFR.

Blizzard Brawl is a nice removal spell to have access to along with the aforementioned Faceless Haven. That aside, this is a deck with a lot of potential moving forward and likely a good choice for the first week of the format. Luminarch Aspirant Illustration by Mads Ahm. Once per year, when the fall set releases, the four oldest sets in Standard rotate out.

Whats in Standard? Innistrad: Midnight Hunt Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Strixhaven Kaldheim Zendikar Rising Pro Tip : Some cards in Standard have alternate versions or were also printed in older sets, and it's okay to use those cards in your deck.

Your deck must be at least 60 cards.