The TJ Collectibles Blog

May 30, 2010 - Pokemon year coming to a close

Tom Shea Pokemon, A Word From Tom Shea

Hello everyone!  As I am writing this I am sitting in Batter Up with Judy, Patty, Steve, Mike and Aimee running a spring Battle Road. The Spring Battle Road help signal the end of the Pokemon year as we then wait for Nationals, and Worlds to pass. Then we start for next year in August with the next Pre Release. This has been a year of transition for us. We saw Disposable Heroes and Rising Phoenix Game close. Gigures Gym and Veteran's Games stepped up to fill the void. At The Game Castle we saw Jeremy J give the League Leadership role to Patty L. Go Patty!

We have seen our community become more competitive than ever. This is a double edged sword. We do want to encourage our players to truly battle to do thier best. Giving your best is what all of us should try to do in everything we do. When the day is over you want to be able to think that you did your best. Each of you should be competiting with yourself to be the best that you can be not competiting with each other to be the number 1 player. There are times when we see this  competitiveness become a bad thing. It is important to treat your opponets with the respect that they deserve. Losing is a part of life. Watching someone lose will often tell you more about the person than watching them win. Losing in a very usporting way or complaining that your opponet got "lucky" is very disrespectful of your opponet and only makes you appear to be a poor loser.

Judy and I will not be going to US Nationals this year.  We want you to know that we are watching and rooting for you from home. We encourage you to do your best. We know that you will represent both your self but also New England Pokemon well. We do hope to see all of you at TJ's on Sunday 6/13/2010 for our last battleroad of the season. It will be one big party!!

See you soon

Tom

May 23, 2010 - Sprintime in Milford!!

Tom Shea Pokemon, Magic: the Gathering, A Word From Tom Shea

Hello everyone!! It is amazing how fast time flys! It is almost June already. Lots has happened since I last wrote you. It is great to see the Celtics having such a great run in the playoffs! I am learning to love many of the new technologies that we currently are using. Facebook has been extreemly helpful for me to keep in touch with many friends and family. Frankly it has been adicting! I don't find myself tweeting very much. We have had termendous amount of technoligical growth for both our events and our store.

I hope you are sitting down when you read this. We actually just updated our credit card machine at TJ's. No more barely readable reciepts. We finally did roll out that new register system. I am still not sure how the entire system works. Dave will be showing me the rest of it soon. Our ONLINE STORE is finally up as well. We have many items on it for sale. We are also now done hand writing credit card slips as we just got a wireless credit card machine. Isn't technology wonderful!

We did also rewire the tj internet system, so you will have to hask us for the password as the wireless is now password protected. We are planning on rolling out an X-Box set up that will have 4 machines and be hooked up to the internet. We have moved our online business into the old back room downstairs. Things are truly looking up. It has been an extreemly busy time for us to make all these changes. We appreciate your patience as we have done so.

I look forward to seeing you soon at my favorite store

Tom

April 22, 2010 - These are special times recognize this and enjoy them

Tom Shea Magic: the Gathering, A Word From Tom Shea

Hello everyone! These are truly special times we are enjoying right now. This is the second coming of the Magic the Gathering movement. Back in the day 13 years ago, Magic was the new kid on the block. Revised was the big set. Yes there were earlier sets the problem was that those sets sold out within a day or two of being released. Back then people were fanatical about magic.

I would buy a set of unlimited and float the word that we had the set within 2 hours we would have sold off the power nine. Within a day the dual lands would be gone. It was an amazing time. Then slowly over time Wizards developed the ability to meet the demand for their product. We then enjoyed a solid time of growth. Tournaments were chaotic. There were not enough quality judges. It took time to put into place the systems that have produced the judges that we now enjoy. Wizards went through many stages of developement during the gap from then until now. There were periods of things that didn't seem to work or worked too well, (infinity decks which required little skill come to mind). There were periods where  it seemed as though Wizards had lost touch with what its community needed. There were some sets that out and out failed (see Kamigawa block). While I enjoyed Kamigawa block many players did not and slowly they left the game. These days were the dark days of magic.

Whether you realize it or not I am telling you that since M10 Wizrards has been making ALL the right calls. Zendikar Block was awesome. I like the Rise of the Eldrazi decision to make a big set in April to give the community something to sink its teeth into. The new little sets like from the vaults exiled, the new dual decks. the new tournaments such as the WPN Championships are all NEW ideas that are worthy. Wizards is now back! They are now innovative again.

They have been sending out their Research and Developement guys to visit local stores to see what the community really wants. This is brilliant. We have not seen Wizards take this effort to really understand their community. The sets are also very interesting. They have cards that fit into legacy decks, extended decks, edh, draft really well and yes help form a really great standard enviroment. Wizards seems to be on top of their game right now. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

see you soon at my favorite store

Tom Shea

March 8, 2010 - An end of an era

Tom Shea Magic: the Gathering, A Word From Tom Shea

Hello everyone!

A few weeks ago I was contacted by one of my distributors who sells magic cards. They wanted me to work with them to teach many of their accounts about running magic organized play. We came up with the idea of my puting together a workshop for those accounts to participate in. I have spent the past few weeks working on that workshop. This work has opened my eyes to many things that we need to work on.

For starters FNM booster drafts need to be fun. We will have no backdrafting. We will have no unwanted draft analysis during or after the draft. If someone wants to really know they will ask. We will tolerate any unsportsman like conduct. We will have lots of fun playing our favorite game. This is a fun night out not world peace. I have taken the time to explain this to  a few of our competitive players. One of them is no longer welcome to play at TJ's I am really serious about making TJ's into the most fun place to play on the planet.

The days of playing two rounds of fnm so two people can draw for basically all the prizes in round three are now gone. We are implementing the following prize structure immediately. We cannot change how dci reporter pods players. We can and have flattened the prize distribution so that players will need to play round three. Prize support for all pods will drop lower than top 2. In a typical 8 person pod there will be prizes to the top 4 players. This will in fact help to curb the competitiveness. What we are looking for is for people to have fun not practice for the Pro Tour. We already have events that do that they are called PTQ's. I do hope to see you at a Friday Night Magic event soon. 

Starting this week our Friday Night Magic will have a different focus. We are all done catering to the "TOO COMPETITIVE", I WANT TO WIN crowd. Friday Night Magic WILL still be booster draft however we could add a standard event as WELL provided we had enough players to run the standard event. Friday Night Magic for booster drafts will ALWAYS be 3 rounds of swiss. I want everyone to know EXACTLY what to expect. Below is the way the prizes will work and how the pods are for up to 24 players.

see you soon

Tom

We will feature the following prizes:

6    player pod:  4 packs for 1st place, 3 packs for 2nd place, 2 packs for 3rd place
7    player pod:  4 packs for 1st place, 3 packs for 2nd place, 2 packs for 3rd & 4th place
8    player pod:  5 packs 1st place, 3 packs 2nd place, 2 packs 3rd & 4th place
9    player pod:  6 packs 1st place, 3 packs 2nd place, 2 packs 3rd & 4th place
10  player pod:  6 packs 1st place, 3 packs 2nd place, 2 packs 3rd /4th & 5th place
11  player pod:  6 packs 1st place, 4 packs 2nd place, 2 packs 3rd /4th & 5th place

Pods with 12 players become 2 draft pods of 6 players each
Pods with 13 players become 2 draft pods, one with 6 and one with 7 players each 
Pods with 14 players become 2 draft pods  one with 8 and one with 6
Pods with 15 players become 2 draft pods  one with 8 and one with 7
Pods with 16 players become 2 draft pods of 8
Pods with 17 players become 2 draft pods, one with 9, one with 8
Pods with 18 players become 2 draft pods  one with10 and one with 8
Pods with 19 players become 2 draft pods  one with10 and one wtih 9
Pods with 20 players become 2 draft pods of 10
Pods with 21 players become 2 draft pods: one with 11 and one with 10

Pods with 22 players become 3 draft pods: 2 wtih 8 and one with 6
Pods with 23 players become 3 draft pods: 2 with 8 and one with 7
Pods with 24 players become 3 pods of 8

The progression is natural and follows this same pattern.

January 2, 2010 - Happy New Year! A different perspective

Tom Shea Pokemon, Magic: the Gathering, A Word From Tom Shea

December 22, 2009 - Holiday Wishes from Tom Shea

Tom Shea Pokemon, Magic: the Gathering, A Word From Tom Shea

Hello everyone! It is the most wonderful time of the year. I love the holidays! This past week has been something with the snow. It looks so beautiful outside. We are winding down an amazing year. I do hope and pray that 2010 is a better year for everyone than 2009 was. One of the things that I love about this time of year is that people take the time to slow down spend time with family and realize what is important in their lives.

This past Sunday I was watching 60 minutes and it hit me just how hard this year has been for many Americans as a small town in Ohio was out over 10,000 jobs. Then on Sunday my next door neighbor told me how he had just been laid off after many years on the job. I do hope that everyone has a better 2010. I hope that our economy will get healthy. One of the best things that all of us can do is to support those local businesses. We appreciate your support. This past year has been not a banner year, but one of hope. Our Magic tournaments and Pokemon tournaments did fairly well. Our retail store held its own in this horrible economy. Our online business is struggling to break free from ebay. Things are progressing slowly. I thank you for your help and support in these hard times.

I wanted to also thank many local businesses who I frequent that have been very helpful to Judy and myself. I can't gurantee thier performance but can tell you that these folks have treated us right over the years. Please give them a try if you find you need what they offer.

Sincerely

Tom, and Judy Shea

Plains Auto  (car repairs)- 508-473-8700, Ask for Steve or Earl
Milford Tire ( 508-473-1600) Ask for Irma
Milford Animal Hospital (508-473-45434, Dr Heller
Milford Podiatry: (508-478-6700) Dr Novis
Sunrise Prosthetics and Orthotics: 508-753-4738, Karen Lynch
Goodman Eye, (508-381-5600) Dr Glen Goodman
Joesph and Thomas Opticians: (508-478-3838)
Russo Insurance: 508-533-3000, ask for Chris
All Purpose Plumbing and Heating: 508-844-7789, ask for Brian

Please tell these folks that Tom from Tj's sent you! All of these people have been very good to Judy and myself. Imagine even a plumber on the list!

See you soon at my favorite store!

December 1, 2009 - Reflecting on this time of year 2009 and MY gift to you!

Tom Shea Pokemon, Magic: the Gathering, A Word From Tom Shea

Hello everyone! This is an exciting time of year. Christmas is my favorite holiday. For many it is Thanks Giving. We have just completed a difficult time of year as Sept, Oct, and November all bring their challenges. Judy has been teaching 2 night classes on top of her regular job as a high school teacher and is taking an online class to boot. I have been judging both Tuesday and Friday Night magic at TJ's while scheduling many events including the Pokemon City Schedule, and upcoming Pre Release, States and working on an exciting Pokemon Regional program. We have been busy. Probably too busy. Things will slow down as we have a few weekends off coming later in Dec to enjoy the holiday season.

