One of the new Magic: the Gathering mechanics introduced in Innistrad: Midnight Hunt is the Coven mechanic. It is based on Green/White cards as revealed in the current spoiler season of the set. Coven provides an effect (in spells) or an ability (in permanents) if you control three or more creatures with different powers.

This ability can be either triggered or activated. Examples of triggered abilities are when this permanent enters the battlefield or when the beginning of combat on your turn happens. Selesnya is naturally a creature-based color and can provide a curve that can satisfy the Coven mechanic. There are several one-mana 1/1s, one-mana 2/1s, two-mana 3/3s, and two-mana 2/2s that are also utility creatures. We cherry-pick a few creature components from the Standard 2022 lists of Mono-White and Mono-Green Aggro decks.

As for the upcoming Innistrad: Midnight Hunt set, we have a few notable cards in the deck build like this Dawnhart Wardens card below.

Sigarda, Champion of Light is also favorably considered because of its stats (Flying, Trample, 4/4 for 4 mana) and anthem effect on Humans. Her Coven ability is sort of a win-more scenario but we’ll take it.

As per the previous Innistrad sets, I am looking that Green-White or Selesnya will be a contender deck in the coming Standard format after the rotation. We’ll see more card components as the spoilers from the set continues.

Until the next blog post.

The Magic: the Gathering’s latest set to release, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, has set the players into an adventure in which they can choose a job class or just plainly classes. These are represented in Enchantment cards which the new ability where they can ‘level up’ the enchantment to gain an effect.

Check out this one example card named Paladin Class.

At the initial level, it is a one-mana enchantment that taxes opponents’ spells cast during your turn. Works for only one Blue-based deck with counterspells but it is a good window for you to set up your board with attackers. That is because the next level will surely benefit them with an anthem pump. The last level is what an alpha strike would look like, giving your best-attacking creature +1/+1 for each other attacking creature and of course, double strike. I think this is an auto-addition to the current White Aggro deck in Standard or to that Boros Aggro version.

The other Class Enchantments spoiled so far are as follows. I am looking forward that most of these can see play in Standard as the set becomes legal to play in the coming weeks.

The card spoilers from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms can be found here.

Wizards of the Coast announced the latest product this year that will surely allow players, old school or novice, to try and participate in the Standard format. These are the Magic: the Gathering Challenger Decks 2020. Quoting from their feature article on the mothership site, “These four individual 75-card decks are geared toward Standard play for the Friday Night Magic player and forged out of some of the most recognizable strategies in Standard.” Each of the four harnesses the gameplay of each of the current tier decks in the format.

Each Challenger Deck comes in a complete ready-to-play package with a 60-card main deck and a 15-card sideboard. This is most suggested to those players who are still building their collection and are eager to join their first ever Magic tournament.

The product release date is on April 3, 2020, so I’d suggest that you place your preorder already at your nearest Magic Gamestore.

As for the decklist, I will share only one that I prefer on my playstyle and card value of the deck components. The deck is Cavalcade Charge simply known as Red Deck Wins. See the list below.

You can check the full announcement and the rest of the decklist of the Four Challenger Decks 2020 here.

While the local community is still gearing for its first local Pioneer tournament, Wizards has announced last week that the first B&R (Ban and Restricted) update will be Monday. That is today as of this blog posting. We have somewhat prepared the decks, but also speculating what cards are to be banned. That is given that the impactful cards somewhat has a similar effect like in Modern.

Upon checking this morning’s post from the official Wizards website, they have decided to ban Felidar Guardian, Oath of Nissa and Leyline of Abundance. They have explained the reasons behind the banning of each card in the post. Felidar and Saheeli is the best combo there is, existing in the format which would be the center of concern of the other decks in stopping it from going off. This, in turn, affects the deck-building strategies which the WotC are trying to avoid.

As for the Leyline, they are trying to prevent explosive openings in the terms of mana ramp on Green devotion decks which will turn out to be unfair in gameplay.

In the case of Oath of Nissa, it is a cantrip card that also fix mana for early deployment of the three-mana planeswalkers. I am not sure how they justified the banning of this card but they said it will result in a deck archetype that will affect the diversity of other decks in Pioneer.

You can check the full B&R announcement post here.

