Join us this Saturday and Sunday for the Scars of Mirrodin Release! We’ll be running two sealed tournaments on Saturday and one on Sunday. All participants will receive a Steel Hellkite Promo (while supplies last).

Launch parties are sanctioned by the DCI, which is the governing body for all Magic tournaments – from the smallest local events up to the multi-million dollar Pro Tour. Playing in a sanctioned event means your results are recorded and begin to give you a player rating among the thousands of Magic players worldwide. If you don’t have a DCI number yet, the event staff on site can provide you with one. For many players, Prereleases are a fun and easy way to play in their first sanctioned events.

At launch parties, the emphasis is on casual play with a high degree of sportsmanship. You don’t need to know the rules well, but you should always be polite and respectful to your opponents. If there is a disagreement, or a question about a ruling, please call a judge.

More info about launch parties can be found on the Magic the Gathering website.

The Game Academy
5671 East Fowler Ave
Tampa, FL 33617

Call us @ 813.914.7000 for any questions

Click Here For A Map To Our Store

October 1st, 2010 (Friday)

05:30 PM Registration for Friday Night Magic begins
07:00 PM Friday Night Magic begins

October 2, 2010 (Saturday)

SEALED TOURNAMENT #1
Time: Registration opens at 10 a.m., with the tournament starting at 10:30 a.m.
Entry Fee: $25.00 per player.
Format: Scars of Mirrodin Sealed. Players will receive six (6) packs of Scars of Mirrodin to build a forty-card deck.
Structure: Four rounds of Swiss.
Prizes:
4-0: 8 packs of Scars of Mirrodin
3-1: 5 packs of Scars of Mirrodin
2-2: 1 pack of Scars of Mirrodin

SEALED TOURNAMENT #2
Time: Registration begins at 3 p.m., with the tournament starting at 3 :30p.m.
Entry Fee: $25.00 per player.
Format: Scars of Mirrodin Sealed. Players will receive six (6) packs of Scars of Mirrodin to build a forty-card deck.
Structure: Four rounds of Swiss.
Prizes:
4-0: 8 packs of Scars of Mirrodin
3-1: 5 packs of Scars of Mirrodin
2-2: 1 pack of Scars of Mirrodin

October 3, 2010 (Sunday)

SEALED TOURNAMENT #1
Time: Registration opens at 10 a.m., with the tournament starting at 10:30 a.m.
Entry Fee: $25.00 per player.
Format: Scars of Mirrodin Sealed. Players will receive six (6) packs of Scars of Mirrodin to build a forty-card deck.
Structure: Four rounds of Swiss.
Prizes:
4-0: 8 packs of Scars of Mirrodin
3-1: 5 packs of Scars of Mirrodin
2-2: 1 pack of Scars of Mirrodin

Join us next Saturday and Sunday for the Scars of Mirrodin Prerelease! We’ll be running two sealed tournaments on Saturday and one on Sunday. All participants will receive a Wurmcoil Engine Promo (while supplies last).

Held one week before each new Magic card set goes on sale, Prereleases  provide a way to play in a large-scale event in a low-stress  environment. You get to play with the cards before you can buy them,  special promotional cards are given out to attendees and the top players  can win even more cards. So have fun!

Prereleases are sanctioned by the DCI, which is the governing body for  all Magic tournaments – from the smallest local events up to the  multi-million dollar Pro Tour. Playing in a sanctioned event means your  results are recorded and begin to give you a player rating among the  thousands of Magic players worldwide. If you don’t have a DCI number  yet, the event staff on site can provide you with one. For many players,  Prereleases are a fun and easy way to play in their first sanctioned  events.

