The Dive Down

It's just Stan and Shane this week, and they tackle the second half of the Modern Horizons 2 full set review! Before that, there's a brief Cool Decks, Inc, where we cover 3 decks that made the top 8 of last weekend's Modern Challenge. We then plant some flags and light some takes on fire about the best and worst cards in MH2. The Break Down: Cool Decks, Inc - MH2 begins! The Dive Down: It's Just Cards The Wind Down: Hot Takes on MH2 Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 2 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown2021" Timestamps: 3:00 - Housekeeping 5:41 - Cool Decks, Inc. 6:18 - Hardened Scales 9:49 - Temur Cascade 12:16 - Foodgaak 17:19 - The MH2 set review continues!! 22:42 - The Blue Cards 33:31 - The Black Cards 42:58 - The Red Cards 48:19 - The Green Cards 50:07 - The Gold Cards 1:09:38 - The Artifacts 1:25:34 - The Lands 1:27:52 - The Reprints 1:35:03 - Hot Takes on MH2 1:35:50 - The Best New to Modern Reprint 1:36:39 - Our Favorite New Cards 1:37:21 - The Best Creatures 1:39:06 - What Cards Might Get Banned? 1:40:34 - Best Upgrade to an Existing Deck 1:41:28 - Most Improved and Hurt Modern Decks 1:43:47 - Best and Worst New Decks in Modern 1:44:50 - Most Underrated Cards 1:46:25 - Most Overrated Cards 1:48:13 - What Might Mess Up Modern? 1:49:13 - Our Final Takes on MH2 1:52:00 - Closing Out Links from this week's episode: Hardened Scales: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/4053051#paper Temur Cascade: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/4053052#paper Foodgaak: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/4053055#paper Modern Horizons 2: https://scryfall.com/sets/mh2?order=set&as=grid Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Sunday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

It's finally here!! The first in our two part FULL SET REVIEW for Modern Horizons 2. This week Shane's travel schedule kept him off the episode, but he's been replaced with our unofficial 4th host, Evart Moughon, aka Aspiringspike, one of the most respected and creative deck builders and streamers in Modern. The Dive Down: It's Just Cards This Time The Dive Down, cont: And Not Even All Of Them The Dive Down, cont: We Really Tried, Though Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown2021" Timestamps: 2:48 - Housekeeping 4:54 - The White Cards 26:01 - The Blue Cards 44:27 - The Black Cards 1:03:43 - The Red Cards 1:24:40 - The Green Cards 1:39:17 - Some of the Gold Cards 1:45:43 - A Few More Cards With Evart 1:57:07 - Closing Out Links from this week's episode: Modern Horizons 2: https://scryfall.com/sets/mh2?order=set&as=grid Evart's Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/aspiringspike Evart's Twitter: https://twitter.com/MoughonEvart Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Sunday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

This week we talk the banning of Thassa's Oracle in Historic and the first post-ban Historic tournament. Then we head into The Dive Down to discuss the early Modern Horizons 2 previews, and then tackle some listener questions in The Wind Down! The Break Down: Oracle Nomoreacle The Dive Down: Horizons for Yerizons and Ear...zons The Wind Down: Your Questions, Answered Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown2021" Timestamps: 3:40 - Housekeeping 4:51 - The Break Down begins - Thassa's Oracle is banned in Historic! 19:30 - The Insight eSports 5k Invitational metagame breakdown 24:15 - Deck winrates 33:05 - The Top 8 and what Historic decks are winning right now 36:30 - The Dive Down begins: Modern Horizons 2 Spoilers! 37:46 - Grief 49:39 - Cabal Coffers 53:38 - Yusri, Fortune's Flame 57:20 - Flametongue Yearling 1:00:07 - Thrasta, Tempest's Roar 1:06:29 - Unmarked Grave 1:10:07 - Rishadan Dockhand 1:11:57 - Profane Tutor 1:15:55 - Timeless Dragon 1:18:40 - Dakkon, Shadow Slayer 1:24:08 - MH1 Reprints 1:26:15 - The Wind Down: listener questions! 1:26:35 - Is MH2 a "cash grab?" 1:31:48 - What does Death's Shadow need to win in Historic? 1:34:42 - How to move to a new game store? 1:38:46 - How are we REALLY doing, personally? 1:43:13 - Closing Out Links from this week's episode: 5/19 B&R Annoucement: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/may-19-2021-banned-and-restricted-announcement Insight ESports Tier 1 Invitational: https://mtgmelee.com/Tournament/View/5400 Modern Horizons 2 Spoilers: https://scryfall.com/sets/mh2?as=grid&order=spoiled Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Sunday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

Jobs were lost (after next year) and new cards are announced (for next week). We go through all 25 additions from Historic Anthology 5, consider their potential and their competitive past. We also reflect on what the competitive future looks like for casual spikes. The Break Down: Goodbye MPL The Dive Down: Hello Historic Anthology 5 Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 2 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown2021" Timestamps: 1:48 - Housekeeping 4:46 - The Break Down begins: We are all Casual Spikes now 36:05 - The Dive Down begins: HA5 36:58 - The Praetors 48:02 - Silumgar's Command 49:49 - Ojutai's Command 51:38 - Dromoka's Command 56:31 - Atarka's Command 1:06:05 - Kolaghan's Command 1:13:45 - Ancient Grudge 1:14:44 - Ray of Revelation 1:15:51 - Grisly Salvage 1:18:14 - Dragonstorm 1:20:24 - Intangible Virtue 1:23:10 - Into the North 1:24:36 - Relic of Progenitus 1:26:56 - Trash for Treasure 1:27:49 - Ichor Wellspring 1:29:41 - Stifle 1:30:56 - Merfolk Looter 1:32:32 - Reverse Engineer 1:33:50 - Court Homunculus, Vault Skirge, and Whirler Rogue 1:37:15 - Final thoughts on Historic Anthology 5 1:39:15 - Closing Out Links from this week's episode: https://scryfall.com/sets/ha5 https://magic.gg/news/esports-transitions-and-getting-back-to-gathering Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Sunday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

In our latest bonus episode, we're joined by a godfather of Magic podcast, limited extraordinaire, former member of WOTC's Arena team, Ryan Spain! We chat about how the platform works, whether or not it's out to get you, and how to use two Arena accounts to draft more. Find Ryan at: https://twitter.com/ryanspain https://www.twitch.tv/goingoptimal Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown2021" Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Sunday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

We couldn't wait until Friday to get this out to you, so here's an early EMERGENCY REACT-I-SODE to Wizard's "Summer of Legend" announcement this past week. We talk about Modern Horizons II, the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, the return of sanctioned Magic, Historic Anthology 5, and more! The Legendary Down: Emergency Reacts Only The Wind Down: Over/Under-rated Modern Cards Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown2021" Timestamps: 3:57 - The Legendary Down begins 6:29 - MH2 9:30 - Fetches 18:39 - MH2 Spoilers! 37:56 - Counterspell Time 53:29 - Our hopes for MH2 56:15 - Abundant Harvest side-chat 59:10 - Adventures in the Forgotten Realms 1:00:32 - Forgotten Realms Spoiler chat 1:08:29 - Sanctioned Play is Back! 1:10:16 - Historic Anthology 5 1:17:30 - Annoucement Odds 'n Ends 1:24:48 - The Wind Down Begins - Over/Underrated Modern Cards 1:31:03 - Closing Out Links from this week's episode: The Summer of Legend: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/welcome-summer-legend-2021-05-06 Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Sunday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

This week we are testing 2 new, and 1 not-really-new, decks featuring the latest cards from Strixhaven, and running them through the Sleeve/Believe/Heave ringer. Just how much DOES Dave love Magma Opus? Is Dredge back? Is Witchermancer the new Skelementals? Listen, and find out! Before that, we take a deep dive into the big weekend of Historic and analyze the winners and losers across the SCG Historic Satellite events. The Break Down: SCG Historic Satellites The Dive Down: Thrilling Dredge, a Witch, and Mopus Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 2:52 - Housekeeping 5:21 - The Break Down begins - One Thousand Sattelite Decks! 6:50 - Saturday's Meta 14:50 - Saturday's Winning Meta 21:18 - Sunday's Winning Meta 28:19 - Cool Decks, Inc. 28:46 - Selesnya Company 31:40 - Simic Stompy 36:22 - Tainted Pact Combo 41:38 - Jeskai Mutate Combo 43:33 - Temur Phoenix 48:05- Temur Superfriends 49:50 - Boros Midrange 53:01 - The Dive Down begins 55:53 - Dave w/ Jeskai Magma Opus 1:09:12 - Shane w/ Thrilling Dredge 1:28:04 - Stan w/ Rakdos Witchermancer 1:44:50 - Signing Off Links from this week's episode: GW Company: https://mtgmelee.com/Decklist/View/133964 Simic Stompy: https://mtgmelee.com/Decklist/View/133995 Tainted Pact: https://mtgmelee.com/Decklist/View/133955 Jeskai Mutate: https://mtgmelee.com/Decklist/View/133957 Temur Phoenix: https://mtgmelee.com/Decklist/View/133825 Temur Superfriends: https://mtgmelee.com/Decklist/View/132373 Boros Midrange: https://mtgmelee.com/Decklist/View/133988 Jeskai Magma Opus: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3946673#paper Thrilling Dredge: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3944691#paper Rakdos Witchermancer: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3955309#paper Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Sunday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

