Magic The Gathering - Malaysia

Announcement Date: June 20, 2011
Effective Date: July 1, 2011
Magic Online Effective Date: June 29, 2011

Standard
Jace, the Mind Sculptor is banned.
Stoneforge Mystic is banned.

Exception: The deck list for the "War of Attrition" Event Deck will be legal in Standard if kept completely intact. That deck, which went on sale on June 10, contains two copies of Stoneforge Mystic.

On Magic Online, Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic will both be banned in Standard as of the June 29, 2011 downtime. There will be no exceptions made for the Event Deck containing Stoneforge Mystic, as that deck will not be sold online.

Scars of Mirrodin Block Constructed, Extended, Legacy, Vintage
No changes

Changes to Magic Online–only formats are now announced monthly in the Magic Online Community Group blog.

For the complete list of all banned and restricted cards by format, click here.

For an explanation of the B&R changes from R&D member Aaron Forsythe, click here.

Read more!

As you may already know (and if you don't, we're making it our business to inform you right now), the Rise of the Eldrazi Prerelease will be on the weekend of April 17-18. And if you go to one and play in the event, and if supplies hold out, you'll get one of these lovely alternate-art foil cards:

Note that the date of the Prerelease is stamped on it, which will come in handy if you're having trouble remembering when it is. Of course, you won't have the card until after the event, but maybe you'll wander through a temporal anomaly or something. And then you'll have a handy reference. Look, it's good to be prepared, okay?

- Rise of the Eldrazi Prerelease Card - Magic Arcana, DailyMTG.com



Read more!

Held each year, National Championships are the highest level competition for a particular country. In 2009, players from 67 countries will compete in Magic: The Gathering National Championships for the right to represent their countries at the 2009 World Championships held in Rome, Italy on November 19-22, 2009.

- Wizards of the Coast, 2009 National Championships Webpage


2008 National Champion and runner-ups - (From left to right, 2nd place - Chong Kin Leong, 3rd place - Jason Yap, 4th place - Nico Surinindran, Champion - Au Yong Wai Kin)

The 2009 National Championships webpage had just been recently updated and it can be seen from the page that the dates have been decided to be July 4th to 5th.

National Championships are the highest-level events for individual countries. National Championships determine national teams, which are invited to the World Championship. Very little have been announced officially, but the tournament usually gives out thousands of US dollars in cash prizes for the top players of the championship.

Hit more for more information!

According to the Magic: The Gathering Premier Event Invitation Policy 2009 DCI Tournament Season, the 2009 Malaysian National Championship will invite the follow players to play in the invite-only tournament:

• That country’s current National Champion.
• Members of that country’s current national team, including alternate (those players that played as that country’s National Team at the previous year’s World Championship).
• The 2008 World Champion (if residing in that country).
• The 2008 Pro Tour Player of the Year (if residing in that country).
• Players (from that country) with Pro Tour Players Club level 2 or higher.
• Winners of invitations through Regional tournaments such as Regional Championships, National Qualifiers, open tournaments, etc.
• That country’s Top 75 DCI Composite–ranked players.
• That country’s Top 75 DCI Total Rating–ranked players.

The Rating Date for Invitations will be 10-Jun-09.

Stay tuned on this site as we'll bring you more information as soon as it becomes available!

Read more!

4 members of the same team did a clean sweep of the top prizes of the RM2.4K MTG Showdown held at The Summmit USJ by Decards Enterprise last Sunday on the 21st of December 2008.

There were 47 players and with the Swiss + 1 format, the standings were determined by 7 rounds of swiss play.

The top 8 finishers are:

1st - Shamsul Bahrin Zainuddin
2nd - Arif b Kamaruddin
3rd - Zac D Hill
4th - Nico Surinindran
5th - Jo Ch'ng
6th - Daniel Gan
7th - Eddy Ng
8th - Andrew Choong


The tournament scene


1st - Shamsul Bahrin Zainuddin


2nd - Arif b Kamaruddin


3rd - Zac D Hill


4th - Nico Surinindran


5th - Jo Ch'ng


6th - Daniel Gan


7th - Eddy Ng


8th - Andrew Choong

Read more!

Smalltalk: The coverage for the final local PTQ: Kyoto @ Manawerx on the 14th of December are being written and will be posted as soon as possible. Check back soon!



Finland’s Antti Malin and the U.S. team of Michael Jacob, Sam Black, and Paul Cheon are your 2008 World Champions!



Meanwhile, it was heartbreak for Team Malaysia as Au Yong Wai Kin, Chong Kin Leong and Terry Soh finished 5th on the Team Championship, missing out the top 4 single elimination rounds on tiebreakers.

Each of them will receive US$1,500 for their 5th place finish.

