You’re sitting at your desk at work. Mouse in your right hand. As you just look over to check if your mouse is there, you now glance at the time in the lower right of the screen.
Not 5 p.m. yet, but for the next fifteen minutes or so, forget about the fact you’re at work, forget about everything else, and drift away. Picture yourself following me around my journey from start to finish at Grand Prix Toronto.
It was the Thursday before the Grand Prix, and I was excited to embark on this great journey up to Toronto. The feeling of knowing I wasn’t coming to work on Friday was almost indescribable. However, missing a Friday at work doesn’t come without a downside. Free Chipotle and getting to chat with the intern is hard to pass up on. But, I was ready; ready for the big win, the fame, the good times, and of course all the women Owen Turtenwald and I would pick up in Toronto.
Owen recently turned 21, and I took him under my wing as he’s like the brother I never wanted. I even stole his new black and white plaid button-down shirt at Nationals to give the whole family feel to us.
Originally our plan was to leave at 8 a.m. meaning we would get to Toronto around 4 p.m., which would give us enough time to get some food and go out. Our plans changed, and we ended up leaving at 1 p.m. This wasn’t what I wanted, but I was willing to compromise.
The car consisted of me and three others.
Josh Ravitz (the driver), a sarcastic, old veteran to the game. The first time I met him I overheard a kid at the local store ask him for a ride home. Josh responded with, “I’m 13.”
Jon Sonne (the ringer), a veteran to the game and somewhat of a machine when it comes to Magic. He has results that are more impressive than my stories (hmmm)…………
With seven Grand Prix Top 8s, a Pro Tour Top 4, and over 200 Pro Points, Sonne is always a threat when he shows up to any Magic Tournament. He left the game back in 2008 and became a poker pro. His poker resume includes folding pocket queens on the Q 5 3 5 board and stacking an old lady for her entire social security check (twice).
Bobby Peacock (the token Asian), a good friend of mine that I became friends with last year. He’s also a poker pro but still can’t leave behind the love he has for Magic. His greatest Magic accomplishments include beating Kai Budde (dice roll) and selling me a box of draft sets at Nationals 2004.
The trip started out “smoothly” with us making a stop at The Olive Garden. I’m a fan of the Olive Garden mainly for the all-you-can-eat breadsticks and never-ending salad.
I think this is what draws in most of their customers. A lot of things don’t make sense at the Olive Garden I’m sure, but the one thing I instantly noticed is the following.
Another example is from Victoria’s Secret. They recently had a promotion that if you spend seventy-five dollars or more, you’d get a “free” gift bag with some random goodies in it. What didn’t make sense is that you can go and spend the seventy-five dollars, wait a while, then return the merchandise you got while being able to keep the “free” gift bag.
This isn’t stealing; it’s a loophole in the system. Kind of like the point I made last week with judges putting standings up in the last round for three minutes then taking them down, but not before several players had already taken pictures of them with their iPhone.
This was one reason why they made “scouting” legal; it was too tough too enforce and just overall didn’t make sense.
Think about it. After years and years of people bringing their own Sealed decks to tournaments, they finally took action to stop it. They now make the player across from each other check and verify the decklist before the swapping process starts.
I mean, how long did it take for police officers to realize that when they pull over someone, they should approach from the passenger side to avoid a possibility of a vehicle swiping them? By approaching the driver’s side, they’re only inches away from speeding traffic. This really seems so obvious to me; yet just recently this change was made. I think what causes the lack of people realizing simple stuff like this is because people don’t use common sense anymore.
Have you ever watched the WSOP and seen some hillbilly from the Midwest make the final table? Everyone’s first impression is that this guy obviously just got lucky. Sure, to last seven days or so in a seven-thousand-man field, he did get lucky, but you also have to factor in that he may think more simplistically, which actually might give him an edge in a field full of players trying to outthink each other. He may be aware that these players may be overall more intelligent, have played millions more hands them him, and overall have more poker experience than him, but instead of trying to compete in a field where he can’t; he instead makes his own field and kind of flies under the “metagame.”
Life is one big metagame; that’s what people don’t understand, and for you to have a better chance to succeed in what you’re trying to do, knowing your strengths and the metagame can really take you a long way.