Wizards have recently announced a new format named Pioneer and the hype from the players’ response is somewhat very positive. Most are happy that they will be playing their Standard-rotated cards that are not popular in the Modern format. I included, as I am happy to unbox our old cards in my Magic: the Gathering card pool again and it was a good thing that we kept most of our cards. I have also recently joined the Pioneer PH Facebook group to discuss ideas, mostly decklists and other brews of the new format.

As for the deck brews, a lot are being published online in sites like Facebook groups and Reddit threads for the people to experiment on or playtest in their respective playgroups. MTG Archive PH FB group is my recent source locally as they provide efficient and reliable sources of decklists.

My card pool decided to start building the Pioneer decks today at our HQ and I might drop by later to check on what decks they have come up with. I’d guess Mono-Red is auto included in the builds as we have like a lot of the components in the storage boxes there. It might be a one-color Prowess build or a splash of Green for Atarka’s Command, we shall see.

I will post a second part once we have completed building the decks and maybe discuss the expected metagame and categorize them by aggro, combo, and control.

That is a wrap for now. Until the next blog post.

Another ban hammer was ensued, and Aetherworks Marvel is the casualty. We all knew how dominating this deck was in the past month, and I personally experienced in it Grand Prix Manila two weeks ago. My three losses garnered was from the various versions of the Marvel deck. Anyhow, I am happy that the boogeyman of the current Standard metagame has been dealt with by Wizards. The next question is: what will be the metagame after this? Here are a few insights:

Lesser Counterspells in the Maindeck – that is for Blue White Flash, and Temur Energy decks. Also, Mardu Blue will probably revert to its old build of having Fatal Push over Metallic Rebuke. While I personally liked this type of strategy, we will be expecting Zombies and Black Green Energy to be more popular hence, the counterspells would be too slow and ineffective.

New versions of Midrange Archetypes – midrange tends to be slow especially facing a turn-four Ulamog with two of their lands exiled. One popular example is the Delirium deck. Its recent built was maindecked Dissenters Deliverance and now they won’t be needing those and instead return back the likes of Mindrack Demon and Ishkana. Sultai Midrange could be another version, with the new Liliana reanimating Ulamog which is slower and gives the opponent a turn to deal with the Eldrazi.

Aggro will Rise – that I would mean Mardu Vehicles, BG Aggro, Zombies, Red Green Pummeler and even Humans. Prepare to board in your Radiant Flames, Fumigates, and Yaheeni’s Expertise.

That said, a major shift in the Standard metagame will happen in the coming weeks and probably we can test and play a few tournaments before Hour of Devastation arrives. Maybe we can also adjust some of the decks for the new cards in the set.

My last judging event was last March at the GP Trials tournament in Bacolod, and since then, I have not checked on updates or any other related info. It was just last night that I saw a post by fellow judge Phil Pena on the MTG Judges Philippines FB group that there was a redefinition of the Judge Program, and he summarized them as follows:

1. Judge levels have been redefined again, but this is more for the higher-level judges (Level 4 and Level 5). There is no more Level 4 or Level 5 (as a level).

2. Existing Level 4 and Level 5 judges will become Level 3, and will have a higher role as Grand Prix Head Judges.

3. There are new openings for advanced roles, such as Grand Prix Head Judges, Regional Coordinator, and Program Coordinator (this is more for the L3 judges to partake).

4. There are also changes to L1 and L2 certifications. Very soon, L2 judges will have an opportunity to certify existing L1 judges into L2s (provided that they pass a certain exam).

4a. If you are an existing L2, you no longer need to write a tournament report in order to maintain your certification (but you are still encouraged to write one!). Instead, existing L2s will begin to have a maintenance exam each year, among other existing maintenance requirements.

4b. If you are an existing L1, the requirements to become L2 hasn’t changed. Though L1s are now required to take a yearly exam to maintain their certification level, among other existing requirements.

5. There are other advanced roles that existing judges can take, aside from the L2 tester. These are L2 basic team lead (for GPs) and L3 panel lead (for existing L3 judges).

6. The definition of the levels is as follows:

L1 – Regular REL in-store judge
L2 – Competitive REL judge
L3 – Premier judge

So I’d guess I’ll be the Regular REL judge for Rei’s Place as well as on other local game shops if ever they have sanctioned tournaments. I now just have to check on the yearly exam to maintain my current level.

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