Hey guys, Mark Ian here. First of all, thank you very much for visiting my blog. For just a little background of what I do, I’m a Project Development Officer of the Iloilo City Planning and Development Office. The things I do during my spare time are of course planning some study guides, brewing and playtesting some Standard decks, writing articles on MTG Strategy and my recent one is bike ride vlogging.
Magic the Gathering History
Regarding my Magic history, I started playing in Urza’s Destiny expansion. I think that was way back in 1999 during my fourth year in high school. A classmate introduced me to it. My first deck was a Red Green Aggro deck with Viashinos, Goblins, Simian Apes, Giant Growths, Rancors and a few burns like Shock and Arc Lightning. I also bought a Preconstructed deck to do some upgrades.
My first preconstructed deck
It was just purely casual as I got to learn more about the game. Entering college, I took a short break playing and came back again after meeting new Magic peeps.
One of them eventually became my card pool partner until today. I entered the Standard tournament scene in our area during the Invasion Block/Odyssey era using a Blue Black deck utilizing the combo of Traumatize and Haunting Echoes. I didn’t won a round of that tournament but that’s one great experience and made me learn to play more competitively.
Almost every major tournament I joined after that and eventually I was able to win my first championship, using a Blue Black Psychatog control deck. A deck type far from what I play today.
My first Regionals tournament was 2002 at Bacolod. I piloted a Black White midrange deck with random creatures such as Sengir Vampire and Cloudchaser Eagle (which was for Pernicious Deed that time). It was fun beating down your opponent with those cards. The deck got me on 7th place and I was able to qualify for the Nationals. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the money to go to Manila so I had to pass the opportunity.
I started joining the Regionals again in 2007, this time in Cebu, piloting the famous Gruul aggro deck. We came back again last year and were more successful as two of my teammates qualified. This year we are planning earlier and hope to do much better than the previous years.
Team Iloilo at Cebu Regionals 2008
Team Iloilo at Grand Prix Singapore 2011
Me in the middle during the preliminary rounds of Phil Nationals 2011 last August.
Team Iloilo at Grand Prix Kuala Lumpur last March 2012
Placed Top 8 on the first WMCQ last April 6th, 2013
Made the Top 8 of the Journey Into Nyx Gameday in Bacolod
Doing MtG tutorials at the 2nd Iloilo Hobby Con last July 2015
Part of the Judge staff during the third World Magic Cup Qualifiers PH last September 2015.
What I liked about Magic is that it’s like a career. If you don’t practice well or tune up the deck you’re piloting, I bet you won’t succeed. It will get your mind thinking of card ideas and strategies, even when you’re asleep. Also, you get to meet a lot of different people and become friends with them. Most of my friends today if asked how I met them, they would say Magic or because of Magic cards.
About the Site
Deathmarked was put up to have my place on the web to burst out my musings about Magic: the Gathering (deck strategies, card analysis, tournament reports and all of that), and also blog about me, things I do, my rants and other stuff on the Internet that gets my interest.
So that’s about it. I hope you enjoy your stay. 🙂