WotC Announces Weird New Constructed Format for Japan Open 2025

Last updated on June 11, 2025

Paladin's Arms | Illustration by Immanuela Crovius

There's a little bit of experimentation coming to tournament Magic this summer. A Japanese Open tournament will be held in July, featuring a truncated Standard format consisting of only cards from Final Fantasy and Foundations. For anyone wondering how the new Universes Beyond cards could possibly compete in an environment currently dominated by Monstrous Rage and Cori-Steel Cutter, here's one solution!

When and Where?

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First off, this is a Japan Open, and therefore (presumably) only available to residents of Japan. The announcement comes from @MTGArenaJP, and seems to advertise a series of events running from June 28 through July 6. The announcement specifically highlights July 6 for this special Standard-adjacent event, and a rough Google translation also suggest that there's no entry fee to the event (though this may only apply to a qualifying event at the start of the tournament cycle).

The 2024 Japan open featured 462 players in a Standard paper tournament, though the 2025 announcement seems to suggest this might be an Arena-specific event of some sort. It's not entirely clear at this time, but you can follow #MTGJapanOpen2025 on Twitter/X for upcoming details.

A Twist on Standard

Cori-Steel Cutter | Illustration by Xabi Gaztelua

Standard's due for a potential banlist shake-up on June 30, but it seems like participants of this event will be free from the shackles of all the problematic cards that have plagued Standard over the last few months. Up the Beanstalk, Monstrous Rage, Cori-Steel Cutter, and at this point, basic Mountain, have been wreaking havoc on Standard. This new format cuts the fat and limits players to only cards from Final Fantasy and Foundations.

That combines 293 cards from FIN with the 700+ from Foundations and its surrounding products, creating a new micro-Standard that consists of about 1,000 cards. That's a very small cardpool to work with, but just enough to give brewers some wiggle room.

Source: Wizards

The tournament structure hasn't been given an official name, but it's reminiscent of MTG Arena Midweek Magic events that restrict players to just a few of the latest Standard sets, usually as a testing grounds for how the strategies in those sets pop when they're not surrounded by a few years' worth of other MTG releases.

Some old school players might be reminded of Block Constructed, in which players built decks using only cards from within a certain block, or 2-to-3-set run of MTG releases that were all thematically tied together. For example, “Innistrad Block Constructed” consisted of Innistrad, Dark Ascension, and Avacyn Restored, leading to a tighter card pool, more thematic decks, and an environment that really highlighted specific blocks instead of many sets all at once. Block Constructed isn't really viable anymore given Magic's departure from the block structure back in 2018, but the sheer size of Foundations gives this newer format a close approximation of the size of the card pool you'd be working with.

And speaking of, while this is surely a way to highlight Final Fantasy and the new cards entering Standard, it also really lets Foundations shine. The set was designed to be a backbone for Standard over the next five years or so, but it hasn't offered too much to the format outside of a few staple cards like Llanowar Elves and Omniscience.

One concern about decks within this Japan Open format is the mana fixing situation. Foundations offers almost nothing outside of scry lands like Temple of Enlightenment and friends, and Final Fantasy‘s main land dual land cycle is essentially a pile of guildgates. FIN does offer Starting Town as a multi-purpose pain land, but mana fixing is going to be rough for this environment, which might lead to slow gameplay, or promote more mono-colored decks.

However it ends up playing out, it's an interesting take on an otherwise bloated Standard format, which doesn't rotate until fall of 2025. It removes most of the cards people consider problems from the equation, and puts the newest set center stage. Stay tuned for more information regarding the event, and happy brewing to those planning to participate.