GP Portland Team Sealed - 21st!

I wasn't planning on going to this Grand Prix, but Spencer had a wedding to go to and the MacDonald brothers needed a third for their team. So, I did some quick rearranging of my schedule and back to Portlandia. My last GP here gave me my first Day Two in Modern, no less. I also love this town because of bookstores and donuts.

Flew in Friday afternoon, but missed the free mini-masters event. Dang. Found Ryan, Russell and Jeff in the hall selling some cards. They had also played in a practice team sealed event, but no prizes from that. We piled into the car that Jeff and Ryan drove up in and hit the hotel. It was a few miles north from the convention center and was a bit run-down. But it was clean and in a good neighborhood and had mini-fridges for much beers.

Greg and Jason met up with us later that night. We hit Frank's Noodle House (stay away from the Black Bean sauce), Whole Foods for snacks and the Spirit of '77 bar. The later had Skee-ball and Pop-shot Hoops, but only one of them worked. The Love Muscle chatted up a Major League Soccer player's wife, who was also from New Zealand. You can't make that stuff up.

Saturday morning, we found a cool little bagel place up the street, that was also a bar at night. Pinkie's had delicious bagel sandwiches with egg and cheese. We loaded our backpacks and then fit 6 men into a 4-seater Mazda. We all took turns in the truck since it was cool, spacious and smelled even better.

689 teams showed up for the GP. Team MacLall (Jeff, Jason and I) and Team Russ, Ryan and Greg. They handed out red plastic bags with 12 packs of M15, 3 pens, 3 sets of sleeves (Channel Fireball), tokens and score pads. We cracked, sorted and registered them. Then everybody passed them one team down. Bingo! That's our pool.

After sorting and building for 50 mins, we had our decks. I was piloting a GB control one with Hornet Queen as the finisher. My opponents all day whimpered when the Queen came down. Jeff had RU tempo and Jason was all-white tokens with two Sanctified Charges. We played and split the first two rounds, but then rolled off 6 straight wins for Day Two! We lost the last one of the day for a 7-2 record. PARTY TIME!!

Team RRG didn't make it unfortunately, but were also ready to celebrate with us. We weren't going to get too blitzed, since we had more Magic to play the next day, but found a great place, the Cascade Brewery. They had several sour beers and those are my favorites. Then on to Voodoo Donuts. Oof, so much for my diet! No line there on Sunday nights at midnight, by the way.

Sunday was another Team Sealed for us since they changed the format from draft. We got our cards, this time stamped with numbers. We all agreed our pool wasn't as good as the previous one, but you work with what you got. I ran RG midrange with Nissa, Jeff had UB flyers and Jason was white again. We won our first two rounds, but then lost the next two. This meant we would make some money this trip, but how much depended on the last and fifth round. Jason and Jeff split their matches, so it was down to me. I was playing against a UG deck and we split our first two games. In the rubber game, we rolled out dudes to a standstill, then he Negated my Nissa. Dang-nabit! I did get out Krenko's Enforcer and was hitting him for two a turn. I pumped it once with a Titanic Growth and then he bounced it next turn. It was played again and got in there with a Stoke The Flames for the win. WHEW!

We finished in 21st place, one position away from a higher prize. But we were all "stoked" to place in the money at all. And we all got our first Pro Point. It's not a big thing, but it's on our Magic resumes.

We cruised out to Ground Kontrol, an arcade bar, and had beers and retro gaming. I dug all the cool pinballs and Jeff geeked out on Dig Dug, Joust and Donkey Kong. There was a 4-player PacMan game, which was great fun. Then onto food trucks, Powell's Books and some bars in the Mississippi district. The Bungalow Bar had cool swings and rope chairs on the back patio. We Chaos drafted and had appetizers. It was warm and humid around 80 degrees at 10pm! Ryan ordered Habanero Poppers and survived the heat. The next bar down had a delicious Belgian White Cider by Woodchuck that was all kinds of good. Greg bought the group some whiskey shots to toast a great weekend.

The next Team Sealed is in San Jose on January 31st. I would highly recommend your attendance!

