#hobbymaster

This past weekend Hobbymaster was proud to host New Zealand’s final World Magic Cup Qualifiers for 2014. The winner of this event joins 3 other qualified players to represent New Zealand at the World Magic Cup being held in Nice, France in December 2014. 75 players from all over New Zealand filled the Pioneers Women's hall in Auckland (in not-so great wet & windy conditions) to battle out 7 rounds of swiss with a cut to top 8. At the players meeting, head honcho Nick revealed that Vagabond Takapuna has rebranded to Hobbymaster!

With the exciting news of our rebrand, we also introduced a New Zealand first; Live coverage and streaming of the entire event at this competitive level!

Coverage team from L > R : Joe Zheng (NZ team captain for 14), Alan Hale & Douglas Moore! (with our streaming producer Leo Yeung who isn't pictured) Our livestream was hosted through twitch (http://www.twitch.tv/hobbymasternz) which we will continue to use for future live streams. On with the show! Photos from the 7 rounds of swiss.

After 7 rounds of swiss, your top 8 are!

Christopher Hollman (R devotion) Tony Matthews (G/W aggro) Richard Tasker (R devotion) Jason Chung (R/w burn) Dan Bretherton (R/w burn) Zen Takahashi (Naya Planeswalkers) David Williams (G/r devotion) Ranjith Constantine (B/u devotion) Your top 8 matchups are: Christopher Hollman (R devotion) vs Ranjith Constantine (B/u devotion) Tony Matthews (G/W aggro) vs David Williams (G/r devotion) Richard Tasker (R devotion) vs Zen Takahashi (Naya Planeswalkers) Jason Chung (R/w burn) vs Dan Bretherton (R/w burn)

4 big matchups but red decks reign supreme! The top 4 matchups are: Christopher Hollman (R devotion) vs Jason Chung (R/w burn) Richard Tasker (R devotion) vs David Williams (G/r devotion)

Your finalist of the last WMCQ for NZ are: Richard Tasker (R devotion) vs Jason Chung (R/w burn)!

In the 3rd match, Jason topdecks a shock to deal the last 2 points of damage! The winner of the 3rd WMCQ for NZ is.. Jason Chung with Red White burn!

Jason wraps up his win with an interview with Alan and Joe. A big thank you to all the players, judges and staff for putting on a memorable event. A special mention goes to Henry Moore, who came 9th, losing to Ranjith Constantine (who came 8th) by 2%. Stttiinnkkk!

On Saturday, Vagabond Takapuna ran a HUGE standard event with an awesome 28 people taking part! A HUGE amount of store credit & additional prizes for top finishers was on the line as the players battled it out for Standard supremacy!

After 5 rounds of swiss, our top 8 was found!

From L > R: Jin Kim (UWR Control), Alistar Harford (BR Minotaurs). Oscar Coombes (Mono B Aggro), Kane Packer (Naya Hexproof), Marius Grossmann (UWR Control), Cayle McCreath (UWR Control), John Miller (Mono B Devotion) and Chang Kim (JUND Monsters)! Kane and John’s FIRST Top 8! Woop!

Our top 4 matchups were Marius Grossmann (UWR Control) vs Chang Kim (JUND Monsters) & Jin Kim (UWR Control) vs Oscar Coombes (Mono B Aggro)

Our finalists are found! Marius who dispatched Kim Chang with his UWR Control deck vs Jin Kim, also with his UWR Control deck. Oh boy. A control mirror! AMERICA!

LETS GET IT ON!

(Land go land go land go)

And your winner is.. Jin Kim! The Champion has returned! (editor:Jin wanted me to write that).  Jin’s hasty stormbreath dragon in game 3 sealed the victory.

On Saturday. Vagabond Takapuna ran it’s largest in store Modern event to date with a massive 53 people taking part! 1st place taking home a HUGE $500 store credit, with additional prizes for top finishers!

Here are some photos taken during round 6.

A big congrats to the top 4! consisting of Matt Rogers, Aaron Sewell, Alex Young and Xin Shen who ended up splitting the top prize! Join us this coming Saturday as we host our STANDARD $500 Super series!

Last Saturday, Vagabond Takapuna hosted it’s Grand Prix Trials Taipei! With a strong showing of 18 players, we had 5 rounds of swiss, cutting to a top 8.

After 5 rounds of swiss, here are your top 8!

From L to R: Jin Kim (B/W midrange), Seph Xie (JUND Monsters), Cayle McCreath (UWR control), Leo Yeung (Mazes End), Alistair Harford (R/B Minotaurs), Tony Matthews (G/W Aggro), Shayne Eyre (JUND Monsters) and Richard Kuoch (G/W Aggro!)

(mazes end top 8! shot Leo)

After a top 8 filled with Minotaurs, Guildgates, Pack rats and pesky Experiment One’s, your finalists are found!

Jin Kim piloting B/W Midrange vs Richard K piloting G/W Aggro!

Jin’s Pack Rats weren’t enough as Richard’s 1 and 2 drops crashed through! Your GPT Taipei winner is Richard!

Congrats on your first GPT Win! Our next HUGE event is the Vagabond Takapuna $500 Super Series!

After a year of fierce competition starting in 2013 and stretching into the first quarter of 2014, we have our Eternal League top Eight showdown!

