Last weekend, I did something that I haven’t done in over two years. I decided to skip the SCG Invitational. For a few years running, the Open Series
Invitationals have been the biggest events of the year for me. They are amazing events. There is so much money being given out for a small tournament, and
the competition is amazing. Some of my best tournaments and favorite memories have been from Open Series Invitationals.
This year, however, I have my eyes on a different prize. Thanks to winning Grand Prix New Jersey, I have a great start to the year in terms of pro points
and have a legitimate shot of hitting Gold. Instead of flying out to Seattle to compete in the Season Four Invitational like so many of my friends did, I
drove by myself to Baltimore to play in a Limited Grand Prix. I want to make it as a pro Magic player. Last year, I was two points short of hitting Gold.
This year, I don’t want a near-miss.
I figured that if I was going to be skipping the Invitational, a tournament I love, then I had better make it worthwhile. Going to GP Baltimore and
scrubbing out was not an option for me. I dedicated the week leading up to Baltimore exclusively to Limited testing.
I decided to spend the bulk of my time on Sealed. Draft was something that I still felt comfortable with from the Pro Tour testing I had done, and from
time to time I had been firing up drafts on Magic Online to good success. I felt like I could reasonably expect to perform well in Draft; I just wanted to
ensure I even made it that far. What value was there in being a master at Draft if I couldn’t even get to the Draft portion?
I had made that mistake during Theros block. I had done countless Theros block drafts on Magic Online and was proficient at the format. I knew if I made it
to day 2 that I would succeed. My issue was that I never tested Sealed. Grand Prix Philadelphia, I predictably didn’t make day 2 and didn’t even have a
chance to show off my Draft preparation. In Grand Prix DC, I did manage to barely squeak into day 2 at 7-2 and then went 5-1 in Draft, losing my last round
to miss top 8 in a very close three-game set where mulligans plagued me.
Sealed has been a format I have historically done pretty poor at. In fact, between testing for some Sealed PTQs a few weeks ago and the early part of my
testing for GP Baltimore, I did approximately 15-20 Sealed events without going better than 2-2 in any of them. Some of that was definitely variance. Some
of it was also just inexperience or building my decks wrong.
I was happy to note that the last seven Sealed events I did, however, I went 3-1 or better in all seven, and most of them were 4-0’s. It was clear to me
that I had made significant progress, although when people asked me what the best way to approach the Sealed format was, I couldn’t give them an answer. I
couldn’t put what I had learned into words, I just knew that I had learned something.
I felt extremely confident going into the GP, and that confidence only went up when I saw my Sealed pool. I had ten non-basic lands and rares like Sidisi,
Brood Tyrant, Siege Rhino, and Thousand Winds. I ended up playing a five-color deck that basically played all of my good cards. I had powerful creatures,
and I had some powerful spells, like two Abzan Charms, a Mardu Charm, and other great removal like Murderous Cut and Master the Way. I really couldn’t ask
for a better pool.
I ended up misbuilding slightly. I played a Warden of the Eye in my deck that really should have just not been there. My deck was already so powerful, and
Warden was just too slow to be effective. I really wished it was anything else, and in fact, I sided it out almost every round.
I felt like I had a 9-0 deck, but I ended up going 7-2. I lost round 5 to Reid Duke. Our game 1 was pretty epic. He cast Villainous Wealth on me for a
bunch, netting a Sidisi. The next turn when he attacked, however, I was able to flip Thousand Winds and put that Sidisi into my hand. I ended up losing to
exactsies from an Arc Lightning after having to gang block a Sagu Mauler in a game that was otherwise very close. Game 3 I was unable to find a green
source and died to a Savage Knuckleblade.
Eric Rill also crushed me in round 7. He had Sagu Mauler and a Clever Impersonator copying his Sagu Mauler. Despite drawing what felt like my entire deck,
I couldn’t find my Dead Drop, and it was I who ended up dropping dead.
