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Wizards needs to require the LGS's to clean up their stores with disinfectant, ie: 50/50 bleach and water with baking soda in it. AFTER the store closes to the public each night. As well as requiring all wood or plastic chairs and tables. No more cloth seats etc. Why? Because dirty kids play there and bring in all kinds of nasty things every day. Let that stuff fester and pretty soon, no one wants to play there.
I concur with the idea of redemption codes with challenger decks. That’s the exact system that Pokemon uses and it made it extremely easy to not only get practice time in with my deck before going to locals with it, but it let me tweak and experiment easily with possible upgrades I could then pick up at the store. (Pokemon is a lot cheaper than magic to play though, so it’s not entirely 1 to 1)
@@ryanbolson23 I won't say that Magic couldn't be cheaper, but Pokemon can afford to be as cheap as it is because the IP carries it. They can let competitive be as cheap as it is because they move so many cases as is to people who don't actually care about the game itself.
Commander (as EDH) has coexisted peacefully with Standard since 1996. Their old principle of designing cards primarily for Standard and letting them naturally make their way to impact other formats enriched the game as a whole without breaking them for the most part. It was when Wizards became too greedy and decided to print cards directly for formats other than Standard that caused much of the problems they're dealing with today.
Edh was a much later creation by players then 1996, it's literally named after the original Elder dragons because that's what the judges who created the format originally played with.
@Wiwwia I was curious, so I did a little digging, and 1996 was the year that the format was first created. There was another format around the time called Elder Dragon Legend Wars, which resebles a proto-EDH, but it seems like the original EDH playgroup was founded that year as well. It wasn't until 2004 that Sheldon Menery published his article on Elder Dragon Highlander & it started to gain traction as a mainstream format.
Do not mix when it was invented with when it became popular. In 1996 nobody knew about that format except for a few people. At that time the format was so much different than today in terms of card pool and power. They need to stop using standard sets to push new edh cards to market. They can do it with all the other sets that are released every year.
commander didn't coexist with anything until the very late 2000's/early 2010's in any meaningful way. won't argue with any of what wotc is doing in terms of design but that itself is a product of what standard's problem is: its a rotating 1v1 format that requires significant financial and mental investment even before factoring in wotc's recent behavior while commander by comparison is much more accessible both in terms of play and cost. its not a 1v1 format so any number of players can sit down and play together, you don't need playsets of cards, the cards don't rotate so you can use them forever, you're not required to keep up with every new release and decks can be built for under $50 and still be relatively competitive. it simply offers new and casual players a much better and accessible experience. standard isn't offering anything that makes the price of entry worth it for them and i don't this is going to change even if wotc tones down the power of standard cards.
I got into MTG by purchasing the Second Sun Control challenger deck for £20 and it was a blast. I got to play MTG at the same level as everyone else at the store which was amazing since I was only a student with not much money to buy an expensive deck. I really miss these preconstructed decks as it's one of my most loved experiences with MTG
That was exactly my case! At first I thought magic only allowed copies of one creature 😅 But it turned out to be a very competitive and interesting deck
@@ianshurtleff806 that was always tricky since they based the challenger decks off player made decks that were doing well, so they had to wait long enough for those archetypes to be established, then for them to make their own versions, then get them into production.... They could maybe solve this if they anticipate what certain upcoming archetypes will be and design decks around those, but then they'll probably have a lot more misses if decks they think might do really well, don't.
My first standard tournament I piloted a Hazoret Mono Red Challenger deck and absolutely fell in love with the competitive scene. Grinded all the way through to 2018. It just got sadder and sadder, I’m pretty sure that was the last hurrah for competitive standard. It would be on life support for a bit after but was never as big as those 2 summers for me.
The thing I miss the absolute most is the weekly Standard coverage of GPs and the SCG circuit. Being able to watch them every week kept me connected to the game even when I couldn't play in person, and when they went off the air I rapidly lost interest in playing competitive Magic.
This. cover events like they matter and they'll feel like they...well...matter. Let people feel connected to pro/semi-pro players AND like that it's an achievable goal
Funny enough is the focus on designing commander cards in standard what in my opinion killed standard, because those cards don't work well in 60 card formats they are skipped and we end up with little to no interesting, cool or powerful new cards so is always the old good cards like Sheoldred (delaying rotation just made this problem worse imo)
Everything becomes midrange when all cards say "when you attack, draw a bunch of cards". Totally agree that these cards is detrimental for Standard (and limited).
standard being a prohibitively expensive 1v1-only format is what killed standard. are more people going to be interested in the format they can play for under $100 and use those cards forever or the format that costs $500-1000 and requires you constantly buy new cards?
@@themoops4006 That and there's really no casual standard. Want to socialize at your local FNM? Well it's standard so unless you spend several hundred dollars on a meta deck or you're going to have a bad time.
and as a commander veteran, it's been bad for commander too. we've got an overabundance of cards made for the format that are really pushing the power level of even the most basic decks, and it's started to make commander feel like a rotating format when every few months something comes out you need for one or more of your decks (Stroke of Midnight felt like one of those cards recently that became an instant add to all my white decks) But it's not only that but when you look at even the top legends people are playing, last I looked somewhere around 75% of them are from commander precon decks, so you don't have the challenge of building decks around jank archetypes or archetypes in strange color combos.
At my new local game store they tried to get a constructed 60 format off the ground but it didn’t work. Instead they started an almost long draft format. Where you draft a deck then add a new pack every week for 2 months went really well. We’re in season 2 where we started with a commander starter deck and add a pack every week you can only trade cards within your pulls. You score points for certain achievements and for placing. It’s very fun and approachable for new and more experienced players.
@@ToadimusPrime 100% agree it’s a very small and friendly lgs and works purely by just everyone being honourable. It’s helped by the fact the pack availability is very low and only having recent sets. If you wanted to scale it or do it with more the logical way is decklist trackers and keeping a record of pulls but we don’t do that. But it is very fun so it works
@@hamishbeadle4778 Our lgs is also a small one and this would work perfectly. Heck, I'll pitch this idea for the folk playing commander, hopefully I can rally some people.
@@ToadimusPrimeWe do that but the first place doesn't get anything special to avoid people trying to cheat. The good stuff is used for giveaways between participants.
We've been running regular Pauper events at my LGS, which has killed any chance of Standard popping off without precons. Most of our players have a deck now, at a price you can't even buy one Sheoldred for, and it doesn't even eventually rotate! And the main thing is that nobody has a Standard deck here, nor wants to invest in the cards to build one, especially since the price has become so similar to pioneer.
Standard decks should be like $100 max. Instead, half the META decks have $100 mana bases....Standard will not regain popularity until prices plummet and I don't see that happening.
@@adamj93 Yeah that was a big part of what killed my interest in playing Arena. I did not have wildcards to get both the powerful (or interesting) cards AND the lands, nor the willingness to buy packs (I bought a couple Set Masteries but even they are poor value). Another reason Commander took over (don't need playsets, not so immediately impactful if you can't afford all the good lands).
No one at my lgs particularly cared about standard, so when the owner asked if they'd care if store championships got changed to standard (after wizards forced that change) their response was basically "yeah i guess we can throw some shitty decks together lol" went to standard showdown yesterday and of the 7 people, 3 decks were mono red burn/aggro, because it's dirt cheap to build and no one cared
This is standard's problem, other, better formats exist now that don't cost stupid amounts of money and offer a wider play experience. why do i want to invest in a 1v1-only rotating format where most decks need to cost hundreds of dollars to be competitive when a non-rotating multiplayer format in which i can build a somewhat competitive deck for under $50 exists?
