It’s been an interesting week for Modern players. Not only has an entire supplemental product targeted at us been revealed, but there was also a Modern Grand Prix, with SCG Regionals and a three-GP  month coming up. It’s a good time to be invested in and covering Magic’s best format. Today, we’ll see how the spoiled […]

Yesterday, Wizards unveiled Modern Horizons, an “innovation product” like Conspiracy and Battlebond. Its purpose: to bypass Standard and supplement Modern with new cards, both those currently illegal from pre-8th Edition sets and some that are newly designed. A couple of the new cards were spoiled on the stream. Today’s article evaluates the spoiled cards and […]

Burn has always existed in Modern in some capacity. However, it never gets any respect or discussion until there’s a major metagame shift or new cards. This is unfortunate for players of the archetype and their opponents. The former often receive derision for playing the kiddie deck, and the later don’t realize how vulnerable they […]

Yesterday, Brian Braun-Duin published “When Playing to Win Is a Loss,” an article detailing the dangers of getting caught up in the competitive spirit. It admonishes angle shooting and makes a case for sportsmanship in a gaming environment. Brian’s thoughts resonated with some of my own, especially as relates to the place of ethics in […]

Successful Magic decks are like well-oiled machines: the pieces fit together well enough to ensure they enact their gameplans consistently and effectively. They owe their cohesion to enablers, cards that supercharge certain gameplay mechanics or themes (i.e. “artifacts matter”). Just like payoff cards, or the ones newer players crack in packs and immediately want to cast, […]

Assumptions and collectively-held beliefs are fickle and powerful things. They can affect perception and, in a way, become reality if unchallenged. Therefore, it is critical for the skeptical mind to evaluate and investigate these ideas for validity, especially in the wake of recent bannings. After being challenged on long-held beliefs about Splinter Twin’s effect on […]

Alright Monday, what you got this time? Wow. They actually banned something for once. And something very significant at that. Even better, there’s an in-depth explanation attached. This certainly demands a deeper dive. I’ll start with the obvious part: nothing got unbanned. I’m sorry for those who have their hearts set on playing with Stoneforge […]

Another banlist announcement is just around the corner. While the last few announcements have proven unfruitful, I believe this time will be different; after all, it is January, and Wizards has a history of shaking up Modern around this time. I’m anticipating at least one unban, and wouldn’t be surprised if a ban occurred as […]

Every few weeks, speculation begins to rise about the next Banned and Restricted Announcement. Whenever something actually does happen, I frequently see laments over being blindsided and calls for Wizards to implement a banning watchlist. While an official list will never happen as it would unduly influence the secondary market, I do think it useful […]

When it comes to Modern, I’m always up for a surprise. I penned an article last week declaring the death of midrange as a Tier 1 strategy in an aggro-combo metagame. But it seems the meta has already corrected itself: last weekend’s GP Portland Top 8 featured a finals between Grixis Death’s Shadow and BG […]

Creeping Chill has been sanctioned for a month now, and Dredge is steadily regaining its former status as format boogeyman. David’s article from last week met the deck’s rise with an optimism I’m no longer sure I can personally espouse: despite the hate, Dredge put three copies into the Top 32 of GP Atlanta and, more […]

Birthing Pod may have held the title for a good while, but Splinter Twin takes the cake as Modern’s most controversial ban ever. Even today, players debate its place on the banlist ad nauseam, a discussion seemingly reinvigorated with each new deck and expansion; Twin’s defense league has persisted to the extent of literally becoming […]

How many times have you heard something you disagree with? How often has it pertained to Modern? My answer to both questions is plenty. Lately, none spur me into debate more than the claims that countermagic is bad and midrange is dead. In this article, we’ll debunk each of these myths by examining theory, decklists, […]