Here are our pics taken during the M10 Prerelease Party here in Iloilo City. It showcased the event area, some game highlights, and the awards segment. To recall, I got into the top 4 (4th place actually) with a 3-1 record. John Paul got an undefeated record 4-0 and got first place and the T-shirt prize. The other t-shirt went to Mao who got 2nd place with 3-1. Better luck for me next time on the shirt.

Yesterday was a fun-filled Magic2010 Coreset Prerelease for us here in Magic: the Gathering Iloilo community. Although the participants were lessened to 18 players, it was still an enjoyment for us to open those M10 packs and the excitement of getting the chased rares. Too bad for me as none of my starting six booster packs have the rares that I wanted. The good thing though is that the deck has a lot of limited bombs.
After sorting out the colors, my initial list was a hasty one. It was a two-color Red White deck with early beaters and has two late game bombs, Captain of the Watch and Bogardan Hellkite. It was good at first but I noticed a few blunders like mana flooding and bad card choices. I consulted my teammate Oliver for solutions and he said that I didn’t make us of the fixers and other goodies on my green pile. We made a few fixes and final result below.

Maindeck
Lands
7 Forest
3 Mountain
7 Plains

Creatures
1 Acidic Slime
1 Bogardan Hellkite
2 Borderland Ranger
2 Emerald Oryx
1 Siege Mastodon
1 Blinding Mage
1 Goblin Artillery
1 Stormfront Pegasus
1 Captain of the Watch
1 Palace Guard
1 Giant Spider
1 Undead Slayer
1 White Knight
1 Serra Angel

Spells
1 Act of Treason
1 Divine Verdict
1 Oakenform
1 Rampant Growth
1 Pyroclasm
2 Excommunicate

The red was the splash color and the green was for fixing and mana acceleration. The biggest mistake was that I already registered the Red White list before doing the fix so I had to change it to this list every game 2 of the match. Wtf…

Here’s a summary of my match-ups:

Round 1 – Sieger (U/W) Won 2-0 *the deck was still Red White at this time
Highlights: Top decked a Captain of the Watch to match his aggro and life gain from Soul Warden got me out of range from his Phantom Warrior and griffin.

Round 2 – Carl (G/W) Won 2-1
Highlights: He got mana screwed in Game 1, I got color screwed in Game 2 and he went all Plains in Game 3. He catches up with the game though but I got better draws. I was able to Divine Verdict of his Armored Ascension and Holy Strength enhanced Pegasus. Good thing I curved out the three colors in that game.

Round 3 – JP (G/W/B) Lost 0-2
Highlights: I got crappy draws and mana flooding in Game 1 and mana screw in Game 2. My stupid decisions in the last game cost me the match. Why would anyone keep a one-land seven hand on the draw?

Round 4 – Melo (G/W/B) Won 2-1
Highlights: His Baneslayer Angel is insane, killed me with that in Game 1. Turn 5 Angel, what the hell.

Game 2 was a close one. I answered his Angel with Divine Verdict but he was able to get it back with Gravedigger. It led to a scenario where he had the Angel back in play and I got 3 creatures, a Bogardan Hellkite in hand, and an open mana to play it. It took me time to decide whether to play the hellkite or not because he was still out of range of the hellkite damage and might be able to get back with the lifegain from the angel. Eventually, I played it at the end of the turn so I could have enough mana for any top deck card I got. The good thing is I topdecked the best card to solve the situation, Act of Treason. Play it, target the Baneslayer Angel, and swing for the win!

I boarded in a Tempest of Light because of the Pacifism I saw in the last game. The deciding game was quite similar to the last one. I was able to get ahead of him on mana with a turn 2 Rampant Growth and turn 3 Ranger. He was able to get out Baneslayer Angel but I was able to answer it again with Divine Verdict. He got out a rarity-lesser Serra Angel to match mine who was doing the beatdown earlier. That opening enabled me to Act of Treason his angel and swing for the win, plus the ping damage of Goblin Artillery.

I won three packs but didn’t get chased by rares again (Mind Spring, Mind Shatter, and Lightwielder Paladin).

Overall, M10 is an interesting set to play with in Limited although I’m not too fond of some of the cards especially the generic and lame ability creatures that occupy the uncommon slots.

How’s your M10 Prerelease?

The arrival of the Magic 2010 core set and the rotation of Tenth Edition in Standard shaped up the current metagame and introduced us to new strategies in deck building. This also meant the return of Lorwyn favorite tribal decks and one of which is the goblins or boggarts in the Lorwyn world. M10 introduced new cards to tune up the deck. Here are some of the choices.

Lightning Bolt – everybody’s favorite burn spell is back. I’m sure this one will get a spot in the deck.

Goblin Chieftain – this goblin will surely become one of the backbones of the deck. Combined with the other Goblin lord black version (Mad Auntie), the deck can have a very explosive start like the scenario below:

Turn 2 Frogtosser Banneret, attack (1 damage)
Turn 3 Goblin Chieftain, attack (4 damage)
Turn 4 Siege-Gang Commander, attack (13 damage)

Goblin Artillery – the exact version of Orcish Artillery, this card gets pretty good use with a chieftain in play.