I can give you another real-life example or just keep it as simple as deck choice. You have a slightly better build of Faeries that you got from some pro which you’ve never played before. However, it’ll still leave you disadvantaged when playing against someone with a weaker build who has been playing the deck nonstop for weeks and has always played aggro-control-type decks.
The best thing you can get out of this section is: know what you’re good at, and press it to the max, and when everyone’s doing one thing, don’t always instantly follow; instead find out why they’re doing it and see if it works for you. Also, don’t overlook common sense, and don’t be afraid to learn something from someone who may take a more simple approach to things.
Back at the Olive Garden…
The waitress comes over. She’s cute with dark hair, 5’5″, and has a body that would make Serra Angel embarrassed to wear her two-piece suit to the beach. She sees Ravitz taking test draws with his Mono-Red Burn deck, and she politely asks, “What’s that?”
Ravitz responds with, “Red Deck Wins… Are you stupid?”
There was an awkward silence for about ten seconds, which felt like an hour until Bobby yelled out, “I’ll take a Diet Coke,” knocking over his glass of water all over Ravitz’s deck.
At this point, Sonne just shook his head, untucked his napkin from his shirt, got up, and left. We all followed and ended up at a Taco Bell next door.
After riding with the windows down for the rest of the trip in forty-degree weather, we got to Toronto. At this point it was almost midnight. We had Bobby walk in to check us in and find out where we could park. He came back to tell us he told the lady that four people were staying with us (classic amateur move), and we were going to get charged extra.
We dropped our stuff off in the room and headed back downstairs to look for some food. I approached the guy behind the counter and asked him where food places were that would be open this late. He brushed me off and told me to ask the bell captain.
Now this seemed a little bizarre and disrespectful.
Did this man not eat? (No)
Did he just start working here and didn’t know the area? (Unlikely)
Did he think he was too important to answer a question like this? (Yes)
This guy rubbed me the wrong way, and he was about to have it. I was about to tilt off and tell this guy to hide his kids, hide his wife, and hide his husband.
But I managed to stay calm and politely walk away.
The bell captain barely spoke English but told us there was a Subway to the left. When we got outside, we looked to the right and about a half a mile down the road, we saw a Tim Hortons. I asked, what’s a Tim Hortons? Ravitz said it’s like a Denny’s, so we decided to walk there.
When we finally got there, it was far from a Denny’s and looked more like a homeless man’s Dunkin’ Donuts. They wanted to turn around, but I was tilted, and I wanted some food.
I walked in and up to the counters, and there I reached in my pocket and pulled out all the money I had (25 cents).
I slammed my rusty 2007 quarter on the blue counter top (no pun intended), looked the guy square in the eye, and said “What can I get with this?” He looked back and gently placed a Canadian quarter down and chuckled liked he thought he was some sort of funnyman comedian.
Now my buttons were being pushed to what seemed to be the max; only ten hours into the trip, and I was close to the border of losing it. Between the extra $50 I would have to pay for the room due to Bobby’s blunder, missing out on going out with Owen, and the man behind the counter who wouldn’t answer my question. I decided that someone was going to be put to the test, and that someone was Tim Hortons’ funnyman.
I picked up the quarter and asked, “What’s the most you’ve ever lost on a
coin toss?”
The man was confused and didn’t quite understand the question.
He just said, “Eh?” with a confused look.
The rest of the conversation went something like this.
Me:
The most. You ever lost. On a coin toss.
Him:
I don’t know. I couldn’t say.
Me:
Call it.
Him:
Call it?
Me
:
Yes.
Him
:
For what?
Me
:
Just call it.
Him
:
Well, we need to know what we’re calling it for here.
Me
:
You need to call it. I can’t call it for you. It wouldn’t be fair.
Him
:
I didn’t put nothin’ up.
Me
:
Yes, you did. You’ve been putting it up your whole life; you just didn’t know it. You know what date is on this coin?
Him
:
No.
Me
:
Me either, but rumor is it’s been traveling three years to get here. And now it’s here. And it’s either heads or tails. And you have to say. Call it.
