Pro Tour Amonkhet

~
Happy Monday MTG peeps,

Pro Tough Amonkhet took place in Nashville over the weekend, and what the processional players took to battle gave us a bit of a surprise.  

We were expecting a field mostly dominated by Mardu Vehicles and Temur Aetherworks.  We were not expecting a strong showing of Zombie decklists this last weekend.  Although there were a handful of White / Black Zombies, most were mono-black.

Some rough numbers here which speaks onto the current standard meta-game. Here are the Decklists with 6 or more wins -
43 Aetherworks 
33 Zombie 
29 Mardu Vehicles
9 GB or Temur Energy
4 U/R Control
1 Abzan Tokens

Here are out Top 8 players - congratulations to all.  Also very happy to see a list from Ken Yukuhiro, who did very well with a B/G Energy list against both Zombies and Aetherworks.

1st Mono-Black Zombies Gerry Thompson
2nd Temur Aetherworks Yuuya Watanabe
3rd B/G Energy Ken Yukuhiro
4th Temur Aetherworks Martin Muller
5th B/W Zombies Chris Fennell
6th Temur Aetherworks Marc Tobiasch
7th Mono-Black Zombies Christian Calcano
8th Temur Aetherworks Eric Froehlich

~

Iconic Masters and More

~
Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

There is a number of news-worthy Magic: the Gathering items to cover off today here on MTG Realm, so without further ruction, let's get to it.

PRO TOUR AMONKHET

Wizards of the Coast staffer Mike Rosenberg has some news for you over here on Pro Tour Amonkhet, with the following event dates / venues to note -

May 5–7: Grand Prix Beijing, Bologna, and Richmond
May 19–21: Grand Prix Santiago and Montreal

Lovely event-exclusive playmats are up for grabs featuring the art from Glory-Bound Initiate, Bloodrage Brawler, and Hazoret the Fervent.

ICONIC MASTERS

Just announced today on the mothersite.

Iconic Masters offers players a tour through some of the most powerful cards in over 23 years of Magic history. 

Featuring new artwork on many cards, the set brings an array of massive Angels, Sphinxes, Demons, Dragons, and Hydras alongside some of our favorite and most memorable spells. Every box of Iconic Masters contains 24 booster packs—each with fifteen randomly inserted game cards, including one premium card in every pack. Get your friends together to embark on one of the most iconic and power-packed Draft experiences yet!

Set Name: Iconic Masters
Number of Cards: 249
Release Date: November 17, 2017
Magic Online On Sale Date: November 17, 2017
Official Three-Letter Code: IMA
Twitter Hashtag:#MTGIMA
Languages Available: English, Chinese Simplified, Japanese
MSRP: $9.99 *Applies to U.S. Only
~

HASCON

Hasbro's first-ever convention 'HASCON' is scheduled for September 8–10 to Providence, Rhode Island and as Magic: the Gathering is celebrating its 25th Anniversary, there is to be a number of MTG events, panels, play experiences planned. Of note, there is to be a showcasing Magic's next fall set Ixalan, including a Prerelease event for Iconic Masters.

~

MAGIC STORY

From yesterday's Magic Story post titled 'SERVANTS', by Kelly Digges.  If you had missed it, please pop over to the link provided here before reading further.

EPISODE 4 - Liliana knew that dragon-slaying was only part of the reason she came to Amonkhet… She has a demon to deal with first.

In yesterday's story, Liliana is the central character.  We learn further of Lily's real motivation to travel to Amonkhet.  Not so much to help fellow members of the Gatewate Planeswalkers in taking down Nicol Bolas (and minion #1 Tezzeret), but to find and eliminate the demon Razaketh, who is one of four of her creditors.

There is yet another interaction with Liliana and the mysterious 'Raven Man', whom we learn may have control over the cursed Chain Veil in this revelation -
"Didn't I take command of the Chain Veil to blast you out of that wurm's belly when you arrived here?"

A review of the MTG fan forums following the MTG story line here demonstrate that it is not just us that is starting to suspect that the enigmatic Raven Man may prove yet to be a manifestation of the evil scheming Elder Dragon himself who is manipulating events through Liliana.

