Here comes 2009 - Conflux Pre Releases
All,
Well I hope you all had a great festive period and enjoyed both Christmas and the New Year. It seems to have gone past in a flash to me and here we are getting ready for the 2009 events. I have been busy booking dates for the first half of the year and they are all detailed in the Future Events 2009 section of the e-mail. Now, there is quite a lot of information on a number of topics in this e-mail. I have divided it up into the following sections so that you can go straight to the bits you want to read most.
1. Magic price changes and how they affect my events.
2. Birmingham and Stafford Conflux Pre-Releases.
3. Stafford Conflux Release
4. PTQ Honolulu
5. Future Events 2009
Here we go:
Magic price changes and how they affect my events.
Well, as you probably already know the cost of Magic has risen since the start of the year. Booster prices are the most significant part of this increase as they underpin all sorts of limited events from Drafts to PTQs so that is what I’m going to concentrate on. The RRP of an individual booster has risen from £2.49 to £3.50. This in turn has led to an increase in the buy-in cost of boxes of boosters. The end result is that unfortunately the entrance fees for limited events are also affected.
My booster drafts used to cost £8.00 to enter and I gave away 12 prize boosters, using up a full box per draft. I also used to get 4 boosters sent to me eventually by Wizards as prize support. The prize support has been stopped and the cost of product has risen as described above. For the time being, I’m going to continue to give away 12 boosters as prizes for an 8 player draft and I’m going to increase the cost of the drafts to £10.00 to limit the cost increases. I run drafts as an accompaniment to my main events so the drafts don’t really pay things like venue costs etc so I’m not factoring that in. My feeling is that £10.00 is already a significant prize increase and I don’t want to charge any more at this time. However, I may in the future have to reduce prize support per draft in order to maintain this price. I know that this is a 25% increase in entrance fee but it is simply unavoidable.
My Pre-Release events use 6 boosters to run and entrance fees have been £16.00 at recent events. I am going to apply the same 25% increase in entrance fee to cover the booster price increase and the corresponding increase in event kit costs. This will bring the entrance fee for a Pre-Release/Release event up to £20.00. I’m going to offer the same £2 discount at Stafford for players who take part in both Conflux Pre-Releases and also a discount for the Conflux Release event at Stafford.
Obviously, prices on www.magicgeek.co.uk will also be changing to account for the increased costs.
Birmingham and Stafford Conflux Pre-Releases.
Event notes
[1] As I have had so many enquiries about the forthcoming Conflux Pre-Release tournaments, this e-mail includes all relevant information for both the Stafford and the Birmingham tournaments. Pick and choose the information that you need.
[2] We will be continuing to use deck pool registration at all pre-release events.
[3] Price for admission is £20.00 for two reasons. Firstly, it falls in line with Wizards of the Coast pricing guidelines and secondly because the product given to each player to use on the day is three [3] Shards of Alara boosters and three [3] Conflux boosters.
[4] To encourage players to attend both events, I will be continuing with the £2.00 deduction in the cost of entry to any player enrolling in the Stafford Pre-Release who played in the Birmingham Pre-Release the previous day. I realise that this isn’t an enormous saving, but I received positive feedback for this at previous Pre-Release weekends so I’m happy to continue to offer this discount.
[5] As usual I’ll be filling the traditional Grab Bag with the contents of some Conflux boosters as additional prizes.
[6] Again as usual, I have had winner’s trophies engraved. The trophies are a popular part of the Pre-Release events and everybody wants to win one!
[7] Booster drafts are back at Pre-Release!!!!!!!!!!! The Conflux events will feature drafts during and after the main event.
[8] Prize support has changed. Generally, this is a good thing as the booster support at big events has increased. One casualty of this has been that smaller events [such as booster drafts] no longer receive any booster prize support.
[9] The Birmingham event will be limited to 60 players; the Stafford event will be limited to 48 players. Please pre-register to ensure that you can guarantee your place in the event.
Here are the usual event details:
BIRMINGHAM CONFLUX PRE-RELEASE SATURDAY 31st OF JANUARY 2009
VENUE: Quality Hotel Birmingham, 166 Hagley Road, Birmingham, West Midlands, England B16 9NZ
The venue is probably only about 15 minutes from the city centre easily accessible from New Street Station. Road links are very good from the M6 and the M5 as you will see on the map.
If you are travelling by car, there is parking for over a hundred cars but most of the spaces are at the back of the hotel. Drive towards the red barrier at the right hand side of the venue and it will automatically open. All you need to do when leaving is pick up a parking token from the hotel reception. Parking is free if you have used the hotel facilities, so there will be no parking charge for players attending the event.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT: According to locals, as far as trains are concerned, it’s quicker to go to Five Ways station if possible, walk to the Five Ways shopping centre and then just walk down Hagley Road. From New Street Station the 128 and the 129 buses from Corporation Street (1 min walk from New Street) go down the Hagley Road (and I’m sure there must be others too). If you are travelling by train and you are running late I’d suggest just getting a taxi to the venue. I suspect that it is less than a 10 minute drive from New Street Station.
