I believe he did some things that got him in trouble with the DCI and led to DQ's.
Im not apt enough to remember if that is correct or not...
Mark Justice got DQd from Grand Prix Atlanta in 1997 for adding a fourth Muscle Sliver to his draft deck. This is one concrete example, but back then he had the reputation of a dishonest player - back then it was very easy to get away with dishonest play.
You should definitely go to the tournament, it'll be a great learning experience. Here are a few tips:
- Get new sleeves and triple-check your decklist. Getting warnings/losses for stuff like that is no fun.
- Be prepared to lose, happy if you win. Relax and have fun.
- Play the entire tournament, even if you start out 0-2 or 0-3. Experience is super valuable!
- Know your deck, announce all of your triggers, play very carefully.
- Bring healthy food and something to drink. Bottled water and granola bars or something. It can be hard to find healthy food near tournament sites and these tournaments can be long and draining.
Anyone saying they have MM still available in stores is should realize they are most likely extreme outliers. MM sold out so fast in every LGS in a 2 hours radius from me it was amazing. Literally I think the total time the product was ever on the shelves was less than an hour before they were all gone.
I was at my LGS last weekend and picked up two packs of MM on a whim for $10 - got an Elspeth =) I knew the set was in limited quantities, but didn't realize I was so lucky to even find packs!
So..... Suddenly there is a heap of boxes left over to run events. I think this is disgusting considering so many shops were shorted.
Come on Wotc, reprint more and get them into supply.
Thoughts?
When they announced the product, and announced that events would be run with the product, it's likely that they set aside enough product ahead of time to run those events.
Whenever the question, "Why is card X so good?" comes up, my solution is to play with it. Many cards are much better or worse in actual gameplay than they seem at first glance.
Scavenging Ooze is a beast of a card for the reasons that LMTRK has already stated. It's cheap, grows explosively, and wins games.
Scavenging Ooze is also useful in the early and the late game, while providing disruption while simultaneously advancing your gameplan. It's ok in the early game, but it's a fantastic manasink in the late game. It's also useful in Legacy, so it has a multi-format thing going for it.
With Hypergenesis, creatures are played one at a time - they do not enter the battlefield simultaneously. If your Urabrask is in play when your opponent puts another creature into play then it will ETB tapped. This is the case during or after Hypergenesis resolves.
The invitational top 8 legacy decks were just the decks the top 8 players played in a mixed format event. I would look at the 7-1 decks instead. Or the results from the open happening now.
Only one Shardless BUG in the top 8 of the open, btw.
Said it before, will say it again: As long as the penalties for cheating are as lax as they are, people will continue to cheat. The upsides to cheating massively outweigh the downsides.
This is the sad truth. A game loss in exchange for a bunch of rounds playing with an illegal deck? Everyone who wants to win the PTQ should take that deal in a heartbeat. You might even get lucky and not get deck checked all day - bonus!
The best example is Necropotence. Inquest magazine used to do a preview of new sets with ratings, and they called Necropotence the worst rare in the set! People back then definitely didn't 'get it'.
I read it a while back, and it's well-written and useful. It discusses everything you'd expect: deck selection, tournament preparation, the mental game, bluffing, in-game concepts (tempo, card advantage, etc).
The first strike damage happens first, which destroys the Jagged-Scar Archers. Since the Archers are dead, they do not deal their normal combat damage and both of your creatures live.
Mark Justice got DQd from Grand Prix Atlanta in 1997 for adding a fourth Muscle Sliver to his draft deck. This is one concrete example, but back then he had the reputation of a dishonest player - back then it was very easy to get away with dishonest play.
- Get new sleeves and triple-check your decklist. Getting warnings/losses for stuff like that is no fun.
- Be prepared to lose, happy if you win. Relax and have fun.
- Play the entire tournament, even if you start out 0-2 or 0-3. Experience is super valuable!
- Know your deck, announce all of your triggers, play very carefully.
- Bring healthy food and something to drink. Bottled water and granola bars or something. It can be hard to find healthy food near tournament sites and these tournaments can be long and draining.
https://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/HallOfFame.aspx?x=mtgevent/hof/13results
I was at my LGS last weekend and picked up two packs of MM on a whim for $10 - got an Elspeth =) I knew the set was in limited quantities, but didn't realize I was so lucky to even find packs!
This is a very sad, disrespectful, and incorrect post - and I'm pretty sure you're just doing it for attention.
When they announced the product, and announced that events would be run with the product, it's likely that they set aside enough product ahead of time to run those events.
Scavenging Ooze is also useful in the early and the late game, while providing disruption while simultaneously advancing your gameplan. It's ok in the early game, but it's a fantastic manasink in the late game. It's also useful in Legacy, so it has a multi-format thing going for it.
Only one Shardless BUG in the top 8 of the open, btw.
This is the sad truth. A game loss in exchange for a bunch of rounds playing with an illegal deck? Everyone who wants to win the PTQ should take that deal in a heartbeat. You might even get lucky and not get deck checked all day - bonus!
You can buy a paperback copy: http://www.starcitygames.com/pages/nextlevelmagic/
I read it a while back, and it's well-written and useful. It discusses everything you'd expect: deck selection, tournament preparation, the mental game, bluffing, in-game concepts (tempo, card advantage, etc).