SEPTEMBER 2018: Mono Blue Merfolk

Originally, I was 100% sure of going to the RPTQ modern if in case I win an invite from any of the remaining modern PPTQs. Unfortunately, after getting stranded in Hong Kong for a few days due to force majeure, not to mentioned that plane tickets bound to either Kuala Lumpur or Taipei are getting more expensive as the day go by, I am not pursing anymore that RPTQ dream because the allotted budget for the said event is now gone. And since we are now down to the last days of modern PPTQ, September 22nd and 23rd, I think it is just fitting to play my last 2018 modern PPTQ where I first won it - at MDP. 

MDP PPTQ

Donya Soledad, Bicutan

22 September 2018

Mono Blue Merfolk

Main deck

15 Island, 4 Mutavault 

4 Aether Vial, 4 Spreading Seas, 2 Spell Pierce

4 Lord of Atlantis, 4 Master of the Pearl Trident, 3 Merrow Reejerey, 2 Master of Waves, 4 Curesecatcher, 4 Silvergill Adept, 1 Phantasmal Image, 1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, 4 Merfolk Trickster, 4 Harbinger of The Tides

Sideboard

4 Relic of Progenitus, 3 Gut Shot, 3 Negate, 3 Ceremonious Rejection, 2 Dispel

Tron 2-1

Humans 2-1

UW Control 2-0 

Tron 2-1

Abzan 1-2

UW Spirits ID

Q: Bant Spirits 2-1

S: Elves

F: UW Spirits 1-2

(6-2-1)  (14-7)

Notes:

I had several lapses like missing Merrow Reejerey's trigger off a merfolk spell. Missed some window of opportunity to tap (or untapped) some of his creautres. And miscounted some of the plus-plus count off the lords to another lord.

The combination and interaction of Merrow Reejerey, Merfolk Trickster, and Harbinger of the Tides won me several games against aggro decks. 

Against Spirits, there were times that I had to cast something (a bait spell, most of them were lord spells) before doing a land drop into Spreading Seas. Such maneuver is crucial because I was protecting my blue enchantment from their golden 2/3 flying flash creature. 

Kira, Great Glass-Spinner and Master of Waves were not big factors in this tournament. Phantasmal Image, however, was for he was like the ninth lord at two casting cost.

You should learn to swim with only two or three merfolks for you do not want your school to get blown with a single card (Engeneered Explosives, Damnation, Terminus, Wrath of God, Supreme Verdict, and the like). 

Always save those Ceremonious Rejection for artifact cards that hurt Merfolk a lot such as Oblivion Stone, Karn Liberated, All is Dust, Walking Ballista, Engineered Explosives, and other colorless cards (Ensnaring Bridge is one) that I forgot to mention which merfolk really hates. Negate, on the other hand, for those colored hate cards.

I thought I was going to make a back to back MDP modern PPTQ win; unfortunately I drew bricks in my last three turns in the rubber match against UW Spirits in the finals.

Thank you very much for reading guys! I hope to see you in the next eternal tournaments around the Metro. 

Tiyo Paeng

6214089146

SEPTEMBER 2018: UR Storm at the Grand Prix Hong Kong

UR Storm
Paeng 4983

Main deck
3 Island

1 Mountain

2 Polluted Delta

4 Scalding Tarn

4 Spirebluff Canal

1 Steam Vents
1 Shivan Reef

3 Goblin Electromancer

3 Baral, Chief of Compliance

2 Pyromancer Ascension

4 Desperate Ritual

4 Gifts Ungiven

4 Manamorphose

4 Opt

4 Pyretic Ritual

1 Remand

1 Unsubstantiate

1 Repeal

2 Grapeshot

2 Past in Flames

4 Serum Visions

4 Sleight of Hand

Sideboard

2 Thing in the Ice

2 Blood Moon

2 Abrade

2 Dispel

1 Fiery Impulse

2 Lightning Bolt

3 Empty the Warrens

1 Shattering Spree

Grand Prix Hong Kong
Modern
15-16 September 2018

Burn Burn 1-2
Boggles 2-0
Humans 1-2
UR Storm 0-2
Bridgevine 2-0
Tron 2-0
(3-3)  (8-6)

Notes

Against Boros Burn, I had the chance to win the game but I had a bad decision that eventually caused me the game. Bad decisioning, I guess I should have trusted my gut instinct of picking up that Ritual instead of Grapeshot.