Tonight I visited Dean who owns a new game store in Warwick RI called Veterans Games. It is very refreshing to meet with someone who is so enthusiastic about the things his store is doing. Sometimes store owners get caught in a rut. Many times they are frustrated. It is the hard times that I miss my good friend Dick Roach who owned Hudmar Ltd which was located in Marlboro, MA. Dick and I used to talk on the phone each morning. The conversation for both of us was theraputic. We oftened discussed the local sports teams. I am going to miss getting to call him tommorrow morning to discuss the Pats loss tonight to the Saints.

Speaking of the Saints how about that Drew Brees guy? He carved up the Pats secondary tonight. Five touchdown passes was certainly hard to watch. The Pats defense needs more pass rush. It will come in time. The tricky thing is that Tom Brady won't be around forever. The window to win more championships will start to close in a few years. We need to win now and with the defense we currently have can't do so now. They are still my team. It is starting to look more and more that we will be waiting till next year so our defense can grow more and we can add additional pieces to that defense.

Judy and I are very thankful to know all of you. We have so many nice friends that we get to see and enjoy on a regular basis. Hopefully most of you will stoop by TJls to say hello so we can wish you a happy holiday! This upcoming year we have many great things planned. For the Magic Crowd we are bringing back CASUAL MAGIC on 12/26/2009! Pokemon is going to get another draft day and hopefully an awesome regional experience please cross your fingers on that one as I am having difficuly finding the right venue for that to happen. Yu-GH-IO is going to get tournaments at TJ's this upcoming year. Comically we are working on some things that I can' t divelge yet. Happy hollidays to everyone!

Tom

November 16, 2009 - A newbie perspective

Tom Shea Pokemon, Magic: the Gathering, A Word From Tom Shea

Today while waiting for a shipment of product for this week's Pro Tour Qualifer for Magic I saw an interview of the new men's basketball Coach from Memphis. Jelan Kendrick. This guy is amazing. He speaks with such enthusiasm with a true positive can do attitude that I am pulling for him to succeed. No matter the question asked of him he ONLY had positive things to say. He was just happy to be named head coach. He didn't talk at all about entitlement or paying his dues nothing like that at all. Here is a link for you to read more about this amazing guy. http://www.gotigersgo.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/111409aaa.html


Lastly how can I blog today and not mention last nights Patriots Game. Many people are second guessing our coach Bill Belechick. Today I can honestly tell you that Bill Belechick on his worst day knows more football than I would period. He made a judgement call that didn't work out so well. I hope Bill stays as our coach for the next 30 years. He has been nothing short of amazing. It wasn't too long ago that the Pats were the laughing stock of the league. We used to be worse than the Buffalo Bills. I cheer for my Pats win lose or draw. Thank god for Bill Belechick.

Tom

November 13, 2009 - What takes 12 weeks to make?

Tom Shea Pokemon, Magic: the Gathering, A Word From Tom Shea

Well not exactly another day another blog. It seems like the past 12 weeks have flown by. It is amazing how busy we are trying to keep everything going. Like everyone else the bad economy has us in a funk. We are working our way out of it thanks to your help.  

We just finished the Pokemon Arceus Pre Release season. Over the past 3 months we have seen our friends from Johnston RI, Disposable Heroes get closed down by the building inspector. To date they are not sure what they have to do to get reopened. Rising Phoenix Games also just recently closed their doors as well due to Lia's health issues. In a few weeks we will all be giving Thanks on Thanksgiving. I will be giving thanks for having many good friends and a year of relative good health. Lia finially has a good specialist helping her with her situation. Hopefully she too will get to enjoy a year of good health. 

As much as things change they seem to stay the same. We have been hustling to keep TJ's on the edge of what it is that our customers are looking for. We have cleaned up our store appearance by moving our ebay station downstiars. We have both moved and expanded our supply area. We are currently increasing our back issue area. We have moved our pokemon area as well. Right now we are working with Diamond Comics trying to get both the new register system and the new online store rolled out soon. 

We also have planned a Black Friday Sale. Just like the big boys. Stupid prices on a limited amount of merchandise. From 9 to noon on Black Friday we will have some stupid cheap prices store wide for your shopping pleasure. I encourage you to take advantage. 

I look forward to seeing you soon at MY favorite store

TJ Collecitlbes

Thank you for your support

Tom  

September 25, 2009 - Whispers from a Dungeon #2: New PC Race the Revenant, New Feats, Pathfinder

Jim Haines Whispers From the Dungeon

 

This week I give you a few news 'toys' for your Pathfinder or 3.5 Campaigns. Three new feats and a new player class: The Revenant. For awhile I wanted to personally play an undead race that did not have a crazy ECL or level adustment. I didn't want to strip and undead down to bare bones (hehe) to play it. Instead, I took the Eberron Warforged race and modified it to suit the role of an undead hero. If all goes as planned the next article will include adventure hooks, racial feats, a new spelland some specialized equipment for Revenants.

September 18, 2009 - Whispers from the Dungeon #1: Tips For Using Older Books & More!

Jim Haines Role-playing Games, Whispers From the Dungeon

 Chances are if you're like me, you have garnered quite a collection of role-playing books over the years. It is even possible that, like me, you do not like the idea of getting rid of your old books even if you upgrade (or even downgrade) to a different edition of Dungeons and Dragons. On occasion you may even pick up older books (Basic, Expert,  AD&D) to peek through. 

There are many ways in which you can get good use out of  these books. Here are some ideas for them as well as some examples on how to use them. Many of these tips here will be likely something you experienced players and DM’s have done. But for those of you who have not been playing or DM’ing quite as long, may find some useful ideas here. You older player’s may even find something here that is useful.

Lore: The simplest and most obvious is the lore. Most books out there have quite a bit of information about geography, races, organizations, world histories and more. The best part about this is it requires no conversion to use these in a different edition of your favorite game. 

A similar idea also works with different campaign settings. Just because you are running a campaign in Eberron does not mean you can’t cherry pick some things from other settings. If you think about it there are some great ideas from Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance that could be used. If your campaign heavily revolves around Dragons you could always introduce Dragonlances to your game. 

Maybe you could introduce the Netheril Empire into Eberron. Maybe they are a long dead empire making a comeback or perhaps you could use them at the start of their rise to power. You can even build your own world from scratch, dropping in the ideas you like most from various settings. Some of the best campaign worlds I have played in were comprised of different ideas from different worlds.

Maps: Again, simple and obvious. Using the maps from older editions is a simple enough task. Perhaps you can use an old AD&D map of an area. One of the player’s in the group starts with a map that has been handed down for generations. The problem is his people are so cut of from other populations that the map is extremely out of date. That alone could spark some extremely interesting encounters.

NPC’s: Changing an NPC over is a fairly simple process. Most of the effort here revolves around time. The time it takes to convert lets say Elminster from 3rd edition up to 4th edition and this only takes time if you want to actually have his full sheet on hand. If you just need him as an NPC, well you don’t even need a book for that one. You can also take a pre-existing NPC from the edition you are currently playing and plop the name of the NPC from the older edition on him. Finding an existing character with stats that are similar to the character you want to use can be easier, if you can find one that is close enough for your tastes.

Equipment & Magic Items: Basic Equipment is the easiest to transfer over. Say you want to transfer the Fullblade from 3.0 to 4.0 - fairly simple task. Just compare a few weapons from both editions together and then compare the Fullblade to weapons from both editions. It should only be a few minutes work to get a working version up.

Magic items can be trickier. Sometimes an ability or spell from one edition does not exist in the edition you want to use. In this case look at one the items main concept is. Then find an equivalent that will work. You can of course spend more time to convert the ability over to your current game.

Spells: Much like magic items spells can be either easy or hard to convert depending. A good way to do this would be similar to what we do with Equipment. Compare spells that appear in both editions to that are similar to each other, then compare the spell you wish to convert over to both of them. This should help give you an idea of what to do.

Rules: Much like everything else rules can be transferred over as well. Personally I prefer 3.5/Pathfinder over 4th Edition. But one thing I love about 4th Edition is the minion system. If you have not played 4th edition I will explain it for you. What the minion system does is allow you to simulate large battles or scenarios where you players are outnumbered without turning it into an instant party annihilation.

Basically, you have your standard version of the monster, straight out of your book. Then you have the minions, which are the same in every way to the standard version (Same Attacks, Saves, Abilities etc.) with one difference. They only have 1 Hit Point. This can still be pretty dangerous as lvl 12 minion will still have the same change to hit as the standard creature. But they go down faster. They also can help make feats that require lots of prerequisites to be more worthwhile. Whirlwind attack is well worth having when your group is running a campaign with minion rules, not to mention damn fun for that character who spends all those feats to utilize it.

Classes, Monsters an PrC’s are a bit harder to transfer over so I left those out of here. Hopefully you found some useful information here. Thanks for taking the time to read the first edition of this blog. There will be more to come soon, I promise!

~Fallen bane (Jim)

August 3, 2009 - Dog Days of Summer

Tom Shea Pokemon, Magic: the Gathering, A Word From Tom Shea, Collective Thoughts Archive

Hello everyone!! We are entering the dog days of summer. Those hot days in August. There is much to do. Supreme Victors Pre Releases for Pokemon start this upcoming Saturday! We will be in Watervliet, NY home of the Chimentos. Johnny Blaze and the gang are all big AC/DC fans I hear. Supreme Victors just might have them all Thunderstruck as this set is really good or so I am told. We are also at the Relentless Dragon, which is in Amhurst, NH. IF you haven't visited the Dragon you really need to this is a really nice store run by very friendly people. Then on SUNDAY we are at my favorite store - TJ Collectibles! This should be a huge event. I want us to have a GIANT send off for all of our worlds competitors. 

The following weekend we have lots of Pokemon pre releases. Friday night we are trying something different at Disposable Heroes by doing our first Friday night pre release. Saturday we are at Rising Phoenix Games(MA) and The Game Casle (NH) and on Sunday we are at The Grid(CT) and Batter UP(MA),  These events should be well attended as everyone isn't going to world's.


The weekend of 8/21/2009 brings us Draft Days! Friday 8/21/2009 is draft day 1 for Magic! Then on 8/22/2009 we have a Magic Pro Tour qualifer for Austin which is why we are dong our first draft day at Rising Phoenix Games. Sunday 8/23/2009 we are running Draft day at TJ's for Pokemon AND MAGIC. Booster draft entry fees will be lowered $1.00 for each draft you participate in. EVERYONE loves drafting the game type doesn't matter.

DRAFT DAYS - Don't miss them!

See you there

Tom

July 28, 2009 -

Tom Shea Pokemon, Magic: the Gathering, A Word From Tom Shea

Hello everyone! This has been a difficult week for Judy and I. A few days ago we had a sit down with a her brother Bill and her mom's doctor to discss her mom's situation as she was in the hospital. It was decided that hospice was the best route. We then spent a day deciding where she would spend her hospice time. We decided to have Rita at our home. After people meet Judy they tell me how she is the nicest person they have ever met. While that may be true Judy is the second nicest person I have ever met as Rita her mom was truly the nicest person I ever met.

