Why Standard Will Be Better Without MTG’s Throne of Eldraine

I don’t know about you, but we’re pretty fed up with Throne of Eldraine‘s influence in Standard.

We have seen a total of five Throne of Eldraine cards banned in Standard during the lifespan of the set. Fires of Invention Fires of Invention You can cast spells only during your turn and you can cast no more than two spells each turn.
You may cast spells with mana value less than or equal to the number of lands you control without paying their mana costs. , Once Upon a Time Once Upon a Time If this spell is the first spell you've cast this game, you may cast it without paying its mana cost.
Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a creature or land card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. , Lucky Clover Lucky Clover Whenever you cast an Adventure instant or sorcery spell, copy it. You may choose new targets for the copy. , Oko, Thief of Crowns Oko, Thief of Crowns +2: Create a Food token. (It's an artifact with "{2}, {T}, Sacrifice this token: You gain 3 life.")
+1: Target artifact or creature loses all abilities and becomes a green Elk creature with base power and toughness 3/3.
−5: Exchange control of target artifact or creature you control and target creature an opponent controls with power 3 or less. and, [/tooltips]Escape to the Wilds[/tooltips] all bit the dust. Yet, the influence of the set continues to plague Standard as we know it.

It’s been a long sixteen months of Throne of Eldraine and honestly, it’s overstayed its welcome.

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The Problem With Throne of Eldraine

With Bonecrusher Giant Bonecrusher Giant Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell, this creature deals 2 damage to that spell's controller. and Edgewalker Innkeeper seeing play, it’s difficult for new sets such as Strixhaven: School of Mages and Adventure in the Forgotten Realms to provide any impact as the disparity in power is obvious. Naturally, you want to keep playing with the powerful cards as they offer the best chance of winning. The same goes for Kaldheim which is a lower-powered set (outside of Tibalt’s Trickery Tibalt’s Trickery Counter target spell. Choose 1, 2, or 3 at random. Its controller mills that many cards, then exiles cards from the top of their library until they exile a nonland card with a different name than that spell. They may cast that card without paying its mana cost. Then they put the exiled cards on the bottom of their library in a random order. that is just being undermined by the design woes of 2019.

Did I mention how ridiculous 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. is, too? I swear the text on the card changes every time someone reads it.

Even the uncommon cards from Throne of Eldraine such as Drown in the Loch Drown in the Loch Choose one —
• Counter target spell with mana value less than or equal to the number of cards in its controller's graveyard.
• Destroy target creature with mana value less than or equal to the number of cards in its controller's graveyard. and Mystical Dispute Mystical Dispute This spell costs {2} less to cast if it targets a blue spell.
Counter target spell unless its controller pays {3}. continue to hinge Standard in an unfavorable way. It supports Dimir Rogues massively, which is one of the most frustrating decks to play against on MTG Arena. There’s no end to the impact Throne of Eldraine has on Standard, bleeding into formats such as Modern and Pioneer which also had to manage the power level with bans.

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But, there are positives to couple the negatives. The Adventure mechanic is one of the best and thought-out mechanics in some time. It gives you the ability to play a spell, then cast that spell as a creature at a later stage. It allows you to get the most out of your mana depending on the situation. However, it’s the power of these Adventure cards that are an issue, in particular, Bonecrusher Giant.

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One card that is half removal spell, half large blocker is a beating to fight through for aggressive decks. It invalidates two turns worth of mana in the early game. Not to mention, the ability on the creature half can be relevant too. Overall, it does far too much for the mana value and would improve Standard if it saw a ban. There are great examples of the Adventure mechanic such as Beanstalk Giant Beanstalk Giant Beanstalk Giant's power and toughness are each equal to the number of lands you control. and Giant Killer Giant Killer {1}{W}, {T}: Tap target creature. , but Bonecrusher Giant Bonecrusher Giant Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell, this creature deals 2 damage to that spell's controller. is cut above the rest.

A Standard format without Throne of Eldraine would allow players to get back into Standard, which is supposed to be the best way for players to enter the game. Even with MTG Arena in mind, no one wants to lose to the same few cards again and again.

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When is Standard Rotation?

With the release of Innistrad Midnight Haunt releases this September, Standard rotation will come into effect. Leaving Standard will be Throne of Eldraine, Theros Beyond Death, Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, and Core Set 2021. And honestly, rotation cannot come soon enough.

We can leave the mistakes of Theros Beyond Death and Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths behind too, which plagued MTG with Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath When Uro enters, sacrifice it unless it escaped.
Whenever Uro enters or attacks, you gain 3 life and draw a card, then you may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield.
Escape—{G}{G}{U}{U}, Exile five other cards from your graveyard. (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its escape cost.) , and the Companion mechanic compounding things further. It will be a fresh reset on a format that has struggled to be anything but Throne of Eldraine block constructed, and it will bring more players into Standard.

It’ll be exciting to see Strixhaven: School of Mages and Kaldheim have a defined role in Standard without the ghosts of Throne of Eldraine looming over them. Until then, we’ve got a couple more months of Bonecrusher Giant Bonecrusher Giant Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell, this creature deals 2 damage to that spell's controller. and Edgewall Innkeeper Edgewall Innkeeper Whenever you cast a creature spell that has an Adventure, draw a card. (It doesn't need to have gone on the adventure first.) to deal with, then Standard can cultivate into something for newer players to appreciate.

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