A few days ago, my buddy commented on Jeskai Control’s baby-renaissance. “Why are people hopping back on UWR?” he wondered. “It looks worse than Grixis. It seems slower, too.” I dropped some serious knowledge on him: “It’s not a question of ‘worse’ or ‘slower.’ UWR Control has a great Grixis Control matchup, since Grixis Control is really a midrange deck. Midrange decks […]
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A few weeks ago, we talked about the potential viability of Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy in Modern. To summarize, we were intrigued by Jace’s low opportunity cost and high value ceiling in a format full of graveyard enablers (fetchlands and Thought Scour) and cheap, powerful spells (Lightning Bolt and Serum Visions). The unique capability of Thought […]
Burn in Modern has had its highs and lows. It has bounced between tier 1 and tier 2 for almost the entirety of the format, finally cementing itself as a tier 1 strategy as of late on the backs of new additions from recent sets. The deck is a combo deck that doesn’t have a […]
Battle for Zendikar promises to bring a lot of new toys to Modern. RG Tron stands to gain new colorless targets for Ancient Stirrings while Through the Breach decks could get some new monsters to cheat into play. Burn players might benefit from a Goblin Guide reprint (or maybe not with Goblin Piledriver in Standard…). […]
I’m a big believer in using metagame data to inform tournament decisions. Whether you use the information to guide your deck choice, change around some maindeck cards, or determine your sideboard bullets, players who are aware of metagame trends are much better prepared than those who are not. Unfortunately, it’s not always clear how a […]
This week’s article contains some Day’s Undoing theory and unveils a new brew. But before we begin, let’s address the Trained Armodon in the room. I hyped Day’s Undoing as the best card in Magic Origins and predicted it would completely turn Modern on its head. I expected the virtual end of midrange decks (not containing […]
This past weekend I traveled to beautiful Vancouver to play Magic competitively at the highest professional stage. The format: Magic Origins Standard and Booster Draft. While not Modern, the Pro Tour is still the Pro Tour, and I figured a report from the perspective of a wide-eyed first timer would make for an interesting read. […]
We don’t get a Modern Grand Prix until September; if you were as pumped about summer Modern as I was, GP Oklahoma City can’t come soon enough. Thankfully, Modern has continued to evolve in the wake of our June GP gauntlet, and the metagame hasn’t looked this open in years. Since our last metagame breakdown […]
Following the success of last week’s article comparing Legacy to Modern prices, I want to take a look at some other questions about Modern finance. We had a lot of requests in the comments, both on this site and on others where the article appeared, but one stood out as more important than the rest: rising Modern […]
In Modern Sleepers (Part 1), I led with a blurb about what makes Modern such a great format. Today, I’ll begin with a bit about what makes a card playable in Modern and how to hone card analysis skills. Improving at card analysis benefits players and collectors alike. When a budget player “buys in” on a […]
With Magic Origins finally in our hands, and the results of two Standard SCG events in the books, weeks of predictions and conjecture concerning our new gifts can finally be put to the test. While no large, high-level Modern events will occur for a few weeks, we still have MTGO Daily results, SCG IQ’s, and […]
Delve is one of the more broken mechanics in Magic. It cheats mana costs, dodges cost-specific removal like Abrupt Decay, and rewards you for doing nothing else beyond playing a game of Magic. Mark Rosewater may have given delve a mere five on his “Storm Scale” back in 2014, but I am sure the mechanic […]
Raise your hand if Goblin Piledriver was your favorite Magic Origins reprint. What about favorite Origins card? What about favorite reprint period since Modern’s birth (sorry Scavenging Ooze)? Goblin Piledriver is that rare card which inspires current spikes, old Magic veterans, and newer players who have heard legends of tribal Goblins in action. Wizards’ inclusion […]
