Friday Morning Magic | Shadows Over Rotation

For the first time ever, Magic: the Gathering’s Standard format is seeing rotation occur in the spring.

It was (somewhat) recently announced that there’s a new policy when it comes to the game’s block expansions. We’re now getting three two set blocks in a 12-month span instead of two three set blocks. The result is a meta that shifts far more rapidly and (possibly) uncontrollably. No more long summer months longing for rotation. No more grinding it out against the same cards for 24 tiring months. The best of the best in tournament play will need to hone their deck building skill as they’ll become far more prevalent far more often.

The entrance of Shadows over Innistrad into the format means that Khans of Tarkir and Fate Reforged are leaving the format. This is an extremely powerful impact for two reasons First, Khans was a set that was focused on three color cards, each of which were extremely powerful due to their “difficult” casting cost. I say difficult somewhat sarcastically considering the other reason for the powerful impact on rotation: the removal of fetchlands from standard. Combined with the Battle for Zendikar rare land cycle, which you could fetch for, there won’t be three/four color good stuff decks in standard anymore. You can’t simply run a pile of good cards and value your way to victory.

Well, maybe you can; there’s a heck of a lot of good white cards between Battle for Zendikar block and Shadows over Innistrad (along with the occasional leftovers from Dragons of Tarkir and Magic: Origins, both of which are not leaving the format), but synergistic decks with relevant gameplans will more than likely reign supreme. As a result, the Standard metagame will undoubtedly become far more diverse than the four decks it currently is.

“But Jake!” you might say. “There are so many decks in Standard right now! Abzan, Abzan Blue, Abzan Red, Mardu Green, Jeskai, Jeskai Black…”

Stop. You essentially just named one deck six different times. The manabase of KTK-OGW Standard has allowed these value decks to thrive unpunished. Sure, you may have a point in that the Jeskai decks are far more different than the Abzan/Mardu ones, but at the end of the day they’re still the same: a combination of threats and removal. At the end of the day, there’s only really four or so actual archetypes: these value decks, Rally, Company, and Ramp. Occasionally you’ll see aggressive red decks, dragon oriented decks, or maybe even a control deck, but that’s your meta game right there. Four decks with a handful of fringe decks.

Friday Morning Magic | Shadows Over Rotation

Here’s some of the archetypes that have been tested for DTK-SOI standard:

  • B/R Vampires
  • U/B Reanimator
  • G/W Megamorph/Midrange
  • G/B Delirium
  • G/B Eldrazi
  • Mono Red Eldrazi
  • Ramp
  • B/W Control/Midrange
  • Esper Dragons
  • Humans
  • U/R Madness

To be honest, this only feels like the type of the iceburg. There’s other decks I’ve seen posted online that have piqued my interest. This could very easily be a format where there’s a bevy of viable decks to choose from week in and week out.

Or this could just be a mid-range player’s paradise. I don’t know; I can’t predict the future.

The bottom line, though is this. That future looks incredibly bright if you’re a fan of diverse metagames in magic. To be honest, who isn’t? As much as I loved Mono Black Devotion back in the day, I enjoyed playing it against a bevy of different decks every round. I’ll miss Siege Rhino, but I won’t miss playing against the same decks nonstop to the point where sideboard tech has become mainboard staples.

There’s a shadow ready to be cast over Standard. I’m excited, are you?

Share this article:

Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
LinkedIn
Share on tumblr
Tumblr
Share on email
Email
Share on whatsapp
WhatsApp

Recent Posts

Marvel 1943 cover art. Captaint America and Black Panther Gaming News

Get a Closer Look at the New Black Panther and Captain America Game | Marvel 1943

It’s been a while since we first got word that the great Amy Hennig was working on a new Black Panther and Captain America game. After creating something like Uncharted, …

Mad Catz Strike 11 Keyboard. A keyboard with red and black keys Hardware & Tech

Mad Catz S.T.R.I.K.E. 11 Mechanical Keyboard Impressions

I have been on the search for a decently priced wireless keyboard and there is no shortage these days. Our friends over at Mad Catz sent over their S.T.R.I.K.E. 11 …

Hardware & Tech

Level Up Your Set Up with Nanoleaf

Nanoleaf has been one of the market leaders in the gaming lighting space for years now. They have a variety of products to level up not only your office space …

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Gaming News

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and What’s Next For Xbox | Let’s Chat

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is the next big game set for release and the rumor mill has been set ablaze with talks of Xbox going multi-platform. We take a few …

Gaming News

The Pimax Crystal 8K VR Headset | CES 2024

AR and VR were some of the bigger topics during this year’s CES. Last year I was able to go hands-on with the Pimax Portal but this year it was …

CES

NVIDIA Announces 40 Series Super Cards and More at CES 2024

A year can’t go by without a huge announcement from NVIDIA. During CES 2024 in Las Vegas, NVIDIA announced an upgrade to its 40 series cards. The GeForce RTX 40 …