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)

We were finally able to push it through. It happened. The first Magic: the Gathering Iloilo community Pioneer tournament was held yesterday at Pro Reis Place, Iloilo City. We scheduled it at 1:30 pm and about fourteen players arrived in battle with top tier deck archetypes in the format. It was more than the number that we tallied in our group chat were we listed around 10 ten players only that are sure to join this tournament. We only announced on the prizes to be regular Theros Beyond Death boosters and one foil promo pack.

In our card pool, we already had four ready-to-play decks thanks to my teammate Ace for taking the time to build them. He opted to play Sultai Control while Oliver piloted Dimir Inverter Combo. I wanted to take it easy since I did not playtest so I went with Mono-Red Aggro.

After four rounds of gameplay, we have the following players in the top rankings.

First, Christian – Bant Spirits
Second, Mark T – Lotus Breach
Third, Rico – Mono-Green Stompy
Fourth, Oliver – Dimir Inverter
Fifth, Ace – Sultai Control
Sixth, Mark Ian – Mono-Red Aggro

My record: 2-2. I lost the last round to the Green stompy deck with a critical misplay on Game 3. What happened is I allowed his two 4/4 creatures as I was confident of my first striker Goblin Chainwhirler combined with a burn spell. He then top-decked Ghalta and the total of power of his creatures plus his lands was exactly enough to cast it. Anyhow, I needed to take note of those soon as we already identified the current local metagame.

Overall, the event was a success and we are hoping to hold another tournament again this March just before the big event in Bacolod. Just to prepare the players going there and increase their game knowledge of the decks and metagame.

Here are some pics during the course of their games.

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

Another weekend of Magic: the Gathering Standard gameplay and the players were present to battle in the Friday Night Magic and Saturday Standard events. Here are the tournament results from the two MTG happenings last weekend:

Friday Night Magic (February 7, 2020)
Top 4:
1st, PR Melo (Golgari Oven)
2nd, Mervin (Blue White Control)
3rd, Mossy Towan (Mono Red Aggro)
4th, Tonton (Blue White Control)

Saturday Standard (February 8, 2020)
Top 4:
1st, Ericson (Mono Red Aggro)
2nd, Franco (Mono Red Aggro)
3rd, Doc Erl (Rakdos Sacrifice)
4th, Mossy Towan (Mono Red Aggro)

24 players, 4 rounds gameplay.

I was only able to attend the Saturday tournament and I am happy with the player turnout. There are such times that these guys would be willing to spend their Saturday afternoon competing and also having fun while at it.

In last night’s Wednesday Standard Magic tourney at Nth Dimension: Comics and Games, the TO had decided to implement the recent banning in the format. That meant no Golos decks or sight of the Field of the Dead to expect in the event and so everybody made adjustments in their decks, including our card pool.

I decided to give our Mono Red Cavalcade build another shot even though I knew that the deck’s good matchup is gone. I was expecting a lot of Food decks since our local community is fond of aggro to midrange Green-based decks. Three Tibalts in the sideboard against lifegain and Lava Coils to deal with Questing Beasts. Unfortunately, I could not sideboard against bad luck and so I drew eight lands in a row and died in my first Round match. There were 12 players in attendance, and I hoped that my two teammates can redeem my loss. Being paired with one of them in Round 2 is not part of the plan though.

After four rounds, I ended up with a 1-2-1 record which I do not want to detail about. Anywho, the Top 4 finishers in the tournament are as follows:

MtG Iloilo Tournament Results
Wednesday Night Standard
(October 23, 2019)
Top 4:
1st, Tonton (Simic Food)
2nd, Christian (Golgari Adventure)
3rd, Ace (Bant Food)
4th, Ruel (Gruul Aggro)

12 players, 4 rounds gameplay.

Almost all of the decks in the Top 4 have Questing Beast in their four-drop slot. This would mean more of these decks in the coming weeks and can be a game changer in some of the matchups. I do hope our card pool can come up with decks that can counter this.

Until the next blog post.

It seemed that Esper Superfriends/Planeswalkers is the deck to beat this weekend. This is based on the two major tournaments here in Iloilo City last weekend. Of course, I am happy to share this report because of my teammate Ace who proved to be the ‘Ace’ in playing the deck. The recent finish of the deck in the international scene was in Grand Prix wherein in placed in second place, going down to the champion Bant Ramp. The Esper planeswalkers list below:

Maindeck
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Godless Shrine
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Drowned Catacomb
1 Plains
4 Watery Grave
1 Swamp

3 Basilica Bell-Haunt

4 Teferi, Time Raveler
4 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
4 Cast Down
4 Thought Erasure
3 Oath of Kaya
3 Narset, Parter of Veils
3 Kaya’s Wrath
2 Command the Dreadhorde
2 The Elderspell
1 Moment of Craving
1 Search for Azcanta/Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin

Sideboard
3 Enter the God-Eternals
3 Despark
2 Duress
2 Liliana’s Triumph
2 Cry of the Carnarium
1 Kaya’s Wrath
1 Moment of Craving
1 Narset’s Reversal

Here below are the tournament results for the Magic: the Gathering Iloilo Community last weekend.

