MTG Standard Rotation 2027: What Leaves, What Stays and When

What's Confirmed and What Isn't

For the 2027 Standard rotation, Wizards has confirmed the sets, the set that triggers it and the Arena date. It hasn't confirmed when paper Standard rotates. Each answer links to its source.

Wizards adds that it is "not looking to make sweeping changes to the format to prepare it for rotation this time around."

Which Sets Rotate Out of Standard in 2027?

Six sets rotate out of Standard in 2027: Wilds of Eldraine, The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, Murders at Karlov Manor, Outlaws of Thunder Junction (with The Big Score), Bloomburrow and Duskmourn: House of Horror.

Wizards named them in its banned and restricted announcement of 12 October 2026, saying they "will all be leaving Standard" when Nauctis arrives:

Set	Code	Release date	Its booster boxes on our EV calculator
Wilds of Eldraine	WOE	8 Sep 2023	Draft · Set · Collector
The Lost Caverns of Ixalan	LCI	17 Nov 2023	Draft · Set · Collector
Murders at Karlov Manor	MKM	9 Feb 2024	Play · Collector
Outlaws of Thunder Junction, with The Big Score	OTJ, BIG	19 Apr 2024	Play · Collector
Bloomburrow	BLB	2 Aug 2024	Play · Collector
Duskmourn: House of Horror	DSK	27 Sep 2024	Play · Collector

Wizards calls it "an extra-large rotation" because it was "delayed half a year to get us to a world where rotation aligns with calendar years." Bloomburrow and Duskmourn go with the older four. Wizards said in October 2024 that both would be legal "for slightly shorter than originally anticipated". That works out to about two and a half years in Standard for Bloomburrow, and two years and four months for Duskmourn.

Six Sets or Seven?

The Big Score comes inside Outlaws of Thunder Junction boosters but has its own set code, BIG, and Wizards' Collecting Outlaws of Thunder Junction calls both "Standard-legal sets". Wizards' Standard page counts it as part of Outlaws ("Outlaws of Thunder Junction (including The Big Score)") and says "the six oldest sets in Standard rotate out". The 12 October announcement lists The Big Score on its own, which makes seven names. Either way, the same cards leave.

How Many Cards Leave, and Which Stay

On 30 October 2026, Scryfall lists 5,158 non-basic cards as Standard-legal. 1,672 of them are legal through the rotating sets. Thirty of those were also printed in a set that stays, so they stay too. That leaves 1,642 cards that leave Standard, about 32% of today's pool, before Star Trek's new cards are added in November.

The 30 that survive include Shock, Evolving Wilds, Banishing Light, Scorching Dragonfire, Snakeskin Veil, Giant Growth and Sorcerous Spyglass. Any rotating card that Nauctis reprints will stay as well; Scryfall listed no Nauctis cards on 30 October.

Notable cards that leave:

• The Lost Caverns of Ixalan: Cavern of Souls and Roaming Throne
• Bloomburrow: Fabled Passage and Three Tree City
• Duskmourn: Enduring Vitality and its five Verge lands, such as Blazemire Verge (Aetherdrift's five Verges stay)
• Murders at Karlov Manor: its ten surveil lands, such as Undercity Sewers
• The Big Score: Grand Abolisher

When Does Standard Rotate in 2027?

MTG Arena rotates on 2 February 2027, which Wizards has confirmed. Paper Standard has no announced date as of 30 October 2026; the evidence points to Friday 29 January 2027, a week before Nauctis: The Sunken Realm releases on 5 February.

MTG Arena: 2 February 2027

Wizards set the date in its MTG Arena State of the Formats on 11 September 2026: "February 2, 2027: The Alchemy format will be removed from MTG Arena with 2027's rotation alongside Nauctis: The Sunken Realm Prerelease events."

