============= PARADISE POST ============= Issue 9. 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 ---------------- 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 --------------- GAMES PARADISE - www.gamesparadise.com.au Order Online or 1300 139 202 For great MTG box prices including 4th Edition, please visit our website. --------------- Welcome all to another edition of the Paradise Post, as people worldwide lose their collective heads with thoughts of romance in the lead-up to Valentines Day I'll attempt to keep you firmly focused for at least a while with all the news from the world of Magic. This issue looks set to be a bumper one with plenty happening including most importantly a new set and an announcement with HUGE ramifications for the pockets of magic players everywhere. We have also seen some GP's as the Extended season wrapped up and we got into the swing of MMD limited, it's coming up to the most exciting time of the Magic year with a PT, Regionals and Nationals looming ever closer so lets get into the Post! DARKSTEEL The pre-releases have come and gone with fantastic turnouts nationwide, while I was busy celebrating the Chinese New Year I did manage to sneak in to see how many people turned out in Brisbane and I saw a veritable sea of keen Magic players. With seemingly more and more players coming to each new set's release it is a good indication that Wizards must be doing something right. Darksteel is now in full release and going crazy. While the set seems to be a little barren in terms of constructed worthy cards, (although Viridian Zealot is an amazing little beater and could see play in any number of formats) Darksteel is yet another quality addition to limited play and it is amazing just how much the addition of one simple booster changes the entire dynamic of a draft. Less Myr and Spellbombs may bring land counts back into the realms of sanity and the chances for getting the wacky multiple late pick Cloudpost monstrosity are even more remote. It is a set that has already caused an incredibly high level of discussion as some of the more powerful cards including those sporting the modular and indestructible mechanics, are coming at a hefty price. Modular in particular seems to have polarized opinions as some steer clear of what they see as overcosted creatures while others snap them up with visions of huge artifact creatures passing their boon on to their Modular cousins to create board dominating Voltrons. If anything, the addition of Darksteel has added yet another dimension to what is one of the most variable and interesting limited formats since players jostled for bombs in IPA. Although we are as yet unsure as to the exact timing of Nationals and therefore what the limited format will be, Nationals has traditionally been played with the Base/base/first expansion draft format, which should be more than enough inspiration to get out there and draft, especially considering the ever changing and incredibly challenging nature of the format. Darksteel WILL definitely play a part in Regionals, with Standard being the format, now is the time to start testing those Darksteel cards to find hidden gems or maybe just some handy additions to established archetypes. One thing is for certain, Darksteel rocks, be sure to check out our sponsors to get your fill of this amazing new set. ONLINE RELEASES AND PRICE INCREASES With continuing stability the likes of which v2.0 has never seen before, the release of Darksteel Online, set down for Monday, March 1, 2004 (which is Basically March 2 for our Aussie purposes) looks set to be one the biggest release period in Magic Online's short history. The release tournaments will begin on the 4th of March with the draft queues also changing to MMD at this time. The release leagues will once again take the double-prize one week league format with Viridian Zealot avatars for all and sundry who participate and Arcbound Overseer Avatars for those good or lucky enough to go 5-0 in their initial matches. I must say that I am a fan of the larger avatars on Magic Online and Bosh is currently my visage of choice, replacing my 2 Headed Giant. With the extreme rarity of the 5-0 avatars and the potential coolness of the Overseer avatar we may see the first ever avatar to stabilize at a solid 30 ticket plus price tag. Besides the massive payouts for high