Constructed?
05-07-2004
Last year I was solidly in the Top 50, with only one tournament left to go before the cutoff. Now I'm really not one for the whole sitting on your rating thing, and I would have had to do fairly poorly to knock myself out anyway. Plus the fact that it was a Limited PTQ, I never miss a Limited PTQ. So, I rocked up and opened a fairly ordinary deck. I lost the first round and realised my deck was very ordinary indeed and thought about dropping. I talked to Ben Seck and he convinced me that I should persevere, so what the heck - I'll play another round. I lost the second round.
What to do?
21-04-2004
Our team, MLMGB, decided to have a trip down that way to participate. There and back in one day makes for a hell of a long day, but at least this time I wasn't driving (certainly a first!). Now, our team had some reasonable success last year, winning/splitting in 2 of the 3 team PTQ's we entered (PTQ Sydney and the PTQ at Nationals). We went over to Boston for the PT in September and did fairly average (2-3-1), despite our ability to open Siege Gang Commanders in 2 of the 3 Sealed card pools.
The Evolution of Mirrodin Draft
25-02-2004
I'm getting to a stage where playing constructed for me is a bit of a rarity. In fact, I think the last constructed event I played in might have been the Onslaught block PTQ's. This is due to a number of reasons I suppose. Well, actually one reason - Magic Online. As I partake in this quite frequently, any time I would have previously had to build/construct/test constructed decks has gone, along with any desire to do so. Drafting is just much more fun!
The Collector in Everyone
25-11-2003
You see it all the time. You're doing a bit of trading at your local shop - you pick up someone's folder and open it up. Staring back at you on the first page is 7 Morphlings, or 9 DCI judge's foils. Or perhaps something a bit more exotic, like 9 foil Scornful Egotists. Then of course you turn the page and are greeted with a compilation of the worst rares and uncommons you have ever seen...
State of the Union Revisited
24-06-2003
I then had a bit of a think about it, and the Sydney Magic scene (and gaming scene in general) has really come together in the past nine months - due largely to the existence of the Sydney Games Centre. Unfortunately I can't write this article without it seeming like somewhat of an advertisement for the Sydney Games Centre (SGC). So be it - I'm sure Chris and Kieren don't mind. And if you read this article and it makes you want to come by SGC, well, the more the merrier - there is plenty of room...
And the Winner Is
09-11-2002
Out of all the responses that were sent in (approx 20), no two people built the deck in the same way. Quite surprising, considering there were only 31 cards! I will reveal how I would build the deck later in the article...
Drafting Onslaught
19-10-2002
Now that Onslaught has been out for some 3+ weeks, I am sure most of us have had ample opportunity to draft this set. A quick synopsis will reveal that I have participated in 7 Onslaught sealed tournaments, 4 Rochester drafts and 9 Booster drafts, along with a smattering of one-on-one. Not bad for 3 weeks. Just wait 'til it's out on Magic Online...
"Once more into the breach, dear friends" - the Bard
31-08-2002
On Wednesday morning I rocked up to Fox studios Hordern Pavilion for MTG Worlds. On Sunday night, I left. I am pretty sure that at some point in between those two times I did something other than play/watch Magic. I can't really REMEMBER doing anything else... but surely I must have. I am feeling rather numb. It hurts to think. It hurts to see. It hurts to breathe. I have never had the good fortune of actually having a hangover, but I would imagine this would be in the same vein...
It was dark. It was evil. I was afraid - so very, very afraid
11-08-2002
It was roughly six weeks ago now that my life, as I knew it, ended. I was going along in my usual semi-social, working, married life; perhaps not a bundle of mirth, but fairly relaxed and generally good-natured. I was happy enough with life. I had friends. I had a wife and a family who loved me. And then it happened. On the 21st of June, the earth cracked open and molten lava bubbled forth. Fire and Brimstone poured from the sky and a great giant fist-in-the-gut removed whatever life there was left in me. I was left in a state of torment, as it were - careening through my days carelessly with complete disregard to those around me. Rendering me sleepless, it took my life and smashed it like so many waves crashing on unyielding stone. Red of eye and blurred of brain, it left me a quivering mold of what I once was...
A Little Bit of History
02-06-2002
It was a cold and snowing day in December and for some strange reason my car decided to start. I was home for Christmas from Uni and was having coffee at some café with my cousin. Well, actually in Aberdeen, South Dakota, there aren't very many places that would actually pass as a café, considering that one usually defines a café as a place where good coffee is had, as opposed to the brown water that passes as American Coffee. In any case, he had an interesting box with him (revised starter deck) that was filled with interesting cards...
