The Grand Prix Experience

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crossclimber

10 December 2010

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Table of Contents

1. Intro
2. The Night Before
3. Grand Prix Nashville – Deckbuilding
4. Grand Prix Nashville – 7 Rounds of Swiss
5. Wrap Up

INTRO
Before I get too far into this I’d like to take a moment to introduce myself. I think it always helps to have an understanding of the writer/player when reading their stuff. I’ve been playing Magic since ’98 and was a causal player for several years thru the Odyssey Block then took a break and came back to the game about the time Lorwyn came out and have been playing competitive magic ever since. I love playing standard, extended, and limited formats but I’m starting to branch out and I’m super excited about the rumor of Super Extended (or overextended as some like to call it) and I really hope that happens. As a player I really love playing rogue decks and exploring different ways to attack the meta. I play mostly online with friends and love FNM and Tuesday night drafts at my local store.
Grand Prix (GP’s) are an awesome type of tournament that anyone can play in and everyone is invited. Professional magic players will be roaming around and rubbing shoulders with folks who’ve only been playing for a week. Recent GP’s have been seeing huge numbers of close to 2,000 participants. Each GP consists of one major tournament where players are competing in a single format along with drafts working towards a top 8 and an eventual champion. But around that main event there is a ridiculous amount of crazy awesome fun happening all the time. A few weeks ago I went to Grand Prix Nashville and I’d love give you a picture of GP life by sharing my experience.
I’ve never had the blessing of a GP in my backyard, so this GP started as so many do with a road trip. I left the house at 5am and picked up my rental car said goodbye to the wife and was off. I stopped in DC and picked up my brother and we were off. A highlight from the road was when we saw one sign along the interstate with three lanes going west saying “Center Lane Does Not Exist!” We were in the middle lane laughing and wondering what that said about us.

We arrived at the Opryland Hotel around 4:30 in the afternoon. The first mission was to find a place to park. We saw signs for the convention center of the hotel and followed the arrows to a parking area and were stunned to see that it cost $18 per day to park! The nearest entrance was the “Cascades Canopy”. Nice name but it was not just a name once we got inside the building we were met by a jungle and 4 or 5 waterfalls! The hotel rooms were 5 or 6 stories up each with a balcony overlooking this insane central area. We found a map quickly and realized we were on the opposite side of the hotel from the convention center so we ended up hiking and getting lost in the most enormous, grandiose, lush, and maze-like hotel I’ve ever been in. About 20 mins and a mile and a half later we finally found Ryman Exhibition Hall C1 where the Grand Prix was being hosted. The Convention center at this place could have hosted 20 or more of these GP’s. It was just ridiculous how massive this place was!

THE NIGHT BEFORE
We walked in and saw that registration was open and there was no line at the time so we went ahead and got registered for the GP. It was only $40 and we received a sweet action Umezawa's Jitte promo card. We then wandered over to the wall of vendors just to see what they had going on. I waslooking for 3 Admonition Angels to finish a standard deck I’d built. We could hear that there were other events going on in the back of the room so we made our way over there and found out they were doing GP Grinders which are great practice and if you win you get 3 byes for the first 3 rounds of day one of the GP. Sounded like a sweet deal so we signed up for Grinder #11.
The format for this GP was Scars of Mirrodin sealed. Sealed events are when each player is given 6 booster packs of cards and has to make a minimum 40 card deck from them including lands which are provided. This will be the deck you play for the whole first day of the tournament. This grinder was in the same format only with 24 players instead of 1400+ and single elimination. We found our seating assignments and sat down, as each table was numbered and two players sat across from each other at the same number. Once we were handed our packs and a sheet to register the decks we were given 20 mins to open the packs and register every card. Once registered, we wrapped up the cards with the registration sheet and passed them to the left twice and this was the pool of cards we had to build from. I don’t remember much about this grinder except that I built what I thought was a pretty decent W/B artifact deck but got flooded in game one playing only 5 spells and 9 land and then in game two getting stuck on 3 land unable to do much of anything. My opponent played his deck very well and put me on a quick clock each game. He also had removal when I did manage to play a threat. I shook his hand took my lumps, said “That’s magic” and went off to see what other fun could be had.

