Coming this weekend is another major Magic: the Gathering tournament for the local gamestores. That is the Phyrexia: All will be One Store Championships. Store Championship is a structured, in-store tournament program that follows many major Magic: The Gathering releases. It is an opportunity for your players to prove their mettle and earn commemorative promos.This time, the preferred format approved by our TO Rei was Pioneer.

Here below are the tournament details for the weekend:

MTG Iloilo Store Championships at Pro Rei’s Place
February 25th, 2023 at 2:00pm
Format: PIONEER (Decklists required)
Registration fee: P350
Set Booster Prizes depending no. of participants
Rules Enforcement Level: Regular or Competitive
Pairing Method: Swiss (with a cut to top-8 if event has 17+ player)
Promo Support:
Participation promos (quantity based on play metrics)
8 Top-8 promos
1 Winner promo

Here is some New Year good news. The local Magic: the Gathering Pioneer weekly tournaments are now having an increase in player support, and the added participants are those having a holiday vacation here in Iloilo City. The first Pioneer FNM tournament of the year 2023 got 12 participants and much more if not others having conflicting schedules. I was able to drop by Reis’s place and took some videos for vlog content which I will post this weekend.

Also, I am having this 2023 goal to have More Pioneer Decks featured on this blog. That is more video discussions of the archetypes and checking on how each deck strategy works and trying to explain it in layman’s terms. That is the main challenge and also in clearly speaking the right words.

Today’s featured Pioneer deck tech video goes with a version of the Yorion deck. This time, it utilizes Saga enchantments of the Red and White colors. Blinking them with Yorion looks to be a huge advantage to set up against most opponents in the format.

Here below is the video discussion of the deck.

The Magic: the Gathering Pioneer format has become a weekly Friday Night Magic event for the Iloilo City community and the regulars were around 8 to 10 players in attendance already. It is a good thing, as this format is now recognized in some of the upcoming major Magic: the Gathering events scheduled in the country and worldwide.

It was my first time joining last Friday’s Pioneer FNM and I piloted my housemate Gedi’s Mono Red Aggro deck. I had to make some slight changes though as I have checked the local metagame and noted some possible archetype matchups. I referenced some builds with Chandra, Dressed to Kill in the main deck but upon checking Gedi’s current build, I realized that a lot of cards needed to be changed. The list still goes with Bomat Couriers and Ash Zealots which I think is not efficient anymore. Unfortunately, my teammate Ace is also playing Mono Red, and the supposed card pieces I will borrow will be used in his deck. It is then that I stick with the same creatures and cut a few slots for Chandra DTK.

I arrived at Pro Reis place past 6pm and just minutes before the start of the first round. There were about ten players in total and the prize lineup was Crimson Vow draft booster packs. We will try our luck again in pulling Sorin or Chandra from this set.

Below are my rounds matchup results:
Round 1 vs Mono Blue Spirits (Won 2-1)
Round 2 vs Mono Black Aggro (Lost 0-2)
Round 3 vs Mono-Red Aggro (Lost 1-2)
Round 4 vs UW Control (Won with concession)

I think the deck build is still decent, it is just that drawing eight lands in a row will get you nowhere. Overall, still hoping to play this archetype again next week with the preferred decklist. Congrats to the top players and the community for making Pioneer alive again.

Until the next blog post.

The Magic: the Gathering Tournament Reports is usually started with a short back story as to how the deck archetypes and their components were completed. At that time, I may have been fond of sharing these stories to give them a more flavorful detail, and on what I will be planning soon on the decks based on their tournament performance.

Here below is an example of a short-but-precise tournament report.

We were back again in Standard constructed format as we entered the month of September. Also, we changed our tournament schedule starting last Friday to accommodate our other players that couldn’t join the Saturday tournaments. I hope that’ll work and so far there’s an increase of participants last Friday (an increase of three actually, Lol..).

Anyways, I was thankful that I was able to complete my Demigod Red deck (thanks to Mao for the Snow Mountains, and to Rei and JR for lending me the Flame Javelins. Lol.) and that was my immediate deck of choice for the tournament. I guess I don’t need to repost the main decklist as you all know the components. For reference, here’s my sideboard.

Sideboard (15)

3 Everlasting Torment

4 Magus of the Moon

4 Sulfur Elemental

4 Sulfurous Blast

We started a quarter before 6 pm because our TO was a bit late for the event. Here were the recap of my matchups:

Round 1 – I was faced with the number 1 player in our community, Patrick. He was playing faeries so I thought this would be an easy matchup. Unfortunately, I lost Game 1. I boarded in the Magi and the blasts. I took Game 2 fast and Game 3 was a close one as we were exchanging attacks but his blossom is ticking down his life. I was able to neutralize his man-lands with my magus of the moon and a sulfurous blast took the game and the match.

Record: 1-0, 2-1

Round 2 – I was paired with Mark Co who was playing Elves. Another good matchup I guess and it turned out to be true. Game 2 was a bit close to me losing but I was able to take down his colossi and stabilize at 5 life. Several burns to the dome and a Demigod took the match.

