============= PARADISE POST ============= Issue 10. February 2004. This newsletter is sent to all MTGParadise.com Forum Members. To unsubscribe email contact@mtgparadise.com with your forum username and your account will be deleted. FEATURE SPONSORS – Advertisers email contact@mtgparadise.com ---------------- MAGIC SINGLES AND MORE! - OshkoshMagic.com We've got Single Cards, Mystery Packs, Artifact Packs, Gold Packs, Packs of Basic Land (foil and regular), Common Card Lots, Full Sets, Grab Bags, Pre-Made Decks, and Fast Shipping. http://www.OshkoshMagic.com/mtgparadise.php --------------- CARDSHARK - www.cardshark.com Cardshark is the ultimate marketplace for BUYING and SELLING collectable games. We currently support Magic, MAGIC ONLINE, and Lord of the Rings. There are NO LISTING FEES to start selling and all payments are made via PayPal. You'll be amazed at how easy it is to buy and sell cards with CardShark.com. Click this link and make a $10 purchase today and get a FREE BOOSTER PACK! http://www.cardshark.com/default.asp?referral=cardshark&source=mtgpnews2 --------------- We are now back again with the bi monthly newsletter keeping you up to date with all of the going ons in the World of Magic. The last 2 weeks have seen PTQ's for San Diego a Grand Prix in Madrid and a hike in the price of Magic boosters. Will this make a difference in Australia? I don't think so, although Scott Hunstad wrote a very interesting article about this last week titled "At what cost?", which you can read here:- http://www.mtgparadise.com/articles/february2004/1902so_it_goes.shtml. I had never really bothered to work out how much money I spend on Magic but this article made me stop and think about the cost of Magic. This will have an impact on Magic Online too with ticket prices for boosters expected to rise in the near future. Speaking of Magic Online, Darksteel is available on 1 March with release league tournaments starting at midday on Thursday 5 March (actually Friday 6th for Australia) to Monday 8 March. Much like the Mirrodin prerelease these leagues will last for 1 week and only your first 5 matches will count. Prizes are doubled and every player recieves a Viridian Zealot avatar (undefeated, i.e. 5-0 players also receive an Arcbound Overseer Avatar). Mirrodin/Mirrodin/Darksteel draft queues also kick in the same time as the leagues, so if you have access to Magic Online make sure you take advantage of the Online prelease for Darksteel next week! Grand Prix Madrid Madrid hosted the biggest GP ever last weekend with over 1350 players (there were 800 Spanish players in attendance) and the whole thing was won by the one and only Kai Budde, making it his seventh Grand Prix victory. The format was sealed deck for Day 1 with a 128 player cut to Day 2 for Mirrodin/Mirrodin/Darksteel Rochester draft. Budde demolished the opposition with ease in the Top 8, playing an old school R/W deck (i.e. he played 18 land - a rarity nowadays considering the abundance of myrs and spellbombs in the format) which featured bombs such as Leonin Abunas and Grab the Reins with a splash of black for Murderous Spoils. France's Raphael Levy was the only other name player in the Top 8 and he succumbed to Budde in the semi-finals due to an unfortunate mana screw in the third game. And who said Groffskithur wasn't playable? Jason Spiteri played it in his sealed deck on Saturday and you know what - He went undefeated. Go Groffskithur beats. For more about GP Madrid check out the following link at the sideboard http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=sideboard/events/gpmad04 San Diego PTQs Qualifiers are being held all over Australia and New Zealand over the next month (some states have already had theirs) and the format is Mirrodin sealed (i.e. Mirrodin Starter and 2 Darksteel Boosters) with a Top 8 booster draft. Congratulations to Gene Brumby and Tom Haddy who won the Auckland and Geelong qualifiers respectively. Here are the details for the rest of the PTQ's being held over the next month:- Townsville - 23/2 Italo Australian Club 23 Foster Street Newmarket Contact - Mel Parry on 0733669166 Canberra - 7/3 ANU, John Dedman Building Room 101 Off Kingsley Street Acton Contact - David Low on 0413556683 Melbourne - 13/3 Absolute Games 635 Glenhuntly Road Caulfield South Contact - Russell Alphey on 0401994352 Perth 13/3 Unity House, 4th floor 79 Stirling Street Perth Contact the Tournament Orgainser on 0421404994 Brisbane - 14/3 Aitkenvale PCYC Club Wellington Street Aitkenvale Contact - Mel Parry on 07 33669166 Christchurch 20/3 Christchurch Bridge Club Nova Place Christchurch Contact - Chris Williams on 0211644561 Sydney 21/3 Burwood RSL Shaftsbury Avenue Burwood Contact - Chris Foggin on 0402231366 First prize is US$375 plus an opportunity to compete at Pro Tour San Diego in May. There will also be plenty of booster packs as prizes and I wish you all the very best of luck for this qualifier season. Around the Web It has also been a busy week in the internet writing community, covering a diverse range of topics from set reviews to the cost of magic. Here is a glimpse at some of the more interesting stuff to come out of the last fortnight. Paulo Vitor - Mulligans Paulo discusses the art of the mulligan, its history and its strategic implications. This is a topic which has not had much light shed on it over recent years and with the printing of Serum Powder in Darksteel I'm sure many players will be thinking more about their opening 7 than ever before. Learn when you should be going to Paris at http://www.brainburst.com/db/article.asp?ID=3817 Chris Romeo/Nate Heiss - Suicide Black in T2 Both of these articles were on Starcity so it made sense to group them together. I must admit I'm not much of a constructed player but back in the old days of Magic I really enjoyed playing Buried Alive (you know, Nether Shadow, Ashen Ghoul, Bad Moon, Buried Alive etc etc) and similar aggro black decks and these articles made me want to start building them again. Romeo's article "Bring the Steel" is focused on building decks on a budget but he some good insights into what works and doesn't in this archetype, whereas Nate Heiss provides us with another Rogue decklist that abuses Skullclamp. Yes I am sick to the stomach with this card already but it is going to be part of the constructed metagame for some time now, so does Suicide Black stand a chance in T2 at the moment? Find out at http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=6767 for Romeo's article and http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=6766 for Nate Heiss's piece. Iain Telfer & Reuben Fries - Darksteel Limited Review Rather than shamelessly plug my own set reviews I thought it would be nice to take a look at someone elses. Iain Telfer has been doing these reviews for sometime now and often uses other people to bounce ideas off and get a different opinion across. This time around his cohort is Reuben Fries and they dissect the artifacts in Darksteel. I like their reviews as they are well written and will often give practical examples for cards, combinations, etc etc. Unlike other reviewers, they talk about the cards rather than ranking them so you don't have to constantly mentally question why one card is better than another. You can check out this review at http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=6753. Also on a similar note Cameron Chen wrote his first limited review for MTG Paradise last week, which you can read at http://www.mtgparadise.com/articles/february2004/2102chen_darksteel.shtml. Well done Cameron! That wraps it up for another issue of the Paradise Post and Craig Hong will be in the drivers seat again for the next issue. Feel free to drop us some feedback at newsletter@mtgparadise.com or if you want to email me personally at daimyodan@yahoo.co.uk. Until next time Dan