Is Lurrus of the Dream-Den the most broken card in Modern right now? David examines the effect this companion has on the modern metagame. Is it banworthy?

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 […]

Last week, I wrote about the possible directions companions go in Modern now that their rules have been changed. It seems there has been plenty of stretching to make companion work despite the nerf, and today, we’ll take a look at some of the breakout decks wielding Yorion, Sky Nomad. Here’s a quote from my […]

In the wake of the companion nerf, in which Wizards announced the creatures would cost an additional 3 mana to tutor from the sideboard, David penned a piece discussing the pros and cons of keeping companions as companions given their hefty new price tag. Today, I’ll expand upon that idea, looking more closely at where […]

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 […]

Another week of data, another update to the Ikoria metagame. The trends had been moving towards companion stabilizing in Modern. Last week, the individual companion cards seemed volatile in terms of usage, but the mechanic itself appeared to have achieved saturation. We observed some signs suggesting that companions might be been fading in Modern, which […]

When working with data, scale is everything. Just as an area looks very different when using Google Streetview versus Google Maps, the context, meaning, trends, and ultimately the conclusions reached from the data will depend heavily on the scale it’s examined on. This is the reason that economics is split between micro and macro level […]

Okay, so companions are everywhere. But looking past that acknowledged reality, I see a Modern bursting with possibilities, and even applying the different companions in brilliant, unpredictable ways. Let’s take a look at what May’s first half has had to offer us in terms of Modern ingenuity! One Tribe… Or Two One unexpected (at least, […]

In the absence of data, speculation and rumor thrive. It’s time to correct that problem with a deep data dive. I have been collecting metagame data for the past month, and today I’m going to share my findings. The rhetoric about companions has been flying thick since they were revealed, but their actual impact was […]

Days before the impact of companion on Modern was impressed upon me, I came across an article over at Good Grief Games by Kenan Diab on his RG Prowess deck. The idea was simple: take the persistently successful Mono-Red Prowess deck and cover for some of its glaring weaknesses by accommodating green creatures, in this […]

Things have certainly changed since the last brew report, which reflected April’s decklists pre-companion. Post-, it would appear that Lurrus of the Dream Den is Modern’s new poster-boy, and alongside it Mishra’s Bauble, which is seeing widespread play in everything from Delver to Rock to UW Control. Today, we’ll look at some of the wild […]

And so, the devastation of Modern continues. At least, if you listen to most social media where companions are concerned. I remind everyone again that meaningful data on the matter is currently non-existent; all anyone has to go on are their personal observations. And then the echo chamber will come into play as those observations […]

With the new set fully available online, players can finally verify if all the speculation was correct. It’s one thing to assess cards in a vacuum than in reality, after all. Usually, assessments are too far-off, and a consensus quickly develops around the new cards in every format. This opinion is then developed and refined […]