Pro Tour Bilbao’s just two weeks away. Soon, all eyes will be on Modern, the now-beloved alternative to Standard and Legacy. And perhaps for the first time as a true replacement for those formats. Wizards has shown us unequivocally that they plan on supporting this format whole-heartedly—with tournaments; with reprints; with heavy-handed (and largely successful) […]
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New sets often pique the interest of Modern players. My last article discussed about how Rivals of Ixalan has brought quite a bit of excitement for Merfolk in Modern. This time around, we’ll see how the set’s tribal theme might have improved archetype that has been biding its time in Modern for a long while. Vampires have received […]
It has come to this. Time to start rolling out the results of the latest banned card test. Conducting this test has been weird for me. Having a hard deadline was actually a blessing as it helped discipline the testing period and we got done much faster than expected. However, this wasn’t a fun experience […]
Welcome back for the December metagame update. This month saw two large-scale Grand Prix delineate an extremely diverse metagame. Perhaps it’s just my own personal bias, but I believe Modern is in a great spot right now—healthy, diverse, with interactive games and relevant decisions in deckbuilding and sideboard construction. This is the “metagame to beat” as […]
Modern used to come under fire in its early days for how focused its decks were. The format’s many linear decks gave onlookers and format dabblers the impression that Modern was but a mess of such decks “passing in the night,” like “two ships.” But focus isn’t everything, and dilution has its merits. As perception […]
I am always amazed at how often people make relatively simple tasks hard for themselves. There just seems to be something in all of us that gets suspicious whenever anything is unexpectedly easy. We are ready for conflict. We prepare for projects, lessons, and assignments to be hard. When they’re not, we don’t know what […]
Today we have quite a treat coming straight from the desk of Willy Edel. His list was posted about a week-and-a-half ago, and as soon as I saw it I knew I was interested. Thoughtseize in my Thought-Knot Seer deck? Yes, please! While some two-color Eldrazi decks have been popping up lately (RG Eldrazi with […]
Yesterday, Eli Shiffrin spoiled Blood Sun, a new card from Rivals of Ixalan. Modernites were quick to give the internet a piece of their mind, with thoughts ranging from the expectant “Wizards squandered an opportunity to nerf Tron” to the meme-level “I don’t want to be THAT guy, but this card will probably need a […]
I normally prefer waiting until spoiler season is over to begin publishing think pieces on the upcoming cards, but had to make an exception this week. The announcement of Merfolk Mistbinder in Rivals of Ixalan has profound implications for my Modern deck of choice. While adding green to Merfolk is something pilots of the deck have […]
Hello, Nexites, and welcome to a new edition of Deck of the Week. The new year is upon us, which means that Pro Tour Rivals of Ixalan is coming soon as well. As we gear up for the return to the first Modern Pro Tour in several years, we can expect to see pros exploring […]
Happy New Year! At least, I’m assuming it’s the new year. Hard to say; I’m typing this article from the bottom of what used to be a barrel of eggnog. Anyway, let’s not let less-than-optimal writing conditions get in the way—it’s Bloodbraid Month! Which is an excuse to hold off revealing the data from the […]
Every year has its ups and downs, and so does every card. While this year blessed Modern with untold diversity, a few cards seem to have been left by the wayside. This article explores some of them in detail, reasoning why certain spells are perhaps best left in 2017. #5: Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet Amonkhet […]
David is out for the holidays until next week. In the meantime, please enjoy his article from earlier this year where he presented results from the Preordain ban test. These results were originally presented in two separate articles (here and here), but I’ve divided them into parts for the purpose of easier reading. Part 1: […]