My other rounds were also very tight. I had to fade a pump spell from an Abzan player to be able to clock him from 22 to dead in two turns from a Sidisi
and a Woolly Loxodon (big wools) before a Sultai Scavenger could finish me in the air. In the penultimate round, I had to race an Ankle Shanker and was
able to successfully do so, despite my opponent attacking with it and other creatures like four turns in a row. Ponyback Brigade let me pony up on his back
to carry me for that one, along with some help from a Sidisi.
In the final round I had to beat a High Sentinels of Arashin and a Sorin and was able to arise victorious thanks to a sided in Disdainful Stroke which
connected on a freshly laid Solemn Visitor.
Having to win the last two rounds in extremely tight three-game matches just to make day 2 wasn’t exactly how I had drawn it up, but I was happy to just
escape the day and make it into day 2.
I wasn’t as confident with my Draft skills in this format as I had been in something like Theros block or M15, but I still felt pretty solid about it and
was excited about getting a chance to see if I could pull off the coveted 6-0 run to make top 8. With 15 pro points, making top 8 at this GP would have
effectively made me qualified for the next four Pro Tours in a row. The stakes were big.
I would have been qualified for PT DC from GP New Jersey, PT Brussels from GP Baltimore, PT Vancouver from Silver, and the first PT of the following year
also from Silver.
In my first Draft, I first picked Seeker of the Way in a pack that had a lot of powerful white cards, including a Feat of Resistance, Mardu Hordechief, and
a Chief of the Edge. My philosophy in Draft is that I don’t really care what the person to my left ends up in. It’s their job to read my signals and try to
build a synergistic deck based around what I draft. It’s not my job to “send the right signals.”
Drafting isn’t a country club. We’re not trying to outdo each other on who can be the most polite here. I’m passing to the person to my left. Why should I
care at all about what they end up in? If they end up being the same colors as me, then they are going to be left picking up the dregs that I passed over,
and their deck should be a lot worse than mine. Good. I got to draft the deck I wanted and I screwed over someone else’s draft? Sounds like a net positive.
One thing that has always boggled my mind when it comes to draft is when people are like “This is the most powerful card in the pack, but I’m going to pass
it because there are two other cards in this color in the pack.”
Who cares? If your neighbor ends up taking a card in the same color as your first pick, they are the one who gets screwed while you can continue to happily
pick the best card in that color out of each pack. Sending signals is overrated in that it just doesn’t matter nearly as much as people think, and should
effectively never be a reason to pick or not pick a card for your deck. Reading signals matters, but sending them just shouldn’t even be a consideration.
Anyway, long story short, I ended up trying to draft a Jeskai deck after taking that Seeker of the Way. Mardu is my preferred clan, but I also don’t mind
going the Jeskai Way if things present themselves. I saw almost no good black cards, so Jeskai it was. Unfortunately, I received zero pieces of mana fixing
and not for lack of trying. I just simply didn’t see any. As a result, I was forced to just play a R/W deck splashing blue for a Jeskai Charm and two
morphs. Thankfully, I opened an Ashcloud Phoenix in pack 3 and was promptly passed a second copy of Ashcloud Phoenix immediately afterward. The odds were
Ashtronomically low of that happening, but I’ll take it.
I won my first two rounds fairly easily, but Shuhei Nakamura ended up crushing me pretty handily in round 3. He had Utter End for my Ashcloud Phoenix in
game 1, and in game 2, I had him stuck at four life for many turns just hoping to draw one of my Ashcloud Phoenixes or one of my two Arrow Storms to finish
the job, but Siege Rhinocerous reared his head before I could find one. Shuhei’s Valleys remained undashed. My hopes, however, were quite dashed.
That loss eliminated me from top 8 contention, but I was still capable of going 3-0 in my second pod to lock up 3 pro points and Silver, which would ensure
I was qualified for Brussels.
Unfortunately, my second pod was not exactly the easiest collection of Magic: the Gathering players I have seen assembled. It contained three people who
have won Limited Grand Prix: Frank Skarren, Mike Sigrist, and Brock Parker. It also contained Owen Turtenwald, one of the best players in the world right
now. Rounding out the pod was Jadine Klomparens, who top 8’d a Grand Prix earlier this year, myself, and two other fellows, one of which I recognized but
couldn’t place where.