Liliana, accompanied by Jace investigate the mummy factory vault where the 'Annointed' are prepared for their post-mortem eternal servitude.  We discover that Razaketh appears to be the gatekeeper to the afterlife.  Things go sideways real quick with a confrontation with Temmet, and a room-full of the recently embalmed dead initiates who appear to be control by the cartouches. 


Another great story !
~

Standard Metagame

~
Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

Next Friday - Friday the 13th, promises to deliver a bunch of fun at our local gaming store, OMG! Games, here in Barrie, Ontario, Canada-Land.  Here's a quick look at what to expect if you are dropping by -

There is to be an appropriate Triskaidekaphobia Challenge, where the player with the most kills (oponent or self) with triskaidekaphobia at the end of the night will receive 13 Shadows over Innistrad Boosters.  Brilliant!  In addition to this, MTG Realm is also providing some very sharp looking gaming accessories from Ultra PRO - specifically, a Macabre Waltz Play Mat as well as matching Arlinn Kord / Arlinn, Embraced by the Moon deck sleeves and box.

If you are not opting to bring along a decklist to win the Triskaidekaphobia Challenge, then we will draw your attention to a good article today by Brandon Isleib over on Gathering Magic.  Off the top, this is a handy comparison table showing the popular standard decklists before and after the Pro Tour, based the breakdown of Magic Online League decklists.

Those prevalent Mono-White and White-Blue humans are still making the list as before the PT, but we are witnessing a healthy diversification now.  Pop on over to Channel Fireball's Power Rankings to see and anticipate the shifting power of individual cards.  Bant Company and Green-White Tokens have taken top spots for now but can they hold on for the next several weeks?   For now, here are the normalised metagame lists from MTG Goldfish for the top dogs.

~

Pro Tour Infographic

~
Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

Something rather interesting happening over on the MTG Realm blog on Tumblr.  Specifically, some milestones and some cool 'n' new weirdness.  As we approach 13,5000 followers, we hit our milestone of 4,000 posts.  That is a LOT of posts and followers . . 

Then, the following day, there were two of these thingys in our in-box - 

We did not know this was a thing.  We've been informed that the  Tumblr Radar is a small promoted post space shown on the dashboard of every user. It offers a substantial increase in traffic for businesses promoting goods and content on Tumblr. The Radar is used to showcase posts that have already attracted a lot of attention from the community.  Rather happy about that - Here were the two posts (this & this) that made the radar -

Anywhoos, big thanks to our thousands of followers in Tumblr-Land - we appreciate you.

For today, we have to say, drop everything and drop on over to the mothersire - Why?  We love infographics - that's why.  Posted today by Diego Fumagalli, is an article titled 'Visualizing Pro Tour Shadows Over Innistrad.  Here is a quick peak at this very awesome infographic fed by the PT data -

Dear Wizards of the Coast - please make more of these !  :)
~

Ctrl Alt Retreat

~
Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

We were most excited to see what would shake out of Pro Tour Battle for Zendikar last weekend in Milwaukee the other weekend, but must sadly admit that we were hoping with more cards from Battle to Zendikar.  Instead, very few of the new cards just did not quite make the cut - instead, as our very favourite MTG personality Evan Irwin commented in the last 'The Magic Show' (linky here), the tournament was essentially Khans Block Abzan versus Jeskai.  To demonstrate, check out this very handy list of decklists posted by The Planeswalker Pantheon :

 

Yep, Atarka Red, Dark Jeskai, Selesyna Megamorph and so on - pretty much everything we had before, just tweaked every so little with many packing Surge of Righteousness in their lists to nerf Siege Rhino or Mantis Rider.  We agree - all ho-hum.  BUT - stop the press - Did you see what list took 4th Place in last weekend's TCG Player Standard States 2015 - Michigan ?

Something called 'Retreat Control' played by Eric Thomasma.  Something fresh, new, and with a high number of new Battle for Zendikar Cards !

Sure, it has a full book set of Siege Rhino, but after that - DANG! - 32 Lands, 12 Retreats and 3 Oblivion Sowers - wow.  Here at MTG Realm we freely admit of not being the brightest or best at this game, so we will direct your attention for the article by Joshua Claytor over on Legit MTG to get the diggity-doo on this list.

