Grand Prix: San Francisco 2007 results
Friday (GPT)
I ran Teachings, with the Pickles package over Shadowmage Infiltrator/Bogardan Hellkite/etc. and a Disintegrate as a surprise.
I was in the fifth flight, paid my $15 to play a 32-person Single Elimination grinder for a third round bye at the Grand Prix.
First round I played against Blaine piloting a Lightning Angel deck. Both games I stabilize at about six life and smash face.
Second round I play against some random guy with what I THINK was Teachings, since I do recall him using Take Possession on me. Game one I Disintegrate him for 20 while I was at 30+ life. Game two he wins by outmaneuvering me, and game three we goto turns and Sudden Death (first change in life total = highest life total wins). I end up using Tendrils of Corruption on my own morphed creature to win that one.
Third round I play a guy named Ori who is also playing a variant of Teachings. First round I sweep him with Venser and the Pickles Lock, game two we actually fight it out until I topdeck Disintegrate for the win.
Fourth round I play a guy named Wilson (at least I THINK his name was Wilson) who swept me in two games with Mono Blue Control/Kenji Blue/Pickles. He ends up winning the grinder in the finals.
I leave that day with nine packs. My friends Tim, Bryce and Chris and I end up going to Denny's in Santa Cruz since we're staying at another friend's house, and we end up playing DC-10 Sealed with my winnings. DC-10 is basically "infinite mana, one spell per turn". We end up pulling two Future Sight rare lands, an Extirpate (woo hoo, my ninth one -.-) a foiled out Intet the Dreamer, and some other stuff.
We get lost on the way to Kyle's house (where we're crashing). We drive up this insanely dark path and start cracking jokes about wild Werebears (with Threshold) running around up there and find a graveyard (which we called Tormod's Crypt).
That night I make the absolute retarded decision to change my deck. Hahahaha. Worst idea ever.
Saturday
We wake up at about 7:30 because we have to drive about 20 minutes up to San Jose for the Grand Prix. We stop by Safeway to get breakfast/lunch since the food places near the GP will be PACKED (and we don't know if we'll get a lunch break or not). We leave for a whole 8-9 rounds of Magic which start at 10.
We get there, I resleeve and get visiting artist Mark Poole to sign two playsets of Cancel, one set English and one set Japanese (Japanese ones he drew an arrow going through the guy's head). I also got him to sign my foiled out Incinerate from Ice Age (Deckmasters foil promo) which he drew a top hat and cane on one of the skeletons.
Anyways, the Grand Prix starts. All the players with high enough DCI ratings and/or are on the gravy train/Pro Players' Club have byes for one to three rounds (so they get to sleep in for up to three extra hours after they sit down for the "Player Meeting" which is basically collecting decklists).
By the way, I'll write about the Pros I met and talked to and stuff later on.
Okay, so I play my first match against Alfonso. Something like that? Anyways he's a limited player who had cards from drafts lying around so he made Mono Green! He smashes me in two games, I'm already beginning to regret my new decklist.
Second game I play against... Stuffy Doll + Volcano Hellion combo. Crazy. I beat him in two games though. Second game he gets it off by pointing "a million" damage at Stuffy Doll (which would redirect to me). In response I flip my Willbender to target "a million" to Willbender instead. He uses Angel's Grace to save himself at one life. I untap, and Disintegrate for one. GG.
Third game I don't even remember, except that it was White Weenie. I get swept.
I don't recall anything else specifically, but I know that I scrubbed out 2-5. Sadness. Time to get ready for the PTQ instead.
Sunday
We wake up at 9AM, and rush to get to San Jose for the PTQ. I'm running a BRAND NEW traditional Teachings list with Augur of Skulls, Porphyry Nodes, Vesuvan Shapeshifter and many others in the board.
I wrote down my life totals and people I played against for the PTQ.
I start the first match with a win against Jared who's running RWG Predator (aka Kavu Justice, Fiery Zoo, etc.). First game he gets me down to 11 before I stabilize and beat him down. He simply scoops at 15 life when I suspend an Aeon Chronicler, citing that we shouldn't waste time. Second game he gets me to 6 life. All my Tendrils of Corruption face Rebuff the Wicked and Momentary Blink, but I'm able to hold back the beats with recurring Triskelavus with the helpful Academy Ruins and bring him from 20 to 0 while I'm at 6 life.