These players rose to the top and after multiple Legacy and Vintage tournaments proved their mettle in the grandest of formats. On Sunday; they battled for the grand prize; a Mox Ruby! Playing a double-elimination Legacy format, two of the eight will make it to the final, where the winner takes home this piece of Vintage jewelry. Your Eternal Series Top Eight are the following players:

From Left to Right: Zen Takahashi (Sneak and Show), Matt Rogers (Shardless), Henry Moore (JUND), Gary Lynch (Esper Deathblade), Michael Trevelyan (BUG Delver), Øystein Kålås (MUD), Alan Peng (Miracles), Adrian Kitto (Dredge).

Nick holding the prize for first place; A Mox Ruby!

After an intense double elimination finals, the 2 last standing were…

With Modern being the hottest format, we’re super excited to be offering a new modern segment in our blog! Here’s the first installment of ‘The Modern Age’ by AJ Hale! The modern format is beginning to kick into overdrive! Grand Prix Richmond had over 4000 players in attendance, and with Modern Pro Tours and Pro Tour qualifier seasons part of the magic calendar; this format is really taken a hold!

The current meta has certainly become dominated by the various Birthing Pod decks since the demise of Jund (the loss of Deathrite Shaman has certainly dented the decks power level). The pod decks are divided into the Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and the Melira, Sylvok Outcast versions. Both are able to pull off combo wins, the Kiki version creating infinite attackers with Restoration Angel/Zealous Conscripts and the Melira version hosts both infinite damage and life gain with the interaction of Melira and Kitchen Finks/Murderous Redcap. While both decks offer combo finishes. they can also get it done with their creatures just heading to the red zone. The deck has so many ways to find the tools it needs to win with Birthing Pod and Chord of Calling give the deck un-parralled access to the solutions it may need. The decks main weakness is when it’s bereft of Birthing Pod and Chord of Calling, sometimes the deck can just stall out. So if Pod is at the top of the food chain then isn’t the rest of the article about the deck? Maybe another time… The modern deck I want to talk about is one I feel is pretty well positioned against Pod and the other unfair decks in the format and the one that I believe is the premiere aggro deck in the format…Affinity.

This deck has a very special place in my heart, it took me to my only top four at a Pro-Tour Qualifier and I’ve played various versions of it for years. While the deck is pretty far from its origins (it contains only one card with the Affinity ability) in terms of cards it still retains the same spirit, a quick aggressive deck that can often empty its opening hand on turn one. The deck fared very well in the pod dominated field at Grand Prix Richmond placing two players into the top four.

This last weekend at the Vagabond Takapuna Eternal Series – Dark Confidant Challenge, Affinity once again proved its merit and took Ka Wing Lau to finals and the win over Marius Grossmann who played UWR Tempo. Here is Ka Wings list:

Affinity by Ka Wing Lau 1st Place Eternal Series – Dark Confidant Challenge 22/3/14

Creatures 1x Spellskite 2x Memnite 2x Etched Champion 2x Master of Etherium 3x Steel Overseer 4x Vault Skirge 4x Arcbound Ravager 4x Signal Pest 4x Ornithopter Artifacts/Instants/Sorceries 4x Cranial Plating 3x Galvanic Blast 3x Springleaf Drum 4x Thoughtcast 4x Mox Opal Lands 1x Island 3x Glimmervoid 4x Inkmoth Nexus 4x Blinkmoth Nexus 4x Darksteel Citadel Sideboard 1x Dispatch 1x Pithing Needle 1x Ancient Grudge 1x Spellskite 1x Ethersworn Canonist 1x Grafdigger’s Cage 2x Whipflare 2x Blood Moon 2x Welding Jar 3x Torpor Orb  

So breaking down the main deck, what makes it tick?

Cranial Plating This card is often the power behind this deck. The deck is able to spam out a lot of artifact creatures between Memnite, Ornithopter and Vault Skirge. Cranial Plating can make almost any creature in the deck lethal. Equipping it to an Etched Champion or an Inkmoth Nexus will rapidly run your opponent out of options. Affinity as a deck may change but it is unlikely it will ever lose Cranial Plating.

Mox Opal & Springleaf Drum These allow you have some of the most busted opening hands with Affinity. Both cards allow you to chain spells and with the change to the Legendary rule, Mox Opal has gotten better allowing you to chain multiple copies. Any combination of these will allow you have a full board before your opponent can even crack their first fetchland.

Master of Etherium & Steel Overseer This duo gives the deck some extra punch in the mid game. If the Overseer gets active, even Ornithopter can get into the redzone without the help of a Cranial Plating. Master of Etherium is a great anthem effect for your team and will generally out power almost any other creature in the modern format.

Arcbound Ravager While numbers on this card often rise and fall, it has always made the main deck. It helps blank your opponent’s removal and allows for some great tricks in combination with Inkmoth Nexus (dumping all your counters on an Inkmoth can allow for some quick poison kills). Ka Wing definitely believes in its power and packs the full number of copies.

There are a number of other cards I could talk about but many of them are staples for the deck, of interest is the main deck Spellskite. This card has become one of the all-stars of the format. It can re-direct a Lightning Bolt or Splinter Twin with ease. Having one main deck seems a great decision on Ka Wings part.

The Sideboard nicely rounds out the deck. Blood Moon is one of the game breaking sideboard cards to rise to prominence post Grand Prix Richmond and the Pro-Tour. Affinity can easily work around the colour requirements with Mox Opal and Springleaf Drum (although it does cancel out its Nexus plan). Torpor Orb and Pithing Needle are great answers to the pod decks; Torpor Orb simply shuts off all of their combo options. Welding Jar is a card I often included in my main deck while Ka Wing has it in the board. It’s a favourite of mine acting as a free counter spell for your opponents removal. It can act to protect your team at instant speed; it represents excellent value out of the sideboard.