Sunday came too quickly. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, and had a long, reflective shower. Refreshed, I quickly dressed, grabbed some muffins my mom had made (Must be nice, is, etc.) and hurried to meet the Ho nearby before we headed off to the GP. I just had to keep my focus. I felt a lot more prepared for draft than I had for sealed, having practiced for Nationals and Pro Tour Philadelphia.
Player meeting took a little longer than advertised, but altogether not too long, and I was in Pod 1 with Andrew Noworaj, Rich Hoaen, Reid Duke, Mathieu Tremblay, Maxwell Brown, Michael Holden, and Matthew Boccio.
Draft 1:
Pack 1 offered a choice of: [card]Arachnus Spinner[/card], [card]Overrun[/card], some reasonable but unexciting blue, black, white, and red cards, and [card]Arachnus Web[/card].
[card]Arachnus Spinner[/card] is definitely the most powerful card in the pack and in my opinion the most powerful non-Mythic rare of the set. However, by picking it, the passing of [card]Overrun[/card] sends Rich Hoaen, the player on my left a strong signal that I am not in green. Many players would have taken one of the cards outside of green and ‘let them fight over green’, but I think that is wrong. There are cards that are worth fighting for, and since I was passing to Rich for 2/3 of the packs, even if we did get into a fight, I would still get plenty of green. Of course, I also hoped that the Web would come back or at least that I would get one at some point in the draft. Turns out that I didn’t, but I stand by my pick. I picked up some more solid green cards, and white seemed to be flowing so I got some decent white flyers.
Pack 2 I opened an unexciting pack, and then was passed [card]Fireball[/card], which I took. Red continued to flow, and I ended pack 2 solidly in Red/Green.
Pack 3 I opened the awesome [card]Flameblast Dragon[/card], and picked up more solid red removal and a [card]Warstorm Surge[/card].
Altogether, I felt my deck was fine, but nothing spectacular. I wished that I could have gotten an [card]Arachnus Web[/card] at some point in the draft, but I ended up with 2 [card]Chandra’s Outrage[/card], 2 [card]Incinerate[/card] and [card]Fireball[/card], as well as [card]Sacred Wolf[/card] + [card]Trollhide[/card], a bunch of 2 drops, a couple of pump spells, the [card]Warstorm Surge[/card], [card]Arachnus Spinner[/card], and [card]Flameblast Dragon[/card]. People I showed the deck to felt it was really good, but I felt I had a bunch of mediocre cards.
While walking around, I talked to Andrew Noworaj (pronounced NO-VO-RAI with a russian accent) about the draft. He felt his deck was awful, and was playing [card]Kite Shield[/card]. He asked what my worst card was, and I jokingly replied “[card]Manic Vandal[/card]. Seems to trump yours”. He fully expected to 0-3 the draft. I wished him luck, and then pairings were up!
Round 10: vs Mathieu Tremblay
Disappointing, but unsurprising, considering we were the only players at 8-0-1.
Tremblay had a BW aggro deck with [card]Day of Judgment[/card] and some [card]Gideon’s Lawkeeper[/card]s, but nothing else that interesting. Game 1 I mulled to 5 and it was close, game 2 I stomped him, and game 3 I kept pinging him with [card]Goblin Tunneler[/card] with [card]Swiftfoot Boots[/card] (from the board), until I forced him to use his Day, and at that point my hand was [card]Chandra’s Outrage[/card] x 2, [card]Incinerate[/card] x2 and [card]Flameblast Dragon[/card]. Dragon came down and got equipped, and that’s all she wrote.
9-0-1
Round 11: vs Rich Hoaen
Rich had a BG deck, and stumbled on mana both games while I drew all my ’23rd’ cards, with me just beating down with [card]Runeclaw Bear[/card]s and [card]Slaughter Cry[/card]. I could tell that he was frustrated, and his deck looked very good. One awkward thing was that I boarded out my [card]Manic Vandal[/card] for game 2, after not seeing any artifacts and knowing he had double [card]Overrun[/card] (from scouts) for [card]Brindle Boar[/card], and then I drew the Boar the turn after he played [card]Druidic Satchel[/card]. That was not a good feeling.
