modern pro tour

The Four Modern Decks I Expect At the Pro Tour

With the Pro Tour just around the corner, today Seth details how he sees the Modern metagame unfolding at the team event.

By Seth Manfield | @SethManfield | Published 2/7/2023 | 9 min read

As many of you know, there is a team Constructed Pro Tour on the horizon, with the biggest single prize pool in the history of the game. As a professional player, this is a huge deal! It has been many years since we have had a team Pro Tour. While I am trying my best to help my teammates in Standard and Legacy, the format I will be playing at the Pro Tour is Modern.

Modern is very interesting to prepare for, as it hasn't shifted around as much as Standard and Legacy recently. While many of the decks have been around in the format for a while, the metagame can shift a bit over time. There also are occasionally new decks that spring up like the Ironworks combo deck for instance, that it can take a little while to fully adapt to.

The best way to be able to prepare for a tournament like a Pro Tour is to develop an expected metagame. This is a way of creating an expectancy of what other players will be showing up to the tournament with. I want to talk about why some of the top decks are putting up the results they have been.

Tron is a deck that over the last year has gained a lot of popularity, though it has been in existence in variations for a very long time. After Damping Sphere was printed there was some nervousness about whether Tron could adapt to the card. Now players aren't playing quite as many Spheres, and Tron players know how to correctly board in Nature's Claim for certain matchups. While Damping Sphere is annoying for Tron to deal with, many of its natural bad matchups have lost some popularity, so Tron is back again.

Most Tron decks right now are straight green. This way you can play more basic lands to provide resiliency against cards like Field of Ruin , and Blood Moon to some extent. There also just isn't a huge incentive to splash. The black discard spells that come out of the sideboard, or some Kozilek's Return s are only worth it for very specific metagames. There aren't a lot of small creature decks, which makes the value of Kozilek's Return go down. There is an argument to be made that playing black for Fatal Push is actually just a downgrade from the Dismember s already in the deck.

The power of spells like Karn Liberated and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger are what make the control matchups so good. Sometimes control decks will have Field of Ruin for some mana disruption, but they are unlikely to be playing Spreading Seas like earlier versions of White-Blue Control.

If you can't disrupt the Tron mana base and plan to play a long game against them, it is very difficult to win. The deck is now playing two copies of Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger , so even if somehow the game is still going on after the first one, the second copy can just end things. Sanctum of Ugin is a way to search up the big threats in a pinch. The Thought-Knot Seer coming out of the sideboard are a way to disrupt the opponents hand without the need to play black cards, and have become a mainstay in Tron.

White-Blue Control

Is the future of control Jeskai, or white-blue is the right direction to go? For a little while Jeskai was clearly the most popular choice, but now things are starting to swing back in the direction of straight white-blue. Both of the decks play similar controlling elements but have different strengths and weaknesses. If you want to have the best matchup against Humans, I prefer playing Jeskai because it has more individual spot removal with the addition of Lightning Bolt and Lightning Helix .

White-Blue Control decks, on the other hand, arguably have the better sweepers as many versions have been built to play Terminus , which can change matchups significantly. For instance, without Terminus there is often no good way to get a Slippery Bogle off the board, as it is usually going to get enchanted with an Umbra to play around Supreme Verdict . Here is a current version of White-Blue Control, played by Luis Salvatto, the last Modern Pro Tour winner.

This deck can also be referred to as White-Blue Miracles, as it is playing cards like Opt and Jace, the Mind Sculptor to go alongside Terminus and Entreat the Angels . Opt actually becomes better than Serum Visions when you want to be able to draw cards during the opponent's turn in order to play any miracle cards. By playing Jace, the Mind Sculptor you give yourself another threat that can actually start winning the game very quickly, once you have Brainstormed once or twice.

Previously control decks often played either Jace, the Mind Sculptor or Teferi, Hero of Dominaria , but it turns out they can very easily go into the same deck! Once getting one of these planeswalkers into play the opponent has a very short window to try and either remove it from play or win the game in some way. The mana base of White-Blue Control is also less vulnerable to Blood Moon because of all the basic lands, which cuts down on the number of ways the opponent can try to attack you.

Ironworks Combo

This is a deck that I needed to pay special attention to because of my unfamiliarity with it. Any combo deck that goldfishes wins consistently by the fourth turn of the game is going to raise eyebrows. Ironworks Combo has also put up extremely good results by pros that have played it on the Grand Prix circuit, which means that those same players could certainly go ahead and play this deck at the Pro Tour. There is no better player to look to for a take on this deck than Matt Nass.

The shenanigans with Scrap Trawler and Krark-Clan Ironworks are pretty disgusting. The loops to win the game and kill the opponent usually come up after the Ironworks player has drawn a decent portion of their deck already. While it is necessary to know all the various loops and subtleties of the deck if you want to play it in a tournament yourself, the deck is extremely complicated. For many players who choose not to go down this path, the best way to address Ironworks is figuring out how to beat it.

This means knowing what works and what doesn't. This is a combo deck that is both reliant on its graveyard and assembling a critical mass of artifacts. This leads to white decks wanting high-impact hate cards like Stony Silence and Rest in Peace . With a card like this in play it becomes essentially impossible to combo off without getting that annoying enchantment off the board first.

On the flip side, it is important to know what forms of hate the Ironworks deck can combo through. For instance, is it possible to combo off while the opponent has a Relic of Progenitus with open mana? The answer here is that yes it certainly is possible as the Ironworks players can threaten the loop while maintaining enough artifacts on the battlefield to continue the cycle again. Of course, it does mean the Ironworks deck needs more resources than it would normally.

Decks without a lot of ways to interact with the Ironworks decks are going to struggle, unless you are playing a fast combo deck of your own. For instance, one direction to go is to largely ignore what the Ironworks deck is doing and try to combo off faster by playing a deck like Blue-Red Storm. Spot removal is one of the worst ways to attack this deck, as trying to kill a Scrap Trawler very rarely works out well.

My expectation with Ironworks is players that have already played it a decent amount will gravitate towards it for the Pro Tour, but there won't be that many new pilots trying to play this deck for the first time on such a big stage. It should be more popular than it has been on the Open circuit where it seems to have almost died out, and the online results are tough to use as it is very annoying trying to combo off with Ironworks online.

