Magic's Biggest Boogeymen

Magic’s 13 Biggest Boogeymen

Tom AndersonCommander, Legacy, Modern, Standard

As a game with plenty of dark, fantasy roots, Magic has overlapped plenty with Halloween. Just look at how often we return to Innistrad, or Innistrad: Double Feature’s attempt to evoke that classic monster movie vibe. But despite our familiarity with ghouls and ghosts, demons and devils, vampires and Vorstclaws, Magic still holds certain horrors which can frighten the sleeves …

Universes Beyond brings Transformers to The Brothers’ War

Tom AndersonCommander, Design, Products

Wizards made an announcement on Friday which will completely transform how their Universes Beyond designs fit into the wider hobby. They announced that Set and Collectors Boosters for The Brothers’ War will be… more than meets the eye with the addition of Transformers. Yes, after dancing around the idea for years, tournament legal Transformers cards are finally going to be …

Which classic Un-cards could be eternal legal?

Which classic Un-cards could be eternal legal?

Tom AndersonCommander, Legacy

UNFINITY is really capturing the attention of the player base at the moment, though it seems to be extremely polarizing. Its detractors have been critical of the set’s mixed-legality, as UNFINITY marks the first time an Un-set has contributed new cards to the Eternal legal card pool of Magic. However, is this really such a big change in philosophy? The …

Necron Dynasties Precon Upgrade Guide

Necron Dynasties Precon Upgrade Guide

Tom AndersonCommander, Strategy

This week’s new Commander decks mark two big “firsts” for Magic: The Gathering: the first full precons released under the Universes Beyond product line and the first official crossover between Magic and Warhammer 40,000 — two of the oldest and most important franchises in tabletop games. Today, we’re here to help you upgrade the Necron Dynasties precon. Born out of …

Dominaria United Drafting by Numbers

Dominaria United: Draft by Numbers

Tom AndersonLimited, Strategy

Welcome back to the second, more scientific section of our Dominaria United draft guide!  With a bit more time and a lot more data under our belts since the format’s release, Limited players can now supplement natural intuition and personal judgment with statistical insights on how to consistently find a winning deck. Using large online datasets for this sort of …

Dominaria United Draft Guide

Dominaria United Draft Guide

Tom AndersonLimited

As a plane, Dominaria’s mechanical identity is roughly “Magic the way Richard Garfield intended” — and Dominaria United returns to the core gameplay values people praised in the last Dominaria draft format.  Matches are slower on average than in Streets of New Capenna or even Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. A lot of cards lock their power behind kicker costs or activated …

Dominaria United Painbow Precon Upgrade Guide

Dominaria United: Painbow Precon Upgrade Guide

Tom AndersonCommander, Strategy

Dominaria United is bringing Commander back to the home plane of Magic at last, with its deep wellspring of legacy characters and lore references stretching back almost 30 years. It’s appropriate, then, that the primary commander choice for today’s Painbow precon upgrade guide is also making his triumphant return after a prolonged absence: TIP OF THE WUBRG Once upon a …

Compare and Contrast, Legends Retold

Compare and contrast: MTG Legends Retold

Tom AndersonCommander

Dominaria United preview season is officially over, and as expected when returning to the original home plane of Magic, Wizards of the Coast served us a full portion of nostalgia. While the new storyline with Phyrexia is quite reminiscent of (and full of callbacks to) Invasion, there’s an even deeper layer of references to MTG history with the Legends Retold …

Combo Crash Course: Cephalid Breakfast

Combo Crash-Course: Cephalid Breakfast

Tom AndersonLegacy, Strategy

This week’s combo breakdown tackles one of the longest-lived archetypes in Magic history — and one of its weirdest names (and there’s some stiff competition for that crown). It’s almost always combo decks that garner the most esoteric monikers among the community.  I blame the need to find distinct shorthand references for tons of specific strategies combined with their creators’ …

The Winners & Losers of Standard Rotation

Tom AndersonStandard

Standard has been good in 2022, particularly since the bans to Alrund’s Epiphany and Divide by Zero. Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty and Streets of New Capenna both managed to shake up the metagame despite the high power level of the established decks — the former by adding super-powerful staples to underplayed colors and the latter simply by bringing better manabases to …