Today, the ban announcement was dropped and it was a DOOZY.

Here’s the link for those who haven’t read it =>

My biggest takeaway?

Wizard is trying to jump-start standard. And not even with JumpStart!

There were a whole hand’s worth of bans today. Usually, cards are banned in drops of 1-3 cards per format. There were a few changes in other formats, but Standard received the most changes and more than any format has received in a while, aside from Commander Bracket Changes.

You’ve probably heard about the cards that are being banned, so let’s focus on the decks that are being affected. Here’s a quick shot of the top 10 Standard decks over the past 30 days from MTGGoldfish:

Each of the seven cards banned affects the top three decks in the format: Izzet Prowess, Mono-Red Aggro, and Azorius Omniscience. This is remarkable because these three decks collectively account for 70% of the meta.

But losing a card or two, while impactful, may not necessarily eliminate each of these decks from the meta. Of the three, I think Izzet Prowess is most likely to remain in the top 10. Cori-Steel Cutter enabled an already existing plan by making prowess tokens that several cards from Bloomburrow, like Stormchaser’s Talent or Ral, Crackling Wit, make prowess creature tokens. Furthermore, cards like Stock Up, Sleight of Hand, and Opt all being in Standard allow the deck to be quite consistent, not to mention flying beater Bloodfeather Phoenix is still legal in Standard until September.

Still, this will shake up the meta. By making Omniscience combos reliant on Kona, Beastie, and taking Mono-Red Mice down a peg, games will be able to breathe past turn 4. This opens the way for not just control decks, but more midrange decks as well. We may be able to enter a Goldilocks Zone in Standard, at least until Edge of Eternities comes out.

If you’re thinking about diving into Standard, I highly recommend making Dimir Aggro your deck of choice. The deck stands to lose the least in rotation, with only Shoeldred, the Apocalypse making an exit, and Black and Blue both have excellent interaction and threats right now.

Bonus Card Review

Some grindy/stax-lite pieces tax effects to make them more expensive, while others provide a reward to you for the greed of other players. No card offers a flat negative for casting more spells quite like Rug of Smothering. This card does just enough at the early game to be worth including (in addition to being a decent blocker) and always provides some benefit. Its symmetrical nature rewards a playstyle that doesn’t cast too many spells per turn, almost encouraging a draw-go strategy.