Gatecrash Prerelease part two

When we last left our hero, I had played one pre at Legends and one at Mythic. The choice now was to either complete the trifecta and play in the 6pm one or go home and do laundry. Tough choice!

Gatecrash pre #3
This time I chose Gruul. Having seen a few crushing defeats at the hands of this guild, I decided it'd be fun to be on the other side. Big dudes, pump tricks, red removal - what's not to like? Along for the ride was my day-long companion Ian (lucky #17 last pre), Greg S.(who arrived after being in Vegas on 3 hours sleep), Jordan (up from Marina!), Paul, Greg P., Cartmill, Logan and Nathan. I good showing for the Woodstock gang. Could we all take the top spots and get packs for drafting next week?

Not a bad guild promo. Either a big beefy dude or a huge pump spell? Yes please. What else was there in my pool?

"Bourbon"-Gmos is a bit on the expensive side to play. But if he ever did get there, he'd be a house.
Also:
2x Burst of Strength (a nice combat trick)
3x Mugging (a slow Shock - still good)
Gruul Charm (a must vs. flyers)
Pit Fight (for when your dudes are bigger than theirs)
2x Disciple of the Old Ways
Act of Treason (take their blocker and beat them with it)
2x Ivy Lane Denizen (my all-star!)
Scorchwalker (Scotch-walker? Man, I need a drink)
Crowned Ceratok (so good with the Denizens)
Rust Scarab (a poor man's Acidic Slime)
Adaptive Snapjaw
I also snagged my third dual land of the weekend - Stomping Ground. Running good! Only four rounds this time and about 30 players. Onto the games!

I hadn't played Akemi before and she was shy and quiet. The first game she mulled to 5 and then was stuck on two lands. My Gruul horde reduced her life total quickly. Game two had her playing islands and swamps and then she played this:

If there was ever a target for a mugging, this was it. Hey Ghast, don't go down that dark alleyway!
Unfortunately, she got out some flyers too and then countered all my beefy dudes. Game three, she was stuck on no lands again and I just rolled her. Make sure you mull aggressively, kids!

Round two was against Skylar, a teenage Magic phenom. He felt pretty good about getting this guy out game one:

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS CARD?!?
4 point life swing each turn. 5/5 hasted beats. Can't kill it on my turn. Yeah, that game was fun. I had finally gotten a big beast out with Pit Fight in hand but he extorted me for the last few life points. Ugh. All through the game, he was like "So, this card's pretty good, huh?". Um, yah dude.
Game two was much better for me. He was stuck on 4 lands and I played many red/green beaters. My Rubblehulk pumped an unblocked guy in for the win. Game three was more mana trouble for him, since he never found a swamp. My Gruul horde laughed as they crushed him beneath their hooves!

Compare and contrast time! Check out the earlier version of that card from OG Ravnica:

So... one more mana cost gets you double the life swing, better P/T and you don't have to sac a guy to pay for the blink effect. Yah, that's fair. This is evidence number one in the case for showing creatures have greatly improved from past sets. OMG. At least it's mythic, so we won't see it too much in draft!

Ah, two oh. Say it with me. 2-0. What a nice ring to it. Nothing could go wrong, right? Queue the foreboding music.

Round three was versus Stephen and he was playing Dimir. I started off the game kind of slowly without much creature threats to his Vampire Spy and Bird Raptor. The Bane Alley Broker drew him enough gas to then mill me out with Mind Grind. She's a hottie, tho!

Game two saw my green Denizen get there with bloodrush for lethal. But game three, I was always behind for his counters and removal. He was able to keep up counter mana every turn - so frustrating!

Okay, 2-1 now. I looked over at Greg's game and here was the board:

Yes, that's Greg Peterson's Assemble the Legion vs. Greg Smith's Domri Rade, both with many counters. Greg's planeswalker eventually got there, but what a crazy game!

My last opponent was Paul Sperew, who was rocking Boros. Lots of fast guys with flyers and removal.  Game one was close with beatings from both sides. At mid game, lives 12 to 11, my Denizen worked with the trample rhino for the win.

A 4/3 for four ain't too bad by itself. But with the Denizen giving out +1/+1 counters like they were candy? So good. Game two was also a close one, mid game lives at 8 and 10. But I top decked two Muggings at the right time and then Rubblehulked in for the kill. Sorry Paul!

