Hello!
This is my Grand Prix: Minneapolis report.
GP: Minneapolis was one of the few I knew, from the beginning of the year, that I was going to attend no matter what, since it was one week before Rome and I could just get a ticket through the United States. Originally the plan was Paris-Minneapolis-Rome, but as the date started to approach, Paris started looking less and less appealing… 2000 people, expensive to attend, I would only have three days at home instead of ten before Worlds (so less testing), 2000 people, a lot of unnecessary complications in my schedule, 2000 people… In the end, I decided to skip Paris. Before Minneapolis I had 45 Pro Points, which meant I needed five more for Level 8. I was aware that I was throwing away a valuable chance to get them, but in all honesty, I trusted my ability to get my five between Minneapolis, Worlds, and Team Worlds.
My trip to Minneapolis was as dull as a trip can be. I arrived on Friday, I never went anywhere that was not Hotel-Event-Food, and I left on Monday morning. To be fair, there was one thing that stood out: we went to Fogo de Chão on Friday night. For those of you who don’t know, Fogo de Chão is a very famous Brazilian steakhouse that is all over America. I’ve passed close to Fogo de Chão at many events, including Austin, but it never really interested me since, well, it didn’t make much sense to pay a billion dollars for something that I can have at home for much less, especially since I used to live right across the street from one. This time my U.S. roommates insisted that we go, so I tagged along. I hadn’t been to one since I moved, about 10 years ago. In the end it was not very different from the one I had in my hometown, which was a good thing. The service was outstanding; it almost made me believe they deserved tipping, though in the end I came to my senses and returned to my usual anti-tipping beliefs. [For the record, Paulo DOES tip when appropriate… He simply disagrees with the practice on principal – Craig]
Other than that, I didn’t do anything spectacular or very exciting, unless you count being part of the group that opened three foil Mythic Rare Felidar Sovereigns in 12 packs as exciting. This was the pool I opened, minus the unplayables:
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Jwar Isle Refuge
2 Soaring Seacliff
2 Kabira Crossroads
1 Teetering Peaks
1 Sejiri Refuge
1 Piranha Marsh
A lot of lands, and some splash options. Blue is particularly appealing as a splash color here, since I have 3 duals and 2 Seaclliffs.
1 Spidersilk Net
1 Expedition Map
1 Explorer’s Scope
1 Blade of the Bloodchief
1 Khalni Gem
1 Armament Master
1 Narrow Escape
1 Kor Hookmaster
2 Kor Sanctifiers
1 Shepherd of the Lost
1 Bold Defense
1 Kor Skyfisher
1 Nimbus Wings
1 Ondu Cleric
1 Shieldmate’s Blessing
White has some interesting cards — the four Kors and Shepherd — but is not nearly deep enough to be a main color. Shepherd can be splashed, but unless I have a very deep color that needs to be complemented with something that is not removal, or unless I play three colors, Shepherd is probably going to be the only White card I play.
1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
1 Paralyzing Grasp
1 Reckless Scholar
1 Kraken Hatchling
1 Spreading Seas
1 Summoner’s Bane
1 Cancel
Blue is a bit disappointing, in the sense that it has so few good cards. It has a lot of potential in those cards, but as it is they are not good enough to justify playing it as a main color. It does have the best card in my pool, the Sphinx, and since I have three duals, I might consider playing Blue just for that card alone.
1 Hideous End
2 Heartstabber Mosquito
1 Vampire Hexmage
1 Nimana Sell-Sword
1 Hagra Crocodile
1 Vampire Lacerator
1 Giant Scorpion
1 Quest for the Gravelord
1 Bloodchief Ascension
1 Bog Tatters
1 Guul Draz Vampire
1 Vampire’s Bite
1 Mind Sludge
Black also has good card, but is also uncharacteristically not deep. I cannot pair my Black with my Blue or with my White, and even playing all three colors I might not have enough good cards in the end. I will probably end up playing the Black.