This week is an old fashioned deck dive on the latest Hotness in Historic - Dimir Rogues! We explore the cards, the strategies, and the fun of the deck, and spend a LOT of time talking about Brainstorm. Is Shane finally ready to cast blue spells? Before that, we go over a recent Modern Challenge and talk about the latest winnings decks. Download the FREE Untapped Companion to track your stats, see your decklists, get details on your performance and more! Use our link to help us out without spending anything: https://mtga.untapped.gg/companion?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=divedown Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 1:58 - Housekeeping 4:24 - The Break Down Begins - Modern Challenge Time 7:13 - The Aggro Decks 11:50 - The Creature Combo Decks 15:00 - 5-Color Scapeshift Stuff 15:42 - Some Event Takes 19:48 - What We'd Play 22:16 - The Dive Down Begins - Historic Rogues 29:08 - What Rogues is Trying to Do 32:32 - The Creatures 40:27 - The Spells 58:18 - Our Experiences Playing the Deck 1:00:57 - Tips n Tricks 1:07:05 - To Brainstorm or Not To Brainstorm? 1:27:59 - The Sideboard 1:36:19 - Matchups 1:42:48 - Did We Like It? 1:46:46 - Closing Out Links from this week's episode: 4/24 Modern Challenge: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-challenge-2021-04-25?xd Historic Rogues: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3937684#paper Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Sunday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

The unofficial 4th host Evart Moughon, aka Aspiringspike, joins us yet again to go over his early testing and experiments in Modern. Dave talks about, what else, Modern Prowess and Historic Phoenix, and Shane says another aggro deck in Historic isn't good enough. Probably. Before that we look at two early Historic tournaments and have an extended jam session of Cool Decks, Inc. The Break Down: Spike Top 8'd a Challenge! The Dive Down: Spike Made Some Luminancer Decks! The Dive Down, cont: Spike Has Thoughts About Historic! Download the FREE Untapped Companion to track your stats, see your decklists, get details on your performance and more! Use our link to help us out without spending anything: https://mtga.untapped.gg/companion?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=divedown Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 7:08 - The Break Down begins: the first Historic tournaments 8:03 - The Insight esports $1k 13:50 - The Hooglandia open 17:10 - Cool Decks, Inc. 30:30 - Our Historic Thoughts 34:58 - Spike's Modern Challenge Top 8 43:20 - The Dive Down begins: the latest decks in Modern and Historic 45:25 - Jeskai Prowess 48:48 - Naya Prowess 53:23 - Boros Prowess 1:01:34 - Temur Taking Turns ft. Rowan 1:06:40 - Thoughts on Prismari Command 1:10:24 - Historic Boros Wizards 1:16:43 - Boros Wizards v2 1:21:23 - Boros Wizards v3 1:27:50 - Historic Izzet Phoenix 1:38:56 - Thoughts on Memory Lapse Links from this week's episode: Insight Esports Historic 1k: https://mtgmelee.com/Tournament/View/6052 Hooglandia Historic Open: https://mtgmelee.com/Tournament/View/5942 Watch Aspiringspike on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/aspiringspike Find Aspiringspike on Twitter: https://twitter.com/moughonevart Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Monday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

With our time on Kaldheim coming to an end, the Three Friends take a look back and a look forward. Stan takes us through Modern right now via a couple of MTGO Challenges + we consider what might be coming next. Then we do a little self assessment and grade how we did on reviewing Kaldheim cards going into this format. Finally, we look ahead and talk about the decisions people are grappling with with... you guessed it... building Izzet Phoenix in Historic. The Break Down: Where's Modern At? The Dive Down: Learning from Kaldheim Spoilers The Dive Down, cont.: The First of Many Times We'll Talk About Phoenix Download the FREE Untapped Companion to track your stats, see your decklists, get details on your performance and more! Use our link to help us out without spending anything: https://mtga.untapped.gg/companion?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=divedown Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" 3:30 - Housekeeping 4:42 - The Break Down - Modern Showcase Challenge and Super Qualifier 6:33 - Modern Esper Control Chat 13:36 - Weekend Metagame 16:45 - Decks to beat vs. Decks that beat 21:55 - Can anything from Strixhaven beat tier 1? 27:45 - Dive Down pt. 1 - Sunsetting Kaldheim 28:20 - Tibalt’s Trickery 31:16 - Valki, God of Lies 33:16 - Vorinclex 36:17 - Doomskar 40:00 - In Search of Greatness 41:55 - Reidane, God of the Worthy 44:44 - Ascendant Spirit 46:55 - Birgi 49:17 - Jaspera Sentinal 51:45 - Elvish Warmaster & Realmwalker 53:53 - Behold the Multiverse 57:21 - Faceless Haven 1:02:43 - Dive Down pt. 2 - Historic Phoenix Brew Down 1:37:34 - Patreon Questions Wind Down! Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Sunday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

Well everyone, Shane and Dave really stepped in it last week. Stan's back. And he has things to say. About Mystical Archive cards, about playing to the stack, and about some other nonsense, too. After that's finished, the three friends go through the rest of the cards from Strixhaven and find a few worth talking about for our formats. Stan learns. Dave spoils. Shane toils. The Break Down: Stanislav's Back The Break Down 2: Stanislav's Mad The Break Down 3: Stanislav Hates the Takes We Had The Dive Down: Finally, Some Strixhaven Spoilers Download the FREE Untapped Companion to track your stats, see your decklists, get details on your performance and more! Use our link to help us out without spending anything: https://mtga.untapped.gg/companion?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=divedown Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 2:47 - Housekeeping 6:04 - Break Down Begins: In Defense of Mystical Archive 8:37 - More Spells Can Be Good 12:26 - Electrolyze Though 15:10 - Archive’s Impact On Gameplay 27:54 - The Future of Historic & The Economy 34:30 - Abundant Harvest 39:14 - Dive Down Begins: Strixhaven Spoilers pt. 2 39:41 - Clever Luminancer 47:22 - Leonin Lightscribe 50:30 - Mavinda, Students’ Advocate 52:32 - Strict Proctor 55:54 - Guiding Voice 56:55 - Show of Confidence 59:01 - Test of Talent 1:00:44 - Ingenius Mastery 1:02:44 - Baleful Mastery 1:06:22 - Lash of Malice 1:08:39 - Sedgemore Witch 1:11:54 - First Day of Class 1:13:43 - Grinning Ignus 1:15:25 - Retriever Phoenix 1:16:40 - Crackle with Power 1:17:58 - Charge Through 1:20:03 - Dragonsguard Elite 1:22:55 - Body of Research 1:24:39 - Double Major 1:26:09 - Fracture 1:27:42 - Rushed Rebirth 1:30:07 - Thrilling Discovery 1:32:10 - Vanishing Verse 1:33:48 - Mila, Crafty Companion/Lukka, Wayward Bonder 1:36:47 - Expressive Iteration 1:38:16 - Flamescroll Celebrant/Revel in Silence 1:41:33 - Ecological Appreciation 1:44:11 - Zephyr Boots 1:46:00 - Bayou Groff 1:48:34 - Mage Duel 1:49:50 - Strixhaven Stadium 1:52:40 - Parting Thoughts Strixhaven Spoilers: https://scryfall.com/sets/stx?order=set&as=grid Strixhaven... Mystical Archive?? Spoilers: https://scryfall.com/sets/sta?as=grid&order=set Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Sunday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

This week, Professor Stan is on sabbatical, so Shane and Dave are headed back to school to give their takes on the first batch of Strixhaven spoilers. Is this the episode where Shane is the optimist? We also take some time to go over our Mystical Archive tier lists for Historic. Will Crux of Fate have what it takes to be the only S-Tier card? Before all that, we briefly go over the Historic meta at the Kaldheim Championship, and look at two novel decks that some big names brought. The Episode: Stan's Not Here, Man The Break Down: The History is History The Dive Down: Wizard College's Deepest Secrets Download the FREE Untapped Companion to track your stats, see your decklists, get details on your performance and more! Use our link to help us out without spending anything: https://mtga.untapped.gg/companion?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=divedown Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 4:25 - Housekeeping 7:11 - The Break Down begins: the Kaldheim Champs 11:36 - Abzan "Midrange" overview 16:50 - Boros Cycling overview 18:48 - The Dive Down begins: Back to School! 19:50 - The Mechanics of Strixhaven 32:29 - The Snarl Lands 34:23 - Will & Rowan 37:28 - Storm-Kiln Shaman 40:50 - Rip Apart 45:40 - Elite Spellbinder 49:48 - Venerable Warsinger 53:30 – Radiant Scrollwielder 56:03 – Efreet Flamepainter 59:55 – Reduce to Memory 1:02:38 – Archmage Emeritus 1:06:40 – Witherbloom Apprentice 1:08:10 – Dragonsguard Elite 1:10:35 – Curate 1:13:09 – Shadrix Silverquill 1:15:46 – The Commands 1:23:20 – Professor Onyx 1:27:05 – The Mystical Archive in Historic 1:30:07 – The S/A-Tier 1:39:25 – The B-Tier 1:44:28 – C-Tier 1:51:34 – D-Tier 1:52:50 – Closing Out Links from this week's episode: The Kaldheim Championship Decks: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/kaldheim-championship#paper Strixhaven Spoilers: https://scryfall.com/sets/stx?order=set&as=grid Strixhaven... Mystical Archive?? Spoilers: https://scryfall.com/sets/sta?as=grid&order=set Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Monday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

