It is a good initiative by our local game store Pro Rei’s Place to hold a Magic Arena tournament for the Iloilo players in a way to continue the local Magic: the Gathering scene despite the current pandemic being experienced by everyone.

Currently, on its 2nd week or event, the organized gameplay with the use of streaming and chat technologies such as Discord, OBS studio and Twitch has somewhat advanced our setup in the digital setting rather than just streaming the games of major tournaments such as the Red Bull Untapped Qualifiers and Players Championship.

I’ve talked with Rei and he said that he aimed this to be a weekly regular event with a month ender special event wherein the Top 8 players from the local ranking points are to be qualified. With lots of special prizes including physical booster packs in the recent sets, the players will aim to increase their weekly points to be able to get in the Top 8 rank.

Currently, the weekly Saturday Arena tournament will have a P150 registration fee and with the Core Set M21 Promo Packs and regular booster packs for the top finishers. It ain’t that big at the moment but then reaching the monthly goal will be good news. Also, I have volunteered to giveaway a playmat last week for the 1st place player, Mark Tubola, playing Sultai Control. This time, I might have one Magic: the Gathering product for the end of the month tournament special.

That is a wrap for now. I will have another blog post for the tournament results on this 2nd week. It is streamed on Eric’s Twitch account, Air Vengeance.

The Gameswalker 50k trial tournaments here for the Iloilo City local gamestores were held last week with the purpose of giving the first-place winners a first-round bye at the main event. The organizers have allotted two slots for each game store which is valid in accordance to the number of players in the area.

The first trial event was held at Nth Dimension last Wednesday night at was attended by 18 players. The winners’ decision was ranking-based after Swiss rounds and it was Ruel Dolar playing Gruul aggro that emerged as the winner of the tournament. I have known him as a long-time pilot of this archetype but his build is a little spicier than that of a typical list. He would include one-ofs of his favorite creature or spell that would gain him a huge advantage in certain situations.

Saturday Trials tournament was at Pro Reis Place with 18 players in attendance. The first place in rank after the five rounds of Swiss was Christian Atienza with Simic Flash. He outlasted his Esper Hero opponents in grueling matches with the freebie Wolf tokens from Nightpack Ambusher protected by the sideboard card Veil of Summer. My teammate Ace played the same archetype but only finished in 3rd place. Anyway, we are looking for adjustments in the metagame again in the coming weeks as the new archetypes make their mark in Standard.

Congratulations to the two winners of the first batch of Gameswalker Trials Iloilo.  

Most of the players probably enjoy spell slinging as the weekends comes and the nearest venue is at Pro Reis Place for Standard format and Nth Dimension for Modern. The high attendance is still maintained as more new faces attend the Standard FNM event, with hopes of winning that month’s promo foil card and a few booster packs. It was also good that the Modern FNM was able to push through after a few weeks of cancellation due to the lack of players.

Here below are the tournament results of the two events last Friday.

Friday Night Magic at Pro Reis Place
Top 8:
1st JD – Mono Blue Tempo
2nd Rei – Esper Control
3rd Gudo – Mono Red Aggro
4th Christian – Jund Warriors
5th Mark T – Jund Chainwhirler
6th Andrew – Sultai Krassis
7th Paolo – Sultai Krassis
8th Mandoy – Mono Blue Tempo

20 players, 4 rounds gameplay

Friday Night Magic (Modern) at Nth Dimension
Top 4:
Ace – Dredge
Ralph – Abzan Company
Ganz – Mono G Tron
Luigi – Jund Midrange

10 players, 4 rounds gameplay

I am happy to report that the recent MTG local tournaments here in Iloilo City show an increase in the number of players, which started with the Wednesday Standard Showdown event at Critical Hit in Festive Mall. This may be caused by the variance of the current metagame in Standard not only with Mono Colored decks gaining the top spots but also on the Ravnica Guild-based decks. I see that the players are enjoying this current format.

