Arena Standard
| Arena Standard | |
|---|---|
| DCI Sanctioned | |
| Paper |
 |
| Magic Online |
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| Magic Arena |
 |
| Rules | |
| Type | Constructed |
| Multiplayer |
|
| Add. rules | Best-of-one |
Arena Standard also known as Best-of-one Standard (or Bo1 Standard) is a Magic Arena-specific constructed format of Magic: The Gathering.[1][2][3]
Description
As its name suggests, it is a Standard variant played in Magic Arena. Even though in practice, it is slightly different to Bo3 Standard (known as Traditional Standard in Magic Arena) with the following differences:
- Arena Standard used their own banned list in addition to Traditional Standard's banned list.
- Starting hands are randomized in a way that should reduce the frequency of mulligans, but without incentivizing mana base construction outside the strategic norms of the game. Wizards feel this achieves the desired effect of reducing the frequency of mulligans without changing how players build their mana bases. The only concrete statement regarding the shuffler was released during closed beta play, and in the updates, since it has been unclear whether the algorithm has changed.
- The system during the beta drew an opening hand from each of two separately randomized copies of the decks and leaned towards giving the player the hand with the mix of spells and lands (without regard for color) closest to the average for that deck. This formula usually yielded three lands in ones' starting hand because 22÷60×7≈2.567 and 30÷60×7=3.5.
- You can then use the London Mulligan rules to get a new hand with one fewer card. Mulliganed hands are created from a single randomized draw.
- In the past, there were a number of cards not printed in any (Bo3) Standard-legal sets (and therefore are not legal to play in Standard), yet were still legal to play in Arena Standard. These cards were released as part of the Arena-exclusive Arena Base Set, and copies of these cards were included in one of the various starter decks which were made available to all new Arena players. These cards are no longer legal in Bo1 Standard (nor Bo3 Standard). As of July 3rd, 2022, both Bo1 Standard and Bo3 Standard share precisely the same legal card pool.[4]
As matches consist of only one game, the sideboard is used for cards with abilities referencing "outside the game", such as Companions and Mastermind's Acquisition. As of April 15, 2021, best-of-one sideboards are restricted to seven cards.
Banned cards
By default, Traditional Standard's banned cards, are also banned in Arena Standard.
In July 2021, The Book of Exalted Deeds was banned in the the preview-queue Standard 2022 format.[5]
Previously banned cards
- See also: Banned and restricted cards/Timeline.
The following is a list of cards that have been banned in Arena Standard, but not banned in Traditional Standard otherwise, at one point during their stay in the Standard environment.
References
- ↑ Best-of-One Starting Hand and Mulligan Rules
- ↑ State of the Beta for May 25th, 2018
- ↑ Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa. (January 20, 2019.) "Best-of-One vs. Best-of-Three", ChannelFireball.com.
- ↑ Verified in the PC Arena client by creating a new deck, checking both the Collected and Not Collected filters, selecting the deck Format as Standard, and then counting the number of full pages of available cards as well as the number of cards left over on the last page. Then, the process was repeated with Traditional Standard selected as the Format, and the results were found to be equal (95 pages of 24 plus 3 cards left over as of July 3rd, 2022)
- ↑ Wizards of the Coast (July 14, 2021). "MTG Arena Announcements, July 14, 2021". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.