Ah yes, going into round four of the GP. At this point, everyone with byes was starting to play, and there were very few players who had dropped. Even going 0-2 wouldn’t necessarily have put you out of contention for day two.
From our group of Cleveland gamers, scores ranged from 1-2 to 3-0, so we were all doing okay, though some were obviously doing better than others. For my money, though, the most impressive performance so far was being turned in (and would continue to be turned in) by Jerry Yang, playing… Mono-Red Burn?!
Mark Trogdon and Jerry had both brought Burn to the GP, and both are about the most accomplished and intelligent Mountains players you could hope to find in Magic. So despite its outward appearances as a noob deck or a total pile, they play a very nuanced game. Though Mark would end up joining me and Juan in the Vintage side tournament (of which I’ll have a report later), Jerry would go 7-2 on day one and head back on Sunday in 52nd place.
I asked Jerry how the deck was played. “Do you pretty much just race them?”
“Not always.”
“You can’t really sit back and play control, can you?”
“Sure. That’s usually the strategy against Fish.”
“A good draw engine won’t overpower you?”
“No, think about it—how many creatures do you run?” I ran 18 maindeck but could bring in six more from the board. “How many burn spells do I run? Forty-two. And a lot of them are two-for-ones.”
Jeez, when you put it that way, it sounds so simple. Congratulations to Jerry on a fantastic performance playing a noob deck.
Anyway, my tournament report:
I had just faced and defeated The Epic Storm and listened to the most stupid debate about netdecking ever. I’ve got to hand it to Netdecker, he did a great job turning that conversation on its ear and making the Emo Fish player look like a jerk.
Round 4 – Steven – Hulk Flash
I don’t remember much about my opponent’s personality other than that he was professional and courteous. I threw out a few friendly in-game jokes and jests, but he didn’t bite. Oh well, he was still a pleasant opponent to play against.
Plus, he was playing the deck I was prepared to beat!
He won the die roll and played a fetchland, which was met by my Swamp, Vial, Go. On my end of turn, he played Worldly Tutor and put Protean Hulk on top of his library. “Uh oh,” I said. He played Flash on turn two and Force of Willed my Daze for the win. Disciple kill.
Anyone else think I should have tried Dazing the Tutor? Anyone else think it wouldn’t have mattered at all?
Oh well. I guess I signed up for this. I brought in Samurai of the Pale Curtain and Dimir Cutpurses. Out went a Jotun Grunt and Serendibs.
I think I played too quickly in game two. I played a second-turn Meddling Mage on Flash the turn after he Mystical Tutored it to the top of his library. He Dazed, but I had the Force figuring that Force could shut off one instance of Flash while Mage could shut off many. Mage got in for some damage, but had to sit down when my opponent hardcast a 3/3 Shifting Wall. I played another Mage, this time on Mystical Tutor, and a Samurai of the Pale Curtain. The Samurai traded with the Shifting Wall. He played another wall, I played another Samurai, and they traded as well.
At long last he played Massacre for free, obviously holding the combo in hand. I Brainstormed and found nothing but Dark Confidants and lands. I put lands back and shuffled with a fetchland before ‘Storming again and finding Dark Confidant and lands. Massacre resolved, and I ended the game with three Dark Confidants and three Lands in hand.
Well, ain’t that somethin’? I really didn’t want to lose to Flash. I guess the second Meddling Mage goes on Massacre.
Match – 2-2-0
Games – 4-5-0
I really didn’t want to or even really expect to lose to Flash. Let’s see what went wrong in game two, since other than mulling a solid hand into faster control game one, there was nothing I could do.
- The second Meddling Mage should have gone on Massacre. I learned that this was the accepted correct play late on day two.
- Perhaps I should not have been attacking with my Samurai. Ultimately, though, they would have died in the Massacre anyway.
- Should have run more Force of Wills, I guess. Stupid Brainstorms.
