The first few months after Standard rotation are always my favorite time of year to play Magic. Old cards look like they're ready to take on a new life. New cards seem like they're ready to break out and dominate.

I've been jamming games on Arena and some of the facts of the format are starting to take shape. We've had just enough time with the cards from Edge of Eternities and built just enough decks now that rotation has happened to figure out a few things. These are my observations as the format is starting to stretch its legs:

The Mana Is Great (Or Absolutely Terrible)!

The first deck I built once Edge of Eternities dropped was a Simic Landfall deck, because Genemorph Imago looked like one of the more interesting cards in the set. And, going from mono-Green landfall to Simic landfall was a piece of cake! You have Breeding Pool, you have Willowrush Verge, you have Botanical Sanctum, and you even have Fabled Passage. Hell, if you want to get into enters-tapped lands there are about a half dozen more that could readily see play. Splashing Blue was so easy, I took it for granted that the rotating lands wouldn't be that big of a deal.

Then, I tried to build a Selesnya deck for Kona, Rescue Beastie.

The mana is awful. It stinks. It's so bad that I almost scrapped the deck, and would have if it didn't have so much raw power. Right now in Standard, there are some combinations that are the, "haves" and some that are the, "have nots," and the decks going forward will be greatly influenced by the available mana. Simic, Boros, and Orzhov are the biggest winners, and any deck playing those combinations should be able to balance their mana with ease.

Final Fantasy Is The Most Important Set In The Format

Vivi Ornitier is the cornerstone of the best deck in the format, and as such, is the face of Final Fantasy and Standard in general. But, if you dig deeper, almost every major deck in the format has a Final Fantasy card as the centerpiece. Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER is the core of the Orzhov sacrifice decks. The best reanimator deck (whether it be Naya and focused on cards like Overlord of the Boilerbilges or Bant and reliant on Omniscience) needs Yuna, Hope of Spira to function. Green Landfall just gets defaulted to the, "Tifa Lockhart deck." Final Fantasy isn't just the best-selling set of all-time, it's very powerful and is everywhere in Standard.

Removal Is The Weakest It Has Been In Some Time

The biggest loses with rotation might have been Cut Down and Go for the Throat. But cards like Lay Down Arms, Sunfall, and Anoint with Affliction all had relevant roles to play in shaping Standard. Shoot the Sheriff, Get Lost, and Tragic Trajectory are trying to fill in they all have holes. Three and four mana creatures have a chance to see play right now, and brewers are running with it (just look at the number of decks with Ouroboroid popping up).

The Vivi Cauldron Deck Is Probably Too Good For The Format

Look, I'm probably telling you something you've already decided for yourself, but I'm writing this the morning after the Arena Championships, and after watching the deck trounce everything thrown against it, we have our first/best case for Wizards to consider an Emergency Ban since they changed the ban format when 3-year Standard was instituted.

The biggest problem with the Vivi Ornitier deck is that you have to try to beat not one deck when you're paired against it, but three. It's first and foremost a Vivi deck, and if you can't remove the annoying little critter the second it hit's the battlefield, you're in a bad way. But then, you also have to fight it as a graveyard deck, because Agatha's Soul Cauldron with a Vivi (or Draconautics Engineer) in the graveyard can win on its own. And even then, if you've managed to fight the good fight and beaten both of those back, Proft's Eidetic Memory comes flying in off the top rope and turns Fear of Missing Out into a game ending threat. The deck attacks from too many angles and in too many ways to be easily beaten, and when you add all that together, it's also the grindiest deck in the format that sees a ton of cards during the game. Put it all together and something form the Vivi Cauldron deck may need to get whacked with the ban hammer.

That said...

There Are Still a Ton to Explore

Vivi Cauldron may be the best in the format, but there are so many decks to try and optimize right now! How about:

• Simic Landfall with Genemorph Imago or Icetill Explorer or Mightform Harmonizer
• Kona, Recue Beastie + Planets (trying every color combination)
• Weapons Manufacturing in Rakdos (with Rottenmouth Viper)
• Weapons Manufacturing in Boros (with United Battlefront)
• Boros Mice
• Ketramose, the New Dawn with Warp cards
• Orzhov Aristocrats
• Haliya, Guided by Light lifegain decks
• Azorious Artifacts
• Naya Yuna AND Omni Yuna
• Cosmogrand Zenith Esper Bounce
• Jeskai Control
• Temur Battlecrier

All of these decks have shown that they have a chance, and right now is the best time to give them a try. Standard may be top heavy with Vivi, but there is so much lurking below the surface.

You can find more of my Magic musings on Twitter/X @travishall456 and on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/anakinsdad.bsky.social