Blake is the content manager for DailyMTG.com, making him the one you should email if you have thoughts on the website, good or less good (or not good). He's a longtime coverage reporter and hasn't turned down a game of Magic in any format ever.

The Daily Magic Update is a roundup of everything Magic you should know on January 28, 2016. Today's Update is brought to you by fair Canadian Highlander decks, Stuffy Doll, and some new kids on the podcast block.

Today's Must

Just Play Rally The Ancestors! | StarCityGames.com | Emma Handy

In Emma Handy's first article for StarCityGames.com (Welcome!), she covers her near-miss at the Open in Atlanta where she piloted Rally the Ancestors to a ninth-place—aka best worst place—finish and a 12-3 record. In it she covers why Rally is the best deck in Standard and what changes she'd make, and provides a comprehensive sideboard guide. And, yes, dues are paid to Reflector Mage.

After That, Read, Watch, or Listen to These

Going Dark | ChannelFireball.com | Brian Braun-Duin

It's a day of debuts, as Brian Braun-Duin writes his opening number for ChannelFireball. Goblin Dark Dwellers is obviously a powerful card—and a creepy one—and BBD gets on board with the Double Decker.

Against the Odds: Stuffy Doll | MTGGoldfish | Saffron Olive

Stuffy Doll is adorably masochistic—for your opponent. Saffron set out to prove it was possible to battle with it in Modern. I won't ruin it for you, but...don't run out and trade for any copies of Stuffy Doll just yet.

Did I ruin it? That might have ruined it. Doesn't matter, this video and the series are a blast.

Early Metagame Snapshot in Twinless Modern | Modern Nexus | Sheridan Lardner

While data is scant thus far on what a post-banning Modern will look like, Sheridan Lardner is here to crunch all of the data that is at his fingertips. And I mean all of it. Like a lot. So if you love analysis, Modern, or both, put on your reading glasses, grab a calculator, and read on.

Commander VS: Oath of the Gatewatch Special! | StarCityGames.com | Justin Parnell and Stephen Green

This one didn't quite make it yesterday, but it was cool enough for me to go back in my internet time machine and bubble it up again today. In this episode of Commander VS—where people play Commander, um, versus one another—the players each sleeve up a Commander deck led by an Oath of the Gatewatch legend! Justin and Stephen are joined by Wes Wise and Jonathan Suarez as things get aggressive.

Still Official, Still Fiction, Now Magic Story

Magic's official story column renamed again—to Magic Story

So back when we made changes to DailyMTG's content all those weeks ago, one of the changes we made was to switch the name "Uncharted Realms" to "Official Magic Fiction." The change was intended to make it more obvious to new players what the column was about while giving it some sort of stamp of approval.

You were not pleased.

And understandably so. We tried to do too much with the title, and it ended up being a mouthful. Even more, it wasn't really accomplishing one of our main goals, which was to make the story easier to find. As it turns out, when people are looking for Magic's story, the search phrase "Magic Story" is far and away the most searched for.

So we might as well be as-on-the-nose as possible. What was once called Uncharted Realms and then, briefly, called Official Magic Fiction will now be known as Magic Story.

Look for the update to take place on our website before the next edition of, yes, Magic Story.

The 411 on the 404

Archive Server Down

As some of you have noticed, some older articles spit out 404 Not Found errors when you try to access them. These are all articles that were from the old website before our redesign (for those not aware, we revamped this here website in 2014), and mostly include articles from 2006 and earlier. Due to some unfortunate timing, the archive server that hosts those pages has been turned off before all of the redirects are in place. I know that sucks for those who like to explore old content.

The good news is that the content isn't lost or even really unavailable. Redirects for those pages are all in the works and are expected soon, but in the meantime, most missing articles have actually been migrated to the new site and can often be found using this website's search functionality.

What People Are Talking About

Every time Cube on Magic Online comes to an end, as it does tomorrow (get your drafts in!), we all get a little sad. I mean, not "got Armageddoned while behind on board" sad, but pretty sad. So why can't we always have Cube? And also, why can't we always have candy? And ice cream! Oooh. I like ice cream. What was I talking about?

Oh yeah, Lee Sharpe—the guy in charge of which events run when on Magic Online—explains why Cube must end only to come back again.

Just accept your F8. — Riki Hayashi (@mtgRikipedia) January 27, 2016

So, during the most recent update on Magic Online, the one that overhauled how mana works, the F8 key stopped functioning. F8, for those unaware, was sort of a "pass all of the priorities for the rest of the game when I'm tapped out and can't possibly do anything." It's mostly a time-saver for advanced users. Lee Sharpe provided the best option instead of F8, but many users don't use F8 at all already. Still, a fix will be coming to restore F8's functionality.

Community Spotlight

Magic The Podcast | Jonathan Edwards, Andrew Edwards, and Max Roche

New kids on the podcast block, Magic The Podcast bills itself as a community-oriented podcast made for, well, you. They've only got three episodes up, but they're worth a listen if Magic podcasts are your thing.

Deck of the Day

Canadian Highlander might just be my favorite casual format of all-time—in part because it's anything but casual. It features the nostalgia factor that drove me to Commander in the first place while also giving me a shot of competition where I don't need to feel weird about being Spikey. We're a niche audience, but we exist.

At any rate, our friends to the north from canadianhighlander.wordpress.com recently held their yearly Top 8 tournament, and they gave an early look at the Top 4 lists from that very event! You can see Alasdair Howie's first-place black-green deck below, but they've also got the decks in fourth, third, and second place!

The format's not for everyone, but for those who do live in our corner of the Magic world, it's incredibly fun.