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. 

MTG Clue

I just wanted to share the name of this blog. 

MTG Clue - http://mtgclue.wordpress.com/

It looks like it will be discontinued as the author has now left Korea it is still a great resource for now.

I think his guide on how to get to various Magic shops is better than the ones on the Seoul Players facebook page. His liberal use of photos is appreciated.

OZ in Gangnam

This store is apparently moving and will no longer be stocking Magic the Gathering.

Bye Bye OZ

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.

How to get to the OLD Dalmuti Suwon

EDIT: This is the old location for Dalmuti. Their now location is at (http://theangryhermit.blogspot.kr/2014/12/dalmutis-suwon.html)

I thought I would follow up the previous post about Dalmuti in Suwon with some more information now that I have actually been there. I didn't have time to play but I was impressed. 

It's opposite the station (across the road from the Subway station) near one of the large bus stops. The most recognisable chain chops are the nearby Paris Baguette and Baskin Robbins. The store is located about 150m or so down the laneway that runs next to the Baskin Robbins.

The first picture is the map from their website. I think it gives a good idea of where their store actually is but that is not the actual route I would suggest taking. Exit 4 puts you on the wrong side of the road. I normally head towards exits 1,2 +3 but then take a gate (on the left) up the stairs straight to Baskin and Robbins. That is the quickest route but very hard to describe in words and only applicable if you took the subway.

If you took the bus or train then you are best of just using the map as a location reference rather than a route. Look for the Baskin robbins franchise on the opposite side of the main road from AK plaza.

Go down the alley way that runs alongside Baskin Robbins for a bout 100 - 150m and look for the green white Dalmuti sign on the right (picture 3). 

At street level it's easier to look for the Noori Zone sign (picture 2) as it's bigger and more garish.

This is where it got tricky because the shop is on level two and there is no direct access from the street.

Walk in to what looks like the entrance for Norae Zone (picture 2) but rather than go inside Norae Zone take a right turn right near the entry door (picture 5). 

Go through that door even though it's marked "no admittance" and head on up using the stairs or the lift.