The Standard format in Magic: The Gathering won’t have a fall rotation for the 2022-2023 season, leaving five powerful cards in the meta that competitors are sick of playing against.
Standard fall rotation removes four MTG sets every year, reducing the card pool until newer sets are added. The length of a set stayed in the Standard format was two years, but all that changed with WotC announcing no Standard fall rotation will take place for the 2022-2023 season, extending the length of a set is legal to play to three years.
This change will also increase the total number of sets to 12 before a Standard rotation takes place.
The four MTG sets that were slated to rotate out of the Standard format with the release of Wilds of Eldraine were Innistrad: Crimson Vow, Innistrad: Midnight Hunt, Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, and Streets of New Capenna. These four sets will now instead remain legal to play in the Standard format until 2024.
MTG Standard cards on Banned & Restricted chopping block
No Standard rotation in 2023 means players will have to deal with cards that have dominated the meta for another season. Unless those MTG Standard cards are banned during the new annual Banned & Restricted announcement that is scheduled to take place on May 29.
The strongest set released during the 2021-2022 season was Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty (NEO), followed by Innistrad: Crimson Vow (VOW). And Streets of New Capenna (SNC) brought about the return of Triome lands, which are an honorable mention of Standard cards players are excited to see rotate out of the format.
From NEO bangers to a planeswalker and a wedding, here are five MTG Standard cards that were supposed to rotate out of the format in 2023 but are sticking around to 2024.
Invoke Despair
Removing up to an Enchantment, Planeswalker, and a creature at the same time for five mana is Invoke Despair from the NEO set. The Black Sorcery spell is a staple in Mono-Black builds, along with Rakdos and Grixis Midrange decks. If a deck has the MTG Black color in it, it will include at least one copy of Invoke Despair in either the main deck or sideboard.
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
The NEO set gave the MTG color Red everything it needed through Fable of the Mirror-Breaker//Reflection of Kiki-Jiki. Predominantly played in Rakdos and Grixis builds, the Enchantment creates a token that can produce Treasure tokens upon attacking, it rummages, and transforms into a creature that can create copy tokens of other creatures on the battlefield.
Since its release into Standard, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker has become the number one three-drop in the format, especially with cards like Atraxa, Grand Unifier that want to get dumped into the graveyard and reanimated later.
The Wandering Emperor
Red and Black weren’t the only MTG colors to dominate the Standard format throughout the 2022-2023 season, with the NEO set dropping The Wandering Emperor. Planeswalkers were slowly drifting out of the Standard meta until The Wandering Emperor came along, able to Flash into play for only four mana. But it wasn’t just about having Flash.
The Wandering Emperor is packed with value through her loyalty abilities, whether it’s exiling a tapped creature, creating a 2/2 token with Vigilance, or pumping up the stats on a creature already on the battlefield. It’s potentially the most versatile Planeswalker WotC has ever designed and is an auto-include in any deck playing White.
Wedding Announcement
The color White went from one of the least supported MTG colors to the most during the last couple of years, with Wedding Announcement from VOW setting the bar high. At a cost of 2W, players get an Enchantment that can create tokens, draw a card, and buff up the team after three turns on the battlefield.
Wedding Announcement forever changed the color White, allowing it to function within Midrange and Control archetypes, rather than just Aggro.
Reckoner Bankbuster
Reckoner Bankbuster was Dot Esport’s exclusive preview card for the NEO set and we nailed it when it came to predicting how powerful the Artifact Vehicle would become. Most often included in a deck to keep the card draw flowing, Reckoner Bankbuster is more than just a card draw engine. The Artifact Vehicle can provide offense and defense with its 4/4 body that can get Crewed through its created pilot one after all counters are removed from it.
All images via WotC.
Update May 16 2:10pm CT: Information about MTG’s new Banned & Restricted model was added.
