Magic - Ctrl Z

~
Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

MTG Realm did not have a post yesterday - we had to sit down, lay down, breath deeply and calm ourselves down.  It actually took a full day to recover from the huge bombshell of an announcement yesterday from Wizards of the Coast (linked right over here).

Before we yatter any further about that, here are some nuggets of Magic: the Gathering related newsworthy items -

• Yesterday's Magic Story ('A Grateful Consulate') from James Wyatt was awesome !  Tezzert is still a dick but we've almost warmed up to Dovin Baan (whom we suspect has a stick in his posterior).

• WotC Staffer Blake previewed the Friday Night Magic Promo Card for January, 2017 - hint - do you like snakes ?

• Kaladesh Game Day is THIS WEEKEND.  Tune up your vechicles (erm, decklists we meant to say) and get on in with some standard format action at your local gaming store for a chance to win kewl prizes.  If you find yourself in Central Ontario, do drop in to OMG! Games in Barrie.

Righto - 
Speaking of Kaladesh and Standard format . . . 

The BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

When MaRo posted the 'Meamorphosis' article on August 25, 2014 announcing several very important changes to Magic: the Gathering, it was received with mixed reviews.  That is to say, some of the changes were quite welcome, and others not so much.  Essentially, the changes were :

• Magic Blocks were moving from three sets to two.

• Magic will have two blocks per year.

• Core Sets would no longer see print.

• The first set of each block would cause a standard format rotation (Spring and Fall)


That was then, this is now.

In yesterday's article from Aaron Forsythe ('Revisiting Standard Rotation'), Wizards of the Coast admits that "the twice-yearly rotation has resulted in a barrier to new or casual players" and that there would be an immediate return to an annual (once per year) rotation.

Click Image to Embiggen!

WOW - We are rather pleased with this.

Your Eldrazi just got another six month lease on life and if you fancy Kaladesh, then you'll be pleased to see that this block won't rotate until Fall 2018.  Which means you will have more time, and a somewhat larger card pool to develop a decklist than under the previous arrangement.

The Tl/DR -

Fall 2017: Battle for Zendikar, Oath of the Gatewatch, Shadows Over Innistrad, and Eldritch Moon rotate.
Fall 2018: Kaladesh, Aether Revolt, Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation rotate.

If you are looking for a more in-depth evaluation of the big announcement, we suggest you read Corbin Hosler's article 'A Changing Standard - Everything Old is New Again' over at TCG Player.
~

New Standard Metagame

~
Happy Monday MTG peeps,

We've completely missed posting last week and even missed the Shadows Over Innistrad PreRelease Event at OMG! Games, here in Barrie, Ontario as we were under the weather.  Sad Panda.  Do not fret however as we are certainly back in the seat this week.  As is custom here at MTG Realm, we were able to get off an unboxing video of a Shadows Over Innistrad Fat Pack, and WOW, we had some decent pulls.  Look for that short video on YouTube over here.

Anywhoos, we want to yatter about the brand new world that is standard format.  Whereas we feel that the last block, Battle for Zendikar may have had a bigger splash for Modern players (corrected with the recent banning of Eye of Ugin), this new set, Shadows Over Innistrad, has indeed made a big impact on standard format.  Let's have a brief overview of just how Magic: the Gathering players took this new set to task with the first large event after release - StarCityGames.com Standard Open Baltimore.

