New Dalmuti location, a closer look

Last weekend was the first chance to play at the new Dalmuti's location in Suwon.
It's smaller and the security guard on the bottom floor seemed to enjoy sending people away and telling them the store was located in another building. After getting out of the elevator on the fourth floor it requires traversing a dimly lit maze until you find the front door.

It doesn't take many Magic players until the place feels pretty comfortable with a nice vibe, especially since the store is now 100% Magic. The store is now only running on the weekends except for special events.

Last weekend we had a full pod of 8 but there was a lack of English boosters (something which will be remedied by this Sunday) for Khans of Tarkir. They did have Conspiracy though and we jumped into playing that. Before the draft started I probably would have preferred Korean Khans of Tarkir as I love the format and know the cards fairly well. About 3 picks into Conspiracy I remembered that I loved it (enough to build a cube around it) and had assembled a combo of World Knit and Cogwork Grinder. I had perfect mana and an 18/18 six drop in my deck. 

Sealed Conspiracy is a lot cheaper than regular sets but has quite decent value inside. I think a decent amount of players enjoy it but others want nothing to do with it. So while semi popular I think play groups and stores have a hard time finding the critical mass of players to draft it. We are lucky in Suwon to have a lot of regular drafters who like to have fun rather than dream of winning the pro tour.
There was a lot of value opened, including Eunjae getting a Dack Fayden.
Being an old man,  I get a thrill from opening sealed packs with Brainstorm and Swords to Plowshares in them but my favourite take away from the draft was a foil Squirrel Nest.

That draft was followed up by drafting Dan Leonard's cube and the store provided free prizes. It was a lot of fun and I got to play Stoneforge Mystic fetching Batterskull on turn 2 as well as flickering my creature with the Planeswalker Venser before casting Wrath of God. Good times, even when losing to a brutal five colour control deck in round two.

To try and top those shenanigans the cube will be back for a 6:00 pm draft this week, but the main event will be backdraft. That is where you try and draft the worst deck you can and then it is given to someone else. You then get passed a pool that someone else has drafted and try but usually fail to build something resembling a deck. You score points based on your wins and when whoever got the pool you drafted loses. As well as the usual boosters and pride on the line the store is also giving away Garruk's Nerf Axe and some wall sized posters.
         

Dalmuti's Suwon

Dalmuti's in Suwon has changed location.
The new store is now fully focussed on Magic and the location looks more convenient, especially for those who enjoy Belgian fries.

There is an English draft of the latest set every Sunday at 1:00 pm.

For information on additional events you can check out the MTG in Suwon facebook page (www.facebook.com/groups/303915966473798/).

Korean address: 경기도 수원시 팔달구 매산로1가 골든프라자 401호

Thanks to local legends Annalise and Dan we have these excellent instructions on how to find the new store.

Soju Alley

You keep going through the heavily populated part of Soju Alley. You have to press on past this intersection.

The building. Golden Palace. 

Dalmutis in Suwon - Magic Extravaganza

The future of Dalmutis in Suwon is up in the air. The current store has been understocked for quite some time and the lease will not be renewed. There is talk of a new and smaller location but nothing has been found yet. There is a good chance that a new location won't be found and Suwon will be left without a Magic shop.

With the shop closing "some time this month", local players are treating this weekend as the fare well party.

On Saturday, players from Seoul will be travelling down for games of EDH starting at 1:00 pm. Bring your EDH deck if you want to participate in a mix of free for all, two headed giant and kingdoms. The store does have a few commander 2015 decks in stock if you need one. It's also very easy to borrow an EDH deck as most players will be bringing multiples. In the evening more EDH as well as a cube draft look to be on the agenda.
There is also an SCG event where you can win pins and tokens pencilled in for around 3:00 pm. The format will be modern.




On Sunday there will be a sanctioned draft using English Khans of Tarkir cards starting at 1:00pm. This will be followed by a retro grab bag draft using an assortment of old packs. I am super excited for the retro grab bag but the whole weekend should be a lot of fun.

I would not be surprised if a back draft happens some time that weekend as well. 

1 year of English drafting

Last weekend marked the one year anniversary of Suwon's weekly English draft. We had 13 players, unlucky for some but not me. I opened a fetchland and went 3-0.
I took a Chief of the Edge pack one pick one hoping to finally try the black white warriors deck or even Mardu. It didn't work out that way though and I ended up in Jeskai after taking a Sage of the Inward Eye around 5th pick.


