Magic: The Gathering Arena - The 10 Best Cards To Craft For Standard's 2024 Rotation (2024)

Rotation is upon us. With the release of Bloomburrow, four sets have no longer become legal for Standard play. The rotating sets include Innistrad: Midnight Hunt, Innistrad: Crimson Vow, Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, and Streets of New Capenna.

In other words, the entire metagame of Magic: The Gathering's Standard format is in flux as players attempt to figure out which decks will rise to the top and which will fall by the wayside. Thankfully, you can spend your wild cards in Magic Arena wisely by crafting cards that are just generically powerful. Here are the best candidates as you craft your own brews.

10 Zoraline, Cosmos Caller

Resurrection A La Bat

Zoraline is an impressive new Bat Cleric printed in Bloomburrow with a paid trigger that can return creatures from your graveyard if you pay two life in addition to its one black, one white mana cost. While it can trigger its own life gain ability by attacking itself, it's important to note some other useful Bat creatures like Ruin-Lurker Bat and Deep-Cavern Bat can also trigger Zoraline's life gain.

This Bat will likely find a home in a low to the ground Orzhov (black/white) deck filled with creatures that have enter the battlefield triggers. Other cards that will likely be key to such a strategy include Helping Hand, Thought-Stalker Warlock, and Treacherous Greed.

9 Three Steps Ahead

For Counterspell Lovers

Control decks took a bit hit since they lost The Wandering Emperor, however, Three Steps Ahead will almost certainly still see play in new iterations of blue control and midrange decks. While it's only a basic counterspell at its worst, this card's power comes from the ability to use it as a mana sink in the late game for both card advantage and copying your best creatures.

If there's one thing control decks aren't shy about, it's extra mana in the late game. Anyone who wants to play blue in the coming Standard will need a full set of this key counterspell.

8 Preacher Of The Schism

Good Behind Or Ahead

Speaking of cards that are important to a particular color, Preacher of the Schism has been seeing play in just about every black deck on the Standard ladder for quite some time now. Whether in the mainboard or the sideboard, there always seems to be a place for a full playset of Preachers when you're playing black.

This is thanks to the card's trigger being useful no matter if you're behind or ahead. Lifelink creatures are a great way to stabilize your life total, and no one is ever upset about drawing extra cards. Keep in mind that Preacher's deathtouch makes him a great blocker and making use of his high toughness often means not blocking smaller creatures so that he can avoid removal like Lightning Bolt and Shock.

7 Vaultborn Tyrant

Move Over Atraxa

Yet another card important for its color, Vaultborn Tyrant is likely to finally rear its ugly head now that the trilands from Streets of New Capenna are gone. Previously, Atraxa, Grand Unifier outdid this Tyrant, but with the trilands gone Atraxa's four color mana cost will probably be much harder to achieve on curve.

As a result, Vaultborn Tyrant will probably take Atraxa's place as the big payoff in mana ramp decks. Furthermore, this is a great creature to cheat into play early through graveyard recursion or other means.

6 The Infamous Cruelclaw

Pop Goes The Weasel

Perhaps the shiniest new tool for cheating cards like Vaultborn Tyrant into play, The Infamous Cruelclaw lets you cast a card off the top of your library without paying its mana cost for the low, low price of discarding a card. Assuming you can fix the top of your library to assure Cruelclaw hits something big, this is potentially a very busted trigger.

One card that comes to mind for fixing your library is Insatiable Avarice. That being said, good old scry triggers can work just as well if you're feeling lucky. Cruelclaw's menace keyword is part of what makes her so powerful. Without it, you would have a fair amount of trouble reliably getting in for combat damage to activate her trigger.

5 Knight-Errant Of Eos

Can't Go Wrong With Classic Convoke

It's no secret that Boros Convoke was among the best decks in Standard prior to rotation. Although the deck loses Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire / Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance / and Voldaren Epicure, these are all cards that can be replaced. The deck's core strategy remains very much intact.

Knight-Errant is the backbone of this strategy and the namesake of the deck as it allows you to continue refilling your hand with threats while also making use of your tokens as mana sinks. If you don't know where to start with the new standard, Boros Convoke won't do you wrong.

4 Sheoldred, The Apocalypse

Apocalypse Now

Sheoldred isn't nearly as oppressive as she used to be in Standard, however, that's mostly due to players making sure their deck builds have multiple answers to her. It doesn't make her any less of a powerhouse. If you want to play black, you're going to need at least a couple of copies of Sheoldred for the sideboard. She's very good against most aggressive decks thanks to her life gain.

That being said, you'll get more bang for your buck here in some kind of midrange brew that looks to play her in the main. Golgari (black/green) and Dimir (black/blue) builds playing Sheoldred already exist, and one of these color pairs might just emerge at the top of the new metagame.

3 Emberheart Challenger

Mousedor Calls For Aid

Mono-red decks are losing a bit of power with Kumano Faces Kakkazan finally rotating, however, there's never a better time to play mono-red than during rotation. The metagame is completely out of whack, everyone is trying to figure out what works, and mono-red takes advantage of this confusion by mercilessly cracking in for damage.

Emberheart Challenger is the best mono-red card to come out of Bloomburrow as it provides your deck with card advantage while also presenting an aggressive threat all on its own. In tandem with cards like Monstrous Rage and the newly printed Might of the Meek, you can easily trigger Emberheart's valiant ability for extra draws while also benefitting from prowess.

2 Slickshot Show-Off

Plot Is A Great Mechanic

Not much more to say here than what was already said regarding Emberheart Challenger. Slickshot Show-Off is the best card in mono-red decks at the moment. If you plan to take advantage of rotation by playing mono-red, you'll need four copies of this cleverly designed card.

Knowing when to plot Slickshot and when to hard cast it will separate the best mono-red players from the rest. As a general rule, plot Slickshot if your opponent is holding up open mana. The last thing you want is to see your Slickshot countered or removed just before it connects for often game-winning damage.

1 Dual Lands

It's Good To Have Land

As always, your best investment for rotation will be dual lands. You can't know what decks will end up at the top of the metagame, but it's for certain that the overwhelming majority of them will be using dual lands. Additionally, the metagame is bound to shift as new sets are released. Even when this happens, dual lands will continue to be a necessary part of most deck's manabases.

The only way to go wrong with crafting dual lands is crafting dual lands in colors that you don't like to play. After all, if you never use the card, you might as well have wasted your wild card. Players with few numbers of wild cards should stick to crafting dual lands in their preferred colors and wait for the metagame to develop before crafting anything else. This way, you know you aren't wasting your precious wild cards.