MTGPlymouth -[The funk that makes the shizzznizzle groovy]

When I first heard about Magic the Gathering, I wasn't all that interested, assuming it to be a mere trading card game. It was only when I was told more about it and took the time to look into it further that I realised what a fascinating and addictive game it actually is.

Hooked from that point onwards, I headed straight for my local Magic supplier and bought myself a couple of starter decks. While at the shop, I was told about a pre-release tournament being held the following weekend. I decided to take the plunge and enter the tournament... after all, I wanted to learn how to play the game and what better way is there to learn than to actually play it?

I walked into the room feeling nervous and a little lost, but before long I found myself chatting to fellow players. I can honestly say that the guys I met there were all great. They seemed to take me under their wing as a newcomer to the game, giving me cards to start off my own decks and supplying me with invaluable hints and tips on the game's strategies in general.

By the end of the day, I had hundreds of new cards, a wealth of information to sort through and try out, and a smile on my face after actually winning a couple of games.

After that my addiction really began, but fortunately many of the guys at the tournament that weekend meet up each week to play. It goes without saying that I intend to join them whenever I am able.

Magic is a game I would recommend to anyone. Despite having many complex rules and strategies, it is easy enough to pick up the basics and jump into your first game with a themed starter deck or something similar. The more experienced players all seem to be extremely willing to help out newbies, apparently remembering their own unsure steps into the world of MTG. It is a game which appeals to an audience of varying ages, cultures, social class and almost every other distinguishing factor. It is the type of game I can greatly enjoy playing myself, yet I also would not mind my own son playing, and believe me, there are precious few pastimes that fit into both of those categories.

One thing worth mentioning, however, is the fact that Magic is a male dominated game. Guys seem to outnumber girls 10 to 1 from what I have seen so far. Of course, it's always nice to be surrounded by a group of handsome men, but I can't help but wonder why there aren't more girls playing the game. Is it because they don't feel they would enjoy it? Or is it simply, as I tend to believe, that they do not know enough about it? If the latter is the case, it is such a shame that more girls don't get out there and discover what a fun game this is to play.

I am greatly looking forward to the next time I can play and am actually fortunate enough to be travelling to the US in the near future, where I plan to test the players against some of the tips I have received over here so far. To be honest, I think from this point on I will play Magic wherever I go if given the chance.

To conclude, I can only say that I hope Magic goes on for many, many more years to come. I look forward to the day when I can look back fondly on my days as a new player, back to the time when Saviors of Kamigawa ceased production, and perhaps at that time, if not before, I shall be able to repay some of the help I have kindly been given by assisting the newest generations of Magic fans with their first decks etc.

This guide has been made to give beginners a few tips for sealed deck.

Sealed deck is a tournament where all you are required to bring is yourself and some cash, the general cost of sealed deck is £15, sounds expensive doesn't it. For your money you will receive a starter pack and 3 booster packs these will be from the most recent sets or a new forth coming set.

Once you have paid you will sit down with the other competitors and have time to construct your deck, so you will now have a total of 120 cards. Chances are you wont have exactly the right amount of basic land for your desired deck so you will have the chance to add basic land into your deck.

Once you have done all the above your ready to play, the tournament organiser will construct some pairing and you will play your first opponent. You play multiple opponents through the day and once the desired amount of rounds has been met people will receive prizes.

When playing in a sealed try to keep to the following rules:

1. Your deck should be 40 or 41 cards. Filling you deck with good cards doesn't mean you will win, but making your deck smaller with a few good cards means you have more chance of drawing them and playing them to your advantage.

2.Play the colour with the strongest cards, this may sound obvious, but playing a colour just because it has a few good cards and the rest are sub par is not the way to build, with only 40 cards every one has to count. You can splash the cards by adding a few lands of that colour; is it really worth making a splash for it?

3. Due to this it is better to use your best 2 colours and play them rather than play multiple colours.

4· Card Mix. In a 40-card deck you want to have about 17 Land 17 Creatures and 6 other cards, however as a general rule you can substitute a removal spell for a creature. Ensure you don't overkill your deck with removal, the reason for this is your creatures are there to attack your opponent and kill off the opponents attackers, a removal spell will do the later but not the first part.

