Pro Tour Bilbao’s just two weeks away. Soon, all eyes will be on Modern, the now-beloved alternative to Standard and Legacy. And perhaps for the first time as a true replacement for those formats. Wizards has shown us unequivocally that they plan on supporting this format whole-heartedly—with tournaments; with reprints; with heavy-handed (and largely successful) […]

It has come to this. Time to start rolling out the results of the latest banned card test. Conducting this test has been weird for me. Having a hard deadline was actually a blessing as it helped discipline the testing period and we got done much faster than expected. However, this wasn’t a fun experience […]

Modern used to come under fire in its early days for how focused its decks were. The format’s many linear decks gave onlookers and format dabblers the impression that Modern was but a mess of such decks “passing in the night,” like “two ships.” But focus isn’t everything, and dilution has its merits. As perception […]

I am always amazed at how often people make relatively simple tasks hard for themselves. There just seems to be something in all of us that gets suspicious whenever anything is unexpectedly easy. We are ready for conflict. We prepare for projects, lessons, and assignments to be hard. When they’re not, we don’t know what […]

Happy New Year! At least, I’m assuming it’s the new year. Hard to say; I’m typing this article from the bottom of what used to be a barrel of eggnog. Anyway, let’s not let less-than-optimal writing conditions get in the way—it’s Bloodbraid Month! Which is an excuse to hold off revealing the data from the […]

David is out for the holidays until next week. In the meantime, please enjoy his article from earlier this year where he presented results from the Preordain ban test. These results were originally presented in two separate articles (here and here), but I’ve divided them into parts for the purpose of easier reading. Part 1: […]

Everybody fantasizes about what they would do if given the reigns of power. In fact, most discussion around banned and restricted announcements perennially involves players pontificating pointlessly about their banned wishlist. I’m not immune. So that’s exactly what I’m going to do today. I do understand how weird this article is, coming from me. I’m […]

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 […]

It begins, gentle seekers of glory. Today is a day of great opportunity and gangrenous rot. The pallid sun meekly illuminates the great ravenous hordes as they linger, eager and anxious, waiting for their moment, when they shall be unleashed upon the world to slack their unending hunger for inadequately-proportioned sugary confections. For those whose […]

Is it worth buying cards as a third-party for people across the Atlantic from you? Niels breaks it down for us.

The October 17 banlist announcement came and went, and no changes were made to Modern. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to glean. Wizards dropped some juicy information this announcement, and today we’ll deduce which cards the company has their eye on unbanning. Wizards’s latest “No changes” gave us some valuable insight into how they’re […]

I’ve been toying around with the idea of getting back into video content, in part because I’ve found myself wanting to do similar things for other games I’ve been playing lately, like Star Wars: Destiny and, most recently, Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game. Video content is a unique animal in requiring much […]

Sometimes you don’t know what you need until it’s given to you. No, that’s not a 2017 Cinderella cover or anything, it’s just simple truth. Whether it’s a breath mint from a helpful friend or a simple check-yourself-before-you-wreck-yourself, this age-old adage repeats. As Magic players, we experience this phenomenon all too often, whether we notice […]