Hello, and welcome back to Metagame Mentor. This is your weekly guide to the top decks and latest Constructed developments on the path to the Pro Tour. Last week, the Modern format was shaken up by the latest banned and restricted announcement: Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury and Lotus Field were banned, while Violent Outburst and Umezawa's Jitte were unbanned. Because Modern is the designated Constructed format for the current round of in-store Regional Championship Qualifiers, these changes immediately sent ripples through the competitive landscape.

In today's article, I'll show how the banned list update has reshaped the Modern metagame. Although only a small number of Modern tournaments have taken place since the announcement, the early results already reveal several meaningful trends. I'll analyze the successful decklists, highlight the impact of the bans and unbans, and examine the most influential cards from Secrets of Strixhaven.

The Modern Metagame After the Bans and Unbans

Modern is a nonrotating 60-card format based on expansion sets, core sets, and straight-to-Modern sets from Eighth Edition forward, save for cards on the banned list. With its deep card pool spanning over 22 years of card history, Modern boasts intricate card interactions and a vast array of viable strategies.

To capture a recent metagame snapshot, I analyzed 352 successful decks from tournaments held since the May 18 banned list update. My dataset drew from every published Magic Online decklist from scheduled events between May 18 and May 25, along with Top 8 decklists from four tabletop Regional Championship Qualifiers held this past weekend.

To show which decks are dominating the top tables, I assigned points to each deck based on its rectified number of net wins, calculated as the number of match wins minus losses, with negative values adjusted to zero. By combining these points across all events, each archetype's share of the total rectified net wins blends popularity and performance into a single, comprehensive metric: the winner's metagame share.

In this table, each archetype name hyperlinks to a top-performing decklist that closely reflects its aggregate build. The "Other" category collects decks with less than one percent winner's metagame share, including Dimir Mill, Amulet Titan, Mono-Black Eldrazi, Mono-Red Burn, Samwise Gamgee Combo, Mono-Green Broodscale, Hammer Time, Jeskai Energy, Cosmogoyf Thud, Bant Ritual, Eldrazi Aggro, Grixis Shadow, Dimir Necro, Esper Control, Izzet Metalcraft, Mono-Black Necro, Four-Color Creativity, Izzet Wizards, Jeskai Chant, Mardu Energy, and more.

The arrows in the table highlight the most notable differences compared to my metagame snapshots from March and April. Many of these changes can be traced directly to last week's announcement. Boros Energy, for example, fell in prominence after the banning of Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury, while Jeskai Blink turned into Azorius Blink and Boros Burn surged ahead following the loss of the format's premier red-white life-gaining card. Meanwhile, Rhinos enjoyed a resurgence after the unban of Violent Outburst. Other shifts stem from different causes. Boros Land Destruction, for instance, gained a substantial boost from the printing of Erode in Secrets of Strixhaven.

At the same time, many archetypes adapted to the bans and unbans by embracing different card choices and revised configurations. With the metagame still rapidly evolving, let's examine the most meaningful changes one by one.

Rhinos Charge Back Into Modern

Crashing Footfalls

1 Boseiju, Who Endures 1 Breeding Pool 1 Commercial District 4 Crashing Footfalls 2 Dead 1 Dismember 1 Endurance 4 Fire // Ice 4 Force of Negation 1 Forest 1 Hedge Maze 2 Island 1 Lórien Revealed 1 Mistrise Village 4 Misty Rainforest 1 Mountain 3 Quantum Riddler 3 Scalding Tarn 4 Shardless Agent 2 Sink into Stupor 1 Steam Vents 1 Stomping Ground 4 Subtlety 1 Thundering Falls 2 Vibrance 4 Violent Outburst 2 Wistfulness 3 Wooded Foothills 2 Blood Moon 3 Brotherhood's End 2 Endurance 2 Force of Vigor 2 Inevitable Betrayal 3 Mystical Dispute 1 Wistfulness

"Violent Outburst was initially banned in a very different version of Modern, just a hair over two years ago," last week's announcement explained. But after several potent anti-cascade tools entered the card pool, Magic's Play Design team concluded that "the previous version of Temur Rhinos that existed in early 2024 is closer to an appropriate power level for today's Modern."

