It feels weird writing a tournament report about a limited GP given that: (a) I didn’t make top 8, and (b) all Magic Fests are cancelled for the next two months because of the corona virus. For whatever it’s worth (likely very little), I’ll be discussing my overall experience with Magic Fest Reno, including my main event sealed deck and my Day 2 draft decks. I hope you enjoy it!

Reno is only about two hours from my house in Folsom, which is awesome. Waking up late is never a good start on tournament day, and this was no exception. Luckily, it was Friday, and the tournament I was about to play in was just the PTQ, not the main event. My best friend and original manatutor, Tony Benedetti, (he taught me how to play magic when we were about 10 years old) was meeting at my house and we planned to leave for Reno around 7:30/7:45. I usually get up by 6:30 but I accidentally slept in until 7. Oops. I was just getting out of bed and making a pot of coffee when he knocked on the door. Both my 2 and 5 year old daughters were fast asleep, and my wife looked at me with those big “WTF” eyes as she’d just woken up about two minutes earlier. “Better early than late” was not the response she was looking for, but it was the response she got.

A wife, two kids plus a full-time job equals not a lot of time for magic tournaments. Leaving for a long weekend to play at a Magic Fest is not something I get away with often, usually one to two times a year. In doing so, there is a not-so-subtle sense of indebtedness that materializes upon departure. My spouse is not even remotely interested in magic – she sees it more or less as a children’s card game (not entirely false). When leaving for a tournament, I generally like to start off on the right foot. Usually, this means being extra helpful with chores and such the day or two leading up to the event, especially the morning of. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out this time.

Seeing me answer the door in my underwear, Tony graciously offered to wait in the car while my wife and I attempted to complete our hectic multi-step morning routine, but I wasn’t having it. We’re practically brothers, so having him wait in the car was not happening. Of course, this meant my daughter, who is 5 going on 15, wouldn’t leave her bedroom initially. Then my two year old lost her mind and cried for basically a half hour straight until my wife took her to daycare (which, to be fair, happens about every third day regardless).

Finally, we got on the road. Tony was equipped with his band’s newest tracks which sounded great in my car’s stereo. Pretty soon we were sitting down to open up packs for the 11:00 a.m. Sealed PTQ. My neighbor offered to switch packs with me just before we opened and I declined, which I later learned is a clear punt. As my friend explained later that day, you never offer to trade packs, but you always accept the trade if offered by your neighbor. Lesson learned. I opened a very medium pool, with highlights like Underworld Breach and Nyx Lotus, along with a single rare in each of the other four colors. My best card was Elspeth Conquers Death, but I had no ways of getting it back from the graveyard or blinking it. I failed to take a picture of my pool but ended up building two different decks: RW and UB. Neither deck was very good. I ended up going 2-3 drop. Tony had a mediocre pool as well, but managed to start off 4-0 with RW because he is great at sealed. Sadly, his card quality caught up to him and he lost consecutive win-and-ins to miss top 8.

After he traded in his tickets for a box of Theros packs, we decided to drown our misery in meat. The buffet at the Atlantis, called Toucan Charlie’s, did not disappoint. After Tony made the responsible and reasonable choice to eat a salad, I filled up a third meat plate and he watched in disgust as I made myself sick. We then met up with some friends and decided to open a few sealed pools and talk about them. Both pools were decidedly BW decks, but the discussion about certain cards was interesting. I was lower on Aspect of Lamprey and Pharika’s Libation then some of our friends, which became relevant the next day.

Going into the tournament, my preparation had consisted of twelve MGTO drafts, one MTGO sealed, and one MTGA sealed. I supplemented that with watching Kyle Rose’s stream quite a bit. (TheHamTV) I had seen Ben Stark draft a 57 card green black deck as well, but I personally hadn’t had much success with green in the format. If you’ve spent any time watching TheHamTV, you know that Kyle doesn’t mess around with green cards. For those of you that haven’t had the pleasure of watching TheHamTV, imagine the character Ron Swanson from Parks and Rec sitting in front of a computer playing Magic for 8 hours at a time, and periodically screaming angrily at either his cat, his dog, his wife, or chat. It’s actually great, and I highly recommend it. (He also might just be the best limited player in the world).