Roto Cube Draft - July 2014

Roto = rotisserie (the method of picking cards... 1 through 12 down, then 12 picks again going pack up. First and last people gets 2 in a row.)
Cube = the Spencer/Greg/Jeff/Russell cube of power
Draft = pick your cards one at a time to build your deck. 40 picks

The place: Spencer and Jesse's garage (thanks guys!)
The mascot: Loki the dog

We mostly got started at 10:15am complete with 15 bottles of champagne for mimosas. All cards out on table by color and casting cost. Spencer's garage was full of nerds.

Jeff got first pick and took Black Lotus. I got second and took Sol Ring. You get the idea. People brought food and drinks and Marina made pies... Mmm, pies.

Picking cards takes the longest since there are so many good ones - the best in Magic! This time we added some Conspiracy cards: Backup Plan, Worldknit, etc. The cube supports many classic strategies like mono red, Reanimator, Sneak and Tell, green ramp, white weeny, etc. I will list deck types and fun gameplays below.

Jeff recorded the picks on his spreadsheet and around 2pm, we were building decks.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-Wxf4wok9OgMv0YM_6-F6T4nP6tvBHHc6spypgwoh6U/edit?usp=sharing

On to the highlights:

Spencer ran UW creatures with Control Magic effects. Went 2-2, but deck was good for 4-1. All star was Elesh Norn (duh). Best creature in cube?

I ran WB tokens. My second pick after Sol Ring was Elspeth. Then I stayed in white until I saw black was under drafted and went in on Lingering Souls and Sorin. Green was another option. Picked up some equipment late, much to the artifact decks shagrin. Went 0-1 because I had to leave way early.

Alex ran WG with Stoneforge, Swords and Thragtusk/RestoAngel. He also picked Backup Plan first and enjoyed two hands to choose from each game. But he said his mid-range deck was slow and was outclassed by more powerful decks. Went 1-4.

Boland ran UR with Delver and counters and was 5-1 - much success! Disruption, burn and flash guys did their job. His 2nd pick, Advantageous Proclamation made his deck smaller and much more efficient. Also had Snapcaster, Bolt and Young Pyro.

Marina ran 5 color Pod with many tutors (demonic, mystical, enlightened, survival). She went 3-2 and was able to adapt her plan to whatever her opponent was doing. Sweet deck!

Jordan ran mono green ramp going 1-1 and also had to bail out early. Remember kids, roto is a 6+ hour commitment! He got the green Mox and Rofellos, but competed for the key green picks like Noble and Birds. Still ended up with a decent deck, dropping lifelinking 4/4s.

Dan drafted Naya Zoo and had lots of 1-drops. Red Mox, forest, Goblin Guide, Rancor was a powerful first turn. He went 3-2 and thought more early picks on burn spells would have been good.

Jeff ran UBr splashing for Sneak Attack. Turn one Black Lotus and Dark Ritual into Grave Titan was a cool play! He said Sneak Attack + Ashen Rider was pretty good.

Jason run UWr "Value Town" with flickering effects. Brago, King Eternal and Venser were winning some games, but he went 2-3. Still, he felt his deck was competitive, but the Conspiracy cards were too good.

Ryan ran a tricky artifacts combo deck - so unlike him. Crucible, Strip Mine, Metalworker, Mind Twist and Tinker were some of the highlights. Read more about his games here.

Bodhi was RG midrange with the world-famous Channel/Fireball combo. He went 2-2. He liked the Courser/Lotus combo for big mana. Also Jitte and a Sword for more fun.

Mike's deck was UG with Jace, Meloku, Opposition and Garruk. Not sure about his record, but you know that was a crazy fun one.

All in all, a grand time was had. Even Loki was pleased...

Ryan's Roto

I spent the first couple hours bitching to Marina about taking Worldknit and the last 30 minutes bitching to John about taking my Plating. You already had 2 swords and a Skullclump, what more did you need?

I punted a little by not keeping track of how many picks were left with, then Spencer hacked our last pick for the rub ins. In the end I left a few great sideboard cards on the table after taking some speculative combo pieces. Voltaic Key and Ensnaring Bridge mocked me from the sidelines every time I wanted The Abyss and Steel Overseer. To be fair, John was probably about to take the Overseer with his last pick, so no big. 

