Our hero has been slain

After going undefeated in the two M14 drafts I did the false economy has crashed and I got hit with a big Theros hammer of reality.

I drafted a pretty solid red blue deck that played hard but fair. Unfortunately both the player to my left and to my right were also in blue which didn't seem to effect pack one and two but I really felt the pinch in pack 3. 
I did well in red for the first pack getting a third pick Hammer of Purphoros from a guy (2nd to the right) who eventually drafted red white and cut
me in pack 3.

My deck was fairly good, good enough to get there with a bit of luck but would have been much stronger with just a few more early turn drops. Not bombs but say a couple of Vaporkins and another Nimbus Naiad and we would have been away. This is where being in the blue corner of the draft really hurt because pack 3 was barren with only 3 or 4 playables arriving.

As it played out unless I continuously hit my land drops then the decks featuring big green creatures didn't have to worry about their life total before they were dropping giant guys. Big green monsters proved my nemesis, what me being mortal and all.

Mistcutter Hydra hitting the board when I had 2 blue creatures on the field and 3 blue cards in hand was also saddish times. I ended up 1-2 but had fun overall and I think I learnt a bit about the format and how important those pressurizing early plays are to compliment those medium range dudes that can get scary (the big blue flyers and red monstrosity guys). 

Places to play - Kindle

EDIT: This store is permanently closed.

How to get there:
Use exit one from the subway and then turn right. You will walk past a Burger King which is set up to show them making your burger for you.

My experience:
This along with DiveDice is the main shop for foreigners now that OZ is leaving the scene. At the moment their are English drafts scheduled for 2:00 pm. 

It is very close to the Konkuk University subway stop on the light (and dark) green subway line.  I can't remember but I think the on board Korean subway system calls it something different. I am sorry I cant recall what it was.

Kindle is located on the 5th floor of the Pizza Hut building further along that main road. 

It's a very spacious and clean looking shop but is also very popular so for big events it can get pretty full.

There was a heated falling out between the Manager and a group of foreigners though and some have decided to boycott this store.

Contact Details

Phone number: 010-4588-7548

Email address: kminjjan@hanmail.net

Korean Street address: 서울시 광진구 화양동 49-18 번지 동흥빌딩 5층

Korean - Theros

Theros keywords:

Heroic 영웅

Bestow 권능

Monstrosity 괴수화

Scry 점술

I also think you need to look for "Enchantment creature" so you know what creatures on the board you can kill with your various disenchants (which seem super powerful to me).

Enchantment creature 부여마법 생물

부여마법 = Enchantment

생물 = creature

Korean - Keywords

For creatures:

Flying  비행

Reach 대공

Trample 돌진

First strike 선제공격

Double strike 이단공격

Intimidate 위험

Hexproof 방호

Haste 신속

Flash 섬광

Lifelink 생명연결

Deathtouch 지명타

Defender 수비태세

Vigilance 경계

For spells:

Sorcery 집중마법

Instant 순간마법

Korean - The colours

This entry is a very basic 10 words (the suggested amount of new vocabulary for one lesson). 

White 백색

Plains 들

Blue 청색

Island 섬

Black 흑색

Swamp 늪

Red 적색

Mountain 산

Green 녹색

Forest 숲


Before they started printing Korean cards again plains were often called 평원.

Horizon Scholar

I have got by fairly well with very little to zero Korean so far in magic tournaments. Just like back home Magic players in Korea are above average people :)

All the players I have played (especially) the older ones have much better English than most of the populace. For a long time English cards were the only ones available and still to this day if you are really passionate about magic there is a lot more content out there in English than Korean.

I have also heard the Korean translations are not always that clear so being bi lingual is definitely an advantage.

I have enjoyed M14 draft because it’s simple and contains a lot of reprints or one line cards. Full Return to Ravnica block draft was very stressful though especially as I had not kept up with the cards.

I think I could probably draft Theros ok as a single set draft but once the second set comes out relying on memorizing the pictures with what the cards do starts to look a bit beyond my capabilities. I should probably be using that mental energy on something more productive like learning Korean or remembering my student’s names.

So I am going to start studying and hopefully learning the basic phrases. Thankfully even the most complex cards are still written in simplified Korean and they don’t bust out the Chinese characters like they do with High School name tags.

I don’t think I will reach further than the basic keywords though just because some of the more complicated cards are hard enough to understand in English.

Ramble completed the next lot of posts will be basic magic vocabulary as written in Korean.

Charming

Last Friday I broke the drought that goes back to April 2009 since I last played an FNM.

An M14 Korean Draft where I was passed a 4th pick Howl of the Night pack which inspired me to try the base green deck Brian Wong talked about on the Limited Resources podcast.

You basically try and draft mono green with small splashes for removal and using Lay of the Land in land spots. The aim being to have around 14 forests in your deck.

I fell short of that and had to play a decent amount of red (including creatures) plus a splash of black and about 11 forests. I had a minor sliver theme with 4 of them and had one game where they all came out fairly early which was a savage beating.

I won the first two and ID'd the final round to add a Dimir Charm to my FNM card collection.

On that collection I am very tempted to break it up because FNM Brainstorm and Remand buylist for $25 and $15 respectively.