This is what I registered on Saturday morning:

I was absolutely thrilled with my pool. I’ve played in four Sealed GP events dating back to 2013 and I believe this is easily the best pool I’ve ever opened at a GP. I rank Polukranos, Unchained as the 4th best card in the set behind only Dream Trawler, Kiora Bests the Sea God, and Ashiok, Nightmare Muse. That, plus Nightmare Shepherd, Elspeth’s Nightmare, Tymaret, Chosen from Death, Renata, Called to the Hunt, and Nessian Hornbeetle meant I was firmly in Green-Black and didn’t see much reason to venture into a third color. The majority of the deck came together pretty quickly. The most questionable cards are Mogis’s Favor, Scavenging Harpy, and the second Nylea’s Forerunner. After 9 rounds with this deck, I decided that the maindeck should have been +1 Temple Thief, +1 Pharika’s Libation, -1 Mogis’s Favor, -1 Nylea’s Forerunner. I was too low on Libation going into the tournament, and too high on Mogis’s Favor, which is more of a sideboard card.

Round 1

As usual, I had no byes and had to play this round. I didn’t take any notes and have zero memory of the game. Fortunately, I won!

Round 2 v. BR

I mulliganed into a two land, six card hand in game one. I did not draw a third land until I discarded a few times. My opponent, meanwhile, had curved Furious Rise into Flummoxed Cyclops and drew two cards per turn until I was dead, which was about the same time as I drew my third land. Game two I kept a seven card, four land hand. I proceeded to draw one more spell in my top eight cards whilst my opponent had a repeat game of curving Furious Rise into multiple four power creatures. I killed the first one, but then drew lots of lands and couldn’t answer the second. While my draws were bad and I likely would have lost regardless, it was a mistake not having Pharika’s Libation maindeck and this match made that very clear.

The round was over quickly, and I was reeling from the loss. I knew losing round two meant I would have to x-1 the rest of the tournament to make top 8. I also felt this pool was my first ever chance to post the 9-0 dream and that dream was now dead. I quickly walked back to our hotel room, closed the drapes, pulled a chair into the darkest corner, closed my eyes, and meditated for about 15 minutes. I highly recommend doing this after a tough loss if you have the time.

I was re-focused and ready to get back in the game. I knew the deck was great and that I could still go 8-1 as long as I didn’t punt any rounds…

Rounds 3 and 4. Again, no memory of these matches. Apparently, I won both of them and was now 3-1.

Round 5 v. UW

My opponent won game one out of nowhere with a Sea God’s Scorn bouncing three of my creatures and alpha striking for the win. The only thing I remember vividly about this match is punting that game. I had a Renata, Called to the Hunt and Nessian Hornbeetle out and one other green pip such that Renata, Called to the Hunt was a 4 power creature. I missed the Beetle trigger and didn’t call a judge like I should have. The beetle is not a may ability and I think I would have gotten the counter since I caught it basically right away. My Beetle being a 3/3 instead of a 4/4 the next turn meant that I couldn’t cast Warbriar Blessing and kill his 2/4, which was a big deal in the game and likely the difference. So much for going 8-1.

Sitting 3-2 was a bummer, but I was still live for top 8 and felt good about the draft portion if I could get to day two. That said, misplaying into a loss always tilts me a bit and this was no exception. I didn’t have time to meditate, so I just had to suck it up and win out.

Rounds 6 – 9

We did it! I managed to win the next 4 rounds in a row and was now sitting 7-2 and live for top 8. Not exactly how we drew it up, but finishing 7-2 after starting 3-2 felt pretty good. I wish I could remember the last four rounds better but I can’t. I had one good play in game three of round 8 v. BG where I saved my Omen of the Dead in hand for almost the entire game and was able to save Polukranos, Unchained from being exiled on the same turn my opponent killed it by responding to his Scavenging Harpy trigger and returning it to my hand. Round 9 was also v. Black- Green and I drew better.

Overall, the team was in good shape. Myself, Tony Bennedetti, Isaac Sears, Jay Trojan, Mike Clifford, and our friend Chris Bass all made Day Two, which was awesome. Most of us went to dinner at the Atlantis Steakhouse where they had excellent warm bread along with more delicious meat. While I sadly missed out on Karaoke somewhere downtown, I was damn tired and wanted a good night’s sleep anyway.

DAY TWO

Sadly, I’ve never had the pleasure of playing at the Pro Tour. For me, the most fun thing I get to do in Magic is drafting on Day two at a GP. I just love it.

