First please let me say thank you to everyone in the Arizona Magic community that was there cheering for me and thinking positive thoughts. It is such a boost having that feeling when you are playing to keep playing; I think it is part of what got me into the Top 8. Let me also thank some people personally, namely Kevin McMurdie, Scott Skinner, Jeff Pry, Aaron Bertalan and Blaine Johnson, gentlemen whom not only provided support, but thoughts, analysis, and helped keeping me going throughout the day with encouragement and witty texts. People without whom I would not have made it into the Top 8. Thank you guys, I will always appreciate it.
Jund Good Stuff
This section is about what I played and why. If you are not interested, I understand and would recommend skipping to the next section on results.
A lot of people called the deck I was playing Jund Monsters. I disagree due to the inclusion of more planeswalkers, no Ghor-Clan Rampagers, less Polukranos and one less Domri. Technically it’s a moot point though; it’s more important to go into what and why I did what I did when building it.
I evolved from playing Gr Devotion into R Devotion into G/R Monsters. For some reason I hated G/R Monsters. I think it was the lack of a feeling of any control. Just let me whip out a beat stick and try to go to town on you. Back at the end of February I saw the list that Kent Ketter put on Star City Games and liked it, then I watched CVM beat down a Mono-Black Aggro deck with it and really liked it.
From there I tried it with much success on Game Day. I made some tweaks to the sideboard and changed it around to account for what I thought the local meta-game would be (Mono-Black Devotion). It was extremely successfully over at Howie’s Game Shack and Samurai East and I ended up a Game Day Mat from one and splitting to take all the packs from the other. The main deck I was not playing was control.
Up until this weekend, control appeared to be the deck to beat. I agreed with some articles I read that Polukranos in a group of four feels like a dead card in a lot of instances, because when you have one on the board most of the time you are not casting the second or worse, the third that you have in your hand. I also felt like Ruric Thar was underperforming. He might take control down 6 life, but it also prevents playing planeswalkers and did not really stop the card advantage of Sphinx’s Revelation. Instead I tried Sire of Insanity.
The Demon was amazing against control and well, everybody else but aggro. Every single time he came into a game on my side after they killed my creatures, it was a game win. Planeswalkers made up for the rest of the card advantage. I remember one game against the Boros Burn deck where I had Chandra, Domri and Xenagos up when I dropped the Sire. I was at 2 life and it won me that game easily. More on that below.
The deck testing I did was mainly with Kevin, Scott and Aaron and at Howie’s Game Shack at Saturday Night Magic. Blaine helped fill in with some aggro black deck testing at the last FNM. I found that at times four of Domri felt too much. He missed an awful lot on his plus and when he did, it could hurt. I also found that Xenagos was fantastic, really against everything. He was ramp, he was chump blockers or he was just a big target to keep me from taking a ton of damage. In the end a balance of 3 each felt good. I wanted Vraska and Chandra in the deck as well. Vraska is good, really good and Chandra is card advantage. No mysteries there.
The rest of the creatures included Reapers over Ghor-Clans. I find that Reaper’s scry ability is underrated. Coupled with Domri it can be creature removal and more than carries its weight in the mirror match. It’s also good coupled with Flesh // Blood. Most importantly, it finds the Stormbreath Dragon or Sire. I traded out an Elvish Mystic for a Xenagod, because I like the Caryatid as better ramp with Xenagos, the Reveler.
The sideboard I cobbled together from online suggestions. I think four Mizzium Mortars is a bit much and might pull one in favor of another Ultimate Price or the fourth Dreadbore. The Golgari Charm were for aggro decks or enchantment hate. A majority of the rest was in there for the control match ups.
Grand Prix
This was my first Grand Prix. I am a local player who spends Friday nights drafting usually. Occasionally I go down to Game Depot for early FNM, but usually I spend Friday nights drafting at Gotham. I had never been to an event this large. I came in with the expectations and hopes of going 5-4 and winning more than I lost. I also came in having spending FNM drafting and staying up later than I should. With a heavy work load in the week I was exhausted coming in, which I do not advise. Losing a quick match near the end of Day 1 left me with time for a coffee run that saved me. Here’s what I did and how though.