So Arena's rotation and the end of Alchemy fall on the same day. Alchemy: Reality Fracture is the last Alchemy release Wizards plans, and digital-only Alchemy cards "will remain on MTG Arena and legal in Historic, Timeless, Brawl, and Competitive Brawl." For the 2025 rotation, Wizards published its Arena details three weeks ahead, on 8 July 2025. Nothing like that has been published for 2027 yet.

Paper: Not Announced, Most Likely 29 January 2027

Wizards hasn't published the tabletop rotation date. Four things it has published point to the same day:

1. The rule. Wizards' Standard page says: "Once per year, after the first premier set Prerelease of the year, the six oldest sets in Standard rotate out."
2. The practice. The current Magic Tournament Rules (dated 27 February 2026, section 3.7) made Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tournament-legal on 27 February 2026 and Secrets of Strixhaven on 17 April 2026. Each date was the first day of that set's prerelease, a week before its release. The June 2025 edition did the same for Edge of Eternities, the set that triggered the last rotation: legal from 25 July 2025, a week before its 1 August release.
3. The prerelease month. WPN told stores in September 2026 that the Nauctis prerelease is "in January" (Reality Fracture marketing kit).
4. The season calendar. WPN's Star Trek season events run until 28 January 2027 (Star Trek dates and details).

Nauctis releases on Friday 5 February 2027. The Friday a week earlier is 29 January, the day after the Star Trek season ends. If Wizards follows its recent practice, that is when Nauctis becomes tournament-legal and the six sets leave paper Standard. Read "after the Prerelease" as after prerelease week instead, and the date would be release day, 5 February.

It is still an expectation. The Tournament Rules say legal dates "may be subject to change", and WPN hasn't posted its Nauctis dates page yet. We'll update this page when Wizards publishes the date.

Magic Online

Wizards hasn't announced the Magic Online date. In 2025, Magic Online dropped the rotating sets at 10 a.m. Pacific on 29 July 2025, when Edge of Eternities went on sale there (MTGO news).

What Stays in Standard After the 2027 Rotation

After the 2027 rotation, 15 tabletop sets are legal in Standard: Foundations, every set released in 2025 and 2026, and Nauctis: The Sunken Realm. On MTG Arena, the digital-only Through the Omenpaths stays legal too.

Wizards' rule, from October 2024: "as of the first release of 2027, card sets released in 2025, 2026, and 2027 will be legal in Standard." Foundations is the exception. It came out in November 2024 and stays "until at least 2029".

The last column applies Wizards' three-year model. Wizards hasn't named the first sets of 2028 or 2029, or their dates.

Universes Beyond booster sets released since 2025 are Standard-legal, which is why Final Fantasy, Spider-Man, Avatar, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Marvel Super Heroes, The Hobbit and Star Trek are on the list (every Universes Beyond set). More sets join later in 2027. Wizards' 2027 announcement says the year has "three Magic Multiverse sets and three Universes Beyond sets". Besides Nauctis, three have dates so far: Marvel: Darkhold Destiny on 9 April, Kamigawa: Titanbreach on 4 June and Zhalfir on 1 October.

Why Standard Didn't Rotate in 2026

Standard didn't rotate in 2026 because Wizards moved rotation to the first set of each calendar year, starting in 2027, and skipped 2026 to make the change. Aaron Forsythe announced it on 25 October 2024: "There will be no rotation in 2026 as we gear up for this change." The most recent rotation was in July 2025.

The 2025 rotation removed Dominaria United, The Brothers' War, Phyrexia: All Will Be One, March of the Machine and March of the Machine: The Aftermath; on MTG Arena it happened on 29 July 2025. For how Standard compares with Pioneer, Modern and Commander, see every MTG format explained.

Booster Boxes of the Rotating Sets: What the Cards Are Worth

Rotation changes where cards can be played, not what's in a sealed box, and the boxes of all six sets still trade. On 29 October 2026, a Murders at Karlov Manor Play Booster box held, on average, $239.76 of cards at market prices, for a $128.66 box (1.86×). That is the best ratio of cards to price among the 182 boxes with a market price on our booster box value calculator.