Him
:
Look, I need to know what I stand to win.
Me
:
Everything.
Him
:
How’s that?
Me
:
You stand to win everything. Call it.
Him
:
Alright. Heads then.
[The coin rotates in the air for what seems to be hours, a bounce on the counter and a spin later…]
Me
:
Well done. Now take my quarter and give me twelve jelly donuts.
[He nods politely.]
Me
:
Don’t put it in the register, sir. Don’t put it in register. It’s your lucky quarter.
Him
:
Where do you want me to put it?
Me
:
Anywhere not in the register. Where it’ll get mixed in with the others and become just a coin
[I take out one of the donuts, take a bite, and let the jelly drip on my jacket; the man behind the counter hands me a napkin. I accept.]
I was now in the zone ready to win this tournament. Ready to get MODO back for stealing hundreds of hours from me along with thousands of dollars. I was going to win this tournament, and no one could stop me.
The morning came, and we planned to head to the site; since we were about a few miles away, we decided to take a bus to the site.
The four of us get on. Sonne and I headed to the back while Bobby and Josh found a seat up front. Now this is when things got interesting. I was talking to Sonne about his preference in sleeves, and he informed me that Dragon Shields were his favorite. He then told me that his friends from the PTQs (Josh Taylor and Ryan Phraner) actually sleeved his deck for him. Before I got a chance to say anything, a younger looking kid sitting across from us blurted out.
“Why’s it gotta be a PTQ player sleeving your deck?”
The rest of the conversation went something like this.
Sonne:
What? You want to sleeve my deck? How much you charge?
Random kid:
[takes off his Ray-Bans] What did you say, old man?
Sonne:
Old man? Why are you getting all defensive? I’m not prejudiced; it could be a GP player sleeving my deck. As long as it gets sleeved, anyone could sleeve for me.
Random kid:
[turns, the shine of his PTQ pins on the side of his bag nearly blinds me] Get to the front of the bus, old man. Before I kick your a**.
Sonne:
[gets up somewhat shaking at this point] Oh no you won’t… Oh no you won’t; I’m a ten-year Pro Tour veteran.
[Sonne heads for the front of the bus]
[Random kid follows]
The random kid then muttered something, and the next thing I saw was Sonne busting out a turn 3 Sedge Troll (Beta), followed by a turn 4 Erhnam Djinn (Judgment), beating this kid and his planeswalkers to a pulp. After the game, the kid was so embarrassed he got off at the next stop and skipped the GP.
As it turned out, a lady in the back of the bus was filming everything that was happening.
It was good to see that the game still had some upstanding citizens that wouldn’t be disrespected by these new punk kids.
Jon has recently earned the name “Vietnam Jon” and has become a YouTube viral hit overnight.
We finally arrived at the site and registered. I ran into Brock Parker, and we had some chats.
He told me he was prooooo; I nodded in agreement.
After a few more words with Brock, we parted ways.
Seating went up for deck registration. After a few passes to the left and a failed attempt trying to get the entire room of 1500 gamers to do a song and dance to Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA”/Biggie remix (C’mon guys, can we please make this happen in Nashville? Evan Erwin, can we make this happen?), I got to deckbuilding.
I saw that I had a few real good cards, Koth, Mimic Vat, double Shatter, and double Skinrender. Unfortunately, the rest of my cards were subpar, and I ended up with exactly 23 payables in R/B.
I thought about going three colors to make it a slightly stronger build, but that would mean Koth couldn’t really be played; plus I thought to myself that I didn’t want to worry about not being able to reliably cast my Skinrenders.
After turning in my decklist, I immediately headed over to Vietnam Jon who’d calmed down since the bus incident. He informed me that he would’ve gone three colors. I played a few games against his poison deck, and he seemed to be the favorite. Which was basically irrelevant in a 1500-man, split tournament; I mean what were the odds we ended up playing?
After my two byes (due to my lackluster performance the past year and missing out on level 4), I saw that in round 3, I was in fact playing against Vietnam Jon.
I offered a prize split, and he declined.
