sky nomad | Quiet Speculation

Math Doesn’t Lie: The Yorion Dilemma

David Ernenwein — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 17:00:00 +0000

Yorion incentivizes playing extra cards in your deck. Is the guarantee of casting it worth adding variance to your deck though? David breaks down the math.

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June ’20 Brew Report, Pt. 1: Yorion, Un-Yeeted

Jordan Boisvert — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 16:00:31 +0000

Last week, I wrote about the possible directions companions go in Modern now that their rules have been changed. It seems there has been plenty of stretching to make companion work despite the nerf, and today, we’ll take a look at some of the breakout decks wielding Yorion, Sky Nomad. Here’s a quote from my […]

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Still I Rise: Modern’s Companions Post-Nerf

Jordan Boisvert — Sat, 06 Jun 2020 16:00:48 +0000

In the wake of the companion nerf, in which Wizards announced the creatures would cost an additional 3 mana to tutor from the sideboard, David penned a piece discussing the pros and cons of keeping companions as companions given their hefty new price tag. Today, I'll expand upon that idea, looking more closely at where […]

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Companion Modern: Consistency vs. Certainty

David Ernenwein — Tue, 26 May 2020 16:00:25 +0000

Another week of data, another update to the Ikoria metagame. The trends had been moving towards companion stabilizing in Modern. Last week, the individual companion cards seemed volatile in terms of usage, but the mechanic itself appeared to have achieved saturation. We observed some signs suggesting that companions might be been fading in Modern, which […]

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Companion of the Week: Metagame Breakdown

David Ernenwein — Tue, 19 May 2020 16:00:47 +0000

When working with data, scale is everything. Just as an area looks very different when using Google Streetview versus Google Maps, the context, meaning, trends, and ultimately the conclusions reached from the data will depend heavily on the scale it's examined on. This is the reason that economics is split between micro and macro level […]

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The Companion Effect: Metagame Update

David Ernenwein — Tue, 12 May 2020 16:00:50 +0000

In the absence of data, speculation and rumor thrive. It's time to correct that problem with a deep data dive. I have been collecting metagame data for the past month, and today I'm going to share my findings. The rhetoric about companions has been flying thick since they were revealed, but their actual impact was […]

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Uncertain Associates: The Companion Problem

David Ernenwein — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 16:00:45 +0000

With the new set fully available online, players can finally verify if all the speculation was correct. It's one thing to assess cards in a vacuum than in reality, after all. Usually, assessments are too far-off, and a consensus quickly develops around the new cards in every format. This opinion is then developed and refined […]

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Compelling Companions: Five New Friends

Jordan Boisvert — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 16:00:56 +0000

A major cycle in Ikoria is that of companions, which are essentially opt-in Commanders for sanctioned constructed formats like our own. If a certain deckbuilding condition is met, companions may be cast once from outside the game. Except there's no Commander Zone in Modern, meaning they'll have to take up a sideboard slot unless they […]

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