Day 1
Round 1 – Nathaniel Davis. No show. Really nervous. I sat and waited for the ten minutes and a little more, my opponent did not show. I hope everything was ok with him.
Record 1-0
Round 2 – Dane Young. Junk deck based around Archangel of Thune and Courser of Kruphix. He had both online game 1, but I had a Stormbreath Dragon holding the Angel at bay. I drew into removal, got rid of the angel, and it was on to game two. I sided in some removal, Vraska and moved out Chandra, Coursers and an Ooze. I won pretty quick and moved onto the next round.
W 2-0
Record 2-0
Round 3 – Alexander Lapping. Esper Midrange. Lyev Skynight does some work against me detaining then killing a Domri in Game 1. Games 2 and 3, the control parts of my deck take over. I got Xenagod out with Polukranos in one game, catching him unaware and swinging in for ten then sixteen. I do not remember the specifics of the games, other than we had some good conversations and he lamented not playing Manaless Dredge.
Win 2-1
Record 3-0
Round 4 – Marc Lalague. Mono Black Devotion. Game one I get run over with Pack Rat. Game 2, the monsters/planewalkers come out to play and he scoops with 10 life and bad draws. Game 3 was obviously pivotal. He plays Thoughtseize on me with four cards in my hand including a Xenagos, the Reveler and Polukranos and he has a Pack Rat in play. We’ve been battling back and forth and are both at 12-13 life. With plenty of land on both sides, he chooses Xenagos and passes turn. I drop Polukranos and pass turn. He drops the Desecration Demon and passes back to me. My turn I monstrous Polukranos destroying a Pack Rat while he’s tapped out, then swing it with a 7/7 with 1 damage marked on it, he has to block with the demon and we trade. I Domri into Dragons, he doesn’t draw anything good and the game is over. We talked it over earlier and agree that the game was his until he took the Xenagos instead of the Polukranos.
Win 2-1
Record 4-0
A small comment on the event at this point. The match next to me got drawn for a deck check. First the judge instead of reaching around the players for the decks, just about sat on my shoulder. Not cool and he almost got to experience a pen coming in for a landing. The judges came back and told one of the players that he had missed sideboarding out a card and named the card right in front of his opponent. Even his opponent complained. Then they passed them back an ordered deck and gave them the time it took for the deck check back onto the match. They did not add extra time for a shuffle. It did not appear professional to me and even the opponent who got a game win went over and complained.
Round 5 – Christian Calcano. Esper Control. My first game against Esper Control. I resolve a turn four Sire of Insanity after he’s tapped out from putting a Detention Sphere on Domri. I think we all know how that ends. Game two he completely out plays me with Esper Control, Supreme Verdicts and Sphinx’s Revelations into what he needs. Game three Vraska comes out removing Jaces, paving a path for Dragons and an eventual Demons (sire).
Win 2-1
Record 5-0
Round 6 – Ivan Kuencer. BUG Control. His counter spells slowed me down in game 1 and he used Ashiok on turn 3 to take a turn 4 Reaper of the Wilds. He gets me down in the single digit life range, but my own Reaper and Dragons eventually took him down. Game 2 I started to fade out, I remember winning, not sure how. I think the Domri combined with a lack of mana on his part took me home. I know there were Kioras in there that I destroyed, spells of mine that he countered and a back and forth on control of the game.
Win 2-0
Record 6-0
At this point I was dead on my feet. Between encouraging conversations with Blaine, witty texts between friends and walking around with Aaron I had kept going on adrenaline and coffee. I got to Round 7 and met someone at the tournament who got less sleep than I.