Not really an exciting round, and it reminded me of when we played in the top 4 of the PTQ in London that I won, where he again had been really mana-screwed. I breathed a sigh of relief after beating the Master in his arena, and was even more excited when I heard that Andrew Noworaj had won his round with his “Kite shield.dec”. From all accounts, his deck was awful, and I was to be paired against him.
10-0-1
Round 12: vs Andrew Noworaj
Just as this round was starting, nice guy extraordinaire Davies Clarke decided to show up, and remarked how awesome it was to see the two of us at Table 1, battling it out for last player undefeated. Andrew remarked that it was a sight that you could see in the 4-0 bracket at a Montreal PTQ. I remarked that I seem to always win those encounters. After finishing up that healthy trash-talk, we began the match.
Game 1 I just stomped him with superior creatures and removal. His [card]Kite Shield[/card] never showed up.
Game 2 something funny happened. I drew my [card]Arachnus Spinner[/card] for the first time. I had nothing on board but 6 lands; he had [card]Phantasmal Bear[/card] and [card]Amphin Cutthroat[/card] and lands. I play the [card]Arachnus Spinner[/card], and pass. He plays [card]Phantasmal Image[/card], copying my [card]Arachnus Spinner[/card], and passes. End of turn, I target [card]Phantasmal Image[/card] with Spinner’s ability. Go ahead and read the card, it targets and then searches on resolution. In fact, even if I did have a Web, I wouldn’t be able to find it. I Visara’d his [card]Phantasmal Bear[/card] the next turn, then start swinging with my 5/7 beat-stick and the game quickly ends.
11-0-1
I am now 1st in the standings, as the only player without a loss to my name. I need to win 1 more round to lock up top 8, but my mind can only think of Canadian Nationals, where I drafted good decks in both pods, but 3-0ed the first one, and 0-3ed the second one. I vow that this will not happen again, but all I can really control is how I draft and play.
Draft 2:
I draft a very aggressive “Death of a Thousand Needles” Red Black deck, featuring 3 [card]Blood Seeker[/card], 3 [card]Goblin Tunneler[/card], 2 [card]Goblin Fireslinger[/card], and a bunch of Bloodthirst creatures and some red and black removal. After showing the deck to Francis Cormier, he says “There’s no way you can 0-3 with this deck.” I sure hope he is right.
Round 13: Matthew C. Costa
Game 1 he stumbles on mana and I stomp him
Game 2 I stumble on mana and he stomps me
Game 3 we both are casting spells on a regular basis, but we get to a point where he has an empty board and 1 life to my 2 [card]Goblin Tunneler[/card]s and [card]Blood Seeker[/card]. He has a creature and a removal spell, but is dead regardless.
12-0-1
After the match, my friend Francisco “Mexican” Leon Valencia remarked that the way my opponent shuffled, he could see the cards in my deck. I thanked him for this advice. I consider me not noticing that to be as big a misplay as forgetting to attack a turn. One of my weaknesses is that I am too trusting, and I am working on becoming more observant of cheaters and potential cheaters. I was much more alert on that front the rest of the day, and even asked one of my opponents to shuffle differently because of that remark.
LOCKED INTO TOP 8!
I basically go around telling everyone I can, casually of course, that I am locked into top 8. Gotta get the rub-ins when you can, right? I now get 2 rounds of cherry-picking my top 8. I definitely feel that I lost some of my focus here though. I mean, I could lose my next 2 rounds, and it didn’t matter, right? I definitely had that mind-set at this point, instead of the killer instinct that I had maintained throughout the entire tournament. The way to think about it, I think, is that you should not care at all about the tournament as a whole, or your record, or what you are playing for. You should just go into each match and give it your all. Losing a game should feel like the icy hand of death is clenched over your throat. Focusing on what matters in the game, and playing to your outs, and playing as if your life depended on it is key. You have to eliminate all distractions. After all, if you are thinking “If I win this, then I am locked into top 8,” then part of your mind is not entirely focused on this game, on this moment in time. Playing Magic is very Zen.
Round 14: Micheal R. Holden
He is X-1 and offers the draw. I politely decline, and tell him that he can draw next round, but I want rating points for Worlds. He makes a sad-puppy face
Game 1: I stomped him
Game 2: I mulled to 5 and got manascrewed.