Here below is the summary of the player attendance in the last five MTG Iloilo tournaments:

Wednesday Standard Showdown at Critical Hit Festive Mall, Nov. 7 – 12 players in attendance
Thursday Magic at Reis, Nov. 8 – 10 players gathered
Friday Night Magic at Reis, Nov. 9 – 18 players in attendance
Saturday Standard Showdown at Reis, Nov. 10 – 18 players attended
Saturday Standard Showdown at Nth Dimension, Nov. 10 – 8 players attended

Below is one post on the MTG Iloilo Facebook page.

This may encourage me again to schedule at least three tournaments for this week. It is also a good thing that Rei supports this despite saying that this might cause fatigue to the players. Anyhow, seeing their enthusiastic response to play in the tournaments, I will be scheduling four local events this week. I am also working out with a friend who has a coffee shop in City Times Square if it’s possible to have a tournament at their place. We will see how it goes. Stay tuned for the announcement at our MTG Iloilo Facebook page.

That is about it. Until the next blog post.

The ConQuest 2018 eSports and Gaming Convention is in the books. It was a successful two-day gathering of gaming, cosplay, anime, and pop culture enthusiasts. Magic: the Gathering Iloilo also took part of this event and we decided to have Standard Showdown in a special setting and in terms of prizes. Friday night’s setup was pretty quick as we just brought foldable tables as additional for our play area. They have also provided tables and chairs so the spacing was not an issue. I announced the event details to the group and the MTG Iloilo page one week prior and asked for their suggestions. I have wanted to hold a Duel Commander Tournament that Saturday morning or Sunday afternoon but most of the people in the EDH group were not available to play at those times. I was canceled and I decided to replace it with a Core Set 2019 Booster draft. The listing of participants also followed.

Come Saturday and I arrived early around 8:30am to setup the tables, chairs and the booth for the Learn-to-play tutorial area. I was alone that time but the good thing is that a few peeps of the ConQuest organizers provided man power to setup the tables and chairs. Still, I was damn soaked with perspiration and we didn’t expect the sun to be up as it was already raining for days prior to the event.

The venue opened at 10am and Day 1 of ConQuest 2018 started. Flocks and groups of event goers entered and explored the place. I was still alone at our MTG Iloilo booth and smiled and greeted each person that passed by and looking with interest at our merchandise. I don’t remember which player arrived first but the companions and few of participants for the scheduled booster draft that morning arrived. We agreed to schedule it at 11am and so they were already around seven of them by the time of 10:45am. I conducted the first batch of tutorials to the students of Ateneo de Iloilo while waiting for them to be complete. It was already 11:30am when I gathered the drafters and started the picks.

Here are some of the pics I took during the M19 booster draft.

The Top 2 players after 3 rounds were Ace and Oliver and were given the first two priority picks of the Rares and Mythics that the group got from the draft. There were not much relevant cards opened aside from the Crucible of Worlds that is more viable in older formats.

Saturday Standard Showdown

Saturday afternoon setup was Standard Showdown and there were ten players in attendance. I don’t know the exact reason why there were fewer players in attendance, maybe because of the post-Nationals rest period or maybe because of entrance fee of P99 per person. Anyhow, that still means 4 rounds of Swiss and I had Rei to TO and manage the event.

Here are the results of the Saturday Standard Showdown tournament.

1st, Franco – Mono Red Aggro
2nd, Andrew – Blue White Control
3rd Oliver – Grixis Midrange

Overall, here the pics of Magic: the Gathering Iloilo during the first day of the ConQuest 2018:

With my recent busy schedule of attending seminars and workshops related to Urban Planning, I have been thinking if I conduct my seminar for an introduction to Magic: the Gathering. In this way, I can present the hobby in a sort of formal but fun platform

and at the same time recruit new members of the MTG Iloilo Community. This is also a way to introduce Magic to schools, to discuss its positive effects on critical/mathematical thinking and also to appreciate it as a stress outlet to most kids who are facing problems in their youth.

