Playing Monored Devotion

After playtesting with a Gruul Aggro deck for a few weeks, I wanted to drop Green and just go with a monocolor deck to make the manabase more consistent. I still wanted to pressure the opponent and to use burn spells to finish the game up or destroy early game blockers, so I new I need to keep playing red.

MonoRed Devotion

The transition from Gruul to mono red devotion is not that difficult. The playing style is similar and to increase the devotion count, we need to play Chandra's Phoenix and Fanatic of Mogis instead of the Fanatic of Xenagos and Ghor-Clan Rampager as the 3 and 4 mana-drops of the deck. Playing with no dual lands also gives us the liberty to just run 20 lands thus increasing our creature and spell counts.

Chandra's Phoenix

Gruul Aggro Post Born of the Gods

With the Release of Born of the Gods, I think Gruul Aggro got some new goodies worth playing. For the last 2 weeks, I was trying to build an Aggro Gruul deck. It will be my first tournaments here in Japan so I though an aggro deck might be a good way to practice Magic with the Japanese language level that I have.

Fanatic of Xenagos

Of all the Tribute cards released in Born of the Gods, I think this is one of the best. We all know how making your opponent choose for you is not a good effect. But the options for Fanatic of Xenegos are good either way for an aggro deck.

Searing Blood

I am really loving this card. Against other Red and aggro decks, this shines the most. But it is also very good against midrange strategies since as we put a lot of pressure in the battlefield, Searing Blood will make your opponent think twice before blocking.

Maximizing Burning-Tree Emmisary and Ghor-Clan Rampager

The deck was basically made to maximize the mana produced by Burning-Tree Emissary. With a full set of Gore-House Chainwalker and Firefist Striker as the other 2-drops, this deck will definitely clog the board on turn 2 to keep putting pressure on the opponent. Ghor-clan Rampager is there to give trample and reach. I could say that the trample is very important especially in racing games. You can also hard cast it as a 4/4 trampler, but I seldom use this option in the deck. For the burn package, although most people use Magma Jet, I chose to use the good old Shocks, Lightning Strikes for mana efficiency.

Gruul Aggro by Bryan Inno Wong

Lands: 4 Stomping Ground 4 Gruul Guildgate 11 Mountain 1 Forest Creatures: 4 Rakdos Cackler 4 Firedrinker Satyr 4 Burning-Tree Emissary 4 Gore-House Chainwalker 4 Firefist Striker 4 Fanatic of Xenagos 4 Ghor-Clan Rampager Instants: 4 Shock 4 Lightning Strike 4 Searing Blood

Sideboard: 2 Hammer of Purphoros 2 Mizzium Mortars 3 Destructive Revelry 3 Act of Treason 3 Skullcrack 2 Flames of the Firebrand

Matchup Results:

Gruul Aggro vs Boros Burn : (2-1)

Gruul Aggro vs GR Monsters : (3-3)

Gruul Aggro vs RG Devotion : (0-2)

Gruul Aggro vs Monoblack Devotion : (0-2)

Gruul Aggro vs Monowhite Aggro : (2-0)

Notes:
After 2 weeks of playing this deck, I think that this deck is really good in an Aggro meta. But since the current Meta is filled with Mono Black and RG midrange strategies, this deck may come up short against those decks. I am currently working on a Monored Devotion deck to put it in a position to combat midrange strategies. I will be posting the new decklist and how well it will go in the tournaments in my local shop.

April 2014 FNM Card - Encroaching Wastes with Picture

April 2014's Friday Night Magic Promo Card is Encraoching Wastes.

This artwork is worth a closer look. So here it is:

Now, to compare it with the original artwork of Encraching Wastes from M14.

Which of the two do you like better?

March 2014 FNM Card - Banisher Priest with Picture

Banisher Priest is March 2014's Friday Night Magic promo.

A closer look at the card image.

Now, to look at the original art of Banisher Priest in M14.

Jelly Citea in Davao - Visit cities all around the world with just a cup!!

Now what's this new buzz in Davao city that you can travel to different cities all around the world with just a cup of jelly tea? If that's the case, I would definitely want a cup!

Jelly Citea

Jelly Citea is already serving in Davao city. The question is, are you ready to travel to Paris, Tokyo and New York?

Jelly Citea is a fun, new and exciting way of enjoying jelly with tea, coffee, milk and other mouth watering and healthy recipes. Freshly brewed tea leaves from Taiwan and carefully picked flavorings and ingredients that are all 100% natural and healthy.

It was started in Manila last December 2010 and has flourished all over the Phils, with branches in Cabanatuan, Cebu, Zamboanga and GenSan, to name a few.

Thanks to a young davaoenya entrepreneur, the Jelly Citea franchise has finally reached Davao. Jelly Citea is very accessible and it is open from Monday to Saturday from 10am to 10pm. The place comes with a very cozy atmosphere making it such a great place to chill out. You can also avail the LOYALTEA cards, wherein you will get freebies every 5th, 10th and 15th cup. Now that's a treat!

The drinks are also very affordable! Prices range from 50-90 pesos. The interesting concept about Jelly Citea is that from the word citeas -- you can visit all around the world for a very reasonable price! The must tries are the citea creamy specials, such as Paris, Tokyo and New York.

Chill out places are never complete without the comments of satisfied customers. This may be what I really like most about the shop. It is such a great place to spend time with friends and to just relax and unwind. Let's zoom in into some  of these posts.

Jelly Citea Davao

Whoah! Now how to get there? The first branch in Davao is located at Fuente Juan Luna Complex at Juan Luna street, near Ateneo de Davao University in Jacinto and Boyztrek. Check out the green mark on the map for details.

Yoshinoya Beef Bowl

Gyuudon or Gyudon (牛丼) is a Japanese Beef Bowl. "Gyu" (牛) means beef and "don" (丼) is short for "donburi" which means food served on top of a bowl of rice. In Japan, the are actually several Gyudon and curry fast-shops found almost everywhere (Sukiya, Matsuya, Yoshinoya, and others) so if you want to grab a bite or a bowl of these heavenly beef bowl, it's actually just around the corner. This particular gyudon that I will be featuring is from Yoshinoya.

Gyudon has actually been my comfort food. Since it is served with hot steamed rice and a cup of hot tea, a gyudon is a great treat to yourself after a hard day's work or when the weather is cold. In shops like Yoshinoya, you can order these foods in these servings:  standard-serving (nami, or namimori, 並盛), large-serving (oomori, 大盛), or extra-large-serving (tokumori, 特盛). But of course, when it comes to me, it will never be namimori. ^_^ Just a tip, tokumori contains the same rice content with the oomori serving but it comes with twice more beef compared with the oomori.

But how can we make this bowl of beef even better? I suggest eating it with a hot tea or even with Miso Soup. Then for my personal preference, I usually sprinkle spices (and furikake) on top of the beef and some beni shoga (red pickled ginger) to heighten up the flavor.

When you guys can come to Japan, you should try to eat authentic Japanese Gyuudon. They are very accessible and will definitely be worth your while.