"My Daughter Loved Jollibee. Then I Found Out Why."

 "My Daughter Loved Jollibee. Then I Found Out Why."

by:

Virgilio F. De Leon Jr., MD

When my daughter Aven was three years old, we had a birthday party at Jollibee in West Avenue. During that party, I managed to take a snapshot of Aven hugging Jollibee.

The look on her face was pure love.

Her eyes were closed, and she was hugging him as tightly as she could.

I have often joked that Jollibee was Aven's first love.

I sometimes wondered if that was actually true because every time my daughter hugged me, I felt no less love from her than what I saw in that photograph—a little girl embracing the symbol of Pinoy food excellence with all her heart.

Recently, I shared that old photograph on my Facebook page. The following night, during dinner, I brought it up.

"Love na love mo si Jollibee, ano, anak?"

What our now 20-year-old daughter told us next shook me to the core.

"Daddy, didn't you know I hugged Jollibee like that because he reminded me of you?"

A teardrop was about to fall from my left eye.

I was genuinely touched.

And then, somewhere between the emotion and the realization, the tear decided to retreat.

Wait.

I looked like Jollibee?

Suddenly, an internal debate began.

Should I feel loved?

Or should I feel offended?

I looked at old photographs of myself from when Aven was three years old.

Unfortunately, the resemblance was uncanny.

There I was, staring back at myself, and I had to admit that my daughter had a point.

In the end, though, the sentiment of love won.

Because what she was really telling me was that even as a three-year-old, she associated that feeling of warmth and happiness with me. She saw something familiar in that big red-and-yellow mascot and hugged it the same way she hugged her father.

And honestly, there are worse things a daughter can compare her dad to.

A little part of me was still offended, though.

Just a really, really small part.

"Blor: You Can't Kill This Frog."

 "Blor: You Can't Kill This Frog."

by:

Virgilio F. De Leon Jr., MD

Blor is one of those funny cards because, well... he just is.

Imagine getting him onto the battlefield. Short of sacrifice effects, exile effects, mass bounce, or putting -1/-1 counters on him with something like Black Sun's Zenith, there really aren't many ways to get him off the field.

At five mana, he's fairly easy to cast in Green. Trample, Hexproof, and Indestructible. They were even a little shy about giving him Haste and making him unable to be countered, like some Hydras I know.

He really isn't that beefy at 3/3, but with Indestructible, he simply brushes off traditional creature removal.

Wrath of God?

Damnation?

Blasphemous Act?

He just puffs out his chest, shrugs them off, and keeps going.

The question of whether you can Doom Blade him is also moot. Hexproof takes care of that. Can you Boomerang him? Swords to Plowshares him?

Nope.

Your opponents can't target him, but you certainly can.

And that's where things get interesting.

Now imagine Blor wearing a Blanchwood Armor or an Alpha Status with a bunch of other Frogs in your deck. He can become massive enough to make full use of that Trample, and suddenly that seemingly unimpressive 3/3 doesn't look so small anymore.

And, as usual, my game plan involves making Blor a Phyrexian.

Just equip Grafted Exoskeleton to him.

Blanchwood Armor and Grafted Exoskeleton on a trampling, hexproof, indestructible creature?

I am absolutely in.

At that point, Blor isn't just a frog.

He's a problem.

"Ekthi, Contaminator Priest: Give Your Equipment a Life of Its Own."

by:

Virgilio F. De Leon Jr., MD

The Mystery Boosters Commander Edition doesn't just give us Planeswalker Commanders. It also introduces a whole lot of Legendary Creatures that can support some very interesting and specialized builds.

Someone in Wizards R&D must have taken a look at all the Equipment cards available to players and thought, "We have a lot of weapons. But what happens if the weapons could fight on their own?"

Because that's the thing about Equipment: if you don't have a creature to equip it to—to wield it, so to speak—it is basically just a very expensive piece of metal taking up space on the battlefield.

Since their introduction in the original Mirrodin block, Equipment has become a favorite tool for many Magic players. And then the Phyrexians came along and, naturally, decided that perfectly good artifacts weren't horrifying enough. They corrupted them, twisted them, and turned them into Living Weapons.