Rnd 1: Dan dispatched me as mentioned with turn 1 mox, mountain, gob guide + rancor before curving in to more beats. We had an interesting 2nd game where I had wasted his 1 red source and he needed to rip another to burn me out and keep me from gaining a bunch of life every turn thereafter. Dan's a nice guy and his deck was very good so he deserved to rip it the turn before I was going to stabilize.

Rnd 2: I offered Mike B, whoever the hell that is, a potpourri of proper spell sequencing, minor misplays, and savage punts on immensely complicated boards. In the end my draws of pure gas trumped his flooding and cautious play I was able to get there despite my best efforts.

Rnd 3: Marina, my draft Opponent, I was hoping to beat with my most evil cards. Mind Twist, Tinker, and Metalworker fired on all cylinders to get her in two, once again despite some misplays. Game 2 was the second game of the draft where my opponent had to rip a land to win. While Dan needed a red source, Marina, who had correctly spent the afternoon knitting like a champ, needed any land. The Gods were good, my metal worker lived a turn, and the little robot proceeded to explode my hand on the board to the tune of 8 mana (shoulda been 10, but I slammed my top deck Mox like a boss). On the 50th time I counted my mana I was sure my mistake did not matter and I indeed had enough to cast everything in my grip. There's no justice in the world.

Rnd 4: Jeff and I were both trying to do broken things. The cheapness of his reanimation spells made a crucible+strip lock a slower and unlikely proposition, and Twisting, while still good, could fuel the most busted of top decks. Thankfully he decided to beat me the old fashion way, by playing very well. In one game I had stripped and wasted him to no lands. In response to targetting his last swamp he Vamp Tutored for Bazaar. No lands in play, no problem. He dug through his deck over a few turns while I prayed to draw business or crucible. Eventually he set up swamp + reanimate a fatty. Gutsy move on his tutoring, but definitely correct as he had neither side of his combo in hand and had the read on me that I didn't have crucible. 

Rnd 5: Game 1 I stuck to my strategy from my matches against Marina and Boland to punt and still win. Unfortunately, the best laid plans can fall apart. I had the option to play Revoker naming his Master that was about to spit out wolves and eat everything but instead I chose to mind twist his goyf to epic proportions. Apparently there's a downside to 5 for 1s. Game 2 I got the strip + crucible combo against him. He dug in Bolandish fashion with Sylvan Library but the lock was too strongu and his life too low. Game 3 I can't recall what happened, but I think I did something broken. Got it 2-1.

In honor of J2H here's some props and slops

Props: 

The Hosts - Thanks for having us and, as always, cleaning up our mess. I trust you inherited a bunch of food for your efforts.

Loki - As well behaved as I've ever seen him. He was a delight the entire day aside from the bomb he dropped on the lawn.

The Food - Thanks to everyone that considered the lighter options to compliment what's usually a rich spread. Extra props to Marina for going all out and baking up some deliciousness again. Her personal touch of adding booze to something that doesn't need it was the best part. Classic Marina.

The Decks - Everyone seemed to have executed their plan very well, or at least audibled in to a deck that read the signals well. 

The Pool - A perfect end to a day spent sitting inside. Twas great to do something physical for once with all you cerebral types. 

Slops:

Not enough time with Jordan and John.

At the end of the day people talking about Worldknit being broken in roto. Don't take it out too soon, please.

All the rough play going on in the pool. The sign clearly says no rough play.

M15 Pre-release July 12, 2014

Core sets are a lot like a greatest hits playlist. There's the old classics (Gravedigger, Cancel, Heat Ray, Liliana Vess...), and there's also a few new cards sprinkled in as well. I had had my fill of Theros (and wasn't too successful I'm sorry to say), so I was more than ready for M15. $25 to play and about 35 players at Mythic downtown that morning.

Looking over the promo cards for each color, I was thinking black was the most powerful.

A 5/3 flying demon that could draw an extra card sounded great. The next best to me was the red dragon. Even though expensive at 7 mana, when it hits the table, it would do some serious damage. White had the annoying "get 20 life" angel. I could feel the frustration of anyone playing against this, especially when you had your opponent down to under 10 life. Green and blue just seemed bad.

So I opened my black box and a large Garruk card was staring back at me. Also, wolf tokens, packs and a black spindown. There was a mini-game to play with the Garruk and tokens, but I was here to build a sealed deck. Let's see what rares I got.

