Islandhome #48

==ISLANDHOME #48==

January 28th 2009

==IN THIS ISSUE...==

Peppersmoke

Conflux Prerelease

Conflux Prerelease Tips

==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==

Saturday: Conflux Prerelease (See below for details.)

I won't be at Grim or FNC this weekend, but chances are some kind of event will take place at both locations.

==PEPPERSMOKE==
Author: Brian J. Paskoff

So I had a minor health scare last week at FNC, but don't worry! It was a mere -1/-1 effect, so I'm okay. Thanks for everyone who lent their sympathy when I got back, and thanks to John Madonia and Ed Palm for helping to keep the event running in my absence. It was comforting knowing I wouldn't come back to the event and see the tournament had descended into anarchy and cannibalism.

==CONFLUX PRERELEASE==
Author: Brian J. Paskoff

A prerelease is once again upon us! In only three days, you'll be ripping open fresh new packs of Conflux! The prerelease program has changed a lot since you last remember it, the most important being that there is only one, big flight instead of the usual multiple flights throughout the day. The "one big flight" thing is something I always felt should have been tried, as it lets you play against a wider variety of players than just the thirty-two or so that signed up for your flight. I do wish there were more than four rounds for such a large event, but that's what side events are for!

Registration for the sealed deck event will open at 9, and hopefully start at 9:30. The entry fee is $30, and with that, you get three packs of Shards of Alara and three packs of Conflux. Wait, isn't that a lot of packs? Well yes! Wizards has done away with tournament packs, so now you get three packs of Shards of Alara instead of a tournament pack of it. It's the same number of cards as were in a tournament pack, just with one less uncommon and one more common. Of course you also don't get the basic lands, so we'll be providing them for you free of charge.

There'll be four rounds in the main flight, and prizes will be given out based on your record. 3-1 gets six packs, 3-0-1 gets nine packs, and 4-0 gets twelve packs. Waaaay better than the piss-poor prize support Wizards forced on us for the Shards of Alara prerelease.

Three-player team events are gone as well, replaced with the ever-popular Two-Headed Giant format. Registration for this event starts at 1 PM, and costs $22 per player. Each team will get four packs of Shards and four packs of Conflux with which to build two 40-card minimum decks. Then they'll play three rounds of 2HG, with 2-1 getting six packs, 2-0-1 getting ten packs, and 3-0 getting fourteen packs.

Side events will be held based on product availability and player interest, starting at 11 AM. These will be sort of mini-flights, three round eight-man sealed deck tournaments for $30, where the prize payout is 7-5-3 instead of the main flight's 12-9-6.

The Long Island prerelease will be held at the Four Points Sheraton in Plainview, NY, 333 South Service Road off the LIE. I'll be head judging it once again, so come down and get your first taste of Conflux!

==CONFLUX PRERELEASE TIPS==

Author: Brian J. Paskoff

The full spoiler for Conflux is out on MTGSalvation , and now that we more or less know what every card does, it's time to get metagaming! (I say "more or less" because it's a well-established fact that as complete as a spoiler seems, there are always some key differences in cards between the rumored versions and the printed versions.) Your first order of business, of course, is limited, as it'll be the very first thing you do with the set. Like most second (and third) sets in a block, Conflux is very strong for limited play. With less variety of cards in a pack, Wizards has to make sure not to print too many "useless" cards, or the set will be no fun to draft. Also, while the big set contains the "staple" cards - things like your basic counterspells, spot removal, etc., smaller sets tend to have cards that are more specialized, and Conflux is no exception.

You may find yourself straying from the comfort of a shard's three colors more often in Conflux. There's still a lot of support for Bant, Esper, Grixis, Jund, and Naya, but the mana fixing and five-color effects present in Conflux will make you want to find ways to produce all five colors of mana. Strangely, there isn't much acceleration in Conflux; most of the mana fixers either filter mana (such as the reprinted Mana Cylix) or get lands from your library into your hand. Each color has access to a spell that has "basic landcycling", an ability that lets you pay a cost, discard the card from your hand, and search your library for a basic land card. While the spells themselves aren't very powerful, you may want to include them in your limited decks. Early game, they might give you a land you need. Late game, they'll either grab you a splash color or let you play them if you don't need a land anymore. The white one pumps and untaps your creatures, the blue one is a five-mana counterspell, the black one absorbs four life from your opponent, the red one deals five damage to a creature for six mana, and the green one gives you eight life - none of them are terribly useless, but nothing you'd want to include in your deck if they didn't also Sylvan Scrying for two mana.

A while ago on the official site, Wizards promised to explore things more thoroughly rather than leave behind old abilities and bring tons of new ones in with every set, and that's definitely true here. Only basic landcycling, domain, and five-color spells and abilities are new here, while the abilities and mechanics from Shards of Alara are more fleshed out. In Bant, there's more creatures with exalted, but none that give an extra push to lone attackers like Rafiq or Battlegrace Angel. It seems Wizards is being cautious about making exalted too powerful. Esper has lots more artifact creatures, including its own Goldmeadow Stalwart, and Esper Aggro looks to be an amazingly fast strategy in ALA-CON limited. Grixis of course gets more unearth creatures, this time with more abusable comes into/leaves play effects. There's more devouring in Jund, my favorites being a new Nantuko Husk-like creature that can "devour" creatures while it's in play, and a creature with both flash and devour that will make for some devastating "damage on the stack" tricks. And Naya has more "5+ matters" effects, only this time they're on spells as well as creatures.

I'll have more Conflux limited strategies after the prerelease, because it's hard to know too much about it without seeing it in action! In the meantime, here's some general advice to help you succeed at the prerelease:

• Read your cards! Especially the new ones. You're playing with new cards for the first time, and while you might know everything a Shards of Alara card does from the picture alone, you won't have the same instinct with Conflux cards yet. Many times a player will mistake a sorcery for an instant, or vice-versa. "Invisible" triggers like exalted might screw up your combat if you don't realize one of your opponent's creatures has it, and you could potentially leave yourself tapped out while not realizing your opponent has a game-winning unearth creature in their yard.
  
• 40 card decks are the bare minimum, and you should stay at 40 whenever possible. The only time I recommend going as high as 41 cards is when your mana curve is high and you need the extra land; don't try to squeeze in an extra spell. The tried-and-true spell-to-land ratio is 23 spells, 17 lands. Of those 23 spells, between 15 and 18 should be creatures, since nearly every game will be won in combat.
  
