Two HOU Gamedays were successfully held this weekend on each separate local MTG game stores here in Iloilo City. The first one at ProRei’s Place was quite high in attendance as there were 28 players that arrived and participated to battle the Standard format. After a grueling 5 rounds of Swiss and the Top 8 playoffs, it was Ramon Alivio’s Temur Energy that gained the title of Mastermind or the ol HOU Gameday Champion of the tournament. In the process, he defeated my teammate JayR who played Blue White Flash. Here below is Ramon’s obligatory champion pose after winning the Finals match.

Sunday’s Gameday venue was at Critical Hit: Comics and Games and the player attendance were on an average of only 16 people. That was one person short of having five rounds of Swiss. The metagame was somewhat the same with Ramunap Red and Zombies as the top aggro decks. After the Swiss rounds, the Top 8 were composed of Ramunap Red, Temur Energy, Mardu Vehicles, Zombies and a Mono White Eldrazi deck. My teammates Oliver and Ericson were able to qualify and Oliver was the only player in the team to make it in the finals after dispatching Zombies in the quarters and Temur in the semis. His matchup was a mirror match Ramunap Red, with Doc Earl Flores. It was an intense two-game match with both players at very low life totals and I was only able to cover live the 2nd game along with Oliver’s winning moment. You can check it at my FB profile page. A huge congratulations to Oliver Mastilero in winning the 2nd HOU Gameday in Iloilo.

Standard seems to continue to evolve as an answer to the domination of Aetherworks Marvel decks in the past weeks. This time, people have come up with a Temur Energy deck that can ramp into early threats like Bristling Hydra and Glorybringer while holding up counterspells to deal with the legendary artifact.

Here is one list played by HellMonkey in the recent MTGO Competitive Standard League.

21 LANDS
4 Aether Hub
4 Botanical Sanctum
4 Forest
2 Game Trail
1 Island
2 Lumbering Falls
2 Mountain
1 Sheltered Thicket
1 Spirebluff Canal

21 CREATURES
4 Bristling Hydra
2 Elder Deep-Fiend
4 Glorybringer
4 Rogue Refiner
4 Servant of the Conduit
3 Whirler Virtuoso

14 INSTANTS and SORC.
4 Attune with Aether
1 Dissenter’s Deliverance
4 Harnessed Lightning
2 Magma Spray
3 Negate

4 OTHER SPELLS
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Saheeli Rai

SIDEBOARD
1 Appetite for the Unnatural
3 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
1 Confiscation Coup
2 Dispel
2 Prowling Serpopard
2 Radiant Flames
1 Release the Gremlins
2 Stinging Shot