Um, wait... that's 9 rares out of 6 packs? Well, the promo demon was extra and the foil Shield was too. But that accounts for 8 of them. WTF? Not sure what was in each pack, but this is what I had. The Star City Games price guide says that's $10.50 in value. Big Whoop! Here's the rest of the pool...

Blue:
Quickling (flash & flying? sign me up)
Armpit Pathmage
Research Asst. (looter 'r good)
Peel from Reality
2x Welkin Tern (hi Jordan!)
Frost Lynx (kittah tapper)
Encrusty
2x Glacial Crasher (should be in green?)
Negate
Statute of Denial
Invisibility (this looks as if it could be good)

Green:
Nissa's Expedition (expensive land fixer)
Restock
Paragon of Eternal Wilds
2x Venon Slivers (new scorp 2 drop)
Roaring Primadox
Naturalize
Titanic Growth
Ranger's Guile
2x Hunter's Ambush (sweet fog, bro)
3x Plummets
Elvish Mysty
Living Totem
Siege Wurm (good as it ever was)
2x Charging Rhino (take its Visa away)

White:
Paragon of New Dawns
Geist of the Moors (or less)
Seraph of the 'Asses
Trips Spirits (rolling peeps all weekend)
Pillar of Light
2x Tireless Missionaries (try something new!)
Sanctified Charge
Solemn Offering
Ephemeral Shields (prime battle trick)
2x Midnight Guards
Razor Griffin
Kinsbaile Skirmisher (who let the Kithkins out?)
Sungrace Pegasus
Raise the Alarm
Oreo Swiftclaw
Soulmender (it's really this big!)
Selfless Cathar

Red:
Circle of Flame
Cone of Flame (MoFo Cone of Flame!)
Paragon of Fierce Def
Brood Keeper (Kaleessi?)
Shrapnel Blast
Aflac Bloodseeker (Aflac!)
2x Lightning Strikes (might be good...)
Wall of Fire
Torch Fiend
Clear a Path (for this trash)
Rummy Gobby (looter 'r good)
Crowd's Favor (what do they know?)
Miner's Bane
Krenko's Enforcer (licky boom-boom down)
Inferno Fist

Black:
Wall of Limbs (could be handy)
Nightfire Giant
Festergloom
Flesh to Dust
Typhoid Mary's Rats
Sign in Blood
2x Shadowcloak Vamps
Child of Night (sing it!)
2x Black Cats
3x Carrion Crows (ca-caw!)
2x Witch's Familiar

Artis/Lands:
Meteorite (never wrong)
Hot Soup (you know it's a party when the soup arrives)
Darksteel Citadel
Radiant Fountain
2x Tyrant's Machines
2x Ornithopters

I'm a sucker for removal (call me crazy), so red/black jumped right out and slapped my momma. The three red rares all looked promising and you gotta love that promo demon. Two Lightning Strikes, Cone, Sign in Blood, the Gobbos looter and the three crows had game. Blue and green seemed shallow and I wasn't feeling the white. Here's my deck:

7cc: Siege Dragon
5cc: Burning Anger, Cone, Indulgent Tormentor, Nightfire Giant, Flesh to Dust, Shadow Vamp
4cc: Red Paragon
3cc: Rummy Gob, K's Enforcer, 3x Crows, Festergloom
2cc: Gob Kaboom, 2x Lit Strike, Aflac Blooddude, Inferno Fist, Sign in Blood, Child of Night
1cc: Crowd's Favor, Typhoid Rats
SB: Torch Fiend (for artifacts), Meteorite (just to try it) and Wall of Fire (vs. aggro)
A bit heavy on 5 drops, but they were all worth it. Slots 1, 2 and 3 seemed good, but not aggro.

My first round opponent was... a BYE! Running hot! Here's Ryan and Khaatim's match highlights instead.

Game one Khaatim got out the black promo demon with Burning Anger attached to it and Ryan drew like 7 lands in a row. Game two Khaatim got the demon out again, but Ryan answered with a Covenant of Blood. Then a Cruel Sadist came out as well as a Shadow Vamp. Ryan was hanging in there, but his Zof Shade got its flesh turned to dust and it was over. Round goes to Khaatim.