It's no secret that the Sun-Crowned has been ruling the roost in Modern, so on this week's episode we ask the very important question: how do we beat Heliod Company?! Or is it Heliod Combo? We're also kicking off the episode with a detailed breakdown of the SCG Tour Online's Historic weekend. #Spreadsheets The Disclaimer: Dave's Not Here The Break Down: Satellite of Jund The Dive Down: Tricksy Timing and Other Combo Breakers Download the FREE Untapped Companion to track your stats, see your decklists, get details on your performance and more! Use our link to help us out without spending anything: https://mtga.untapped.gg/companion?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=divedown Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 3:02 — Housekeeping 6:07 — Break Down Begins: SCG Historic Satellites 10:50 — Swiss Meta: 1,053 Decks!! 25:25 — 4-2s or Better in the Swiss 30:28 — Sunday Championship Meta: 301 Decks!! 35:36 — Top 8 37:20 — Conclusions 46:30 — What it Means for Casual Spikes 49:52 — The Dive Down Begins: How to Beat Heliod 53:00 — How Heliod Got His Groove Back 56:12 — How the Deck is Different Now 1:00:12 — About the February 15 Bannings 1:04:00 — What We Did This Episode: Try to Lose 1:06:45 — What to Think About Against Heliod 1:07:06 — Favored Decks: UW Control 1:08:10 — Favored Decks: Green Tron 1:09:31 — Favored Decks: UB Mill 1:10:50 — Even Decks: Jund Death's Shadow 1:13:40 — Even Decks: Burn 1:21:25 — Even Decks: Taxes, Hammertime 1:22:05 — Other Combo Decks 1:23:22 — Cards We Love Against Heliod 1:28:00 — How Can You Beat Infinite Life? 1:31:50 — How to Interact Against Heliod 1:37:01 — Mirror Matches 1:39:40 — Is Heliod Overpowered? Links from this week's episode: The SCG 5K Strixhaven Qualifier: https://mtgmelee.com/Tournament/View/5656 Heliod Combo: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3853109#paper Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Monday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

In something of a split episode, we first explore the reprints of Time Spiral Remastered, identify some potential cards that are "on sale," the impact of the old border reprints, and what we're eyeballing as purchases. Following that, Dave outlines the various Death's Shadow decks that players have been testing in Historic following the release of Anthology 4, Shane probably under-rates Historic cycling decks, and Stan continues to cast Elves. The Break Down: Pay More For Cards You Already Have! The Dive Down: Death's Shadow + Adanto Vanguard = <3 The Dive Down, cont: Other Anthology Thoughts Download the FREE Untapped Companion to track your stats, see your decklists, get details on your performance and more! Use our link to help us out without spending anything: https://mtga.untapped.gg/companion?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=divedown Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 2:31 - Housekeeping 5:43 - Break Down Begins: Introducing the Time Spiral Buyer’s Guide 10:59 - Gemstone Cavern 13:13 - Tarmogoyf 17:11 - A bunch of quick hits 25:00 - The Value of Old Border Reprints 32:17 - Yawgmoth, Thran Physician 33:33 - Chalice of the Void 34:20 - Ancient Stirrings 35:46 - How Old Borders Impact Box Prices 41:33 - Time Spiral Parting Thoughts 43:55 - Dive Down Begins: Testing Death’s Shadow in Historic 48:36 - Grixis Death’s Shadow 52:20 - RB Arcanist 1:02:38 - RB Aggro 1:07:18 - Mono-Black Aggro 1:11:07 - Cycling Shadow 1:13:53 - Mardu Shadow 1:28:39 - More testing: Flameblade Adept 1:38:26 - Declaration in Stone 1:40:00 - Abomination of Llanowar 1:44:59 - Sawtusk Demolisher 1:49:05 - Parting Thoughts Links from this week's episode: Time Spiral Remastered: https://scryfall.com/sets/tsr?order=usd&as=grid The EV of TSR: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/the-expected-value-of-time-spiral-remastered Mardu Shadow: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3829762#paper Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Monday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

This week we tackle another Patron request from Bob - Bant Ephemerate! And who better to have on than one of the masters of the deck, Aspiringspike himself, Evart Moughon. We go over the ins and outs of the deck, with Shane wondering just how to cast counterspells, Dave running out of time on Magic Online, and Stan just blinking stuff. Before that, we look at the latest Historic Anthology and give our takes on what cards might have an impact. The Break Down: A Shadow Over Historic The Dive Down: Draw 2 Whenever You Can The Dive Down, cont: Winning With Three 2/2s Download the FREE Untapped Companion to track your stats, see your decklists, get details on your performance and more! Use our link to help us out without spending anything: https://mtga.untapped.gg/companion?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=divedown Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 2:36 - Housekeeping 6:08 - The Break Down begins - Historic Anthology 4 11:48 - The cards of Historic Anthology 4 14:50 - Death's Shadow 24:06 - Declaration in Stone 27:15 - Thraben Inspector 29:03 - Flameblade Adept 32:06 - Blinkmoth Nexus 34:01 - Sword of Body and Mind 35:31 - The other stuff 38:35 - Thoughts on Anthologies 43:26 - The Dive Down begins - a brief history of Bant Ephemerate 48:45 - What inspired Evart to keep coming back to this shell? 51:43 - Ephemerate: the key card 56:33 - What are we bouncing? Eternal Witness 1:01:30 - Ice-Fang Coatl 1:04:27 - Skyclave Apparition 1:07:43 - Wall of Omens 1:09:30 - Venser, Shaper Savant 1:11:40 - The Counterspells & How to Cast Them 1:23:04 - The Teferis 1:25:15 - The Mana 1:29:28 - Time Warp (Time Warp!) 1:31:35 - How Fun is the Deck? 1:37:37 - Some Sideboard Tips 1:41:12 - How Does This Slow Deck Win? 1:46:48 - Final Tips For Picking Up This Deck Links from this week's episode: Historic Anthology 4: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-digital/get-ready-historic-anthology-iv-2021-03-05 Bant Ephemerate: https://www.streamdecker.com/deck/yHz1usZ4J Watch Aspiringspike on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/aspiringspike Find Aspiringspike on Twitter: https://twitter.com/moughonevart Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Monday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

This week it's a Modern-focused, Patron-thanking episode that's all about one of the format's classics, Merfolk. That's right. You've been waiting for 2 years for us to dive down into the depths of these seas. But first, we'll take a look through the Mana Traders Series from this month. It's Modern. It's good. Again. Dave hates seafood. Stan combos off. Shane is — surprisingly — a friend to all fish, everywhere. The Break Down: Manatraders Modern The Dive Down: Turn 1 Aether Vial The Dive Down, cont: Turn 4 Spreading Seas Download the FREE Untapped Companion to track your stats, see your decklists, get details on your performance and more! Use our link to help us out without spending anything: https://mtga.untapped.gg/companion?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=divedown Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 3:16 - Special Patreon shoutout / Housekeeping 6:12 - The Break Down begins - the Manatraders Modern Month 7:33 - The overall Manatraders metagame 11:10 - 6-3 conversion rates 15:35 - The top 8 27:10 - Quick top 16 analysis of the weekend Challenges 28:39 - Takeaways and takes from the weekend's events 39:10 - The Dive Down begins: Modern Merfolk! 41:00 - What this deck is about 43:52 - A brief history of Merfolk 49:45 - The construction options of Merfolk 54:04 - The Lords 59:25 - The Beaters 1:05:01 - The Disruptive Creatures 1:13:20 - Aether Vial. It's good. 1:14:27 - Disruptive Spells 1:20:38 - The Lands. AKA Mutavault. 1:21:18 - Our playing experiences: what we played this week 1:22:35 - Dave on Azorius Merfolk 1:27:30 - Shane on Simic Merfolk 1:33:55 - Stan on Mystic Reflection Combo Fish 1:44:22 - What Merfolk does well, and what it doesn't 1:53:45 - Closing out Links from this week's episode: The Manatraders Metagame: https://twitter.com/YahiAnael/status/1365562502298361858?s=20 UW Merfolk: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3743267#paper Mystic Reflection Merfolk: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3765702#paper Simic Merfolk: https://mtgdecks.net/Modern/merfolk-decklist-by-zxrogue-1092933 Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Monday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

So what next? This week The Three Friends talk about each of our favorite formats in the wake of what some have claimed is the biggest set of bans in MTG history. Is it? We don't know. BUT. We do know that there's new (and old) stuff going on in Modern, Historic, and Pioneer. We will be giving you a Break Down of ALL THREE formats, talk about our experiences playing the formats, and, of course, tell you what we'd play. Shane and Stan pivot table it up while Dave just reads some line graphs out loud. It's can't miss audio content! The Break Down: First Modern The Break Down II: Then Historic The Break Down III: Then Pioneer The Break Down IV: Yep, All Three Download the FREE Untapped Companion to track your stats, see your decklists, get details on your performance and more! Use our link to help us out without spending anything: https://mtga.untapped.gg/companion?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=divedown Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 1:28 - Housekeeping 4:32 - The Format-Palooza begins 6:16 - Modern post-ban event Break Down 13:47 - The winningest decks from Modern this week 19:00 - What's Modern about now? 22:26 - The NRG Open 31:39 - Stan's play experience 36:11 - Modern Cool Decks, Inc. 44:26 - What would we play in Modern? 47:21 - Historic post-ban meta Break Down 1:03:54 - Selensya Angels 1:14:26 - Golgari Elves 1:21:11 - What would we play in Historic? 1:25:14 - Pioneer post-ban event Break Down 1:39:41 - Pioneer Top 8s and Cool Decks, Inc 1:43:05 - Shane's play experience 1:46:00 - How is Pioneer different from Historic? 1:55:43 - What would we play in Pioneer? Links from this week's episode: 2/20/21 Modern Challenge: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-challenge-2021-02-21 2/21/21 Modern Challenge: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-challenge-2021-02-22 NRG Modern Open: https://mtgmelee.com/Tournament/View/4904 Selesnya Angels: https://mtga.untapped.gg/meta/archetypes/1041/selesnya-angels?format=historic&meta=current&rank=BRONZE_TO_MYTHIC&tab=decks&wincon=bo3 Golgari Elves: https://mtga.untapped.gg/meta/archetypes/984/golgari-elves?format=historic&meta=previous&min-matches=100&rank=BRONZE_TO_MYTHIC&tab=decks&wincon=bo3 2/20/21 Pioneer Prelim: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/pioneer-preliminary-2021-02-20 2/21/21 Pioneer Challenge: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/pioneer-challenge-2021-02-21 Grixis Release to the Wind: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3781283#paper Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Monday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

