============= PARADISE POST ============= Issue 12. March 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 ---------------- 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 --------------- It has been another busy fortnight on the Magic front with GPs and Regionals being held all over the world. Locally the last of the San Diego PTQ's have trickled through and players are now turning their attention to constructed Magic and team sealed. With Pro Tour San Diego and Seattle on the horizon (booster draft and team sealed respectively) it is going to be a busy next few months. There have been quite a few limited Grand Prix held all over the world throughout the last couple of weeks and here is the roundup:- GP Birmingham The UK has never been a strong country in the Magic World but it didn't stop 580 players duking it out for a coveted slot (or 8) at Pro Tour San Diego. Unfortunately only 1 Englishman made the Top 8 but it was 18 year old Stefan Jedlicka from Austria that brought home the trophy. Jedlicka was one of the two green drafters at the table and his U/G deck (with a splash of red for Barbed Lightning) powered him past his brother in the quarterfinals, knocking out the homeland favourite David Grant in the semi finals and finally Germany's Rene Kraft with his uber B/R deck in the finals. Green seems to be underdrafted a lot in this current block but Jedlicka proved everyone wrong with his U/G deck sporting the rather sexy Crystal Shard - Looming Hoverguard combo, in addition to the very unfair Mindslaver and the board dominating Memnarch. The only pro players in the Top 8 were Sweden's Mattias Jorstedt and Dutchman Frank Karsten (finished 5th & 3rd respectively) Ex Sydney Magic Player, Adam Kemp also played at the GP (he has been living in the UK for the last year or so now) and he finished 20th! Congratulations Adam - I thought you had given up the game. For more detailed coverage of GP Birmingham check out the sideboard at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/gpbir04/welcome GP Columbus America seems to be closing in on the European Grand Prix in terms of attendance and GP Columbus attracted over 850 players. Also becuase there were over 800 players the top 128 cut make it to day 2 rather than the top 64. However when the dust settled it was Mike Turian who was left standing holding the trophy. This was especially sweet for Mike as it was one of his last Magic tournaments. Craig Kempels and Brock Parker were the other heavyweights in the top 8 and Turian clean swept all of his opponents with his equipment heavy R/W deck featuring gems such as Sword of Kaldra, Skullclamp, Vulshok Morningstar, Leonin Bola and Leonin Scimitar. I guess Grab the Reins didn't hurt either. Interestingly like GP Birmingham only 2 of the players drafted green - is it really that bad? Also congrats to Kate Stavola for making the top 8 with no byes - it is quite a feat. Other pros that nearly landed a top 8 berth included Brian Kibler, Matt Linde, Patrick Sullivan and Bob Maher. For full details of GP Columbus check out http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/gpcol04/welcome,,de GP Sendai This Asian GP was held in the last week of March and the format was Mirrodin block limited. Over 530 players were in attendance including the french Ruel brothers, England's Sam Gomersall, Jin Okamoto and Osamu Fujita. After 14 rounds gruelling rounds and a energy draining top 8 Ichiro Shimura emerged victorious. This was his first major win, not bad considering he had to beat Pro Tour Veterans Jin Okamoto and Masashiko Morita to do it. Antoine Ruel also made the 8 but was beaten out in the semis by Morita's unorthodox U/R/B deck which on paper looked like a train wreck. Eventual winner Shimura drafted the same colours as Turian did to win GP Columbus with powerful game breakers Grab the Reins and Loxodon Warhammer. For full coverage of GP Sendai check out this link http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/gpsen04/welcome Magic Online And the saga continues. As you may be aware there have been MASSIVE problems with MODO over the past 4 weeks and as a result there were no Darksteel releases and league play is still unavailable. There has been no word on the rescheduling of Darksteel release events but Dan Myers said they are currently working on compensating the players whose leagues/drafts crashed when Darksteel was introduced at the start of last month. On a good note the constructed queues are back up and Darksteel is legal - so everyone can start playtesting competitively for Regionals!! For more information on Magic Online and the message boards check out http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/magiconline/news031704 Regionals They are still a month away yet but it is probably worth while doing some playtesting if you want to make it to Nationals this year. The metagame looks all aggro to me with Ravager Affinity and Goblin Bidding at the top of the list. I quite like the look of the 12 post deck which uses Tooth and Nail to fetch up Darksteel Colusses (?) to do a swift 22 to your opponent's face, but whether it can handle the explosive starts of the aggro decks has yet to be seen. If you feel like doing a bit of research on the net for deck lists and the results of regional tournaments across the globe take a look at this for some inspiration - http://www.starcitygames.com/deckdatabase/type2search.php? StartDate=2004-01-01&EndDate=2004-03-30&StartRank= &EndRank=&EventType=REG&Expansion=DAR&Title=&Location= (You may need to cut and paste this this link to get it to work) Australian Regionals will be held all over the country next month - the 8th and 9th of May. Check out this link for locations, contact numbers and orgainser information - http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=events/regionals/australia Strategy Round Up Well there has been a lot of constructed strategy around the net in the wake of upcoming regionals, so here is a quick rundown on some of the more entertaining pieces which you may find useful. Return of the King - Jamie Wakefield Whether this is a April fools joke or not is yet to be seen but this is a very entertaining tournament report from the original king of fatties. After a 5 year hiatus Jamie is back with a fattie based G/W deck that uses a ton of life gain with Ageless Entity. Awe Strike anyone? Here is the link - http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=7022 The Complete Goblin Bidding Primer - Iain Telfer Starcity's favourite limited writer turns his hand to constructed with an indepth analysis of Goblin Bidding - the cards, matchups and how to play it. This is suited towards players that have little experience with the deck but is still valuable for even the most grizzled bidding players. It is in 2 parts so be sure to follow the link at the end of the article for part 2. Iain's article can be found at http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=6991 The Continuning Adventures of Lynch Mob - Richie Proffitt Richie is quickly becoming one of my favourite strategy writers as he does a lot of playtesting and backs up what he says with facts. He also builds quite rogueish decks which are still competitive in the current metagame and this black monstrosity is no exception. Mono black has not had too much coverage on the net so be sure to read this if you wanna play some skulls http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=6932 The Trouble with Green in M/M/D Limited - Minga Wong Sorry folks but I couldn't resist this one. In his international writing debut Minga explains why green is so bad at the moment and why you shouldn't draft it. A lot of pro players are echoing these sentiments lately whilst others are trying to "corner" green on the table. Where do you stand on this? Minga's article may help you make up your mind. Check it out at http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=6882 Well thats about it for another issue of the Paradise Post. Join Craig for the next issue where he will give you his opinion on what to play at Regionals. Until next time Dan