I asked George what cards he liked in the new set. Cone of Flame (of course) and the Generator Servant, because it speeds out the 5-drops.

My second round started vs. Thada, a relatively new Magic player. She was there with her boyfriend. She played a turn two Spirit Bond and made many 1/1 flyers. Then finished me with a Soul of Ravnica. Ouch. For game two, I came back with an unanswered Goblin Enforcer with an Inferno Fist on it. The 4 damage a turn was too much. In the rubber game, I got out a Child of Night with Fist and started gaining life. I should have played more aggressively, since she was able to stabilize the board. But I got out the big dragon and won just before time. Whew! Well played, Thada!

Round three, I faced Walter playing red white. Ut oh, that's an aggro deck! Remember what I said about the white promo angel? I was right... I mulliganed to 6 cards and he played two Triplicate Spirits for six 1/1 flyers. By the time I got my dragon out, I was down to 4 life. But he had the angel and I was outclassed in the air. Game two, I held the demon in my starting hand, so I just needed to get to 5 mana. He got out six spirits out again. Then when I played the demon, he used a Blastfire Bolt on it. Next turn, he played out a Siege Dragon of his own and it was over. Oof.

2-1 was my record and I needed 3 wins for prizes. Next up was Graham playing blue white. He started off fast with a Welkin Tern and Raise The Alarm for dudes. I tried to burn the bird, but he played Ephemeral Shields. I found more removal by way of Burning Anger on my Nightfire Giant. 5 damage a turn is tough! Game two, it was my turn to be aggro with drops 1-4 of little dudes and the demon on turn 5. It was over quick without much resistance. Good games, Graham!

Target prizes acquired! I had to get back home and dropped. I was happy to test out the new cards - M15 seems like a fun set. I asked Khaatim what he thought and he said that promo angel was nuts since opponents had to kill you twice with it. He said black and white had good spot removal and the format seemed slow with enough time to cast the bigger cards. We'll see how things shake out!

Journey Into Nyx Pre-release

Date: 4/26/14
Place: Mythic Games, Downtown Santa Cruz
Event: Journey Into Nyx Pre-release
Objective: Crush the dreams of all my opponents; get packs

What an event without a good tailgate?

Top of the parking garage nearby, we grilled hot dogs, ate donuts and drank PBRs. Brain food for the upcoming challenge. Many thanks to Ryan and Spencer for setting it up.

Looking at all the promo cards, I decided to choose white for this:

It reminded me of the common Seraph of Dawn from Innistrad, which was a 2/4 flyer with lifelink and was first-pickable in draft. This one has heroic? It's good. And it's only 4 CC.

Cracking the pre-release box, the 6 packs, die and artifact promo were cool. There was an achievement card where you put stickers on it after each round. Then turned it in for another sticker that would add some text to the artifact promo. That's why the promo has a large empty space on it. Huh? I would have preferred just another promo card, like they did in past pre-releases, but whatever. I guess people love their stickers.

Here are the highlights from my pool. Obviously, picked the white box means you're playing white as one of your colors.

Went red white with some burn and fast creatures. Prophetic Flamespeaker was good. Splashed black for Underworld Cerberus. He was a beating whenever I played him. Launch The Fleet was an all-star. Making attacking dudes out of nowhere surprised a lot of players. I also liked Sightless Brawler and Oreskos Swiftclaw. Beats are beats.

Round one:
Natalie was a new player who came along with some friends to play. She admitted it was her first tournament. But I think pre-releases are where to start. Everyone's stoked about new cards. She was playing GB and had big Hydras. I helped her with some of the cards and plays and then realized we were going to time. The match ended in a draw, but I was glad to help out a new player.

Round two:
Greg Smith... we meet again, sir! He was playing BUG with Prophet of Kruphix and King Macarena. We split the first two games and then my Cerberus ability negated his Nyx Spider graveyard shenanigans.

Round three:
Evan was playing RUG with big dudes and the Artisan of Forms. He copied my Cerberus, which was awkward game one. Then I got stuck on W facing many dudes and a Rouse The Mob, giving them all +2/0 and trample. Ouch.

Round four:
Khoa played UW with flyers, bounce and counter spells. Talk about annoying! I saw Sphinx and Cranes, but my fast beats stood tough and won in 3.