1 Goblin Shortcutter
1 Murasa Pyromancer
1 Seismic Shudder
1 Ruinous Minotaur
2 Slaughter Cry
1 Unstable Footing
2 Zektar Shrine Expedition
This is actually every single Red card I opened. I reckon if I didn’t list the unplayables this time you would be thinking I forgot to type the Red cards. This group of cards was about one Hellkite Charger and two Burst Lightnings away from being worth a second look before I threw it to the far end of the table.
1 Oracle of Mul Daya (seriously, this card just follows me. So far I’ve opened it in every Zendikar event I’ve played — GP Tampa, Austin, Minneapolis — and I also opened one in a draft in Minneapolis too)
1 Oran-Rief Recluse
1 Oran-Rief Survivalist
1 Territorial Baloth
1 Vastwood Gorger
1 Mold Shambler
2 Vines of Vastwood
1 Harrow
1 Baloth Woodcrasher
1 Turntimber Basilisk
1 Timbermaw Larva
1 Joraga Bard
1 Taruju Archer
1 Quest for the Gemblades
1 Zendikar Farguide
1 Nissa Revane
0 Nissa’s Chosen… sob.
Green seems to be a good color. It has some early drops, some late drops, mana fixing, card advantage, and synergy. It is not awesome, but it is solid, and probably the color that stands out the most in my pool.
So, in my last Limited article I said I was hoping I would be able to go greedy in Minneapolis, and it seems I had my wish fulfilled. My first impression was that I was going to go GBu, splashing Sphinx — with double dual, Harrow, and Gem (and to a lesser extent Oracle and two Seacliffs), it seemed pretty doable. I took a second glance at the White cards, but in the end decided to go with my original configuration. This is what I played:
1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
1 Paralyzing Grasp
1 Reckless Scholar
1 Hideous End
2 Heartstabber Mosquito
1 Vampire Hexmage
1 Nimana Sell-Sword
1 Hagra Crocodile
1 Vampire Lacerator
1 Giant Scorpion
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Oran-Rief Recluse
1 Oran-Rief Survivalist
1 Territorial Baloth
1 Vastwood Gorger
1 Mold Shambler
1 Vines of Vastwood
1 Harrow
1 Baloth Woodcrasher
1 Turntimber Basilisk
1 Khalni Gem
1 Jwar Isle Refuge
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Soaring Seacliff
1 Island
6 Swamp
7 Forest
The core of the deck remained the same from the very beginning, but there were a couple of cards I struggled with. One of my hard choices was the Vampire Lacerator slot — in the end it won over Guul Draz Vampire, Bog Tatters, and Explorer’s Scope. I didn’t want to play Lacerator because I thought my deck was not an aggressive deck, but I really wanted some early drops. I would gladly have played Grizzly Bears over it if I could. I almost played the 1/1 Vampire, since it blocks almost as well, but in the end I decided the potential for an aggressive draw plus the fact that it traded with 2/2s made it better. I could always side in the other one if they had a lot of Marauders anyway.
The other tricky slot was the Islands. Since I have Rainforest and Harrow, I wanted to play two Islands so I could always cast Sphinx, but I only had room for three Blue sources (and that was already pushing it a bit), and Soaring Seacliff is just so good in my deck. It really excels with any of Territorial Baloth, Hagra Crocodile, Oran-Rief Recluse, Vastwood Gorger, and it’s not bad with any of the Green and Black animals that I had. In the end, greed won out again, and I played only one Island and both Cliffs. My thoughts were that I had three Islands (Harrow + Rainforest + Island), and then I needed to draw one of four cards (Refuge/Gem/2 Seacliffs) to be able to cast my Sphinx, and one in four for a late game card is good enough. It might have been too greedy, though, as over the course of the tournament there was a game in which I wanted to Harrow for double Island but couldn’t.
