Timeline of Magic: the Gathering Standard (Type II)

The Magic: the Gathering format known today as Standard (originally called "Type 2") was first announced on January 10, 1995, inheriting banned and restricted lists from Vintage. Since it was initially announced, the way that card legality is determined, and the way cards rotate in and out of the format has gone through many changes. Below is a timeline of different Standard environments throughout the format's history. Where verifiable, effective dates of legality for paper magic (not Magic Online) are listed (as opposed to release or announcement dates.) Data for the earliest years of the format are hard to verify with precision, as the internet, and the game, was still in its infancy.

Banned and Restricted lists inherited from Vintage.

Standard (Type II) can be composed of cards from the most recent edition of Magic The Gathering (Fourth Edition at the time), white border extensions (Chronicles) and all available limited edition expansions (Ice Age, Fallen Empires and soon Homelands).

PT Dallas in Nov - the 1st non-modified Standard Pro Tour event.

New editions of the Basic Set replace old versions and are permitted in Standard play 30 days after the release date of the new edition. New stand-alone expansions (e.g. Ice Age, Mirage) replace previous stand-alone expansions and are permitted in Standard play 30 days after the release date of the new edition. Limited-edition expansions more than 10 months old at time of release are replaced when a new expansion becomes legal.

Fallen Empires and Ice Age are removed from Standard.

All cards on the restricted list are moved to the banned list. Banned List: Balance, Black Vise, Bronze Tablet, Channel, Ivory Tower, Jeweled Bird, Land Tax, Mind Twist, Rebirth, Strip Mine, Tempest Efreet.

Standard decks can be composed of cards from the most recent edition of Magic: The Gathering (then 5th Edition) and all sets from the two most recent "blocks" of expansions.

New card sets become effective on the first day of the month following their introduction. If a set is released in the last two weeks of a month, then the set's effective date is pushed out to the first of the second month. For example, a set released on January 8 is legal on February 1, and one released on January 25 is legal on March 1.

Magic: The Gathering Online goes live in July 2002 with with a total of six sets (Seventh Edition, Invasion, Planeshift, Apocalypse, Odyssey and Torment)

Nationals: Spain, Australia and Japan, beginning July 18th. Italy, France and US in late July. Great Britain and Germany in Aug.

Some MOCS on MTGO were Standard: Season 4 in July and MOCS Season 7 Championship on Oct. 10 (rotation hadn't happened yet on MTGO)

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