After Game 2, he points out that he could be paired down next round and be unable to draw. Having seen him play, and been rather unimpressed (plays such as using a Stave Off as a combat trick against a tapped-out RB opponent rather than Mighty Leap among others) had convinced me that his suggested scenario was one I didn’t want to occur, so I accepted the draw this time.
12-0-2
Round 15: vs Lino Burgold
I had watched Lino play, and he seemed pretty good. I however couldn’t really bring myself to dream-crush him, so I offered the draw. I was surprised when he declined. Turns out, his tiebreaks were really bad, so he wasn’t guaranteed top 8 unless he got a win, and he asked me to concede to him. Well, my kindness has its limits, so we played.
Game 1 he was rather flooded with his BW deck, and I was a bit screwed for the first part of the game, and [card]Sorin’s Vengeance[/card] bought him enough time to [card]Consume Spirit[/card] me to death after a couple of pokes from his flyer.
Game 2 I stomped him
Game 3 I did 34 damage to him. Unfortunately for me, he gained 18 life over the course of the game from [card]Consume Spirit[/card], [card]Sorin’s Thirst[/card], and 2 [card]Child of Night[/card] (or is it Children of Night?)
12-1-2
At this point, I knew that Andrew, Rich, Michael, Lino, and I were top 8, but I was unsure about the remaining 2 spots. In the interim, I had some food brought to me by Rob Anderson, who had recently arrived to cheer me on. I was actually starting to become nervous, just sitting around and waiting. I wanted to be playing Magic! Many players wished me good luck in top 8, or congratulated me, but Nick Leblanc had something more to offer. He sat down next to me, and said:
“Alex, I want to make sure that you aren’t satisfied with top 8. You have to keep focused and win this whole thing. I understand that right now you are happy and excited, but you can’t let your guard down now.”
It’s good to have friends to keep you on track, and I thanked him for the pep-talk, and renewed my resolve. I told him I was just going to play good Magic like I had been doing all weekend.
Writers talk all the time about “the fire”: the will, the NEED to win. I think that perhaps “the ice” is perhaps better for my success. I would always walk into PTQs with the goal in sight, the mindset that I was better or at least as good as everyone in the room, and that I was going to win the whole shebang. That mindset never seemed to actually work, or when I was playing in the finals I began to feel the pressure with the win so close to my grasp. When I finally won a PTQ, I had been in a total state of detachment, like I had been at the GP. In many ways, rather than being there and wanting to win more than anything, I was watching a movie with myself as the hero. I was experiencing it all in the third person, as if it wasn’t really real, so why did anything matter? I just approached each game like a puzzle waiting to be solved, and the thought that I could lose by luck or manascrew or anything simply didn’t occur to my mind at the time. It was like a videogame: of course you are going to win, you just have to do everything right.
I have no idea how I get into that state of mind, but if anyone can help me get into that mainframe again without the use of illegal drugs, could you send me a message before Worlds? Thanks!
Soon enough, the players in the top 8 were announced, and Matthew Costa and Alex West were the last 2 players. I filled out my player profile, and took the picture pose that was the result of this conversation:
Doug Potter: If I top 8ed, I was going to do *this* pose, but I punted out of Day 2
Me: Don’t worry Douggie, if I top 8, I’ll do that pose.
Yeah, I am a boss like that. It was funny, because the pose came out as if I was imitating Sorin, which, while awesome, was not the intention. I don’t understand why people take their top 8 Profile so seriously. I mean, yes, it is a significant achievement, but it is after-all a game, so why not have a little fun? Check out the coverage archive on the mothership if you want to see my profile. Next time I top 8 I’ll have to think of something else ridiculous.
Top 8 Draft:
We were all seated carefully, except Rich Hoaen hadn’t shown up yet. While the Judges shouted over the intercom and went off in search of our 8th player, Reid Duke went around making introductions. I was kind of impressed by his sociableness, since no one else seemed to make any similar effort. While the judges were looking around frantically, and the intercom had begun to say things like “Rich Hoaen, your draft is about to start without you!”, Rich quietly had slunk into his seat like a Ninja, and it seemed to take all 7 other players seated at the table to be able to convince the judges that he had arrived.
