Mike Lanigan reviews Magic Origins for Constructed applications, selecting his picks for the 10 cards most likely to impact the Standard format.

The most frustrating part about the Modern banlist isn’t always the bans themselves. In fact, I haven’t really disagreed with a ban since Seething Song/Bloodbraid Elf bit the dust back in January 2013. For me, the most frustrating part can be lack of player understanding about Wizards’ banning criteria, and Wizards’ lack of transparency in how they discuss […]

The last time I had such an exciting month of Modern was March 2014, back during GP Richmond. And that was just a single GP without any major set releases co-occurring. June saw not one, not two, but three Grand Prix tournaments, along with the Magic Origins spoiler, the MTGO Modern Festival, an SCG Modern Open, and […]

Magic Origins has arrived! Origins is the last of the Core sets (6th Edition, 10th Edition, M15, etc.), which marks the end of an era for how sets are released. It’s fitting that a set like this will have some high-impact Modern playables, but the bar was already set high in Khans block. Maybe a […]

We’ve seen some interest in Saturday articles for a while now, and with the MTGO Modern Festival Finals coming up on Sunday, July 5, there hasn’t been a better time to fire off a pre-event article to prepare players for Sunday’s showdown. The tournament winner goes home with one copy of every single Modern-legal set, […]

Thank God it’s Friday. In other words, time for another article about everyone’s favorite transforming bug. I’ve dabbled in midrange, combo, aggro, and control, but only tempo consistently stimulates me to learn everything I can about Magic. As such, most of my Magic knowledge is tempo-based, and you can always expect me to write articles focused […]

Hey guys! In response to my article about Suicide Zoo last week, I asked my readers which they would rather see: a video about Grixis Control, or one with Suicide Zoo. You guys voted Suicide Zoo, so I did a short Video Tech and then ran the list through an 8-man event to try it out. […]

Grishoalbrand has made a big impact in Modern and in this article, I want to explain the deck’s matchups against the top 6 decks in Modern: Jund, Abzan, UR Twin, Affinity, Grixis Control and Abzan Company. I will describe both how to approach the matchup, how to properly sideboard, and how to assess the opposing […]

If you are like me, one of your biggest June disappointments was the lack of GP Singapore video coverage. After all the awesome GP Charlotte and GP Copenhagen footage and commentary (minus the ridiculous Amulet Bloom questions out of Charlotte), I really wanted to finish the month with the Affinity and Jund showdowns in the Singapore […]

Doug Linn makes the case for an effective floor on competitive Modern decks–the price the market is willing to pay, which inevitably pulls up the price of budget decks over time.

Spoiler and preview seasons always have ups and downs. There are the ups of amazing cards and the downs of Limited fodder. There are also the ups of instant recognition of a format staple (hello, Atarka’s Command), and the downs of embarrassing card evaluation failures (“Treasure Cruise = overcosted jank gg wizards”). Magic Origins, the […]

Sometimes, Wizards spoils a card that seems potentially powerful if a game operates in an unconventional way. When they do, Magic players often hit the forums to discuss its implications. Day’s Undoing is reaching Treasure Cruise-esque levels of hype, which makes perfect sense – like Cruise, the card provides a game-breaking effect (literally power) for […]

I grew up around collectible card games. My dad played Star Wars CCG, an incredibly complex, infinitely customizable card game from Decipher. It was the greatest game I never played: I was too young to grasp the game during its heyday. By the time I was old enough to play, Decipher had sadly moved on to […]