Happy Monday, everyone! As you prepare to spend Labor Day with friends and family, let me welcome you to the first installment of the Grand Prix Washington DC countdown blog! This series of blogs will go over anything and everything concerning Grand Prix Washington DC, which, if you’ve ever been to a Grand Prix before, is a lot!
This first entry is simply an overview to give you the rundown about #GPDC and start building the excitement for what’s going to be an awesome Standard Grand Prix. Over the next two weeks, I’ll be going over main event and side event information, artists and cosplayers who will be in attendance, food and lodging options, and much more!
All the Standard You Can Handle!
For the first time in a long time, Standard is a format I look forward to watching and playing. But luckily for me, I’m not the only one who feels that way! Gone are the days of spinning the variance wheels of Collected Company and Aetherworks Marvel, which, after a while, stopped feeling too random. Gone are the days of a turn 3 Saheeli Rai changing the entire way you have to play the game. And gone are the days of Emrakul, the Promised End taking your turn, along with your hopes and dreams of winning.
Nowadays, we’re living in a format of Cryptbreakers, Glorybringers, and Winding Constrictors. All good cards, no doubt, but all cards that aren’t unbeatable and certainly aren’t overpowered. They all provide dynamic experiences when playing the game of Magic for both you and the opponent, and when you’re looking to play Standard, that’s all one can really hope for. I’m a Zombies fan myself, and even though I had a terrible performance at Grand Prix Denver this past weekend, I still had a blast playing because all of my games were fun, interactive, and filed with relevant decisions. And that, my friends, is what makes for a good Standard format.
Whether you want to litter the battlefield with Zombies, splash The Scarab God into your Temur Energy deck, or dominate late with Torrential Gearhulk and friends, GP Washington DC is the place to be on September 1-3. So get registration out of the way now and prepare for one heck of a weekend in our nation’s capital.
What Else Ya Got?
If you don’t adore this awesome Standard format as much as I do, that’s totally cool. Grand Prix weekends nowadays aren’t only about the main event. It’s about making sure everyone who wants to attend can have an experience they’ll never forget, so we’ve got plenty of other things for you to do! Our Infinite Challenge packages continue to be a huge hit, so we’ve brought those back for Grand Prix Washington DC in both three-day and one-day varieties.
And because it has been such a hit at all of our Grand Prix this year, we’ve brought back our Ultimate Commander package that is, once again, brought to you by the awesome people over at Ultimate Guard! Throw in that all Friday Challenge side events are also Grand Prix Trials for those on the hunt for byes for the main event and a Sunday PTQ for those looking to qualify to play on Magic’s biggest stage, and you’ll find that there’s no shortage of things to do during your stay at the Dulles Expo Center. I’ll have more information about all of our other registration options later this week, but if you can’t wait that long, you can learn more about each one here!
Guest of Honor
One of the best parts of any Magic tournament? Special guests! Now, we’ve got quite a few amazing guests lined up for Grand Prix Washington DC, but when Rob Alexander is a part of the fun, you know something special is going down. Rob is one of the original 25 artists of Magic, has illustrated hundreds of cards for the game we know and love, and won him fans all over the globe with his unique style. From Badlands to Polluted Delta and Breeding Pool to Shivan Reef, Rob Alexander is one-of-a-kind when it comes to Magic artwork, and it is our pleasure to say that he is the guest of honor for Grand Prix Washington DC.
And boy is bringing a lot of stuff along with him to our nation’s capital!
Printed Playmats
Hand Painted Playmats
Alters and Proxies
Playmat Drawings
Artist Proof Drawings
What Tomorrow Brings
Grand Prix Washington DC is going to be an amazing event, so one little overview from yours truly simply isn’t going to be enough. Tomorrow I’ll be going over each of the registration options, the rewards that go along with them, and making sure that you know which one is the best option for you. See ya then!