How To Start Playing Standard Magic The Gathering |Intro To Deck Building, Card Selection And Events

[@TolarianCommunityCollege]

How To Make Your First Pioneer Deck | A Magic: The Gathering Guide: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r6Czdox4hsllrpI

[@a_guy_in_orange7230]

psssst, you forgot to put the modern and draft videos in the description

[@madness..3449]

Well, that's cool and all but what's about the best (and most dreadful) MTG format?..🙃 I mean...Standard is...well, STANDARD...Everyone knows about it anyway...It's usually the first thing you would play while entering MTG...

[@amazedalloy]

Play Mono-Red. In every format. All the time. It's always a budget option and has a lot of recycled cards (like lightning strike and monastery swiftspear atm)

[@johnmraz4332]

i have burn or monored in every format for this reason. if i start playing any specific format a lot more i will invest and expand my deck choices but i always at least have burn and i love red so its nice :)

[@DingDongDozo]

NO. Play literally anything else, aside from UW. Red and UW players are the scum of the world.

[@rpwithington7710]

Mono red also tends to be fairly straight forward (deal damage, hard and fast). When my boys were much younger, mono red was a way for them to get the feel for the game without bogging them down with too many special card effects. As they grew more comfortable with the rules, they branched out to other colors and degrees of difficulty.

[@DingDongDozo]

@@rpwithington7710 This is the only viable reason for someone to play Red or Burn.

[@antisnowman]

Preach! No other archetype has "Wins" in its nickname :)

[@maditheimmortal5296]

TCC is making Standard content again, nature is healing.

[@TransformersTalkRAW]

Thank god.

[@somesubstitute4242]

As much as I wanna say commander is my favorite format, I actually really like set constructed formats. It's surprisingly fun to play with cards from a single set and work out basic synergies and combos that you can take to other decks and formats down the road.

[@JivanPal]

I miss block constructed and block sealed...

[@hallaloth3112]

Me and my husband do this a lot at home. It's just sad that sets have become one note and aren't even blocks anymore. . .meaning certain mechanics just fall way short of having card optimization for them.

[@Bongus_Bubogus]

That’s why I love non-vintage cubes. You can mash so many small draft niches together.

[@MTGAlchemyst]

the majority of my modern/historic decks started as standard decks

[@alainpbat3903]

With wizards dying, and standard all but gone, it's definitely heartwarming (or perhaps heartbreaking) to see the professor make this video

[@EngineerfifeninerO]

Mtg the 4 player game!

[@lapobarghini5606]

I don't know where you see the death of mtg, I'm an ex yugi player and that game it's absolutely in a worst situation and many people, in these week and month left the game for the t0 metagame. I've start to play mtg with the standard of zendikar rising and left yugioh. Here, in Italy every time that i enter in a shop, it's full of magic player i don't really see other games 😂.

[@masonpawelek7014]

@@lapobarghini5606 tier 0 tearlament is one of the best most skillfull formats Yu-Gi-Oh has had in a while

[@lapobarghini5606]

@@masonpawelek7014 yes, but i see that many people left because of that deck and it's not in a good position yugioh now, i don't think there is a person in this world that like a t0 deck

[@doomkingraye7692]

Wizard of the coast dnd is dying and probably that death will make wizards rethink about how they treat players in mtg

[@EmTekTube]

For all the flack it gets with it's economy, I do think one of the best ways to introduce someone to the standard formant is telling them to download Magic Arena. Standard is by far the most popular on there compared to my couple of LGS in my area, were it is mainly modern and commander, and honestly it's a great way to feel out if the standard format is worth investing into paper since most of the decks are $100+

[@Dwykid1]

It's probably the best way to LEARN standard. You can just grind games whenever you want, whereever you want. LGS's are great social events to play with actual faces but the players are typically lower caliber, people misplay like mad and you might not even always have people to play against. They both have their pro's and con's. I prefer paper magic to actually play but arena is a much better practice environment to backup my play than paper is.

[@h3h3podcastclipper]

Arena is great if you want to play just one deck

[@DaymionAnderson-n3h]

The desks available don’t see any good

[@zachcarney3910]

I miss Standard being based on blocks rather than this years thing! That is new information to me. I knew it had to be different but didnt know the cut off.