Matt was an awesome opponent. He drove eight hours to play in the tournament just to play his own deck in the tournament, and his own deck was awesome. He told me between the first and second game that he had lived the dream of the GP Johnny. Against Hulk Flash, he had a first turn that went Swamp, Dark Ritual, Cabal Therapy himself, Shallow Grave the Nicol Bolas he discarded, swing.
The Flash player conceded on the spot. I would have too. Like that little kid from the Hero Zone, I would have left my deck on the table and never come back.
Anyway, in game one, my deck did what it was supposed to do and I kept creatures on the board through numerous Smallpox, Chainers Edicts, and Diabolic Edicts and cards in my hand against The Rack. Serendib Efreet rocked his world while I Force of Willed his Shallow Grave. It was over pretty quickly.
Games two and three could be summed up by that old Kamigawa Block saw, “He found his Jitte and I didn’t.” First he raped my hand with a Duress, Hymn to Tourach, and Mesmeric Fiend. Then the same Fiend smacked me about the head and neck with Umezawa’s Pointed Stick while he Edicted every creature I played.
Game three was largely the same, but he took my Jitte with his Mesmeric Fiend. I guess at that point I should have just put Meddling Mage on Jitte, so it could die to a Diabolic Edict, which it did anyway when I Maged Chainer’s Edict instead.
Match – 2-3-0
Games – 5-7-0
The games were actually a lot closer than I make them sound, but they shouldn’t have been. He was a bit more tentative than he should have been as far as taking control and winning the game.
My opponent was excited though. He said really appreciated the quality Magic and the actual gamesmanship that went on rather than the Flash and the Goblins and the Affinity that can dominate the game from turn one. His deck was fairly casual, what with the Nicol Bolas combo and all, but it was still solid.
Anyway, I hope he had a good time at the rest of the tournament, because after feeling a bit down after losing to Flash, playing against Matt cheered me up.
That was pretty much the end of my day. Sitting at the next to last row of tables, my opponent was a no-show, so I got a free match win.
Then I dropped to play Vintage. But that’s a story for another day. Like tomorrow.
After Vintage, we waited around to find out who was going into day two, then we went to Thurman’s.
Thurman’s is so good.
It was essentially a fourteen hour day, though. I got home and crashed. So did pretty much everyone else—Nam, Jeff, Brad, and Juan from yesterday, and we picked up Twaun as well.
There was talk of playing Two-Headed Giant on Sunday, but the only one who was up early enough was me, and I didn’t really think it was wise to leave a whole bunch of people at my house unattended. Not that they’d do anything. I just like to be a good host. Regardless, we still wanted to go support Jerry and watch the t8 and, perhaps, play in some more side events.
So instead of getting up at 7 a.m. like on Saturday, most of us got up around 10 a.m. Then we played video games for two hours. I also took the time to acetone a cardface, in the hopes that I could get the artist of the day, Steve Prescott, to make me a Black Lotus proxy.
Brad Wayne is really, really good at Super Smash Brothers. Like, The Wizard good.
We finally got back to the Convention Center just in time for the Time Spiral Block Constructed event. I didn’t really want to play in that though and spent the time walking around watching games and talking to people.
I saw Stephen Menendian be both lucky and good with Hulk Flash in multiple games as he had multiple turn two kills as I watched. That Disciple kill is vicious.
I saw Craig “The Professor” Jones turn his Fish deck into a Flash deck and really fake some guy out. The look on his opponent’s face was priceless.
I saw Jerry Yang go to 2-3 as his 20th point of burn damage was met only by his opponent’s on-table Jitte with no counters.
I saw my second round RGB Zoo playing opponent from Saturday as well. That guy made one hell of a metagame choice, and he’s pretty good with it to boot.
I saw my t8 opponent from the last Meandeck open win his way into money with Affinity with a pound on the table and a round of high-fives. That was interesting. There were numerous people in the day-two lineups that I recognized as having played, even having beaten some of them.
