It’s finally time for another banlist testing report. Back in May, readers chose Green Sun’s Zenith as the next banned card to test, which I’ll just call GSZ from here on out. I’ve spent the intervening months grinding games and recording results to test its effect on Modern. This week, I’ll explain my test procedure, […]

The SCG Dallas Open showcased some interesting developments in several formats. Eddie takes stock of new technology and logs the changes to his portfolio in response.

This week has a nice focus on lands, but we’re not referring to the Legacy deck. Eddie also starts touching on Guilds of Ravnica spoilers.

This week Eddie circles back around to rotation to highlight Standard and Modern. He also provides a new way to keep tabs on cards he mentions in his articles with a public spreadsheet.

Standard is nearing rotation but that doesn’t mean we’re lacking for action. Eddie covers the cards to hold and fold this week, including key foils, promos, and Pauper staples.

Many remember the new Pod-less, Cruise-less Modern as one of the format’s golden ages. In those days, the Twin vs. BGx metagame was defined as much by its helming midrange decks as by the “Big Three” aggro-combo strategies that forced players into so much interaction at all: Infect, Burn, and Affinity. Affinity has always boasted […]

The Modern PPTQ season begins at the end of July. For consummate grinders like myself, this is a call to break out the tech and start polish decks. It’s also a call to start playtesting, both to understand how my own deck works and to understand how other decks operate. One of the greatest challenges […]

Another new set, more new cards, and more chances for hope to spring eternal. As always, players are wildly speculating on their playability and trying to fit new cards into everything. I’m not immune, and especially now that the full spoiler is out I have been looking for and testing Modern playable cards. Two in […]

With hard metagame data being increasingly hard to come by, having several events in a row is a relief. Rather than extrapolation and conjecture, data and fact can guide my recommendations. This string of Star City events will provide an excellent guide for those heading to GP Las Vegas, and preparation and information are the […]

Humans is currently the best deck in Modern. The data is very clear about this: Humans is on top everywhere and has been for most of the year. This is causing a kind of dynamic stability to take over the format. The top decks have remained relatively the same for some time while the rest […]

Another weekend, another major event to review: this time, GP Phoenix. The paper metagame continues to be hard to pin down. There are significant changes from SCG Dallas which muddy the waters and makes any projection difficult. There appear to be some trends forming but anything can be a trend when you only have two […]