I would like to address exactly what has happened to Humans. A few months ago this was very clearly the best deck in Modern. Has anything changed? Well yes, this is another case of learning the best ways to attack a deck that is clearly very good. We have seen more Jeskai Control and removal-heavy decks in general, which is exactly what Humans doesn't want to see. Still, the deck is one of the top choices in Modern.

The deck is resilient enough to work through a decent amount of opposing removal while also presenting a pretty fast clock, which along with disruptive creatures to stop the opponent from winning quickly against you. For instance, by playing a Meddling Mage naming Krark-Clan Ironworks , the Ironworks deck now must answer the Meddling Mage before trying to combo off.

Humans is a very scary deck for combo decks for this reason. Most of the hateful creatures cost two mana so they will enter the battlefield before the combo deck has a chance to try and win. Humans should be in a pretty solid spot going into the Pro Tour, especially if players are not playing as much Jeskai Control. Bad matchups like Affinity aren't very popular, as because of the popularity of Ironworks combo there are a lot of Stony Silence s running around. The Pro Tour could be the perfect time for Humans to shine again.

Wrapping Up

In early testing for the Pro Tour these are four strategies I have spent a good chunk of time on, as I think they will be four of the top choices for the tournament. Also, it is extremely important to know why decks are good and what their weaknesses are, so you can exploit them. At this point I still don't know exactly what deck I will be playing, but by doing your homework it makes both deck choice and sideboard decisions significantly easier.

Thanks for reading,

Seth Manfield

Magic: the Gathering

Modern: Mono-Green Tron - Deck Tech and Sideboard Guide

Mono-Green Tron is one of the best decks in Modern, and it got a lot of spotlight in July this year at the Pro Tour Barcelona. In today's article, I'll delve deep into this archetype, address its deckbuilding, strategies, game approach and give you a guide on its sideboard for the main matchups.

By Pacto das Guildas

translated by Joey Sticks

revised by Tabata Marques

About the Deck and List Choice

In a format dominated by Rakdos Scam, Mono-Green Tron is one of the oldest still existing decks in Modern, and it is one of the most striking decks in the history of the game. Urza's trio is the heart of this combo, and it is essential to play it on board as soon as possible.

The deck changed a lot with the release of Tales of Middle Earth; it can now adopt a different approach from the one the old version had. Currently, it stepped out of the Combo/Ramp strategy and got closer to a Combo/Control deck, which amplifies the way it acts and allows it to hit the current metagame threats head on.

The Ring is one of the biggest reasons this deck is still popular. This card gives Tron the gas it needs to keep itself alive in games, and it is the main engine in many current decks. As it is a colorless artifact that protects its controller when it goes on board, there isn't a reason to not use it in our list.

The four copies aren't mandatory, but four is the ideal number. This card is so powerful that its drawback is easily remedied and is almost non-existent when you can access the Ramp Tron provides.

This deck's most recent build also brings a fourth copy of Urza's land: the powerful Urza's Saga , which comes in more to help this strategy in situations in which it would usually be a lot harder to complete the set of Tron lands. Another advantage brought by using the Saga is the new attack angle that comes with the tokens created by the land in Chapter II. Boseiju is another utility land that plays an important role in the deck by dealing with hates such as Blood Moon and Damping Sphere .

Another interesting addition that started being used more recently is Dismember , which acts as an effective answer against Rakdos' most explosive turns, and can deal with threats in the shape of Fury and Grief on turn 1 without much issue.

Warping Wail is another card that works well against Rakdos and the other various threats this format has. Oblivion Stone works as a mass removal, and was already used in the previous version.

The Star and the Sphere work as cantrips, besides helping you with green mana. This version lets go of some cantrips to have more slots for removals.

Relic of Progenitus is an important card in many matchups. Expedition Map is an important tool that stands out even further with the addition of Urza's Saga .

Ancient Stirrings helps you dig through your deck to look for more resources. Sylvan Scrying is another tool to enable Urza's trio, and Talisman of Resilience helps you fix your mana, besides being a Ramp piece as well.

Wurmcoil Engine is an excellent tool against Aggro decks, and its presence in this list is extremely important. Just like Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger , both play their roles well as big threats. Walking Ballista is still a good card in Tron, even more so with so many Ragavans and Bowmasters running around.

Karn, the Great Creator is still an essential piece, as it provides access to more resources and makes this deck a toolbox. Its seven mana version also has its space in this list, and, even though it no longer has the same weight as it once did in the past, it is still a powerful planeswalker which can easily control the game if it's kept on board for long enough.

Mulligan and Game Posture

In an ideal situation, you'll have Tron enabled on turn three, and you will prefer hands that enable that, or that are, at least, the closest to that we can be.

However, as mentioned before, this new version has tools that enable you to play with hands that won't guarantee Tron on turn three, but that are good enough to interact with your opponent and place your main pieces on board, such as The One Ring, on turn three, for instance.

As we're talking about a version that is closer to a Control deck, our game posture will be exactly that. Control the game and finish it with your deck's bombs.

Sideboard Guide

As it is a list that uses Karn, the Great Creator , building a sideboard for Tron can be particularly hard. Usually, you'll favor using this planeswalker to look for your best cards straight from the sideboard rather than having them in your deck throughout the game.

Vs. Rakdos Scam

Enabling Tron as fast as possible is very important in this match. Dismember is a great way to survive Rakdos' most explosive starts. Wurmcoil and Ensnaring Bridge are good cards to look for with Karn, so you'll favor having them in your sideboard, and post-sideboard you'll place all your heavier spells in it to escape Dauthi Voidwalker . Haywire Mite will deal with your opponent's Blood Moon s and will make things better for you.

Vs. 4C Omnath

Your opponent can lock the game down with Wrenn and Six and Boseiju, Who Endures , preventing you from completing Urza's trio. A Karn looking for Tormod's Crypt or Pithing Needle can solve that, and Sundering Titan is a great way of closing the game.

