So, a new set released and I haven’t addressed it at all. It’s not that I didn’t want to, or lack things to discuss. I was just a bit busy with a far more important project. And then with watching a Pro Tour. And then with chaos. I realize that talking about Rivals of Ixalan is […]
merfolk
The 2018 Star City Games Team Constructed Open was held in “Philadelphia” (the location of the event was about a half hour drive away from the actual city) this past weekend, and given that it’s the first major paper tournament that’s been held within an hour of me in a long time, I resolved to […]
I normally prefer waiting until spoiler season is over to begin publishing think pieces on the upcoming cards, but had to make an exception this week. The announcement of Merfolk Mistbinder in Rivals of Ixalan has profound implications for my Modern deck of choice. While adding green to Merfolk is something pilots of the deck have […]
The past month has been odd for me. I have been advocating UW Merfolk forever, but almost every other Fish player is mono-blue. It made sense. Perfect, painless mana all the time is really appealing. Then Ixalan happened and everyone is experimenting with other colors. I’m not complaining but it feels weird. The fact that they’re still not […]
An unexpected problem with managing a long running series is the intro. This is the sixth time I’ve had to report that I didn’t get there and I’m worried that I’m just retreading old ground at this point. My only hope is that by pointing this fact out and turning it into my intro, I […]
Grand Prix Las Vegas was massive. You knew that from the coverage, but numbers donât have the same impact as being there. I had to elbow my way to the match slip box past hundreds of players milling around the Vintage Magic and Quiet Speculation booths while over half of the actual GP contestants played […]
Welcome back to the Beginner’s Guide. Once again, it is time for some general advice for those making the transition from Standard to Modern. As always, my intention is to provide a foundation for newer players to build on. Once this is established, only then are you ready to talk about all the nuance that aficionados […]
I’m back again with another one of my world-famous financial deck techs! This week we’re going to talk about Merfolk, one of the most competitive tribal decks in Modern. The deck is particularly topical right now, financially speaking, due to a recent announcement by Wizards. This is something you’ll want to be mindful of if […]
It’s been a while, but it’s time for another tournament report! TCGPlayer States was last weekend and I never miss the chance to prove my skill in front of the as much of the community that didn’t attend the Standard LCQ. It’s annoying that Star City has cut States entirely, but it’s actually a nice throwback to […]
Kaladesh block has been very intriguing. There have been a lot of cards and even new decks that looked Modern-playable, and yet the impact so far has been limited. I’m not sure if that is the fault of misplaced expectations or the cards themselves, but only Blossoming Defense has had a noticeable impact. The enemy fastlands […]
Due to complications in my holiday plans, I didn’t have time to write an entirely new article this week. As a replacement, please re-enjoy the final results of my Stoneforge Mystic testing with some additional commentary that I left out from the original run. I promise to have something new to start 2017. Here it […]
The RPTQ weekend is over and many players are now off to try their hand at achieving their Pro Tour dreams. I will not be one of them, unfortunately. Hopefully Jordan will be (I’ve heard nothing yet). The fact that the PPTQ system requires you to get lucky twice rather than once to actually get […]
As promised, welcome back to the Beginner’s Guide. Back in August I explained the general types of Modern decks to explain why Modern is so proactive and diverse. Today we will start to unpack that riddle by examining how to approach playing and playing against Modern’s aggro decks. As I said last time, aggressive decks […]