Game one against Boggles, he dropped two Leyline of Sanctity. Good thing he was drawing bricks and only had a boggle with one enchant creature on it. Thus giving me enough time to assemble Pyromancer Ascension. Digged for that lone Repeal from my library and bounced those Leyline before aiming my Grapeshots at him. Game two, he dropped a turn zero white leyline but I had a turn two 16 goblin tokens. He extended his hand after two turns. 

Game three versus human: all I was praying for Past in Flames or Gifts Ungiven to come to my hand - but it did not happened. The same thing happened when I faced the mirror match in the 4th round. I was praying that Past in Flames be handed to me but it did not. 

Thing in the Ice is really a house versus hate on stick. 

Thank you for reading. 

Paeng 4983

SEPTEMBER 2018: 5 Peso Stumpy at Grand Prix Hong Kong

Grand Prix Hong Kong! I am delighted to know that the September Asian Grand Prix included legacy as one if its side events. Right away, I reached for the deck box that houses my 5 peso stumpy and gave it a tweak. If for some reason you cannot see clearly the above image, here's the list.

5 Peso Stumpy

Paeng 4983

Main deck

16 Forest

4 Berserk

4 Rancor

4 Might of Old Krosa

4 Invigorate

3 Seal of Strength

2 Scryb Sprites

3 Jungle Lion

4 Silhana Ledgewalker

4 Kavu Predator

4 Dryad Militant

4 Nettle Sentinel

4 Skarrgan Pit-Skulk

Sideboard

4 Hidden Gibbon

4 Faerie Macabre

4 Rushwood Legate

3 Blossoming Defense

I really wanted to shuffle my all time favorite deck on day zero's scheduled legacy side event, but due to tight schedule, because I still had to deal with non-mtg matters on that day, I was not able to play it. Chances of me playing it on Sunday looked good when I did not made it to day two. Unfortunately super storm Manghkut (Ompong) flatten most of Hong Kong. And as a result, most of its public transportation were put to halt. I spend day two in the hotel with my family watching 8 (or 9) straight Disney animated movies. Yep, "FISH ARE FRIENDS not and FOOD!"

For those who are still unaware of the remaining modern PPTQ schedules, here they are.

Sept 21

Kick Engines (Cubao Expo)

Sept 22

Dragonforge (Katipunan)

MDP (Bicutan)

Mage Ring (Dasmarinas)

Sept 23

NG District (Imus)

FQ (Mandaluyong)

I hope to see you in any of these folks!

-Paeng4983

SEPTEMBER 2018: UR STORM

Six modern tournaments. 27 rounds. 12 wins. 15 losses. Not a very good stat line. I need to level up my game if I wanted to do good in the upcoming Grand Prix Hong Kong. I started it by sleeving the Baral-Gifts version.

Gold Rush Trial - Modern
Playground, Caloocan City
25 Aug 2018

Mardu Nahiri 2-0
Lantern 1-1
Bant Coco Spirits 2-1
8 Whack 2-0*
UR Storm 2-0
(4-0-1)  (9-2)

*: I won by 2-0 but due to him having the better breaks to be at the top, and the event has no top 8 play-offs, I gave him the win and wish him luck on his last round.

Notes
Bant CoCo Spirits
Check each spirit card before making any move for you might oversee something important. Blood Moon single-handedly won me game two.

Lantern
The deeper you dig, the better: Sleight of Hand - Opt - Serum Vision.  Tokens off the Empty the Warrens plan is a not a good route versus them.

