This weekend I attended GP Pittsburgh. I haven’t played MTG since 2005, back
when Ravager Affinity was standard for those of you who play. I had a
great time, really nostalgic for me, and it also made me think about
some aspects of Shadow Era.
Some of my friends only recently stepped into playing MTG, and are just now
getting that first excitement for going to tournaments, drafting,
watching livestreams and listening to podcasts, etc. Since they knew I
used to play this game they would always invite me to their drafts. I
never got back into constructed formats; I played limited formats for
old time’s sake. Lucky for me, GP Pittsburgh was entirely sealed deck
and booster draft.
The drive from New York to Pittsburgh is anywhere between 7 and 9 hours.
But I was with friends, we made lots of stops for random things, and we
listened to Limited Resources, an MTG podcast where every episode they
crack open a pack and read out the cards, then discuss what they would
draft from that pack. The sound of every pack crackling open got me
pumped for the event.
The thing is, I had never played this format before. I had read the card
list a few times, and I watched a youtube series by Brad Nelson, a
professional sponsored player I guess, where he breaks down the cards in
the set. I planned to play some games or watch some livestreams, but
somehow never got around to it unfortunately. I had to wing it.
Friday, after doing non-magic related things and checking out the city, we
decided to drop by the convention center to register, so we could sleep
in for the event on Saturday. Got a DCI promo card for registering, a
sweet alternate-art foil Primeval Titan. We realized that events were
also going on that day, so of course we couldn’t leave without entering a
booster draft for practice. Booster drafts, two headed giants, every
format imaginable was being played, as long as there were enough
players. Every time 8 players filled a que, a booster draft started.
The booster drafts are single-elimination. The winners of these events earn
byes in the main event on Saturday, so they are actually pretty
competitive. I first-picked a Syndic of Tithes, second picked Bascilica
Screecher, Devour Flesh... And then the Orzhov cards stopped coming.
Turns out there were 3 people to my right all drafting Orzhov, cutting
the cards off. Halfway through pack two, everybody realized that Simic
and Gruul were wide open. As I slammed my third Crocanura, I knew I was
going to just move into green. I ended up building a Simic deck. Simic
is Blue/Green, and is based on “evolving” creatures. If a creature has
“evolve”, any time you resolve a creature with higher power or
toughness, it gets +1/+1 (forever). It has access to very little
removal, but it can have powerful creatures and a lot of fliers.
The problem is that Simic is a very delicate deck to balance. You have to
make sure that you draft a perfect creature curve, so that you can
actually hit your evolve triggers. Since I jumped into Simic too late, I
didn’t have a consistent enough creature base. Got eliminated, but
thought it was a good warmup for the next day.
Saturday morning we got up at 7 AM to get breakfast at the hotel before heading
out. There were only two types of people eating at the breakfast buffet
at 7 AM: 1) Families who are getting an early start to their day so they
can do useful and interesting things, and 2) Magic players. We gave the
other players a nod and ate our breakfast.
I was hoping to see other games being displayed at the convention center,
but everything was about magic. We walked around all the vendors, some
of them were artists who had altered the art on the cards in really
interesting ways. Finally, we were given our seat numbers and parted
ways.
6 packs are put in front of me. I open them and am utterly unimpressed
with the cards. Luckily, those aren’t the cards that you use for your
pool. No. We open the packs and have to mark on a checklist all of the
cards in those packs, then pass the cards around the table essentially.
This is done to prevent cheating, players sneaking in cards that weren’t
in their pools.
The whole time we were marking the checklists, everyone at my end of the
table was really animated about a certain cardpool. When it was
discovered that pool ended up being mine, everyone let me know right
away that I had a great cardpool. Since they knew I was a noob, they
hinted to me that my white cardpool was pretty deep. Here’s what I ended
up playing:
7 Mountain
8 Plains
2 Forest
1 Bomber Corps
2 Scorchwalker
1 Ember Beast
1 Wojek Halberdiers
1 Skynight Legionaire
1 Truefire Paladin
1 Court Street Denizen
1 Bascilica Guards
1 Knight of Oblivion
1 Syndic of Tithes
1 Millenial Gargoyle
1 Foundry Champion
1 Gideon
2 Angelic Edict
1 Act of Treason
1 Boros Keyrune
1 Aerial Maneuver
1 Clan Defiance
1 Martial Glory
1 Arrows of Justice
The bombs are Gideon, Foundry Champion, and Clan Defiance. But in addition I
also had a ton of efficient creatures and enough removal. The deck
could easily just deathrace any other deck with the right start, and it
has things to do in the late game too. I splashed for Clan Defiance,
which had its ups and downs. I didn’t have any guildgates or keyrunes to
get my green mana, and a creature like Truefire Paladin I want to play
on turn 2 for RW, so I didn’t want to screw with my mana base too much.
