Last month, we took a look at some of the more interesting decks the online dumps provided in November, focusing on the many applications of Scourge of the Skyclaves. It is indeed December now, but what better time to check out the candidates from the last two weeks? With our comprehensive metagame update published and […]
Jordan Boisvert
Jordan is Assistant Director of Content at Quiet Speculation and a longtime contributor to Modern Nexus. Best known for his innovations in Temur Delver and Colorless Eldrazi, Jordan favors highly reversible aggro-control decks and is always striving to embrace his biases when playing or brewing.
My last article was about Scourge of the Skyclaves… and it still opened by acknowledging that Modern’s general narrative currently revolves around Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath. Yes, Uro is everywhere, and Modern players seem up on the fact that it’s incredibly strong—if they aren’t playing it, they’re finding ways to beat it, or more […]
Uro, Uro, Uro—that’s all many Modern players are likely to hear these days, in a certain echo of the Oko, Oko, Oko from around this time last year. But there’s plenty more happening under the surface, Modern’s saving grace being a wave of innovation triggered by Scourge of the Skyclaves. The Scourge of Midrange In […]
Shortly after the card became legal, I ran a piece on Scourge of the Skyclaves that illustrated the many homes it was sure to find (and had already tried out) in Modern. Of those, Rakdos Prowess has risen head-and-shoulders above the rest of the competition, that build now rebranded as Scourge Shadow. Still, as a […]
Halfway through the month, October seems to be following in September’s footsteps, giving us new decks from the new cards and interesting takes on existing archetypes. Today, we’ll look at developments in ramp, midrange, fish, and combo. Let’s get to it! Come Om, Come All A-Omnath, Locus of Creation is more than just a Standard […]
The second half of September 2020 brought us swaths of new decks, as Zendikar Rising did more than its fair share in shaking up the Modern metagame. Today, we’ll explore new combo options and view the myriad directions ramp strategies are starting to take. Kombo Krazy We’ll start with Belcher, a deck that recently received […]
A house is not a home, they say, and what is Modern if not a format that houses some of the baddest cards banned from Standard? Well, it’s also got Standard newcomers, be they banned or not. And one among them has had its heart set on turning our beloved format into its own sweet […]
New sets always inspire brewing and changes of pace, but this month, I was pleased to see that some of the ideas I’ve had about future metagame developments seem to be more realistic than I’d thought! If these decks have legs now, imagine what they’ll look like when Zendikar Rising drops… maybe quite similar, and […]
Zendikar Rising spoilers are officially underway! That also means summer is ending… but what great outdoor plans did we have that weren’t ruined by a global pandemic anyway? There’s never been a better time to forget about real-life exploration and lock ourselves inside to peruse new cards at a glowing computer screen! Flip Top Rising’s […]
Earlier in the month, we saw Stoneforge Mystic come to form the backbone not just of popular UW and Stoneblade decks, but of Colossus Hammer combo decks and bulkier flash strategies. Blue aggro-control decks also had an interesting month, with Arclight Phoenix making a comeback and Devotion to Blue rearing its head. The latter trend […]
With all the talk of generalities, such as metagame numbers and new decks, it’s easy to overlook the specifics. So let’s talk about Monastery Swiftspear. Indeed one of the most pushed combat creatures ever, Swiftspear reigns supreme among Stage 1 beaters and has come to define the majority of Modern aggro decks. If you want […]
August seems like the Month of Stoneforge, with recent format adjustments suddenly favoring the once-banned underdog. At the same time, blue mages lacking a taste for steel are finding their way in this shuffled metagame. Read on to explore the more exciting developments in Modern this month! Blade Runner 2020 As David noted last week, […]
I’m a firm believer in playing what you love in Modern, and in Magic. For me, that often means Tarmogoyf, although I do occasionally try other flavors. Among my Goyf-related pet projects is Rogues, a longstanding deckbuilding challenge with a simple rule: run 4 copies each of Thieves’ Fortune and Tarmogoyf. Creating and holding to […]