I have not yet planned the final layout of the discussion but it will be most likely about the introduction and the basic rules and goals of the game, along with the parts of the card and card types. I cannot get to detail those at the moment so just stay tuned for post updates. For now, I think my best reference is Wizards’ New to Magic Page.

I am also in the process of coordinating with the new players and their schools with regard to the possible inclusion in one of their future school events. That’s a wrap for now. Until the next post.

This weekend will be the Prerelease event for the set Hour of Devastation and there will be two separate-day events for the players to choose according to their convenience. The first day will be on Saturday hosted by Rei and the venue is at Robinsons Place Jaro activity area. Thanks to their admin and through the efforts of Rino, we will get a chance again to showcase our hobby to the general public. The registration fee is still P1300 and the prizing is the same one booster pack-per-win. We have already made a reservation for the slot of 36 so if you have listed your name, make sure to be around the area by 12 noon.

The second day, Sunday, will be run by Critical Hit: Comics and Games at their store in Atria district. I am not sure what their reg fee and time will be as so far Johann is still gathering the list of the participants.

For the first time participants, bring a 40-card sleeves along with some basic lands that you might be using in building your deck from the PR sealed pool. The venue is near the fast food area and supermarket so it will be easy to grab a snack and drinks in between rounds. Also, I’d suggest to pay your registration fee by Friday to confirm your slot reservation. Just drop by Pro Rei’s Place A3 Bookstore in Fuentes street.

It will be certainly fun playing the new cards of the set so see you this weekend.

Wizards have provided another event for introducing Magic to the newcomers, in the form of Magic Open House. This is scheduled today, April 15th, at your nearest local gamestore. If you know someone who would have interest to play this game, then suggest them to join in this event which is also sort of a welcome party to the upcoming Amonkhet set.

Here are a few details of this event:

What’s Magic Open House?

In short, this event is for people who have never played Magic before, need a Magic refresher, or want to introduce a friend to the game! Show up, get a Welcome Deck, and play Magic against other newer players. Thousands of game stores will be hosting Magic Open House events to welcome players to Magic, one day only, on April 15.

What Should I Expect?

If you’re new to Magic, you can expect to get a Welcome Deck and learn to play during a fun, casual event!

If you already know how to play, bring a friend who might enjoy Magic!

We start by introducing new players to the game and welcome them into the Magic community with learn-to-play sessions, using the “Welcome Decks” that we provide. Veteran players can join in on the fun by bringing a friend or helping to teach new players!

The day culminates with a Standard Pauper event that encourages our new players to test their Pauper build decks and meet the MTG community at large! Free entry for first-time participants!

Players who participate in any aspect of the event (newbies or veterans) get one of the premium full-art basic AMONKHET lands!

Drop by at Rei’s place at around 12 noon today. See you there!

The upcoming Amonkhet set has scheduled Prerelease events for the weekend of April 22 to 23, 2017 and so far here in Iloilo City, Rei has given me a schedule that is on the first day. He also gave the go signal for the reservation list for the players

in the community. The allotted slot is 36 so it most likely that we can accommodate most of the players. As for the venue, we will coordinate with Robinsons Place again if they can give us a venue in one of their malls on that particular day on the 22nd.

I think Critical Hit will have their own Prerelease in their store in Atria and it is likely to be scheduled on the second day or Sunday. I just hope this time that the products will arrive earlier or on time and there are no delays on the courier service.

Here below is the details available so far of the Amonkhet Prerelease here in Iloilo.

Amonkhet Prerelease Iloilo
Saturday, April 22, 2017
Format: Prerelease Sealed
Entry Free: 1350 (to be confirmed)
Time: 12:30pm
Venue: Robinsons Place (to be confirmed)

To be updated with details from the Critical Hit PR event.