Rita came from the generation where people thought of others FIRST. While she did get angry with the things that other people did, she almost never confronted them on their behavior. She would think of how hard it must have been for them to have to do what they did. Rita was born with only 1 hand. She hid this fact extreemly well. She never made excuses for the things that she could or couldn't do. She was a lady full of life. Sometimes she would get madder than a hornet. But unlike hornets rarely did she ever sting anyone.

Rita lived to be 92. Rita was susposed to be moved to our home today. At the end she didn' t want to be a bother. She passed on around 10:00 am this morning. She Judy is very much her daughter. When you understand Judy you would have understood Rita. When Rita first met me she didn't like me. She asked Judy if she was settling. Once Rita came to the conclusion that Judy was going to marry me she changed her tune and accepted me. I knew that she had accepted me one day when she asked me if I was thirsty. When I asked for a glass of water she told Judy to get me a glass of water. One of her favorite answers to life's problems was that Judy can do it. Which does work for most things.

After my foot operation Rita wanted to see me to make sure I was ok. Every so often she would ask me how I was doing. What is frustrating about our current health care system is that we couldn't bring Rita home to spend her last days. She never wanted to be a bother. There would be times when we were visiting her that she would tell us to go and do something nice. I will work on being more like Rita by not thinking about myself as much.  

Every time we thought she was getting worse she would go to the hospital and pop right back up. This wasn't one of those times. I will miss her. Take time to tell the ones that are important in your life how important the really are to you.

Sincerely

Tom

July 21, 2009 - Good Luck At GP Boston

Tom Shea Magic: the Gathering, A Word From Tom Shea

Hello everyone! For the past 4 Grand Prix Boston's Rob Dougherty from Your Move Games and I partnered up to bring you 4 high quality events. At least we hoped they were high quality. This partnership seemed to work, really well. Each of us brought to the table things that the other didn't do so well. This partnership has ended. This past year Wizards awarded Rob the GP which is disapointing as in years past it was brought to Rob and I with options. The option we chose was to work together. This past year it was simply given to Rob and he had all the options.  He chose to cut me out blaming the poor economy. All of us are hurting due to this economy not only Rob.

It is really disapoining to me that my only involvement in this year's GP is the trial we are running this weekend. I wish all of you luck at the event. This is an important event for our community. I have encouraged all of my judges to go and work this event. Grand Prixs are a time to celebrate the game of Magic. I encourage all of you to do so.  

Sincerely

Tom

July 21, 2009 - A Skeptic's Perspective: Magic 2010 Props & Slops

Chris Alexander Magic: the Gathering, A Skeptic's Perspective

Now that Magic 2010 (M10) has been upon us for a few days now, it seems fair to share my initial thoughts about Wizards of The Coast’s newest product. In doing so, I’m going to adopt a “Props” and “Slops” type of format since I believe that sometimes, it’s good to veer away from the norm.

For reference, the complete spoiler can be found either on MTG Salvation or on Gatherer.

Props: I have to say, it seems as if Wizards has found a good balance here. By this I mean, solid playable commons, uncommons and even rares (and mythic rares). Moreover, there is simply a lot of value in this set. Naturally, I believe that was their goal: include good cards in order to sell more booster packs. At this, they succeeded with flying colors. In addition, moving the Planeswalkers to mythic is brilliant and makes me wonder why they were not mythic in the first place, other than Lorwyn not including mythic rares of course.

Overall, the set seems well designed and has a lot of flavor. I think they achieved their goal of going back to Magic’s fantasy roots and included a lot of fun, different and influential cards that should effect both the casual and competitive player alike.

Slops: I am however, disappointed with the distribution of cards with in the booster packs themselves. This really only effects Limited tournament formats - Sealed deck - specifically. For example, at the Launch Party last weekend, even after opening six (6) booster packs I didn’t have a solid, playable deck. Is this just the random nature of Sealed Deck? Perhaps. However, I could deal with absolutely every creature my potential opponents’ had to throw at me; all I had was removal but no way to win! The gentleman across from me however, opened ridiculous creatures both in sheer numbers and quality. He managed an undefeated record. Nice job Adam Snook.

Sealed also seems completely dependant upon the bomb cards, especially since unlike Lorwyn mini-block, Shadowmoor mini-block or Shards block, there is an inherent lack of synergy available to assist in overcoming a ridiculous bomb card. Sure, there’s plenty of targeted removal spells, but sometimes even those aren’t enough.

I haven’t drafted the set yet and I’m hoping that’s better. For now though, Sealed, you disappoint me even though I like the shift away from encouraging more than two (2) colors.

Props: I actually like the rules changes now that I’ve had a chance to play with them. All I’ve really done is cut saying “damage on the stack” out of the normal combat routine. In addition, mana burn hasn’t come up ONCE. While I do like the previous rules, the changes are more intuitive and elegant. Moreover, I’m hoping this will make acquisitions a lot easier and less intimidating for new players; I wish to see Magic grow, reach the mass market and be around for years to come. Indeed, I work in the gaming industry; one of the most common reasons customers provide for avoiding Magic is that it’s to complicated and unintuitive.

Slops: I don’t believe that releasing a new base set each year is a good idea. It really should be around longer. Naturally, it’s a lot of stress on the consumer’s wallet despite the argument of, “oh, they’d spend the money on a summer release anyway.” Perhaps, but a base set? I simply believe a once a year release to be to fast. I think base sets should impact Standard for a longer period of time since they tend to be so influential and effect more than one format.

Props: Speaking of Standard, I really like how M10 looks in terms of effecting everyone’s favorite constructed format. There are lot of playable cards. While I don’t think Soldier’s as a strategy will be a viable one as long as Kithkin is with us (not for much longer, though), cards such as Baneslayer Angel, the Planeswalkers, Platinum Angel, the new dual lands, Haunting Echoes, Doom Blade, Sign in Blood, Duress and of course Lightning Bolt for example, should all have a great impact on deck design through next year. Moreover, I also like how some of those cards should impact Extended as well, especially given that Extended loses Onslaught block and 8th Edition in October. Nevertheless, with all that in mind, no cards actually blow me away or really impress me. I just believe there to be a lot of really solid, playable - even fun - cards and I think this to be better than one or more really ridiculous cards surrounded by a set of junk.

Thus, we end on a happy note as overall, I’m quite impressed with Magic 2010 thus far - including the rules changes - and the sales numbers only back up my claim, which Wizards officially being sold our and prices highly likely to rise.

Speaking of Magic 2010, don’t forget that this Saturday is our Grand Prix Boston Trial. This event is M10 Sealed (meaning six booster packs) and is therefore great practice for the Grand Prix. Don’t miss it!

July 17, 2009 - A Word from Tom Shea

Tom Shea Magic: the Gathering, A Word From Tom Shea, Collective Thoughts Archive

Hello Everyone!!

Summertime is a fun time! For those coming to TJ's this weekend we are very busy. We have the M10 LAUNCH PARTY!! Judge Judy will be here this weekend so I can play in both Friday Night Magic and the Launch Party which will all feature M10. This set looks awesome!  A change of pace is always good.

Also on Saturday we are hosting a Pokemon Celebration for our national competitors. CAKE is good. Come on down and share your experience at Pokemon Nationals with the other Pokemon players from New England. We will be hosting league as well.

Like many of you Judy and I fall into bad habbits during the summer. We often find ourselves staying up late, sleeping late and accomplishing little during the summer. I challenge all of you to do something each day. Make each day a special day by getting something done. I am hopeful to get the garage cleaned out this summer. Saturday we have the launch party. Sunday I am mowing the lawn, and planting a few plants. Do things like that make summertime productive time. Time is one of the things that is truly limited. Once you waste a day you can't get it back.

Have some fun this weekend with your friends at TJ Collectibles

Tom

July 6, 2009 - A Word From Tom Shea #9: Pokemon Nationals

Tom Shea Pokemon, Magic: the Gathering, A Word From Tom Shea

Hello everyone! I just spent the past few days recovering from our trip to St. Louis for the Pokemon National Championships. We had quite a week; Judy and I flew out last Wednesday. Thursday was the P.T.O. conference. Friday was the professor cup followed by the first ever Judge Seminar where Kim, aka “Bulbasnore,” Richard, aka “Big Daddy Snorlax” and yours truly presented the beginning of the Pokemon Judge Training Program.

 I once went golfing with a friend of mine who kept telling me that the results of my poorly hitting the ball didn’t matter as I was now in play. That is how I felt about this first ever workshop. How many or how few people attended didn’t matter as we are now in play. There will be many other workshops in the future that will be much more heavily attended. My purpose this past weekend was to work with judges and share my experiences. Sharing experiences helps shape perspective. As a system Pokemon will grow stronger with judges doing so. We are only as strong as our weakest link.

As a group the New England plus community did a fantastic job representing itself. For starters we need to properly designate what our community. When I say New England + I am including our friends from Watervliet NY, which is the league run by John Chimento. Those folks are a big part of our community. As a group our staff members worked hard and did a great job. Our players did an awesome job showing the tremendous spirit of the game that exists in our area. When our players lost and were eliminated they showed tremendous class accepting defeat while showing true sportsmanship. We made us proud.

One important thing that all of you should realize is this. While I am in an official capacity at any event I am not permitted to show any bias towards any player in the event. I am not allowed to “root”  or cheer on any player in the event. Deep down you all know that I was pulling for you. The hard thing comes whenever I am forced to become in a ruling that involves any of you. You understand that I MUST arbitrate the rules fairly no matter who is involved. I would assess my own mom a game loss if she earned it you all know that. I watched several of you in the final cuts. All of you played in a manner that you should be proud of. You all were warriors.

We had 6 juniors make day 2. Danny T, and Noah L made top 4. It was awesome to see that. The possibilities of an all New England top 2 were exciting indeed. The fact that you two made top 4 and earned trips to worlds is awesome. The other really cool thing was that Aaron C earned an invite to worlds as well BECAUSE Noah is already qualified and the invite passed down. Way to go guys! Henry C, Duncan H, Aaron C, and Collin G all played with determination.

We had 5 seniors make day 2 as well. Aylam R, Nathaniel L, Thomas A, Kevin C, and Michael B. Both Aylam and Nathaniel L made top 4 as well. We were having such a fun day with the possibility of both senior and junior divisions having New England players in the finals. Nathaniel finished 4^th and Aylam won it all. Thomas finished day one undefeated. Kevin C, Michael B and Thomas all played well in the top cuts. They just didn’t draw well enough to win.

The single most impressive thing that I constantly see in our New England plus Pokemon community is how all of our players pull for one another.  Even when they were eliminated from the tournament they stayed and cheered for one another. This is what makes us proud of all of the players in our community is how you pull together at Nationals and Worlds. During the rest of the year you battle each other so hard. Each league believes that it has the best players. All of you beat the tar out of one another the rest of the year in preparation for Nats and Worlds.