Something to add about the old timing of Game Day was that it was the weekend after the Pro Tour. I remember watching the Pro Tour to help figure out which deck I would play at Game Day. It gave reason to watch the Pro Tour. I remember when the Dynavolt Tower deck was putting up results at PT Kaladesh so I made it and took down my Game Day.
with how long Standard Rotation is now, Challenger decks would be a great place for some reprints too. Standard rn has some silly expensive cards and you can even grab some Commander players if you print some Triomes, Boseiju or god forbid Shoeldred. I think it's kinda funny that the last rotation of Challenger decks is still legal in the format too...I might put my Dimir Control Challenger deck back together for the Store Challenge xD
The Dimir Control Challenger deck isn't standard legal, it has cards from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, Zendikar Rising, Kaldheim and Strixheaven. If they had released Challenger decks in 2023 (which they didn't) everything would have been legal for a year and a half (which is probably the reason why they didn't).
Mtg really needs to take many pages from pokemon, live coverage of events and preconstructed decks for the standard formats are something that make pokemon so easy to get back into at any time.
The irony is that MtG did those things before Pokémon…then moved away from it to put more money in the pockets of people who only know about MtG from quarterly earnings reports.
Yes professor, I need the standard decks because having a ton of vintage & new cards is cool. But to build a proper and working deck is difficult for a beginner/novice
I am a casual player with fun decks. I stopped playing standard when they stopped giving out some card for each participant, and instead only gave out booster packs to the winners of the tournament. that meant I never got to bring anything home, only the spikiest of spikes that won the tournament over and over again got anything.
Premade decent standard decks would be nice. I struggle with deck construction (although drafts are very fun to me bc it does push me and i learn a lot from those around me) so having a premade standard that can hold up would definetly make me more inclined to participate in standard
Two things would definitely draw me into Arena more: Including redemption codes in pre-constructed decks, and a pre-constructed format on the platform. Ensuring everyone is playing on similar power levels would be pretty cool to me, as if we'd already had a session 0.
The problem was that they were essentially meaningless. They need to pair that sort of program with an actual rewards program, like the one they had in place prior to PWP, back when they would send you tons of promos just for going to events.
Hey prof! You were there for me when I was searching for MTG videos when I was interested in what MTG was about. And now I've moved onto FAB, and you're still there for me! Big fan, keep up the great content.
1 - reasonably priced, reasonably competitive challenger decks (not necessarily a wotc product). 2 - decent prize support to make it attractive compared to all the other options i have available. 3 - a well run and friendly regular event that i know is going to be worth my effort.
Been playing brawl with pod. A good bridge for commander and standard since its faster and more limited. Helps for us who have limited time to play each week
I’m watching this video a month late, but THANK YOU for bringing up the Standard Challenger decks! Not everyone getting into Magic has two or three friends willing to pay $50+ for a Commander deck just to try out the game for the first time. Two of my friends and I got into Magic by going to a LGS where we each bought a Challenger deck. We played all day, swapping decks back and forth, and had an absolute blast. I’d love to see an annual or even semi-annual bundle of Challenger decks come out (for no more than $30 each), but I also really think they should follow Lorcana and put out two or three Starter Decks with each set. The goal of these aren’t to be competitive, they’re meant to be cheap yet fun STARTER decks. They would have two functions: 1. Get new players introduced to Magic for cheap; 2. Provide a base for a new build using new cards from the set. For example, imagine with me that for MKM they had a BG Insidious Roots starter deck that you could go and buy for $20. FUN! Also, say you’re a 10-year old kid and you heard about Magic from some classmates. You’re out with your parents at Target or Walmart. What are you going to have better luck with getting: a $20 Starter Deck; or a $40/50/60+ Commander deck?
It might just be nostalgia but I really miss when standard released in "block sets" but from what Wizards and players say is they like every set being on a different plane now.
@@kirkprospector4958 that's when I had the most fun in standard for sure. There was actually flavor in standard. But idk if that just me being old now and looking back at the good times cause I hear from new players they enjoy how every set is something else now.
@@sulmona55 it probably is us being old/nostalgic. I kind of liked how each set in a block would reveal more of hte overarching story of that set (Tarkir in particular comes to mind). In defense of the current standard it is super fun to play.
In my local scene, there has always been a strong overlap between the Draft regulars and the Standard regulars. The new design of boosters, accompanied with a price hike that adds to the increases from the last year, means that the cost of registering to a Draft event has nearly doubled in two years without the cards actually having more value. The few signs of Standard finding new oxygen will probably be stifled back to silence with the new booster design.
I truly and honestly agree with the chellenger deck idea . I remember buying each challenger deck when they came out and giving them to my friends just to get them to play magic and then we got their friends into magic the same way and it was honestly the most fun i had playing standard .
As a former store owner: One of the biggest early drivers of the fall of standard was WotC's prize support or lack thereof. Player rewards, etc and prize support for shops hosting the events started to fall off in 2014 or so and from what I've seen has continued on its downward spiral.
I always think about how my initial foray into standard was. You got a starter deck, played it at FNM, got bopped, but you got a pack and a little prizing for your trouble. You learned and upgraded along the way. I understand why commander precons get the preference, but a deck to serve the same purpose in standard and get people an easy starting point would go a long way. Sure flip it around to how edh decks use to be, just 1 drop a year, but it would be better than nothing.
I didn't know what the store championship rewards were, but I did know the store championship existed... because I saw it on the calendar when going in to play Flesh and Blood.
After a 4 year break from the game and moving across the country away from my old group, trying to get back into standard even with Arena is overwhelming. I didn't even know what challenger decks were, but they'd be perfect. Heck even my friends back home would dip back into standard if we could redeem the decks and play online together
i dont really understand the point of this version of standard anymore, the decks are crazy expensive and the cards take forever to rotate. people really might as well just go play pioneer or modern
Isn’t what you’re talking about right now why people didn’t like Extended? I didn’t play back then so I genuinely don’t know. If so though, what’s the benefit of basically turning Standard into Extended?
Forever to rotate? They just straight up haven’t rotated. WOTC is literally choosing to continue to drag out rotation for years beyond the schedule just to keep the price of bombs up on the secondary market.
You say rotation takes forever, but the reason I heard alotta people didn't play standard before was because rotation happened so *quickly* and their cards lost value. There's never gonna be pleasing everyone.
@@b2e297Make sure that cards have a longer shelf life, so those staples don't become useless once they hit Pioneer at times. The main problem with this new Standard is the lack of willingness to both ban problem cards, especially Sheoldred; But also a problem with reprints. To date, we've only had 4 challenger decks that reprinted cards legal in this standard cycle, and that was back in 2022.
Preach Prof preach! Such true words. I help at my LGS and we have been trying to get any 60 card format to fire with very little traction commander is still big. A few players have put together some 60 card decks. Most don’t even know how or what to do. Good, reconstructed decks to get people into the different formats would be sooo helpful!
Price is another factor, doesnt matter if a card rotates later if they arent willing to reprint it in the time it's in the standard (looking at you sheoldred)
I thought I could hit up the 6-7 stores in the 40 miles radius and haven't been able to find enough singles to build a single full standard deck. Found many pieces to a few different ones but it seems all the singles got sold online and went to whatever small area in the world that has a booming scene.
We just had the first standard (i think ever?) Launch at my LGS last friday, went 3-0 and got first place with my Gruul Aggro! Such a great feeling to play my Arena deck in-person for once.
I remember going over to a friends house to cube on Saturdays with the SCG event of the week on in the background. Patrick Sullivan and Cedric Philips commentating was what really took those events to the heights they reached.
Im old enough to remember seeing tournaments on TV. I think the last time I seriously participated in Standard was when I was buying sets by the case, so that would have been Mirrodin block.
This is wild. I went to my store yesterday to play some commander and the store owners told me, "We have a standard tournament we are trying to do today, would you like to play?" I was down for whatever, but when i asked if there was a structure deck i could buy... all they could sadly advise me to do is look through singles and maybe make one on the spot. Long short, I agree, if you want to format to take off some structure decks help barrier of entry.
