Jefferson Lee Takes Brisbane as Broodscale and Affinity Smash Their Modern Field Share

August 31, 2026 · 32 sources

Quick Hits

Spotlight Series: The Hobbit — Brisbane is in the books: Jefferson Lee claims the title and $10,000, second place earns $5K, and all eight quarterfinalists lock Pro Tour invitations — Top 8 decklists have been posted.
The weekend's 571-player Modern Spotlight saw Broodscale Combo and Affinity massively outperform their share of the field, per a Reddit metagame breakdown — if you're queuing Modern leagues, read it first.
Reality Fracture hype keeps building: Planeswalker's Guide (part two) artwork has been compiled, and on Blogatog, Rosewater says he's glad players are loving the set's flavor — one fan called it their chance to finally be present for a Planar Chaos-style moment.
Asked to name the strongest card he's designed that's never been banned, Rosewater points to Richard Garfield, PhD — with Wasteland as his tentative black-border pick.
The Ravnica forest / Toyota RAV4 gag rolls on: one player has donated their entire stock of Ravnica forests to unsuspecting drivers and is now taking donations.

The Modern Spotlight data dump is the real meta homework: Top 8 archetypes plus week-by-week metagame progression from the Brisbane weekend, with Broodscale Combo and Affinity punching far above their day-one numbers — expect targeted sideboard slots this week.
MTGGoldfish's Single Scoop revives a throwback Dimir build in Standard that is neither of the format's two usual suspects — something something Decrepit Old Bird.
Joe Dyer's Power of Pauper takes Flicker Tron for a spin, if your Pauper heart still beats for ghostly ETB value.

EDHREC rebuilds Depala, Pilot Exemplar with The Hobbit — with Kaladesh turning ten this November, the Pilot Exemplar gets a fresh vehicle-and-Dwarf toolkit from the new set.
Also from EDHREC: the 10 most-played Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty cards (following last week's amass roundup for the mechanic's return in The Hobbit), and a think piece asking whether "Pumpkin Spice" Commander decks are actually bad, sparked by Joey Schultz's video on decks that are awesome despite the seasoning.
MTGGoldfish's weekly highlight: a $30 Unsleeved Commander build — budget brews, no sleeves required.
From the wild: a player building three custom EDH decks as a Christmas surprise for friends they haven't seen in a year, and a Final Fantasy collector hunting a Hobbit/LTR precon for their Tolkien-superfan father.

Seth and Richard backseat draft The Hobbit in the latest Contenders or Pretenders — a useful gut-check on which signals in the new format are real.

Collectors playing art historian: the pregnant elephant Quintorius from MSCHF's Generous Gift drop has been traced to an 1863 illustration by Louis Le Breton.
Reprint-watchers, temper expectations: Rosewater says Wizards is "not currently doing Masters sets" (so no Pauper Masters on the horizon) and that declaring cards Standard-legal without reprinting them is unlikely.
Budget-mana staples for the price-conscious: Draftsim ranks the 45 best budget lands and walks through buying and selling on MTGO, while EDHREC continues its budget series with Commander Legends cards worth playing.

Rosewater draws a clean line between a bonus sheet and a designated slot: bonus sheets are themed card groups sitting outside the main set (sometimes with distinct art), while a designated slot is a booster-pack structure guaranteeing a card type — useful vocabulary as Reality Fracture approaches.
On Un-sets coming to Arena: Acorn cards' boundary-pushing is a programming headache, though die-rolling is doable in black border. And a sixth color in a future Un-set? "I don't think a sixth color would be all that fun" — plus a wry note about the optimism of "next few Un-sets."
The Planar Standard founder penned a detailed plea for a rotating Arena "Community" queue for fan formats (Arena Pauper, Gladiator, Planar Standard); Rosewater deferred — he doesn't work on Arena, and adding formats is a tall ask.
Asked whether handing day-one designers the finished set file would change the outcome, Rosewater says they'd simply keep iterating — five-ish years of polish instead of two and a half. And for New Capenna fans: his gut says we return one day.
Petition of the day: more monoblack Rhinos for a typal commander deck. Rosewater's entire response: "Why monoblack?" The negotiation has begun.