Monday Magic #18

With new and improved employment secured on Saturday it was going to be considered a good weekend regardless. Was it topped off with a crushing 3 nil draft win?
No it was not, I think I had a good deck, but a combination of it not cooperating and some awful play on my behalf meant I went 1-2.

Annalise popped in prior to draft which is always nice and I picked up a Myr Battle Sphere for my cube. We finally got to meet Felipe as he managed to wrangle some free time on a Sunday so the spirits were warmer than the weather which was friggin awful.

I won the first round even though I drew my deck in all the wrong order thanks to multiple fireball effects. In round 2 I lost the decider through a  combination of bad play and a lack of lands. Later I kicked myself over some pretty awful side boarding. I purposely took Tears of Valakut and Aligned Hedron Network as great sideboard options over low end playables and then didn't bring them in for a match up they would have been great in. On board mistakes as well as spell order mistakes were disappointing. I haven't played that bad in a while.
No explanation for it but I just wasn't feeling "on". Round 3 were two non games with a mull to five and a mull to six which should have been five. The matchup wasn't that great to begin with. This really stood out as an abnormal amount of bad luck  for me because my % of non games (on my side) feels so low overall. It happens. If I had of won the second round I wouldn't have even had to play the last round as there would have been a split. So in a way that bad luck could have been avoided by me not punting the second round.
It's totally illogical to think like this but I guess it's a plus to use up the bad luck when I am playing badly anyway.

Next week the shop looks to be hosting a W50,000 original Zendikar draft. I plan on passing on that so a break will probably be good and allow me to come back more keen and focussed. So far only 4 have signed up and the person bringing the box wants a guaranteed 8. The Korean players don't seem interested as at W50,000 it's not good value if you are looking for cards and you are really paying for the experience. The kind of decks that I remember drafting in Zendikar were mainly very quick beat down decks or blue based control decks (that double bounce spell comes to mind). Nothing really special that I need to relive and I think MTGO represents better value for flashback drafts than the high price of real life boxes.
I am still enjoying Oath of the Gatewatch drafts so if that is the format I probably will make it out there.

Magic Monday #17 How does my Dictate

Pro tour Oath is in the books and the decision to ban Splinter Twin looks a bit silly. My super secret Faeries tech of Dictate of Erebos for the new post twin meta looks ridiculous now.
I don't feel upset about recent events as my over riding feelings are relief at getting out of Modern. I am not keeping up with that shit show.

From a spectators point of view it's been a while since we have seen pros actually "break" a format, it was kind of exciting. Eldrazi Mimic of all cards. None of the armchair finance experts predicted it and the secondary market went bananas as a result. I really enjoyed watching it up until LSV got knocked out in the semi finals. Nothing against the deck but the players left were quite methodical (polite for slow) so it was time to grab some sleep.

It will be interesting how this all plays out at the next bunch of GP's and right now I am enjoying all the previously bulk Eldrazi rares in my binder getting a massive boost. I also found a foil Eldrazi Sky Spawner I had stored in a box of otherwise bulk. Nice.

This has added a little bit more spice to our Oath of the Gatewatch drafts. I am enjoying the format but opening valuable cards is a lot of the attraction for most people and thrilling for everyone but those with the coldest of hearts. I am on a bit of a run of getting decent cards in either the draft or my prize packs. This week I took home the big boy Kozilek to go with my Kozileks Return from last week. Flavour win.

I drafter a red blue deck this week but didn't really go in for any surge shenanigans, instead focussing on value. My biggest mistake was thinking I was the beat down because I picked up cheap goblins pack one. It turned out I was instead the deck with inevitability and after losing round 1 I won the next two fairly easily. Much the same story as last week though that time I was playing green red.To be honest I really enjoy red in this (and most) formats so I was happy to get a first pick Fall of the Titans and not have to pretend I am not drafting red.

I also got to draft my cube last weekend. I judge it a success as people couldn't stop talking about their decks, what they drafted and what they wanted to draft. Powered cube is great in small doses and it had been a while. I skipped the trip to Kindle the other foreigners were going on. With most of my valuable cards sold my main motivation for going was gone. Playing two headed giant sealed sounded fun but it's just so far away.
I do want to get there again though, if just to approach Min Yeong about writing articles, proper ones like I wrote for Paper-Gamer not the rants I put here, for his new website. My contract runs out at the end of this month and a new one isn't secured so the next few weeks are full on and not the best time to start making more promises but once things settle down I want to take a crack at trying to be the "Korean Magic coverage guy".

