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We're recapping Regional Championship 10 that happened a few weeks back in October! Kira was a part of the Super Series commentary team and spent the whole weekend neck-deep in Modern and the competitive scene--so let's chat about the metagame, the plays, and all the things that make Modern great right now!

If you're interested in starting your competitive journey, the ANZ Super Series is a great starting point! Participating in RCQs (a series of qualifying events for the magnanimous Regional Championship) is a great way to build your skill and learn more about competitive play. And even if you're not that interested in competitive constructed, RC's have a ton of amazing side events, artists, and vendors to visit!

Our next ANZ Regional Championship is 13-15 March 2026 in Sydney, and the format will be Standard. You can find more information about the Super Series and all of its events online at https://anzmtg.com.au/

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| 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.

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Water...earth...fire...air...Magic! From 2005 on Nickelodeon to 2025 as a part of Wizards' own Magic: the Gathering, the Avatar: the Last Airbender (Universes Beyond) set is lining up to be just as much of a hit as its original TV series.

The nostalgia factor coupled with thoughtful card designs have fans itching for pre release, which is scheduled for this Friday, November 14th. As always, we have lined up their picks for which cards they think will see constructed play!

While we largely have focused on cards we believe will see play in Standard, as we have branched Raise: the Standard as a show to cover more 60-card competitive formats (like Modern and 7PT Highlander) our predictions, too, have expanded in scope. Is Wan Shi Tong, Librarian the absolute best card of the set? Is a turn 3 win with Firebending Student feasible? Let's discuss!

| Music from HitsLab via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

| 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.

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For our next deck tech spotlight, we're going absolutely big-brained. We loved so many of the decks from our series about the underdogs of the Standard format, the decks that are just below the surface and waiting to break through--and Kira loved Simic Omniscience so much that she immediately built the deck and started playing it.

So today, we're walking you through Simic Omniscience: what the deck does, how it does it, and what it looks like in the current metagame. We're all crossing our fingers and toes for good news next week...so let's talk about a different, very cool deck that could survive into a hopefully Vivi-less meta.

| Music from HitsLab via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

| 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.

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Our third guest on the show is a woman who needs little introduction--but we will give her one anyway! She is a member of the Australian 7-Point Highlander Points Committee, a veteran Magic player of incredible skill, a Top 4 player at Pat's most recent CanBrawl tournament, and a pioneer of the 8-Point Archetype: today's special guest slot is taken by none other than Aunt Voltie!

In the wake of an incredible Top 4 placement at CanBrawl, Kira sat down with Voltie to discuss the event, her content challenge deck, and the advice around netdecking in Highlander. The challenge: build a Highlander deck on a $150USD budget in a format where reserve list cards are a mainstay and more than one person in the room owns a Black Lotus.

As we here at Raise the Standard turn our focus towards competitive 60-card formats, this is our unofficial official start of Hardly Highlander, another podcast-within-a-podcast where we talk about, you guessed it, 7-Point Australian Highlander. We, of course, had to start of strong with one of the best players in the format and we will be sharing a second episode with Voltie focused around the 8-Point rule and her work in pioneering 8-Point decks in the coming weeks!

A huge thank you to Aunt Voltie for sharing her knowledge and experience with us! You can find her online at @AuntVoltie, and you can subscribe to her Patreon for exclusive sideboard guides, articles, and deckbuilding advice. Her CanBrawl decklist can be found here on Moxfield.

| Music from HitsLab via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

| 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.

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Standard is in...a bit of a state right now. But lurking underneath the surface of a metagame dominated by Cauldrons and Mono Red lie some interesting Standard decks that have yet to crack the ice. Today, we look at the "Marit Lage" decks (copyright Kira 2025), the decks that are hiding just below but may soon break through into the meta.

Some decks that we discuss--like Simic Aggro--have already seen metagame success! Others have yet to come into their prime. So what could Standard look like post-Vivi? What decks are lurking just beneath? Is Meia going to mention more pixie decks? Let's find out!

| Music from HitsLab via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

| 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.

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We were at PAX Australia this weekend, and as we recover from our first-ever live show and a weekend of Magic, we bring to you this incredible archival piece from our Raise the Standard catalogue. In this episode, we were discussing (at the time) what cards we believed could be banned in Standard, which decks were in strong positions, and how things might possibly change if there were any bans to happen.

NOTE: This episode of Raise the Standard was recorded in March 2025, prior to the release of Tarkir: Dragonstorm and prior to spoiler season for TDM officially starting. Which means: we were blissfully unaware of the terror that is now known as Cori-Steel Cutter.

It is incredibly funny to listen along to this episode as we confidently cry "No Bans Needed" prior to the release of TDM and the introduction of Cori-Steel Cutter into the Standard format. So join us today and listen back to our naive Standard selves, unaware of what was soon to come...!

| Music from HitsLab via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

| 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.

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Wait a second...this isn't even Standard!

Welcome to our very first episode of Mildly Modern, an MTG podcast within an MTG podcast! We as Magic players are not so linear as to only play one format, and while Standard is the format that is nearest and dearest to our hearts, we realised how much we love and are invested in 60-card constructed competitive formats and decided that it is time to raise our own Standards and broaden our Magic horizons.

So it is our great pleasure to sit with you today for the launch of Mildly Modern, a podcast focused on the Modern format, its competitive events, its metagame, and its evolution. Mildly Modern will follow a similar path as Raise the Standard, and as our competitive seasons alternate between Standard and Modern, we'll never run out of events and decks to talk about!

We're starting off with Pro Tour Edge of Eternities and discussing the event, the results, the decks, and how unbelievably different Modern is to our beloved Standard.

| Music from HitsLab via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

| 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.

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The audio lives on! Welcome to another episode of Time in the Round, where we let our clips and chats live on in a beautiful farm up north. Today, we went on a bit of a tangent about Magic: the Gathering Arena: how it can make you a better player, how it can make you a complacent player, and how sometimes it even lets you "cheat".

| Music from HitsLab via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Thumbnail text from ⁠TextStudio⁠.

| 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.

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🎶 Spider-Man, Spider-Man, he's a--Legendary Creature Spider Human Hero--and he does whatever a spider can 🎶

Today we bring you our Spider-Man Standard predictions, taking a dive into which cards we think are going to see play in the meta, what role they might play, and which decks we may see them played in.

The second Universes Beyond set of 2025 has some unique challenges, but also presents some really cool cards that have a chance to see representation in the meta. Are they all land cards? Yes, but that's not important right now.

| Music from HitsLab via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

| 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.

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So, you want to learn how to play Magic? We've got the best thing for you! No, it's not a pre-con Commander deck...

From the Arena tutorial, to Starter Kits, to playing Standard, constructed formats are a new player's best friend! (In our humble opinion.) Starting with Standard is easier and more comprehensible for players who have not played a game of Magic--with a reduced card pool, overall faster pace of play, and increased focus on gameplay, Standard (and other constructed products) is the best way for new players to learn Magic.

Join us today as we discuss the merits of learning Standard, the benefits of EDH (Commander) and its diversity, as well as what makes constructed formats more approachable than 100-card singleton.

[ Apologies for the video quality! While our source videos were recorded in 4K, things seem to have gotten a little bit crunchy along the way. We are still testing the waters and doing our best as we transition to a video-focused format, and we appreciate your support as we learn! ]

| Music from HitsLab via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Thumbnail text from ⁠TextStudio⁠.

| 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.