After the unban, many players immediately reunited Violent Outburst with Crashing Footfalls, allowing them to unleash a pair of 4/4 Rhinos at instant speed. Like the version from 2024, the list that Pickaxe piloted to a Top 8 finish at a recent Magic Online Modern Challenge still packs a surprisingly deep suite of cheap interaction. Force of Negation, Fire // Ice, and Subtlety all get around the cascade restriction. It's the classic Rhinos deck at its finest. Vibrance and Wistfulness are good recent additions from Lorwyn Eclipsed.

There was a healthy amount of variation among Rhinos builds. Slightly over half remained in Temur colors to preserve a smoother mana base. The rest splashed white for Leyline Binding, with a small subset also embracing Leyline of the Guildpact alongside Scion of Draco. In these early tournaments, no version of Rhinos experienced an oppressive amount of success. But the resurgence of Rhinos has added to the format's diversity as the deck makes up a combined 3.8% of the winner's metagame.

Living End Gains a Major Upgrade

Violent Outburst

1 Boseiju, Who Endures 1 Breeding Pool 1 Colossal Skyturtle 1 Commercial District 4 Curator of Mysteries 3 Endurance 4 Force of Negation 1 Forest 4 Generous Ent 1 Hedge Maze 1 Island 3 Living End 1 Mistrise Village 4 Misty Rainforest 1 Oliphaunt 1 Otawara, Soaring City 4 Shardless Agent 2 Sink into Stupor 1 Steam Vents 1 Stomping Ground 4 Street Wraith 2 Striped Riverwinder 4 Subtlety 1 Thundering Falls 4 Violent Outburst 1 Waker of Waves 4 Wistfulness 1 Brazen Borrower 3 Damping Matrix 2 Dismember 1 Endurance 2 Force of Vigor 1 Foundation Breaker 2 Inevitable Betrayal 3 Mystical Dispute

The other major cascade strategy empowered by Violent Outburst is Living End, which also captured 3.8% of the winner's metagame. Previous iterations of the archetype used Ardent Plea or Formidable Speaker alongside Shardless Agent to consistently cascade into Living End. But Violent Outburst lets you wipe the board and return all your cycling creatures at instant speed, making it a more appealing inclusion. The list shown above, which SanPop took to a 3rd-place finish at a Modern Challenge, incorporates Violent Outburst in a stock Temur shell.

One especially notable card in the sideboard is Inevitable Betrayal, which offers a powerful pivot. You may want to swap Living End for Inevitable Betrayal during sideboarding if the opponent has major threats like Archon of Cruelty and/or if you want to sidestep graveyard hate that would otherwise dismantle the deck's primary game plan. In any case, the addition of Violent Outburst means that the deck can now threaten devastating turns at instant speed.

Boros Energy Still Has Plenty of Fuel

Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury [2tggU0KFo0UoYxioU0GBMw]

4 Ajani, Nacatl Pariah 1 Arena of Glory 4 Arid Mesa 1 Blood Moon 1 Boromir, Warden of the Tower 1 Dalkovan Encampment 2 Elegant Parlor 2 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker 3 Flooded Strand 4 Galvanic Discharge 3 Goblin Bombardment 4 Guide of Souls 2 Mana Tithe 3 Marsh Flats 1 Mountain 4 Ocelot Pride 2 Plains 3 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer 1 Ranger-Captain of Eos 3 Sacred Foundry 2 Seasoned Pyromancer 1 Solitude 1 Static Prison 1 The Legend of Roku 2 Thraben Charm 2 Voice of Victory 2 Windswept Heath 1 Blood Moon 1 Celestial Purge 1 Drannith Magistrate 2 High Noon 3 Obsidian Charmaw 1 Orim's Chant 1 Surgical Extraction 2 Vexing Bauble 1 Wear // Tear 2 Wrath of the Skies

The May 18 announcement specifically targeted the powerful interaction between Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury and Arena of Glory, a combination capable of dealing 12 damage in a single turn. As the article explained, "most aggro and midrange decks in the format either adopt the combo or almost disappear from the metagame." Phlage was banned to remove a card from this pair and promote broader competitive deck diversity.

