Have Arcades and Doran "solved" defender decks? Two words: Vent Sentinel

([card]Simic Guildgate[/card] | Art by Svetlin Velinov) Simic Surprises Today, in this fourth article of the Pursuit of Knowledge series, we will take a glance at the Command Zone gameplay data with a focus on Simic. I've ranked the various cards from the Command Zone gameplay data and grouped them in categories, and have created templates […]

Rakuno, Rakdos, Raktres Barring decks with black and green in their color identity, the Command Zone found in their gameplay survey that decks with black and red in their color identity were the strongest. Although this extends to color combinations like Jund and Mardu, does this color pairing advantage translate to Rakdos? In this new […]

Another Lap Around the Sun As the year draws to a close, people have a habit of looking back and evaluating the last year. It might seem a bit arbitrary, but it's a way we're collectively wired. Another way we're collectively wired? We love lists: debating, comparing, and coming up with them is something we […]

Deathly Data In the first article of this series, I presented a number of results regarding card effectiveness based on gameplay data from the Command Zone. What can be done with such data? Can we use this'information as a tool for deckbuilding? In this second installment of Pursuit of Knowledge, we will take a look […]

An Introduction to the Introduction My name is Martin Dubuc. I have been playing Magic since Fifth Dawn. For some obscure reason, I was drawn very early on to the multiplayer format, playing Emperor at drafts and free-for-all with friends. The first decks I created were 60-card decks with a multiplayer focus. When MTGO grew […]

Shalt Thou? Thou Shalt Hello! I'm Andrew Cummings, and normally I'm the guy that writes the Ultra Budget Brews article series. Today, however, I want to do something a bit different. I want to talk about ways to make the game of Magic a bit cheaper for you. Before I begin, I think it's important […]

Time After Time “The world, I’ve come to realize, is a blank canvas on which to paint.” —Ixidor, reality sculptor Commander is the best Magic: The Gathering format for expression. With just about every card available to a deck builder, Commander is truly a blank canvas, and any idea is at least worth trying out. […]

Hello and welcome back to another edition of Ultra Budget Brews, the monthly article series that builds entire Commander decks in which no card costs more than $1. Every week, I give you all a poll so that you all have some say in what these articles end up being about. If I'm writing about […]

World Wide Web of War Hello, and welcome back to a special edition of Ultra Budget Brews, the article series that is perpetually "Thinking Arby's" (I blame the coupons they mail). It's also the series that builds entire EDH decks in which no card costs more than $1. Well, typically. I mentioned that this is […]