All 3 rounds were great matches, and this is definitely one of the best limited formats of all time.One of the new players to the draft, got to live the dream and drafted 5 colours while casting Villainous Wealth.

My prize boosters contained a total value of about $2.85 which was a lot better than last weeks 3 packs which were worth about $1.59. Meanwhile one player was excited to open what he thought was a foil Bloodstained Mire. After calming down, closer inspection revealed it to actually be a Bloodfell Caves. In an instant exhilaration became apathy. Solemnly his remaining prize pack was opened and apathy became exhilaration, this time a real Bloodstained Mire was present in addition to a foil Sarkhen!

Pre Release Time

This weekend is the Khans of Tarkir (called just Khans forever more) pre release.

I have the schedule for the following stores who all should have some number of English packs.

Rolling Dice Hongdae
Advised to pre register on Facebook (MTG Seoul
Friday 
Midnight Prerelease of Khans of Tarkir(1)

Sat

1:00 Prerelease of Khans of Tarkir(2)
6:00 Prerelease of Khans of Tarkir(3)

Sun

1:00 Prerelease of Khans of Tarkir(4)
6:00 Prerelease of Khans of Tarkir(5)

Kindle
Friday 
Midnight Prerelease of Khans of Tarkir(1)

Sat

1:00 Prerelease of Khans of Tarkir(2)
6:00 Prerelease of Khans of Tarkir(3)

Sun

1:00 Prerelease of Khans of Tarkir(4)
6:00 Prerelease of Khans of Tarkir(5)

Dalmuti's Suwon
No pre registration available
Friday 
Midnight Prerelease of Khans of Tarkir(1)

Sat

2:00 Prerelease of Khans of Tarkir(2)
7:00 Prerelease of Khans of Tarkir(3)

Sun

2:00 Prerelease of Khans of Tarkir(4)
7:00 Prerelease of Khans of Tarkir(5)

Sealed is W32,000 everywhere as far as I know.

One final Conspiracy

Dalmuti's in Suwon will be hosting their last conspiracy draft for some time this Sunday.
The week after that M15 season kicks off with the full spoiler due today.

I have been having a hoot playing conspiracy as there is a lot going on and many different strategies and combos you can try and put together. Feels like you can really go deep when compared to Theros block.

It's not for everyone though because it's multiplayer and more social. If that's not your bag you are not going to enjoy it. If playing magic while drinking beer is your idea of a good time then don't miss it.


I haven't been playing Hearthstone as much recently. I am waiting for the expansion to hit because after hitting the 12 win mark in Arena there doesn't feel like there is much more to accomplish as a FTP (free to play) player right now. Constructed is not bad but I don't have the time or the passion to grind to be ranked Legend.
I still think it's a fantastic game though.

Back from Down Under

Back from my January hiatus I showed up to Dalmuti's Born of the Gods pre release. A lot of people are down on the set but I think they are forgetting that this is what small sets are like.
They can't hit all the bases and with temples, gods and a couple of white cards I think it is stronger than a lot of past small sets.

Dalmuti now has a cube which is drafted regularly. You can check it out at http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/6673 if you are interested.
Dan is very keen to improve it and has been putting a lot of work into it so it is getting stronger every week.

After playing it the fire to finish my own cube was reignited and I settled on a format. Going to try and make the cube as powerful as possible while trying for a nostalgia kick.
I added a lot of cards from my first set (Revised/3rd Edition) which might turn some off with their white borders but make me feel warm and fuzzy.

Thanksgiving is over!

After a one week break for Thanksgiving the English card draft is back.

2:00pm every Sunday at Dalmuti in Suwon, ₩18,000 per player.

Last time there were 13 players and the events are officially sanctioned.

This week there is a back draft planned for after the regular draft which should start at about 6:00 pm.

English draft at Dalmuti

Every Sunday at 2:00pm Dalmuti will be hosting a draft with English cards.

If you don't already know how to get there it is located near Suwon Station. There are express buses and trains available to the station. Once there (http://theangryhermit.blogspot.kr/2013/01/how-to-get-to-dalmonte-suwon.html)

The cost of the draft is ₩18,000 which includes prizes and the events are sanctioned.

The atmosphere is very relaxed and if you want to play EDH a lot of the drafters are into that format too.