[@ellyesb]

“…and that includes, by the way, Commander.” Love it. Commander is great and all, but I think the community needs to push harder for a bigger spotlight on 1 on 1 formats. Huge shock to me when I came across a player who was drafting for the first time ever but had an incredibly expensive collection and only played commander.

[@delathenleso5793]

That's because Commander and 1v1 formats do play very differently, and you get different experiences out of them. I agree, btw, that 1v1 is very fun. I prefer Commander, but I also seek out cool drafts and Modern every now and then for the much more intense and focused experience of a showdown. It doesn't help that WotC has done all they can to murder 1v1. Modern is absurdly too expensive and now rotates with the MH series. Pioneer *was* taking off, then the Pandemic strangled it, and now an oppressivly omnipresent Rakdos sac deck makes the meta unhealthy enough that I avoid recommending it. Standard is too expensive with the ways WotC is monetizing the game. Draft is hit or miss. Some sets (Kamigawa) are great, some (Capenna) are awful, and it's hard to say which is which until you've already spent your money on it, making it daunting to recommend.

[@KellyUnekis]

Some of us got disgusted with competitive play, in my case all the way back in 1998.

[@ellyesb]

@@delathenleso5793 oh it’s totally WotC’s fault. I think competitive play should see a resurgence, but I may correct my statement to say that there should be more 1 on 1 magic happening at the casual level. I have made a huge push at my university’s mtg club to get people playing paper pauper. It’s been really fun for a lot of people.

[@JohnDoe-vc5qb]

Idk, I used to play standard but it's a shit format so I went to Commander. After a while I wanted to get back into comp 1v1 so I bought FaB and Pioneer decks and then I realized I just never like formats that rotate at the drop of a set like clockwork. If I'm gonna spend a stack on a deck I expect at least a year of gameplay not 3 months. In commander you might switch 5 cards tops per year and you can use your preexisting collection to build more decks.

[@simplyyunak3189]

My playgroup likes to play commander 1v1. Its a lot faster than normal commander. And aggro strategies work a lot better

[@alexandermestre5208]

Thank you, professor. I am new to MTG and have been looking to understand how to start playing standard. This is a great guide

[@shagbaker377]

I really appreciate how you push going to an LGS - a small business. I support my LGS with a comic subscription and cards. Thanks again!

[@dicechronicles6964]

Hey Prof, super grateful for your contributions to the Mtg community. You made my learning the game and deck building so much easier. I appreciate all the hard work you put into your content and love your vibe in all the crossover stuff you do with other creators. Thanks again for making the last year of my life so much easier when it comes to Mtg and tcg channels. You rock!!!

[@BelowAverageNerd]

Omg I needed this lol I just started playing about a week and half ago. I’m a yugioh player so Learning to build was so confusing

[@OneFoxTwoFox]

Welcome. I too was also a Yu-Gi-Oh player but I started TCGs as a Magic player. I prefer the simplistic play of Magic over Yu-Gi-Oh. I hope you all the best in your new adventure. And I would recommend the Izzet Phoenix deck and just get a full playset of Phoenix for a fun deck to start off with.

[@BelowAverageNerd]

@@OneFoxTwoFox what hooked me was the art of the cards, lore and mainly commander format. And thank you I’ll definitely consider a phoenix deck, I got my first paper cards a few days ago

[@RedandBlueGamesUK]

Nice to see someone promoting standard play. Standard is really fun right now, bans have calmed down, and the variety is so good! I see a lot of doom and gloom about how it's expensive, but playing competitively in every format is expensive, and standard cards that cost a lot are almost always played heavily in other formats as well

[@bingolaszlo7511]

You must be joking. Standard just value pile shit show.

[@bbyowll]

I'm brand new to magic but I've really been enjoying Alchemy on mtg arena. Draft is super fun too.

