Monday Miscellany

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,
Easter weekend for us has been somewhat bereft of any Magic: the Gathering.  Things got off to a weird start with a cryptic message from our local card shop, OMG! Games store, with a message from staff 'Good Bye OMG Games' and a pic of the store pretty much barren.  Yep our heart sank, we love that store, and we still had some credit there.  Thank goodness we moved to the next post - they were simply spring cleaning and moved everything out and refinished the floor.  The place looks amazing and practically brand new.  Instead of getting a few games of Commander or Standard, the group decided we were going to have a Peter Jackson / Tolkien weekend with LOTR and the Hobbit - we still have one more movie to close everything out.

Catching up with other MTG Miscellaney, we are very sad to say that we never got a hold of last month (March) FNM Promo 'Hordeling Outburst' - we really, really wanted that but never made Top 8 that month unfortunately. 
:(
 Enough whining though - news the other week of June 2015 Friday Night Magic Promo - 'Frost Walker'.  Original blue elemental uncommon from Fate Reforged with lovely art from Mike Bierek.  The new promo art is from the very talented Peter Mohrbacher.

We also want to talk about the last weekend's StarCityGames.com Standard Open in Syracuse.  We're interested as this is the first large tournament that features inclusion of the new Dragons of Tarkir cards and shows decklist / strategies on the wane or rise.  As expected shortly after a new set release, most of the top winners were employing aggressive strategies.  Here's the Top 8 finishers now -

G/R Aggro            1st     Chris VanMeter   
Abzan Aggro        2nd     Jesse Grogan   
Temur Aggro        3rd     Adrew Nacci   
Mono-Red Aggro   4th     Michael Egolf
R/g Aggro            5th     Ryan Sandrin   
G/R Aggro            6th     Stephen Rice   
Bant Heroic          7th     Tom Ross   
G/R Aggro            8th     Van Nguyen   
We suggest you pop on over to The Magic Show on the 'Tube where Evan Erwin does a solid summary of the new lists and evolving metagame.  The Top 8 were dominated by an Aggro / Ramp build featuring new cards like Thunderbreak Regent, Stormbreath Dragon, Dragonlord Atarka along with the rampers (Elvish Mystic, Sylvan Caryatid, and Courser of Kruphix.  Given the number of dragons here, Draconic Roar and Haven of the Spirit Dragon also made the cut.

That's it for now, happy deck-brewing everyone !
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