About the LGS push, I was talking to one of mine's store owner. Apparently, MTG prices have risen so high that, since he's a smaller store, it's almost more cost effective to not even carry Magic at all. It's really disheartening hearing that WotC has decided to sell cheaper to big retailers like Amazon and kill the people they should be catering the most to. It's really sad.
It may just be me and my flavor-focused brain, but I think a big thing that would help Standard would be bringing back blocks. I don't care if they're two or three sets, but to me they create a necessary sense of mechanical cohesion that I feel is missing between one-off sets. That cohesion makes me more interested in Standard play because I know "These last two or three sets have a lot of unifying elements, so using cards from them should work for the next Standard match." At the least, I felt that way back during Return to Ravnica block.
I got into Pioneer vía Phoenix Precon and then bought Gruul Stompy, and Orzhov Humans precons and upgraded them as well. And now Phoenix is competetive, tier 1 deck. It would be awesome to have something similar for Standard.
I think one of the most important points brought up in this video is the idea of bridging digital and paper play through ideas such as digital codes for standard product. It really does just feel like a good idea not being actioned because of some percieved loss in value in one or the other, not recognizing that not providing at all is missing out on a whole market portion willing to pay into this idea more if they had the certainty that paying into paper gives them value in digital.
I sincerely believe commander being "the most popular format" is largely due to the fact that Wizards has been pushing and supporting it for nearly 15 years now. Wizards wanted a casual format because it meant that now all players feel compelled to buy chase cards that are super expensive, not just competitive grinders. Commander obviously had some inherent appeal that made it rise above other supported formats like planechase and archenemy but history shows that if you support standard it can be just as popular.
Our LGS runs casual commander for FNM and are at capacity for their main space and their "Secret Lair". Standard event moved to Tuesday where we get 12-16 players. Much better than 6 or less this time last year.
They are genuinely entertaining. However, if you think this is cool, get into magic. It vastly improves the experience! Youll make great memories and either spend way too much cash on cardboard or proxy your first deck for free! There are tools out there to get into magic for just the cost of printer paper. Enjoy!
@@Titanplattensegler4420 I've actually downloaded MTGO last night and bought their $5 pack. I'm currently watching videos on how to invest in it, rather than spend money blindly. I'd play Arena, but I get the feeling it's just a digital gacha game. Obviously I would prefer to buy actual cards, but I'm not sure if I'll find/want to play, MTGO is more convenient. The appeal for me in the physical cards is that some of them (if not most) look awesome and I'd love to collect them.
Usually I build myself Decks from just one Set. Like 1 Deck Inistrat (midnight hunt/ crimson vow e.g) Yes I don't play very powerfull Decks but they feel good to me, because they are one Set and Tell a tale from this Set.
What should you do when all your LGS’s in town have commander for their Friday night magic? And I personally have a decent number of friends who play magic, meaning we always have a full pod for drafts. These two factors together mean the only reason we really ever have to walk into an LGS ourselves is to buy a box every month or so and to get sleeves/deck boxes. We have no reason to pop into the LGS to actually play, because we can do draft and commander ourselves at home.
@@themoops400660 cards events are normally tournaments. Unless they got 8 friends and is prepared to run weekly tournaments at their house, in which case damn congratulations on the friendship that sounds lovely
I think it would also be nice to see more weekend, or morning events. I personally work in a factory doing the night shift, and outside of the occasional prerelease, there aren't any magic events I can attend due to my schedule, and it really sucks
I have to say, the challenger decks used to be my starting point for building my next deck. Some of my fav decks started off as challenger standard decks.
Great points, Prof. In some places of the world the problem is even more basic. No "local" game stores anymore, just selling points are left. I have to drive 40 minutes (one way) to reach a game store big enough to play games. Prerelease-Events are more than 50 km away. The RCQ is in a different country, where they speak a different language. No wonder, young people are playing only with their friends at home commander or limited.
Redeemable Standard decks are a MUST. As a MTGA player, I'd love to play paper again (I don't play paper since 1998), and transfer it to my online account. Not only that, improving the list to be a little more competitive as a IRL deck building experience pays it off even more. Us online players WANT TO MAKE MORE FRIENDS
I’m a casual fan of MTG, I love the gorgeous art of the cards, and I’m really into the lore of the game and its characters. I do really want to get into playing the game again, and would like to know what’s the best format to start with for a new player like myself
I remember I used to see pictures of the promos on the wall of my LGS and plan in advance if I wanted to go to game day. These days I have no idea of the promos and I never see them anywhere except occasionally on Reddit
Unfortunately in my area, some local game stores didn’t even bother trying to fire standard events and just gave out the promos to commander or pioneer players instead 😢
I’m new to magic for about 4 months and I’ve been researching all your videos. The most heartbreaking thing is seeing all the different types of decks and products that were around 2022 and before that don’t exist anymore. My brother got me into commander but I have been enjoying the 1v1 standard on arena. Just need places to play it in paper.
first time I wanted to try paper, I borrowed burn red and went to modern weekly tournament in LGS. I asked guys why they dont play std since I played only std on arena. They all told me the same. that the std is expenssive and after rotation card prices drop drastically. And you have to start over.
As a pretty much Standard Arena player only, challenger decks seem like an absolute dream! I think another major issue with Standard is entry cost variance (i.e. : Surveil Lands, powerful Rakdos cards al la Sheoldred, etc.) due to, by nature, being legal in every format. Precons with reprints of powerful cards done in YGO style (archetypal structure deck that contains an exclusive archetype card(s)) that allow for cheap singles and an easy entry point with relevant cards would be great to help me transfer to paper.
Totally agree on the redemption codes on decks. As lots of people pointed, this is done in other brands with much success. But we need to remember that WotC wants to get as much money as they can from your wallet so it is never going to happen.
I play commander at my LGS more than anywhere else. But I do not play standard because as a returning player I don't have any decks. Arena, to me, just easier to get started in and I can play it anywhere. Your challenger deck point seems extremely valid at this point as I'd consider getting a precon that I can upgrade easily. I just can't see spending money on paper other than singles.
for the coverage part, all the europeans Regional championship add streaming coverage and the big event made by legacy european tour were also streamed and had feature match during the 2 days
I'm a new player and the amount of product is daunting and since i know next to nothing of standar i just have gotten precons for commander and just played that.
With Standard you only have to track the four standard legal releases in a year. It’s actually been the easiest format for me to keep up with as I don’t need to keep up with all the remasters/universes beyond/etc.
I went to FNM last night and not only was the commander "party" not happening, neither was the standard magic that was advertised. Can't find many drafts happening either. As a newer player, all I feel like there is to do is commander. Which is fine, I love commander. But I love playing on arena and there's something about the feel of a 1v1 like you get in a prerelease that just doesn't get satisfied in commander or on arena
Thankfully my store area is seeing an increase in standard players. Even with modern competing with standard attendance on fridays ever since standard only promos I have seen about double the unique players now at my two weekly standard events! I think the main draw rn is the standard only promos, which is something I was in full agreeance with when they announced it. Very excited for MKM standard, now that control has legs and there was already a wide variety of aggro/midrange the meta feels very diverse and healthy. I am very hopeful for the challenger decks as well! I feel like were on the edge of a resurfacing and just need a little bit more push and well see a healthy LGS standard community. Great video Prof!
Sometimes when i play Arena, i'm really suprised on how fun Standard can be. It just... really isn't that accessible and out there anymore. Would love for that to change and i really like the suggestions you've given. Would love to see a Shuffle Up & Play in Standard! Maybe yearly with each new Rotation to see how the format changes :)
I don’t enough time or opportunities to play other formats. Commander itself is what got me back into the game. I play once a week and have never once played in an “LGS.”
