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Regardless of how much you play Commander, Modern, Pioneer, or any other format out there,Magic: The Gatheringis still primarily built around Standard. It’s an ever-evolving revolving door of cards, and is like nothing else Magic offers.
In 2023, Standard had a major refresh with changes to its rotation schedule. With more sets legal in the format, and incoming cards being playable for much longer, here’s everything you need to know about the 2024 Standard rotation.
What Is Standard Rotation?
Magic’s Standard format is built on the idea of set rotation. This means thatolder sets leave the formatafter a few years, and the cards from them can no longer be played.
This is in contrast to a non-rotating format like Pioneer and Modern, or an eternal one like Vintage, Commander, and Legacy.Cards don’t leave those formatswithout being banned, while cards in Standard are always being introduced, having their time in the sun, and then bowing out for newer sets.
Why Do Sets Rotate Out Of Standard?
Cynically, it can be easy to assume this is just a ploy to get you to buy more Magic packs. After all, having a deck with cards you can only use for a few years feels weird and offputting to a lot of people, but rotation is actually a vital part of Magic’s health.
With rotation, Standard is able tokeep itself fresh and balancedin a way other formats can’t. Mechanics that prove domineering only last a few years, and different strategies quickly rise up to replace them.
For instance, Throne of Eldraine was an infamously overpowered set that launched in 2019, and its rotation out of Standard in 2021 was met with excitement from the community to see what other cards could thrive without it. Meanwhile, strategies that are strong now, like poison, already havea shelf life of a few yearson them, once Phyrexia: All Will Be One rotates out of Standard in 2025.
Standard alsoallows weaker cards to thrive. It can be tuned to be either more or less powerful as sets come and go, giving space to cards that are great in the moment to be played before being almost unusable in bigger, non-rotating formats like Modern.
How Does Standard Rotation Work?
Standard rotation happens with the launch of theyearly Fall set. For 2024, this will beBloomburrow. With it, the four oldest sets in Standard (which together made up a whole year of the game) will rotate out, and no longer be legal.
In 2023, it was announced that Standardwould be extending the rotation time of its sets. This means that sets nowremain in Standard for, at most, three years, rather than the previous two. Other than this extra year, Standard rotation happens the same way it always has: in Autumn, we can say goodbye to the four sets that were given a stay of execution in 2023.
On Magic Arena, the Standard-inspired Alchemy format uses the old two-year model for rotation, due to the extra cards the Alchemy-only releases introduce. This means that, while Innistrad: Midnight Hunt is the oldest format in Standard right now, Dominaria United is the oldest in Alchemy.
Codename: Yachting (Returnto Arcavios, Name TBA)
TBA Q2 2026 Set
As mentioned, with the launch of Bloomburrow this autumn, the 2021/2022 year of sets will rotate of Standard. This means we’ll lose:
This means all cards released in Standard-legal sets betweenDominaria United and Bloomburrowwill be legal, including:
Bloomburrow
Can I Still Play My Standard-Legal Cards?
The only place these cards cease being legal is in Standard. Youcan still play themin formats like Pioneer (a format specifically designed for older Standard cards), Modern, Vintage, Legacy, Pauper, and Commander, provided that specific card hasn’t been banned in them already.
There’s also a chance your older cards might still be playable in Standard. If a card has been reprinted, such as Liliana of the Veil and Bone Splinters in Dominaria United, you’re able to play any printed version of that card in your deck. You could run your Battle for Zendikar Bone Splinters in a Standard deck with no problem, making it worth holding on to your older cards on the off-chance they re-enter Standard later on.
