I'm not sure if this really goes in this section of the forum, but this seemed the closest fit.
I like a lot of the cards from Theros, but overall, I feel like the set didn't have enough different strong pieces to make a good Standard environment. I realized that there are certain things I expect out of any expert level set, and certain things I expect out of a core set, to keep Standard environment strong and varied. Some things can 'overlap' in my desires, like a constructed playable colorless card could be a creature artifact and fulfill both those requirements. These are of course minimum requirements, things that I only request one of could have multiple variations on it in the same set or block or Standard environment or whatnot.
In every set:
Basic lands yo!
Standard Constructed playable rares of each color and colorless.
A new mythic rare or rare meant for Modern constructed (something likely to be seen in serious Modern events)
A rare or mythic rare that is a re-print meant for Modern (to keep up availability of Modern cards, should be one seen in high-ranking decks, probably a card that was going for over $20 before the re-print)
A creature artifact (colorless)
A non-creature artifact (colorless)
At least one standard constructed playable uncommon in every color (not necessarily colorless), one creature, and one non-creature
At least one standard constructed playable common in every color (not necessarily colorless), one creature, and one non-creature
A black instant kill spell of some sort (along the lines of things like murder, doom blade, etc.) at common or uncommon rarity
Green spells to deal with artifacts and enchantments, could be a single spell that deals with both, or one spell for each
White spells to deal with artifacts and enchantments, could be a single spell that deals with both, or one spell for each
Red spell to deal with artifacts
Blue bounce spell
Blue counter-spell
Blue draw spell that draws at least 2 cards with no drawback
A green spell to deal with flying creatures
A red spell that can deal damage the caster's choice of creature or player with a mana cost of 1 or 2
A spell in every color that involves drawing at least one card (may have drawbacks)
A spell that can destroy lands
A non-aura enchantment in every color
An enchantment aura in every color
A board-wipe
An exile effect
A sacrifice effect targeting opponents
A creature that has a regenerate ability
Creatures with the following keywords: flying, trample, vigilance, hexproof, first-strike, double-strike, intimidate, deathtouch, lifelink, haste, reach
An indestructible permanent
A creature with a tap ability
A creature with an ability that costs mana to activate
A creature with a cmc of 1 or 2 that has a mana producing ability (or something equivalent, like the ability to untap lands)
A spell between 2-3 mana cost that can allow more than 1 land to wind up on the battlefield in a turn, either by putting it there itself or allowing you to play more than one that turn or something like that
A spell that searches the library for something, then shuffles it
A spell to make an opponent discard or exile something from their hand
Something that makes a/some token(s)
A 1 cmc creature spell in each color
A 1 cmc instant or sorcery in each color
A spell at each rarity except mythic (although mythic can have one too) that mills
A spell that lets you look at an opponent's hand
A spell that lets you fix or set up future draws (rearranging top of library, scrying, etc.)
A spell that lets you put stuff directly into the graveyard without it being played (such as a draw spell with a drawback that puts some of the stuff into the graveyard, something that can self-mill, etc.)
A creature in each color with a CMC of 5 or more
A vanilla creature of each color
A french-vanilla green creature with trample, and at least 4 power and at least 4 toughness that is common or uncommon rarity
A not life-link based source of life-gain in at least two different colors
A re-print of something (that isn't a basic land) with new art
A bad over-costed common that people almost always pick last in a draft
Expert level set:
non-basic land(s)
Legendary creature
A multi-color card at every rarity
A reprint that is good enough to be likely seen in decklists that can win the average FNM standard constructed stuff
Expert level block:
A Standard constructed playable creature in each color (mono-colored) at 1, 2, 3 and 4 cmc, all with decent odds to be seen in top 8 tournament level decklists
A Standard constructed playable non-creature spell in each color (mono-colored) at 1, 2, 3, and 4 cmc, all with decent odds to be seen in top 8 tournament level decklists
A Standard constructed playable colorless creature (does not have to be artifact, as Eldrazi proved), with decent odds of being seen in top 8 tournament level decklists
A Standard constructed playable non-creature colorless (does not have to be artifact as Eldrazi proved), with decent odds of being seen in top 8 tournament level decklists
Decent commander potential creatures (legendary creatures), at least one of which must be multi-color, and all of which together cover each color at least once, for instance, could be tri colors of each wedge or shard, 1 wuburg and 2 colorless, etc.
Every color pair (all 10 of them) represented in multi-color cards.
At least one creature of the following creature types (ones that are separated by / can be either one or another or all): Angel, Sphinx, Demon, Dragon, Hydra, Beast, Merfolk, Cat, Wolf/Hound/Fox, Human, Elf, Knight, Soldier, Wizard, Cleric, Shaman/Druid, Warrior/Barbarian, Zombie/Skeleton, Elemental, Spirit, Spider, Rat/Squirrel, Snake/Sperpent, Bird, Drake, Insect, Plant/Treefolk/Fungus/Sapproling, Bear, Kracken/Levianthan/Octopus
At least one basic land new art of each color
At least one card in each color printed in a previous core set
In a Standard environment:
a set of mana fixing lands that are better than the guildgates (ie. they do more than just come in tapped and fix 2 colors and a very minor rider like the guidldgates had with their special type) (things like tri-lands, dual color man-lands, mana confluence/city of brass, shocklands, fastlands, scrylands, painlands, checklands, filterlands, vivid lands, fetchlands, etc.), basically should be Standard constructed staples for multi-color tournament decks
A board wipe that hits creatures for 4-5 cmc to serve as a control staple (something minimally along the lines of Day of Judgment, but options would include things like Damnation, Wrath of God, Supreme Verdict, etc.)
