French Site Previews A Zendikar Angel

Hey y’all. The Zendikar preview for today came from a French site named Magic Ville in which they showed a white card with an angel art, a flavor text and a name that translates as Iona, Shield of Emeria. Check out the French preview card below.

The card art is also from the two Zendikar playmat products. A closer look at the card image shows that the angel is somewhat casting a spell that wrecks the ruins around her.

This gave me a hint that the card could have an Landfall ability effect. Also, the 3 pairs of Angel wings reminds me of that guardian angel from the game Diablo. Lol. Anyway, my guess of the ability would be like destroying another target land when a land comes into the battlefield under your control or the much powerful Armageddon-like comes into the battlefield effect when you play this angel. The flavor text translates to “The righteous will no longer tremble before evil.” Pretty cool one.

I know everyone of you hate this slow spoiling of the cards but let’s just be patient and see what surprise Wizards has it for us.

The Wrath Of God Is Back In The Day Of Judgment

Yes you’ve read it right folks. It was revealed today at our favorite Rumor Mill that there’s a comeback or should we say a functional reprint for Wrath of God in the form of the sorcery spell Day of Judgment. This will be provided as a promo card for Magic Full Box Promotion (just like the previous Honor of the Pure in M10) for participating store outlets. Check out the card, also with a very cool art by Kev Walker, below. Continue reading

Tournament Report: Phil. Open Day 2 – Standard (11th place)

Hi all. It’s been one week since I went to Manila to participate in the Magic: the Gathering Philippine Open 2009, together with the rest of Team Iloilo. To recall, Mao and Oliver got invites to the Nationals and the Phil. Open was the side event. They started well on the Standard part but got the losses on the Drafts. On Day 1 of the Philippine Open which is an Alara Block format, I decided to pilot my friend’s 5 color aggro. I started 1-2 and frustrated, decided to drop early because I wasn’t really comfortable with the deck’s lack of removal. I just went ahead and took some pictures of the Day One happenings and promised myself to get it back on the Standard format the next day. Continue reading

The One Booster Draft

Hey guys. If you want to enjoy drafting but don’t have the budget, why not try the one booster draft. Here’s how it works:

What You Need

1. A booster pack
2. Some basic lands

The Rules

1. Each player picks a card from the pack and pass it to the direction agreed by the group. Do this until all the cards in the pack are drafted.

2. The players will then create a deck out of the chosen cards provided the deck will have a minimum of 25 cards and all the drafted cards must be used.

3. They will then be randomly paired and the game time will be the same with the normal time on regular drafts.

4. Each player starts at 15 life. Whoever gets his opponent’s life to zero wins.

5. The top four players after three rounds get the prizes, or you can make it cheaper and utilize the packs by picks by rank (i.e. the first place gets the first pick, and then the next pick for the 2nd placer and so on).

So there you have it. I hope you can try it and still enjoy drafting with just a booster to spend. 😀

p.s. watch out for the report of our trip to the MTG Philippine Open last weekend. Until next time.

BR Goblins in M10 Version 2

Here’s the updated version of the Black Red Goblins that I’ve created post M10 Standard. Dragon Fodder acts like Time Spiral’s Mogg War Marshall, producing tokens to benefit the Goblin lords’ passive ability. I’ve also added Redcap and 2 Fallout to deal with token decks.

Maindeck
Lands
8 [ALA] Mountain
4 [SHM] Mountain
4 [M10] Dragonskull Summit
4 [SHM] Graven Cairns
4 [LRW] Auntie’s Hovel

Creatures
2 [LRW] Wort, Boggart Auntie
3 [M10] Siege-Gang Commander
4 [M10] Goblin Chieftain
4 [LRW] Squeaking Pie Sneak
3 [SHM] Murderous Redcap
4 [CFX] Goblin Outlander
4 [LRW] Mad Auntie

Spells
4 [ALA] Dragon Fodder
2 [CFX] Volcanic Fallout
3 [M10] Lightning Bolt
3 [M10] Doom Blade

Sideboard
SB: 4 [M10] Deathmark
SB: 2 [EVE] Chaotic Backlash
SB: 4 [LRW] Thoughtseize
SB: 2 [ARB] Thought Hemorrhage
SB: 3 [ALA] Infest

The sideboard is concentrated on beating white token decks, and the Thoughtseizes and Thought Hemorrhage for control and combo decks.

An ideal play would be:
Turn 2 – Dragon Fodder
Turn 3 – Chieftain
Turn 4 – Another Fodder or Pie Sneak *haste-beating action*

Let me know what you think.

Jamie Mackintosh Wins Australia Nationals

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 land

1 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 creatures

2 Manamorphose
4 Primal Command
6 other spells

Sideboard
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