My Top 10 Standard Periods.

So it's 04:36am and I'm trawling through the internet listening to the madness of Mark Shreeve I thought it would be cool to outline my favourite Standard formats to date. We've all seen the "name your fav 5 bands" etc posts all over Facebook and the likes. Well here's something for Magic! 

I'll explain what the deal was back then, why they made the list and what made them tick. 

My Top 10 Standard Formats.

10) Kamigawa & Ravnica: City of Guilds (2006)

     

This was the period where we have Urza Tron in standard but it wasn't really everywhere, netdecking still wasn't a full concept (although many were flocking to the Dojo) and we got our first proper 'dual lands' again. My deck of choice was Honden control, using Razia's Purification as a Wrath of God/Armageddon style effect. Pro players were on decks like Zoo (Craig Jones's 2nd place Pro-Tour Finisher with Lightning Helix off the top after a very ballsy Char to his oppoents face!) 'Owling Mine and B/W Control were in full swing, cards like Isamaru, Hound of Konda were considered at the absolute top of the power curve with Savannah Lions getting a reprint and cards like Samurai of the Pale Curtain it really did make for a quick and punchy format.

   

 The more controlling players still got to have fun with Kokusho, the Evening Star and Keiga, the Tide Star. Down at my local club Abzan was reigning high with lots of players also looking at the package of Giant Solifuge, Burning-Tree Shaman and Rumbling Slum for some power. One of the coolest parts of this standard is that the combo's weren't instant game enders, the play big decks were about, the quick decks were abundant and Midrange/Control were viable. I love standard when all the decks are around and there is no obnoxious combo deck which abruptly ends the game.

9) Khan's of Tarkir & Battle for Zendikar (2015)

   

Creatures really reigned supreme in this period, whether is was schenanigans with Rally the Ancestors, the Megamorphin' GW squad or even going huge with Ulamog and Co. This format played out some fantastic magic, while it fell a little tragically to one deck at the very end of this season (4-Colour Rally) we still enjoyed some good jockeying for position up until that point. When BFZ emerged cards like Collected Company really came into power and many of the Dragon's decks faded in lieu of the speed the format gained with Zendikar.

    

While I played a lot of GW Megamorph during this time the other deck which was huge was Jeskai Black, which looks to be the deck to play in the upcoming Frontier format. Honourable decks here were Abzan Rally, Hardened Scales, White Weenie, Green Devotion

8) Theros & Khan's of Tarkir (2014)

   

Cards like Dig Through Time, Hero's Downfall, Siege Rhino, Murderous Cut, Jeskai Charm, Goblin Rabblemaster, Gods and the like made this format feel great. We escaped the control of RTR/THS and moved into big creatures haymakering and this format did not disappoint. Being able to create big mana from cards like Nykthos and going massive always felt fun, but you knew there were control decks (who could forget the Pearl Lake Ancient control) paired up with Abzan being the deck to beat. We had cards like Elspeth, Thoughtsieze, Genesis Hydra, Dragonlord Atarka, Silumgar and then the Heroic deck which turned up at every tournament making everyone aware that they needed to keep their eyes out for a lightning quick deck which turned 1/2's into 5/6's in no time at all.

   

Towards the end of the format there were a few cheeky aggro decks using Temur Battle-Rage to bring games to very quick finishes. For me it was all about the insane ramping Nykthos and Voyaging Satyr allowed. Going over the top with turn 6 20/20 Genesis Hydra's or turn 4 Ugin's. Honourable decks were Jeskai Aggro/Midrange/Control, Abzan Midrange/Aggro, Mono-Red Aggro, G/R Dragons, Esper Dragons, U/B Control, U/W Heroic, Bant Heroic...

7) Onslaught & Mirrodin (2004)

   

Oh Onslaught how you were such an incredible set, I wish they would reprint you. The best limited set of all time and such a weird but wonderful constructed set to play in. Be it the period where Exalted Angel was dominating or when Astral Slide deck came up on Brainburst (an old school MTG site) and everyone overnight played this weird White/Red control deck. You see it all started with Astral Slide and Lightning Rift. Who could beat it? Well Goblins gave it a good go! Then Mirrodin came, the ugly new borders, the "is it a white card or an artifact" and the lack of colour symbols on artifacts.

   

 But despite all that ugliness Mirrodin did something which every standard format needs to be great and that something out previous 3 favourite sets doesn't have... A budget standard deck. That's right in this period you could make the 56 common/4 uncommon affinity decks where Shrapnel blast was really the only non-common you'd run and you'd stil be competitive. This format would've been higher up but Disciple of the Vault and Arcbound Ravager really warped the format for a while. Still I have Julien Nuijten's winning deck and it is an absolute blast! (Yes he really was 15 years old when he won the pro-tour!) Honourable decks were Tooth and Nail, Hum of the Radix, Elves, Goblins, Clerics, Zombies (Rotlung Reanimator was nuts in both), Mono-Blue Affinity, Atog, Krak-Clan, Blue/Red Affinity, Grixis Affinity, Go Large Tron, Isochron Control, Darksteel Collosus. 

6) Return to Ravnica & Theros (2014)

   

Perhaps one of the strongest ever formats for control decks, whether you were black/white midrangey control, mono-black devotion which destroyed all creatures, drew tonnes of cards and then set upon the slow drain to win out or if you were Ivan Floch who crafted the most brutal control deck I'd seen since Masques/Invasion days. This format has the guild interactions and the subtheme of devotion from Theros which doesn't sound like it would marry up, but with cards like Nighveil Specter and other hybrid manacost cards we got the best of both worlds for a good few months.