In the draft, I first picked [card]Mind Control[/card], got a [card]Chandra’s Outrage[/card] second, and followed up with some solid blue cards like [card]Azure Mage[/card], and then got a late [card]Giant Spider[/card], which I took as a signal that green was open. I was rewarded with some really great picks in the third pack, such as [card]Overrun[/card], [card]Arachnus Spinner[/card], [card]Arachnus Web[/card] (Yes, I had one this time!), [card]Primeval Titan[/card], and [card]Birds of Paradise[/card]. I was very happy with how I drafted, though I think I had a pick in the second pack that was a mistake. I took a [card]Carnage Wurm[/card] over an [card]Amphin Cutthroat[/card] because I already had 2 [card]Giant Spiders[/card], and at the time I didn’t have any ‘beef’. However, being in Green, fatties were plentiful and I should have expected to see some later, whereas another solid defensive creature was less likely to appear. Also, with 2 [card]Azure Mage[/card]s, I already had a solid late-game plan.
We were all sequestered in tables, and kept away from the general public for the first round, so that spectators who had been scouting wouldn’t give any one player an edge over another. For the top 4 and the finals, we would be given our opponent’s decklists to study to even the odds.
I spent some time deciding on what I was going to run in my maindeck. I decided to cut [card]Garruk’s Horde[/card], since I already had a great late-game with [card]Primeval Titan[/card], [card]Arachnus Spinner[/card], and my 2 [card]Azure Mage[/card]s. Here is what I registered:
[deck title=GP Top 8 Deck by Alexander Hayne]
[Land]
9 Forest
8 Island
[/Land]
[Creatures]
1 Acidic Slime
1 Aether Adept
1 Arachnus Spinner
1 Aven Fleetwing
2 Azure Mage
1 Birds of Paradise
2 Giant Spider
2 Greater Basilisk
1 Lurking Crocodile
1 Merfolk Looter
1 Phantasmal Bear
1 Primeval Titan
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Arachnus Web
1 Cancel
1 Frost Breath
1 Mind Control
1 Negate
1 Overrun
1 Ponder
1 Unsummon
[/Spells]
[Sideboard]
1 Angel’s Feather
1 Auramancer
1 Brindle Boar
1 Buried Ruin
1 Carnage Wurm
1 Chandra’s Outrage
1 Fiery Hellhound
1 Fling
1 Garruk’s Horde
1 Gladecover Scout
1 Greatsword
1 Kraken’s Eye
1 Lava Axe
1 Manalith
1 Manic Vandal
1 Mesa Enchantress
1 Plummet
1 Stampeding Rhino
1 Swiftfoot Boots
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
One of the things I don’t think they tell you when you sign up to be a judge is that you have to take players to the washroom. When I had finished my decklist, one poor judge was just returning from chaperoning a player’s visit to the washroom. I asked to go, and there were immediately three judges playing a game of “Not it.” Statements such as “I already had to take two of them” and “I outrank you” were heard. The judge who had just returned gave in and took me. Many players attempted to talk to me en-route to the bathroom, but they were waved off by me or by the judge. As we approached the final steps to the washroom, 2 players, each with a judge chaperone, were just exiting. We all had a bit of an awkward laugh at the situation. These are the kinds of stories that nobody ever tells you.
Quarterfinals vs Michael R. Holden
One thing I can’t seem to ever wrap my head around is Quarterfinals versus Semifinals. I always somehow think that Quarterfinals means that there are 4 players left in the tournament, or that you are playing 1/4 or Top 4. That isn’t the case, so I tend to use Top 8, Top 4 and Finals in conversation. I understand the concept; it just never seems to click.
You can read this match in the official coverage, but something I learnt from William Blondon at Nationals, was told by Pascal Maynard, and that was definitely evident here is that Coverage is often very wrong about the details of a match. It is hard to understand and quickly type up what is happening in a game, especially when things often happen quite quickly, and if you are covering two matches at the same time, as seemed to be the case here. Incidentally, this was against my opponent in round 14 who I had drawn in, and who had been passing to Rich Hoaen during the draft.
