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Chump Blocking = Card Advantage – A GP Cardiff Report, Part 1 *Winner*

StarCityGames.com’s very own Martin Dingler entered Grand Prix Cardiff with little more than Day 2 ambitions. Three byes, courtesy of a GP Trial, meant he stood a great chance… but his Draft practice beforehand wasn’t promising. Just how did “Ding!” Dingler beat the strongest Limited players Europe has to offer on the way to a Grand Prix title? Read on to find out…

This is the tale of an extraordinary triumph of fat Green men in a world of silly Blue mages with their silly Blue tricks. It illustrates the importance of the metagame in Limited, and exactly how card advantage works in Ravnica Limited, and why it doesn’t matter if not one of your cards reads “draw a card.” And it’s all from the perspective of a Grand Prix champion who is still baffled by how it came about.

I’ve had somewhat mixed fortunes since my Pro Tour Qualifier win a few weeks ago. I made top 4 in a Trial for Grand Prix Barcelona, and Simon O’Keeffe and I won 2HG Champs here in London, but I have found myself unable to win any Drafts anywhere, neither online nor in real life. I usually got to the semis, or went 2-1 in Swiss Drafts, but I never quite managed that final push to win it all. This seems slightly odd, considering I didn’t lose a single match in the Draft portion of the Grand Prix and used pretty much the same strategy. There were two major differences I can identify: I had a much clearer focus that emphasized large creatures over cheap aggressive ones, and the metagame.

The Grand Prix Day 2 Metagame
Three byes makes a ginormous difference when it comes to making Day 2, and, as there aren’t nearly enough Grand Prix Trials that not nearly enough players take seriously, the established Pros have such an advantage on top of their natural play skill that Day 2 consists of an unnaturally high percentage of Pros. These players tend to like their fancy, controlling Blue decks, with their trickery and their card drawing, leading to a clear metagame where avoiding Blue – like I have been doing ever since the release of Ravnica – is an awesome strategy.

The Pros’ preference for Blue is exacerbated still by the fact that online, and in many other places, Green is over-drafted as it is much more forgiving for players of lesser skill levels. This is why I haven’t been winning; I never managed to draft particularly impressive decks, because others were snatching up all my Green cards. On Day 2 of the Grand Prix, however, everyone else was fighting for Blue cards and ended up with slim pickings and 4-color decks with awful mana, whereas I got everything I wanted in spades, and then some.

It’ll be interesting to see how my win affects Grand Prix Barcelona, the last remaining major tournament to use this format. I reckon it will be a lot bigger and there will be a lot more, shall we say, “random” players around who are more likely to go into Green, and split it to the point where those filthy Blue mages regain the advantage they thought they had going into Grand Prix Cardiff. We’ll see.

I’m getting ahead of myself. It’s time to start at the beginning of the story.

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The Calm (or Lack Thereof) before the Storm
My fellow two-headed Giant champ Simon and I drove down to Cardiff on Friday afternoon. On the road, we were thinking of ways to please the almighty Grozoth, by sacrificing virgins, and designing various formats and cards around Grozoth. Cards like the legendary Tidewater, Minion of Grozoth, various things that make tokens with defender and ‘4: Loses Defender,’ and Grozoth or Fiction. Coz, y’know, Grozoth is Fact. We were also thinking about rituals we could use when playing in the team Pro Tour Qualifiers as The Cult of Grozoth.

After arriving at the venue, registering, playing some BGD (big Green deck), having a single beer (stupid driving) and doing possibly the worst Draft I’ve ever done, we drove to Newport where we were staying at a friend’s parents’ house. There we played some Magic Online, with Nick’s most awesome 5-color slops deck that was random as hell, hence hilarious. Gotta love them Earthshaker control decks, especially when your opponent plays the awesome Darkblast to prevent one point of damage to himself.

I got to bed at about 3am and slept really, really badly. The following morning we grabbed some breakfast, got to the venue, I said hi to scores of people from all over the country, and then we finally sat down to register and construct decks.

The Sealed Deck

I immediately dismissed the Blue cards as they weren’t the stone cold nuts, and I hate Blue in this format. Next I dismissed the Red cards, as they were only a bunch of Torpid Molochs and Coalhauler Swines. I kept Moroii and Galvanic Arc as possible splash options, but didn’t need them in the end. I really liked my deck as it had some awesome White flyers, some solid Black removal, and all the token generators in the world. Yay! I was gonna be able to beat my opponents down with their own Pro Player cards! Here’s my deck.


There isn’t much beef here apart from the Scarab, but it works fine like an old-fashioned U/W Limited deck with lots of flyers, and cards like Junktroller and Selesnya Sagittars, as well as infinite Saprolings, to hold the ground. Bones and the Guildmage provide extra win conditions should the primary flyer plan not be an option. The only card I ever sideboarded in was Leave No Trace, though I think I probably should have sided in Castigate on one or two occasions.