Round 7 – David Kim. Blue Devotion splash White. Game one it starts with a Cloudfin Raptor, moves into a Judge’s Familiar to a Nightveil Specter onto Thassa and into Ephara. I think you can figure out how bad that worked out for me. He remarks that he’s never seen his deck curve out like that, I chuckle. Game two goes pretty much the same way without the Ephara. I realize I kept two hands I should not have and did not sideboard properly at all and I take my first loss of the day.
Loss 0-2
Record 6-1
At this point I realize I got dominated in under ten minutes, so I meet up with everyone and book it up to Starbucks at the Arizona center for a Venti Iced Coffee. I could literally feel my fuel tank moving to quarter tank and I made it back with ten minutes in the round left.
Round 8 – Ben Lopez. Esper Control. Game one I have him at 8, six land and he’s got an Elspeth at 1 after using it to kill my Reaper. He’s got six tapped mana, one untapped, I play a dragon. I swing at him, take him to 4 thinking I could kill him next turn and he needs to pretty much top deck a Supreme Verdict. He doesn’t; he tops a Jace, which he uses to dig for the Supreme. Bye bye Dragon, hello Elspeth/Jace. Game two he Thoughtseizes me on turn two, sees the Sire and snap pulls it, almost forgetting to write down what I had. I use Domri and Xengaos to keep him off balance and get another Sire out and eventually beat him down with it.
Game three on turn six after he shocks himself and says go, telling me he’s waiting to Sphinx, I play a Sire. He takes a couple minutes we talk about it (it was obvious what he wanted to do), then Sphinxes for the life gain, losing a Supreme verdict in card three. We talked about it afterwards and both felt he made the right decision here; at the very least the 3 extra life would gain him another turn. He top decks his second detention Sphere. I top deck a Vraska and ultimate her in two turns instead of destroying the detention sphere. It would have taken as long with the Sire to kill him and Vraska seemed to have a better odds of not dying than the Sire. I drop a reaper and ultimate her and win the next turn when he top decks more land. At this point I know I’m onto Day 2, so I felt all the energy just leave my body, which was a huge mistake.
Win 2-1
Record 7-1
Round 9 – Jeffrey Tang. Mono Blue Devotion. Game one and two I see him run over me with tons of blue goodness through a haze of sleepiness. I try a strategy of going more control game two. Not a good idea. I get destroyed and end up sitting there chatting with him and his buddies for 10-15 minutes.
Loss 2-0
Record 7-2
I drove home and collapsed for the night.
Day 2
It starts off with us filling out tax forms. Yes, I was being asked to fill out a tax form to play Magic. That sounded awesome to me.
Round 10 – Tom Bell. R/G Monsters. It’s a race, except it’s not really a race. Our monsters trade off on for the most part and my removal/control wins out. The first game, he has me on the ropes after monsterousing a Dragon and playing a Domri. He forces the dragon to fight my Reaper with forest and stomping grounds untapped. Unfortunately he forgot about the Caryatid. I give the Reaper deathtouch, scry, bury, find a Dragon in a turn, kill Domri then him. The Xenagos tokens from his deck run, Boon Satyrs and Ghor-Clan Rampager do work on me. It hurts. He plays it well game three, but my removal package and monsters take over.
Win 2-1
Record 8-2
Round 11 – Brent Covert R/G Monsters. Interesting enough, Xenagod and our Coursers played a huge role this game. We both made the mistake of flipping our top card after the Courser had died. He made it first, me second. We both got warnings from the judges and had to shuffle our decks. The worst was I did it with an ultimate price on top and his dragon in play. Never fear though I have Dreadbore to the rescue. I ended up with better board presence and a god on my side. He asks the god why he’s on the wrong side of the table. I am pretty sure I heard a giggle from the god.
Win 2-1
Record 9-2
Round 12 – Ryan McCamish. Boros Burn. He churns and burns me down to 7 game one. I use my Scavenging Ooze and Courser to keep alive long enough for Xenagos the Planeswalker and others to get the job done. Game two he Chains my Courser to the rocks after it only got me one life, kills a reaper and churns and burns me down to 2, tapping out his five land to wipe my board and take me down in the process. I’d been using Domri/Chandra to clear a FLOOD of 5 lands (I exiled three) in three turns. I draw my good buddy from the asylum, the Sire and drop him into play losing a Dreadbore and something else; he loses the burn he need to win and an Assemble the Legion. I top deck Xenagos and finish him off in two turns with a small army of goat men.
