It begins, gentle seekers of glory. Today is a day of great opportunity and gangrenous rot. The pallid sun meekly illuminates the great ravenous hordes as they linger, eager and anxious, waiting for their moment, when they shall be unleashed upon the world to slack their unending hunger for inadequately-proportioned sugary confections. For those whose […]
David Ernenwein
David has been playing Magic since Odyssey block. A dedicated Spike, he's been grinding tournaments for over a decade, including a Pro Tour appearance. A Modern specialist who dabbles in Legacy, his writing is focused on metagame analysis and deck evolution.
Another week, another Star City Open, another round of data collection. As a general observation, the metagame diversity on display is remarkable. As the data will show, there are numerous viable archetypes and considerable diversity within those archetypes. However, clear front-runners are emerging. Should these continue through Regionals I think the metagame tiering will emerge. […]
You may not have heard, but there’s a Modern Pro Tour coming up. This is leading to an influx of interest in our beloved formatĀ andĀ increased tournament support. The past weekend had an SCG Modern Open in Charlotte; next weekend there’s another in Cincinnati, SCG Regionals are in November, and then the SCG Invitational and GP […]
The past month has been odd for me. I have been advocating UW Merfolk forever, but almost every other Fish player is mono-blue. It made sense. Perfect, painless manaĀ all the time is really appealing. ThenĀ Ixalan happened and everyone is experimenting with other colors. I’m not complaining but it feels weird. The fact that they’reĀ still not […]
The time has (finally) come to actually reveal the results of my latest banlist test. Looking back, testing two different decks made this harder than it needed to be. Focusing just on Storm would have yielded more satisfying data, though not a more significant result. As you will see, it appears that Preordain would not […]
With a new set comes new speculation, new brews, and new bold declarations. Archetypes are revived, archetypes are doomed, new decks exist, the new decks are terribleāwe’ve heard it all before. I try not to speculate and only talk about cards once I’ve actually played with them. This means I’m pretty late to the party […]
Yes, you read that title correctly. For better or worse, this series is coming to its end for the year. The only remaining PPTQ for PTĀ Rivals of Ixalan is Sealed Deck, so this is the end. Until the Modern grind resumes next year, anyway. I really wasn’t sure what to expect this week. The PPTQs […]
An unexpected problem with managing a long running series is the intro. This is the sixth time I’ve had to report that I didn’t get there and I’m worried that I’m just retreading old ground at this point. My only hope is that by pointing this fact out and turning it into my intro, I […]
Argh. Falling short of your goals is disheartening enough. Knowing it was because you didn’t perform at you best is far worse. Doing so on your home turf is humiliating. This week’s PPTQ did not go well; that’s the tagline here. Just in case it wasn’t immediately apparent. This week’s PPTQ was held at my […]
It is inevitable. Every time a new Banned and Restricted Announcement comes out, speculation runs rampant. Everyone has their pet cards to advocate for or against, everyone is utterly convinced they’re right, and they take offense to disagreement. Every single time. It’s really tiring.Ā I’ve written about this problem before. I have no problem discussing possible […]
Once again, it is time to start rolling out my results from the latest Banlist Test. As usual, I will start with the experimental setup and the unquantifiable results. I know that what most readers care about are the hard numbers, but I’m not done gathering the data yet. That will be coming sometime in […]
This is a very frustrating week for me. You see, I have a very good result to report on and an embarrassingly bad one as well. It’s not theĀ ideal result, but much better than previous weeks. I almost got there, but that just isn’t good enough for me. I’m massively competitive and will never be […]
Another week, another PPTQ, and another failure to qualify. On the one hand, this is nice: I don’t have to actually think about my article week to week. On the other, I’m still not qualified for the RPTQ. With the good comes the bad, I suppose. Anyway, before I get into my tournament, lets talk […]