This preparation last year led to Gino L winning Nats and Dylan L becoming World Champ. This year we had even more players making the top cut. Our masters had a hard round of last cuts during day one. None of them survived to make day 2. That didn’t keep the masters away. There were many of them rooting on our juniors and seniors. The fact that all of our more experienced players play and teach our less experienced players how to play their decks properly is part of what helps our players be so competitive.  Our judges who work so hard at knowing the rules help as well. The only downer for us was that one of our players was dq’ed for marked cards. We had never thought that coloring ones borders could lead to such a penalty. You have my apologies for this happening. This is something that I had never seen. You have my word that we will work even harder this upcoming year to help ensure that you are properly prepared for these bigger tournaments.

Judy and I want all of you to come to TJ’s on Saturday July 18^th, from 5 to 8 for a celebration!

Come to share your stories from Nats, play in league, and have some CAKE.

See you there

Tom  

June 10, 2009 - A Skeptic's Perspective #3: Magic 2010 Rules Change

Chris Alexander Magic: the Gathering, A Skeptic's Perspective

It has been a while since I have posted a blog, as you‘re no doubt aware. While that is regretful and I should set more time aside to do so, unfortunately life has a way of creeping up on you in such a way as to siphon time away from pursuits such as blogging. Nevertheless, I’m here now and while there is plenty to discuss in the gaming world, right now I’d like to discuss Wizards of The Coast’s changes to the Magic the Gathering rules to be revised and to take effect with their July product release, Magic 2010.

All of the changes and explanations can be read in an article posted today by Aaron Forsythe and Mark L. Gottlieb. In short, their aim is to make Magic a more intuitive game by simplifying certain rules, thtereby making the game easier to learn for new players. I’m all for that as I certainly wish to see Magic’s fan base grow and I think they did a good job of doing so. To illustrate, let’s examine the changes:

“1) Simultaneous Mulligans
The Reality: Outside of tournament play, most players do not obey the by-the-book protocol for handling mulligans in which one player resolves all of his or her mulligans before the next player resolves any of his. Instead, players mulligan more or less at the same time.

The Fix: Mulligans will now officially be handled simultaneously. This will significantly cut down on time spent shuffling before each tournament game.

The Details: The procedure will work like this. Starting with the player who will take the first turn of the game and proceeding in turn order around the table, each player announces whether he or she will take a mulligan or not. Then everyone who said they would take a mulligan does so at the same time. (If no one's taking a mulligan, the game proceeds onward.)
If any players took a mulligan, then just those players repeat the process to see if any of them will take a second mulligan: First they announce yes or no, then all the yeses shuffle and redraw at the same time. This continues among the mulliganers until everyone's satisfied with their starting hands.
Once you decide you're not taking a mulligan, your starting hand is locked in. You can't jump back into the mulligan process later.”

While I understand the reasoning behind the procedural, priority mulligan system and the advantages it can provide, Mr. Forsythe and Mr. Gottlieb are correct here. Most players resolve their mulligans at the same time anyway, even at Pro Tour Qualifier or greater levels of competition. This change to me seems like a no-brainer and should, in theory, speed things up a little bit.

“2) Terminology Changes
While Magic is full of flavorful and resonant terms (graveyard, library, spell, sorcery, combat, etc.), some of our terminology is generic, vague, and/or misleading. We are making four distinct terminology changes, both in printed card sets going forward and in Oracle, to make the game both clearer and more evocative.”

Okay, I’m with them so far. Again, anything to make the game simple and easy to learn is a good thing as well as make playing the game of Magic a unique experience.

“2A) Battlefield
The Reality: Some players are confused by the subtle difference between ‘play’ and ‘put into play.’ The name ‘in-play zone’ breaks the metaphor the rest of the game tries to establish.

The Fix: The in-play zone is renamed the ‘battlefield,’ which brings it in line with other flavorful zone names like ‘graveyard’ and ‘library.’ Permanents now ‘enter the battlefield’ or are ‘put onto the battlefield’ as opposed to ‘come into play’ or ‘put into play.’

The Details: As you may expect, this will require errata on roughly thirty-eight bazillion cards. (Over two thousand, at least.) A lot of cards say ‘in play," "to play," or "into play" on them! However, this is a straight-up terminology swap. No cards have functionality changes as a result of this.
One thing to keep in mind is that, as Aaron stated, "When this creature enters the battlefield" is the equivalent of "When this creature comes into play." This kind of ability triggers when the creature it's on hits the table, not when it enters combat.”

While I believe this change makes sense, especially since calling the in-play zone a “board” is a misnomer (Magic is a card game), it does leave a bad taste in my mouth in the sense that this reminds me of Yu-Gi-Oh, which has “the field.” Still, a fine change all things considered.

 "2B) Cast, Play, and Activate
The Reality: Again, some players are confused by the subtle difference between "play" and "put into play." The term "cast" was retired from game rules at the time of Classic Sixth Edition for reasons I no longer believe are relevant—to streamline the rules and condense the number of terms down at the cost of flavor. Most players today who played pre-Sixth (and some who didn't!) still use the term "cast." It makes sense for spells to be "cast" as opposed to "played."

The Fix: "Cast" is being reinstated as the verb used when referring to the act of playing spells or types of spells. "Play" is being kept as the verb associated with lands (and with cards of unspecified types). Activated abilities are also no longer "played" but rather "activated."

The Details: This change will also require a lot of errata, but there won't be any functional changes. We're only changing the words.

To illustrate Aaron's point, a ton of players were confused about the interaction between Phage the Untouchable and Elvish Piper. Here are their Tenth Edition wordings:

Elvish Piper: Green Mana, Tap: You may put a creature card from your hand into play.
Phage's first ability: When Phage the Untouchable comes into play, if you didn't play it from your hand, you lose the game.

The distinction between playing a card from your hand and putting a card into play from your hand was subtle to the point of unintelligibility. We want people other than Level 3 judges to be able to understand the game. Here's what the wordings of these cards will become:

Elvish Piper: Green Mana, Tap: You may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield.
Phage's first ability: When Phage the Untouchable enters the battlefield, if you didn't cast it from your hand, you lose the game.

Much better. In the new world, you'll play lands, cast spells, activate abilities, and play cards that might be lands or spells (as with Mind's Desire)."

 "2C) Exile
The Reality: "Removed from the game" is increasingly a misnomer as we design more cards that use the removed-from-the-game zone as a temporary holding cell for cards that are very much still in the game. Like the "in-play zone," the name "removed-from-the-game zone" does a poor job of maintaining the game's fantasy metaphor.

The Fix: The phrase "remove from the game" is being changed to "exile," which is shorter, more flavorful, and not at all misleading about actually being in the game. The zone is now called the "exile zone" and cards in it will be referred to as "exiled cards."

The Details: This is, for the most part, another cut-and-paste terminology change. Every card that removes something from the game, from Jester's Cap to Astral Slide to Identity Crisis, will be getting errata to use the word "exile" instead. But none of these cards are functionally changing.

However, the acknowledgment that this zone is, in fact, fully within the game does bring about functional changes to the six Wishes, Ring of Ma'rûf, and the Research half of Research // Development. These cards let you get cards from "outside the game," which has been ruled to include your card collection (in casual games), your sideboard (in tournament games), and the removed-from-the-game zone. That's no longer the case. Exiled cards are not outside the game (and you could argue that they never really were), so these cards will no longer be able to access cards in that zone. Their primary functionality—getting cards from your collection or sideboard—remains unchanged, of course."

Both of these falls under the concept of "simplification," which is fine with me. Player's are still using the word "cast" even if WotC and the DCI made it obsolete year's ago. Might as well bring it's use back and making the "remove from game" concept easier certainly can't hurt either.

 "2D) Beginning of the End Step
The Reality: The subtle but important difference between the phrases "at end of turn" and "until end of turn" in our card templates is a constant source of confusion for players. "At end of turn" really means "at the beginning of the end-of-turn step," which is not the actual end of the turn. In fact, it is often strategically correct to take certain actions during the end-of-turn step after "at end of turn" triggers are processed, which many players have trouble wrapping their heads around. Compounding this is the fact that "until end of turn" effects, like that of Giant Growth, last until the actual end of the turn.

The Fix: This one didn't involve the creation of any new terminology. Instead, it involves a minor rules update (changing the name of the "end-of-turn step" to the "end step") and a change in how we are templating cards. We will now refer to the time when such triggers happen as what it actually is: "at the beginning of the end step." Hopefully this will more clearly convey the existence of a window in the turn after these triggers occur during which more spells and abilities can be used. "Until end of turn" will still be used for effects with durations such as Giant Growth.

The Details: Indeed. This way, "at the beginning of the end step" triggers will more closely match "at the beginning of upkeep" triggers. Once again, no cards are functionally changing. We're just issuing errata, and changing card wordings going forward, so they more clearly convey what their functionality actually is.

There's a further change that escaped our notice before the Magic 2010 set was printed, but it'll be implemented on new cards starting with the Zendikar set. Where this issue gets really confusing is when a spell or ability that resolves during the end step has an "at end of turn" delayed triggered ability appended to it. Rakdos Guildmage's second ability is a perfect example. Here's what it says currently:

Rakdos Guildmage's second ability: 3 ManaRed Mana: Put a 2/1 red Goblin creature token with haste into play. Remove it from the game at end of turn.

It boggles the mind that if you activate this ability during the end step, after "at end of turn" triggers have already triggered, that you'd get to keep the token through nearly the entire next turn. This was called the "end-of-turn loophole," and it wasn't a problem for power reasons—it was a problem because it was ridiculously unintuitive. I think that confusion is alleviated not only by using the new template, but by adding the word "next" within it, like so:

Rakdos Guildmage's second ability: 3 ManaRed Mana: Put a 2/1 red Goblin creature token with haste into play. Remove it from the game at the beginning of the next end step.

That makes so much more sense it makes my toes curl. But that covers just one of the changes to this ability's wording. When it's fully updated, it'll really look like this:

Rakdos Guildmage's second ability: 3 ManaRed Mana: Put a 2/1 red Goblin creature token with haste onto the battlefield. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step.

Now that's an ability!"

Now here's an update I can really, really get behind. The End Step has been in dire need of some real clarification since the day of utilizing Waylay as a white Ball Lightning. All I can say is, it's about time!

"3) Mana Pools and Mana Burn
3A) Mana Pools Emptying
The Reality: Many players can't clearly distinguish between phases and steps. The fact that mana remains in pools from step to step but not phase to phase is arbitrary. The concept of floating mana from step to step is hard to understand. Mana pools, in general, should be empty most of the time that players pass priority for ease of keeping track of the game state.

The Fix: Mana pools now empty at the end of each step and phase, which means mana can no longer be floated from the upkeep to the draw step, nor from the declare attackers step to the declare blockers step of combat.

