Standard is back in a big way!

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Newsletter
Thursday, August 24th

It took some time. It took some bans. It took a whole lot of dead formats. But our reward is here, people! This Standard format has a number of different decks to play, and the best one changes every single weekend! This is what Standard Magic is all about, and Grand Prix Washington DC is coming along at the absolute perfect time! So how did we get here? What has made this the most celebrated Standard in years? Sam Black has an excellent breakdown of what makes a format like this special, Chris Lansdell is setting down the rules for brewers, and Ross Merriam is already hard at work on the next level! Get ready for #GPDC, everyone! It's going to be an incredible weekend to play Magic!

— Danny West, Content Coordinator

What Makes Standard Great?
By Sam Black  

Simply the number of different decks that exist doesn't tell you everything you need to know about how diverse a format really is. It's also important that decks play out differently from each other.

Again, there's some debate here: is a format better if a non-interactive combo deck exists, or if it doesn't? For me, it depends on just how non-interactive. If removal is bad against it but there are other tools that are effective, it's probably fine. If it also has countermeasures to some of those other tools such that it isn't just a question of whether the opponent bothered to build a sideboard to beat you but that the play of sideboard games is actually interesting, even better.

In general, we expect a good format to have aggressive decks, midrange decks, control decks, possibly combo decks, and ideally a few hard-to-classify, exotic format-specific decks; Metalwork Colossus, for example, might not fall into any of those categories (it's probably best described as a proactive linear deck). Some players gravitate strongly toward certain macro archetypes and have a lot more fun when they can play that kind of deck, and again, diversity of experience is also best served when matches play out more differently from each other, and when different macro archetypes exist, more different things are likely to matter in games.

September 16-17
Modern

Sep 30 - Oct 1
Standard

October 14-15
Modern

The Brewer's
First Commandment: Be Open
By Chris Lansdell  

For some reason, once a brewer has success and reaches the top level, they stop being called a brewer and become a deckbuilder. This goes back to my earlier point about mindset; if a pro says to play a card, the hive mind will accept that. Nobody was thinking about Anointed Procession until Sam Black did it, and few people would have gone back to Catacomb Sifter in B/G Constrictor before Brad Nelson did it. They did it by remaining open to the possibility that "what everyone else is doing" might be wrong.

On an FNM level, this can still be relevant. A lot of people will show up at an LGS with 75 cards they copied from an article earlier in the week, and maybe played a time or two. This works fine if everyone else is doing the same thing, but that's rarely the case. Metagames vary by store, and knowing that your sideboard (at least) is your best weapon to deal with that is an important step.

The Return of A Dynamic Standard
By Ross Merriam  

Red's removal is better-situated against black. Magma Spray is great against the sticky threats in Zombies. The other spot removal can handle Cryptbreaker, Lord of the Accursed, and Diregraf Colossus, as there's no consistently huge creature that gets out of range of the damage-based removal. Most importantly, red's sideboard gives you access to great sweepers in the matchup. Radiant Flames, Hour of Devastation, and Chandra, Flamecaller are all excellent, where black only has Yahenni's Expertise.

So it shouldn't be surprising to see B/G Constrictor perform well in the wake of the Red-dominated Pro Tour or for Temur Energy to come along to counter a more balanced metagame after Zombies emerged. Temur Energy had the further advantage of being well-positioned against Fatal Push, so a format where Zombies and B/G Constrictor were receiving lots of hype would be even better for it. Several Zombies pilots astutely trimmed on Fatal Push for the weekend, instead maxing out on Grasp of Darkness in their split.

Moving forward, you'll have to gauge just how popular the aggro decks are relative to each other and make your decision between Temur and B/G from that prediction.