==ISLANDHOME #41==
December 10th 2008
==IN THIS ISSUE...==
Islandhome on the Web
PTQ Weekend
==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==
Saturday: Shards of Alara Sealed PTQ @ Neutral Ground!
Sunday: Chaos Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 2 PM
I'll be at the PTQ this weekend; see everyone there!
==TOURNAMENT REPORT==
Author: Brian Paskoff
==ISLANDHOME ON THE WEB==
Author: Brian Paskoff
==PTQ WEEKEND==
Author: Brian Paskoff
==EURO LANDS PROMOTION==
Author: Brian Paskoff
After a short break, Islandhome is once again accepting guest articles from our readers!
If you've got an article you'd like to submit, send it to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com. Try to keep it a reasonable length - there's no word limit, but look at previous Islandhome articles for guidance - and avoid bad language and personal insults. Also try to maintain good grammar and spelling; doesn't have to be perfect, but you should see how long it takes me to spellcheck the Madonia Minute every week!
I can't promise every submission will make it into the next week's Islandhome, but I'll try to get as many in as I can, especially ones that are relevant to a previous/upcoming event.
==IN THIS ISSUE...==
Islandhome on the Web
PTQ Weekend
==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==
Saturday: Shards of Alara Sealed PTQ @ Neutral Ground!
Sunday: Chaos Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 2 PM
I'll be at the PTQ this weekend; see everyone there!
==TOURNAMENT REPORT==
Author: Brian Paskoff
Brothers Grim's FNM booster drafts are heating up! We had fourteen players at last week's draft, the largest turnout in quite some time. Michael Innace and Ralph Navarra split in the finals, just managing to edge out some tough competition. Lots of new players have been turning up to play in their first sanctioned Magic events there and fill out a shiny new DCI card, so if you haven't been down for a couple of Fridays, now's the perfect time to come down and meet new players!
FNC's finals were played out, as they very rarely are, and Jon Lorig beat David "The Wurm" Drebsky using a homebrew WB aggro deck that used the power of Nip Gwyllion, Edge of the Divinity, Nightsky Mimic, and Deathbringer Liege. It's quite hard to beat a turn two 4/4 lifelink, or a turn three 7/7 flier! I'll have more on this deck next week.
FNC's finals were played out, as they very rarely are, and Jon Lorig beat David "The Wurm" Drebsky using a homebrew WB aggro deck that used the power of Nip Gwyllion, Edge of the Divinity, Nightsky Mimic, and Deathbringer Liege. It's quite hard to beat a turn two 4/4 lifelink, or a turn three 7/7 flier! I'll have more on this deck next week.
==ISLANDHOME ON THE WEB==
Author: Brian Paskoff
Hello and welcome to another fabulous edition of Islandhome! I have a special announcement this issue; for a long time now (41 weeks, wow! Not counting the old FNC newsletter), Islandhome has just been an email newsletter delivered fresh to you on Wednesday nights. It was great to receive a piping hot fresh-out-of-the-oven newsletter every week, but this also posed some problems. If I made a mistake in something, I'd have to send out an "errata" email, and since it was only once a week, I'd have to send update emails out. And there were countless problems with some of our readers not receiving emails for all sorts of reasons. For the past few weeks, I've been working in semi-secret to bring Islandhome to the web, and it's almost ready for release!
The Islandhome website will have all the regular information you're used to, but it'll be much easier for you to get that information - and there'll be more of it too! There'll be an event calendar, a searchable archive of articles, and ways to talk to other players from the area so you can organize drafts, playtest groups, etc. Next week I hope to have more updates for you
The Islandhome website will have all the regular information you're used to, but it'll be much easier for you to get that information - and there'll be more of it too! There'll be an event calendar, a searchable archive of articles, and ways to talk to other players from the area so you can organize drafts, playtest groups, etc. Next week I hope to have more updates for you
==PTQ WEEKEND==
Author: Brian Paskoff
New York's first (and last) PTQ of this limited season is this Saturday, and it's going to be a blast - almost two hundred players will compete for an invite to Pro Tour Kyoto. This is a sealed deck PTQ, and the last time many players will ever open a tournament pack. After this set, Wizards is discontinuing tournament packs, instead running sealed deck tournaments with three boosters of the last big set replacing that tournament pack. It's not a big change, to tell the truth; a tournament pack is basically three boosters in a box, just with one less common and one more uncommon, plus a bunch of basic land.
