AUGUST 2018: UR STORM

UR STORM

Paeng_4983

Main deck

4 Scalding Tarn

2 Flooded Strand

4 Spirebluff Canal

3 Steam Vents

3 Island

1 Mountain

4 Desperate Ritual

4 Pyretic Ritual

4 Manamorphose

1 Increasing Vengeance

4 Serum Vision

4 Sleight of hand

4 Thought Scour

3 Faithless Looting

2 Izzet Charm

4 Pyromancer Ascension

3 Baral, Chief of Compliance

3 Past in Flames

3 Grapeshot

Sideboard

4 Lightning Bolt

3 Empty the Warrens

3 Blood moon

2 Echoing Truth

2 Sharttering Storm

1 Defense Grid

Gatecrashers Anonas

Quezon City

1 July 2018

Infect 0-2

Affinity 1-2

Amulet Bloom 1-2

Tron 0-2

(0-4) (2-8)

The worst output I had with UR Storm. 

Notes
I forgot to bring-in Shatterstorms against Affinity. Ten goblin tokens by turn two was not enough to outrace a turn three deathtouch and lifelink 6/6 wurm. And lastly against the Amulet Bloom, Echoing Truth and Izzet Charm were not enough to stop him, thanks to his prime time, from dancing. 

Neutral Grounds' PPTQ

Alabang Town Center

4 August 2018

The event had 100 players, 7 rounds of swiss plus cut to top 8. Sweet! I faced the following:

Amulet Bloom 0-2

Bant Eldrazi 2-1

Tron 2-1

Elves 0-2

Storm 0-2

(2-3) (4-8)

Notes:

Against Amulet Bloom, I had the chance to win the game but I decided to kill his 6/6 green giant first and prayed to god keranos that I'll get my turn back. Sadly it never did because he dropped his second Primival Titan fetched a Bojuka Bog and another bounce land and controlled my tempo from there. I dropped from the event after absorbing my third loss. 

Blood Moon

I had a two turn-two ritual into Blood Moon scenarios (against Amulet and Storm). Unfortunately, I drew bricks in my next draw phases. 

After those frustrating outcomes, I did some adjustment to the deck. I removed the following from the sixty: 3 Faithless Looting, 3 Baral, Chief of Compliance, 2 Izzet Charm, and an Increasing Vengeance; and replaced them with a set each of Goblin Electromancer and Opt, and an Empty the Warrens. As for the sideboard: 2 Blood Moon, 2 Empty the Warrens, 3 Lightning Bolt, 2 Echoing Truth, 2 Dispel, 2 Abrade, and 2 Thing in the Ice.

Opt

I like Faithless Looting because of two reasons: (i) it sculpts your hand and (ii) it has flashback. Despite being a big fan of it, I decided to replace it with Opt because: (i) it gives that flexibility feeling whenever you cast it at the end of your opponent's turn; and (ii) it nets you one sure card especially in times where it is the only card in your hand unlike Faithless Looting.

Goblin Electromancer

I switched back to Goblin Electromancer because sometimes having multiple copies of this discount giving friend helps you negate opposing player's taxing tactic. 

Empty the Warrens 

So instead of having a defensive card to deal with whatever main deck hate they have, I opted to bring-in another win condition, Empty the Warrens. 

Thing in the Ice
I hope this horror creature helps me win against pesky little fast aggro decks. 

Neutral Grounds' PPTQ 
Cash and Carry Makati

19 August 2018

Boros Burn 0-2

Amulet Bloom 2-0

Boros Burn 0-2

UWr Control 2-0

Affinity 0-2

(2-3)  (4-6)

Notes: 

Puking goblins does not guarantee you a win. I'll probably bring back my lone Gifts Ungiven and will probably do the same with Faithless Looting. I'll probably add Echoing Truth in the mix as well. 

Against Amulet Bloom, I've already learned my lessons from the last two bloom matches: no more hanky-panky line of plays. Against Boros Burn, I had a very good mental computation with rituals-cantrips-Grapeshot. But I attacked my golden goblin; opponent simply block and killed it with a 2/2 of his own. What was I thinking! And lastly, do not forget to respond to "before damage dealing" thingy. Every life point matters. *sigh*

That's all for now. Hopefully I get my winning rhythm just in time for Grand Prix Hong Kong. I hope to see you in any of the upcoming modern PPTQ:

Sept 1

Madcap Gaming

Sept 2 

Cedric's Boardgame Cafe 

Sept 8

Johnson Gaming 

OHS

PC Butlers

Sept 9

Concealed Courtyard

That's all for now. Thank you for reading!

-Paeng4983

August 2018: Modern Mono Blue Merfolk

Mono Blue Merfolk

Paeng4983 

Main Deck 
4 Ancestral Vision

4 Spreading Seas     

4 Aether Vial

3 Master of Waves

4 Merfolk Trickster

4 Silvergill Adept

4 Curesecatcher

3 Harbinger of the Tides

3 Merrow Reejerey

4 Lord of Atlantis

4 Master of the Pearl Trident    

15 Island

4 Mutavault

Sideboard

4 Relic of Progenitus 

3 Ceremonious Rejection

3 Negate

2 Dispel

2 Damping Sphere

1 Echoing Truth

AUGUST 2018: Back to back modern PPTQ weekend

Pearl of the Orient had four modern PPTQs during the first weekend of August 2018. August 4th had (Manila) Neutral Grounds branches Alabang Town Center and Megamall and in Cebu Magus Games; while Block 101 was the lone shop to host it the day after. 

Congratulations to the Saturday winners: Josh Lo (Amulet Bloom) NG ATC, Rex Ybardolaza (Eldrazi Tron) NG Megamall, and Rene Aquino (UW Miracles) Maguc Games. Also to John Sahagun for taking down the Block 101's event. 

4 August 2018

NG ATC

100 players

A solid happy seven rounds for everyone. I brought my beloved storm and had a miserable a 2-3 drop. 

5 August 2018

Block 101 

80 players

I planned to be at the venue by 10 in the morning. Unfortunately I experienced an unbearable headache the moment I woke up at 6am and had to deal with it for two to three hours first before going to the event. I brought Mono Blue Merfolk to the event and had my worst result with it: 1-3-1 drop. 

Before ending this, for those modern players who are still hunting for that elusive invite, here's what we have for the next two weeks. 

Aug 11

NG Trinoma (Quezon City)

Upkeep Hobby Shop (Pampanga)

Aaffinity Games (Cagayan de Oro)

R4 Hobby Shop (Las Pinas City)

Aug 18
Wabshaq (Las Pinas City)

Aug 19 
Regran (Quezon City)

Thank you guys for reading! 

-Tiyo Paeng 4983

PS
Regran will have its Regran Modern Open on August 12th.