As the metagame continues to adapt to the recent additions of Bloodbraid Elf and Jace, the Mind Sculptor, we have seen lots of the expected: Bloodbraid bolstering Jund, and Jace slotting in nicely as a finisher for controlling blue decks. Temur Midrange was also a concept that was bandied about, and is currently seeing play. […]

Since last Monday, it seems like Jace and Bloodbraid are everywhere. This should hardly be surprising. Exciting, powerful cards promote similarly excited brewing, and as the decklists reveal, players are actually following through. But this isn’t Eldrazi Winter, and the new decks aren’t obviously overpowered. There’s more going on. It will take a few months before […]

Pro Tour Rivals of Ixalan, the first Modern PT in two years, is in the books! And I’m feeling kind of flat about the whole thing. This is probably because I didn’t watch the live version. It’s not the coverage team’s fault. However, I have no interest in watching live drafts, and trying to watch […]

Welcome back for the December metagame update. This month saw two large-scale Grand Prix delineate an extremely diverse metagame. Perhaps it’s just my own personal bias, but I believe Modern is in a great spot right now—healthy, diverse, with interactive games and relevant decisions in deckbuilding and sideboard construction. This is the “metagame to beat” as […]

Hello, Nexites, and welcome to a new edition of Deck of the Week. The recent Modern meta has continuously shifted from fair decks, to combo decks, to big-mana decks. It says a lot about the diversity of the format, regardless of how other people think about the Top 8 decks at Grand Prix Oklahoma. With […]

One of the most interesting trends that has emerged over the last few weeks in the Modern is the resurgence of combo-control. Several decks have seen success with an interactive shell that has some sort of a combo finish. Be it Living End suiting up with Cryptic Commands and Remands instead of its traditional creature-heavy […]

The plan for this week was to update my metagame data tables with the results of the Grand Prix. However, Jason surprised all of us with the actual metagame update. Not that I’m complaining, mind you; it was a very nice surprise. I’m glad the more rigorous and comprehensive table is back in action. In […]

Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve written the full metagame update, but you folks haven’t gotten rid of me that easily. Know that our plans here at Nexus have always been to resume these and make them regular, but in a way that was sustainable moving forward. Rather than make speculative promises I […]

Once again, it’s time to update my paper metagame table! Magic’s had a busy weekend—between the SCG Invitational and the World Magic Cup, it was easy to miss the Roanoke Open. Which feels very odd to say, considering how popular and pervasive Opens are, but it’s the truth. Not that it matters; the data it […]

Next week is Grand Prix Oklahoma City, the biggest Modern event before the Pro Tour. And this week, there is a Modern Open alongside the SCG Invitational. These events should generate a lot of useful data. It will be tempting to wield this data and metagame your deck ahead of the Grand Prix. I am […]

Modern’s detractors have long cast the format as a writhing mess of linear decks, all ignoring each other or skillfully opening sideboard hosers all the way to each hyper-aggressive Top 8. But until recently, Modern’s pound-for-pound fairest deck—Jund—has commanded more metagame shares than almost anything else. That deck’s resignation as king gave way to a variety […]

Sometimes it’s necessary to revisit older topics. Whether it’s previously unavailable data coming in, or assumptions and beliefs evolving, it’s good to revisit previous statements and articles to see if they’re still valid. Today I will first finish off my Regionals update, then I need to revisit some Ixalan cards both because I missed them and […]

So, here it is, the big update. After today, we will definitely have enough data to make actual conclusions about the metagame. I won’t go as far to say that it is the definitive metagame—it’s not that big. However, this will show what you can expect going into Grand Prix Oklahoma City. The online metagame has […]