Modern

Transitive Roku Properties | Brainstorm Brewery #545

DJ (@CardgardenMTG), Corbin (@CHosler), and Jason (@jasonEAlt), breakdown all the latest Magic: The Gathering news about, you guessed it, finance and Commander. 04:00 Minneapolis Command Zone 09:01 Breaking Bulk 20:59 Hot Rosewater Commander Takes 25:30 All About The Benjamins 42:00 MTGstocks Mini Game 45:45 Pick of the week https://linktr.ee/BrainstormBrewery Support our Patreon! www.patreon.com/bsb Need to…

Read More

Brewing With Shadows over Innistrad

Welcome back for Brewing With Shadows over Innistrad, and a new world order for Standard. With this latest set Standard is now a three block format that currently consists of Dragons of Tarkir, Magic Origins, Battle for Zendikar, Oath of the Gatewatch, and Shadows over Innistrad. This is a super exiting time, because screw [card]Siege…

Read More

Mono Brew #2 – Ignoring Reality

It’s been a few months since the first edition of Mono Brew, which I ended with the promise that my next article would be a primer on my Modern pet deck, “Bringing Gifts” (five color [card]Gifts Ungiven[/card] with [card]Bring to Light[/card]). Much has changed in the world of Magic since then, as the release of Oath of the Gatewatch turned Modern season into “Eldrazi Winter”. I’m sure that most of…

Read More

Why Linear Decks are Not a Bad Thing.

Splinter Twin got banned, Summer Bloom got banned, players raged at the world, at their family, at their lives, but mostly they just raged. I feel it was a net positive for the Modern format to grow and adapt. I think unbans should have occurred with [card]Bloodbraid Elf[/card] and [card]Ancestral Visions[/card] but thats not what…

Read More

To Ban or Unban?

It has been a while since I’ve contributed to the site and I’ve missed writing, missed seeing your comments, missed feeling like I’ve contributed to the community that I so enjoy being a part of.  Due to some personal commitments, I haven’t been as active a participant in the current Standard season, though I have…

Read More

Miracles with Mr Miyagi: A Look Towards GP Seattle

Well it’s been quite an interesting couple of weeks. The banlist update really did give Legacy a new breath of life, not that it needed one but it’s certainly a great time to be playing the format. In the past two weeks alone, we’ve had an MKM Series in Prague and an SCG Open in…

Read More

Will the Aristocrats Join The Battle?

We finally have the full spoiler for Battle for Zendikar and, despite a lot of community dissent about the power level of the set and its mechanics, I am thrilled with a lot of the cards about to enter the Standard format.  I’ve been brewing and looking over cards constantly. That said, there is one card…

Read More

Deck is Great, Magic is Great, I’m Great: A PPTQ Win Tournament Report

So I just won a PPTQ… Yeah it feels good. It feels better than good actually, it feels fucking great to be one tournament away from a dream I have had for a very long time. Apparently the best way to prepare for a tournament is to have a bunch of friends over have a…

Read More

Just. Play. Jund. …Well sorta.

To quote Todd Anderson, “Just. Play. Jund. Just do it. Stop being an idiot and go pick up the cards you need to play it.” While Todd was speaking about Standard back in 2013 I feel as if this applies more than ever to Modern right now. SCG Columbus Invitational. I’ve been playing Infect for…

Read More

Tournament 2-for-1

Hey People, So two weeks ago I was able to take down TCGPlayer Modern States at Top Deck Games and luckily StarCity Games Modern States were being held at the same store a weekend after. I decided to run it back. Star City Games Modern States Top 16 Round 1. Affinity This matchup feels incredibly…

Read More

Winning TCGplayer Modern States

Believe it or not, I haven’t written a tournament report in a long time and I don’t think I have ever written a report on a deck that wasn’t Zoo. But that’s what I’m going to do today. Here goes nothing! The Deck [deck title=Infect] [creatures] 4 Noble Hierarch 4 Glistener Elf 4 Blighted Agent 2…

Read More

Weekend Magic: 4/3-4/5

Last weekend brought us Star City Games: Syracuse. This Open featured Standard as the main event with a side of Modern and Legacy. Let’s see what the results were and note any trending cards amongst the lists. Star City Games Open – Standard (Syracuse, USA) Decklists Deck Finish Player Deck Finish Player G/R Aggro 1st…

Read More

Why Infect?