[@ryanmonument3992]

Great vid. Former paper MtG player and (briefly) MTGO. I occasionally think about getting back into the game and this is a joyful reminder of how fun the game is, though the big stopping points for me are the insane power creep I see and the cost (not helped at all with the insane pace of product releases). Started playing during the Revised/4e era and left paper MtG with the Urza block. Got into MTGO for the Invasion/Odyssey blocks, then left again after Time Spiral. It's a damn fun game. I'll never say otherwise. The game I started with definitely needed to be changed, and for quite some time, it changed very much for the better (colour pie realignment, power levels, card interactivity/combos, etc)...all good. Unfortunately, it gained so much momentum it never really stopped. What would happen is you'd get just insane power levels (like in Urza block), and they'd "correct" it by releasing a block that was just, generally, awful (Masques). And this cycle repeats, though lately...it seems to be stuck at Spaceballs "ludicrous speed". The game has changed so much since my last time playing, I barely recognize it anymore. I'd never dissuade anyone from wanting to give it a go, it was and imagine still very much is fun...just know what you're getting into. The Prof here is most assuredly a great resource for that. :)

[@85mcarnold]

Come play Premodern. It will be very familiar.

[@jkslmshady80]

As someone looking to get into MTG this is really helpful! Great video filled with helpful info

[@loopyt6205]

I don’t know if this is different in your region but you said standard was the most popular event for Friday Night Magic. Where I live I almost never see standard it’s always modern or commander.

[@TheWormwoodScrubs]

I love Standard, it's honestly my favorite format. I love the rotation, and trying to make janky but workable decks with a small cardpool. But alas nobody I know plays it in paper anymore. All the games stores in my area have stopped doing Standard events and the de facto Friday Night Magic event is Draft (which I also enjoy). I've realized that Standard has moved to Arena and have made the adjustment myself. A little disappointing but it's understandable when you take into consideration the price of some of the most competitive cards (Sheoldred in particular) and the rate at which sets are coming out in this current economy we are experiencing.

[@00punkroker]

Thank you for making this video. I always get looked cross-eyed when I tell people "I like to play standard". I don't care that a new set is released every 3 months, they fact is everyone that is playing Commander is still buying each set multiple boxes at a time. Why don't we all use these cards we have to play the game the way it was intended. Multiple fast games, with 0 turn 1 infinite combo CEDH deck! Thanks

[@radekmartinek2673]

We are on same boat, I just want to play how to be meant to play. We play MtG at work 6 ppl. Everyone build from standard set. And when it rotate out? Who cares, the decks are completed, playable. We just enjoying the feeling of having the cards :D

[@lucasvidal8925]

I don't care about standard, but I care about you prof, so I'll watch the video

[@skoogebluge]

Im truly blessed at my LGS here in Colorado, we run a rotation of pioneer, standard, and draft each month for fnm, with most of the same regulars and even new people showing up for each. Often times those who have built for standard will tweak their lists to adopt some of what pioneer has to offer since we only fire pioneer once a month and for our RCQ’s!

[@yaginku]

Professor's response to "Oh no, the most viewed video on my channel in a Pokemon video!"

[@ferdithetank7535]

"Playing Standard" in 2023 sounds like a grim irony. Truly a time to be alive.

[@elainemckinley1757]

I'm getting back into magic, and honestly kind of blown away at how hard it is to find Standard events any more. I live in a large metro and could easily play Modern or Pioneer at any number of local shops but none of them seem to be doing Standard as their FNM format any more. /shrug

[@Camyosh]

Im in the same boat, i bought a standard deck about a year ago for $100 and went to every advertises LGS event i could find, i was the only one who showed up

[@thirdcoast6513]

Same. It sucks

[@TransformersTalkRAW]

@@WHunt-pc4rw Funny. I feel the same about EDH. Barely even Magic at all.

[@ColorfulHelices]

Commander is Eden on Earth but i LOVE Standard when Standard is "good". new cards and new mechanics, always refreshing.

[@omerquiaragua2]

I'm about to have 1year into MTG, I started with arena, I play a lot with my friends in Italy even tho I'm in Venezuela through MtgArena. And I think standard it's a cool way to start playing since the pool of cards it's lower to historic, but as I'm improving, I'm getting the hang of EDH so.. that path it's a cool way to learn for new people

[@BrunoNunes83]

no standard events at LGSs in Fortaleza, CE.