Game 1, He attacks with 2 [card]Garruk’s Companion[/card]s into my [card]Giant Spider[/card], and I take the hit, expecting a pump spell so that I can untap and block next turn with [card]Unsummon[/card] open. He plays [card]Hunter’s Insight[/card], and draws 3 cards. The next turn he makes the same attack, and I block. He [card]Titanic Growth[/card]’s his Companion, I [card]Unsummon[/card] it, but he has the [card]Stave Off[/card] for the Trump. I miss a critical land drop to play my Spinner waiting in the wings, and die to his critters.
Game 2, he keeps a really loose hand, and I stomp him. Hard.
Game 3, We both have solid hands, but I [card]Acidic Slime[/card] his only white source which buys me a lot of time to start dropping fatties and swinging. My [card]Aether Adept[/card] bounces a creature, and he replays it, then I [card]Unsummon[/card] it and bash again, and he replays it. I have a lethal [card]Overrun[/card] in hand, but only 2 Forests and I keep drawing creatures and playing them, as is he. His [card]Cudgel Troll[/card] prevents me from making any good attacks. Finally, I draw a [card]Birds of Paradise[/card], and wonder if my deck is somehow mocking me, but I play it and hope to untap and win. He draws and plays [card]Acidic Slime[/card] on one of my Forests, and I assume this has to be some kind of cruel joke, but my deck delivers a Forest and I [card]Overrun[/card] for the win.
Walking around, I spy Rich Hoaen, and go up and ask him if he has won. We exchange decks, since we will have access to decklists later anyways. He has a really strong RB aggressive deck featuring 3 [card]Goblin Fireslinger[/card]s and 3 [card]Shock[/card]s along with [card]Fireball[/card], [card]Incinerate[/card], [card]Doom Blade[/card], [card]Chandra’s Outrage[/card], and [card]Bloodlord of Vaasgoth[/card]. Basically the nuts. Writing this now, I don’t know how I possibly thought what I did then. I should have been quaking in fear. Instead I thought: “Meh, no biggie, still gonna crush him. EZ game, whatever” That is the power of the Ice. You feel uncaring and invincible. After acknowledging the respective strengths of our 2 decks and saying a quick “See you in the Finals”, I chatted with friends, went to the bathroom (this time sans Judges), and soon enough it was time for the Top 4.
Semifinals vs Andrew Noworaj
Andrew and I had agreed to a 25% split before the Top 8, and when we sit down he offers to go up to a 50% split, and I politely decline. His BW deck looks solid, but I feel like I have a solid edge in the matchup. Funnily enough, the lunch ‘bet’ that we had way back at Canadian Nationals was to be decided in a fashion that neither of us had expected: with an actual match in the top 4.
Game 1 He lands a [card]Royal Assassin[/card], but I swing in anyways, and play [card]Primeval Titan[/card] while it is summoning sick. I calculate that he can’t afford to kill any of my random durdles that turn, and then that the next turn when I [card]Overrun[/card], he has to block with everything, including the Assassin, and kill the Titan to survive at 1 life. Here, somehow I out-think myself, and when I redo the math, I forget that [card]Birds of Paradise[/card] has 0 power and not 1, and calculate that I exactsies him, so I get to pull this masterful play:
*Attack with team, including Primeval Titan*
“Triggers, I will choose not to search”
Obviously he blocks properly and I look like the idiot that I am. The Universe, not without a sense of Justice, proceeds to give me 4 lands in a row while his deck serves up a bunch of creatures. Finally my [card]Azure Mage[/card] digs me into some spells, and I overwhelm him with card advantage. I am glad that I maintained my composure after that enormous punt and still won the game without tilting though. I write in big, bold letters on my lifepad, “DONT PLAY BAD. PLAYING BAD IS BAD.” It seemed to work.
Game 2, I mulligan and am stuck without green mana for too long, and die to his flyers before [card]Giant Spider[/card] could help.