MTG Iloilo Tournament Results
Friday Night Magic at Pro Reis Place
(June 14, 2019)
Top 7 placers:
1st Ace – Esper PW
2nd Floyd – Mono Red
3rd Ericson – Bant Manipulation
4th Ruel – Gruul Aggro
5th Wonderboi – Bant Manipulation
6th Ton2 – Bant Manipulation
7th Gus – Dimir Control

4 rounds, 16+ players

Saturday Standard Showdown at Pro Reis place
(June 15, 2019)
Top 7 placers:
1st Ace – Esper PW
2nd, JD – Mono Red
3rd, Ajel – Gruul Aggro
4th, Doni – Gruul Aggro
5th, Christian – Esper Hero
6th, Floyd – Mono Red
7th, Job – Selesnya Tokens

5 rounds, 19 players

Will the deck’s dominance continue on the next week? We shall see.

TO Rei decided to hold a Modern tournament for the Araw ng Kagitingan or Day of Valor holiday yesterday afternoon. Fourteen players attended the said event to dust off the old decks and also to spell sling some powerful cards in the format. After four rounds of gameplay, here are the top players:

1st, Ralph (Mono Green Tron)
2nd, Mark T (Dredge)
3rd, Marco (Mono Green Tron)
4th, Tonton (Dimir Deathshadow)
5th, Christian (Golgari Rock)

I think my two teammates Ace and Gifford participated in the tournament but was unable to place in the Top 5.

It was good to have a few Modern tournaments at Pro Reis at least once per month. We both decided to have this little variance as playing Standard every weekend is already too boring. We might have unpopular formats like Silver and Black soon we will see if there is a definite number of participants.

I will be posting updates so just stay tuned.

I was able to drop by Rei’s place last Saturday after our DURP classes at UP and saw the Standard Showdown tournament in progress. It was the ending part of Round 2 I think and there were about 12 participants. Checking on the decks they are playing, I saw the usual suspects: Black-Red, Blue White Control, Blue Black. I stayed to watch the matchups for the rest of the rounds while enjoying my plate of extra hot pancit canton.

Here are the Top players after the Swiss and two unusual decks made it in rank.

1st, JD (Black-Red Aggro)
2nd, Ralph (Mono-Blue Auras)
3rd, Tonton (Mono Red Flame of Keld)
4th, Mark Lamera (Blue Black Midrange)

The Mono-Blue one-drops with Curious Obsession was possibly made to race with Control decks and it gets harder with a handful of counterspells in the sideboard. The same can be said with the Mono Red Flame of Keld deck wherein there are more hasty one mana critters and more burn spells which benefits from the third chapter of the Saga enchantment.

Guilds of Ravnica is already on the horizon of Standard so as we bid farewell to these cards from the rotating sets, we do hope that the same strategies can still be adapted with the new metagame.

Until the next post.

Our recent monthly Modern tournament happened last Sunday at Pro Rei’s Place wherein ten players were in attendance. The team was not able to complete the Jund deck so I decided to pilot the Mono Green Tron which is another Tier 1 deck

in the current metagame. I was able to finish 3-1 and placed second in the event. Here are the rest of the Top 4 players after 4 rounds of Swiss:

MTG Iloilo Tournament Results
Sunday Modern (March 18, 2018)

Top 4:
1st, Christian (Jund)
2nd, Mark Ian (Tron)
3rd, Rei (Jund)
4th, Ramon (Tron)

10 players, 4 rounds of gameplay

Source: https://www.facebook.com/magiciloilo/

The weekly standard tournaments last weekend saw another high player attendance especially during the Friday’s FNM. I think the time suits well for most as it is after their office hours and a time for them to de-stress and relax. Most of the tournament regulars were present, including our team which six persons were playing. That totaled to 20 participants for FNM, and here are the results after 4 rounds:

Friday Night Magic
November 11, 2016
Top 4:
1st, Speedy (BG Delirium)
2nd, Raoul (UW Flash)
3rd, Rei (Mardu Vehicles)
4th, JayR (BG Delirium)

20 players, 4 rounds gameplay

Also, here are the results for Saturday Standard:

Saturday Standard
November 12, 2016
Top 4:
1st, Rino (Mardu Vehicles)
2nd, Mark T (BG Delirium)
3rd, Patrick (UW Flash)
4th, Earl (BW Tokens)

10 players, 4 rounds gameplay