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PARADISE POST
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Issue 14. April 2004.

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It has been another busy fortnight on the Magic front
and next month things are set to explode with
Australian Regionals and the Fifth Dawn prerelease.
Also there are Team PTQs all over Australia in June, a
limited Pro Tour (San Diego) and the almighty Magic
Invitational. However the next week is all about
Regionals and that is the theme of this fortnights
newsletter. On with the show......

Regionals

Regional tournaments are being held in the next week
on Saturday the 8th of May all over Australia. Ravager
Affinity and Goblin Bidding are the 2 big kids on the
block so if you are thinking of playing you have to be
able to handle at least one of these decks (preferably
both). In fact Ravager Affinity made up for nearly
half of the Top 8 at SGC's Easter Cup a couple of
weeks ago (you can find the coverage here if you are
interested -
http://www.mtgparadise.com/~sgc/easter2004/)
but there are several other archetypes out there which
will give these decks a run for their
money. For the last minute playtesters out there here
is a quick rundown on what you should have tested
against along with a couple of tier 2 and rogue decks
which have potential. 

Ravager Affinity - this is like Necro all over again
(in terms of it's dominance) for those of you who
don't know what I'm talking about don't worry - it is
not that important. This deck is fast, consistent and
popular. It generally wins by moving ravager modular
tokens onto Blinkmouths and/or Ornithopters and
smashing your opponent for like 37. Alternatively they
use Disciple of the Vault to suck down your life total
then finish you with a Shrapnel Blast. Most affinity
decks now also play Welding Jar which makes any
artifact removal that isn't Oxidise or Detonate that
little bit crappier. Better yet affinity players are
now boarding Mana Leaks against the control
combo decks out there making it a very hard matchup
indeed. 

Goblin Bidding - nothing much has changed in the world
of goblins and this is still one of the best decks in
the field. There are biddingless versions running
around at the moment and whilst these decks are good
in the mirror matches they will struggle against any
of the control decks in the field. Bidding like
Affinity sometimes just gets those I win hands that
you can do nothing about but if you want a way to stop
this deck my personal pick is Worship (preferably with
a prot red creatue).

Tooth and Nail - this has spread like Wildfire over
the internet and everyone on MODO now seems to
be playing this deck. Versions either run Cloudposts
or Urzas lands to ramp up to 9 mana so they can
either drop a pair of Darksteel Colossusses (sp?) or
the funky Abunas/Platinum Angel combo. The big
problem with this deck is the manabase, knock out an
Urza's land and suddenly they lose momentum. Affinity
decks have already started packing Mana Leaks for the
Tooth and Nails out there so it is only a matter of
time before players wise up to this one.

Mono-White Control - it seems this is the only true
control deck out there at the moment. Wing Shards
looks like a good bet now for this deck especially
against Tooth and Nail and Akroma seems to fit in
nicely. The only weakness with this is the early game
which is what affinity and goblins do best and
if you don't draw your early wrath and/or Damping
Matrix you are screwed. This does have good game
against everything else though.

B/G Cemetary - the sleeper on this list to be sure,
but it is Death Cloud which makes this deck what 
it is. Death Cloud is good against all of the decks I
mentioned before and combined with black's spot
removal and green's artifact removal should give a lot
of affinity players headaches. Like Tooth and
Nail the mana base can be shaky at times but this also
gives the control decks a run for their money
with Persecute, Withered Wretch and Echoing Decay.

Big Red - this is a tier 2 deck but a lot of fun to
play and is very draw dependant. Land and artifact
destruction makes for a potent cocktail in this
current environment but sometimes the quicker decks
get a more explosive start than you and it is
curtains. The other niggling problem with Big Red is
stuff like WOrship and COP Red as there are not many
ways to get around them - in fact the only one is
Oblivion Stone, making it a risky deck to play at
Regionals.

Zombies - I really like this deck but again it
struggles with cards like Damping Matrix, COP Black
and the dreaded Karma. It can handle the quick decks
if it draws spot removal otherwise it rolls over 
and dies.

