Raise the Standard: an MTG Podcast

He's back! There are few people who have played as much storm as Richard, and few people still who have beaten storm as much as he has. While the storm archetype remains the Big Bad of the Highlander metagame as we wait to see what impact the most recent points update has on the format, Richard is here to reassure us that storm is beatable!

Today, Storm expert Richard Owen is taking us through the plan for sideboarding against storm, encouraging us to not make plans around game one, and to proactively adapt to the second and third games of the match. A huge thanks to Richard for joining us once again to talk about all things Storm!

| Music from HitsLab via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

| Raise the Standard is proudly sponsored by MTGBazaar! From premiere competitive events to MTG singles for your new brew, the Bazaar is the place to go for all your Magic needs. A huge thank you to Pat and the Bazaar crew for supporting the show!

| This episode of Raise the Standard was recorded at Hen House Rehearsal Studios. Raise the Standard and its hosts would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we operate on. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung peoples as the Traditional Owners of the land. We pay our respects to their elders past and present, and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.

The day before the Highlander Committee pointed Storm, it rained for three days straight in Melbourne, Australia, where we set the scene for the latest Highlander Points Update. And who better to talk about the latest changes to Storm than the weatherman himself: Richard Owen!

Richard has developed Storm as a 7PT archetype over the last four years and has earned himself some impressive pointings in the wake of his success as a Storm pilot. He has worked with the deck through many pointings and today we turn to him to better understand the reason for the updates to Storm's points as well as the perceived intended shift in the Highlander metagame.

A huge thank you to Richard for joining us for this episode! As an archetype expert and someone we have mentioned many times on the show, we're incredibly lucky to have spent this time discussing Storm and how it's had to change over the years.

| Music from HitsLab via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

| Raise the Standard is proudly sponsored by MTGBazaar! From premiere competitive events to MTG singles for your new brew, the Bazaar is the place to go for all your Magic needs. A huge thank you to Pat and the Bazaar crew for supporting the show!

| This episode of Raise the Standard was recorded at Hen House Rehearsal Studios. Raise the Standard and its hosts would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we operate on. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung peoples as the Traditional Owners of the land. We pay our respects to their elders past and present, and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.

Today's episode is brought to you by Kira, who really, really wanted to talk about the merits of Underground Sea as your 8th point. Within this discussion, we debate the broader pointing philosophy, the function of good mana, and having to re-think deckbuilding decisions after a points update.

Reminder: we are not committee members! The Highlander Points Committee works incredibly hard to manage the format and works within a Magic life cycle that is printing hundred of cards into the format every couple of months.

Additionally: this episode was recorded before Basser's Charity Brawl, where four of the top eight decks played Fantasticar. Comments about "the format is healthy" are to be taken with a grain of salt. (This message brought to you by the "Car to 5" conglomerate.)

| Music from HitsLab via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

| Raise the Standard is proudly sponsored by MTGBazaar! From premiere competitive events to MTG singles for your new brew, the Bazaar is the place to go for all your Magic needs. A huge thank you to Pat and the Bazaar crew for supporting the show!

| This episode of Raise the Standard was recorded at Hen House Rehearsal Studios. Raise the Standard and its hosts would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we operate on. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung peoples as the Traditional Owners of the land. We pay our respects to their elders past and present, and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.

There's a lot of churn happening in Standard post-ban, and that leaves room for a lot of innovation in the format. New sets and recent bans mean that players are going rogue--looking for new combos, synergies, and play patterns that may prove to be incredibly powerful.

Today, we're taking a look at a handful of rogue decks that are or have performed well in the current metagame. What do these decks do, what makes them successful, and what happened to all of our weenies?

| Music from HitsLab via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

| Raise the Standard is proudly sponsored by MTGBazaar! From premiere competitive events to MTG singles for your new brew, the Bazaar is the place to go for all your Magic needs. A huge thank you to Pat and the Bazaar crew for supporting the show!

| This episode of Raise the Standard was recorded at Hen House Rehearsal Studios. Raise the Standard and its hosts would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we operate on. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung peoples as the Traditional Owners of the land. We pay our respects to their elders past and present, and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.

And lo, the Committee said unto the Highlander players: Strip Mine is now 2 Points. And there came a great commotion from the masses of Land players and Weenie players, who were distraught at this news and there came upon a great relief from anyone who has had their land Strip'd.

Strip Mine to 2! Bones to 1! And who in the world suggested Daze to 1?! Today, we're talking about the most recent Highlander points update: what happened, why these cards received points, and what we can expect going forward.

| Music from HitsLab via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

| Raise the Standard is proudly sponsored by MTGBazaar! From premiere competitive events to MTG singles for your new brew, the Bazaar is the place to go for all your Magic needs. A huge thank you to Pat and the Bazaar crew for supporting the show!

| This episode of Raise the Standard was recorded at Hen House Rehearsal Studios. Raise the Standard and its hosts would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we operate on. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung peoples as the Traditional Owners of the land. We pay our respects to their elders past and present, and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.