• Use your mana fixers. Mana fixing in Shards/Conflux is really good, with Obelisks, Panoramas, tri-lands, Mana Cylix, and others. Staying within a shard and splashing a bit for the other two colors is probably a good idea.
• Sideboard between games AND rounds. Since prereleases are limited tournaments that don't use decklists, you're allowed to change your deck between rounds. Use your experiences with the new cards each round to fix your deck for the next one using your sideboard (any cards in your sealed pool that aren't in your deck).

Good luck to everyone attending the prerelease this Saturday!

==GUEST ARTICLES==
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==

January 3rd - April 19th: PTQ Season for PT Honolulu

The next PTQ season kicks off January 3rd, and the format is Extended!

PTQs in our area this season:

February 21st - Edison, NJ
March 14th - Philadelphia, PA

No details for New York PTQs are available yet.

April 3rd - April 5th: I-Con 28
Magic events will once again be held at I-Con, which is at Suffolk Community College's Brentwood campus this year. I'll have news about what tournaments are going to be run as we get closer to April, but just like last time there'll be cheap drafts and constructed events all weekend long!

==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

==FIN==

See everyone this weekend!

Got forwarded Islandhome and want to sign up? Send an email to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!

-Brian Paskoff
L1 NY

Islandhome #47

==ISLANDHOME #47==

January 21st 2009

==IN THIS ISSUE...==

Mike Palm
Extended Comes to FNC!
Conflux Prerelease

==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==

Friday: FNM Booster Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 7 PM
Saturday: Standard Constructed at FNC ($5 entry) @ 1:30 PM

This Saturday is a special event at FNC: Dress for Success! The best dressed person will receive free entry into the tournament, so dust off your best outfit and bring it!

==MIKE PALM==
Author: Brian J. Paskoff

As anyone who's been to FNC in the past week has noticed, Mike Palm hasn't been around lately. It turns out he fell seriously ill last week, and had to be hospitalized for a short time. Ed will be running FNC for a while, although the hours (except Fridays and Saturdays) will be cut short somewhat. Our best wishes go out to Mike Palm and the Palm family, let's all hope for a speedy recovery!

==EXTENDED COMES TO FNC!==
Author: Brian J. Paskoff

In celebration of the current PTQ season, I'm holding an Extended tournament at FNC on Saturday, January 24th. Yes, that's the same day as our usual Standard event, but don't worry if you can't or don't want to play Extended - the Standard tournament will go on at the same time as the Extended one. Unfortunately the laws of temporal physics or something like that will prevent you from playing in both events at the same time, so you'll have to pick which format you want to play. Entry fee will be $5, the same as any other normal constructed event; the only difference will be that you'll be playing with older cards. We need at least eight people for a sanctioned Extended tournament, so if you want to play, start building your decks now!

I've gotten some feedback since this was first announced, with some players hating the fact that both Standard and Extended tournaments are on the same day. I thought it'd be fun to have a choice of what to play, and since there are only so many days in the week to run Magic events on, Saturday was the only day. Later on in the season I might have a Saturday of just Extended, if there's enough interest, but I want to see how much interest I get this Saturday. Everyone should bring a Standard deck too, just in case! I know Mike Evans will be playing a super secret tech deck of my own creation if there's no Extended tournament, so that will definitely be interesting and intense.

==CONFLUX PRERELEASE==
Author: Brian J. Paskoff

A prerelease is once again upon us! In only ten days, you'll be ripping open fresh new packs of Conflux! The prerelease program has changed a lot since you last remember it, the most important being that there is only one, big flight instead of the usual multiple flights throughout the day. The "one big flight" thing is something I always felt should have been tried, as it lets you play against a wider variety of players than just the thirty-two or so that signed up for your flight. I do wish there were more than four rounds for such a large event, but that's what side events are for!

Registration for the sealed deck event will open at 9, and hopefully start at 9:30. The entry fee is $30, and with that, you get three packs of Shards of Alara and three packs of Conflux. Wait, isn't that a lot of packs? Well yes! Wizards has done away with tournament packs, so now you get three packs of Shards of Alara instead of a tournament pack of it. It's the same number of cards as were in a tournament pack, just with one less uncommon and one more common. Of course you also don't get the basic lands, so we'll be providing them for you free of charge.

There'll be four rounds in the main flight, and prizes will be given out based on your record. 3-1 gets six packs, 3-0-1 gets nine packs, and 4-0 gets twelve packs. Waaaay better than the piss-poor prize support Wizards forced on us for the Shards of Alara prerelease.

Three-player team events are gone as well, replaced with the ever-popular Two-Headed Giant format. Registration for this event starts at 1 PM, and costs $22 per player. Each team will get four packs of Shards and four packs of Conflux with which to build two 40-card minimum decks. Then they'll play three rounds of 2HG, with 2-1 getting six packs, 2-0-1 getting ten packs, and 3-0 getting fourteen packs.

Side events will be held based on product availability and player interest, starting at 11 AM. These will be sort of mini-flights, three round eight-man sealed deck tournaments for $30, where the prize payout is 7-5-3 instead of the main flight's 12-9-6.

The Long Island prerelease will be held at the Four Points Sheraton in Plainview, NY, 333 South Service Road off the LIE. I'll be head judging it once again, so come down and get your first taste of Conflux!

==GUEST ARTICLES==
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==

January 3rd - April 19th: PTQ Season for PT Honolulu

The next PTQ season kicks off January 3rd, and the format is Extended!

PTQs in our area this season:

February 21st - Edison, NJ
March 14th - Philadelphia, PA

No details for New York PTQs are available yet.

April 3rd - April 5th: I-Con 28
Magic events will once again be held at I-Con, which is at Suffolk Community College's Brentwood campus this year. I'll have news about what tournaments are going to be run as we get closer to April, but just like last time there'll be cheap drafts and constructed events all weekend long!

==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

==FIN==

See everyone this weekend!

Got forwarded Islandhome and want to sign up? Send an email to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!

-Brian Paskoff
L1 NY

Islandhome #46

==ISLANDHOME #46==

January 14th 2009

==IN THIS ISSUE...==

Extended Comes to FNC!
Drafting Don'ts: What cards to avoid

==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==

Friday: FNM Booster Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 7 PM
Saturday: Standard Constructed at FNC ($5 entry) @ 1:30 PM

==EXTENDED COMES TO FNC!==
Author: Brian J. Paskoff

In celebration of the current PTQ season, I'm holding an Extended tournament at FNC on Saturday, January 24th. Yes, that's the same day as our usual Standard event, but don't worry if you can't or don't want to play Extended - the Standard tournament will go on at the same time as the Extended one. Unfortunately the laws of temporal physics or something like that will prevent you from playing in both events at the same time, so you'll have to pick which format you want to play. Entry fee will be $5, the same as any other normal constructed event; the only difference will be that you'll be playing with older cards. We need at least eight people for a sanctioned Extended tournament, so if you want to play, start building your decks now!