I've been learning FaB recently and realized how much great coverage they have at lower levels of competition and then when I tried to find similar for magic I was shocked by how tough it was to find coverage. Even if WOTC didn't officially stream it all I think they could do a better job of directing traffic and endorsing independent coverage.
Prof has it entirely right. I think what wizards need to be thinking about is something I have termed the 'journey of a card'. This would ideally move through from limited then to standard and ultimately end in the non-rotating formats. A card that we follow along this journey is one that will become a personal favourite, which we love to revisit and play with even if it loses competitive viability as time passes. The idea should be that a card is shown to be a total bomb in limited, then players want to try brewing a standard deck around it. Then that deck becomes a competitive deck within standard, leading to players trying it out in Pioneer this transition will keep the non-rotating formats fresh and ensure a home for our favourite cards (outside of commander) even after they rotate out of standard. One thing this will need is the periodic creation of a new non-rotating format as the more cards these formats have, the less impact cards from a new set will have in it and it will be more difficult to upgrade a standard deck into something vaguely viable. I actually needed to do something like this after I started playing magic. When I decided to transition to paper, I built Azorius soldiers as a standard deck. Then, I found out standard simply was not played, so to make building that deck not a waste of time, I brewed a pioneer version that went into bant, adding coco to the mix. While not a truly competitive deck, it was a really fun experience brewing the deck and trying it out at an FNM.
The digital codes are something Pokemon did (don't know if they still do. Been a while since I have bought a pokemon deck). Every pack gave you a code you could redeem online, AND every structure deck had one that allowed you to unlock the exact deck online too. It definitely is a motivator to buy physical product. You get more cards online, you can play with that deck competitively, you can playtest your deck online before you try it out at your LGS.
A local LGS here is actually having store championship(s) for standard but the attendance is very poor, max 6-7 players per event whereas weekly modern and legacy tournaments usually get 12-20 players each. And I remember that in 2016-2017 standard events here had quite a lot of players even with minimal promos and a smaller LGS! But standard has become more expensive and harder to get into so hardly anyone is really building decks 😢 Yesterday in an European highlander tournament I heard some players in our local standard events just play draft chaff for promos😂
Arena codes for challenger decks is a great idea. I didn’t know store championships were a thing and now I’d love to pick up a challenger deck and go get the promo card but probably won’t be able to do that soon :(
I think that you made perfectly good points. First of all, I did not even know that store championships were even a _thing_ nowadays! Secondly, you're absolutely correct in your insistence that people need to be incentivized to return to the local game store. People are social beings by nature; why not incentivize them to fulfill that need by coming together over a game that they mutually enjoy?
I think that a cross between event and challenger decks could be cool. One deck for either standard or pioneer released with every tentpole release. It might solve the issue of one or two decks out of the set of four underselling.
Damn, I learned so much. I didn't know about these events, but more importantly, I didn't know about these challenger decks. As a new (1.5 years already) magic player, I still struggle with deck building, so I just buy commander precons and upgrade them. I didn't know that there are (good enough/playable) precon standard decks. With those, I would gladly get started with the format.
Standard is too prohibitively expensive for me to consider playing. You're at a distinct disadvantage if you don't run the good, obvious, +$40 staples such as Sheoldred and Boseiju and, unlike that other format people play, proxies aren't an option.
Bringing back GPs would help so much. When my local GP was coming up, I'd head down to my LGS to get some reps in for whatever format I planned to compete in, and that came round nearly once a year. Sometimes this was the main event, sometimes it was side events, but by having accessible, open major tournaments, investment in magic something worth spending time in, particularly for people who maybe didn't have as much time to spend. Tbh, this applies across all formats, not just standard, but standard would be the greatest winner in terms of formats from this. But on the whole, I think GPs just need to come back. They used a massive tournament as an excuse to host conventions all over the world, which anyone can go to. Because MagicCons are so much less frequent, it makes it a lot less accessible.
Man I feel like a minority cause Standard is fucking awesome right now! There's a ton of ways that I've been able to brew and compete successfully with brews. The amount of different decks and archetypes I've seen on the Arena ladder has been awesome! The only problem with Standard is just how expensive it currently is. Ideally a Standard deck shouldn't cost over $100. Right now the meta decks all vost 400-500 which not accessible, especially for a rotating format. Most of that price is in the lands as well with the triomes and channel lands being multi-format staples and driving up the price exponentially. If lands are printed cheaper that bring deck prices down. The standard meta current is awesome and varied as seen by Arena. It now needs to be accessible in paper.
I, uhhh, had no idea about those in store event prizes. There's so much MTG product being released I had no idea these promo cards are being handed out. I didn't know "Store Championship" was a thing let alone when it is taking place or what the promo cards are. Challenger Decks need to come back. Sure, they were stuffed full of cards that were about to rotate out but they were still really good products to on-ramp a newbie into standard.
Hi, prof, agree 100% with the video. Also, wotc gave another huge step back this week, discontinuing portuguese as a mtg language. The reaction was very strong in our community. Would love if you could make a video about it
I think bringing back tweaked versions extended and core sets as a sanctioned format in some form or another could genuinely help. Make extended 3 years longer than standard, and core sets could be march of the machine aftermath sized sets of standard safe eternal reprints only (maybe call it standard horizons). Then after a few rotations of standard and extended, players will have enough cards to transition to modern or pioneer if they want, but I think this setup would also incentivise enternal format players to play stabdard to pick up staples
I remember playing standard back in dominaria to ravnica allegiance when standard showdown gave really cool promo packs. I know they're trying to bring it back but without something like those packs I can't see it getting a huge turnout
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Do the Factor plates pile up? Are they biodegradable?
Wizards needs to require the LGS's to clean up their stores with disinfectant, ie: 50/50 bleach and water with baking soda in it. AFTER the store closes to the public each night. As well as requiring all wood or plastic chairs and tables. No more cloth seats etc. Why? Because dirty kids play there and bring in all kinds of nasty things every day. Let that stuff fester and pretty soon, no one wants to play there.
Was that a Out of This World reference in there for stopping time? o.o
Yes.
"Did you know what the store championship rewards are?" "What the heck's a store championship!?"
same lol "Game day? Like what I did with my frie- oh it's an organized event. Didn't even know."
"Ask your parents"
had 0 clue about it tbh
I didn't even know Magic had Store Championships lol
My LGSs got rid of their Store Championships when the format was restricted to Standard. I'd have to drive 2 hours to play a game of Standard.
I concur with the idea of redemption codes with challenger decks. That’s the exact system that Pokemon uses and it made it extremely easy to not only get practice time in with my deck before going to locals with it, but it let me tweak and experiment easily with possible upgrades I could then pick up at the store. (Pokemon is a lot cheaper than magic to play though, so it’s not entirely 1 to 1)
The fact that Pokemon can exist in the ecosystem as cheaply as it does says less about Pokemon and more about how artificially inflated MTG is.
Honestly WotC seems to be allergic to good ideas.
@@ryanbolson23 I won't say that Magic couldn't be cheaper, but Pokemon can afford to be as cheap as it is because the IP carries it. They can let competitive be as cheap as it is because they move so many cases as is to people who don't actually care about the game itself.
when mtg has a new game that sells millions of copies of two different versions on Nintendo they can do the same as Pokémon @@ryanbolson23
Standard = bugs… okay 😂
Commander (as EDH) has coexisted peacefully with Standard since 1996. Their old principle of designing cards primarily for Standard and letting them naturally make their way to impact other formats enriched the game as a whole without breaking them for the most part. It was when Wizards became too greedy and decided to print cards directly for formats other than Standard that caused much of the problems they're dealing with today.
Edh was a much later creation by players then 1996, it's literally named after the original Elder dragons because that's what the judges who created the format originally played with.