I liked this deck, and I think it is deceptively strong. When you look at it you see just a bunch of cards, but it is very synergistic. There are plenty of Landfall guys, and plenty of ways to cheat lands into play, which also become better since your lands actually do something. Turntimber Basilisk is an all-star in this deck, for example, with a Fetch, a Harrow, Oracle, and Vines enabling some sick interactions. There are enough mana producers and some accelerators to ensure you will be able to kick your Mosquitoes most of the time, which is some nice card advantage. At the same time you have enough late power without them, so you can play them to block early if you have to and you won’t run out of gas. The only thing I wish I had more of was removal — a Disfigure would have been great, for example — but this deck really suited my new mentality about Zendikar Sealed.
I will not talk over every game, but I will highlight the interesting ones:
Round 7: Yuuya Watanabe
My game against Yuuya started with an interesting mulligan decision. My hand was Swamp, Forest, Turntimber Basilisk, two four-drops and two six-drops, on the play (I think – might be slightly different, but something pretty close to that). I decided this needed too good a sequence of cards to compete. I basically need to draw two lands in three draws, ideally a Forest among them, or I am very far behind… so I mulliganed. I am not against keeping two-landers or anything, but this hand just felt it needed a little bit too much, and wasn’t even that good if I did hit two land drops in a row.
I mulliganed into a very good hand of Lacerator plus Survivalist, and he had to play an unkicked Gatekeeper of Malakir to block. I am pretty flooded, while he is stuck on four. Eventually he draws a fifth land, and one Cancel later I die to his Quest for the Gravelord token.
Game 2 is much more interesting, and I think worse players would have lost the game on both sides a lot sooner. I start with Vampire Hexmage and Giant Scorpion, and he has a Soul Star Expedition and his own Hexmage. I don’t really want to trade Hexmages, as I want to keep mine to deal with the Expedition if I have to. Leaving it back on defense essentially accomplishes the same as trading, plus it gives me the option of sacrificing it on his Expedition, since he also cannot attack, so I just keep attacking with my Scorpion. I have three cards in hand, two land and Hideous End. He plays an Eel on turn 4, with two Swamps and two Islands. I draw a land, play my fifth, and pass without playing the Hideous End. On his turn he draws, slams his card into play — a Marsh Flats — and asks me how many cards I have, to which I reply three. Then he makes what I think was a mistake here, and sacrifices his Fetch to get a Swamp and Mind Sludge me for my hand before combat. If he just attacks, I’m perhaps not killing his guy, so that would have been a free six damage for him. Now I have to decide whether I want to kill his guy or use my Hexmage to remove his three counters from Expedition and then kill his guy. I reason that if I just trade my Hexmage, then he is going to use the Expedition to bring back both his Hexmage and Eel, so I might as well remove the counters now — the way he played, I was reasonably sure he had no more lands in hand. I sacrificed my Hexmage and then Hideous Ended his guy.
We exchange some damage, me not drawing anything and him not playing anything, which leads me to believe he has Cancel. At some point I draw a Sphinx of Jwar Isle and a Heartstabber Mosquito, but don’t play either. Then he finally reaches eight mana (his Expedition having three counters again) and plays Lorthos. The board is Quest for the Gravelord with one counter + Umara Raptor + Lorthos + Soulstar Expedition for him, and Giant Scorpion + Vampire Lacerator for me. He is at five life, and I’m at twenty one. I can either play the Sphinx or the Mosquito. If I play the Sphinx, he is going to attack with Lorthos, tap everything, chump block the Sphinx with his Raptor, then next turn attack with Lorthos and bring both his fliers back with Expedition to block again and kill me with another Lorthos activation. I play the Mosquito, kill his Lorthos and trade my Lacerator for the Raptor. This way I removed the chump blocker, so now if he returns Lorthos and replays it he is probably losing to my Sphinx. He returns his Lorthos, but doesn’t replay it — he just replays the Raptor and keeps up Cancel mana. Everything is going fine, until he Whiplash Traps my two guys at the end of my turn, and then hits me for a lot with a Crypt Ripper. I replay one of my guys and he Cancels it, and then I play the Sphinx, but at this point I have to block and trade with his Ripper, and then he has Hideous End on another blocker to kill me. Overall just a very interesting game, and I think we both played it very well.
