Autograph huntering

Betwixt a manga-buying splurge ("Fullmetal Alchemist", "Hikaru No Go", "Return To Labyrinth", "Fruits Basket") and a menial-labour surge (the only thing worse than doing housework on Saturday is leaving it till Sunday!), I spent a couple of hours spectating at the Grand Prix Sydney Magic tournament, at the Masonic Centre.

Back in '02, when the Worlds were held here at Fox Studios, I took a week off work so as not to miss a minute. I played in several side events, including an "Iron Man" draft where you ripped up every card that went to the graveyard (I was snapped by a Wizards Of The Coast photographer shredding a popular rare).

In '06, I'm no longer interested in competing against strangers, or watching the pros play all day long; I just like to drop in briefly at major tournaments to get a "feel" for the metagame, see a few famous faces I've read about on the Net and, ideally, get cards signed by the guest artists.

The illustrators present today were Mark Poole and Warren Mahy. Both were friendly, grounded guys - and part-time social gamers - who I enjoyed yakking with. Mark's a Yank who's been painting Magic cards since the beginning (we're talking Alpha!). Warren, a Kiwi, is a relative newcomer with a very distinctive, fantasy-horror style.

WM was kind enough to sign four Blind Hunters from my Ravnica block league cards. For those who don't know, this bad-boy bat is a 2/2 flyer for BW2. When it comes into play, your opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2. Also, when it dies, it "haunts" another creature. When that critter expires (assuming it goes to the graveyard), your opponent loses another 2 and you gain 2 more life. Not bad, eh?

A Gatherer database-assisted search this morning had failed to unearth four of any single card by MP in my collection, but I was confident I'd be able to pick some up from one of the dealers present. My old friend KO from the Sydney Games Centre came to my rescue with four cheap, mint Cancels - counter target spell for UU1. While inferior to the original Counterspell (the mana cost having been "fixed" by WOTC), its a cool card in that the bald, goateed mage pictured closely resembles Mark himself. He was happy to sign the quartet.

If I may be allowed to boast, I now have sets of four cards (worth using) signed by Warren Mahy, Mark Poole, Ben Thompson (Chainer's Edict), Matt Cavota (Skywing Aven), Terese Nielsen (Sonic Seizure, along with her original pencil sketch for the piece - I had a rush of blood to the wallet that day) and Mark Tedin (Gallantry).