It was a pretty stacked pod. After the Draft, however, I felt like I had a deck powerful enough to go 3-0 with. I had drafted what was essentially a Sultai
theme deck. I had a Sidisi, Brood Tyrant, 3 Sultai Soothsayers, a Sagu Mauler, and two Sultai Charms. I had six…that’s right…six copies of Jungle
Hollow in my deck. Even though I didn’t win this Grand Prix, I have to think I was at least in the running for winning the coveted “who had the most copies
of a single card in a deck?” competition.
Welcome to the jungle.
Since my cards were so powerful, I wanted to play 18 lands and a Sultai Banner to ensure that I hit all my land drops. Since my mana was really good with
the six Jungle Hollows, I felt comfortable splashing white for an Abzan Falconer, Armament Corps, Abzan Guide, and Suspension Field. I also had a See the
Unwritten that I ended up not playing maindeck because I was legitimately worried about decking myself with Sidisi, 3 Soothsayers, and a See the Unwritten.
I got paired against Owen Turtenwald in round 1. My opening hand was great, and I felt really good about the game. I had an Abzan Guide, a Sidisi, and a
removal spell, along with the lands to cast them all.
Owen played Anafenza on turn 3. My Debilitating Injuries and Sultai Charms can’t kill Anafenza. Sidisi is a hard to cast Hill Giant with Anafenza in play.
A morph and an Armament Corps later and we were on to game 2. Owen led with a Jungle Hollow in game 2, which gave me some serious “Jungle Hollow envy”.
Seriously, man? I could have had seven. That’s messed up. Anafenza and a Rakshasa Deathdealer joined the party not long after and my Sultai Theme Deck got
smashed in two quick, not-close games.
Thankfully, I was able to pull out the following two matches as my Mardu opponent in round 2 wasn’t able to grind as hard as my deck could, and Frank
Skarren’s Temur deck in the final round just had some really awkward draws while my deck hit on all cylinders.
I ended up going 2-1 in both drafts for an 11-4 finish overall. Good for 1 pro point and 40th place. Unfortunately, that one pro point doesn’t really mean
much, as I’m still one short of locking myself up for Silver even if I do poorly at the Pro Tour in DC.
I have a mixed opinion on how I finished. I felt happy with how I played throughout the tournament. However, 3 of my 4 losses were to Owen Turtenwald,
Shuhei Nakamura, and Reid Duke. Those are three of the best players to ever play the game, but if my goal is to eventually get to that level, and it is,
then I still have a ways to go. I want to eventually be a name that people fear, but I am not at that point yet. All I can do is continue to do what I do
best, which is put in as much work as I can for each of these events. If I can’t be the most naturally talented or skilled player in the room, I at least
want to be the most prepared.
Speaking of preparation, this upcoming weekend is the SCG Players’ Championship in Roanoke, Virginia. I get to sleep in my own bed and travel to play in an
event that is 10 minutes away from my house with $20,000 to first place on the line.
Luccckkkyyyyy.
I’ve been anticipating this event for months, and now that it’s finally here I can safely say that I am excited. And nervous. But mostly excited. By virtue
of skipping a lot of Opens and Invitationals in the past few months to try to make my Pro Tour dreams a reality, I can safely say that I have recently
played less Standard and Legacy than nearly everyone else in the tournament.
I’m sure I’ve played far more Khans of Tarkir Limited, but sadly that is not a format for the Players’ Championship!
In that regard, I am probably at a disadvantage. With that being said, I am determined to win this event. Winning this tournament means a lot to me and
would validate a lot of the decisions I have made over the past few weeks.
I am certainly not the best player in the tournament. There are a lot of extremely talented Magic players who will be here. However, I have a week to test
for this event, and I have jumped into testing for the event full on. I can’t be the most skilled player in the event, but what I can be is the most
prepared. And I’m going to do everything I can to make that a reality.
And the hope is that at the end of the event, preparation will win out and I will be the one holding the trophy. I may not be the best right now, but I can
make a case for being the most determined. I am going to keep throwing my all at every tournament that comes my way. And when the smoke clears, maybe one
day I will be the best.
Or I can die trying. Either one is fine.