Standard rotation is only a few months away, and with the Standard 2022 queues being introduced into Magic Arena, we get an early sneak peek at what greener pastures await us. We have spent the last couple years in a Standard meta dominated by Throne of Eldraine, Theros Beyond Death, and Ikoria, Lair of Behemoths. There have also been more bannings in this Standard than in any other, with 8 cards being banned over the last 2 years. Clearly this is a Standard that’s lost its luster. Today we’ll talk about 10 cards that we’ll happily say goodbye to when Standard rotates.
10. Woe Strider
Woe Strider
Woe Strider
When this creature enters, create a 0/1 white Goat creature token.
Sacrifice another creature: Scry 1.
Escape—{3}{B}{B}, Exile four other cards from your graveyard. (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its escape cost.)
This creature escapes with two +1/+1 counters on it.
has been a consistent sacrifice engine in the various BRx Sacrifice decks in the format. It’s incredibly efficient sacrifice ability and it’s ability to escape makes it very hard to permanently put down without being smothered by our opponent’s value.
9. Brazen Borrower
Brazen Borrower
Brazen Borrower
Flash
Flying
This creature can block only creatures with flying.
is the first of our adventure cards we’ll be happy to see leave. A 2 mana bounce spell coupled with a 3/1 Flash Flyer is really above the curve. It puts a really fast clock on the board, an the adventure ability is way too strong.
8. Bone Crusher Giant
Bonecrush Giant is another really annoying adventure card. It’s adventure can go to any target, and the 4/3 for 3 is once again, above the curve. It’s painful to deal with, since it deal damage to us when we target it with a spell. Mono red loses one of it’s stronger tools and I’m not sad about it.
7. Lovestruck Beast
[tooltip]Lovestruck Beast[/tooltips] is probably the most insane creature in this Adventure line up. a 5/5 for 3 is absolutely nuts. It also makes a 1/1 and the downside of the creature half isn’t that big of a downside. Green has some of the strongest 1/1 creatures out there and so this can put the hurt on really quickly.
6. Questing Beast
If we wanted to talk about the king of above the curve creatures,
Questing Beast
Questing Beast
Vigilance, deathtouch, haste
Questing Beast can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less.
Combat damage that would be dealt by creatures you control can't be prevented.
Whenever Questing Beast deals combat damage to an opponent, it deals that much damage to target planeswalker that player controls.
takes the crown. Sporting 3 powerful keywords, it’s “Anti-Aggro” evasion, and “Anti-Planeswalker” triggered ability all on a 4/4 for 4 creature pushes the envelope off a cliff. This creature is a must answer threat but it gets its value almost immediately so I can’t wait for this to go.
5. Yorion, Sky Nomad
Yorion, Sky Nomad
Yorion, Sky Nomad
Companion — Your starting deck contains at least twenty cards more than the minimum deck size. (If this card is your chosen companion, you may put it into your hand from outside the game for {3} as a sorcery.)
Flying
When Yorion enters, exile any number of other nonland permanents you own and control. Return those cards to the battlefield at the beginning of the next end step.
is a card that I cannot wait to leave. It pushes relatively fair cards like
Omen of the Sea
Omen of the Sea
Flash (You may cast this spell any time you could cast an instant.)
When this enchantment enters, scry 2, then draw a card.
{2}{U}, Sacrifice this enchantment: Scry 2. (Look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them on the bottom and the rest on top in any order.)
or Binding of the Old Gods to be over the top. The amount of value that can be generated from this card feels really strong, and it’s used in a lot of the decks in the format, so it’ll be nice to see less of this sky noodle.
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4. Embercleave
One of the most powerful equipment to be created in Magic has to be
Embercleave
Embercleave
Flash
This spell costs {1} less to cast for each attacking creature you control.
When Embercleave enters, attach it to target creature you control.
Equipped creature gets +1/+1 and has double strike and trample.
Equip {3}
. In the mono red shells, they can very quickly curve out and have a double striking, trampling creature on turn 3. Giving this a mana cost reduction ability as well as flash makes this one of the most oppressive equipment to ever see play. It feels awful to feel like you’ve stabilized against a red deck and this comes down to kill you quickly.
READ MORE: The Best Enchantment Commanders
3. Kiora Bests the Sea God
This one is one of the most powerful sagas to come out, and it’s not close.
Kiora Bests the Sea God
Kiora Bests the Sea God
(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.)
I — Create an 8/8 blue Kraken creature token with hexproof.
II — Tap all nonland permanents target opponent controls. They don't untap during their controller's next untap step.
III — Gain control of target permanent an opponent controls. Untap it.
is really only seeing play in 1 deck, which is Sultai Control, but it feels so bad to have to give this to our opponent. the 8/8 is a fast clock that’s really difficult to beat, and then getting all of our things tapped down doesn’t feel fun either. If our opponent hasn’t won the game by the 3rd turn, they get to steal our best permanent, and at that point the game ends.
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2. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
+2: Ugin deals 3 damage to any target.
−X: Exile each permanent with mana value X or less that's one or more colors.
−10: You gain 7 life, draw seven cards, then put up to seven permanent cards from your hand onto the battlefield.
, the big bad dragon planeswalker. This guy pretty much only saw play in the Temur Ultimatum decks, and maybe some 2 color control decks, but when he came down, he meant business. Being super ahead on board, and then having your entire field exiled doesn’t feel great. As cool of a card as this is, it’s often times a feels bad card and won’t be missed.
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1. Emergent Ultimatum
Lastly is
Emergent Ultimatum
Emergent Ultimatum
Search your library for up to three monocolored cards with different names and exile them. An opponent chooses one of those cards. Shuffle that card into your library. You may cast the other cards without paying their mana costs. Exile Emergent Ultimatum.
. Now don’t get me wrong, I love this card. I’m a big fan of casting big spells on the cheap, but at this point, the power level of the deck is exhausting. This is one of, if not the best deck in Standard right now, and it’s exhausting dealing with this card. Allowing players to effectively get “I win” cards in play from their libraries for free is far too powerful, and the deck is far too consistent to be left to only a standard sized card pool. This was definitely at the tail end of the “Power creep gone wrong” sets, but it’s impact on the standard format was immense.
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I definitely cannot wait for standard to rotate and we get a fresh start and a much more powered down standard format. We do have a little bit to wait for that to happen, and we have some exciting things coming for Historic in a few weeks as well! Be sure to stay tuned for that. What cards are you excited to see leave standard in a few months? Let us know in the comments!