We had a weakness for Herald of the Pantheon since it was previewed and quickly acquired a deckset, but unfortunately never found an appropriate home for this spell - perhaps with Eric's, or Joshua's solidly proposed modification, we can Control (alt) Delete our opponent during the next Friday Night Magic event at OMG! Games here in Barrie.

~

MTG Monday Miscellany

~
Happy Monday MTG peeps,

Another post from MTG Realm on a wide variety of Magic: the Gathering news, so strap in and lets take a meandering walk through all of it.  Over the weekend, Milwaukee played host to the Pro Tour Battle for Zendikar tournament.  Everything I know about Milwaukee, I learned from Alice Cooper.  

One interesting piece of news during the weekend's coverage was the announcement of the Regional Pro Tour Qualifier promo card.  A Snapcaster Mage reprint ! ! Players are certainly very happy to see a reprinting of this powerful iconic blue spell but it seems that the majority of gamers are unhappy with the card illustration from artist Joseph Meehan.  In Meehan's decfence, the art is good, but it seems that WotC had some left-over art from Theros showing what appears to be a red mage they had simply re-purposed resulting in a card where there is a disconnect between the art and the spell's effect.

~
Speaking of art, this is what 150 artist proofs of Expeditions looks like.  The image posted showing Steam Vents, Overgrown Tomb, Breeding Pool, Godless Shrine and Sacred Foundry, the truly beautiful card arts showcase the talent of by Noah Bradley.  The estimated retail value of this entire collection is more than we can assess using all of our fingers and toes.

~
You may recall an earlier post here on MTG Realm for the very first Commander 2015 spoiler.  It appears that there may now be another one.  According to a post by Malev0, someone had opened up a small set of Battle for Zendikar booster packs containing English, German, Spanish and Japanese language versions of Eternal Witness.  Great reprint, and if true, hints that this may be included in a Black / Green enemy colour pair decklist.

~
Pro Tour Battle for Zendikar in Milwaukee gave us this list of Top 8 contenders in standard constructed with Japanese players Takimura (first place) and Tamada duking it out in the final match -

Owen Turtenwald (Jeskai Black)
Ricky Chin (GW Megamorph)
Paulo Vita Damo Da Rosa (Atarka Red)
Martin Muller (Jeskai Tokens)
Takimura Kazuyuki (Abzan)
Jon Finkel (Jeskai Black)
Ryoichi Tamada (Jeskai)
Paul Dean (Abzan)

Christian Calcano attracted attention for his Blue-Black Aristocrats deck built around Nantuko Husk and Zulaport Cutthroat which was relatively unique going in to day two.  You can check out the Deck Tech over here on the mothersite.  Here is the list compiled from MTG Goldfish -

Creature (32)
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Hangarback Walker
4 Nantuko Husk
4 Sidisi's Faithful
4 Sultai Emissary
4 Whirler Rogue
4 Zulaport Cutthroat
4 Liliana, Heretical Healer

Instant (4)
4 Murderous Cut

Enchantment (1)
1 Vampiric Rites

Land (23)
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
1 Foundry of the Consuls
3 Sunken Hollow
8 Swamp
1 Island
~

Khans of Tarkir Game Day

~
Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

Last weekend was most likely a rather busy affair for Magic: the Gathering players.  Not only was it Khans of Tarkir Game Day but also the saw the tournament Grand Prix Los Angeles where approximately 1,700 players battled for fame 'n' fortune.  Congratulations to Daniel Scheid who took the top spot with a Red-Green Monsters decklist.  There appeared to be quite a bit of variety in decklists making it to Day Two with the popular ones being Mardu Midrange, Abzan Midrange, Jesai Wins, Abzan Aggro and Green Devotion.  One particular build was a Mardu Midrange strategy played by Brad Nelson who made it to the Top 8 playoff.

Our weekend consisted of Friday Night Magic at our local card shop OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario followed by Khans of Tarkir Game Day on Sunday.  We had all the cards from MTG Mint Card required for a decent Abzan Aggro weapon and did not that badly at all during Friday Night Magic landing in 7th place.  We took the same decklist to Game Day Sunday and did not even make Top 8 which either says something about the rapidly evolving nature of standard constructed or perhaps something about our mental state on Game Day - who knows.