4C doesn't have many threats and will count on The One Ring and Leyline Binding 's power. Post-sideboard, Haywire and Titan will deal with everything. Cityscape Leveler is another card that can perform well in this match.

Vs. Yawgmoth

In this match, you can stabilize the board with Karn into Pithing Needle , closing the game with Ulamog. Post-sideboard, your opponent will have Damping Sphere , but we'll have more tools on our side. The Stone Brain can disable their combo and is another card that performs well here.

In this match, we have various tools to control the game. Be careful with your opponent's counters and always try to play around them. In this case, once more we have to deal with Blood Moon , but we also have some powerful tools in our sideboard that can disrupt our opponent quite a lot.

Vs. Mono-Green Tron

The mirror is centered around preventing your opponent from completing Urza's trio and developing your game with Karn. The player who enables their planeswalker first usually wins the match. It is a matchup that requires you to know your deck inside out and make the right decisions.

Final Words

Tron is still a powerful deck, and is a great option for Modern. It is a bit complex, but once you master it, it is hard to defeat it. The One Ring put this deck on another level and this Control-inclined approach that has been used proved to be extremely effective, keeping this strategy alive in the metagame.

One more article is finished. Leave your questions and suggestions in the comment section, and I'll try to answer all. See you next time!

Mono-Green Devotion

Check the metagame page for this deck

Spoiler Highlight: Amalia Benavides Aguirre on Pioneer

Deck Tech - Tazri, Stalwart Survivor and Zirda, the Dawnwaker

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Pacto das Guildas

Raniere Carvalho, Electrical Engineer, Humanitarian Worker and creator of the Pacto das Guildas channel, where I share my passion for Magic: the Gathering.

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Pro Tour The Lord of the Rings

Game: Magic: The Gathering

Organized by: Wizards of the Coast

Tournament Type: Tabletop

Formats are Modern and The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Booster Draft More information about Pro Tour The Lord of the Rings can be found at https://magic.gg/events/pro-tour-the-lord-of-the-rings-fact-sheet-for-competitors

Free to Play | Invite Only | Format: Draft, Modern, Draft2 | Ended | 266 of 512 Enrolled Players

Pro Tour The Lord of the Rings Fact Sheet for Competitors

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MTG Pro Tour drama teaches important lesson: Never trust your opponent

Drama over conceding matches at Regional Championship Montreal for a Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour 2023-2024 season invite has ended, but no rules have been changed. 

Draws and concessions have been in the MTG hot seat before at high-level tournament play, especially when a seed invite is on the line. The Pro Tour helped remove some of the controversy by allowing players who hit 12 match wins an automatic advancement to the top eight playoffs. But Regional Championship organizers, like the recent RC in Montreal, are allowed to have their own rules in place. This led to a verbal agreement between MTG players Brian Bonnell and Eduardo Sajgalik, in which one would concede if their final match of the time went to time, allowing the player with the stronger board state to advance and earn a Pro Tour invite . 

The match hit time and was unable to end without either a concession or a draw. But Sajgalik didn’t concede, as was agreed upon, even though Bonnell had a stronger board advantage through his Domain Ramp deck. This earned Sajgalik a 13th-place finish with both players missing out on the Pro Tour invite. The Magic community was quick to blast Sajgalik for poor sportsmanship, resulting in a public apology from the veteran player. The apology wasn’t received well by the Magic community until Bonnell decided it was time “to put this whole thing to bed and move on with our lives.” 

“I just wanted to clear the air about the events at the Canadian RC this past weekend” Bonnell said. “Sajgalik [@walaoumpa] reached out to me yesterday to offer his sincerest apologies. I accepted his apology and I sincerely wish him the best moving forward.”

Matches like Bonnel and Sajgalik had at RC Montreal aren’t common but they do happen. The only way to prevent controversy from drawn matches at the end of a tournament is to change the overall rules, creating uniform results at both RC and Pro Tour tournaments. It’s also advisable to not trust your opponent and always play to your best ability.  

The next Pro Tour tournament of the MTG 2023-2024 season will run from June 28 to 30 at MagicCon Amsterdam.

Pro Tour Thunder Junction Standard Metagame Breakdown

The decklists are in, the data is ready, and the second Pro Tour of 2024 begins tomorrow! At Pro Tour Thunder Junction , taking place April 26–28 in Seattle, 207 of the world's best Magic: The Gathering players will compete for $500,000 in prizes, several Magic World Championship invites, and a prestigious trophy. Standard now features more than 3,300 legal cards, so the competitors had to tackle the challenge of navigating some of the highest power levels we've ever seen in this format.

The field includes top players from Regional Championships, online qualifiers, and preceding Pro Tours, as well as Magic Hall of Famers and reigning World Champion Jean-Emmanuel Depraz. The formats are Outlaws of Thunder Junction Booster Draft in the morning of Friday and Saturday, followed by Standard for five rounds afterward each of those days. Standard is also the Top 8 format on Sunday.

To follow all the action, catch the stream at twitch.tv/magic , which begins at 11 a.m. Pacific Time on Friday and Saturday and at 10 a.m. Pacific Time on Sunday. Take a look at the viewer's guide for more information.

Standard Metagame Breakdown

Standard is a 60-card format that rotates every fall. Currently, it allows expansion sets from Innistrad: Midnight Hunt forward. Standard is often dominated by midrange decks, and it's no different this time around. Yet the newly added cards from Outlaws of Thunder Junction have shaken things up. The metagame at the Pro Tour breaks down as follows.

The metagame features a lot of Esper Midrange, but it looks quite diverse beyond that. There are dozens of different archetypes, including aggro, midrange, control, ramp, combo, and plenty of spice. All Standard Constructed decklists for the tournament will be published on the Pro Tour Thunder Junction event page on Friday April 26 at the beginning of Round 4 gameplay, approximately at 2 p.m. PT.

The most-played nonland cards across all main decks and sideboards were Go for the Throat , Cut Down , and Deep-Cavern Bat . These staples remain the pillars of the format, and they can be found in a variety of decks, most notably the black midrange strategies. Creatures that die easily to Go for the Throat , such as Sheoldred, the Apocalypse , are seeing comparatively little play.

