Yesterday I took to the Modern Masters 2015 draft queues to try out the new format with a 6-2-2-2 / three round Swiss draft. I faced off against a Jund Wither deck, Affinity, and a strange but explosive Grixis Wildfire deck. [wp_ad_camp_1] See below for what happened. As I say in the videos, I'm very […]

The post Modern Masters 2015 Draft #1: Video first appeared on Quiet Speculation.

Last week I brewed up a synergistic Vampires list based off Tom Ross'. Today I put it to the test in the tournament practice room on Magic Online. Here's the list: [wp_ad_camp_1] Vampires by Sean Ridgeley Creatures4 Bloodghast4 Gatekeeper of Malakir4 Kalastria Highborn4 Vampire Nocturnus4 Viscera SeerSpells4 Sign in Blood3 Victim of Night3 Inquisition of […]

The post Testing Vampires: Video first appeared on Quiet Speculation.

Last month I brewed up a Bant goodstuff deck featuring Ojutai's Command and Dromoka's Command. While decent in its own right, there's the issue of lacking versatility in answers. In hindsight, if we're going pure goodstuff, other colours just do this better because of their better answers, so we need some kind of unique angle. With […]

The post Brewing Bant Blink first appeared on Quiet Speculation.

Last month I brewed up R/W Kiki Control, effectively an anti-aggro deck with a combo finish. [wp_ad_camp_1]   Since then, I've made some changes to the list, which resulted in this: R/W Kiki Control V2 by Sean Ridgeley Sorceries2 PyroclasmEnchantments4 Ghostly Prison3 Blood MoonArtifacts1 BatterskullInstants3 Path to Exile4 Lightning Bolt4 Magma Jet4 Lightning HelixCreatures4 Wall […]

The post Testing R/W Kiki Control: Video first appeared on Quiet Speculation.

If you haven't been able to tell by now, I have a deep love for synergistic decks (few things get me going more than chaining together multiple copies of Collected Company), and with that comes a natural love for tribal decks. Today I'll be straying away from the green tribal decks I've covered previously and […]

The post Brewing Vampires first appeared on Quiet Speculation.

The post Splashing White in Elves first appeared on Quiet Speculation.

Back in March, Team Pantheon's Reid Duke -- a known Legacy Pox player -- developed his personal take on Modern's discard deck 8Rack. [wp_ad_camp_1]   You can see his list below. 8Rack by Reid Duke Planeswalkers4 Liliana of the VeilSpells4 The Rack4 Shrieking Affliction4 Dismember4 Inquisition of Kozilek4 Raven's Crime4 Smallpox4 Thoughtseize4 Wrench Mind Lands16 […]

The post Testing Reid Duke’s 8Rack: Video first appeared on Quiet Speculation.

Stompy, like Elves, is one of those archetypes that lends itself extremely well to variation. Sure, it's (mostly) just a dumb aggro deck, but with it you can go 1-2cmc only, go all in on counters, go all in on speed, and try many other things. Today I'll be exploring a few of the routes […]

The post The Many Variations of Stompy first appeared on Quiet Speculation.

Last month I brewed up a Bant Slivers list; this month I put it through the initial trials in the Magic Online tournament practice room to see if it's good enough for dailies and to see what changes need to be made. The list is the same as before except with an initial sideboard draft […]

The post Bant Slivers Testing: Video first appeared on Quiet Speculation.

R/W Control is a rogue archetype in Modern that probably hasn't been explored nearly as much as it should. The basic idea behind the deck is to include removal and wrath like Jeskai Control, but eschew counter magic for lock pieces and/or hate cards, which is highly enjoyable for people like me that love the […]

The post Brewing R/W Kiki Control first appeared on Quiet Speculation.

8Rack is a reasonably strong Modern discard deck that straight up wrecks certain metas, and provides one of the few, good means of playing "hard" control in this format. However, it costs about $700. So maybe you can't afford it, maybe you're unsure if it's your thing or not and just want to test the […]

The post 8Rack on a Budget first appeared on Quiet Speculation.

Dragons of Tarkir brought us Avatar of the Resolute to brew Stompy with, and Collected Company to brew Elves with, but there's plenty more work to do. Today I'm going to put together a Bant goodstuff list built in part around Ojutai's Command. If you love powerhouse creatures and versatile instants, this article is for […]

The post Brewing Bant with Ojutai’s Command first appeared on Quiet Speculation.

Dean Tolmachoff took 5th place at an SCG States tournament this week running Miracles, of all things. Miracles was a deck in Standard when the sometimes-busted Entreat the Angels and Terminus were format legal and netted then tournament newbie Alexander Hayne a 1st place win (beating down Jon Finkel in the finals, no less). The […]

The post Miracles in Modern first appeared on Quiet Speculation.

With a mostly refined and complete list in tow, I finally felt confident enough to bring Elves to a daily yesterday. The matchups were R/G Tron, a strange U/B Merfolk list, Grixis Delver, and Affinity. See what happened in the video below. The list is a little different than last time, as I'm still missing […]

The post Elves Daily 4/13: Video first appeared on Quiet Speculation.

With Avatar of the Resolute now available on Magic Online, I took a renewed Stompy list to the daily queue this week to test the deck's mettle. Below is what I ran. The sideboard is pretty much what I mentioned last time, except I've included extra Aspect of Hydra. As I mention in the video […]

The post Stompy Daily 4/7: Video first appeared on Quiet Speculation.

Last week I went in-depth on Collected Company in Elves, and threw together a strong starting brew for what I believe could be the best way forward for the little green guys (and gals). Today I put that list through some preliminary testing in the MTGO tournament practice room to get a feel for the […]

The post Testing Collected Company Elves: Video first appeared on Quiet Speculation.

Elves was once one of the best decks in Modern, thanks to the high power level and consistency afforded by Green Sun's Zenith and Glimpse of Nature. Once they got the banhammer, things took a nosedive and the archetype has been struggling ever since. Sure, we saw nice aggro lists do well here and there […]

The post Brewing Collected Company Elves first appeared on Quiet Speculation.

The great Thomas David Baker, in his infinite wisdom, came up with the "metagame-breaking" Legacy deck he named "36 Bears" back in 2009. Exploiting the broken synergy between Forests and cards with the "Bear" subtype, he attempted to take down the 128 man "Win a Piece of Power 9" tournament at Worlds that year. Below […]

The post The Best Deck Nobody is Playing: When Bears Attack first appeared on Quiet Speculation.

It doesn't have to be, but Modern certainly can be an expensive format. Even if you're a spike with a reasonably large budget, after dropping $1,800 on Junk, you maybe don't want to drop another $1,200 on Twin. Or maybe you get sick of Affinity, but don't want to start from scratch to play something […]

The post Smart Deck Investments: Twin and Scapeshift first appeared on Quiet Speculation.

Slivers has long been thought of as a broken deck by casual players and a joke deck by tournament players -- such is the eternal divide between Magic players. The intention of this article is not so much to make a case for Slivers as a strong, competitive choice in Modern, but to make an […]

The post Brewing Slivers in Modern first appeared on Quiet Speculation.