Booom

I'm feeling better about Thero's draft now. 
Getting the right mix on your mana curve is very important and it has a slightly different feel. There is no particular slot where you must stack with cards but you need to be playing your mana and using it every turn. 
My deck the week before had some great cards and hit hard in the fith and sixth spot (2 Horizon Scholars, 2 Sea God's Revenge and 3 Prescient Chimera) but losing the mana race against the green decks was the end of me.

This week I drafted a blue black deck that turned out quite solid despite my neigbours again fighting with me over blue. And the player to the left drafted blue black as well.
I won the first and third rounds 2 nil but lost the second round 2-1. The deck felt great because it always felt like my 5th or 6th drop was pushing me over the edge rather than evening up the game. There were a couple of games where my opponent thought we were racing until I played a Grey Merchant or two to show otherwise (insert evil laugh).

In the final game of the round I lost I came off second best against a Bow of Nylea which felt like playing against Umezawa's Jitte, in that as long as he had creatures it was sad times. I eventually killed all his creatures which gave me a window of about 3 turns to either kill him or put him on the defensive.
Despite having a Prescient Chimera and a Carven Lampad in play to his nothing but the bow I still couldn't do enough (thanks to the bow switching from combat nightmare mode to life gain mode) to worry him before he drew some very good fat. 

I'm not sure if the bow is good enough for constructed but a lot of the time cards that are that good in limited eventually get there. 

2-1 and a couple of packs as prizes felt good. Opening and drafting Espleth (third pack over a Lash of the Whip) was sweet icing on top.

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). 

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. 

Back on the Wagon

After a pretty tiring search with long trips to Seoul, Dalmuti has become my Local Game Store (LGS). 

99% because of its proximity and 1% due to the fantastic customer service. Fantastic customer service isn't really a decisive factor because all the Korean shops I have been to have been awesome compared to what I was used to back in Australia.

I played in Return to Ravnica block draft which was pretty mind bending. We used Korean cards and it was the first time I had played with Gate Crash or Dragons Maze. I was allowed to use my smart phone to look at the spoiler but I didn't want to hold up the draft by reading what every card in the pack did.

Quite a few picks were made blind but I ended up with a reasonable enough deck. I went 1-2 in matches but was able to put up a decent fight in every game.

I will have to study up between now and Friday when I plan to play in the FNM booster draft.

Modern Masters

Modern Masters came and went in a flash which was a huge shame.

This was the most fun I have had playing Magic in Korea and unfortunately Dalmuti only had enough stock for one event.

The event started at Midnight and because of the numbers and the level of stock they had just enough to run it as sealed rather than draft but with Ravnica block prizes. This was decided by a player vote which has been fairly common in my experience with event schedules very "fluid".

I think the change was unanimously agreed on because everyone wanted more product.

The set was great and I absolutely loved it because it drew cards from the sets I was most familiar with from the time I was most into competitive magic. I loved the nostalgia kick and also have a great fondness for Timespiral for the same reason.

As all the cards were in English and were reprints I didn't find it very taxing to play (in contrast to drafting full block Ravnica for the first time with cards all in Korean) despite being very rusty.  I was the only foreign player but Dalmuti draws a fairly older crowd and at this event I think all the players were older than 24 and had played Magic for a while. These are players that were playing pre Innistrad block when there weren't Korean cards and so everyone has pretty decent English.

I ended up only going 2-2 even though I felt my deck was broken. As it turned out everyone's deck was super powerful and capable of doing some amazing and very fun things.

I am looking forward to Modern Masters 2 and shame on Wizards for not printing more.

A new store called Dalmuti in Suwon

Magic players in Seoul have a lot of options for places to play but for those of us living South of the city we were always in for a long commute.

There is apparently a playgroup at the American Army base and somewhere in Suwon a board game café….. but I never encountered any advertising for their events, if they existed at all.

That has all changed with the Christmas day opening of Dalmuti 달무티. They seem to have a full on magic schedule and have a great location (close to Suwon Subway Station).

Decoration wise it's pretty sparse but they have been open for just a few days.

I haven’t been there yet but it’s more than likely the next entry in this blog will be my impressions of that store.

Update:
More directions: http://theangryhermit.blogspot.kr/2013/01/how-to-get-to-dalmonte-suwon.html
It also is fully furnished now and looks good.