Twenty Wizards of the Coast employees sat in an assembly line at Card Kingdom’s Ballard Campus, sorting cards and packing boxes for a few hours on a sunny Seattle afternoon. Some sorted commons from uncommons or separated out basic land cards. Others pulled card sleeves and deck boxes together for each of the 100 kits the volunteers constructed. In that …
If You’re Not Taking Explosive Turns in Commander, You Should Stop Them
One of the sure fire ways to win a game of Commander is to take explosive turns. Kristen is here this week to refocus your deckbuilding on either taking or stopping explosive turns. Among the easiest and most stylish ways to win a game of Commander, taking an explosive turn is something all players strive for and enjoy. It’s thrilling …
Magic Banned and Restricted assessment: October 2022
Wizards of the Coast updated the Banned and Restricted list on Monday, which naturally led to the kind of discussion that always comes up when this happens — whether the update hit everything players wanted. Naturally, some players ended up happy while others wondered if this approach was enough. Many players expected bans across Pioneer and Legacy, too, with additional …
Four Color Modern Decks Post Yorion Ban
This Monday, a key, Modern player suffered a ban in the latest Banned and Restricted announcement: Yorion the Sky Nomad. This is both a huge shake up for Modern while also keeping the rules of engagement relatively the same. Often, when a big ban shakes up the format, the cards you’re trying to beat and the removal you’re trying to …
Five Predictions for The Brothers’ War
The Warhammer 40K Commander decks and Unfinity are out, the first round of Brothers’ War announcement and previews have had a minute to percolate, so now it’s time for some specific predictions about the upcoming, time-traveling set. We covered a lot of the information already out there last week, and I’ve given some loose predictions about some specific characters already …
Unleash – MTG Keywords Explained
Unleash appears solely on creature cards, and gives you a choice when a creature with it enters the batlefield. As the creature enters the battlefield, you may have it enter with a +1/+1 counter on it. As long as the creature has a +1/+1 counter on it, it cannot block. Easy! A simple choice: have a bigger creature that can’t …
This Day in Magic History: Pro Tour Chicago (Oct. 10-12, 1997)
Welcome to another edition of “This Day in Magic History.” Today, we’ll be taking a look at a piece of Magic’s competitive history: Pro Tour Chicago. The event ran from Oct. 10-12, 1997, and it matters more than most because it was the very first Pro Tour for the Extended format. As a result, it was largely dominated by the …
Top 20 Spirits in Magic: The Gathering
Spirits are undoubtedly one of the coolest tribes in Magic. Popular in Modern, Spirits are a tribe with some truly fantastic cards. And as we’re entering the Halloween season, it’s only right to get in the “spirit” of things. 20. Kodama of the East Tree Kodama of the East Tree kicks things off our list today, and despite me not …
Assessing Unfinity in Legacy: Part 2
One of the most contentious sets in Magic history releases on Friday: Unfinity! While un-sets are historically just full of fun joke cards with cool basic lands thrown in, Unfinity is something more. The reason? About 40% of the cards in Unfinity are legal in Legacy and Commander! This is unprecedented, and it has caused a lot of hand wringing about …
Playing Rhinos in Modern
At the beginning of what I call the New Modern era (Modern Horizons and forward), Rhinos decks centered around cascading into Crashing Footfalls burst onto the scene and remained a top tier deck for some time. But at some point, Modern adjusted and Rhinos fell out of favor — replaced by Living End and Glimpse combo. However, Leyline Binding seems …










