Chris makes his final picks before Modern Horizons spoiler season starts this weekend.
Abzan Company
By the time this article goes live, it will be just over a week and a half until the Modern portion of Grand Prix Las Vegas. To close a previous thread, yes, I am going and yes, I did win two byes. Not because I actually won a GPT (I have a habit of getting […]
Welcome back to the Beginner’s Guide. Once again, it is time for some general advice for those making the transition from Standard to Modern. As always, my intention is to provide a foundation for newer players to build on. Once this is established, only then are you ready to talk about all the nuance that aficionados […]
When Amonkhet spoiled, Vizier of Remedies sparked interest among Modern players as a possible redundancy boost to Abzan Company, the grandchild of beloved Modern archetype pillar Birthing Pod. It’s been nearly a month now since the set was released to Modern, and Vizier seems to have succeeded in improving Abzan Company… as well as in spawning some Company variants […]
Greetings, Nexites. I’m deep in the middle of the late-February/early-March metagame update, which I will have for you by the end of the week. In the meantime, I’m highlighting an innovative take on the Eldrazi tribe that was taken to a 5-0 finish in an MTGO League. We’ve seen a large number of decks sporting Eldrazi creatures […]
Welcome, once again, to the Beginner’s Guide. My quest to explain the general deck types in Modern is winding down, with only the Ramp and unusual archetypes to come. As you no doubt surmised either through pattern recognition or just reading the title, this week is about the fair combo decks. Hopefully this will not come as […]
On January 9th, Wizards of the Coast brought the heavy weight of the banhammer down upon Modern, attempting to target several linear decks that ranked among the best-performing archetypes during 2016. On the one hand we had the aggressive, explosive creature combos with a gotcha! element, headlined by Infect. On the other hand we had Dredge, taxing […]
The first major event after a new set is released is both very significant, and yet worthless for the analyst. On the one hand, this is the first glimpse the world gets at where the wider metagame is heading. On the other, it is a single data point in an entirely new experimental condition. In […]
Last month we saw three major Modern Grand Prix around the world post a metagame breakdown that mirrored almost exactly the one established in July. Paradoxically, September had both far fewer high-profile events and much more significant shifts in share percentage. I believe these were the result of careful and systematic re-positioning by Modern players, with the intent […]
Rejoice Nexites, for the Modern PPTQ season fast approaches! The Modern Pro Tour may be gone but at least we still have an entire season to grind away for our shot at the big stage. While the season doesn’t actually kick off for most until the end of the month, I got a taste of […]
We’re trying something new here at Modern Nexus for the Monday slot. I’d like to use this day’s publication for a Deck of the Week feature, where I’ll scour the internet for an interesting or innovative build that recently put up results. My aim is to spotlight the unfamiliar and less dominant archetypes here, so […]
Welcome to the final installment of Colors of Modern! This is a five-part series of articles focused on analyzing the varying impact each color in Magic has upon Modern, based on the individual cards that see play in the format and, to a broader extent, the archetypes made possible by these cards. Check out the […]
It annoys me greatly when I hear people derisively discuss the size of the Modern cardpool. The typical conversation revolves around deriding some odd card choice in someone’s deck because it isn’t “good enough” to see play in Modern or dismissing someone’s brew because it “has no staying power.” Part of me is always angered […]
