The Ever-Shifting Standard

containment priest card art

September is just over a month away, which means Standard will soon rotate. (Standard is a common format in Magic, where only cards from the most recent sets are eligible for inclusion in your deck.)  This post looks at the nuances of rotation.

"Normal" Magic expansions are released once every three months- so four per year. Sets enter standard on their release date.  Standard rotation - where the four oldest sets rotate out- happens only once per year.  This means different sets are eligible for inclusion in the format for differing lengths of time. See the below table.

From this example, you see that the longest a set is in Standard is two years- but some sets are in for only 15 months!  The release date is the key- the September releases will be in the format for the longest amount of time.  The core sets, with their July release, will be in for only 15 months.  Some other things to note:
- the rotation schedule means between 5-9 sets are in Standard at any given time.  But it doesn't remain at 9 for long- it drops down to 8 within weeks, as the new set sees play just prior to the oldest four sets rotating out.
- the number of cards available in Standard will similarly vary- in September 2019, for example, there were 8 sets in Standard (Ixalan through Core 2020), for a total of 2,127 cards. Throne of Eldraine was released in that month, bringing the total (briefly) to 9 sets and 2,396 cards.  Then Ixalan through Core 2019 rotated out, dropping the format to 5 sets and 1,372 cards.  This pattern is repeated; as of this writing, Standard is 8 sets (Guilds of Ravnica through Core 2021) and 2,174  cards. The next set comes in September to join the rest briefly, and then Guilds through Core 2020 will rotate out.

I like how Standard works. I view it, in a way, like professional sports (with a forced retirement).  Every few months, new rookies join the team. Some will work out, some won't, but they'll all be eligible to play until their mandated retirement date.  You'll learn to love or hate them during their 'career,' and reminisce fondly long after they've gone.

A future post will look at the cards I'm going to miss- and those I won't- as Standard rotates.

Card Advantage

when it comes to card advantage, I feel like an overwhelmed apprentice

Card advantage means having access to more cards than your opponent. Wizards did a very good article on the subject, and it's important to understand.

Every (non-land) card has a mana cost- the type(s) and quantity of mana you need to play the spell. But there is another cost: every card in your 40- or 60-card deck occupies exactly one card slot. Each player starts the game by drawing seven cards, and then drawing one more at the start of each of their turns. If you have no way of obtaining more cards during a game, and the game lasts six rounds, that means you'll have only 13 cards to work with for your Magic game. If they're the 'right' 13, great!  But if not . . . what will you do?  What happens if you play all of your cards, and are close to victory but have nothing left- no options in hand? You're in a more tenuous position than you may realize; card advantage can help.  Let's look at some examples.

Card advantage can get complicated, but at its most basic, it deals with either drawing more cards than your opponent or making them draw fewer (i.e. making them discard). In the below game, I show how many more cards I pulled than my opponent- they have 47 cards left in their deck, and I have 38. I have a 9-card advantage (and, in this case, I have almost the dream scenario: more permanents, more cards in hand, and only two less life).  Having nine extra cards is tremendously powerful. If my opponent plays a 'board wipe' spell, removing all of my non-land permanents, I have enough cards in hand to recover quickly. If he doesn't, he'll be toast.

Here's another example; look how out of hand this can get. What starts as a 4-card advantage snowballs into 10, 20, and then a whopping 47:

I nearly decked myself in that one.

The examples are basic but I hope they illustrate the concept. If you can access more cards than your opponent, you're more likely to overwhelm them.

How do you gain card advantage? The above-linked Wizards article has some great examples; here are some of my favorite cards that can give tremendous card advantage. Into the Story lets you draw four cards, giving you a net gain of three (since Into the Story takes one card slot). Library Larcenist, if it attacks, grants one card per turn it does so. But some real powerhouses are Risen Reef, Setessan Champion, and Edgewall Innkeeper- in each case, playing a certain type of card (Elemental, enchantment, or adventures) allows you to draw more cards (or place them on the battlefield).  Protect these creatures and pair them with low-cost spells of the right types (like Foulmire Knight for Edgewall Innkeeper) and watch things get out of hand.

There are other ways to achieve card advantage- for example, by making your opponent discard cards.  Whichever method(s) you use, be aware of them, and use the concept of card advantage to help you judge a card's worth. You might just be surprised.

From a Certain Point of View

Opt card art

When a new Magic set is previewed, the Internet explodes with reviews.  And why not? It's fun to speculate on which cards and strategies will be the dominant ones.  But if you look closely, you'll notice that such reviews are always looking at a set from a certain point of view- in other words, they focus on a certain way to play Magic and tailor the review towards that format. Specifically, you'll find reviews that analyze a set:

• looking at how it will affect Constructed formats (like Standard, Pioneer, or Modern)
• judging the common cards it contains for Pauper
• gauging cards for how they may change Commander
• speculating on a card's worth in Limited environments

For Core 2021, for example, here are some reviews from these different perspectives:

• Constructed (the link is for green cards, but you can follow the other links on that page for the other colors)
• Pauper
• Commander
• Limited

If you look at any of these links, you may notice something: a card's playworthiness can vary greatly based on format. A good Limited card may be horrible in Constructed formats; something that will blow up Pauper won't see play in Commander.   It's a good reminder of a few things:

• Magic is an amazingly flexible game experience. Try all the options- you may find you greatly prefer one format to others, or just enjoy sampling the variety.
• Every card has a place . . . somewhere. In some format, it will provide value.
• We all have bias. Our initial judgment of a card is likely based on our preferred format.  Know the lens(es) through which you analyze a set.
• Wizards has a hard job. They strive to satisfy a variety of customers with every set they release, looking for balance and fun in multiple formats. It's hard enough to achieve this in one format; I can't imagine getting it right in all.  