The Details: This is mostly a change on the rules side. Currently, rule 300.3 of the Comprehensive Rules says "When a phase ends (but not a step), any unused mana left in a player's mana pool is lost." That'll change to "When a step or phase ends, any unused mana left in a player's mana pool is lost." A few cards, such as Upwelling and Sakura-Tribe Springcaller, will get minor errata to their "mana doesn't empty from mana pools" abilities just to specify that the mana doesn't empty when steps end either. Other cards affected by this change, such as Radha, Heir to Keld and Braid of Fire, will not receive errata.

3B) Mana Burn Eliminated
The Reality: Many players aren't aware of the existence of mana burn as a game concept. Discovering it exists, especially via an opponent manipulating his own life total for gain, can be jarring. Its existence impacts game play in a negligible way, whereas its existence impacts card design space somewhat significantly.

The Fix: Mana burn is eliminated as a game concept. Mana left unspent at the end of steps or phases will simply vanish, with no accompanying loss of life.

The Details: It turns out that eliminating mana burn from the game is surprisingly easy. I delete three sentences from rule 300.3, strike the glossary entry, and modify a few other rules that mention mana burn, and it's gone. Six cards will get errata to delete their references to mana burn, since "This mana doesn't cause mana burn" text will be pretty redundant all of a sudden.

What happens during a game? Let's say Heartbeat of Spring is in play, and you add four mana to your mana pool, but you spend only three of it. At the end of the current step or phase, the extra mana vanishes. That's it. No penalty; it's just gone.

By my reckoning, the elimination of mana burn will functionally impact about 40 cards, some for the better and some for the worse, some directly and some indirectly, because no cards are getting errata as a result of this rules change. That's right: We're not maintaining current functionality for these cards; the whole point of getting rid of the mana burn rule is to get rid of the mana burn rule.

In 99.9% of Magic games, of course, you'll never even notice mana burn is gone."

I'm actually rather disappointed with this as I believe careful use of one's mana is an important part of a game that is in large part based around resource managment. While I understand the implimentation of this and that few people really do mana burn, I think competative players (like myself) will be disappointed somewhat with this, despite making life simpiler. In addition, not being able to float mana - especially into one's draw step - is really disappointing. Mistbind Clique, you're my new best friend.

"4) Token Ownership
The Reality: The current "token ownership" rule is poorly understood, mainly because it doesn't make a ton of sense. Currently, the owner of a token is "the controller of the effect that put it into play." That means I own the tokens put into play under your control due to my Hunted Dragon or Forbidden Orchard, which allows me to do unintuitive tricks with cards like Brand or Warp World. Few people are aware of this rule, and assume that the owner of the tokens is the player under whose control they entered the battlefield.

The Fix: We are matching most players' expectation by changing the rule such that the owner of a token is, in fact, the player under whose control it entered the battlefield.

The Details: The rules change is as Aaron described it. As for the ramifications, there are three kinds of situations when this rule comes up:

   1. When someone is trying to exploit it. (Sorry, Warp Worlders.)
   2. When a naturally occurring game situation makes it matter who owns a token. This is pretty darn unusual. For example, my Hunted Lammasu creates a token under your control, I Repeal the token, and one of us controls Azorius Æthermage. Whose hand did that token return to? Under the old rule, mine; under the new rule, yours. But without that Æthermage on the battlefield, it doesn't actually matter.
   3. In a multiplayer game. My Hunted Lammasu creates a token under your control, then I lose the game. Under the old rule, I take my token with me when I leave the game. Under the new rule, it stays right where it is."

I don't personally ever recall having an issue figuring out the ownership of tokens. Nevertheless, they claim it's "poorly understand," and they're the experts. In any case, I don't see this as a big deal. So let's move on to what is probably the biggest change.

"5) Combat Damage No Longer Uses the Stack
The Reality: The intricate system via which combat is currently handled creates many unintuitive gameplay moments. For starters, "the stack" is a difficult concept, even after all these years, so it is no wonder that many players go about combat without invoking it at all. Second, creatures disappearing after damage has been put on the stack leads to a ton of confusion and disbelief: How is that Mogg Fanatic killing two creatures? How did that creature kill mine but make your Nantuko Husk big enough to survive? How can you Unsummon your creature and have it still deal damage? While many of us may be used to the way things are now, it makes no sense in terms of a game metaphor and only a bit more sense as a rule.

The Fix: As soon as damage is assigned in the combat damage step, it is dealt. There is no time to cast spells and activate abilities in between; the last time to do so prior to damage being dealt is during the declare blockers step.

This was a particularly tricky change to implement, as it had the potential to create bad experiences in situations where double blocking occurs and the defending player has access to a damage prevention ability (or anything similar). If damage was prevented to one creature, the attacker would just kill the other, which is unintuitive. Players expect to be able to use their healing spells to save creatures that are actually going to die. To solve problems like these, during the declare blockers step, if a creature is blocked by multiple creatures, the attacker immediately announces an order in which that attacking creature will be assigning damage to the blockers. When it comes time to actually deal the damage, lethal damage must be assigned to the first blocker before any can be assigned to the second, and so on. Now, in complex combat situations there will be some foreknowledge of which creatures are in the most danger before damage is dealt.

This is not as sweeping as it sounds. In the majority of cases, creatures attack, creatures block, and combat looks the same way it did before—minus the chance for counterintuitive tricks after "damage on." The majority of the explanation below covers multiple blocks.

The Details: This changes what happens during the declare blockers step and what happens during the combat damage step.

Combat Phase

    * Beginning of combat step
    * Declare attackers step
    * Declare blockers step
    * Combat damage step
    * End of combat step"

First, for more information regarding this change including significant examples, please see the original article here. This is a sweeping change, one that I expect to disappoint competative Magic players since they can no longer utilize their creatures ability once damage is on the stack. Despite that, it is an intuitive change and one that should make learning the game itself, specifically combat, a lot easier. Damage isn't a spell; why did it go on the Stack in the first place? I do like how double-blocking works and I think that's a great change.

"6) Deathtouch
The Reality: There are two problems with deathtouch. One, the fact that it is a triggered ability leads to instances where a single creature needs to regenerate twice from a single source with deathtouch, which is unnecessarily hard to intuit. Second, the deathtouch ability as currently worded doesn't work well under the new combat rules. If a creature with deathtouch, like Kederekt Creeper, is double-blocked by two 3/3s, the new rules wouldn't allow the division of damage between the blockers, which kind of defeats the point of the card and fails to live up to expectations of how deathtouch should function.

The Fix: First, deathtouch is becoming a static ability. Creatures dealt damage by a source with deathtouch will be destroyed as a state-based effect at the same time lethal damage would kill them. As a side effect, multiple instances of deathtouch will no longer be cumulative. Second, deathtouch allows a double-blocked creature to ignore the new damage assignment rules and split its damage among any number of creatures it's in combat with however its controller wants to."

Mr. Forsythe and Mr. Gottlieb go on a bit of a tangent in "The Details," section. Please see the original article for details.

 "7) Lifelink
The Reality: The fact that lifelink is a triggered ability leads to situations where the controller of a blocker with lifelink dies from combat damage before lifelink can grant that player enough life to stay alive. Many players get this interaction wrong; the subtle difference in timing is unfortunate.

The Fix: Lifelink, like deathtouch, is turning into a static ability. If a source with lifelink deals damage, its controller gains that much life as that damage is being dealt. This brings the timing much closer to spells like Consume Spirit and Lightning Helix. As a side effect, multiple instances of lifelink are no longer cumulative.

The Details: As with deathtouch, this will incur functionality changes in some cards and errata (actually, un-errata) in others. If a card was printed with the word "lifelink" on it, its functionality will change to the new lifelink. However, a bunch of cards were printed with the ability "Whenever [this permanent] deals damage, you gain that much life" on them and got errata to say "lifelink" a couple of years ago because the two abilities were equivalent. Now that they're not, those cards will be reverted to their original wordings. They'll work as printed ... but they won't have lifelink. Only one card—Loxodon Warhammer—has been printed both ways. Since its most recent printing says "lifelink," it will stick with that and have the new functionality."

This seems pretty intuitive to me. Having to Regenerate from Deathtoch and combat damage is pretty annoying and I think both of these changes is a good idea. In addition, this comes under the whole "simplification" concept which I'm always happy with.

Overrall, this seems like a good move to me even though I'm a bit disappointed with the changes to the mana floating and burn rules. Moreover, while I'd personally like for combat damage to continue to use the stack and I believe the changes to combat will take some getting use to, this is probably a good change as well in terms of acquiring new players and teaching people the game we all love. At the end of the day, that's really what it's all about.

Regards,
-Chris Alexander
TJ Collectibles,
Online Sales Manager
NOSPAMchris@tjcollect.com (simply copy and paste, minus the "no spam").

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May 30, 2009 - A Word From Tom Shea #8: Two in one Week!

Tom Shea Pokemon, Magic: the Gathering, A Word From Tom Shea

Hello Everyone! Today is Saturday, I find myself in Johnston, RI home of Disposable Heroes for a Pokemon Battleroad, Today we had 41 players. Actually that is an amazing number considering the time of year and the not so amazing prize structure for Battle Roads. Our crew takes every tournament as an experience not to be missed. Gotta love it. Last night we had 18 at TJ's for FNM. Things are looking up.

In July we are switching up our Pokemon league leaders. Steve A has done a really nice job running our league. The problem is that Steve judges a ton of events for us. It is impossible for him to be at 2 places at once. With that in mind we have recruited the best league leader I have ever seen - Brian Jessing. Brian will be taking the TJ league over July 11th. From that date on our league WILL always run on Saturdays from 5 to 8. We are making Pokemon League a Priority. EVER Saturday from 5 to 8 TJ Pokemon league will run reguardless of our tournament schedule. Count on it.

We are on FACEBOOK too. Nice site. Join facebook, send me a friend request, then do me a big favor and JOIN MY MOB! Seriously I have found facebook to be much more than I orginally thought. Much more what? Everything. I have reconnected with both friends and family that I have not heard of in years. It has allowed me to see what my friends are doing. It has allowed me to better communicate with people what is going on at TJ's and things in my life. Social networking is the wave of the future. So if you are not on facebook you should join the fun.

have a great weekend,
 
Tom Shea

May 27, 2009 - A Word From Tom Shea #7: Seems like old times

Tom Shea Pokemon, Magic: the Gathering, A Word From Tom Shea

Hello everyone!! Believe it or not I actually game from time to time. My game of choice is Magic the Gathering. This is not to say that the other games that we are involved in are not great. I just really enjoy Magic. Last night we had 16 players including myself for Tuesday night booster draft. That is unheard of! I appreciate evenyone coming out to play. We ran 2 pods of 8. Took our time and finished the night around 10:30.

Well some of us finished the night that early. A smaller group of us stayed and drafted again. We didn't finish our 3 on 3 team draft until 1:30 am. This night brought back memories from the early 2000's when we would draft 4 or 5 times on a Saturday and finish about the same time. Then we would take C Fish home and do the Bickford's run to Sharon before looping back to Foxboro, then to Millis and finally home by 4:00 am. Those were the days when we would play all night with Huey, the DeSimone brothers, C Fish, Lynch, Mark White and the gang. Those were the good old days.