Living Weapons are essentially Equipment that come with their own creature to wield them.

They can be used for the glory of Phyrexia!!!

Sorry. My Phyrexian is showing.

Or, if you prefer, they can be used for your own personal glory.

Now, what if those Living Weapons had a Lord?

Enter Ekthi, Contaminator Priest.

Obviously, Ekthi appears to be aligned with Elesh Norn's faction, and she seems to believe that purification comes through the corruption of the vessel. Maybe that vessel is an Equipment. Maybe it's a person.

Potatoes, potahtoes.

This four-mana creature does what Lords have traditionally done best: she gives her chosen creature type a +1/+1 boost. And yes, Phyrexian is now a creature type, so there is plenty of room to build around that.

But Ekthi isn't just a Phyrexian Lord.

She is the Lord of Phyrexian Living Weapons.

And she creates those Living Weapons as they enter the battlefield under your control.

Think about all those Swords that already come with Protection and a variety of useful abilities. Now imagine them coming to life, ready and willing to serve. Swords, armor, cloaks, daggers, spears—pretty much anything you can imagine turning into a creature as soon as it enters the battlefield.

Imagine something like Blackblade Reforged becoming a Living Weapon.

Not only would you get its power and toughness based on the number of lands you control, but that creature would also receive an additional +1/+1 from Ekthi because it is now a Phyrexian Germ.

That opens up a lot of possibilities.

There are so many interesting pieces of metal sitting in my collection just waiting to be put to use.

With Ekthi around, they don't have to remain pieces of Equipment anymore.

They can become an army.

And I think this is going to be fun.

"Garruk, Curse Breaker: Why Kill Them When Someone Else Can?"

"Garruk, Curse Breaker: Why Kill Them When Someone Else Can?"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

Since I started writing again this month, I've gotten into the habit of analyzing the planeswalkers we're going to be getting in 2027.

I've deliberately avoided many of the current planeswalkers in circulation, mainly because I feel they have already been covered to death at this point. There are only so many ways you can analyze a planeswalker before you start repeating yourself.

Now that I've written about the nine planeswalkers coming in Mystery Booster Commander Edition, I'd like to turn my attention to the last in-universe set of the year, Reality Fracture.

The premise is certainly interesting.

Jace is essentially trying to pull a Hal Jordan—and if you don't know the reference, go read up on Green Lantern. He is attempting to alter reality so that all the terrible things that have happened up to this point simply never existed.

Joining him are planeswalkers who appear in colors opposite to their usual identities.

Opposites, yes.

But as we see later, these opposing colors aren't necessarily foreign to these planeswalkers. In fact, they may represent aspects of their personalities that were already there.

A good example is Garruk.

After being cursed by the Chain Veil, Garruk carried black mana within him. So in Reality Fracture, we get both a green and a black version of Garruk.

Today, I'll be focusing on Garruk, Curse Breaker, a five-mana planeswalker costing three generic mana and two green.

I have several Beast decks that are going to want this planeswalker as support, as well as a redundancy for an existing enchantment I already love: Garruk's Uprising.

Garruk, Curse Breaker's static ability is a significant improvement for this strategy. It simply checks whether a creature with power 4 or greater enters the battlefield under your control, and if it does, you draw a card.

That's a pretty good deal in a Beast deck.

Big creatures are already what you're planning to play, so getting a card every time one of them enters the battlefield can generate a considerable amount of value.

His +2 ability allows you to untap two lands.

That's great for Garruk, especially if those lands are capable of producing more than one mana. Imagine untapping something like Ancient Tomb or Gaea's Cradle.

Now you're not just building loyalty.

You're potentially setting yourself up for an even bigger play on your next turn.

His -3 ability is classic Garruk.

You create a 4/4 Beast token with trample.

A big body that can protect Garruk, attack your opponents, and, thanks to his static ability, immediately draws you a card when it enters the battlefield.

A 4/4 Beast, a card, and a planeswalker that can start generating more mana?

I'll take that.

But then we get to the -6 ability, and this is where Garruk gets a little political.

The ability lets you persuade another player to attack one of your other opponents. When they do, the creatures they control get +2/+2 and trample until end of turn.

