Celebrating one of the easiest formats to jump in and start playing, this week’s Midweek Magic is taking players on a journey through Magic: The Gathering’s Standard format. Using only cards from the most recent sets, you’ll be competing against other players to earn a plethora of prizes.
Standard can be a tricky format to master since cards come and go so quickly, but since this is a casual Midweek Magic event you’ll likely not be running up against the same caliber of decks you might find in Ranked matches. Using your Standard deck, you’ll have the chance to win three tiers of rewards. The first two are Rare Individual cards, which can be any rare or mythic rare card from all cards of those rarities currently available on Magic: the Gathering Arena. If you happen to get a copy of a card you already have four of, your card will automatically be converted to Gems, with a payout equal to the rarity of the card.
If you complete three wins you’ll earn a Mystery Cosmetic pack, which holds a random prize including unique card styles, avatars, and even new pets. More often than not you’ll be opening a card style, they are the most common drop in the packs, but the chance of getting something better makes earning your three wins all the more important.
Jumping into a Midweek Magic event is 100% free to join on both the Magic: The Gathering Arena app and game client. Matches start on Tuesday at 2 p.m. PT and run until Thursday at 2 p.m. PT.
Standard Rules
Standard matches are likely what players are most familiar with so the rules are pretty easy to grasp. Players need a deck with a minimum of 60 cards and can have no more than four copies of a card across the main deck and your 15-card sideboard. Typically Standard matches are best-of-three matches, letting you swap cards in and out of your deck as needed, but since this is a fairly casual event, it’s just best-of-one matches. This also means you’ll only have access to the first seven cards of your sideboard in case you have effects that can access cards from outside the game.
Standard is bigger than ever thanks to new rotation rules, giving you tons of cards to build around. The current legal sets are:
- Innistrad: Midnight Hunt
- Innistrad: Crimson Vow
- Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty
- Streets of New Capenna
- Dominaria United
- The Brothers’ War
- Phyrexia: All Will Be One
- March of the Machine
- March of the Machine: The Aftermath
Burn Them Out
If you don’t typically play Standard or don’t have much of a collection to build some of the top-tier decks, then it’s always a solid plan to go with Burn. If you have a few wildcards floating around, you can always add a few copies of Bloodthirsty Adversary, Feldon, Ronom Excavator, and Nahiri’s Warcrafting to help push your deck over your opponent’s defenses.
Standard Mono-Red Burn
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