The Sharks MTG Podcast

Fresh off his 9th place finish at Pro Tour MOM we are joined by Charis as we get to learn about the MTGO end boss and his journey in the beautiful game.

In this weeks show we are joined by Nikola Krsmanovic fresh off his winning performance at the Pioneer RCQ this past weekend. We get to know Nikola and learn about his path to victory. We also throw in a bonus section on RB Mid in pioneer.

Nikola Krsmanovic RCQ Winning decklist

4 Cauldron Familiar

4 Unlucky Witness 4 Bloodtithe Harvester

4 Mayhem Devil

4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker 3 Fatal Push 3 Claim the Firstborn

4 Deadly Dispute 4 Witch's Oven

1 Eaten Alive

1 Kari Zev's Expertise

1 Thoughtseize 1 Village Rites

4 Blightstep Pathway 4 Blood Crypt

2 Blackcleave Cliffs 2 Den of the Bugbear

2 Hive of the Eye Tyrant

2 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance

1 Haunted Ridge

1 Castle Lochtwain

1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire

1 Sulfurous Springs

1 Swamp

1 Mountain

SB

1 Ob Nixilis, the Adversary

1 Angrath, the Flame-Chained

1 Kari Zev's Expertise

1 Kolaghan's Command

2 Go Blank

1 Unlicensed Hearse

2 Necromentia

2 Baleful Mastery

1 Damping Sphere

3 Thoughtseize Keraan Chetty RCQ Decklist

4 Thoughtseize

4 Fatal Push

1 Abrade

1 Dreadbore

1 Heartless Act

2 Power Word Kill

4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker

3 Reckoner Bankbuster

4 Bloodtithe Harvester

2 Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger

4 Bonecrusher Giant

2 Graveyard Trespasser

3 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

4 Blightstep Pathway

2 Blackcleave Cliffs

4 Blood Crypt

3 Castle Locthwain

4 Haunted Ridge

2 Hive of the Eye Tyrant

1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance

5 Swamp

Sideboard

2 Pithing Needle

2 Kolaghan's Command

1 Ritual of Soot

1 Noxious Grasp

3 Extinction Event

3 Go Blank

3 Duress

Keraan is back from the RC in Naples and we go deep into all things Grixs. If you ever wanted to know how to Grixis, this is the episode for you.

Deck

2 Cut Down

2 Abrade

3 Go for the Throat

1 Spell Pierce

1 Negate

2 Make Disappear

2 Blue Sun's Twilight

3 Invoke Despair

3 Reckoner Bankbuster

4 Bloodtithe Harvester

4 Corpse Appraiser

2 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker

1 Ertai Resurrected

4 Darkslick Shores

4 Blackcleave Cliffs

4 Xander's Lounge

1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire

1 Otawara, Soaring City

2 Stormcarved Coast

2 Shipwreck Marsh

2 Haunted Ridge

1 Underground River

2 Shivan Reef

2 Sulfurous Springs

1 Swamp

Sideboard

2 Duress

2 Cut Down

1 Negate

2 Razorlash Transmogrant

2 Siphon Insight

1 Disdainful Stroke

1 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

2 Brotherhood's End

1 Whack

1 Bladecoil Serpent

Local player Rishon Naidoo, overcomes the lack of RCQs in South Africa by winning a stacked MTGO Super PTQ.
Rishon aka @boulderelf joins us on the pod as we get to know one of South Africa's rising stars.

The team all played the recently concluded Arena Open with Anthony going all the way to claim 2500$. We discuss our #SNC limited experiences that culminated in a strong open showing.

Anthony's 8-1 day 2 draft deck:
2Expendable Lackey
1Strangle
1A Little Chat
2Corrupt Court Official
1Aven Heartstabber
1Snooping Newsie
2Tainted Indulgence
1Body Dropper
1Fatal Grudge
1Dig up the Body
1Raffine's Silencer
1Corpse Appraiser
2Maestros Charm
2Involuntary Employment
1Syndicate Infiltrator
1Girder Goons
1Join the Maestros
1All-Seeing Arbiter
6Island
5Swamp
3Mountain
1Tramway Station
1Xander's Lounge
1Maestros Theatre

https://twitter.com/scantzor/status/1525957214111940608

Keraan and Sarv are joined by the prodigal son Bob as he returns to help us unpack the recently concluded EGG Nationals event.
3 days of competitive magic, consisting of Standard, Pioneer and Modern. We look at our prep leading up to the event and share the secret to great deck selection that lead to our dominant performance.

This week the lads tackle Angle Shooting in the wonderful game of Magic the Gathering.

Is it ok? Where do we draw the line? Does the answer change in FNM vs pro play?

We try to tackle the issue by going over famous examples from the world of Magic and personal anecdotes to help you understand this complex but interesting issue.

In this weeks episode we break down Keraan's Jund Food deck that took him to the top 8 of the modern challenge. We discuss the dynamic nature of modern, trying to make sense of the arms race that is currently taking place.

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/4212187#paper

This week we focus on all things Arena.

MTG Dreamhack invitational winner Imaad Davids joins us to discuss his momentous victory.

We review our respective performances in the Arena Open.

And conclude by discussing the madness that is Historic Horizons

The lads share their experiences in AFR limited, go deep in Modern and touch on the latest standard developments.

Limited talk 3:00

Modern 27:03

Lurrus talk 57:30

Standard/Arena 115:10

The boys return after more than a year off and are raring to go, in this weeks episode we discuss:

Modern Horizons 2

The best Modern format ever?