All in all, it was surprisingly exciting. I’ve seen video and pictures of crowds at the final rounds from other large Magic events, and I always doubted my ability to stay interested in other peoples’ games of Magic for that long. Turns out it’s pretty interesting. Twaun and I watched every round of the Top 8—Flash versus Flash, Flash versus Mono Black, and the finals, Flash versus Goblins. We had front-row seats for the last two rounds even.
There was a dime on a grate under the finals table, and we thought about how hilarious it would be if during some pivotal moment one of us were to lunge forward with a, “Hey, look! A dime!” grab it, and upheave the table on the way out. The question was whether we would be suspended from the DCI, and I think we decided yes.
Of course the real hero of the weekend was me, as I got to serve gigantic hotdogs and hamburgers on hotdog buns to my friends. I had no complaints, but I did have two beers.
So many broken foods.
Anyway, if you want to know what happened in the final few rounds of Grand Prix Columbus, I recommend you take a look at Wizards of the Coast’s own coverage as Brian David Marshal was even closer than we were.
My favorite part is where the always classy Gadiel Szleifer, in the pre-game interview, mentions that his previous accomplishments are “the obv,” that he “didn’t test,” and that “Who cares” if Flash needs to be banned in Legacy. Awesome.
I’ll admit that it was somewhat disappointing to me that a pro won Eternal Magic’s only major sanctioned tournament, but whatever. It was still pretty cool to see the finals all the way through.
Basically, abridged version of this weekend is that big tournaments are awesome, so if you ever get the chance to get into one, I recommend that you take it.
As for Flash, it’s not quite consensus, but the majority opinion seems to be that it’s getting the axe come June 1, especially in light of the new Future Sight cards that take it from a solid and powerful deck to the most insane turn-two win machine ever, and it’s already pretty close. Summoner’s Pact and Pact of Negation present another search for part of the combo and a superior way to protect it.
It will be a shame if Flash gets hammered because that means the history of Flash is incredibly stupid. A month before Grand Prix Columbus, Flash was unerrataed and instantly led to an extremely powerful new archetype in Legacy. The format was thrown into complete disarray for that one tournament, suddenly forever to be known as Grand Prix Flash. And then, a week and a half after the tournament, Legacy goes right back to what it was.
I understand Wizards’ desire to have standardized wording and functionality on its cards, but because of either poor planning or a unlucky coincidence, they’ll have ruined another major tournament akin to Pro Tour Tinker and Necro Summer.
Whatever. Will it be restricted? I guess we’ll see. I can stop worrying about it because I doubt I’ll be playing Legacy again for a while. Maybe, but I doubt it.
Vintage is where my heart is.
And I got a sweet Black Lotus proxy from Steve Prescott! I’ll be showing that off for sure at the next Vintage tournament.
Which is coming up!
Actually, there are two!
Saturday, June 2ndThen there’s another one in two weeks. This one for cold, hard cash.
Mox Jet tournament at the Warzone
Warzone Matrix
4704 Rocky River Dr
Cleveland, OH 44135
(216) 433-1316
$25 entry fee
Minimum 16 players for the Unlimited Mox Jet
If 24 players, 1st prize is an Unlimited Ancestral Recall
Infinite Proxy Type 1
Registration begins at 11 am
Tournament starts at 12 pm
Sunday, June 10Yeah, those both sound pretty good. I’ll be there. At least at the Columbus one. I’m not sure about Cleveland yet as I already have plans for that weekend.
Vintage tournament with guaranteed $200 payout.
$120 to first. $60 to second. $20 to third.
Above 15 players, prize pool will be adjusted upward.
The Soldiery
4256 N. High St.
Columbus, Ohio 43214
Entry is $15
Unlimited Proxy
Registration starts at 12:30. Tournament begins at 1pm sharp.
I’ll have my report up from the Vintage side tourney later this week, hopefully. And I’ll have more Vintage, uh, stuff next week as I take a look at how to beat Ichorid and Vintage Flash and any other craziness that comes out of the release of the new set.
Future Sight is gonna be big!
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