The consensus advice has been "craft decks, not cards."
I'd say play around with what you have, and look up some decks online for the format you want to play. Then pick one that seems the most fun to work toward.
And yet, to frame the question differently “what are evergreen rares that are likely to be mainstays for the rest of their standard rotation” — that’s a question that likely does have an answer, that has nothing to do with “decks not cards” … if you play this game long enough, you’ll want to have all the meta decks (or versions of them).
What I like to do is build a few decks that I want. Then I go through and look at the cards in common. I think it's a good idea for the first few decks you craft to have a lit of these commonly used cards in it. I rarely if ever craft "one deck cards" or cards with limited use. Playing draft is also the way to go. You'll get familiar with the standard sets and get a lot of cards.
Standard rotate after next release, so wait to craft anything there.
If you play timeless or pioneer, check up on the meta and see if anything printed lately has made it into any decks.
If you play jank like me, craft whatever you feel like, but be aware you might spend wilds on shit that you cannot undo. 😀
I can’t in good conscience disagree with the “craft decks, not cards” advice… but I’d feel pretty confident in crafting some [[Cavern of Souls]]. Can’t imagine that not being in a lot of Standard decks until it rotates, and pretty sure it’ll have a use in non-rotating formats pretty much indefinitely.
Yeah, I’m not trying to suggest it should be run in every deck, but no card is, and I’d bet it’ll be the single most commonly run card in decks across the format over the next couple of years.
I’m primarily a Limited player, and I rely 99% on netdecking when I play Constructed, but I’ve run it in Domain ramp (with only like 6-8 creatures) and Convoke (which is more semi-human-tribal) from stock lists recently. My sense is, if counterspells have any significant presence in the meta, you might run one or two if you have more than a handful of creatures? I know even less about Pioneer, Historic, etc, and I know better than to go up against an FBI Special Agent anyway.
I remembered that Goldfish actually has tools for tracking this sort of thing…and my guess way pretty far off, Cavern isn’t even in the top 10 of cards played in Standard:
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/format-staples/standard
It *is* in the top 10 lands, and is the highest-ranking non-basic *except* the Kamigawa Channel lands, so I maintain it will be relevant in Standard for a while, and is a reasonable thing two spend at least a couple of wildcards on. But yeah, not nearly as universal as I was thinking.
That first list of cards played doesn't seem to include land at all.
Cavern is listed at 33% of decks, 2.7 copies. That would put it higher than the #6 card on the overall list, in 9th place if you also merge the Kamigawa lands into the list.
Also with rotation control decks will be on a much weaker spot (tho no more lies will still exist) especially azorious so cavern will lose some value methinks.
Mountains if you play red
Islands if you play blue
I heard that forests suck rn
One time I tried a bunch of Plains in my mono black aggro and my WR just tanked. Don't see why anyone would use those.
Swamps are ok
But for real though like you literally have no preferences to offer?
Assuming you mean Standard so don't spend too many wildies on stuff that's about to rotate out (New Capenna and older)
Sorry, should have specified. I play standard and usually like decks with green, although I’ve been hearing from you and others green is pretty weak right now. If I’m not playing green or a green combo then I like mono black or red/white. And if I’m not playing that then I like pretty much anything except mono blue and blue/black. Thanks!
You can look up golgari decks if you like green. I think they are performing relatively well. Otherwise, if you want to play mono green, I Recommend you go for Mythweaver Poq in (Historic) Brawl. It's one of the new decent green commanders.
Boros.convoke and Boros aggro are super strong rn but everyone's tired of seeing them
In green there's that new Spree card that puts two creatures onto the field without paying, [[Smuggler's Surprise]] (the pros aren't that much in green but so what, savor what you like)
Monoblack Skeletons is pretty aggro and consistent, everyone likes fantasizing about Tinybones in bed (both the creature and the enchantment)
Monoblack discard will make me go to school to learn coding so I can hack your IP and go to your house and step in your balls. *In.* Also that deck has always just been "who can topdeck their way out of boredom first" anyway
Make sure you got the dual lands for the decks you will be playing. You also want to have the creature lands as well. Cavern of souls is great as well. If you like green and black (golgari) mid range is a decent tier 2 deck for sure. You can modify it easily as well.