The ‘Four Byes’
First, I would like to reiterate how nuts three byes at a Grand Prix are, and recommend to everybody who’s even vaguely considering attending a Grand Prix to also attend each and every GP trial they can possibly find. In every GP in which I had three byes I made day two, and so far I never have with less than three. Of course, you know that already.

It could be considered a downside of having byes that after deck construction you have to sit around for three hours before you can head into the fray. When you’re really tired, though, there are many advantages. I am not a morning person, so I definitely appreciate more time to wake up, and the story of my fourth round, a.k.a. my “fourth bye” illustrates the advantages.

Round 4 pairings went up, and I see myself paired against Olivier Ruel. This is, of course, a rather daunting way to start a tournament, and it won’t happen to those who don’t have three byes. So I sit down across from Olivier, have a complete brainfart that makes me keep a hand consisting of Veteran Armorer and six lands, and lose that game horribly. Then a judge comes over and announces that we are being deck checked.

My deck comes back with no problems, but they ask Ollie to come to the judge station. After a very long wait, he comes back, congratulates me, and a judge asks me to sign a result slip declaring me the winner of the match 2-0. He got one game loss for only registering 37 cards in his maindeck, and another for presenting even fewer than that because he left some lying around when he was testing his deck during the bye rounds.

This was a really lucky escape, as I was still fast asleep (hence the six-land hand) that I would’ve lost most likely even if my opponent had been a lesser one. The first lesson here is that it never hurts to count the cards in your opponent’s deck, even if he is the best player in the world. The second is that Fortuna and Grozoth were smiling on me this weekend, though I really couldn’t imagine then just how much things were going to end up going my way.

The Rest of Day 1

Round 5 versus Julien Goron
After the fortuitous escape, it was only fair that I was once again paired against a top level French pro, coming off back-to-back Grand Prix finals, no less. This was somewhat anti-climactic though, as he was mana-flooded in both games and I drew just enough mana to cast everything I drew, which essentially was all the best cards in my deck. His average turn was draw land, play land, go; mine was draw Grave-Shell Scarab/Mortipede/Graven Dominator/Blind Hunter/Belfry Spirit, attack with my huge army, tap all my mana to play that huge threat I just drew.

I did make a point of ensuring that all my tokens were Olivier Ruel, since I didn’t get to use them in the previous round and Julien doesn’t have a card (yet).

Match Record: 5-0
Actual Matches played Record: 1-0
Games that count Record: 2-0
Position: 10th place

Round 6 versus Colin Ward
I got some time off from beating up the French to instead beat up a fellow Englishman. Colin had a slow G/W/B/r deck that had some seriously awesome late-game power cards, like Savage Twister and Debtor’s Knell. Game 1 he was color screwed with only Black and White mana, and he couldn’t recover from that.

Game 2 I have a fairly fast start but overextend somewhat, which he punishes with a savage Savage Twister. I get him down to one life, but he has Debtor’s Knell and soon takes complete control of the game. Eventually he has enough to attack for the win, even though the life totals are 20-1 in my favor.

Game 3 I have all the Saprolings in the world, and get some damage in with a series of somewhat suicidal attacks. When I got him down to twelve life he managed to stabilize the board enough to stop the Saproling beats… however, I have Restless Bones and continue the beats with my most powerful monster, a Veteran Armorer. I’m living in perpetual fear of Savage Twister, which would’ve have been essentially a 4-mana Plague Wind. Fortunately, nothing savage happened, and the Swampwalking Armorer took home the title.

6-0, 2-0, 4-1, 5th place

Round 7 versus RaphaÔl Lévy
So I’m back to beating up Frenchmen… eeexcellent.

Game 1 saw a bit of back-and-forth, until the game ground to a halt with him on eleven and me on fifteen life. For several turns nothing happened. I had more creatures than he did, but couldn’t attack because his were all bigger than mine. Eventually I ended the boredom when I ripped Selesnya Guildmage, laid my tenth land, attacked with everything and pumped twice for lethal damage from my four unblocked Saprolings. It transpired later that he was slow-rolling the Savage Twister and definitely would’ve played it the next turn, so I topdecked the Guildmage just in time. There’s the next lucky break.

Game 2 isn’t entirely a blow-out, but he never really had anything to deal with my Air Force. He was also very annoyed with the way game 1 ended, and played somewhat on tilt.

One Drake Draft too many...

For some reason I only had one Raph pro player card, but it did add some spice to the game. When he killed a token he always killed himself, and at one point I turned him from a bat into a Saproling and he seemed “genuinely” upset, saying “I don’t fly anymore?” in perfect dead-pan. On the whole, I did enjoy playing Raph, as he is good-natured and refreshingly un-French. He may feature again later in this story…

7-0, 3-0, 6-1, 3rd place

Round 8 versus Quentin Martin
And so it was that we came to part one of the epic battle of Martin versus Mr. Martin that raged for millennia last weekend. Prof (for those that still don’t know, that’s Craig Jones) walked past us several times, begging us to ID to avoid “the curse.” Personally I was just so happy to have made Day 2 with points to spare, and would’ve been happy to just take the ID, but the Q-Meister was having none of it.

