Jund Domination in SCG $5K Richmond, Virginia
February 28, 2010 by Mark Ian
Filed under Magic The Gathering
Jund does it again! Yes folks, the Shards of Alara plane continues to dominate the Standard metagame with the recent top finish at Star City Games $5000 Open event in Richmond, Virginia. The pilot was Alex Bertoncini which had previous top finishes in the previous SCG events. He faced a Jund mirror matchup in the finals against Alessandro Culotti and proved he is the better Jund master. Here’s the list that he used: Read more
Some Interesting Extended Decks in GP Oakland
February 15, 2010 by Mark Ian
Filed under Magic The Gathering
The Mtg 2010 Season kicked off with Grand Prix Oakland last weekend and as Day Two getting to a close, we saw pros perform on the last remaining rounds to get to the top 8. Well, the final eight has been decided as of the writing of this post. It features the best players and high level pros of Magic with the names Conley Woods, Tomoharu Saito and Adam Yurchick. The rest had big accomplishments in their playing career too. Read more
Worldwake Spoiler Update
January 21, 2010 by Mark Ian
Filed under Magic The Gathering
Here’s the recent update of the upcoming Worldwake, Zendikar’s 2nd set. The spoiler season has been a little slow today as we have only revealed about 46 cards out of 145 cards in the set. Here they are:
White (8)
Magic 2011 Announced
January 7, 2010 by Mark Ian
Filed under Magic The Gathering
Wizards announced yesterday at Magic Arcana regarding the next upcoming Core set in Magic: The Gathering Trading card game, Magic 2011 which will be released this July 16, 2010. The set is dubbed “A set everyone can sink their teeth into.” which made me think of new interesting cards they’re going to include. Here’s a part of the announcement: Read more
Jamie Mackintosh Wins Australia Nationals
July 19, 2009 by Mark Ian
Filed under Magic The Gathering
Jamie Mackintosh is the 2009 Australian Nationals champion piloting a G/W Elf Ball deck and defeating (or rather sweeping) Ian Wood’s 5-color Blood deck in the finals. Here’s the decklist:
Maindeck
8 Forest
1 Plains
4 Wooded Bastion
4 Sunpetal Grove
2 Windbrisk Heights
19 land1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Mirror Entity
1 Cloudthresher
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Heritage Druid
4 Devoted Druid
4 Regal Force
4 Ranger of Eos
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Elvish Visionary
35 creatures2 Manamorphose
4 Primal Command
6 other spellsSideboard
4 Great Sable Stag
2 Cloudthresher
3 Oversoul of Dusk
3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Platinum Angel
2 Qasali Pridemage
Summary of the matchup results on the Top 8:
Quarterfinals vs. Garry Wong (5 Color Blood) Won 3-0
Semifinals vs. Hugh Glanville (UB Faeries) Won 3-2
Finals vs. Ian Wood (5 Color Blood) Won 3-0
What Magic (The Gathering) Has Taught Me
March 16, 2009 by Mark Ian
Filed under Magic The Gathering
Playing Magic for almost half of my life has been very memorable and fun of course. The game has brought me not just strategies, creative thinking and innovations but also new friends, colleagues and even long-time buddies. With that, I decided to reminisce some important lessons I have learned in my nine years of being a Magic player/enthusiast. Here it goes: Read more
New MTG Gateway Promo Cards
March 6, 2009 by Mark Ian
Filed under Magic The Gathering
I don’t know if you already know about this but for the sake of those who don’t, here are the two new Conflux cards (with an alternate art) that will be included in the Conflux Gateway kits.

The kit is actually composed of the following:
- 40 each of 2 different alternate art promotional cards
- Conflux Magic The Gathering Gateway Kit poster
- Gateway Kit Information Sheet
- Gateway League Tracking Sheet
- How to Run a Magic The Gathering Tournament information
- How to Schedule and Report a Casual Event information
- 5 DCI membership cards to sign up new players
More info about MTG Gateway here.
Info source: The Rumor Mill.
Freebies and Bonuses: Magic The Gathering Edition
March 3, 2009 by Mark Ian
Filed under Magic The Gathering
Can’t think of something to post. I got stuck at work here in the office in the past few days, doing keyword research and writing Google ads for my new client. This just pop out of my mind while searching for online marketing stuff. I’ve noticed that alot of bonuses and freebies were given every time you join their coaching program or buy their products. These marketing strategies is also applied in Magic card and creature spells. Here are some of them.
Divine vs. Demonic Packaging Revealed
February 25, 2009 by Mark Ian
Filed under Magic The Gathering
An update regarding the upcoming Duel Decks: Divine vs. Demonic which was announced last December, Magic Arcana revealed today its packaging. Check it out below.
The display box

A closer look at the box.

We can see that the two cards are the legendary angel Akroma, Angel of Wrath and the demon Lord of the Pit. I am assuming the cards for the Divine deck are something on creatures like Angel of Mercy, and Venerable Monk and holy spells like Angelic Blessing, Angelsong, Congregate, etc.
The black cards I assume would be Terror and the related “evil” stuff. I just hope the list will include strong and Standard playable cards.
Duel Decks: Divine vs. Demonic will be released on April 10.
Top Standard Decks for the First Week of Conflux
February 10, 2009 by Mark Ian
Filed under Magic The Gathering
Hey all. Looking at the recent online tournaments at Magic League and the Standard decks posted at Deckcheck.net, I’ve decided to give you an update on the top Standard decks people are playing just after Conflux entered the scene. Read more

