Treasure Cruise Modern was easily my favorite Modern format of all time—and my addiction to Delver of Secrets is well-documented. Given this, a lot of people have asked me about Bedlam Reveler since it was spoiled. I think it’s important to be open to the potential viability of new cards, as being the first to discover […]

Today, I figured we’d take a break from brewing and get back to analyzing some pure tournament results. I’m still winning with Spell Queller, but high-level Modern events don’t come around often enough to ignore them completely. This past weekend, Modern got a lot of love in the form of the split-format Star City Games […]

Since the release of Eldritch Moon a few weeks ago, I’ve been obsessed with Spell Queller in Modern. The versatility and unique power of the card, along with the potential for synergies in deckbuilding and the complex lines of play it can sponsor, have been too enticing to resist. For the past few weeks I’ve […]

Welcome back to the Beginner’s Guide to Modern, the article series where we help Standard players make the transition to Modern. It’s been a while since my last entry in this series (far longer than intended), but now I’m back to deal with what I hear is the most interesting, frustrating, and intimidating aspect of […]

Welcome to the final installment of Colors of Modern! This is a five-part series of articles focused on analyzing the varying impact each color in Magic has upon Modern, based on the individual cards that see play in the format and, to a broader extent, the archetypes made possible by these cards. Check out the […]

Welcome back to the Colors of Modern! This is a five-part series of articles focused on analyzing the varying impact each color in Magic has upon Modern, based on the individual cards that see play in the format and, to a broader extent, the archetypes made possible by these cards. If you missed the previous articles […]

When I began tuning Monkey Grow, the biggest surprise among peers and opponents was my sworn dedication to Disrupting Shoal. Certain players couldn’t believe that countering a spell was worth losing a card, citing Force of Will’s status in Legacy as a check to degenerate combo decks that usually gets boarded out against fair strategies. But […]

Two weeks ago I began a five-part series of articles focused on analyzing the varying impact each color in Magic has upon Modern, based on the individual cards that see play in the format and, to a broader extent, the archetypes made possible by these cards. If you missed last week’s article on blue, check […]

In my continuing effort to simplify and explain the complicated nature of sideboarding in Modern, I’ve fielded a number of questions about techniques and specific strategies. This makes me happy, since it shows that my readership is engaged, thoughtful, and inquisitive, everything that I could ask for as an author. What has made me less […]

In the Pro Tour: Oath of the Gatewatch quarterfinals, the Eldrazi-toting Luis Scott-Vargas mulliganed to four against Pascal Maynard’s Affinity. The match announcers were baffled when Luis shuffled away an admittedly unexciting five of Ghost Quarter, Blinkmoth Nexus, Wastes, Matter Reshaper, and Endless One, but after some thought, realized Luis had correctly identified that hand as too slow. The ability to take […]

Last week, I began a five-part series focused on analyzing the varying impact each color in Magic has upon Modern, based on the individual cards that see play in the format and, to a broader extent, the archetypes made possible by these cards. If you missed last week’s article on white, check it out there; I’ll […]

Sideboarding is a skill-intensive and essential component of competitive Magic. While it isn’t an “Easy to learn, hard to master” skill, it feels very close. Sideboarding guides can be useful to overcome this learning curve, but they can also become a crutch and actively harmful to your chances of improving. Last week I went over the basics […]

It’s become a perennial fixture of spoiler season. Some card with a variant of the “punisher” mechanic (the classic example being Browbeat) is spoiled and the collective Magic community flips their lid. Forum posts are awash in bold claims about its greatness, labyrinthine explanations of how “both sides are good,” and wild overestimations of the card’s […]