You can activate it, point toward another player, and essentially say:

"You know that guy over there? I think you should attack him."

And suddenly their creatures become significantly more dangerous.

If they have a large army, you might even be able to convince them to put the final nail in another player's coffin.

Of course, you could do the deed yourself. Your own creatures can take advantage of the +2/+2 and trample as well.

But where's the fun in that?

I'd much rather have somebody else take out another player for me.

At least when I'm playing with Garruk, Curse Breaker on the battlefield.

I still prefer to bloody my opponents whenever I can.

I'm just perfectly happy to let someone else do it first.

And that's what I find particularly interesting about this version of Garruk. He's still doing the things you'd expect from him—making Beasts, generating mana, and encouraging creatures to smash into each other.

But now there's a little bit of politics involved.

And sometimes, the best way to win a Commander game isn't to kill everyone yourself.

Sometimes, you just need to point Garruk in the right direction and let everybody else do the work.

"Nephilim Epochal: The Lord They Always Wanted"

 "Nephilim Epochal: The Lord They Always Wanted"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

The Nephilim were a cycle of five awesome creature cards that first appeared in Ravnica: Guildpact. They were the ancient gods of Ravnica, predating the Guildpact itself. Eventually, they were subdued and buried.

Then an excavation in the Utvara district awakened all five of them.

And, naturally, they went on a rampage.

All five Nephilim required four different colors of mana to cast and came with powerful abilities. Players have long wished that Wizards of the Coast had made them legendary creatures because they could have been fantastic commanders.

Well, it's far too late for that now.

So what did Wizards do?

They gave the Nephilim a Lord.

That way, you can finally put all of these ancient monstrosities into the same deck!

Enter Nephilim Epochal, a creature that can be cast using all five colors of mana thanks to its hybrid mana requirements.

So what makes it a Lord?

It gives benefits to the creature type it is associated with.

For starters, it can search your library for a Nephilim and put it directly into your hand. That's already a pretty useful ability when you're trying to assemble a very specific five-color tribe.

Then there's the stat boost.

Nephilim you control get +1/+1 for each other Nephilim you control, and they can't be blocked by monocolored creatures.

The monocolored restriction can be made particularly interesting with cards like Darkest Hour. In that case, all creatures become black, essentially making the entire battlefield monocolored.

That could make your Nephilim army very difficult to block.

So let's say you somehow manage to get all five original Nephilim onto the battlefield.

That's five Nephilim plus the Lord.

Each original Nephilim could potentially get a +5/+5 boost.

That's not bad at all.

And, of course, there's another possibility.

Changelings.

Because Changelings have every creature type, they can join the Nephilim party as well. Add some inexpensive Changelings to the deck and suddenly you have additional bodies contributing to that enormous stat boost.

Oh, and Nephilim Epochal can search for those Changelings too.

So now the deck isn't limited to simply finding the five original Nephilim. You can use your Lord to assemble an entire Eldritch-looking army.

And honestly?

That's exactly the kind of nonsense I enjoy in Commander.

The original Nephilim may never have become legendary creatures, but Wizards has given us another way to bring these ancient gods together.

Five colors.

Five ancient monsters.

One very helpful Lord.

Casting Eldritch monsters is my jam, after all.

"Feroz, Ulgrotha’s Warden: Birds, Bans, and Bant Stax"

"Feroz, Ulgrotha’s Warden: Birds, Bans, and Bant Stax"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

Feroz, Ulgrotha's Warden was a good person.

He was a wizard, a teacher, and, perhaps most importantly, the husband of Serra.

Yes, that Serra.

The Serra who had her own realm.

The Serra who created angels.

That Serra.

Feroz, as his planeswalker card proclaims, is the Warden of Ulgrotha. He protected the plane from threats such as Baron Sengir, as well as incursions from other planeswalkers. Those incursions eventually became the reason he created Feroz's Ban—at least, that's how the lore tells it.

So, on to the card.

Feroz is a six-mana planeswalker in Bant colors, requiring three generic mana and one each of green, white, and blue. He enters the battlefield with five loyalty counters.

His +2 ability creates two 1/1 blue Bird creature tokens with flying.