One of Phlage's primary homes was Boros Energy. Despite losing one of its most formidable threats, the aggressive shell of the deck remains intact, anchored by a synergistic curve of efficient one-mana and two-mana creatures. MayoDominaria won multiple Magic Online Challenges with the archetype, replacing Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury with Fable of the Mirror-Breaker as an alternative three-mana value engine.

The sideboard also includes several copies of Vexing Bauble, underscoring the card's growing importance after the unban of Violent Outburst. If an opponent attempts to cascade and cast a spell without paying its mana cost, then Vexing Bauble will simply counter it.

Meanwhile, a smaller number of Jeskai Energy decks featuring Mockingbird and Mardu Energy decks featuring Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER also appeared. Without Arena of Glory placing heavy pressure on mana bases, splashing a third color has become noticeably easier, opening the door to a wider range of powerful options.

Jeskai Blink No Longer Needs Red

Ephemerate

4 Arid Mesa 2 Consign to Memory 4 Ephemerate 4 Flooded Strand 4 Guide of Souls 3 Hallowed Fountain 1 Island 1 Meticulous Archive 1 Mockingbird 4 Ocelot Pride 4 Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd 3 Plains 4 Quantum Riddler 1 Sink into Stupor 1 Skycoach Conductor 4 Solitude 2 Spell Pierce 4 Starfield Shepherd 2 Subtlety 3 Teferi, Time Raveler 4 Witch Enchanter 2 Consign to Memory 1 Force of Negation 2 Harbinger of the Seas 3 Mystical Dispute 3 Prismatic Ending 1 Subtlety 3 Wrath of the Skies

Another prominent archetype built around Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury and Arena of Glory was Jeskai Blink. The deck sought to exploit Ephemerate and Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd to blink a warped Quantum Riddler. Blinking Phlage for the final burst of damage was also a viable option. Consign to Memory even provided a clever way to counter the sacrifice trigger on a non-escaped Phlage. But once Phlage left the format, Jeskai Blink effectively lost its primary incentive to remain red.

As a result, many players abandoned the color entirely. Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer gave way to Ocelot Pride and Guide of Souls, while Starfield Shepherd now occupies the midgame value role previously held by Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury. The resulting Azorius Blink deck, reminiscent of the spicy build unveiled by Team TCGplayer at Pro Tour Edge of Eternities last year, captured 5.2% of the winner's metagame during the past week. Yriel even took down a Magic Online Challenge with the list shown above.

Fans of Ephemerate may also consider trying out Esper Blink or Esper Goryo's. These archetypes changed little after the bans, but they remain strong contenders that utilize powerful blink synergies.

Domain Zoo Reinvents Itself

Leyline of the Guildpact

2 Arena of Glory 4 Arid Mesa 4 Consign to Memory 4 Flooded Strand 1 Godless Shrine 1 Indatha Triome 4 Leyline Binding 4 Leyline of the Guildpact 4 Lightning Bolt 1 Mountain 3 Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd 1 Plains 4 Quantum Riddler 4 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer 4 Scion of Draco 2 Steam Vents 2 Stubborn Denial 1 Teferi, Time Raveler 1 Temple Garden 4 Territorial Kavu 1 Thundering Falls 4 Wooded Foothills 2 Doorkeeper Thrull 3 Mystical Dispute 1 Nihil Spellbomb 2 Obsidian Charmaw 1 Stubborn Denial 1 Surgical Extraction 2 Wear // Tear 3 Wrath of the Skies

The final major deck affected by the banning of Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury was Domain Zoo. Before the ban, many lists relied on Doorkeeper Thrull, which conveniently transformed Phlage into an undercosted 6/6 by shutting off its enters triggers. Without that interaction, the archetype was forced to reinvent itself, though there has not been clear consensus on a solution.

Some players returned to a more aggressive configuration, featuring the return of Wild Nacatl and Tribal Flames. Another equally successful direction involved incorporating the combo of Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd and Quantum Riddler. That approach is exemplified by Tetsubou's list above, which reached the finals of a Modern Challenge.

Notably, this version still uses Arena of Glory, which remains capable of delivering explosive turns by granting haste to a warped Quantum Riddler or Scion of Draco. When Leyline of the Guildpact is on the battlefield, Scion of Draco suddenly arrives with vigilance, hexproof, lifelink, first strike, and trample, turning the Scion's attack into an enormous swing.