[@DanBray1991]

The main barrier to entry for Standard is the amount of LGS that no longer host standard stores! None in my area in the UK do any, it's all Modern, Pioneer, Commander and Drafts!

[@lolpagedied]

Thank you for the content, i recently got into MTG and your videos have been the single greatest help in showing me the ropes. also, i love your personality and love for the game, your enthusiasm is infectious!

[@setscet]

Got some starter decks for Christmas, want to get into it more. I played MTG arena and liked standard the best as a gamemode. Seems like a lot of money to rotate cards every year

[@Zestypanda]

Every three years.

[@Zestypanda]

You can just play legacy then.

[@setscet]

Or modern, which is what I was looking at, but it seems like the barrier of entry is much higher than something like commander which I might give a shot once I get enough cards.@@Zestypanda

[@travis_approved]

Pioneer is where it’s at imo 💪🏻💪🏻 standards fun tho

[@LAZERMAC87]

Thank you for the guide! I’m making a standard decks with my son. It’s our preferred way to play, becuase it’s fast and he and I can switch decks and have fun. We also have a house rule that we can use from any collection, not just the latest ones.

[@Billchu13]

What a strange time it must be to get into Magic... Enjoy the art, and enjoy the game. Make sure to buy cards and play at your LGS. If it weren't for my LGS, I would be boycotting Wizards right now. Great community getting raked over the coals by Hasbro.

[@Grombrindal]

Ignore the smelly manchildren at your LGS. Play MTGO, save money and honor your ancestors.

[@Volkbrecht]

Due to moving to another country I have stopped playing... the weird thing is, all things considered, I'm not feeling any loss. Hanging out at the game store and playing EDH sure was fun, but keeping up with WotC's release schedule has been exhausting. Not sure I'm going back when I return. Maybe it's time to cash in the collection.

[@Billchu13]

@@Volkbrecht good luck getting good value on your cards right now. It's a buyers market.

[@h3h3podcastclipper]

That's why you buy counterfeits

[@alanrollf2856]

#proxy

[@dubeimpact3984]

Favorite Format with my favorite Deck: Commander: Chandra Tribal Foil deck!!!! Yep ALL Chandra and Jaya planeswalker in the deck :D

[@cris.withno.h]

I have and always will love the standard format, i play casually with my friend, and i started out playing standard, not commander. Its fun to try and throw something together that works in the format 👍

[@IzzetNilson]

It should be noted: they RECENTLY announced the change of standard sets will rotate out every 3 years now instead of 2. So the mentioned innistrad sets are still legal for another year.

[@nathan135]

I'm grateful for this video. Standard is really enjoyable at the moment. Sure there are a handful of overpowered and overplayed cards but there's tonnes of cheap, interesting, and complex cards to brew with and it's not particularly difficult to build a deck that can handle an opposing Sheoldred or Fable of the Mirror Breaker. At the moment paper standard is a low-risk investment - most of the dollar value of multicolor meta decks is in multiformat staples whose value is largely derived from Commander and Pioneer playability. If you buy a playset of, for example, Fable of the Mirror Breaker or Raffine's Tower it will almost certainly hold its value past rotation. Or you can just build monored, monoblue, or UW soldiers for under $50. I just don't agree with the people who moan about the expense of standard. I'm playing monowhite midrange. With 3 copies of the Wandering Emperor and Lion Sash instead of Unlicensed Hearse my deck has a current value of just under $200. After Brother's War released I spent about $20 updating my deck with Lay Down Arms, Tocasia's Welcome, Steel Seraph, and Loran of the Third Path. I imagine spending another $50 or so on relevant cards that might be released in the next 2 sets. If I sell the deck after rotation I would expect to recover the bulk of its price - I don't expect the money cards like Wandering Emperor and Wedding Announcement to fall significantly in price post-rotation. Even if my deck loses $100 post-rotation I will still consider it very good value for the games I've gotten out of it. All leisure activities have a cost and playing paper standard seems like better value to me than going to the cinema, going to a bar, or playing video games. Playing Standard also gives me an incentive to attend drafts and pre-releases, which have negative EV but are fun regardless.