Day Two metagame from 134 players

W/U Humans – 23
W/B Midrange – 15
Bant Company – 13
G/R Eldrazi – 11
W/B Eldrazi – 10
Esper Dragons – 7
W/G Humans – 7
R/W Eldrazi – 6
G/W Tokens – 5
Mono-Red Eldrazi – 4

The Top 16 decks -
Place / Deck / Player
1st Bant Company Jim Davis
2nd Mono-White Humans Kellen Pastore
3rd W/B Eldrazi Eric Hymel
4th U/R Control Todd Anderson
5th W/B Midrange Blake Conti
6th W/U Humans Collin Stiles
7th W/U Humans Christopher Juliano
8th W/G Humans Dwayne Graham
9th W/U Humans Brennan DeCandio
10th Bant Company Kevin Jones
11th Bant Company Dan Jessup
12th W/G Humans Jacob Hagen
13th W/B Eldrazi Michael Majors
14th W/U Humans Emma Handy
15th Esper Dragons Ali Aintrazi
16th Mono-Red Eldrazi Mat Bimonte

Top Cards / Card / Copies / Decks
1 Declaration in Stone 145 67.19%
2 Knight of the White Orchid 119 46.88%
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar 113 56.25%
4 Archangel Avacyn 98 57.81%
5 Thraben Inspector 74 29.69%
6 Thought-Knot Seer 74 29.69%
7 Reflector Mage 72 28.12%
8 Thalia's Lieutenant 70 28.12%
9 Hangarback Walker 68 29.69%

10 Transgress the Mind 63 34.38%

We also suggest that you pop on over to Gathering Magic and get a fuller picture with Nick Vigabool's latest artilce on the 'Standard Snapshot', post Shadows Over Innistrad.

~

Khans of Tarkir Game Day

~
Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

It certainly is an exciting time for Magic: the Gathering players worldwide as the new Khans of Tarkir is now fully absorbed in to standard format and everyone is brewing up new decklists to become top dawg.  In yesterday's post, we yattered about the break-out decklists at the Pro Tour event in Honolulu.  We suggest you check out Josh Silvestri's article at Channel Fireball to see which lists delivered and which fell short of the mark.

The big tournament this weekend is Grand Prix Los Angels and we'll see whether the two big winners in Hawaii, Abzan Midrange and Jeskai Wins will deliver again or whether there will be further evolution in standard format.  Although we will be watching, our focus is most definitely on Khans of Tarkir Game Day this weekend.  At our local gaming store, OMG! Games, things will kick off with Friday Night Magic to give an opportunity to try out their strategies in a more casual environment before the Game Day events following on Saturday and Sunday - see details below.

We now have our most recent order of cards from MTG Mint Card and have a tough choice to make as to which decklist to bring to Game Day - 
• White / Red Heroic, or
• Abzan midrange

Our two decklists are of course not exact but do closely approximate the R/W Heroic build from Yoshihiko Ikawa, and the Abzan list from Alexander John.  Which one to play for Game Day may come down to a coin flip for us.

What do you plan on playing ? - use the comment thingy below.

~

Magic: the Gathering - Khans of Tarkir Game Day

When :

• Saturday Oct. 18: 11:30 registration, 12:30 start

• Sunday, Oct. 19: 11:30 registration, 12:30 start

Where : OMG! Games, 130 Bell Farm Road, Barrie, Ontario

Entry : $6 per player

Format : Standard Constructed

Prizes :

All participants will receive a full-art Heir of the Wild promo card. The top eight players will receive a foil full-art Utter End. The top player will receive a special Game Day playmat. Sealed product and additional prizes will also be added into the pool, based on attendance.

Contact :

Phone : (705) 721-4263

Website : www.OMGgames.ca

~

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.  
~

KTK Deck Ideas

~
Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

We are rather happy to now just receive our Khans of Tarkir pre-orders from MTG Mint Card - delivered safely 'n' soundly in under from over 12,500 clicks away to our door step in under four days.  We had carefully ordered a variety of the new Magic: the Gathering cards based on a variety of different reasons - but essentially what we thought would perform nicely in the new standard environment.  Now with this big pile of new cards, all efforts now go in to what decklists to brew up for standard constructed.  We don't really need to worry as a Pro Player has pretty much done all of that for us already - don't worry, we still have 'original' ideas and refer to the new strategies as a sort of sanity check.  

