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Fame or Fortune: The Folks at Games Paradise, Sydney

In light of the possibility that the World Championship of Magic the Gathering might be held in Sydney, I thought I would write an article about one of the best card shops in Sydney, so that MtG players who don't live in Sydney will have an idea of where the local players hang out and have something to do during their stay in Sydney.

Games Paradise is located behind Planet Hollywood at George Street about five minutes walk away from Town Hall train station. It has two levels. The bottom level is for retail with products such as traditional games like Monopoly, fantasy novels and collectable card games. The top level is an area for players to trade, play, and booster draft. The shop opens pretty much from 10am to 10pm on Thursday, which is game/draft night for us. If you are only interested in gaming and not buying, I suggest you visit around 4pm since, unlike most Magic players around the world, we actually have lives to live before that. Just kidding, as if we have lives :P.

One of the biggest (and only) events in game night is DCI-sanctioned booster drafting, which starts around 5:30pm and consists of 8 people per pod. There are 3 rounds of Swiss and the winner of the draft get first 2 picks of the rares and/or foils within the draft. There are usually 2 groups of people who draft, the first group consists of those who have a relatively high DCI ranking and are there to draft mainly for the points. This is known as the A draft or Ben's draft since TBS organizes the people who go to the draft and what format they should draft in most of the time.

The A draft is sort of an exclusive draft and only invites outsiders if you have a high DCI ranking or they are running low on people to start the draft. The core members of the A draft are (in no particular order): TBS, Kim Brebach, Daniel Turner, Andrew Corney, Jim, Chris Lopez, Nick Smith and Paul Ross. Don't get me wrong, the people in the A draft are very friendly as well, it is just that they prefer to play among themselves rather then with other people.

The other draft, also known as the 'Kiddie draft' usually consist of people who are more interested in winning cards then points. Since anyone with a DCI card who can afford the boosters can enter the draft, the skill of the players in these drafts are usually lower on average compared to the A draft. However, it does not mean that it is easy to win in it. In fact there are many good players in this draft like Ivan Lee, Wilken Chen, Dan Gow, Frankie Bow and Kerry Feung who rank higher than some of the players in the A draft. It is just that when they are confronted with the dilemma of points or cards, they prefer the latter.

Games Paradise is where all Sydney players hone their skills in Magic, from constructed to limited. There are social players who like playing the three hour group games and players who only play the environment in the upcoming tournament. So if you happen to come to Sydney to witness the Worlds, I would recommend stopping by Games Paradise to see what Sydney Magic is like. Special thanks to Peter Maylott for holding the draft every week and Games Paradise for having us there.

Disclaimer: I was not paid a cent by Games Paradise to write this article!

Ciao
Minga Wong