Burn Rises from the Ashes

Lava Spike

2 Arid Mesa 2 Barbarian Ring 1 Bloodstained Mire 4 Boltwave 4 Boros Charm 4 Eidolon of the Great Revel 4 Goblin Guide 4 Inspiring Vantage 4 Lava Spike 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Monastery Swiftspear 3 Mountain 2 Sacred Foundry 1 Scalding Tarn 4 Searing Blaze 4 Skewer the Critics 4 Skullcrack 4 Sunbaked Canyon 1 Wooded Foothills 2 Deflecting Palm 2 Exquisite Firecraft 2 Obsidian Charmaw 4 Roiling Vortex 3 Searing Blood 2 Wear // Tear

The last time that I saw Boros Burn at the Pro Tour was two years ago at Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3 in Amsterdam. Back then, fellow Dutch Hall of Fame member Kamiel Cornelissen asked whether I had an easy-to-play Modern deck he could borrow for the Pro Tour in his home country. I happily handed him my Boros Burn deck. It's an old favorite of mine that had been a staple of the Modern format since its inception, perennially preying on decks with painful fetch land and shock land mana bases.

After the metagame breakdown from that event revealed that Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury was among the most-played cards from Modern Horizons 3, I remember telling Kamiel that he would unfortunately face an uphill battle. It's difficult to win with direct damage when your opponent gains 3 life every turn. Kamiel still posted a solid 6-4 Modern record because he's one of the greatest players to ever sleeve up a deck. But as Phlage's popularity continued to grow, Burn's position in the metagame steadily deteriorated. One year later at Pro Tour Edge of Eternities, not a single competitor registered the archetype.

But now that Phlage is gone, Boros Burn has effectively been unbanned. Without endless life gain standing in the way, players can once again dust off Lava Spike and Goblin Guide and point every burn spell directly at the opponent's face. The dream opening still looks as terrifying as ever: a turn-one Goblin Guide, turn-two double Lava Spikes, and turn-three triple Lightning Bolts add up to a blistering 21 damage.

LaRougeMTG piloted the list above to a Top 8 finish in a Modern Challenge. Meanwhile, several mono-red variants also appeared, without Boros Charm but featuring Lava Dart, Light Up the Stage, Mishra's Bauble, and Cori-Steel Cutter instead. Whatever the precise configuration, burn strategies are once again competitively viable in Modern.

Umezawa's Jitte Returns Quietly

Umezawa's Jitte

2 Cavern of Souls 4 Cloud, Midgar Mercenary 4 Colossus Hammer 1 Eiganjo Castle 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire 4 Esper Sentinel 4 Mox Opal 4 Ornithopter 8 Plains 2 Portable Hole 4 Puresteel Paladin 1 Shadowspear 4 Sigarda's Aid 1 Skateboard 1 Soul-Guide Lantern 1 Springleaf Drum 4 Stoneforge Mystic 4 Sunbaked Canyon 1 Umezawa's Jitte 4 Urza's Saga 1 Vexing Bauble 1 Containment Priest 1 Damping Sphere 1 Flare of Fortitude 2 Orim's Chant 1 Pithing Needle 2 Portable Hole 1 Prismatic Ending 1 Soulless Jailer 2 Umezawa's Jitte 3 Vexing Bauble

When Modern was introduced in 2011, the format launched with 21 cards already banned, including Umezawa's Jitte. "Historically, Umezawa's Jitte has been an extremely powerful card against creature decks, with mirror matches between creature decks often degenerating into battles over Jitte," explained Tom LaPille in his Latest Developments article on DailyMTG. And indeed, those play patterns were problematic in 2005. But Modern has evolved dramatically since then, and the iconic Equipment has finally earned its freedom.

So far, however, Umezawa's Jitte has made only a modest splash. Out of the 352 decklists I analyzed, just six players registered at least one copy. Although several of those decks posted respectable winning records, none managed to convert into a Top 8 finish.

Still, the card is beginning to find homes. "We hope that this unban will inspire people to try out more combat-oriented decks or breathe new life into Stoneforge Mystic decks that have been on the fringes of Modern for a few years now," last week's announcement mentioned. One clear example emerged in Xfile's Hammer Time deck, where Umezawa's Jitte serves as a silver bullet that can be tutored for with Stoneforge Mystic or Cloud, Midgar Mercenary.