On Game Day we were faced with a number of control builds featuring Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver which exiled our answers rapidly and beat us with our best threats.  The fast ramping mono-green lists for which our sideboard was unfortunately unprepared also had us scrambling for spot removal to no avail.  

We will go back to our Abzan Midrange list to ensure its robust for next Friday but we are already entertaining the idea of developing something along the lines of Brad's Madu Midrange or perhaps Eric Pei's mono-red Boss Sligh.  Since it first was previewed, we wanted to get together a list featuring Butcher of the Horde which provides a lot of very lovely options when you sac a critter - haste, vigilance or lifelink - all on an evasive flyer with a decent mana cost / power / toughness stats.  We're thinking that Eric's Boss Sligh (named after Paul Sligh) can drop a lot of early threats before an opponent can begin to control the board and then follow-up with final points of burn damage.

Anywhoos - an exciting time in standard at the moment and we've got to say that we are rather happy with the diversity that it has.
~

KTK Top Standard Decklists

~
Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

As promised in yesterday's post here on MTG Realm, we are going to touch on the recent Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir tournament in Honolulu, Hawaii to take a measure of which way the standard metagame is shaping up.  We'll suggest that most Magic: the Gathering players participating at their local gaming gaming store's Friday Night Magic event would have an interest in these results.  At our LGS, OMG! Games, here in Barrie, Ontario we've already seen a number of similar builds to that which placed Top 8 in Honolulu.  You can pop on over to the mothersite here to get last weekend's coverage. 

Listed below are 15 deck 'archetypes' and a short description as provided by Wizards in the linky above for those players which earned 21 points or better during the PT KTK event -

Abzan Aggro - 2 decks
This more aggressive take on Abzan often forgoes Sylvan Caryatid and Courser of Kruphix for more aggressively-minded creatures, such as Rakshasa Deathdealer and Herald of Torment, trying to put opponents off balance with some of the strongest creatures at every point in the curve. 

Abzan Midrange - 12 decks
This Sylvan Caryatid/Courser of Kruphix deck is packed full of value and individually powerful spells, trying to jam many of the format's best cards into the same 75-card decklist.

Shown - Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir #1 Abzan Midrange - Ari Lax

Blue-Black Control - 5 decks
A pure control strategy, this two-color deck wants to remove all of the opponent's threats one-by-one, pulling ahead on cards with Dig Through Time and Jace's Ingenuity. Perilous Vault is the sweeper of choice, and can reset virtually any board to the control player's favor.

Black-Green Devotion - 2 decks
These green-based devotion decks try to take advantage of all of the mana that can be generated by Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. There is often a small constellation sub-theme, with black helping out via removal.

Esper Control - 1 deck
Esper Control utilizes almost all of the most powerful control spells the format has to offer, going into white for End Hostilities and some forms of life-gain. Resolute Archangel and Nyx-Fleece Ram keep your life total high.

Jeskai Ascendancy Combo - 2 decks
The format's only true combo deck, Jeskai Ascendancy uses its namesake card along with creatures that make mana to churn through its deck, casting spell after spell before ultimately killing with a large attacking creature, decking from Altar of the Brood, or any number of ways. Retraction Helix and a zero-cost spell make the combo repeatable as many times as necessary. 

Jeskai Wins (Jeskai Tempo) - 15 decks
Using a significant compliment of burn spells and hard-hitting creatures, Jeskai Wins often ends the game in a flurry of damage. It's also capable of adapting a controlling role on occasion if the situation calls for it.

Shown - Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir #2 Jeskai Wins - Shaun McLaren

Mardu Midrange - 1 deck
This midrange deck generates most of its value from its Planeswalkers, then uses a suite of removal and disruption to keep the opponent off-balance while the Planeswalkers and efficient, frightening creatures do their work.

Mardu Planeswalkers - 1 deck
This midrange deck generates most of its value from its Planeswalkers, then uses a suite of removal and disruption to keep the opponent off-balance while the Planeswalkers do their work.

Naya Midrange - 1 deck
This midrange deck generates most of its value from its Planeswalkers, accelerating them out with green mana creatures like Sylvan Caryatid. Some of the format's strongest creatures let the deck also go big.

Red-Green Monsters - 1 deck
The deck uses mana acceleration to quickly pump out some of the biggest, scariest creatures in the format, helped out by a few of the biggest, scariest Planeswalkers in the Multiverse.

