Argh. Falling short of your goals is disheartening enough. Knowing it was because you didn’t perform at you best is far worse. Doing so on your home turf is humiliating. This week’s PPTQ did not go well; that’s the tagline here. Just in case it wasn’t immediately apparent. This week’s PPTQ was held at my […]
Modern
Two months ago, a foil rare sheet from Ixalan was illegitimately posted online. Most of us glanced over the fuzzy pictures and then returned to the hi-res Hour of Devastation spoilers. But then Hour came out, and the fuzzy pictures beckoned from the abyss. Fortunately, Wizards didn’t make the more patient among us wait too […]
Last week, I wrote a very personal opinion piece titled “Getting Disillusioned – What Magic Is Missing”. In the article, I put forward my perspective on Modern Magic, how I feel playing the game, and what sort of experience I find myself craving that Magic hasn’t been able to provide for me recently. I received […]
For a long time, control decks in Modern have struggled to gain some inkling of viability. Considering the huge breadth and diversity of Modern, a deck composed of all answers has be tuned just right for the current metagame. While this is already quite the lofty task, the next step is near impossible—getting pairings to […]
It is inevitable. Every time a new Banned and Restricted Announcement comes out, speculation runs rampant. Everyone has their pet cards to advocate for or against, everyone is utterly convinced they’re right, and they take offense to disagreement. Every single time. It’s really tiring. I’ve written about this problem before. I have no problem discussing possible […]
Yesterday, our own Trevor Holmes published “Getting Disillusioned—What Magic Is Missing.” That piece describes the allure of other games while exploring motivation and writer’s block. I don’t agree with everything he wrote—opinion pieces are like that—but I think Trevor raised some interesting points, and his article got me thinking about my own motivations and the […]
This one will be a little off the rails. A couple weeks ago, I highlighted an opportunity I saw for Wizards to do something risky but with the potential to change Modern forever. The feedback I received was… voluminous, and well appreciated, even though most everyone disagreed with me. Regardless, I learned something through the […]
The Modern meta has gradually adapted to the presence of Fatal Push and the latest bannings. Brian considers underpriced cards suited for speculation.
Once again, it is time to start rolling out my results from the latest Banlist Test. As usual, I will start with the experimental setup and the unquantifiable results. I know that what most readers care about are the hard numbers, but I’m not done gathering the data yet. That will be coming sometime in […]
When previously expensive Modern cards fall out of favor in the format, that can present opportunities. Adrian is here to point out a few of those to you today.
When a bunch of events come around, I always plunge right into the decklists. That’s how I get a sense for what Modern looks like, and especially for what kind of innovations are right around the corner. Someone always has the great idea first, and by actively looking for trends and tech, we can be […]
There have been some big price movements across formats this week, so Adam explains what’s going on…
Whoa crazy crazy. After two weeks in the weeds discussing possible major changes to Wizards’ approach to Modern, it’s high time for nice, wholesome event analysis, and what a weekend for it. Two Grand Prix in Birmingham and SĂŁo Paulo, a Modern Open and a Modern Classic in Richmond, not to mention two weeks of online […]