Game 3 goes back and forth a bit, with my [card]Azure Mage[/card] getting caught in an [card]Oblivion Ring[/card]. I play [card]Acidic Slime[/card], and decide to blow up his only Swamp instead of the O-ring based on my sick read of him missing 2 land drops. By the time he recovers, it is too late, and my board is overwhelming. When attacking for lethal, he takes a piece of paper, and writes a note down on it. Knowing Andrew like I do, and knowing his little inside joke, I call EXACTLY what he writes on the note. No wonder I always beat him when we play (with 1 exception)!
The Note says: “U DUM. Goodluck in Finals!”
U DUM is an inside joke of his. Basically, you write “U DUM” on a Magic card, or anything, and somehow bamboozle someone else into flipping it over and reading it. It makes for an entertaining game, assuming you are mature enough to be immature.
Since Rich had won his match in approximately 5 minutes, I had to ask the Judges if I could go and have a walk outside. They told me no, then yes, then no. I finally got the answer that they wouldn’t start the finals for 10 minutes, so I had 10 minutes before I had to be back.
I went for a walk to go get some Vitamin Water (Pascal Maynard credits this for his tournament success, and I did go through a bottle of Focus and one of Energy during the day). I got the Endurance one, since I thought that I would need it here, nearing the final stretch. The only person who came with me for my walk was Jon Smithers, winner of Grand Prix Toronto. I won’t share everything he said to me since I suspect some of it was rather personal, but he gave me a pep-talk similar to the one that Nick had earlier. I told him that I was just free-rolling it, which was true. We talked about the key cards in the matchup against Hoaen’s RB deck. [card]Giant Spider[/card] was important, as was putting him under pressure. We both agreed that spending an [card]Arachnus Web[/card] on a [card]Goblin Fireslinger[/card] was the correct move early on, Unfortunately, this talk got me slightly off-balance, and I began to think of the Prize. I managed to shake off the feelings of nervousness I had, and regain my focus and ‘ice’.
Finals vs Rich Hoaen
We engage in some friendly trash-talk, and the finals begin.
Game 1: He gets a couple of Fireslingers, and I Web one of them, and land a [card]Giant Spider[/card], but he has his [card]Doom Blade[/card] to keep swinging. He lands a bloodthirsty [card]Bloodlord of Vaasgoth[/card], which I [card]Unsummon[/card], but cannot find a permanent answer to.
Apparently, we took too long to sideboard according to the letter of the rules, and table judge Charlotte Sable gave each of us a warning for slow-play. Rich and I both looked at each other and he gave me a little eye-roll, while we both held in a bit of a smile. I understand that the rules exist, and that they should be followed, but I would think that the finals of a GP would be one time where things could be a little more flexible. It is not as thought we were purposely going extremely slowly, we had maybe exceeded the technical limit by a minute. I just find it very silly that had one of us had a slow-play warning earlier on the day that the Finals of the Grand Prix could have been decided by something as admittedly minor as taking slightly longer than allowed to sideboard and shuffle, mainly because we were talking to ourselves, spectators and coverage.
Game 2, he mulligans while I keep a land-light hand that is otherwise the nuts against him, with all the key cards in the matchup. His Fireslinger shows up a turn late, as do his Beserkers, but I stick some creatures. Bloodlord shows up again, and I [card]Ponder[/card] into [card]Plummet[/card], [card]Overrun[/card], and Island. I draw [card]Plummet[/card] and keep the lethal [card]Overrun[/card] on top. He attacks, I [card]Plummet[/card] his Bloodlord, but he drew the [card]Fireball[/card], and that was match.
I congratulate him on his win, and while Rich poses for the camera, I am handed a plaque with “Grand Prix Montreal – Finalist” written on it. Kinda cool.
People have asked me many times afterwards if I felt happy or sad at that point in time. The answer, as perhaps you may have guessed by now, is neither. I was still in my ‘ice’ mindset, and wasn’t thinking or hadn’t yet accepted that the tournament was over, and that there was no more Magic to play. My mind was still whirling around at a thousand miles an hour, thinking of things I could have done differently to win that match. I think even now, a small portion of my brainpower is still analyzing every tiny detail of that match, and a thousand others. Probably there was nothing I could do, but every factor should be considered, every fork in the road examined, otherwise how will I improve next time?
