Eternal Durdles

Who is responsible for protecting the identity of a game after its original creator is gone? In this episode of Eternal Durdles, Zac and Phil dive into the idea of creative paternalism — the responsibility, care, and judgment required to preserve what makes a creative work itself . Using Magic: The Gathering as the primary example, we explore what happens when the people who originally created and...

In this episode of Eternal Durdles, Zac and Phil dive into one of the strangest things about Premodern : some of the cards players love the most are exactly the cards that would be considered miserable in almost any other setting. Stasis. Winter Orb. Opposition. Deranged Hermit. Survival of the Fittest. Armageddon. Sphere of Resistance. Wildfire. Web of Inertia. Mana Web. These cards don't nec...

What makes a Magic card actually unfun? In this episode of Eternal Durdles, Zac and Phil dive into one of the strangest things about Premodern : some of the cards players love the most are exactly the cards that would be considered miserable in almost any other setting. Stasis. Winter Orb. Opposition. Deranged Hermit. Survival of the Fittest. Armageddon. Sphere of Resistance. Wildfire. Web of Iner...

https://tinyurl.com/BREAKFASTSept2026MASTERCLASS https://tinyurl.com/BREAKFAST-SEPT2026SBGUIDE Breakfast looks simple. It isn't. Johan Larson joins Zac for a complete Breakfast Masterclass, breaking down how the deck works, why its seemingly innocuous cards become a lethal combo, and what separates someone who can assemble the combo from someone who can actually pilot Breakfast well . At its c...

https://tinyurl.com/BREAKFASTSept2026MASTERCLASS https://tinyurl.com/BREAKFAST-SEPT2026SBGUIDE Breakfast looks simple. It isn't. Johan Larson joins Zac for a complete Breakfast Masterclass, breaking down how the deck works, why its seemingly innocuous cards become a lethal combo, and what separates someone who can assemble the combo from someone who can actually pilot Breakfast well . At its c...

Competitive Magic isn't dead. We just miss what it used to feel like. DuressFest is coming, and Zac and Phil are incredibly excited—not simply because it's another Magic tournament, but because it represents something that has been missing from competitive Magic: the experience. We used to have Grand Prix events with thousands of players. You'd travel with your friends, play the main e...

Competitive Magic isn't dead. We just miss what it used to feel like. DuressFest is coming, and Zac and Phil are incredibly excited—not simply because it's another Magic tournament, but because it represents something that has been missing from competitive Magic: the experience. We used to have Grand Prix events with thousands of players. You'd travel with your friends, play the main e...

Eternal Weekend is coming. So... what are you playing? Zac and Phil break down the latest Legacy results from Buffalo Chicken Dip , looking at the decklists and trying to figure out what the current metagame actually looks like heading into Eternal Weekend. On paper, the format looks pretty diverse. We've got: Sneak & Show Blue-Red Delver Beanstalk Black Saga Storm Dimir Doomsday But once...

Eternal Weekend is coming. So... what are you playing? Zac and Phil break down the latest Legacy results from Buffalo Chicken Dip , looking at the decklists and trying to figure out what the current metagame actually looks like heading into Eternal Weekend. On paper, the format looks pretty diverse. We've got: Sneak & Show Blue-Red Delver Beanstalk Black Saga Storm Dimir Doomsday But once...

What cards do you actually need to know if you're getting into Classic? We're starting a new series looking at the cards that define Eternal Durdles' various Legacy-era formats, beginning with Classic . Zac and Phil go through a compiled list of commonly played and powerful cards in the format, looking at everything from planeswalkers and creatures to spells, artifacts, enchantments, a...

What cards do you actually need to know if you're getting into Classic? We're starting a new series looking at the cards that define Eternal Durdles' various Legacy-era formats, beginning with Classic . Zac and Phil go through a compiled list of commonly played and powerful cards in the format, looking at everything from planeswalkers and creatures to spells, artifacts, enchantments, a...

Are you prepared to die on Turn Two? With Eternal Weekend approaching, Zac and Phil take a look at the Legacy metagame and ask a very important question: what decks are actually going to define the tournament? While everyone is talking about Bilbo, Karn, and the other obvious threats, Phil thinks there's a deck that isn't getting nearly enough attention: Surveillance Cam Combo. The deck co...

