Week in Review - November 23-29, 2001

Alex Shvartsman

Grand Prix-Biarritz

I am not sure what was the bigger news in Biarritz - who won the Grand Prix, or who didn't. In a close match, Nicolas Labarre defeated Kai Budde 2-1, to earn the title. This is the first Top 8 defeat for Budde in months, but fans can hardly hold this against him. With a second place finish, his successful streak continues. Budde is very likely to win the Pro Player of the Year title for the third time - a claim no one was able to make so early in a season previously.

Nicolas Labarre is one of France's most-liked pros, and is internationally renowned for succeeding on the Pro Tour with very rogue decks. His first major tournament success was at Pro Tour-Rome, where he finished second with an unexpected Merfolk strategy. Labarre went on to earn another Top 8 in 1998 PT-NY. He has also done very well on his home turf. In the last two Grand Prix to be held in France, Labarre finished 2nd (in Tours, losing to yours truly) and his team earned a Top 4 finish in Cannes. Labarre has fallen on harder times recently and was not qualified for San Diego. Grand Prix-Biarritz was the last chance for anyone to earn an Invitation, and I am among many who are glad to see Labarre back on the Tour. Other notable Top 8 finishers were Olivier Ruel and Alexander Witt.

Strangely, very few Americans traveled to Biarritz. Ryan Fuller (Canada) and I (US) were the only two North American players in attendance. Both of us finished a match win out of a Top 8, in 19th and 12th places respectively. Another top pro for whom this was a successful tournament was Mattias Jorstedt. He too needed a high finish in order to qualify for San Diego, and he earned with a 13th place performance. Eskeland and Wise were not so lucky. Sigurd Eskeland, who is fresh off winning Nordic Championships last weekend, is not qualified for San Diego. Gary Wise is qualified, but needs a solid finish there in order to stay on the Gravy Train.

Kai's winning streak is good news for the pros on the threshold of Masters qualification. It seems that it will only take 36 Pro points to qualify for the San Diego Masters. It required as many as 40-42 points to qualify in the past.

Full Grand Prix-Biarritz coverage: http://www.wizards.com/sideboard/event.asp?event=GPBIA01

Around the Internet

Some of the best-known strategy web sites are gone for good. First, Meridian Magic closed its doors for the second time. A few weeks ago, Mindripper (widely regarded as one of the top two non-WotC strategy web sites, along with Star City) stopped updating. There has been no announcement by the site's staff to date about the fate of Mindripper. In fact, the site's editor Scott Johns quit, taking his staff of high profile writers (Zvi Mowshowitz and Kai Budde among them) with him.

Frustrated with some of the policies of his bosses, Scott Johns made a deal with owners of www.Brainburst.com to bring over his writers. No longer backed by TNC, a major singles retailer, Johns will have to sink or swim based on the advertising revenue he hopes to earn by bringing Mindripper's readers along with him.

There is also a replacement for Meridian Magic out there. It features neither the sleek look, nor the discriminating editing staff of MM, but it links anything semi-relevant that is published about Magic in English and German on daily basis. A different theory from MM, but still a very useful site. You can find these links at http://www.mcelder.de/newsuebersicht.html

The most interesting web site to emerge over the last two months by far is www.MiseTings.com.

Those of you who have read The Onion will recognize a very similar style of sly humor, sarcastic headlines and fake news. With headlines like Kai Unsure How to Spend Other Two Wishes and Foil Lands Fail to Win Match MiseTings pokes fun at every aspect of competitive Magic.

Pro player Mike Bregoli created MiseTings.com. It has actually been around for a while, but really took off recently, with many of Bregoli's friends contributing to the site. Among the contributing authors are Jeff Cunningham, Bryan Hubble, Mark Schick, Tomi Walamies, and Adrian Sullivan. These folks play on the Tour as well as hang out on IRC Magic channels. They have access to most of the MTG-related news and rumors, and offer their unique take on everything from the recent tournament results to the latest suspensions by the DCI. The site is not commercialized the way most of the current Magic web sites are (though it does of course host ads) and it really reminds me of the early days of the Dojo in a way of community contributing to it. As of last week, MiseTings switched over to a weekly update format, and I strongly recommend it as a site to check on a regular basis.

Speaking of the old Dojo - remember what the site used to look like back in 1998? 1997? Check out http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.thedojo.com. These guys archive old web sites, so it gives you an opportunity to see what Dojo looked like over the years when it was still around.

Of course, when surfing the web you should not forget the old favorites such as starcitygames.com, and neutralground.net.

Magic Trivia

Last week's question:

Which two Extended-legal commons will theoretically let you win the game on turn two with one copy of each?

Tireless Tribe, and About Face. You will need either a Plateau, or your opponent playing first in order to have enough cards in hand to pull it off.

New Question:

Courtesy of Matt Bingham

What is the most expensive 1/1 creature ever printed, in terms of casting cost?

Please do not email answers to me. Correct answer will be posted in the next column.

Quote of the Week

"KaiBot 2000 malfunctions, loses Grand Prix" - topic in #mtg channel on IRC earlier this week

Play of the Week

From Josh Fernandez:

"During round 2 of the West Virginia State Championships, I had 3 Seekers of Skybreak and a Nantuko Mentor in play. Few turns later I played a Gorilla Titan (no cards in my graveyard) and waited until it was my turn again. I paid Nantuko Mentor's ability once giving Gorilla Titan +8/+8 = 16/16 then untapped it with Seeker, played the ability again. Gorilla Titan got +16/+16 = 32/32 then untapped it again with the second Seeker to repeat. I kept going until I used up all three Seekers, giving Gorilla Titan +128/+128 total!"

Bad Play of the Week

Reported by Ingo Warnke

"In a recent local Extended tournament, a control player was in firm control of the game versus his opponent who played u-g Opposition with Deranged Hermit and Squirrel Wrangler but who had neither of those cards on the table, while the control player had a Morphling in play. The u-g player had only lands, a Wall of Blossoms and a Birds of Paradise in play and was at 10 life. The control player cast Pyroclasm to get the Bird off the table, then attacked with the flying Morphling. Then he pumped his Morphling to 5/1, hoping to end the game in just two attacks! He wasn't too pleased when he realized that he had to put Morphling which had 2 points of damage on it into the graveyard."

Got an interesting news story, comment, quote, play of the week, or Magic trivia to report? Please e-mail me at ashv80@hotmail.com.