Although the metagame bears many similarities to the one right before the release of Outlaws of Thunder Junction , which I covered in last week's Standard primer , the introduction of hundreds of new cards has shaken things up. Let's take a closer look at four of the most important takeaways, developments, and surprises from Pro Tour Thunder Junction.

The Dominance of Esper Midrange

Over the past few months, black midrange strategies had typically formed 30–40% of the Standard metagame, but it was never clear what the best color combination was. Dimir Midrange was the most prominent right before the release of Outlaws of Thunder Junction , leveraging its smooth mana base, low curve, and efficient countermagic, but the new set has changed things. After the introduction of Outlaws of Thunder Junction , Esper Midrange decisively took back the crown.

With Concealed Courtyard to improve its mana base, as well as Rest in Peace and Pest Control to swing the previously difficult matchups against Temur Analyst and Boros Convoke after sideboard, it has become worthwhile to run white. Many Pro Tour competitors arrived at the same conclusion: Esper was now superior to Dimir. Indeed, nearly one-third of the field registered Esper Midrange, with Concealed Courtyard as an undisputed addition and Pest Control as a near-universal sideboard inclusion. There is some variations across the builds—for example, Esper Midrange players are split on whether or not to use cards like Wedding Announcement , Deep-Cavern Bat , or Duelist of the Mind —but everyone uses Raffine, Scheming Seer , arguably the best three-drop in the format.

The Resurgence of Four-Color Legends

Over the past few months, Four-Color Legends had been a fringe player in Standard, typically claiming 1–2% of the metagame. Combining elements of midrange, combo, and ramp, the deck excelled at fueling mana from Relic of Legends into Slogurk, the Overslime loops. Slogurk grows whenever you discard a land to Rona, Herald of Invasion , discard a land to Inti, Seneschal of the Sun , or channel Otawara, Soaring City or Takenuma, Abandoned Mire . As it's so easy to bounce and reply, you can channel multiple lands every turn for value.

Outlaws of Thunder Junction offered a substantial boost to the deck in the form of Honest Rutstein . It shaves a mana off your key creatures, provides resiliency against spot removal, and even enables new infinite combos. If you control Relic of Legends and Rona, Herald of Invasion , then two copies of Honest Rutstein can be looped indefinitely. Tap Rona and Rutstein to untap Relic of Legends , cast Rutstein, lose one to the legend rule, return it, and repeat. This allows you to win the game with Vial Smasher, Gleeful Grenadier . Less common ways to exploit this loop include Tinybones Joins Up ; Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim ; Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines ; or Annie Joins Up . For homogeneity, any base blue-black-red-green deck with a single white card is still labeled as Four-Color Legends at the Pro Tour.

The Disappearance of Bant Toxic

While most of the attention will go to the decks on top of the metagame, it's also important to recognize what is not there: Bant Toxic. Over the past months, the archetype had fluctuated around 4-8% of the metagame, preying on the slow nature of Domain Ramp while sidestepping the life gain lands from Temur Analyst with its poison counters. At the Pro Tour, however, zero players registered Venerated Rotpriest or Skrelv's Hive .

The deck did not gain anything of note from the latest set, while its favorable matchups had dwindled and sweeper effects were ticking up. As a result, no one will be poisoned out of the game at Pro Tour Thunder Junction, barring a stray Mirrex .

A Plethora of Novel Strategies

Between the main Outlaws of Thunder Junction (OTJ) set and The Big Score (BIG) bonus sheet, the latest set was one of the biggest Standard releases ever, introducing an abundance of new build-arounds. I will highlight the most exciting options in tommorow's article on the spiciest decklist from the Pro Tour, but one thing is for sure: the Standard rounds on the West Coast are going to be wild.

Some players may use Insatiable Avarice to put Shadow of Mortality on top of their library, allowing Caustic Bronco to hit the opponent for 15. Others aim to combine Bloodletter of Aclazotz with Rush of Dread , forcing the opponent to lose all of their life points. Meanwhile, a few tables over, a Slickshot Show-Off brew might face off against a dedicated Simulacrum Synthesizer deck. And perhaps in the feature match area, an Aftermath Analyst player might sacrifice dozens of lands to Pitiless Carnage , only to be defeated by their opponent's combination of Kellan, the Kid plus Djeru and Hazoret . Sure, the Standard metagame at the Pro Tour features a lot of Esper Midrange, but it also showcases a wide diversity of innovative competitive decks.

Most-Played Cards from Outlaws of Thunder Junction

Despite the high bar set by the existing Standard card pool, Outlaws of Thunder Junction had a considerable impact on the format. The following table breaks down all new-to-Standard cards among Pro Tour decklists. There's a lot.

The most-played new cards are Concealed Courtyard , Pest Control , Rest in Peace , Duelist of the Mind , all of which I had already mentioned while talking about the dominance of Esper Midrange. Duelist of the Mind is an exciting one because it's Nathan Steuer's card for winning the 2022 World Championship. It's easy to enable in a deck full of interactive, crime-committing cards, and its power-scaling ability synergizes particularly well with Raffine, Scheming Seer . Beyond these additions to Esper Midrange, various other cards for disparate archetypes stand out as well.

The enemy-color fast lands make a huge difference for the early-game mana consistency of aggro decks. Previously, it could be difficult for Boros Convoke to cast Novice Inspector and Voldaren Epicure consistently on turn one. With Inspiring Vantage , the deck's mana consistency increases by a few percentage points, leading to fewer mulligans and bringing it even closer to its Pioneer counterpart. Several Boros Convoke players also included Nurturing Pixie , which can produce value by returning Knight-Errant of Eos or Case of the Gateway Express .

Blue players gained several new tools as well. For control players, Three Steps Ahead is reminiscent of Cryptic Command due to its flexibility and potential for card advantage. It's arguably the best Cancel variant ever, and it has enabled an uptick in Azorius Control. Meanwhile, Bonny Pall, Clearcutter has been a popular choice for Temur Analyst players as a secondary game plan that dodges graveyard hate after sideboard.

