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 […]

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 […]

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 […]