Next time you see a set preview, try looking at it from different angles- you may be surprised what you find.

The Power Nine

In Magic (as in all card games), designers strive for a balance in power level. In other words, they try to make cards good enough to warrant inclusion in a deck, but not so good that they need to be included in any deck to have a chance of winning. It makes sense that the first Magic set, Alpha, had a handful of 'broken' cards (cards that are too powerful, causing game imbalance).  It's hard to get power level just right all the time, especially so when the game was new.  Nine cards in particular were so ridiculously overpowered that they became known as "The Power Nine." Here they are:

Though banned in most formats and restricted (only one copy allowed) in others, these cards are tremendously expensive to obtain today. The Black Lotus is the most valuable- it fetched $166,000 in an auction last year.  (As an aside, I owned 2-3 "Moxes" from the Unlimited set . . . I think I threw them away.  Today they're worth thousands each.  Ouch.) Today's post reflects on these cards.

Notice the big thing about the Power Nine: none of them are creatures.

• Six of them (the artifacts) give you mana. These are powerful because they're free to play (cost 0), and initially (before restriction), you could have and play 4 copies of each of these in your deck (and more than one per turn, if your hand had them).
• So imagine this scenario: your opening hand has one land and four Black Lotus. You could generate 13 mana on turn one for an undeniable (and likely insurmountable) advantage.
• The other three (the blue cards) involve card draw or and extra turn. Either way, these give you access to resources at an impressive clip.

This reality sheds light on an important concept in Magic that I never understood as a child: it's about the resources. Yes, you need creatures (most of the time), as they're the most common mechanism to reduce your opponent's life to 0 and thus win the game. But the resources- the cards, the turns, and the mana generators- are the engine that enables it all. So cards that accelerate the resources- that give you more cards, more mana, or more turns- can be devastating to opponents.

Most of us will never see a Power Nine card in play, but the concept exists today in reduced form. Some non-basic lands are quite expensive because they can grant access to different colors of mana in an accelerated fashion (more on this in a later post). Again, it's a resource thing. The greater and more flexible your resources, the more chance you have.  It's also why card advantage (another future post) is so important.

As you build a deck, remember your resources. They are not an afterthought. Does your deck have a way to draw extra cards? To generate different types of mana (if you're playing multiple colors) efficiently?  You certainly need other things (like removal), but if you ignore your resources, you'll put yourself at a serious disadvantage.

Maxing Out

I'm an engineer. It's in my blood to break things (in the name of science, of course- I want to see how things work).  For a few weeks, I've been trying to 'break' Arena by seeing what kind of margin of victory I could obtain. For example, could I get to 10,000 life?

I needed a willing victim . . . enter 'Sparky,' the Arena Bot. Sparky was created to help people test their decks before taking them live.* Sparky randomly selects one of five mono-colored decks- none of them powerful- to face you. And Sparky never concedes.  Perfect.

The core of my first decks were Shrine cards, legendary enchantments which get more powerful when you have more of them on the battlefield. My first attempts were 'going wide'- trying to amass an overwhelming army through cards that kept spawning creatures (like Tendershoot Dryad, Resplendent Angel and March of the Multitudes).  I had mild success, but thought I could do better. That number of creatures slowed Arena to a crawl, and some Shrines enabled impressive card draw, forcing me to increase my deck size (up to 100-110 cards) so I wouldn't mill myself. It was fun, but not great.

Then Core 2021 came out. Core 2021 has an engine that fit my goals perfectly. Consider the following cards:

Light of Promise, combined with a deck full of life gain, is potent- made more so by Invigorating Surge.  I added some creatures that fit the bill:

And added some enchantments (or cards that liked them) for card draw, protection, and higher power:

To top it off, I made sure I had Midnight Clock to enable repeated use of Invigorating Surge and prevent milling myself:

I knew Sparky wouldn't concede, but I needed a way to force him to attack me, so I could block with my souped-up creature and gain mega-life (and hence mega-counters). Primal Might helped there:

Cool. As long as I survived the early game, these combos should take over. And they did!  To really go crazy on counters, I had to be fortunate enough to play all 4 copies of Invigorating Surge before Midnight Clock 'struck twelve' and reset my deck, but it works a fair amount of the time. Check out the series of screenshots below to watch Healer's Hawk get progressively more ridiculous.

Fun! And I did succeed in breaking Arena, in that I learned they allocate 30 bits to tracking creature counters. So I maxed out at 1,073,741,823 counters (that's 111111111111111111111111111111 in binary).  A Healer's Hawk that does one billion damage and gains one billion life . . . amazing.  Note that they must allocate more bits to the life total, as that was a higher value.