Fortunately I got eliminated from my grinder just in time to join the Super FNM! This FNM was a standard format and had over 100 people registered to play. I had found my Admonition Angels just prior to the start and was ready to go. (I finally found a place selling foreign AA’s for just $3 so I snatched them up). My first opponent was playing a Quest WW deck. This is a decent match-up for my deck as it has lots of sweepers and removal for early game mayhem and then once I reach 6 mana my deck goes nuts. I won this match-up 2-0. I sat down next against a kid named Marshall who was from NM and came with a very cool team. He was also running a green ramp deck but was running Black as his second color. This was something I had not seen before but I liked his deck. I won a very close game one. Game 2 I got double Memoricided losing my Primeval Titans and Admonition Angels. It was close but my deck has a hard time without those threats. Game 3 he took out my Angels again but I had him down to one turn when he drew a Grave Titan and developed a board position I couldn’t overcome. This was one of my favorite matches that I played the whole weekend. Great guy playing a great deck and each match able to go either way is the best type of magic. Match 3 was against what I thought was Kuldotha Red but turned out to be a Myr comboish brew. Game one I was in a pretty dominating position when my opponent played a Myr Battlesphere. This being the last card in her hand I played Journey to Nowhere, took out a few tokens and felt comfortable. Her next turn she peels another Battleshpere and plays it. I play Admonition Angel and pop the 2nd sphere. She draws and plays a 3rd battlesphere! I don’t draw another land or any other answer and the game is over. Game 2 I got hit with a sick combo. Myr Galvanizer, Pladium Myr, and Splinter Twin. Turn 5 game over to infinitely large and hasty myr! Maybe Oust is a good card to have around. Match 4 was against some random homebrew that didn’t perform as expected I guess and I won quickly ending at 2-2 overall and winning a few packs.
After the FNM I found my bro and we headed for our motel (no we could not afford to stay at the Opryland). The next morning we got up early and decided to try to park across the street from the Opryland complex and walk in to save on parking fees. We found a spot that didn’t have any “guest only parking” signs and went for it hoping the car would be there when we got back.


GRAND PRIX NASHVILLE – Deckbuilding The tournament started surprisingly close to on time and seatings went up I’m sure it was a sight to see a huge wave of humanity wash forward and crash upon the seating assignment boards and then wash back and dissipate into the vast sea of gaming tables. Once seated we awaited our card pools for the Grand Prix. Once we got them and opened them things went a lot like in the grinder. One random, thing I need to point out is the sound of thousands of packs being opened at once is such a weird and cool sound. I heard a rumor that one guy opened a foil Koth, regular Koth and Mox Opal and instead of passing them he just took the cards he opened and left. I don’t know if that’s true or not but bad form if it is. I was quite glad to pass the packs that I opened and was passed this sweet little pile of cards:

White: Auriok Sunchaser, Ghelma’s Warden, Loxodon Wayfarer, Loxodon Wayfarer, Razor Hippogriff, Salvage Scout, Sieze the Initiative, Sunblast Angel, Sunspear Shikari, Vigil for the Lost, Whitesun's Passage, Whitesun's Passage

Blue: Darkslick Drake, Inexorible Tide, Lumengrid Drake, Neurok Invisimancer, Neurok Invisimancer, Plated Seastrider, Plated Seatrider, Riddlesmith, Riddlesmith, Stoic Rebuttal, Vault Skyward, Vedalken Certarch

Black: Contagious Nim, Dross Hopper, Necrogen Scudder, Plague Stinger, Tainted Strike

Red: Assault Strobe, Blade-Tribe Berserkers, Ferrovore, Furnace Celebration, Galvanic Blast, Goblin Gavelier, Kuldotha Phoenix, Melt Terrain, Melt Terrain, Oxida Scrapmelter, Scoria Elemental, Turn to Slag, Turn to Slag

Green:Alpha Tyrannax, Blunt the Assault, Carapace Forger, Ezuri's Brigade, Viridian Revel, Wing Puncture, Withstand Death

Artifact: Accorder's Shield, Accorder's Shield, Argentum Armor, Corpse Cur, Darksteel Myr, Darksteel Myr, Echo Circlet, Glint Hawk Idol, Glint Hawk Idol, Golem Foundry, Infiltration Lens, Infiltration Lens, Iron Myr, Iron Myr, Memnite, Mimic Vat, Moriok Replica, Necropede, Necropede, Neurok Replica, Nihil Spellbomb, Origin Spellbomb, Rusted Relic, Silver Myr, Snapsail Glider, Snapsail Glider, Sylvok Lifestaff, Sylvok Lifestaff, Sylvok Replica, Trigon of Corruption, Trigon of Infestation, Vector Asp, Wall of Tanglecord

