Faithless Brewing MTG: Modern and Pioneer for the Spike Rogue

Season 18, Episode 13: Mailbag David and Cavedan open up the brewer’s mailbag to field listener questions about the state of brewing in Modern and Pioneer, the health of the metagame, the future of Magic crossovers, and more. They also look at an impressive new combo deck using the Pioneer Elementals package and the Vadrok + Double Major combo.   Like our content?  Support us on Patreon  and join...

Season 18, Episode 12: Brew Session (Sarkhan, Soul Aflame, Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin, Narset, Enlightened Exile, Urborg Scavengers) And just like that, March of the Machine: The Aftermath is here. Not sure where to get started? Never fear? David Robertson, our resident Pioneer brewmaster, has been cooking up a half dozen spicy decklists to get you ready for battle on Day 1. Here’s what’s on the...

Season 18, Episode 11: Brewer’s Guide to March of the Machine: The Aftermath Fifty more cards are being foisted onto all formats with March of the Machine: the Aftermath, a small supplemental set full of wordy text boxes and big dreams. Luckily, only a handful are poised to make an impact in non-rotating formats. In today’s compressed Set Review, Cavedan and Morde sort the wheat from the chaff and...

Season 18, Episode 10: Weekly Roundup   Morde and Lawson talk new Modern brews with March of the Machine: Battle Zoo, Errant and Giada Flash, Mono Black Coffers, and more.

Season 18, Episode 9: Weekly Roundup   Like our content?  Support us on Patreon  and join our brewing community! Decklists for this episode can be viewed at FaithlessBrewing.com

Season 18, Episode 8: Brew Session (Rona, Herald of Invasion) + Flashback (Chrome Host Seedshark)     Like our content?  Support us on Patreon  and join our brewing community!   Decklists for this episode can be viewed at FaithlessBrewing.com

Season 18, Episode 7: Brew Session (Yargle and Multani) What if they printed a creature with LITERAL DEATHTOUCH FOR PLAYERS? No, I’m not talking about that pesky Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer. Not talking about Phage, the Untouchable either. No, I’m talking about everyone’s favorite Frog Spirit. Yargle and Multani is a foolish card. An insipid card. A team-up no one asked for that earned, at best, a mi...

Season 18, Episode 6: Brew Session (Chrome Host Seedshark) Shark Typhoon is powerful. A resolved Shark Typhoon is lights out. A resolved Shark Typhoon wins games. Most Modern and Pioneer players know this, or think they know this. They don’t know the half of it. Shark Typhoon sees play, but no one truly builds around it. It’s far too expensive to craft your game plan around having a Typhoon in pla...

Season 18, Episode 5: Interview with Dack_Fayden07 Dack Fayden may be the Greatest Thief in the Multiverse, but did you know that he also runs one of the spiciest YouTube channels for original brews in Modern? Today on Faithless Brewing, Cavedan sits down with special guest Josip Jukic, better known as DackFayden07, to hear about his unique approach to creating winning brews in Modern. Josip’s rec...

Season 18, Episode 4: Brewer’s Guide to March of the Machine (Part 4) + Top Five Cards After four grueling sessions, the Great Work of our March of the Machine Set Review is finally compleat. At the top of the mana curve, most cards are long shots for the non-rotating formats. This time, however, several new legends participate in game-winning combos or have intriguing cost reduction options. To r...

Season 18, Episode 3: Brewer’s Guide to March of the Machine, Vol. 3 The full set of March of the Machine is revealed, and something is clearly amiss. Every card looks good. Incubate looks synergistic and easy to transform. Battles look like tremendous value. Convoke looks fun, and Backup looks extremely versatile. Even the silly infinite combos — and there are many in this set — are looking prett...

Season 18, Episode 2: Brewer’s Guide to March of the Machine, Vol. 2 The hits keep coming for March of the Machine. There’s so much to unpack, we needed brewing reinforcements, so we brought back special guest Lawson Zandi to help make sense of it all. Chrome Host Seedshark has the potential to dominate battlefields in multiple formats. The power of Shark Typhoon on a 3 drop opens up explosive lin...

Season 18, Episode 1: Brewer’s Guide to March of the Machine, Vol. 1 Magic has a brand new card type, and it is a brain bender. Battles (or Sieges … or Invasions…) attach spell effects to a new class of permanent. These permanents may then be attacked or damaged, similar to planeswalkers, to unlock a bonus card on the back side. Clearly each siege represents a large amount of value, but at the cos...

