Last week, I unveiled the first part of my Punishing Fire test. With the data compiled and revealed, it’s time for the less-concrete part. The data is the data and speaks for itself. However, that’s not the whole story. Magic isn’t just a numbers game; there are a lot of intangibles. For instance, it’s also supposed […]

The focus of Magic’s newest expansion, War of the Spark, is planeswalkers. These have historically lacked what it takes to consistently make a splash in Modern. Walkers are fair cards, after all, and designed for a Standard power level; besides, in a Turn Four Format, successfully integrating a permanent type that tends to cost four […]

And now it’s time for everyone’s favorite part of the banlist test: the experimental data. With 500 matches of Jund with and without Punishing Fire under my belt, I have developed a very strong opinion on unbanning the card. Today, I will reveal the hard numbers and their statistical significance. As always, these data are […]

It’s been half a month since War of the Spark went live on Magic Online, and we’re already seeing the myriad effects it’s having on Modern—heck, on all non-rotating formats. But of course, being Modern Nexus, we’ll focus on just the one! While I enjoy the Friday writing slot, it occasionally has its detriments. In […]

The time has come to start rolling out the results of my latest foray into the Modern banlist. In the past, the return of this series was hailed with a public vote for which card I’d work on, followed by months of silence while I actually did the work. This time, extenuating circumstances dictated the […]

One of the more exciting War of the Spark cards for me was Domri, Anarch of Bolas. The card didn’t appear especially powerful, but it did pique my interest as a potential role-player in a couple of my favorite decks: GR Moon and Temur Delver. As the static-ability walkers spoiled, I identified in them one […]

By the time this piece is published, Mythic Championship London will be streaming, and Modern players will be testing the London mulligan in a high-pressure environment for the first time. The results of that event will have a massive effect on the format’s future. For those who just can’t wait until the Top 8 ends […]

A year ago, Colorless Eldrazi Stompy received a potent new tool in Zhalfirin Void. I described the card’s potential for the archetype in detail, cursing Karn, Scion of Urza under my breath in the intro paragraph. In War of the Spark, the deck is all set to receive yet another potential game-changer, if a less […]

Is Modern solved? Is Modern stale? Any amount of time spent on a Magic forum or subreddit these days seems to offer countless arguments from both sides of the debate. Indeed, this Phoenix/Dredge/Stirrings (in that order) metagame has proven the most divisive I can remember since Siege Rhino briefly served as hyper-acting format manager in […]

Modern is vast and diverse enough to make metagaming a frequently terrible idea. However, sometimes it is warranted. With Izzet Phoenix, followed by Dredge, consistently dominating the big tournaments in a way that Modern hasn’t seen in years, it makes sense for the first time in a long time to actively target the top decks. How to […]

While chatting with a friend who hasn’t played Modern in a while about mostly unrelated topics, I was asked whether Leyline of the Void could be a reasonable consideration for contemporary mainboards . He’d become interested in the topic after reading this article. “In what deck?” I asked, believing myself aware of the card’s niche […]

With data reduced to a relative trickle and the overall metagame picture clouded, there hasn’t been much information to work with. However, the data from SCG Regionals is always a strong indicator of the US metagame, so today I’ll be looking at the data. While there is very significant result to dig into, the overall […]

Halfway through last month, I published “Brew Report: Perfect Pairs,” picking out happy couples from among Wizards’ decklist dumps. As is common in Modern, more innovative decks were published in February’s latter half, including ones built around Standard-legal enchantments, age-old Modern artifacts, and even a few known staples. Today we’ll unearth and assess that tech. […]