It's a sound that can't be replicated: thousands of Play Boosters being opened all at once, the cacophony of more than 7,000 Tarkir: Dragonstorm Play Boosters being opened in the span of about five minutes on a tense Saturday morning. With that, Tarkir: Dragonstorm was here.

In Denver, we saw Magic Spotlight: Dragons capture the imagination of competitors. Tarkir: Dragonstorm flew into the hands of a competitive crowd hungry for a chance to play high-stakes Limited, and the stakes lived up to the wishes. There were eight Pro Tour invitations on the line and a massive prize pool rewarding those who were ahead of the brand-new Limited metagame of Tarkir: Dragonstorm. The event brought out players who haven't been seen at the top-tier tables in years, including Limited legend Mike Hron, former Grand Prix winners like Larry Li, and eventual Spotlight champion Andrew Baeckstrom, the hometown hero who finds himself back on the Pro Tour nearly a decade after he was first winning Limited Grand Prix events.

The nature of the tournament rewarded Limited experts who'd honed their skills over the years. But it also rewarded those who put in the work early to get ahead of the field. Eduardo Sajgalik, for instance, was one of the players who works deeply on a Limited format the moment it drops—both for his own benefit and his role as a Pro Tour advisor—and turned that expertise into an excellent finish.

While some Magic Spotlight: Dragons players were concerning themselves with the optimal balance of a five-color Dragons deck, other players were hard at work in a different arena.

MTG Arena, that is (or Magic Online). The Standard metagame has been moving fast since this newest release. But what does it actually mean for a metagame to move or evolve? We all intuitively understand what the result looks like—Cori-Steel Cutter is everywhere—but how do we get there? What moves the metagame from one stage to the next?

From my perspective, it's individual people: the players who are active in the MTG Arena queues and run the Magic Online streets. These are the ones who have both the knowledge to push the envelope and post a result that turns heads, starting a chain reaction of copycat lists and rippling builds, leading to things like the deck on the block: the Cori-Steel Cutter-fueled Izzet Prowess builds that Frank Karsten showcased last week.

It's people like Charalampos Kikidis, also known as Mogged, who show how opponents end up feeling after a run-in with the Magic Online king. Kikidis is the reigning Magic Online Champions Showcase winner, qualifying for that event through a Standard Showcase. When I polled players about who was leading the cutting-edge of Standard, it's Mogged whose name cropped up most often.

I WON THE MOCS!!!

I have been grinding for so long and have been ready for this moment and I finally got there!!!

1-2 Limited to 4-0 constructed playing the best boros energy list https://t.co/xKWSdbF2GT

— Mogged (Charis Kikidis) (@MoggedC) January 20, 2025

So how does Standard's foremost digital end-boss approach a format when a set like Tarkir: Dragonstorm drops?

"I always start with the cards that have the highest potential before trying to fit new cards in already existing archetypes, since the latter is easier," Kikidis explained. "I'm not a big believer in Standard matchup data, as the matchups can change with everyone bringing different playsets of cards; some decks have the potential to adapt to changes, and some don't. But I do use the data to predict how players will be thinking about the metagame, so I can find the best deck for the week."

Finding the best deck "for this week" is one of the main selling points of Standard, and of regular Magic play in general: every choice matters. The ebb and flow of a deck—or set of decklists—is always changing. As Kikidis pointed out, knowing what other players are expecting can be half the battle.

"The latest example is that, slightly before the Tarkir: Dragonstorm release, the data was looking good for Mono-Red decks and they were winning a lot. So, I played Dimir Bounce, a deck that had a terrible win rate at the Pro Tour but has an amazing Mono-Red matchup. I played that to success by winning two challenges and a Last Chance event to qualify for the MOCS," he explained. "I think Standard has been so good lately. There are always innovations to be made, and the metagame constantly changes, which makes the balance shift a lot. That's the kind of Constructed Magic I enjoy, when you have try to find the best deck for each week. I won with Dimir Bounce before the release of the set, then I won with Gruul Nemesis the week the set got released, then this week I won with Gruul Cutter, the deck that is currently my focus. Cori-Steel Cutter changed everything, making the red decks play better against midrange decks.

