Arena – U/G Merfolk

Hi friends! This week we will be playing around with one of my favorite tribes that splashed its way back into Standard! I am of course talking about Merfolk. Merfolk decks have been around for a long time and typically operate as tribal aggro decks with anthem lords like . The tribe is classically thought of as Mono-Blue but, along with Pirates and Dinosaurs, Ixalan brought us a fresh take by adding Green as a primary color for Merfolk. The deck’s featured “lords” are and . is a classic lord effect giving all other Merfolk +1 +1, however, offers some

Read more

[The Colors of Modern] Part 3: Enemy Colors

Hello everyone! Welcome back to Strictly Average for another Modern article. We’re half way through this series reviewing the various color combinations in Magic: the Gathering, and highlighting a deck of each combination. Often times when discussing the Modern format it seems there are only a few decks that people talk about. That short list does vary a lot over the years, but there’s more than just the few on people’s tongues. This is the point of this series, and hopefully I will show you some decks that you may not have noticed before. So what is an Enemy Color

Read more

RNA Standard Week 3 – Looping Nexi

Thanks for joining me again on this Strictly Standard stroll through Ravnica Allegiance Standard meta update.  This week we get to take a stroll through the weekly Magic Online Standard League 5-0 results as well as a full Star City Games Open and the Star City Games Classic from Sunday.  Last week we saw the meta settling into a solid groove with the total number of unique decks in the Magic Online 5-0 posts dropping. Will that trend hold pat for this week, or will we see a bump in the number of decks that a weekend of results and brewer’s innovation can

Read more

Arena – Jund!

This week we will be exploring a new take on the Green/Black midrange style decks that have been holding their own in Standard for some time now. The most common change to this archetype since the release of Ravnica Allegiance is a blue splash to give the deck access to Standard all-star . I decided to take a different approach, and awaken the red mage inside me. After seeing some Jund lists floating around I fell in love with some of the different cards this archetype can access. It’s no secret that Standard currently has some of the more powerful,

Read more