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.

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.

So the time has come to crack open some booster packs and start slinging some fatties across the battlefield. Will your arsenal include levelers, Eldrazi, or weenies with Totem Armor? Or will you be sitting back behind some defenders and walls waiting for the true moment to strike? Find out this weekend as we have our Rise of the Eldrazi Release Event.

For those of you who haven’t been to a release event before, here are a few tips on what you need to bring:

• Money. It sounds silly but people often forget to budget how much they need for the day. Each day has one draft at AED 65 and one sealed event at AED 120. Make sure you bring enough to play and to eat. Don’t forget to budget for your transportation costs while you’re getting the money together.
• Sleeves. The cards you open in sealed tournaments and the cards you draft are all yours to keep but make sure to protect your cards especially if you’re going to be trading them once you’re done with them. I shall have a limited amount of extra sleeves but don’t rely on my supply. Be prepared. Bring at least 40 sleeves to play with. You’ll only need to have one deck sleeved at any point in time so you don’t need more than that over the course of the weekend.
• Paper and Pen/Pencil. I will not be a stationery store during the event so please bring some way of tracking your life scores. Spindown counters and additional dice are extremely helpful since you will need them especially for all the levelers in the set.
• Yourself. Remember that you’re there to have fun and experience the set for the first time. Bring trade folders if you feel you must but keep an eye on your belongings and don’t leave your new cards lying around. Since noone has a prior collection of ROE cards, one pile will look the same as another at first glance. Keep track of your cards and folders.

That said I’ve got lots and lots of shiny shrinkwrapped boxes waiting to be popped open tomorrow. I look forward to seeing all of you there. Remember to register in the forum if you can so we have a better idea of numbers.

Bring on the rise!

For those of you who’ve been waiting to hear about how Rise of the Eldrazi will be coming to our shores, here’s the scoop… We will be holding our own Rise of the Eldrazi “Release” on May 7th and 8th. It will feature the same events that will be played worldwide this weekend when everyone else gets to get their hands on the new cards. Our delay will be due to the fact that we won’t be holding the release through official channels for ROE. As previously stated, this should hopefully change in time for M11 but it is all we have for the moment. This means that we’ll not have any shiny promo cards. Sniff sniff…

If you want to practice ripping open some ROE boosters before the release, head on over to SvenskaMagic’s – Rise of the Eldrazi Booster Ripper™ for a bit of a laugh. The link at the top of the page lets you rip open a new one.

Following the ROE release, we will be moving into Block season… For those of you unfamiliar with the block format, it is a constructed format that is the easiest for new players to get into since it only includes cards from the current block. This means that Alara Block cards and M10 cards won’t be viable in this format. Sorry Path to Exile, Lightning Bolt, Baneslayer Angel and most of the Jund deck. What it does mean is that it is a lot less price prohibitive and allows for some creative deckbuilding. Head on over to the spoiler and figure out what your block deck is going to be.

Prior to the ROE release, we will be having one final Zendikar-Zendikar-Worldwake draft this weekend. I’ve only got enough boosters for 11 people so only the first registered will be able to play. This will be the last chance to rip open a Zendikar pack looking for that planeswalker or hard to get uncommon. Register in this topic to make sure you get a spot in this last draft.

I will also be holding a Reject Rare Draft the following weekend. For those of you unfamiliar with this format, imagine opening up a booster full of rares… What would you pick? That is exactly what this format is like. Call it the anti-Cube. Where Cube Drafting tends to have the “best” cards ever printed, Reject Rare Drafts focus on the forgotten rares that most people don’t look twice at. Chances are that you end up making a new combo in a deck you build at this event. To make it even more enticing, you get to keep the rares and I’ll be giving out an expensive foil promo to all who participate. Look forward to seeing you then. I’ll need early confirmations on this event seeing as I’ll have to “create” the boosters and don’t want to make too much more than necessary.