With the new set fully spoiled, it’s my turn to look at the spoilers. Normally, I’d have led off with a look at the new mechanics. It just wasn’t applicable this time. Kicker and landfall have been around before, and party isn’t really a mechanic. And the Spell lands aren’t enough to carry a whole article. […]
Tracking events and collecting and then presenting data is all well and good. It’s how observations are turned into good science and how we analyze Magic’s metagame ecosystem. However, saying that Bant Snow and Eldrazi Tron are tied for most played deck is only half the story. Why this is happening is a far harder, […]
While putting together brew reports since the Oko ban, I picked up on an interesting trend: UGx midrange seems to be catching on. And by UGx midrange, I don’t mean a single deck, à la Jund Rock. I mean the archetype at large, which has opened itself up to a myriad of different plans, packages, […]
Nothing screams “Modern” like a bunch of crazy combos. And that’s exactly what February’s second half had in store for us. Turns out there are some decks that don’t run Arcum’s Astrolabe, after all: the ones that kill out of nowhere! “I Was Inverted” A the “Top” of our list is an inside-out version of […]
Modern is at a crossroads right now. Between changes in banlist philosophy, the arrival and surging popularity of Pioneer, and the breakout success of Magic: Arena, doomsayers are out in force and quick to declare Modern passé. Today, we’ll explore each of the supposed challenges Modern faces and measure its staying power. Sporadic Banlists Towards […]
With Modern Horizons now fully spoiled, it’s time to wrap up this series of spoiler articles. Last week, I said that the set was a bit underwhelming. At the time it looked like a Standard set with some added complexity. Immediately afterward, the most potentially powerful cards in the set were revealed, causing me to […]
Last week, I unveiled the first part of my Punishing Fire test. With the data compiled and revealed, it’s time for the less-concrete part. The data is the data and speaks for itself. However, that’s not the whole story. Magic isn’t just a numbers game; there are a lot of intangibles. For instance, it’s also supposed […]
This is a very busy week. War of the Spark is now completely revealed, and so I have a few final cards to discuss. There have been a number of interesting cards for Modern, but we haven’t seen any obvious all-stars. Of course, that may be a lot to ask for, and more role-players are always […]
Modern is vast and diverse enough to make metagaming a frequently terrible idea. However, sometimes it is warranted. With Izzet Phoenix, followed by Dredge, consistently dominating the big tournaments in a way that Modern hasn’t seen in years, it makes sense for the first time in a long time to actively target the top decks. How to […]
Yesterday, Wizards unveiled Modern Horizons, an “innovation product” like Conspiracy and Battlebond. Its purpose: to bypass Standard and supplement Modern with new cards, both those currently illegal from pre-8th Edition sets and some that are newly designed. A couple of the new cards were spoiled on the stream. Today’s article evaluates the spoiled cards and […]
Another banlist announcement is just around the corner. While the last few announcements have proven unfruitful, I believe this time will be different; after all, it is January, and Wizards has a history of shaking up Modern around this time. I’m anticipating at least one unban, and wouldn’t be surprised if a ban occurred as […]
Spoiler season is now well and truly underway. As the set comes more into focus, the brewing can begin in earnest. I would caution players to never get too attached to a card or idea during spoiler season. The barrier to entry in Modern is high, and just because something seems like it should be […]
When it comes to Modern, I’m always up for a surprise. I penned an article last week declaring the death of midrange as a Tier 1 strategy in an aggro-combo metagame. But it seems the meta has already corrected itself: last weekend’s GP Portland Top 8 featured a finals between Grixis Death’s Shadow and BG […]
