by Johnny Cycles, January 1st, 2025
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing holiday! Having little kids makes Christmas more exciting for me, but it’s also a lot more work. My kids don’t go back to school until Monday, which means I have only what little time I can carve out in the morning before they wake up to work on this site. For this reason, I’m calling this week an off week, though I hope to post another edition of Old Cards, Still Good by tomorrow (it’s less time intensive to make).
Otherwise, I’ve been working on two decks in Modern. The first is a Dragon deck built around Sarkhan, Soul Aflame with Dragonhawk, Fate’s Tempest as our big payoff. And while it can’t give me that turn 3 kill I was dreaming of, the deck is still tantalizingly powerful.
Unfortunately, Sarkhan is a creature and thus much easier for decks to get rid of than my normal 3-drop ramp spell, Domri, Anarch of Bolas. I’m not ready to give up on him yet, but I have my doubts about ever getting to curve into a turn 3 Glorybringer with Sarkhan on the battlefield.
The other deck I’m working on is a Waste Not build using The Rack and Tinybones, Bauble Burglar to gain extra value out of forcing our opponents to discard. The other half of that deck is looking to punish our opponent for drawing cards with Orcish Bowmasters, Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, and Damnable Pact as a potential game-ending burn spell. The deck tech and some edited games are already up on my YouTube channel.
The deck is pure jank, despite playing Bowmasters and Thoughtseize, two of the best cards in Modern. When it works, it makes my heart sing with joy, but when it doesn’t, it’s extra painful. Still, I’ve loved Waste Not since playing it in Standard alongside Master of the Feast as both a finisher and as a way to make our discard spells more relevant in the late game.
Long story short (too late), I’m still trying to decide between Keeping Modern Janky and Dragons in Pioneer. Yeah, I want to give old Sarkhan and Dragonhawk a whirl in that format, too.
A Note on Editing
One of my goals this year is to edit my gameplay videos to cut out some of the dead time between draws and plays. I’m still getting used to the process, but it is extremely time intensive, as anyone who’s ever edited a video knows. Right now, I’d say my editing-to-gameplay ration is about 4-to-1 in time spent. Let me know what you think about the change. In the meantime, this may impact the amount of videos I’m able to include with each article.
Schedule
January 3rd – Off – My goal is to put out another Old Cards, Still Good video, though.
January 10th – Dragons in Modern – Sarkhan-Dragonhawk Combo
January 17th – The Podkind, Chapters 29 and 30 – Charleston’s Ranger training continues, while his relationship with Gala progresses. But a new danger forms, which threatens them both.
January 24th – Keeping Modern Janky (Waste Not-Tinybones) OR Dragons in Pioneer (Sarkhan-Dragonhawk)
January 31st – Commander – TBD. I’ve got a few decks to choose from, but I want to see what all I have the chance to playtest between now and then.
The Usual Blurb
My goal is to publish an article between Wednesday and Friday every week. I am a stay-at-home dad of three with a part-time job, though, so there may be weeks that life gets in the way. I’ll rotate the topics each week in the following order: Modern-Commander-Pioneer-Fiction. Whenever possible, I’ll publish articles and videos when they’re ready. Now that I am making videos, I hope to upload gameplay of each of the Modern decks I’ve already written about, as well as new ones I’m testing. For these reasons, there will be weeks when more than one article and/or video gets posted. Published articles are pretty time-intensive, hence the once-a-week-schedule, but the matches I play along the way will get posted to my YouTube channel as I go. Be sure to check there if you’re looking for a match but it isn’t yet on the site.
If there is a topic you want me to write about, a deck you want me to try out, or if you want less of one thing and more of another, let me know in the comments or email me: johnnycycles16@gmail.com. If you enjoy the site, please let your friends know via word of mouth or social media or messenger pigeon, if that’s your preference. This is a new site that needs all the clicks it can get! Also, be sure to check out my Facebook page and YouTube Channel!
Thanks for reading and watching, subscribing and sharing!
About Me
I’m a former Russian literature professor who specialized in 19th-century Russian literature. I love Dostoevsky more than Tolstoy, but both will change your life. I’m currently a stay-at-home dad of three with a part-time job. I love fantasy fiction, mysteries, and horror movies. If you’re surprised at the length of my articles, hopefully my history as an academic plus my love of fantasy help explain it…
Thanks for reading! I look forward to reading your comments on my articles, Russian literature, or the best fantasy series ever written (Tolkien, Jordan, Sanderson?).
