It’s time, once again, for a return to The Beginner’s Guide to Modern. This my long-running but periodic series where I cover the fundamentals of Modern for those new to the format. Though, as happens with a series that’s four years old at this point, I’ve already covered all the fundamentals and obvious misconceptions long […]

Decks come, and decks go. The metagame has no sacred cows. A deck must find its niche and then hold it to maintain relevance. Strength in a vacuum doesn’t matter, nor does the dedication of the player base. Three years ago, Grixis Death’s Shadow was an absolute monster of a deck, to the point that […]

In case you haven’t noticed, Magic can be weird. I’m not just talking about cards or mechanics, though mutate, Goblin Game, and Raging River are certainly out there. I’m talking about how counter-intuitive the game can be. Again, not in the Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth still works under Blood Sun sense (though that absolutely qualifies). I […]

Another month gone in quarantine. At least, I think it’s been a month. Time is steadily losing all meaning to me. What even is this year, and what was I talking about? Oh yeah, it’s August now, so I need to take another look at Modern’s metagame. Fire up the spreadsheets and break out the […]

There are many old sayings about plans going awry. Even when it seems like everything lines up perfectly, there’s always a chance for something to go wrong. Throw in a global health crisis, and everything goes out the window. The shutdown seemed like the perfect time to run another banlist test. It’s been over a year […]

The greatest problem I face as an article writer is finding something to write about. Inspiration is fickle, as motivation can also be. This is made especially difficult by the pandemic choking off my easiest content source: actual Modern tournaments. Without much happening in greater Modern to discuss and limited source material, I find myself […]

But for copyright concerns, I would have led off this article with the lyrics to “Another One Bites the Dust.” I hope perfectly reasonable intellectual property law is happy with itself. There’s been another B&R Announcement. This time something actually is banned in Modern. So that’s nice. Even if it does moot a number of […]

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, […]

It’s the end of June. Normally that wouldn’t feel weird to say, but this is a rather unusual year. Where has it gone, and simultaneously why does it feel like it never goes at all? Without paper events as a guide and work disrupted, time is losing meaning to me. Fortunately, I keep being reminded of […]

Alright, no more distractions. It’s time to find out if the companion rules change actually worked. When the change came down, I hypothesized that there would be a general drop-off in playability, but companions would remain a factor in Modern. Lurrus of the Dream-Den would take the biggest hit, while Obosh, the Preypiercer would be […]

Spoiler season is rolling on. However, my prediction at the end of last week’s article has been holding: Core 2021 spoiled the obviously Modern-playable cards early. Sure, there have been plenty of interesting cards, but they’re all role-players or interesting build-arounds rather than massive shake-ups. And that’s rather welcome, considering how often Modern’s been churned up […]

In these uncertain times, it is only natural to seek stability and comfort in the familiar and predictable. Which is a convoluted way of saying that the world may be burning, but spoiler season has returned on schedule. It’s not much relative to everything else, but even small comforts are important. In the past, Core […]

Here we are again: another set, another set of problems, and another banning… oh wait, nothing’s getting banned in Modern. Awkward. And more to the point, a waste of a perfectly good rant setup. Why am I even bothering… oh right, something else happened this time around. And it is consequential. Though not in the […]