Well, those were some bans. And we're here to talk about them, with our regular guest host Evart Moughon, aka Aspiringspike. We first discuss the big bans in Modern, Pioneer, and Historic, then head into the Dive Down to talk about what these changes mean for the formats themselves. The Break Down: They Really Really Did It The Dive Down: The Face of the New Formats The Dive Down, cont: Why Does This Keep Happening? Download the FREE Untapped Companion to track your stats, see your decklists, get details on your performance and more! Use our link to help us out without spending anything: https://mtga.untapped.gg/companion?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=divedown Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 2:33 - Housekeeping 4:59 - The Break Down fake begins - we give Spike an open door and he runs through it 8:08 - The Break Down actually begins - takes on the bans 8:53 - WOTCs statement on why they made some bans 15:00 - The Modern bans - Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath 22:15 - Field of the Dead/Mystic Sanctuary 27:21 - Simian Spirit Guide 31:52 - Tibalt's Trickery 35:56 - The Cascade rule change 38:51 - Will Modern be more fun? 43:45 - The Historic ban - so they banned Uro here, too 51:00 - The Pioneer bans 52:25 - WOTC's stated vision of Pioneer 55:18 - Teferi, Time Raveler 58:10 - Balustrade Spy/Undercity Informer 59:00 - Will Pioneer be better now? 1:04:15 - Final thoughts on all of this 1:08:38 - The Dive Down begins 1:09:05 - What looks good in Modern? 1:21:24 - Modern's other victims 1:28:42 - Historic's post-ban winners 1:34:52 - What are the dark horses in Pioneer? 1:42:35 - Formats full of possibilities? 1:44:50 - Why does this keep happening? 1:58:56 - Closing out Links from this week's episode: The 2/15/2021 B&R: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/february-15-2021-banned-and-restricted-announcement Watch Aspiringspike on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/aspiringspike Find Aspiringspike on Twitter: https://twitter.com/moughonevart Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Monday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

This week's a funny one. We set out to test some of the most recent winning decks featuring Kaldheim cards, in order to grade them on our (patent-pending) S/B/H rating system. Then, in the span of a few days, the Modern landscape shifted under our feet! So we'll still talk about those winning decks, but also about the communities iteration on Cascade Tibalt, what this means for Modern, and, as always, provide some mildly spicy takes. The Break Down: What The Dive Down: The The Dive Down, cont: Falki Download the FREE Untapped Companion to track your stats, see your decklists, get details on your performance and more! Use our link to help us out without spending anything: https://mtga.untapped.gg/companion?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=divedown Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 1:40 - Housekeeping 3:47 - The Break Down begins: Two Modern Challenges 4:38 - Saturday Top 8 12:05 - Sunday Top 8 16:13 - A Very Valki Weekend 27:46 - Is there game against Valki? 33:32 - The Dive Down Begins: Sleeve/Believe/Heave, Tibalt ed. 35:34 - Jund Valki 1:01:35 - Tibalt’s Trickery 1:06:21 - 51 Land Trickery 1:10:46 - 8 Cascade Turbo Trickery 1:26:39 - Goblin Pyre 1:37:45 - Bant Cosima Stoneblade 1:44:10 - What to play? Links from this week's episode: Saturday's Challenge: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/modern-challenge-12258809#paper Sunday's Challenge: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/modern-challenge-12258815#paper Jund Valki: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3741655#paper All-in Trickery: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3741670#paper 8 Cascade Turbo Trickery: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3738934#paper Bant Cosima: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3734686#paper Goblin Pyre: https://www.streamdecker.com/deck/5I9yoEQ5r Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Monday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

Kaldheim is out, which means there's a bunch of new great, fair decks for us to explore in our favorite formats! Hold on, I'm being handed a note.... oh wait there's some more ways to win on turn 1, as well... So this week we're testing some of the cards and decks that people are talking about, and reporting back with our findings. Before that we check out the latest Modern events to see what's changing there, and looking for Kaldheim cards that are making an impact. The Break Down: Modern Challenges The Dive Down: He's Tricky The Dive Down, cont: More Impact Than Advertised The Wind Down: Arena Experiences Download the FREE Untapped Companion to track your stats, see your decklists, get details on your performance and more! Use our link to help us out without spending anything: https://mtga.untapped.gg/companion?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=divedown Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 2:25 - Housekeeping 5:49 - The Break Down begins: Modern Events! 7:00 - Weekend Challenge top 8 11:53 - Super Qualifier top 8 13:35 - Cool Decks, Inc. 18:05 - The Dive Down begins: The Impact of Kaldheim 19:10 - Tibalt's Trickery 33:30 - Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider 41:07 - In Search of Greatness 47:45 - Valki, God of Lies//Tibalt, Cosmic Imposter 1:04:25 - Ascendant Spirit 1:12:08 - Birgi, God of Storytelling//Harnfel, Horn of Bounty 1:23:04 - Spectral Steel 1:25:07 - Rise of the Dread Marn 1:27:33 - Immersturm Predator 1:30:29 - The Pathways 1:35:12 - The Wind Down: Arena Experiences 1:37:22 - Shane's January 1:39:40 - Dave's January 1:42:11 - Stan's January 1:44:10 - Goals for February 1:48:23 - Signing Off Links from this week's episode: Sunday Challenge: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/modern-challenge-12256327#paper Super Qualifier: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-champ-qual-2021-01-31 Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Monday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

This week we Dive Down into Gruul Aggro in Historic. After a strong representation and showing in the recent MPL and Rivals Historic weekend events, Gruul looks to be the tier 1 aggro deck in the format. We guide you through deck construction, piloting the deck, and playing against it! Before that, we walk through a meta breakdown on the past month or so of Modern, and are again forced to discuss a certain escaping Titan. The Break Down: Deep, Deep Modern Meta The Dive Down: A Truly Busted 2 The Dive Down, pt. 2: A Truly Busted 6 Download the FREE Untapped Companion to track your stats, see your decklists, get details on your performance and more! Use our link to help us out without spending anything: https://mtga.untapped.gg/companion?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=divedown Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 5:58 - The Break Down Begins: A Modern Update 7:02 - January 23rd Modern Qualifier 11:14 - the top 32 14:15 - A modern meta analysis 22:45 - How modern feels right now (aka Uro talk) 30:50 - The Dive Down Begins: Gruul is Kuul 35:20 - How Gruul works in Historic 36:20 - The 1 drops 41:15 - The 2 drops 59:30 - The 3 drops 1:08:01 - The 4 drops and beyond 1:17:02 - The manabase 1:20:20 - Sideboarding and sideboard tactics 1:25:01 - Playing as Gruul 1:34:49 - Playing against Gruul 1:42:35 - Who is this deck for? 1:46:53 - Signing off Links from this week's episode: Alatheio's Modern Analysis: https://www.reddit.com/r/ModernMagic/comments/l31jyc/mtgo_modern_major_events_review_20201221_20210120/ Gruul Aggro: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/gruul-aggro-9590cf15-ec7b-4014-9d20-1114d43b8370#paper Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Monday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

We head back to Kaldheim for more spoiler takes, this time joined by regular guest host Evart Moughon, aka Aspiring Spike! What cards have what it takes to make an impact in Magic's non-rotating formats? We don't really know, but we have some thoughts... We also discuss the recent MPL and Rivals Historic weekend events, and break down the current meta. The Break Down: It's the MPL, Y'all The Dive Down: He's Finally Back The Dive Down, cont: Cards Evart Likes Download the FREE Untapped Companion to track your stats, see your decklists, get details on your performance and more! Use our link to help us out without spending anything: https://mtga.untapped.gg/companion?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=divedown Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 3:00 - Housekeeping 5:18 - The Break Down begins: MPL and Rivals Historic weekend! 7:44 - A brief explanation of the MPL 9:55 - The overall metagame and our thoughts on the big 3 20:42 - Some thoughts on the Historic metagame 23:46 - Deck performance data 29:40 - The Dive Down begins: Kaldheim spoilers, Vol. 2 30:20 - Doomskar 39:18 - In Search of Greatness 47:20 - Mystic Reflection 54:38 - Magda, Brazen Outlaw 59:15 - Tibalt's Trickery, revisited 1:02:54 - Snow Duals, revisited 1:05:56 - Old-Growth Troll, revisited 1:07:27 - Valki/Tibalt, revisited 1:09:40 - Immersturm Predator 1:13:40 - Reidane, God of the Worthy 1:17:57 - Cosima, God of the Voyage 1:21:20 - Birgi, God of Storytelling 1:27:15 - Ascendant Spirit 1:29:08 - Vega, the Watcher 1:33:08 - Skemfar Avenger 1:34:19 - Jaspera Sentinal 1:36:25 - Toski, Bearer of Secrets 1:38:29 - Bind the Monster 1:43:46 - Parting thoughts, is this set good? 1:46:54 - Our Most Anticipated Cards Links from this week's episode: MTG data: https://twitter.com/mtg_data h0lydiva: https://twitter.com/h0lydiva Ball Lightning, phd: https://twitter.com/jpball5 Ball Lightning, phd's MPL spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bkg1UE2HxEU-2vnS-3tQbm9VwqWtsPMGh3kitGZwTL0/edit#gid=1855992740 Kaldheim spoilers: https://scryfall.com/sets/khm?order=name&as=grid Find Aspring Spike on twitter: https://twitter.com/MoughonEvart and on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/aspiringspike Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Monday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