So the final score was 3-1 and 3rd place. Good for 8 packs! My records all weekend got better as I went and I had a blast playing with new cards. If these articles don't get you fired up for the new set, you beta check yo' pulse, man!!

Props:
Mythic, for a great place to play
The Cheesecake Factory, for excellent appetizers
Russell and Ian, for hanging out and crushing noobs!

Slops:
Waiting forever to start - I'm no doctor, so I ain't got patients!
Madcap Skills, you are so heartless!
Time, where did you go? I wanted to play another!

Shameless selfie in display case reflection. Magic girl in the back is unimpressed!

Gatecrash Prerelease part one

What a weekend. Three pre-releases in two days. Was this cowboy ready to crash some gates?
Anticipation was high for this set. Not that I was tired of RtR, but new cards iz new cards!
I planned to meet Russell over at Legends for Saturday and he would come to Mythic on Sunday.
Smoke your kippers, kids and strap in!

Rolled into Vallco (the mall that would not die) for the noon pre at 11am. They said "first come, first served" to pick your guild. I wanted to try Boros because it looked fast and fast was good. Having died many times to Rakdos in the previous set, I wanted at least a fighting chance. They were still taking sign-ups well past noon and we finally started at 12:45pm. Ugh. 150+ players, so they split us up and had tables and chairs in the lower part of the mall.

Opened up two Legionnaires, a Boros Charm and Keyrune, Spark Trooper, Fortress Cyclops, some removal and the Reckoner. So I tried a straight red white deck. Round one was versus another Boros deck, but he had the Helix Angel, which quickly defeated my team since I had no air defense. Game was a bit longer and I got him down to 8 life, but when he played his Champion and made it fly with the Gift of Orzhov, I was signing the loser slip. Gee, that was fast.

Russ checked out my pool and suggested to add green. I had three 5/4 Swines, a Pit Fight and two Disciples of the Old Ways. And you know how I love the Old Ways (tm). But it was now the next round - no time to switch it up! My next opponent was a Simic mage. Game one he played one evolve dude after another until I was sorely outclassed. But I fought back game 2 & 3, winning easily while he stumbled on dudes. Whew!

Round 3 I put in the green from before and played another Boros player. It was the most popular guild by far. Game one I met Aurelia ("how do you do?") and lost in a blaze of double combats. Game two I released the swines (swoons?) and pit-fought for the win. In the rubber game, all green mana played hide and seek with my deck with all the swine in hand. Sigh.

I dropped but Russell was still in it for packs, so he asked his 4th round opponent to split and got 3 three. The goal, as with any pre-release, is to get enough prize packs to be able to draft the following week. 21 more packs to go!

A subpar performance, but not to let it get me down, we agreed to pick up Lindsey, Russ' girlfriend, and get some food and a movie. After numerous suggestions, we decided to just head down to Oakridge and see what looked good. After checking out BJ's, PF Chang's and the Cheesecake Factory, we were sad they all had huge wait times.

Until we heard, "Kurt, party of 3"...

"Why yes, I'm Kurt"...

"Follow me, sir!"
(Don't try this at home, kids.)
We macked out on Avocado Rolls and Moroccan Chicken. So good!

Rearing to go Sunday morning for more Magic, I made my way downtown to meet Ian for coffee before the pre started. We examined my Saturday pool and planned our attacks. He was going Dimir to try and mill people out. "I just want to cast 'Mind Grind' at least once!"

A smaller, but friendly crowd at Mythic that morning. The Boros guild seemed to be just as popular. Plenty of space and we started on time! What a difference a place can make.

I went Orzhov, since extorting is my 4th favorite thing* to do while flopping cards. And have you seen the promo? Opened a Breeding Pool, Legion Loyalist, Mystic Genesis, Rubblehulk and Biomass as my other rares. None to really splash. Oh well. I was happy with my 7 extort cards (counting 1000 Lashes as one too).

Russell pool, on the other hand, was ridiculous. Me Gruul, me SMASH! Clan Defiance indeed.

My first opponent was Nicolas and he was Dimir. All the games went long and he always had a huge Aberration out, but my slow, pinging death went the distance. Luckily, my regeneration Thrull could hold back the monster! I like the life-gain on extort more than the damage dealing since it keeps you in the game. Had 4 extorts out and playing the 1CC Thrull is a huge swing.

Round two was vs. Alex and he was big, green Gruul. We both played dudes and kept swinging. He asked if I was trying to out aggro him with a Orzhov deck. I smited his big Mime Slime and then played Righteous Charge on my 4 dudes for lethal. Game two was won with my 1000 Lashes on his 6/6 Mime Slime - ah, I can hear the whip cracking now...

