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. […]

With the August 26 banning announcement, Hogaak was exiled from Modern, to the aplomb of pundits. Many were also pleased with Wizards’s other decision: to axe Faithless Looting. This change affected me differently—not only had I recently spliced Looting into Counter-Cat, the card had always formed the backbone of GRx Moon, a longstanding pet project of […]

Attempting to home new cards in new decks is an exciting section of spoiler season, sure. But my favorite part of the process occurs when spells are spoiled that might slot into my current and past experiments. Certain Modern Horizons reveals have done just that, and revitalized TURBOGOYF, a deck I’ve been building on-and-off for […]

One of the more exciting War of the Spark cards for me was Domri, Anarch of Bolas. The card didn’t appear especially powerful, but it did pique my interest as a potential role-player in a couple of my favorite decks: GR Moon and Temur Delver. As the static-ability walkers spoiled, I identified in them one […]

It’s been awhile since I last discussed GRx Moon, one of my darling archetypes. Sarkhan, Fireblood inspired me to return to the deck for the first time since the Bloodbraid Elf unban, itself an episode that ended up frustrating me as I tried and failed to integrate the hasty 3/2 into the deck. M19’s new […]

If you’re like me, most of the excitement surrounding Standard revolves around which of its cards break into Modern. The worlds-apart nature of both formats guarantees that many Standard all-stars don’t make it over this way, and some Standard duds boast impressive utility in Modern. Every so often, though, a card makes a big splash […]

When players talk about Modern’s “high power level,” they are generally referring to how hard it is for Standard-legal cards to break into the format. After receiving archetype-spawning hits in Oath of the Gatewatch (Thought-Knot Seer, Reality Smasher), Shadows Over Innistrad (Nahiri, the Harbinger, Prized Amalgam), and Eldritch Moon (Eldritch Evolution, Bedlam Reveler), it’s a little disheartening to leaf […]

I’m sure I speak for many when I say my favorite part of spoiler season is paging through new cards and looking for ones that fit into my pet decks. The leaked Shadows over Innistrad spoilers revealed Invasive Surgery and the delirium mechanic. As a Tarmogoyf enthusiast, this keyword spoke to me on a competitive and […]

This format has become as hostile as Zendikar. Testing Eldrazi online makes everyone ragequit, and testing anything else leaves me with bruises. Last week, I took a deck I’d already worked on profusely and tweaked it into a hate-machine for the format tyrant. The deck showed initial promise, but soon Eldrazi opponents adapted to my strategy, and […]

Sheridan’s Eldrazi checkup article from Wednesday linked to a reddit post about Modern’s “canaries in a coalmine:” cards and strategies whose presence in a format should set off red flags of obvious metagame issues. I also find the idea “fascinating,” but could not believe the inanity of the post’s replies, which suggested Spell Snare, Ensnaring Bridge, […]

The Oath of the Gatewatch spoilers are upon us, and it seems like every other day Wizards reveals a Modern hopeful. Battle for Zendikar, Oath’s universally panned predecessor, is even making waves in the format as Bx Eldrazi Processors continues to pick up steam. New decks don’t always come from new cards, though. Modern’s vast card pool […]

A few weeks ago, I brought up Ryuuta Igarashi’s GR Aggro deck, which grew prodigious Tarmogoyfs and powered out Blood Moon with Pyretic Ritual. The combination of Moon and Goyf so intoxicated me that I built GRx Moon decks all last winter, and had some success with them last summer. When I designed Abzan Moon, I figured I’d optimized the strategy […]

My love affair with Tarmogoyf began while I wasn’t playing Magic at all. But “you never really quit,” and as winter ebbed in 2009, I found myself pouring over Legacy decklists to see how the game had changed since I’d begun my hiatus triggered by Kamigawa block (specifically Umezawa’s Jitte) leaving Standard. Anyone who played a […]