============= PARADISE POST ============= Issue 2. Sept. 2003 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 - Want to advertise here? Email contact@mtgparadise.com ---------------- GAMES PARADISE - www.gamesparadise.com.au Order Online or 1300 139 202 SPECIAL: All Boosters Boxes $149 AUD free delivery (Australia) when you mention "mtgparadise forums" in the special comments section of the online order. (Note: amount will be deducted when the order is put through the terminals manually). --------------- THE SYDNEY GAMES CENTRE - www.sydneygamescentre.com We have the best range of single cards in Sydney, weekly Magic tournaments and drafts as well as other CCG and gaming events. Drop in for a browse! LEVEL 1, 195A BURWOOD RD, BURWOOD 2134 PHONE: (02) 9715 3229 Web: www.sydneygamescentre.com Email: mtg@sydneygamescentre.com --------------- Hello and welcome to the 2nd edition of the Paradise Post. I am Craig Hong's alter ego and co-writer Dan Turner. I usually write limited reviews and the occasional strategy article so it is good to be doing something a little different (even though Mirrodin will be released at the end of the month and I will be knee deep in spoiler lists trying to work out a decent drafting strategy for GP Sydney!). Craig and myself will be taking it in turns twice a month to bring you the latest happenings in the world of Magic from around the globe with an emphasis on the Australian magic scene. There is a feedback address for these newsletters at newsletter@mtgparadise.com so please let us know what you think! So lets take a look at what has been happening over the past 2 weeks and what lies ahead of us. GP ATLANTA It was a fairly large turnout for the first standard GP held at Dragoncon in Atlanta. It was also the first major tournament since Worlds that was using 8th edition. Wake and Goblins were dominant and Marco Blume won the whole thing (he was the only non american in the top 8) with a wake deck that was very similar to Daniel Zink's world champonship deck. Blume played an extra Decree of Justice instead of a second main deck Logic and 2 Upheavals in the board (Zink played 2 more Rays of Revelation). For a comprehensive decklist of the top 8 see http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=sideboard/gpatl03/t8decks. There were many interesting decks in the field and one of the more rogueish builds was Eugene Harvey's U/W "standstill" deck which is not too far away from the old school U/W "Weissman" decks that used Serra Angels as their only creature backed up with a lot of countermagic and card drawing. Ah the good old days.... 4 Coastal Tower 4 Flooded Strand 2 Skycloud Expanse 9 Plains 6 Island 4 Exalted Angel 4 Standstill 4 Mana Leak 4 Wrath of God 4 Decree of Justice 3 Chain of Vapor 3 Unsummon 3 Wing Shards 3 Circular Logic 3 Deep Analysis Sideboard 4 Silver Knight 4 Millstone 3 Ambassador Laquatus 2 Ray of Distortion 1 Deep Analysis 1 Unsummon Another nice touch with this deck is you can play a Standstill and not break it by cycling Decree of Justice, making life difficult for your opponent and forcing them to break the Standstill. Harvey made second day finishing 43rd with this deck which is not too bad in a diverse field of control and beatdown. Ben Seck was the only Australian at GP Atlanta and even though his last round opponent conceded to him he finished in a very unlucky 66th with his trademark Reanimator deck. GP SYDNEY TRIALS There have been several GP trials held over the past couple of weeks where the winner of the trial earns themselves 3 byes at GP Sydney. The lucky individuals I know about are:- Andrew Corney (Townsville) David Robertson (Adelaide) Ben West (Sydney) Scott SMith (Sydney) Nathan White (Maroochydore) Ben Mychaels (Gosford) There will be 4 GP trials the day before the GP (Friday 3rd October) and registration for the main event is open between noon and 9pm on the Friday. The GP will be held at the Centrepoint Tower Convention Centre, 100 Market Street in the city. Apart from the GP there will be plenty of side events (that will include Mirrodin), a PTQ for Amsterdam (Mirrodin Sealed with Top 8 Rochester), Vintage type 1, Iron Man Magic and much, much more. For more information check out the following link - http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=grandprix/sydney03/facts. It is going to be a great event so I hope to see you all there! BANNINGS The DCI announced last week their latest bannings. Extended was the only format hit and it can be attributed to the dominant deck types at worlds. Goblin Lackey, Entomb and Frantic Search are all now banned in Extended as they are deemed too powerful for the format. With the advent of Siege-Gang Commander in Scourge the lackey is just too strong if played on the first turn with a commander to back it up. Obviously wizards are trying to slow down those reanimator decks by putting the kibosh on Entomb, but will there be a replacement for this card? Buried Alive may be sufficient but it is a little slow and a sorcery. Maybe Mirrodin will offer a similar instant to fill this gap? Frantic Search seems like a logical choice as I always thought this was going to get banned sooner or later as it allows control decks to quickly dig up key cards and back them up with counters. These cards will take some of the wind out the sails in Extended and slow it down a notch but like everything in Magic, new combos will be found, old cards will be dusted off and more bannings will be made. For the official DCI announcement check out http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dci/announce/dci20030901a MIRRODIN The new set is only a few weeks away now and Magic The Gathering.com (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/welcome) have been previewing cards on a daily basis. It is shaping up as an artifact intenstive set with a few old cards reprinted, artifact lands, a new mana flare (you guessed it - its an artifact!) and a new class of artifact - equipment. Equipment works like creature enchantments except they stay in play when the creature goes to the graveyard. They can only be played at sorcery speed and there is an equip cost (this is different to the casting cost) which needs to be paid to "activate" the equipment. Worldslayer for example has a casting cost of 5 and an equip cost of 5 and the text "whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, destroy all permanents other than Worldslayer" - pretty powerful stuff! Each expansion has new mechanics and Mirrodin is no exception. Imprint is an "artifacts only" ability which which allows the caster to remove cards from hand, play or even their opponent to imprint the artifact with that spell so it can be continously used (have I lost you yet?). Soul Foundry for example allows the caster to remove a creature card from their hand (from the game) so it can be imprinted onto the artifact. The foundry has an activation cost equal to the converted mana cost of the creature removed - very similar to Phyrexian Processor and Volrath's Laboratory. One of the other new abilites is Entwine which is similar to the dual cards in Invasion. The main difference being you can play both of the effects on the cards by paying the Entwine cost. For example, One Dozen Eyes is a green sorcery which costs 5G and reads "put a green 5/5 beast into play or put 5 1/1 insect tokens". The Entwine cost is GGG so for 9 mana you get both!! There are other new abilities which have not been announced yet so you may have to wait for the prerelease! For more information on Mirrodin and card previews check out http://www.magicthegathering.com/. Mirrodin looks like a whole lot of fun and there will be prerelease tournaments all over Australia on the 20th and 21st of September. Contact your local games store for information on locations. PT BOSTON PT Boston is this weekend and it is a team event. The format will be Onslaught block sealed day 1 and team Rochester draft day 2. Australia have sent a team over to show the rest of the world what we are capable of and it is the unstoppable trio of Scott Hunstad, Minga Wong and Egidio De Gios, otherwise known as MLMGB. They won the team event at Nats this year and have been doing very well this PTQ season. I have seen the guys doing a lot of team drafting at the Sydney Games Centre over the last month or so and they are confident in their abilities - good luck guys! Make sure to check out their progress on the sideboard this weekend as they duel it out with the worlds best. Ben Seck is also over there at the moment and will most probably be playing on an American team. I hope you enjoyed the 2nd edition of the Paradise Post and like I said before all comments are welcome and should be mailed to newsletter@mtgparadise.com. Take care, until next time. Dan