Feeling invincible (and a whole lot better than yesterday), I looked to my next opponent and saw Paul the Judge at the table smiling.

"You seem confident", I remarked.

"Just wait...", he smirked.

This Gruul beating was different than the last. Removal? Check. Rumblehulk? Check. 9/9 Trample Goliath? Checkmate. Game two he played a Scorcher, madcapped it and then blood-rushed the Rampager on it. Pass the Tylenol.

I wished him continued success and went and got some grub at Woods. Pizza and beer for what ails ya! Round four was against Ian, the miller. Although he said his deck didn't have enough mill cards to go that route. He splashed green and game one, I was greeted by the Sylvan Primordial. I smited it. Then I extorted him down while he was mana flooded. Next game, he played this:

For 7 - I milled 18 cards!!! How I came back from that was a miracle, but I kept extorting for the win. Sorry, Ian!

Last round was versus Zach, the long-haired rocker with patches all over his Levi jacket. Did this kid know Magic? How does a turn 4 kill sound? Oof. The red Denizen, then Madcap, then Spark Trooper. He was high-fiving his friends the rest of the night. Rock and roll, baby! Game 2 he madcapped his Helix Angel. Got skills!

At 3-2, I got 18th place. Much to my chagin, Ian got 17th. How is that possible?!? We each got 2 packs and signed up for the next one. Russell won it out with his Gruulicious deck. I don't think he lost a single game. Nice 10 packs, my bruddah! Next blog will be the 6pm pre - stay tuned!
--
(* 1st - drinking a cool lager, 2nd - munching some tasty eats, 3rd - Turbo Go... that's right!)

Woods RTR Draft Sunday Special

Woods RTR Draft Sunday Special
January 6th, 2013 (first of the year!) 4pm.
Chris, Ian, Sean, Shawn, Paul the Judge and me.

Ian texted me that it had been too long without a draft. Aye, this be true, laddie.
The holiday break was difficult to get guys together since we all had crazy schedules.
The UCSC kids were mostly gone (or playing in GPs!) and some others went skiing.
Where's the Magic dedication, people!

So when he contacted me, I jumped in quick. Getting Paul the Judge for #6 and we were set.
Woods was still selling slices (cheap eats, FTW) and the heat lamps were glowing outside.

My first pack had junk - no good rare or removal - so I went with a Gore-House.

When in doubt, draft speed. That's my new motto. That and "street gum is not free gum"*.
Got another Gore dude and some Glees to make me feel all Rakdos-y. Then a late Teleportal
opened up the Izzet option. I continued to pick both guilds until I got some good counters and a Blustersquall. The Angel of Serenity in pack 3 was a cruel mistress. Whip me, beat me, but at least
be splashable. Sigh.

My deck:
3 Gore-House
Splatter Thug
Skywatch Knight
Electromancer
Voidwielder
Runewing
Frost Weird
Fae Imposter
Judge Familiar
2 Cobblebrutes
Courier Mill-dude
Izzet Stratocaster

2 Backlash
Explosive Impact
Teleportal
Pursuit of Flight
Syncopate
Annilating Fire
Blustersquall

SB
Traitorious Instinct
Courier Mill-dude
Thoughtflare
Blistercoil Weird
Bellow's Lizard
Gob Rally
2 Glee
Thrill Kill
Sewer Shambler
Launch Party
Batterhorn
Dispel

The plan: get out dudes and counter their threats and finish with a Teleportal or 'Squall

First round was versus Paul the Judge. Hey, at least it'd be easy to call a judge!
He was next to me in the draft and he started playing blue. Then white. Then I knew he had the Angel. This was not good. Luckily, I teleported my dudes to his face game one, but the Angel came out game two and crashed me. Game 3 was long since I held counters and he held the Angel until I had whittled away his life and we was forced to play it. Backlash, baby! For exacties. So good!

Second round I was paired down with Ian. He played Sean close, who had a great Selesnia deck. There were some talk about all the Spheres of Safeties that went around -- did Ian have them? Well, he started with a Lobber Crew and then another. And out came the Spheres -- 3 of them! Oof. It made it 9 mana to attack him with one guy! His Lobbers then pinged me to death. Ugh. Game two, I got in some early beats and then when he walled up, I burned him out with the Impact and Fire. Game three, I sided in the other Courier and played that turn two with a Pursuit on it turn three. Ended up milling him that game. Whew!