Well...! Here we are again. The week after we said, "There's no way that Wizards will ban Cub and Talent if they haven't banned them yet," Wizards said, "Bet." So, at long last, the new villains of the Standard format have been ushered into an early retirement.

What does this mean for Standard now? Why wait until this ban cycle (August 10, 2026) to ban these cards? How will this impact the format going forward? All this and more in today's episode!

| Music from HitsLab via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

| Raise the Standard is proudly sponsored by MTGBazaar! From premiere competitive events to MTG singles for your new brew, the Bazaar is the place to go for all your Magic needs. A huge thank you to Pat and the Bazaar crew for supporting the show!

| This episode of Raise the Standard was recorded at Hen House Rehearsal Studios. Raise the Standard and its hosts would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we operate on. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung peoples as the Traditional Owners of the land. We pay our respects to their elders past and present, and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.

He's back, and he's Boros than ever...! We're kidding, of course, there is no way that Titan enthusiast Riley Jones would play Boros at the Modern Spotlight series...or is there?

We're thrilled to have Riley Jones back for another episode, this time about team prep ahead of Spotlight Series Brisbane, the first Spotlight event in Australia since the retirement of the GP series. We're chatting about how PT Super Heroes influences the choices players are making ahead of Brisbane, how teams work to develop deck strategies, and why Riley will inevitably swap to Boros for the tournament*.

A huge thank you to Riley for joining us for another episode! You can find Riley online at @badatmagicbones and you can keep up with Team Quality Lines here on Twitter/X. Best of luck to Riley and the team!

| Music from HitsLab via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

| Raise the Standard is proudly sponsored by MTGBazaar! From premiere competitive events to MTG singles for your new brew, the Bazaar is the place to go for all your Magic needs. A huge thank you to Pat and the Bazaar crew for supporting the show!

| This episode of Raise the Standard was recorded at Hen House Rehearsal Studios. Raise the Standard and its hosts would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we operate on. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung peoples as the Traditional Owners of the land. We pay our respects to their elders past and present, and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.

*For legal reasons, this is a joke. Or is it...?

As of time of recording (24/7/26), we still don't know what the Universes Beyond sets for 2027 are...so let's have a bit of a laugh and wildly speculate about what those sets could be!

We're parsing this episode as part of the 'Time in the Round' series, as it's more of a bonus episode, but is content that we still found quite funny! What is your wish for a Universes Beyond set? Game of Thrones? Wheel of Time? Fortnite?? Join us for a cheeky chat as we wildly and unseriously speculate as to what the year ahead might hold.

| Music from HitsLab via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

| Raise the Standard is proudly sponsored by MTGBazaar! From premiere competitive events to MTG singles for your new brew, the Bazaar is the place to go for all your Magic needs. A huge thank you to Pat and the Bazaar crew for supporting the show!

| This episode of Raise the Standard was recorded at Hen House Rehearsal Studios. Raise the Standard and its hosts would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we operate on. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung peoples as the Traditional Owners of the land. We pay our respects to their elders past and present, and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.

On the heels of an incredible run at the Sydney Standard Spectacular $100K, we're joined today by Riley Jones! Far from being bad at Magic, Riley placed second at the $100K on a build of Prowess that incidentally has a great track record of beating the stock Prowess deck in Standard.

Today, we're chatting with Riley about how the deck was built, the conception around playing the best deck while simultaneously trying to beat it, and how the metagame influences deckbuilding decisions in an open-decklist tournament.

A huge thank you to Riley for joining us for this episode, and congratulations again for a stunning show of skill at the $100K! Team Quality Lines walked away with nearly 30% of the total prizepool, so watch out for the QL Boys as they prepare to head to Spotlight Series Brisbane!

| Music from HitsLab via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

| Raise the Standard is proudly sponsored by MTGBazaar! From premiere competitive events to MTG singles for your new brew, the Bazaar is the place to go for all your Magic needs. A huge thank you to Pat and the Bazaar crew for supporting the show!

| This episode of Raise the Standard was recorded at Hen House Rehearsal Studios. Raise the Standard and its hosts would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we operate on. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung peoples as the Traditional Owners of the land. We pay our respects to their elders past and present, and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.

Obviously, we're a bit late to the party here--but we're going to talk about the 'No Changes' ban announcement anyway!

This announcement was published June 29th of this year and honestly, we were a bit surprised. With the way the Standard metagame has been moving (or some would say, not moving) we had anticipated at least a couple of changes to the format. So why didn't we see anything banned? Let's chat about format construction and ban philosophy and how Stormchaser's Talent has managed to dodge the ban hammer for its entire Standard lifecycle.

| Music from HitsLab via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

| Raise the Standard is proudly sponsored by MTGBazaar! From premiere competitive events to MTG singles for your new brew, the Bazaar is the place to go for all your Magic needs. A huge thank you to Pat and the Bazaar crew for supporting the show!

| This episode of Raise the Standard was recorded at Hen House Rehearsal Studios. Raise the Standard and its hosts would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we operate on. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung peoples as the Traditional Owners of the land. We pay our respects to their elders past and present, and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.