Past Feature Articles
State of the Union
by Scott Hunstad 22-05-02
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State of the Union – Part III
24-10-2004
Last year I shamelessly plugged the Sydney Games Centre (SGC) – left, right and centre. And to be frank, they deserved every single word of it. I’ve been playing Magic now for 10 years. Ten! During those ten years I have played in what would literally be a hundred games shops around the country and back in the US where I used to live. I am incredibly thankful that the SGC is in fact in Sydney, because out of all the game stores I have been to, they are hands down the best of the lot
Changes
15-06-2004
For those of you who don't know already, MTGParadise has had a change in ownership. Yaro Starak has been running the site for seven years now, and, having not played the game for the last few, has finally decided to sell the site to a pair of individuals who reckon they can have a pretty good go at managing and improving it. One of those individuals is Paul Van Der Werk - who has been a staple of the Sydney Magic scene for the past year and a bit. The other individual is me.
What to do? (Part II)
27-04-2004
In any case, when we opened the cards we thought that there were definitely some standouts in the pool. It was pretty good overall, without having that "bombiness" that you just love to see. When we found out that we were getting our cards back, it didn't seem like a horrible situation, but could have been better.
Slug Bug Red
13-03-2004
I was playing at a pre-release once. My opponent was fairly young - I'd say 13 or 14. He was obviously new to the game. It may have been his first tournament. We sat down and he was looking through his deck, manipulating the order of his cards and such. After a bit, he must have decided that it was good enough, as he proceeded to put his deck in front of him, draw seven cards, and look at me with the "ready?" look.
At what cost?
19-02-2004
Wizards of the Coast in the US are just about to raise the RRP of the Magic booster from $3.29 to $3.69 – or roughly 10%. Prices of boosters on Magic Online will be similarly affected. If I am not mistaken, the original RRP for a booster was $2.49 – less for Fallen Empires, so the price increases over the years have not been terribly dramatic.
Well Now...
10-06-2003
So, what has happened since I last wrote an article? As near as I can tell, I have played in about 100 tournaments or drafts (in real life) and at least that many online, got my Nationals dreams crushed by a girl named Tiffany, won a disproportionate amount of team events (apparently the only thing I'm good at anymore), and spent an inordinate amount of time at the Sydney Games Centre, or so my wife is led to believe. Cardboard mistress - be damned...
Deck-building in Limited
27-10-2002
I have often found it interesting to watch people draft and discern why they have chosen the cards that they have chosen - then watch them build their deck and see what they choose to put in it. Invariably, I would have made some different choices to the ones they have, and that is the beautiful thing about Magic. What I'd like to do now is offer up a set of cards - a theoretical list of playable cards from an Onslaught draft. After seeing this list of cards, I would ask for a bit of feedback, in the form of the following questions....
If I Had a Topic, I Would Have a Name
06-10-2002
Well, it's the night before the pre-release, or more precisely at 12:30AM it is the morning of the pre-release. Having just been mana screwed on Magic Online, I am done with that for the night and given that I have about 8 hours before the pre-release of which only 6 or so are required for sleep, I thought I would put a few words to the page. Not exactly sure what the topic will be, so forgive me if I digress a bit...
Expectations
12-09-2002
Sitting at work thinking about a few things Magical, as you do. I do actually have work to do - but why waste time with that. Seriously. I was thinking a bit about motivation and why people actually play Magic, and something that Mr. Minga Wong said crossed my mind. I'll quote him here: "There is nothing wrong with expecting to win. I mean, who participates in a tournament expecting to lose?"...
A trip, a tournament and a deck
25-06-2002
It was 5:30 AM this past Saturday, and my alarm was bleeping and I was so very tired and my wife kicked me and I turned off the alarm and sat up on the edge of the bed and scratched my head and wondered just how bloody insane I really must be. I was just about to head to the airport to fly to Victoria to play in a PTQ for a PT that I am already qualified for, and if won, would only get me some small amount more money than what would be spent on the flight, accommodation, food, etc...
Judgment in Limited
26-05-2002
There was a hell of a lot of G/W decks.
And when I say "hell of a lot" I mean every single deck barring one silly U/R Ben Seck incarnation - which actually worked very well. In fact, it wasn't until the very last match that I faced an opponent without green in their deck… presumably because the Chamber/Boneyard combo, matched with some nice black removal, is somewhat good in the slow-as-slow-can-be format that marked this pre-release. I lost. Badly. As you do...
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