For red aggro players, Slickshot Show-Off has been one of the most exciting cards from the new set. It provides a fast clock, can be plotted to dodge removal and sweepers, and flies over most blockers. It's easy to fill your deck with a large number of noncreature spells to trigger it consistently. Twelve players (5.8% of the field) included at least one copy of Slickshot Show-Off : 7 Mono-Red Aggro, 2 Gruul Aggro, 2 Temur Prowess, and 1 Boros Aggro. Many of them also included Demonic Ruckus , which can boost Slickshot Show-Off or sometimes even target an opposing creature to draw a card after burning it.

Black decks also gained several new tools. Shoot the Sheriff is not as popular as Go for the Throat because new outlaws like Honest Rutstein ; Tinybones, the Pickpocket ; or Forsaken Miner cannot be targeted. At the same time, it does deal with the Incubator token from Sunfall , so various players have embraced a mix of the two removal spells. Forsaken Miner , in the meantime, has enabled a new wave of Rakdos Aggro decks that can come out of the gates quickly and commit crimes to press their advantage.

The Road to Magic World Championship 30

At Pro Tour Thunder Junction, all competitors who clinch 36 match points and/or reach the Top 8 will receive an invitation to Magic World Championship 30 —the crown jewel of organized play in 2024. As we count down the weeks leading up to that tournament in late October, each week I'm taking a look at a great deck from a past Magic World Championship. After reviewing the World Championships from 1994 , 1995 , 1996 , 1997 , and 1998 in preceding weeks, let's go back in time to 1999.

At the 1999 Magic World Championship, which took place in Tokyo on August 26–28 of that year, 208 players from 32 countries competed across Rochester Draft, Standard, and Extended. In the Standard Top 8 playoffs on Sunday, Kai Budde from Germany emerged victorious in what would be the first of his seven career Pro Tour victories.

In the finals, Budde defeated Mark Le Pine 3-0 in about 20 minutes, the fastest World Championship finals in history. "The games in the finals were not close," Budde recalled. "I just had Voltaic Key / Grim Monolith / Thran Dynamo pretty much every game. He'd play a Fireslinger , and I'd play a Covetous Dragon ."

Budde's deck contained more than 30 artifacts, which he used to generate huge amounts of mana and speed up the game. This allowed him to quickly deploy big creatures like Masticore or Covetous Dragon , which could live through Wildfire . A well-timed Wildfire could leave the opponent with zero permanents, locking them out of the game, while you could retain several mana rocks and a creature to finish them off. Enormous amounts of mana could also be sunk into Mishra's Helix or Temporal Aperture , allowing you to dominate the game. This archetype was 8% of the Standard metagame at 1999 World Championship, and Budde piloted it masterfully.

There is quite a contrast between 2024 Standard and 1999 Standard. This year, the format has been in a good spot, with aggro, midrange, control, ramp, and combo all being viable as macro-strategies. Four cards are banned (Meathook Massacre , Fable of the Mirror-Breaker , Invoke Despair , and Reckoner Bankbuster ) but the card designs from the past three years have largely been balanced, fair, and interactive.

By contrast, Standard in 1999 was not in a good spot. During the 98–99 "combo winter," which is when I started playing competitive Magic , everyone was using the overpowered cards from Urza block to go infinite or combo off. Urza block was one of the most broken of all time, as all of its free mana and incredible card draw led to busted decks. You could rip through your library, produce absurd amounts of mana in a single turn, and assemble degenerate combos as early as turn one.

The "combo winter" resulted in errata of free spells and an incredible number of Standard bans: Tolarian Academy , Windfall , Dream Halls , Earthcraft , Fluctuator , Lotus Petal , Recurring Nightmare , Time Spiral , Memory Jar , and Mind Over Matter . Nowadays, many of these cards are banned even in Legacy, so just imagine the Standard where they were all legal! The running joke was that shuffling was the early game, mulligans were the mid-game, and turn one was the late game.

By the time of the 1999 World Championship, these bans had restored the format to a more balanced state, and Magic R&D had learned valuable lessons for future card design. Yet despite these bans, Grim Monolith , Voltaic Key , Thran Dynamo , Ancient Tomb , and City of Traitors remained legal, so a turn-two Covetous Dragon or turn-three Wildfire was a common curve-out at the time. Dark Ritual , Yawgmoth's Will , and Vampiric Tutor were all Standard-legal as well at the time. Nowadays, the Standard format is much fairer, and ramping ahead requires far more deck construction effort.

Yet as Budde's victory shows, fast mana always has the potential to be broken. In today's Standard, Aftermath Analyst decks and Relic of Legends decks are built around the same principle. If you have access to far more mana than your opponent, then it's easy to overpower them. Esper Midrange players may have discard and countermagic as interaction, but it's still difficult to beat an opponent who has twice as much mana as you. To see which cards will come out on top at Pro Tour Thunder Junction and who will qualify for World Championship 30, don't miss the live action at twitch.tv/magic , starting this Friday, April 26!

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A Plan to Remake the Middle East

While talks for a cease-fire between israel and hamas continue, another set of negotiations is happening behind the scenes..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

From New York Times, I’m Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

[MUSIC CONTINUES]

Today, if and when Israel and Hamas reach a deal for a ceasefire fire, the United States will immediately turn to a different set of negotiations over a grand diplomatic bargain that it believes could rebuild Gaza and remake the Middle East. My colleague Michael Crowley has been reporting on that plan and explains why those involved in it believe they have so little time left to get it done.

It’s Wednesday, May 8.

Michael, I want to start with what feels like a pretty dizzying set of developments in this conflict over the past few days. Just walk us through them?

Well, over the weekend, there was an intense round of negotiations in an effort, backed by the United States, to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza war.

The latest ceasefire proposal would reportedly see as many as 33 Israeli hostages released in exchange for potentially hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

US officials were very eager to get this deal.

Pressure for a ceasefire has been building ahead of a threatened Israeli assault on Rafah.

Because Israel has been threatening a military offensive in the Southern Palestinian city of Rafah, where a huge number of people are crowded.

Fleeing the violence to the North. And now they’re packed into Rafah. Exposed and vulnerable, they need to be protected.