Doom Blade – this black spot removal deals with the pesky pro-red guys like the forge-tender and Vedalken Outlander.

The Returnees

Some of the forgotten Lorwyn block cards may have a comeback in post-M10 Standard.

Squeaking Pie Sneak – this fear Goblin can effectively do early damage and gets more effective with the eight lord copies.

Mad Auntie – the pre-Shadowmoor goblins that I made had been using this card so there’s a high rate this will get a slot in the deck.

Wort, Boggart Auntie – this Goblin legend gets good use in post-mass removal situations and also reloads the gas of the deck.

Marsh Flitter – I’m thinking of this card as a pseudo-card advantage version of Spectral Procession plus it can also benefit with a lord in play.

Frogtosser Banneret – The deck’s accelerator also speeds up the cost of Marsh Flitter.

The Worth Mentions

Siege-gang Commander – The big guns of the Goblins and the finisher of the deck. Just don’t let this guy untap.

Goblin Outlander – this is definitely a default part of the deck to take care of white guys like the Rhox War Monk (well, a third of it is white) in which big ass err toughness and life gain give trouble to the deck.

Terminate – this instant takes care of critters that Doom blade can’t handle. Yes, I’m looking at you, Putrid Leech and Doran.

The Deck

With all the stuff mentioned now, here’s my initial list of the deck:

Maindeck

Creatures (26)
3 Frogtosser Banneret
4 Goblin Chieftain
4 Goblin Outlander
2 Mad Auntie
3 Siege-gang Commander
4 Squeaking Pie Sneak
3 Wort Boggart Auntie
3 Marsh Flitter

Spells (10)
3 Doom Blade
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Terminate

Lands (24)
4 Auntie’s Hovel
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Graven Cairns
7 Mountain
5 Swamp

The sideboard is still under construction as the meta hasn’t evolved that yet. I’m actually waiting for decklists from upcoming big tournaments online and offline. Still looking to playtest this on MWS or maybe try some proxy version for actual card testing. Stay tuned for part two of this article as I discuss some matchups and sideboarding guides. Till next time.

Last Friday, I decided to tweak my Mono White Kithkins deck by splashing blue for Negate. The mono-white list was based on Daniel de Almeida Alves’ Kithkins list that got first place in GP Sao Paulo. Here’s my mono-white Kithkins list.

Mainboard
2 Mutavault
16 Plains
3 Rustic Clachan
4 Windbrisk Heights

3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
4 Cloudgoat Ranger
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Knight of Meadowgrain
4 Wizened Cenn
3 Ranger of Eos

1 Ajani Goldmane
4 Glorious Anthem
4 Path to Exile
4 Spectral Procession

This list earned me 3rd and 4th place in our local tournament the other week. Now with the blue-white list, I noticed the deck’s problem is a lot of mass removal spells which promptly nullifies the deck’s card advantage that’s why I think Negate would be the right answer. Also, I really wanted to try this list even before the Regionals but didn’t have the opportunity because the community switched to Alara block-constructed tournaments. Here is my version of blue-white kithkins:

Mainboard
4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Mystic Gate
11 Plains
2 Rustic Clachan
4 Windbrisk Heights

2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
4 Cloudgoat Ranger
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Knight of Meadowgrain
4 Wizened Cenn
2 Ranger of Eos

4 Glorious Anthem
3 Negate (secret tech)
4 Path to Exile
4 Spectral Procession

Sideboard
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Celestial Purge
2 Elspeth, Knight Errant
1 Negate
2 Oblivion Ring
1 Ranger of Eos
2 Reveillark
3 Wrath of God

I piloted the list on Saturday’s local tournament and here are the summary of the match-ups:

Round 1 – Jund Blood (Won 2-0)
Round 2 – Boat Brew (Lost 1-2)
Round 3 – 4 Color Control (Won 2-0)
Round 4 – Jund Midrange (Won 2-1)
Round 5 – Bant Crashers (Drew 1-1-1)

Top 8 – B/W Kithkins (Lost 1-2)

The Black-White Kithkins eventually became the champion of the tournament. A few highlights of my matchups include several negating of crucial spells like Infest, Blightning, and Zealous Persecution. Overall, I think the deck performed well despite of a few mana flooding which is probably because of my shuffling. Oh well, can’t avoid that.

I suggest you try the list and adjust the sideboard depending on your local meta. I’ll guarantee you will have fun with it.

Hi guys. Its been a really long while since my last update. I just couldn’t get my mindset back on writing again. Maybe its because of the many tasks at work I’ve been getting lately. Oh well, I’d apologize for that. I’ll try to get it back and share to you the happenings here on the previous weeks and possibly a recap of my Regionals this year.

For the meantime, enjoy these cool artwork for the upcoming M10 this July. Guess what, Lightning Bolt is back baby!

Snapping Drake by Todd Lockwood

Palace Guard by Volkan Baga

Lightning Bolt by Christopher Moeller

Drudge Skeletons by Daarken

Cudgel Troll by Jesper Ejsing

Baneslayer Angel by Eric Deschamps

More pics here. Source: Mymagic.ru