The new Magic: the Gathering Kaladesh Standard has in a way got me excited to play the format. A whole lot of deck designs have entered especially archetypes that adopted the mechanics from the latest set. Last night’s Friday Night Magic gave me the chance to play a deck that is one of the previous strategies in the Innistrad set. The deck was Blue White Spirits and here below is the decklist:

8 Island
8 Plains
4 Port Town
4 Prairie Stream

3 Archangel Avacyn
2 Bygone Bishop
3 Mausoleum Wanderer
3 Nebelgast Herald
4 Rattlechains
4 Selfless Spirit
4 Spell Queller

2 Essence Flux
4 Revolutionary Rebuff
3 Unsubstantiate
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Stasis Snare

Back in its earlier version before the rotation, I saw it as just a pseudo-tempo deck that benefits from the use of Flash creatures and counterspells. Honestly, I have not played a list before and just saw match replays on YouTube. Anyhow, I had a background and somewhat read about it and how its interactions work so I decided to give the deck a try in the tournament.

The FNM held 18 players in which I am glad of the consistently high attendance. My matchup summary was as follows:

Round 1 vs Green White Aggro – won 2-0
Round 2 vs Blue Energy Colossus – won 2-0
Round 3 vs Blue Red Ping Burn – won 2-0
Round 4 vs Red Green Energy Aggro – drew 0-0-3

My final record was 3-0-1, with 10 points equivalent, and garnered me first place and was prized with 3 Kaladesh booster packs.

With regards to the RG matchup, I don’t think I am fast enough preboard to stop the early aggression. Though with the planned sideboard of Blessed Alliance and Immolating Glare, I would be in good shape in Games 2 and 3.

The other grindy matchup on both games I played was against Green White Aggro in which the Verdurous Gearhulk is much of a board changer. It was way beyond the Queller’s reach and cannot be countered by Revolutionary Rebuff. I was just glad that I was able to play the right sideboards as well as the correct combat tricks and gameplay decisions.

Overall, I can say Blue White Spirits is probably a safe deck choice as of the moment even though Red White Vehicles are still popular and with people preparing and I think has already defined a game plan for that matchup.

I am hoping this next Saturday’s Standard tournament will still garner a high number of participants. I can see though not claim that these are the fruits of our efforts in promoting the hobby in Iloilo City.

To wrap up this post, here are a few pics of the FNM tournament scene from last night.