Magic: The Gathering Skips Standard Rotation This Year, Increases Format To Three Years
Wizards of the Coast has announced it will be extending the rotation period on Magic: The Gathering’s Standard format, meaning cards will remain legal in the game’s ‘premiere’ ruleset for a year longer than they once did.
This means that, for this year only, Standard rotation will not happen with the release of the Autumn set. Instead, the sets originally scheduled to rotate out of the format will instead leave it in Autumn 2024.
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The reasons for this change are outlined in an article on the official Magic: The Gathering website. In particular, vice president of design Aaron Forsyth highlighted the dwindling popularity of Standard in paper and the increasing play of non-rotating formats like Pioneer, Modern, and Commander, saying “it concerns us when tabletop Standard gets left behind despite Magic’s tremendous growth”.
Another reason for the change given is the current high number of Midrange decks dominating the format. Midrange decks try to control the board in the early game, before swapping to more aggressive, damage-dealing strategies later. According to Forsyth, the goal is to make more “color and mechanic” decks viable, such as The Brothers’ War’s Blue/White Soldiers.
Standard is Magic's 'premier' format; the one sets are primarily designed for. Before this change, sets would have between 18 months and two years in the format, before they would rotate out and make room for upcoming releases. This allows the metagame for Standard to evolve much more quickly than other formats, and it often ebbs and flows between high power and lower, slower play.
In practice, this change means that we won’t see a Standard rotation this year with the launch of Wilds of
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