DAILY RANDOM MTG CARD: Dragonrage

This uncommon card from Fate Reforged is one of my favorite ways to pump instant spells in Magic: The Gathering. Just declare your attackers and use your 3 mana to cast this bad boy out and then boom, everyone attacking gets a red mana and get to use that red mana to give them a +1/+0. It may seem like it’s not that much being given to them, but any little bit can go a long way in a game of Magic. Not to mention the artwork is really cool.

Which instant is your favorite?

As always, thanks for reading my blog!

THE STACK, what is it used for?

The Stack is a game zone area where spells and abilities are played and wait to be resolved. Spells and abilities go to this area as the first step in play and are removed from it as the last step of playing. It’s also an area where other players can ‘respond to’ with their spells and/or abilities while it's still on the stack. The stack is played from the top to the bottom, where the ‘respond to’ spells are played first since it's on the top of the stack. The picture below depicts the stack and is the best representation I have found.

Actions that do not use the stack are as follows:

• Paying cost.
• Playing mana abilities.
• Turning a face down creature face up (Morph).
• Playing a land card

I’m sure most experienced players have a good idea of how the stack operates. To a new player, when we mention the stack, they probably think it means this:

Be sure to use the stack as often as you can, as correctly as you can, if you are in a Pro Tour or Grand Prix-like event, where they will have judge’s all over the place. Also, be sure to explain to the new players what the stack is and how to use it. Sure it will be confusing at first, but if they like the game enough they will learn about it quickly.

As always, thanks for reading my blog!

ELDRITCH MOON SPOILERS!

June 20, 2016. First day of summer, longest day of the year (according to some scientist somewhere), school has ended or is going to end soon, beach-going season, amusement parks to visit and vacation plans with the family.

What else can make this day better?

How about a spoiler from the newest set: Eldritch Moon!

Around 8am PST, the Magic the Gathering Facebook page aired an episode detailing what's happening in Innistrad and where the storyline will go from here. It also showed a trailer for Eldritch Moon, which in my opinion is one of the best trailers I’ve seen Wizard of the Coast put out for MtG, click here to see the episode. It also reveals a card that will be in the new set. I think the card (pictured below) will be self explanatory. All I can say is: we found out what’s causing the madness in Innistrad.

For the next 3 weeks there will be new cards spoiled every day, except for the weekends; this might be the only time of the year you don't like the weekends. I know we all usually love the weekends (well... the people who don't have to work do, anyway). You can check the MYTHIC SPOILER WEBPAGE for the new and hopefully awesome cards being revealed.


As always thanks for reading my blog!

Grand Prix Costa Rica

The latest Grand Prix event took place in the beautiful Costa Rica. The winner? It is Seth Manfield once again, less than a month after he won the Grand Prix New York. He had a similar, yet somewhat different, type of deck this time around, focused on green-white tokens. He took the win with a 2-1 match.

His opponent was Brendon Fischer with his Naya tokens deck. Brendon Fischer has yet to win a Grand Prix trophy, but has been to multiple Grand Prix. His Naya tokens deck is the same as the one that he had used in the Grand Prix New York. It includes a Planeswalker that has not seen much use by other players at these types of events, Arlinn Kord.

The next event is on June 10-12, at two different places. One event will be at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus Ohio. The other event, taking place on the same dates, is at Výstaviště PVA Expo Praha in the Czech Republic. Both of these events will follow the Legacy format.

Good luck to all the players and, as always, thanks for reading my blog!

Eternal Masters

The spoilers have started for Eternal Masters, which will be released on June 10, 2016. While it may not include cards from the reserve list, it will have many great modern staples.

Eternal Masters was designed to be a unique and fun drafting experience, with cards throughout the history of MtG to enhance your Cube, Legacy, and Vintage decks. Yes, there will be Planeswalkers too: Jace the Mind Sculptor and Dack Fayden.

You can get your look at the spoilers from MYTHIC SPOILER'S website and see for yourself just how awesome this set of the Masters series is going to be!

As always thanks for reading my blog!

Modern play, Gone?!

Wizard of the coast has made an announcement a while back concerning modern play at the pro tour events.  They decided to do away with the format, why? Here’s just some of the reason why they are getting rid of the format.

Wizards of the Coast made an announcement a while back concerning modern play at the pro tour events;  they decided to do away with the format. Why? Here’s just some of the reasons why they are getting rid of the format.

Wizards of the Coast's goal for the pro tour is to reward the players for their drafting skills, innovative deck building and skillful game-play in an environment they are not too familiar with. They also want to highlight the newest card set in the tournament, which seems like the biggest reason why they’re getting rid of modern. Wizards usually set the pro tour for modern just a few weeks after the new set comes out, which allows the players to showcase the new cards in their modern decks by showing how the new cards work in a premier level setting.

Since modern became a format back in 2011, Wizards of the Coast has questioned if the format is a good fit for a pro tour setting. Even top players have pointed out that the format isn't about being innovative or solving problems with the newest set; it gives rewards for repetitive, established decks. That wasn't what the pro tour was suppose to be about.

As always thanks for reading my blog.

creatureless take over

Seth Manfield, with a white black control deck that he built at 1 am on Friday morning, has beaten the 2007 other players that showed up for the big apple’s Grand Prix New York 2016. In the finals he took on Louis-Samuel Deltour, a French player, with his 4 color cryptolith rite deck. Louis-Samuel had as much of an uphill battle as Scott Lipp had in the semi-finals before him, facing endless spot and mass removal. Who knew that making a last minute, creatureless, deck would afford such a coveted prize?

G/W tokens were pretty well used by players around the Grand Prix New York play area and made the top 8 decklist 3 times. Bant company deck did not make the top 8, even though a lot of players have used the deck.

The top prize payout for Seth Manfield was $10,000,with Louis-Samuel taking home $5,000 for coming in second place. That's a pretty nice payout for both guys, just for playing a good ol’ intense game of Magic: The gathering. Every player will get a stoneforge mystic promo just for participating at any Grand Prix event (while supplies last).

As always, thanks for reading my blog.

TOKEN VICTORY

The Shadows over Innistrad pro-tour came to an end on April 24, 2016. The winner? Steve Rubin with his G/W tokens deck, after three grueling and tiring days of trying to make it to the top. In the final match he took down Andrea Mengucci with his G/W/U Bant Company deck.

We all thought that the Bant Company deck was really the deck to beat. It had developed a reputation for knocking out the Eldrazi, which I am pretty sure we were all tired of seeing in tournaments. More recently, it seems to have had an unsuccessful run among some players; only a few have actually made it this far since the first time it appeared. That makes this Bant deck a stand-out performer, taking second place and a prize payout of $20,000, which is a pretty nice payout for second place!

The big question is, now that the tour has ended with a G/W tokens deck coming out on top, will we see more of this kind of deck showing up to your Friday night MtG and events with standard decks?

The answer: probably.  

I’m sure Magic players are running around trying to get all the cards they need to copy the winner’s deck, with the aim of winning events. It just so happens that the tour ended the weekend before Shadows over Innistrad game day weekend. There may be a chance that this deck will make its rounds during game day weekend at your local game shop.

The next pro tour will be happening in Sydney, Australia, from the 5th to the 7th of August, coinciding with the release of the Eldritch Moon set. The event will be standard and booster draft. I'm sure we'll be seeing Steve Rubin there playing.

As always thanks for reading my blog.