It's been two years since Standard rotated, and as such I feel like I'm a little out of practice when it comes to preparing for the way Standard changes when a sizably chunk of the format leaves. And, make no mistake, this rotation will have major implications on Standard. Some of the biggest villains in the format will be leaving!

Raffine, Scheming Seer? See your way out of here.

The Wandering Emperor? Go be somewhere else.

The search lands from Streets of New Capenna? Nowhere to be found.

The Channel lands from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty? Not so Legendary anymore.

Slogurk, the Overslime? More like Nogurk, the Over Time.

Even decks like Boros Convoke and Domain will take sizable hits, one losing a crucial turn one enabler and the other losing it's manabase. Adapt or die.

So, with this in mind, I wanted to return to a practice I used during past Standard rotations. Let's take a deep dive in Gatherer and look at some of the Mythic cards that will remain in the format that may be poised to make waves now that the format is in flux.

Collector's Cage

Hideaway taps into Magic's most broken ability (free spells) and Collector's Cage doesn't ask for much while providing a reasonable up front ability with the potential to do busted things. The biggest downside to the card is that it needs three creatures to trigger. Creatures that make additional creature tokens when they enter help get around this and it looks like Bloomburrow may have an ability that focuses on creature tokens.

Simulacrum Synthesizer

I had trouble with Blue. Most of the Mythics seem powerful, but too fragile. Even though it doesn't look like Bloomburrow or Duskmourn will have an artifact theme, I settled on Simulacrum Synthesizer because it feels like the artifact deck is right on the cusp of being a solid deck, and with some of the other cards rotating out of the format, it may make the leap. Addition by subtraction.

Beseech the Mirror

The power level is there, and enabling this seems like it should be relatively easy to do (or even easier if the token theme is there in Bloomburrow). It will come down to navigating the mana cost (triple-Black is a tough, tough pill) and determining if there are enough cards worth searching for at four mana or less. I never met a toolbox deck I didn't want to try, so I'll probably build around this as soon as the format resets.

Bonehoard Dracosaur

If this hits the board and isn't immediately answered, it can overwhelm any board state in a turn or two. The only reason this isn't a bigger player right now is that... they often have that removal. But, that's the rub, right? Magic's oldest dilemma. Uber powerful creature, but it dies to Doom Blade before it can do anything. Still, this is strong enough, and offers enough upside, that it warrants another look.

Ancient Cornucopia

I'm a Green Mage at heart, and I could probably write an article going over every Green mythic if pressed, but I wanted to focus on this little innocuous looking artifact from The Big Score. When first spoiled, I completely dismissed this card as junk. But, then it started to pop up in rogue decks and I thought, "Eh, I'll give it a try." I wasn't just surprised at how easy it was to gain life with this, I was shocked. Especially, if you manage to get multiples on the board. Ramp is right there with Death, Taxes, and White Weenie in terms of a strategy that will always be attempted (because deep down, so many of us just want to smash six-drops into each other as quickly as possible) and Ancient Cornucopia may be the face card of that attempt post-rotation.

Calix, Guided by Fate

I'll be honest, Calix wasn't on my radar until the Duskmourn spoilers started popping up. The early previews look like the set will have a strong Enchantment theme, and Calix plays well with the cards previewed. Especially the Enduring creatures, which somehow dodged being Legendary. We'll still need to see what Aura's are printed, to maximize the second ability, but Audacity is still around and still pretty great.

Agatha's Soul Cauldron

This card has entered the realm of, "Remember this card at every spoiler season forevermore because it might break the game if the right card is printed for it." Now, I don't know if the right card has been previewed yet, but Twitching Doll (the creepiest card I've ever seen) from Duskmourn says each counter, and there might be something that let's us use the ability to turn counters into Spiders with the right conglomeration of cards in the graveyard. Even if not, like Collector's Cage, this card offers a continuous way to stream counters onto creatures and even fights graveyard strategies, so it's rarely dead on board.

This was just a quick look, but it was enough to raise my excitement level. Post-rotation has always been my favorite time to play Magic. While we're getting a fall set like Bloomburrow to drive the hype, let's not forget some of the previous cards waiting to have a chance to see some play.