Try New Phyrexia at Game Day

There’s nothing like a tournament to put your Magic skills to the test and Wizards gives us plenty of opportunities to compete at a variety of levels. Friday Night Magic gives us weekly tournaments with the chance to win packs and promo cards that change monthly. At pre-release and release events we get the first look at a new set and are challenged to play a deck with those new cards. Just for showing up we get a cool rare card to ensure we get something good. Then there are the Pro Tours and Grand Prix that allow those with the very best skills to travel and earn huge prizes.

Recently a new type of tournament has been hosted by our local stores that give us another opportunity to try to use the new set to the fullest: Game Days. This is often a few weeks after the release of the newest set so everyone can get a feel for how the new cards fit into the new standard. If you’re looking for some good ideas for standard or got some of your own after checking out the new set Game Day is a good place to try them. The Game Day for New Phyrexia is coming up on June 11 & 12, a great time to check out this new type of tournament.

The coolest part about these Game Days is the prizes. They are always full-art cards that can’t be found anywhere else.  Just for showing up you get a nice Priest of Urabrask. If you are able to take a place in the top 8 you will be able to get an awesome Myr Superion, one of our favorite cards of the new set. You can also earn a Myr Superion by taking the top spot out of those that participate in the building of an affiliated deck.

The building of an affiliated deck is a cool way to add a bit of a challenge to creating a deck for Game Day. To do this you have to pick a side in the war between Mirrans and Phyrexians. Your deck needs to have at least 10 cards from the side you chose and it cannot have any cards that belong to the other side. These are some heavy restrictions, cutting out around half of the cards from the Scars of Mirrodin block, but it can have you thinking outside the box in order to make up for lost cards.

It can be tough to work around the restrictions but I would recommend that everyone try to build an affiliated deck if you go to Game Day. It’s a good chance to try a new type of deck that you may not have made before and it can challenge you on how best to use the Mirran or Phyrexian cards you have with the rest that are in standard. Game Day is a lot of fun because it’s not a typical standard tournament like Friday Night Magic and it has some cool prizes too. Check out Game Day at your local store June 11 & 12 to get a Priest of Urabrask and maybe even a Myr Superion.