With War of the Spark spoiler season in full swing, we’ve seen a torrent of new cards – including plenty of planeswalkers. While there’s plenty of room to brew new decks, I can’t help but wonder how they’re going to slot into the current Standard metagame. Teferi, Time Raveler Teferi, Time Raveler is the most obvious inclusion on this list. …
A Beginner’s Guide to Modern Dredge
With KCI no longer around to prey on fair decks, we’ve seen a spike in grindier strategies in Modern. This shift, along with the printing of Creeping Chill, has propelled Dredge to the peak of popularity. Dredge attacks on a different axis than other creature-based strategies, using the graveyard more heavily than any other deck in Modern. The Dredge mechanic …
Autumn Burchett on Representation in Magic
In case you missed it, something monumental happened this weekend. It was the 91st Oscars, and attendees did not come to play. Billy Porter rocked the runway in a custom Christian Siriano haute couture gown, Hannah Beachler and Ruth E. Carter earned Marvel its first Oscars (the first African-American women to win Oscars in their categories, and the first to …
Ravnica Allegiance Standard Brews: Orzhov
At long last, here’s my Orzhov brew for Ravnica Allegiance! Orzhov posed a particular problem in deckbuilding – you could go the route of the Azorius aggro deck I wrote about last week with Afterlife creatures instead, but it felt like you were passing up on so much black-based removal. On the other hand, a more aggressive black strategy sees …
Ravnica Allegiance Standard Brews: Azorius
When brewing with Blue and White, my mind initially went to Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, Absorb and Precognitive Perception. However, my heart was drawn, as it often is, to a more creature-based strategy – and particularly one Dovin, Grand Arbiter. White aggressive strategies were fan favorites last season; they were popular early in the format, and saw continued success with …
Ravnica Allegiance Standard Brews: Gruul
Last week, I brewed up a new Standard Simic deck using my old friend Carnage Tyrant. It was so much fun that I decided to try again this week – but this time, we’re going Gruul! A 7/6 Trampling Hexproof Dino is already a promising way to close out games, but I found myself asking, “Why not give it Haste?” …
Ravnica Allegiance Standard Brews: Simic
With Ravnica Allegiance just around the corner, I can’t stop thinking about all of the new decks I want to build and all of the new cards I want to test. That’s why each week I’m going to be brewing a Standard deck for a different guild, starting with some Blue-Green bio-engineered baddies: Simic! Simic’s new adapt mechanic favors +1/+1 …
Standard Mono-White Aggro
White Aggro decks invaded the scene at Pro Tour Guilds of Ravnica, putting six decks into the top eight and taking down the entire event in the hands of Andrew Elenbogen. Taking advantage of an incredibly low curve, including upwards of sixteen one-drop creatures, the White Aggro deck utilizes powerful small and evasive threats like Skymarcher Aspirant and Healer’s Hawk …
100 Days of Draft
You may remember me talking about #100DaysofDraft when I was a youthful upstart, bright-eyed and full of hope (you can read the full article here). Basically, I committed to drafting at least once a day, for 100 days, tracking my progress on Twitter as well as in a spreadsheet. But I wanted to check in now that the draft queue …
Key Constructed Cards: Guilds of Ravnica
With the first rotation in what feels like years, Standard waves goodbye to staples such as The Scarab God and Glorybringer and hello to a whole wide world of new toys to explore. This shakeup allows for new ingenuity, and the consensus is that it will breathe new life into Standard, as well as non-rotating formats such as Modern and …