"The True State"

"The True State"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr. MD

I

Life they say is all about Balance

but balance is the first thing that goes

The more you balance

The more life Unbalances

The more you strive to juggle all the balls

The more they want to get away and fall

II

Yet you try and you try

and the more you try

The more you die and the more you die

the more you lie

that things are ok

that things are better

Even though we know that it is not.

III

Life therefore is not about balance

Life is not about Control

It is flowing into becoming

And being what you always should be. 

"Hero's Blade: Wielded by Legends"

"Hero's Blade: Wielded by Legends"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr. 

After making my first Tiny Leaders deck I went to check out the cards that I got from the latest Fate Reforged Pre Release(They were in a tiny pile in the house somewhere) and one of the cards that I looked at and liked instantly was this one. In the world of magic we all use filters when looking and finding cards and when I saw this one all I saw were the  advantage that it would bring to the EDH and Tiny Leaders format. 

My old Commander SkullBriar came to mind all of a sudden and if this grave monstrosity had feelings I am sure that it would feel a lot of resentment toward me because it has not seen play for awhile. So I came to revisit the reasons why I turned to other commanders and essentially neglected this potential bruiser.

And here is the main reason , in EDH Skullbriar could grow very big when it connects with a player for damage in the early turns but could die easily to a very weak blocker. I mean when a 1/1 token blocks SkullBriar and he won't be appearing in a couple of turns again or unless you already have enough mana ready to pay that additional 2 colorless mana(Commander tax). However with this great artifact that simply attaches to legends when they come into play I now have an early means to make sure that I could still attack early and not have my Skullbriar die. The best time to play it would be before the turn your commander comes into play. In the case of Skullbriar that would be on turn 3. I mean he instantly becomes a 4/3 creature that becomes a 5/4 when it deals damage to an opponent or could take out 4 toughness creatures on the opposing side. Aggressive commanders will have a kick out of this 2 to cast mana artifact since it is an easy stat boost. All they need to do is come into play.

"Call me Mighty!"

In the Tiny Leaders scenario , there is an abundance of stat pumpers but there is simply no substitute for a card that would simply wait for your tiny leader to arrive and give a decided advantage. It just has to mean that you will need to be aggressive with your chosen commander. Geist of St. Traft is someone who would love this artifact as well. What is not to like about a 5/4 hexproof creature that attacks with a 4/4 Angel right? 

So what do you do when you have creatures that aren't Legendary clogging the battlefield? The equip cost of the card is pegged at 4 and you simply need to wait for it. I see infect Tiny Leaders deck taking advantage of this because this is a permanent stat boost and it saves deck slots for other things like removal or card draw. Ghostfire blade might have something to say about it but I am sure that it is happy with the company.

People who collect swords in the game of magic will get a kick out of this card. Powerful at the uncommon slot and would tend to see a lot of game play in certain formats. Legends are running aplenty nowadays. In Fate Reforged alone there are 5 legendary dragons and 5 new khans that would love nothing but to get a chance to have this equipped on them. Not to mention the other 5 Khans from KTK. I see decks with Anafenza , Yasova Dragonclaw , Shu yun , and Alesha having this as part of their arsenal. The dragons might not need it all that much but we shall see what kind of decks come out of the woodworks bearing a Hero's blade. 

         

"Silumgar , the Drifting Death: Imagine Hopelessness"

"Silumgar , the Drifting Death: Imagine Hopelessness"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

I am writing this on the eve of the release of Fate Reforged. It is a Thursday and my thoughts have once again turned toward the Dragons. While I will be collecting all of them in this set(and the following set) there is one dragon that I simply could not wait to get my hands on and this is the Dragon Silumgar , the Drifting Death. 

Like a true Sultai I was able to face this dragon on the battlefield. I did lose. Good thing it was only in the Pre-Release. This 5 to cast Blue/Black Dragon is simply a cut above the rest of the Dragons emerging from Fate Reforged. It is a Flying , Hexproof 3/7 Monster that gives all your opponents creatures -1/-1 whenever a dragon attacks! 

"I am the answer!"

Normal Spot Removal can't handle it because of its hexproof , the only things that could take care of it in this set is Mass Removal via End Hostilities and Crux of Fate. And that Abzan guy , the new Fleshbag Marauder , Merciless Executioner. Other than these things in standard it will always be a race with the dragon before it finishes you. It is a great thing that power level wise they decided to cut this to three power because other creatures could still outrace it in the damage department.

