The Unfortunate Thing That’s Ruining Standard (And How to Fix It)

Last updated on May 11, 2026

Elspeth, Storm Slayer | Illustration by Ekaterina Burmak

Standard is the main way a lot of people play Magic: The Gathering. But if you've been playing it recently, you might have felt like there was something wrong with it, and it's not just you that's felt this way. Standard has a problem, a big problem. And when I say a big problem, I mean that the format itself is too big. Way too big.

How Big Is It?

Colossification | Illustration by Johan Grenier

Currently, there are 16 total sets legal in Standard. By the end of this year, it will peak at 20 sets. Currently, Standard is already the largest that it's ever been, with over 4,400 cards currently legal in the format. While we don't know exactly the sizes of the rest of the sets being released this year, it's safe to assume that the number of cards legal in Standard will pass 5,000 before any sets rotate out.

There are two reasons why the Standard format has ballooned to its staggering size. The first, is that rotation was changed from being every two years, to every three years. This change was made almost exactly three years ago, and all sets currently in standard were released after this change was made.

The other reason the standard is so large is because of the number of Standard legal sets released every year. In 2026, it's the highest it's ever been, with 7 sets releasing, all being playable in Standard. Compare this to 2023, where only four Standard-legal sets were released, and you can see how the card pool has become so large.

Collapsing Under Its Own Weight

Mine Collapse | Illustration by Bud Cook

We've established that Standard is bigger than it used to be, but so what? There are lots of big formats that are fine, why is this a problem for Standard? And that's a fair question to ask. After all, a big format is not necessarily a bad thing, just as a small format is not necessarily a good thing. But the problem is not so much with the size itself as it is the symptoms that the size causes, and how that clashes with the stated intended goals of the Standard format.

The Symptoms: Speed and Power. Standard is powerful and it is fast. With more cards printed, you will see more power-level outliers. Cards like Vivi Ornitier or Badgermole Cub or Quantum Riddler that are simply so much better than the vast majority of other cards, even requiring a ban in the case of Vivi Ornitier. With more power-level outliers, it becomes easier to jam your decks full of them, and it also becomes harder to justify playing lower power level cards. This is nothing new, it's the nature of competitive formats, but the effect is that the number of viable strategies becomes smaller the more power-level outliers you have.

There are also a handful of synergy packages that invalidate several strategies. Think decks like Izzet lessons or green white landfall, where the individual cards may not be as powerful, but the combination of a handful of them create a consistent gameplan. Again, this is the nature of competitive formats, but the effect it has is a reduction in variation between decks. The lessons decks are going to be playing a bunch of the same lessons and Monument to Endurance and doing anything else in that space is not optimal. The landfall decks will play Badgermole Cub and Earthbender Ascension and Mightform Harmonizer and they will either kill you fast, or they wont, but trying to do landfall without these cards is not optimal and therefore not viable.

Additionally, any new cards being introduced to the format will have to compete against the cards that are already there, and the more optimized these strategies are, the harder it is for new cards to make an impact. So although the card pool is as big as it's ever been, it feels like the format is frustratingly small. And you see this reflected at the highest level of play, with the recent Pro Tour having a starting field with 45% Izzet decks and about 22% Landfall decks. Alarmingly, almost no decks were playing black cards, and no black decks made it into the top 8. If the format is so big, how is it possible that an entire color is almost entirely unrepresented? How is there this little variety in the decks that are viable? The conclusion is that this is a symptom of a bloated format, where the best decks are so good that to play anything else means you've already lost.

Fixing It

Voyager Quickwelder | Illustration by Kenn Yap

Ironically, the stated goal for changing rotation to 3 years from 2 years was to revitalize standard. It was a good try at least, but I think it's time to call it. With how many sets are released every year, 2 years is plenty of time to have a set in rotation. Aside from that, there aren't many obvious solutions. Maybe some cards need to be banned, maybe the way sets and individual cards are designed in Standard sets need to be tweaked, and maybe not every set that gets released needs to be Standard legal. Maybe all of these are good changes. At this point, any change would be a good change, because I know that Standard has great potential to be better than it is. Having fun and being competitive do not have to be mutually exclusive. But until then, we can only wait for rotation and hope for the best.