Round five:
Duncan (concede)

Unfortunately, I had to go after round 4 - there was a camp out at New Brighton beach waiting for me. S'mores, burgers and many beers were in my future. I conceded to my round five opponent, who was very stoked since he said he never won anything at a Magic tourney before.

Spencer, Ryan, yours truly, Cartmill and Brian. Cartmill nailed the pre-release look for the day.

Mythic Games was nice enough to run many pre-releases all weekend and the 6pm Sunday one fit my schedule. So here we go again... this time black (nope, they were all out)... okay then, green!

I saw players have fun with the black promo since it was easy to drop many enchantments with it in play. -1/-1 to opponents creatures is really good. But I got the hydra, so I was determined to drop the big beats. Big George said it was good and Conor agreed. Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am!

The green was Eidolon of Blossoms, 2 Scorps, 2 Spider Ladies (see below), Swarm Giant, Ravenous Big Head Doggie and Nemesis. The white was Wingsteed, Skyguard, and tricks (Launch, Reap, Ajani's Presence). GW it is! Also a Helm to get the big guys in.

Round one:
Mateo was nice kid and a Harbor High senior - a fellow alumni! He said he planned to go to college up in Seattle, which I said was a great town. And closer to Wizards! I'm such a nerd. He played WUB with Master of Waves, but my scorps held him back and my Helmed Giant got in there both games.

Round two:
Catalin was also a new player and was very nice. But her cards didn't do much for her and I won both games easily. Still, I tried to be encouraging and went over her deck afterwards.

Round three:
Daniel was another GW player and he had red too. My Hydra got to 16/16 and stomped him first game. Then his big guys stomped me in the second. Last game was tight, but he drew gas to my lands. Close one!

Round four:
Richard and I were both 2-1 and a 3-1 record won 5 packs. Richard offered to split with the winner of the round getting the extra pack. Deal! My goal for playing today was to have some packs for Tuesday's draft. This would make that happen. He ended up beating me in a close first game and I said "No mas". It was late and I was tired.

Pre-release observations:

Spider Lady was better than I thought. Block a dude, pay 2 mana and get a spider... an enchantment spider. This triggers all the constellation cards. It does a lot.

So cheap... I mean really cheap. Five mana for instance gets you 5 extra 1/1 attackers. Do they block your main dudes or the extra ones? I got to play with this card in both deck this weekend and never was disappointed.

A surprisingly strong card. The 4 toughness is very relevant and the monstrosity factor makes it great. Hard to kill and it doesn't tap to attack. And it looks like Greg's dog.

A fun weekend of Magic with new cards. I'll be back next week for the release events too. I will stick with Nyx!

GP Sacramento 2014

Who had two byes for GP Sac? This guy! I was very excited for this one, more than the last few. I felt I had played so much Theros, that I knew the cards and draft/sealed formats very well. All that was left was to get a pool and go to town... right?

Khaatim and I drove up Friday morning at 8am from SV to make it up before the mini-masters started at noon. We wanted to get some lunch before and didn't know what traffic would be like. Turns out we got there at 10:45am - easy peasy.

Across from the Sheraton was an awesome homemade soup and sandwich shop called Muntean's. Like eight homemade soups every day. Hungarian style. Fantastically delicious!

Mini-masters was a free event for registered players and you got a booster to start. Add some lands (like 2 of each) and play. I opened Purphoros and got him out both games, so I was on to round two. Then I opened Curse of the Swine in the 2nd pack. So I dropped green and smoothed out the mana. Won round 2 and then opened the Ageless Sphinx. Rolling the sweet bombs! I didn't get the Sphinx out, but Purph did work. My fourth pack rare was Nykthos (bummer) and I lost that round. But 4 packs for free ain't bad!

Checked into the hotel and then went to the Rubicon Brewery with Ryan and Spencer. Got the Denkel Bock and Pomegranate Cider. So good! Checked into the hotel and then in for the Foiled Again draft event. Everyone gets one foil for playing and then another for every win. Built a RG deck with Anthousa, 2 Asps, 2 Time to Feed, 2 Cyclops and 2 Rages and went 2-1.

Unfortunately, they miscalculated how many players would sign up and they ran out of foils. Really? How does THAT happen? So they gave packs as prizes, but I really wanted the foils. My one for playing was Ghor-Clan Rampager and it was sweet. Just wanted more!

