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A huge thank you to Wizards of the Coast for giving us the chance to participate in Tarkir: Dragonstorm Early Access on the MTG Arena client! This episode would not be possible without that support, and we are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have streamed and played Early Access Tarkir: Dragonstorm.

Today, we're bringing you a special BONUS episode! We played a bit of Tarkir: Dragonstorm limited/draft during Early Access, and so today, now that TDM has officially released, we wanted to bring your our thoughts about the limited environment. Head to your LGS for some Friday Night Magic action and draft Tarkir!

Topics Include:

- Draft King, Luis Scott-Vargas

- Impact Tremors on a Stick

- Flurry - Yes or No?

| This episode of Raise the Standard was recorded at the State Library of Victoria. 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 and Bunurong / Boon 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.

| Music from HitsLab via ⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠⁠⁠.

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Put on a jumper, grab a cup of tea, and join us for a chat with Australian Pro Player and Melbourne Magic stalwart, Ben Tudman. After our Tarkir discussion, we settled in for a casual conversation with Ben, discussing:

• Orzhov Pixie
• the Standard Metagame
• Predicting the playing field

| You can find and follow Ben across social media @⁠bentudman⁠ and you can follow Team Bus Stop's progress on social media @⁠busstop-mtg⁠.

| This episode of Raise the Standard was recorded at the State Library of Victoria. 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 and Bunurong / Boon 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.

| Music from HitsLab via ⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠⁠⁠.

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Standard, formerly known as Type 2 or Type II, is a ⁠rotating⁠ ⁠constructed⁠ play ⁠format⁠ for ⁠Magic: The Gathering⁠, that was created on January 10, ⁠1995⁠.⁠[1]⁠⁠[2]⁠ It is the most widely sanctioned constructed format at all levels of organized play.⁠[3]⁠ Standard matches are ⁠best-of-3⁠, so this format is called Traditional Standard on ⁠Magic: The Gathering Arena⁠.

Standard ⁠decks⁠ must contain a minimum of sixty cards. There is no maximum deck size; however, one must be able to shuffle one's deck without assistance.

⁠Sideboards⁠ are optional and may contain up to fifteen cards. Except for ⁠basic land⁠ cards, a player's combined deck and sideboard may not contain more than four copies of any individual card, counted by the card's English title equivalent.⁠[4]⁠...

[from the ⁠MTGWiki page on Standard⁠.]

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Joining us in the studio today is none other than legendary and iconic Melbourne Magic player, Ben Tudman!

It can be daunting when a new set releases to understand which cards are good, which ones might be good, and which ones are...well, let's say not as good. So, we've brought in Ben as our expert, as a member of Team Bus Stop and a 3-time Pro Tour player, Ben knows his Magic cards.

Today, Ben is going to challenge us to dissect cards at their core, from casting costs, to benefits and drawbacks, to understanding a card's floor as much as its ceiling--picking three new cards that are coming out in Tarkir: Dragonstorm as our building blocks.

Topics Include:

• How many times can Meia say "Orzhov Pixie"
• Teval does not like Up the Beanstalk
• Why Haunt the Network is bad, actually

| You can find and follow Ben across social media @⁠bentudman⁠ and you can follow Team Bus Stop's progress on social media @⁠busstop-mtg⁠.

| This episode of Raise the Standard was recorded at the State Library of Victoria. 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 and Bunurong / Boon 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.

| Music from HitsLab via ⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠⁠⁠.

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We're back! Today we're wrapping up our discussion on common deck archetypes and we're focusing on the reactive archetypes today, the decks that are looking to mitigate threats and "answer questions" rather than pose them.

Topics Include:

• How many deck archetypes can you fit in a single deck?
• Playing in the Overlord's arena
• What is aliens?

| This episode of Raise the Standard was recorded at the State Library of Victoria. 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 and Bunurong / Boon 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.

| Music from HitsLab via ⁠Pixabay⁠.

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This is Part One of our deck archetypes duology!

There are many different types of decks across all of Magic's formats--what are they, and what is the difference between them? Today, we're talking about the proactive deck archetypes, the foot-forward, asking questions decks that seek to play ahead and stay ahead.

We'll dive in to the way these decks combine with one another, differentiate from one another, and ultimately how they stand out in the playing field.

Topics include:

• Combo aggro ≠ Aggro combo
• Temur Otters Combo 👎
• Orzhov Pixie: is it a Tempo deck? [Sources may disagree.]

| This episode of Raise the Standard was recorded at the State Library of Victoria. 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 and Bunurong / Boon 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.

| Music from HitsLab via Pixabay.

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Today we ask important questions: what is a judge? who are judges? why judges?

We're dipping our Standard toes into the deep, deep pool of judging: what is a judge's role? how can I find a judge? what are judges? Think of this a primer to judges for those of you who may never have interacted with a judge and/or are not familiar with the role judges play in Magic. Rest assured we will be going into much, much more detail about judges in the future, and perhaps we'll even have a special guest judge...!

Important topics include:

• How to use a judge at your event
• What a judge is for at casual events
• What a judge can provide for their players

| This episode of Raise the Standard was recorded at the State Library of Victoria. 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 and Bunurong / Boon 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.

| Music from HitsLab via Pixabay.

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It's post-ProTour season! Domain Overlords swept the competition away and Matt Nass is your new ProTour Champion! So...now what? Today we're discussing:

• What did the meta look like at PT Chicago?
• Standout decks & familiar faces
• What will Standard look like going forward?

A huge congratulations to Matt Nass and his victory at ProTour Aetherdrift! You can find Nass's list and all of the Top 8 decklists from PT Aetherdrift here at magic.gg. You can read Nass's article about preparing for and winning the ProTour here.

Benjamin Stark's Orzhov Pixie list can be found here. Seth (SaffronOlive) built an awesome Repurposing Bay Standard deck, you can find the list here. Ashlizzlle built a Golgari Beans deck prior to Zevin Faust's list at the PT, and you can find her list here.

The Standard Metagame Breakdown from Frank Karsten for PT Aetherdrift can be found here. His follow up article for the Metagame Mentor series can be found here.

| This episode of Raise the Standard was recorded at the State Library of Victoria. 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 and Bunurong / Boon 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.

| Music from HitsLab via Pixabay.

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I'm ready to start playing Standard!...Where can I find decklists? How can I buy cards for my deck? What cards are legal in the format? All of these questions and more answered in today's episode, where we dive in to building your Standard deck!

Topics include:

• Popular places to find decklists
• Where you can buy cards (both local and online)
• the 7-Point Highlander Committee Foundation TM TM LTD R Copyright 2025

| This episode of Raise the Standard was recorded at the State Library of Victoria. 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 and Bunurong / Boon 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.

| Music from HitsLab via Pixabay.

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Pack your bags and head to your local game store--it's time for FNM!* Today, we're straying a bit away from strictly Standard (shocking, we know!) and taking you through the motions of an FNM, including:

• What is FNM?
• What can I expect at FNM?
• Is FNM constructed, limited, or both?

Grab your playmat, check the MTG Companion app for your nearest FNM, and let's go!

| This episode of Raise the Standard was recorded at the State Library of Victoria. 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 and Bunurong / Boon 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.

| Music from HitsLab via Pixabay.

*Friday Night Magic, for those who may be unfamiliar.