Sealed is often about who gets their bombs on the table first and occasionally whose bomb is bigger. There were some crazy pools out there too with one guy playing 2 Wurmcoil Engine and a Molten-Tail Masticore. Conley Woods told me he had 8 of the best removal cards in the format and was playing them all! Removal is the other way to win in Sealed, being able to deal with the opponent’s bombs makes your own much better. Looking at my pool, I saw right away that my bombs were the Sunblast Angel and Kuldotha Phoenix as well as Argentum Armor. I thought Mimic Vat would be good but I really didn’t have the truly awesome combo pieces to go with it like Perilous Myr or Vulshok Replica but I could maybe steal those from my opponent. Red seemed solid all the way thru with good removal in the 2 Turn to Slags, Galvanic Blast, and Oxxida Scapmelter. White was fairly weak other than the Angel, the Hippogriff was good too and provided card advantage but there wasn’t much else there. I would have loved to see either Revoke Existance or Arrest but alas neither was there. Green gave me the option for removal as well with Sylvok Replica and the Carapace Forger and Ezuri's Brigade seemed like they could be serious beat sticks but I couldn’t get away from the Angel as it just seemed way too powerful and capable of winning the game on its own. So here is my deck that I registered:
1x Blade-Tribe Berserkers, 1x Oxidda Scrapmelter, 1x Kuldotha Phoenix, 1x Ghelma’s Warden, 1x Razor Hippogriff, 1x Sunblast Angel, 2x Iron Myr, 2x Necropede, 2x Snapsail Glider, 1x Galvanic Blast, 2x Turn to Slag, 1x Argentum Armor, 2x Glint Hawk Idol, 1x Mimic Vat, 1x Origin Spellbomb, 1x Rusted Relic, 2x Sylvok Lifestaff, 7x Plains, 10x Mountain

GRAND PRIX NASHVILLE – 7 Rounds of Swiss
Round 1 – Phil playing a RW metalcraft deck. This game went very very similarly to my grinder match where I got flooded and then stuck on 3 land in back to back games and never go going. He didn’t play a bomb at all but just lots of aggressive creatures and I couldn’t keep up. This one ended quickly and I thought I was doomed to go 0-2 drop and play side events all day.

Round 2 – Michael playing a four color deck. For this round I was moved all the way to the back of the room at table 500 something. And as I sat down I joked this must be where they send the people who got obliterated in the first round and my opponent chuckled and said “Yeah, don’t laugh when you see my deck.” Game one he was all over the place with the cards he played and my deck hummed along as it should running out quick creatures building up metalcraft quickly and finishing with a Kuldotha Phoenix. Game 2 he got crazy flooded and I cruised on to the next round.

Round 3 – Jeff playing a very synergistic URw deck. Jeff was really one of the most fun guys I met the whole weekend. We joked back and forth and laughed the whole time we played. Game one was super tight and ended when he dropped a Quicksilver Gargantuan copying a Neurok Invisimancer. Game 2 Sylvok Lifestaff was my hero keeping me above 20 life for the whole game and allowing my chump blocks to really give me value. Sunblast Angel hit the board on my side and that was game. Game 3 I had double Sylvok Lifestaff and ended the game at 22 life with Mimic Vat, Phoenix and Angel on the table. While both of my wins were by large margins I loved Jeff’s deck as he had crazy synergies with all his cards and just didn’t draw his bombs in games 2 and 3. I felt very lucky to have won this one. This was by far my favorite match of the weekend! Thanks Jeff.
After Round 3 I took a quick break to call the wife and run to the bathroom. I share this simply because as I approached the bathrooms I had to mention to her that there was a significant line out the mens room door and none by the womens. This was her highlight of the weekend.

Round 4 – Nick playing a 4 color deck with Masticore. Game one he got flooded and my deck raced off to a super fast win on a perfect curve. Game 2 was a long one with both of us playing lots of removal and in the end he got there with his Masticore. Game 3 was another long one but he was building a very very dominating board position and I was dead to a topdecked Sunblast Angel. I drew it and won the match. At this point I just had to laugh. I was 3-1 with most of my wins coming on luck.