• Wilds of Eldraine Draft Booster Box36 packs · what's inside
• The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Draft Booster Box36 packs · what's inside
• Murders at Karlov Manor Play Booster Box36 packs · what's inside
• Outlaws of Thunder Junction Play Booster Box36 packs · what's inside
• Bloomburrow Play Booster Box36 packs · what's inside
• Duskmourn: House of Horror Play Booster Box36 packs · what's inside

Three things stand out:

• Six of the eight Play, Draft and Set boxes hold more in cards than they cost. Murders at Karlov Manor (1.86×) and Outlaws of Thunder Junction (1.50×) lead. Wilds of Eldraine Set only just clears its price (1.02×). The two Lost Caverns of Ixalan boxes hold less: Draft 0.93×, Set 0.60×.
• Every Collector box costs more than its cards are worth, from 0.38× for Bloomburrow ($510.72 of cards for a $1,338.83 box) to 0.76× for Murders at Karlov Manor. For the same comparison across every set, see Collector Booster vs Play Booster.
• Market value isn't cash. The last column is what you'd keep selling the cards yourself, after TCGplayer's seller fees, postage and bulk buylist rates for cards not worth listing. On that basis none of the 14 boxes returns its price. Murders at Karlov Manor Play comes closest: $105.12 back on a $128.66 box.

Wilds of Eldraine and The Lost Caverns of Ixalan came out before Play Boosters, so they come as Draft and Set boxes. Murders at Karlov Manor was the first set sold in Play Boosters. If you want to open one of the rotating sets, Murders at Karlov Manor gives the most card value per dollar: its Play Booster box on TCGplayer. For comparison, the Foundations Play Booster box, which stays in Standard, held $262.44 of cards for $171.76 (1.53×) on the same day.

Have the Boxes Dropped Since Wizards Named the Sets?

Not so far. Between 12 October 2026, the day Wizards listed the sets leaving, and 29 October, 10 of the 14 boxes rose on TCGplayer, one didn't move and three fell. The biggest fall was Murders at Karlov Manor Play, down 7.4%, mostly in one day: from $140.81 on 21 October to $129.92 on 22 October.

These are TCGplayer market prices from our saved price snapshots. Since 2 September, 11 of the 14 have risen, the three Lost Caverns of Ixalan boxes by about 11% each. They show what the boxes have done so far, not what rotation will do: we found no data, from any source, on how sealed boxes move at rotation. The box pages update daily, and we'll check these 14 prices again after 2 February 2027.

In Half the Boxes, the Chase Cards Aren't Standard Cards

In 7 of the 14 boxes, the three most valuable pulls are cards that aren't legal in Standard today. They come from bonus sheets that never counted for Standard, so rotation doesn't change where they can be played:

• Wilds of Eldraine, all three boxes: foil Smothering Tithe and Rhystic Study from Enchanting Tales. In the Collector box, the Smothering Tithe foil is about $1,960, roughly 1 in 74 boxes.
• Murders at Karlov Manor Play: foil Victimize, Gamble and Field of the Dead, all Special Guests.
• Outlaws of Thunder Junction Play: foil Scapeshift, Prismatic Vista and Stoneforge Mystic, also Special Guests.
• The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Set (Jurassic World and Special Guests) and Duskmourn Play (Special Guests) are the same.

The other seven each have at least one Standard card in their top three, and those cards leave. The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Collector box's top pull is a foil Cavern of Souls at $4,900, about 1 in 738 boxes. Bloomburrow Play's top two are foil Lumra, Bellow of the Woods and foil Three Tree City.

Don't read this as a promise that any box holds its value. The top three pulls are a small part of a Play box. In the Murders at Karlov Manor Play box, Victimize, Gamble and Field of the Dead each turn up about once in 18 boxes, and together they add about $15 of the $239.76.

