With no SCG events to analyze, and the next Modern Grand Prix in Dallas still almost a month away, I’m left with a “free” topic of sorts this week. Unchained of the duty of analyzing set impact, as Kaladesh appears to be making only a minor impression in Modern, the sky’s the limit as to […]

With Kaladesh finally released, and week one of new Modern in the books, it’s time to finally transcend the realm of conjecture and speculation and step out into the world of the physical and tangible. Will Kaladesh “shake up” the Modern landscape we’ve become accustomed to over the past few months? Or will it fade […]

With Kaladesh set to come out tomorrow, we are on the eve of a possible shake-up in the Modern landscape. Still, the decklists keep coming, this time in the form of multiple World Cup Magic Qualifier events worldwide! These events are always high-level, as players fight valiantly for the chance to represent their home country […]

This week, I want to focus on SCG Orlando. While it’s true that Kaladesh will be out shortly, bringing with it a possible shift in Modern, discounting a whole high-level event’s worth of data due to the fact that the format might change soon sounds a little foolhardy to me. I plan on discussing Kaladesh spoilers […]

With no recent major Modern events to analyze, no exciting Kaladesh spoilers to drool over (yet), and no community controversy to argue (give it time), I’m left struggling to find a topic this week. Theory pieces are great, but I don’t like to do two back to back that often as I need a weekly […]

With Kaladesh spoilers starting to come in, it’s about that time again for my quarterly voice of reason article. Even though we know better, there’s something about spoilers that causes us to throw all our inhibitions to the wind, drizzle ourselves in chocolate sauce and run around on the beach without a care in the […]

Ah, Triple Modern GP Weekend. Nothing compares. Chocolate and peanut butter falls short, metalcore music comes close, dominating unsuspecting children in a friendly game of chess in the local park almost beats it, but still: nothing beats Modern GP Weekend. Today, we’ve got a ton of information to go through, a mountain of decklists to […]

Today, I figured we’d take a break from brewing and get back to analyzing some pure tournament results. I’m still winning with Spell Queller, but high-level Modern events don’t come around often enough to ignore them completely. This past weekend, Modern got a lot of love in the form of the split-format Star City Games […]

Since the release of Eldritch Moon a few weeks ago, I’ve been obsessed with Spell Queller in Modern. The versatility and unique power of the card, along with the potential for synergies in deckbuilding and the complex lines of play it can sponsor, have been too enticing to resist. For the past few weeks I’ve […]

Last week, I introduced you to UW Blink, the archetype I brewed on stream with Spell Queller from Eldritch Moon. In that article, I discussed my philosophy behind the deck, analyzing card choices and discussing particular interactions Spell Queller has with the deck and the format in general. I was then, and still am, convinced […]

Sometimes, innovation takes time. Endless nights of preparation, countless hours of practice, hundreds of games contributing to spreadsheets of statistics that inform close, calculated changes. In Magic (and Modern especially), this is the most common form of innovation we see. Death’s Shadow Zoo lists tend to fall in one of two camps, but within those […]

13 months ago I wrote my second-ever article for Modern Nexus, focused entirely on a then-rogue strategy called “Suicide Zoo,” or Death’s Shadow Zoo.  (I also did a Video Tech, which you can watch here!) Championed strongly by Frank Karsten and Fabrizio Anteri, the deck put up splashy results in Magic Online Dailies (yes, those forgotten things) […]

With Modern PPTQ season on the horizon, players round the world are turning their attention to our beloved format. Standard fanboys and Limited snobs alike will force themselves into our happy place, challenging our dominance and superior format knowledge as they attempt to wrest Regional PTQ invites from our deserving arms. In their ignorance, they […]