My friend Chaz has a saying about Modern: “The best games I’ve ever played were in Modern; and the worst games I’ve ever played were in Modern.” It makes sense. One the one hand we’re witnessing what is most likely the single-most diverse Magic format of all time, where every possible archetype and play style […]

Look, I get it. Sideboarding isn’t sexy. Even if I throw numbers at you, like the fact that close to 66% of the games you play involve a post-sideboard 75, you’ll still work to perfect that starting 60, then find 15 cards to “fill in” a sideboard and call it a day. I’m guilty of […]

Modern is full of great creatures. A Goyf by any other name is still a Goyf. And yet, no other Modern creature commands as notoriously high a price tag. As of right now, MTGGoldfish’s data lists Tarmogoyf as Modern’s number-one most-played creature. The first time I read Tarmogoyf myself, after a multiple-year Magic hiatus in 2009, I didn’t […]

This week, I feel like branching out. Metagame analysis and decklist discussion is fun and all, but sometimes a change of pace is in order. In Magic, and also just life in general, whenever things get a little too routine, drastic steps are often required. Some individuals get tattoos. Others purchase motorcycles. A few brave […]

Well, there’s really no denying or even downplaying the issue now, is there? Eldrazi is horrifyingly broken. Not only that, but it’s occupying metagame shares that are unprecedented in the history of Modern (as far as we have data for anyway). And this confuses me. It really does. Looking at this deck on paper, its success […]

Last week, we began our discussion on the Theory of Context by examining the principles of interaction that drive individual card playability. From there, we examined the Context of Modern by grouping and analyzing archetypes on a broad level, focusing particularly on the pressures each macro-archetype places on the format as a whole. This week, […]

For those that have been reading my column for the past few months, you might have heard mention of “context” a few times. I’ve become thoroughly convinced that context is the single most important factor that goes into determining everything we see, from decklists to sideboards to tournament winning lists to archetype tier changes and […]