Round 3
Game 1 looked good as he decided to keep a one-lander on the draw and discarded for a turn before he hit his second land drop. At this time the judge came over and informed us that we had a feature match. We left the game the way it was, stacking the current board on top of our libraries with our hand face down on top of that. After the judge tried to send us the wrong way from the feature match area, we eventually found it and continued playing.
Jon started to draw out of his mana screw, but he was down to single digits, and my hand of removal spells cleared the way, and I finished him off. On the outside, I told him good game and sorry about the mana screw. Inside, however, I was doing cartwheels into a river of chocolate; beating Jon Sonne meant:
DCI… ATM… Rating points… lots and lots of titties…
For game 2 he switched into his “B” deck which was a U/W/R Control deck with Wurmcoil Engine. Again I was one step ahead the whole game, then got down a Mimic Vat to finish him off.
I offered a prize split; he declined.
3-0
Round 4
I was paired up against a Florida player I recognized from San Juan where we did some funny drafts against each other.
Game 1 I got down some early beaters, and on turn 5 I decided to Shatter his 4/2 first striker, which turned out to be a mistake. My general take on this format is that you should save your removal for only things you can’t deal with. Me using my Shatter on his 4/2 was just greedy, as I was in a pretty good position, and I just wanted to try to “win faster,” which is often a bad idea in this format, since there are so many cards that can just turn a game completely around. This is one of the reasons I think it’s comical to use a removal spell on a Myr. I think it’s bad, and people who do this play scared.
Now there is a huge difference between scared and cautious. Killing a Myr on turn 2 because you think they might have a four-drop and curve out on you is playing scared. Not attacking alone with your best creature because you think they might have Dispense Justice is playing cautiously. You can’t imagine how many games, poker hands, interviews, and girls I’ve punted away due to “playing scared,” and I won’t let it happen to you.
There’s a line from a 50 Cent song that goes “Something something something the wolves smell fear.”
Fear equals scared, which in turn, equals a lack of confidence.
I remember what I told Owen about a year ago right before GP Minneapolis, which was probably the best thing I ever told him.
I said for the next 24 hours, I wanted him to walk around like he was the most confident person in the world. Everything he would do, confidence would glow around him. How he drew his card, shook his opponent’s hand, spoke to a judge, and shuffled his deck, all the way to how he ordered something at the restaurant.
He ended up making Top 8 in Minneapolis.
I managed to pull out the next two games due to him being short on mana and me getting good draws. I was now 4-0 and feeling pretty good about my chances.
4-0
Round 5
I played a nice kid named Kai; this round was extra special, as I got to sit next to Eric Froehlich or “Efro” as some people know him as. He however had become a bit of a tease since his Top 8 of US Nationals, promising me he’d take me to Chuck E. Cheese’s but has yet to come through on his promise.
I’m not quite sure what happened in the first two games, as I was daydreaming of taking a picture with me, Efro, and that giant rat who represents Chuck E. Cheese and making it my Facebook profile picture (line for that picture is fifty likes), but it was game 3, and my opening hand on the play was as followed:
Swamp, Swamp, Swamp, Shatter, Galvanic Blast, Instill Infection, Skinrender. Pretty much the ideal hand, but by turn 5 I was facing down a few infect creatures stuck on three lands and lost.
4-1
Round 6
I looked and saw I’d be playing Dave Howard a.k.a. Smokes McCloaks from Magic Online.
This was a back-and-forth match. Game 1 I won a long, drawn-out game; for game 2 I was on the draw, and my hand was six lands and a Mimic Vat. I thought about it for a while (two seconds) and kept. Now in hindsight maybe it was a mulligan. My deck did have a ton of removal, and I didn’t see many ways for him to deal with it throughout our long game 1. The game ended up being somewhat close, but I drew a handful of extra lands and flooded out, as one could’ve expected and lost to a True Conviction.
For game 3 I decided to board in my white, since I wanted Arrest to deal with his big green guys and the Razor Hippogriff in case he was able to deal with my Mimic Vat, which is pretty much one of the most game-dominating artifacts in the format; I also got a Revoke Existence and a few other solid white cards.