In our latest bonus episode, Modern streamer and Pyro Prison stalwart FluffyWolf2 joins us for a conversation about earning a reputation for championing a single deck, the state of Modern, and lessons learned streaming MTGO. Find Fluffy at: twitch.tv/fluffywolf2 twitter.com/fluffywolf2 fluffywolf2.com Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Now get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=t... and use code "thedivedown" Download our favorite Magic Arena companion tool at http://untapped.thedivedown.com Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown [Support The Dive Down](patreon.com/thedivedown)

The first batch of Kaldheim spoilers have dropped, and we're here to provide our patent-pending hot takes. We answer important questions like: what Izzet card will Stan overrate, what Green 5-drop will Shane think just might work, and what reasonable stance will Dave take on every card we discuss? Prior to that we finish up our mutual journey through Zendikar Rising by finding some Cool Decks for our latest installment of Cool Decks, Inc. The Break Down: Gazpacho Decks, Inc. The Dive Down, pt 1: Cards Dave Loves The Dive Down, pt 2: Cards Shane & Stan Hate Download the FREE Untapped Companion to track your stats, see your decklists, get details on your performance and more! Use our link to help us out without spending anything: https://mtga.untapped.gg/companion?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=divedown Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 3:33 - Housekeeping 6:51 - The Break Down Begins: Cool Decks Inc 7:37 - Bant Snowblade 10:01 - Boros Land Destruction 13:39 - 4C Lutri 16:35 - The Dive Down Begins: Kaldheim Spoilers 19:03 - Kaldheim Mechanics 38:44 - Snow Duals 42:53 - Tibatl’s Trickery 48:49 - Alrund, God of the Cosmos 53:35 - Annul 54:21 - Behold the Multiverse 57:40 - Dragon Berserker 1:01:25 - Esika, God of the Tree 1:05:47 - Goldspan Dragon 1:09:00 - Kaya’s Onslaught 1:11:39 - Koll, the Forgemaster 1:15:19 - Niko Aris 1:18:47 - Old-Growth Troll 1:23:33 - Ravenform 1:26:23 - Rise of the Dread Marn 1:29:24 - Saw It Coming 1:33:37 - Spectral Steel 1:35:28 - Valki, God of Lies 1:43:37 - Our Parting Thoughts Links from this week's episode: Niambi Stoneblade: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3678247#paper Boros Land Destruction: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3678255 4C Lutri: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3671439#paper Kaldheim mechanics: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/kaldheim-mechanics-2021-01-07 Kaldheim spoilers: https://scryfall.com/sets/khm?order=name&as=grid Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Monday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

This week we asked our patrons to tell us what deck to do our next dive on, and they chose one of the up-and-comers of Modern: Hammer Time. And what do you know, it performed incredibly well at the ManaTraders Modern Tournament and put 4 decks into the latest Challenge top 8. What timing! We first go deep on the ManaTraders tourny, then head into the Dive Down to provide a thorough overview of Hammer Time: how do the pieces work together, how you should think about playing it, and how people will try to hate you out. The Break Down: Modern Manatraders Meta Madness The Dive Down: The 0s and 1s The Dive Down, cont: The 2s and +10/+10s Download the FREE Untapped Companion to track your stats, see your decklists, get details on your performance and more! Use our link to help us out without spending anything: https://mtga.untapped.gg/companion?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=divedown Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 2:39 - Housekeeping 6:39 - Break Down Begins 8:03 - Dave’s Tournament Report 12:36 - Manatraders Modern Metagame 40:27 - Dive Down Begins - Hammer Time 41:31 - What is Hammer Time? 48:44 - Steelshaper’s Gift & other cards that get hammers 51:50 - Sigarda’s Aid & other cards that cheat on equipment costs 58:42 - Ornithopter & other cards that wield hammers 1:03:41 - Mishra’s Bauble & other support cards 1:15:03 - Auriok Champion & other sideboard cards 1:19:23 - Playing the deck to various levels of success 1:27:14 - Keep or Mulls 1:32:43 - How to beat Hammer Time 1:37:48 - Why is Hammer so good right now? 1:42:14 - Who is this deck for & other parting thoughts Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Monday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

2020 is a year that did, in fact, happen. And we are here to talk about the year of Magic: The Gathering and our place in it. And maybe make fun of our bad takes. We review Modern, Pioneer, and Historic through 2020, talk about our favorite (and least favorit cards) from the year, review our best (and worst) picks to click, and more! Thanks for your amazing support through 2020. We appreciate you. Download the FREE Untapped Companion to track your stats, see your decklists, get details on your performance and more! Use our link to help us out without spending anything: https://mtga.untapped.gg/companion?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=divedown Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 3:05 - Housekeeping 7:00 - 2020 begins with hope 9:00 - The loss of paper and gain of virtual 13:18 - Modern in 2020 30:54 - Pioneer in 2020 38:40 - Historic (and magic arena) in 2020 57:40 - Part 2: A year of The Dive Down 58:00 - Our favorite eps of the year 1:05:40 - Favorite deck and card dives 1:23:40 - Our best and worst picks to click 1:30:11 - Our worst sleeve/believe/heave take 1:33:30 - Our favorite cards of the year 1:37:02 - Our least favorite cards of the year 1:40:55 - Our best MTG experiences of the year 1:42:40 - Guests of the year 1:44:43 - Was 2020 a good year for MTG? Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? Watch us stream our episodes every Monday night at 8pm Central: https://www.twitch.tv/thedivedown_shane email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

This week we take a journey into the ManaTraders Modern Tournament Series. We talk about the decks we played with and against, potential mental and strategic approaches to events like these, and some hot hot takes about Modern and Magic. We also spend some time talking about Stan's recent successes, and the first batch of Kaldheim spoilers! The Break Down: Stan's Satellite Results! The Dive Down: Our Manatraders Results! The Wind Down: Kaldheim Spoiler Results! Download the FREE Untapped Companion to track your stats, see your decklists, get details on your performance and more! Use our link to help us out without spending anything: https://mtga.untapped.gg/companion?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=divedown Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 3:29 - Housekeeping 6:02 - The Break Down begins: Stan’s SCG Tour Online Report 14:20 - New Insights on Historic Neostorm 25:12 - The Dive Down begins: Introducing the Manatraders Modern Qualifiers 34:30 - Who’s Playing in Manatraders Qualifiers? 39:50 - N=31 Metagame Analysis 46:30 - Trying to qualify with Elves, Bogles, and Ponza 52:38 - Trying to qualify with UR Prowess 1:01:16 - Trying to qualify with Mono-Red and GW Titan 1:15:36 - Let’s Talk About Modern… 1:22:38 - Tournament Takeaways 1:36:15 - The Wind Down begins: Kaldheim Spoilers, part 1 Links from this week's episode: The December Manatraders tournament: https://www.manatraders.com/tournaments/9 Ongoing Kaldheim Spoilers: https://scryfall.com/sets/khm?order=spoiled&as=grid Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

This week The Dive Down goes back to Historic. After bursting out briefly in song, the crew breaks down the metagame from last weekend's SCG Satellite Tournaments and reels in shock from one or two insights. Dave manages to make a recap of the Arena Open all about him. Stan is unsurprised. Shane is amused. After that we dive down into three of the best decks in Historic... that we haven't spoken about that much yet. The Break Down: Satellite Results The Break Down, pt 2: Customer Servicing into Day 2 The Dive Down: Best Titans, Best Wizards, Best Cats Download the FREE Untapped Companion to track your stats, see your decklists, get details on your performance and more! Use our link to help us out without spending anything: https://mtga.untapped.gg/companion?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=divedown Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 1:50 - Housekeeping 6:56 - SCG Historic Satellites 28:56 - Dave Plays the Arena Open 40:35 - The Dive Down Begins 43:07 - Shane Plays Historic Sultai 1:11:01 - Stan Plays Historic Neostorm 1:29:36 - Dave Also Plays Historic Sacrifice 1:49:05 - Closing Out Links from this week's episode: Stan's Lovely Star City Breakdown: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Jw2JuAFYQmldURZrqr1IkeLn51tsThogo6DWvqSM4wM/edit#gid=0 Cool Decks Inc, #1 (Izzet): https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3620885#paper Cool Decks Inc, #2 (Sultai Explore): https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3622893#paper Dave's Auras Open List (Bo1): https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3624511#paper Dave's Auras Open List (Bo2): https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3624523#paper Shane's Sultai: https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/kyleboggemes-11262020-sultai-midrange-in-historic Stan's Neoform: https://tinyurl.com/y8tyomw4 Dave's Rakdos Sac: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3624554#paper Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

It's time for another top-tier Patron request episode! This time, long-time citizen of the nation Sean asked us to talk about tribal decks. We cover the history of tribes in Magic, common aspects of tribal decks, and do a Sleeve/Believe/Heave of some of the less popular tribes of Modern. Prior to that, we spend a long time breaking down the Historic decks and meta of the Zendikar Rising Championship that took place last weekend! The Break Down: A Historic Championship The Dive Down: Tribe Talk The Dive Down, cont: Which Deck Will Stan Qualify With? Download the FREE Untapped Companion to track your stats, see your decklists, get details on your performance and more! Use our link to help us out without spending anything: https://mtga.untapped.gg/companion?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=divedown Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 4:27 - Housekeeping 9:42 - The Break Down: Championship Chat 12:20 - The Championship meta 21:40 - The Top 64 meta 29:05 - The Top 8 41:03 - Some takes 45:13 - Cool Decks, Inc. 50:25 - The Dive Down: Tribal Time 53:02 - A brief history of tribes in Magic 58:38 - What are the common features of these decks? 1:02:58 - The lords and lieutenants of tribal decks 1:10:55 - The best cards for tribal decks 1:13:40 - Testing lesser-known tribal decks: 5-Color Elementals 1:29:03 - Goblins Combo 1:35:50 - 8-Whack Goblins 1:40:44 - Slivers 1:53:22 - Tribal takeaways 1:57:03 - Closing out Links from this week's episode: Zendikar Rising Championship Coverage: https://magic.gg/events/zendikar-rising-championship 5-Color Elementals: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3574926#paper Goblin Combo: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/goblins#paper 8-Whack: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3468163#paper Slivers: https://mtgdecks.net/Modern/slivers-decklist-by-justburn420-1060211 Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

