So yesterday was the second day of the full week Magic: the Gathering tournament for Iloilo City and this was held at Critical Hit: Comics and Games at around 6:30pm. We had nine players in attendance to duel for the Standard Showdown packs along with the regular GRN boosters. I was the TO and I, unfortunately, forgot to bring a deck which supposedly filled the tenth player slot. anyhow, as I was handling the event, I decided to check on the other booster pack products that they are selling. I saw that there were still a lot of Ixalan booster packs and I have though of the notable Rare and uncommon in the set which I can sell later on. I initially bought three booster packs and got two ok-ok Rares and a crap Mythic. Also, only Kitesail Freebooter as the notable Uncommon. Unsatisfied, I decided to check two more booster packs and still no luck. I was persistent that I can open at least a Search for Azcanta or Carnage Tyrant and ended up with these.

That is about eleven Ixalan booster packs opened. No Tyrant or Vraska’s Contempt or Vraska herself. A few of the Rares and Mythics I opened were the following:

Settle the Wreckage
Rowdy Crew
Burning Sun’s Avatar
Ripjaw Raptor
Entrancing melody
Overflowing Insight
Spell Swindle
Wakening Sun’s Avatar
Fathom Fleet Captain
Sunpetal Grove
Shaper’s Sanctuary
Kinjalli’s Sunwing

Notable Uncommons were Chart a Course, Siren Stormtamer, Unclaimed Territory and Lightning Strike. To sum up all the cards’ current prices, it has barely made in half of the total amount I have spent of those booster packs. I somewhat regret it, yes, but it was the risk I took. I was hoping to open a good Mythic but all three were just about a dollar in cost. Anyhow, I would still get the value by selling these cards to the other local players and use the remaining Commons to build some tutorial and freebie decks for the next Learn-to-Play sessions.

Enough of this rant. Until the next post.

One of the interesting Standard deck builds i have found from the PPTQ results last week was this version of a Grixis Aggro. The deck was piloted by Caio Amaral and he took down the tournament with the metagame of Temur Energy and Ramunap Red decks. How about a build with solid removals, efficient creatures and planeswalker with good counter and discard backup? Check out the decklist below.

Grixis Aggro
Maindeck
26 LANDS
4 Aether Hub
3 Canyon Slough
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Drowned Catacomb
3 Fetid Pools
1 Island
2 Mountain
4 Spirebluff Canal
1 Swamp

17 CREATURES
4 Glint-Sleeve Siphoner
3 Glorybringer
2 Hostage Taker
2 The Scarab God
2 Torrential Gearhulk
4 Whirler Virtuoso
14 INSTANTS and SORC.
2 Abrade
1 Essence Scatter
3 Fatal Push
4 Harnessed Lightning
2 Supreme Will
2 Vraska’s Contempt

3 OTHER SPELLS
3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance

SIDEBOARD
1 Abrade
2 Chandra’s Defeat
1 Doomfall
2 Dreamstealer
2 Duress
2 Glimmer of Genius
2 Hour of Devastation
2 Negate
1 Vraska’s Contempt

I continue to find interesting deck builds in Magic: the Gathering Grand Prix tournaments around the world. Another sighting is this midrange build of the Grixis colors (Black/Red/Blue) from GP Atlanta.

The deck, played by Sergio Ferry, almost made it in the Top 8 with just a few decimal points short of the cut-off. Anyhow, here is the decklist:

Maindeck
4 Aether Hub
3 Canyon Slough
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Drowned Catacomb
3 Fetid Pools
1 Island
2 Mountain
4 Spirebluff Canal
1 Swamp

2 Champion of Wits
2 Gifted Aetherborn
4 Glint-Sleeve Siphoner
4 Glorybringer
2 Hostage Taker
1 The Scarab God
1 Vizier of Many Faces
3 Whirler Virtuoso

1 Abrade
2 Doomfall
4 Fatal Push
4 Harnessed Lightning
2 Vraska’s Contempt
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance

Sideboard
1 Abrade
2 Chandra’s Defeat
4 Duress
1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury
2 Negate
1 Never / Return
1 Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
1 River’s Rebuke
1 Supreme Will
1 Vizier of Many Faces

One of the Standard deck techs that was featured at the Pro Tour Ixalan last weekend was the Mono White version of Vampires. We knew that the tribe had returned in the plane of Ixalan which looked like wearing some Spaniard uniforms and this time with White

as the other color. The featured deck, however, went for a Mono White version utilizing Oketra’s Monument to lessen the tribe’s creature cost. Here below is the full decklist:

Maindeck
2 Duskborne Skymarcher
4 Aviary Mechanic
4 Adanto Vanguard
4 Metallic Mimic
4 Legion Conquistador
3 Mavren Fein, Dusk Apostle
3 Angel of Invention

4 Oketra’s Monument
4 Legion’s Landing
1 Thopter Arrest
2 Cast Out
3 Ixalan’s Binding

4 Shefet Dunes
3 Scavenger Grounds
15 Plains

Sideboard
2 Thopter Arrest
2 Fragmentize
4 Glory-Bound Initiate
1 Aethersphere Harvester
4 Dusk // Dawn
1 Gideon’s Intervention
1 Angel of Sanctions

Variations at times can get you a high finish in a Magic tournament, given the right timing of the metagame and cards’ power level. One example is this deck tech I have found from the recent Brazilian Nationals. Blue Black Control is the best course but why

not try a midrange version?

Ub Midrange – Lucas Esper Berthoud
2nd place, Nationals 2017 – Brazil

Maindeck
26 LANDS
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Fetid Pools
1 Field of Ruin
5 Island
8 Swamp

14 CREATURES
4 Gifted Aetherborn
1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury
4 Kitesail Freebooter
3 The Scarab God
2 Torrential Gearhulk

19 INSTANTS and SORC.
4 Chart a Course
1 Commit / Memory
1 Essence Extraction
2 Essence Scatter
4 Fatal Push
2 Glimmer of Genius
3 Supreme Will
2 Vraska’s Contempt

1 OTHER SPELLS
1 Search for Azcanta

Sideboard
2 Contraband Kingpin
4 Duress
1 Essence Extraction
1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury
4 Negate
1 River’s Rebuke
1 Search for Azcanta
1 Vraska’s Contempt

The recent decklist I have come up with was patterned on the Jund Walkers deck during the time of Innistrad and Return to Ravnica in Standard. Each of the relevant components has an equivalent in the current setup, for instance, Thragtusk is represented now by Regisaur Alpha. Here below is the first version of the deck, Jund Midrange. Comments and suggestions are very much welcome.

1 Deathgorge Scavenger
3 Glorybringer
4 Regisaur Alpha
4 Burning Sun’s Avatar
4 Servant of the Conduit

3 Abrade
4 Attune with Aether
1 Cut/Ribbons
1 Doomfall
3 Fatal Push
1 Unlicensed Disintegration
2 Vraska’s Contempt

2 Vraska, Relic Seeker
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Liliana, Death’s Majesty

4 Aether Hub
4 Blooming Marsh
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Dragonskull Summit
1 Canyon Slough
3 Forest
2 Mountain
2 Swamp

The reprint or maybe an upgrade of Outpost Siege in the form of Vance’s Blasting Cannons got me thinking of its uses not only in Ramunap Red but also in a Blue Red (mostly) Spells deck. The build goes on a pseudo-Burn route with Blue for cheap card draws like Opt and Chart a Course. The low curve is prioritized for a higher chance of transforming Vance’s Blasting Cannons.

Here below is the first version of the U/R Blasting Cannons deck:

Creatures
3 Bloodwater Entity
1 Angrath’s Marauders
3 Glorybringer

Spells
2 Abrade
2 Chart a Course
4 Lightning Strike
2 Open Fire
4 Opt
4 Repeating Barrage
1 Glimmer of Genius
4 Vance’s Blasting Cannons
2 Magma Spray
4 Shock

Lands
4 Highland Lake
4 Spirebluff Canal
2 Sheltered Thicket
2 Fetid Pools
4 Ramunap Ruins
2 Sunscorched Desert
2 Mountain
4 Island

I have thought of this version of the Dinosaurs deck in Ixalan Standard after checking some Dino build in MTG websites like Channel Fireball. R/G would be the traditional list but I chose Blue as the third color mainly because of the card Vizier of Many Faces which can be a board changer when it copies the creatures like Carnage Tyrant & Regisaur Alpha. It can also be a nuisance on an opposing Carnage Tyrant which basically just offers a creature trade on combat.

Here below is my first version of the deck, Temur Dinosaurs:

4 Botanical Sanctum
4 Spirebluff Canal
2 Aether Hub
4 Rootbound Crag
2 Sheltered Thicket
1 Island
3 Forest
3 Mountain

4 Carnage Tyrant
4 Drover of the Mighty
4 Regisaur Alpha
4 Ripjaw Raptor
3 Vizier of Many Faces
2 Burning Sun’s Avatar

2 Attune with Aether
3 Commune with Dinosaurs
3 Harnessed Lightning
3 Savage Stomp
2 Samut, the Tested
2 Supreme Will