"When I'm building or choosing a deck, I do not build in a vacuum. I build with a purpose in mind; lately, the purpose has been to have a good red matchup."

The upcoming Magic: The Gathering®—FINAL FANTASY™ will be Kikidis's seventh Pro Tour in a row, making the Athens native a bona fide mainstay at this point. His focus to stay at the forefront of the Standard metagame in both gameplay and content continues to pay dividends, and his work is drawing attention as it does with every major Standard result.

"I've been following along with Sanctum of All—shoutout to my teammate Nicole Tipple who organized a testing group with a bunch of wonderful people for these Regional Championships—and the most-promising decks I've seen so far are the Cori-Steel Cutter decks, like Izzet Prowess or the Gruul list that Mogged won the challenge with," said Ryan Condon, who is fresh off a Top 32 finish at the last Pro Tour. "[Cori-Steel Cutter] seems to be taking the format by storm right now, and any time a card shows up successfully in multiple strategies, it's clear that it's at least partially the engine behind winning.

"I was a bit of an expert on the Mice decks before Tarkir: Dragonstorm, but I think they're being eclipsed or at least fundamentally changed by this one card. I think the format will start to revolve around it, and you'll either need to build the best Cutter deck or exploit its weaknesses."

Condon, who is in the midst of a key stretch of Pro Tour play that could see them lock up a spot at Magic World Championship 31, is already looking ahead to how to best combat the Cutter decks that Kikidis is perfecting (unless Mogged has upended the format with a new deck this week).

"One thing working with Sanctum has taught me is that no matter how strong a card is, there's always a way to beat it—you just might need to sacrifice in other places, and unless a strategy is truly dominant, that tradeoff isn't always worth it. The first place our brains went to fight Cutter is Temporary Lockdown," Condon elaborated. "The best Temporary Lockdown decks, in my opinion, are Azorius Omniscience Combo or Serra Paragon Control, which a large contingent of Sanctum worked on at the last Pro Tour that I think went under the radar because it's an incredibly difficult deck to pilot, but Jason Ye went 8-2 with it."

Great Magic minds don't always think alike—in fact, some of the best think very differently. But in this case, Condon is far from alone. The two-time NRG Championship finalist Stephen Dykman streams the Standard Challenge every Tuesday and has enjoyed recent success with off-the-wall Standard decks like Orzhov Life Gain, Izzet Monument, and Orzhov Paragon.

Dykman, discussing his success, said that this set "was extremely impactful on Standard; Cori-Steel Cutter is arguably one of the best cards for Standard. It almost immediately warped the format; the card's popularity led me to wanting to main deck four Temporary Lockdown in every deck I played because it's inherently the best answer to the card as well as the archetypes it is supporting.

"Fortunately, Temporary Lockdown decks also got a huge boost with the printing of Sunpearl Kirin, and since Kirin has flash, we can perform Lockdown loops in our opponent's draw step! The key to Standard has been to be hyper-efficient with your cards. That's why I've been main-decking plenty of one-mana spells that can interact with the board to keep up with the aggressive red decks."

starting stream in about 15 with some more brews! https://t.co/DshH0UpVGM pic.twitter.com/YQo1klC5mt

— Stephen Dykman (@StephenDykman) April 23, 2025

Standard has seen a resurgence of interest alongside a slate of high-level events, and it's clear that Tarkir: Dragonstorm is giving the best of the best the opportunity to excel and leave their mark on the Magic metagame at large.

So, what if you are looking to jump into the fray?

"For players new to Standard, I would strongly suggest sticking to one deck and focusing on their gameplay and matchup knowledge over anything else," Condon explained. "Becoming good at playing a deck is going to matter more than playing the best deck for most players. In the past year, I've learned how huge the gaps are between truly good pilots and players who are just playing the best deck."

Find your deck, foster your skills, and forge a path to victory. It's a path that has brought Condon plenty of success over the past few months, and it might just take you to the Pro Tour tables.