Record: 2-0, 4-1

Round 3 – A bad matchup for me as I was against Kithkins piloted by Mark Tubola. Game 1 was very fast. He got me on turn five via Mirrorweave. See the pics below for the snapshot. I boarded in Sulfur Elementals and Sulfurous Blasts. In Game 2, I thought I was ahead on the beatdown until I saw my creatures one by one disappearing, either Unmaked or removed by Oblivion Ring. I ran out of gas and he began the beats with a Glorious Anthemed Spirits, a FOD, and a Knight of Meadowgrain. That’s just enough to beat me to death.

Record: 2-1, 4-3

Round 4 – I was paired with another Kithkin deck, this time piloted by my friend Oliver. We talked about our chances of getting to the top 4 and knowing that I had the higher chance, he gladly conceded to give me the win. Thanks Pot!

The final record, 3-1. My observation on the deck is that its overall performance was good except on the match against kithkins where I didn’t see any of my Sulfurous Blasts. Figure of Destiny was awesome against decks with limited or no removal, as it can take the game all by himself.

I’m planning of playing this deck again tomorrow with, of course, a little adjustment on the sideboard. I’ve heard that one of the players will be piloting Lark so I better bring in my macabre. Hehehe… Let’s see what happens.

Till next time peeps. Thanks very much for reading…

Last Saturday we saw finally an activity in our local Magic: the Gathering Iloilo community. That is because we were finally able to hold our tournament via the Magic Arena platform. I sense the local players were very eager to play Magic again but because of the several weeks of ECQ here in Iloilo City, even the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Prerelease was moved to a later date.

Anywho, about 14 players signed up for a Saturday night schedule (from the initial 16 players) and we used Discord for the pairings, decklist, and rankings. That means four rounds of gameplay and the Standard deck archetypes expected were from the Top Tier list in the metagame currently. Examples are Sultai Control, Temur Adventures, and Mono-Red Aggro.

Here below is the final ranking after four rounds of Standard gameplay.

MTG Iloilo Arena Standard Tourney (August 14, 2021)

1st jimmy (1fabled passage + 1 foil afr bakod pack + dnd binder)
2nd speedy (1fabled passage + 1 afr bakod pack + dnd binder)
3th mark (1fabled passage + 1 afr bakod pack + dnd binder)
4th jd (1fabled passage + 1 afr bakod pack + dnd binder)
5th raymund (1fabled passage + 1 afr bakod pack + dnd binder)
6th floyd (1 afr bakod pack + dnd binder)
7th aj (1 afr bakod pack + dnd binder)
8th andrew (1 afr bakod pack + dnd binder)
9th rei (1 afr bakod pack + dnd binder)
10th ericson (1 afr bakod pack + dnd binder)
11th erl (1 afr bakod pack + dnd binder)
12th ace (1 afr bakod pack + dnd binder)
13th jude (1 afr bakod pack + dnd binder)
14th dean (1 afr bakod pack + dnd binder)

The city local government continues to implement regulations and health protocols to control the spread of the virus and limit to a minimum the number of cases. In effect, the local Magic: the Gathering Iloilo community has again have a single weekly tournament this coming Saturday, May 15th at 2:30 in the afternoon. The format is Standard, and the event will have cap for at ten players to maintain social distancing.

I might drop by to check on the metagame, expecting some new brews from the Strixhaven mechanics and maybe hangout a little though I am wary to closely engage with the players. Anywho, those that are interested to play may contact our TO Rei or Master Tonton (Mark Anthony Co).

Follow our page Magic: the Gathering Iloilo Community on Facebook.

I have decided to visit our local game store, Pro Reis place, last Saturday to check on their weekly Saturday Standard tournament. It has been a while since I checked on the local Magic: the Gathering scene and I also miss playing paper Magic. The effects of the pandemic made the local scene wary of having face-to-face gaming again but with the health protocols being implemented, were are hoping that the attendance will at least be back to the average number of participants prior to the pandemic. The same could not be said though in terms of the arrival of products of the recently released Magic sets.

Anyhow I decided to do a video of the tournament, which was at Round 3 when I arrived. I also tried my luck in opening Kaldheim Set boosters when I saw that some of them were available at the store. Check out my video posted at my Deathmarked channel page below.

Hoping to participate on my next visit and when the restrictions caused by the pandemic is lessened.

The Kaldheim Prerelease for Iloilo City will be this coming weekend (Saturday) and I don’t know if I will be joining in our local scheduled event due to the limited slots and also wary of the pandemic. The registration will still be at P1300, and each player will receive a Kaldheim Prerelease kit. TO Rei might also give out foil promo cards from older sets as freebies.

As for the Standard setup, the weekly tournament will continue, and I have heard from my good friend and Iloilo City councilor Jay Treňas that his hobby shop is planning to hold a tournament event in one of the malls here in the city. I am still waiting for him to disclose the details soon. I am pretty sure the players will be interested to join, though we will see in the coming weeks if the local Covid19 no. of cases might be the prime basis as to the LGU to allow small gatherings such as this one, particularly inside the mall area.