One other dragon that I think would be a much for it is the Dragon Atarka who has double strike. Ojutai and its tapping effect bounces off Silumgar , Dromoka and Kolaghan don't have the power to deal with it but Dromoka might grow to 7/7 if it was the only creature on an opponents side of the board.

"Silumgar Stopper"

Still there is a feeling of hopelessness the surrounds the dragon Silumgar especially for those who love 1/1 creature tokens. When Silumgar sweeps in and gives them all a -1/-1. In standard the only 2 dragons that could play within the Dimir colors are the black Noxious dragon(which is actually part of the Silumgar brood) and the blue Mindscour Dragon. Assuming that you could play all three and attack with them then opposing creatures would  be in big trouble because the moment they attack altogether that is a -3/-3 Bile Blight sweep without even spending mana.It is quite a feat in standard to be honest and I find myseld turning to an older block , Lorwyn to take better advantage of Silumgar and all the triggered abilities of the dragons in Fate Reforged.

"I am the Dragon!"

Changelings. Yup those creatures that are every creature type. There is even a one to cast dragon in Lorwyn. Mothdust Changeling! 2 to cast dragons? Yup. Amoeboid Changeling. Shapesharer. Skeletal Changeling just to name a few. Seems like when Silumgar comes into play any of these "dragons" could already attack and kill opposing creatures at will. 

Wings of Velis Vel could even make any of your creatures dragons until end of turn! Time to make some heavy digging in my card pile. Silumgar plus these changelings in the EDH setting and I could just see a lot of potential.A New Dragon for a new army of Dragons. Smells like a war brewing. With Silumgar there is always an air of hopelessness. And the smell is thick.

"Tasigur, The Golden Fang:Sultai Might"

"The Big Banana Himself"

"Tasigur, The Golden Fang:Sultai Might"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

One of the first boosters I opened from Fate Reforged contained a Palace Siege and another card which like a True Sultai  Khan came with a Zombie token. At the back of the rare Palace Siege came the shining Foil version of Tasigur , The Golden Fang. I was simply whooping it up because this card was on one of my priority lists. The Sultai Khan from a thousand years ago may not be a zombie producer like Sidisi but he sure packs a punch. Costing 5 generic mana and a single black one the 4/5 frame is something that you might pass up after all there are other creatures worth less mana that has the same power level.

However a 4/5 creauture for one black mana on your second turn seems like something that you would want to play with right? Magic Players don't even see the 5 colorless mana. All they see is the one black that they would have to pay. In the Modern Format , You could use Tome Scour on turn one to mill 5 cards from your own library and voila , turn two play a swamp to have your Tasigur , The Golden Fang threatening early on your side of the board. And if your opponents decide to take care of this Sultai Khan early there are bound to be 3 more copies in your deck anyway. The one copy they just killed(assuming they did not exile it of course) would also add fuel to the other copies delve counts .

For Standard , well it could be a lot slower and more painful because of the fetchlands that you would use to delve.The trick though is in getting the right amount of mana. So one of the ideals plays would go like this:

Turn#1 Play Polluted Delta , Crack for a Swamp , play Thoughtseize or Despise. - Cards in Graveyard:2

Turn#2 Play another Polluted Delta , Crack for another Swamp and hopefully you have another Thoughtseize or Despise or a sign in blood. Cards in Graveyard:4

Turn#3 Play a land. Pay 2 mana and then delve 4 cards.To have a 4/5 menacing creature into play. 

While aggro players would want Tasigur , The Golden Fang coming down and dealing damage pretty early there are those who would rather control the battlefield first and then have him come down to deal some pain. The delve cost could also mean that you could have extra mana open to counter any removal that would take Tasigur away or even have an answer to other permission players counters.

"Monkeys and Bananas...I sense a theme"

While Tasigur is comparable to another Sultai creature , Hooting Mandrills in the power department(and it is a joy to play in Standard Pauper) the 4 mana activated ability adds a lot more value to Tasigur. His ability lets you put 2 cards from your library to the graveyard and an opponent chooses a non-land card from your graveyard to return to your hand. The advantage of this ability is that this sets up another 2 cards as a  "Delve resource" later on while at the same time allows you to essentially "Draw" a card from your graveyard. It is card advantage plain and simple. Talk about the Sultai abusing every resource. 