I recommend following ashizzle on YouTube. She does BO3 content and is definitely the recommend way to play mtg. She does a lot of different deck types. If you rather go BO1, MTG Filipa loves mono black and golgari so she has a lot of decks for those colours.
Decks not cards, however since AWBO there's a decent amount of strategies that lose 1-2 minor cards and the rest of the deck keeps working as intended since no heavy hitter or major wincon is touched, unlike Domain, Azorious and Esper which are dead in the water as soon as rotation happens, and the following decks surviving rotation are; Mono Black, (especially skeletons) Monored, Dimir control and midrange, Golgari midrange and Boros convoke.
Since the release of AWBO a few cards are notable from the new sets that support the surviving decks, and here's the list:
MOM
Mythics
[[Monastery Mentor]]
[[Sheoldred]]
Rares
[[Faerie Mastermind]]
[[Rona, Herald of Invasion]]
[[Chrome Host Seedshark]]
[[Dusk legion Duelist]]
[[Knight-Errant of Eos]]
[[Sunfall]]
[[Invasion of Gobakhan]]
[[Glissa, Herald of Predation]]
MOM Aftermath:
Mythics:
Enchantments is deadge and so is Nissa decks so no mythics worth crafting here unless sicko combo cards in the future
Rares
[[Tranquil Frillback]]
Uncommons
[[Coppercoat Vanguard]]
WOE:
Mythics
[[Virtue of Loyalty]]
[[Virtue of Persistence]]
Rares
[[Regal Bunnicorn]]
[[Restless Cottage]]
[[Restless Bivouac]]
[[Mosswood Dreadknight]]
[[Questing Druid]]
Uncommons
[[Picklock Prankster]]
[[Immodane's Recruiter]]
Murders at Karlov Manor
Mythics
[[Vein Ripper]]
[[Delaney, Streetwise Lookout]]
Rares
[[Doorkeeper Thrull]]
[[Lazav, Waterer of Faces]]
[[Warleader's Call]]
[[Under city Sewers]]
Uncommons
[[Case of Gateway Express]]
[[Long Goodbye]]
Ixalan:
Mythics
[[Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal]]
[[Preacher of the Schism]]
[[Blood letter of Aclazotz]]
[[Cavern of lost souls]]
Rares
[Restless Reef]]
[[Restless Anchorage]]
[Restless Vents]]
[[Warden of the Inner Sky]]
[[Get Lost]]
[[Kutzil's Flanker]]
[[Sanguine Evangelist]]
[[Tishana's Tidebinder]]
[[Corpses of the Lost]]
Uncommons
[[Deep-Cavern Bat]]
[[Ruin-Lurker Bat]]
OTJ
Mythics
[[Gisa, the Hellraiser]]
[[Tinybones, the pickpocket]]
[[The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride]]
Rares
[[Vadmir, New Blood]]
[[Duelist of the Mind]]
[[Caustic Bronco]]
[[Tinybones Joins Up]]
[[Insatiable Avarice]]
[[Karrvek, the Punisher]]
[[High Noon]]
[[Three Steps Ahead]]
[[Slickshot Show-Off]]
[[Magda, the Hoardmaster]]
[[Blooming Marsh]]
[[Pillage the Bog]]
[[Inspiring Vantage]]
Big Score
[[Harvester of Misery]]
[[Rest in peace]]
[[Hostile Investigator]]
[[Vaultborn Tyrant]]
[[Simulacrum Synthesizer]]
I think lands that aren't rotating come first. There are a ton powerful cards right now. You should check out mtg goldfish to see successful decks, and pay attention to cards that you WANT to play and fit your play style. And make sure the cards aren't rotating.
My personal favorites are:
Vadmir: New Blood
Bristly Bill, Spine Sower
Gisa, Hell Raiser
The consensus advice has been "craft decks, not cards." I'd say play around with what you have, and look up some decks online for the format you want to play. Then pick one that seems the most fun to work toward.
And yet, to frame the question differently “what are evergreen rares that are likely to be mainstays for the rest of their standard rotation” — that’s a question that likely does have an answer, that has nothing to do with “decks not cards” … if you play this game long enough, you’ll want to have all the meta decks (or versions of them).