Website: http://www.quality-hotels-birmingham.com/
Directions: These are available from the Hotel’s website:
http://www.quality-hotels-birmingham.com/details/GB605%20large%20map.jpg
START TIME: Enrolment from 9:30am till 10:30am. Deck construction will start at about 11:00am.
FORMAT: The format for each Pre-release tournament is DCITM-sanctioned Conflux TM and Shards of AlaraTM Sealed Deck.
Rules Enforcement Level: 1
ENTRY FEE: £20.00 for main event
Cost of entry includes three (3) Shards of AlaraTM boosters and three (3) Conflux TM boosters.
PRIZES: As per Wizards of the Coast premier event prize structure.
Special commemorative Conflux card for each tournament participant, while supplies last.
SIDE EVENTS: Booster Draft side events available all day long.
ENTRY FEE: £10.00 for Booster Drafts (12 Boosters as prizes split 5/3/2/2)
STAFFORD CONFLUX PRE-RELEASE SUNDAY 1st OF FEBRUARY 2009
VENUE: Oddfellows Hall, Greengate Street, Stafford, ST16 2HP.
Please contact me for more directions if you haven’t been to this venue before.
START TIME: Enrolment from 9:30am till 10:30am. Deck construction will start at about 11:00am.
FORMAT: The format for each Pre-release tournament is DCITM-sanctioned Conflux TM and Shards of AlaraTM Sealed Deck.
Rules Enforcement Level: 1
ENTRY FEE: £20.00 for main event
Cost of entry includes three (3) Shards of AlaraTM boosters and three (3) Conflux TM boosters.
PRIZES: As per Wizards of the Coast premier event prize structure.
Special commemorative Conflux card for each tournament participant, while supplies last.
SIDE EVENTS: Booster Draft side events available all day long.
ENTRY FEE: £10.00 for Booster Drafts (12 Boosters as prizes split 5/3/2/2)
TO PRE-REGISTER FOR AN EVENT:
Send an e-mail to this address: stephen DOT avann AT ntlworld DOT com with your FULL NAME and DCI NUMBER (If you have one) BEFORE 5:30PM on the FRIDAY NIGHT before the events, as this is the last time that I will check my e-mail before the tournament. Alternatively I can be contacted on my mobile from 6:30pm until 10pm on the following number: 07989201808. Please don’t try to phone me before 6:30pm as I will be busy.
Hope to see you at the events over the weekend,
Steve
Stafford Conflux Release Event
Event notes
[1] This event will be held on SATURDAY instead of the usual Sunday. This was due to a scheduling conflict at the venue so I moved our event to the Saturday on this occasion.
STAFFORD CONFLUX RELEASE SATURDAY 7th OF FEBRUARY 2009
VENUE: Oddfellows Hall, Greengate Street, Stafford, ST16 2HP.
Please contact me for more directions if you haven’t been to this venue before.
START TIME: Enrolment from 9:30am till 10:30am. Deck construction will start at about 11:00am.
FORMAT: The format for each Pre-release tournament is DCITM-sanctioned Conflux TM and Shards of AlaraTM Sealed Deck.
Rules Enforcement Level: 1
ENTRY FEE: £20.00 for main event
Cost of entry includes three (3) Shards of AlaraTM boosters and three (3) Conflux TM boosters.
PRIZES: As per Wizards of the Coast premier event prize structure.
SIDE EVENTS: Booster Draft side events available all day long.
ENTRY FEE: £10.00 for Booster Drafts (12 Boosters as prizes split 5/3/2/2)
PTQ Honolulu
My PTQ event has been confirmed and will be taking place at the usual Birmingham venue on the 28th of February 2009. I have had requests to pre-register players for this event already and pre-registration is now open for this event which will be limited to 90 players. The event format is extended constructed. More details will follow once the Conflux events are out of the way.
Future Events 2009
January – Saturday 31st – Birmingham – Conflux Pre Release
February – Sunday 1st – Stafford – Conflux Pre Release
The first events of 2009 are the Pre-Releases for the second set in the Shards block, Conflux.
February – Saturday 7th – Stafford – Conflux Release
PLEASE NOTE: The date for this event has been changed.
As usual the Release event will take place on the following weekend at Stafford. This is the first chance to buy Conflux singles, boosters, boxes, intro packs and fat packs.
February – Saturday 28th – Birmingham – PTQ Honolulu
March – Saturday 29th – Stafford – Event Format To Be Confirmed.
April – Saturday 25th – Birmingham – Alara Reborn Pre Release
April – Sunday 26th – Stafford – Alara Reborn Pre Release
These events are the Pre-Releases for the third set in the Shards block, Alara Reborn.
May – Sunday 3rd – Stafford – Alara Reborn Release
As usual the Release event will take place on the following weekend at Stafford. This is the first chance to buy Alara Reborn singles, boosters, boxes, intro packs and fat packs.
June – Sunday 7th – Stafford – Event Format To Be Confirmed.
June – Saturday 13th – Birmingham – Event Format To Be Confirmed.
Please note that event dates for June are subject to change to fit in with the 11th Edition release schedule.
July – Saturday 11th – Birmingham – Event Format To Be Confirmed.
Please note that event dates for July are subject to change to fit in with the 11th Edition release schedule.