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 […]

It’s been a packed weekend for Modern. Not only was there a major event, but there’s been a major, cataclysmic upheaval. August 26 will be remembered as a major turning point in Modern’s history. Which way it’s turning isn’t clear. But turn it will. In this article, I’ll give a quick report of my GP […]

Another event-filled weekend, another data dump, another chance for Modern to adapt and contain the arisen menace. It may not be likely, but as someone locked into making the trip to GP Las Vegas, I feel the need to hope. Barring a sudden abandonment of Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis in Birmingham, I was also hoping against […]

It’s Hogaak’s world; we’re just living in it. So are some great-looking brews that manage to 5-0 against the odds and the format boogeyman. With August halfway done, let’s peek at the coolest decks emerging from the delve/convoke wreckage. Hogaak’s New Bags It’s no secret that Hogaak is still a force to be reckoned with […]

With another GP in the books, it’s time once again to dig into the data. When I last did so right after the big MC weekend, the picture was muddied by contradictory results. Half indicated that Hogaak was a dominant force in the metagame. The other half indicated that it was just another deck. Its […]

For the first time in quite a while, I have a massive data dump to analyze! The past weekend contained a Modern GP, an SCG Open, and the Mythic Championship. With all the shocks finally wearing off, we can start to get a handle on the new metagame. But not without first noting that this […]

With Core 2020 and the London mulligan finally legal, the metagame can begin to take shape. Begin being the key word there. So much has changed in Modern over the past month that it is impossible to predict what exactly is changing. At the end of this week, GP Denver looms. I’m not playing the main […]

I had planned to spend today’s article discussing Hogaakvine: what it does, how it does it, how to play against it, and how I’d build decks given Hogaak’s rise. However, that article was mooted this morning by Wizards. Instead, let’s examine what’s happened and where it leaves Modern. Also, once again, nothing got unbanned. This […]

New metagames can be hard to pin down, as fresh cards lead to new brews and new tech, forcing established decks to adapt. This forces the new decks to adapt to the new pressure, and their success or failure creates ripples through the metagame. With War of the Spark and Modern Horizons released in quick succession, Modern […]

Modern Horizons becomes legal today in the paper world, but it’s been tearing up Magic Online for a good week. Wizards has published two events since then: a Modern Challenge and a league. Today, we’ll scour each for the hottest tech stirring up the format. Scourge of the Format? In the very first Horizons-featuring event […]

At last, we’ve got the Mythic Championship results. It’s been quite the build up between the ongoing saga of Izzet Phoenix and questions over the proposed mulligan change. We were all looking for definitive answers from London, and while I didn’t get all of them, I think there’s enough evidence to answer some of them. […]

By the time this piece is published, Mythic Championship London will be streaming, and Modern players will be testing the London mulligan in a high-pressure environment for the first time. The results of that event will have a massive effect on the format’s future. For those who just can’t wait until the Top 8 ends […]

Nothing lasts forever; the mighty will eventually fall; time erases all wounds; change is the only constant. All such platitudes mean for Modern is that one deck can only remain on top of the format for so long. Eventually, the format either adapts to the deck, there’s a structural change to the metagame, or the banhammer […]