5. A lot of sealed deck construction is about minimising bad draws. To do this you need to ensure your deck has a curve, a flow of casting cost. Having a lot of expensive spells means you going to be swarmed by small creatures all day.

6. Flying is one of the greatest abilities in sealed, so make sure you take advantage of it. Opponents will either have to out race your flyer by attacking you with more points of damage, or make their own flyer, or waste a removal spell.

7. Leave situational cards out in the sideboard, drawing a shatter while looking at a field with no artefacts equals a dead card. Odds are your going to be boarding it out after every game, obviously if your playing a heavy artefact block then shatter has its place.

8. Use all the deck construction time. If you finish the deck early test a few hands, you might realise that you should adjust your deck.

I hope this helps, the main advice is make sure the deck is consistent, if you have really good cards run them if you can but don't feel like you are forced to.

So its Sunday May 23rd it’s the day of Plymouths Dissension Pre-release, doors are opening at 10am and I have just woke up from bed at 9:30, hey organising a tournament cant be that hard can it ? I’d completed most of my tick list …

Find out possible dates from Wizards and availability

Find a location.

Ask about availability and price (get annoyed and try else were).

Eventually find a place that won’t rip you off as much as the other locations.

Pay the location to secure dates

Advertise

Pay Wizards for products

Wait for a sanctioning number

Wait for stock to arrive

Wonder why nothing has arrived with only 1 day to go until the biggie

* Whilst doing all the above, brick myself wondering why no one has pre-registered and wonder why wizards have failed to email me.

So all the above has been ticked off other than any form of contact from wizards or players, hey its magic the gathering not a David Copperfield show.

So I grab all my kit and get ready to walk up the hill to the event, goddamn rain. Decide to be lazy and call a taxi.

Pull phone out of pocket, find Calvin’s name. Grovel a little then get a lift, hurrah, if I can count on one other person being lazy its Calvin.

So we arrive at the Quality Hotel with the product and our McDonalds Egg McMuffin’s. Obviously none of the players have arrived at the doors opening time, due to that being the time the doors open, not when the Pre-Release actually starts. So we set up plug in the laptop, open the cases of booster boxes and rearrange all tables.

We sit twiddling our thumbs and playing some Hearts on the PC then, like a tidal wave, here come the players at 10:50.Well the tournament starts at 11 so why would you wanna turn up early?

Anyway we kick off the event at 12:10, yes I started 10 minutes late, that would be because most of you guys turn up late.

So people sit down and the product is distributed, packs are opened and rubbish is flying all over the place. Then comes the cry of joy as everyone opens up their cards. Then we get the onslaught of stupid questions.

Then rest of the day involves taking results, answering silly questions, eating junk food, pairing rounds, dropping people, re-entering people, re-pairing because some one didn’t tell us they have dropped, organising side events, sending people to go get more beverages and answering the odd sensible question.

Then comes the big finale, people have finished playing all of the rounds and its Prize Giving. Everyone gets their boosters and the snide comments start flying -
“He only won because he had XXX”

So now we have our influx of side events, everyone wants to sign up at the same time, people don’t want their main event prizes, they want to draft!

So now its tidy time, let’s collect all the rubbish that wasn’t collected earlier.

So all the rubbish has been collected and the room seems relatively tidy. I guess its now time to go home.

I’ve been playing Magic: the gathering in tournaments for about 10 years and in that time I’ve had both the pleasure and misfortune of playing at various venues, from plush hotel function rooms, and warm cozy pubs, to large sterile arenas and grotty freezers of parish halls.

I think most people experience playing magic in their own homes or schools with a small group of friends to begin with then as confidence grows the natural migration is to the local games shop playing with new people who also then join your existing circle of MTG friends. Some shops also run sanctioned tournaments and this is the first taste of official magic play for many people. The benefits of this is that the environment is quite informal so there is less pressure on a new player, and also with a small amount of players (12-20) its not often anyone goes away empty-handed.

So, you’ve played in a few local shop tournies now and your deck slays all, where do you go from here? You and your mates may wish to attend some of the larger events, such as a qualifier or Grand Prix. I can only speak as a competitor as I’ve never organized a tournament but here are a few things that I feel are important and that makes a good venue:

Just before I go I’d just like to send a nod of recognition to some event organizers and venues where I’ve enjoyed playing:

Squeek
His various supply of wonderful locations, for both small and large scale events. Especially the Quality Hotel, even though the name doesn’t do it full justice I believe this is a fine venue.