Finals vs. Sean, master of the Selesnia deck. He was the only GW drafter at the table and his deck was solid. I took the first game even though he had many pump spells that killed my guys. My Familiar countered his Centaur Accord and I was able to burn him out. Game two was in my grasp when I stole his 7/7 slime with Traitorious and then played Teleportal overloaded. He had a fog with Druid's Deliverance however, and came back to stomp me. Game three was all centaurs populated and he took the crown.

Ended up in 3rd place (Chris had a better game record) and got a Deathrite Shaman, Smiter and Chemister for my trouble. It was a great pool with 4 duals and the Angel too. Hopefully, we'll get in some more RTR before the new set, Gatecrash, comes out at the end of the month.

Speaking of which, did you see this?!?

Oh man, I wanna play this with Rite of Replication so bad. How does that Modern combo not feel good? My other fav spoiler right now is:

 

Just thinking of the combos to play with him. Make him indestructible and ping him every turn? Too much fun. They are cheap right now for pre-ordering at $2 and $4 each. Are they constructed playable?

Thanks for reading. See you at the Gatecrash pre-release!
-JL

(* - paraphrasing a line from a classic holiday movie: can you guess which one?)

Fallen Empires draft @Mythic 11-17-12

Fallen Empires Draft
Mythic Games, Santa Cruz
Nov. 17th, 2012

My Saturday was crazy. An old friend talked me into running in the SC Turkey Trot 5K at 8am on West Cliff. In the rain. Then, after much coffee and pumpkin bread, I raced up to UCSC and the KZSC Music sale at 10. Six dollars and 24 CDs later, I stumbled home for a much needed shower. Because at 1pm, Mythic was hosting a FREE Fallen Empires draft!

So if you don't know, Mythic Games is THE gaming destination in Santa Cruz. They recently expanded and now have lots of well-lit, clean gaming room for all players. If you play Magic, or any table-top game like Mech-Warrior, this is the place to play.

One of their regulars, Joe, bought a box of FE and wanted to draft it. So Mythic advertised on FaceBook and I got the 6th spot. Joe would keep the cards, but he would give out prizes to the top 4. Deal!

My buddy Larry Bee was there, but wasn't drafting, so he quietly watched my picks. I had done some FE drafting research on the web, but it mostly said "don't do it". You see drafting wasn't a thing yet in 1994, when FE came out, so it wasn't built with drafting in mind. After looking at the cards, I could see it did at least have a tribal theme: Thrulls, Thallids, Orcs, Drawves, Soldiers, Hominids and some Goblins. Also, the most expensive card in the set is Elvish Farmer ($2.50), which makes Saprolings that can be sac'd to gain 2 life. Really? Oh, and the packs have 8 cards each. So we drafted 5!

My first pick in the draft was Order of Leitbur:

White it was! My second pick was Icatian Town, which let's you play four 1/1 soldiers. Almost as good as Lingering Souls! I then proceeded to pick up 4 Icatian Javelineers, which are some of the only removal in the set.

I ended up in mostly W with some G for 2x Night Soils and a Feral Thallid (6/3, who can regenerate).

Some interesting things about FE - they had some cards with multiple artwork like the Javelineers above. It was a small set (102 cards), but with the extra art, it seemed like more. There's barely any removal and the average size of the creatures is probably power 1.3 and toughness 1.6. This causes for a lot of stalled boards. There's a reason you don't draft this set, but hey, it was a crazy Saturday and the price was right!

My first round opponent was Casey running mono-blue with 2x Deep Spawns and 2x High Tides. Combo anyone? High Tide makes all Islands double their output for a turn. And a bunch of Hominids.

Game one my Javelineers took out some of his dudes and I was able to overrun him with 1/1s before he could stabilize. Game two was a turn 4 Deep Spawn by way of High Tide. Ouch. I had an Elvish Hunter to keep the Spawn tapped, but he played a Merseine on it and I was done. Game three was a board stall, but my Thallids kept making Saprolings and I eventually got in FTW.

Second round was versus Jacob running Brassclaw Orcs (3/2 that can't block creatures with power 2 or more) and Hymn To Tourachs.

This is regarded as one of the best cards in the set. This and High Tide. Two discards at random is harsh! But my army of 1/1 dudes all spilled out onto the battlefield in a few turns and beat Jacob in two games without much resistance. He showed me his deck with Orcs and Thrulls and he just got mana screwed.