I was in Pod 8 to start Day Two. Seated to my right and passing to me for most of the draft was Legacy guru, Eric Landon. Pack one pick one was between Treacherous Blessing, Dreamstalker Manticore, and Eutropia the Twice-Favored. I’ve seen Kyle Rose take the Manticore over Eutropia, but in my opinion Eutropia has the higher upside. Treacherous blessing is a fine card, but there is a decent amount of card draw in the set already and I don’t think it is good enough to fight over black. My next two picks were both Renata, Called to the Hunts, followed I believe by a fourth pick Omen of the Sea. At that point, I felt like I wanted to be an aggressive UG enchantment deck but the cards didn’t quite flow for that deck to come together. Interestingly, I ended up seeing three Mischievous Chimeras and could have had a very good UR deck had I taken the Manticore over the Eutropia pick 1, pack 1.

In pack two I remember my first three picks were all Warbriar Blessings. Pack three, I opened Kiora Bests the Sea God which made me want to skew more controlling. The most difficult pick in the draft was pack 3 pick 4, which was between my third Eutropia the Twice-Favored and my first Nexus Wardens. At that point, my deck was very slow and midrange, with lots of enchantments and a great top end, but hardly anything to do in my first two turns. Playing Eutropia as your first play is not great even if the rest of the deck is powerful. Ultimately, I took Eutropia #3 and was lucky to get passed a Nexus Wardens pick 7 or 8.

Here’s what I registered:

I knew the deck was slower than I wanted it to be and was really just hoping to fade a really aggressive RW deck and survive long enough to cast my good cards.

Round 10 v. RW Hakdos

In game one my opponent played turn 4 Haktos the Unscarred on the draw, and it had protection from everything except 4 mana ccs. I upkeep scryed with Omen of the Sea, praying for one of my four outs and bricked. My opponent kept adding things to the board while I did irrelevant things. I drew One with the Stars the turn before I died but it was already too late.

Game two he had a slow start and I was able to play my best card, make an 8/8 hexproof, and win the game.

Game three my opponent was on the play and curved out perfectly. It was not close. I’m pretty certain he had Pious Wayfarer, into Daxos, Blessed by the Sun, into Daybreak Chimera, into Sunmane Pegasus, into Captivating Unicorn, into Heliod’s Pilgrim plus Dreadful Apathy and I was very dead and very sad.

At 7-3, the Top 8 dream was over. I was bummed, but there was still an X-1 and I think two X-2s in our group so not all hope was lost.

Round 11 v. GW Enchantments

I had played maybe one match online against this type of deck going into the tournament so I wasn’t very familiar with it. My opponent had multiples of Transcendent Envoy, Karametra’s Blessing, and Hydra’s Growth. He also had at least one copy of Mirror Shield. I won game one easily after casting Return to Nature on a Transcendent Envoy wearing three different enchantments.

Game two was ugly, as I believe we both punted the game away. My opponent had Envoy out and four lands. He cast Setessan Training and then Hydra’s Growth on his Envoy, but he tapped his mana wrong, leaving up Forest instead of Plains. He also had Alseid of Life’s Bounty in play. Plains would have represented not only the Alseid ability, but also Karametra’s Blessing, and Indomitable Will. Relevant cards in my hand were Warbriar Blessing and Moss Viper. I had Eutropia and Skola Grovedancer in play. The clear line was to play Viper, then have it fight the Envoy with Blessing. That way he is forced to let Envoy die, or save the Envoy with Alseid by giving it protection from green which will cause the Hydra’s Growth to fall off. After thinking all of this through, I foolishly made a last second decision without thinking it through at all. For some reason, I remember thinking I wanted the counter on Eutropia so that it wouldn’t die as easily to a fight spell later. Rather than play the Viper, I proceeded to cast Blessing on Eutropia, putting the counter on Eutropia, and having it fight the Envoy. PUNT! As soon as I declared my action I realized how badly I’d just thrown the game away. My opponent stared at the board for an agonizingly long time before using Alseid’s ability to give his envoy protection from Blue. Sad face.

Game three was long but ultimately my 8/8 hexproof was enough to win the game.