[@morrius0757]

Thank you Professor for having content for all MTG players, even if I wouldn't touch Standard with a 10ft pole. lol

[@PzKpfwCrusader]

My local shop has yet to if ever fully recover from COVID for Magic and it's almost all EDH now. Standard died out, the shop moved away from singles, and found their new groove by catering more to the miniature and D&D groups. The sole judge on the ownership team sold his share to work at USPS so it's up to the players to try and sort out rules problems. The EDH players are happy to pay the table fee since the lack of a judge on staff drove the 60-card spikes to shops further out. Arena makes Standard easy, I don't miss it as much since I don't have time to update decks for another format. Thankfully Pioneer is in a decent place and Modern only has a Horizons set every other year.

[@GFreeGamer]

Thanks for helping to encourage standard play. I've gotten back into it and I actually find it pretty fun.

[@benjaminsantiagosstuff]

mono blue is just good and I would argue competitive against the meta. Everyone is playing 3 color midrange so, already tempoing themselves.

[@benjaminsantiagosstuff]

fwiw I 7-1'd the emblem standard decathlon event with it. I think mono red is not especially powerful right now, and mono black has some bad draws. The "bad" games with mono blue are when all your creatures are at the bottom of your deck or mono black goes off with the guy that exiles your graveyard really fast.

[@crow8185]

Just started playing again after taking a break since like 2016 and mono blue is exactly what I built for standard. I love the deck it's super fun to play

[@skoogebluge]

I will also add, the mono white version of soldiers slaps quite hard, I lent it to a buddy last friday and he plowed through the midrange and gruul piles to go 4-0, even beating my upgraded dimir draw two which im trying to tech to beat the growing soldier menace at my FNM 😂

[@fsfreturns5242]

My first constructed deck ever was mono-white Soldier, and admittedly i didn't realise how expensive Elspeth, Sun's Champion truly was. That, and I didn't know formats were a thing, I just picked whatever I liked that happened to be soldiers (shoutout to the Ajani's Pridemates). I might get into mono-white soldier again someday, but not now. Maybe for Pioneer.

[@callmethreeone]

Thank you very much, I don't have any friends that play this and have wanted to learn for a long time.

[@Luckie_7]

I’m building a standard deck for the store championship at mox in portland next month, not sure what I’m gonna do, thinking either black green or green white +1/+1 counters. No idea what I’m gonna build yet but I love green stompy so I’m probably doing some variation on that

[@codyhanson1344]

the problem with standard is that it rotates much too quickly for getting invested in it to be worth it, at least for me. I love the idea of taking a break from the extremely competitive and high powered scenery that is Legacy, and perhaps even Modern, and trying out completely new decks with fresh unique synergies, mechanics, and interactions. However, I am not fortunate enough to have a local game store in my immediate area, and the one place that I could have reasonably traveled to closed down almost as soon as I got into magic a few years ago. I might be lucky to officially use a standard deck once or twice per rotation if i really try, but even that's not guaranteed. Maybe one day I'll set myself up in a place where i can go to a game store regularly, but even if so, I'll be missing out on a lot of supposedly fun standard formats. Apparently I already missed out on being able to use any cards from my favorite standard set so far, adventures into the forgotten realms, and it feels like i just drafted it not that long ago :/

[@FoMScratch]

I worked at a local game store a couple years back and I'll tell you right now. It was slow building up standard, then when our numbers peaked rotation eventually hit and we lost a few people. Then come the next rotation we took a big hit and after that it struggled to fire. Everyone basically got into commander and that seems to be the only magic related thing that would consistently fire. Don't know if it's worth mentioning but about this time a certain popular online ARENA was going out of closed beta and into the general public and that definitely hurt in-store play for us. This of course was from the perspective of a "mom and pop" sized game store that doesn't exist within a majorly overpopulated city.

[@josephdurham4950]

Thx prof i was bummed my LGS switched to standard and after this vid you got me a little hyped.

[@royceflores23]

Hello, per your request: my favorite format was modern prior to horizons. Thank you!

[@hololightful]

Wish you made more of the Tolarian Tutor videos... They are my favorite and are usually excellent.