Most of you who know Squeek and Tim, and those who visit this site and pay attention to more than just the tournament info will be aware of the infamous wager of a pint of ale! Squeek’s first step towards winning this bet was last Sunday’s Standard Day Challenge event. This was something of a pilot event and as such was a little rough around the edges, but for those who were unable to attend here’s how it works.

For anyone who has played in booster draft side events this will all sound very similar:

When players register all their names are entered onto a list, from this list players are randomly dropped into eight-man pods. Each pod forms an individual tournament with 3 rounds of knockout. Points are awarded for each stage reached in each tournament, 1pt for the first round, and 2pts for the 2nd, 3pts for runner-up and 4pts for the winner. Each player can then trade in, when accumulated, 4pts for a booster.

This can be either every time they get 4pt in total or at the end. There is no limit to the number of tournaments that you may participate in, as soon as you have been knocked out of one or have won overall you just sign up for another pod. For more details of this please click here:

As an event this works rather well for several reasons, provided you enter enough tournaments your guaranteed an equivalent in boosters to your entry fee, so no one goes away empty handed. It’s a good environment to “fine-tune” any decks you may be working on as you can swap cards in and out of your deck in between tournaments, indeed you can play more than one deck on the day should you choose to and is also a good place to try any amusing fun decks or outrageous combo-decks that aren’t really viable in a normal 6 round tournament.

On top of this as each tournament is registered as a separate event like the booster drafts it’ll have a more significant impact on your DCI rating should you do well, and less if you do badly. Also for those registered for the Magic Player Rewards program it means more foils and tokens etc in the post.

As for actually playing I found the format comfortably informal, (within the boundaries of normal tournament play) and I could see that the other players were as relaxed. It was more akin to playing on your bedroom floor than a sanctioned event and this was good. Speaking to other players I found that they like the way everyone went home with something though it was apparent that this was open to abuse. It did appear that some of the younger players particularly were signing up for new pods and losing, this obtained them a guaranteed 1point and meant that they could do this all day racking up points by playing in numerous pods and raking in the boosters. Whether this was an intentional ploy or due to a limited card base, many players found this frustrating as they would have preferred to have played a match, but on hindsight by losing you’re going to obtain more standard day challenge points at the expense of you DCI rating.

Also some finalists would find themselves waiting a long time to play the final as the previous matches went on for so long. A strict time limit here might be the answer. What I liked best though was that the general running of the event was largely down to the players themselves, all the recording of results and setting up of pods after the first was done by the players. Tim and Squeek were on hand to deal with any issues, which were few, and the whole day ran really smoothly.

Its glad to hear that 100% of the attendees had fun at the standard day challenge, I have collaborated all of the players thoughts to work out some new and improved ways to fix some of the problems, and improve the experience. Yes, I know most of you thought it was perfect and could not be improved on, but if there’s one person who is going to try its me.

Every player went home with at least 2 boosters, and we all know 2 boosters is roughly the same cost as the event, so no one went home out of pocket. The majority of you went home with 3 boosters so were Quids in.

You didn’t have to play the same deck all day; I noticed some of you were even borrowing spare decks from each other. It’s nice to see that people were trustworthy and willing to share their ideas, bringing back the community spirit that has seemed to dwindle away over recent years.

The relaxed approach to the day was good for myself as an organizer and the players. Without really noticing it, you lot were doing the work. You randomized the pairings, called the players and handed in the results.

You have recently won a pod only to notice someone else has raced ahead of you in points by playing in more events.

To resolve this issue we need to adjust the points system without punishing any participant. To do this we need to award extra points to the finalists, this will make winning more of a reward and still award points to the other participants. By awarding extra points to finalists we should be able to overcome some of the drawbacks, but we will also need to implement a time limit so that people aren’t waiting an excessive amount time for others to finish their game.

With the above system in place I believe that the problems that have been pointed out will be abolished.

My aim is to make this event so perfect that it will attract both the casual and the frequent gamer, I know that my efforts have been greatly accredited by the local community but I must thank you for participating and making the day possible.

