Yorion | 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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Performance Review: Companion Errata Checkup

David Ernenwein — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 16:00:13 +0000

Alright, no more distractions. It's time to find out if the companion rules change actually worked. When the change came down, I hypothesized that there would be a general drop-off in playability, but companions would remain a factor in Modern. Lurrus of the Dream-Den would take the biggest hit, while Obosh, the Preypiercer would be […]

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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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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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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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Soft Ikoria Prices Could Mean Opportunity

Sigmund Ausfresser — Mon, 25 May 2020 11:00:45 +0000

Did you know Ikoria currently has the lowest EV of all Standard-legal sets? When is the last time the NEWEST set was also the cheapest? To Sig, this screams opportunity. This week he writes about his favorite Ikoria picks for a world that one day recovers from COVID-19.

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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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