And the US says it would be a humanitarian catastrophe on top of the emergency that’s already underway.

Breaking news this hour — very important breaking news. An official Hamas source has told The BBC that it does accept a proposal for a ceasefire deal in Gaza.

And for a few hours on Monday, it looked like there might have been a major breakthrough when Hamas put out a statement saying that it had accepted a negotiating proposal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the ceasefire proposal does not meet his country’s requirements. But Netanyahu says he will send a delegation of mediators to continue those talks. Now, the terms —

But those hopes were dashed pretty quickly when the Israelis took a look at what Hamas was saying and said that it was not a proposal that they had agreed to. It had been modified.

And overnight —

Israeli troops stormed into Rafah. Video showing tanks crashing over a sign at the entrance of the city.

— the Israelis launched a partial invasion of Rafah.

It says Hamas used the area to launch a deadly attack on Israeli troops over the weekend.

And they have now secured a border crossing at the Southern end of Gaza and are conducting targeted strikes. This is not yet the full scale invasion that President Biden has adamantly warned Israel against undertaking, but it is an escalation by Israel.

So while all that drama might suggest that these talks are in big trouble, these talks are very much still alive and ongoing and there is still a possibility of a ceasefire deal.

And the reason that’s so important is not just to stop the fighting in Gaza and relieve the suffering there, but a ceasefire also opens the door to a grand diplomatic bargain, one that involves Israel and its Arab neighbors and the Palestinians, and would have very far-reaching implications.

And what is that grand bargain. Describe what you’re talking about?

Well, it’s incredibly ambitious. It would reshape Israel’s relationship with its Arab neighbors, principally Saudi Arabia. But it’s important to understand that this is a vision that has actually been around since well before October 7. This was a diplomatic project that President Biden had been investing in and negotiating actually in a very real and tangible way long before the Hamas attacks and the Gaza war.

And President Biden was looking to build on something that President Trump had done, which was a series of agreements that the Trump administration struck in which Israel and some of its Arab neighbors agreed to have normal diplomatic relations for the first time.

Right, they’re called the Abraham Accords.

That’s right. And, you know, Biden doesn’t like a lot of things, most things that Trump did. But he actually likes this, because the idea is that they contribute to stability and economic integration in the Middle East, the US likes Israel having friends and likes having a tight-knit alliance against Iran.

President Biden agrees with the Saudis and with the Israelis, that Iran is really the top threat to everybody here. So, how can you build on this? How can you expand it? Well, the next and biggest step would be normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

And the Saudis have made clear that they want to do this and that they’re ready to do this. They weren’t ready to do it in the Trump years. But Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, has made clear he wants to do it now.

So this kind of triangular deal began to take shape before October 7, in which the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia would enter this three way agreement in which everyone would get something that they wanted.

And just walk through what each side gets in this pre-October 7th version of these negotiations?

So for Israel, you get normalized ties with its most important Arab neighbor and really the country that sets the tone for the whole Muslim world, which is Saudi Arabia of course. It makes Israel feel safer and more secure. Again, it helps to build this alliance against Iran, which Israel considers its greatest threat, and it comes with benefits like economic ties and travel and tourism. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been very open, at least before October 7th, that this was his highest diplomatic and foreign policy priority.

For the Saudis, the rationale is similar when it comes to Israel. They think that it will bring stability. They like having a more explicitly close ally against Iran. There are economic and cultural benefits. Saudi Arabia is opening itself up in general, encouraging more tourism.

But I think that what’s most important to the Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is what he can get from the United States. And what he has been asking for are a couple of essential things. One is a security agreement whose details have always been a little bit vague, but I think essentially come down to reliable arms supplies from the United States that are not going to be cut off or paused on a whim, as he felt happened when President Biden stopped arms deliveries in 2021 because of how Saudi was conducting its war in Yemen. The Saudis were furious about that.

Saudi Arabia also wants to start a domestic nuclear power program. They are planning for a very long-term future, possibly a post-oil future. And they need help getting a nuclear program off the ground.

And they want that from the US?

And they want that from the US.

Now, those are big asks from the us. But from the perspective of President Biden, there are some really enticing things about this possible agreement. One is that it will hopefully produce more stability in the region. Again, the US likes having a tight-knit alliance against Iran.

The US also wants to have a strong relationship with Saudi Arabia. You know, despite the anger at Mohammed bin Salman over the murder of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, the Biden administration recognizes that given the Saudis control over global oil production and their strategic importance in the Middle East, they need to have a good relationship with them. And the administration has been worried about the influence of China in the region and with the Saudis in particular.

So this is an opportunity for the US to draw the Saudis closer. Whatever our moral qualms might be about bin Salman and the Saudi government, this is an opportunity to bring the Saudis closer, which is something the Biden administration sees as a strategic benefit.

All three of these countries — big, disparate countries that normally don’t see eye-to-eye, this was a win-win-win on a military, economic, and strategic front.

That’s right. But there was one important actor in the region that did not see itself as winning, and that was the Palestinians.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

First, it’s important to understand that the Palestinians have always expected that the Arab countries in the Middle East would insist that Israel recognize a Palestinian state before those countries were willing to essentially make total peace and have normal relations with Israel.

So when the Abraham Accords happened in the Trump administration, the Palestinians felt like they’d been thrown under the bus because the Abraham Accords gave them virtually nothing. But the Palestinians did still hold out hope that Saudi Arabia would be their savior. And for years, Saudi Arabia has said that Israel must give the Palestinians a state if there’s going to be a normal relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Now the Palestinians see the Saudis in discussions with the US and Israel about a normalization agreement, and there appears to be very little on offer for the Palestinians. And they are feeling like they’re going to be left out in the cold here.

Right. And in the minds of the Palestinians, having already been essentially sold out by all their other Arab neighbors, the prospect that Saudi Arabia, of all countries, the most important Muslim Arab country in the region, would sell them out, had to be extremely painful.

It was a nightmare scenario for them. And in the minds of many analysts and US officials, this was a factor, one of many, in Hamas’s decision to stage the October 7th attacks.