Pay to Play: Not much to report, my Magic coffers are overflowing after selling out of modern and I haven't been tempted to spend on anything more than our weekly draft.

Magic Monday #16

Mission accomplished in regards to trimming down my collection. I sold pretty much all my Modern cards that weren't in my Faeries deck and some that were (bye bye 1 mana discard spells).
I sold it all for 65% of the Card kingdom value which I felt was pretty fair and am still happy with. I was previously aiming for 70 - 75% but one person offered to buy the entire binder and I was saved a trip to Seoul so I think giving a discount was fair enough.

I am not sure what he plans to do with the cards, I expect him to turn it over for a profit or it may form part of the stock when the Suwon store finally launches singles. Collected Company spiked the next day so hopefully he will do well out of the transaction. He is better connected to the Korean Magic community, I consider him a friend and the timing was fantastic for me and my family so I genuinely want this to be a win win transaction. I am in that sticky part of the year where I only have one month of my contract left and new employment hasn't been locked in yet. This deal was a couple weeks worth of wages for me so a nice breather.

My binder now looks really barren and it's questionable if it is worth taking at all. It's at the point where it's time to add expensive uncommons like Young Pyromancer and Gitaxian Probe to fill it out. I kind of suspect those may move quicker anyway.

I am really enjoying the new set even though I am kind of struggling with it. Not  results wise (2-1 each time) but it's just hard. So much going on but aggro is much better than it was in triple Battle so I am happier. I wouldn't touch an ally with a 40ft barge pole before but I have taken my fair share this time. I even drafted green and didn't want to shoot myself.

Monday Morning Magic #15 Coldsnap

Over winter I switch to a morning schedule with zero extra time in the office. Now that I am back in my very very cold office I feel like typing something if just to check that my fingers still have feeling in them.

Thanks to selling some Puca points I have nearly $100 credit in the theoretical bank that is my Magic allowance despite breaking down and buying a card for my cube (Treachery for $13). I think the $2 a day series is flawed because I already have a pretty big collection that I could use to pay for Magic for the next couple of years.

The recent Splinter Twin ban and my own situation (raising a kid with autism is expensive) have me looking at my collection in a different light. I love my cube, it's good to have a couple of EDH decks but what about Modern and Legacy. In Legacy I have the one dredge deck that I never get to play but have some weird compulsion to keep. Perhaps selling that only as a lot makes sense and not parting with the cards otherwise.

As for Modern, sigh. I only had the Splinter Twin deck together for a short time before it got hit with the ban hammer but I had fallen in love. Play style wise it felt very much like my favourite deck Faeries and with it's parting I'm a lot sourer on Modern. I am siding with keeping Faeries and selling the rest but what about that one Modern WMCQ a year I keep threatening to play in, don't I want a competitive deck for that?
Just typing that out has answered it for me. I don't need a great Modern deck. I only have time for draft and keeping all these extra modern staples is not necessary.

I plan to head to Kindle shop soon to really lighten my collection and restart the $2 a day challenge at $1 a day without a huge bank of spare cards backing me up. I have also enjoyed not taking my binder to events lately and taking the subway without a back pack. I do feel like I am giving up value if I leave my binder behind though, all those standard cards pulled from draft just sitting there. Off loading all the playables will be a load of my mind, an early spring cleaning if you will. The space my collection takes up seems to keep growing with each set so it's not far off the mark.

Magic wise I am enjoying the new set and Duels of the Planeswalkers (especially with the improvements to quests).

Monday Morning Magic #14 - It's fucking Chaos

With the improving weather I nearly broke my resolution to stay away from any BFZ drafts this December. It got up to 7 degrees on Saturday. That's nearly not freezing!
The weather is expected to go bad again by next weekend but I will make it out as a chaos draft is on the schedule. I really enjoyed the last one.