If this is your first big limited tournament outside of prereleases, releases, and FNM booster drafts, you'll notice a few changes between those smaller events and the way big sealed deck tournaments are run. When registration is over, the judges will seat everyone for what's called a "player meeting". The head judge will use this opportunity to make his announcements, including how many players are dueling, how many rounds you'll be playing, and instructions (more on those later). Meanwhile, the judges will hand out product to everyone - a tournament pack and two boosters, all Shards. When everyone's gotten their product, the head judge will give the word for everyone to open their packs. What's interesting about high-level sealed deck tournaments like PTQs is that the cards you open at this point won't be the ones you play with. Instead, you'll be writing the number of each card you got on a decklist, and giving both the cards and that list back to the judges. If you make any mistakes recording the contents of those packs, it's important to call a judge over right away so they can note it on the sheet so the player who gets your list isn't confused.
After about twenty minutes, judges will come around again to collect the cards and decklists and then pass them out at random to other players. Once you get a new set of cards, you'll open it up and make sure the list matches the cards you received. Then you'll have a half hour to build a minimum 40-card deck and mark down what you're playing on that same sheet. Another major difference between limited tournaments using decklists (like the PTQ) and ones without (like FNM drafts) is that once you've built your deck, you can't change it. You can sideboard cards in and out between games, but the first game of every match you play needs to be with the same exact list you marked down on your decklist. Building a sealed deck at a PTQ can be somewhat stressful because you know you'll need to play at least one game per round with that exact list, but that's just more incentive to build the best deck you can!
The top eight will be played out in a single-elimination booster draft, which is exciting to watch... and even more exciting to play in, so hone your limited skills for Saturday!
For more information, check out Gray Matter's website.
If this is your first big limited tournament outside of prereleases, releases, and FNM booster drafts, you'll notice a few changes between those smaller events and the way big sealed deck tournaments are run. When registration is over, the judges will seat everyone for what's called a "player meeting". The head judge will use this opportunity to make his announcements, including how many players are dueling, how many rounds you'll be playing, and instructions (more on those later). Meanwhile, the judges will hand out product to everyone - a tournament pack and two boosters, all Shards. When everyone's gotten their product, the head judge will give the word for everyone to open their packs. What's interesting about high-level sealed deck tournaments like PTQs is that the cards you open at this point won't be the ones you play with. Instead, you'll be writing the number of each card you got on a decklist, and giving both the cards and that list back to the judges. If you make any mistakes recording the contents of those packs, it's important to call a judge over right away so they can note it on the sheet so the player who gets your list isn't confused.
After about twenty minutes, judges will come around again to collect the cards and decklists and then pass them out at random to other players. Once you get a new set of cards, you'll open it up and make sure the list matches the cards you received. Then you'll have a half hour to build a minimum 40-card deck and mark down what you're playing on that same sheet. Another major difference between limited tournaments using decklists (like the PTQ) and ones without (like FNM drafts) is that once you've built your deck, you can't change it. You can sideboard cards in and out between games, but the first game of every match you play needs to be with the same exact list you marked down on your decklist. Building a sealed deck at a PTQ can be somewhat stressful because you know you'll need to play at least one game per round with that exact list, but that's just more incentive to build the best deck you can!
The top eight will be played out in a single-elimination booster draft, which is exciting to watch... and even more exciting to play in, so hone your limited skills for Saturday!
For more information, check out Gray Matter's website.
==EURO LANDS PROMOTION==
Author: Brian Paskoff
So the other day when I received my latest FNM promos for Brothers Grim in the mail, I got a little extra surprise with it. Though to be fair it was only a surprise because I forgot I had signed up for it. See, Wizards is doing this promotion exclusively for FNM-hosting locations where they send out packs Euro Lands to those stores. But unlike the other promotional cards Wizards sends out, you don't get these for playing - instead, you get them for buying a full box of any Magic set!