At Prerelease events, the emphasis is on casual play with a high degree  of sportsmanship. You don’t need to know the rules well, but you should  always be polite and respectful to your opponents. If there is a  disagreement, or a question about a ruling, please call a judge

The Game Academy
5671 East Fowler Ave
Tampa, FL 33617

Call us @ 813.914.7000 for any questions

Click Here For A Map To Our Store

September 24th, 2010 (Friday)

05:30 PM             Registration for Friday Night Magic begins
07:00 PM             Friday Night Magic begins

September 25, 2010 (Saturday)

SEALED TOURNAMENT #1
Time: Registration opens at 9 a.m., with the tournament starting at 10 a.m.
Entry Fee: $25.00 per player.
Format: Scars of Mirrodin Sealed. Players will receive six (6) packs of Scars of Mirrodin to build a forty-card deck.
Structure: Four rounds of Swiss.
Prizes:
4-0: 8 packs of Scars of Mirrodin
3-1: 5 packs of Scars of Mirrodin
2-2: 1 pack of Scars of Mirrodin

SEALED TOURNAMENT #2
Time: Registration begins at 2 p.m., with the tournament starting at 3 p.m.
Entry Fee: $25.00 per player.
Format: Scars of Mirrodin Sealed. Players will receive six (6) packs of Scars of Mirrodin to build a forty-card deck.
Structure: Four rounds of Swiss.
Prizes:
4-0: 8 packs of Scars of Mirrodin
3-1: 5 packs of Scars of Mirrodin
2-2: 1 pack of Scars of Mirrodin

We would love to see you for our Friday Night Magic (FNM) tournaments every Friday ! Details below:

FREE FOR EVERYONE!!!!!

Tournament Details:

Format: Standard

Prizes*:

GUARANTEED Booster box of the latest set for the Top 8 finishers!

Top 2 Finishers will receive a FNM Promo!

Random Door Prizes will be given away throughout the night.

Entry Fee: $0 (FREE!!!)

Registration starts @ 5:30 PM

Tournament Starts @ 7:00 PM

If you have any questions, please call 813-914-7000

Gatekeeper of Malakir FNM Promo for November 10′

On sale now for only $99.99!!

Zuran Orb, Black Vise, Sword of Body and Mind, Sundering Titan, Sol Ring, Isochron Scepter,

Nevinyrral’s Disk, Mox Diamond, Memory Jar, Mirari, Masticore, Karn, Silver Golem,

Jester’s Cap, Ivory Tower, and Aether Vial are all in this box set!

Click HERE to order yours today!

Product Info:

From the Vault: Relics contains fifteen battle-tested artifacts, culled from throughout the history of Magic: The Gathering. This limited-edition set also contains an exclusive preview card, a mythic rare from the October Magic set code named “Lights.”

NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER!

Scars of Mirrodin Booster Boxes 84.99
Scars of Mirrodin Booster Box Cases 504.99
Scars of Mirrodin Fat Packs 29.99

]]> http://www.thegameacademyonline.com/2010/08/28/scars-of-mirrodin-now-available-for-pre-order/feed/ 1 http://www.thegameacademyonline.com/2010/06/30/play-fnm-for-free-at-our-store-every-friday-starting-at-7pm/ http://www.thegameacademyonline.com/2010/06/30/play-fnm-for-free-at-our-store-every-friday-starting-at-7pm/#comments Thu, 01 Jul 2010 03:02:16 +0000 The Game Academy http://www.thegameacademyonline.com/?p=1223

Click Above for More Details

Magic the Gathering’s Banned Card Update: Implications for EDH and Beyond

On June 18th, Wizards of the Coast posted their biannual announcement outlining the changes to the banned and restricted list. These announcements typically have a severe but limited impact on the formats for which certain powerful cards are either banned or restricted. Occasionally and most recently, we have watched as a number of potent cards have experienced their release from the prison of banned or restricted cards. Notable cards that have had their sentence in exile commuted include Dream Halls, Entomb, and the newly emancipated Grim Monolith.

As a fan of Magic’s older formats, I typically stay up like a kid on Christmas Eve awaiting the presents that might be revealed. The last couple of banning announcements have had significant metagame and thus financial implications. The legacy format shifted with each unbanning in 2009. At Grand Prix Tampa, I was chatting with Patrick “The Innovator” Chapin about the implications of the newly unbanned Entomb on the legacy format. He noted that there was a pretty sick reanimator deck in the works that abused the process of dumping large, game-winning creatures into the grave and bringing those creatures back in the very early turns of the game via the Entomb, Mystical Tutor, and Reanimate. The deck had served a tenure in the gaming days of past and was ripe for rebirth.