Onto the finals vs. Tully, who had called for us to meet there when we started. Tully and I have had many fun Magic battles over the years and this would be no different. We agree to draw and play for the extra pack. (1st was 4, 2nd was 3). He was running GB with Thallids and Thrulls. Lots of counters were needed for our games.

So with Night Soil, you like having guys in the graveyard to make more dudes to fight with. Unfortunately, he had some too, so we were fighting over who could trigger their Soil first. He also had a Druid that could make his forests into 2/3 fighters. Ugh.

I was able to take a game with my army of 1/1s and he stomped me back in game two with forests. Since I had some movie plans with the family, I needed to head out, so I offered the extra pack to him. He was stoked and asked me to sign it. He said he was going to start a collection of all the Magic packs. Good luck on that, Tully! It should make for a fun Chaos draft one day!

Props:
Joe, for a fun blast from the past draft. I'm inspired to buy a box myself!
Mythic, for a cool place to hang out!
Icatian Javelineers, you know to clear a board.
Slops:
Deep Spawn, no fair being a 6/6 trampler in a world of 1/1s!
The rain. Nice to look at, but a drag to run in.

Let me know your Fallen Empire experiences in the comments below!

GP Philly Pt. 2

The continuing adventures of Greg and Spencer into Day Two!

After an exhausting Day One, we all crashed early. The tropical storm was upgraded to a hurricane, which was moving up the coast. Coming right for us! Stores were boarding up their windows. Sandbags around the doors. Starbucks was closed! But the Marriott was connected to the convention center by a skybridge, so we never had to go outside. Up and atom for more Magic!

Day Two means drafts, so G&S got their seats into 8-man pods. Greg drafted a aggro GW pool with the GW Guidemage and Wild Beastmaster and a splash of black. He rolled to a 3-0. Spencer, unfortunately, did not get a good draft pool and bombed out 0-3. He decided to keep playing for the free cards and planeswalker points.

Greg's second draft wasn't as good as his first, but he beat his first round opponent and could draw the next two to get into the Top 8. Wow, what a ride! For more deets, check his webpage: GregsDayTwo

Russell and I did some side drafts and got food for the players. We also checked out some of the local sites.

Philly Mint

Philly Cheesesteak

Hanging with the Bell

Meanwhile, Greg drafted in the Top 8 and got paired up with Yuuya Watanabe, who has two Pro Tour Top 8's and 16 GP Top 8's to his name. Not bad. And Greg beat him. He's in the Top 4!

Some Czech beat Greg the next round, but Greg was in the money for $1500, a travel voucher to PT Quebec and the right to call himself a pro. So proud of our boy! Read the GP coverage at the mothership!

We partied later at the hotel and because of the hurricane, flights were cancelled and we ended up stuck for two extra days. So we played more Magic in the lobby with the other stuck players. LSV, Kibler, Wrapter and even Marshall from Limited Resources were all there. We played on team draft with him and his posse.

Weird format - draft normal then randomly pick 4-man teams. Teammates can help each other build decks. Then everyone randomly picks a player on the other team that they don't play. So now you have your opponents. Best team record gets all the rares. Then they pulled the rares "Italian" style. They put them all face down and each teammate would pick and flip one over. Whichever card had the highest CMC, that player would get them all. If there was a tie, then repeat. Spencer played on Marshall's team and they won in  a tie-breaker round. Best rare? Foil Jace. But Spencer didn't pull it. Oh well, still fun.

Whew, what a trip! Congrats to Greg's BIG win! Philly was fun and I look forward to another trip there. 

GP Philly 2012 Pt. 1

Grand Prix Philadelphia (Sealed) - October 27-28
Greg, Russell, Spencer and I representing SV and SC crews. Cali style.

Early morning flight from SFO. 4:30am early. Not joking. Real early.
Hung out with Ryan the night before and watched the Giants win at Tony & Alba's. He wished us well.
Spencer crashed at my place and we met the Smith brothers at their house the next morning.
Their dad Art was kind enough to drive us up for the flight.

Some bagels and coffee later, we were in our seats and airborne. Hey, let's try the onboard wifi!
$14.95 per trip with a warning that streaming videos will be too slow. Fire up MODO. Erg, a snail's pace. Read the fine print... "online gaming is considered streaming videos". What? Fire up the online chat with support. May I help you? REFUND! No refunds, sir. REFUND! I can send you a discount on your next purchase. ARGH!