Hamas, like other Palestinian leaders, was seeing the prospect that the Middle East was moving on and essentially, in their view, giving up on the Palestinian cause, and that Israel would be able to have friendly, normal relations with Arab countries around the region, and that it could continue with hardline policies toward the Palestinians and a refusal, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said publicly, to accept a Palestinian state.

Right. So Michael, once Hamas carries out the October 7th attacks in an effort to destroy a status quo that it thinks is leaving them less and less relevant, more and more hopeless, including potentially this prospect that Saudi Arabia is going to normalize relations with Israel, what happens to these pre-October 7th negotiations between the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel?

Well, I think there was a snap assumption that these talks were dead and buried. That they couldn’t possibly survive a cataclysm like this.

But then something surprising happened. It became clear that all the parties were still determined to pull-off the normalization.

And most surprisingly of all, perhaps, was the continued eagerness of Saudi Arabia, which publicly was professing outrage over the Israeli response to the Hamas attacks, but privately was still very much engaged in these conversations and trying to move them forward.

And in fact, what has happened is that the scope of this effort has grown substantially. October 7th didn’t kill these talks. It actually made them bigger, more complicated, and some people would argue, more important than ever.

We’ll be right back.

Michael, walk us through what exactly happens to these three-way negotiations after October 7th that ends up making them, as you just said, more complicated and more important than ever?

Well, it’s more important than ever because of the incredible need in Gaza. And it’s going to take a deal like this and the approval of Saudi Arabia to unlock the kind of massive reconstruction project required to essentially rebuild Gaza from the rubble. Saudi Arabia and its Arab friends are also going to be instrumental in figuring out how Gaza is governed, and they might even provide troops to help secure it. None of those things are going to happen without a deal like this.

Fascinating.

But this is all much more complicated now because the price for a deal like this has gone up.

And by price, you mean?

What Israel would have to give up. [MUSIC PLAYING]

From Saudi Arabia’s perspective, you have an Arab population that is furious at Israel. It now feels like a really hard time to do a normalization deal with the Israelis. It was never going to be easy, but this is about as bad a time to do it as there has been in a generation at least. And I think that President Biden and the people around him understand that the status quo between Israel and the Palestinians is intolerable and it is going to lead to chaos and violence indefinitely.

So now you have two of the three parties to this agreement, the Saudis and the Americans, basically asking a new price after October 7th, and saying to the Israelis, if we’re going to do this deal, it has to not only do something for the Palestinians, it has to do something really big. You have to commit to the creation of a Palestinian state. Now, I’ll be specific and say that what you hear the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, say is that the agreement has to include an irreversible time-bound path to a Palestinian state.

We don’t know exactly what that looks like, but it’s some kind of a firm commitment, the likes of which the world and certainly the Israelis have not made before.

Something that was very much not present in the pre-October 7th vision of this negotiation. So much so that, as we just talked about, the Palestinians were left feeling completely out in the cold and furious at it.

That’s right. There was no sign that people were thinking that ambitiously about the Palestinians in this deal before October 7th. And the Palestinians certainly felt like they weren’t going to get much out of it. And that has completely changed now.

So, Michael, once this big new dimension after October 7th, which is the insistence by Saudi Arabia and the US that there be a Palestinian state or a path to a Palestinian state, what is the reaction specifically from Israel, which is, of course, the third major party to this entire conversation?

Well, Israel, or at least its political leadership, hates it. You know, this is just an extremely tough sell in Israel. It would have been a tough sell before October 7th. It’s even harder now.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is completely unrepentantly open in saying that there’s not going to be a Palestinian state on his watch. He won’t accept it. He says that it’s a strategic risk to his country. He says that it would, in effect, reward Hamas.

His argument is that terrorism has forced a conversation about statehood onto the table that wasn’t there before October 7th. Sure, it’s always in the background. It’s a perennial issue in global affairs, but it was not something certainly that the US and Israel’s Arab neighbors were actively pushing. Netanyahu also has — you know, he governs with the support of very right-wing members of a political coalition that he has cobbled together. And that coalition is quite likely to fall apart if he does embrace a Palestinian state or a path to a Palestinian state.

Now, he might be able to cobble together some sort of alternative, but it creates a political crisis for him.

And finally, you know, I think in any conversation about Israel, it’s worth bearing in mind something you hear from senior US officials these days, which is that although there is often finger pointing at Netanyahu and a desire to blame Netanyahu as this obstructionist who won’t agree to deals, what they say is Netanyahu is largely reflecting his population and the political establishment of his country, not just the right-wingers in his coalition who are clearly extremist.

But actually the prevailing views of the Israeli public. And the Israeli public and their political leaders across the spectrum right now with few exceptions, are not interested in talking about a Palestinian state when there are still dozens and dozens of Israeli hostages in tunnels beneath Gaza.

So it very much looks like this giant agreement that once seemed doable before October 7th might be more important to everyone involved than ever, given that it’s a plan for rebuilding Gaza and potentially preventing future October 7th’s from happening, but because of this higher price that Israel would have to pay, which is the acceptance of a Palestinian state, it seems from everything you’re saying, that this is more and more out of reach than ever before and hard to imagine happening in the immediate future. So if the people negotiating it are being honest, Michael, are they ready to acknowledge that it doesn’t look like this is going to happen?

Well, not quite yet. As time goes by, they certainly say it’s getting harder and harder, but they’re still trying, and they still think there’s a chance. But both the Saudis and the Biden administration understand that there’s very little time left to do this.

Well, what do you mean there’s very little time left? It would seem like time might benefit this negotiation in that it might give Israel distance from October 7th to think potentially differently about a Palestinian state?

Potentially. But Saudi Arabia wants to get this deal done in the Biden administration because Mohammed bin Salman has concluded this has to be done under a Democratic president.

Because Democrats in Congress are going to be very reluctant to approve a security agreement between the United States and Saudi Arabia.

It’s important to understand that if there is a security agreement, that’s something Congress is going to have to approve. And you’re just not going to get enough Democrats in Congress to support a deal with Saudi Arabia, who a lot of Democrats don’t like to begin with, because they see them as human rights abusers.

But if a Democratic president is asking them to do it, they’re much more likely to go along.

