We are happy to announce that Magic: The Gathering products are now available at several Magudy’s Bookshops throughout the UAE.

You will be able to find starter packs and boosters of the last editions – no accessories yet (but it’ll come eventually ).

The retail prices are the following:
Booster pack: 18 AED
Intro pack: 60 AED

Thanks loads to everyone who turned up at our Magic 2011 prerelease event on the 9th of July. It was great to see so many familiar faces as well as a host of new ones at the event. 20 people all told turned up for the two sealed events at an alternate location overlooking the Dubai Fountain and Burj Khalifa.

Thanks to Tammy for arranging the alternate location. If any one of you has similar suggestions for a short/long term location do make sure to get in touch as we’re keen on having multiple locations just in case.

Those of you that were there may have been aware of a journalist from The National newspaper interviewing us. Well, the results are in and we’ve been published again! The article by Matt Kwong can be read here if you’re interested and has some humorous quotes from yours truly and some of our players.

We’ll be having our Release Event sometime on the weekend of the 30th July. Keep tuned for more details and an updated event list once everything rolls in.

The Summer of Multiplayer is ongoing so if any of you have been on holiday or missed our previous announcements, we are regularly meeting up for casual multiplayer madness. I’ve still got an extra set of Archenemy decks in case you never got around to getting a set. Hit me up if you would like it. Whether it is EDH, Planechase, Archenemy, Emperor or just a bit of the regular Free-For-All, get in touch on the forum and we’ll make sure to have enough players to satiate your desires of planar domination.

Deal All,

Due to a request submitted by the Dubai authorities, we are hereby suspending all public MTG events until further notice.

We will be working both with the Rydges Plaza and the Dubai authorities to solve the issue as quickly as possible.

The Rydges Plaza is not to be used for any kind of Magic:The Gathering events until the issue is resolved. Please do NOT go to the Rydges Plaza for card games until the issue is resolved.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

22/06 Update:

Best Regards,

the admins

With the imminent release of Archenemy, we will be converting Saturday’s events into free play casual events. This will allow a lot of the noncompetitive players a chance to meet and sling some cards about in a variety of different formats. This day is for everything whether you just want to test some Block or Standard Constructed decks, or get into a multiplayer EDH Planechase Archenemy Free-For-All.

In addition to the above we will be seeing the return of Two Headed Giant to future Release Launch Parties starting with Magic 2011′s release on the 16th of July. 2HG will run as a sealed limited format for releases. Based on the popularity of the event we will also schedule in additional 2HG events in between releases.

Not all Saturdays will be casual events so please keep an eye on the timetable for more information.

Those of you who have shown an interest in Archenemy, please have a look at the orders section of the forum and respond with which decks you are interested in purchasing as I will not overstock on the product. If you’d like to see the full listings of each deck for a better idea, here they are:

• Assemble the Doomsday Machine
• Bring About the Undead Apocalypse
• Trample Civilization Underfoot
• Scorch the World with Dragonfire

While stocks last we will also have promo cards as door prizes to the Saturday events. Looking forward to seeing all of you soon and if you’ve got an idea for a wacky casual format that we haven’t played yet, pop in in the Casual section of the forum and we’ll check it out to try on one of these events.

With that said… Let the multiplayer madness begin!

Without further ado, here is the info you’ve all been waiting for regarding this weekend’s championship tournament…

The Event Calendar has been updated to provide all the details you need to know regarding the event. Please review the listing here.

For those of you who haven’t been to a large event before, here is a simple FAQ that will hopefully answer any questions you may have.

General FAQ:

• Can I call to register and show up late?
• No, the event will start at 14:00 exactly. It is unfair to make others wait for you and delay the whole event

• Can I bring my own food and/or drinks to the tournament premises?
• No, unfortunately outside food is not allowed because the premises are kindly provided to us by The Rydges Plaza Hotel

• Can I count my life with a dice or a life counter?
• No, you MUST use a pen and paper in order to keep track of life changes

• Will I be deck-checked?
• Yes, you might be deck-checked as there will be random deck-checks every round. Please note that time spent on the deck-checks will not count towards your round time. You will still be allowed the full round time for your matches

Booster Draft FAQ:

• Will the draft be timed?
• Yes, the draft will be timed. Each pick will have to be made within a certain amount of time

• How much time do I have to make a pick during the draft portion of the tournament?
• 40 seconds for the 1st pick, which will gradually be reduced down to 5 seconds for the 10th pick onwards

• How much time do I get to construct and register my deck during the draft portion of the tournament?
• 30 minutes

• Will I have to register my draft deck?
• Yes, you will be provided with a registration sheet

Standard Constructed FAQ:

• Which sets are legal in this tournament?
• The cards that make up your Standard legal deck have to be comprised of cards that have been printed (or reprinted from older versions) in the following sets: Shards of Alara, Conflux, Alara Reborn, Magic 2010, Zendikar, Worldwake and Rise of the Eldrazi

• How many cards can I have in my deck?
• A minimum of 60 cards must be in your Standard Constructed Deck with a sideboard of zero or 15 cards. No more than 4 copies of any card is allowed in the main deck and sideboard combined other than basic land cards. For more information please see Standard Format Deck Construction

Finals FAQ:

• How does the top 4 works?
• The 4 players with the most amount of points after all 6 rounds will enter the top 4. They will be playing best-of-5 Standard Constructed direct elimination, with 90 minutes to play the semifinals and no time limit for the finals.

• Why don’t we have a slot to Worlds this year?
• The MTG community in the UAE is still too small to qualify for a slot at Worlds, with less than 50 registered players in total and no tournaments of 32 players or more having ever been held in the region

Players are encouraged to review the MTG Tournament Rules

Please bring only those items that you will need for the day. You will find that extra items will only get in the way.