finishes, this guy should be a very real incentive to have a crack at going undefeated in a release league. For full info on the release see http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/magiconline/news020204. The only sting in the tail of this long anticipated event will be the recently announced price increase for Magic Online boosters and Tournament packs. This price rise once again brings Magic Online together with the paper-based product as a similar increase took effect for the for the paper product a few weeks earlier on January 15. The new pricing structure is as follows- Effective February 19, 2004, Wizards of the Coast will be increasing the prices on most Magic Online product. Boosters will increase to $3.69, Expert-level expansion theme decks and tournament packs will be $11.29, and Eighth Edition theme decks and the Core Game set will be $8.99. (These prices are of course in US Dollars) Tickets and accounts will still remain at the same prices but the days of buying a draft set for 10 tickets seem to be a thing of the past. For a full rundown of this development see http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/magiconline/news010904. MAGICTHEGATHERING.COM The official Wizards websites for Magic Online, Tournament play (sideboard), and Previews and inside information have been consolidated into the one site magicthegathering.com and I must say it's bright...very bright, the page is a bit hard to focus on at first, kind of like looking directly at the sun. After the necessary five minutes required for my eyes to adjust to the visual explosion I see that the site is not only bringing together content from all sources to the one page, but that it promises regular articles in addition to one-off feature articles. The line-up that we are to expect is MONDAY · Mark Rosewater - "Making Magic" An insider's look at the world of card design, brought to you by Magic's lead designer. · Scott Wills - "Limited Information" The talented Mr. Wills lends his thoughts on all things limited. · Weekly feature article A topical, feature-length article by a guest author (because eleven regular authors isn't enough). TUESDAY · Anthony Alongi - "Serious Fun" Anthony continues his column on the world of multiplayer Magic, alternate formats, and casual play in general. · Dan Myers - "Inside Magic Online" The inside scoop on news and upcoming developments in Magic Online. WEDNESDAY · Adrian Sullivan - "Single Card Strategies" Adrian revives the tradition of exploring Magic combinations and strategies, one card at a time, with an eye toward the casual player. · Brian David-Marshall - "Swimming with Sharks" BDM's Wednesday column takes a turn for the Spike as it shifts focus onto tournament-level strategy. THURSDAY · Mark Gottlieb - "House of Cards" A continuation of the march of crazy - er, innovative - decks from the mind of R&D member Gottlieb. · Alex Shvartsman - "This Week in Magic" From the ashes of Sideboard Online comes this column of highlights, anecdotes and previews from around the world of Magic. FRIDAY · Aaron Forsythe - "Latest Developments" Now in R&D as a developer, Aaron takes over the helm of Latest Developments and takes a look at the inner workings of Magic from a new guy's perspective. · Nate Heiss - "Building on a Budget" Nate contributes his popular deckbuilding column from the Magic Online site, focusing on decks made with few or inexpensive rares. SATURDAY · Rune Horvik - "Saturday School" The incomparable Mr. Horvik answers your rules questions. While many of you will be familiar with some or all of these columns and/or writers the one which sparked my interest was Thursday's offering of Alex Shvartsman - "This Week in Magic". While the "Week in Review" column on the Sideboard was undoubtedly one of the Magic must-reads on the internet, it often stretched to "fortnight in review", "month in review," out to something close to "the last couple of months in review". Let's all keep our fingers crossed that this time around we can get it on time, every time. CANCON 2004 The long weekend in our Nation's Capital that sees people playing pretty much every sanctioned Magic format under the Sun and a few formats that are literally born on the spot once again had it's fair share of excitement. Tim He managed to string together a number of solid performances, riding a wave of quarterfinal