@Wiwwia I was curious, so I did a little digging, and 1996 was the year that the format was first created. There was another format around the time called Elder Dragon Legend Wars, which resebles a proto-EDH, but it seems like the original EDH playgroup was founded that year as well. It wasn't until 2004 that Sheldon Menery published his article on Elder Dragon Highlander & it started to gain traction as a mainstream format.
Do not mix when it was invented with when it became popular. In 1996 nobody knew about that format except for a few people. At that time the format was so much different than today in terms of card pool and power. They need to stop using standard sets to push new edh cards to market. They can do it with all the other sets that are released every year.
@@AUNEDJFair enough, but EDH itself didn't kill Standard.
commander didn't coexist with anything until the very late 2000's/early 2010's in any meaningful way. won't argue with any of what wotc is doing in terms of design but that itself is a product of what standard's problem is: its a rotating 1v1 format that requires significant financial and mental investment even before factoring in wotc's recent behavior while commander by comparison is much more accessible both in terms of play and cost. its not a 1v1 format so any number of players can sit down and play together, you don't need playsets of cards, the cards don't rotate so you can use them forever, you're not required to keep up with every new release and decks can be built for under $50 and still be relatively competitive. it simply offers new and casual players a much better and accessible experience. standard isn't offering anything that makes the price of entry worth it for them and i don't this is going to change even if wotc tones down the power of standard cards.
I did'nt even know there were store championships lol
Same😅
+1
neither did i
I got into MTG by purchasing the Second Sun Control challenger deck for £20 and it was a blast. I got to play MTG at the same level as everyone else at the store which was amazing since I was only a student with not much money to buy an expensive deck.
I really miss these preconstructed decks as it's one of my most loved experiences with MTG
And preferably releasing challenger decks that don't come out towards the end of the deck's lifespan
Challenger decks are awesome
That was exactly my case! At first I thought magic only allowed copies of one creature 😅 But it turned out to be a very competitive and interesting deck
@@ianshurtleff806 that was always tricky since they based the challenger decks off player made decks that were doing well, so they had to wait long enough for those archetypes to be established, then for them to make their own versions, then get them into production....
They could maybe solve this if they anticipate what certain upcoming archetypes will be and design decks around those, but then they'll probably have a lot more misses if decks they think might do really well, don't.
My first standard tournament I piloted a Hazoret Mono Red Challenger deck and absolutely fell in love with the competitive scene. Grinded all the way through to 2018. It just got sadder and sadder, I’m pretty sure that was the last hurrah for competitive standard. It would be on life support for a bit after but was never as big as those 2 summers for me.
The thing I miss the absolute most is the weekly Standard coverage of GPs and the SCG circuit. Being able to watch them every week kept me connected to the game even when I couldn't play in person, and when they went off the air I rapidly lost interest in playing competitive Magic.
This is a great point
This. cover events like they matter and they'll feel like they...well...matter. Let people feel connected to pro/semi-pro players AND like that it's an achievable goal
It’s especially crazy with how easy livestream is now compared to how coverage used to be. There are so many new tools
Funny enough is the focus on designing commander cards in standard what in my opinion killed standard, because those cards don't work well in 60 card formats they are skipped and we end up with little to no interesting, cool or powerful new cards so is always the old good cards like Sheoldred (delaying rotation just made this problem worse imo)
Everything becomes midrange when all cards say "when you attack, draw a bunch of cards". Totally agree that these cards is detrimental for Standard (and limited).
standard being a prohibitively expensive 1v1-only format is what killed standard. are more people going to be interested in the format they can play for under $100 and use those cards forever or the format that costs $500-1000 and requires you constantly buy new cards?
@@themoops4006 That and there's really no casual standard. Want to socialize at your local FNM? Well it's standard so unless you spend several hundred dollars on a meta deck or you're going to have a bad time.
and as a commander veteran, it's been bad for commander too.
we've got an overabundance of cards made for the format that are really pushing the power level of even the most basic decks, and it's started to make commander feel like a rotating format when every few months something comes out you need for one or more of your decks (Stroke of Midnight felt like one of those cards recently that became an instant add to all my white decks) But it's not only that but when you look at even the top legends people are playing, last I looked somewhere around 75% of them are from commander precon decks, so you don't have the challenge of building decks around jank archetypes or archetypes in strange color combos.
At my new local game store they tried to get a constructed 60 format off the ground but it didn’t work. Instead they started an almost long draft format. Where you draft a deck then add a new pack every week for 2 months went really well. We’re in season 2 where we started with a commander starter deck and add a pack every week you can only trade cards within your pulls. You score points for certain achievements and for placing. It’s very fun and approachable for new and more experienced players.
This is a cool idea for a small local store, or friends group. But in a bigger setting, I feel like some people would cheat and just buy cards.
@@ToadimusPrime 100% agree it’s a very small and friendly lgs and works purely by just everyone being honourable. It’s helped by the fact the pack availability is very low and only having recent sets. If you wanted to scale it or do it with more the logical way is decklist trackers and keeping a record of pulls but we don’t do that. But it is very fun so it works
@@hamishbeadle4778 Our lgs is also a small one and this would work perfectly. Heck, I'll pitch this idea for the folk playing commander, hopefully I can rally some people.
@@ToadimusPrimeWe do that but the first place doesn't get anything special to avoid people trying to cheat. The good stuff is used for giveaways between participants.
That's really cool!
We've been running regular Pauper events at my LGS, which has killed any chance of Standard popping off without precons. Most of our players have a deck now, at a price you can't even buy one Sheoldred for, and it doesn't even eventually rotate!
And the main thing is that nobody has a Standard deck here, nor wants to invest in the cards to build one, especially since the price has become so similar to pioneer.
Standard decks should be like $100 max. Instead, half the META decks have $100 mana bases....Standard will not regain popularity until prices plummet and I don't see that happening.
@@adamj93 Yeah that was a big part of what killed my interest in playing Arena. I did not have wildcards to get both the powerful (or interesting) cards AND the lands, nor the willingness to buy packs (I bought a couple Set Masteries but even they are poor value). Another reason Commander took over (don't need playsets, not so immediately impactful if you can't afford all the good lands).
No one at my lgs particularly cared about standard, so when the owner asked if they'd care if store championships got changed to standard (after wizards forced that change) their response was basically "yeah i guess we can throw some shitty decks together lol"
went to standard showdown yesterday and of the 7 people, 3 decks were mono red burn/aggro, because it's dirt cheap to build and no one cared
This is standard's problem, other, better formats exist now that don't cost stupid amounts of money and offer a wider play experience. why do i want to invest in a 1v1-only rotating format where most decks need to cost hundreds of dollars to be competitive when a non-rotating multiplayer format in which i can build a somewhat competitive deck for under $50 exists?
@@ajaxender12I ended up switching to primarily playing Brawl because of that. A lot easier to get 1 of each mythic or rare for a deck than 4.
I didn't know there was a store championship.
Something to add about the old timing of Game Day was that it was the weekend after the Pro Tour. I remember watching the Pro Tour to help figure out which deck I would play at Game Day. It gave reason to watch the Pro Tour. I remember when the Dynavolt Tower deck was putting up results at PT Kaladesh so I made it and took down my Game Day.
with how long Standard Rotation is now, Challenger decks would be a great place for some reprints too. Standard rn has some silly expensive cards and you can even grab some Commander players if you print some Triomes, Boseiju or god forbid Shoeldred.
I think it's kinda funny that the last rotation of Challenger decks is still legal in the format too...I might put my Dimir Control Challenger deck back together for the Store Challenge xD
The Dimir Control Challenger deck isn't standard legal, it has cards from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, Zendikar Rising, Kaldheim and Strixheaven. If they had released Challenger decks in 2023 (which they didn't) everything would have been legal for a year and a half (which is probably the reason why they didn't).
Mtg really needs to take many pages from pokemon, live coverage of events and preconstructed decks for the standard formats are something that make pokemon so easy to get back into at any time.
