Historical Standard Formats – Play MTG by Year

I would like to suggest a new game mode for MTG Arena: year-based matchmaking and historical Standard formats.

One of the biggest problems with the current game is that older decks gradually become irrelevant as new sets are released. Players who enjoy older mechanics and strategies often feel forced to abandon their decks because the competitive meta keeps changing.

Historic and Pioneer do not fully solve this problem. Although they allow players to use older cards, the overall power level keeps increasing, and older archetypes can still struggle to compete.

My suggestion is to introduce separate historical Standard modes, organized by year.

For example:

• 2021 Standard: Only cards that were legal in the 2021 Standard environment.
• 2022 Standard: The original 2022 card pool and ban list.
• 2023 Standard: The original 2023 Standard environment.

Players could choose the year they want to play and compete against others using the same card pool and rules from that period.

This would allow players to revisit old strategies, mechanics, and favorite decks without having to compete against years of power creep.

Not every player wants to constantly chase the newest meta or spend wildcards rebuilding their collection after every release.

Please consider adding historical Standard formats or year-based matchmaking to MTG Arena.

I believe this would give older cards and beloved archetypes a new purpose, while giving players more freedom and reasons to keep playing.