Following the sage advice of Patrick, I set out on a journey to secure as many copies of the newly unbanned Entomb as possible. Earlier in the year, I had dropped $12 dollars on a playset of unbanned Dream Halls. The cards made an eventual appearance in the top 16 of a Starcitygames Legacy 5K, and my investment grew 5 fold. When there are whispers on the wind of an exciting new deck in an environment, you should: 1. Consider the source of the rumor 2. Do some evaluative thinking for yourself, and 3. Research prices on your speculative investment. If these three factors align to your liking, jump on the chance to own the cards, pilot the deck, and to make a solid investment. I purchased my two copies of Entomb at $7, my next two copies at $14, and the next four copies at $20 dollars each. The cards currently have an estimated value between $30-45.

This trend inspired me to await each possible opportunity to scoop up unbanned cards early and often. On June 17th, I stayed up late. I had to be at work the next day by 7am, but still felt it would be an awesome opportunity to await the announcement and make some quick decisions based on the outcomes. I have both good and bad news. I purchased a couple of copies of Grim Monolith for a low number, but the other announcements would have a far, far greater effect on the playability and financial value of my Magic collection. The announcement outlined the following terms:

The following card sets are permitted in Extended tournaments:
• Time Spiral (until October 1, 2010)
• Planar Chaos (until October 1, 2010)
• Future Sight (until October 1, 2010)
• Tenth Edition (until October 1, 2010)
• Lorwyn
• Morningtide
• Shadowmoor
• Eventide
• Shards of Alara
• Conflux
• Alara Reborn
• Magic 2010
• Zendikar
• Worldwake
• Rise of the Eldrazi
• Magic 2011 (effective July 16, 2010)
• Scars of Mirrodin (effective October 1, 2010)

The following cards are banned in Extended tournaments:
• Hypergenesis
• Sword of the Meek

My wife and I had only recently made our venture into playing competitive Extended tournaments. Over the last 8 months we picked up an additional play set of Tarmogoyf, play sets of each of the shock lands, and any number of tournament viable staples including Dark Confidant, Umezawa’s Jitte, and the recently popular Dark Depths. By the conclusion of the 2009-2010 extended season, Tarmogoyf was slated to reach $90 while Dark Depths were selling for $160 a foursome. We had been a huge fan of Extended Zoo decks that packed Tarmogoyf, used fetch lands to grab shock lands to even out the complicated casting cost of the deck’s many creatures and spells, and our particular version which sported Tribal Flames. This card rewarded particularly complex mana bases. For 2-casting cost, you could burn your opponent for each land type you controlled.

On the back of the most recent bannings, this deck and those sorts of rewards will be nearly extinct. I feel that the biggest loss to the format will be felt in the interaction between fetch lands and the shock lands. Building decks with the shock lands allowed for a different kind of magic. There was a distinct deck style available in Legacy and Extended than could be found or created in the Standard format. You were able to play a number of cards that “cared” if your dual-color producing lands (duals) were stamped with a basic land type. Underground Sea is both a Swamp and an Island. Watery Grave is both a Swamp and an Island. Underground River, Secluded Glen, and Drowned Catacombs are neither. The importance and convenience of fetching the former cards with a Polluted Delta (or other relevant fetch land) made the cards vastly more playable and superior to the latter for a wide array of decks. Those days appear to be gone in Extended along with that deck building freedom and “color-screw” liberation. Splashing extra colors is not as viable, playing a vast mix of cards will be result in slower and possibly less efficient decks. Consider the difference between the speed of the aforementioned Tribal Zoo and 2008’s 5-color control. The sheer number of come-into-play-tapped lands can really slow down a deck that relies on a complicated mana base.

Additional implications beyond the general loss of the fluid, complicated mana bases are the pure execution of some other deck types. Zoo was the rush deck type that worked to keep combo decks in check. Decks like Thopter Foundry, Dark Depths Combo, and Hyper Genesis were generally offset by the possibility of a speedy death at the hands of a skilled or lucky zoo player. With Zoo decks being eradicated, it appears that Wizards simply axed or put a tight time limit on the viability of popular control decks. Play your Dark Depths one last time in October, and then ship them off to legacy land. Sword of the Meek will R.I.P. along with the explosive starts and finishes provided by Hypergenesis.