==DRAFTING DON'TS==
Author: Brian J. Paskoff

Like any aspect of playing Magic well, almost as much comes from being taught as it comes from playing. And if you want to learn what cards to draft, there are hundreds of articles on the web about that very subject, where strategists will talk about the best cards in Shards of Alara limited. But after three months of Shards, along with the good judgement every one of you has about how the game works, do you really need to be told yet again that Oblivion Ring, Branching Bolt, and Agony Warp are solid picks?

There are very few articles about the bad cards, the ones that should never make your deck unless you're struggling for a twenty-third card in your Naya deck and the store's out of Swamps. It's not uncommon for players to draft the lands out of packs rather than these cards, but sadly, all too often I see them being drafted at our draft tournaments, and can only watch sadly as they make it into players' decks. I can't stop people from drafting or playing with them at tournaments, but I can give you fair warning about them so you don't make the same mistakes!

There are actually two levels of bad - there's the regular ol' "don't take this card unless your only options are another card on this list" and "bad, but with some sideboard potential - but don't put it in your maindeck unless it's maybe your twenty-third card". And then of course there's the few exceptions where a rare card is bad in limited, but you might want to take it just because it's worth a few bucks.

Ad Nauseum - With any sort of stable limited mana curve, Ad Nauseum is too dangerous to risk it. It's a rare that almost pays for the pack it's in, and is played somewhat in Eternal formats, but it's not worth more than even a decent creature if you're trying to win.

Angel's Herald - Even if you have the mythic rare the Herald's heralding, they're very rarely worth playing. Pay no attention to the idea that playing it without the mythic is a good bluff - it never is.

Angelsong - Sideboard bad; it can be useful in the Naya vs Naya mirror. The cycling actually hurts it, because if you're cycling it early you're denying yourself the out later, and giving away that you have it for later games.

Banewasp Affliction - Not only do you need to make the enchantment stick, but then you need to find another way to actually kill the creature... which will probably only shave three or four points off your opponent's life total. This is truly one of the worst cards in the set.

Behemoth's Herald - See Angel's Herald.

Bloodthorn Taunter - Not terrible, just not good, or ever really useful.

Brilliant Ultimatum - If you're spending seven mana, and all of it's colored, and it doesn't win you the game, you know you've got a bad card.

Cathartic Adept - Chances are, you're only going to mill one or two cards before you need to use the Adept to block the much better creatures your opponent's playing.

Clarion Ultimatum - Play only if you've somehow drafted a constructed deck.

Crucible of Fire - In Lorwyn/Morningtide, this card would've been insane. In a format where all the dragons are rare and can win the game well enough on their own, well....

Cunning Lethemancer - You're going to have cards you want to hold onto for long periods of time, so forcing yourself to use them or lose them isn't good.

Dawnray Archer - Exalted's nice, pinging is nice, but a 1/1 for 2U isn't.

Demon's Herald - See Angel's Herald.

Dispeller's Capsule - Never play this maindeck ever.

Dragon's Herald - See Angel's Herald.

Etherium Astrolabe - Its only use is that it's the only artifact in the format that serves as a combat trick for Glaze Fiend.

Goblin Deathraiders - It's a goblin, a three-power creature with trample... but it's never worth attacking with it because it'll die to anything. It's not bottom of the barrel, but there's always something better.

Goblin Mountaineer - It's barely good in the sideboard.

Gustrider Exhuberant - Naya's creatures don't really need the help.

Immortal Coil - If the number of cards in your graveyard is higher than your life total, you're in bad shape, and this card's not going to save you.

Invincible Hymn - If you're on the play and play this card as soon as possible, you'll go up to 25 - not a very impressive number unless you're way behind already. And if you draw it late, it's worthless.

Jhessian Lookout - You have to be really struggling for creatures to play this.

Keeper of Progenitus - In a three color format, chances are your opponent will be thanking you for powering out their big spells.

Lich's Mirror - If you're going to lose once, you're going to lose twice... unless your opponent's sole win condition is milling you with Cathartic Adepts.

Lush Growth - It looks great, until you realize that it doesn't actually accelerate you. It's better to make sure your land base is solid than to waste a spell slot on a card that does nothing.

Marble Chalice - Gaining one life a turn isn't going to win you the game any faster, it just gives your opponents time to play better cards than you.

Mindlock Orb - It's so obviously bad in limited that I can only recall one time I've ever seen anyone play it.

Protomatter Powder - Yech. There's no artifact in the set that's worth eight mana to bring back.

Resounding Scream - The only bad Resounding spell.

Sangrite Surge - +3/+3 and double strike would be broken if this was an instant, so why is it priced like it was supposed to be one?

Savage Hunger - Some of the best big creatures in Shards help themselves and other big creatures, so wasting an Aura to give them a relatively minor boost usually isn't worth it.

Shadowfeed - Why are the cards with the best art usually so terrible? Unearth creatures don't come alone, so you'd need more than a single bullet to deal with a good unearth strategy.

Skill Borrower - The only artifact you might want to use this with is Scourglass, another rare. Definitely not worth revealing information to your opponent.

Soul's Grace - Basically amounts to "prevent all combat damage target creature would deal this turn... or a turn to be named later."

Sphinx's Herald - See Angel's Herald.

Thoughtcutter Agent - 1/1s for two are rarely good. Wasting mana every turn on a useless ping when decks are fast is just plain bad.

Tortoise Formation - Since only Violent Ultimatum targets more than one permanent, this basically boils down to a bad, narrow counterspell.

Vectis Silencers - A 1/2 for 3 is mediocre, especially when you need to pay just to make it semi-useful.

Viashino Skeleton - Another overcosted creature with an ability it should have for much cheaper. I think Wizards's intention was to make it a discard outlet for unearth dudes, but that didn't quite pan out.

Volcanic Submersion - If you have five mana and your opponent is in a position where destroying one of their lands would seriously hurt them, you've already won. It's a somewhat good sideboard card against Esper decks, but nearly any other removal spell in the format is just as good in that situation.

