This is a bit sudden: Modern Horizons has only been out for two weeks, but here we are starting Core 2020 spoilers. The summer release schedule has ensured that Modern is utterly saturated with new cards, and it is struggling to absorb them all. There hasn’t been much time to determine the effects that War of the Spark […]
David Ernenwein
David has been playing Magic since Odyssey block. A dedicated Spike, he's been grinding tournaments for over a decade, including a Pro Tour appearance. A Modern specialist who dabbles in Legacy, his writing is focused on metagame analysis and deck evolution.
New metagames can be hard to pin down, as fresh cards lead to new brews and new tech, forcing established decks to adapt. This forces the new decks to adapt to the new pressure, and their success or failure creates ripples through the metagame. With War of the Spark and Modern Horizons released in quick succession, Modern […]
With Modern Horizons fully spoiled, brewing can get into full swing. So far, my experience has been guardedly positive. There are a lot of very interesting cards and restrained designs that should reinvigorate fringe Modern decks without upending the format. Still, other cards show frightening promise. Brewing in the Snow I’ll kick things off with […]
With Modern Horizons now fully spoiled, it’s time to wrap up this series of spoiler articles. Last week, I said that the set was a bit underwhelming. At the time it looked like a Standard set with some added complexity. Immediately afterward, the most potentially powerful cards in the set were revealed, causing me to […]
It’s been less than a month since War of the Spark dropped, but since the extra product this year is Modern Horizons, we have more sets than normal to review. And then, about a month until Magic 2020 spoilers begin. 2019 is fast becoming Year of the Brewer. Today, I will be looking at some of the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
At last, we’ve got the Mythic Championship results. It’s been quite the build up between the ongoing saga of Izzet Phoenix and questions over the proposed mulligan change. We were all looking for definitive answers from London, and while I didn’t get all of them, I think there’s enough evidence to answer some of them. […]
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 […]
With War of the Spark’s spoiler season winding down, testing and brewing is accelerating. As per my usual, I’ve been working through interesting cards to find out how useful they’ll be in Modern. And as is usually the case, the result has been a swath of interesting results, though nothing especially groundbreaking. I expect there to […]
A new set is on the horizon, so it’s spoiler time again! War of the Spark is the first set designed as a planeswalker set, which means there are an unprecedented number about to drop. More interestingly, most of them have static abilities rather than the traditional plus, minus, and ultimate combo we’ve become accustomed to. […]
Nothing lasts forever; the mighty will eventually fall; time erases all wounds; change is the only constant. All such platitudes mean for Modern is that one deck can only remain on top of the format for so long. Eventually, the format either adapts to the deck, there’s a structural change to the metagame, or the banhammer […]
