tier 2 | Quiet Speculation

Deck of the Week: RG Valakut

Jason Schousboe — Mon, 15 Aug 2016 18:00:19 +0000

Here at Deck of the Week we've focused, mostly by design, on the no-tier dregs and the brewers' oddities. Today I wanted to highlight a deck that, having fallen from its Tier 2 showing in May, has nonetheless still been making the rounds in competitive play. The deck I'm calling RG Valakut looks to have some real chops in Modern. Over the last four […]

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Modern Metagame Breakdown: 7/1/16 – 7/31/16

Jason Schousboe — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 21:30:59 +0000

Well, you know what they say: the more things change, the more they stay the same. The month of July saw some metagame shifts portended the month before take concrete form, as the paper shares adjusted to more closely resemble MTGO results. Death's Shadow Zoo, Dredge, and Eldrazi ascended to Tier 1, replacing Abzan Company and […]

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Modern Metagame Breakdown: 6/1/16 – 6/30/16

Jason Schousboe — Wed, 27 Jul 2016 17:30:18 +0000

It's finally here, folks! I know everyone has been waiting patiently for the June metagame report, and I'm extremely happy to bring it to you today. I've undergone something of a crash course over these last few weeks familiarizing myself with Sheridan's methods (and mammoth Google Docs spreadsheet) that allow us to operationalize the tiers in […]

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Modern Metagame Breakdown: 5/1/16 – 5/31/16

Sheridan Lardner — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 16:00:19 +0000

I've always been more of a paper player than an online one, but that changed a few weeks ago when I bought myself an MTGO deck as an early birthday present. Can you guess my purchase? Hint: if you've seen "ktkenshinx" around the tournament practice tables, chances are you've been eating Lightning Storms with Pact […]

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Metagame Guide to May’s Grand Prix Weekend

Sheridan Lardner — Wed, 18 May 2016 16:00:17 +0000

So. Much. Modern. I can barely update the Top Decks spreadsheet fast enough to keep pace! Since May 1st, we've had two Star City Games Opens, over 55 events from the SCG States and Provincial Championships, another batch of 50+ events from TCGplayer's State circuit, and dozens of online and paper tournaments in between. The […]

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Modern Metagame Breakdown: 4/8/16 – 5/1/16

Sheridan Lardner — Wed, 04 May 2016 16:00:39 +0000

Who tuned in to watch the Star City Games Milwaukee Open? I was going through some Modern coverage withdrawals since the horrors of Eldrazi Winter, and I deliberately blocked off time to enjoy as much of the Day 1, Day 2, and Top 8 action as possible. Milwaukee did not disappoint! With one of the […]

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Metagame Projections for the New Modern

Sheridan Lardner — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 16:00:23 +0000

Can you believe it was only a month ago when we were picking through the scattered debris of our once beloved format? Or declaring one deck the first true Tier 0 overlord in Modern history? Following the April 4 banlist update, and the subsequent Modern events from April 8 until today, the horrors of Eldrazi […]

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Modern Metagame Breakdown: 2/5/16 – 3/6/2016

Sheridan Lardner — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 17:00:58 +0000

27 days left. April 4 is literally highlighted on my desk calendar, with a big red X drawn through a little Eldrazi caricature in the "Appointments" space. I'm not playing a single turn of sanctioned Modern until then, a resolution I believe many Modern players share. Who wants to even be at the same table as an […]

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Louisville, Eldrazi, and the Modern Metagame

Sheridan Lardner — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 17:00:41 +0000

Welcome to week three of the Eldrazi Apocalypse! On Monday, I tried to distract us with promises of greener April pastures, but even the most indefatigable Modern optimist struggled to forget the weekend's horrors. StarCityGames' Louisville Classic was one of the ugliest Modern events I've ever seen. I described it as a "twisted, tentically nightmare" […]

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