Round 12 v. Eric Landon’s UWb Dream Trawler.dec

I was lucky he never found Trawler in game one, which went several turns longer than it should have. I was worried about dying to a top deck answer to the One with the Stars I had locking down his Brine Giant when I was at 5 life. I didn’t see any counterspells during the match which was surprising. He was splashing black for Erebos’ Intervention. The only other cards I remember seeing were Thirst for Meanings, multiples of both the blue and white omens, Rumbling Sentrys, and Lagonna-Band Storyteller to get back a white omen. There were probably 5 turns or so where he was able to block my lethal attack and survive, and a few additional turns where I held back a blocker that should have been a lethal attacker. If he had drawn the Trawler at any point during those last few turns he would have won the game easily. Of course, at that point I didn’t yet know he had the Trawler.

Game two he stalled on mana for a few turns and fell too far behind. My deck was slow, but not that slow. He ultimately cast Trawler and was forced to chump block with it immediately, and then the game was over. I was 9-3 and feeling very ready to 3-0 a draft.

For the second draft I was in Pod 6. I opened Mantle of the Wolf and can’t remember what the next best card was. My second pick was Drag to the Underworld. I remember feeling like neither Green nor Black seemed particularly open in pack one as I ended up with two Ichthyomorphosis, and a One with the Stars in the middle of the pack. Fortunately, I was rewarded heavily in pack two with a second pick Elspeth’s Nightmare and a fifth pick Woe Strider. By the end of pack three the deck felt pretty good. I registered the following:

I found it hilarious that despite neither playing with nor watching any green decks do well in the format, I was about to play my 12th-15th rounds of Magic with green, which I still believe is easily the worst color in the format.

Round 13 v. UW

My opponent was on UW commons and came very close to beating me in game three. Game one he cast several Vexing Gulls and I was dead. Game two I was extremely lucky to draw Nexus Wardens vs. his Vexing Gull and Sunmane Pegasus draw or else I would have lost. I can’t remember which removal spell I had for his second flyer, but the Wardens saved me for several turns before I could win the game. The Plummet and second Pharika’s Libation out of the sideboard did work in game three.

Round 14 v. BW

My opponent in game one had Nightmare Shepherd in play. After I killed his Daxos, Blessed by the Sun, he exiled it with Shepherd and made a Daxos token. I thought the token would die because he had no white pips in play and then he pointed out he had an Altar of the Pantheon, which meant his white devotion was at least one. He then called a judge to clarify the token’s power/toughness. The judge explained that the token was a 1/1 copy of Daxos that still had the text from Daxos on it. My view was that the explanation was clearly that the token was a 1/1, but my opponent understood the exact same explanation as meaning his token had toughness equal to his white pips. Three turns later, I cast Mogis’s Favor on the token to kill it before attacking for lethal and he responded that it resolved. We then disagreed about whether the token was dead and again called the judge. This was by far the longest Judge ruling I’ve ever been involved in. We got a different judge, but he consulted with the previous judge, and ultimately ruled it was a 1/1 regardless of the white pips because of the text of Shepherd saying it’s a 1/1 token. My opponent then appealed the ruling, and got the same result, but he was allowed to respond to the Mogis’s Favor which was rewound to be on the stack because of the misunderstanding, which I was fine with. We then got a 15 minute time extension. My opponent then felt we should get more than a 15 minute extension because it was game one and we only had like 10 minutes left in the round so he called the judge again and asked for more time which was denied. I then won the game that turn.

In game two he cast Elspeth Conquers Death, then got it back with Lagonna-Band Storyteller and recast it, and I conceded on the spot.

In game three he stalled on land and I crushed him in about 5 minutes and we finished before the round ended after all.

Round 15 v. GRb

My opponent was on Jund with a Mantle of the Wolf of his own. Our decks were fairly similar and the main difference between them in game one was that he had two Relentless Pursuits in his deck. He lost to decking after an extremely long game 1. Game two he didn’t have any early plays while I had multiple creatures on board. The game ended around turn 8. I cast Drag to the Underworld on his first threat in response to him trying to cast Iroas’s Blessing on it. Then he attempted to cast Mantle of the Wolf on his next creature and I was ready with Final Death in response.

12-3 was good enough for 13th place, $500, and 40% of a PT invite. It’s also my best finish to date at a Grand Prix! Although I don’t get the opportunity to play real life magic often, nothing gets me more excited than Limited GPs. Overall, team Manatutors finished the event with 5 day twos, 3 top 64s, and 1 top 16. Not too shabby!

Be safe and do your best to stay healthy during this bizarre time.