Modern UnBan News

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

Last weekend was rather busy with work, but we were still able to take an occasional break to catch up on coverage of Grand Prix Toronto, February 9-11, 2018.  A number of players from our local gaming store OMG Games here in Barrie took the 50 minute drive down to attend, but this was quite an international event.  Visitors to Canada were greeted by typical February weather in Toronto - cold and a lot of snow-covered lands.

If you have not yet, click on over to the coverage summary here at Wizards.  Results indicate that Modern format is in a really good place right now with ten players finishing Day 1 undefeated, with 10 different decks.  Compared to a few short years ago where Day 2 decks essentially were restricted to just a handful, it has improved rather well.  Check out the Top 8 Decklists linked right here.  Of note, we are rather happy to see GP Toronto winner Dan Ward and his Bogles - we are being biased of course as we run a Bogles decklist.

Since the mini-preview of Big-Daddy Jace (Jace the Mind Sculptor) with the packaging preview of the upcoming Masters 25 release (March 16th), many were anticipating the un-banning of Jace in Modern in today's announcement (linked here).  A number of Magic: the Gathering community members had been also calling for Bloodbraid Elf to be unbanned as well.  For a very good (and prophetic) article written ahead of today's announcement, read SafronOlive's article linked right here.


In short, we think these are rather acceptable given the state of Modern and although we do not have plans on playing these in the near future, we do personally know a few players who are likely very happy to see these cards back.

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Grand Prix Toronto

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

From all accounts, it appears that the Grand Prix Toronto weekend was a success.  We will be catching up with a number of our friends this week from our local shop, OMG! Games in Barrie to talk to them about their experiences.  The organiser, Face to Face Games received a number of very decent reviews which you can read over on Reddit. 

As for Magic: the Gathering constructed, there are players brewing bold lists and adapting to the field.  The Top 8 shook out as follows - 

Esper Dragons, Robert Lombardi
W/G Tokens, Jon Stern
Grixis Control, Oliver Tiu  
W/G Tokens, Doug Potter  
Mono-White Humans, Bradley Robinson  
Naya Tokens, Michael Sheng  
W/B Control, Brett Tetley  
W/B Control, Josh Buitenhuis

Six of the Top 8 players are fellow Canadian with one new face - that of Josh Buitenhuis, from Cambridge who to date has really only rocked his MTG at local gaming stores.  One player we had been rooting for was Jon Stern with his Green White (G/W) Tokens decklist.  This list has a full book-set of Archangle Avacyn // Avacyn, the Purifier as well as Nissa, Voice of Zendikar and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar.  There are some great synergies to be realised with this list - our fav is to pump our smaller tokens, from Secure the Wastes or Hangarback Walker with Dromoka's Command or Nissa's +1/+1 counter, and flip Avacyn to ping everything for 3 damage, which hopefully our team will be tough enough to go sideways on a relatively clear board.  The visual on this decklist over here at MTG Goldfish.

Here is Jon Stern's List which took 2nd Place - 

MAIN DECK
Creatures [20]
4 Archangel Avacyn
4 Hangarback Walker
4 Lambholt Pacifist
4 Sylvan Advocate
4 Thraben Inspector

Spells [7]
4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
4 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
Planeswalkers [8]
4 Dromoka's Command
3 Secure the Wastes

Lands [25]
4 Canopy Vista
8 Forest
4 Fortified Village
7 Plains
2 Westvale Abbey

SIDEBOARD
3 Clip Wings
3 Declaration in Stone
2 Evolutionary Leap
1 Linvala, the Preserver
1 Quarantine Field
1 Sigarda, Heron's Grace
1 Stasis Snare
3 Tragic Arrogance
Sideboard [15]
Deck Total [60]


Should you contemplate developing a list along these lines, we suggest that you pop on over to the G/W Tokens Guide by Brian Braun-Duin over on channel Fireball.

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GP Toronto

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

Over the weekend, more than 1,050 Magic the Gathering players traveled from far flung exotic locations to participate in the Grand Prix championship tournament in Toronto.  

Approximately a dozen players from our own local gaming store, OMG! Games in Barrie, Ontario made the trek down to vie for fame and fortune in this Modern format tournament.  We don't think Team Barrie broke into the top 100 standings but will catch up with them latter to confirm.

The metagame clearly favoured Jund, and Red-Green Tron, with Scapeshift, Twin, and Robots making a solid showing as well.  At the end of Day Two Willy Edel of Rio de Janeiro beat out Californian Sam Pardee to take the title of Grand Prix Toronto Champion.  A great showing by fellow Canadians Jon Stern, Collin Morton, Alon Chitiz, and James Vance all found seats at the Top 8 finals table.

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The deck we here at MTG Realm that most interested us was a Black / White tokens build, piloted by American player Melissa DeTora who took 9th Place in the tournament.  Why do we love this build - well mostly because we actually own most of the cards and have had a lot of fun playing something similar.  With a few minor tweaks and an acquisition from MTG Mint Card, we will have a Modern deck to take to the gaming store.  Here's a quick look at Melissa's deck . . .

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