Grand Prix Kyoto, June Updates, New Grand Prix Rule and More!
Grand Prix Kyoto Page and Sign Up Links
Grand Prix Kyoto is this month's Grand Prix. No new sets are being introduced but we do have a few card changes and fixes to go over first.
Thanks to Cajun for this update list.
New to MSEM • Cajun's Champion Saigura Tam approaches!
Card Updates • Aleryn, Trapseeker//Aleryn, Dungeon Disabler has been reworked.
> Aleryn, Trapseeker now costs 2RG (from 1RG) and creates a 1/1 Elemental token on landfall and then transforms if you control at least three Elementals. It no longer taps for mana. > Aleryn, Dungeon Disabler has a starting loyalty of 4 (from 2). His +1 now deals 1 damage whenever a creature you control attacks this turn. His -2 has been replaced with a -1 that produces mana equal to the number of creatures you control. His -4 is now a -6 and triggers whenever a player casts a spell instead of whenever an opponent casts a spell during your turn.
• Arina, Volarian Explorer now checks if she has exiled two cards with the same owner instead of nonland cards.
• Endless Reverie's mana cost has been reduced to 1GW (from 2GW).
• Sanctify is now an instant as intended.
• Tarraka-no-Oni now has indestructible.
• All references to "mana pool" have been removed from GNJ and SUR.
• Formatting errors on Burned Bounty, Embrace the Unpredictable, Merkurio Zellurys, and many shockfetches have been corrected.
New Grand Prix Rule: Sideboards
For the next GP (and if this rule goes over well, all future GPs), Sideboards will now be submitted the following day after decks have been revealed.
One of MSEM2's traits is that as a relatively unsolved format and with such a small player base, almost every GP has consisted of predominantly rogue decks. In short, no one best deck has been found and is being played enough for us to call it the meta. The Rock variants and some form of UR Spells has placed well but we've had wins from plenty of different decks.
As such, the difficulty of sideboarding against a formless meta is rather difficult. While some key cards like Seal the Tomb see frequent play, many cards in sideboards remain stagnant and become whiffs.
In the words of MasterPlan over on Seek Power Gaming:
"An understanding of the current metagame is essential to building your sideboard. This means your first step in building your sideboard should be looking at what the most popular decks at the time are."
Since our meta is still currently very much vague, I am hoping that this new rule will ensure more relevant sideboard choices. Much the same way that in regular MtG Modern you would know the meta and SB against it, this should provide our own means of SBing against the meta, just that in this case it is a "monthly" meta.
Feel free to head over to Discord and contact me (@Timespiraled) if you have any feedback on this new experimental rule.
Cheers, and hope to see you in the tournament!
Stay tuned for news as we approach our Anniversary in a few weeks!
