Another month gone in quarantine. At least, I think it’s been a month. Time is steadily losing all meaning to me. What even is this year, and what was I talking about? Oh yeah, it’s August now, so I need to take another look at Modern’s metagame. Fire up the spreadsheets and break out the […]
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Last week I unveiled Delirium Delver, my latest pile featuring Tarmogoyf and Serum Visions. It was Stormwing Delver that got me brewing again, and apparently I wasn’t alone. Today, we’ll explore Modern’s latest spell-attack renaissance by looking at what the tempo heads are slinging online. Clearly, there’s no shortage of options! Flipping the Table That’s […]
There are many old sayings about plans going awry. Even when it seems like everything lines up perfectly, there’s always a chance for something to go wrong. Throw in a global health crisis, and everything goes out the window. The shutdown seemed like the perfect time to run another banlist test. It’s been over a year […]
A trend I’m seeing in the published results from July is a marked uptick in spell-based aggro-control strategies. Most of those are of the UR Prowess variety, but plenty of Delver of Secrets decks are making the rounds, too. We’ll cover those more academically next week. Today, I’d like to unveil the build I’m currently […]
The greatest problem I face as an article writer is finding something to write about. Inspiration is fickle, as motivation can also be. This is made especially difficult by the pandemic choking off my easiest content source: actual Modern tournaments. Without much happening in greater Modern to discuss and limited source material, I find myself […]
Well, I’ve dutifully done my snooping, and am proud to present some of Modern’s new directions in a Snow-less world! Chomping at the bit for more? Ready the sails… if you dare! Nuthin’ But a “G” Thang “One, two, three and to the four / Boggart Harbinger and Conspicuous Snoop is at the door.” In […]
But for copyright concerns, I would have led off this article with the lyrics to “Another One Bites the Dust.” I hope perfectly reasonable intellectual property law is happy with itself. There’s been another B&R Announcement. This time something actually is banned in Modern. So that’s nice. Even if it does moot a number of […]
Earlier this week, David dissected RG Ponza, the format’s sleeper centralizer that may well overtake other Modern decks in the numbers soon. The deck exploits a peculiar vulnerability of Modern manabases: their softness to turn two Blood Moon. Of course, reliably powering out Moon effects isn’t something any old deck can do with great consistency. […]
Tracking events and collecting and then presenting data is all well and good. It’s how observations are turned into good science and how we analyze Magic’s metagame ecosystem. However, saying that Bant Snow and Eldrazi Tron are tied for most played deck is only half the story. Why this is happening is a far harder, […]
Earlier this month, we saw the early effects of the companion nerf, especially as they affected Yorion decks. Players have since transitioned away from companions for the most part, with some exceptions, as we’ll get to. Today, we’ll look at ten more spicy strategies to emerge from Modern’s rebuilding. Deck-to-Table Grassroots as brewing can be, […]
It’s the end of June. Normally that wouldn’t feel weird to say, but this is a rather unusual year. Where has it gone, and simultaneously why does it feel like it never goes at all? Without paper events as a guide and work disrupted, time is losing meaning to me. Fortunately, I keep being reminded of […]
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 […]
M21 spoilers have wrapped up, and as David predicted, most of the Modern goodies were revealed early on. But there is one particular card that caught my eye from the outset, and that I’ve been working on implementing into Delver shells ever since. Stormwing Entity, at best, is a flying Tarmogoyf that resists Fatal Push. […]