While Colossus Hammer remains the deck's signature Equipment, ready to be attached for free via Sigarda's Aid or Puresteel Paladin, you need some backup options when you fail to draw a free-equip enabler. In those games, or in situations where you absolutely need removal or life gain, Umezawa's Jitte is a strong option to access. But so far, Modern hasn't devolved into endless Jitte wars.

Amulet Titan Finds a New Infinite Loop

Lotus Field

1 Aftermath Analyst 4 Amulet of Vigor 4 Arboreal Grazer 2 Boseiju, Who Endures 4 Crumbling Vestige 1 Cultivator Colossus 1 Dryad Arbor 1 Echoing Deeps 3 Forest 4 Green Sun's Zenith 4 Gruul Turf 1 Hanweir Battlements 1 Mirrorpool 1 Otawara, Soaring City 3 Primeval Titan 3 Scapeshift 1 Shifting Woodland 4 Simic Growth Chamber 4 Spelunking 2 Summoner's Pact 1 Sylvan Safekeeper 1 The Mycosynth Gardens 1 Tolaria West 1 Urza's Cave 4 Urza's Saga 1 Vesuva 1 Vexing Bauble 1 Zuran Orb 1 Bojuka Bog 1 Boseiju, Who Endures 1 Collector Ouphe 2 Dismember 2 Firespout 2 Force of Vigor 1 Six 1 Soul-Guide Lantern 1 Tireless Tracker 1 Titania, Protector of Argoth 2 Vexing Bauble

Amulet Titan has long been one of Modern's most intricate combo decks, and until recently it had access to infinite loops involving Lotus Field, Aftermath Analyst, and Shifting Woodland. However, as last week's announcement explained, "The path to get there can frequently involve extremely complicated and, more importantly, non-deterministic lines of play that are a nightmare for tournament logistics." In part because of the strain these turns placed on round times at competitive events, Lotus Field was banned.

What did Amulet Titan players do in response? Naturally, they found a different infinite combo.

In the list above, which HouseOfManaMTG piloted to a 12th-place finish in a Modern Challenge, the combo begins with both a sacrifice outlet, either Zuran Orb or Sylvan Safekeeper, and an untap effect, either Amulet of Vigor or Spelunking. From there, the sequence unfolds as follows:

1. Play Scapeshift, sacrificing five lands. Search for 4 Simic Growth Chambers and 1 Tolaria West, then tap them for nine mana.
2. Return Tolaria West to your hand and sacrifice the four bounce lands.
3. Transmute Tolaria West for Summoner's Pact, find Aftermath Analyst, then cast and sacrifice it. This costs nine mana in total.
4. At this point, the graveyard contains at least ten lands, which return to the battlefield and collectively produce a minimum of fourteen mana.
5. Return Tolaria West to your hand and sacrifice all other lands.
6. Transmute Tolaria West for Summoner's Pact again, this time finding Primeval Titan. Cast it. You now have a minimum of five mana floating.
7. When Primeval Titan enters, grab Shifting Woodland and Crumbling Vestige. Tap them for mana, going up to a minimum of eight mana.
8. Activate Shifting Woodland to copy Aftermath Analyst, then sacrifice it to return all lands.
9. Repeatedly loop Shifting Woodland and Aftermath Analyst while sacrificing lands to generate infinite mana.
10. Eventually, infinite Mirrorpool and Hanweir Battlements activations produce an infinite horde of hasty creatures.

Compared to the old Lotus Field builds, this combo is significantly more elaborate and difficult to assemble, now requiring an extra land and a sacrifice outlet. If you're relying on Sylvan Safekeeper instead of Zuran Orb, the lines become even trickier. You need an additional creature to target during the fifth step because the Safekeeper would have shroud at that point, and later you need careful trigger and stack management while targeting your animated Shifting Woodland or Primeval Titan. All of this raises the bar for competitive viability, and it's not yet clear if the stock build of the deck will ultimately embrace this complicated Scapeshift combo. Still, Amulet Titan players will always find a way to generate infinite mana and win on the spot.

