Miramichier to Represent Maritimes in National
Competition
by Kellie Underhill
Grant Mountain of Newcastle will represent the region in the Canadian National
Championships of Magic: The Gathering held in Montreal this month.
"He was in the Maritime Championship and I think there were 73 competitors
and he came out in first place," says Richard Donovan of Castlevania Sports Cards. "He's only 12-years-old. He beat a university
professor in the final. So, he is good. And this brings him up to the nationals in Montreal I think that's the 22nd of June."
Grant won the Maritime Championship at a tournament in Moncton on May 3rd.
He is the twelve-year-old son of Crystal and Francis Savoie and attends Harkins Middle School.
"I won overall. The guy I played to win was a science professor," Grant
says. "And he was supposed to be a big college professor or something like that and he was awful mad."
Grant and his mother head to Montreal for the National tournament being
held June 20th - 22nd where $10, 000 total is up for grabs in prizes.
"I think I win lots of money. I know that if you get in 8th place you get
something like $500 U.S.," Grant says. "So I think if you win you get like a whole whack of money. I know you get money and
some other stuff like a trophy or something."
At the Canadian National Championships, first place receives $3,200; second
place wins $2,200; third place gets $1,600; fourth place pays $1,000; and fifth through eighth place winners are paid $500
each.
Grant is excited about participating.
"More nervous than anything," he shrugs. "I haven't been there before.
It's my first time. Well, it's my second time being at a real big tournament. My first one was at regionals when I won."
This summer the world's top players meet in Berlin, Germany, for the 2003
Magic: The Gathering World Championship where first-place wins a prize of $35,000 (USD).
"I think the top four
(in Canada) move on to the world championships. It's in Berlin this year," Richard adds. "It's a big game."
Magic: The Gathering is a very complicated strategy card game where players
build their own decks by collecting cards, much like some people collect hockey cards.
"One person and another person play each other and they have two different
decks with different cards in them and different cards do different things," Grant explains. "And they can't play those cards
unless they have land . . ."
Then it gets really complicated, so complicated in fact that judges are
required to handle any disputes because people interpret their cards differently.
"It's a hard game to explain,"
Richard laughs. "Every Friday night we have a sanctioned tournament."
Sanctioned means the company that makes the cards, Wizards of the Coast
Inc., a division of Hasbro, sponsor the games, supplying prizes and publishing all the rankings.
There is a $5 entry fee for Magic tournaments at Castlevania Sports Cards.
"At the end of the night the top four go on to the finals and I pay the
top four places," Richard says. "That's where the $5 goes, back into prize money for them."
"I've got over a hundred Magic players listed for my store," he adds.
There are three types of Magic.
"And they're all different," Richard chuckles. "Type two is the newest
cards out. Type 1 is the oldest cards out. But they get points for any tournament they play."
Magic celebrates its tenth year anniversary this year. A couple of university
students invented Magic in 1993.
"It can be (expensive), according to what you're looking for to play with,"
Richard says. "Some of the cards are worth five and six hundred dollars, and a lot of them are ten cents and twenty five cents,
so it's according to what you want to play."
Grant would never sell his collection of Magic cards.
"I have boxes and boxes," he says. "I wouldn't go and calculate (their
worth) because it would take me forever."
Although Grant has only been playing the game about a year and a half,
he feels ready to compete at the National level.
"Yeah, I'm confident," he smiles. "I'm going to try anyways."
Kellie Underhill is the editor of Bread 'n Molasses.
Her writing credits include The Moncton Times-Transcript, The Brunswick Business Journal, The Atlantic Chamber Journal and
The Reader magazine. Send comments about this article to editor@breadnmolasses.com.