For the first week of our NEXT 100 episodes, we finally took the plunge into Magic Arena's non-rotating format: Historic. We will help you understand how to assess and buy into Historic, what the decks and meta are like, what playing on Arena is like, and our thoughts on if Best of One is really Magic.... Enjoy the beginning of a new podcast adventure! The Dive Down: 88 Goblins The Dive Down, cont: Pants, Pants, Pants The Dive Down, cont: Gruul Smash Download the FREE Untapped Companion to track your stats, see your decklists, get details on your performance and more! Use our link to help us out without spending anything: https://mtga.untapped.gg/companion?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=divedown Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 3:35 - Housekeeping 7:07 - The Dive Down: The Dive Down Does Historic 7:33 - Why are we covering Historic? 23:00 - What does this mean for The Dive Down? 26:42 - What were our expectations for Historic? 28:33 - How can you buy into Historic, and the economy of Arena 41:00 - The meta and decks in Historic 43:07 - Quick sidebar: how much Historic did we play? 46:53 - The decks of Historic: 47:40 - Azorius Auras 57:40 - Mono-Red Goblins 1:05:58 - Gruul Aggro 1:13:04 - Sultai Midrange 1:19:30 - Rakdos Sacrifice 1:23:07 - Other decks in brief 1:28:08 - Our thoughts on Historic's meta 1:31:43 - Best of One vs. Best of Three 1:39:30 - The competition on Arena 1:43:15 - Monitoring the Historic meta and some economy talk 1:49:45 - Closing out Links from this week's episode: Mono-Red Goblins: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/historic-goblins-3896#paper Azorius Auras: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/historic-azorius-aggro#paper Gruul Aggro: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3575700#paper Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

It's Episode 100, so we pulled out all the stops for a live streamed recording of mini-dives into the 100 most important/cool/powerful decks of Modern, from inception to today. That's... a lot of decks! Join us for an extra-long episode full of fun and surprises! We would have never made it to 100 episodes without the ongoing engagement and generous support from all of you out there in The Dive Down Nation. Thank you so much for being part of who we are as a podcast community. Please support our charity drive for Feeding America, the United States' largest domestic hunger relief campaign, by donating here: https://streamlabscharity.com/@thedivedown-shane/the-dive-down-nation-helps-feed-america The Break Down: One The Dive Down: Hundred The Wind Down: Decks Timestamps: 3:50 - Housekeeping 8:33 - Decks 100 to 75 38:49 - Decks 74 to 50 1:02:36 - Decks 49 to 26 1:28:09 - The Top 25 Modern Decks! Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown AGAIN! Please support our charity drive for Feeding America by donating here: https://streamlabscharity.com/@thedivedown-shane/the-dive-down-nation-helps-feed-america

We took things a little easy this week as we prepare for the big episode 100 live stream, and asked The Dive Down Nation to prompt us with: "What's your favorite ____?" We got a TON of awesome questions, so thank you, Nation! We talk about our favorite spells, overheard conversations, books, draft formats, and more. Prior to that we have an installment of Cool Decks, Inc, where we talk about a few recent... well... cool decks that we've seen popping up in Modern. The Break Down: Cool Decks Inc. The Dive Down: All of our favorite stuff! Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 3:50 - Housekeeping 5:55 - An Historic announcement 8:33 - The Break Down: Cool Decks, Inc. 8:54 - Rakdos Hollow Storm 13:50 - Golgari Infect 18:21 - 4-Color Flashback 24:38 - Izzet Control ft. Kiki-Jiki 30:00 - The Dive Down : A few of our favorite things 30:57 - Our favorite cards that aren't good enough for Modern anymore 36:04 - Our favorite sideboard hate cards 42:28 - Our favorite matchups 45:54 - Our favorite overheard comment at a Magic event 51:45 - Our favorite piece of MTG bling 55:22 - Our favorite judge interaction 59:26 - Our favorite draft format 1:04:42 - Our favorite non-sanctioned MTG format 1:07:27 - Our favorite books we have read more than once 1:16:03 - Our favorite albums 1:16:48 - Our favorite movies 1:17:07 - Our favorite Legacy cards 1:18:22 - Our favorite weird rules interaction 1:20:24 - Our favorite cards of 2020 1:28:30 - Our favorite decks ever 1:31:32 - Our favorite cards to imprint onto Isochron Scepter 1:32:38 - Our favorite flavor text 1:35:08 - How good do you want to get at Magic? 1:40:00 - Our favorite playmats 1:40:21 - Our favorite ways to win games 1:41:01 - Our favorite deck names 1:41:40 - Our favorite mtg slang 1:42:52 - Our favorite Magic art or artist 1:44:05 - Our favorite color shifted cards 1:45:30 - The Wind Down: Join us for TDD EP 100 — LIVE! Links from this week's episode: Rakdos Hollow Storm: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3541194#paper Golgari Infect: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3537083#paper 4-Color Flashback: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3541195#paper Izzet Kiki-Jiki: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3543682#paper Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

We spend this week looking at an up-and-coming deck in Modern: Mono-White Taxes. We spend some time looking at the history of Taxes decks, how this deck works, and if we think it's actually that good. Before that we breeze through some Modern Challenge and Qualifier results from Magic Online. The Break Down: Challenging Tournaments The Dive Down: Challenging Sandwiches The Dive Down, cont: Challenging Playpatterns Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 2:36 - Housekeeping 7:26 - The Break Down begins 16:01 - Meta takeaways 19:45 - The Dive Down begins - Auditing Mono-White Taxes 21:45 - Why do people want this deck to work? 28:14 - The older Modern Taxes decks 35:10 - Why Death & Taxes is back 40:55 - The general anatomy of D&T 45:23 - Our initial takes 51:45 - The one-drops 57:30 - The two-drops 1:08:20 - The three-drops 1:25:00 - Land destruction 1:30:15 - How to play with Stoneforge Mystic and the equipment 1:38:34 - Sideboarding 1:39:43 - Is Taxes good? Links from this week's episode: The Modern Qualifier: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/modern-champs-12223552#paper Sunday's Challenge: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/modern-challenge-12223585#paper Saturday's Challenge: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/modern-challenge-12223580#paper Mono-White Taxes: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3519870#paper Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

In our latest bonus episode, musician and comedian MTGRemy joins us for a conversation about making Magic-inspired parody songs and sketches for YouTube. Remy's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/mtgremy Remy's Twitter: https://twitter.com/mtgremy Remy's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mtgremy Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Now get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown [Support The Dive Down](patreon.com/thedivedown)

On the one year anniversary of Pioneer, we give the format a performance review. We look at what happened over the last year, and what are the Goals, Obstacles, Opportunities, and Decisions that we can evaluate and make for the newest competitive Magic format. The Break Down: A Call From Corporate The Dive Down: A History Lesson The Dive Down, cont: A Performance Review Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 3:21 - Housekeeping 7:59 - The Break Down Begins - Pioneer Challenges 22:20 - The Dive Down Begins - Pioneer, A Year in Review 25:44 - A Spike’s History of Pioneer’s Launch 35:10 - The Initial Round of Pioneer Bannings 40:06 - Pioneer First Golden Age 41:50 - Enter Theros Beyond Death 47:00 - The Companion Era Begins 49:27 - We’ve Been Told the Combo Decks Are Fine 52:39 - Combo Cards Banned, Pioneer is Saved(?) 57:04 - What the Pioneer Meta Looks Like Today 1:01:44 - Year 1 Takeaways 1:04:16 - Performance Reviews are Due 1:07:08 - How Has Pioneer Performed on its Goals? 1:20:50 - What Obstacles Should Pioneer Overcome? 1:31:54 - What Opportunities Does Pioneer Have Ahead? 1:37:45 - Decisions, Decisions 1:41:44 - Shane's Bottom Line: Pioneer is Fundamentally A Good Idea 1:43:10 - Dave's Bottom Line: It's Not the Gameplay's Fault 1:44:30 - Stan's Bottom Line: Dave is Right Links from this week's episode: 10/24/20 Pio Challenge: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/pioneer-challenge-12221068#paper 10/25/20 Pio Challenge: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/pioneer-challenge-12221072#paper Abe Stein "Defining the Pillars of Pioneer": https://articles.starcitygames.com/premium/defining-the-pillars-of-pioneer/ Pioneer announced: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/announcing-pioneer-format-2019-10-21 Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

This week Stan and Shane pair up to explore what can make Magic great, and why Modern has been a fan favorite in 2020. Before that, we look at a quartet of Modern and Pioneer challenges to see where the meta is headed. The Break Down: Breaking it Down The Dive Down: Building it Up The Wind Down: Moving it Around Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 4:43 - Housekeeping 8:44 - The Break Down begins 9:28 - Modern Challenges 22:37 - The Modern Challenge Meta 24:40 - Pioneer Challenges 28:02 - The Pioneer Challenge Meta 33:06 - The Dive Down begins - The Unifying Theory of Good Magic Formats 37:55 - Laying out the signs of a healthy format 44:38 - Evaluating diversity in Modern 53:46 - What is good gameplay? 1:03:47 - What are the different incentives to play Modern? 1:12:22 - What are the untapped possibilities in Modern? 1:21:48 - How can a good format go bad? 1:31:12 - The Wind Down - Moving it Around 1:40:56 - Closing Out Links from this week's episode: Modern challenge #1: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/modern-challenge-12218052#paper Modern challenge #2: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/modern-challenge-12218058#paper Pioneer challenge #1: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/pioneer-challenge-12218055#paper Pioneer challenge #2: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/pioneer-challenge-12218059#paper Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

