After a huge weekend of Modern Regional Championships, we're tripping over spreadsheets of matchup data. We discuss which decks impressed us, surprised us, and disappointed us from three huge tournaments in Prague, Canada, and Brazil. Then we wrap up with a chat about our experiences playing Splinter Twin.

The Break Down: 45 Minutes of Regional Championships
The Dive Down: 30 Minutes of Splinter Twin

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Timestamps:

• 9:05 - The Break Down begins: Some RCs!
• 43:40 - The Dive Down begins: Why are the Splinter Twin Stans quiet?
• 1:08:18 - Wrapping up

Links from this week's episode:

• https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/203977
• https://mtgdecks.net/Modern/ultimate-guard-european-magic-series-regional-championship-prague-2025-tournament-182396/winrates
• https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6882292#paper

Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name?

email us: [email protected]

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As we continue to play with Modern's latest round of unbans, something has become apparent. Mox Opal is a heck of a card. On this week's show, we play it in Temur Breach, Affinity, Hammer Time, and Broodscale to figure where Opal shines and where it feels dull. Turns out, the card is quite good even when its deck is bad.

• The history of Opal.
• Breaching is easy!

• Other Opal decks are whatever.

• Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown

• Show the world that you're a proud citizen of The Dive Down Nation with some merch from the store: https://www.thedivedown.com/store

• Upgrade your gameplay and your gameday with Heavy Play accessories. Use code THEDIVEDOWN2024 for 10% off your first order at https://www.heavyplay.com

• Get 25% credit back after your first 3 months of renting ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use coupon code THEDIVEDOWN

• And now receive 8% off your order of paper cards from Nerd Rage Gaming with code DIVE8 at https://www.nerdragegaming.com/

Timestamps:

• 5:41 - This week's show/housekeeping
• 12:20 - The Dive Down begins: What we talk about when we talk about Mox Opal
• 13:28 - A bit of history
• 24:35 - The unban of Mox Opal
• 30:06 - Underworld Breach - the best deck in Modern?
• 47:55 - The decks people WANT to be good
• 1:01:14 - So how good is Mox Opal?
• 1:05:48 - Wrapping up

Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name?

email us: [email protected]

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In the first of our episodes diving into each card from the recent unbans, we take a deep look at Faithless Looting. First we take a look at the history of the card — all the way back to spoiler conversations — followed by a dive into many of the decks trying to play it in Modern today. Creativity? Check. Hollow One? Check. Phoenix? You know it. Dredge? Well, we almost forgot Dredge, but we at least mention it in passing. Why isn't it as powerful as it used to be? We have thoughts and those thoughts are what make us The Dive Down. And the recording of the thoughts, too.

• Devon Does it Again
• Draw Two, Discard Two, Do Nothing
• We All Just WANT to Play Phoenix, Ok?

• Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown
• Show the world that you're a proud citizen of The Dive Down Nation with some merch from the store: https://www.thedivedown.com/store
• Upgrade your gameplay and your gameday with Heavy Play accessories. Use code THEDIVEDOWN2024 for 10% off your first order at https://www.heavyplay.com
• Get 10% off your first 2 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use coupon code THEDIVEDOWN_OBX
• And now receive 8% off your order of paper cards from Nerd Rage Gaming with code DIVE8 at https://www.nerdragegaming.com/

Timestamps:
2:58 - Housekeeping/this week's episode
5:59 - The Break Down begins: Devin, relax!
13:20 - The Dive Down begins: Why isn't Faithless Looting the best card in Modern?
16:20 - The History and Present of Faithless Looting
25:44 - Excitement Levels
29:45 - Anatomy of a Looting
32:45 - From Here it's Just Decks
33:15 - Jund Creativity
35:45 - Hollow One
40:47 - Grixis Reanimator/Froculus
43:14 - Izzet Phoenix
46:15 - Mono-Red Phoenix
49:15 - Other Decks
52:55 - The Faithless Looting grudge match
1:05:20 - Wrapping up

Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name?

email us: [email protected]
twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

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We're back — to podcasting. But also Devon's back — to large eventing. And, in a way, Magic is back — with a 1,400+ person open tournament. We spend this week talking about what happened, what's going on in Standard (Modern next week!), what the return of opens like the Spotlight Series means, and more. Devon cheats in overlords. Dave considers what to do with his wild cards. Stan starts working towards Portland.

• Hot in Hotlanta
• A Deck Full of Blade Splicers
• A Day Full of Ws

• Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown
• Show the world that you're a proud citizen of The Dive Down Nation with some merch from the store: https://www.thedivedown.com/store
• Upgrade your gameplay and your gameday with Heavy Play accessories. Use code THEDIVEDOWN2024 for 10% off your first order at https://www.heavyplay.com
• Get 10% off your first 2 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use coupon code THEDIVEDOWN_OBX
• And now receive 8% off your order of paper cards from Nerd Rage Gaming with code DIVE8 at https://www.nerdragegaming.com/

Timestamps:
4:02 - Housekeeping
5:01 - Spotlight Series Atlanta Begins
5:42 - The Selesnya Cage Deck: How and Why
11:21 - What Happened Round-by-Round
27:54 - Day 1 Ends/Day 2 Begins
39:45 - The Health of Standard
46:02 - Upcoming Spotlight Series
51:09 - Starting to Think About RCs
53:00 - Stan Will Be in New York!