The Euro Lands are special lands with artwork representing different locations throughout Europe. They came in three different versions depending on their wrappers, but the ones I got are the blue pack, seen here. They feature scenes of the forests of Schwarzwald, Germany, the Danish Islands of Scandinavia, the mountains of Vesuvio, Italy, the Scottish Highlands, and the swamps of Ardennes Fagnes, Belgium. This is the first time that these lands are available to players in the US, and they're quite rare. Five come in a pack, one of each land.
Supplies are limited though, so if you were planning to buy a box of Shards for someone as a holiday gift, do it as soon as possible! this promotion will be running at Brothers Grim only for as long as we have packs to give out.
The Euro Lands are special lands with artwork representing different locations throughout Europe. They came in three different versions depending on their wrappers, but the ones I got are the blue pack, seen here. They feature scenes of the forests of Schwarzwald, Germany, the Danish Islands of Scandinavia, the mountains of Vesuvio, Italy, the Scottish Highlands, and the swamps of Ardennes Fagnes, Belgium. This is the first time that these lands are available to players in the US, and they're quite rare. Five come in a pack, one of each land.
Supplies are limited though, so if you were planning to buy a box of Shards for someone as a holiday gift, do it as soon as possible! this promotion will be running at Brothers Grim only for as long as we have packs to give out.
==GUEST ARTICLES==
Author: Brian Paskoff
Author: Brian Paskoff
After a short break, Islandhome is once again accepting guest articles from our readers!
If you've got an article you'd like to submit, send it to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com. Try to keep it a reasonable length - there's no word limit, but look at previous Islandhome articles for guidance - and avoid bad language and personal insults. Also try to maintain good grammar and spelling; doesn't have to be perfect, but you should see how long it takes me to spellcheck the Madonia Minute every week!
I can't promise every submission will make it into the next week's Islandhome, but I'll try to get as many in as I can, especially ones that are relevant to a previous/upcoming event.
==THE ISLANDHOME BLOG==
One of the things I wanted to do was have an archive of past issues online so I could refer people back to them as well as let new readers peruse old issues to see what all the fuss is about. So I've archived all the old issues on the blogosphere at islandhomemtg.blogspot.com. Go and relive all the past moments of glory!
==UPCOMING EVENTS==
October 4th - December 28th: PTQ Season for PT Kyoto
The next PTQ season kicks off October 4th, and the format is Shards of Alara sealed deck!
December 21st - Mox Tournament at Brothers Grim
This December, Islandhome, in association with Brothers Grim, will be holding a giant Standard tournament. The first place prize will be a Mox Emerald, with many other prizes as well. Side events such as booster drafts and EDH multiplayer games will be held that day too, so keep reading Islandhome for more details!
December 21st - Mox Tournament at Brothers Grim
This December, Islandhome, in association with Brothers Grim, will be holding a giant Standard tournament. The first place prize will be a Mox Emerald, with many other prizes as well. Side events such as booster drafts and EDH multiplayer games will be held that day too, so keep reading Islandhome for more details!
PTQs in our area this season:
12/13 - New York, NY
12/27 - Edison, NJ
12/13 - New York, NY
12/27 - Edison, NJ
==STORE LOCATIONS & CONTACT INFO==
Brothers Grim
1244 Middle Country Rd.
Selden, NY 11784
Phone: 631-698-2805
Website: www.brgim.com
Friendly Neighborhood Comics
19 Udall Rd.
West Islip, NY 11795
Phone: 631-470-7984
Brothers Grim
1244 Middle Country Rd.
Selden, NY 11784
Phone: 631-698-2805
Website: www.brgim.com
Friendly Neighborhood Comics
19 Udall Rd.
West Islip, NY 11795
Phone: 631-470-7984
==FIN==
See everyone this weekend!
Got forwarded Islandhome and want to sign up? Send an email to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!
Got forwarded Islandhome and want to sign up? Send an email to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!
-Brian Paskoff
L1 NY
L1 NY
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