The irony is that MtG did those things before Pokémon…then moved away from it to put more money in the pockets of people who only know about MtG from quarterly earnings reports.
Exactly! @@christhomason6544
@@christhomason6544and finance bros like Rudy's alpha investments
Yes professor, I need the standard decks because having a ton of vintage & new cards is cool. But to build a proper and working deck is difficult for a beginner/novice
I am a casual player with fun decks. I stopped playing standard when they stopped giving out some card for each participant, and instead only gave out booster packs to the winners of the tournament. that meant I never got to bring anything home, only the spikiest of spikes that won the tournament over and over again got anything.
Premade decent standard decks would be nice. I struggle with deck construction (although drafts are very fun to me bc it does push me and i learn a lot from those around me) so having a premade standard that can hold up would definetly make me more inclined to participate in standard
I have long held that Arena needs a feature that allows you to request an opponent's decklist, if only to improve the social aspect of the client
Sometimes I put cards like The End in my deck that let me search my opponents library just so I can steal the decklist
Two things would definitely draw me into Arena more: Including redemption codes in pre-constructed decks, and a pre-constructed format on the platform. Ensuring everyone is playing on similar power levels would be pretty cool to me, as if we'd already had a session 0.
Arena has Starter Deck Duels which is the pre-constructed format. You pick one of ten decks and you only play against those ten decks.
I didn't know that, thanks!
@@stevenpoche6988 Pretty sure those have forced alchemy inclusions, do they not?
@@boltblackjoker They started doing that last year, yeah.
Remember Planeswalker points? They were a pretty cool thing, more events got more points. Could alsk incentive more in person events.
The problem was that they were essentially meaningless. They need to pair that sort of program with an actual rewards program, like the one they had in place prior to PWP, back when they would send you tons of promos just for going to events.
That would be sick. Be able to go to wotc and redeem some points for gp entry (for a ton of points) or play matt or heck even a dope arena companion.
Hey prof! You were there for me when I was searching for MTG videos when I was interested in what MTG was about. And now I've moved onto FAB, and you're still there for me! Big fan, keep up the great content.
1 - reasonably priced, reasonably competitive challenger decks (not necessarily a wotc product). 2 - decent prize support to make it attractive compared to all the other options i have available. 3 - a well run and friendly regular event that i know is going to be worth my effort.
Been playing brawl with pod. A good bridge for commander and standard since its faster and more limited. Helps for us who have limited time to play each week
I’m watching this video a month late, but THANK YOU for bringing up the Standard Challenger decks! Not everyone getting into Magic has two or three friends willing to pay $50+ for a Commander deck just to try out the game for the first time. Two of my friends and I got into Magic by going to a LGS where we each bought a Challenger deck. We played all day, swapping decks back and forth, and had an absolute blast.
I’d love to see an annual or even semi-annual bundle of Challenger decks come out (for no more than $30 each), but I also really think they should follow Lorcana and put out two or three Starter Decks with each set. The goal of these aren’t to be competitive, they’re meant to be cheap yet fun STARTER decks. They would have two functions: 1. Get new players introduced to Magic for cheap; 2. Provide a base for a new build using new cards from the set. For example, imagine with me that for MKM they had a BG Insidious Roots starter deck that you could go and buy for $20. FUN!
Also, say you’re a 10-year old kid and you heard about Magic from some classmates. You’re out with your parents at Target or Walmart. What are you going to have better luck with getting: a $20 Starter Deck; or a $40/50/60+ Commander deck?
It might just be nostalgia but I really miss when standard released in "block sets" but from what Wizards and players say is they like every set being on a different plane now.
3 set blocks were the golden age
@@kirkprospector4958 that's when I had the most fun in standard for sure. There was actually flavor in standard. But idk if that just me being old now and looking back at the good times cause I hear from new players they enjoy how every set is something else now.
@@sulmona55 it probably is us being old/nostalgic. I kind of liked how each set in a block would reveal more of hte overarching story of that set (Tarkir in particular comes to mind). In defense of the current standard it is super fun to play.
In my local scene, there has always been a strong overlap between the Draft regulars and the Standard regulars. The new design of boosters, accompanied with a price hike that adds to the increases from the last year, means that the cost of registering to a Draft event has nearly doubled in two years without the cards actually having more value. The few signs of Standard finding new oxygen will probably be stifled back to silence with the new booster design.
I truly and honestly agree with the chellenger deck idea . I remember buying each challenger deck when they came out and giving them to my friends just to get them to play magic and then we got their friends into magic the same way and it was honestly the most fun i had playing standard .
As a former store owner: One of the biggest early drivers of the fall of standard was WotC's prize support or lack thereof. Player rewards, etc and prize support for shops hosting the events started to fall off in 2014 or so and from what I've seen has continued on its downward spiral.
I always think about how my initial foray into standard was. You got a starter deck, played it at FNM, got bopped, but you got a pack and a little prizing for your trouble. You learned and upgraded along the way. I understand why commander precons get the preference, but a deck to serve the same purpose in standard and get people an easy starting point would go a long way. Sure flip it around to how edh decks use to be, just 1 drop a year, but it would be better than nothing.
I didn't know what the store championship rewards were, but I did know the store championship existed... because I saw it on the calendar when going in to play Flesh and Blood.
What’s a flesh and blood
After a 4 year break from the game and moving across the country away from my old group, trying to get back into standard even with Arena is overwhelming. I didn't even know what challenger decks were, but they'd be perfect. Heck even my friends back home would dip back into standard if we could redeem the decks and play online together
It's absolutely CRAZY that there isn't a weekly "pro tour" or similar being live streamed on youtube/twitch
i dont really understand the point of this version of standard anymore, the decks are crazy expensive and the cards take forever to rotate. people really might as well just go play pioneer or modern
Isn’t what you’re talking about right now why people didn’t like Extended? I didn’t play back then so I genuinely don’t know. If so though, what’s the benefit of basically turning Standard into Extended?
Forever to rotate? They just straight up haven’t rotated. WOTC is literally choosing to continue to drag out rotation for years beyond the schedule just to keep the price of bombs up on the secondary market.
Cards like sheoldred and Kiki jiki were already expensive before the new rules you always keep expensive cards in rotation
You say rotation takes forever, but the reason I heard alotta people didn't play standard before was because rotation happened so *quickly* and their cards lost value. There's never gonna be pleasing everyone.
@@b2e297Make sure that cards have a longer shelf life, so those staples don't become useless once they hit Pioneer at times. The main problem with this new Standard is the lack of willingness to both ban problem cards, especially Sheoldred; But also a problem with reprints. To date, we've only had 4 challenger decks that reprinted cards legal in this standard cycle, and that was back in 2022.
Preach Prof preach! Such true words. I help at my LGS and we have been trying to get any 60 card format to fire with very little traction commander is still big. A few players have put together some 60 card decks. Most don’t even know how or what to do. Good, reconstructed decks to get people into the different formats would be sooo helpful!
My friend's new shop can only get commander going too. Very little support for 1v1 formats
Price is another factor, doesnt matter if a card rotates later if they arent willing to reprint it in the time it's in the standard (looking at you sheoldred)
Sheoldred was reprinted 3 times.
You can still buy dominaría united.
I thought I could hit up the 6-7 stores in the 40 miles radius and haven't been able to find enough singles to build a single full standard deck. Found many pieces to a few different ones but it seems all the singles got sold online and went to whatever small area in the world that has a booming scene.
We just had the first standard (i think ever?) Launch at my LGS last friday, went 3-0 and got first place with my Gruul Aggro! Such a great feeling to play my Arena deck in-person for once.
I remember going over to a friends house to cube on Saturdays with the SCG event of the week on in the background. Patrick Sullivan and Cedric Philips commentating was what really took those events to the heights they reached.
Im old enough to remember seeing tournaments on TV. I think the last time I seriously participated in Standard was when I was buying sets by the case, so that would have been Mirrodin block.