Malin and his Faeries deck defeated a resurgent Jamie Parke and his Five-Color Control in the finals to take home the World Champion trophy and the $45,000 first prize. Malin defeated Akira Asahara and Hannes Kerem en route to his first major championship.

Team USA captured the team title on the backs of wins by Black and Cheon in the Team Finals. Black defeated Rookie of the Year Aaron Nicastri in the Extended matchup, while Cheon outlasted Justin Cheung a the Legacy duel featuring an epic Standstill that finally cracked in Cheon’s favor. That win rendered the outcome of the Standard matchup between Jacob and Brandon Lau moot in the best-of-three Finals.

That’s not all the hardware that was handed out over the weekend. Shuhei Nakamura fended off all challengers to win the 2008 Player of the Year trophy, and the Pro Tour Hall of Fame inducted its five newest members: Dirk Baberowski, Mike Turian, Jelger Wiegersma, Olivier Ruel, and Ben Rubin. Nicastri’s 17th-place finish in the individual standings and runner-up status in the team competition cemented his Rookie of the Year, culminating a mad dash around the world for Pro Points that started back when he won the Australia National Championship.

Congratulations to all the champions crowned this weekend in Memphis. As the curtain comes down on this 2008 Pro Tour season, all we have to say is thank you...thank you very much.

See you in Kyoto!

- Official MagicTheGathering.com Coverage Team

Player profiles, decklists, news, photos, stories and many more on the World Championships are available on the official coverage here.Read more!

29 players fought all day long in another Shards of Alara sealed deck tournament but it was limited specialist Johan Jamal Yacob, fresh off another top 8 appearance in last week's GPT at Manawerx who took home the title of champion with a powerful Grixis deck with bone-chillingly frightening synergy.



Johan's deck handily dealt with his top 8 opponents despite all of his opponents having cards that were alot more flashier than his, with a brilliant draft, tight plays and several amazing game breaking decisions and plays, taking out Hong How Tuan, Kuan Khang Jong and Clement Lim on his way to the top.


GPT Taipei Decards 2008 Champion, Johan Jamal Yacob

Top 8 Players

1 Chan, Kok Weng
2 Khang Jong, Kuan
3 Hong, How Tuan
4 Kwan, Wen Ching
5 Lau, James
6 Yacob, Johan Jamal
7 Amin, Mohd Aidi
8 Lim Wui Hoong, Clement

More detailed match coverage and pictures to be posted in the near future.Read more!

You can't spell ELVES! without LSV.

Luis Scott-Vargas and his finely tuned version of the Elf deck went through The Tezzerator, the reigning Player of the Year, and the mirror match in the finals to take home the Pro Tour–Berlin title.

If you were looking for big Magic, Pro Tour-Berlin delivered on all accounts. The biggest individual Pro Tour ever showcased a big breakthrough for Scott-Vargas. The former U.S. National Champion won his first Pro Tour, thanks in large part to the defining deck archetype of the tournament: ELVES!

Traversing his way through mirror matches in the semifinals against Tomoharu Saito and Matej Zatlkaj in the finals, Scott-Vargas went off with his Elf combo at the right time to capture the Berlin championship and the $40,000 first prize.

- Wizards of the Coast, Official Event Coverage

Congratulations to all the players who made Berlin such a memorable weekend. We'll see you again next month when we trade ELVES! for Elvis as Memphis, Tennessee plays host to the Magic: The Gathering World Championships.

Top 8 Players

1. Luis Scott-Vargas $40,000
2. Matej Zatlkaj $20,000
3. Tomoharu Saito $15,000
4. Sebastian Thaler $13,000
5. Kenny Öberg $11,000
6. Martin Juza $10,500
7. Denis Sinner $10,000
8. Jan Doise $9,500

Final Standings

Top 8 Profiles

Top 8 Decklists

For more coverage and information, visit the official event coverage
Read more!

2nd November 2008 (Sunday) - GPT Taipei 2008 @ Decards

2nd November 2008 (Sunday) - GPT Taipei 2008 @ Twenty Twenty Book Centre (Penang)

2nd November 2008 (Sunday) - GPT Taipei 2008 @ Mindslaver Games & Trading (Kota Kinabalu)

9th November 2008 (Sunday) - PTQ Kyoto (KL) @ Manawerx PJ

23rd November 2008 (Sunday) - PTQ Kyoto (Penang) @ Twenty Twenty Book Centre

30th November 2008 (Sunday) - PTQ Kyoto (Ipoh) @ Game Vault

Hi, welcome to what I hope to be a monthly feature outlining the more prominent events in the upcoming months. If you are an event organizer and would like to see your events featured in a future edition of my monthly bulletin, please drop me an email at qj.wong@gmail.com

November is set to be a very exciting month with a GPT to start off with and plenty of red hot PTQ action following right up for the rest of the month!

For more information, please click on the related links or send me an email and I'll help you as much as I can!Read more!