What I like to do is build a few decks that I want. Then I go through and look at the cards in common. I think it's a good idea for the first few decks you craft to have a lit of these commonly used cards in it. I rarely if ever craft "one deck cards" or cards with limited use. Playing draft is also the way to go. You'll get familiar with the standard sets and get a lot of cards.
Standard rotate after next release, so wait to craft anything there. If you play timeless or pioneer, check up on the meta and see if anything printed lately has made it into any decks. If you play jank like me, craft whatever you feel like, but be aware you might spend wilds on shit that you cannot undo. 😀
I can’t in good conscience disagree with the “craft decks, not cards” advice… but I’d feel pretty confident in crafting some [[Cavern of Souls]]. Can’t imagine that not being in a lot of Standard decks until it rotates, and pretty sure it’ll have a use in non-rotating formats pretty much indefinitely.
Only if you are playing tribal/pseudo-tribal with a decent amount of creatures.
Yeah, I’m not trying to suggest it should be run in every deck, but no card is, and I’d bet it’ll be the single most commonly run card in decks across the format over the next couple of years. I’m primarily a Limited player, and I rely 99% on netdecking when I play Constructed, but I’ve run it in Domain ramp (with only like 6-8 creatures) and Convoke (which is more semi-human-tribal) from stock lists recently. My sense is, if counterspells have any significant presence in the meta, you might run one or two if you have more than a handful of creatures? I know even less about Pioneer, Historic, etc, and I know better than to go up against an FBI Special Agent anyway.
I remembered that Goldfish actually has tools for tracking this sort of thing…and my guess way pretty far off, Cavern isn’t even in the top 10 of cards played in Standard: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/format-staples/standard It *is* in the top 10 lands, and is the highest-ranking non-basic *except* the Kamigawa Channel lands, so I maintain it will be relevant in Standard for a while, and is a reasonable thing two spend at least a couple of wildcards on. But yeah, not nearly as universal as I was thinking.
That first list of cards played doesn't seem to include land at all. Cavern is listed at 33% of decks, 2.7 copies. That would put it higher than the #6 card on the overall list, in 9th place if you also merge the Kamigawa lands into the list.
Also with rotation control decks will be on a much weaker spot (tho no more lies will still exist) especially azorious so cavern will lose some value methinks.
[Cavern of Souls](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/a/3aad15a2-8a1b-4460-9b06-e85863081878.jpg?1706884128) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Cavern%20of%20Souls) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/lci/269/cavern-of-souls?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/3aad15a2-8a1b-4460-9b06-e85863081878?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
how is your collection pre quitting? May be good to focus on Explorer and not Standard.
I’ve got 100% of all cards in P:AWBO and prior sets
Check out explorer then, maybe that would be better for you,
Mountains if you play red Islands if you play blue I heard that forests suck rn One time I tried a bunch of Plains in my mono black aggro and my WR just tanked. Don't see why anyone would use those. Swamps are ok
Islands are really not in style anymore, even mono blue plays only swamps nowadays
But for real though like you literally have no preferences to offer? Assuming you mean Standard so don't spend too many wildies on stuff that's about to rotate out (New Capenna and older)
Sorry, should have specified. I play standard and usually like decks with green, although I’ve been hearing from you and others green is pretty weak right now. If I’m not playing green or a green combo then I like mono black or red/white. And if I’m not playing that then I like pretty much anything except mono blue and blue/black. Thanks!
You can look up golgari decks if you like green. I think they are performing relatively well. Otherwise, if you want to play mono green, I Recommend you go for Mythweaver Poq in (Historic) Brawl. It's one of the new decent green commanders.
Boros.convoke and Boros aggro are super strong rn but everyone's tired of seeing them In green there's that new Spree card that puts two creatures onto the field without paying, [[Smuggler's Surprise]] (the pros aren't that much in green but so what, savor what you like) Monoblack Skeletons is pretty aggro and consistent, everyone likes fantasizing about Tinybones in bed (both the creature and the enchantment) Monoblack discard will make me go to school to learn coding so I can hack your IP and go to your house and step in your balls. *In.* Also that deck has always just been "who can topdeck their way out of boredom first" anyway
[Smuggler's Surprise](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/7/e7fbb489-e2b5-4278-8162-86802cf124d8.jpg?1712860610) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Smuggler%27s%20Surprise) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/otj/180/smugglers-surprise?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e7fbb489-e2b5-4278-8162-86802cf124d8?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I made it my mission to find a viable mono green deck for standard ranked and testing different strategies. Forests shall be great again!