Win 2-0
Record 10-2
Round 13 – Gavin Bennett. Big Naya. Game one he gets my Courser Chained down, but that does nothing to my planeswalkers and dragons. Game two, he beats me down with an Advent of the Wurm token that I hadn’t seen in Game One. In come the Ultimate Prices. Game three he resolves a Wurm at the end of my turn 4 then a Dragon at the beginning of his turn four. I have nothing but a lowly Courser and land on the top of my deck showing. He swings for nine, I take it down to 12. He passes, I bring a land, gain life, drop my own Dragon and reveal an ultimate price on the top of my deck. I pass turn. He swings with the wurm and the dragon. I go down to 8; we trade dragons. I draw the Price, reveal a land, play the land, up to 9 with seven lands, enough to drop a dragon, kill his token, monstrous the next turn and win.
Win 2-1
Record 11-2
Round 14 – Shahar Shenhar. Esper Control. Game one, the Sire comes out and wins it quick. He counterspelled a Polukranos, a Dragon and had D-Sphered a planeswalker. He loses an Elspeth, three Supreme Verdicts and control of the game. Game two, I play Xenagos and drop a token. He D-Spheres it, I play Vraska, destroy the sphere. Out come more tokens and eventually a Sire.
Win 2-0
Record 12-2
Round 15 – Andrew Smith. Red Aggro. Win and in. Game one he gets stuck on one land, does some damage, but I kill his creatures, eat them with my Ooze, gain life and end up with the win. Game two, he draws land, kills my Oozes quickly and destroys me. I had forgotten about Ash Zealot for some reason. Game three, I start to lock him down with a Reaper and Courser out. He plays a Burning Earth with my six non-basics out, two Mizzium Mortars and Dreadbore in hand. I get a Caryatid out with the Courser as walls, draw a Golgari Charm. I wait a turn before it dawns on me that the charm will remove the Burning Earth. I take one, remove it. He kills my Courser, I kill him and am into the top eight.
Win 2-1
Record 13-2
Quarterfinals
This was somewhat of a mirror match. There was a point in game one where I missed rolling the Domri trigger. I realized it right after I passed turn and got to watch it again in the VIP tent. Everyone there thought I was going to either monsterous and attack for 14 with Xenagod’s trigger or attack and then fight with Domri. I chose to use the Dreadbore instead, because I did not want to monstrous or fight with Domri right into instant removal. I have lost too many turns that way. I realized afterwards he did not have it mainboard though, but it seemed safer to Dreadbore then swing for 8.
Semifinals
I think my biggest mistake here was not keeping my first hand in the first game. It was two Temples, a Mutavault, a Reaper and then three shock lands. I was nervous about not being aggressive enough in mulliganing. I would have drawn two Carytids, land and gas. I was also worried about being overrun by Pack Rats. Game two I just did not draw that second red source in time. Berni was an excellent pilot of mono black devotion, but I think I could have been more competitive in this match up and maybe taken it with a little more luck.
So that is my story of my first ever Grand Prix. I was excited, nervous and thrilled coming in, also worried that the anglers of the Magic world would be there. I can happily say that not a single one of my opponents was anything less than friendly. Some of them were a bit aloof, but once we started talking and playing it seemed like all the match ups we had fun on both sides of the table. Running to get tables on time was thrilling, but having my iPhone set to the webpage with my personal pairings made it easier to navigate the crowds. It was an excellent weekend, not just because I played magic and won, but because I hung out with new friends and old and got to play a game that I truly enjoy all weekend.
Michael Cherry
Tyler Young
Aaron Bertalan
Will Levin
Blaine Alexander Johnson
and good job I would have texted you too if I knew you were playing