Zac Hill is almost unstoppable the CCEGAMES 1.5K Arena Limited League week 3 comes to an end, with a 12-points lead while Nik also still leads the Constructed front, but by only 6 points.












Meanwhile, Michael Toh just announced the dates and some additional information for PTQ Kyoto for KL.



Kyoto - photo by Samurai Dave

Date: Nov 9th and Dec 14th...

Format: Sealed with Top 8 Booster Draft

Entry fees: RM70

Venue: TBD

- Micheal Toh, MTG-Malaysia forums

Matchday 6 is in the books and with only ONE matchday remaining, its tight up the standings for the Standard Challenge but the same cant be said for the Draft Challenge.....

Standard Recap
Nik Nadrul showed up late for Matchday 5 but despite playing a full 3 games (a tardiness rule which we'll amend for October League) he went down in the first round to only secure 6 points for the Matchday. Despite another poor performance with only 3 points for Matchday 6, Nik still sits atop of the standings with 39 points. But with rumours circulating that Nik will not be attending the Shards pre-release next Saturday (which co-incides with Matchday 7) and FOUR rounds to play instead of the usual three, his 6 point cushion may not be enough to secure the top prize.....

Hanging on near the top of the standings is Clement Lim and Eddy Ng who each racked 12 points in the two Matchdays over the weekend to creep ever closely to the top prize. No doubt they will be there for the Shards pre-release, but will the sealed deck gods be kind??

Clement's buddy, James Lau took home the first prize on Matchday 5 with a more conventional, non-snow, mono red while Mod Nazim literraly "stormed" his way to victory on Matchday 6. Decklists to be published within the next few days.....

Draft Recap
Its just a formality now as Zac Hill scored a whopping 24 points over the course of 3 drafts over the weekend, as well as staying flawless on Matchday 6 for a cool 18 points and a 12 point cushion over his rival Nur Shahbuddin..... Zac will be on during the pre-release on Matchday 7 more to "discourage" drafters to maintain his overall position.... With the rest of the pack firmly a distance away, what will Shah do this weekend???

Dont forget the race to the finale on Matchday 7 and see you during the pre-release!! Remember, Shards of Alara pre-release this weekend counts to matchday 7 for the standard challenge only.

Visit our website at ww.ccegames.com for full standings!

- CCEGAMES.COM, MTG-Malaysia forums

Related posts:

CCEGAMES RM1.5K ARENA (Week 2)

CCEgames.com RM1,500 Magic The Gathering Arena LeagueRead more!

Shards of Alara Official Previews starts today on DailyMTG.com!



The hype for the latest set is burning up as the first official previews for the set starts off with an introduction to Sarkhan Vol and briefly about the Shards in the plane of Alara, in a feature article by Doug Beyer where you can read here, including a jaw-dropping preview at Sarkan's own card.

Meanwhile, Mark Rosewater introduces the unusually big design team whom the set's design is credited to (all 15 of them), along with his usual design stories for the set as well as introducing us to Bant's unique and the shard's mechanic - Exalted through two cards in his article that can be found here.

More information on the set itself can be found here, including cards spoiled by magazines and other publications all around the world in it's visual spoilers, a more detailed look at Alara, an online jigsaw puzzle teaser and the fact sheet for more detailed information about the set officially announced so far.Read more!

In a shock announcement today, Wizards of the Coast announces that effective September 20, 2008, Sensei's Divining Top will be banned in the Extended Constructed format. The artifact has been a format defining card with many popular and successful decks deploying the cheap and efficient library manipulation tool, and created its own archetype along side Counterbalance. Alongside the announcement are more changes to the Legacy and Vintage Banned and Restricted List, but there has been very few changes to the more popular Standard and Extended Constructed format over the years.





















For the full Vintage Banned and Restricted List Announcement visit - http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/news/09012008

For the complete list of all banned and restricted cards by format, visit - http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=judge/resources/banned

An explanation of this announcement will be published on Latest Developments column on Friday, September 5, on MagicTheGathering.com under Daily MTG.
Read more!

WIZARDs OF THE COAST to Debut magic: the gathering® - Duels of the planeswalkers at Penny Arcade Expo

Magic: The Gathering Brand Extends Fantasy Gaming Options to Xbox 360


SEATTLE, WA.—August 27, 2008 — Wizards of the Coast, Inc. a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE: HAS) and a leader in entertaining the lifestyle gamer today announced the unveiling of Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers, a video game extension of the successful Magic: The Gathering franchise for Xbox LIVE® Arcade. Scheduled for official release in Spring 2009, this year's Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) attendees can demo the game at Wizards of the Coast's booth (No. 1123) during the show taking place at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle August 29-31.

