Fan-Made Standard Variant Eliminates Universes Beyond Sets

Last updated on February 26, 2026

Shivan Dragon (7th Edition) | Illustration by Donato Giancola

If your brain is still trying to process Lorwyn Eclipsed and Wizards is already dangling the next pizza-dripping Standard prerelease in front of you, you’re not alone. The feeling that Magic's Standard format would be better if the set release cadences slowed down a bit is what’s fueling Planar Standard, a community-run, rotating format that trims the legal card pool down to something closer to “old Standard.”

And it's not just an idea: Planar Standard have been going on for a few months now, and the community has just announced the Planar Standard Championship on MTG Arena.

What is Planar Standard?

Planar Genesis – Illustration by Liiga Smilshkalne

Planar Standard is a player-run format built around a simple idea: Keep a two-year rotating window of Universes Within Magic sets. Right now, that’s 2025 + 2026, so just Aetherdrift, Tarkir: Dragonstorm, Edge of Eternities, and Lorwyn Eclipsed. And it keeps Foundations as a non-rotating “core set.”

The ban list is pretty short: Just Cori-Steel Cutter.

Who Created Planar Standard, and When Did it Start?

Judging by reddit threads, the main organizer behind the format is u/Edoardo_Beffardo, who originally called it “Type 2” (a nod to what Standard used to be called) when announcing the format, and was launched around November last year.

One early critique from other players was that “Type 2” was too close of a homage, and it's impossible to google for “type 2 Magic” without hitting WotC's original, discontinued format.

“I would propose “Planar Standard”, citing both the intended format and the in-universe focus of the card pool,” suggested u/ded_possum. Shortly afterwards, the community held a vote in their Discord and Planar Standard won. A few days later, Edoardo_Beffardo announced on reddit that the format's name had been changed.

Is Planar Standard an Anti-UB Club?

Edoardo’s stance (paraphrased) is basically: They are not here to wage ideological war on Universes Beyond. They say they're “fairly indifferent” to Universes Beyond as a concept. The main idea behind Planar Standard is to cut down on the amount of playable sets; it's a format for MTG players that find that there are too many releases. Excluding Universes Beyond sets is the cleanest way to reduce the yearly flood, so to speak, and is very easy to communicate.

In other words, ignoring Universes Beyond MTG sets is a pragmatic shortcut to trimming the amount of legal sets, and UB fans are explicitly welcome (with the expectation that people don’t act like goblins about it!).

What’s the Planar Standard Meta Like?

There’s an (extremely!) in-depth Meta Guide covering the format’s early “beta season” (October 2025–January 2026), built from 127 decks, 68 players, and 15 tournaments. Before Lorwyn Eclipsed, things looked pretty balanced, with Midrange a bit over-represented in the meta share but very evenly split when it comes to win rate.

How to Join Planar Standard

Interplanar Beacon – Illustration by Adam Paquette

If a slower, non-UB Standard format has piqued your interest (or if you're just looking for a New York-less format…), your best bet as first stop is the Planar Standard subreddit, which includes a detailed thread about finding Planar Standard players.

They also run the Planar Standard Discord server, which they mention as the best place to find players you can challenge.

Planar Standard looks like one of the more “this is an actual thing, not a shower thought” attempts at a new format we’ve seen in a while!