Luckily, I had packed some books and crosswords. There was also in-flight movies in the headrests. Virgin America is cool. Didn't need the $2 headphones for a James Bond movie. Nice hat, Oddjob.

Touchdown in Philly around 4pm on Friday Grinder Day. Hop a train to our hotel, which is connected to the con center downtown. Run over after dropping off the bags and... they are out of playmats. Dang! Saw them later in the weekend selling for $50 at vendor tables. Double dang!

People are talking about some tropical storm moving up the Eastern seaboard. Huh? Whatever.

We all decide to skip the grinders in exchange for some dinner and scouting the area. Holy Moley, the Reading Terminal Market (pronounced "Reading") is across the street is like Foodie Heaven. So many food booths crammed into one huge building. Greek, Chinese, cheesesteaks, Italian, Moroccan, Deli, Mexican, smoothies, cookies, bakeries, etc. etc. We get a snack and hit up Yelp for some vegetarian places. Found a cool place with a bar and small plates. Delish! And I didn't lose the credit card game. Thanks for dinner, Spence!

Up at 7am for the sealed registration. But really 4am Cali time. Erg. More coffee and snacks at RTM. Seats arranged and almost 2000 players show up. The largest North American GP ever. Natch. Opened a pool, passed it and got my own with these rares:
Hallowed Fountain, Carnival Hellsteed, Volatile Rig, Angel of Serenity (Now), Grave Betrayal & Havoc Festival. Woe is me. What to build? Here's a feeble attempt:

1cc: Judge's Familiar
2cc: Az Charm, Drama Rescue, Doorkeeper, Concor Pegasus
3cc: Seller o' Birds, 2x Stealer, 2x Lobber Crew, 2x Para Grasp
4cc: Az Justiciar, Eyes Skies, Hussar, Phantom General, Rig, Soul Spirit
5cc: 2x Voidwielder
6cc: T's Judgement, Isp's Skywatch
7cc: Angel of Serenity (Now)

What a mess. UW with R slpash for Lobbers? What was I thinking? I should have played the Syncopate & Cancel in my sideboard to be a more controlling deck. My results will tell the tale.

Rd1: played John with Golgari splash R
Game1 died to Shaman, CJack, Guildmage and removal. Game2 his Imp with +2/+2 counters did me in.
Rd2: played Jeff with Radkos
Game1 got out Angel and he scooped. Game2 was all about a timely Ragemutt taking me down. Came back game3 to win with detain and Stealers stealing many cards.
Rd3: played Ant with 4color (GBWU)
G1: was flooded and died to early beats. Game2 got out double Lobbers FTW. Game3 my Angel was too late vs. his Rhino with a Passage.
Rd4: played Mitchell with Azor plus G
Angel took game 1 without much resistance. Game two was longer, but my Lobbers did the trick.
Rd5 at 2-2 - do or die time. Played Eric with Seles plus U
Wow, his deck was good. Detainers, flyers, pumps and a Verdict for dessert. In game2, I got out my Angel, but it was supremely verdict-ed and that's all she wrote.

Well, five rounds --> drop was my worst performance in awhile. Spencer and Greg were still rolling - they had great decks. Shake it off and try some Twisted Draft. Russell decided to side draft as well. What's Twisted Draft you ask? $25 for 3 random boosters and draft them. Everyone gets a different three. Here's what I got:

Invasion (yay!) and 2x Dissention. Maybe force some old school Ravnica guilds?
Here's what I ended up with:
1cc: Spell Snare, Dispel, Vendetta
2cc: Sage Owl, Daggerdrome Imp, Mask of Ayacyn, 2x Ravenous Rats, Vicious Hunger
3cc: Encrust, Root Commando, Probe, Searchlight Geist, Minister of Imped, Balloon Peddler
4cc: Enigma Eidolon, Disciple of Tevesh, Lay Bare
5cc: Deny Reality, Homicidal Seclusion, Soul Seizer, Spire Monitor
6cc: Wrexial, Badass of the Deep!

Blue black with some tricks. I went 2-1 and split the finals for 5 packs. My finals opponent who won fanned out his packs and asked me to pick one, then open it. A Temple Garden was inside. Yes!

Greg and Spencer got to Day Two! Greg actually went 9-1. Check out his story on his webpage here:
eastwestdraftcast.com.