The other matches of the day were not really interesting, though it was pretty sweet when I had Territorial Baloth in play and then went land, Oracle, Fetchland, Harrow, kill you. I ended the day at a pretty happy 8-1, beating Kazuya Mitamura and David Ochoa as known names.
The first draft started well for me, with Marsh Casualties over nothing and then Torch Slinger over Kor Skyfisher and Mold Shambler. I don’t really like White, as I now think it’s the worst color by far, and it doesn’t pair well with Black, so I ignored the Skyfisher and decided between the other two. I knew the people on my right didn’t really like Green, so I considered the Mold Shambler, but Slinger is just a better card, so I took it. Then I got Umara Raptor over something that was very unexciting in my colors. Then I got a pack with a Lotus Cobra and exactly zero playable cards. Then River Boa followed, and I was solidly in Green, with Blue and/or Black as my secondary colors. At some point I had the choice between Misty Rainforest and Surrakar Marauders, and took the Fetchland, only to get passed another one. My deck ended up like this:
1 Oracle of Mul Daya (told you; opened that one too)
2 Disfigure
1 Marsh Casualties
1 Turntimber Basilisk
1 Whiplash Trap
1 Vastwood Gorger
1 Oran-Rief Recluse
1 Baloth Woodcrasher
1 Summoner’s Bane
1 Sky Ruin Drake
1 Aether Figment
1 Harrow
1 Into the Roil
1 River Boa
1 Territorial Baloth
1 Nissa’s Chosen
1 Hagra Crocodile
1 Baloth Cage Trap
1 Vines of Vastwood
1 Umara Raptor
1 Lotus Cobra ($$)
2 Misty Rainforest ($$$)
1 Soaring Seacliff
Assortment of BUG Lands
I didn’t really know what to think of this deck; when I sat down to register it, Olivier Ruel looked it and said something like “wow, I have no idea if your deck is good or not.” It does look a lot like my Sealed deck… In the end, my record was not the best – 1-2 with it, and out of contention. I feel like I could definitely have won one of my matches, though — the second game, which I lost, was just very complex and involved a lot of situations where I might have messed up to leave my opponent at one life at the end of the game, and then third game I had Oran-Rief Recluse in hand for his Roil Elemental but didn’t draw my sixth land for something like five turns, so I just died to it. Pretty disappointing, but I still had a lot in line so had to go on even if Top 8 was not in reach anymore.
One interesting thing happened in my first match. I was at two life, facing down a 3/2 Intimidate Boartusk Boar. I had Into the Roil for that, but no answer to it if it was replayed. I played Oracle, and saw that the top card was not going to save me — it was a Lotus Cobra, so I knew if I bounced his guy, he would just replay it, I would draw the Cobra and then die in his next attack step. So I decided the only course of play was to attack with my 5/6 guy and hope for a mistake on his part. The first step worked, as he took the damage, bringing him to reach of my 5/6 plus the Vines of Vastwood that was in my hand. The only problem was that now he had four attackers, facing two blockers and two untapped Islands, so he attacks with everyone and I’m just dead. Still, maybe for some reason he attacks only with the Fear guy, and then I can bounce it, draw my Cobra, reveal Soaring Seacliff with Oracle, and attack in the air with Vines… really not likely, but my only choice of action since standing still results in certain death. He untapped and then decided to ask for the text on the trap condition of Lethargy Trap. At this point, someone who is a little bit better with Mind Games than I am could have probably convinced him that he had the Trap, which would mean he has to attack only with his Fear guy. Since I am not any good with that, though, I just told him the card text. In the end he decided to attack with everyone and I just died, but I liked how that played out and how, for a moment, I even had a chance to win a game that was completely lost.
