Editor’s Note, June 1, 2020: Wizards of the Coast has announced a change to the companion mechanic. Companions may no longer be cast from the sideboard; instead, players must pay 3 mana of any color to put a companion from their sideboard into their hand. Since the release of Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, companions have been shoehorned into every deck ... Read More...

I’ve been thinking these last few days about a popular phrase: “a good problem to have.” Some of the best players in Magic have made earnest complaints about Zenith Flare — the all-star uncommon of Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths — and the cycling-heavy deck which has arisen around it. The deck is certainly winning a lot in the last week ... Read More...

Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths is certainly leaving a mark on Modern, as the format is being overrun with new companion cards. Midrange decks need to constantly adapt or risk losing metagame share, and Grixis Death’s Shadow is no exception. It’s rare that a single Standard-legal set can have this much of an impact on a deck like Death’s Shadow, or ... Read More...

Sometimes, in Standard, we have access to a lot of lands that come into play tapped. These are exciting for deck-building purposes because they give you access to more colors of mana, which, in turn, provides players with a ton of flexibility. But lands that enter the battlefield tapped have major downsides. You don’t have immediate access to the mana ... Read More...

Editor’s Note, 4/29/20: This article was originally published on October 28, 2019. We want to ensure you have the most up-to-date information about popular decks, so we’ve updated this article and re-published it on April 29, 2020. Editor’s Note, 8/3/20: Cauldron Familiar has been banned in Standard effective August 3, 2020. Read the full announcement from Wizards of the Coast ... Read More...

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on February 27, 2020. We want to ensure you have the most up-to-date information about popular decks, so we’ve updated this post and re-published it on April 28, 2020. When Wizards first introduced Pioneer, the stated mission of the format was to give players who have been around for the last seven years ... Read More...

Magic: the Gathering is a game about collecting resources, developing strategies that match your personal aesthetic, and competing with your friends. In those ways and others, it’s a lot like Minecraft. Here are some things you’ll like about Magic if you play a lot of Minecraft. Creative Expression Magic, like Minecraft, gives players a set of materials and rules for ... Read More...