The VIP reg was actually a sweet deal since for $100, you got everything above and 3 more playmats, that were selling for $30-50 total. Also, a water bottle, a pin, 100 PrizeWall tix and lounge access. Russell told us about his value all day!
We wanted to play in the free Mini-Masters event and then practice a team sealed too. The GP wasn't in the main convention hall, but in the "south hall", which is a big tent in back. It made for terrible acoustics all weekend. And don't get me started on the porta-potties outside.
I opened a Daghatar rare in my first MM Fate pack and proceeded to win the next two rounds with a Citadel Siege and Wildcall. For the sealed, it was $25 each, single-elimination for 8 teams and you got a playmat. Didn't have to pass the pools, but we did need to register all the cards. I opened some decent cards including 2x Dragon-Style Twins, Arcbond and Ghastly Conscription! Not. Luckily, Jason and Russ' cards were better than that and we made it to the finals and won it in three rounds. That was 360 PrizeWall tix, which is basically a booster box. We drove back to Santa Cruz victorious, feeling great about the main event. We met up at Jeff's to playtest with Ryan and Greg.
Russell pulled up the Nerd Party Van (TM) at 7:15am the next morning to pick me up. The newest edition to his family's transportation, it easily fit the six magical, conquering wizards. Team MacDonaldSmith and team LallaSmithMuscles. First stop was SV Market for sandwiches and snacks. Thanks to Jason for his Pepper Plant sauce purchase and sharing! Up and over Hwy 17, we parked in an all-day $5 lot near the event.
665 teams showed up and the place was mostly full. In the tent, there was a single row between all the aisles, which made walking through a jam-packed hassle. Since the tables were so long, dancing through the chairs became an Olympic-style event. Good thing I'm nimble.
Seatings were posted about 40 minutes late (which we are all used to now), and we shambled through the crowd. Black bags containing the 12 packs were distributed by the judges. We split them up 4 between us. On the "go" signal, we cracked and sorted. Russell wrote all the cards down for our team, then we exchanged pools with our neighbor. That was it - one pass! A mediocre pool - we had 2 1/2 decks.
I took the aggro Mardu deck (good), Russell got the Temur beats (good) and Spencer took Sultai delve (not so good)... sorry Spence! The first guys we played said it was their first GP. My Mardu Ascendancy spewed out goblins and Warflare finished him off both games. Russell won and Spencer struggled and lost, but 2 out of 3 is a win.
Round 2 was against some guys from Denmark. They spoke Danish while crushing our decks. Fun times! Round 3 was versus some Chinese guys. We lost. Mob Rule had something to do with it. We need to learn another language. Klingon?
Sitting at 1-2, we knew the odds were against us. But we shook it off and bolstered the team. We won the next 4 rounds to be at 5-2. Bubble babies! Hogan got us some Vietnamese sandwiches, which were awesome! His team was with Jordan and Stephan, down from SacTown. Hey guys!
Our opponents had Anime Imports shirts on and were from SF. Their middle player was friendly and talkative, but mine was silent and solemn. First game, my army got him down to 3 life and then I chose Dragons on my Outpost Siege with three guys out. He blocked my attackers and the Siege did the last points of damage. Game two, he stalled and traded guys until his dragons came out. Last game, I made some questionable trades, when I think I should have been attacking YOLO. Again, his dragons got me in the late game. Spencer and Russell had split their games, so it was up to me, but I lost. It's good to have the team all making the decisions together. That way, they don't ask "what happened?". Rough match.
It was 10pm when we got knocked out. Team MacDonaldSmith also lost that round. We all walked to the PrizeWall to trade in our tickets. They had all kinds of crazy stuff for sale. Oversized Siege Rhino and Treasure Cruise cards, playmats, figures, old cards, packs and boxes. They even had some uncut foil sheets from Wizards. Shiny! I got an Odyssey and an Avacyn Restored pack for a future chaos draft some time.
Fate and Khans packs were 10 PW tix each, so about $4 equivalent. Older packs were between 20 (Theros) and 200 (Urza's Saga). Check out the website for all the prizes: www.gpsanjose.com
I believe I played fairly tight and made only few mistakes. 5-3 is disappointing, but we all know about the randomness in the game. Sometime you're the windshield, baby, sometimes you're the ball.
Next West Coast limited GP is Vegas Modern Masters II in May. See you then!
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