This past Monday Judy and I visited my good friend Dick R whom I have had been fortunate to know for the past 18 years. Dick is in a home with stage 4 cancer. This amazing man has shown nothing but courage and class handling his situation. This past week he shared with me that he isn't sure how this is going to end. When I find myself with a problem that seems insurmountable I ask myself "what would Dick do"? Many times those problems don't seem so large anymore.  Like many other things Dick has taught me he now is showing me how to bow out with dignity and class. Every few days I plan on going down to visit this dear friend of mine. For how much longer I get this opportunity is unknown. 

There are a lot of unknowns out there. Today I spent some time on the phone speaking with a long lost cousin of mine. Actually he wasn't lost, neither was I for that matter. The real problem is that we had lost touch with each other. Neither of us really knew why either which is the strange thing. While it takes two people to share a friendship. it ONLY takes one to reach out and re kindle one as well. It is really awesome that Chris found me on facebook and took the time to reach out. Now it is important that I keep up my end by staying in contact with him. Time flys by so fast. It really is important that each of us takes the time that we have and live it to the fullest. 

My uncle Charlie was my cousins dad. Uncle Charlie was one of my favorite uncles. He took the time to try and help my sister during a difficult time. He gave her a job working for his book keeping company. He was a kind man who died at the young age of 46. This past April 18th, I turned 46. Now I am living years that my uncle Charlie didn't get the opportunity to live. Like many of us he got all caught up in his busy life. He didn't take care of himself which led to his early departure. 

All of us have things to overcome. Many of us don't really have time to do many of the things that we love doing. When I opened TJ Collectibles, Judy and I lived in Marlboro down the street from my friend Dick's store. I would stop by each day and visit with Dick before I went to Milford to open up. TJ's opened on April 1, 1992. That's right April fools day. Dick took great delight in reminding me of this fact. He also shared some true wisdom with me that went over my head until a few years ago. He congradulated me that today (my first day being open) was the only day that I would be CAUGHT UP with my work. Enjoy it he told me, Then he told me to always remember that the work can always wait for another day but my family and friends won't always be there for some of those days. Enjoy the moment. Take the time to enjoy playing whatever it is that you play with whomever you enjoy playing with. 

See you soon

Tom Shea 

May 22, 2009 - A word from Tom Shea #6: The Spirit of the Game

Tom Shea Pokemon, A Word From Tom Shea

Hello everyone! This blog is Pokemon specific that is why I didn't check the Magic box as well. This past pre release season we witnessed some disturbing behaviour from several of our players. Some players set up 1 pokemon decks that were not very competitive. I am not sure whether or not they belived that these decks were just goofy or why they were playing them .

Pre Releases are meant to be a party where we come together and battle with the new cards. We promote pre releases as great places for newer players to come and try tournaments. The idea is to ACTUALLY BATTLE. When players don't battle they are letting down the rest of the player community that actually came to play not just get the new cards. We run these tournaments to help players have fun and play. They want to play FULL matches. 

When you don't try to battle at these events you are depriving your fellow players the opportunity to have THEIR FUN. Imagine going to a BUFFET for a meal. The resturant brings our the appetizer and nothing else. You sit down get your appetizer and are waiting for more of your meal and then you are told sorry you win. No more food for your. Imagine how cheated you would feel. That is the way many of your opponets feel who get paired against you feel when they don't get to play a full match. Pre Releases are about having fun on both sides of the table. Don't show poor spirit of the game by trying to deprive your fellow players the true chance to battle you!

See you soon

Tom Shea 

April 21, 2009 - A Word From Tom Shea #5: My Birthday week # 46!

Tom Shea Pokemon, Magic: the Gathering, A Word From Tom Shea

A few years ago, my Uncle Joe told me that it was okay that he was growing old because the alternative was simply unacceptable! I have learned to adopt the same philosophy. So, another year another birthday. This past year has certainly been a turblent one;
we have seen the tremendous growth of Pokemon, the creation of Dungeons & Dragons, changes to the Magic Pre-Release system and the crumbling economy. Thank god we were already heading online by pushing eBay and starting to work on this web site. It is almost as if we are slightly ahead of the train that is trying to run us over, like a bad Indiana Jones scene. Well you know what they say, if it doesn't kill you it makes you stronger.

Today Judy and I took the afternoon to go to the Cheescake Factory for dinner which was an interesting experience. We ordered the lentil soup which was very good. Our meals came out quickly, so fast that we had yet to finish the soup. Our waiter being totally efficient wanted to take it from us along with our bread. I had to quickly tell him to get us more bread and grabbed the soup dish so that he couldn't take it away. Judy's meal was great, mine wasn't cooked properly. Our waiter didn't come back over to check that our food was good for 7 or 8 minutes. I finally got his attention to tell him this plus we didn't have napkins and the waiter didn't bring over the ice water I asked for or the chesse for to put on our meals. Then the manager came over and I calmy explained to him that our waiter was a nice enthusastic young fellow who simply WASN'T LISTENING TO WHAT WE WERE ASKING HIM FOR; he simply was moving. This is very unattentive service. The kicker is that this young guy is about to graduate college from Johnson and Wales with a degree in marketing. Rule #1 in a service business is to listen to the customer so you can help fill their needs.

This past weekend we ran the Pokemon Regional Tournament at TJ's. This looks like it will be the final Regional Championship at TJ's as the event needs more space that TJ's has to give. We did draw 174 players which is under our capacity. However, the biggest difference between Pokemon and other CCG's is that families attend large events like regionals. Many parents don't play so they need some space as well. We also had some spacial issues this past tournament with players wanting to watch matches and judges needing some space to walk the aisles. Rest assured I heard you this past weekend and will move the event for next year. My search for the venue starts now. Overall I was pleased with how Regionals ran. It was good to see that several of you were not pleased with our end time for the masters was around 10:00 pm. While I wasn't displeased with the end time it wasn't totally optimal.

After dinner Judy and I went over to LUPOS which is a dlub in Providence, RI. Judy and I both attended Bryant College many years ago. Bryant is located in North Smithfield, RI so both of us spent some time going to Lupos in our younger days. The club closed and then moved since then. The group we went to see was The All American Rejects. I like those guys!  There were 3 other bands on the card to boot. Such a deal! Now for those of you that like to complain about hte price of Pizza, you need to go to Lupos. A bottle of water and a cup of Diet Coke cost me $7.50! Overall it was a nice night. The Rejects are ready for Prime TIme. Now Dave and many of you would have liked the undercard as the band that was just before the Rejects was a band called Shiny Toy Guns which is a band associated with some Magna videos. Overall I had a good night. If you want to feel young you should hang out with some young people.

Pokemon Regionals always brings fourth interesting rulings. A few years ago it was sleeves that were scratched. This year the big call revolved around cards that were bent from shuffling. When a card becomes distinguishable in a deck it must be dealt with. When players fail to point this out even if they are not trying to take advantage of the situation, it creates a situation that shows the possibility of someone being able to gain an advantage. This is something that tournament officials can't allow to exhist. It always makes our job of running a fair tournament when players come to us and show us that there is something wrong with one of their cards rather than we finding it during a deck check. All players should get into the habbit of six-piling their deck after each of their matches. While six-piling you should be ensuring that your sleeves are in acceptable shape, that you have 60 cards and that your cards are not bent so that they become marked. Players are responsible for following the rules. When you present a deck to your opponet you are saying that your deck is legal. When you have bent cards in your deck you are not doing that. I also wanted to thank all of those who sang happy birthday for me during this event. It was a positive day overall.

I like my blogs to have a message. The message for this one is to really listen to what people are trying to tell you. This seems to be a skill that many don't have. Everyone seems in such a hurry these days. A good friend of mine once taught me the importance of slowing down to go faster. The point of that lesson is to take the time to really listen to what you have been told and THEN to act on it. Rest assured Pokemon Community, I have heard everything you have told me this past year. In many situations you seem to like what we are doing to address many of your concerns. Next year we go to a bigger venue so that regionals can grow to a 200 to 400 person event! That is the present I want for my birthday next year, a regionals with more than 200 Pokemon players.
 
As always, yours in gaming.

Tom

April 14, 2009 - A Word From Tom Shea #4: Some Things Never Change

Tom Shea Magic: the Gathering, A Word From Tom Shea

Hello everyone! Today is Tuesday April 14th, a couple days removed from this past weeks Pro Tour Qualifier. This past Saturday trigger a flash back for me. The winner of this PTQ was Mike Bregoli. Back in 1999 to 2002 Mike used to play at TJ's all the time and was a member of Team TJ's, which back in the day, was like the Oakland Raiders of the 1970's. Full of misfits and characters who used to break all the rules and yet win. I was the Al Davis of the Magic world -- just win baby.

Mike was the quite one, the Fred Blinitkof of our group. He was the most normal guy: he didn't talk trash, didn't use the mind games and/or cheat like the others. Mike was good the old fashioned way, he just worked at it. This past weekend Mike told me that he had actually play tested this season. Who knew that one would actually have to prepare to play competitively? Mike now owns his own game store which is located in Westfield, MA. It is called Lost Harbor Games. If you are in the area you should check it out.

This Saturday also featured the return of Brian DeSimone in competitive play. Brian hasn't played competitively in 4 to 5 years, but managed to quailified for the Pro Tour at age 14. Brian was very skilled at making his opponets feel very uncomfortable. The Jedi Mind Tricks that were so common place back in the day now get Brian into trouble. This past weekend although he did fairly well, I could tell that Brian wasn't at his best. He is still figuring out how the game plays today. If he is able to find the time for it his game will return. Brian was always sharp enough that he didn't need to use the mind tricks to win only he didn't know that.

When one looks at the comparison of these two players you can see that short cuts only prolong the time for one to fullfil their potential. Mike will be on the Pro Tour once again while Brian is sitting at home. No doubt in my mind that Brian has the ability to not only play on the Pro Tour, but also the ability to COMPETE on the Pro Tour. I can't say that for everyone but I can say if for Brian. I will keep you up to date on any developments.

Every PTQ we have someone who loses their deck. Someone who gets penalized for breaking the rules so much so that the judges need to comptemplate disqualification. Now we have an alarming trend of judges - former judges trying to rules lawyer their opponets into game/match loses. This behavior is bad enough when any player does it, never mind a judge. Judges, Tournament Organizers and Store owners need to remember that you are who you are no matter if you are working the event or not. All members of the Magic community have an obligation to follow the rules. Those most directly involved need to be held to a higher standard.