Second match I play Robert who plays Green-Blue Tarmogoyf. I beat him to death somehow in both games pretty fast. Second game I end the game at 30 life (+10 from starting life totals).
Third match I play Jonathan who is playing Mono Blue Control. First game we play out for about 45 minutes. I make a miscalculation on life totals and scoop when his Vesuvan Shapeshifter comes into play copying my Bogardan Hellkite. Ugh I had him at 2 as well. Game two starts with about a minute (literally) left on the game clock. I have no choice but to goto turns and draw the game, leaving him with a 1-0 win against me.
Fourth match I play Roy who is running Predator was well. I sweep him on both games. Don't remember much details though.
Fifth match is versus Joshua with Green-Blue 'Goyf. I lose big time because he basically has a superior list and a crazy aggro-control thing going on.
Round six is against another Josh. I win both games, which is all I honestly remember about it.
Round seven is against Daniel. I also don't remember much other than the fact that I won =/
Now, between rounds seven and eight I got to play Level Six Pro Player and super cool Japanese guy Tomaharu Saitou in a practice game! He's running his crazy Green-White Aggro list while I have my Teachings build.
He sweeps game one. My life literally goes from 20 to 16 to 7 to DEAD thanks to a Mystic Enforcer with Treshold. Yes, one single card. Second game lasts MUCH longer. I didn't want to take up too much of his time with a crazy long control matchup so I played too fast and stuff but seriously Saitou is CRAZY GOOD. He boarded in Sacred Mesa for the Teachings matchup, which he used to sweep me away from 20 to 0 fast. I get a six points of damage in on that game (two on the game before). Saitou's really cool too, he would correct me on some plays and suggest better ones at times during the entire match.
Round eight I lose the first game for tardiness (I was getting my foiled out Vesuvan Shapeshifter signed by Saito!) and lose the second in a long mirror match. Not a big deal to me, I got to play a game with Saitou haha.
Round nine I lose in two games to Eric packing a Liege of the Pit deck.
At the end of the day, it turns out I make the cut to 30th place for prizes. I walk away with twelve boosters (six Planar Chaos, six Future Sight).
Anyways, on with other stuff:
-Saturday I got a foil Brine Elemental signed by Kenji Tsumura
-My friend Alex asks Kenji to go drinking with them, but he has a featured match and can't. Alex had to leave and couldn't wait until Kenji was done either.
-My friend April asks Olivier Ruel to marry her, he agrees (jokingly, I assume. But he never says)
-Sunday I played Saitou in a match (detailed above). Also got my foil Vesuvan Shapeshifter signed by him.
-Watched Kenji Tsumura play a money draft with Mike Hron, Rich Hoaen, Gadiel Szleifer, and two pros I'm not sure who they were (sorry!). He was HILARIOUS, anyone watching could tell you that. He was drunk the whole time and was forcing Slivers. Every pack with a Sliver he would scream out in surprise/amazement/joy/excitement and take it. Any pack WITHOUT a Sliver he would simply throw at Szleifer or to his right without taking a card. One of his friends was telling him "splash! splash for this!" and Kenji simply said no. Haha.
-Olivier Ruel signed one of my Coalition Relics
-Raphäel Levy signed one of my Damnation
-Rich Hoaen signed a Castle Raptors, because it's basically his favorite card to pick in a draft.
-Kenji Tsumura signed another card for me, this time it was his Pro Player card with a Sliver picture on it and crazy hair while singing Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" and saying something about being disappointed at something (but he said it like "I am so disappointment!" haha)
-Yuuya Watanabe signed a Remand!
-Mike Hron signed a Careful Consideration.
-I talked to Gadiel Szleifer on the whole "Legacy community being pissed at his comment about 'Who cares?'" and he basically said that he really didn't care if Flash would be banned or not, since it was broken and lots of people were playing it and at the same time expecting it to be banned soon. I found it understandable and he's a pretty cool guy.
Oh! And BAM! I'm RIGHT behind Murray Evans in the white. Haha.
That's it for now, I'm a bit tired. Going to crash out.
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Posted Dec 10, 2007I really enjoyed reading this. I'm happy for you! You got to have a good time with some Pro Players.