The state of MTGO

D&D Adventures in the Forgotten Realms

Sometimes we forget here at the tip of Africa that we're not the only country with a small community of passionate MTG players. There are many players in many countries around the world who share some of our struggles when it comes to playing the game and seeing the world. This is why this week's guest is multiple time Turkish national champ, GP Prague 2017 winner, and longtime ambassador for Turkish MTG, Yusuf Kemal Vefa.

We discuss getting into PVDDR's head to beat him in the GP finals, keeping cool under pressure (like when the venue is on fire), and what it's like being a competitive MTG player in Turkey. 

Ikoria: Lair of BEHEMOTHS is about to drop and you know we just had to give you our opinions on the word-soup nonsense that lays ahead of us in these coming months/years. Sarvesh Balkaran joins us for the third time after his impressive showing in the MTGO SUPER PTQ over the weekend. We break down what we think Standard will look like once the mutant monsters are let loose and go over a few different deck ideas we'd like to try out at the start of the new format. We also take a look at MTG Arena getting 8 person drafts and what it means for MTGO. 

Oh yeah, we had some connection issues so there's a brief break in the middle but you'll hardly notice it.

South Africa is officially in lockdown which means a lot of us have got a lot more time for MTG. Weirdly enough, both Bob and Keraan have been taking a bit of a break from the game but are back to give you the insights into their strenuous testing process for EGG 7, share some insights on challenges of tackling open formats when you don't have much time, and we get a sneak peek into how Keraan will be spending his free time with a quick look at Modern Horizons draft on MTGO.

Keraan and Bob haven't had much time to play MTG lately so we decided to bring in some top tier talent to share their knowledge with you. Unfortunately, they weren't available so we got David Boers, Sarvesh Balkaran, and Darren Fox instead. The three of them took down the recent trios event in Jozi by leveraging their skills and selecting what they thought were the best decks for the day. We get a deep dive on what they played (A lot of Thassa's Oracles) and a brief overview of each format whilst also getting into the dynamics of a trios event. 

Since we had two doctors on the cast, we also have a brief chat about the Corona Virus and its effects on MTG but we save that for the end, just in case you're tired of hearing about it. 

In this episode of The Sharks MTG Podcast, we chat with the man behind South Africa's premier Arena Tournament series, Adam Prev'ost. Adam is the main man behind the Easy Gaming Group which has been instrumental in bringing players across the country together through their Arena tournaments. We chat to Adam about his history, how he got into MTG (only a year ago!), why he puts together these tournaments, and what lies in store for the future of the Easy Gaming Group. We also briefly touch on our first experiences with Theros Beyond Death, and Keraan gives some helpful tips on building mana bases. 

It's Theros Beyond Death release time which means it's time to see which cards from the new set are gonna get banned. Just kidding. Hopefully.  Keraan and Bob are joined by Cape Town's own Anthony Hodgson as they break down which cards they're most keen to brew with. Will Standard be mono-coloured like Theros of old or does the power level not match up to recent sets? Will Heliod and Ballista break Pioneer? We discuss this, the recent Modern bans, the upcoming PTQ in March and the 6th edition of Easy Gaming Group's Arena tournament in Feb, and much more.

It's December which means it's the most wonderful time of the year: Cube Time. Never played Cube before? Have no clue what Cube even is? Never fear because we invited some expert guests to join us in breaking down everything you need to know about one of MTG's best formats. SA MTG legend John Woods and Cube King Roland Richards join us in a roundtable discussion about everything from building your own cube to what to look for when you're sitting down to play someone else's cube. 

This is a very special episode of the Sharks MTG Podcast as it's the first one we've recorded live and in person. This time Keraan and Bob chat to the winner of the first South African PTQ in about 5 years, Theuns Prinsloo. This one's full of fun, laughter and insight into two of the best decks in the current Standard metagame, Fires and Cat Food. Hear why Theuns and Keraan picked the decks they did and how it lead to them facing each other in the finals. We also take a bit of a look back at the history of SA MTG and how Keraan and Theuns have steadily and consistently worked their way to the top tiers of South African MTG. 

Pioneer has been a format for barely a minute and the ban hammer has already come crashing down. We're joined by former SA team member Darren Fox as we discuss all the decks we've played with and against in this exciting new format, and we take a look at the impact of the bans. We also look to Mythic Championship Oko this weekend and discuss potential tech that might be employed to one-up the elk mirrors. 

The winds of change continue to blow through the MTG multiverse as two big announcements hit us in quick succession. We got on the mics shortly after Field of the Dead was banned to break down how it'll affect Standard going forward. Then, whilst we were recording, WOTC announced a brand new format in Pioneer and we couldn't resist giving our hottest of hot takes on this potentially degenerate new format. Sarvesh Balkaran joins us as the first guest after his monster run at GP Bangkok so we also get into ELD Limited before discussing the upcoming PTQ in Jozi on 30 November. 

We might not have ever forgiven WOTC for that heartbreaking Throne of Eldraine trailer if the spoilers for the set weren't looking so sweet. In this episode, Keraan and Bob discuss the cards that excite them the most from the spoilers so far before getting into the current state of Modern, briefly touching on the Hall of Fame, and discussing what to play at the Africa MTG Open Series happening at Comic-Con this year.

Welcome to the very first episode of The Sharks MTG Podcast with Bob Perfect and Keraan Chetty. We're two Magic players from South Africa who are passionate about the game, despite our geographical challenges with regards to this niche hobby. 

In this episode, we go over Keraan's experiences at MC and GP Barcelona before getting into the recent changes to organised play and how it affects us (not much), and the changes to the B&R lists. Keraan reminds Bob to stop living in the past as we discuss what we're most looking forward to experimenting with in Modern and whether or not Rampaging Ferocidon will have an effect in this final month of Standard.