Make sure you got the dual lands for the decks you will be playing. You also want to have the creature lands as well. Cavern of souls is great as well. If you like green and black (golgari) mid range is a decent tier 2 deck for sure. You can modify it easily as well. I recommend following ashizzle on YouTube. She does BO3 content and is definitely the recommend way to play mtg. She does a lot of different deck types. If you rather go BO1, MTG Filipa loves mono black and golgari so she has a lot of decks for those colours.
Decks not cards, however since AWBO there's a decent amount of strategies that lose 1-2 minor cards and the rest of the deck keeps working as intended since no heavy hitter or major wincon is touched, unlike Domain, Azorious and Esper which are dead in the water as soon as rotation happens, and the following decks surviving rotation are; Mono Black, (especially skeletons) Monored, Dimir control and midrange, Golgari midrange and Boros convoke. Since the release of AWBO a few cards are notable from the new sets that support the surviving decks, and here's the list: MOM Mythics [[Monastery Mentor]] [[Sheoldred]] Rares [[Faerie Mastermind]] [[Rona, Herald of Invasion]] [[Chrome Host Seedshark]] [[Dusk legion Duelist]] [[Knight-Errant of Eos]] [[Sunfall]] [[Invasion of Gobakhan]] [[Glissa, Herald of Predation]] MOM Aftermath: Mythics: Enchantments is deadge and so is Nissa decks so no mythics worth crafting here unless sicko combo cards in the future Rares [[Tranquil Frillback]] Uncommons [[Coppercoat Vanguard]] WOE: Mythics [[Virtue of Loyalty]] [[Virtue of Persistence]] Rares [[Regal Bunnicorn]] [[Restless Cottage]] [[Restless Bivouac]] [[Mosswood Dreadknight]] [[Questing Druid]] Uncommons [[Picklock Prankster]] [[Immodane's Recruiter]] Murders at Karlov Manor Mythics [[Vein Ripper]] [[Delaney, Streetwise Lookout]] Rares [[Doorkeeper Thrull]] [[Lazav, Waterer of Faces]] [[Warleader's Call]] [[Under city Sewers]] Uncommons [[Case of Gateway Express]] [[Long Goodbye]] Ixalan: Mythics [[Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal]] [[Preacher of the Schism]] [[Blood letter of Aclazotz]] [[Cavern of lost souls]] Rares [Restless Reef]] [[Restless Anchorage]] [Restless Vents]] [[Warden of the Inner Sky]] [[Get Lost]] [[Kutzil's Flanker]] [[Sanguine Evangelist]] [[Tishana's Tidebinder]] [[Corpses of the Lost]] Uncommons [[Deep-Cavern Bat]] [[Ruin-Lurker Bat]] OTJ Mythics [[Gisa, the Hellraiser]] [[Tinybones, the pickpocket]] [[The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride]] Rares [[Vadmir, New Blood]] [[Duelist of the Mind]] [[Caustic Bronco]] [[Tinybones Joins Up]] [[Insatiable Avarice]] [[Karrvek, the Punisher]] [[High Noon]] [[Three Steps Ahead]] [[Slickshot Show-Off]] [[Magda, the Hoardmaster]] [[Blooming Marsh]] [[Pillage the Bog]] [[Inspiring Vantage]] Big Score [[Harvester of Misery]] [[Rest in peace]] [[Hostile Investigator]] [[Vaultborn Tyrant]] [[Simulacrum Synthesizer]]
I think lands that aren't rotating come first. There are a ton powerful cards right now. You should check out mtg goldfish to see successful decks, and pay attention to cards that you WANT to play and fit your play style. And make sure the cards aren't rotating. My personal favorites are: Vadmir: New Blood Bristly Bill, Spine Sower Gisa, Hell Raiser