Why Infect? Well to start off, I think Infect is currently one of the best decks in Modern and is in my opinion the best aggressive deck in the format at the moment. Bogles, Zoo, and Affinity can all struggle against [card]Lingering Souls[/card]. While each deck has the necessary tools to defeat those pesky spirit…

Read More

Quick Hit: Premier IQ Spotlighting

I was looking through the StarCity Games Premier Invitational Qualifier decklists from the Richmond Open and I came across a Zoo list played by Jeff Szablak to an eighth-place finish that looks really interesting to me. Jeff Szablak 8th Place SCG Premier IQ [Deck title=Jeff Szablak Zoo] [creatures] 4 Knight of the Reliquary 4 Loxodon…

Read More

Identity Crisis

Hey, everyone, it’s been awhile. For the past few months, I’ve been having an identity crisis with Modern. As the writer of half a dozen articles on Zoo for this very website, saying that I’m considering not playing Zoo now sounds like insanity, but I feel like I have settled down with the deck. I know…

Read More

Weekend Magic: 3/13-3/15

Last weekend brought us Star City Games Dallas, which featured Standard as the main event with a side of Modern and Legacy. Let’s take a look at the results while also bearing in mind that Standard will yet again be shaken up by Dragons of Tarkir in just another week. We’ve got the full spoiler…

Read More

Weekend Magic: 2/27-3/1

This week brought us Star City Games: Baltimore, where Modern was the featured format with a side of Standard and Legacy. Let’s dive into the results to see what innovations were showcased this weekend. Star City Games: Baltimore – Modern Open (Baltimore, MD – USA) Decklists Deck Finish Player Deck Finish Player Sultai 1st Gerard…

Read More

Weekend Magic: 2/20-2/22

This certainly wasn’t a weekend to miss. Two grands prix, along with Star City Games Open Series in Los Angeles, means there is a ton of information for us to digest. Let’s dig in and see the results. Grand Prix: Memphis (Memphis, TN – USA) Format – Standard Top 8 Decklists Jack Fogle took down…

Read More

Privileged Perspective 15: Challenging Perspectives

Confession: I wasn’t 100 percent sold on the name of this column when I started. I liked “Privileged Position,” but I think someone else is already using it. Privileged Perspective sounds like a Magic card name, and maybe some day it will be, but I’m worried the name doesn’t make a whole lot of sense if you…

Read More

PT Fate Reforged: 18 Match Points (6-4) or Better, By the Numbers

Based on comments from my previous article, I would like to take a more in-depth approach to Pro Tour Fate Reforged. Covering only the top eight leaves out many of other archetypes that were present over the weekend. This time, I’m going to look at all the players who earned at least 18 match points (a 6-4…

Read More

Weekend Magic: 2/6-2/8 (PT Fate Reforged Edition)

Hey, guys, I’ve got some sweet Modern action to cover this week based on the results that have come in from Pro Tour Fate Reforged. Let’s take a look at the standings, what cards were featured in some of the best-performing decks, and if there are any undervalued pieces left after all the spikes and…

Read More

The Zoo is Dead, Long Live The Zoo!

After falling short of top eight at a Modern IQ/PPTQ that I played in recently, I was itching to play some more Magic. Luckily, SCG Philly was right around the corner. I was still up in the air about what I should play for the Sunday Premier IQs: either Constellation in Standard or some form of Zoo in…

Read More

Privileged Perspective 13: Beginning to Look to the Future

Sometimes it is difficult to get the writing process started, and other times the words flow out as if someone else already did everything for me. There are weeks, like this one, where I have fragments of the piece I wish to assemble, but they are adrift of each other and devoid of interlocking context….

Read More

Weekend Magic: 1/30-2/1

Last weekend brought us some Legacy action with Star City Games: Indianapolis, along with side events for Standard and Modern. Let’s see how the weekend turned out after the [card]Treasure Cruise[/card] banning. Star City Games: Indianapolis – Legacy Open (Indianapolis, IN) Decklists Deck Finish Player Deck Finish Player Sultai Delver 1st Jim Davis U/W Control…

Read More

Privileged Perspective 12 – The Real PP12

Okay, so last week was a long one, as well as the start of my first meta-series. Today is going to basically be an extended edition of Quick Hits, where we touch on a bunch of different stuff at once (this hides the frequent loss of focus that comes with running WoW1 in the background)….

Read More