   
The format was a costly one and budget decks got utterly swept up in a field of Sphinx's Revelation, Elspeth's, Thassa's & Nissa Worldwaker's but for those who invested, they got a brilliant mix of decks with everyone trying to beat the U/W control deck and a lot of us having the answers needed in the format (Thoughtsieze!) I eventually succumed to playing U/W control and have never felt so dirty playing Magic, it was great. Honourable decks were Jund Walkers, G/W Aggro, Brave Naya, Blue Devotion, Black Devotion, R/W Aggro, Red Devotion, Mazes End, Esper Control, B/W Midrange, American (Jeskai) Control. 

5) Timespiral & Lorwyn (2008)

   

Even writing this feels wrong to only have it 5th, this format had faeries, kithkin, control, damnation, changelings, swans combo, cloudthreshers and more. What I loved about this era of standard was that the level of detail WotC had put into Lorwyn, sure the game was at a lower point in terms of event attendance and overall health but you could see the effort and passion that went into the Lorwyn set and Timespiral was one huge feat of nostalgia, a nod to the old guard with some characters/cards which closed stories and also gave powerful abilities!

   

This format has another kick of nostalgia from Coldsnap too, the feel of magic was great in this period. The decks were some of the strongest ever seen in standard and to this day will probably have a good go at the new 'power creeped' decks! Faeries really were utterly vile! But pink-weenie and G/R ramp could give them a good fight. Honourable decks of this time were G/B Elves, Revielark Combo, Great Gargadon, Faeries, Chameleon Colossus Stompy, Merfolk, Doran.dec, Demigod of Revenge, Oona Control

4) Tempest & Urza's (1998)

   

Hands down the most powerful standard of all time, I was way too young to properly enjoy this period as I didn't have the money for the busted artifacts and decks which were going round, still my mono-red land-destruction deck with the prized 4x Avalanche Riders was fantastic and of course Mr. Stompy was a good budget decks and often worked decently without the fabled Gaea's Cradle.

   

This time period annoyed a lot of players at the time but wil be looked back on as one of the greatest for decks and crazy innovations. What people often forget is the crazyiness like Slivers, Cataclysm, Suicide Black, Academy Rector, False Prophets and Morphlings. But it's easily forgotten when Masticore, Yawgmoth's Will, Grim Monolith, Cursed Scroll, Gaea's Cradle and Voltaic Key reigned supreme. Honourable decks of the time, suicide black, mono-green stompy, wildfire red, Sligh & tinker

3) Ravnica: City of Guilds & Timespiral (2007)

   

Another period of magic which had some phenominal control decks but the right stuff from opposing decks to stop it from being unfun, in this case it was the Dredge mechanic which is stupidly strong. Guillame Wafo-Tapa really showed us how disgusting cards like Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and Mystical Teachings could be in a field of aggro. Some of the funniest parts of this format were things like Dragonstorm which had potential to kill on turn 1 (but was so rare to see people often were more impressed than tilted when it happened!)

   

Britain had some fantastic players roaming the country at the time too, Edwardo Sagjalik, Stuart 'seems strong' Wright and of course Prof Craig Jones. I was at arguably my alltime best during this period with a strong red/black deck which operated the power of Dark Confidant while also playing Tomb Stalker for nigh suicidal value! Honourable decks around this time were G/R Skred, Storm, Red Deck Wins, U/B control, Mono-White Stall The Game Until Luke Doesn't Get To Go To Nationals.Dec! (tilt), Mono-Green Stompy, Tarmo Rack. 

2) Invasion & Odyssey (2002)

   

Oh sweet sweet Invasion/Odyssey block with your amazing Blue/Green Madness deck, the mono-black Nantuko decks and Dr.Teeth Psychatog + Upheaval! So much value, so many decks, the format was the cheapest Magic has ever and likely will ever be financially, which meant we had a huge community locally picking up the game and getting stuck in. Decks like machinehead with Phyrexian Scuta and Urza's Rage reigned, we even had some Squirrel control thanks to Opposition being printed in 7th Edition!

   

The only sadness around this time was that once Odyssey hit most places went into Block Constructed overdrive thanks to the various regional GP's which encouraged this. Invasion had some storming cards like the familiar cycle, skizzik, vindicate and of course Spiritmonger! Honourable decks around this time were G/B Deed, Junk, R/B Aggro, U/G Madness, W/G Threshold, Mono-Black Control, Barbarians (was a thing!), U/B 'Tog, Cephalid Breakfast. 

1) Dragons of Tarkir, Battle for Zendikar & Shadows over Innistrad (2016)

   

This is totally biased, I had my best ever GP Finish during this period, but in all fairness the format had so much going on with it. Ancestor's finally gone and we saw decks like Black White Control, Gren/Red Ramp, Green/Black Season's Past, G/W tokens, Cryptolith Rites, Mono-White Humans, Esper Dragons, the dreaded Bant Company and the Fringe Eldrazi decks.

   

I actually think that this format felt so good because we'd come out of the solved format of Rally/Jeskai Black and this format never got fully settled. People will argue Bant Company became the ultimate deck but my G/W Tokens deck packed with Tragic Arrogance will disagree strongly and the B/W decks will also have something to say about that. Games went long in this format and that for me is a good thing, actual games of magic are much better than it all being over in a matter of 3-6 turns. Heck even Gideon wasn't boring at this point!


I hope you've enjoyed reading this. I started it a few hours back it's now 06:34am and I should probably think about sleep at somepoint.