[@LolaliciousSmiley]

My old LGS pre-release prize support was a flat 2 packs + 2 packs per round win. So, you always got + 2-8 prize packs, which most everyone liked.

[@FirstNameOnReapersWishList]

i got 4 lgs in my area. Only Modern Pioneer and Legacy besides EDH

[@silverfido069]

I’m 34 and I’ve never played MTG. I’m looking to get into it though, this vid was very informative and I’m definitely going to head to my local game store (Gamers Paradise, in Baton Rouge, LA). Im not the best people person but I’m hoping this’ll break me out my shell a bit! Thanks!!

[@ironman2818]

I live in a city with a metro area of ~500k people... The shops around here almost never do standard. But hopefully that changes soon

[@frostace8057]

Mono-Red is my favorite way to play standard. You get to go fast.

[@colegaskell8358]

Hey! Thanks for staying relevant and I want to request an introspection into Pauper Commander

[@EliyaSelhub]

What's interesting about this topic is WEDGE IS BACK! YAY!

[@prototype1039]

Finally, The Professor shows Standard some love

[@maxrichard2244]

Think this is the 1st time I am actually wondering...are many/any Magic the Gathering players asking this question right now?

[@OS1RIS]

"Standard is the most common format for Friday Night Magic events" from my experience is no longer a true statement. All stores near me have switched to Commander or Draft for FNM.

[@amybaltz3]

Thank you Professor! I'm doing my best to learn!

[@WenSon84]

when the prof does more for standard than wizards... i am actually not asking for much support from wizards, but to realize magic is not all about commander and bring back the showdown booster (i mean did you see the japanese promos ? i would settle for just the showdown booster) ... now our store runs just 1 standard event per month and this killed the format finally, since people dont wanna build a deck, which at best they can only play for 3 months

[@SuseiNoGantia]

5 stores in my city and no standard events

[@zonegamma8197]

I like this video, commander is just another format I like the small card pool of standard

[@Kristallini]

I only play Standard and Commander and I enjoy the stark contrast between the two formats. In Casual Commander, rounds can quickly go on for 2 hours or more. In Standard, you're through after a maximum of 20 minutes, usually less. Commander is eternal legal, Standard is very limited, and the current Standard meta is very broad and interesting (though Black is quite ahead). I think it's great that the Professor is back to this format after declaring it dead for a long time. Let's hope that the health of Standard will not be "poisoned" by ONE.

[@Bill_the_Redneck]

Great video as always. But damn it’s sad to hear about all these event and pre-releases. In Russia we are screwed by all the events and the game is no longer supported here. We weren’t the most lucrative market anyway so it could have happened any day but it’s really sad. The prices were very high since 2014 and now it’s just crazy. Standard is not an option here anymore. Too expensive and with no fnm it’s basically dead.

[@id1550]

That is a shame to hear

[@delathenleso5793]

It is sad when politics and poor leaders make our lives worse. I feel for you; hope you guys are able to find some happy times and time for good hobbies.

[@Drewbe821]

I'm convinced you are making these just to spite people who think you only make gloomy content. Keep it up. No matter how Sisyphean it may seem.

[@keifnoo]

I'm 27 and just got into MTG to connect with an old friend 😢 couldn't have got it this quick without the Professor.

[@florianretzlaff7035]

Very helpful. Was thinking of getting into standard with phyrexia anyway

[@GoadedGoblin]

Step One: Get GF to agree to play. Step 2: She argues that the colorless emblem is Red not Grey and it's confusing, even side by side with a Mountain emblem, which is obviously Red. Step 3: Never ask her to play again because you've been playing 20 years and she can't even concede that the emblem background for colorless is Grey. Step 4: Only play Arena using free things because WotC doesn't deserve your money.

[@MrWigz666]

I just built the blue tempo deck in arena, what a fun deck!