Right. So Saudi Arabia fears that if Biden loses and Trump is president, that those same Democrats would balk at this deal in a way that they wouldn’t if it were being negotiated under President Biden?

Exactly. Now, from President Biden’s perspective, politically, think about a president who’s running for re-election, who is presiding right now over chaos in the Middle East, who doesn’t seem to have good answers for the Israeli-Palestinian question, this is an opportunity for President Biden to deliver what could be at least what he would present as a diplomatic masterstroke that does multiple things at once, including creating a new pathway for Israel and the Palestinians to coexist, to break through the logjam, even as he is also improving Israel’s relations with Saudi Arabia.

So Biden and the Crown Prince hope that they can somehow persuade Bibi Netanyahu that in spite of all the reasons that he thinks this is a terrible idea, that this is a bet worth taking on Israel’s and the region’s long-term security and future?

That’s right. Now, no one has explained very clearly exactly how this is going to work, and it’s probably going to require artful diplomacy, possibly even a scenario where the Israelis would agree to something that maybe means one thing to them and means something else to other people. But Biden officials refuse to say that it’s hopeless and they refuse to essentially take Netanyahu’s preliminary no’s for an answer. And they still see some way that they can thread this incredibly narrow needle.

Michael, I’m curious about a constituency that we haven’t been talking about because they’re not at the table in these discussions that we are talking about here. And that would be Hamas. How does Hamas feel about the prospect of such a deal like this ever taking shape. Do they see it as any kind of a victory and vindication for what they did on October 7th?

So it’s hard to know exactly what Hamas’s leadership is thinking. I think they can feel two things. I think they can feel on the one hand, that they have established themselves as the champions of the Palestinian people who struck a blow against Israel and against a diplomatic process that was potentially going to leave the Palestinians out in the cold.

At the same time, Hamas has no interest in the kind of two-state solution that the US is trying to promote. They think Israel should be destroyed. They think the Palestinian state should cover the entire geography of what is now Israel, and they want to lead a state like that. And that’s not something that the US, Saudi Arabia, or anyone else is going to tolerate.

So what Hamas wants is to fight, to be the leader of the Palestinian people, and to destroy Israel. And they’re not interested in any sort of a peace process or statehood process.

It seems very clear from everything you’ve said here that neither Israel nor Hamas is ready to have the conversation about a grand bargain diplomatic program. And I wonder if that inevitably has any bearing on the ceasefire negotiations that are going on right now between the two of them that are supposed to bring this conflict to some sort of an end, even if it’s just temporary?

Because if, as you said, Michael, a ceasefire opens the door to this larger diplomatic solution, and these two players don’t necessarily want that larger diplomatic solution, doesn’t that inevitably impact their enthusiasm for even reaching a ceasefire?

Well, it certainly doesn’t help. You know, this is such a hellish problem. And of course, you first have the question of whether Israel and Hamas can make a deal on these immediate issues, including the hostages, Palestinian prisoners, and what the Israeli military is going to do, how long a ceasefire might last.

But on top of that, you have these much bigger diplomatic questions that are looming over them. And it’s not clear that either side is ready to turn and face those bigger questions.

So while for the Biden administration and for Saudi Arabia, this is a way out of this crisis, these larger diplomatic solutions, it’s not clear that it’s a conversation that the two parties that are actually at war here are prepared to start having.

Well, Michael, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

On Tuesday afternoon, under intense pressure from the US, delegations from Israel and Hamas arrived in Cairo to resume negotiations over a potential ceasefire. But in a statement, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear that even with the talks underway, his government would, quote, “continue to wage war against Hamas.”

Here’s what else you need to know today. In a dramatic day of testimony, Stormy Daniels offered explicit details about an alleged sexual encounter with Donald Trump that ultimately led to the hush money payment at the center of his trial. Daniels testified that Trump answered the door in pajamas, that he told her not to worry that he was married, and that he did not use a condom when they had sex.

That prompted lawyers for Trump to seek a mistrial based on what they called prejudicial testimony. But the judge in the case rejected that request. And,

We’ve seen a ferocious surge of anti-Semitism in America and around the world.

In a speech on Tuesday honoring victims of the Holocaust, President Biden condemned what he said was the alarming rise of anti-Semitism in the United States after the October 7th attacks on Israel. And he expressed worry that too many Americans were already forgetting the horrors of that attack.

The Jewish community, I want you to know I see your fear, your hurt, and your pain. Let me reassure you, as your president, you’re not alone. You belong. You always have and you always will.

Today’s episode was produced by Nina Feldman, Clare Toeniskoetter, and Rikki Novetsky. It was edited by Liz O. Baylen, contains original music by Marion Lozano, Elisheba Ittoop, and Dan Powell, and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly.

That’s it for The Daily. I’m Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.

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• May 9, 2024   •   34:42 One Strongman, One Billion Voters, and the Future of India
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Hosted by Michael Barbaro

Featuring Michael Crowley

Produced by Nina Feldman ,  Clare Toeniskoetter and Rikki Novetsky

Edited by Liz O. Baylen

Original music by Marion Lozano ,  Elisheba Ittoop and Dan Powell

Engineered by Alyssa Moxley

Listen and follow The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

If and when Israel and Hamas reach a deal for a cease-fire, the United States will immediately turn to a different set of negotiations over a grand diplomatic bargain that it believes could rebuild Gaza and remake the Middle East.

Michael Crowley, who covers the State Department and U.S. foreign policy for The Times, explains why those involved in this plan believe they have so little time left to get it done.

On today’s episode

Michael Crowley , a reporter covering the State Department and U.S. foreign policy for The New York Times.

Background reading :

Talks on a cease-fire in the Gaza war are once again at an uncertain stage .

Here’s how the push for a deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia looked before Oct. 7 .

From early in the war, President Biden has said that a lasting resolution requires a “real” Palestinian state .

Here’s what Israeli officials are discussing about postwar Gaza.

There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.

We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson and Nina Lassam.

Michael Crowley covers the State Department and U.S. foreign policy for The Times. He has reported from nearly three dozen countries and often travels with the secretary of state. More about Michael Crowley

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