If you haven’t heard, Wizards of the Coast recently announced a new format – Modern. The oldest cards allowed will be 8th Edition (for core sets) and Mirrodin (for expansions). The idea for the format, as I understand it, is to be a non-rotating (cards will never become too old and not legal anymore, meaning […]
Building Around Exarch-Twin
When you came in the air went out and every shadow filled up with doubt. I don’t know who you think you are, but before the night is through I wanna do bad things with you –Jace, to Deceiver Exarch The combination of Deceiver Exarch and Splinter Twin is the most powerful thing to do […]
Five Questions for the New Standard
With CawBlade in its recent incarnations gone the metagame is seemingly wide open. Any number of archetypes can claim to be the new top dog, and the viability of many cards goes up without the fear of a Jace making them irrelevant or a turn three Batterskull attacking too quickly for them to come online. Until some tournament results come in to fill in the gaps any talk about the new metagame will be little more than an educated guess, but we can still know questions need to be answered.
After the Bannings
The first of two articles today in anticipation of Monday’s Banning announcement. Will Jace, the Mind Sculptor stay legal? What about Stoneforge Mystic? Brook Gardner-Durbin explores what options will be available to you if either or both of the above get the axe!
Decisions, SparkBlade, and Last Week’s Deck
Last week I played in a standard tournament for four [card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/card]s. I played SparkBlade, a list very similar to the one in my last article.
Top Five Underrated Cards in Standard
With the exception of Splinter-Twin, however, the new metagame is very similar to the metagame before rotation. Edgar Flores won the first SCG Open with NPH legal with a UW CawBlade list that looked very similar to the pre-rotation lists. In this metagame there are a number of cards that are being underplayed, in my opinion, and here are the top 5.
UW Control: Hawks Need Not Apply
I love Venser, the Sojourner. I had been skeptical when I first saw the card and remained so even after some play, but I eventually tried it at The 2010s after seeing a UWr list that Patrick Chapin was advocating. While I disagreed with him about the quality of the Red splash and dropped it […]
Removal in Standard
Being able to interact with an opponent’s creatures in a meaningful way is essential to success in today’s metagame. Once upon a time, when most of the creatures were awful and took a long time to win, a player could get away with just putting four Lightning Bolts or a playset of Swords to Plowshares […]
A Closer Look At Tezzeret
When he was first spoiled, Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas was one of the most talked about cards in Mirrordin Besieged. While he has performed well in some decks, including a top eight at PT Paris in the hands of Patrick Chapin and a SCG Qualifier win for Chase “The Tezzerexpert” Stefani (@DrunkestMan on twitter) at […]
Building A New Deck
I am not a deckbuilding expert. I like to think I am pretty good at tweaking existing lists to perfect them for my expected metagame, but I am no deckbuilder. That said, I recently attempted to build a new brew that could attack the metagame from a new angle. I’m not going to claim this […]
Evaluating Trumps in CawBlade
To every measure there is a countermeasure, and a counter-countermeasure. Patrick Chapin wrote an article some time ago entitled Information Cascades in Magic. In it he described how information in any area, but particularly in Magic, cascades and plateaus. When everybody knows that Deck X is the best and most dominant deck, many people will […]
Breaking The CawBlade Mirror
Blue-White Control is an archetype older than dirt. The first deck in Magic history that didn’t suck as bad as the rest was Brian Weissman’s The Deck, a UW Deck that splashed red for Red Elemental Blast. In the days when Juzam Djinn was bad because it dealt you damage, and you were lucky to […]
0-2 Drop at GP Denver: A Success Story
Fair warning: This article is about the adventure that is a Grand Prix and has less tech than most articles. I will have another article soon with more tech for upcoming tournaments. 0-2 Drop. Oops. I had high hopes going into GP: Denver. I had done well at the local drafts leading up to the […]