Links from this week's episode:
Devon's Decklist from Atlanta: https://melee.gg/Decklist/View/464658

Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name?

email us: [email protected]
twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

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Rhinos is making a comeback and so are we! As we wind down from vacation mode, Stan and D00mwake warm up their podcasting muscles with one of their favorite topics: Crashing Footfalls in Modern. Enjoy this bonus minisode before our official feature length return next week!

• Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown
• Show the world that you're a proud citizen of The Dive Down Nation with some merch from the store: https://www.thedivedown.com/store
• Upgrade your gameplay and your gameday with Heavy Play accessories. Use code THEDIVEDOWN2024 for 10% off your first order at https://www.heavyplay.com
• Get 10% off your first 2 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown
• And now receive 8% off your order of paper cards from Nerd Rage Gaming with code DIVE8 at https://www.nerdragegaming.com/

Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name?

email us: [email protected]
twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

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A B&R so hot we had to pause our vacation. The One Ring, Amped Raptor, and Jegantha are banned. Mox Opal is unbanned. Mox Opal, Green Sun's Zenith, Faithless Looting and Splinter Twin are unbanned. Discuss.

• Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown
• Show the world that you're a proud citizen of The Dive Down Nation with some merch from the store: https://www.thedivedown.com/store
• Upgrade your gameplay and your gameday with Heavy Play accessories. Use code THEDIVEDOWN2024 for 10% off your first order at https://www.heavyplay.com
• Get 10% off your first 2 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use coupon code THEDIVEDOWN_OBX
• And now receive 8% off your order of paper cards from Nerd Rage Gaming with code DIVE8 at https://www.nerdragegaming.com/

Timestamps:
4:17 - Housekeping
8:38 - The Dive Down begins: Bans, and Unbans
10:15 - Before the announcement
16:38 - Getting into the meat of the announcement
45:38 - The unbans
1:23:22 - Hot takes and cool vibes
1:37:58 - Wrapping up

Links from this week's episode: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/banned-and-restricted-december-16-2024

Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name?

email us: [email protected]
twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

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We kick off this week's show with an important announcement about the future of The Dive Down. Just listen since it's too long to explain in writing. Then we bemoan the B&R window before highlighting the fun times happening in Standard right now. And we wrap with a nice chat about our love-hate relationship with the new Pokémon TCG Pocket.

The Break Down: A really important announcement
The Dive Down: The new Foundations of Standard and Draft
The Wind Down: Pokémon Pocket is a bad game we are playing

• Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown
• Show the world that you're a proud citizen of The Dive Down Nation with some merch from the store: https://www.thedivedown.com/store
• Upgrade your gameplay and your gameday with Heavy Play accessories. Use code THEDIVEDOWN2024 for 10% off your first order at https://www.heavyplay.com
• Get 10% off your first 2 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use coupon code THEDIVEDOWNTEN
• And now receive 8% off your order of paper cards from Nerd Rage Gaming with code DIVE8 at https://www.nerdragegaming.com/

Timestamps:
6:27 - Let loose with Heavy Play
9:15 - This week's episode
11:51 - IMPORTANT housekeeping!
25:00 - The Break Down begins: Does Modern suck right now?
32:37 - Foundations is here, and impacting Standard
47:25 - D00m's Decks: The best decks in Standard
1:15:48 - Dave's Limited corner
1:25:25 - Pokémon Pocket is certainly a game to play
1:46:54 - Wrapping up

Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name?

email us: [email protected]
twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

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The doctor is in. For a very special episode 300, The Dive Down sits down with THE Richard Garfield, inventor of Magic: The Gathering and great-great-grandson of President James A. Garfield. What is Magic as Garfield intended? We finally have the answer.

• Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown
• Show the world that you're a proud citizen of The Dive Down Nation with some merch from the store: https://www.thedivedown.com/store
• Upgrade your gameplay and your gameday with Heavy Play accessories. Use code THEDIVEDOWN2024 for 10% off your first order at https://www.heavyplay.com
• Get 10% off your first 2 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use coupon code THEDIVEDOWNTEN
• And now receive 8% off your order of paper cards from Nerd Rage Gaming with code DIVE8 at https://www.nerdragegaming.com/

Timestamps:

• 1:25 - Richard Garfield does not need to hear about Heavy Play
• 2:43 - This week's episode - somehow this is 300
• 5:56 - The Dive Down begins: Our interview with Richard Garfield
• 43:56 - What is Magic as Garfield intended?
• 46:10 - Richard on other games

Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name?

email us: [email protected]
twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

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They said it couldn't be done, but one of the Dive Down boys (other than D00mwake) finally won an RCQ. On this week's show, Stan talks about piloting Boros Energy to qualify for RC Portland, and we break down the Standard metagame and results from the Magic World Championship in Las Vegas.