Madcap PPTQ 
San Pedro, Laguna
1 September 2018

UW Spirits 2-0
Hollow one 0-2
Infect 0-2
BW Eldrazi 1-2
Humans 2-0
UB Mill 2-0
Mardu YP 2-0
(4-3)  (9-6)

Notes
I learned my lesson from the previous spirit game. I read every spirit card he puts on the table.

Infect turn two-ed me.

Never do more than two fetch - shock land - take two scenario against Hallow One or Vengevine deck.

Multiple hate on stick < Thing in the Ice.

Graveyard hates and/ or non stick permanent storm hates < swing from your 7/8 horror creature plus mini Grapeshot.

CLBHSE PPTQ 
Imus. Cavite 
2 September 2018

Mono Green Stompy 0-2
Humans 1-2
UB Mill 1-2
Mono Red Dragon Stompy 2-0
-drop-
(1-3)  (4-6)

Notes
I was not prepared for those home brews. I guess I'll have to thinker on the spot in case I get paired against them at the grand prix.

Dryad Militant is a house.

Him swamp done. Me: tarn into island into serum. He responded with an Archive Trap then Extirpate.

It felt weird that I am not seeing Trinisphere and Chalice of the Void across the table against Mono Red Dragon Stompy.

I kept a one land hand in one game - and failed to see another one, I lose.

I won a game despite losing Gifts Ungiven, Manamorphose, and a Past in Flames to his Extirpate, Nihil Spellbomb, and Surgical Extraction: Grapeshot. Remand. Draw Remand, draw discard Baral. Grapeshot. Unsub. Grapeshot this time for lethal. WIN.


PC BUTLERS PPTQ
Sta Rosa, Laguna 
8 September 2018

URW Control 2-0
CoCo Vizier 2-1
Tron 1-1
Grix DS 2-1
UW Control 2-0
Grix YP  ID
(4-0-2)  (10-3)

Since there were only two persons who are interested in the invite, the top 8 players simply divided equally the packs and just proceeded with the finals, UR Storm vs Tron.

Notes
Finals game one, he mulled to 5 for Relic of Progenitus. I lost this one. I was not able to get the correct combination of cards to play around it. Finals game two, he mulled again. This time to six, and got 2 relics. Fortunately, this time, despite him having relics eating two cards per my end of turns, I got the correct combination and was able to forced a rubber match with the help of double Grapeshot. Finals game three, he mulled to 5 again for those relics. This time he had an Oblivion Stone to help him preserve his precious relic.

Thing in the Ice > hate and combo on sticks.

Blood Moon won me a lot of games in this tournament. The same thing happened with tokens off  the Empty the Warrens.

I used his instant spells to feed my storm count then win the game with double Grapeshots.

Always check your opponent's life total.

And before ending this post, here's the 75 that I sleeved from the tournaments mentioned above. 

UR Storm
Paeng 4983 

Lands (17)

3 Island

1 Mountain

2 Polluted Delta

4 Scalding Tarn

4 Spirebluff Canal

3 Steam Vents

Creatures (6)

3 Goblin Electromancer

3 Baral, Chief of Compliance

Non-creature spells (37)

2 Pyromancer Ascension

4 Desperate Ritual

4 Gifts Ungiven

4 Manamorphose

4 Opt

4 Pyretic Ritual

1 Remand

1 Unsubstantiate

1 Repeal

2 Grapeshot

2 Past in Flames

4 Serum Visions

4 Sleight of Hand

Sideboard

2 Thing in the Ice

2 Blood Moon

2 Abrade

2 Dispel

1 Fiery Impulse

2 Lightning Bolt

2 Empty the Warrens

1 Shattering Spree

1 Defense Grid

To all Filipino planeswalkers who will compete at this weekend's Grand Prix Hong Kong (modern), GOOD LUCK! 
Paeng 4983

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.