In the first installment of "We Did It For Science," we look at two cards we just aren't (or weren't) that interested in playing with: Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath and Omnath, Locus of Creation. Are these cards good, REALLY good, or TOO good? You're going to have to listen to find out. Before that, we take a (fairly) quick look at a few recent Challenges to see what's going on in the metagame. The Break Down: Always Challenging The Dive Down: Jump Into the Pile The Dive Down, cont: Four Arms to Hold You Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 4:04 - Housekeeping 9:50 - The Break Down begins - the Pioneer Championship Qualifier 23:03 - The Modern Challenge 31:55 - The Dive Down begins: We Did It For Science vol 1 34:19 - Why are we doing this? 37:05 - Why do we hate these cards? 45:29 - Why are these cards good? - Uro 54:03 - Omnath 57:25 - What are people doing with these cards? 1:06:03 - Our experiences: Dave plays Modern 1:16:30 - Shane plays pioneer 1:26:07 - Are Baneslayers becoming Mulldrifters? 1:33:15 - Is the juice worth the squeeze? (AKA our takes) 1:45:09 - Closing out Links from this week's episode: The Pioneer Championship Qualifier: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/pioneer-champ-qual-2020-10-12 The Modern Challenge: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-challenge-2020-10-12#decklists Modern 4-Color Control: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3463389#paper Pioneer 4-Color Omnath: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3470841#paper Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

Stan and Shane are on their own this week, so they talk about their recent playtesting in Modern and Pioneer in a vaguely Sleeve/Believe/Heave part two. Before that, they go over the weekend's Pioneer and Modern Showcase Challenges to see what's performing well and what the meta looks like. And then they finish with an extended Wind Down where they answer a bunch of listener questions. The Break Down: Dave's Not Here, Man The Break Down, pt. 2: Just Kidding The Dive Down: Stan and Shane Play Decks! The Wind Down: Getting Personal Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 4:19 - Housekeeping 8:15 - The Break Down begins: Pioneer and Modern Showcase Challenges 18:10 - The Pioneer Showcase top 32 meta 20:10 - Why Pioneer differs from Modern 23:40 -The Modern Showcase Challenge 36:21 - The Modern Showcase top 32 meta 40:33 - The Dive Down begins 42:18 - Chonky Gruul in Pioneer 52:45 - Boros Wizards in Pioneer 1:02:40 - A new Jeskai Fires in Modern 1:21:00 - Rakdos Sacrifice in Pioneer (briefly) 1:24:35 - The Wind Down begins: Listener questions! 1:25:05 - What is the origin story of The Dive Down? 1:28:32 - Who taught you how to play Magic, and how wrong did you have it? 1:31:43 - What is your favorite sound? 1:34:43 - What other formats are you exploring? 1:39:25 - What is your most memorable Halloween costume? 1:42:29 - What is your biggest misplay? 1:44:31 - What are your favorite LGS's you've been to? Links from this week's episode: 10/4/2020 Pioneer Showcase Challenge: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/pioneer-showcase-challenge-2020-10-05 10/4/2020 Modern Showcase Challenge: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-showcase-challenge-2020-10-04#decklists Chonky Gruul: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3451939#paper Boros Wizards: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3451938#paper Rakdos Sacrifice: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3448907#paper Jeskai (wild)Fires: https://t.co/XWe7YiWHMQ?amp=1 Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

This week we apply our patent-pending Sleeve/Believe/Heave rating system to 3 potentially breakout Modern and Pioneer decks. Are they the real deal, or not worth your time? Only one way to find out. Prior to that, we look at the winning decks and statistics from the most recent Manatraders Modern tournament. The Break Down: Manatraders Modern 15k The Dive Down: Oops All Spells! The Dive Down, cont: Oops No Life! Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 15% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 1:45 - Housekeeping 5:17 - Break Down Begins 9:20 - Manatraders Top 8 19:22 - Metagame Share & Win Rates 23:50 - Top 10 Cards 31:48 - Dive Down Begins 37:00 - Modern Mono-White Taxes 1:02:04 - Pioneer Oops All Lands 1:24:45 - Modern Rakdos Shadow 1:44:48 - Shane’s Goonhammer Articles Links from this week's episode: qbturtle's white taxes: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3424897#paper Aluren85's oops, all spells: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3432467#paper trunks123's rakdos aggro: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3427687#paper Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

We take a good, long look at the latest decks, trends, and strategies in Modern and Pioneer, but this time with the cards of Zendikar Rising! We start with Cool Decks (and cards!), Inc, as we look through 2 Modern and 2 Pioneer Challenges. Then we head into The Dive Down and do a mini-dive on Gruul Goblin Charbelcher, and look at changes to Jeskai, Mill, and Death's Shadow. And look suspiciously at Omnath... The Break Down: Challenging Challenges The Dive Down: Recrossing, Reforging, Rebelching The Dive Down, cont: Other Concerning Things Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Get 20% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 2:11 - Housekeeping 4:26 - The Break Down begins - early results with Zendikar Rising 4:50 - 2 Modern Challenges 29:00 - 2 Pioneer Challenges 44:30 - The Dive Down begins 46:01 - Gruul Goblin Charbelcher 1:06:23 - Cleansing Jeskai 1:16:05 - Mill 1:22:10 - Omnath Piles 1:32:40 - Naya Winota (Pioneer) 1:35:49 - Shadow Decks 1:39:10 - Hot Takes on ZDR Links from this week's episode: The 9/19 Modern Challenge: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-challenge-2020-09-20 The 9/20 Modern Challenge: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-challenge-2020-09-21 The 9/19 Pioneer Challenge: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/pioneer-challenge-2020-09-20 The 9/20 Pioneer Challenge: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/pioneer-challenge-2020-09-21 Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

Stan's on vacation, which means we get to have Evart Moughon (aka AspiringSpike) on as a returning guest host to talk about the second week of Zendikar Rising spoilers. We revisit some cards from last week to get Evart's takes and give some more picks to click from the latest set. Before that, we look at some Modern and Pioneer Challenges to see what's happening in the meta. The Break Down: Modern & Pioneer Challenges The Dive Down: A Few Redos The Dive Down, cont: The Last of the Spoilers Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Now get 20% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 2:47 - Housekeeping 5:07 - The Break Down begins - recent Modern events 25:25 - Evart's favorite decks in Modern right now 29:55 - 2 Pioneer challenges 39:27 - The Dive Down begins 39:51 - How Evart evaluates spoilers 41:54 - Pathway lands revisited 46:22 - Agadeem's Awakening 48:27 - The spell lands revisited 52:07 - Nahiri, Heir of the Ancients revisited 54:53 - Cleansing Wildfire revisited 57:22 - Roiling Vortex 1:00:49 - Thieving Skydiver 1:02:39 - Omnath, Locus of Creation 1:04:53 - Emeria's Call and Ondu Inversion 1:06:30 - Forsaken Monument 1:10:54 - Ruin Crab 1:13:16 - Wayward Guidebeast 1:16:31 - Inscription of Ruin 1:20:12 - Feed the Swarm 1:23:25 - Deliberate 1:25:15 - Archon of Emeria 1:27:47 - Grakmaw the Skyclave Ravager 1:30:29 - Lullmage's Domination 1:32:48 - Legion Angel 1:34:45 - Lithoform Blight 1:36:37 - Maul of the Skyclaves 1:38:26 - Felidar Retreat 1:40:28 - Sea-Gate Stormcaller revisited 1:43:26 - Evart's biggest picks to click 1:45:04 - Evart's early brews 1:46:07 - Fighting Uro in Modern 1:47:45 - Finding Evart Links from this week's episode: The 9/13 Modern Challenge: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/modern-challenge-12206263#paper The 9/12 Pioneer Challenge: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/pioneer-challenge-12206260#paper The 9/13 Pioneer Challenge: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/pioneer-challenge-12206264#paper Zendikar Rising spoilers: https://scryfall.com/sets/znr?order=spoiled Watch Aspiring Spike on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/aspiringspike Find Aspiring Spike on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MoughonEvart Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

We take a look at the first batch of spoilers from Zendikar Rising and identify some picks to click from the upcoming set. Before that, we have a conversation about the 2021 Magic roadmap in a non-meta Break Down! The Break Down: DDN FNM MTGG The Break Down, cont: Cool Set, Inc. The Dive Down: Spoilers, Spoilers, Spoilers! Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Now get 20% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 3:58 - Housekeeping 7:31 - The Break Down begins - the 2021 release schedule! 9:58 - Modern Horizons 2 16:54 - Kaldheim 19:34 - Time Spiral Remastered 24:27 - Strixhaven 27:23 - Forgotten Realms 31:30 - Innistrad V3 38:10 - The Dive Down begins - Zendikar Rising Spoilers, pt. 1 38:40 - How we evaluate spoilers 41:50 - The mechanics of Zendikar Rising 43:41 - The Pathway Lands 54:27 - The other modal lands 1:02:31 - The Planeswalkers 1:12:40 - Cool Landfall cards, and some thoughts on Landfall 1:17:33 - Sea Gate Stormcaller 1:23:05 - Scourge of the Skyclaves 1:27:51 - Skyclave Apparition 1:29:50 - Luminarch Aspirant 1:31:54 - Fissure Wizard 1:34:05 - Crawling Barrens 1:37:27 - Cleansing Wildfire 1:42:20 - Leyline Tyrant 1:46:20 - Magmatic Channeler Links from this week's episode: The Dive Down Nation FNM: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/the-dive-down-nation-modern-fnm-09-04-edition#paper Zendikar Rising spoilers: https://scryfall.com/sets/znr?order=spoiled The 2021 release schedule: https://articles.starcitygames.com/news/wotc-unveils-2021-mtg-release-schedule/ Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

