No news is good news

I haven't posted in a while due to a change in work schedule not leaving me spare time in front of a desktop computer. When I sit down in my office it's a flurry of typing and printing.
The lack of writing isn't a result of a lack of Magic news, plenty of things have happened and of the top of my head all of them are positive.

Attendance and atmosphere at the Suwon shop is humming  along nicely. By the end of July I had won 3 Path to Exile Promos as the funk I was in for the last two sets has disappeared and the aggressive tempo orientation of Origins is right up my ally.

I am also turning lands sideways on more than just Sundays thanks to the release of the latest and final Duels of the Planeswalkers. The repetition and regular play even if it's only digital and with pretty precon esque decks has been god for my Magic muscle memory. I'm starting to have visions of maybe putting my toes back into the water of more competitive Magic.

Game day weekend was fairly productive as I received a Languish and 8 boosters in the first event and a Languish and Playmat in the second. I also did well enough in our regular draft to win a Serum Visions.
3 sanctioned events for me in the one weekend is massive, but not something I will get the chance to repeat any time soon.

I have a lot more to write about, but lack the time unfortunately.

This week in Magic #3

The MERS givath (I got a two week vacation) and the MERS taketh (http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/regional-pro-tour-qualifier-changes-south-korea-and-china-2015-06-22)
I guess you have to take the good with the bad, not that this really had any affect on me as I am not qualified. Still it was disappointing to see the game I love fall for Fox news style panic that is sweeping China where I am sure the complaints came from.

I didn't do any Puca trade sending while on my break and since coming back I haven't felt like getting back into it either. I have points in the bank and while some cards are easy to get, others seem to have a much longer wait. I am in no rush to get more points if I can't use them to get the cards I really want. I have been waiting a couple of weeks but no one wants to send me a Vendillion Clique.

It is great for casual, standard and cube cards but some competitive Modern cards can be tough. Fair enough but the last two Modern GP's were fantastic events and I am pretty much all in on the Modern format now.
I guess there are still a lot of cube cards I need so I should snap myself out of my Puca malaise once my upcoming open classes are in the books and I have my spare time back.

The countdown to Holiday Cube has began with an excellent article from Randy Buehler (http://magic.wizards.com/en/MTGO/articles/archive/magic-online/holiday-cube-updates-2015-06-22). The Cube forums on Reddit and MTG Salvation are great but they are kind of inbred in that a lot of the data comes from drafting using cube tutor and not real matches.
It's great to get the pros opinion on cards and thanks to there videos I gained a lot of appreciation for the signets, shrine of burning rage and compulsive research. Cards that seem to be pretty undervalued on MTG Salvation.

This Week in Magic #2

I had a rest from playing last week. It's the summer and there is a lot going on in real life. Lately it had felt like a bit of a duty to attend to make sure the regular English Draft stayed alive. We have lost a couple of really good people who I will miss and they haven't been replaced, meanwhile the number of Korean players in Suwon has really dropped off.
I still enjoyed playing but with a new set that most people were really excited about while I was lukewarm about it felt like an opportune time to take a step back.

This week is Innistrad cube and I am looking forward to it. Last time was a blast and Andrew Carle goes all out in the preparation with a mini coffin used to store the cube.

Kindle which is quickly becoming the premier Magic Shop in Korea has started it's own Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/mtgkindleshop)

In Puca news I am regretting my previous slothenly ways in sending out cards as I sweat the arrival of outgoing Points so I can afford to grab a bunch of Modern Masters cards.

At first I was only going to go after some Remands to replace the ones I sold a few months ago but now I am planning to put together Splinter Twin so need 4 copies of the aforementioned card as well as copies of Vendilion Clique and Cryptic Command.
One copy of Splinter Twin is already on it's way.

I also got to unveil my Cube a couple of weeks ago and had a great time with it. It's a proxied power cube that still has a few gaps in it (Recurring Nightmare and Sylvan Library are the stand outs) but it's more than playable.

Here is a link to the current list (http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/27879).

The colour coding on cube tutor is the purple cards "Maybe" are either new to my cube, cards I am not 100% sure on or cards that I plan to cut for something on my Wants List "Puca Wants" once I have the spare points.

The "Puca Mail" coded cards are already on their way.

Final number should be close to 360 but I don't mind having a little over while I am still in the developing stage. I haven't sully locked in my archetypes and I want to see if some of them work or how popular they are.

For example I have Red Blue as the "Combo" combination with Splinter Twin/Kikki Jikki and Pestermite/Deceiver. Possible rotation to Time Vault/Ral Zarek if people get sick of that. It's something that isn't common in cubes so I can't be sure it will work out. 

This Week In Magic #1

This coming weekend we will be saying goodbye to Khans block with a special draft 1:00pm at Dalmuti's Suwon.

We will be drafting Khans, Fate Reforged and Dragons of Tarkir in a single Rochester draft with a Khans Holiday gift box as the man prize.

Afterwards we will be playing Mystery box at 6:00 pm. I would love to go into more details but it's Mystery box and photos are forbidden.

I really enjoyed the recent episode of Limited Resources. The main topic is about Sealed Deck but there is a very thoughtful conversation about the Prince/Pauper nature of limited now and the flattening of the power level of commons and how that affects limited now.
It's certainly something that hit me recently when seeing Lightning Bolt and Mulldrifter moved to uncommon in Modern Masters 2.

This Week in Korean Magic - December 12th

Dalmuti will be hosting an English card Theros draft at 2:00 pm this Sunday.

The event afterwards will be EDH grand Melee or just EDH free for all. Regardless, just make sure you bring your EDH deck for lots of good times.

A lot of people have just the latest pre cons plus a few cards while I just jammed random blue and black cards together until I got a 100 and it remains completely untested. So don't be shy, get amongst it.

The week after (December 22) will hopefully be a 2HG draft.

This Week in Korean Magic - December 6th

Introducing an all new segment ... that will soon be neglected and die.

This Week in Korean Magic!

I'm not going to pretend this will even scratch the surface of what is going on throughout the peninsula. In fact my initial idea is just to provide info in regards to the next English card draft in Suwon.

Last week at Dalmuti we had a back draft once the regular 2:00 pm Theros draft finished. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it. There are plans to have another one but not straight away.
This week (December the 8th) there will be standard once the 2:00 pm draft is finished.

If you are interested in commander I am sure you can find an opponent pretty much every week from about 6:00 pm (Sunday). Probably earlier as the amount of drafters and non drafting entourage grows each week.

Apparently Dive Dice in Hongdae is changing/changed it's name to Rolling dice.