Lastly, I'd like to give an honorary mention to Hindering Light. While certainly not bad, its usefulness is extremely narrow. And since there are few spells that target players in the format, it's only good if you know your opponent is packing lots of removal... or a Cruel Ultimatum. The only reason I mention it here is that I often see players using three of them in their decks, which is overkill under any circumstances.

==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.

==GUEST ARTICLES==
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==

January 3rd - April 19th: PTQ Season for PT Honolulu

The next PTQ season kicks off January 3rd, and the format is Extended!

PTQs in our area this season:

February 21st - Edison, NJ
March 14th - Philadelphia, PA

No details for New York PTQs are available yet.

April 3rd - April 5th: I-Con 28
Magic events will once again be held at I-Con, which is at Suffolk Community College's Brentwood campus this year. I'll have news about what tournaments are going to be run as we get closer to April, but just like last time there'll be cheap drafts and constructed events all weekend long!

==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

==FIN==

See everyone this weekend!

Got forwarded Islandhome and want to sign up? Send an email to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!

-Brian Paskoff
L1 NY

Islandhome #45

==ISLANDHOME #45==

January 7th 2009

==IN THIS ISSUE...==

Conflux Spoilers

==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==

Friday: FNM Booster Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 7 PM
Saturday: Standard Constructed at FNC ($5 entry) @ 1 PM
Sunday: Chaos Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 2 PM

==NEWS BITES==
Author: Brian J. Paskoff

PTQs for Pro Tour Honolulu have already begun, with a couple of PTQs last weekend starting the season off with a bang. While there are no decklists available yet, next week I'll have a write-up on the format and a discussion on the winning decks so you can prepare for the PTQs in our area. Speaking of which, I'm still planning on sanctioning an Extended tournament at the end of this month at FNC, so start preparing! Odds are there'll also be a Standard tournament running at the same time, so you can pick which format you'd like to play that day.

We've had a lot of fun cube drafting on Saturday nights, so if you want to join in, let me know! I'll be bringing my cube again this week for some hot action after the tournament.

==CONFLUX SPOILERS==
Author: Brian J. Paskoff

The prereleases for Conflux are less than a month away, and spoiler season is in full swing, with multiple updates to the list of rumored cards every day on MTGSalvation's forums. As of the time of this writing, there are forty-three cards in the official unofficial spoiler. As usual, players are eagerly awaiting the new set, especially after waiting so long in between the release of Shards of Alara and Conflux. With Faeries dominating a metagame that hasn't changed much at all in months, even after the usually-metagame-warping Worlds, everyone's hopeful that some big changes will come with this small set.

The Orb of Insight is up and running, and if you've never used an Orb of Insight before, typing in any word will show you how many times it appears on cards in the set. I'll let you poke through the Orb yourself, but the biggest find so far is something with a mana cost of WWUUBBRRGG - yes, that's two mana of every color.

White is apparently getting a Memory Lapse for 2W. Although it's one mana too much to compete with the classic "counterspell", it still might see play in some non-blue decks that want to delay their opponents' answers.

White's also getting a new one-mana removal spell in the vein of Swords to Plowshares: Path to Exile. Instead of giving your opponent life in exchange for removing their creature from the game, Path to Exile lets them search their library for a basic land card and put it into play tapped. While this doesn't seem nearly as good as Swords, or even Condemn in some situations, it may just replace Unmake in certain decks. Personally I'm not too thrilled about accelerating my opponent into a Wrath or Cryptic Command if I'm an aggro player facing a control deck.

The question on everyone's mind when preparing for Conflux was what answers the set would give them against Faeries. Speculation was rampant on some kind of Engineered Plague variant, but it was obvious that nearly any black or blue "answer" to Faeries would end up in the tiny hands of the Fae to be used against other decks. But now it seems we know the silver bullet - or one of them, anyway, as "countered" shows up more than once in the Orb - a red instant called Volcanic Fallout. For 1RR, you get an uncounterable instant-speed Pyroclasm that also hits players. Now sure it doesn't permanently deal with some of the bigger threats in Faeries such as Bitterblossom or Mistbind Clique (if it's already in play), but wiping the field of Faerie Rogue tokens, Spellstutter Sprites, Sowers, Scions, and even swinging Mutavaults doesn't make it easy for Faeries. And since it adds two damage to the life loss they've already taken from Bitterblossom and Thoughtseize, you're that much closer to victory. Might Faeries start splashing white for Burrenton Forge-Tender out of the sideboard? Anything's possible, and Arcane Sanctums make it somewhat painless.

Faeries does get another tool though, sure to make their sideboards. It's a miniature Undermine, a Negate-variant for UB that counters a non-creature spell and makes that spell's controller lose two life. It's a no-brainer for Faeries to replace Negate in their sideboards with this spell, and even Toast might switch this in.

Domain is making a comeback in Conflux. While Shards was focused strictly on three-color themes, now that the Shards are coming together, mana fixing is more rampant, and you'll be seeing all five colors together much more often. Domain's even keyworded on cards like Might of Alara, a functional reprint of Gaea's Might. For one green mana, a target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each basic land type among lands you control. The ability to give a creature +5/+5 for one mana at instant speed is quite strong, and it wouldn't shock me to see five-color aggro decks pop up trying to take advantage of this card in Standard and Extended.

Anyone who's seen the spoiled list of card names for the set has theorized what the card named "Conflux" would do, and for a while, it was speculated that the card would be a sixth basic land type, one that tapped for one colorless mana and did nothing else but add +1 to your domain spells. In truth, it's nowhere near that weird - Conflux is a 3WUBRG sorcery that lets you search your library for a card of each color and put them into your hand. It's sure to be used in five-color EDH decks... and not many other places.

For a long time, it was believed that Conflux would contain "enemy" tri-lands, ones that mirrored Shards's tri-lands but tapped for things like WUR and GWB. Now that we know three of the five lands in the set, this isn't a possiblity anymore, but that doesn't mean the lands aren't good: There's a reverse Reflecting Pool that taps for a color of mana your opponent's lands can produce, a Shimmering Grotto-like land that taps for colorless or taps to make a land you control any basic land type until end of turn, and a land that comes into play tapped, and taps for any color... but you need to pay 1 when it comes into play.

Conflux's prerelease is on January 31st, and while I'm not sure where it'll be yet, I'll be head judging Gray Matter's prerelease. Stay tuned to all the spoilers so you know what to expect on opening day!

==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.

==GUEST ARTICLES==
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==

January 3rd - April 19th: PTQ Season for PT Honolulu

The next PTQ season kicks off January 3rd, and the format is Extended!