This week we revisit Dredge! In our first repeat deck dive, we talk about what's changed for the deck, how that makes it better.. or worse.. or just different? What did playing this deck feel like in the current meta? What's up with Silversmote Ghoul? Before that, we dive into 3 recent Modern tournaments to see what's up. The Break Down: Modern MOCS & Challenges The Break down, pt.2: More Cool Decks, Inc. The Dive Down: Shane Beeps Returns to Play Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Now get 20% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 4:30 - Housekeeping 7:09 - The Break Down begins 9:11 - The Showcase Qualifier 17:20 - Saturday's Modern Challenge 25:09 - Sunday's Modern Challenge 31:08 - Metagame thoughts 35:02 - The Dive Down begins - Dredge 2: The Redredgining 38:35 - What's changed for Dredge pt.1 42:16 - A brief history of Dredge 46:52 - Why is Dredge powerful, and how is it winning? 51:30 - What's in the deck 57:10 - The impact of Silversmote Ghoul 1:07:20 - The mana and mana needs of the deck 1:11:12 - What's changed for Dredge pt.2 1:14:15 - A brief mulligan discussion 1:19:24 - A brief strategic aside about stops/timing 1:20:30 - Ten Things We Like About Oxen 1:30:10 - New hate cards 1:37:41 - What playing Dredge felt like Links from this week's episode: Saturday's challenge: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/modern-challenge-12201349#paper Sunday's challenge: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/modern-challenge-12201355#paper Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

This week it's back to Modern for the TDD crew as they peruse Prelim pivots for a format pulse and then dive into one of the oldest and Izzetest decks in Modern — Gifts Storm. Stan gets emotional. Dave gets self-deprecating. Shane gets quiet. It's another week on The Dive Down. Housekeeping: A Winner is Announced! The Break Down: Surprises in the Modern Prelims The Dive Down: Grapeshot: The Gift That Keeps on Giving Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Now get 20% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 3:45 - Housekeeping 8:25 - The Break Down: Surprises in the Modern Prelims 21:22 - The Winner's Meta and some takes 25:51 - Cool Decks, Inc. 31:55 - The Dive Down: Grapeshot: The Gift that keeps on giving 34:10 - Why Storm? 36:14 - How Storm is designed 42:13 - The cost-reducing creatures 51:10 - Gifts Ungiven, Grapeshot, and other key cards 1:14:21 - The Gifts Packages 1:22:02 - The sideboard 1:26:29 - Beating Storm 1:35:12 - How we feel about Storm 1:39:02 - The Wind Down - P. Sully's Bonus Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

For this bonus ep, we welcome Patrick Sullivan to the pod to talk Magic, game design, and broadcasting! He shares some great insights with us from his long career in gaming. Find Patrick on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BasicMountain Donate to the Denver Justice Project: http://www.denverjusticeproject.org/ Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Now get 20% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

First on this week's show, the TDD crew do a quick check in on Pioneer a couple of weeks after the bannings. After that they do a deep dive into the financial implications of Double Masters and chat about how they approach the most fun part of Magic in general — buying stuff. Turns out it's more complicated than even Shane thought. The Break Down: Pioneer Challenges The Dive Down: Double the Masters The Double Dive Down: Putting the Fun in Financial Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Now get 20% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 3:11 - Housekeeping 4:49 - The First Dive Down GIVEAWAY! 7:48 - The Break Down begins - Pioneer Prelim Power 20:08 - The Winner's meta 31:21 - What's catching our eyes 32:47 - The Dive Down begins 36:37 - Magic is expensive 38:15 - Reprint sets: when Magic goes on sale 41:57 - What we're buying from 2XM 51:56 - The decks on sale right now 57:00 - One reason Modern is still expensive, even on sale 1:00:53 - Other ways to save money on Magic cards 1:08:30 - Buylisting for fun and.... profit? 1:14:20 - Why pay more than the absolute least? 1:20:30 - Playtesting before you buy 1:26:25 - The financial trap cards 1:33:35 - Budget MTG resources 1:35:24 - Maintaining a Magic budget 1:40:54 - The Wind Down - How do we handle Magic FOMO? 1:48:20 - Closing out Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

This week we break down the post-ban Pioneer Challenges and Prelims and talk about what's over and under-performing. Then we head into the Dive Down to talk about our experiences playing Pioneer, our thoughts on the state of the format, and answer some listener questions! The Break Down: Pioneer is Back, Baybee! The Dive Down: Are We Having Fun Yet? The Wind Down: Dive Down is that You? It's Me, Listeners. Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Now get 20% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 2:35 - Housekeeping 5:25 - The Break Down begins 7:58 - The overall competitive meta 25:27 - The winner's meta 28:17 - Cool decks! 36:10 - Hot takes on Pioneer 41:54 - The Dive Down begins 43:51 - What players were talking about 47:39 - What we were playing this week 50:49 - How did our decks feel? 1:03:00 - What we saw being played 1:10:25 - Was anything feeling under or overpowered? 1:16:00 - A digression - what makes Magic fun? 1:22:32 - Are the best cards and decks too good? 1:28:00 - Is the format healthier now? 1:31:20 - Listener questions! Does Uro make aggro unplayable? 1:35:28 - Does Pioneer need Bolt, Path, and better Counterspells? 1:39:10 - What would we play in a Pioneer GP? 1:41:25 - Will Pioneer be played when paper comes back? 1:45:12 - Closing out Links from this week's episode: Simic Spirits: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3283075#paper Abzan Aristocrats https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3279021#paper Inverterless Inverter https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3283205#paper Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

This week we break down the 4 new bans in Pioneer, and talk about what this means for the format! In the Dive Down we go over the many flavors of Prowess in Modern: Red, Izzet, Gruul, Rakdos - how to choose?! The Break Down: A Lovely Surprise Banning! The Dive Down: Not Everyone's Tempo The Dive Down, cont: We Could Bolt or Not Bolt Forever Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Now get 20% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 2:48 - Housekeeping 6:11 - The Break Down begins: SURPRISE BANS! 26:35 - Takes on the bans 32:39 - The Dive Down begins: The many flavors of Prowess 36:35 - A Red Prowess Primer 52:19 - Hey.... what's tempo? 57:35 - The decks we covered 1:04:06 - Izzet Prowess 1:09:45 - A strategic digression - the tempo of Prowess 1:14:55 - Back to Izzet Prowess 1:17:14 - Gruul Prowess 1:25:13 - Rakdos Prowess 1:33:40 - Burn vs. Prowess 1:39:08 - Why cast the "bad" spells of Prowess? 1:44:57 - Closing out Links from this week's episode: The August 8, 2020 B&R: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/august-8-2020-banned-and-restricted-announcement Izzet Prowess: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3234953#paper Gruul Prowess: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3234957#paper Rakdos Prowess: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3234951#paper Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

This week we take a look at one of the most popular and powerful cards in Modern - Mystic Sanctuary. What makes it good, how is it being played, and what can you do with it? Before that, we break down the Manatraders July Modern 15k tournament. The Break Down: Modern Manatraders The Dive Down: Making Mystic Mighty Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Now get 20% off your first 3 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use code "thedivedown" Timestamps: 2:27 - Housekeeping 5:00 - The Break Down begins - The Manatraders July Modern 15k 9:50 - The MT meta 18:48 - The top 32 27:38 - Conversion rate discussion 32:52 - The Top 8 36:30 - The top cards 42:59 - The Dive Down begins - a brief history of Mystic Sanctuary 51:26 - What makes Sanctuary messed-up? 58:15 - The value plan of Sanctuary 1:11:15 - The impact on your mana 1:18:05 - The loops 1:30:10 - The strategies 1:34:25 - Facing down Sanctuary 1:39:05 - Is this the best card in Modern? 1:45:55 - Closing out Links from this week's episode: Gruul Prowess: https://goodgriefgames.wordpress.com/2020/04/22/brewed-up-r-g-prowess-modern/ Mystic Sanctuary is a Messed-Up Magic Card: https://articles.starcitygames.com/premium/mystic-sanctuary-is-a-messed-up-magic-card/ People Are Sleeping On Mystic Sanctuary: https://articles.starcitygames.com/premium/people-are-sleeping-on-mystic-sanctuary/ Examining The Future Of Mystic Sanctuary In Modern: https://articles.starcitygames.com/premium/examining-the-future-of-mystic-sanctuary-in-modern/ Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

On this week's episode, the team does a long break down on what's happened in Pioneer and Modern in the week since our most recent bans. Takes are given... and returned? Moods are had... and worked out? Then we talk about what we've been playing lately. Ponza! White Tokens! UR Prowess! Mono Green Devotion! We'll let you guess who is who! The Break Down: Modern/Pioneer: Similar/Same The Dive Down: Our Decks: That's the Same Picture Timestamps: 4:42 - Break Down Begins 5:24 - Modern Analysis Begins 12:44 - Modern Week 1 Metagame 29:50 - The Modern Winner's Metagame 42:30 - Pioneer Analysis Begins 50:06 - Pioneer’s Tier 2 and Beyond 55:00 - What do we want Pioneer to be? 1:04:57 - The Pioneer Winner’s Metagame 1:12:35 - Dive Down Begins: Our Testing Results 1:16:44 - Modern Mono-White Tokens 1:25:20 - Pioneer Mono-Green Devotion 1:35:06 - Modern Izzet Blitz Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown Support The Dive Down