Red-White Heroic - 1 deck
Brutally fast and efficient, this deck utilizes the heroic mechanic to turn small, fast red and white creatures into large, fast red and white creatures.

Red-White Tokens - 2 decks
Hordeling Outburst and Goblin Rabblemaster team up with Monastery Swiftspear and a large helping of burn to quickly drop the opponent to zero.

Temur Monsters - 1 deck
The deck uses mana acceleration to quickly pump out some of the biggest, scariest creatures in the format.

Unwritten Devotion - 2 decks
This green and black devotion deck utilizes Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx to make a ton of mana, supports a constellation sub-theme, AND goes for the big score with See the Unwritten.  
~

Organised Play Updates

Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

Some rather interesting news for those of you readers who venture beyond your local Friday Night Magic events and go on to play in the big league.  We've  done a very brief summary here for you but suggest you hit up the mothersite to get the full monty over here.  

First up however, let's talk about hard to get judge foils which may actually may become a titch more difficult to obtain (on the secondary market).

Judge Foils

The Magic Judge Exemplar Program is a brand new Judge Reward Program just recently announced this week.  Magic Judges certified by the DCI are often the un-sung heroes of large tournaments where they provide consistent rules enforcement and promote fair play among a myriad of other tasks.  Judges are typically unpaid for their very hard work but are rewarded through a Judge figt card program where foil Magic: the Gathering cards were either handed out or mailed out to judge staff who worked at MTG tournamdents and events.  Started in 1998, the Judge reward program evolved over the course of the years and in recent years provided approximately eight to ten possible promo cards to be 'earned'.  A number of these promo cards are actually worth a bit of money and has in the past helped some Judges offset the cost of their participation (travel and accommodation) in said event / tournament.  These cards would often find their way on to eBay or retailer's websites where collectors would snap them up.

That has all changed now - for the better or worse, it is up to you to decide. Announcements on 'The Magic Judge' blog introduced the Exemplar Program as the new method of distributing foils to judges in the DCI judge program. The most immediate effect of the foil “policy” change is that judges at GP events will no longer receive foils from WotC as gifts for their efforts.  The Exemplar Program will begin in 2014 for L3+judges and will be fully implemented for all judges in 2015. While judge activities will continue as before, in 2015, judges foils will only be available as part of the Exemplar Program which will use a recognition-based process that will award judge foils to a wider audience of judges based on their contributions to the judging community.  This may mean fewer Judge foils making it on to the secondary market and may impact large tournament organisers latter in the 2015 schedule as they may be required to offer additional incentives or compensation for certified judges - it really is too early to tell.

~
PTQs/GPs/PTs Changes

Yesterday on the mothersite was a series of important updates from Helene Bergeot, Director of Global Organized Play Wizards of the Coast.  We suggest that if you are a regular at the large tournaments, you read all four articles to get a handle on the number of changes to the Pro Tour Qualifying (PYQ) System which is to take effect starting with the qualifiers in December.  

Essentially your local gaming store will still be running 'Preliminary' PTQs from which the winners will be qualified to attend a Regional PTQ and from here, potentially on to the Pro Tour.  Other changes include an adjustment as to how Pro Points are earned but since we're not ever expecting to go pro nor do we think that Pros will ever stop by our little MTG Realm Blog, we will just direct you to read this on the mother site.  There are also a planned increase in the number of Grand Prix tournaments and more specifically, a total of 54 GPs in the 2015 calendar year in the following regions :
•    24 in the United States and Canada
•    14 in Europe
•    5 in Mexico, Central America, and South America
•    7 in Asia-Pacific
•    4 in Japan

~

Khans of Tarkir

~
Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

Hope all have had a great weekend.  Up here in Canada-Land, it was the Victoria Day Long weekend (Fête de la Reine) where we celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday but actually are celebrating the final snow melt off decks and patios - and good thing too as Prince Charles and Duchess of Cornwall are freshly arrived here.

