Urza | Quiet Speculation https://www.quietspeculation.com Play More, Win More, Pay Less Tue, 11 Jan 2022 22:54:20 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://www.quietspeculation.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/favicon.png Urza | Quiet Speculation https://www.quietspeculation.com 32 32 Modern Banlist Watch List: 2022 Edition https://www.quietspeculation.com/2021/12/modern-banlist-watchlist-2022-edition/ https://www.quietspeculation.com/2021/12/modern-banlist-watchlist-2022-edition/#respond Wed, 29 Dec 2021 17:00:35 +0000 https://quietspeculation.com/?p=24588

David's back with his annual Modern ban watch list. What was banned in 2021? The format now appears healthy, but what is on his radar for the future?

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]]> https://www.quietspeculation.com/2021/12/modern-banlist-watchlist-2022-edition/feed/ 0 Modern Banlist Watchlist: 2021 Edition https://www.quietspeculation.com/2020/12/modern-banlist-watchlist-2021-edition/ https://www.quietspeculation.com/2020/12/modern-banlist-watchlist-2021-edition/#comments Tue, 29 Dec 2020 17:00:38 +0000 https://quietspeculation.com/?p=22490 Final article of the year! Good riddance, 2020. Hopefully, things start to turn around quickly and we can have the gathering part of Magic: The Gathering back again. But, this isn't about a virus or vaccine. Today, I have business that must be finished before 2021 begins. For the third year running, it's time to update my […]

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]]> https://www.quietspeculation.com/2020/12/modern-banlist-watchlist-2021-edition/feed/ 2 Is it Finally Time to Buy Modern Horizons? https://www.quietspeculation.com/2020/06/is-it-finally-time-to-buy-modern-horizons/ https://www.quietspeculation.com/2020/06/is-it-finally-time-to-buy-modern-horizons/#respond Mon, 08 Jun 2020 11:00:07 +0000 https://www.quietspeculation.com/?p=95535

Recently, Sig tried his luck on some Modern Horizons boosters. The set is filled with value and opportunity, right? Apparently not. After doing research, Sig was shocked at how bad the odds really were. Exactly WHAT is worth opening from that set?

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]]> https://www.quietspeculation.com/2020/06/is-it-finally-time-to-buy-modern-horizons/feed/ 0 Still I Rise: Modern’s Companions Post-Nerf https://www.quietspeculation.com/2020/06/still-i-rise-moderns-companions-post-nerf/ https://www.quietspeculation.com/2020/06/still-i-rise-moderns-companions-post-nerf/#respond Sat, 06 Jun 2020 16:00:48 +0000 https://quietspeculation.com/?p=21788 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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]]> https://www.quietspeculation.com/2020/06/still-i-rise-moderns-companions-post-nerf/feed/ 0 March 9th 2020 Banned and Restricted Announcement https://www.quietspeculation.com/2020/03/march-9th-2020-banned-and-restricted-announcement/ https://www.quietspeculation.com/2020/03/march-9th-2020-banned-and-restricted-announcement/#respond Wed, 11 Mar 2020 11:00:55 +0000 https://www.quietspeculation.com/?p=94885

Sam's back from his hiatus to analyze the post-ban landscape! Find out what he's been up to, and where he finds himself in the current Magic market.

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]]> https://www.quietspeculation.com/2020/03/march-9th-2020-banned-and-restricted-announcement/feed/ 0 N’Oko: Parsing the January Bans https://www.quietspeculation.com/2020/01/noko-parsing-january-bans/ https://www.quietspeculation.com/2020/01/noko-parsing-january-bans/#comments Tue, 14 Jan 2020 17:00:53 +0000 https://quietspeculation.com/?p=21192 Well, everyone should have seen another ban coming. There was no way that Wizards wasn't going to let their last scheduled banned and restricted announcement go by without doing something about Oko, Thief of Crowns. However, I didn't expect it to go this far. Three cards banned would be a fairly substantial shift by itself, […]