Erode Emerges as Secrets of Strixhaven's Most Played New Card

Erode [6lwCsLsfHeImY5sdkSgOBy]

2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance 4 Cleansing Wildfire 4 Cori Mountain Monastery 4 Demolition Field 4 Erode 4 Field of Ruin 4 Galvanic Discharge 1 March of Otherworldly Light 1 Mountain 4 Path to Exile 5 Plains 4 Price of Freedom 3 Sacred Foundry 4 Solitude 1 Sunbillow Verge 2 Sunken Citadel 1 The Legend of Roku 4 White Orchid Phantom 4 Wrath of the Skies 2 Aven Mindcensor 1 Celestial Purge 2 High Noon 1 March of Otherworldly Light 2 Orim's Chant 2 Rest in Peace 3 Vexing Bauble 2 Wear // Tear

Before the announcement reshaped Modern, a powerful new set had already entered the format. Since this is the first Metagame Mentor covering Modern after the release of Secrets of Strixhaven, it's worth highlighting the set's most played new card: Erode.

Its primary home has been a spicy Boros Land Destruction deck, which captured 4.1% of the winner's metagame last week. The list used by JBL2311 to win a Modern Challenge exploits the fact that most Modern decks run only two or three basic lands. By overwhelming opponents with effects that force them to search for basics, the deck can rapidly exhaust those resources.

Before long, Erode and Path to Exile transform into one-mana removal spells with virtually no drawback, while White Orchid Phantom, Cleansing Wildfire, Price of Freedom, Demolition Field, and Field of Ruin effectively become hard land-destruction effects. The addition of Erode provided the critical mass this archetype had long been missing.

Slumbering Trudge Posts a Breakout Performance

Slumbering Trudge [dMfZWyA3MM5s6rxUTv8qd]

4 Devourer of Destiny 4 Disciple of Freyalise 1 Dryad Arbor 4 Eldrazi Temple 4 Emrakul, the Promised End 4 Fanatic of Rhonas 4 Fight Rigging 5 Forest 1 Ghost Quarter 4 Green Sun's Zenith 4 Kozilek's Command 4 Malevolent Rumble 1 Mosswort Bridge 4 Slumbering Trudge 4 Sowing Mycospawn 4 Turntimber Symbiosis 4 Ugin's Labyrinth 1 Chomping Changeling 1 Collector Ouphe 3 Endurance 3 Fade from History 4 Thought-Knot Seer 3 Trinisphere

Several other cards from Secrets of Strixhaven also appeared in Modern. For example, many Izzet Prowess and Ruby Storm decks added one or two copies of Flashback, while Flow State found a home in various Azorius Control decks. But the most surprising newcomer—only in modest numbers but with major success—was Slumbering Trudge. Denisevich even won a Modern Challenge with the wild Eldrazi Ramp list shown above.

Imagine the following sequence. On turn one, you cast Slumbering Trudge, placing three stun counters on the enormous creature. On turn two, you play Ugin's Labyrinth, exile Devourer of Destiny, and cast Fight Rigging. Ideally, Fight Rigging finds a devastating payoff like Emrakul, the Promised End or Turntimber Symbiosis in the top five cards of your library. Then you move to combat, put a +1/+1 counter on Slumbering Trudge, and immediately cast the exiled spell for free.

That's the kind of absurd, game-ending sequence made possible by a one-mana 6/6 Plant Beast.

What's Next for Modern?

Regional Championship Qualifiers are open to everyone, and the current round of Modern RCQs runs through August 2. While supplies last, RCQ participants during this round will receive an Ancient Stirrings promo card, and Top Finishers will also receive a Sowing Mycospawn promo card. You can find an event near you by checking with your local game store or visiting your regional organizer's website.

These RCQs feed into Modern Regional Championships held in September or October 2026, which in turn qualify players for the first Pro Tour of 2027. Before that, however, Modern will take center stage at Pro Tour Magic: The Gathering® | Marvel Super Heroes at MagicCon: Amsterdam on July 17–19, 2026.

Modern today feels like a format in motion, still settling in after the recent wave of bans and unbans while simultaneously absorbing the new printings from the latest sets. If the past week is any indication, that motion is not slowing down. Instead, Modern continues to evolve, with new archetypes and new adaptations appearing almost as quickly as the metagame can define itself.