This is wild. I went to my store yesterday to play some commander and the store owners told me, "We have a standard tournament we are trying to do today, would you like to play?" I was down for whatever, but when i asked if there was a structure deck i could buy... all they could sadly advise me to do is look through singles and maybe make one on the spot. Long short, I agree, if you want to format to take off some structure decks help barrier of entry.
About the LGS push, I was talking to one of mine's store owner. Apparently, MTG prices have risen so high that, since he's a smaller store, it's almost more cost effective to not even carry Magic at all. It's really disheartening hearing that WotC has decided to sell cheaper to big retailers like Amazon and kill the people they should be catering the most to. It's really sad.
It may just be me and my flavor-focused brain, but I think a big thing that would help Standard would be bringing back blocks. I don't care if they're two or three sets, but to me they create a necessary sense of mechanical cohesion that I feel is missing between one-off sets. That cohesion makes me more interested in Standard play because I know "These last two or three sets have a lot of unifying elements, so using cards from them should work for the next Standard match."
At the least, I felt that way back during Return to Ravnica block.
I got into Pioneer vía Phoenix Precon and then bought Gruul Stompy, and Orzhov Humans precons and upgraded them as well. And now Phoenix is competetive, tier 1 deck. It would be awesome to have something similar for Standard.
I think one of the most important points brought up in this video is the idea of bridging digital and paper play through ideas such as digital codes for standard product. It really does just feel like a good idea not being actioned because of some percieved loss in value in one or the other, not recognizing that not providing at all is missing out on a whole market portion willing to pay into this idea more if they had the certainty that paying into paper gives them value in digital.
I sincerely believe commander being "the most popular format" is largely due to the fact that Wizards has been pushing and supporting it for nearly 15 years now. Wizards wanted a casual format because it meant that now all players feel compelled to buy chase cards that are super expensive, not just competitive grinders. Commander obviously had some inherent appeal that made it rise above other supported formats like planechase and archenemy but history shows that if you support standard it can be just as popular.
Our LGS runs casual commander for FNM and are at capacity for their main space and their "Secret Lair". Standard event moved to Tuesday where we get 12-16 players. Much better than 6 or less this time last year.
I don't play MTG, I don't even know the exact rules. In fact I don't play any card games. Somehow I love watching your videos.
They are genuinely entertaining. However, if you think this is cool, get into magic. It vastly improves the experience! Youll make great memories and either spend way too much cash on cardboard or proxy your first deck for free! There are tools out there to get into magic for just the cost of printer paper. Enjoy!
@@Titanplattensegler4420 I've actually downloaded MTGO last night and bought their $5 pack. I'm currently watching videos on how to invest in it, rather than spend money blindly. I'd play Arena, but I get the feeling it's just a digital gacha game. Obviously I would prefer to buy actual cards, but I'm not sure if I'll find/want to play, MTGO is more convenient. The appeal for me in the physical cards is that some of them (if not most) look awesome and I'd love to collect them.
Officer, its this guy over here
Usually I build myself Decks from just one Set. Like 1 Deck Inistrat (midnight hunt/ crimson vow e.g)
Yes I don't play very powerfull Decks but they feel good to me, because they are one Set and Tell a tale from this Set.
What should you do when all your LGS’s in town have commander for their Friday night magic? And I personally have a decent number of friends who play magic, meaning we always have a full pod for drafts. These two factors together mean the only reason we really ever have to walk into an LGS ourselves is to buy a box every month or so and to get sleeves/deck boxes. We have no reason to pop into the LGS to actually play, because we can do draft and commander ourselves at home.
you could do standard at home with your pod too though, what's the difference?
@@themoops400660 cards events are normally tournaments. Unless they got 8 friends and is prepared to run weekly tournaments at their house, in which case damn congratulations on the friendship that sounds lovely
I think it would also be nice to see more weekend, or morning events. I personally work in a factory doing the night shift, and outside of the occasional prerelease, there aren't any magic events I can attend due to my schedule, and it really sucks
I have to say, the challenger decks used to be my starting point for building my next deck. Some of my fav decks started off as challenger standard decks.
Great points, Prof. In some places of the world the problem is even more basic. No "local" game stores anymore, just selling points are left. I have to drive 40 minutes (one way) to reach a game store big enough to play games. Prerelease-Events are more than 50 km away. The RCQ is in a different country, where they speak a different language. No wonder, young people are playing only with their friends at home commander or limited.
Redeemable Standard decks are a MUST. As a MTGA player, I'd love to play paper again (I don't play paper since 1998), and transfer it to my online account. Not only that, improving the list to be a little more competitive as a IRL deck building experience pays it off even more. Us online players WANT TO MAKE MORE FRIENDS
I’m a casual fan of MTG, I love the gorgeous art of the cards, and I’m really into the lore of the game and its characters. I do really want to get into playing the game again, and would like to know what’s the best format to start with for a new player like myself
I remember I used to see pictures of the promos on the wall of my LGS and plan in advance if I wanted to go to game day. These days I have no idea of the promos and I never see them anywhere except occasionally on Reddit
Unfortunately in my area, some local game stores didn’t even bother trying to fire standard events and just gave out the promos to commander or pioneer players instead 😢
I’m new to magic for about 4 months and I’ve been researching all your videos. The most heartbreaking thing is seeing all the different types of decks and products that were around 2022 and before that don’t exist anymore. My brother got me into commander but I have been enjoying the 1v1 standard on arena. Just need places to play it in paper.
first time I wanted to try paper, I borrowed burn red and went to modern weekly tournament in LGS. I asked guys why they dont play std since I played only std on arena. They all told me the same. that the std is expenssive and after rotation card prices drop drastically. And you have to start over.
As a pretty much Standard Arena player only, challenger decks seem like an absolute dream! I think another major issue with Standard is entry cost variance (i.e. : Surveil Lands, powerful Rakdos cards al la Sheoldred, etc.) due to, by nature, being legal in every format. Precons with reprints of powerful cards done in YGO style (archetypal structure deck that contains an exclusive archetype card(s)) that allow for cheap singles and an easy entry point with relevant cards would be great to help me transfer to paper.
Totally agree on the redemption codes on decks. As lots of people pointed, this is done in other brands with much success. But we need to remember that WotC wants to get as much money as they can from your wallet so it is never going to happen.
I play commander at my LGS more than anywhere else. But I do not play standard because as a returning player I don't have any decks. Arena, to me, just easier to get started in and I can play it anywhere. Your challenger deck point seems extremely valid at this point as I'd consider getting a precon that I can upgrade easily. I just can't see spending money on paper other than singles.
100% agree, we need the precon standard decks and codes for arena. I would be much more inclined to buy packs if i knew i was getting a code for arena
My LGS is bringing standard nights back. Also more people in my area are building standard decks again. I think it’s happening
for the coverage part, all the europeans Regional championship add streaming coverage and the big event made by legacy european tour were also streamed and had feature match during the 2 days
I'm a new player and the amount of product is daunting and since i know next to nothing of standar i just have gotten precons for commander and just played that.
With Standard you only have to track the four standard legal releases in a year. It’s actually been the easiest format for me to keep up with as I don’t need to keep up with all the remasters/universes beyond/etc.
I went to FNM last night and not only was the commander "party" not happening, neither was the standard magic that was advertised. Can't find many drafts happening either. As a newer player, all I feel like there is to do is commander. Which is fine, I love commander. But I love playing on arena and there's something about the feel of a 1v1 like you get in a prerelease that just doesn't get satisfied in commander or on arena
Thankfully my store area is seeing an increase in standard players. Even with modern competing with standard attendance on fridays ever since standard only promos I have seen about double the unique players now at my two weekly standard events! I think the main draw rn is the standard only promos, which is something I was in full agreeance with when they announced it. Very excited for MKM standard, now that control has legs and there was already a wide variety of aggro/midrange the meta feels very diverse and healthy. I am very hopeful for the challenger decks as well! I feel like were on the edge of a resurfacing and just need a little bit more push and well see a healthy LGS standard community. Great video Prof!