These are probably the albatrosses associated with Feroz, and honestly, getting two flying bodies every time you activate the ability isn't a bad way to protect your planeswalker.

But his second ability is the one that really excites me.

It's a 0 ability.

You draw a card, and then you may put a permanent card with mana value 4 or less from your hand directly onto the battlefield.

Yes, you can put lands into play this way.

But that's hardly the most interesting thing you can do with it.

There are so many permanents with mana value four or less that could benefit from being cheated directly onto the battlefield. Creatures, enchantments, artifacts...

Maybe even some Stax pieces.

Boooo.

But let's be honest: if you're playing Bant and your planeswalker is giving you a free permanent every turn, someone is probably going to find a way to make the most annoying permanent possible appear on the battlefield.

And then we get to his -7 ability, which allows you to create Feroz's Ban.

It seems more anti-creature than anti-planeswalker to me, but hey, this is just another Stax piece to add to the collection.

At least it follows one of Feroz's most important beliefs: summoning creatures for battle is immoral.

He apparently believes that so strongly that he's willing to make sure everyone else has a very difficult time doing it.

Birds.

Free permanents.

And a Ban that tells creatures to stay home.

Feroz may have been a good man and a devoted husband to Serra, but as a Commander?

He might be an absolute nightmare to play against.

"Sifa Grent: Blood, Politics, and a Little Bit of Rakdos"

 

"Sifa Grent: Blood, Politics, and a Little Bit of Rakdos"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

I can just see it now.

The smile on the faces of those blood-sucking, Aristocrats-loving players who finally have a planeswalker commander in Rakdos colors, giving them another way to build their favorite blood-soaked sacrifice decks.

And honestly?

I can't blame them.

Sifa Grent originally came from the plane of Grixis. Her spark was ignited when the Demon Malphegor attempted to steal it so he could escape that sliver of a plane.

Because, of course, Grixis was originally just a small piece of Alara.

Sifa was also Dack Fayden's archnemesis in the comic book series.

Rest in peace, Dack.

Oh, and you too, Sifa.

Apparently, this all happened before Sifa eventually met her end at the foot of Vitu-Ghazi on Ravnica.

So what exactly would make Aristocrats players happy about Sifa?

Her static ability, of course.

Whenever a creature dies, a target opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.

Bring out the dice, counters, or whatever other recording devices you use, because there is going to be a lot of upticking and downticking going on in games with Sifa.

And notice that it simply says whenever a creature dies.

Let's say each of your three opponents has at least one creature on the battlefield. You then cast Fleshbag Marauder, forcing everyone to sacrifice a creature.

Even Fleshbag Marauder itself ends up in the graveyard.

That's four creatures dying.

Four life lost by your most hated opponent.

Four life gained by you.

Interesting.

Very interesting.

Sifa can also get surprisingly political.

Her +1 ability allows you to goad two creatures at once. That means those creatures can't attack you—or a planeswalker you control—but they can attack everyone else.

Now imagine that you've goaded two enormous creatures on opposing sides of the table. Maybe they're both 8/8s.

Suddenly, you're forcing one player to send their giant creature into another player's giant creature.

They could trade.

They could take each other out.

And if both creatures die, that's two more life lost for an opponent and two more life gained for you.

Hmmmmm.

Protective and political.

I like it.

Then there's the -6 ability, which gives you a form of impulse draw while disrupting everyone else.

Each opponent exiles the top two cards of their library.

Hopefully, you just exiled a piece of the combo they were building.

Or maybe that board wipe they were hoping to draw.

Perhaps you just ruined the plans of the player who has been digging through their deck all game with Sensei's Divining Top.

Hahahaha.

That's not card advantage in the traditional sense, but it is certainly disruption.

And when you combine that disruption with the life-drain engine and the political manipulation from her +1, Sifa starts looking like a very interesting commander.

Card Advantage. Disruption. Life Drain. Politics.

Better still.

While I don't normally play these types of decks, I have to admit that if I eventually decide to build an Aristocrats deck, Sifa Grent will probably be at the top of my list for commander.

I may not normally embrace the blood-sucking lifestyle.

But if Sifa is offering?

I might just make an exception.