Aftermath:
Since I was still in Magic mode, I decided to cube draft with Andrew, Smithers, and some other degenerates. Smithers decided he wanted to give me even more money, so after fleecing him for a whole 5$, we went to watch the exciting PTQ finals where Ottawa ringer and longtime 9th-placer Ben Moir was facing Vancouver’s Luis Acosta.
Game 1, Ben’s [card]Flameblast Dragon[/card] got there.
Game 2, Luis got there with [card]Sacred Wolf[/card] + [card]Angelic Destiny[/card]
Game 3, Things looked good for Ben with his opening hand containing creatures and [card]Grave Titan[/card]. Nice deck Ben. He played some durables, got in for a few with [card]Tormented Soul[/card] and [card]Goblin Fireslinger[/card], and Luis assembled the [card]Sacred Wolf[/card] + [card]Angelic Destiny[/card] Combo. With Luis at 12, Ben ripped [card]Warstorm Surge[/card] and played it. Luis attacked Ben down to 6 life, Ben pinged him with the Fireslinger, untapped, and played [card]Grave Titan[/card] to do 10 with the Surge, and pinged with Fireslinger for the win!
A very exciting game and we were all happy to see Ben finally break through. Luis reacted quite well to the out-of-nowhere loss, and I was impressed by his calm demeanor. What was interesting was that if on turn 2 he had tapped Ben’s [card]Tormented Soul[/card], he would have won that game, and the match at 1 life, something only Mike Brierly and I had noticed. Games like that are easy to chalk up to luck, of Ben topdecking his Surge the only turn it was still relevant, of Luis not drawing one of his 2 [card]Brindle Boar[/card]s, or the forest to cast [card]Acidic Slime[/card] on the [card]Warstorm Surge[/card], when in fact it was all within his control, even with his opponent’s deck being significantly bomb-ier than his own.
A large group of us went out to eat, and since it was well into the wee hours of the morning, and we were a group of 10, we found a fairly nice place in Chinatown still open. Doug convinced me to play the credit card game, and Eugene Ho joined in after that, and instead of the 1 combo everyone else in on the game had, he ordered about 5 million dishes. Had this piece of information been offered to me ahead of time, I would not have played the game, being particularly risk-adverse.
The fortune cookies arrived before the bill, and mine said: “New financial resources will become available to you.” I found it funny since I had just won 2300$
Of course, it was clear that my run goods had ended, and OBVIOUSLY I lost the credit card game and had to pay the bill. I finally turned my phone back on, and was immediately hit by a barrage of Facebook notifications. Apparently it had become graffiti time on my Facebook wall. Still, I couldn’t say that I was displeased. At this point, the fact that I had just made the finals of a Grand Prix had begun to sink in, and it was not altogether an unpleasant feeling. I was now qualified for Honolulu, and Worlds on rating, and only needed 2 Pro Points to make level 3, so I seem to have gotten a leg up onto the train, but still have quite a ways to go.
“Now I knew
What was fated,
Not the end,
I created
The beginning,
Years I waited,” – “The Storm” by Tha Gatherin’
I have played some Innistrad limited and it is fairly different from M12. Rather than maxing out on power, like you did in M12, synergy is much more key. It is worth playing cards that are individually less powerful, like Armored Skaab, because they fit within the strategy that your deck is trying to accomplish. It is more important to draft cards that work well together rather than just jamming powerful, on curve cards together.
Props:
Rich Hoaen for winning the whole thing
Andrew for the cubing and the note
Franky for organizing the extra-curricular events
KYT for helping to bring together the Canadian Magic Community, and for always believing in me. Check out his Men of Magic interview, therein lies the proof.
All the Judges for making sure this was a well-run event, even Charlotte for what I believe was a ridiculous call, she was just doing her job.
My bed, for being nearby and oh-so-comfortable
Vitamin Water, for being the nuts
Slops:
Michael Holden for passing Incinerate 9th pick, when he had 2 Rampant Growths
Babadascoopy, for his lack of faith. He actually told me that I should just drop from the tournament at 8-0-1 and hope to qualify on rating for Worlds because “you will just scrub out tomorrow.” Thanks buddy!
Me, for taking so long to finish this report
Alexander Hayne is the 2012 Pro Tour Barcelona champion. He also finished 2nd at GP Montreal in 2011.