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David Ernenwein

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David has been playing Magic since Odyssey block. A dedicated Spike, he's been grinding tournaments for over a decade, including a Pro Tour appearance. A Modern specialist who dabbles in Legacy, his writing is focused on metagame analysis and deck evolution.

Everything eventually ends. As the year wraps up, it’s time for me to bring my Modern Horizons 2 speculation to a close. I need to clear space for the upcoming Kaldheim spoiler season. And hopefully, the return of paper Magic; I’ve spent considerable time and energy trying to figure out how I’m going to incorporate […]

With the metagame update done, that ends the heavy content for 2020. It’s time to coast to the finish! I think we’ve all earned a nice easy December considering how 2020’s gone, so going into the new year, let’s destress and remember what hope felt like. I miss FNM. To that end, I’ll be picking […]

Alright, no more delays. All the data is finally in, and so it’s time to do November’s Metagame Update. So far, the metagame has generally been dynamic. The top deck hasn’t been consistent between months, though Rakdos Prowess and its descendant Scourge Shadow have been consistently Tier 1 since I started doing these again. Will […]

Welcome to December! At long last, the year known as 2020 is coming to a close. Huzzah! I had planned to kick this off with the traditional metagame update, but that’s not to be: Wizards hasn’t posted the last few events at time of writing, so the data’s incomplete. Even if that wasn’t the case, […]

It’s important to consider alternative solutions to any problem. No matter how clear the solution to a given problem may be to you, never discount the possibility of other perspectives offering insight. Or that biases can blind to us to potential solutions. Either way, entertaining alternatives can get the creative juices flowing. Which is why […]

Continuing on with article types that have been vanishingly rare this year, it’s time to look at the lessons from a specific tournament. I haven’t done this since February because there just haven’t been any Modern tournaments. Wizards has neglected every other format in order to push Arena. Which means that other competitive formats have been neglected. […]

Alright, now. Everybody exhale. Last week is over. We can all try to grind our way through the rest of the year. We’ve been through enough already. Now it’s time for some lighter fare, especially the kind that used to be my bread and butter. Then, the lockdown rendered then impossible. I am of course […]

Happy Election Day, America! May your vote be counted and the voting process as stress-free as mine. Living in a state that’s been all mail-in ballots for years has considerable advantages in a pandemic year. And if not, take heart. At minimum, you won’t be bombarded by annoying, omnipresent, and pleading political advertising for at […]

As October comes to a close, it’s time for me to wrap up my look into the new decks from Zendikar Rising. Admittedly, it’s mostly been a case of deck evolution rather than outright new decks. Even Belcher had a direct predecessor. And that’s a good thing. Modern’s been churning non-stop for over a year. […]

Zendikar Rising has had a notable effect on Modern, but it’s been mostly positive. Whether it’s making Death and Taxes finally viable or shaking up the Prowess decks, the new additions seem to be providing the right incentives without being oppressive. However, one card is drawing ire, mostly by association rather than anything it’s actually […]

I love it when a deck finally comes together. When all the faith is finally rewarded and the years of suffering and disappointment finally pay off. Mostly because it typically happens to decks that move from mediocre to barely viable. Think of Belcher, Ad Nauseam, the good stuff piles, or Ponza; decks that have been […]

October is upon us, which means that it’s time to do another metagame update. Modern continues to chug along in this paperless world. And better for me, Wizards seems to have finally gotten its act together and is regularly reporting results. Ever since I started caring about MTGO, I’ve had to deal with really inconsistent […]

Time waits for no man, as they say, and Magic is the same for all players. Good advice will always be good advice, but relevance is relative. By the same token, Magic players need advice that is relevant to formats as they actually exist. And that must be re-evaluated periodically. The second Beginner’s Guide article […]

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