If you have any suggestions for improvements or have noticed other flaws in the event please contact me

After a few players being knocked out of contention at the Plymouth Regional Qualifiers they decided that the best way to Qualify would be to go down to the Cornwall Qualifier being held By Vinni in St Austell

Quite a lot of People were making plans on how to get down there most of them assuming Squeek would be going and scabbing lifts off him, once Squeek dropped the bombshell that he had to work the Train seemed like it was the best plan.

Squeek:                              Read the above paragraph
Dan Rowbotham:                Overslept and missed the train.
Olly Green:                         Decided to go home to Bristol.
Charlie & Claire:                 Decided a fry up was much more enjoyable.
Tom:                                  Woke up with a hangover.
Dave:                                  Made up some excuse about revision.
Dom:                                  Didn’t listen to us talking about it.
The Secret Weapon:           It’s a secret so I’m not telling.
Tim:                                    Dossing around in Antics.
Troll:                                   Had to surf the net while at work.
Stephen:                              Lack of cards
Ivan:                                    In Slovakia

Time Spiral Pre-Release - Random Ramblings (cos Squeek kept asking and I got stuck in an all day meeting and had to do something to stay awake)

A slightly hung over Sunday morning, not ideal preparation but it’s the thought that counts. Venue was excellent, free parking outside!

The Deck

Creatures 14

Ashcoat Bear x2
Nantuko Shaman
Blazing blade askari
Two-headed sliver
Havenwood wurm
Barbed Shocker
Scarwood Treefolk
Subterranean Shambler
Basalt Gargoyle
Fury Sliver
Ghostflame Sliver
Glass Asp
Bonesplitter Sliver

Sorceries 7

Grapeshot 2
Tribal Flames 2
Rift Bolt 2
Search for Tomorrow

Artifacts 2

Weatherseed Totem
The Rack

Lands 17

Molten Slagheap
Terramorphic expanse
7 Forest
6 Mountains
2 Swamps

The only sideboard card I used:

Premature Burial

So, red green with a hint of black to have a sliver bear and help with tribal flames and my side boarded removal - never had a problem getting all 3 colours into play in reasonable time, mainly thanks to 2 land search cards.

Why this deck? I like aggro. Especially in limited formats. It has a reasonably good curve although my early plays are mainly the burn which also pushed me towards red - green had the totem, some mana fixing and a couple of fatties.

In hindsight I could well have gone red black as I had even more black removal in sudden death and smallpox and a couple more slivers. Urborg Syphon Mage seems like a really good card in this format as well.

But hey, looks like what I built worked. Oh yes, no rares and only 7? Uncommons.....was a surprise to me. My rares I opened were:

Mage of the candelabra
Teferi
Restore Balance 2 (You need brains to build a deck around these)
Sprite Noble
Swarmyard......
and the timeshifted
Dragonstorm.....
Nicol Bolas...who could have been funny if I could cast him out.

Thoughts on the new mechanics/keywords

Flash - every creature you have with flash becomes a potential combat trick - I had 3, 2 bears and a wurm, all of which appeared out of nowhere to kill an attacking creature - watch out for opponents with open mana and cards in hand in your own turn!

Suspend - it's interesting but the only time I made use of it was when I was lucky enough to get a first turn search for tomorrow - didn't get it used against me much either although watching the counters come off a durkwood boars is a little depressing.

Split Second - I didn't use any cards with this ability and didn't have any instants with which to respond anyway! But being able to use and uncounterable shock on a creature with a good ability is always good especially when they can't use the ability.

Oh and on the old mechanics remember that flanking always works when the creature is attacking....a couple of opponents got caught out by that one.

Can't remember too much about the games I played - went 2-0, 2-0, 2-1, 2-0, id. The burn won most of the games - I did feel a little guity about playing tribal flames for 3, then rift bolt then grapeshot to win one game. The other good cards were the totem - very difficult to remove, the shocker which can be a way of decking your opponent (unless he's put in a few madness cards) and of course The Rack.

Also my 4th round opponent got coloured screwed in both games I think I only saw 3 or 4 of his creatures. First top 4 match was close, think it was 2-1 and I lost the first game, opponent had griffin guide which was a little disturbing.

Finals match was the same, lost the first game then won the second 2 - this was the first round the entire day I won the toss to play first as well.

Anyway, was a good day with good company would have enjoyed myself whatever the result.

Cheers Squeek, thanks for another great event.

By the way, I'm getting old so remembering names just doesn't happen.