The New Face of InnoMTG

I assessed my life in the last few days and I realized many things. This is the result for evaluating the different aspects of my life. I now believe that Life is everything about perspective. I think I was 60% pessimistic before and the only excuse that i can always think of is that it is somehow practicing your self to become ready whenever the worst comes. But life has so many things to offer and I think I overlooked them too long.

This is the change that was long overdue. It is time to stop overlooking the good things and enjoy what life has to offer. this is a new chapter in my life and so as innoMTG. It will no longer focus only in Magic: the Gathering but instead it will also reach out to the things that I love doing, and the things that I would like to explore. I will also try to monetize this blog and not limit its potential and find avenues to improve it and maximize its potential.

Of course, life is not easy and there are a lot of challenges in the way. But this time, I will continue to see the better side of life and analyze the things I've done in the past and how I can use it to make my life great in the future.

Erratic..

Lately I have been consumed by all feelings. I hurt people, maybe it's a defense mechanism. But later on, I feel guilty. Maybe what I am doing is wrong. I don't know anymore. It's just that people don't know my burden, and everything hangs on a line for me - my future. Days start right and I end it with an empty hole in me. I wake up and it begins again. I was really happy yesterday. But when I thought I can share it today, things didn't work well. I realized I was consumed again by mixed emotions. Maybe I should keep these little bit of happiness to my self. Because, unlike my happy high school days, it is now short-lived. Like what happened yesterday, before I knew it, it was already gone...

Open the Vaults Deck

I will try this deck for the standard tournament later this day. I will be updating this blog later to summarize the deck performance and match-ups.


Open the Vaults

Creatures (21)
4 Architects of Will
4 Glassdust Hulk
3 Filigree Angel
4 Sphinx of Lost Truths
2 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
4 Pilgrim's Eye

Spells (18)
1 Pithing Needle
2 Everflowing Chalice
4 Spreading Seas
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Day of Judgment
4 Open the Vaults

Lands (21)
3 Celestial Colonnade
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Kabira Crossroads
1 Swamp
5 Plains
5 Island

Sideboard (15)
2 Hindering Light
2 Negate
2 Celestial Purge
1 Day of Judgment
3 Luminarch Ascension
4 Kor Firewalker
1 Sanguine Bond

Featured Deck : WU Control

With the lack of better counter spells in today's sets, this control deck focuses much on removals and card drawing abilities. This week's featured deck is White-blue control. With the upcoming release of Rise of Eldrazi this end of April, this decklist may try to accommodate counterspells in the new set.

White-blue Control

creatures (7)
4 Baneslayer Angel
3 Knight of the White Orchid

spells (14)
3 Path to Exile
4 Day of Judgment
3 Martial Coup
4 Mind Spring

enchantments (7)
3 Oblivion Ring
4 Spreading Seas

artifacts (7)
4 Everflowing Chalice
3 Fieldmist Borderpost

lands (22)
3 Celestial Colonnade
3 Glacial Fortress
5 Island
7 Plains
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Sejiri Refuge
2 Tectonic Edge

planeswalker (3)
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Sideboard:
3 Kor Firewalker
3 Celestial Purge
4 Flashfreeze
4 Negate
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Jund Explore Deck FNM for the win!!!

It's been more than a month since I last played in a Friday Night Magic Tournament. So I didn't have any competitive deck at hand. Luckily, my good friend, Jose Victor Salvatierra, passed this one out and I got the chance to borrow his deck for the fnm. And I landed in 1st Place after a long absence in sanctioned tournaments. hehe
I think I was very lucky in the games. I obviously had a lot of misplays but I managed to hold on for the win. What is unique in this build is the Explore cards in the maindeck. Most Jund decks don't run explore but I think it is a great card to boost your land in the present 27-land build of Jund decks. This is the deck list of the Jund Explore deck that I used.


Jund Explore

creature [16]
4 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Broodmate Dragon
4 Putrid Leech
2 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Sprouting Thrinax

spells [15]
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Terminate
4 Blightning
2 Explore
3 Maelstrom Pulse

land [27]
3 Dragonskull Summit
3 Forest
2 Lavaclaw Reaches
2 Mountain
4 Raging Ravine
2 Rootbound Crag
4 Savage Lands
3 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs

planeswalker [2]
2 Garruk Wildspeaker

Sideboard [15]:
3 Goblin Ruinblaster
2 Bituminous Blast
3 Malakir Bloodwitch
2 Jund Charm
2 Deathmark
1 Dragon's Claw
1 Mind Rot
1 Pithing Needle

Match-up Summary:
Round 1 VS W/U Control (Win 2-0): (1-0)
Not an easy match-up for jund decks. Oblivion rings and Day of Judgements keep the board in his pacing. But a late game maelstrom pulse desroys his O-rings to free up two of my Sprouting Thrinax. In game 2, 2 early putrid leeches put too much pressure in the board dealing too much damage before he could release his DOJ. then Bloodbraid elf sealed the win.

Round 2 VS WUb Open the Vaults (Win 2-0): (2-0)
Basically a bad match-up for me. Luckily, I was building this same deck for my standard deck so I basically identified the plus and minus for the deck. This is an auto-win against jund decks if he can cast open the vaults on turn 6 with Filigree angel and other artifacts in his graveyard. So my goal for the game is to keep him from having 6 mana for open the vaults. In game 1, again, early putrid leech and thrinax kept the pressure. I had a misplay of choosing blightning over pulse when he can produce 5 mana. OF course, he would leave the Open the vaults at hand and hope to draw a land. Fortunately, the draw was not a land. I played pulse to destroy his borderpost. Top-draw Bloodbraid elves then sealed the win. Game 2. Sided in ruin blasters. Destroyed his lands and borderposts using ruinblasters and pulse that kept OPen the Vaults out of reach = Win.

Round 3 VS Vampires (Win 2-1): (3-0)
Basically an all out war. But one weakness of vampire decks is that you must remove most if not all of his creatures from the board. If there are not many vampires in play, the Nocturnus is not much of a threat. In game 1, had early putrid leeches and he had no answer. I just bolted all his early vamps. Game 2, played a bad 5-land hand with a putrid leech and explore. I basically did not draw removals for his Nocturnus. Game 3, learned my lesson, added in Bitblast for additional removal in my arsenal of spells.

Round 4 VS W/U Polymorph (Draw): (3-0-1)
Game was up and down. And the deck didn't cooperate not to mention my head was aching already because I did not have time to eat dinner before the game. He had lots of board sweeps like DOJ and martial coup in addition to removals. Spreading seas also slowed the game down for me. He cannot polymorph into his bombs because of spot removals like lightning bolt and terminate. Time ran out and the game was draw.

... Negate

I don't know anymore.. I thought today was going to be different. I wanted to start the day right and hope to become productive today. But I was wrong. I had this report format on my lap but I'm still not in the mood to work anymore. Maybe my resignation is getting into me already. But I know I need to be productive today. I have lots of things to finish. I need something to jump start my day...