My second draft started with Turntimber Ranger, and from there on I just picked every single ally I could find that was either Green or Blue. The draft was really weird — I got a Nissa’s Chosen 12th, and then my 13th pick was the choice between Vines of Vastwood and Mind Sludge — that meant a very fortune soul had just gotten passed Mind Sludge last pick, in a pretty good table no less. In the end, I also didn’t know how good my deck had turned out, but I was told it was really good, and it proved to be:
4 Oran-Rief Survivalist
2 Umara Raptor
1 Turntimber Ranger
2 Tajuru Archers
1 Joraga Bard
1 Seascape Aerialist
2 Grazing Gladehart
1 Baloth Woodcrasher
1 Nissa’s Chosen
1 Merfolk Seastalkers
2 Timbermaw Larva
1 Primal Bellow
2 Vines of Vastwood
1 Sky Ruin Drake
1 Oran Rief, the Vastwood
17 Islands/Forests
My sideboard included Harrow (which I pick over Misty Rainforest and now regret deeply, since it would have been so much better in my deck — Harrow ended up not making the cut because I felt like I just wanted to play creature after creature, with no time for accelerating and no real need for acceleration or mana fixing. Besides, that would have been my playset of Rainforests right there!) and triple Oran-Rief Recluse, which I didn’t play because I had two Archers and a couple of fliers myself.
My first round opponent had a pretty good deck, with Malakir, double Nighthawk and triple Scute Mob. In the end, though, they all succumbed to the power of Taruju Archers. He managed to get both Nighthawks and Malakir in play at some point, as well as a 150/150 Scute Mob, but I just played two Archers and gunned down his guys. He played Soul Star Expedition and returned two of his guys, but one Ally later they were both dead again and we were onto game 2.
Game 2 he played two of his three Mobs, but I ended up racing him with my gigantic Raptor by killing his blocker with one of the Recluses that I sided in.
My matches 2 and 3 weren’t really interesting, and were just blowouts for either side. My third round opponent’s deck was really good — he was Mono Black with lots of Gatekeepers, Marauders, and Mind Sludges (including the one I passed him last. Must be nice to be Mono Black and get Mind Sludge last…), but he was really unlucky and just never hit his third land in either game 2 or 3. It is partially his fault, though, for keeping one-landers, so I guess he could not complain much. At some point, during game 3, when he finally draws his third land and passes without a play, I know he has Hideous End. I attack, he blocks, I make a motion to play something, pseudo-tap my land, decide to take it back and say “okay, pass priority”. Then at this point he just let both guys trade and did not Hideous End my guy — in the end I didn’t have anything, and he ended up having to Hideous End one of my attackers next turn anyway, but by then it was too late and he couldn’t recover. It was probably not going to make a difference, but if he is going to have to walk into Vines, he might as well do it while he still has a shot at winning the game in case I do not have it. If I do have it, then I’m going to kill him anyway — he only has three lands, so he cannot possibly play around it.
I felt kinda bad for beating my opponent out of contention (he had been paired down), since he was a really nice guy and all his friends were watching and cheering, but this Top 16 meant a lot to me, since I now locked Level 8, so I couldn’t really scoop. Sorry for that, last round opponent!
I was pretty happy with my result, and that tournament also served as some kind of wake up call for me that Green is not really that bad. It is not awesome, but it is better than it seems, and it’s underdrafted. There are benefits for drafting it, and if your table tells you to, you probably should. I still greatly dislike White, though, and it would take a very real signal to make me play it.
I’m going to end this article rather abruptly, since I am now in Rome and there are infinite complications. My adaptor is broken, and my Laptop batteries have disappeared, so my computer has to be plugged 24/7 for it to work (which is kind of hard when your adaptor doesn’t function properly). Gerry Thompson didn’t know this, and pulled the plug out for his own computer when I was in the middle of the article, shutting it down. I also had to change hotels because the room could not fit as many people as we needed, and then we had to be smuggled inside another hotel past very suspicious receptionists, with the help of the Irish players in the room next to ours, plus a somewhat complicated scheme that involved passing backpacks from one person to another, changing clothes in the middle of the street, and putting glasses on to look like someone else. Next week I’ll bring you with tales from Rome, so you’d better hope I do well!
Thanks for reading…
PV