Good news, PPTQ grinders! We have data for you. As if the monthly metagame update wasn’t enough for you, this week we have the SCG Syracuse Open to look at, and Jordan will be talking about his PPTQ experience later in the week. Here’s to making informed decisions based on actual data! Dredge won the […]
tournaments
Hey guys! You might have noticed that I’m new here. As outlined here, I’ve been brought onto Modern Nexus to write a weekly column, and I want to take a little of your time to introduce myself. My name is Jim and although I’m originally from New York City, I live in Orlando, Florida. I […]
Few would disagree that the banned list in Modern is a net benefit to the format, facilitating its legendary diversity and ensuring games remain more or less interactive. There is, however, a certain curiosity that’s hard to shake off—just what would our beloved format look like completely freed from all its shackles? No-banned-list Modern tournaments […]
Ah, the first PPTQ of the season. When hope springs anew, the Colorado metagame is still in its default, Burn-heavy state, and everyone thinks that their preparation was absolutely flawless and that this one is theirs for the taking. Then I usually bomb out of the Top 8, everything goes into wildly overblown flux when some […]
Rejoice Nexites, for the Modern PPTQ season fast approaches! The Modern Pro Tour may be gone but at least we still have an entire season to grind away for our shot at the big stage. While the season doesn’t actually kick off for most until the end of the month, I got a taste of […]
Modern never ceases to amaze me in its constant innovation and evolution. From crazy one-off brews, to slight metagame tweaks in established decks, to defunct archetypes that rise pheonix-like from the ashes with a new printing, there’s always plenty to discover. I spent most of the weekend chaining Eternal Masters drafts like a degenerate and watching […]
This week in Magic, everything is freakin’ awesome. Seriously, I have not been this excited about a Modern metagame since before Splinter Twin was a deck (so, like the format’s conception). Recently, Modern has experienced a roller-coaster of shifts, with Amulet Bloom/Splinter Twin’s bannings and Eldrazi’s swift rise and fall. Today, we’ll look over the […]
Delver of Secrets catches a lot of flak in Modern. I’m no stranger to being teased for my deck choice, so when I was preparing for the Indianapolis Open the stigma of potentially scrubbing out with a fringe deck didn’t bother me too much. Throughout the various eras of Modern, it’s hard to say which of […]
When I introduced Counter-Cat to Modern Nexus last week, a number of readers voiced understandable concerns about the deck. Didn’t it auto-lose to Burn? Why not just play Monkey Grow? Or… Domain Zoo?! I promised answers, and this week I have them—sort of. I haven’t had the time to play much Magic this past week, but […]
Two weeks ago I called Abzan Company one of the top decks of the format. Last weekend, in Indianapolis, Abzan Company failed to even crack the Top 32. Instead, the top tables were overrun with copies of Infect and R/G (Tron and Valakut), while Jeskai Control took home the trophy. Today, we’ll analyze the results of […]
These days I’m somewhat schizophrenic in my long-distance tournament planning. Usually I make the entirely adult decision to stay home from any GPs or Star City Games Opens requiring a day’s drive or flight. Some quantity of these good decisions are inevitably reneged on when a friend convinces me through last-minute pleading and/or reminders of […]
Play mistakes often amount to a lack of experience. Barring an FNM the day before, SCGÂ States marked my first event with Temur Delver since Oath of the Gatewatch, which had me gleefully—and, soon enough, disinterestedly—casting two-mana, Thoughtseizeing Tarmogoyfs. I’m not unexperienced with Temur Delver; I’ve been playing it in various forms since 2012, and with […]
Sometimes I marinate for minutes (no, tens of minutes) on clever article titles, but today’s came naturally. After months of turning Eldrazi Temple sideways, I’ve returned to my beloved Temur Delver, and fetching out basic Island has never felt more right. I guess you don’t know how dirty some things are until you stop doing them. To […]