The Banworthy Cori-Steel Cutter Causes Market Recalibration

Last updated on May 9, 2025

High Noon – illus. Eduardo Francisco

It’s been four weeks since Tarkir: Dragonstorm was released, and the latest dragon-filled MTG set has had a huge impact on Magic’s Standard metagame. According WotC’s data analyst and Hall of Famer Frank Karsten’s post on X, Izzet Prowess – which is enabled by TDM’s Cori-Steel Cutter – was more than 30% of the Standard metagame during last weekend’s Regional Championships for USA, Brazil, Japan/Korea, and South East Asia.

Source: Frank Karsten’s post on X,

Izzet Prowess had already proved it was a menace two weeks ago during the Regional Championship in Bologna, where the finals were an UR Prowess mirror…

… and such success saw its share of the MTG Standard metagame double from about 16% to the current 30%+.

Needless to say, the Magic market is taking notice.

High Noon

Source: MTGStocks

High Noon is the Standard-legal card with the biggest price increase, gaining around 75% compared with last week, and it sees play in UW Control in Standard and 4/5C Control.

It’s not entirely clear that this spike is driven by UR Prowess hate, though. The top decks at Minneapolis didn’t include a copy, Jeskai Control has no use for it, and other formats have shown a lot of interest in this white enchantment – including Creativity decks in Modern, Mono White Control decks in Pioneer, and even some appearances in cEDH.

Into the Flood Maw

Source: MTGStocks

While many of the Standard cards spiking this week can be attributed, at least in part, to UR Prowess hate, Into the Flood Maw is the exact opposite: Cori-Steel Cutter decks just love this blue instant, usually packing four copies between maindeck and sideboard as one of their main tempo tools, and pushing its price up by 50% this week.

Into the Flood Maw is also all the rage in Landless Belcher decks in Modern

Slickshot Show-Off, another key ingredient of Prowess decks in Standard and Modern, also went up by 18%.

Nurturing Pixie

Source: MTGStocks

There’s been rekindled interest in Nurturing Pixie this week, probably thanks to Orzhov Pixie decks, and the pesky lil’ bouncer is up by 40% this week.

One of the current dark horses in MTG Standard is Orzhov Aggro, which snatched a Top 8 and a couple of Top 32s in the RCQ at SCG CON Minneapolis. The deck rumbles like a wet paper bag against Jeskai Oculus and Domain Overlords, but has an edge against Standard’s Big Bad, Izzet Prowess.

Shiko, Paragon of the Way & Marang River Regent, 36% and 21%

Two cards that flew under most player’s radars, Shiko, Paragon of the Way and went fairly cheap by the time TDM launched. Fast-forward four weeks, and they’ve left no doubt they don’t belong in the bulk bin.

Shiko, Paragon of the Way, one of the pillars of Jeskai Control, is up by 36% this week after stealing the spotlight after its #1 spot in Minneapolis.

And Marang River Regent may be even more flexible – while it’s normally just a two-of in Jeskai Control, it also sees play in and Azorius Control, Omniscience Combo decks.

Proft’s Eidetic Memory

Source: MTGStocks

Although a distant second to Izzet Prowess’ popularity, Jeskai Oculus decks are the second most-played decks in Standard. It plays a bit differently than other blue-leaning decks (for example, has little interest in Stock Up), and one of its trademark cards is Proft's Eidetic Memory.

Jeskai Eidetic Memory recently took the #1 spot at the $10K RCQ at SCG CON Minneapolis, and the blue enchantment is up by 23% this week.

Wilt-Leaf Liege

Source: MTGStocks

Azorius, Izzet and Jeskai are all the rage right now, but the MTG market has shown a lot of interest this week in a white card that usually slots in a different flavor of white: Selesnya.

Wilt-Leaf Liege shows up in Selesnya Cage and Selesnya Aggro decks; they were quite popular heading into the last round of Magic RCs and RCQs, but they didn’t perform well. Yet Wilt-Leaf Liege is among the big winners this week, going up by nearly 30% and suggesting Selesnya may be up to something.

Time To Ban Cori-Steel Cutter?

Monastery Swiftspear – Illustration by Steve Argyle

You can’t really claim a 30% of the MTG Standard metagame without painting a target on your back, and that includes Magic players debating whether or not a ban is necessary. Izzet Prowess snatched half of all the Top 32 spots in the BIG MAGIC Tarkir: Dragonstorm in Japan, including one spot in the finals, which happened a few days after the deck pulled off a similar feat in Minneapolis.

There doesn’t seem to be a consensus among Standard players, though: the numbers are undoubtedly impressive, but four weeks into a new metagame may be too soon to know if players can adapt and counter the Big Bad. Modern players are posing a similar question, but in their case they seem to lean much more clearly into the “This Too Shall Pass” camp, expecting the Modern metagame to adjust soon.

There’s also the consideration that the tools to deal with this equipment may arrive in a month. As far as we know, Final Fantasy x MTG (which drops June 13) will focus quite a bit on equipment. And, as such, may also bring some equipment hate into Standard.