Standard, Modern, and Commander firing on all cylinders!

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Newsletter
Thursday, August 17th

It is so exciting to have a great Standard format still evolving as we head toward #GPDC! Magic players have wanted this for a while, but the fun doesn't stop there! Commander 2017 is going to be on shelves in a matter of days, and the set is getting rave reviews from the entire community. If that isn't enough, Modern is probably in better shape than it has ever been in! Ban talks have given way to good, healthy innovation and creative deckbuilding! And the best part? All these formats are being covered in detail on StarCityGames.com! Ari Lax has broken Modern down so that anyone can understand it with ease, Sheldon Menery is giving his honest thoughts on the new Commander cards, and Sam Black is doing what he does best: build new and exciting Standard decks. The SCG Tour is off this weekend, but between RPTQs, Grand Prix, and SCG Invitational Qualifiers, there's plenty of great Magic to play!

— Danny West, Content Coordinator

Kazu Negri
Modern Open

Chad Uzzell
Modern Classic

Frank Skarren
Standard Classic

How To Exploit Modern
By Ari Lax  

A best deck is discovered. It starts winning a lot. People are still showing up to events

I'm going to be blunt: at this stage you should not be trying to brew. Doing cool stuff is going to suck. Either you are going to be too focused on beating the Death's Shadow or Eldrazi deck and just lose to the other 80% of the field, or not focused enough and lose Round 13 to them. Or, worse, lose in a PPTQ Top 8.

Save that desire to do cool things for later and just ride the wave of success.

This was Modern between February and June. Death's Shadow just had a hard lock on the format, with Eldrazi Tron in second place. Playing something else was not a very good idea.

September 16-17
Modern

Sep 30 - Oct 1
Standard

October 14-15
Modern

The Commander 2017 Review
By Sheldon Menery  

Up until this week, you couldn't really say Commander 2017 without adding "eagerly anticipated." Now that we know what the set and decks look like, that anticipation has been well-rewarded. As with the other Commander products, the decks look eminently playable right out of the box. They'll provide good games and great fun to Commander beginners and veterans alike. Down the road, you'll see me do some coverage on the decks, as it's likely that our next Commander league will be a variant on the Commander 2015 League we did, but today I'm going to focus on the individual cards.

It seems a little weird to say it for this set, but I'll remind you that this review is for Commander only. Commander cards are legal in other Eternal formats, so you never know what might happen; for now, we'll focus on the one for which the cards were made. I'll go by color, focusing predominantly on the new cards, as well as noting my favorite reprint in each color. I'll then pick my favorite card in each category.

Champion Of Wits In Standard
By Sam Black  

Given the way the metagame has shifted, I think there's a good chance that it's best to accept that Ramunap Red isn't the right deck for the moment. The metagame appears to be dominated by midrange decks that err on the small side, to be just larger than the red decks, so it seems like playing red might be something of an uphill battle.

Instead, I think now is a great time to try to go over midrange decks with something a little more powerful. Specifically, it makes sense to me that graveyard decks that take some time to set up but then go way over the top would do well. (Another consideration, incidentally, that fits that description may be Metalwork Colossus, but I'm much less familiar with that archetype.)

There are a lot of different possible graveyard decks: Reanimator, Gate to the Afterlife, Emerge. I think each of them could be reasonable.