Yours in gaming,

Tom Shea

April 11, 2009 - A Word From Tom Shea #3: On The Road Again

Tom Shea Pokemon, Magic: the Gathering, A Word From Tom Shea

Hello everyone! I am writing this from the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Club. No, we are not in a hanger in the middle of CT. We are in a nice gym with 177 Magic Players. All of these competitors are trying to qualify for the Pro Tour that will be held in Hawaii! Every one of us that plays Magic shares the dream. It is enjoyable for me to see so many familiar faces; so many friends who all share that dream. This makes us all the same and yet all of us are so different. Some will have a great day. While others will do that without winning and still more will be miserable UNLESS they win. Life is too short. Savor every day.

Coming up next week is the Pokemon Regionals. This is one of my favorite events that we run all year. It is being run at my favorite store: TJ Collectibles. This will be a full house! It would be good for parents tp plan on not being seated downstairs. I believe that the play area will be full with players. Pokemon is on such a roll. It seems to me that this might just be the last year that TJ's is able to host Pokemon in store, as Pokemon is outgrowing our capacity. This is a good problem to have. It is my hope that Pokemon will grow to be a 400 to 500 person events.

The more events we run for different games the more everything seems the same. The game itself doesn't matter. Good habits help make good players. Remember to keep proper track of the game state; keep in mind what your win condition is; keep asking yourself what is REALLY important in the current game; make sure that you properly shuffle your cards; and make sure that you count out your deck at the end of the round to ensure that you haven't dropped any cards on the floor during your match. These are all good habits that will help you play better no matter which game you play!

Having a good time playing is the most important thing. Gaming needs to be fun. Sure winning makes playing any game more fun. How one wins and loses tells a ton about them. Be a good winner AND good loser; sportsmanship is important. Don't ruin some one else' s good day by being a poor sport. The golden rule applies. Treat others as you would want to be treated.

Have a great day.

Tom Shea

April 8, 2009 - A Skeptic's Prospective #2: PTQ Honolulu & Extended

Chris Alexander Magic: the Gathering, A Skeptic's Perspective

 This Saturday is one of – if not the - last opportunities for aspiring, would-be Professional Magic players to qualify for Pro Tour Honolulu, June 5^th to the 7^th. The format for this Saturday’s Pro Tour Qualifier (PTQ), to be held at the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Club in East Hartford, CT, is Extended. If you’re one of those who want to attempt to earn his or her coveted spot on the Pro Tour and you enjoy playing with the Onslaught fetch lands (before they rotate out in October), this is your chance!

 The Extended format has had some really interesting shifts this season; from Elves being dominate, to Faeries & Affinity (with Tarmogoyf decks being a minority), to a full swing around back towards aggressive deck featuring Tarmogoyf (Zoo, Naya Zoo and Ranger Zoo). That doesn’t mean that there aren’t other strategies available. For example, there’s the ever present TEPS combo deck, Aggro-Loam, numerous version of Faeries and blue decks, Death Cloud decks, burn decks, etc. However, if you’re looking to WIN the event however, evidence points to playing a mainstream, non-mid range deck. Unfortunately, while mid-range decks (i.e. Death Cloud, Rock, etc.) can be great for the swiss, they tend to put up horrible numbers in the elimination rounds. Therefore, my recommendation would be to play a Faeries deck or some form of Zoo; I really like Tomohiro Saito’s deck from Grand Prix Singapore. His use of Wooly Thoctar is brilliant. That said, still the best advice I can possible give you is to play the deck you’re most comfortable with and have the more hours play testing behind, as the percentages you gain from simply knowing your deck so well and being comfortable with that deck (and therefore confident) are far greater than picking up a new deck before the event you have no experience with.

 As for me, I’ll be working as a dealer at this event. Normally, I really enjoy Extended. I started playing Magic just after Fallen Empire’s release (I feel old). Therefore, having been active all these years, I miss playing with my older cards. I especially love the fetch lands from Onslaught and have many other favorites as well. Nevertheless, I’ve avoided this Extended season (despite good performances is past seasons) as I dislike pretty much every deck that’s available. I’m a firm believer in playing the best cards available; I want to WIN! And in doing so, I have to play with “fair” cards like Venser, Shaper Savant (I’m a control player) in a format where you could easily be dead long before you can play said four-mana card, I’m extremely turned off (even though Faeries has the best numbers by far). Basically, I didn’t want to walk into an event with a fair deck and play against any of the numerous decks that did unfair things (i.e. TEPS, Elves, Affinity). Even though I have finally built a version of Faeries I’m relatively happy with, my lack of play testing means I’d be at a significant disadvantage compared to those who have been attempting to grind out a win this entire season. 

I’m okay with not playing. Moreover, I’m actually looking forward to the rotation. Combo will get weaker; Elves will be weaker; Goblins will hopefully die; Zoo should be somewhat weaker (no fetch lands). While I’m not happy that Affinity could become a real choice, I am happy at the possibility that Vedalken Shackles may actually become fast enough play. In short, I’m looking forward to the format slowing down; here’s hoping! Besides, there’s always the Standard PTQ’s, which is the next season. Now that is a format and a PTQ season I’m REALLY excited about!

To all those who are planning to attend, I wish you all the best of luck. As always, you can expect an extremely well-run event filled with friends, good times and great stories. All run fast, fun and friendly – the TJ’s way! See you this Saturday.

 Regards,
-Chris Alexander
TJ Collectibles,
Online Manager
www.tjcollect.com
NOSPAMChris@tjcollect.com (simply copy + paste, removing the “no spam.”)

To learn more about this event, please see our event calendar or call us (508-473-5874).

Discuss this blog in our forums!

March 31, 2009 - A Word From Tom Shea: Taking Stock

Chris Alexander Magic: the Gathering, A Word From Tom Shea

[Original print 12/8/2008]

Taking Stock!

Hello Everyone! I hope that you had a happy Thanksgiving and are enjoying this holiday season. This is the time of year to count your blessings. I call it taking stock. So each of us should look at our life and think about the good things that we have. Think about family and friends. Think about the positive things that are happening. Each of us goes through some hard times. Without hard times the good times just don't seem so good. Ones character is forged during bad times. We become battle tested and experienced. When faced with adversity we adapt, overcome and become better for it.

This morning Judy and I went off to  visit my family. I felt dated and old when mentioning different musical acts that I enjoy listening to. Seems like The Cars, Huey Lewis and the News, John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band and Bruce Springstein are no longer very popular.  Just because something becomes old doesn't mean it becomes bad. Things are not always as they look. Newer doesn't mean better.

This past year has been a struggle for me. Many changes have taken place. I thank you for your help and support getting through them. I eagerly await 2009! Many of us will look upon 2008 as a hard year. For me I went through my health issues, through a bad economy, and changes to the Wizards of the Coast Organized Play system. It just hasn't been easy. It hasn't killed me so it must have made me stronger!

This year has also been one that has been full of blessings. A few weeks ago Chris set up a face book account for both me and TJ's. It seems as though we need to be online to truly keep in touch with everyone we know. I have been amazed by how many people I know that are online on face book. It hasn't taken very long for me to hit 200 friends.  All of you are appreciated. We have been blessed by the support of our Pokemon, Magic and TJ Customers this past year.

For many companies this year will mark the end of the line. I am very positive that the future for both TJ's and myself is very bright. It is BECAUSE of all of you. It seems that many of you like what we do. Our Ebay business has been climbing. Our web site is filling out nicely.  We are making the online move much easier than I thought it would be.

Our Pokemon community has been exploding! Our City Championship attendances have been very impressive indeed. In Cherry Valley (home of Rising Phoenix Games, and the league that Mike and Aimee run) we got an amazing 76 players. Up 30 from the Fall Battle Road. Nice job gang. Not to be outdone we drew 71 in Tewksburry(home of Batter Up and the league that Patty L runs). Hadley drew an amazing 56 players which is great for a store that we just started working with this past spring. Their league is starting to grow as well.

Watervliet NY is the home of Science and Hobbies which is the store that hosts the league run by Johnny Blaze and Dawn Marie. On a day with snow we still drew 33. Nice job. I would be good to see a few more of our community take the trip out to Watervliet as Science and Hobbies is a really cool store. I want one of those hellacopters!

The NEO store team tryouts have started. Please go to a TJ Network store so you can play for FREE in the Open. The Open promises to be an awesome event. Draft, play, Draft, play, then sleep Saturday night, come back and draft some more on Sunday.  Seems like a great weekend. Oh and I didn't mention the top 8 cut. Top notch Prize Support coupled with quality judging gives you an event NOT TO BE MISSED!

2009 promises to be a HUGE year for all of us. The Red Sox are young and talented. They are poised to make a big splash in free agency this year. The Patriots are playing great despite losing half the team due to injury.  Next year we get Tom Brady back and will improve as our younger players on defense have gained valuable experience. 2009 might also be a year when the Celtics win the championship again and go back to back. They haven't been this good since the middle 80's when Larry, Robert and Kevin were walking through those doors.

I look forward to seeing all of you walking through my doors. Each of you is more alike than you realize. Comic fans, Gamers and Collectors alike love their hobbies. I am a fortunate man as I get to see you enjoy your hobbies as you grow up into fine adults. Many of you have already accomplished a great deal. Others of you haven't even begun to scratch the surface of your potential . I am the luck sac that gets to watch it all happen.

Enjoy and savor the holidays,

March 31, 2009 - A Word From Tom Shea #0: Winning

Chris Alexander Magic: the Gathering, A Word From Tom Shea

Winning?

Hello everyone! From time to time the past seems to merge with the present for me. I have started to play again by drafting on Wednesday nights at TJ's. We have also been team drafting on some Saturdays. It has really been fun for me. Back in the day TJ's was full of extremely competitive magic players. I used to play all the time. These drafts have brought back many memories from "back in the day" for me.

Back in the day (1999 to 2004) Team TJ's used to be "feared". Yes ladies and gentlemen watch yourself as Team TJ's was in the house and god only knows what those A**Holes are capable of! The team used to consist of Bill Jensen (aka Baby Huey), Brian D, Chris F, Jono, Mike B, Mark W, Brian L, Matt S, Kush P, Will M, John L, Jeff G and many others sorry if I didn' t mention you. We were brash, tough, trash talking and in some cases very shady. We were the Oakland Raiders of the Magic world. The misfits who didn't do things "the right way", but come tourney day our motto was "JUST WIN BABY"!

Win we did. Team TJ's  had 16 players that qualified for the Magic Pro Tour, several Magic Pro Tour Top 8s, a few GP Wins, A JSS National Champ and yes even a Pro Tour winner! One would think that all of this success would have helped TJ Collectibles. That couldn't be further from the truth. Only now years after this time period can I set the record straight.  I was one of those people that was very naive.  It was wonderful to have such great magic players at my store. Sure my guys played hard. Sure my guys may have been high strung. But they were good guys!

That is what I truly believed. In many ways my guys were nice guys. In many ways there weren't . They took liberties. We didn't do things the right way. We did not show good sportsmanship. We never congratulated an opponent for a great match especially if we lost.  We would say you were lucky. Nothing but a luck sac. We played mind games. Some of our players did cheat. I can't prove this but I do believe it. Odds confirm this to be true. Some of my players NEVER got mana flooded or mana screwed how is this possible? I always thought the best about my guys. I didn't want to believe what others were saying.