Season 17, Episode 17: Brew Session (Unctus, Grand Metatect) Unctus, Grand Metatect does it all. It draws a million cards, assembles infinite combos, and provides tempo and aggression. It powers up Mox Amber and keeps your artifact density high. Interested in devotion pips? Life loss? Graveyard synergy? Unctus does that too. In Modern, Unctus has shown great promise in the proven artifact shells,...

Season 17, Episode 16: Weekly Roundup David & Dan look at early previews from Lord of the Rings and March of the Machines, and ponder whether Thalia and The Gitrog Monster has the right stats for Pioneer. Dan shares his results from the Hunter Burton Memorial Open, where he played Crabvine in the Modern 15K & Neoform Atraxa in the Pioneer 5K. They also look at new technology from the event, includ...

Season 17, Episode 15: Brew Session (Capricious Hellraiser) + Flashback (Malcator, Purity Overseer) Capricious Hellraiser has been racking up 5-0s … as well as 0-5s. The card has the support of premier deckbuiliders like Aspiringspike, and yet few have been able to replicate his success. Is this a value play at RRR, similar to Bloodbraid Elf? If so, you need a big graveyard, and a tolerance for ra...

Season 17, Episode 14: Brew Session (Shining Shoal) + Lord of the Rings First Look Shining Shoal is well on its way to becoming a Modern staple. It provides massive swings in a red-heavy metagame and generally terrorizes the combat step against creature decks. It is also one of the trickier cards in the format, both in understanding its niche interactions and in finding the correct shell to harnes...

Season 17, Episode 13: Brew Session (Malcator, Purity Overseer) + Flashback (Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines) The people have spoken, and they want Elephants! 1/1 Elephants to be exact. Malcator, Purity Overseer took first place in our last monthly vote, meaning it’s time to dust off the Golem tokens and see how Blade Splicer stacks up against the 2023 Modern and Pioneer metagame. Of course, Malcat...

Season 17, Episode 12: Weekly Roundup With several Modern tournaments on the horizon, Dan went deep into the weeds testing his favorite brews and tweaking out the numbers. Did any of them have what it takes to keep up with the 2023 Tier 1 Modern meta? Here’s what we tested: Sultai Crabvine, the old standby, is the quickest graveyard deck in the format and has numerous flex slots and sideboard opti...

Season 17, Episode 11: Brew Session (Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines) + Flashback (Mindsplice Apparatus & Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler) Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines has quickly become a Modern and Pioneer staple. She is hard to kill, interferes with opponents and supercharges all of your ETB triggers. Sure, we could throw Elesh into our 4c Omnath decks and call it a day. But why settle for just being...

Season 17, Episode 10: Weekly Roundup As Cavedan gears up for local RCQs in Modern & Pioneer, he faces challenges of deck selection, rust, and general tournament preparedness. Izzet Phoenix is his weapon of choice in Pioneer, but what about Modern? Luckily Morde is here to help. After that, the crew looks at the best of the March of the Machines previews from last week’s Pro Tour stream. Yuta Taka...

Season 17, Episode 9: Brew Session (Mindsplice Apparatus) + Flashback (Atraxa, Grand Unifier) David and Dan brew decks with Mindsplice Apparatus, the biggest cost reducer we have ever seen. We also track the rise of Atraxa, Grand Unifier and test two new Pioneer builds. Like our content?  Support us on Patreon  and join our brewing community! Decklists for this episode can be viewed at FaithlessBr...

Season 17, Episode 8: Weekly Roundup (Pro Tour Phyrexia) + Monthly Project Nominees At long last, the paper Pro Tour has returned! Pioneer was the format of choice as 200+ pros did battle in Philadelphia. But what did they discover as they each attempted to break the format? Cavedan and David break down the latest decks and technologies from PIoneer, from small innovations in stock lists to specul...

Season 17, Episode 7: Brew Session (Atraxa, Grand Unifier) + Flashback (Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler) Atraxa, Grand Unifier is a tremendous creature. No one would dispute that. But is it really possible that Atraxa is the strongest creature in all of Magic? Recent tournament results from Standard, Legacy, Modern, and even Vintage have seen Atraxa decks soaring to the top of the standings. This is a hea...

Season 17, Episode 6: Weekly Roundup (Modern + Pioneer) A full week of online tournaments with Phyrexia: All Will Be One are now in the books, and new format staples are emerging in both Modern and Pioneer. It starts with The Mycosynth Gardens, a card that Amulet Titan players have given rave reviews. The only question seems to be: where does Valakut+Dryad fit into the newly colorless manabase? Me...