Ultimately, I decided that it’s a card that just wins games, and I had
to splash for it.
The way the GP is set up, the event takes place over two days. To qualify
for Day 2, you have to go X-2. So it’s like an endurance run, where if
you lose 3 times you drop, see how many rounds you can go. I ended up
getting knocked out in the 8th round, not too bad.
Round 1, I played against a Boros splash Gruul deck. I curved out perfectly
in both games, and was really impressed with the speed of my deck. Win
2-0 (1-0)
Round 2, I played against a Gruul splash Boros deck. I remember winning one
game just on the strength of having Gideon and Foundry Champion out. Win
2-0. (2-0)
Round 3, I played vs Orzhov splash Blue. I thought the extort ability was
incredible. If you have something with “extort” out, every time you play
a spell you can pay 1 mana to gain 1 life, and your opponent loses 1
life. It lets you deal damage and heal without having to get your
creatures through. It made me think of Incense of Atonementin Shadow
Era. I think if Incense of Atonment also healed you 1, I think it would
be fun and playable. Anyway, I remember winning a game with a surprise,
“Forest - Clan Defiance for 6”. (3-0)
I was feeling pretty good, then my friend explained to me what was about
to happen. “The sharks are in the pool now.” Most of the professionals
were coming into this tournament with 3 byes. Those byes are earned by
planeswalker points (for participating in earlier tournaments) and from
Friday’s side events. The level of competition was about to spike, I was
due for a loss.
Round 4 I lost 2-1 in a mirror match. While splashing green for Clan Defiance
won me a game in round 3, this time it messed up my mana base. I’m glad
I don’t have to deal with land issues in Shadow Era. (3-1)
I ask my friend, “They break for lunch soon?” Nope. You just grind for
9-10 rounds of swiss. Lucky for me, my deck was really fast. I got
myself a coffee and headed to round 5.
Round 5 I played another mirror match. As it turned out, whoever played
Truefire Paladin first won. It’s such a great creature because it’s
useful at all phases of the game. Turn 2 it’s a solid bear with
vigilance, already worth it. As you proceed into the midgame, it becomes
hard to block for your opponent, as you can pump and give it first
strike. And late game, it’s still a bomb because it can do so much
damage. Great card. (4-1)
I come outside between rounds for a smoke. I see somebody I swear looks
familiar, but I can’t piece it together. (Turns out it was Brad Nelson,
from the youtube series.) I walk up to him. “Don’t you play magic at
Marks?” I assumed he was from my card shop, where they host friday night
magic and booster drafts. “Nope.” I figured I was mistaken. It didn’t
hit me until the next day why he looked familiar.
Round 6 I played against a great Orzhov deck. In game 3, my opponent
definitely outplayed me. He was letting me play into a Merciless
Eviciton. He took damage from 2 of my creatures for several turns,
waiting for me to overextend, which I absolutely did. However, he wasn’t
expecting a Gideon. Gideon comes into play, immediately buff to 7
counters. He was able to boardwipe the creatures, but Gideon is not
destroyed, and wins me the game. (5-1)
Round 7 I played against an awesome Simic deck. He had a great curve with
Cloudfin Raptor, Metropolis Sprite, Crocanura. He eventually got a
Deathcult Rogue (unblockable) with a Stolen Identity ciphered onto it.
The Stolen Identity immediately made two additional copies of his
Adaptive Snapjaw, a 6/2. Every time a copy came into play, it evolved
his other creatures. (5-2)
Round 8 I knew I would have to win out or get eliminated, but it didn’t
happen. We played some great games and traded wins. Game 3, my opponent
had sideboarded a card I definitely was not expecting - Purge of the
Profane. He hit me with it when I had exactly two cards in hand - Arrows
of Justice and Angelic Edict. He proceeded to beat me down from there.
So that was it. Had a great time, thought all of my matches were pretty
good. If I was a little more prepared I think I would’ve built my deck
better. Also combat was awkward for me after playing so much Shadow Era,
since you can’t attack creatures directly, etc. Anyway, Alec Nezin goes
to the same card shop that my friends and I do, he took 2nd place overall,
losing in the finals to a long-time veteran.
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Originally Posted by SamuelJ
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