Recently, competitive Magic players were hit with a pretty sizeable update to professional play: three of the next four Regional Championship Qualifier seasons will be Standard (including the next Standard season which begins this November):

This is a pretty big shakeup to competitive Magic as a whole due to how much spotlight Standard is now receiving compared to previous years. In recent times, Standard has been out of the spotlight of competitive play. While we had a RCQ season and Regional Championship earlier this year, the only other large competitive Standard event in the continental US was the Grand Prix-style event at Magic Con Chicago earlier this year.

Standard is and should always be the cornerstone of tournament Magic: the Gathering. It's the easiest competitive format to enter for new players, since there are so many budget options and if you play Limited cards you open will be relevant. It also makes sense to have Standard be the main focus of competitive play for Wizards of the Coast - since there are four Standard sets a year, those cards should be valuable and usable with every new release.

Over the last few years various draft boxes, like Innistrad: Midnight Hunt and Crimson Vow for example, were practically worthless, with multiple stores and online retailers like Amazon dumping the product at times for as low as $60. With fewer Standard events, less product was opened and boxes were less desirable. Magic finance has undergone some tremendous changes over the last year, now with a larger focus on Standard and simplifying booster boxes from three different products down to two: Collector Boosters and Play Boosters. Play Booster boxes are now seeing much more stability, having a msrp of about $140 and each set maintaining its price around that number.

Even a set like Murders at Karlov Manor, which dropped in price initially, is seeing a slow uptick in box prices, as some of the rare dual lands like Undercity Sewers hitting up to $30 in price! Can you remember the last time a Standard-legal dual land was worth that much money?

It's not just the next RCQ season that's going to drive Standard prices up - next year marks the return of Grand Prix-style events, the Magic Spotlight series, along with store championship events. While each Spotlight event won't be Standard, it has been confirmed that Standard will be a major focus of that tournament series. With Standard rotation now occurring every three years instead of two, cards hold overall value longer, and there are a couple key cards that I would recommend owning in your collection to prepare for all the Standard events in the coming year.

The Verges

I'll be completely honest with you, I think Duskmourn is probably the most impactful Standard set of this year. The Verge cycle is probably my favorite Standard land cycle in years. First, these lands come into play untapped no matter what, but they work off of not only basic lands but the cycle of Surveil lands from Karlov Manor. In my Azorius Control deck Floodfarm Verge is a straight up Tundra the majority of the time, and at worst case it's an untapped early White source for my Temporary Lockdowns and Elspeth's Smites. I think these lands are an auto-include in basically every Standard deck that can play them and will see major play the entirety of their legality.

The Overlords

Speaking of Duskmourn cards, my next cycle of Standard pickups are the Overlords. While not an equal cycle, I do think each of these cards has a role to play and can slot into multiple strategies. Overlord of the Hauntwoods is the most flexible, as this card has been showing up in lists like Domain, as Everywhere counts for all land types for Leyline Binding and Herd Migration. Overlord of the Boilerbilges and Overlord of the Floodpits have also shown up in similar lists. Overlord of the Balemurk seems like a nice inclusion in various Golgari and Mono-Black decks, speaking of which...

Unstoppable Slasher and Unholy Annex

Well what do you know? Two more Duskmourn cards! Unstoppable Slasher and Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber have taken both Standard and Pioneer by storm, as Bloodletter of Aclazotz is legal in both formats. With Bloodletter, an unblocked Slasher is an insta-kill! However, if you're not able to pull off this Splinter Twin-esque combo, your deck has a lot of baked-in invulnerability, with Unholy Annex being a win con all on its own. These cards are best friends, and I think are going to be omnipresent while legal in Standard, especially with any better discard effects we see in future sets.

Unholy Annex has also been doing some pretty powerful work in Standard as of late:

WON THE STANDARD CHALLENGE WITH GOLGARI DEMONS

CHEWED THROUGH A LOT OF FUCKING AGGRO. REALLY PLEASED WITH ALL THE WORK IVE PUT INTO THIS FORMAT. LETS GO@fireshoes pic.twitter.com/WiyE7zKfDa

-- Jakobpablo (@jakoboffline) October 21, 2024

This deck is just the start of all the things you can get away with these cards. I've seen Unstoppable Slasher paired with Access Tunnel, Unholy Annex paired with Sheoldred, the Apocalypse to offset the life loss - the list goes on and on. I think what's powerful about these two cards is that they're flexible. You're not limited to playing them in some Mono-Black Bloodletter of Aclazotz deck, they can easily slot in Dimir or Golgari-based midrange decks as well.

