"The Clarity of Fire"
by:
Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD
I
I grow tired
Waiting for the flames
So I take my first step
And become embraced by the fires
II
And for a moment
All that was pure emerges
No longer hurting
No longer remembering
III
Just that moment
A clarity long withheld
There finally revealed
Among the dancing flames
Optum Bldg.N , UP Ayala Technohub , Quezon City City Jan 25 , 2021. 11:58 pm
"Bramble Sovereign :I missed one."
by:
Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD
I was watching one of those box openings on Alpha Investments and Rudy was just talking about how Battlebond is one of those sets that people miss out on. I thought that I had all the important cards in that set especially after hitting Doubling Season , Greater Good and the Kenrith Twins but I am glad that I was surprised to miss one and that is the Bramble Sovereign that turned out to be the first mythic rare of that box.
A 4 mana costing 4/4 Dryad that has both combo and political potential. So it has an ability that reads , Whenever another nontoken creature enters the battlefield, you may pay 1 and Green mana. If you do, that creature's controller creates a token that's a copy of that creature.
I found this intriguing because it basically just copies a creature that came into play at such a discounted cost. So I picture that this will be great with ETB effects like a Mulldrifter for example. You can evoke it and then pay 2 mana to draw a total of 4 cards. An Archeomancer allows you to return 2 Instants or Sorceries. A Nekrataal kills two creatures. A Trinket mage searches for 2 artifacts.
The best part is that you can leverage this ability by asking your opponent that you want to form an alliance with by asking , "Do you want to double that?"
And I mean this is also a 4/4 so it might be part of that final line up you could have in the end to defeat the last remaining opponent. Maybe this an a whole number of tokens as well
"3 things that I excited me from Kaldheim"
by:
Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD
By now all the gloom and doom regarding the expected value of Kaldheim is all over the internet and I must admit that after all the things that Wotc has been throwing at magic players and collectors there has to be some point where nothing would feel special at all and just cause these things to drop in prices.
I don't want to dwell on those things however. I just want to talk about things about excited me about Kaldheim in the first place.
1) Orvar , The All Form
Man the comborific things that Orvar has presented. The Potential to just copy a permanent and get another one of it in play. I mean that whole Ghostly Flicker , Archeomancer and Peregrine Drake combo is insande but with more of these guys coming in again and again at instant speed? Game over.
2) Tergrid , God of Fright
Now referred to as God of Salt because of the abusive things she can potentially do. I mean an opponent discards a permanent card it ends up on your side of the battlefield ,an opponent sacrifices a non-token permanent this ends up on your side of the field too.
With an abundance of cards that can make opponents discard or sacrifice things you can easily see why Tergrid is a magnet for hate right off the bat. But all strategies are not really assured until tested in battlefield conditions so I am reserving my judgement until I actually beat someone with her. The potential and there though.
3) Fynn and Vorinclex.
While it is not a secret that I am a Phyrexian by nature and therefore the thing that excites me the most about Kaldheim is the one that deals directly with the Compleation of other worlds. Fynn has death touch creatures giving 2 poison counters on opponents that they damage and Vorinclex doubles those counters.
There is an existing Super Jerks decklist for Vorinclex that I find exciting as well and will probably attempt at building it once I acquire the elusive Praetor in Kaldheim.
So forget about EV. There are still enough things to make you excited about this set.
"The Pretender"
by:
Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD
I
I sat there listening
Pretending I had the answers
And you kept pouring your heart
When I have never really found mine
II
And I spew out the words
that people always take to heart
but they sounded hollow
and they echoed a little in my mind
III
That I am here unexposed
adored and unencumbered
living my life and judging
All for the sake of helping
The Gatehouse Loft , Valenzuela City Jan 21 , 2021. 1:34am
"The Creepiness of 11 minutes"
by:
Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD
I have a routine that I follow when I go to work. I set up my Waze to maximize my drive and I put on a curated playlist to listen to. I have a playlist that consists of 5 songs and one of those songs happen to be 11 minutes by Yungblood and Halsey as the last one in queue.
Nothing really out of the ordinary when I first tried this playlist. I like the songs , I was humming to them , thinking of what I would write , what emails I would be answering and so on. In that drive from Valenzuela to QC I will pass by the intersection of Congressional and Mindanao Avenue. While waiting for the light to turn green the last song 11 minutes came on and I was amused to see that as Halsey sang the chorus "I'm 11 minutes away" my Waze also displayed that I was also 11 minutes away from my destination. Since the light was still red I managed to get a screen shot of this. I believed it was cool but had no further thought on the matter. I arrived at the clinic with no incident.
Since I rotate playlists it was awhile since I went back to that 11 minutes one until I did the following week and I remembered and thought that it would it be cool if I stopped at the same corner and this song would come on again? True enough it did. I was also 11 minutes away from my destination according to Waze.
Nothing concerning right? Until I played the same playlist , stopping at the same intersection 3 more times with the same thing happening. After that I stopped playing the playlist all together. The reason? In the Music video for the song Halsey was singing 11 minutes away and not being reached anymore because well , she was in a horrific car crash that killed her or at least in the MV. Well that is enough creepiness for me. On to the other playlists without car crashes in their MV's.
"The Hall of Doors"
by:
Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD
I
I opened a door and some more
and I kept opening and more
Till I turned to see and there
Even some more!
II
This hall that I ignored
Kept on closing the paths
And I play catchup
by opening them back up
III
Like waves they crash
but seep up on high
Till I am drowning
and reaching high up
IV
But the doors close
And I gasp for that sight
And with that hope
A little despair.
The Gatehouse Loft , Valenzuela City Jan 21 , 2021. 1:34am
"A life Lesson from Uncle Istvan"
by:
Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD
I first met Uncle Istvan when I was in med school and starting out with my a couple of my friends what would end up to be a life consuming hobby.
Uncle Istvan is a tough guy. He reminds of one of those Uncle's that let you hit them in the arm or in the abs just to prove how tough they really are.
They say things like,
"Wala akong Maramdaman"
"Mahina , lakasan mo pa."
"Yun lang? Chicken."
And I used to be in so much awe that Uncle Istvan would take zero damage from creatures and during that phase of my magic learning the main damage really did come from creatures so Uncle Istvan could just stand there killing 1/1 goblins or stopping 7/7 Baloths without trample. Literally a stone in the middle of the road that causes other creatures to stumble. During those times my thought would be if Uncle Istvan lands on the field it will be all over.
Of course I had to snap out of it and figure things out for myself and this is what I realized there is more than one way to remove a creature. Uncle Istvan does not have shroud or hexproof. He can laugh at all the damage being thrown his way but a simple Unsummon can make him go away. It was that easy.
In real life I also have some Uncles who are toughies. They can also easily be unsummoned by their wives regardless of how tough they are though. Thanks Uncle Istvan for the life lesson.
