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Errant Errata: June B&R Reaction

David Ernenwein — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 16:00:54 +0000

Here we are again: another set, another set of problems, and another banning... oh wait, nothing's getting banned in Modern. Awkward. And more to the point, a waste of a perfectly good rant setup. Why am I even bothering... oh right, something else happened this time around. And it is consequential. Though not in the […]

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Hold ‘Em & Fold ‘Em #11

Edward Eng — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 18:30:11 +0000

For this week, Eddie brings more Guilds of Ravnica spoiler talk and a dive into one of Magic's newest formats to crop up, Premodern.

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The New Modern Landscape with Assassin’s Trophy

Max Magnuson — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 17:39:00 +0000

Spoiler season is one of my favorite times of the year. The part of Magic I enjoy most is deckbuilding, and spoiler season is ripe for brainstorming and testing new deck ideas. Whilst pouring over the early spoilers, three words utterly stunned me: "Destroy target permanent." Those three words are on a two-mana instant called […]

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Pushing Back: How to Goyf in 2017

Jordan Boisvert — Fri, 03 Nov 2017 16:00:24 +0000

In "What's in a Goyf? Benchmark Creature Playability in Modern," I considered the bar creatures must meet to make the cut in this format. Aether Revolt gave us Fatal Push, and that bar has since changed—but no creature has felt the shift like Tarmogoyf. Today, we'll zone in on Goyf's fall from lofty heights and examine the […]

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Death’s Shadow: Hero or Villain? Metagame Impacts

Jordan Boisvert — Fri, 14 Jul 2017 18:18:02 +0000

The "Death's Shadow is the best deck" narrative we saw emerge in force around Grand Prix Vancouver has now split, with some claiming Eldrazi Tron is in fact the best deck. I tend to agree with the former, and will softly make a case for that inclination in this article. Regardless, we can surely agree […]

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Four-Event Recap: Metagame Shifts

Trevor Holmes — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 17:19:41 +0000

Modern tournament decklists are flooding in to the point where the phrase “too much of a good thing” is starting to come to mind. Nah, who am I kidding. I love this stuff. I hope you do too, because today we’re going to dive right in. I plan on recapping and analyzing high-level Magic tournament […]

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Modern Metagame Breakdown: 2/6/17 – 3/12/17

Jason Schousboe — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 21:49:45 +0000

Welcome back for another metagame update. I'm calling today's the "February update," even though it encompasses a week-and-a-half of March data as well. As we had extended last month's data, it made sense to do so this month too in order to avoid a three-week metagame with scant data. The astute reader will notice that […]

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Rising and Falling Competitive Stock

Trevor Holmes — Thu, 16 Mar 2017 16:20:28 +0000

No, this isn’t a finance article—I leave those to the geniuses over at Quiet Spec (and Jim Casale of course). What I want to talk about today are individual cards whose "gameplay stock" is trending up or down based on recent trends in the metagame: "what’s hot and what’s not,” if you will. We’ve done […]

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Modern Masters 2017 Set Review & Deck Planning

Jim Casale — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 20:30:48 +0000

I had pretty high hopes for Modern Masters 2017, but I'm not sure anyone had really expected what we got. This set is filled to the brim with value. There are some decks that definitely benefit a lot more from these reprints and some that got completely ignored. Unfortunately I think that is unavoidable in any set […]

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Modern Metagame Breakdown: 1/1/2017 – 2/5/2017

Jason Schousboe — Tue, 14 Feb 2017 07:13:06 +0000

On January 9th, Wizards of the Coast brought the heavy weight of the banhammer down upon Modern, attempting to target several linear decks that ranked among the best-performing archetypes during 2016. On the one hand we had the aggressive, explosive creature combos with a gotcha! element, headlined by Infect. On the other hand we had Dredge, taxing […]

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A New Format! – Post-Aether Revolt Decklists

Trevor Holmes — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 17:45:37 +0000

With so many new changes to Modern recently, every assumption we’ve previously held regarding the format as we know it is suspect to change. Mono-Green Stompy is back, Zur the Enchanter is finally poised to take the format by storm, so prepare yourself for Vexing Devil mirror matches every third round. Now that we’re all […]

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Close to the Edge: Introducing the Push Test

Jordan Boisvert — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 18:30:47 +0000

Many factors determine creature playability. When a format's most popular removal spell is damage-based, toughness becomes one key yardstick. In Modern, x/3 creatures that don't trade with Lightning Bolt at parity, or that can't fulfill one of a few other roles like casting a spell, are said to fail the Bolt Test. As such, they possess limited use […]

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A New Tool for Control: Evaluating Fatal Push

Ryan Overturf — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 17:00:09 +0000

If you liked "dies to Doom Blade," you're gonna love "dies to Fatal Push!" Few are more surprised than I to see a great black removal spell grace the Aether Revolt spoiler page, though initial evaluations largely seem to be calling the card something it's not. It's a solid card with a role to play, […]

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Midrange Languishes: Analyzing SCG Orlando

Trevor Holmes — Thu, 22 Sep 2016 16:45:47 +0000

This week, I want to focus on SCG Orlando. While it’s true that Kaladesh will be out shortly, bringing with it a possible shift in Modern, discounting a whole high-level event’s worth of data due to the fact that the format might change soon sounds a little foolhardy to me. I plan on discussing Kaladesh spoilers […]

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Modern Metagame Breakdown: 10/1 – 10/31

Sheridan Lardner — Tue, 03 Nov 2015 17:00:39 +0000

I'm deeply ambivalent about Modern these days. We're seeing both one of the most open fields in the format's history (Hulk Combo got T16 at an Open!), but also one of its most linear (Hulk Combo got T16 at an Open...). Whether at SCG States, the big events, or the smaller regional venues, aggressive decks […]

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