Magic has seen unprecedented growth over the last five years. Every year more and more players pick up the game, buy cards, and attend events. The logical first step is Standard with its smaller card pool and cheaper barrier to entry. With Modern being perceived as the “supported” eternal format between Modern Masters and active Banned List management, however, […]

Modern offseasons lead to weird metagames. Following the nonstop action in the June Grand Prix circuit, Pro-level Modern mostly wound down for the rest of the summer, a lull broken only by the SCG Modern Open in Charlotte. August saw a ton of PPTQs, IQs, and other regional events, but each had a different local flavor and […]

Modern continues to present ample opportunities for the speculator. Brian DeMars identifies five Modern cards that aren’t getting the attention they deserve from the secondary market.

This week marks my fourth piece on deck archetypes, and it looks to be the most fun. Digging for specific answers with Serum Visions has taught me to be goal-oriented in other areas of my life. So with the basics laid out, we’ll focus on my favorite part of the theorizing process: application! We all know I can’t go […]

This past weekend was an exciting one for Modern. While the SCG Invitational was Standard/Legacy, and the World Championships was what felt like every format invented ever (sidebar: really hoping for a Tiny Leaders/Commander Pro Tour next year) Modern still got some love in the form of four rounds of the 24 best players in […]

I’m taking a break from my Primer series this week to focus more on specific cards (as well as I’m using my testing time to zero in on a deck for the World Magic Cup Qualifier this weekend!). In my testing these last two weeks I’ve been combing through Gatherer for every card legal in […]

One of the biggest challenges we face in metagame analysis is understanding the importance of a Magic World Championship. These events see a mix of wild innovation and time-honored strategies, of Modern experts with years of practice, and format dabblers who are more at home in a draft or Standard. By a similar token (Thopter? Spirit? Elemental? […]

When you think of Modern powerhouse blocks, you probably think of Return to Ravnica, Khans of Tarkir, or Scars of Mirrodin. Theros block? I imagine more Modern players would be excited about going back to Homelands (Barons of Ulgrotha anyone?) than seeing more Theros. The Greek and Roman-themed set was not the strongest addition to our Modern […]

Since I opened the Nexus discussion on Modern archetypes a couple weeks ago, community members have congregated in the comments section to share their opinions. The biggest argument against the theories I’ve proposed comes in the form of varying definitions of “fair” and “unfair.” Today, I’ll address those concerns more closely. (This article is the […]

Going into Day 2 of Grand Prix Charlotte, I was 7-1-1, playing at the top of my game and in a solid position for a high finish. Five rounds later, I was checking the drop box after going 1-4 and wondering where it all went wrong. SCG Charlotte was in many ways a challenge of […]

Mike takes a look at the Modern metagame coming out of SCG Charlotte, where a large number of Origins cards made their impact felt.

Splinter Twin is a deck that needs very little introduction. One of the premier combo deck’s since the formats infancy, it has continued to put up results over the entire history of the format. Bannings and unbannings have occurred, but Splinter Twin always rears its ugly head as soon as you tap out on turn […]

You don’t need a Grand Prix to make it a Modern month. The SCG Charlotte Modern Open came to a close this weekend, with just over 500 players battling for the prize. Even though the Open was significantly smaller than the GPs we saw earlier in June (and smaller than the last SCG Modern Open […]