The Team M14’s plan of buying new cards for the Kaldheim might be delayed as we will still observe how the market prices evolve and as to what decks will be maintained all throughout this season. We will be starting with a prime deck because at the moment, there are few chances of ROI due to only relying on the weekly local event. The rest of the builds will just have slight upgrades depending again on the card component’s prices.

I guess that is a wrap for now. I am still swamped on editing on my bike vlogs so please bear with me.

Until the next blog post.

Saturday evenings under a community quarantine status have become a Magic Arena tournament session for local MTG Iloilo players. Since the start of this weekly online Magic: the Gathering tournament, the players had already accepted this as a “new normal” kind of gameplay. Good thing that they have already invested enough cards in their respective Arena accounts so they can instantly build the Top tier Standard decks in the metagame.

As for the recent MTG Iloilo Arena tourney last Saturday, there were ten participants to battle Standard. I’ve discussed their deck choices in the video below.

You’ll notice that 4C-Omnath is still the deck to beat before the banning announcement was done last Monday. I would expect this metagame to slightly change though Ramp-type of decks is still of the Tier 1 category.

After four rounds of gameplay, we have the Top 4 finishers and they are:

Tonton – Mono Green Aggro
Ralph – Gruul Adventures
Mark T – Sultai Control
Oliver – 4C Omnath

The Omnath menace was initially stopped by Sultai and beaten by Mono Green before it can stabilize. For a local setting, this is somewhat possible. It is not the same case with major Arena tournaments with big cash prizes. Pro players would prefer to go with the popular deck rather than risk it with late brews with questionable consistency.

Congratulations to the winners!

This coming Saturday will finally have the Zendikar Rising Prerelease so the Magic Arena Standard tourney that night might be rescheduled to Sunday. I will check for updates from our local game store TO Rei.

Until the next blog post.

I have known friends and teammates that are grinding points on Magic Arena especially these past months as they have enough time to do so because of the pandemic. They are also participating in premium Arena events such as the Red Bull Untapped Qualifiers and has been doing well in the rank finishes also.

I decided to tap with one of the them which is also a card pool buddy and which has been handling our Standard decks in the past months.

Here is a short interview with one the current best players here in Iloilo City under the MTGA username Province Gamer, Ace Ashley Baron.

Name: Ace Baron
Yrs playing Magic: 20

Latest Major Finish in an event (tabletop or online)?
Online: MTGA Open where I finished with 6 wins garnering 1000$ and most recent would be winning an invite only event by Gamerhub with a 300$ prize money.

Upcoming Event to Join in? (How did you qualified in this event if may ara prerequisite events)

My upcoming events would be FTHS League Qualifiers “Had to qualify through Preliminaries” , Red Bull Qualifiers 3, and SCG Open

How are your preparations on this event?
Its tough. The Standard Meta changes week after week,maybe even everyday? And without major coverage of most events, I would have to rely on streams, MTGO Leagues, and tournament results on MTGmelee.
It really boils down a day or two from the events in term of preparation as breakout decks are sure to watch out for.

What’s your two-deck lineup? If you had to give a short summary of why you chose those two decks, what would be the major reasons why?
Bant Ramp because I had the most success with it post Fires/Agent bans and up until now.I also consider it to be the best deck in the format right now.
Temur Reclamation because its also very good and can be busted most of the time. Some may argue its better than Bant Ramp, but I’m more comfortable with Bant Ramp and I feel like I could make less errors with it compared to temur rec.

What is the best card in the deck that will probably be the cause of your wins in most matches?
Definitely Teferi, Time Raveler.

Any bad matchups and how to handle them?
I feel like any Aggro deck is a bad matchup if I dont get the opening hand i need.

Bonus question: What is your personal favorite card in M21?
Personal favorite would be Grim Tutor. That card really needed the reprint.

Here below is one of the matches that he played in one of the tournaments of Final Turn Hobby shop Online League to rank the players in the points and with prizes at stake at the end of the month season.

Our local game store tournament organizer Rei has informed me to post this announcement on our Magic: the Gathering Iloilo City Community Facebook page on the Saturday Standard tournament with a little punch in the prizes. This is to entice the players again with the added foil promo packs in their winnings.

Check out below the details of the tournament.

Special Saturday Standard Tournament at Pro Reis Place
Date: Feb. 22, 2020
150php registration fee
The top 4 finishers each gets a Foil Promo pack along with regular THB Booster packs.

Round 1 starts at 3:00 pm

Kitakits!

I might join this event if I get to know what deck my pool will offer me to pilot. We will be expecting a local metagame of Blue White, Mono Red, and Black Devotion decks again if the players decide to just stick with their current builds. We shall see this Saturday.

It was Valentines Day Friday but this special day of the month won’t hinder the players from participating in last night’s Friday Night Magic at Pro Reis place. Standard was the format of choice and that means Mono Red Aggro and Blue White Control will be much of the scene in the matches.

Here below is the tournament results after the four rounds of gameplay.

MTG Iloilo Tournament Results
Friday Night Magic (Feb 14, 2020)
Top 4:
1st – Ace The Snake (Snake Red)
2nd – Mr Frank (Bant Frank)
3rd – Mervin (UG Flash)
4th – Nonoy (Golgari Oven)

14 players, 4 rounds gameplay