PTQs in our area this season:

February 21st - Edison, NJ
March 14th - Philadelphia, PA

No details for New York PTQs are available yet.

==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

==FIN==

See everyone this weekend!

Got forwarded Islandhome and want to sign up? Send an email to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!

-Brian Paskoff
L1 NY

Islandhome #44

==ISLANDHOME #44==

December 31st 2008

==IN THIS ISSUE...==

News Bites
Death Cloud: Michael Evans goes 7-0 in a tournament!

Happy New Year! We return to our usual format after all this holiday stuff is over.

==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==

Friday: FNM Booster Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 7 PM
Saturday: Standard Constructed at FNC ($5 entry) @ 1 PM
Sunday: Chaos Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 2 PM

==NEWS BITES==
Author: Brian Paskoff

The PTQ season for PT Honolulu is starting soon, and the format is Extended. Although the schedule isn't out yet because the Wizards site won't be updated until Monday, there are some PTQs (though none of I know of in our area) this very weekend! In preparation of the Extended season, I'm thinking about sanctioning some Extended tournaments at Islandhome-sponsored locations in January... possibly January 24th or 31st at FNC, depending on the PTQ schedule. Preferably later, since that'll give people more time to build decks for the format. If you want to play Extended instead of Standard one of those days, let me know!

We had a lot of fun last week in a five-player free-for-all multiplayer EDH game, and I'm hoping to do it again this week on Saturday at FNC! If you want to play, bring a deck! If it gets off, I'll post a write-up on it in the next issue of Islandhome!

My latest Cranial Insertion article came out Monday, so go read!

One of Islandhome's readers, Johnny Thorner, emailed me wanting to let everyone know that KB Toys is going out of business, and liquidating everything they have in the stores. Right now they're offering 50-75% off everything in the store, including CCG stuff like Magic, Yu Gi Oh, and Pokemon cards. I went to the KB Toys by me to check it out, and the selection was very limited, but you might be able to pick up some cheap packs for a limited time!

==DEATH CLOUD==
Author: Michael Evans

When Paskoff asked me to write a column about Extended I asked myself, "Who would ever take my advice on Magic?"

Nevertheless, I'm going to share my experience with you on what I know about the current Extended format and my recent experience winning the Magic-League Extended trial with my current favorite deck in the format, the almighty Death Cloud Rock. Take what you want from it, hopefully it gives you some insight.

At Pro Tour Berlin six of the top eight decks were the pesky Elfball deck. Elfball is a very fast combo deck that uses mana producing Elves and Glimpse of Nature to generate a big creature-playing/card-drawing turn to draw their win condition, which is usually Grepeshot or Predator Dragon tutored into play with Chord of Calling. This results in a very fast win on a good draw with a turn two or three kill. The key with the Elf Ball deck is the synergy between Birchlore Rangers/Heritage Druid and Nettle Sentinel. With multiple Nettle Sentinels and a Birchlore Rangers in play you can generate all the mana you need to play any creature you draw with Glimpse of Nature. Combine that with utility cards like Summoner's Pact and Weird Harvest to ensure you get the creatures you need, and you have a very consistent combo deck. On top of all that the Elf Ball deck can easily go with the "Man Plan" to beat down with many 1/1's on the first few turns.

Despite Elf Ball's dominance at Berlin, extended is a very diverse format right now. At worlds we saw an emergence of many other different decks. Zoo, Swans combo, Tron variants, Tezzeret, Death Cloud, Mono Red Burn, and all-in red all had good showings at worlds.

Another deck that had a strong showing was Faeries. We all know Faerie's Standard dominance over the last year or so, but Extended Faeries is a very different deck that is also emerging as one of the top three decks in the Extended format. Extended Faeries is a very creature-light Mono-Blue control deck that uses Venser, Shaper Savant, and the two creatures that lend their creature type to the deck, Spellstutter Sprite and Vendilion Clique. Those creatures seem unassuming at first(When a mono Blue Control player's finishers are 1/1 and 2/2 you may feel pretty good about yourself), but armed with one of the three or even four Jitte's the deck runs maindeck, you can be losing pretty quickly. The Faerie deck aims to draw cards and counter your spells in the early game, and and beat down with a Faerie equipped with a Jitte in the mid to late game. Riptide Laboratory and Repeal give Faerie's a very good late game plan with the ability to bounce Spellstutter Sprite or Venser repeatedly to counter or bounce any of the things you draw in the topdeck war. Another key card in the deck is Vedalken Shackles. Shackles is a powerhouse in this deck and especially good in the mirror match, allowing you to take control of anything they actually resolved.

Now we come to my favorite deck, an offshoot of my all time favorite archetype, The Rock. The Rock archetype is a mainly Black/Green (sometimes with one or more splashes) mid-range deck that packs hand disruption, creature removal, and big green creatures, generally running the most efficient of each of those card types in the format. The Death Cloud version uses Garruk and Golgari Rot Farm to generate mana to cast Death Cloud, a card that you are then built to recover from while for your opponent it's often the end. It's very hard to lose after resolving a Death Cloud cast at the right time. Yesterday I won a Magic-League Extended trial with the following list:

Lands:
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Swamp
4 Forest
3 Golgari Rot Farm
3 Treetop Village
2 Windswept Heath
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Polluted Delta
1 Mutavault

Creatures:
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Eternal Witness

Spells:
4 Thoughtseize
3 Putrefy
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Crime/Punishment
3 Death Cloud
3 Damnation
2 Smother
1 Slaughter Pact

Sideboard:
1 Smother
1 Slaughter Pact
3 Pithing Needle
4 Night of Souls' Betrayal
3 Cranial Extraction
3 Choke

After looking at the succesful Worlds lists and testing a bit I settled on this list. It doesn't run bad cards like Utopia Sprawl and opts for Finks over Ravenous Baloth, with your 4cc slot filled up already and the ability of Finks to come back after a Death Cloud or to eat up two removal spells.

One card in this version that differs from last season's Death Cloud is Crime/Punishment. With Pernicious Deed rotating out of Extended in october, this ended up being a very fine replacement. It wrecks the Elfball deck and works as a versatile removal spell that can be used as an almost-Vindicate for any Enchantment, Creature, or Artifact in play, or a mass removal spell.

The favorable matchups for this deck are Elfball and Faeries. Some people say Faeries is a bad matchup(mostly Faeries players), but I've never had any trouble in that matchup, especially after sideboard.

