I will be playing Humans in the coming Grand Prix Hong Kong 2018. On what would be the reason for that final deck choice is due to the presence of Combo archetypes in the Modern format. The deck is somewhat resilient in stopping off these decks from going off with their combo.

What my issue currently though is the time to review and playtest the matchups with the Tier 1 decks in the current metagame. I remembered the last time I played the decks was last April in a Friday Night Magic held at Critical Hit in Atria. A lot has changed especially in the recent major Modern tournaments. The last Pro Tour 25th Anniversary in which the format was Team Trios saw the emergence of the BRVine deck that has explosive openings. It somewhat has copied the speed of the Vengevine deck in Legacy at the time Survival of the Fittest was still legal. It is another deck that can overpower the Combo archetypes as well as the Humans deck. It would matter on the good sideboard setup.

As of this posting, I have just made a few viewing of the MTGO streams of the pros that are using the deck. I then have talked with Ramon to schedule a gauntlet playtest and a good thing is that we have agreed to have it this coming Saturday evening. DURP classes for the first semester is just starting and so there is still no hectic assignment and study of the report just yet.

I have also talked with the store owner of Nth Dimension to hold a Modern FNM on Friday though we are still gathering the participants.

I am hoping this weekend will be a productive playtest of the deck and also to learn a lot with the popular matchups. The final decklist to be posted soon.

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/

We brought back the Modern tournament starting last Sunday and with that, we needed to update our deck archetype lineup. My teammate Raoul prepared the decks as he kept the Modern card components and here are our current Modern decks:

1. Grixis Delver
2. Naya Big Zoo
3. Red Green Tron
4. Black White Tokens
5. Naya Burn
6. Mono Red Burn

Tron is not that 100% complete as we still need a fourth copy of Karn Liberated and an Eye of Ugin. We borrowed the cards from Rei for the meantime. The first Sunday Modern tournament results with seven players in attendance were as follows:

Top 3:
1st, Raoul (Naya Big Zoo)
2nd, Jason (Naya Burn)
3rd, Mark Ian (R/G Tron)

I am not sure this coming Sunday if there will be another Modern tournament. I guess I’ll announce it on the page tonight to inform the possible players beforehand.

Until the next post.

It is currently Day 2 of the on-going Grand Prix Madrid 2014. The format of the event is Modern and so far I am enjoying the written featured match coverage from Day 1 and hoping I could check their Twitch channel for some live coverage of the games.

Anyhow, six players went undefeated in Day One in a perfect 9-0 record. Their notable archetypes were Splinter Twin, Scapeshift. Slippery Bogles, and Zoo. One deck that I would feature in this post is that from Ivan Floch and the deck is Blue Red Delver with a splash of white. Here is the list:

Maindeck
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Young Pyromancer
2 Snapcaster Mage

4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Treasure Cruise
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Serum Visions
3 Thought Scour
3 Forked Bolt
2 Mana Leak
2 Vapor Snag
2 Spell Snare

2 Steam Vents
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Flooded Strand
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Seachrome Coast
2 Arid Mesa
2 Island
2 Mountain

Sideboard
1 Forked Bolt
1 Spell Snare
1 Dispel
2 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Wear // Tear
2 Rest for the Weary
1 Dismember
2 Negate
1 Spellskite
1 Spell Pierce

The rest of the undefeated Modern decklists can be found here.

*cover photo from MtG Madness FB page.

Hi all, I am sharing today a list of a Modern deck which I made and piloted on last Sunday’s tournament. I made the deck in reference to the popular Maverick deck in Legacy, replacing most of the cards on what I can acquire in my Modern cards stash. Here is the list I’ve played:

GW Aggro ala Maverick
By Mark Ian Alloso
Modern Constructed Format

Lands
2 Stirring Wildwood
1 Horizon Canopy
4 Forest
4 Plains
2 Gavony Township
2 Sunpetal Grove
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Temple Garden

Creatures
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
3 Birds of Paradise
4 Qasali Pridemage
3 Paladin en-Vec
2 Dauntless Escort
2 Fiend Hunter
1 Baneslayer Angel
2 Restoration Angel
2 Loxodon Hierarch

Spells
2 Sword of Light and Shadow
3 Path to Exile
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
1 Garruk Wildspeaker

Sideboard
SB: 2 Celestial Purge
SB: 3 Great Sable Stag
SB: 3 Leyline of Sanctity
SB: 1 Gaddock Teeg
SB: 1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
SB: 1 Tormod’s Crypt
SB: 2 Krosan Grip
SB: 1 Creeping Corrosion
SB: 1 Gleeful Sabotage

Initially made to combat Jund, the deck also performed well in beating UW Control and Mono Red. The sort of a bad matchup was Living End which I only have a Tormod’s Crypt to remove the graveyard, though I was able to win that one as well.

A few changes would be on variation of the Swords, removing Fiend Hunter, adding a fourth Path to Exile and adding Relic of Progenitus on the sideboard.

Let me know what you think of the deck. Hit the comments below.

Until next post!

It seems that there is still hope in piloting Zoo for Modern. In the recent GP Lincoln, Player of the Year and Team Fireball member, Owen Turtenwald completed Day 1 piloting a Zoo deck with an untarnished record of 9-0.

The update on the deck components is the set of Loam Lion, probably replacing its dear cousin Wild Nacatl, and Dark Ascension’s Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. Another inclusion is the two Geists of St. Traft, probably replacing the Snapcaster Mages. Owen’s changes probably fitted the meta well because of the popularity of Storm.

Here is his decklist:

Zoo by Owen Turtenwald
GP Lincoln Day 1 Undefeated Decks
Maindeck
Creature (23)
4 Kird Ape
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Loam Lion
3 Grim Lavamancer
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Geist of Saint Traft

Other Spells (12)
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Tribal Flames

Land (21)
1 Plains
4 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Marsh Flats
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Temple Garden
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Blood Crypt

Sideboard
3 Ancient Grudge
3 Mana Leak
2 Mindbreak Trap
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Sulfur Elemental
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Torpor Orb

The first Modern Grand Prix of the 2012 season was topped by a not-so-popular deck choice in the format. This was piloted by Bronson Magnan which edged out the powerhouse Melira Pod deck by Andrew Cuneo in the grinding three-game finals.

It was in the epic Game Three that I thought Cuneo was about to win it with Thrun, but a top decked Liliana of the Veil dealt with the troll and sealed the victory for Magnan with two swings of a full-pumped Lavaclaw Reaches.

Here is the winning decklist of Grand Prix Lincoln:

Confidant Aggro Loam by Bronson Magnan
Maindeck
4 Countryside Crusher
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf

3 Flame Jab
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Life from the Loam
4 Raven’s Crime
3 Seismic Assault
3 Liliana of the Veil

4 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Blood Crypt
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Forest
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Graven Cairns
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Swamp
1 Twilight Mire
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard
3 Ancient Grudge
2 Darkblast
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Jund Charm
2 Nature’s Claim
3 Obstinate Baloth
1 Pyroclasm
2 Torpor Orb