I think it's criminal that these two cards are sitting only around $2 (at least at the time of writing this article) as I think they'll be cornerstones of Black-based midrange decks in the future.

Mono-Red

While there are lots of exceptional rares and mythics to invest in, at the end of the day your multicolored $500 deck could easily lose to a fast start from Mono-Red. Mono-Red has a couple of different flavors in Standard, from the Gruul versions with Snakeskin Veil and Picnic Ruiner, to the Prowess/Sacrifice version with Callous Sell-Sword. Regardless of what flavor of Red you end up playing, the base of the deck is pretty inexpensive. I'd highly suggest picking up your Slickshot Show-Off and Emberheart Challenger, along with the various commons and uncommons that are key to the deck, like Heartfire Hero and Monastery Swiftspear. Whether you want to pick up an aggro deck for budget purposes or because it fits your playstyle, I think it's always worthwhile having a box of Red cards for the right weekend.

If you needed some reassurance on the deck, a previous Magic World Champion has some thoughts:

Turn 4? What turn 4? pic.twitter.com/fvMdhvuVzr

-- J-E Depraz (@JEDepraz) October 23, 2024

Three Steps Ahead

Look, it wouldn't be a Standard article of mine if I didn't include a section on Azorius Control cards, right? I've been tinkering with various Control-based lists in the shadows as the Standard RCQ season slowly approaches. While I'm not set on an exact 75, I do think if you want to buy into the archetype you should pick up your copies of Three Steps Ahead. Three Steps Ahead is one of the more versatile counterspells of the last few years, one Mike Flores and I were initially pretty down on (Mike more than me, for the record). Yeah, Cancel or Catalog aren't playable Standard cards, but the versatility of having them together for five mana is just what Control decks want to be able to pull ahead in a grindy game.

Three Steps Ahead isn't also limited to Azorius Control. It's starting to see play in various Dimir Midrange decks, and I think it's definitely something to consider when playing a Blue deck that has overlords in them, as they aren't legendary creatures. I've also been toying around with a build of Dimir that includes Unholy Annex and Archfiend of the Dross, and having a instant-speed Clone to get a new demon to preserve your life total is pretty exciting when your opponent has the kill spell.

While Three Steps Ahead is a must-have for Control decks, I also think I'd look into having copies of Split Up, Get Lost, and the upcoming new release of Day of Judgment in Foundations this November!

Common and Uncommon Staples

Lastly, I think it's just important to have your playsets of relatively cheap commons and uncommons that are the backbone of these Standard decks. Cards like Deep-Cavern Bat, Phantom Interference, Cut Down, etc, are the cards that I'd always want on hand, just so when you do decide to buy into a deck, you don't have to worry about some of the cheaper, harder to find commons and uncommons.

As we return to big Standard events, like the Regional Championship and the Magic Spotlight series, newer competitive players will soon realize just how difficult it can be to find cards at tournaments. While your run of the mill vendor might have a playset of the hottest new mythic rare, chances are that niche uncommon will be nowhere to be found - or will be priced waaaay above its average price online. Save yourself the trouble and collect playsets of the commons and uncommons you can foresee yourself playing with. I'd also pay attention to what cards will be in Magic Foundations. You can never have too many Negates and Duresses!

Standard is looking to be the next big cornerstone of competitive paper Magic once again. While in recent years, and even pre-pandemic Standard was out of the spotlight, with the next year of RCQs and Regional Championships, as well as Store Championships and the Magic Spotlight Series, Standard is going to be the name of the game.

While I sometimes regret buying into too many decks (since I fall back on ol' reliable Azorius Control more than I probably should) I think it's wise to start investing now if you foresee yourself playing in next year's circuit of competitive play. While we do get a Modern RCQ season, Pioneer is out of the picture for now, so I'd recommend getting your hands on the Standard cards you foresee yourself playing with.