Roses are red, violets are blue—it’s time for another Report About Brews! This (day after) Valentine’s Day, we’ll take a look at some of the exciting developments Modern has seen this month, and present each deck alongside its significant other: another deck that’s somehow related. In the words of a certain heart-shaped candy, LET’S GET BUSY! […]
Brewing
*Editor’s note: at the time of writing, Pteramander’s English name had not been spoiled. This article’s title refers to the card as “Salamander Drake.” Spells-matter decks perform admirably these days, but my favorite Human Insect rarely inhabits them. Last week, I mused about what Delver of Secrets would need—both card-wise and metagame-wise—to again be a player […]
Instant/sorcery support? Cost-reduction mechanics? Cheap card draw for aggressive strategies? Light Up the Stage, a card with spectacle spoiled from Ravnica Allegiance this week, hits all my soft spots, yanking me from a haze of Inkling up-smashes and Richter side-specials to brew anew. Today, I’ll share my findings on Light Up the Stage in what […]
It’s easy to identify with Ravnica’s guilds. The plane owes much of its popularity to that simple fact. In Modern, where color fixing is better than any other constructed format, players have more often aligned themselves with shards or wedges, such as Jund and Jeskai. But these days, decks tend to be defined less by […]
Monday’s article examined the recent resurgence of blue-based aggro-control brews in Modern. A number of these decks have put up strong finishes on Magic Online lately, despite the continued presence of better-known aggro-control decks like Jund Rock and Grixis Shadow. More exciting still, these decks appear to be breaking out in a format already polarized […]
New aggro decks in Modern tend to be streamlined synergy machines full of critters. But “goodstuff”-style creature decks Ă la Jund, which wield Modern’s known best cards, do slip through occasionally. Perhaps the best-known example of this phenomenon is Traverse Shadow, a deck that blew Modernites away when it first reared its head over a […]
The metagame constantly cycles and decks rise and fall. Last year, Grixis Death’s Shadow was the deck-to-beat in Modern; today, it’s Humans. Sometimes, this fluctuation occurs because of players reacting to new decks or trends; sometimes, it’s because of new printings. With the release of Guilds of Ravnica, Modern seems poised for a major shift thanks to […]
I’m always brewing new Modern decks, especially when spoiler season rolls around. After the novelty wears off, I inevitably find myself pulled back to my favorite card combinations. Goyfs, Bolts, cantrips; Temples, Mimics, Seers. I believe the decks that best house these respective combinations are Counter-Cat and Colorless Eldrazi Stompy, both of which I’ve tuned […]
In the vast card pool of Modern, there are quite a few hidden gems that are either underplayed or could see play in other strategies. Decks like Death’s Shadow and KCI existed for a long time before being discovered. This leads me to believe there are plenty of other undiscovered viable decks lurking in the […]
I’ve had lots on my plate the last few weeks, including finally installing Magic Online on my Macintosh and playing in a couple of paper PPTQs for old-time’s sake. While life passed me by as I struggled to 5-0 a competitive league, as much an exercise in beating the program’s hostile interface as besting my opponents, […]
Oftentimes, new mechanics are set aside, to be discussed only in terms of their impact on cards. Today, I am going to flip the script and go into detail about surveil. This mechanic is the most interesting part of Guilds of Ravnica to me, and while it may not happen immediately, I expect that it will […]
For once, an entire set spoiler is up before my Friday article goes live. So I’m happy to present this list of the juiciest Modern standouts in Guilds of Ravnica! Granted, the very juicy ones are already high on everyone’s radar. But like most Standard sets of seasons past, this expansion is still packed with […]
Guilds of Ravnica spoilers are underway, and the set is meeting my high expectations. It’s even exceeding them thanks to a certain Golgari instant. Join me today as we discuss that card and explore some of the possibilities Guilds promises for spell-based fair decks the format over. The Trophy’s Legacy Plenty has been written about […]