I was new to the high level magic scene. It was great traveling to the Pro Tour and getting a behind the scenes look. I was great getting to not only meet but also play with many of the all time greats. Jon Finkle, Randy Buehler, all the Your Move Games guys and many others. This was all possible because I was Oldman TJ the guy who was behind the team. The guy providing cards for my players, the guy providing rides, the guy providing a place to play, and the guy who used to stick up for my players when others said nasty things about my players. When the  name calling started I defended these guys. When they got caught up in the middle of the drama that often surrounded them I defended them.  I was the Al Davis of the Magic world. The maverick that many liked to despise, all because of my loyalty to my players.  I used to make excuses for them.

Misplaced loyalty is a big mistake. At the  end of the day I was the adult. I should have set the standard instead of allowing my players to set the standard of what was acceptable behavior. My store suffered because of my players. They were not fun to be around. The magic scene at TJ's wasn't fun. It was hard core. The same players whom I defended eventually moved on. Where was their loyalty?

Many Team TJ players didn't do so well on the Pro Tour. They didn't because they took those shortcuts. They were not battle tested and ready for the competition level of the Pro Tour. Part of the fun of accomplishing something is the journey itself. Part of the fun is doing something great with a group of your friends. I once told Bill Jensen to really enjoy his time with the other players. It isn't very often you can be one of the BEST in the world doing Something. Those times should be savored .  When you really don't belong with the best of the best it becomes apparent very quickly.

This seemed to be a hard fact for many including myself to accept. When you play at a high level at PTQ's and a much lower level on the Pro Tour it opens up tons of questions. Many of the team really embarrassed themselves by the way that they acted. In the end nobody really wanted to wear the Team TJ shirt for the right reasons. During the time when the team started to disintegrate my path crossed into tournament organizing.  Because of my experience with my own Team TJ guys coupled with my management training especially from McDonalds I found tournament organizing easier than many have. The task of working with the highly competitive players  and teenagers in general was easier for me than it was for many others.

I was prepared for these guys. My message was very simple in the beginning. Do you know who I used to play with week in and week out? Do you really want to test me? Then more importantly I got involved in the training of my  judges. Over the years we have gotten it more  right than wrong. We work hard to ensure that the event runs Fast, Fun and Fair(the TJ way). Today we have a new generation of player that doesn't necessarily know my history.

So now all of you are my players. I am fortunate enough to have received a second chance, in essence I got a do over.  When you tap a City of Brass you need to take your damage. When cards are worded that certain effects happen when your opponent does something, that effect NEEDS to happen. You NEED to bring this to your opponents attention. You need to step up and be the bigger person. This means that sometimes you are  going to lose a match to a player that isn't as skilled as you are. It is ok, in life sometimes you are unlucky. Sometimes you just lose to someone that you really shouldn't. When you do lose that match you NEED to congratulate your  opponent. Something along the lines of nice match. Your opponent has feelings too. You ruin THEIR moment when you complain about a bad draw.

You are part of something that is bigger than yourself. You need to think about others not just yourself. When you do anything that is shady, against the rules and do in fact cheat. What do you really WIN? Are you a better person for it? Are you a better player than the person you "beat"(cheated)? When you show poor sportsmanship you simply embarrass yourself. You don't make your opponent look any better or worse. Think about it.  

The payoff for doing the right thing doesn't always come right away. Sometimes it doesn't seem to come at all. There are no short cuts to success. Hard work, consistency, and dedication are part of what is required to be successful. Talent certainly helps. There are lots of talented people who are not successful. Sometimes those people don't want to pay the price. Don't go down that road. Don't take the shortcut. Stay the course. Savor the journey. Your time to shine will come.

Trust me when I tell you that nobody is more competitive than I am. Losing is hard for me to swallow. I used to be the worst sport when I lost. Now I am ready to enjoy the journey. I may never qualify for the Pro Tour yet I will play in Pro Tour Qualifiers.  If you don't play you can't win. Some games like Golf can't be won only played. We don't keep score simply by how many wins you get. What matters the most is playing with friends, and  having a good time. Don' let others make you feel bad. Be the bigger person.  

You would be surprised how  players respond to me at tournaments. I will ask how are you doing? The answer received will be 2-1 Tom Shea. Not things are going nicely thank you for asking. Sometimes we are too focused winning. We define ourselves based on our record.  Sometimes we allow our competitiveness to take over everything. When you allow this to happen you lose control of who you truly are. You find yourself doing things that you normally wouldn't. Thus you would have crossed over to the DARK SIDE!

When you press so hard, that you can taste victory. When you want it too bad, are you REALLY having fun? Fun after all is why we start playing these games to begin with. Hanging out with your friends playing games is a great way to spend time. That is along as you are not a totally competitive jerk who "cheats to win". Even if the score pad says that you won that game trust me in the long run you really lost. Sometimes you lose your friends. Sometimes you lose the respect of others. Sometimes you lose your values. Many times you lose the essence of who you are. Is that really winning? Think about it.

Judy, and I wish you a happy holiday season!

Yours in gaming,

March 31, 2009 - A Skeptic's Perspective #1: Dungeons & Dragons

Chris Alexander A Word From Tom Shea, Magic: the Gathering, A Skeptic's Perspective

This blog marks my first time both writing for tjcollect.com and as a blogger and I have to say, I am very excited. I have always wanted to make my mark on the internet world and what better way to do so. Therefore, with out further ado, let us begin!

As you may have noticed by the title, I am a bit of a skeptic. I tend be weary of things and err on the side of caution until it has been proven to me – whatever it is – is a worth while venture. I believe in facts. I believe in what makes sense. I believe in common sense. If something is too good to be true, it usually is.

March 31, 2009 - A Word From Tom Shea #2

Tom Shea Magic: the Gathering, A Word From Tom Shea

Blogging Part 2 of not sure how many!

Chris and I had a great conversation the other day about blogs. It seems that many web sites get a ton of activity through peoples blogs. My real problem with my past articles is that I try to put too much into them. So with that in mind the new plan is to just sit down, stare at the computer screen and type my thoughts until we get something to put up. Hopefully you will enjoy it. My last article was confusing for some as it appears that under the current rule set the example I posted doesn't work. I will give that one a do over.

The concept of a do over is something new and exciting. Unfortunately it seems that you don't get the chance to do too many do overs. Or do you if you realize that you screwed up and own the mistake? Owning ones failures is something that we don't see all too often these days. I am not sure why either. God knows we make mistakes all the time at TJ's. A few weeks ago I sent Judy to run NH States with a laptop that didn't have the printer drivers on them. OOOOPPSS! There were drivers on that laptop, I simply sent the wrong printer. 

Now I could be a real jerk and ask her why she didn't test the printer BEFORE entering in the 105 players. After all I did send a back up laptop. Fact is that I made the mistake. I need to own it. Which I did for at least a week. Thank god MA states came the next week. If nothing else time helps mistakes move to the end of the line as you get the opportunity to make entirely new ones.  Hopefully they are not the same ones. Doing the same thing that doesn't work over and over again and EXPECTING a different result is the true definition of STUPIDITY

When my niece Christina was 5 or 6  years old I taught her one of my favorite words -- MORON.  I explained to her that the guy wearing no coat when it was 2 degrees above zero was a MORON and couldn't be trusted to do the right thing. I didn't realize that a comedian Bill Engvall would come out with the same concept a year later - Here's your sign! True enough Bill's message wasn't as nasty as mine but very similar. The idea is that you simply can't trust stupid people to do the right thing.  It constantly amazes me when I drop Judy off in the morning that many young people are wearing pajamas to school. Well they call them sweats but come on people where is your fashion sense. All this and NO COAT! No wonder the clothing manufacturers are having a hard time.  These are the walkers too!

I was reminiscing with a childhood friend last night about how things used to be. In many ways I would not trade how things are today for how things used to be. Back in the day we had 8 channels. If the president was on you were watching him, hockey or pbs which had god knows what on it. The options were limited.  I remember guys like Merlin Perkins who would sit on the side lines for Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom while poor Jim did all the crazy stuff that gave that show ratings. Back in the day it was ok for the older guy to have a side kick. Today poor Jim got hosed as he got downsized and doesn't get to have a side kick. Jim still gets stuck wrestling those alligators or whatever beast is featured in this week's show.  Communities were smaller and tighter.

When I was a kid if you were in the neighborhood causing trouble the neighbors called your mom. When mom got the call she would be rather upset and then there would be consequences. Neighbors were viewed as friends who were looking out for you. When one of your neighbors yelled at you , you listened. You didn't talk back or make any hand gestures.  Every generation tries to help the next one achieve more and have more. I remember as a kid listening to my grandmother telling me when I was a little girl we didn't have indoor plumbing or tv. Now I find myself telling young people when I was a kid we didn't have the internet or texting. We actually spoke to one another. Amazing how far we have come yet how much we have lost. Technology doesn't  teach us how to play fair or properly treat one another.

Technology often teaches us to take shortcuts. Every video game has cheat sheets. When you beat Mario Brothers 15 but used the cheat sheet 84000 times what did you really achieve? Then the game manufactures make the games even more convoluted as they know people are going to use the cheat sheet. I was speaking with one of our pokemon players a few weeks ago who is a college professor. He was telling me about his schools honor code. I am glad that such codes still exist.  Honor is a concept that we need to not lose in these hard times.

This past weekend we ran the 5K for EPIC. I had a blast watching Rob and Darwin watch people playing their game to win HUGE prizes. I sat back most of the day and allowed the day to run itself. In time as people get used to the rules the tourney operations will tighten up.  Every round went to time and most had extensions. We are all learning this exciting new game.  Things are looking up for Dungeons & Dragons. The signs say that we have a winner here. I am excited about having such a viable game to offer the gaming community.

The Dungeons & Dragons pre releases were very discouraging as our attendance numbers were horrible. The 5 K drew 99 people. The next step is to get the Grand Tourneys to succeed. These events have nice prize support with the winner qualifying for the World Championships and a Nintendo DS system which if the winner doesn't want I will be willing to buy back at what we paid for it. We had a scheduling snafu so we will be altering the schedule some. Please watch tjcollect.com for more information.

Lastly I wanted to  share positive thoughts with all of you reading this. Things are going to get better. Many of you are going through hard times. I know TJ's is our sales are down. The magic pre releases are not the big money maker for me that they once were. Things are really tough all over. The key is to keep a POSITIVE ATTITUDE. The hard times make us savor the good times and not take them for granted. That is the key. So keep your chin up and be Happy! If you are not smiling please follow this link to the video

DON'T WORRY BE HAPPY! I

f that doesn't work Call me I will make you happy.

 http://www.mtv.com/videos/bobby-mcferrin/89948/dont-worry-be-happy.jhtml

until next week, I promise

Tom Shea

November 30, 1999 -

Tom Shea A Word From Tom Shea

November 30, 1999 -

Tom Shea A Word From Tom Shea

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