Between bouts of jamming Traditional Yu-Gi-Oh! and maniacally sleeving up unplayable cards like Desperate Ritual and Peppersmoke, I haven’t played much competitive Modern lately. In my eyes, participating in two small local tournaments a week doesn’t count, and the last “real” Modern event I played in was a WMCQ in Toronto. As more local gamers started asking me if […]

Last week, I wrote an article detailing the history behind Modern’s extensive banlist, complete with Wizards’ official announcements and an analysis of each. This was, by far, my most popular article to date in the almost six months that I’ve been writing for Modern Nexus. This week, I plan on approaching another Modern topic in similar […]

Greetings once again Nexites,  it’s your editor here with another tale of missed glory tournament report. Sheridan will be back tomorrow with the monthy metagame breakdown. (and it will be polished to a mirror shrine, right Sheridan?!) Last time saw me missing at States by the skin of my teeth playing UW Fish. This time is more a case […]

On Monday morning, one of my Magic friends asked me to share my favorite moment from Grand Prix Pittsburgh. That was like asking ten-year-old me what I wanted for my birthday. Was it Craig Wescoe finally doing justice to the obscure albeit awesome GW Hatebears? A Jeskai Twin deck (yep, Jeskai) not just making Top 8 […]

*Normally I post my Video Series on Monday, with my text article on Thursday, but with Thanksgiving this week we’re bumping my text piece to today and postponing the Video Series until next Monday. If this tortures your soul let my boss know so I can make more videos! This past weekend, Modern players worldwide […]

Two weeks ago, a Christ Kallas article from The Meadery showed up in my newsfeed. “The Complete(ly Serious) Guide to Pre, Post, and Mid Game Social Interactions” lampoons awkward interactions between players by blowing negative stereotypes out of proportion. The article had me laughing out loud, and not because its jokes are funny – they aren’t – but because the “exaggerated” depictions […]

Greetings, halflings! Welcome to that special time of the year. The one-use Halloween costumes have been thrown out, the smell of turkey is in the air, and we’re just starting to determine which of our family members are actually worth buying Christmas presents for. We’re slowly pulling out of our Modern offseason, and the recent […]

This weekend is Grand Prix Pittsburgh, which means we are less than seven days from a new understanding of the meta. However, before we can have an interesting discussion about what did well at Pittsburgh, we have to reach the event. This week I want to look at some of the things that should be on […]

I started mulling over predictions for this article all the way back on November 3 when I posted my October metagame breakdown. I’ll be honest: Modern wasn’t looking too hot. Twin was back, but linear aggro, combo, and ramp (oh my!) commanded worrisome metagame shares. Jund and even Abzan kept respectable format slices, but were […]

With the tournaments now over for more than a week, I’m doing the last of my lazy Gerry Thompson impressions before everyone forgets about SCG States altogether. (Really) old rogue strategies like Blue Moon and Eternal Command saw some success at States, but I’m primarily interested in the tournament’s brand-new midrange decks. I’ve divided the decks in this article into two categories: […]

StarCityGames has done a lot to support Modern in the past year, and their support doesn’t get much better than the October States circuit. Whether you’re a player who got to enjoy some Modern action or a format aficionado who got to enjoy 50+ Top 8 standings, States was an exciting midpoint between GP Oklahoma […]

Hello once again Nexites, it is I your resident editor stepping out from behind the curtain to enlighten you while Trevor recovers from a whirlwind road trip and finishes recording his video series (going up tomorrow). To that end, let’s talk about SCG States. First of all, I was a little surprised SCG held two State […]

Just because we’re in a Modern off-season doesn’t mean we can’t be excited about weekend tournaments. SCG Atlanta came and went, and while Jeskai Black and Abzan Megamorph clogged up Standard’s top tables, the Modern field looked far more open. Gruul Zoo! Allies! UR Storm! Restore frikkin Balance! I’m always hesitant to extrapolate too much […]