Like many Rock decks, the rest of the field is mainly 50/50. The other combo decks can be beaten by hand disruption and Cranial Extraction or Choke. Zoo can be beaten with the right hands and smart play, but it is one of the weaker matchups. All-In red is also very hand-dependant, but mostly the opponent's hand. I chose to run a fair number of basic lands to counteract Blood Moon effects. The only unfavorable matchup based on my experience is Mono-Red Burn, as you have so many dead cards even after sideboard, and Death Cloud is all but useless. It is still very winnable though, as you can race them with Tarmogoyfs and happen to draw multiple Kitchen Finks.

In round 1 my opponent didn't show up, so I essentially got a bye.

Round two saw me beating Elfball 2-0. Elfball is one of the truly strong matchups for this deck, the best matchup in the format for it. Maindeck you have enough hand disruption and mass removal to deal with their 1/1's while disrupting their combo, and after sideboard it becomes a wash with Night of Soul's Betrayal.

In round three I faced the first Faerie deck of the day, and won 2-1. Game one I lost to Jitte, a card that really scares me in this matchup. In game two I sideboarded as follows: -3 Damnation, -3 Crime/Punishment, -2 Smother, -1 Slaughter Pact, + 3 Night of Soul's Betrayal, +3 Choke, +3 Pithing Needle. Night of Soul's betrayal is also very good against Faeries, limiting their ability to attack you to the 2 Vensers and Mutavaults in their deck. Needle is pivotol for Vedalken Shackles and Jitte, the two most powerful cards against you.

In round four I faced yet another Faerie deck, and this time went 2-0 in a quick match that saw him getting bad hands in what I already find to be a good matchup for me.

In round five I faced off against a rogue Bant Aggro deck that actually gave me some trouble. It was very original and interesting, almost a Matt Brocking type of deck. Here was his list:

Lands:
4 Flooded Strand
4 Windswept Heath
4 Breeding Pool
2 Temple Garden
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Academy Ruins

Creatures:
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Troll Ascetic
3 Rhox War Monk
2 Llwanor Elves
2 Iwamori of the Open Fist

Spells:
3 Stifle
3 Oblivion Ring
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
2 Steelshaper's Gift
3 Bant Charm
4 Spell Snare
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Umezawa's Jitte

Sideboard:
2 Glen Elendra Archmage
3 Krosan Grip
3 Engineered Explosives
4 Threads of Disloyalty
3 Worship

In game one I survived at 1 life, and in game 2 it was slightly less challenging with Thoughtseize coming out and an extra Smother and Slaughter Pact coming in.

Round six there were 3 players remaining, and I happened to get the bye, so I was in the finals.

In the finals I played one of the tougher matchups for Death Cloud, Zoo. I survived game one and quickly went to the board. Out came 4 Thoughtseize and in came Smother, Slaughter pact, and 2 Pithing Needle for any Jitte's he may or may not have(which I later found out he did in fact have). He won game two on double Tribal Flames for 5 when I was at 10 life. Game two I quickly dropped double Tarmogoyfs with a hand of removal spells and finished him off with the 4/5's.

I would advise anyone looking for a consistent deck with even or favorable matchups in the field to play Death Cloud. It's a solid mid-range deck with an auto-win card as a backup and a lot of room for tweaking in main and sideboard for your metagame.

That's it for me, see you all at FNC where you can see me and Paskoff playing with action figures.

-Michael Evans

==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.

==GUEST ARTICLES==
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==

January 3rd - ?: PTQ Season for PT Honolulu

The next PTQ season kicks off October 4th, and the format is Extended!

PTQs in our area this season:

Schedule not up yet, check back later!

==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

==FIN==

See everyone this weekend!

Got forwarded Islandhome and want to sign up? Send an email to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!

-Brian Paskoff
L1 NY

Islandhome #43

==ISLANDHOME #43==

December 24th 2008

==IN THIS ISSUE...==

Mox Tournament Results: Nestor "Nestor" Ramirez takes his Faerie deck to claim a piece of power in Grim's first big constructed tournament!

Happy Holidays!

==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==

Friday: FNM Booster Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 7 PM
Saturday: Standard Constructed at FNC ($5 entry) @ 1 PM
Sunday: Chaos Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 2 PM

This week's tournaments will go on as scheduled, as I'm not going to be attending the PTQ in New Jersey after all.

==MOX TOURNAMENT RESULTS!==
Author: Brian Paskoff

Grim's Mox Emerald tournament was this past Sunday, and eighteen combatants braved the doom-and-gloom weather reports to compete for a valuable piece of power! The competition was fierce, and the metagame diverse. Fresh off its Worlds victory, Faeries was the most popular deck; four Fae lists showed up, although only one made top four. There were two copies of each Jund Ramp, Mono-Red, WR Reveillark, and surprisingly enough, Grixis Aggro. Aside from a lone Kithkin list and UW Reveillark, the other decks came in different varieties of homebrew: Planeswalkers, Bant Aggro, WB Reveillark, and BRG Tokens.

Nester "Nestor" Ramirez came away victorious, proudly displaying his Mox to the scores of spectators, confused Warhammer 40k players, and even the World of Warcraft players rose from their chairs to… well, they lent their silent respect while raiding, I suppose. Nestor faced a difficult challenge in the finals, as Ralph Navarra's Jund Ramp deck seemed specifically tuned to beat the little flying people, and Ralph had won the matchup 2-0 in the swiss previously. When Nestor tapped out for a Sower of Temptation in game one and Ralph's deck failed to cough up a Jund Charm, Cloudthresher, or even a Shriekmaw or Resounding Thunder, he knew the game was lost. In a following game, Nestor's board got swept by a Firespout, making the finalist slump in his chair… until he looked down and noticed his Faerie Conclave, a singleton and last-minute addition to the deck that dealt the final lethal two points of damage to Ralph.

Nestor "Nestor" Ramirez - Faeries
1st Place - Mox Tournament @ Brothers Grim, 12/21/08

LANDS:

4 Mutavault
6 Island
4 Secluded Glen
4 Underground River
4 Sunken Ruins
3 Swamp
1 Faerie Conclave

SPELLS:
4 Mistbind Clique
4 Scion of Oona
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Agony Warp
4 Bitterblossom
4 Broken Ambitions
4 Cryptic Command
2 Familiar's Ruse
2 Thoughtseize
3 Sower of Temptation
1 Terror

SIDEBOARD:
3 Jace Beleren
4 Stillmoon Cavalier
1 Oona's Grace
2 Negate
3 Telling Time
2 Thoughtseize

Interestingly, Nestor played only two Thoughtseize maindeck, making up for them with two additional counterspells: two copies of Familiar's Ruse, which could bounce a token, or even better, a Spellstutter Sprite to hard-counter a spell. All of Nestor's draw spells were sideboarded, presumably to board them in one games he planned to go long, the maindeck instead focusing entirely on Faeries, removal, and counterspells apart from the two Thoughtseizes. The Stillmoon Cavaliers have been the sideboard card of choice for many Faerie and Kithkin builds to fend off each other (and themselves in the mirror), and they surely would have come in handy against four other players in the event.