Not everyone is enthralled, one guy who I haven't met asked some questions about price and such. When told it was free but you didn't get to keep the cards he gave a passive aggressive reply about "if I can't keep the cards, I'm out". I think he is new to Korea so maybe he thinks Chaos drafts are on tap here. I will give him the benefit of the doubt that he is new to Magic overall because I haven't ever seen a decent chaos draft that didn't involve one individual hosting.
Packs from different sets don't cost the same, players have different goals and budgets. If you set an average price the guy opening Battle For Zendiker feels ripped off and if you let people choose then you end up with 9 Khans of Tarkir packs because some people are chasing fetchlands.
It heavily skews the actual drafting as well if you are worried about card values.
I'm a fan of keep what you draft as well but it just doesn't work with so many variables.

I nearly skipped the last one because I expected a ton of whining about the value of what was drafted as the host was very value obsessed. Thankfully some decent stuff was opened early to placate him and he didn't get too miserable though he did ask me to concede because he organised "all this". I said no and that was the end of it. I had to be pushed to sign up because I feared shit like that.
This time the host is much cooler about things like that. He is rather spikey though hates ID's so we might get some weird rules in regards to prizes but that's not stuff that hurts my enjoyment much. If we are lucky he ends on the wrong half of it and appreciates why I like the based on wins and flatter prize structures where tie breakers don't decide who gets 4 packs and who gets none. 

Actual Magic played this week was confined to Duels of the Planeswalkers. The new Battle For Zendikar update started promising and was generous with it's quest rewards. I finally started getting the first win for the day bonus 20 coins. It made playing for half an hour and getting at least a pack pretty easy. No more of those deck wizard archetype quests which felt like a chore as you can complete all the quests playing your own decks.
The payouts seem to have all blown up though and what you are promised and what you get are now all over the place as it seems full of bugs. Disappointing.

Pay to Play: Magic on $2 a day

No real Magic this week means the kitty has grown. Not really though because it's Christmas and there are lot's of things competing for my money. My work contract runs out in February so until new employment is secured I feel poor. Around March when I receive my bonus and have started on my new contract is when I feel like a king and can actually take advantage of any excess in the kitty.

Current Position: $52.70

Monday Morning Magic #13 - Unlucky for some

Outside is too cold and the subway too hot. I drafted Black White and perhaps forced it as the player to the right was also Black White and to my left was a blue black drafter. In his case he had a couple of mythic opens in Drana and Sire of Stagnation which kept him in black.

My deck didn't have over riding synergy, it was a mess of beat down, defence, processing and requiring life gain. I had a lot of removal and this week I drew it and ground out a 3-0 result. I didn't solve the format, just got very lucky. I have had better decks go 1-2 in this format.

I think I am done with battle for Zendikar. Such synergy driven decks have a limited life span to me as they feel they either work or they don't. You don't only have to draw a good mixture of creatures, spells and lands but the order you draw them also matters. 
The actual drafting part is fun, a lot going on and trying to sculpt a deck to combat those problems is a great challenge. Actually playing can be frustrating though as you don't get the results you feel your deck deserves. Hey sometimes you get to 3-0 with a pile haha.

The combination of the cold and my lack of enthusiasm for drafting this set any more means I can't see myself playing again this December. I braved the Ice and such for Khan's of Tarkir because it was a fantastic set. Battle for Zendikar, you get a pass, you were different, you were creative but just a little bit under done.

I am hoping Oath of the Greatwatch fixes things. I still haven't opened a Drana for my cube but at this point I think I will just spend Puca points for her. It's not like those points are doing anything anyway as my wants list of Modern and Cube wants sits unfulfilled for months now. The Puca point deflation has hurt the economy and the roll out of new features will be make or break for me. If it doesn't revive the economy and I start receiving cards again I will walk away from the site. 

Pay to Play: Magic on $2 a day

The usual $16 for draft means I'm down $2 but If I don't play much in December it hardly matters. 

Current Position: $40.70

Cookie

Located near Gunja station this store was started by an ex Kindle employee and is pretty close to Kindle shop itself. 
Their business hours are 11:00 to 24:00.

Address : Seoul, Gwangjin-gu, Gunja-dong, 473-17 3F

https://goo.gl/maps/g5njr6r9Xnx

Number : 070 - 8692 - 5218

They have seats for 60 players and sell singles.

One of my friends has already visited and given it the thumbs up. I do approve of advertising your store with a neon sign. This trend of actually being a store a normal person could find started with the new Kindle shop and it seems Cookie has taken it to the next level. 

What's next? Street level premises? A website that matches the stores name? Where will it end?