It’s been quite a while, but your eyes do not deceive: this is another full banlist test series! It’s been almost two years since I did one of these. Not for lack of trying, mind you, but there are only so many viable test subjects in the first place, and I’ve done a few already. […]

Wow. There are bannings, and then there are bannings. This was definitely the latter. Wizards looked at non-Standard Constructed, saw that it was poor, and nuked it. All of it, Historic, Pioneer, Legacy, and most importantly, Modern. Vintage also saw an unbanning. Because somebody had to get thrown a bone. Monday morning, Wizards dropped the largest […]

It’s always interesting to see how spoiler predictions play out. You can have all the experience in the world with which to judge a card, but miss some corner interaction that just blows up. Or there’s an application that you never considered. The only constant is that predictions will be off and there will be […]

Magic finance has a time and place. But for Sig, the practice has effectively ruined the game. This week he reflects on how this happened and makes some resolutions on how he can try and recapture his childhood innocence when engaging with the game.

Whew! What a year it’s been. All signs point to 2021 being better than 2020, but how much better? Like, what if we wanted to totally decimate 2020 out of spite? (Big “what if…”) I’ve got a few ideas cooking that would make year a memorable one for me. And after sharing them, I’d love […]

Final article of the year! Good riddance, 2020. Hopefully, things start to turn around quickly and we can have the gathering part of Magic: The Gathering back again. But, this isn’t about a virus or vaccine. Today, I have business that must be finished before 2021 begins. For the third year running, it’s time to update my […]

Everything eventually ends. As the year wraps up, it’s time for me to bring my Modern Horizons 2 speculation to a close. I need to clear space for the upcoming Kaldheim spoiler season. And hopefully, the return of paper Magic; I’ve spent considerable time and energy trying to figure out how I’m going to incorporate […]

With the metagame update done, that ends the heavy content for 2020. It’s time to coast to the finish! I think we’ve all earned a nice easy December considering how 2020’s gone, so going into the new year, let’s destress and remember what hope felt like. I miss FNM. To that end, I’ll be picking […]

Welcome to December! At long last, the year known as 2020 is coming to a close. Huzzah! I had planned to kick this off with the traditional metagame update, but that’s not to be: Wizards hasn’t posted the last few events at time of writing, so the data’s incomplete. Even if that wasn’t the case, […]

It’s important to consider alternative solutions to any problem. No matter how clear the solution to a given problem may be to you, never discount the possibility of other perspectives offering insight. Or that biases can blind to us to potential solutions. Either way, entertaining alternatives can get the creative juices flowing. Which is why […]

With all the Reserved List chatter of late, Sig turns introspective and examines his own history with the RL while making his case for its preservation.

Decks come, and decks go. The metagame has no sacred cows. A deck must find its niche and then hold it to maintain relevance. Strength in a vacuum doesn’t matter, nor does the dedication of the player base. Three years ago, Grixis Death’s Shadow was an absolute monster of a deck, to the point that […]

There are many old sayings about plans going awry. Even when it seems like everything lines up perfectly, there’s always a chance for something to go wrong. Throw in a global health crisis, and everything goes out the window. The shutdown seemed like the perfect time to run another banlist test. It’s been over a year […]