I do hope standard becomes big again, i am one of the few that loves it.
Standard is big. It's just mostly big on Arena.
Maybe move to where i live. It is the only Format played here^^
@@retroprogamer7009 Cool, should move to your town.
Sometimes when i play Arena, i'm really suprised on how fun Standard can be. It just... really isn't that accessible and out there anymore. Would love for that to change and i really like the suggestions you've given.
Would love to see a Shuffle Up & Play in Standard! Maybe yearly with each new Rotation to see how the format changes :)
I don’t enough time or opportunities to play other formats. Commander itself is what got me back into the game. I play once a week and have never once played in an “LGS.”
I've been learning FaB recently and realized how much great coverage they have at lower levels of competition and then when I tried to find similar for magic I was shocked by how tough it was to find coverage. Even if WOTC didn't officially stream it all I think they could do a better job of directing traffic and endorsing independent coverage.
I think it would be cool to be able to see more 60 card decks gameplay on youtube. For example two headed giant. It's fun!
Prof has it entirely right. I think what wizards need to be thinking about is something I have termed the 'journey of a card'. This would ideally move through from limited then to standard and ultimately end in the non-rotating formats. A card that we follow along this journey is one that will become a personal favourite, which we love to revisit and play with even if it loses competitive viability as time passes.
The idea should be that a card is shown to be a total bomb in limited, then players want to try brewing a standard deck around it. Then that deck becomes a competitive deck within standard, leading to players trying it out in Pioneer this transition will keep the non-rotating formats fresh and ensure a home for our favourite cards (outside of commander) even after they rotate out of standard. One thing this will need is the periodic creation of a new non-rotating format as the more cards these formats have, the less impact cards from a new set will have in it and it will be more difficult to upgrade a standard deck into something vaguely viable.
I actually needed to do something like this after I started playing magic. When I decided to transition to paper, I built Azorius soldiers as a standard deck. Then, I found out standard simply was not played, so to make building that deck not a waste of time, I brewed a pioneer version that went into bant, adding coco to the mix. While not a truly competitive deck, it was a really fun experience brewing the deck and trying it out at an FNM.
The digital codes are something Pokemon did (don't know if they still do. Been a while since I have bought a pokemon deck). Every pack gave you a code you could redeem online, AND every structure deck had one that allowed you to unlock the exact deck online too.
It definitely is a motivator to buy physical product. You get more cards online, you can play with that deck competitively, you can playtest your deck online before you try it out at your LGS.
A local LGS here is actually having store championship(s) for standard but the attendance is very poor, max 6-7 players per event whereas weekly modern and legacy tournaments usually get 12-20 players each. And I remember that in 2016-2017 standard events here had quite a lot of players even with minimal promos and a smaller LGS! But standard has become more expensive and harder to get into so hardly anyone is really building decks 😢 Yesterday in an European highlander tournament I heard some players in our local standard events just play draft chaff for promos😂
Local local game store?
@@kirkprospector4958 Oops 😅
Arena codes for challenger decks is a great idea. I didn’t know store championships were a thing and now I’d love to pick up a challenger deck and go get the promo card but probably won’t be able to do that soon :(
I think that you made perfectly good points. First of all, I did not even know that store championships were even a _thing_ nowadays!
Secondly, you're absolutely correct in your insistence that people need to be incentivized to return to the local game store. People are social beings by nature; why not incentivize them to fulfill that need by coming together over a game that they mutually enjoy?
I think that a cross between event and challenger decks could be cool. One deck for either standard or pioneer released with every tentpole release. It might solve the issue of one or two decks out of the set of four underselling.
9:16 That would be sooooo useful for the revitalization of Standard!
100% agree with you. 29 year play history for me, the loss if standard has been a loss for the game.
Even though I've never played standard lol
I've never played in store and never heard of game day or store championships. Might have to try them (I've only ever played with my friends)
Damn, I learned so much. I didn't know about these events, but more importantly, I didn't know about these challenger decks.
As a new (1.5 years already) magic player, I still struggle with deck building, so I just buy commander precons and upgrade them. I didn't know that there are (good enough/playable) precon standard decks. With those, I would gladly get started with the format.
Standard is too prohibitively expensive for me to consider playing. You're at a distinct disadvantage if you don't run the good, obvious, +$40 staples such as Sheoldred and Boseiju and, unlike that other format people play, proxies aren't an option.
My store just did the standard showdown ...and I won!
I didn't know this info and I love and miss paper standard. Ty prof!
Since my store championship went back to standard instead of draft, 2/3 of the fnm draft regular players built a standard deck and that’s really fun !
I miss the standard challenger decks. They were the way I got INTO Magic back in 2014, and they were incredible
I really love Challenger decks. They brought me back into the game after several years away.
Thanks for being a voice for Standard lovers! 😀
Bringing back GPs would help so much. When my local GP was coming up, I'd head down to my LGS to get some reps in for whatever format I planned to compete in, and that came round nearly once a year. Sometimes this was the main event, sometimes it was side events, but by having accessible, open major tournaments, investment in magic something worth spending time in, particularly for people who maybe didn't have as much time to spend.
Tbh, this applies across all formats, not just standard, but standard would be the greatest winner in terms of formats from this. But on the whole, I think GPs just need to come back. They used a massive tournament as an excuse to host conventions all over the world, which anyone can go to. Because MagicCons are so much less frequent, it makes it a lot less accessible.
Man I feel like a minority cause Standard is fucking awesome right now! There's a ton of ways that I've been able to brew and compete successfully with brews. The amount of different decks and archetypes I've seen on the Arena ladder has been awesome!
The only problem with Standard is just how expensive it currently is. Ideally a Standard deck shouldn't cost over $100. Right now the meta decks all vost 400-500 which not accessible, especially for a rotating format. Most of that price is in the lands as well with the triomes and channel lands being multi-format staples and driving up the price exponentially.
If lands are printed cheaper that bring deck prices down. The standard meta current is awesome and varied as seen by Arena. It now needs to be accessible in paper.
I agree with point number three. They need to bring back Grand Prix. Maybe not as often as they used to be, but it was something to aspire to.
Wow the challenger deck actually sounds great. I knew I got into Magic at the wrong time.
I, uhhh, had no idea about those in store event prizes.
There's so much MTG product being released I had no idea these promo cards are being handed out. I didn't know "Store Championship" was a thing let alone when it is taking place or what the promo cards are.
Challenger Decks need to come back. Sure, they were stuffed full of cards that were about to rotate out but they were still really good products to on-ramp a newbie into standard.
I didn’t even know those fullart cards EXISTED or what either game day or store championships were, beyond what I could surmise from their names.
Loved the Out of this World reference with the time stop attempt.
I personnally really liked Standard when it was a Core set and a Block of 3 set.feel like Standard was on the Artificial Respirator after that.
Hi, prof, agree 100% with the video. Also, wotc gave another huge step back this week, discontinuing portuguese as a mtg language. The reaction was very strong in our community. Would love if you could make a video about it
I think bringing back tweaked versions extended and core sets as a sanctioned format in some form or another could genuinely help. Make extended 3 years longer than standard, and core sets could be march of the machine aftermath sized sets of standard safe eternal reprints only (maybe call it standard horizons). Then after a few rotations of standard and extended, players will have enough cards to transition to modern or pioneer if they want, but I think this setup would also incentivise enternal format players to play stabdard to pick up staples
I remember playing standard back in dominaria to ravnica allegiance when standard showdown gave really cool promo packs. I know they're trying to bring it back but without something like those packs I can't see it getting a huge turnout