Patriot Games

Monday 10 November 2014

Take a bow...

Well that was a monster weekend of Magic if ever there was one.  Thank you to everyone who came along and made it an event to remember.  It was great to play cards with a lot of you again and also to meet new people and make new friends.

Breakfast of champions at the Banker's Draft (these guys all made day 2)

So lets have a look at the final score board and see who is this year's Steel City Patriots team:

  • Oliver Frith (34 Points)
  • Ian Richardson (33 Points)
  • Sam-luca Rolph (30 Points)
  • Lino Burgold (29 Points)
  • Jimmy Wild (28 Points)
  • Thomas Hogg (28 Points)
  • Michael Boon (27 Points)
  • Dan Cocking (27 Points)
  • Jon Potts (26 Points)
  • Steven Pickles (25 Points)
  • Matthew Rigall (22 Points)
  • Gideon Hamlett (22 Points)
  • Michael Radford (19 Points)
  • Dave Bradburn (18 Points)
  • Russell Clarke (18 Points)
  • Theo DeBray (15 Points)
Congratulations and a massive well done to all of the top 16 and especially to the top 6. That looks like a strong team for the next 12 months and I expect great things from them.  As we know Sam is already on his way to the Pro Tour and Lino has been there before.  Also a special congratulations has to go to Mike Boon; he has made it to the top 6 for the last 2 years and has just missed it again this year - well done that man, I'm sure you will be back on top next time!  Everyone in the top 16 auto qualifies for next years event.

Another big thank you goes to Alfred Bellinger for judging all weekend.  The invitational is designed to be a gruelling 2 day event that saps you as a player both physically and mentally.  This is even more a thing for the judge who has to keep a close eye on all the proceedings.

The other big thank you goes to Jim, Justin and Salliee for working long hours and giving us a venue to run the event in; your efforts are greatly appreciated by everyone involved.

Really wished I had a few of these this weekend...

I will be talking to Jim and seeing what we are doing with regards Invitational Qualifiers for the year and look forward to letting you all know about that soon.  

Lastly, but by no means least this coming weekend is the MTG worlds and as well as looking forward to all the action we can also look forward to the much anticipated announcement about next years May set - will we see Modern Masters 2?  We will find out this weekend.

More Magic players doing their second favourite thing - talking about MTG in the pub!

Friday 7 November 2014

Forward Command

I don't actually like the name commander.  The format is Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH) not "commander".  The name change is an attempt to re-brand and redesign something which is not theirs and by doing so take control of it and make it into what Wizards/HASBRO want it to be.

This is my general, he is the leader of legions!

As you may well know the new commander decks are out today.  Each mono coloured deck has a brand new planeswalker in them which for the first time ever can be used as your commander.  Each deck seems solid and playable out of the box with some great cards like Titans, Wurmcoil Engine, Sol Ring (of course), Abyssal Persecutor, Black Suns Zenith, Goblin Welder, Beastmaster ascension, Elves and Rampaging baloths to mention just a few.  However, this goes to prove my initial point about Wizards and EDH - Planeswalker commanders; not really got the feel of being right in a format called Elder Dragon Highlander...

Great Planeswalker less so as a General.

Fortunately the whole concept of using planeswalkers as commanders is just bad.  You are going to struggle to win the game via general damage if you have one of these as your boss.  They also enter the battlefield as a fairly squishy permanent which should be easy to destroy.

The 2014 Patriot Games Sheffield Magic Invitational is running all weekend but this will only be relevant for 16 people on the Sunday so we are running a Commander side event.  From 11am the will be pods of 4 EDH multiplayer games going off.  If you have one of the new decks you will be put up against people also playing them.  If you want to bring your own constructed EDH deck that's cool we will have pods of that too with some promos for everyone!  All this is free of charge!

Also there is a fantastic article about what EDH is really about on the mother-ship here. Mike Boon you need to read this!
Good luck to everyone at the invitational - see you there.





Tuesday 4 November 2014

Final Preparations...

Apologies that this is a day late but I couldn't get it to you before I got it myself (if that makes any sense at all)…

Firstly we need to look at times.  Registration for day one will be open from 10am on Saturday 8th November 2014.  All players should be sitting down ready to get product by 10:30am.  The boosters you open will not be the boosters you play with.  You will have 20 minutes to open the boosters and record their contents on the supplied form before handing them back in to a Judge.  You will then be given a set of cards to build a deck with and you will have 30 minutes to do this.  Please be careful when doing this as errors can result in warnings and game losses.You will also need to provide a deck list for your standard deck.



On Sunday 9th November 2014 the top 16 will need to be at the shop for 11am as this is when registration opens and it will close at 11:15!  This should not be a problem as the top 16 will know who they are and all we have to do is confirm their presence.  You will need to bring a deck list for your Modern deck.



As you are no doubt aware in the past the top 6 of the Sheffield Patriot invitational have received items of clothing and a sponsorship deal to cover the cost of entry to PTQs etc.  However, Wizards of the Coast have changed the way that the whole road to the pro tour is taking place and this has necessitated a change in the way the top 6 players are rewarded.  So without further ado here is what the top 6 will now get:


  • Steel City Patriots Hoody.
  • Steel City Patriots T-Shirt.
  • Exclusive (only 6 made) Invitational 2014 tote bag.
  • Exclusive (only 6 made) Invitational 2014 play mat.
  • Free entry to all Patriot Games Sheffield PPTQs for the next 12 months.
  • Scaling booster prize support based on number of attendees.

Hang on a second there’s a bit more. Second and third place will also get a copy of From the Vaults: Annihilation.  The person who wins it all and comes first will get a copy of From the Vaults: Twenty!



This does not mean that the sponsorship deal is gone forever.  As with so many things we need to see what happens in regards to the new PPTQ/RPTQ system and how many people attend, costs etc. before a truly informed decision can be made.

One last thing before I go.  For those who don’t make it to the top 16 there will be a commander side event on the Sunday using the new mono coloured commander decks which come out this Friday.  I will have full details of this up on Friday.


Only 3 days to go!