Standard Is Good Again, I Swear

The Very Recent Bans Really Did Fix Standard

The current standard is one of the most balanced we’ve had in a while. It took a ton of bannings, a lot of failed experiments, but WOTC has gotten it to a good place.

Most of the best or most played decks are around $200-300 in paper, and all the colors are represented. White is lagging a little behind, only being in Doom Foretold and general Yorion decks—but those decks are good. 

We have two hard aggro decks in Gruul and RDW, and both of those can just win on the back of Embercleave. If you like fast, you can play fast. 

I’m a combo player at heart, so Temur Ramp has been perfect for people like me. You can’t reliably chain Genesis Ultimatums anymore, so it’s not broken, but it’s exquisite when it does work.

And for those of us who like decks with a lot of complex plans that reward micro-decisions, we have two versions of Dimir. Both are a lot of fun to play. I tried the Lurrus version with a strong mill game, and it’s a solid BO1 deck. You can do all sorts of fun loops. If you like harder control, the same shell also works for counterspell-based creations. 

And, finally, for midrange fans, Rakdos and Golgari both seem to have solid builds. Rakdos especially. I’ve not seen a deck with brutal hand attack function this well before. 

I know many people got disillusioned with standard after the debacle with Omnath. It’s been a rough time for homebrewers and non-Spikes. But it’s okay again. There’s room to try things and tweak lists. Zendikar Rising gave us a lot of cool stuff that was mostly ignored until now. Magic is still fun, Magic is still thoughtful, and it’s still one of the best games in the world.

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