Here a decklist of one version I ran (a 90-card deck):

2 Honden of Seeing Winds (CHK) 69
5 Plains (IKO) 262
3 Island (IKO) 265
2 Honden of Cleansing Fire (CHK) 14
5 Forest (IKO) 274
1 Hallowed Fountain (RNA) 251
2 Temple Garden (GRN) 258
4 Healer's Hawk (GRN) 14
4 All That Glitters (ELD) 2
4 Opt (M21) 59
2 Primal Might (M21) 197
2 Sanctum of Tranquil Light (M21) 33
2 Setessan Champion (THB) 198
3 Temple of Enlightenment (THB) 246
2 Blossoming Sands (M21) 244
4 Life Goes On (M21) 192
4 Radiant Fountain (M21) 248
2 Sanctum of Calm Waters (M21) 68
2 Setessan Training (M21) 205
4 Midnight Clock (ELD) 54
4 Light of Promise (M21) 25
2 Temple of Mystery (M21) 254
2 Sanctum of Fruitful Harvest (M21) 203
4 Invigorating Surge (M21) 190
3 Temple of Plenty (THB) 248
2 Breeding Pool (RNA) 246
2 Temple of Mystery (M20) 255
4 Alseid of Life's Bounty (THB) 1
4 Anointed Chorister (M21) 4
4 Karametra's Blessing (THB) 26

And here's another version; only 60 cards this time, eliminating the Shrines. Not as effective, but still funny:

5 Plains (IKO) 262
3 Island (IKO) 265
5 Forest (IKO) 274
1 Hallowed Fountain (RNA) 251
1 Temple Garden (GRN) 258
4 Healer's Hawk (GRN) 14
4 Opt (M21) 59
2 Primal Might (M21) 197
2 Temple of Enlightenment (THB) 246
4 All That Glitters (ELD) 2
4 Life Goes On (M21) 192
4 Midnight Clock (ELD) 54
4 Light of Promise (M21) 25
4 Invigorating Surge (M21) 190
1 Temple of Plenty (THB) 248
1 Breeding Pool (RNA) 246
1 Temple of Mystery (M20) 255
4 Alseid of Life's Bounty (THB) 1
4 Anointed Chorister (M21) 4
2 Setessan Champion (THB) 198

While an enjoyable experiment, I don't think the deck is viable- too many ways to remove the threats that make this deck tick.  But it's fun to max out- to break things.  Without breaking my computer's processor by creating thousands of creatures.

*to play against Sparky, select 'Bot match' on the play menu.

(Un)limited Fun

card art from Duress, showing how this game can make me feel

Sometimes, I hate playing Magic. I play mostly constructed format, meaning I design and build the decks in advance of playing. Constructed features the most powerful decks for a few reasons:

1. Players have (at least) several sets available from which to choose cards, making for more potent synergies and combinations
2. Players (who pay enough) can obtain the maximum 4 copies of the best cards for their decks, increasing potency
3. Players have plenty of time to play and refine their decks beforehand

For these reasons, competitive constructed decks are more powerful- they win faster and more consistently- than in any other format. I love it, and I hate it. 

It's fun to design in advance, to have so many options, and time to refine. But there are always players who design better, have more options, and have more time to refine, meaning this is a time- and money-intensive format. Playing the format on Arena will show you what I mean. And when the meta in the constructed format of choice is unhealthy, it's demoralizing to get beaten down early and often because I refuse to play one of the known good strategies, or don't have access to the cards needed to play those strategies. It drains the fun. I've felt that recently.

Enter limited play. I'm becoming increasingly fond of these events because they serve as equalizers.

• all players have access to a much reduced number of cards
• and the cards are less powerful, making for longer- but more balanced- games
• players construct their deck at the event, so there's no time to refine

For these two reasons, it makes the games (in my opinion) much more fun. In addition, limited events often force players to use cards they normally wouldn't in constructed, meaning you get to explore more of a set than you would otherwise.  Decks also tend to be more creature-heavy (which I like). Of course, pack randomization means you can be at an inherent (dis)advantage right from the start- but it's still more balanced than constructed.

The two limited formats are draft and sealed.

• In draft, you pick a card from a pack and pass the remainder to your opponent, and then pick again until all packs have been distributed. You still have some say over your card pool (though you don't know what the other players are picking, and that can disrupt your plans). And people can prepare for drafts by consulting experts and knowing which cards are the best to pick first (again, putting me at a disadvantage since I don't like all that prep).  So the ultimate equalizer is sealed. 
• I'm becoming quite fond of sealed- the format where each player gets 6 packs and adds basic lands to build a deck of 40 cards.  This video from Tolarian Community College (a great site) gives some good tips for building a sealed deck, and this one (focused on the Core 2021 prerelease) gives great tips for the format in general.

One impressive aspect of Magic is its flexibility. You can love one format and hate another; play one set constantly and ignore the next. Or switch between them as you tire of one. The possibilities are endless; the fun is unlimited.