Check out the rest of the adventure in part two, electric boogaloo! Hey, why are all the stores closing and taping up their windows? (cue foreshadowing music...)

Grand Prix San Jose 2012

grind·er [grahyn-der] 

noun

1. a person or thing that grinds.

2. a kitchen device or appliance for grinding  food.

3. a sharpener of tools.

4. a molar tooth.

5. Chiefly New England and Inland North . hero sandwich.

*6* the event before the real event to acquire byes.

Grand Prix San Jose was finally here! I was scattered all week leading up to this, since my mind was primarily on the weekend festivities. After a last minute teammate swap, Shawn, Nate and myself were ready to conquer. But the first step was to play in a "grinder" the Friday before. Winners of the 32-man sealed events would get two byes for the GP.

FRIDAY - GRINDERS

I got to the SJ Convention Center with Nate after leaving my car at his place to split the parking fee. We walked around the huge, cavernous building looking for signs of Magic. Hall 3 is where the action is! We signed up our team, got cool playmats, boosters and guild pins (Izzet for me) and prepared for battle. Saw Greg as well. It was a huge hall, but only 1/3 full. Time to grind! $30 grinders ran as they filled and Nate and I got in #3. Let's see what I got:

Niv Elemental, Blood Crypt, Growing Ranks, Guild Feud, Conjured Currency & Search The City.
What a pile of poo. Has there ever been a worse six rares in a sealed pool?
I went Radkos midrange with the Crypt as my only playable rare. Some removal, but not much else. The Ranks would be good to build around if there was some decent GW. Alas, there was not.

Round one vs. Terry

He was Izzet & the hasty dragon came out quickly for 4 damage. More flyers and an Izzet Charm for 2 damage finished me. Game two was better when I had three dudes attacking on the board until he played Supreme Verdict. Ouch. Then his flyers crushed my "bye" dreams. Woof. That was over quick.

What to do next? Nate and Greg were still alive and I watched them for awhile. But, there was one event that caught my eye --> Ravnica Retro! For $25, you get 3 packs of RTR plus an old school, original Ravnica Guild Set at random. You play swiss 4-rounds and the top 4 players get a box of RTR. A whole box! Sign me up!

There were 16 of us old Rav fans playing and the judge carried a bag with all the Guild Sets in them. I reached in and pulled... BOROS! Yee-hah!

Here's the deck listing.

Come out swinging! Got the Palisade Giant, Lord of Rakdos and Corpsejack Menace as my RTR rares. I'd have to splash black for the Lord and the Giant seemed out of place to me in a speedy deck. I ended up only playing a few red cards from RTR with Lobber Crew being the best one.

Round one vs. R playing GW

He played the Evangel token maker and Eyes in the Skies to make many tokens. I played my two Swiftblades. He played a Scion and put a Fist on it. I blocked with a Keening Spirit and then sac'd it to take away the Fist. I played Dynacharge for my Swifties and swung for 12. A few swings later and the game was mine. Game two, he got out the Scion and double-fisted it. That's a decent combo. I took two separate hits of 9 damage and that was over. Game three, it was my Sunforger's chance to shine. Attach, swing, unattach for Helix. Do that twice and it's not a fair fight!

Round two vs. Josh playing WU

We both played dudes and were swinging, but his had wings and he played Fetters, which was a bummer. And then he started gaining life. Unfair! Game two he was manascrewed and my Boros legion did quick work. Game three he never touched me since my Sunhome'd dudes got in there and a double-Helix finished him.

Round three vs. Brandon playing WBG

Got him to 9 life, but then he played the Angel of Serenity. Does Wizards think that card is fair? Not if your Boros. Game two I got him to 8 life and then he played his other bomb, Armada Wurm. A couple of Disembowels later and it was lights out for me.

I checked the standings and I was the top 2-1 in the group. Brandon and another guy were above me. I still had a shot at a box! Oh man, oh man, oh man! I showed Greg and Spencer (who showed up to grind) my deck and they got excited. "That deck is nuts!"

Round four vs. Ronnie playing WU flyers

Well, fateful readers, I lost my notes from this match. Maybe I purposefully erased it from my mind since I lost. I do remember going to game 3 and getting manascrewed. I mulled to 6 and kept a 2 mountain hand with 4 white spells. I didn't draw any gas until it was too late. My opponent won a box and I got 8 packs (finishing 7th). So close to greatness. All together, I was still ahead with the 8 packs for $25 entry, but was feeling low.

