Good Day,
Day 0 is in the books and the official tournament roster is set for the beginning of Canadian Nationals tomorrow. Unlike the next two days where there will be GPTs and Win-A-Boxs, today was all about one thing and one thing only; grinding into those last few coveted National spots.
So the day began with me arriving at the conference hall around ten o’clock only to find a massive lineup for the day’s grinders. Even worse was that they had already registered two whole grinders so this lineup was for grinders three and four. Since I did not want to stand in line, I ventured around the room until I found some people I knew.
Now to set this up, Davies and Joey have this thing with playing Vampires and coming up with funny tactics when playing vampires to either annoy or confuse their opponents. So as I am walking up to them, Davies turns to reveal that he is wearing a cape and fangs, while talking in Count Dracula’s voice. If you don’t know who that is, you can find a clip here. Yes I could have chosen a clip with only the Count but who doesn’t love Cookie Monster, he makes childhood obesity enjoyable. Here’s a second clip as a bonus.
So of course Davies was making everyone laugh, which was a good start to the day. Finally the line cleared up and I was able to register for my first grinder. To shorten the story, overall I went 2-3 in three grinders, losing to very questionable decks and one god draw. I learned that being on the play it is possible to win turn 3.
While I was playing though, my heart and my head were not in it for a moment. I made sequences of plays that I should not have made and eventually it lead to me not queuing for Nationals, which while disappointing is probably a good thing as tournament reports that start with a person going 0-3 are not something anybody wants to read.
However while I did not grind in, there were 18 grinders run on the day, which means 18 people who were able to achieve their goal of being able to play in Canadian Nationals. Unfortunately I only know the decks for the first two Standard grinders as I was able to catch those matches, however there was so much going on, and matches being played everywhere I was not able to see any of the others. Tomorrow I will be able to get the deck lists and will update this page, when I have a moment. So the eighteen lucky people who grinded in were:
Standard Grinder # 1 – Michael Ingram (Blue/Black Control)
Standard Grinder # 2 – Zack Spence (Exarch Twin)
Standard Grinder # 3 – Lucas Vetta
Standard Grinder # 4 – Daniel Fournier
Standard Grinder # 5 – Andrew Huska
Standard Grinder # 6 – Mitchell MuCulloch
Standard Grinder # 7 – Kyle Smith
Standard Grinder # 8 – David Baines
Standard Grinder # 9 – Nathan McKnight
Standard Grinder # 10 – Paul Switzer
Standard Grinder # 11 – Not Complete At Time Of Writing
Standard Grinder # 12 – Not Complete At Time Of Writing
Sealed Grinder # 1 – Christopher Taimla
Sealed Grinder # 2 – Stephane Bisson
Sealed Grinder # 3 – Jeffrey Szelski
Sealed Grinder # 4 – Rodney Kasunich
Sealed Grinder # 5 – Mat Goldfarb
Sealed Grinder # 6 – Not Complete At Time Of Writing
So with the addition of those 18 players, there are now a total of 196 people who are qualified for Canadian Nationals. It is possible that not everyone will make it out to play and tomorrow we will have an accurate count of everyone who showed up to play. For those interested, while the list can be found on the mothership.
Winner of Standard Grinder # 11
Winner of Standard Grinder # 12
Winner of Sealed Grinder # 6
As for this first day, I got a better feeling of what is possible to accomplish and what will have to wait until GP Montreal perhaps. I didn’t have a chance to see about taking the Judge test, however Chris Lansdell will be taking it this weekend so at the worse, I asked him, if he wouldn’t mind writing a piece about it. Sorry, no answers will be included.
As for Day 1 of Nationals, here is what you can expect guaranteed. A list of all players at 3-0 after round 3, 6-0 after round 6 and a complete standings of who is still in Nationals and who is mathematically still alive as well as a prediction as to what the cutoff for Top 8 will be.
As well, both Wizards and Mana Deprived will be doing coverage of two different feature matches. So where as I will be doing one of the matches, I will try and recruit another person to shadow the Wizards reporter so that all fourteen Day 1, feature matches will be covered on this site. I will also try my best to have the reports up on the site as quickly as possible, given enough time at the end of round.
Also, a camera has been brought along, so I will try and have someone do deck techs and interviews with some of the top players so that you can learn their insight and approach to play. Last, please send me any questions you may have related to Magic so that we can do a Star City Games style quick Q&A with some of the players.
With that I bid you a good night and apologies for the lack of twitter (@Nodnolb) activity during Grinders. I’ve never used Twitter before so the correct way to properly mark stuff is still something I haven’t gotten down pat.
Have Fun Playing Magic,
William