At least two different cards that can become creatures for a turn but for the most part avoid sorcery speed creature wipes/removal (such as man-lands, Haunted Plate Mail, etc.)
at least one multi-colored planeswalker or colorless planeswalker
Cards sufficient to make a decent burn deck (perhaps win an average FNM)
Cards sufficient to make a decent mill deck (perhaps win an average FNM)
Cards sufficient to make a decent combo deck (perhaps win an average FNM)
Cards sufficient to make a decent ramp deck (perhaps win an average FNM)
Cards sufficient to make a decent mid-range deck (perhaps win an average FNM)
Cards sufficient to make a decent recursion deck (perhaps win an average FNM)
Cards sufficient for a decent control deck (enough to get top 8 at tournaments)
Cards sufficient for mono-color of each color in some sort of strategy or another to get into top 16 at tournaments
Cards sufficient for a multi-color of some sort to get top 8 at tournaments
Cards sufficient for aggro of some sort to get top 8 at tournaments
Cards sufficient for at least 5 noticeably different decks (not just a two or three cards difference) to get top 8 at tournaments
Options sufficient for good cards of any type that there is no card that is seen in every deck at top 8 of tournaments (and most aren't seen in more than 3/4ths)
A planeswalker card with a mana cost of 4 or less that is likely to see play in decks that win the average FNM
A planeswalker that is good enough to be seen in tournament level top 8 decklists
A (non-land) re-print of each color that sees serious Modern usage (like in the decklists found at MTGO-Stats that see at least 1% play)
A colorless (non-land) re-print of a card that sees serious Modern usage (like in the decklists found at MTGO-Stats that see at least 1% play)
A multi-color (non-land) re-print of a card that sees serious Modern usage (like in the decklists found at MTGO-Stats that see at least 1% play)
A non-basic land re-print of card(s) that see serious Modern usage (like in the decklists found at MTGO-Stats that see at least 1% play)
A multi-color vanilla creature
A vanilla 1 drop of each color
Protection from "insert color here" exists for each color on creatures, so there will be creatures with pro-white, pro-blue, pro-black, pro-red, and pro-green
Something to punish the use of non-basic lands (like Burning Earth)
A 'fog' effect
An 'anthem' effect
A decent 'lord' for some kind of creature type that is relatively common and playable
At least 3 cats that aren't humanoid ones (not leonin, nacatl, catfolk or whatnot), and at least 2 non-creature spells featuring illustrations of such cats (okay so I like cats... :p)
A black spell that can search a library for any card and not reveal it to the opponent
A colorless creature with 4 or more toughness
Planeswalkers covering all 5 colors, at least one multi-color or colorless one, at least one mono-colored one of each color
At least one creature with a brand-new creature type
At least one new creature with a creature type that has had less than 4 previous cards (unless this is impossible)
Cards to support a budget (no rares or mythics for this purpose) aggro deck with decent odds of winning an average FNM
Cards to support a budget (no rares or mythics for this purpose) burn deck with decent odds of winning an average FNM
Cards to support a budget (no rares or mythics for this purpose) control deck with decent odds of not losing every match of an average FNM
Cards to support a budget (no rares or mythics for this purpose) deck of each mono-color with decent odds winning half it's matches at an average FNM without just getting lucky
A good looking female humanoid creature card
A good looking male humanoid creature card
At least 9 black cards that aren't ugly/disgusting/horrifying/etc.
At least a few 'evil' cards of each color, and at least a few 'good' cards of each color
At least 9 cards involving randomness (coin flips, dice rolls, checking card type or CMC or something at the top of the library, etc.)
At least one basic land with (a) flower(s) on it
A card that depicts, references, has in it's name, has in it's rules test, has in it's flavor text 'lotus'
A card related to each of the greek classical elements, earth, air, water, and fire
A card related to each of the Chinese classical elements, wood, fire, earth, metal, water
A card related to ice
A card related to 'void'
A card related to 'æther'
A card related to lightning
A card related to sound or silence
A card related to acids/bases
A card related to luck/fortune
A card related to fate
A card in each color that does something outside of it's normal color pie, but at increased mana cost or with a drawback or something
A card depicting heroism
A card depicting villainy
A card related to each of the schools of magic in D&D 3.5 and such (Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, and Transmutation)
A reprint of a card good in Modern that probably isn't good in this Standard due to lack of support for it (not completely unplayable, but very niche or something)
A new card depicting a very cute fuzzy animal
A least 4 cards that can destroy lands
Private Mod Note
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I like a lot of the cards from Theros, but overall, I feel like the set didn't have enough different strong pieces to make a good Standard environment. I realized that there are certain things I expect out of any expert level set, and certain things I expect out of a core set, to keep Standard environment strong and varied. Some things can 'overlap' in my desires, like a constructed playable colorless card could be a creature artifact and fulfill both those requirements. These are of course minimum requirements, things that I only request one of could have multiple variations on it in the same set or block or Standard environment or whatnot.
In every set:
Expert level set:
Expert level block:
Core Set:
In a Standard environment: