Magic is not an exact science. Playstyle, both players’ shuffling techniques, deck composition, and mistakes are just a few variables that you’d need to control or eliminate to get a truly rigorous scientific analysis of deck performance and winning probability. Instead we tend to focus on results and how a deck will play over multiple […]
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.
Testing. It is the soul of tournament play. Honing and crafting your deck and play, optimizing them to dominate the competition. The eternal quest for the glory of victory on the back of your own creation! It is this siren’s call that keeps us playing and the dream that drives us forward. Of course, anyone who […]
Another week and I’m happy to report that Modern has returned to normal, and in many ways has never looked healthier. Everywhere you look there is diversity, brewing, and innovation in old lists. And no Tron! It’s always a good day when there is no Tron! I’d like to say that I was tested and prepared […]
Welcome to the third week of the new Modern. For many of us this is probably the most significant week simply because now is when the new IQ season really kicks off. Yes, there were a few IQ’s last week concurrent with the Baltimore Open, but this is the week that stores nationally really started to host tournaments, allowing Modern […]
Welcome to the second week of the new Modern era! If the chatter in discussion threads and the various articles from the past week are any indication, everyone is happily brewing away with the new toys from Wizards. Control mages are eagerly waiting for Ancestral Vision to tick down and aggro players are happily ruining it by […]
Rejoice, fellow Nexites! The Powers-That-Be have at last stepped in to put an end to Eldrazi Winter. We may at last emerge from the ruins, gaze upon the metagame again with clear eyes and eager hearts, and go forth and enjoy this beautiful new world. Breathe in, good Nexites, and breathe out a great, joyful sigh […]
IT HAS BEGUN! It is, at last, coming to FRUITION! They laughed at me, said it was impossible, said I was wasting my, SAID IT WOULD DRIVE ME MAD! MAD! Do you remember, DO YOU REMEMBER IT, Morgenthau? Remember how they said that the Storm itself was perfect, that attempting to harness it and turn […]
Ideas are incredibly insidious things. You have them all the time and mostly they just flit through the mind before disappearing forever, as ephemeral as Martin O’Malley’s presidential run. Sometimes though, they get stuck and won’t allow you to forget them. It’s like a bad itch that you can never scratch sufficiently, not even with […]
Good news, everyone! Shadows Over Innistrad spoiler season is in full swing. This means that you can get excited, and start speculating on cards! And, invariably, get it wrong! Except of course for That Guy. You know, That Guy. The one who always gets it right and makes out like a bandit. Why do we […]
The shadow of the Eldrazi is beginning to lift from Modern, thanks somewhat ironically to the incoming Shadows Over Innistrad. Previews have begun and while we only have about a third of the set to ogle that hasn’t stopped the speculation. I haven’t seen very much to really tickle my Modern senses yet, though I’m […]
The Grand Prix events at Detroit, Melbourne, and Bologna are over and done and the Eldrazi have been proven well beyond reasonable doubt to be utterly overpowered and definitively banworthy. Aaron Forsythe has all but decreed there will be a banning in April, and all that’s left for us is to shift through the wreckage and prepare […]
Grand Prix Detroit looms at the end of this week. I’m hopeful the tournament goes well and isn’t a colorless nightmare, but the opportunity for the community to grill Aaron Forsythe is worth it regardless. That being said, it is hard to imagine Eldrazi won’t be the driving force behind the Grand Prix metagame, though maybe not the […]
Well, there’s really no denying or even downplaying the issue now, is there? Eldrazi is horrifyingly broken. Not only that, but it’s occupying metagame shares that are unprecedented in the history of Modern (as far as we have data for anyway). And this confuses me. It really does. Looking at this deck on paper, its success […]
