So i'm thinking about this as i'm sitting here wondering if can do a news based thing for magic the gathering and the related changes wizards has made over the past couple of months, the booster pack order change, the lack of multiplayer rewards and of course the suspension of Tomoharu Saito, including the worlds information for those whom read this, so let's go.
Firstly i wanna talk about the changes for the booster draft starting with Mirrodin Besieged and the fact wizards has decided to make you start to open the new set first instead of scars of mirrodin i am seriously considering stopping drafting period since this change is stupid and not needed in all honesty. However here are my thoughts on this from a drafter's point of view and not a magic pro's or anything else. This is a good change as it focuses on strategy more then anything really, sometimes of course you end up having a bad strategy of course, with drafting your first or second pick, screwing up your draft and going 0-4 or 1-3 depending of course how bad it is, i've had that happen to me more then enough times already in my drafting career. The bad thing though is mirrodin besieged won't have anything different to expect but this will make the field a little more crowded by bringing one or two more players per event and in the long run that adds up after a while, so wizards is only doing this to make money and nothing more since to them magic is a business to be run effectively while maintaining a pro level scene like the pro tour, Grand Prixs and of course Pro Tour Qualifiers, however other then that this little change is actually something i look forward to working with in the near future since Mirrodin Besieged is less then 2 months away at this point in time.
The second topic on par for today's little article is the multiplayer rewards cancelling that was made public a couple of weeks ago by wizards of the coast as they stopped sending out multiplayer rewards cards for competing in sanctioned magic events such as FNM's and of course regular booster drafts throughout that month or year for the matter, i do hope to see this program replaced with something more revelant though in the form of something for the Wizard's Play Network as it was established not too long ago, however the likelyhood of that happening anytime soon is not so much since there is a lot of things happening in the next couple of months, but i do look forward to a announcement from wizards in regards to alterations or a new program altogether. Now for those whom don't know what this program was, lemme explain in full detail, say you compete in a certain number of events a year like 5-15 depending of course on your schedule and you have a legit DCI number, your tournament organizer submits this to wizards's play network and based upon the number of tournaments you competed in you get a certain amount of cards, now these cards are rewards for competing in various wizard's of the coast events throughout the world, whether it would be FNM's or sealed drafts these are still ways of getting those things, well not anymore anyways, usually the cards that were sent out to the players whom had good tournament schedules were full art textless promos such as Cryptic Command or even Ponder but this all depended on what wizards had in stock of course, but these rewards were usually quarterly and given out to a lot of players, whom only usually got one copy but it's still good for EDH or the now known commander which i will talk about also.
Most people i know whom have heard of this man, Tomoharu Saito know him as a legendary japanese magic player whom has quite the talent for playing these days and his decision making skills are higher then most at best, making him perhaps the best japanese player of all time, not counting Shoota Yasukoa whom ranks still at no 1 in my list of the top 5 japanese players, but i digress the recent suspension of tomoharu saito caught me off guard and it was for something as small as slow play, seriously wizards's recent suspension of Pro Tour Champion Remi Fortier was reason to suspend him for match fraud and such which is a warranted automatic 24 month suspension or 2 years in this case as per on the DCI banned list. But saito's slow play doesn't really warrant such a massive suspension, this is a man whom was on the verge of going into the prestigous hall of fame, on the verge of winning player of the year and even was a member of Channel Fireball perhaps the best group magic has ever known to date. However his recent suspension has me thinking now, 18 months for slow play and the fact he was removed from the channel fireball squad isn't bad enough, but now he's not eligible for the hall of fame status, which i understand as it is that damned good to get into the hall of fame which i will discuss later in the article. But also the fact most of the time i've heard of this man whom has won quite a few Pro Tours and even some Grand Prix's in the face of adversity he's been very consistent so what went wrong, well he kinda got nervous and slowed his play to run out the clock it would seem, doing that got him a warning, but he did it again in his next match and got disqualified for it which is a damn shame, he ended off his year with a whopping 47 pro points and even was on his way to worlds which is going on as of this article. However small it was it would appear wizards does not take kindly to rules infractions and such, i hope though when saito comes back to playing magic professionally he'll remember that infraction and look back on it, so he won't make the same mistake twice or one would hope in all honesty as coming from a fan of his and a long time follower of magic news.
So worlds is finally upon us and the man known as Brad Nelson is looking to take the infamous player of the year title, however if you've kept up with the coverage of the event you will know that he has gone 6-6 as of this writing and his spot at making top 8 is pretty much gone, one can hope though he makes it to the top 64 or even top 100 to have a good shot at player of the year this year, but i digress it would be nice to see a american take player of the year and have the united states take home the team competition like they did a couple of years back personally. Paulo Vitor Damo Da Rosa or paulo for short is looking for his Player of the year title as well as he as of this writing sits 10-3 and in some serious contention to take both the worlds title and player of the year title since he sits like second on the list at a mere 48 points but then again worlds gives out 25 points for winning and this could be his year as far as i know, good luck to him though on his quest to get both titles this year. However though there are like 6 rounds left of the regular competition before the end of the worlds determining whom makes it to top 8, congrats go to brian kibler, gabriel nassif and bram snepvangers whom made it into this year's hall of fame class but it would seem brian kibler wants to win it this year just as badly as he went 6-0 with his brand new standard deck and did pretty dang well in today's draft, though that's enough worlds news, for those whom want to watch the worlds top 8 coverage be sure to stay tuned to the mothership aka wizards of the coast's main site on saturday december 11th at 8:45 pm eastern standard time, i'm sure you can figure out the time zones from there.
Finally i want to bring up the recent changes to the format known as Elder Dragon Highlander or the now known form of Commander which is essentially the same damned thing but they are using the magic online terms for it now, even though it is a fan created format it will still be run by the fans but it would seem wizards is finally giving it a chance, 51 new cards and a bunch of precon decks will be made for this sort of thing, believe it or not it's gonna be a interesting change as most people whom don't play EDH will now be able to pick up one of these and play instantly when they come out in June of course. Now for those whom usually play EDH means basically you don't have to waste hundreds of dollars getting all the cards from previous sets, basically you're given a deck for a specific price and off you go and these will even have a event for them, another excuse for wizards to basically make a buck off a format that was never really reconigzed till most recently, anyhoo that's it for this one, i hope you enjoyed the basic news of what's been going on in magic for the past month, i intend to try and make this a monthly thing if i can of course, see you next article
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