Delve is one of the more broken mechanics in Magic. It cheats mana costs, dodges cost-specific removal like Abrupt Decay, and rewards you for doing nothing else beyond playing a game of Magic. Mark Rosewater may have given delve a mere five on his “Storm Scale” back in 2014, but I am sure the mechanic […]

Raise your hand if Goblin Piledriver was your favorite Magic Origins reprint. What about favorite Origins card? What about favorite reprint period since Modern’s birth (sorry Scavenging Ooze)? Goblin Piledriver is that rare card which inspires current spikes, old Magic veterans, and newer players who have heard legends of tribal Goblins in action. Wizards’ inclusion […]

Modern prices have been rising since the format’s birth, but 2015 brought these spikes to new levels. The last six months since the January ban announcement have seen price jumps across the format, both on staple effects and on wild speculation targets. Liliana of the Veil climbed from about $55 to a TCGPlayer average of […]

Effectively tuning a deck requires multiple avenues of testing. Last week, I wrote about minor tweaks to my iGrow shell implemented during friendly testing sessions. A day after that article was published, the real testing began, as I took the deck to a pair of ~25-player Modern PPTQs. I made Top 8 in both events […]

With the recent release of Magic Origins and preparations for attending my first Pro Tour in Vancouver, Modern has unfortunately taken a backseat to Standard testing for me recently. This pains me greatly, as moving from the extremely mana-efficient, decision intensive, role-switching matches of Grixis Control in favor of clunky, barbaric Abzan Midrange is similar […]

I’ve always been a fan of Gerry Thompson’s Daily Digest column on StarCityGames, especially when he highlights a Modern deck. Because most Modern players don’t sit at their computer spamming F5 to refresh the MTGO Daily at noon every day, Gerry’s articles are a great way to get the scoop on cool new Modern decks. […]

Magic Origins hit tournament floors this past weekend with mixed results across multiple formats. Although cards like Hangarback Walker, Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy, and Thopter Spy Network made a big impression in Standard events like SCG’s Premier Qualifier in Chicago, Origins’ Modern impact was much more modest. We’ll need more time to see how Origins performs […]

I don’t remember the last time a “no changes” banlist announcement was met with so much contention and disagreement. Although some players have expressed satisfaction and relief at Wizards’ decision last week, others have done the opposite, questioning Wizards’ understanding of Modern, challenging the banning of some cards and not others, and overall doubting Wizards’ ability […]

There’s an easy way to break tempo; the archetype just requires ways to turn a previously unused resource into something it craves and has little of. Tempo has no shortage of spare land drops or excess cards in the graveyard that we would gladly trade for more tools to win games with. Cards that offer these […]

Hey guys! This week, I figured we’d take a step back from individual deck discussion/format analysis and discuss a topic that applies to anyone looking to improve their game: testing! With my recent move and the approach of Pro Tour: Magic Origins in Vancouver, I’ve been focused primarily on two things: Standard, and where my […]

I’m out on vacation this week, so with the exception of my banlist article yesterday (I couldn’t even have left the house without writing that!), I’ll be doing some shorter tech-oriented articles for this week. You can expect more discussion and processing of the banlist next week, as well as some metagame discussion as we […]

An hour ago, Wizards released their 7/13 Banned and Restricted Announcement to an eagerly awaiting Modern community. I’d been refreshing pages for about two hours by that point, so I hope you join me in taking our collective hats off to Wizards as we applaud them for the Announcement’s decision: no changes. I’m not just […]

Modern players love discussing ways to improve the format. I constantly hear suggestions from forum users and locals alike to unban more cards (Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Sword of the Meek), reprint older ones (mostly Counterspell), or print new ones, often with specific agendas in mind. Different players want different things. But for a format […]