What will be left when the dust settles? I imagine that players will find themselves immediately drawn to Faeries or one of the Tier II combo decks like Pyromancer’s Ascension.dec looming in the background. Aside from the obvious, it is likely that the format will morph and shift into something satisfactory, but at the expense of some great cards and good times.

Bannings In EDH: The Good, the Bad, and the Low Cost of Newly Banned Cards

Following the trend set by Wizards of the Coast, the Elder Dragon Highlander Rules Committee drops banning updates parallel to the mother ship. There were several shocking and non-shocking editions to the updated banned list. After generating a great amount of forum buzz and internet publicity around the Channel-Eldrazi deck, it seems that our best efforts to employ awesome, powerful, Eldrazi spells using mana ramp will be thwarted by the RC.

At least we got a couple of thousand hits on the YouTube channel and finished a three part series on the deck before it was banned to the stone age. I cannot say that it was unexpected. The synergy between the Spawnshire of Ulamog and Channel prompted a near-instant rules update to clarify what “outside of the game” entailed in EDH. If you were every privy to blowing out an opponent using the very lucky draw (or fortunate ability to search up Channel using any of a dozen cards) using Channel and unnamed giant Eldrazi, then you surely realized that the days of the easy, early Eldrazi were numbered. I am just glad that they did not ban the Eldrazi. That would have been a hard ban to accept. In any case, these are the updated bannings for EDH as of today:

There is a lot about this list that sits well with the player base. However, I think we should consider revisiting the Tolarian Academy banning. Tolarian Academy was always very, very strong. It was a sort of win condition among blue purists. The Azami deck will still be able to win games, but they will not be able to combo off quite as easily without the academy. Some players are complaining that Arcum Dagsson is dead and players will not be able to finish so effectively with Zur. I guess I am comfortable with these changes. Sharuum decks have always been a sort of sore spot and now they will have a tougher road to hoe. In general, many, many blue decks have just had their power dimmed. However, it seems likely that the next level of mono-blue decks will rise to take their annoying place atop the local metagames. Niv-Mizzet and Vendillion Clique are largely unaffected by the Tolarian Academy banning and will be new, most-hated generals.

On the topic of most-hated and feared generals, we must play a swan song for the little elf that staged a year long triumphant comeback from his previous banning. Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary will be sorely missed. I felt like the banning of the abused, obscure artifact was simply enough. The deck should have survived without the Staff of Domination. It was a good compliment next to blue decks and offered green-lovers everywhere a pure option. Now I fear that mono-green decks might dwindle to the power level of other non-blue mono colored decks. In the long run, I feel like the fear of early Eldrazi hitting the board will scare the RC into banning too many cards.

Future Implications

The next line of relatively awesome cards is set to fill the void left by the latest bannings. The front line has been shot down, but the battle wages on as the cards march like revolutionary war soldiers into the metagame. If players still want to pursue the dream of having an untimely, annihilating Eldrazi god break dancing across the gym floor. There are plenty of cards that will having you shouting, “You just got served” at your weeping opponent. Gaea’s Cradle comes to mind. The interaction between the increasingly expensive Grim Monolith and Power Artifact also springs to mind. You are not going to be able to ban enough mana ramp and acceleration to keep people off of the Eldrazi forever. Hopefully, the RC will realize this and will take Tolarian Academy off of the list. My wish is for a return of Rofellos and the Academy, but until then I am sure players will find new and awesome ways of doing tricky and conniving plays.

Check out our upcoming videos on YouTube where we carry on more of the discussion around the EDH bannings, the “improved” values of the recently banned Extended cards the implication on your EDH decks, and more hated generals. We will also explore some decks using alternative ways to power out your Eldrazi spells! Keep checking us out right here on www.thegameacademyonline.com and on YouTube at Elderdragonhighlandr.