“We're excited to bring the Magic brand to new platforms and give gamers new ways to experience this great property,” said Jared Gustafson, Brand Director for Magic: The Gathering at Wizards of the Coast. “The game successfully brings Magic's inherent strategic game play to the Xbox LIVE community.

Developed by Stainless Games, Ltd., Duels of the Planeswalkers lets players simulate the Magic: The Gathering Trading Card Game through an interactive digital experience. Players take on the role of a Planeswalker, a powerful wizard who battles others for glory, knowledge and conquest. Each Planeswalker has an arsenal of spells and creatures showcased by virtual cards. Players can either choose to battle against the computer or compete online against real life opponents using Microsoft's Xbox LIVE service offerings. With endless game play scenarios, including multiplayer game mode, Duels of the Planeswalkers offers an unrivaled depth in which each game is different from the last.

Magic: The Gathering, introduced in 1993, is the premier and original trading card game that inspired an entirely new game genre. Combining the dynamics of a strategic card game with the excitement of fantasy art, trading and collecting, Magic offers fun for casual play, as well as the option of highly competitive tournaments.

For additional information on Duels of the Planeswalkers, please visit: www.magicthegathering.com.

Sounds great and all... but XBox Live Arcade only...?

Meh.Read more!

David Larsson Wins Grand Prix Copenhagon



























David Larsson set fire on his opponents all day long, defeating 610 other players in a red hot metagame that consisted a whopping 120 mono-red decks to win GP Copenhagon and US$4000.

Full official event and match coverage can be found here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/gpcop08/welcome

Top 8 Decklists to be found here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/gpcop08/top8decks
Read more!

Restructuring at WotC
Results in Job Cuts
August 20, 2008

Wizards of the Coast announced today that it is restructuring “to focus on key growth strategies for core brands,” which will result in job eliminations. A spokesperson for the company declined to reveal the number of positions eliminated, or their departments, but did say that the total job cuts were less than 5% of the workforce.

The renewed focus on its core businesses, specifically Dungeons and Dragons and Magic: The Gathering, has been driving a lot of decisions at the hobby gaming powerhouse recently, including cutbacks in its fiction program (see “WotC Refocuses Its Publishing Program”) and the shutdown of its ambitious Gleemax online initiative (see “WotC Pulls the Plug on Gleemax”). This focus is also part of a larger strategy at parent Hasbro.

WotC President Greg Leeds said of the changes: “As a company, we will continue to be the leader in entertaining the lifestyle gamer. Re-aligning resources ensures we achieve this goal for our most powerful brands.”

While some positions were eliminated as part of the restructuring, the company is also recruiting to fill open positions elsewhere in the company.

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/13126.html

Looks like it's tough times for the company as the US economy is set to see hard times in the near future. But it's not all doom and gloom.

The good news is, this is probably a positive thing because the jobs they're cutting are most probably them cutting off the flops that Wizards been making over the years like Dreamblade, Duelmasters and the like. Also, refocusing on their keybrands is good - DnD and Magic deserves to be better, and if they want to get new players and keep the old, it has to be. The news also mentions new job openings, so hopefully Wizards will give priority to the people who lost jobs into the new jobs.Read more!

The DCI® is giving players in a growing number of countries and stores the opportunity to play in a weekly event and have a shot at cool FOIL prize cards in the process.

Stores around the world are running Friday Night Magic nearly every week. Check the list of participating stores to find a location near you. Please contact the store to check for participation dates and starting times.

- Wizards of the Coast, http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=events/magic/fnm

You can find out where to play here or contact us via the contact us link near the bottom of the site's banner.

This month, get a chance to grab a really hot (pardon the pun) Desert:



September's promo has also been spoiled. If you don't want to know, don't click the link below!

Thanks to mtgsalvation.com's Rumour Mill, we know that September's FNM promo will be Thirst For Knowledge.



With Shards of Alara rumoured to have a sub theme of artifacts, it is speculated that Thirst For Knowledge will be reprinted in the set.

Exciting times ahead to look forward to. :)Read more!

With Eventide Launch Party in the books, and Nationals season coming, players who are bored with Lorwyn/Shadowmoor's darker and grittier fairy tale'ish settings, aren't too excited with the toys Eventide brough or just can't wait for more cards can look forward to the upcoming new block which is rumoured to not only bring us to a whole new world and setting, but FIVE.



And more recently unveiled, the name of the set that comes immediately after Shards will be...



Shards of Alara - Five worlds share one fate.



http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/arcana/1549

Conflux

Conflux
Con"flux\, n. [From L. confluxus, p. p. See Confluent.]

1. A flowing together; a meeting of currents. "The conflux of meeting sap." --Shak.

The general conflux and concourse of the whole people. --Clarendon.

2. A large assemblage; a passing multitude.

To the gates cast round thine eye, and see What conflux issuing forth, or entering in. --Milton.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/arcana/1644

Read more!