Since we were not near a wifi connection for a large portion of long weekend, we now have a lot of Magic: the Gathering news to catch up on.  This does not mean that we did not have a great weekend without some magic.  Kicking off on Friday, we took in the Friday Night Magic event at OMG! Games here in Barrie, and happened to pull one of those very cool Conspiracy card previews - the censored Pick, Plot, Play on the back of a 1/1 Soldier token.  We then returned Saturday evening to play in a Pauper Commander tournament which we took third place with Imperious Perfect as our Commander and a bunch 'o' Elves pumped with an assortment of auras and pump spells.  We had collected a number of rather inexpensive commons for this decklist from MTG Mint Card and have to admit we had a ton of fun in this format.  Anywhoos, lets' get straight to the MTG news now -

First up - Patrick Chapin defeated Nam Sung Wook in the finals to win Pro Tour Journey into Nyx in Atlanta, Georgia.  The tournament witnessed top players from around the world to battle for fame, glory, and $250,000 in cash prizes in the Theros Block Constructed and Theros Block Booster Draft formats.  Chapin won with a junk midrange deck (white / green / black).

Secondly, as part of the Pro Tour Journey into Nyx, there was an announcement on the fall set which was posted yesterday to the mothersite.  As many had suspected, we did already have the name via the trademark registery and it is a fairly sure bet that the other registered names of Dragons of Tarkir and Warlords of Khanar will be the following two.  Very happy this time around that two pieces of art were also provided to generate fodder for the speculation engine.

Set Name : Khans of Tarkir (codename 'Huey')
Block : Set 1 of 3 in the Khans of Tarkir block
Number of Cards : 269
Prerelease Events : September 20-21, 2014
Release Date : September 26, 2014
Launch Weekend : September 26-28, 2014
Game Day : October 18-19, 2014
Official Three-Letter Code : KTK
Twitter Hashtag : #MTGKTK

Initial Concept and Game Design - Mark Rosewater (lead), Mark L. Gottlieb, Zac Hill, Adam Lee, Shawn Main, Billy Moreno, and Ken Nagle
Final Game Design and Development - Erik Lauer (lead), Doug Beyer, David Humpherys, Tom LaPille, Shawn Main, and Adam Prosak, with contributions from Matt Tabak

Please check out the brief video WotC MaRo (Mark Rosewater) MTG Lead Designed and MTG Tournament coverage kingpin Rich Hagon.

~
Creative and Story
Sarkhan Vol is a primarily red planeswalker who came from Tarkir, a plane scourged by war. This plane was controlled by constantly battling warlords, who had a tradition of slaying dragons for sport and glory, driving the beasts to extinction.  This horrified the shamans of the plane, who worshiped the dragon as the pinnacle of predation. 

Design and Mechanics
• Sarkhan will appear in the set.
• It is a Large-Small-Large block.
• They are doing something never done before with the block structure.
• The block contains two things that players have been wanting for a long time.
• One of them is something they are bringing back after a long absence.
• The other is something they haven't done yet.

More news will be forthcoming during the San Diego Comic-Con on July 24-27.  Feel free to speculate away with regards to the intriguing teasers provided by MaRo.  Some gamers are suggesting a return to full-art lands for this set, while others are calling a wedge block and others betting on orcs to return.  Just a few of the numerous speculations floating right now.
~

Modern BW Tokens

~
Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

If you've been reading us here at MTG Realm, you will certainly know that know that since we first blogging about Magic: the Gathering back in 2008, we sort of have this thingy for token decklists.  Furthermore, you may surmise that pro-player Craig Wescoe is certainly held in high regard around here as we feel we share similar overall game strategies and deckbuilding styles. 

To say that we were crestfallen after Honor of the Pure, and latter on, Lingering souls rotated out of standard would be a gross understatement.  We will not feel too sadened however as there is always Modern format for us to get another kick at the can as it were.  Anywhoos, as today's post title suggests, we are having a looking at Modern Black / White tokens and more specifically, the deck that Craig Wescoe took to game with at the recent Born of the Gods Pro tour Valencia Spain last weekend.  Here is the list now - 

MAIN DECKCreatures [4]
4 Squadron Hawk

Spells [31]
4 Doom Blade
2 Engineered Explosives
4 Honor of the Pure2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
4 Path to Exile
4 Spectral Procession
3 Sword of War and Peace
4 Thoughtseize