[@Sissy_Foxx24]

This is the 6th beginner video I've watched and it's made me realize that I might be too stupid to play Magic lol

[@noahz42]

I haven't played standard since og theros and I think I'll be keeping it that way lol

[@ultramecha99]

@TheProfessor I know that this doesnt have much to do with this video, but since your deck box kickstarter was such a success, have you considered possibly trying other kickstarter ideas in the future? I know for example that myself and many Magic the Gathering players would love a binder that was made for cycles of cards (aka 5 cards wide) to make collection sorting a breeze. Just a thought for you professor :)

[@trogman]

Liked the video even I don't play MTG at all. Been facinated by the MTG community with recent outcry with the company. Probably run MTG Arena again to finish those tutorials and see if I managed to "click".

[@xaviesposito2485]

Great vid Prof! Let's forget about WotC for a moment and remember how good is Standard for an LGS in order to attract new players

[@danacoleman4007]

😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@ChristiantrospectiveGamer]

If non-legendary and non-special lands were slotted at uncommon instead of rare, standard and other formats would be more inviting. Printing entire mana bases at rare makes decks unnecessarily expensive.

[@codyhanson1344]

yessss i totally agree with this! I know magic the gathering players seem to wanna preserve their single card prices like they're paying their bills with them, but I am an advocate for doing what it takes to make the cheapest version of all mana lands as cheap as possible! Lands are better as game pieces than as collectables. It feels soooo bad when the price of the lands makes up 50% or more of the cost of your deck. You'll be building a deck core and be like "wow, this is a pretty affordable deck!" then you factor in the lands and then its like "....If i sell my right kidney that is"

[@nanania15]

I love Commander and Pauper. Commander for the multiplayer and dealing and backstabbing. It’s something for everyone ❤ Pauper because I love that common cards gets to shine more than most rares. I’m a proud mono blue delver player and was named queen of pauper in my local community 😊 In commander I play mono blue Jace tribal 😂 it’s weird but fun

[@Spyleader29]

I’ve recently been brewing Pauper decks just to play with 1-2 friends in my local community - it’s so fantastic and really encourages so much of the joyful puzzle that is deckbuilding without being at a prohibitive price point. Unfortunately there’s not a great deal of Pauper support in Australia :(

[@hallaloth3112]

I love sealed events, but I absolutely hate draft events. For one, I'm just bad at it, and every event I have ever attended I've just pulled trash. I hate that 'drafting' (at least at the events I have attended) have always been near impossible for more casual players to do well at, because everyone else comes in and drafts meta picks, or just sits and take the money cards. It's also very off-putting to here 'in the know' players after the draft being like 'there were a lot of strange passes that were actually worth things' because you're sitting there actually trying to contruct in your own colors and not looking up every single money card before hand. I've also seen the money chasing players get their spouse/SO to draft who then just leaves with the cards and doesn't even play. I don't want to have to rigorously study the meta to go out and have a good time, but every store I've frequented that clearly has been a requirement if you want a single win. I feel like Sealed is much more even footing because its a 'you get what you get' and doesn't require immediate knowledge of the entire set before it even comes out.

[@danacoleman4007]

Lol. Draft is a sealed event.

[@hallaloth3112]

@@danacoleman4007 I mean sure, technically. . .but draft is much different from a pre-released sealed event.

[@Sentinet1]

Many Magic the Gathering players often ask the question, why would you want to play Standard

[@ProjectMoff]

I love the way you say Haughty Jinn

[@Chefvonbreezy]

I’ve been enjoying black and blue with flying dudes it’s pretty sick.

[@mauriciovillegas7285]

The only time I dared to go near an official event was a FNM right after Mirrodin had released, thinking it could be fun. Before the event I played with my WU morph deck against a kid with a frog-affinity deck... by turn 4 I conceded. I picked up my stuff left, and never looked back.

[@unpassantquipasse8268]

Got the feeling the New best way to introduce someone to mtg is Pioneer or pauper. Then EDH to have fun in multiplayers. To someone new the "temporary usefull deck before it becomes useless, despite the money spent" is a stop.

[@hobrev]

On Arena you can actually pretty easily build a tier1 standard deck without paying a single dollar, it just will take a bit of patience. The wildcard system allows for enough of the expensive cards that you can pretty well build almost any deck in standard, but that will then probably be your only deck in standard for the rest of the cycle, with minor adjustments here and there. The main bottleneck for tier1 decks on Arena will be the Rare wildcard rarity, with most of the more complex manabases requiring duals/triomes that for the most part are always on the Rare rarity.