Smokes passed with two up, and I dropped a Copper Myr; on his turn 3 he played a Revoke Existence on it. I was glad because I had an Arrest in my hand and got to use it on his 4/4 green metalcrafter, which soon became an 8/8. The game again went long, and he was down to four life with me have an army of 1/1s and 2/2s against his fewer, bigger guys.
I was one damage short of killing him for two turns, drawing back-to-back lands off the top. I desperately needed something, and I drew into my black Replica. I immediately sacked it but drew two more blanks. I only had about fifteen cards left and had five outs that would win me the game. He now had board control, and I had only one chance left. I drew another land and scooped.
This game was tilting as I thought for sure I should’ve won, but it wasn’t meant to be. Overall I was happy with my plays in the match, so I couldn’t really be that upset.
(Congrats to Smokes on his Top 8.)
4-2
My back was against the wall, as I needed to 3-0 to make Day 2.
Round 6
Round 7 I got paired against Martin Juza.
I’d never played against him before, and the only words I exchanged with him were in San Juan when he told me some other players were looking to funny draft. Turns out Juza is a real cool guy and extremely intelligent. He reminds me a lot of Jelger Wiegersma, and Jelger has been one of my good friends for many years.
My deck was much better, but Martin played very well, putting him in a spot where in game 2 he could’ve won had he topdecked a Mountain, despite me having a Mimic Vat with a Skinrender imprinted on it. The only really interesting thing that happened was early in game 1. I was sending in a random 3/3 into his 5/5 (I had Grasp in hand). Juza was thinking about blocking, but I wrote down 17 on his life pad before he did anything. He smiled and said, “How do you know I’m going to take it?” I just smiled back and played a random 2/2, leaving open Swamp and Mountain instead of Swamp Swamp.
I know Juza is good, real good. So my thinking was if I left open Swamp Swamp, it would just be way too obvious that I had Grasp. There was some merit to think some reverse psychology could work here, but I thought the point was past that. Plus I thought if I left opened Mountain and Swamp, he’d now also put me on Shatter, which I didn’t have in my hand.
It was a pleasure playing against Juza and was now in a spot where I just needed to win two more to make Day 2.
5-2
Round 8
I got paired against Gabe Walls. Gabe is a friend of mine that I have a great amount of respect for. I was looking forward to a good match, but his deck was pretty bad, and I won 2-0. LSV was watching the match from my side; I asked if he would’ve played it the same way. He said “No,” which probably means I messed up.
6-2
Round 9
In the last round I get paired against Matt Vienneau.
We had some chitchat about the Hall of Fame voting and began to shuffle. As we were about to start, we got called over to the feature match area. We chitchatted some more as we reshuffled and asked the judge for a time extension. He responded with “no,” which seems wrong, since we had to walk over, reshuffle, etc. all while the clock was running.
We asked to appeal, and the head judge ended up giving us a few extra minutes in case we needed them.
Game 1 I was on the draw with a one-lander (no Myr). I thought about keeping as I often do, but I decided to mulligan, so I lost.
I was down a game and thought strongly about boarding into the white but chose to stay two colors.
This time Matt took a mulligan, and I baited out a Shatter with a turn 3 Palladium Myr which cleared the way for my MVP (Mimic Vat). I ended up winning a few turns later.
Game 3 he was mana stalled while I was at five, and by the time he drew out of it, he was on two and was facing down one too many guys.
7-2
I made Day 2; I was happy; I was relieved.
I had visions of throwing a GP victory party when I got home. Everyone would come. I’d have cannoli and music. I’d tell my Conley Woods story. I’d be the hero.
I quickly lost my next three rounds and dropped at 7-5 to play the MODO Champs with Juza back in his room. After the internet crashed one too many times, I dropped and headed back to the site. An appearance on GGsLive and a funny draft later, we were gone, not to return to Toronto for a very long time. And that’s pretty much where the story ends.
This week I’ll be going to the StarCityGames.com Open in Boston. Will I win? Who knows? But I’ll be trying to brew up some good decks for the next week.
Well, you had your fifteen minutes of fun. Now go do something productive, and do it with the most confidence you’ve ever had. ‘Cause when it comes down to it, we all can be proooooooooooooooooo.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the journey. Respond in the forums, and let me know your thoughts.