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]]> https://www.quietspeculation.com/2020/01/noko-parsing-january-bans/feed/ 1 My 2020 Racehorse: Simic Urza https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/12/my-2020-racehorse-simic-urza/ https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/12/my-2020-racehorse-simic-urza/#comments Fri, 27 Dec 2019 17:00:57 +0000 https://quietspeculation.com/?p=21137 With the new year just days away, every Modern player's got something on their mind: which new goodies will we get next? What's the deal with Pioneer? How are winning grinders tweaking their decks going into 2020? While we'll cover all that in the coming weeks, today I want to focus in on the format […]

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]]> https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/12/my-2020-racehorse-simic-urza/feed/ 2 Christmas Comes Early: A Tournament Report https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/12/christmas-comes-early-tournament-report/ https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/12/christmas-comes-early-tournament-report/#respond Wed, 18 Dec 2019 17:00:21 +0000 https://quietspeculation.com/?p=21118 The competitive season has come to an end, but that doesn't mean that Magic just stops in December. Local tournaments and MTGO never end. And some competitive scenes don't have official Wizards support or the backing of a massive store. Some are built by and for the local players. The Colorado Magic scene, deprived of Star City […]

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]]> https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/12/christmas-comes-early-tournament-report/feed/ 0 A Year in Modern: 2019 Metagame Review https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/12/year-modern-2019-metagame-review/ https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/12/year-modern-2019-metagame-review/#respond Wed, 11 Dec 2019 17:00:10 +0000 https://quietspeculation.com/?p=21092 The saying goes that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. In Modern, those who do not observe the metagame are doomed to be passed by. Applied to Magic, such proverbs encourage every player to duly note how the metagame evolves and develops over a competitive year. Having spent the […]

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]]> https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/12/year-modern-2019-metagame-review/feed/ 0 Modern Top 5: Best of 2019 https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/12/modern-top-5-best-2019/ https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/12/modern-top-5-best-2019/#comments Fri, 06 Dec 2019 17:00:08 +0000 https://quietspeculation.com/?p=21081 With the new year fast approaching, I figured I'd follow in Spotify's footsteps and call out the biggest cards of 2019. We've got many possible entrants between Throne of Eldraine and Modern Horizons. Read on for hot takes on the year's greatest and how they might fare in 2020! You Are Now Rocking With the […]

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]]> https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/12/modern-top-5-best-2019/feed/ 3 Modern Banlist Watchlist: 2020 Edition https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/12/modern-banlist-watchlist-2020-edition/ https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/12/modern-banlist-watchlist-2020-edition/#comments Wed, 04 Dec 2019 17:00:11 +0000 https://quietspeculation.com/?p=21067 The competitive year has come to a close for Modern, and now it's time to look ahead. This means it's time once more to informedly speculate on the future of Modern's banlist. It's been a wild year for the list, and while I always hope that the metagame can adapt to new decks, I don't […]

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]]> https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/12/modern-banlist-watchlist-2020-edition/feed/ 2 Metagame’s End: GP Columbus Analysis https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/11/metagames-end-gp-columbus-analysis/ https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/11/metagames-end-gp-columbus-analysis/#respond Wed, 27 Nov 2019 17:00:33 +0000 https://quietspeculation.com/?p=21038 The end of the year is approaching, and with it a slowdown in competitive Magic. In fact, GP Columbus was the last Modern event of the year. As such, it is the final opportunity to look at the metagame before 2020's SCG Columbus, so GP Columbus provides extremely important data. It not only defines the […]

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]]> https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/11/metagames-end-gp-columbus-analysis/feed/ 0 Inviting Change: SCG Invitational Analysis https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/11/inviting-change-scg-invitational-analysis/ https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/11/inviting-change-scg-invitational-analysis/#respond Wed, 20 Nov 2019 17:00:44 +0000 http://quietspeculation.com/?p=21001 An analysist goes to work with the data he's given. With Modern on the competitive backburner for the past few weeks, I've lacked the means to properly dig into the metagame ahead of GP Columbus this weekend. As a result, I am looking a bit further afield into events that I normally wouldn't analyze. Fortunately, […]