exits to take the player of the Con award. As is always the case though, the real highlight was the $1000 Type Standard challenge where one battle weary winner gets the chance to play off against "Big Bad Dave" and whatever maniacal deck he decides to bring to the table for $1000. This year's challenge did not disappoint with more than it's fair share of high drama. I won't spoil the story because it's well worth the read. Be sure to check out the coverage of all of the events for some great decklists too- http://www.mtgparadise.com/~dlow/. THE END OF EXTENDED AND THE BEGINNING OF SAN DIEGO QUALIFIERS The extended season is over and it ended in GP Okayama, with a show of the format's undeniable power and perhaps a warning for more potential brokenness the next time the old favourites go around. Despite the prevalence of the Rock and U/G Variants almost the world over, the Japanese were having none of that and brought their secret weapons out in a last ditch effort to qualify for Kobe. The Top 8 was sporting 2 incredible new decks with Akira Asahara playing the much hyped "A Beam -Loop Junktion" deck to a top 8 finish. The deck sported a "choose your own adventure" path to infinite life with a massive number of tutor effects and multiple potential combo parts all coming together to put the player on an unassailable life total at which point victory could be claimed through either a test of endurance or a very large Serra Avatar, but in actual fact was more often than not obtained by a confused opponent promptly scooping their cards up. Despite falling in the semifinals the deck was definitely the talk of the tournament. Main Deck 60 cards 4 Brushland 4 Windswept Heath 3 Starlit Sanctum 2 High Market 4 Forest 8 Plains 3 Nomads en-Kor 3 Daru Spiritualist 4 Shaman en-Kor 4 Task Force 3 Academy Rector 1 Serra Avatar 4 Eladamri's Call 4 Worthy Cause 4 Living Wish 1 Seal of Cleansing 1 Animal Boneyard 1 Test of Endurance 1 Rule of Law 1 Future Sight Sideboard 4 Orim's Chant 1 Nomad en-Kor 1 Daru Spiritualist 1 Monk Realist 1 Rule of Law 1 Starlit Sanctum 1 Kor Haven 2 Seal of Cleansing 2 Krosan Reclamation 1 Wasteland 15 sideboard cards The other innovative deck to enjoy top 8 success at the tournament was the "Dancing Ghoul Ver1.7" variation on the Angry Ghoul deck that the entire world had declared dead after the recent bannings. Both Kazuya Hirabayashi and Chikara Nakajima managed to make it to the Top 8 with the deck but fell in the quarters. Main Deck 1 Island 2 Swamp 1 Mountain 4 City of Traitors 3 Underground River 2 Sulfurous Springs 1 Shivan Reef 3 Polluted Delta 3 Bloodstained Mire 4 City of Brass 2 Sutured Ghoul 3 Krosan Cloudscraper 4 Brainstorm 2 Mystical Tutor 4 Vampiric Tutor 4 Corpse Dance 4 Duress 3 Buried Alive 1 Fling 1 Overmaster 4 Burning Wish 4 Mox Diamond Sideboard 1 Ray of Revelation 1 Cabal Therapy 1 Exhume 1 Decompose 1 Buried Alive 3 Overmaster 1 Pyroclasm 4 Defense Grid 1 Damping Matrix 1 Brush with Death In the end however, brute force and speed won the day with Goblin Bidding taking Kazumasa Shiki to the title. Despite facing second turn Phantom Nishoba's Shiki was able to burn past all opposition with the powerful B/R deck to claim the title and leave himself and Goblin Bidding as the last champion of the season. With Extended and pre-releases out of the way the Worlds attention is now firmly fixed on Mirrodin and Darksteel limited and the pro's had their first hit-out with it at GP Oakland. The Top 8 was indeed a strong one with such names as Dave Humphreys, Ken Ho, Ben Rubin, Mike Turian, Gabe Walls and Paul Rietzel all making it to the final draft. The draft for the money itself was an interesting affair with both Gabe Walls and Ken Ho running Mono-colour decks, Walls a hyper aggressive Red and Ho a slower but incredibly powerful Black. It turned out to be a bad decision for Walls who lost in the quarters but a golden one for Ho who rode his triple Consume Spirit monstrosity to victory. Ho beat Dave Humphreys in the finals who had managed to pull off two upset victories with a deck sporting an array of somewhat clunky creatures that seemed to be outclassed by the majority of the Top 8 contenders. Ho's deck was simply savage, with most steering away from black Ho managed to compile this beast Main Deck 40 cards 17 Swamp 2 Disciple of the Vault 1 Slith Bloodletter 1 Woebearer 