I like winning as much as the next guy. Maybe even more. That’s why, since even before the Gitaxian Probe ban, I’ve brought Colorless Eldrazi Stompy to three local tournaments a week. In doing so, I’ve racked up more store credit than I know what to do with, and gained a reputation around Boston as […]

I’m trying very hard not to say, “I told you so.” Grixis Death’s Shadow, days after I touted it as the best deck to play heading into the competitive weekend, took down the SCG Open in Baltimore that I hoped on attending, crushed the field at GP Copenhagen, and took third place at Grand Prix Kobe. […]

Today, Mike is tackling the shifts in the Modern metagame and what they mean for the finance community.

Immediately following its mainstream introduction to Modern by Josh Utter-Leyton and his crew at GP Vancouver, Death’s Shadow gained significant footing in the metagame. The explosion of Jund Shadow onto the paper scene at roughly 10% has since cooled, with the deck taking a more reasonable 8% share when lumped in with Abzan Shadow builds. Part of the reason for […]

The line between genius and madness is indistinct. The line between epiphany and world-class tilting-off is blurry. I’m in something of a fugue, and uncertain of where I stand anymore. While I am personally certain of the veracity of my forthcoming statement describing the Modern metagame, my ability to perceive normal reality is compromised. I’ll […]

The B&R update last week shook up a lot of formats, but not Modern. With the format stable for the time being, it’s worth a closer look to see where there may be opportunity.

April 24th came and went, and besides some misguided grumbling about Death’s Shadow, most Modern players were content. Without one deck consistently surpassing 10% of the metagame, a “no changes” banlist announcement was easy to predict. But Wizards went the extra mile with this particular announcement, including a blurb about Modern despite choosing not to shake it up. […]

Matthew Lewis presents the MTGO Market Report for this week, evaluating important events in the online market and highlighting a “trade of the week.”

Idle speculation accomplishes nothing. Speculation is just untested opinion, and is therefore invalid. With that in mind, I’ve decided to test my opinions about Gideon of the Trials and find out if my initial impressions actually hold weight. I don’t have enough data to make any definitive conclusion, but my testing should shine some light on Gideon’s […]

It’s a crazy time to be a disruption-plus-clock player in Modern. The options seem limitless, even if they also seem to point back at Death’s Shadow. Messing around with Shadow in a Temur Delver deck for the last couple weeks has made me a slobbery wet one, nostalgic for the glory days of 4/4 tramplers and […]

Mike breaks down the most important cards that might have been overlooked for reprint in Modern Masters 2017.

Last week, I introduced a new build of Temur Delver that runs black for Death’s Shadow, the Avatar’s partner-in-crime Thoughtseize, and Modern’s shiny new removal spell, Fatal Push. With another week of experience testing under my belt, I have plenty more insights on the deck. This new experience has inspired a few changes to Temur Shadow, and even a new […]

Mike breaks down a number of Modern Masters 2017 boxes to help us get a snapshot of what kind of value we might expect from such an investment.