Your opponents gets to choose a non-land card to return to your hand after the ability activated so this means that any card he or she chooses would be a useful card. Either a creature that you need to go back into play or a spell to draw cards or to remove a threat. Before playing this ability you could also narrow down the list of choices for your opponents by using Delve to power out a Necropolis Fiend or other delve spells and then leaving the desired non-land card in the graveyard. All you need to do now is cross your fingers that you would self-mill two land cards with Tasigurs ability or that you get to mill the same desired card so that in either scenario you get the card that you want. A card like this perhaps?

Tasigur the Golden Fang also makes history in the EDH format because he is the first commander with the Delve mechanic. Now this is significant when he gets sent back to the Command zone and has an additional Commander Tax of two colorless mana on him. Apparently you could use delve to lower down his casting cost as well. With the way that his ability works chances are there would be tons of cards in your graveyard for him to keep coming back without any mana spent at all. Except for the one black mana of course. This is still Delve and not Convoke.

As of this writing Tasigurs price has skyrocketted. The foil card that keeps looking at me, hinting that I should make another Sultai EDH deck again is now priced at 30 dollars apiece. How is that for a luck pack Draw?

Delve is something of a surprise hit and the coming weeks will tell us if this Khan commander is just riding a wave of hype or maybe the next big thing in standard and other formats.

"Fate Reforged Pre-Release: Reforging Ones Fate"

"Fate Reforged PR: Reforging Ones Fate"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr. 

I love playing in a Magic Pre-Release event. After the rather one sided defeats I suffered in the latest GP Manila I was looking forward to an environment where I could relax , have fun and the 1st Midnight PR in Gmasters did not disappoint. Aside from playing a very even playing field I was also happy to be a part of Gmasters History. 

Now on to the PR , Did I have fun because I got a Ugin planeswalker? Nope sadly Ugin was not able to come to my aid that day. I did get a Windswept Heath in the lone Khans of Tarkir pack in the PR kit and a whole slew of creatures that I considered bombs. I was looking at all the possibilities before me and I was happy that this time around there were so many choices for me to go with. There were certain PR event in Ravnica which simply limited my deck building but this one was wide open and I had to make a decision in which path to take. Talking about Reforging Ones Fate right? So yeah I was happy because after GP I can again open a pack , feel excited with the new cards and feel excited about competing again.

I ended up playing Jeskai Colors with a mix of Manifest and Bolster. The colors was so I could play Shu Yun , Dragonscale General and the 2 Shockmaw Dragons that I got...oh and the 3 Collateral Damage. Still even with this mix I could have gone with the White/Green Selesnya colors. Bolster and Landfetch/Bolster plus some strong removal in White and Green was pushing me to go Selesnya. I simply could not decide and with barely enough time ended up with the 50 card deck that I wanted.

The first match was an exciting one for me because I felt like I was in my element again , playing a match with an opponent who neither appeared hostile or too friendly. We were simply mages slinging spells and when we were tied a game apiece , the final turn where I would be attacking with a Shockmaw Dragon and Bolster creatures to end the round , I was blindsided with a Friendly Fire! I had a Treasure Cruise , a Land and Shockmaw Dragon in my hand...I was down to 6 life and I had my opponent randomly choose a card...the 6 mana on my dragon did me in. I simply could not help but smile and shake my head. Close matches , this was what it was all about. Pulling a win out of thin air  , with cards that surprised you with their interesting interactions.

Fate Reforged cards would simply have a lot of high mana costing cards like the Dragons and Friendly Fire was an ideal foil to most players plans with Dragons , my opponents took note of that and put in 2 of these. Though I lost despite having a dominant board position I was in high spirits , it was a thrilling win to pull off.

My 3rd match was up against my very own Uncle , the kind of cool uncle who introduces you to magic and comes back after a long absence to whoop your ass in a PR game. This was the first time we would ever face in any tournament and I had come to realize that people dont really forget about the game after being out for a long time. It just builds up a certain blood lust in you and you have to play again. Also it would help if you had 2 Silumgar , the Drifting Death in your deck. The fight with my Uncle Gabay Forlales was my most lop-sided of the night but I had fun in that too because hey this was the guy who taught me a lot about Magic and made me want to be a Reanimator and he was playing again. Who could be disappointed getting beaten with 3/7 Hexproof dragon right? It was good as money in the bank. How do you deal with a dragon who not only can fly but also wont be affected by any of your spells,

Of course the night also resulted in wins and those wins were mostly via the Dragonscale General , Manifest creatures and the awesome Sandsteppe Outcast who was always a 2 for 1 creature. I love the guy so much he is in with my Selesnya Tiny Leader deck with Seller of Songbirds. My two wins came via the bolster that my singleton Dragonscale General always gave me. I would attack with 2 creatures and then cast him on my 2nd main phase , because there are 2 tapped creatures I would look at the one with least toughness and add a +2/+2 counter on it. It got even worse when I started attacking with the Dragonscale Genereal himself because now there were be a creature who would benefit from a +3/+3 counter. 

