An analysist goes to work with the data he’s given. With Modern on the competitive backburner for the past few weeks, I’ve lacked the means to properly dig into the metagame ahead of GP Columbus this weekend. As a result, I am looking a bit further afield into events that I normally wouldn’t analyze. Fortunately, […]
David Ernenwein
David has been playing Magic since Odyssey block. A dedicated Spike, he's been grinding tournaments for over a decade, including a Pro Tour appearance. A Modern specialist who dabbles in Legacy, his writing is focused on metagame analysis and deck evolution.
It’s been an odd year for Magic. Modern struggled through a series of bans while Standard was doing well. Once things started looking up for Modern, Standard began its collapse under the weight of Throne of Eldraine. Some of those effects are now leaking into Modern, with uncertain implications. Urza may be the talk of […]
Urza is everywhere. As the latest it deck in Modern, it’s getting most of the attention when eyes can be torn away from Magic’s new baby, Pioneer. The deck’s impressive results do recall the banned Krark-Clan Ironworks deck. Today we’ll examining how to fight Urza, starting with the overall archetype and then looking at specific […]
It has been a frustrating year for analyzing the Modern metagame, as multiple bannings and an influx of new cards have churned its natural state. Things are finally starting to stabilize, which means that a reasonable picture is forming. We’ve got a burst of new data to thank for that quieting down. Nonetheless, the new […]
Unbannings always trigger a surge of interest, articles, and brewing. When the card’s utility and thus its home is obvious, the cards is quickly adopted, as was the case for Bloodbraid Elf. For those whose power is tougher to unlock, interest and visibility wanes while the hard work is done. Such is the case for […]
With a few weeks of online events and an SCG Team Event, the metagame is finally taking shape. It’s nowhere near enough for any real analysis to take place, but it is a good starting point. With SCG Indianapolis in the books it’s time to start pulling apart the data and contextualizing it. Modern has […]
Throne of Eldraine is officially out, and that means that data is slowly trickling in. Very slowly, to the point that I can’t draw conclusions yet. It will take a few more weeks of events and brewing before things settle enough to get an accurate view of the new metagame. Now is the perfect time […]
There’s an odd lull in Magic right before the set release. There’s no point discussing spoilers anymore; the set’s known and being tested. However, those testing results are questionable. There hasn’t been enough time to process the new cards and produce results, nor has the metagame adjusted to reflect these new cards. This means content tends […]
All good stories must come to an end. Hopefully, they’ll be paced better than Game of Thrones’s was. The Throne of Eldraine prerelease is this weekend and the spoiler is finished, so it’s time to wrap up my set review. There haven’t been many interesting individual cards spoiled since my last article, but a number of […]
Thrones of Eldraine spoilers are rolling on, and I’m having more fun watching them than any other set I can remember. That’s not to say that Modern Horizons was boring nor War of the Spark lacking content. Rather, there are more opportunites to make your own fun with Eldraine than the other sets. Rosewater showed how the cards […]
This has been an utterly insane summer for Magic. Three set releases in close proximity, followed by Hogaak, and then a major banlist update. Modern players are struggling to remember what it means to have a metagame, much less investigate one. We’ve barely had time to catch our breath for the past four months, and […]
The first week of the entirely new Modern is over and nobody has any idea where we’re heading. So far all the excitement has been focused on the unbanning, and with good reason. I imagine most players are as tired as I am of the graveyard heavy format we’ve had for the past year and […]
It’s been a packed weekend for Modern. Not only was there a major event, but there’s been a major, cataclysmic upheaval. August 26 will be remembered as a major turning point in Modern’s history. Which way it’s turning isn’t clear. But turn it will. In this article, I’ll give a quick report of my GP […]