That Pro Player ? Tomoharu Saito.  This 30-year-old is a successful player with a long list of accolades and also happens to be the owner of Saito Card Shop (online retailer) and Hareruya MTG, Japan’s largest gaming store / tournament center, located in the suburb of Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo.  Tomoharu has been posting 'deck ideas' with the release of each new set and we've been loving it.  

Here's the full list of 15 different standard decks he posted to his twitter account and we're certain you'll like at the very least a few of them to try out and build upon.  We've just posted three pics and suggest you drop by Saito's twitter to get images of the rest of 'em. Click to embiggen.

Deck 1 ”All in Mardu”
Deck 2 ”Morph Festival”
Deck 3 ”Mardu Control”
Deck 4 ”Abzan Midrange”
Deck 5 ”Jeskai Burn”
Deck 6 ”Mono Black Beatdown”
Deck 7 ”Hardboild Sultai”
Deck 8 ”Temur Midrange”
Deck 9 ”Orzhov Warrior”
Deck 10 ”Naya Planeswalkers”
Deck  11 ”Mono Red Beatdown”
Deck 12 ”Mono Red Beatdown Part2"
Deck 13 ”Esper Control”
Deck 14 ”KTK All Stars”
Deck 15 ”The Darksteel Citadel”
 

'All in Mardu'

'Abzan Midrange'

'Jeskai Burn'

~

No More Core Sets

~
Happy Monday MTG peeps,

Some very big changes are on the horizon for Magic: the Gathering players - first and foremost is that Wizards of the Coast, after much discussion is cancelling core sets.  Love 'em or hate 'em, this will be making room to accommodate two-set blocks moving forward.  The downside may be is increased standard format rotation but let's get into the nitty-gritty now.  We strongly suggest that everyone read Lead Designer Mark Rosewater's article on the mothersite today before we go further.

Here is a quick 'n' dirty summary of the changes to be implemented -  

Change #1: Beginning in the Fall of 2015, Magic Blocks Will Be Two Sets Each

Starting with "Blood" block in September 2015, each block will have one large set that introduces the world and one small set that builds upon it. (I should note that this is the default and we reserve the right to have sets of different sizes if it serves the block.) Blocks will no longer have a third set.

Change #2: Beginning in the Fall of 2015, Magic Will Have Two Blocks Per Year

Here's the typical schedule of the Magic year, with all the usual caveats about how Magic is about change and you should expect us to shake this up a bit over time: There will be a large fall expansion and small winter expansion set in World #1. Then there will be a large spring expansion and a small summer expansion, usually set in World #2. The first two sets will be part of one block and the second two sets will usually be part of a second.

Change #3: Beginning in 2016, the Core Sets Are No More

The summer of 2015 will have the last core set release, and in 2016, the summer set will be the second set of the block that started in spring of 2016.

Change #4: Beginning in 2016, the First Set of Each Block (the Fall and Spring Sets) Will Cause a Rotation

This in some ways isn't a change, but rather an adaptation to match the new Two-Block Paradigm. The first set of a block has always caused a rotation in the past. The Two-Block Paradigm just means that this now happens twice a year (in the fall and in the spring) rather than just in the fall.

Change #5: Beginning in 2016, Standard Will Be Three Blocks Rather Than Two Blocks

To keep the metagame more robust, we are changing the size of Standard. This change is the reason we are telling you this now, because we want you to understand that Khans of Tarkir will only be played in Standard for 18 months. This change should not have any impact on the set's role in other formats.

~
Many Magic: the Gathering players are typically ho-hum about the core set and simply considered the summer a bit of a write-off for MTG.  WotC did change things up by providing a number of new never-before printings to spice things up.  Personally, we are liking the new change and the retirement of the core set.  We are a titch unsure as to whether the increased rotation will cost us more - which may be an issue if were not so damn happy about picking up all the latest singles from MTG Mint Card.  Anywhoos, all in all, we might be able to make it out to Friday Night Magic at our local store OMG! Games in Barrie, Ontario more often now during the summer months.  :)

~