Last week, I began a five-part series focused on analyzing the varying impact each color in Magic has upon Modern, based on the individual cards that see play in the format and, to a broader extent, the archetypes made possible by these cards. If you missed last week’s article on white, check it out there; I’ll […]

I’ve always been more of a paper player than an online one, but that changed a few weeks ago when I bought myself an MTGO deck as an early birthday present. Can you guess my purchase? Hint: if you’ve seen “ktkenshinx” around the tournament practice tables, chances are you’ve been eating Lightning Storms with Pact […]

Sideboarding is a skill-intensive and essential component of competitive Magic. While it isn’t an “Easy to learn, hard to master” skill, it feels very close. Sideboarding guides can be useful to overcome this learning curve, but they can also become a crutch and actively harmful to your chances of improving. Last week I went over the basics […]

It’s become a perennial fixture of spoiler season. Some card with a variant of the “punisher” mechanic (the classic example being Browbeat) is spoiled and the collective Magic community flips their lid. Forum posts are awash in bold claims about its greatness, labyrinthine explanations of how “both sides are good,” and wild overestimations of the card’s […]

Big decks can come with big price-tags, but Sheridan has scoped out five underpriced Modern staples to get fast.

We’ve heard it a million times. Many of us have proudly said it ourselves. Modern’s a wide-open format. Wide-open! In other words, players can sleeve up whatever they want and hope to have a chance. Well, not exactly. Players can’t really sleeve up, say, Vampire Nighthawk. Like all formats, Modern follows a set of rules; creatures need to pass […]

For the past two weeks I’ve been in Rome, experiencing the city and all its wonders through a roughly six-week study abroad program for architecture. Among many things, my studies have dealt significantly in history, be it the bloody history of Rome’s oft-changing seat of Caesar or the general majestic forces at work in Rome’s […]

Grand Prix weekend may be over, but with few major Modern events between now and the next GP bonanza, players will need to look to Charlotte and Los Angeles for the most recent Modern home-runs. And what a weekend of home-runs we got to enjoy! Between Jeskai Control solidifying Tier 1 status, Affinity making its inevitable […]

Welcome to the second edition of Beginner’s Guide, the article series where we help Standard players make the transition to Modern. Two weeks ago I talked about the importance of choosing and then mastering your deck. This week we discuss sideboarding, easily the hardest and most essential part of Modern. In my experience, players moving […]

Modern is often referred to as a “wide open” format, where deck choice is based more on preference than the “correct metagame choice.” This mentality can at times lead to poor decisions based around pet cards, favorite strategies, or simply stubbornness. It can overwhelm any player looking to prepare for tournaments without a preset idea of […]

Moving into the Modern off-season, Sheridan explores the Taking Turns deck as a hot strategic and financial investment.

Someone who was maybe Ghandi once said, “An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.” If Modern were a person, it would probably ascribe to this inspiring motto. When Wizards of the Coast took Modern’s Eye, the format repaid them with a beautiful metagame they’re happy to take credit for. The story doesn’t end there, and neither does this desperate analogy; after all, […]

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 […]