Lands [25]
4 Arid Mesa
3 Fetid Heath
4 Godless Shrine
3 Isolated Chapel
4 Marsh Flats
2 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Tectonic Edge
1 Vault of the Archangel

SIDEBOARD
3 Disenchant
2 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Liliana of the Veil
3 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
1 Tectonic Edge
The first thing you may note is why no Bitterblossom?  Bitterblossom was very recently unbanned in this format and there is little doubt that this is a powerful token generator.  What we were most interested in after the un-banning is finding a home for
Bitterblossom in a 'Soul Sister' strategy where the continual one life point loss each turn for Bitterblossom would be negated by the one life point gain from either Soul Warden or Soul's Attendant.  We would also strongly consider using the token critter +1/+1 pump offered by Intangible Virtue over Honor of the Pure which of course only pumps white creatures (since we're greedy, we'd most likely use both).  All-in-all, this was certainly a difficult meta-game decision Craig had to take.

There is no doubt that Craig's list using Squadron Hawks, and a package of removal and discard was very robust. Some eight cards of instant spot removal is excellent to disrupt combos such as Deceiver Exarch / Splinter Twin and the like while six discard spells helps remove troublesome spells.  Squadron Hawks and Lingering Souls can pick up Sword of War and Peace and cause serious damage by flying over Kitchen Finks or Wall of Omens.  There is also 3 copies of Tectonic Edge in the main board to blow up the potentially very powerful Gavony Township.

In short, we love this build and hope to put our own touches on to it after we acquire a few odd singles from MTG Mint Card.

~

PT BNG Valencia

~
Happy Monday MTG peeps,

What a weekend it was for Canada.  At the winter Olympics, Canada defeated Sweden to defend gold in hockey, and at the Pro Tour Born of the Gods in Valencia, Spain, two Canadians battled in the final round.  Many sports bars here in Canada received special permission to open (and serve) at 5:00 AM for the final hockey game and even a church in Halifax had the game on and provided shortened services inbetween periods.

Here in Barrie, Ontario we got up early to watch hockey as well as tune into coverage of Pro Tour Born of the Gods.  Shaun McLaren (aka ArsenalMunch on MTGO) defeated fellow Canadian Jacob Wilson in the finals of Pro Tour Born of the Gods Modern format, earning the $40,000 first prize and a spot at the World Championship.  A spot very well deserved with his record of 7 wins and 1 loss with an 'American Control' decklist.  Here's the breakdown of the Top 8 players and the decks they took -

Shaun McLaren - WUR Control
Jacob Wilson - Melira Pod
Patrick Dickmann - Tarmo-Twin
Anssi Alkio - UR Twin
Lee Shi Tian - Blue Moon
Christian Seibold - Affinity
Chris Fennell - Storm
Tim Rivera - WUR Twin

We are very happy to see so many diverse decklists here.  Blake Rasmussen provides this list of Top 5 Cards of Pro Tour Born of the Gods - if you are thinking about getting into Modern format the time is now - just stop at MTG Mint Card to start building your Modern arsenal.

1. Threads of Disloyalty
2. Steam Vents
3. Anger of the Gods
4. Birthing Pod
5. Path to Exile

One decklist we were rooting for in particular as we have the list mostly built is Hexproof / Auras -

20 lands
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Forest
4 Horizon Canopy
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Razorverge Thicket
3 Temple Garden
3 Verdant Catacombs

12 creatures
4 Gladecover Scout
4 Kor Spiritdancer
4 Slippery Bogle

28 other spells
4 Daybreak Coronet
4 Ethereal Armor
4 Hyena Umbra
4 Keen Sense
2 Mana Tithe
4 Rancor
3 Spider Umbra
1 Spirit Mantle
2 Unflinching Courage

Sideboard
1 Damping Matrix
3 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Nature's Claim
3 Path to Exile
1 Silhana Ledgewalker
2 Stony Silence
15 sideboard cards

Ever since Bant Hexproof (Giest of Saint Traft / Innvisible Stocker), we've had a keen interest in fielding a hexproof critter, loading them up with powerful auras and swinging for serious damage.  Modern format is gaining popularity and Wizards of the Coast is supporting this with the release of Modern Masters last June and potentially a new product coming again this summer and we certainly hope to get a hold of a collection of staples which we're lacking right now.
~