[@smookTREND]

Ty so much prof been needing this video for min one love keep up the amazing content🫶🏽

[@tilldill763]

I am getting into magic right now and decks for Pioneer and Modern are all couple hundred dollars :D mono aggro red in standard is 89 dollar :D Sadly my local game store doesnt play standard tournaments, it seems to be pretty unliked in my area (vienna, austria). They have nearly everything else tough: Commander, Pioneer, Legacy, Modern

[@MTGAlchemyst]

I decided to build a mono blue tempo deck to take to friday night magic, see if i can get my daughter to play with it. I was only short 3 haughty djinns and 1 delver of secrets a couple of spells, it was a $13 purchase since it was so cheap thinking of adding a second Otawara, Soaring City

[@PureOptimus]

Thank you for this wonderful guide!

[@Grand_Admiral]

I live in a major US city and as far as I can tell all of the LGS's have stopped holding Standard events. I enjoy the format on Arena, but as far as I can tell it's completely dead in paper in my area. The competitive people I know have moved on to Modern, Pioneer, or Flesh and Blood.

[@pablosotopower]

Hi Proff! Commander is my favourite, for now

[@ishtarsdonut4489]

The piece about local games stores holding standard events feels very out of place in 2023. None of the games stores near me hold standard events since COVID lightened up

[@MattdGaming-yh6wu]

Mox Boarding House, the professor's LGS, doesn't even host standard. Im in the same area, and there are 2 standard events a month between our 20 LGS's. This video is weird.

[@ishtarsdonut4489]

@@MattdGaming-yh6wu its a good introductory video, but besides the meta it feels like it was made 6 or 7 years ago and mailed to 2023

[@notRowan61]

lol a few months ago in a strixhaven draft, we were half-way through (i was planning a blue-green ramp) and I drew a founder dragon of the archetype that the next person was playing (I took it)

[@SoftAirGaming]

This may sound like a stupid question, but when building a deck, do the cards have to be copies from the current sets? Like, if I wanted to use duress in a deck, but I didn't like the midnight hunt print, would I be able to use the strixhaven archive print as an example?

[@TolarianCommunityCollege]

They do not have to be copies from the current set. You could absolutely use an old edition of Duress so long as Duress was in Standard, etc.

[@SoftAirGaming]

@@TolarianCommunityCollege Thank you! Standard isn't really offered at the game stores around me, so I'm trying to learn more about it outside of them.

[@nightangelx1513]

I’m scared of joining a local tournament slowing it down and messing it up by not understanding what all my opponents cards do

[@davinci6125]

My wife has been working on a Canine, Feline & Treefolk deck. The amount of single hunting is fun & finding the best synergies available to combat my Wall & Defenders. Thank you for the lesson Professor.

[@Xadrian1000]

I don‘t know how the situation in the USA is, but in my LGS (Germany) the Standard Format is practically dead. Only Pioneer, Commander and the occasional draft…

[@GabAssbreaker]

Im from Chile and the none of the LGS that sell Magic on my city run any Standard event, its all Modern, Commander or Pauper.

[@delathenleso5793]

Much of the US is the same. Standard is a dying format. Larger/well established player communities will still have it, but it's hard to find in paper outside of that.

[@Xadrian1000]

@@delathenleso5793 I think Standard will become a Magic Arena only format over time. It‘s kinda sad, but it makes sense. A rotating format is much easier (and cheaper) to play online than in paper…

[@flyingalienqueen]

It’s so wild to me how much Standard has fallen by the wayside in favor of Commander and other formats in the last few years; from the time I started playing, it was always the number one most popular and talked about format, no question. I’d love to see a popularity resurgence with it this year!

[@refard5]

I really want standard to be a thing locally, we play lots of commander but I'd enjoy the competition

[@Forged-By-Iron]

I would love to see a video covering ALL of the different formats with a 1-2 minute explanation of each? I looked through your video history and see videos covering different formats, but not one that covers ALL formats.

[@jestjames88]

I would love to see a tutorial for Alchemy (one of my two formats!) cuz I play lots and probably have a high L count at this point