Nate and Spencer had gone home, so Greg was my ride. But he was still playing in the second grinder and was in the finals. Wow! His Radkos deck had all sorts of removal and I was happy for him when he won it all. Whoop! Two byes and 18 packs! Not bad at all, Mr. Smith! We wandered around in downtown SJ looking for his car and we vowed to do even better tomorrow...

SATURDAY - DAY ONE

Rolled into SanJo at 8am and found a parking spot for $7 all day. Got coffee and met up with the crew. Hardy slaps on the back of Greg for taking down the grinder. Jeff flew in all the way from Florida to play today. Everyone was going over practice sealed builds. Found Shawn and Nate and we dubbed ourselves "Woodies on the Wharf". Perfect! 1,700+ players for 500+ teams. 11 rounds said the head judge. "Groan", said the players. We were all seated by 9:30 and we got our sealed bags. There was some confusion about passing the registered bags around, especially since some of the bags were trashed. But we finally got it going and here's what we did. I got to play Azorous, Nate got Selesnya and Shawn played Rakdos. Shawn's deck was the strongest by coming out hard and fast with red black beats. Good removal to back it up. Nate had 3 Common Bonds and lots of green white dudes that could multiply. I was all flyers with a Saber and some tricks. No bombs to speak of, but lots of synergy.

Match one, game one vs. Patrick (Selesnya)

He rolled out small, medium and big dudes with all kinds of tricks. Rootbound defenses, Common Bonds and the Selesnya Charm. Finished me with Rhinos. Game two I came back and my flyers slowly pecked away at his life. My Familiar countered his Rhino sorcery (after Nate pointed out that it could) - he was out of mana to prevent the counter. Thanks Nate! Game three was all about my Skyknight with a +2/+0 Saber FTW. Shawn and Nate both won their matches and we were riding high.

Next round I played a multicolored deck who had removal (Augur), fixing (Mana Bloom) and a decent finisher (Hellsteed). Ouch. Game two I tried to fight back, but this time it was his Armada Wurms that got me. Luckily, Shawn and Nate took down their games. 2-0!

Round three, we faced three guys from Denmark. They were speaking Danish loudly and even high-fived each other before we started. Wha? Ok dudes, prepare to be beaten. My opponent was playing Rakdos and removed my early flyers. Then he dropped a Pack Rat. Aw geez. By the end of the game, there were 5 5/5 rats facing me down. Erg. Game two he ratted me out again. Go Nate and Shawn! Yes, they won. We are 3-0!

We were all starving, so Nate and I ran out to find food. Around the corner from Original Joe's was a cafe serving baguette and panini sandwiches. But then they were out of baguettes! Luckily, the paninis were quick and we still had time to get back and eat before the next round.

My deck took awhile to get established and will lose to a fast Rakdos deck. And to bombs like the Pack Rat, since I only have the Detention Sphere to deal with them. Next round, I faced another bomb in the form of the Angel of Serenity. That plus 2 Eyes of the Skies and the token-pump general made for quick beats. This time the team took a loss. 3-1

Round 5 I couldn't believe the sight of another Pack Rat across the table from me. But this time I had the Sphere in hand. I purposely chumped a rat, to which he discarded to make it bigger. Then, next turn, I was able to Sphere them all away! Hooray small victory! But I soon got manaflooded and he burned me out. Game two was also a loss for me and we all lost the round. 3-2

We played the next round, but we knew our odds were long. Only X-2s advance. Our decks were good, but by round 6, you are facing really good decks now. We were outclassed and quickly it was over. By now, it was 4:30 and Shawn said he had to split. Nate and I watched some of the others play. Greg, Ryan and Russell were still alive. Spencer, Nate, Jeff and Jeff's brother, Jason all went to get beers and bring back pizza. Many bad beat stories were told. Spencer wanted to get upstairs to the overlooking windowed room, but we got stuck in a stairwell instead. We found our way out, wished Greg's team the best and went home to crash. They ended up losing in round 9, which is still a great achievement. But no day two for the Santa Cruz guys this time.

Next up, GP Philly in two weeks!

Props:

My Woodies team for rooting each other on and not getting too grumpy when losing.

Elspeth and Lady Sorin, who agreed to pose with yours truly!

Pizza My Heart for deliciousness and Widmer on tap.

Slops:

11 rounds makes for a long day (even if we only made it through 6)

Loud and unruly Danes

24 packs difference from a manscrew (c'mon man!)