Well that is a very brief overview of some of the
decks to look out for next weekend, if you want
to know where your nearest Regional tournament is
located check out this link on the sideboard - 
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=events/regionals/australia
  

Fifth Dawn

Another expansion is looming on the Magic horizon and
typically the spoilers are already out there (and on
MTG Paradise no less!) From what I can see there are
two new mechanics - Scry and Sunburst. Scry has a cost
attached to it which lets the player look at that many
cards off the top of their library and then either
rearrange their order and put them at
the bottom of their deck. Sunburst like Modular is
just for artifacts and gives a +1/+1 counter and/or a
charge counter for each colour of mana used to pay
it's casting cost. Each colour also receives a
"Beacon" (sorcery or instant) card which is shuffled
back into it's owners library once it has been played
and a "Bringer of the Dawn" creature which has an
alternate casting cost of RWGUB. The theme of the set
is about bringing all 5 of the colours together and
there are many artifacts which produce different kinds
of mana and the artwork
has a real classic "Isimov" sci - fi feel to it. A
good example is Crucible of Worlds -
http://www.mtgparadise.com/~tcs/Spoilers/5D/normal_crucibleOfWorlds.jpg
The set looks like it is going to be a good one but I
am dreading the MODO release of the Fifth Dawn.
Prerelease tournaments are being held all over the
country on the 22nd/23rd May, please contact your
local tournament organiser for more information.


Roundup

Again we have been hit with a deluge of strategy
articles on what is the best deck to play at
Regionals, what you should expect and the level of
hate you shoud be packing maindeck. However as Craig
said in the last issue of Paradise Post, Ravager
Affinity is still the deck to beat at the moment and I
don't see that changing any time soon. There has been
some very good analysis lately on the metagame and
here are my picks of the bunch:-


Jim Ferraiolo - Regional Decklist Dossier - The Good

Jim is a veteran writer at Starcity and specialises in
constructed magic, especially rogue decks. His
regionals primer holds no surprises this time around
as he breaks apart the 4 main decks in standard right
now - Ravager Affinity, Goblin Bidding, Mono
White Control and every Timmys favourite deck, Tooth
and Nail. There are also decklists aplenty here too so
if feel free to rip them right off, but I would advise
at least playing a few games first before you try any
of these decks at Regionals as they do require a 
modicum of skill to play correctly. And the link
is....

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=7194


Mike Flores - Necessary Evils and the Death of the
Last Rogue Deck

For those of you who don't know Flores used to write
for the Magic Dojo back at the dawn of time where
there was no stack, no foil cards and people played
whatever they wanted without even thinking about the
metagame. He has just made a comeback to writing
after a long hiatus and his current column is very
informative and well written. This particular piece is
a little bit different to his other stuff though as
Flores does have a tendancy to talk a lot about Magic
history, decks of the past etc etc but this one is all
current material. In fact the decks he talks about are
good rogue choices so if you want to try something
different check this out.

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=7185


Richard Feldman - Building a Better Cemetary I & II

Richard isn't even a feature writer on Starcity but I
was quite impressed with his 2 piece article this week
I thought it deserved a mention. Again we are looking
at Regionals preparation here but lets face it folks
they are coming up pretty soon (i.e. a week from now)
and some of you are going to need all the help you can
get. Richard dissects the B/G Cemetary deck with his
own unique build that doesn't even play Ravenous
Baloth or Viridian Zealot!! However Cemetary does
throw a spanner in the works of the metagame as
it can handle affinity but it's archiles heel is those
damn goblin decks and Richard provides some
interesting strategies for dealing with the red army.
Check out both parts of his work here:-

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=7196

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=7197


Geordie Tait - MMD White Drafters Guide

For some light relief (and perhaps the odd gem or two
about limited strategy) take a read of Geordie's
latest. I have always been a fan of his writing style
as he is both witty yet at times offers some indepth
insights into the game. In this piece he breaks down
all of the white cards in Mirrodin and Darksteel and
rates them in typical Tait fashion. Definitely
worth a read.

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=7159


Scott Hunstad - What to Do I & II

Well I guess I couldn't really leave Scott off of this
list could I?? (no comment - ed) Although Part I was
written some time ago, Part II came out fairly
recently and Scott talks about his performance at the
Team PTQ in Canberra as one third of MLMGB. This team
has dominated the PTQS for a few years now and with
the Sydney teams event coming up in June these are
without a doubt the number one seeds. And here is the
link

http://www.mtgparadise.com/articles/april2004/2104so_it_goes.shtml

http://www.mtgparadise.com/articles/april2004/2704so_it_goes.shtml

Thats about it for another fortnight in the world of
Magic. Good luck to everyone who is playing at
Regionals this weekend and may your mulligans be
scarce. If you have any feedback please don't hesitate
to email me at daimyodan@yahoo.co.uk with your
comments, flames, etc. Until next time....

Dan