Are you prepared to die on Turn Two? With Eternal Weekend approaching, Zac and Phil take a look at the Legacy metagame and ask a very important question: what decks are actually going to define the tournament? While everyone is talking about Bilbo, Karn, and the other obvious threats, Phil thinks there's a deck that isn't getting nearly enough attention: Surveillance Cam Combo. The deck co...

Peak Legacy is officially a paper format. On August 16th, we held the first-ever paper Peak Legacy event , bringing together 10 players and 8 different archetypes for a tournament that was as much about exploring an old format as it was about competing. The event was won by Grixis Control , featuring Baleful Strix, Gurmag Angler, Snapcaster Mage, Kolaghan's Command, and a pile of spicy one-ofs...

Peak Legacy is officially a paper format. On August 16th, we held the first-ever paper Peak Legacy event , bringing together 10 players and 8 different archetypes for a tournament that was as much about exploring an old format as it was about competing. The event was won by Grixis Control , featuring Baleful Strix, Gurmag Angler, Snapcaster Mage, Kolaghan's Command, and a pile of spicy one-ofs...

Bilbo has been showing up everywhere—but I think we may have found one of the most interesting homes for him yet. Zac and Phil take a first look at Eight Emery , a new take on the classic Artifacts Blue / Affinity Stompy shell that uses Bilbo, Emery, and Loki, God of Mischief as a redundant set of powerful artifact engines. The idea is simple: instead of relying on Thoughtcast and Thought Monitor...

Bilbo has been showing up everywhere—but I think we may have found one of the most interesting homes for him yet. Zac and Phil take a first look at Eight Emery , a new take on the classic Artifacts Blue / Affinity Stompy shell that uses Bilbo, Emery, and Loki, God of Mischief as a redundant set of powerful artifact engines. The idea is simple: instead of relying on Thoughtcast and Thought Monitor...

The Premodern Threat Levels are back , and this time we have three months of new data to dig through. Zac and Phil revisit the cards they've been tracking across the format, using the Blackman threat metric to measure both how widely cards are played and how many copies appear in those decks. The new browser extension makes it easier than ever to snapshot the format and compare how these numbe...

The Premodern Threat Levels are back , and this time we have three months of new data to dig through. Zac and Phil revisit the cards they've been tracking across the format, using the Blackman threat metric to measure both how widely cards are played and how many copies appear in those decks. The new browser extension makes it easier than ever to snapshot the format and compare how these numbe...

The Hobbits are coming to Magic, but how much are they actually going to change Legacy? Zac and Phil go through the new Hobbits from Vetter Breath cards and find something surprisingly refreshing: there aren't that many cards worth talking about for Legacy. We break down the eight cards that caught our attention, including Bilbo, Thief in the Night , The Great Goblin , Giant's Boulder , Th...

The Hobbits are coming to Magic, but how much are they actually going to change Legacy? Zac and Phil go through the new Hobbits from Vetter Breath cards and find something surprisingly refreshing: there aren't that many cards worth talking about for Legacy. We break down the eight cards that caught our attention, including Bilbo, Thief in the Night , The Great Goblin , Giant's Boulder , Th...

What happens when you take a Magic format from 10 years ago and attack it with everything we've learned since? That's the experiment behind Peak, Classic, and the other locked formats we're exploring on Eternal Durdles. Instead of simply copying old tournament lists, Zac and Phil discuss how modern deckbuilding theory can reveal cards, strategies, and entire archetypes that may have be...

What happens when you take a Magic format from 10 years ago and attack it with everything we've learned since? That's the experiment behind Peak, Classic, and the other locked formats we're exploring on Eternal Durdles. Instead of simply copying old tournament lists, Zac and Phil discuss how modern deckbuilding theory can reveal cards, strategies, and entire archetypes that may have be...

With the next Legacy Banned & Restricted announcement just days away, Zac and Phil dive into the latest Threat Level Report to see which cards are dominating the format—and which ones deserve a closer look. Using Blackmans, our custom metric that combines play rate and copies per deck, we analyze the current Legacy metagame and discuss how cards like Tamiyo, Force of Will, Orcish Bowmasters, U...

With the next Legacy Banned & Restricted announcement just days away, Zac and Phil dive into the latest Threat Level Report to see which cards are dominating the format—and which ones deserve a closer look. Using Blackmans, our custom metric that combines play rate and copies per deck, we analyze the current Legacy metagame and discuss how cards like Tamiyo, Force of Will, Orcish Bowmasters, U...