Do Cards Lose Value When They Rotate?

Cards played mainly in Standard usually do, according to the price writers who track it; cards played in Commander and Modern lose much less. MTGPrice's Cliff Daigle wrote in March 2025 that "most card prices are driven by Eternal formats, like Modern or Commander", and looked back at the 2024 rotation for examples. The Wandering Emperor was "selling briskly at $30 a copy" in March 2024. "In August, when it rotated, it was down to $10 and now it's $5." Boseiju, Who Endures, which is "used very widely in Modern and Commander", still "had its price go from $40 down to $30 at rotation, and hit a low of $25 in December", though by March 2025 it had "crept back up to $30".

So should you sell before rotation? Draftsim's rotation guide (updated 2 October 2026) says "it's best to sell your Standard staples before rotation happens, but not right before", because prices "usually start to go down leading up to the rotation". For the rest it says the opposite: "it's best to hold onto Commander and Modern staples to sell after rotation instead of before." For where to sell and what each venue lets you keep, see where to sell Magic cards.

None of these sources measures what rotation does to sealed boxes, and we found no source that does. The only sealed data on this page is our own, in the tables above.

What Happens to Your Rotated Cards

• Paper: every card that leaves Standard stays legal in Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage and Commander, unless it is banned in that format.
• MTG Arena: in 2025, Wizards kept rotated cards legal in "Historic, Pioneer, and Timeless" (Wizards, 8 July 2025). It hasn't published the 2027 details yet. Arena's old Explorer format is now called Pioneer.
• Alchemy cards: after Alchemy is retired on 2 February 2027, digital-only Alchemy cards stay legal in Historic, Timeless, Brawl and Competitive Brawl.

Citations & Resources

• Wizards of the Coast: Banned and Restricted Announcement, 12 October 2026
• Wizards of the Coast: Standard format page
• Wizards of the Coast: Aligning the Universes, 25 October 2024
• Wizards of the Coast: MTG Arena State of the Formats 2026, 11 September 2026
• Wizards of the Coast: Nauctis: The Sunken Realm product page
• Wizards of the Coast: Everything Announced for the Magic Multiverse in 2027, 17 July 2026
• Wizards of the Coast: Marvel: Darkhold Destiny product page
• Wizards of the Coast: Collecting Outlaws of Thunder Junction
• Wizards of the Coast: A First Look at Magic: The Gathering Foundations, 2 August 2024
• Wizards of the Coast: Revitalizing Standard, 7 May 2023
• Wizards of the Coast: Renewal for MTG Arena's 2025 Standard Rotation, 8 July 2025
• Wizards of the Coast: Magic Tournament Rules, 27 February 2026 (section 3.7)
• Wizards of the Coast: Magic Tournament Rules, 30 June 2025 (section 3.7)
• WPN: Reality Fracture Marketing Kit and Promotional Resources, 9 September 2026
• WPN: Star Trek Dates and Details, 28 October 2026
• WPN: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Dates and Details
• WPN: Secrets of Strixhaven Dates and Details
• Magic Online: Edge of Eternities on MTGO, 22 July 2025
• MTGPrice: Preparing for Rotation in Fall 2025, Cliff Daigle, 7 March 2025
• Draftsim: MTG Standard rotation guide, updated 2 October 2026
• Scryfall: Standard-legal cards and legality data

Related Guides

• MTG Formats: every Magic format explained
• Booster Box Value Calculator: what the cards in every booster box are worth, updated daily
• MTG Foundations Guide: the set that stays in Standard until at least 2029
• MTG Star Trek: the last set to join Standard before rotation
• MTG Booster Box Guide: box types, packs per box and prices
• Collector Booster vs Play Booster: what each pack holds, and which boxes are worth their price
• Where to Sell MTG Cards: every venue, ranked by what you keep
• MTG Black Friday 2026: what every booster box costs and what counts as a deal