Ralph Navarra - Jund Ramp
2nd Place - Mox Tournament @ Brothers Grim, 12/21/08
LANDS:

4 Jund Charm
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Fertile Ground
4 Chameleon Colossus
2 Resounding Thunder
4 Cloudthresher
2 Broodmate Dragon
3 Sprouting Thrinax
2 Shriekmaw
2 Mindshatter
2 Primal Command
3 Rampant Growth

SPELLS:
1 Mosswort Bridge
1 Llanowar Wastes
3 Reflecting Pool
2 Treetop Village
1 Mountain
5 Forest
3 Twilight Mire
3 Savage Lands
2 Swamp
3 Fire-Lit Thicket

SIDEBOARD:

3 Guttural Response
3 Thoughtseize
2 Loxodon Warhammer
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Firespout
1 Shriekmaw

It's always nice to inspire people, even if it is by being a terrible deck-builder: "I owe this to you, Paskoff," Ralph told me as he sat down to watch the top four match between Nestor and Ralph's friend Michael Innace, "I never would have thought of this deck if I didn't see your terrible list." Ralph had seen the Jund Ramp list I had worked on with Michael Evans, and had obviously made improvements on the list. Playing a grand total of seven two-mana ramp spells ensured he'd never miss a chance to accelerate on turn two, and Fertile Ground has great synergy with Garruk Wildspeaker - both for casting the green 'walker and for after he's in play. The Mindshatters maindeck were mostly for the strangely-absent Toast deck, but punished many players who left themselves tapped out for the devastating sorcery. Unfortunately, while Ralph's deck's astounding seventeen anti-Faerie cards powered him through his first match against Nestor in the swiss, he lost to him in the finals.

Michael Innace - Kithkin
3rd Place - Mox Tournament @ Brothers Grim, 12/21/08
LANDS:

4 Windbrisk Heights
4 Rustic Clachan
4 Rugged Prarie
4 Battlefield Forge
2 Mutavault
7 Plains

SPELLS:
4 Goldmeadow Stalwart
4 Figure of Destiny
3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
4 Wizened Cenn
4 Knight of Meadowgrain
4 Spectral Procession
4 Ranger of Eos
4 Cloudgoat Ranger
4 Ajani Vengeant

SIDEBOARD:

3 Wispmare
3 Wilt-Leaf Liege
2 Ajani Goldmane
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Mirrorweave
3 Reveillark
1 Oblivion Ring

Ralph Navarra joked about having to "twist Mike's arm" to get him to play Kithkin for the Mox tournament, and it seemed to have paid off all the way until the top four. Mike's list was unique for a Kithkin deck, with not a single Unmake or Oblivion Ring present in the maindeck… and only one Oblivion Ring in the sideboard. In fact, the only non-creature/creature-making spells in the maindeck were four copies of Ajani Vengeant: A multi-functional tool in the deck, and Ajani's Lightning Helix effect kept him alive against the many aggresive decks present.

Joseph Aprano - Mono-Red
4th Place - Mox Tournament @ Brothers Grim, 12/21/08
LANDS:

19 Mountain
3 Ghitu Encampment

SPELLS:

4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Fulminator Mage
4 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Stigma Lasher
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Incinerate
4 Magma Spray
4 Flame Javelin
2 Unwilling Recruit

SIDEBOARD:

3 Everlasting Torment
3 Moonglove Extract
4 Pyroclasm
2 Wild Ricochet
2 Hell's Thunder
1 Knollspine Invocation

Joe's Mono-Red deck packed four Fulminator Mages in the main. Traditionally these have been played sideboard against Toast decks, but they also have use against other decks: the often-mana-screwed Kithkin, hitting the many non-basic white-producing lands, including the troublesome Windbrisk Heights; Faeries, which relies on consistent land drops; and any deck which plays Mutavault. Joe defeated Jay Imperiale in the top eight, winning his best matchup, and then losing to Ralph Navarra in the semi-finals.

So there you have it, the top four decks of Grim's first big Islandhome-sponsored tournament! Congradulations to all of their players, Nestor Nestor for winning the Mox, and everyone who came out to play! Best of all, everyone walked away with something, as Brothers Grim gave prizes out to the entire tournament! Brothers Grim will be hosting another tournament like this in March for a different prize, so look for details on that as we approach spring!

==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.

==GUEST ARTICLES==
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!

PTQs in our area this season:

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

==FIN==

See everyone this weekend!

Got forwarded Islandhome and want to sign up? Send an email to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!

-Brian Paskoff
L1 NY

Islandhome #42

==ISLANDHOME #42==

December 17th 2008

==IN THIS ISSUE...==

Worlds 2008
PTQ Report
Rumor Season

==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==

Friday: FNM Booster Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 7 PM
Saturday: Standard Constructed at FNC ($5 entry) @ 1 PM
Sunday: MOX TOURNAMENT - Standard ($15 entry) @ 2 PM

This Sunday is the Mox Emerald tournament at Brothers Grim! At only $15 for the chance of winning one of the most powerful cards in Magic's history, you have nothing to lose! Other prizes will be given out as well, so bring your A-game!

==WORLDS 2008==
Author: Brian Paskoff

As another year wraps to a close, so does another Worlds, the biggest annual Magic tournament in... well, the world. Players from all over the world showed up to compete in a wide variety of formats to prove that they were the best player in the entire world (for a year at least), and after three grueling days, Finnish player Antti Malin was crowned World Champion, and the United States team of Sam Black, Paul Cheon, and Michael Jacob were champions of the Standard-Extended-and-Legacy team event.

Worlds seems to define the upcoming metagame each year, and judging by the top eight results, we're in for a slow Standard season. Five out of the top eight decks were Faeries, the other three being Kithkin, Toast, and Mono-Red splashing for Blightning. Though the entire tournament tested Standard, Extended, and drafting skills, the top eight of Worlds was played out with the participants' Standard decks. Antti Malin won with Faeries, defeating Jamie Parke's Toast deck 3-1 in the finals.