Round 5 – I had moved back up the field and was seated at table 110 for this one and could see many of the big name pros just a table away. My hope was to maybe win this one and get a chance to sit across the table from one of them. This round I was playing Chase and his RW artifact deck. Game one was another [Sylvok Lifestaff]] romp ending with a life score of 29-0. Game 2 was much closer and I finally got Mimic Vat online with a Perilous Myr which kept my opponent on the back foot. He very deftly played around my Sunblast Angel keeping a decent board presence even after I played it but with the angel and Phoenix aerial assault bringing the beats and Perilous Myr clogging the ground I pulled out the victory. One thing that is not intuitive to playing in a GP is how to find time to get food. I brought some snacks which got me thru lunch but as 5:30 rolled around after round 5 I was starving and food was a very long walk thru the hotel away. I was fortunate that my rounded ended quickly giving me sometime to make the jourey. But when I found the restaurant the line was huge and I kept looking at my watch because I didn’t want to miss the next round and be forced to forfeit. But in line I met Shawn from Texas. He was a T-shirt designer who had just dropped from the GP. He was wearing a red shirt that said “got Haste?” which I loved. He offered to bring my food back to the GP hall after I’d ordered so I ran back found my seat and texted Shawn about where I was. I think I actually heard my opponent’s stomach grumble as my food was brought to the table. Large thanks to awesome guys like Shawn who made the weekend such a pleasure.

Round 6 – Adam playing UW artifact. This match was played at table 50 and as I sat down I just chuckled feeling way over my head. Game one was a close one but Sunblast Angel brought the beats and it was on to game 2. Games 2 and 3 both went the same way. I got out to a very good start building a crazy awesome board position and looking very in control. Playing around his removal and bringing him very near dying. Then he’d drop True Conviction and I’d lose. That was the most unfair card that I played against. There is no way to play around it and there are only two cards in the format that I can think of that can get it off the table. One of which I had in my sideboard and you might ask why I didn’t go for it in Game 3. Well I’m not sure that I shouldn’t have done that but my reasoning was that Sunblast Angel could eliminate his board just as easily and give me a win condition where as green only gave me a way to remove the enchantment and Wing Puncture which could have taken care of just a single creature and if he didn’t draw it I was in a great position to win the game where as I feel green would have been weaker. I felt robbed and dejected after that game. He played very well, his deck did what it should, he didn’t make mistakes, and I still feel like it was a single card that beat me. Maybe that is seeing the game wrong and I really mean no disrespect to Adam as I feel he is most certainly a better player but this loss really broke my spirit. I did my best to congratulate Adam on the win and wish him luck and tried really hard not to be a bad loser. Magic is a fickle game and any player with any deck can beat anyone else at any time. I just happened to run up against what I now feel is the most devastating card in the format and I lost despite playing well and having a decent deck.


Round 7 – A record of 7-2 will still make Day 2 of the GP so I was not eliminated yet but I had a long road ahead of me. As I sat down and met Phillip who was paying another RW metalcraft deck judges came up to us and took our decks for the random deck checks. So we got to chat for a while and talk about our past matches. As I shared about my most recent defeat the guy sitting beside me mentioned that he had been watching the match and the way it ended was simply brutal, which made me feel a little better. Phillip’s deck was pretty quick and used Myrsmith and Myr Galvanizer to create a strong board presence very quickly and then he backed it up with something like 6 removal spells. I hung in there and fought the good fight and both games were close but I was playing catch up the whole time and he won the Match. As we were packing up I thanked him for beating me in a much more humane way than my last match and wished him the best of luck the rest of the way.


WRAP UP
At 4-3 on the day I dropped out and ended up in something like 500th place which I’m not ashamed of since there were 1400+ people at this GP. My bro was still going and I went to find him and he was at the back of the room. I asked him what his record was and he said 1-6! I just laughed. He said he came to play Magic and they were going to have to force him to stop. Now that’s the spirit right there and that’s the beauty of a GP! I played a standard win-a-box side event while he finished out his final two rounds. It’s a cool format with a pool of 8 people playing standard decks in single elimination format. If you win out you get a box of Scars of Mirrodin. I beat a RDW deck and then lost to a Suicide black vamps deck when my deck refused to provide me with more than one threat in two back to back games. Then it was off to the motel for the night. Sunday my bro wanted to do some draft side events so I did one with him but I was really feeling burnt out on Scars at the moment and didn’t draft well and lost in the first game. I was black artifact going into pack 3 when I opened a Skittles and (stupidly) decided to go poison in pack 3. I almost got there too but was really about 4 playables short of a respectable deck and lost in back to back games to the player who had been drafting poison from the start. I spent the rest of the time just hanging out, doing some trading, and watching a few of the feature matches as the pros battled it out.

We hit the road around noon for the long drive back home. Overall it was a great weekend of Magic, something I can’t seem to get enough of lately. I really loved how there was so much going on at this event. There really was something for everyone from the GP Sealed play to Standard tournys to EDH, Legacy, Extended, Drafting, trading and dozens of games just played for fun in all kinds of formats going on all over the place. People from all over the country along with more than a few international players of any and every ability level all united under one roof for one purpose, to play a game.