Reflecting on the Past, Present, and Future

Golden Week has begun in Japan. A series of 5 holidays in a one week period where pretty much everybody takes off work for about 9 days. Of course I started my Golden Week with 2 Avacyn Restored pre-releases on Saturday and Sunday (the final results which I’ll get to later), and today I had the chance to get a glimpse of a famous artist known for his work with the Final Fantasy series: Yoshitaka Amano.

Yoshitaka Amano Art Exhibit in Nagoya

If you are in or near Nagoya and are looking for something to do tomorrow, May 1st, I would definitely recommend checking this out. It’s free to the public, and you get a free poster for attending. Those who made reservations online get a little something extra I believe. There is various art from Final Fantasy games, Vampire Hunter D, and other Tatsunoko characters which Amano worked on that you can view and purchase if you want. There also original works, and everything can be purchased. The hand painted drawings start at  230,000 yen ($2870) and go all the way up to 2,200,000 yen ($28,000). Quite a heavy price tag, but he’s an amazing artist and I think it would be a good investment for the future, not to mention that it would make an epic picture for your wall at home.

Today only Yoshitaka Amano himself came to the gallery to briefly talk with the audience about his work, as well as to personally meet and sign autographs for those who bought his work (I believe).

Yoshitaka Amano, the man behind the box art

I wish I could have taken some pictures inside the gallery but aside from this event, you weren’t allowed to snap photos. It was still great to see somebody who I really admire as an artist and whose work I appreciate.

Going back to Magic, I played another pre-release on Sunday at Big Magic. I went with white red to start off again, and later switched to WGR. I finished 1-2-1 on the day, but pulled some decent cards like Thunderous Wrath, Vexing Devil, and Sigarda, Host of Herons. I totally mistook the type of strategy I should have used with Avacyn. Games during the pre-release were meant to be longer and more played out, and the people who understood that and built their decks for the long game tended to do better. While aggro might work against some decks, if you didn’t switch over to heavy hitters later in the game, you lost. I had a couple of close matches, but lost in the end when I simply couldn’t hit the player for the final 3-6 damage (where was MY miracle!?!?!? :D)

Avacyn, restored! (photo taken at Card Brunch)

What have I learned from Avacyn Restored so far? Games are going to get longer. There will still be your UW Humans and Delver decks, as well as GR Beatdown, but with Avacyn you’ll see a lot of games go longer and those decks that don’t have plan for the long game are going to find themselves out of luck. So what deck should you be looking out for????

FRITES

The Faithless Looting/Unburial Rites decks are going to get really nasty once people start throwing Avacyn and Griselbrand in there. PUT A NIHIL SPELLBOMB IN YOUR SIDEBOARDS NOW! Wouldn’t hurt to have some Surgical Extractions as well. I will be posting again later this week with some metagame updates in the Nagoya area, as well as an updated deck list for my UR Titan Control with Avacyn Restored cards added *cough*THUNDEROUS WRATH*cough* for anybody interested. I really think this type of deck will do well in the standard environment. I totally destroyed a Delver deck today, and once I get a Nihil Spellbomb, Frites should be no problem!

Modern, Vintage, and major tournament news

Does anybody out there play Vintage or Modern formats with Magic the Gathering? If so, you’re in luck! I might not have mentioned it before, but from time to time Big Magic hosts both type of events, though it isn’t as regular as standard events (check Wizards of the Coasts websites for dates). I also said before that Amenity Dream in Osu hosts weekly Modern events on Thursday instead of  Standard(I believe it’s modern at least). Well, another place that you’ll find a lot of other Magic game formats is at the mom and pop store Mishimaya (https://thejapanhobbyist.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/hobby-store-profiles-iii-nagoya-part-3/ ). This Thursday there is a Modern event there, and they also host Legacy there as well (you can contact the store or get this information on WoTC website).

Golden Week Modern Magic

As you can see, it’s this Thursday and registration is from 1:30-2pm. The cost is 500 yen. You just might be able to do this, and also attend the tournament at Amenity Dream as well! Speaking of Mishimaya, that shop is STILL the number one place to buy singles in Nagoya. I picked up a Heartless Summoning for 210 yen today! I also finally sold a good amount of cards (1000 yen worth) and took back my Weatherlight Thunderbolts I had for sale. Now I can use them again, Thanks AVR!

The last bit of news today is concerning the Standard/Modern/Vintage Format for MTG.

Qualifier Tourney in Nagoya

The World Magic Cup qualifiers will be held on June 30th in Nagoya, with cash prizes worth more than 100,000 yen (about $1250).

Tourney info

It looks like the main organizer is Toy and Hobby Shop Mishimaya (with the other stores sponsoring the event), and registration will be from 8:30 am – 9:30 am on June the 30th. While I don’t understand all of this information 100%, it looks as like there will be:

• a standard tournament that will be single elimination for a total of 3 rounds for 3000 yen
• a vintage side event for 1000 yen that is swiss draw (registration  from 1:30pm- 2pm)
• 8 person standard booster draft for 1500 yen, single elimination, from 1:30pm-6pm
• 8 person modern/legacy/Vintage event for 1000 yen, single elimination

First place for the main event (standard I believe) will get 50,000 yen, 2nd place 30,000 yen, 5th-8th place 5000 yen each, and anybody finishing in the top 32 will get booster packs.

World Magic Cup Nagoya map

The event will be held at the Nagoya City Chushokigyo shinko kaikan near Tsurumai Station (on the JR Chou Line towards Gifu). I will definitely check this out a little bit more, and once I confirm this information I will make another post to clarify all of this information. It would be a great way to test your skills as a player, as well as deck builder. Can your deck stand up to everybody else’s?

Well, that’s it for today, and apologize for the long post. I hope you had a great -prelease weekend and I look forward to playing against you if you ever make it Nagoya! Thanks again for reading!