To be quite honest I'd really rather not talk about the disappointing playoffs; 5/8ths of the finalists playing Faeries is depressing. Jamie Park's Toast deck was interesting, playing Rhox War Monk in place of Kitchen Finks for a more consistent flow of life gain, and perhaps to negate the more and more common strategy of red decks sideboarding Magma Spray, and packing enough answers to Faeries that it should instill memories of the Affinity and Anti-Affinity days of Mirrodin.

One of the breakout decks of Worlds was WB Tokens. Though it didn't make it into the playoffs, it did contribute in Team USA's victory in the team event. With Cloudgoat Ranger, Spectral Procession, and Windbrisk Heights, the deck slightly resembles Kithkin. Except instead of relying on the boost of Wizened Cenn and Mirrorweaving Lieges, WB Tokens plays Thoughtseize, Tidehollow Sculler, and Marsh Flitter. Michael Jacob's Team USA deck even played four copies of Glorious Anthem, and even the obscure Head Games (I'll wait while you go search up what that does. Okay, back? Yeah, I forgot that was in Tenth Edition too.) in the sideboard. The deck is similar enough to Kithkin that it'll be interesting to see whether or not Standard has room for both of them. But as WB Tokens doesn't rely on a single creature type and is a new archetype, it has room for growth, whereas the Kithkin deck is more or less at a creative stopping point.

Extended was relatively free of the scourge of the Elves deck that was feared to carve a hole in the metagame. With only ten percent of the field playing the deck and none of them going undefeated, it feels like the deck is safe from its key cards winding up on the banned list. Aside from over 26% of the combatants playing Faeries in Extended, the format appears to be very healthy, and players should have a fun time in this upcoming Extended PTQ season.

I'd also like to congradulate Long Islander Jason Imperiale for getting 10th place at Worlds, a tremendous feat indeed... even if he was playing Faeries.

Next year's Worlds is in Rome, a little far for most of us to travel. But until then, we'll be feeling the tremors of Worlds 2008 shaking up the metagame for a long time!

==PTQ REPORT==
Author: Brian Paskoff

New York's Pro Tour Qualifier for Kyoto was bittersweet. It was a fun PTQ that ran smoothly and with an extremely high turnout (175 players total!), but it was also the last major event that will ever be held at Neutral Ground. For over thirteen years now, Neutral Ground has been the "mecca" of Magic, and is probably the most famous Magic store in the world; nearly everyone who has had any experience in tournament Magic has heard of the store. Even after the store moved from its original location about a year ago, stepping into Neutral Ground was like stepping into Magic legend, and many of the best Magic players in the world called the store their home during at least some point in their career. A special "thank you" to the staff of Neutral Ground for keeping the store running for over a decade and giving us all a great place to play. Hopefully someday Neutral Ground will come back in some form. Until then, New York City events will still happen... just at a different location.

As I said, 175 players showed up for the historic last Neutral Ground PTQ for a chance to win an invite to play in Pro Tour Kyoto. Limited events traditionally have higher turnouts than constructed ones, simply because the cost of building a limited deck is always the same (the entry fee for the tournament), whereas putting together a constructed deck costs a whole lot more.

Like all sealed formats, Shards is fairly bomb-reliant... though that doesn't mean bomb-dependant. True, those who opened bomby rares were better off, but play skill mattered just as much. Opening a few bombs never guarantees a top 8 spot, and I saw just as many Battlegrace Angels, Flameblast Dragons, and Hellkite Overlords at the lower tables than I saw at the top ones. The real key to victory in a limited event is knowing how to use those cards, and how to build your deck. It's easy to say you would've built a deck differently when looking at someone else's sealed pool, but constructing one yourself is a whole different story, especially while you need to get it right the first time.

Besides the rares, many commons contributed to game wins during the day. While watching matches, I started to realize that there were a few commons which were often responsible for winning games almost single-handedly. Resounding Silence is a powerful removal spell, and since many decks in the format are built around swinging with one or two powerful creatures at a time, Resounding Silence is a Fog effect combined with permanent removal. Guardians of Akrasa is a strong blocker, and although it can't deal with the many four-plus power guys in Shards, it does stall smaller creatures on the ground while pumping any solitary attackers you might have on offense. And finally, the number one common of the day seemed to be Vithian Stinger. The pinger was a problem for many players who couldn't deal with it; no one wants to waste their best removal spells on a 0/1, and so it was left alive to deal more damage on the whole than even a Bull Ceredon could do. It could ping an opponent at the end of their turn to whittle down their life total, make combat complicated by letting a 4/4 trade with a 5/5, and perform mean tricks with devouring it and then unearthing it. Even if it did get killed, it just turned into an emergency one damage sorcery spell.

As far as shards go, all the shards seemed to show up in relatively even numbers. Of course, it was hard to determine when half of the players were playing four colors. Naya was predictably the most popular, and Grixis the least, though all the other shards fell somewhere between, and it was hard to say that there was a dominant shard.

The next and last PTQ in our area is on December 27th in New Jersey, so if you haven't qualified for the Pro Tour yet, I hope to see you there!

==RUMOR SEASON==
Author: Brian Paskoff

With the prerelease for Conflux a little over a month away, it's time to start rumor season up! A few months ago, the complete Conflux card list was released with the names of every card in the set, the most exciting of which was Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. And now the art for the card has been spoiled, and while we don't know what the Elder Dragon does yet, he looks like quite a beast... and even moreso in this official wallpaper, which shows Nicol Bolas fighting the four other Shards of Alara planeswalkers.

According to a source on MTGSalvation.com's rumor mill, Conflux supposedly has a few tools in it that'll fix the standard metagame by giving us answers to Faeries.

Little else is known about Conflux at this point, but Magic developers Aaron Forsythe and Mark Rosewater talked about a couple of things regarding 11th Edition at Worlds. 11th will be black-bordered, and have mythic rares (possibly the original Lorwyn planeswalkers). They also gave some cryptic maybe-clues about the appearance of Ravnica shocklands in 11th Edition, though similar rumors were floating around before 10th Edition saw print. The lands have generic names and bring back memories of the original dual lands that started out in the game, so they seem like a logical choice.

More rumors should start trickling in during the next few weeks. Spoilers for Morningtide (last year's February set) started a little before Christmas, so we should see a similar trend this year.

==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.

==GUEST ARTICLES==
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!

PTQs in our area this season:

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

==FIN==

See everyone this weekend!

Got forwarded Islandhome and want to sign up? Send an email to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!

-Brian Paskoff
L1 NY