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]]> https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/11/inviting-change-scg-invitational-analysis/feed/ 0 Profile of a Thief: Oko in Modern https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/11/profile-thief-oko-modern/ https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/11/profile-thief-oko-modern/#respond Wed, 13 Nov 2019 17:00:41 +0000 http://quietspeculation.com/?p=20970 It's been an odd year for Magic. Modern struggled through a series of bans while Standard was doing well. Once things started looking up for Modern, Standard began its collapse under the weight of Throne of Eldraine. Some of those effects are now leaking into Modern, with uncertain implications. Urza may be the talk of […]

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]]> https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/11/profile-thief-oko-modern/feed/ 0 Dismantling the Bomb: How to Fight Urza https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/11/dismantling-bomb-how-fight-urza/ https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/11/dismantling-bomb-how-fight-urza/#respond Wed, 06 Nov 2019 17:00:25 +0000 http://quietspeculation.com/?p=20947

Urza is everywhere. As the latest it deck in Modern, it's getting most of the attention when eyes can be torn away from Magic's new baby, Pioneer. The deck's impressive results do recall the banned Krark-Clan Ironworks deck. Today we'll examining how to fight Urza, starting with the overall archetype and then looking at specific […]

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]]> https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/11/dismantling-bomb-how-fight-urza/feed/ 0 Forming the Meta: Regionals and Atlanta https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/10/forming-meta-regionals-atlanta/ https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/10/forming-meta-regionals-atlanta/#respond Wed, 30 Oct 2019 16:00:21 +0000 http://quietspeculation.com/?p=20905 It has been a frustrating year for analyzing the Modern metagame, as multiple bannings and an influx of new cards have churned its natural state. Things are finally starting to stabilize, which means that a reasonable picture is forming. We've got a burst of new data to thank for that quieting down. Nonetheless, the new […]

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]]> https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/10/forming-meta-regionals-atlanta/feed/ 0 Metagame’s First Look: SCG Indianapolis Analysis https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/10/metagames-first-look-scg-indianapolis-analysis/ https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/10/metagames-first-look-scg-indianapolis-analysis/#respond Tue, 15 Oct 2019 16:00:26 +0000 http://quietspeculation.com/?p=20852 With a few weeks of online events and an SCG Team Event, the metagame is finally taking shape. It's nowhere near enough for any real analysis to take place, but it is a good starting point. With SCG Indianapolis in the books it's time to start pulling apart the data and contextualizing it. Modern has […]

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]]> https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/10/metagames-first-look-scg-indianapolis-analysis/feed/ 0 Tall Tales: Throne of Eldraine Spoilers, Week 2 https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/09/tall-tales-throne-eldraine-spoilers-week-2/ https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/09/tall-tales-throne-eldraine-spoilers-week-2/#respond Tue, 17 Sep 2019 16:00:20 +0000 http://quietspeculation.com/?p=20702 Thrones of Eldraine spoilers are rolling on, and I'm having more fun watching them than any other set I can remember. That's not to say that  Modern Horizons was boring nor War of the Spark lacking content. Rather, there are more opportunites to make your own fun with Eldraine than the other sets. Rosewater showed how the cards […]

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]]> https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/09/tall-tales-throne-eldraine-spoilers-week-2/feed/ 0 Modern Movers After the B&R Announcement https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/08/modern-movers-after-the-br-announcement/ https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/08/modern-movers-after-the-br-announcement/#respond Fri, 30 Aug 2019 14:05:10 +0000 https://www.quietspeculation.com/?p=93788

Monday's Banned and Restricted Announcement has turned the Modern metagame on its head, and Adam is here to explain what it means for the future of the market.

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]]> https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/08/modern-movers-after-the-br-announcement/feed/ 0 June ’19 Brew Report, Pt. 2: Aria of Brews https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/08/june-19-brew-report-pt-2-aria-brews/ https://www.quietspeculation.com/2019/08/june-19-brew-report-pt-2-aria-brews/#respond Fri, 02 Aug 2019 16:00:40 +0000 http://quietspeculation.com/?p=20478 Picking up where we left off last week, today we'll continue unearthing the new tech found in July's MODO dumps. Let's dive right in! Cutesy Combos Combo is alive and well in Modern, and probably always will be. Novel ways to win on turn four are in tall supply since the format's card pool is […]

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