Into the great unknown

I have passed the six month mark living in Korea and with the everything is new effect well and truly worn off, an old passion is emerging.  I really want to fire up the D20's and play some Magic.

Five developments in the world of Magic seem to have come together at just the right time to get me interested again.

The first was Grand Prix Shanghai which I was interested in going to, mainly because it seemed a good excuse to go to China rather than any urge to play Magic. In the end it was going to be a bit of a hassle and expense getting a Chinese visa while I was in the middle of upgrading my Korean one so I missed out. It did get me thinking of potential the Grand Prix events I could go to in Asia. The next one in Japan is Standard (ruled out as I have no cards) but Malaysia in 2012 seems interesting.

Then Aaron Nicol my old 2HG partner won Australian Nationals. Aaron is much better than me now but it’s still inspiring from a competitive point of view. If the little kid (well 5 years ago he was) from Brisbane can do it then so can you…but not me as I am too old and busy.

The third and probably biggest was Wizards announcing that they would start making Korean cards again (http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/782). My working week consists of getting up early to go to work, coming home and playing with junior, bit of exercise and then allocated time for studying Korean (which I skillfully avoid doing). This looks like a really fun way to pick up a little bit of Korean….in theory anyway.

Self improvement that’s fun, sign me up.

The fourth was a big change for Magic organized play. The ELO system has been scrapped in favor of a play more/win more system called Planeswalker Points. With a rating that would qualify me for Korean nationals and GP byes but with little chance to play regularly I would appear a big loser from this change. What it does do though is allow me to play as there is no disincentive not to. My rating is now pretty much irrelevant as I will likely never benefit from it again but in a practical sense I never benefited from the old system anyway.

I had qualified for Australian nationals 3 times, 2 of those I had qualified through Regional’s anyway and the third (on rating only). I actually never got to go to Australian nationals but that’s a long story.

When Grand Prix Brisbane came around I won a GP trial entitling me to 3 Byes which was more than what my then highest ever limited rating could give me.

So in 4 years of competitive magic I never benefited from my ELO rating but avoided playing in some tournaments or using decks that were fun but sub par because of it. It was foolish to play in tournaments unless you gave yourself a good chance of winning it and were adequately prepared. The new change is quite liberating as I have nothing to lose by playing and can fling some cards whenever I feel like it without feeling like I am costing myself a GP bye or a nationals invite.

And lastly, the new set looks cool. I didn’t like Mirrodin the first time around and didn’t appreciate the sequel either. Linear mechanics that don’t play as well with other cards don’t do it for me and with both an artifact and infect theme Scars was full of it. Lorwyn block was also like this but I was lucky enough to find a couple of decks I enjoyed in constructed. I hated Lorwyn limited though and it was the end of the competitive dream for me.

Innistad is full of vampires, werewolves, zombies and flavor. That by itself wouldn’t lure me in but I love the werewolf mechanic and am glad to see flashback return in force. Good mechanics and decent flavor make me think it’s a winner and I hope Wizards don’t bugger it up by diverging from that to much with the third set in the block like they did with Saviors of Kamigawa (No more Ninjas!, FU Wizards!).

So now it’s time to find some cards and a place to play!

* Image borrowed/stolen from the following blog (http://blogs.koreanclass101.com/blog/2009/12/01/the-foreigner-card-pros-and-cons-of-using-it-in-korea/).