I didn’t get to tune in to GP Copenhagen this weekend, but from what I’ve seen of the Day 2 metagame, the Top 8/Top 16, and the archived coverage, it was summer Modern at its finest. Last weekend, we were treated to GP Charlotte with Ad Nauseam in the Top 8 and Elves winning the whole […]
The Deep Dive dataset is back! In three earlier articles, I analyzed a collection of MTGO dailies to determine the matchups and win rates of different top-tier decks. Unlike the publicly published MTGO dailies used to inform the Top Decks page, our Deep Dive dataset includes all finishes from a sample of dailies, not just the 4-0/3-1 ones. It also includes […]
May is coming in a few days, which means it’s time to start preparing for summer. For some of us, this meas breaking out the sandals and pumping up your bike tires. But for you Modern players out there, it should mean getting ready for the Grand Prix blitz that is coming in June. And […]
August was… unexpected. Wizards threw everyone off with their Ban Day decisions. Bans were expected in Standard (based on Wizards’ own statements) and hoped for in multiple other formats. Instead, Modern and Legacy saw unbans. The impact this has had will be on display in this metagame update.
It’s been quite a while, but your eyes do not deceive: this is another full banlist test series! It’s been almost two years since I did one of these. Not for lack of trying, mind you, but there are only so many viable test subjects in the first place, and I’ve done a few already. […]
Throne of Eldraine is officially out, and that means that data is slowly trickling in. Very slowly, to the point that I can’t draw conclusions yet. It will take a few more weeks of events and brewing before things settle enough to get an accurate view of the new metagame. Now is the perfect time […]
Spoilers for the much-awaited Modern Horizons are finally underway. The expansion so far has exceeded my expectations, offering Modern playables without introducing busted eternal staples, and including a wealth of diverse mechanics and cute designs. Today, we’ll look at the most interesting cards from Horizons and muse about where the rest of the set will […]
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 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 […]
This is a very busy week. War of the Spark is now completely revealed, and so I have a few final cards to discuss. There have been a number of interesting cards for Modern, but we haven’t seen any obvious all-stars. Of course, that may be a lot to ask for, and more role-players are always […]
The Modern format is so diverse, both quantitatively and competitively, that it can prove tough to quantify; certain players subsequently claim there is no metagame, while others focus only on tournament-winning decks. Each approach lacks some degree of nuance. Today, I’m trying to bring some of it back. I was thrilled when I heard that […]
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 […]
It is a common trap to look only to hard data when making decisions. After all, numbers are clear and unequivocal. However, they don’t tell the full story of the data. Confounding variables and intangible effects color the results and complicate the data. The data from my latest banlist test indicate that Green Sun’s Zenith […]