I am seriously looking at Manifest and Bolster cards to try out when once I get my hands on some Fate Reforged boosters. There is simply so much more to play with in Standard , EDH , Tiny Leaders and Standard Pauper. Time to brew some more awesome decks. And this time around I will be Reforging my own Fate. 

"Supplant Form:Your monster, my monster"

"Supplant Form:Your monster, my monster"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

I just love a good battle trick card and todays card Supplant Form is one heck of a trick to pull off come Fate Reforged. At 6 mana it might be something that would be overlooked but there are two clans that could make use of this card , the BUG Sultai and the RUG Temur , both have access to great mana acceleration and would not hesitate to include this great defensive and offensive card.

One of the tricks of Supplant form is done when a massive creature is attacking , let us say a Dragon(and there will be a lot of those). So on your opponent attack phase you get to cast this 6 mana spell , you then get three things , first you have eliminated a threat because you have bounced their creature spell to their hand , second you did not take damage and hopefully this prevented lethal damage and lastly you also put a creature into the battlefield that is a copy of the very thing you just bounced safely into their hand. So come your turn you have a creature that could bring the pain or remain a blocker if you really need it.

Given your opponent could recast their massive creature on their second main phase after they have attacked.This card has already given you so much value for the cost of 6 mana.

Supplant Form could also make waves in the EDH format because it gives you spot removal and a creature in one masterful stroke.Mono Blue EDH deck users will surely be eyeing this one to bolster up defenses this 2015. 

"Di po kasama yung Phone sa libre(losing faith in humanity)"

"Di po kasama yung Phone sa libre (losing faith in humanity)"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr. MD

I have been angry and I have been sad but I don't think that I have been angry and sad before. I wrote about the sad state of things in our country before where people would steal things out of desperation. Now as it turns out people don't steal because they are desperate , they just steal because they could.

When my daughter informed me that I would be a part of their schools medical mission(I was basically the whole medical team)...I was happy and proud to be of service. These were people who never see a doctor on a regular basis. It took me an hour and a half to finish the consult of 70 patients who ranged from 2 month olds to 64 year olds and everyone in between. It felt great having been able to answer their medical inquiries and to have provided them with the medical knowledge to guide them in making decisions in their lives. 

What felt even greater was when I was seeing smiling faces as we started distributing bags of groceries and food.I was beginning to feel great and that I was seeing people that really needed help get it. 

This feeling would not last long because it would be broken by one simple question on the microphone. "Sino po ang nakakuha ng cellphone ng may-ari ng school , pakibalik na lang."(Whoever found the cellphone of the school owner , please return it). Just like that my faith in humanity was not restored. Here we are in the midst of all these people and someone had the audacity to steal a cellphone that was lying around. People were getting free groceries and free food...they didnt need to be greedy by taking advantage of everyone's hectic moving about and stealing something. Talk about biting the hand that tries to feed you. You give people something free and they think your phone counts as one too. 

The theft happened after 11:32am , I was still able to take a shot of the crowd with the phone just in the back ground. After that the back ground music stopped and no one would notice until a couple of minutes later when it was too late. This is one of the saddest episodes in our lives as a species. The death of decency and respect. We just can't waltz in to a school , already get free stuff and then have the balls to steal something too!

Why does there have to be that small percentage of people that ruins it for the other 90 percent? I was never able to ask the school directress if she would open the school up for an event such as this again because it seems that security was not all that tight because of the light hearted feel of the occassion. I would not blame her if she does not open her doors next year. Then again I do not believe that she would not continue with this activity next year out of fear. She does after all look at a person and potential as she did with my daughter and it is in her nature to forgive and move on from this tragic event. 

As for me , if they should ever ask me to come back next year , I am still in. The only difference is that I would keep my phone very near to me because you never know when people would decide that you phone was part of the freebies.