Top 8 Magic – magic.facetofacegames.com

The decklists are not fully revealed at the time of this recording but the metagame has been made public and many players have already shared their lists on social media. Omnath is towering over Standard with 72% of the field playing either one of the two big decks that have sprung up around the elemental. Only NINE players chose to play without it in Standard.

Omnath has even nabbed the top of the metagame list for ...

With less than a week until the Grand Finals Brian David-Marshall and Magic: The Gathering Hall of Famer Zvi Mowshowitz discuss the state of Standard post-Uro ban and pre-grand reveal of the 32 Standard decks the players will bring to the virtual tables.

Topics include:

Has the over/under on the number of Omnath's changed?

Why aren't people playing Arboreal Grazer in their Omnath lists?

Red Bull Qualifier decklist di...

Normally Brian David-Marshall and Magic Hall of Famer Zvi Mowshowitz would be doing a preview show for the Mythic Invitational -- showcasing the Arena-only Historic format -- but with the decks being revealed so close to the starter pistol for the event that was not possible. Instead they are looking through the decks while the early rounds of the event play out in the background.

Metagame Breakdown

Mythic Invitational Decklis...

With Zendikar Rising previews in full swing, Brian David-Marshall and Magic Hall of Famer Zvi Mowshowitz go on a quest to find the most messed-up Magic cards in the set so far. The duo go through the 41 rares and mythics that had been previewed as of Thursday Sept 3rd looking for the cards that most like to party, which ones are going to impact your Commander games and which ones meet the highest honor Zvi can bestow upon a card --...

With the Temur Reclamation dominated Players Tour Finals in the rearview mirror, Wizards of the Coast announced a huge swath of bans in Standard, Pioneer, Historic, and even Brawl. The announcement takes the total number of banned cards in this Standard format to ten -- a number of cards we have not seen banned at the same time since Urza's Block.

Brian David-Marshall and Magic Hall of Famer Zvi Mowshowitz walk through the&nbs...

BDM and Magic Hall of Famer Zvi Mowshowitz climb back on the virtual bicycle to resume creating new episodes of the game's longest running (okay, okay, walking) podcast about all things MTG. In this episode the duo talk about:

• Zvi's wolf ratio -- how often has he cried wolf accurately and how many times has it just been a stray dog? SPOILERS Wilderness Reclamation was a MF'n wolf.
• This weekend's upcoming Player's T...

The longest running Magic podcast is back with a new (and long-running) episode. Brian David-Marshall is once more joined by Magic Hall of Famer Zvi Mowshowitz as the pair discuss the upcoming Players Tour, recent bannings, the changes to companions, and how Zvi's Stompy deck has found a lane in the Standard metagame.

With Magic 2021 spoilers coming fast and furiously they spend the rest of the episode going through the cards ...

The much heralded Banned and Restricted announcement has come and gone. While there is some immediate relief for Vintage and Legacy players from Lurrus, if you are a Standard player looking to avoid getting paired against a Companion deck anytime soon you are not going to be happy.

There was an interesting nugget buried in the last paragraph of the "Other Formats" section of the announcement in which Ian Duke said, "If we see ...

BDM and Zvi catch up early in the week as Zvi mulls his options for the upcoming Mythic Qualifier on MTG Arena, which he qualified for largely by playing Limited and rarely sporting more than 13 lands in his decks. Fortunately that same deck -- with not that many more lands -- is reasonably playable in Standard.

The duo talk through some of the recent metagame shifts from the Weekend Championship which former Rookie of the Year Oli...

At this point it is widely accepted that Ikoria Limited's shining star is the cycling deck that features uncommon build-arounds like Flourishing Fox and Valiant Rescuer; super-efficient red removal like Flame Spill and Fire Prophecy; and other key cards like Drannith Stingers and Healers, Ominous Seas, and Zenith Flare. There is a plethora of cheap options all at common or uncommon.

As Brian and Zvi get to the rare and mythic cards...

Magic Hall of Famer Zvi Mowshowitz has gotten as low as 13 lands in the Ikoria Limited decks thanks to the power of "Cycling 1." He sits down with co-host Brian David-Marshall to look at the commons and uncommons in White, Blue, and Black as they try to figure out which cards make this draft format tick. They have already discussed the Companions and each other them have had success with them in Draft but is this a Prince or Pauper...

Just another day at the office for BDM and Zvi as the Hall of Famer returns from his weekend in Phoenix to play in his first regional Players Tour event. Topics covered in this episode include:

- The Mono Blue Devotion deck designed by Sam Black and played by Zvi
- Zvi gets Fblthp'd
- How Mike Flores "saved some money" on a hotel room
- OH. MY. GOD! Was that an Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis in the Top 8??
- Are bans called...