Sukiya Yakitori Don (Grilled Chicken Bowl)

Like Yoshinoya, Sukiya also has a lot of branches in Japan. From the major cities to the provinces, these restaurants are very easy to locate and spot. Sukiya restaurant signage are commonly written in Japanese as すき家 but the color of the logo makes it very easy to identify and remember.

This is the 2nd restaurant that I will feature that is famous in Japan when it comes to Gyudon and Curry. Previously, I posted about Yoshinoya's Gyudon (Beef Bowl). Instead of Beef bowl or Curry, I decided to go for Yakitoridon (焼き鳥) or Grilled Chicken Rice Bowl.

Magic101 - Knowing Your Deck

In the world today, information is everywhere. In the world of Magic: the Gathering deck building, getting all the information that you need is very easy compared to, say 10 years ago. Information is very accessible now that with just a click, the discussions about a certain deck or the recent top 8 deck lists in major events around the world can be viewed in our computers and phones.

As someone who played the game way back before internet access became very easy, I used to open my booster packs, read every card that I get in the packs, and try to think about a deck for them. The fun part was play testing the decks with my friends. Usually, these experiments don't work out so either I just abandon the idea or keep working on it. And so, I buy more booster packs just to get additional copies of the cards, try to evaluate new cards again, repeat this process until I finish a deck with the strategy that I want. Without knowing, through this process, I usually end up with a deck that I know inside and out. I know how many copies of a certain card in the deck, I know how many creature cards are there, I know the right time when to properly use a card, or I know how many Islands or Mountains are there in my deck. Since I know my deck and I tested it many times while building it, decision making for these decks are easier for me compared to the decks that I only borrowed from a friend.

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.