The Break Down: 6 Matches to Portland
The Dive Down: Congratulations, Javier Dominguez

• Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown
• Show the world that you're a proud citizen of The Dive Down Nation with some merch from the store: https://www.thedivedown.com/store
• Upgrade your gameplay and your gameday with Heavy Play accessories. Use code THEDIVEDOWN2024 for 10% off your first order at https://www.heavyplay.com
• Get 10% off your first 2 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use coupon code THEDIVEDOWNTEN
• And now receive 8% off your order of paper cards from Nerd Rage Gaming with code DIVE8 at https://www.nerdragegaming.com/

Timestamps:
6:15 - Allow Heavy Play to penetrate your pocketbook
7:59 - This week's show/housekeeping
13:04 - The Break Down begins: Some hot news!
18:55 - More takes on the Universes Beyond announcement
27:45 - Stan won an RCQ!
40:52 - The tournament report
58:10 - The next steps
1:03:22 - The Dive Down begins: The World Championship breakdown
1:12:50 - WC Standard winrates
1:16:23 - The top 8
1:23:12 - The Wind Down: Shane's Gadget Corner
1:31:38 - Dave also went to the RCQ, by the way
1:34:50 - Wrapping up

Links from this week's episode:
World Championship 30: https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/146430
Buy a Steam Deck or something: https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeck

Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name?

email us: [email protected]
twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

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Hot off the presses of WOTC's Foundations announcement, we break down and discuss the impact of Universes Beyond sets entering the Standard format in 2025.

The Break Down: Cards That Will Be Standard Legal for 5 Years
The Dive Down: Squidward Reborn

• Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown
• Show the world that you're a proud citizen of The Dive Down Nation with some merch from the store: https://www.thedivedown.com/store
• Upgrade your gameplay and your gameday with Heavy Play accessories. Use code THEDIVEDOWN2024 for 10% off your first order at https://www.heavyplay.com
• Get 10% off your first 2 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use coupon code THEDIVEDOWNTEN
• And now receive 8% off your order of paper cards from Nerd Rage Gaming with code DIVE8 at https://www.nerdragegaming.com/

Timestamps:

• 2:22 - Heavy Play, a Full Stack sponsor
• 3:48 - This week's show/housekeeping
• 7:03 - The Break Down begins: The Foundations Era React-A-Sode
• 8:40 - First, Foundations spoilers
• 16:38 - Some new Foundations cards
• 21:42 - The other announcement - The Foundations Era
• 28:10 - There sure are a lot of Universes Beyond sets coming out
• 35:30 - How are we feeling about so much UB?
• 1:22:26 - How long can UB last?
• 1:29:56 - Tying a bow on the convo
• 1:37:20 - Wrapping up

Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name?

email us: [email protected]
twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

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On this week's show, Dave tries to determine what to play during the one RCQ he can attend this season. We do our best to help him out by reviewing the latest Metagame Mentor, taking a closer look at Dimir Oculus, following in the steps of some Jeskai Control masters, and trying something new with Fear of Missing Out in Rakdos and Jund Delirium.

The Break Down: Frank Loves Stats
The Dive Down: Dave Needs a Deck

• Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown
• Show the world that you're a proud citizen of The Dive Down Nation with some merch from the store: https://www.thedivedown.com/store
• Upgrade your gameplay and your gameday with Heavy Play accessories. Use code THEDIVEDOWN2024 for 10% off your first order at https://www.heavyplay.com
• Get 10% off your first 2 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use coupon code THEDIVEDOWNTEN
• And now receive 8% off your order of paper cards from Nerd Rage Gaming with code DIVE8 at https://www.nerdragegaming.com/

Timestamps:

• 7:25 - Heavy Play is our actual sponsor
• 9:00 - This week's show/housekeeping
• 14:36 - The Break Down begins: no Pioneer RCQs in 2025??
• 22:35 - Frank analysis on Modern's current meta
• 34:22 - Current Modern winrates
• 41:54 - The Dive Down begins: Shane played Dimir Frogtide
• 1:04:32 - Dave and Devon played Delirium decks
• 1:17:30 - Stan played actual Jeskai Control

Links from this week's episode:

• https://www.channelfireball.com/article/What-s-New-in-Modern-with-Duskmourn-House-of-Horror/80e67eba-474a-41bf-a704-15bc28755f02/
• Jeskai Control by YungDingo/George Jabbour: https://x.com/YungDingoMTG/status/1844245120658653515
• Dimir Oculus by Kane Daly: https://old.starcitygames.com/decks/159924
• Jund Delirium by Offl1ne: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6682017#paper
• Jund Delirium by d00mwake: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/OFxKWf-jx0WIiWlS_TWENg
• Rakdos Shadow by J from TDD Nation: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6701125#paper
• Rakdos FOMO by @jacesdaddy from Twitter: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6701123#paper

Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name?

email us: [email protected]
twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown

Support The Dive Down