I had turned off, and it really was no coincidence that I lost. Regardless of how good a player Quentin is and how good his deck was, I couldn’t see myself winning this against anyone or anything. I came out fast and won game 2, but I was forgetting end-of-turn saprolings and the like left and right.

My lack of sleep finally caught up with me, and on top of that I had a little Prof in my head telling me that I don’t want to win this, it’ll only curse me and so on and so forth. Or maybe it was a little Bruce. Oh well.

7-1, 3-1, 7-3, 4th place

After the day was out, we went to a pub and grabbed some food and some good beer (i.e. real ale), and then we went to some nightclub-type place with loud music and lots of scantily-clad women. There I just sat, drank very bad beer (i.e. lager), relaxed, and enjoyed the view. Didn’t try to talk anyone, didn’t try to dance, didn’t try to pull any women. All of these things tend to aggravate me in clubs, because the music is too loud, which is why I tend not to go to such places. It was, however, the perfect place to relax, as I knew we didn’t have time to even attempt to successfully do any of those things. I recommend this as preparation for Day 2 to anyone.

We got back to Nick’s place at 2am, summer time. Whoever keeps scheduling these tournaments n the weekend that the clocks go forward is definitely a sadist, though I don’t want to talk badly of him as it’s the only times I’ve made Day 2.

After four hours of sleep – and unlike the previous night, it was real sleep – I showed up for Day 2 slightly zonked, and not really knowing what to expect of myself. I was in fourth place after Day 1, so I should expect more than just a Top 32 finish or something like that. On the other hand, I had been doing so lousily in Drafts lately that I couldn’t expect to suddenly do extremely well when facing the best in the world – or at least the best in Europe.

I didn’t have any expectations for Day 2. I was too tired to have clear expectations crystallize in my head. On the other hand, I was extremely calm. I was more relaxed than I had been in months. That I think is ultimately the key to my success. I sat down in pod 1 on Day 2 with a mind that was blank – no thoughts except for ones generated as a direct result of sensory input. Various people at the table were saying “Frank Karsten,” in what I assume is a parody of the Japanese. The head judge makes some random announcements. A judge says: “Open your first Ravnica booster and count fifteen cards face down.”

My mind goes completely blank. I forget all the drafts gone awry. I forget all the jokes made before. I forget the lucky breaks of yesterday. The sexy women that poured all over the streets of Cardiff? Mere ephemera that can’t enter my conscious mind. Nothing can, but the cards in front of me.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the mindset that allowed me to become a Grand Prix champion. The jokes did come back, though.

The first Draft
As I said, I never had a particularly clear strategy before the GP. I drafted decks whose only connection seemed to be the presence of Green cards. I won the Pro Tour Qualifier with a deck that contained eight(!) top quality two-drops, so I always thought that the cheap aggressive creatures, if you can get them, are the key. I was soon to revise that assessment.

I first picked Ribbons of Night, in part because I don’t want it to be played against me. It feels like cheating every time someone plays it. Next I pick a Siege Wurm, as I’m always looking to go Green regardless of what else is going on. Later I got another Siege Wurm, then another one. I opened a Moldervine Cloak in pack two to add to them. This is the deck I ended up with:


I probably should have played a Plains, to power up the Orzhov Guildmage and the Trannie, what with double Wayfinder and Farseek. I didn’t want to jeopardize my ability to get the crucial Green mana; this is, after all, almost a mono-Green deck. The Island has to be there, of course, to turn Ribbons into the cheating machine it is meant to be. This deck has a two-pronged approach: Early beats plus Moldervine Cloak followed by huge fatties. Some people have questioned whether I want to be playing Ledgewalkers, but in this deck especially they are golden. They enable Bloodthirst, they can be used to convoke out a Siege Wurm, and they are almost always the best possible target for the Cloak. I’m not even mentioning what happens when Golgari Guildmage gets going on them.

I’d just put together this spicy creation as I walk past the desk where Craig Jones and his minion Wessel Oomens were working on the coverage. I show Craig my deck, and he doesn’t look particularly impressed. He turns to Wessel, and the words he utters make my heart sink.

“Does this sort of deck still work? Isn’t the format all about card advantage?”

Had I completely missed the train on what the format is about? Was my lack of winning down to decks that weren’t suited to the format, and my winning solely due to others not understanding it or not able to play their decks properly? Wessel’s reply got my hopes up a little.

“Yeah, it’s all about card advantage. Although…this does look quite powerful.”

Coming up in part 2: How Green decks generate card advantage and how exactly my bold gambit (ha ha ha) and focus turned into a Grand Prix win.

May Grozoth smile upon you!

Martin
darkheartothorny on SCG forums and MODO