It’s that time of the year again. Wizards are rotating out a few of the sets from Standard to make way for the next year of gameplay. Some important cards are on the way out, leaving us with the shaky Ikoria metagame in preparation for the upcoming Zendikar expansion.
As soon as Zendikar Rising hits the game on September 24, four sets are leaving Standard forever - namely Core Set 2020, Guilds of Ravnica, Ravnica Allegiance, and War of the Spark. This will naturally take away some archetypes associated with Ravnica and a few key cards such as the Shock lands played in pretty much every competitive deck. Zendikar better introduces some really quality dual lands to make up for the loss, though it wouldn’t be a mind-blowing revelation to conclude that Fetch lands are pretty much out of the question.
Unlike paper Magic, where your Standard cards are rendered unplayable (and often times worthless) in Standard and that’s that, MTGA players are given a small bonus to help them gear up for the upcoming season. We don’t have details on this year’s Renewal rewards (those should drop any moment now), but we can take a look at last year’s program and get a good understanding of what to expect - it’s unlikely that this year’s set will be drastically different.
Tick-tock! Play your Phtlphlbs, Cruel Celebrants, or... y’know, actual competitive cards, while you can!
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