This week we have an interview with a first time PT competitor to talk about the first Arena PTs, the meta and how the lead up to the tournament went. Check our guest out over on Twitter, here. If you are interested in watching some of the weekend tournaments being hosted by UK TOs, check […]

Standard Intelligence

Episode 133 – Arena PT in Review

With a weekend of results to look at, I am joined by Scott Mines aka HowlingMines aka That Soulherder Guy and together we travel into the dim past of… about 3 months ago. What was old is new again and we go through match ups, whats changed and where we think the format could develop. […]

Episode 132 – Back to the Future!

We have new rules for companions and bannings on Fires of invention and Agent of Treachery. So I am once again joined by Chris Arlow, to go through what he thinks is going to happen in Standard now. Check him out over on Twitter, here. If you are interested in watching some of the weekend […]

Episode 131 – What will Standard look like now?

So there is a lot going in in Magic at the moment. We have PTs in about 2 weeks, B&R on monday for standard and historic, and a change to the companion mechanic coming at the same time as the new B&R. So I grab a player I respect to play some excelent tournament magic […]

Episode 130 – Preparing for the PT and bans incoming

Companions have been dominating in multiple formats at the moment, so much so that Vintage and Legacy had some bans this week. So I bought on a guest to talk about what Legacy was up to beforehand and what it will start to look like going forward. Check our guest out over on Twitter, here. […]

Episode 129 – Looking in on Legacy

Lukka Fires has been dominant over the last couple of weeks so I bring in someone to talk about a deck thats been doing very well against it at the moment, Cycling. I managed to get some time with an SCG grinder, MTG Arena Zone Author and 35th place Mythic Point player, Mark Gabriele. Check […]

Episode 128 – Talking Cycling with Mark Gabriele

With paper tournaments being put on hold, I have a chat with one of Team Axion Now’s newest members, and 9th place finisher at PT Brussels, Sean Goddard. We go through his recent run on the Channel Fireball Arena Tournament scene, and give some info for folks who may like to get invloved. Check him […]

Episode 127 – New Fires with Sean Goddard

With the Standard meta developing at a rapid pace, the strongest deck early on is just a new take on an old classic, Jeskai Fires has seen some excellent upgrades, so we chat to a man who is currently playing one of the strongest versions of the deck, and just one of the strongest players […]

Episode 126 – Fighting Fires With Rob Catton

This week we start looking at how Ikoria is changing the standard meta. This week’s guest is coming off a top 4 at the MTGO standard Challenge over the weekend, and is a staple of the UK competitive scene, Charles Eliatamby. Check him out over on Twitter, here. If you are interested in watching some […]

Episode 125 – Week 1 Ikoria Standard

This week instead of looking at the mechanics we are trying to get an idea of how the cards and decks fit together with some of the new cards in Ikoria. Many of these cards are extreamly hard to evaluate, so I have a guest on who has made a name for being a man […]

Episode 124 – Ikoria with Alexander Gordon-Brown

We’ve got enough spoilers now to really sink our teeth into the Mechanics ahead of the release, so I brought on Judge Hannah Lissaman to talk about how this all works, at least as far as we know. If you are interested in our guest this week, check her out over on Twitter, here. Music: […]

Episode 123 – Ikoria with Judge Hannah

Continuing our series of primer episodes to non-rotating formats, this week I have GP Top 8 competitor in Legacy at Bologna, Matt Brown, to give us a look at the macro-archetypes that dominate the format. Hopefully this episode will mean you arent quite as lost if you decide to fire up some Legacy on MTGO. […]

Episode 122 – Legacy Primer

This week, much like last week, I’m talking to a special guest about a format we haven’t taken a broad look at in a little while. This week our guest is Chris Vincent and we are talking about Pioneer. Music: www.bensound.comArt: Spell Queller by Adam Paquette. This podcast is supported by our patreons at Patreon.com/SIcast, […]

Episode 121 – Pioneer (Re)Primer

This week I am joined by special guest and recent winner of the Axion Now Mega Modern, James Staples, who gives us an update on modern after the latest bannings and then gives us an overview of how the format is looking at the moment in general. Music: www.bensound.comArt: Reality Smasher by Jason Rainville. This […]

Episode 120 – Modern (Re)Primer

This week we look at the B&R from this week and the next seasons WPNQ set up, and then I talk about how I’ve made it to the PT by winning a WPNQ. Music: www.bensound.comArt: Lucky Clover by John Stanko. This podcast is supported by our patreons at Patreon.com/SIcast, as well as our sponsors, Axion […]

Episode 119 – I’m going to the PT!

News from the Standard format of Magic: the Gathering in the UK