Sideboarding is a skill-intensive and essential component of competitive Magic. While it isn’t an “Easy to learn, hard to master” skill, it feels very close. Sideboarding guides can be useful to overcome this learning curve, but they can also become a crutch and actively harmful to your chances of improving. Last week I went over the basics […]
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It’s become a perennial fixture of spoiler season. Some card with a variant of the “punisher” mechanic (the classic example being Browbeat) is spoiled and the collective Magic community flips their lid. Forum posts are awash in bold claims about its greatness, labyrinthine explanations of how “both sides are good,” and wild overestimations of the card’s […]
We’ve heard it a million times. Many of us have proudly said it ourselves. Modern’s a wide-open format. Wide-open! In other words, players can sleeve up whatever they want and hope to have a chance. Well, not exactly. Players can’t really sleeve up, say, Vampire Nighthawk. Like all formats, Modern follows a set of rules; creatures need to pass […]
For the past two weeks I’ve been in Rome, experiencing the city and all its wonders through a roughly six-week study abroad program for architecture. Among many things, my studies have dealt significantly in history, be it the bloody history of Rome’s oft-changing seat of Caesar or the general majestic forces at work in Rome’s […]
Grand Prix weekend may be over, but with few major Modern events between now and the next GP bonanza, players will need to look to Charlotte and Los Angeles for the most recent Modern home-runs. And what a weekend of home-runs we got to enjoy! Between Jeskai Control solidifying Tier 1 status, Affinity making its inevitable […]
Welcome to the second edition of Beginner’s Guide, the article series where we help Standard players make the transition to Modern. Two weeks ago I talked about the importance of choosing and then mastering your deck. This week we discuss sideboarding, easily the hardest and most essential part of Modern. In my experience, players moving […]
Modern is often referred to as a “wide open” format, where deck choice is based more on preference than the “correct metagame choice.” This mentality can at times lead to poor decisions based around pet cards, favorite strategies, or simply stubbornness. It can overwhelm any player looking to prepare for tournaments without a preset idea of […]
Someone who was maybe Ghandi once said, “An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.” If Modern were a person, it would probably ascribe to this inspiring motto. When Wizards of the Coast took Modern’s Eye, the format repaid them with a beautiful metagame they’re happy to take credit for. The story doesn’t end there, and neither does this desperate analogy; after all, […]
This week in Magic, everything is freakin’ awesome. Seriously, I have not been this excited about a Modern metagame since before Splinter Twin was a deck (so, like the format’s conception). Recently, Modern has experienced a roller-coaster of shifts, with Amulet Bloom/Splinter Twin’s bannings and Eldrazi’s swift rise and fall. Today, we’ll look over the […]
On Sunday afternoon, my darling Ad Nauseam won Grand Prix Charlotte. Hours later, David’s Merfolk won Grand Prix Los Angeles. Although neither of us could make it to those tournaments, it’s exciting to see our babies graduating to the Grand Prix spotlight they’ve long deserved, although at least David already got to enjoy it last […]
That was quite a weekend, wasn’t it? Two Modern Grand Prix and neither was won by a Tier 1Â deck. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Modern is wide open! You can play anything and win. The key to success isn’t positioning and metagaming, although both can help, but rather practice and mastery of […]
Delver of Secrets catches a lot of flak in Modern. I’m no stranger to being teased for my deck choice, so when I was preparing for the Indianapolis Open the stigma of potentially scrubbing out with a fringe deck didn’t bother me too much. Throughout the various eras of Modern, it’s hard to say which of […]
When I introduced Counter-Cat to Modern Nexus last week, a number of readers voiced understandable concerns about the deck. Didn’t it auto-lose to Burn? Why not just play Monkey Grow? Or… Domain Zoo?! I promised answers, and this week I have them—sort of. I haven’t had the time to play much Magic this past week, but […]