Later that night, we found Shawn and went to a place called Burgers and Brews. What a beer list they had! They were out of the Lambac I wanted, so I chose Pliny the Elder. It was like a shaved rabbit.... smooth and hoppy.

The next morning was game day, so we got a good breakfast at the Capitol Garage, behind the convention hall. Really good jalepeno biscuits and gravy! Spencer got the pulled pork scramble, which was incredible too. Off to the GP to crack packs and get passed greatness. With my 2 byes, I only had to go 5-2 for Day Two. How hard could that be?

I opened the following highlights: Master of Waves, Ageless Sphinx, Fleecemane, 2 Gods Willing, 2 Wingsteeds, Erebos' Whip, Mistcutter, Relevant Hunter, Daxos, 2 Akoran Hops, 2 Sentries.

Sweet pool, right? UW flyers? Splash green for Misty and Fleecy? Sadly, I had to pass it away...

Here's what I got:
Mistcutter
2 LB Elders
2 Gods Willing
Horizon Chimera
Favored Hoplite
The white Ordeal
Stoneshock Giant
Time to Feed
Staunch Warrior
Gray Merchant
Insatiable Harpy
Cyclops...
That's it. That was the significant cards. So bad... unbelievable!!

I cobbled together a GW deck with some red, but I knew I would need some serious help to get Day Two. Like a bye and a few no show opponents. And opponent's mana screw. I had Ryan and Greg look at my deck and they couldn't believe the badness either.  Then said I should side into just GW aggro. So I sleeved up the 10 others and prepared for battle.

Our crew was Spencer, Jason, Ryan, Russell, Khaatim and Greg. We even saw Shawn, Conor, Boland, Nathan, Marina and Reuben from Mythic there too. The Santa Cruz connection was strong.

Rounds 1 & 2 = byes (yay)

Round 3 vs. Kevin
My deck actually beat someone. It curved well into the SS Giant and he didn't put up much resistance. Was I overreacting? I still sided into GW aggro and won that game as well. 3-0!

Round 4 vs. Arthur
Bestow-heavy UW deck with Hopeful, Nimbus, Observant and the white Emissary. All on a Wingsteed. No chance. Same slaughter game two but with a Battle Priest and Aquarius Form. No removal or bounce can make for quick games! 3-1

Round 5 vs. Kurtis
Aggro RW deck with burn and pumps. Split first two games, then down to the wire in game 3. I had a 6/7 Hoplite to his 3/3 Minotaur and 3/4 Adept with Spear out. At 3 life, I swung in but should have stayed back. He had enough life to take the 6 and he got me next turn. I was hoping he'd block and I'd take out a threat. I was showing pump for the win, but he didn't bite. 3-2

Round 6 vs. Sky (does this mean he'd play flyers?)
He was RBG with Polukranos, which he bestowed twice in the first game. A 10/10 first striker trampler? Concede. Got him second game with my GW aggro attacks. But game three, I was stuck on 2 mana - should have mulled - and he rolled into the Gorgon and the green legend again... so Po-lucky!

So that was it. 3-3 is no chance for Day Two. There I sat, broken-hearted...
But Ryan, Marina and Nathan made it - congrats! Jason got so close, but lost in round 9.
I've been there and it sucks. Work all day until the last "win and in" match. Rough!

The crew rolled out for a Thai food dinner and we brought some back for the players.

All hail Greg as the credit card game winner! More drinks and hi jinx later that night.

SacTown has some cool places to eat and drink all around downtown. Check out the Dive Bar indoor aquarium above the bar...

Day Two is for drafting and Ryan got into a pod with Owen T. Two-time GP winner Owen T. You'll have to ask him for the deets, but after 2 drafts (including playing Marina in the last match), he finished in the money at 55th. Cheers, Ryan!

Here's a goofy, over-sized card:

Thanks, SacTown for a fun GP!

Props: The Sheraton Hotel for being a block down from the Convention Hall.

Muntean's soups!

Ryan finishing in the money.

Broken oranges!

Slops: They ran out of foils... really?

My GP sealed pool.

The Shady Lady's bouncers.

Freaky statue is freaky.