1 Gold Myr 1 Iron Myr 1 Pewter Golem 3 Chittering Rats 2 Grimclaw Bats 1 Nim Abomination 3 Consume Spirit 1 Promise of Power 1 Bonesplitter 1 Leonin Scimitar 1 Mindstorm Crown 1 Necrogen Spellbomb 1 Murderous Spoils 1 Skullclamp Sideboard 1 Loxodon Mender 1 Disarm 1 Thoughtcast 1 Chimney Imp 1 Contaminated Bond 1 Wail of the Nim 1 Incite War 1 Fangren Hunter 1 One Dozen Eyes 1 Predator's Strike 1 Sylvan Scrying 1 Elf Replica 1 Galvanic Key 1 Heartwood Shard 1 Tangleroot 1 Crazed Goblin 1 Drooling Ogre 1 Nourish 2 Reap and Sow 1 Tel-Jilad Wolf 1 Darksteel Ingot While this GP provides some inspiration, the majority of the world will be more focused on sealed deck play hoping to crack the Top 8 of PTQ's for San Diego. However, PT Amsterdam has seen the DCI make a change that will impact upon those souls that do make the draft for the prizes. The DCI recently made this statement concerning PTs, qualifiers and GPs Pro Tour-Amsterdam introduced the procedure of randomizing the draft seating of the top 8 at limited-format Pro Tours. The DCI is also implementing this procedure at limited-format Qualifiers and Grand Prix worldwide starting with the Pro Tour San Diego Qualifier round. The purpose of this change is to eliminate possible draft collusion. A new version of DCI Reporter now allows organizers to randomly assign seating for the top 8 players in a Limited-format event. Players must sit in this order clockwise around the draft table. - Players will play the person across from them in the draft. (for example, the player at draft seat 1 will play the player at draft seat 5, etc). - Standings after Swiss will continue to be used to break ties to determine the final order of 5-8 place and 3-4 place. - The procedure change is ONLY for limited format Pro Tour Qualifiers and Grand Prix. It does not affect Top 8 at Constructed format events. It is optional at non-Qualifier, non-Grand Prix events. This effectively stops game decisions (concession, IDs) in order to Manipulate draft seating as well as preventing players from discussing draft strategies with the person that would have previously ended up next to them in the Top 8 draft. To my way of thinking any effort to reduce collusion is a step forward for the Magic Community and Wizards are to be congratulated on this decision. A NEW GENERATION OF MAGIC PLAYER As those of you in Queensland probably already know Peter Pohlman is now a proud father. Peter's wife Sonja gave birth to their first child Oscar Michael Pohlman on the 3rd of February. Undoubtedly many of you know Peter from Nationals, GPs or other events and would like to share in congratulating him on the new arrival. Oscar will be given one month to get accustomed to the world before he is taking all comers at money draft (father sponsored of course). LOVE IS IN THE AIR Well that's basically a wrap, but as I gave you all some shopping tips for Christmas in my last issue, I figured I might as well help those of you who are lovestruck at this time of year with some handy gift and event tips for Valentines. Rule 1 Say it with Flowers- If your significant other doesn't play Magic- A dozen roses If they do play magic- a playset of Gilded Lotus Rule 2 Go somewhere nice If your significant other doesn't play Magic- Dinner and Dancing If they do play Magic- Dominoes and Drafting Rule 3 Be a complete Gentlemen/be ladylike If your significant other doesn't play magic- use your manners, be attentive and pick up the cheque. If they do play Magic- at least give him or her at least five seconds to respond before triple bonesplittering your Exalted Angel, declaring an attack and running around the room screaming "In ya Face!!! Can you feel that???" And Finally the Most Important Rule... RULE 5... Don't Modo If your significant other doesn't play Magic- It's a day for Romance, the last thing he or she wants to see on Valentines day is you sitting there in boxer shorts sweating profusely screaming at the computer screen about how the shuffler sucks, you are always manascrewed and your opponent is the biggest lucksack n00b the world has ever seen. Believe me, if you are in the MMM queue that day you are going to have plenty of time to draft on your lonesome in the year ahead. If your significant other does play Magic- didn't you just read that? DON'T MODO!!!!!!!!! See you next time, Craig Hong securitron_ch@hotmail.com