My experience at GP Toronto was simply amazing. As many of you may already know if you follow this sub reddit, I began playing Magic in March of this year. I’ve put in at least 1500 hours since I started and am a Standard/Sealed/Draft powerhouse (Meaning I don’t totally suck at my FNM’s, okay fine there was that one time I passed a Vampire Nighthawk) Unfortunately for me, this GP wasn’t one of those formats and with the birth of my daughter I didn’t think it was wise to spend countless hours getting ready for this event. I was still able to attend and compete in a few side events instead and would like to share my experiences and of those of my friends with those of you who may not have attended or those who want to attend future large events but might be afraid to.

On Friday I arrived and of course parked on the wrong side of the venue. The event was on the South side and I took the furthest possible parking spot on the North side. Fortunately, a very nice lady who worked for the Congress Centre took pity on me and got a golf cart and gave me a ride through this massive building to the South side.

It’s quite intimidating to walk into a hall with so many people, even though Friday’s crowd wasn’t as big as was expected (according to a few judges that were talking as I walked by) there were still more than a few hundred people. I started looking for familiar faces and was lucky that so many recognized mine and came up to me. I’ll admit it does feel good to have friends at the event to talk to about bad beats, gloat to about amazing plays, and just kick back and relax with when the opportunity allows but walking in and just having someone come up to you is just as big and takes the edge off!

I registered in a $5 Standard tournament that was simply paying the number of wins. 4 rounds and 2-x and up got paid in equal number of packs and foils. (4 wins equals 4 packs and 4 foils and so on) I totally enjoyed the format and got to meet a few cool dudes in the process.

News filtered in that one of our mutual friends lost in the finals of the 1st Modern grinder and another was on his way to 3-0 in the second one. By the end of the night we were lucky to have 2 people from our group win their 3 round byes for Saturday’s Modern GP. Personally, it was nice to get in a $5 Standard tourney but had I not gone on Friday I don’t think anything about my experience overall would have changed.

Saturday was just insane! I believe the official count was over 1000 people registered for the Modern GP! Like I mentioned before I was only there for the side events, and the first event was a $5 draft. You read that right, 5 dollars! As soon as they would hit 8 people they would fire off and then the next one would start up. You keep the cards you draft and payout was 5 packs for 1st, 3 packs for 2nd, and 2 packs for 3rd and 4th. In the two hours that event was held I was able to run 2 drafts and picked up 4 packs in winnings. (I lost in the semi-final each time) I was able to open a Vraska, Temple Garden, Abrupt Decay, and Steam Vents which was totally awesome and worth the $10 total that I spent on both drafts.

Since I have never been to an event of this magnitude I did a little research beforehand and found out about the artists that would attend the event. Anthony Palumbo, Raymond Swanland, and Winona Nelson would be signing cards they had done the art for and even altering them for those who wanted them done. For those of you with Comic Con or Fan Expo experience you know that it’s a lucrative business to meet and greet the actors. It is very business-like and very formal; fortunately, and to my surprise that’s just not the case here. In all fairness Raymond Swanland probably had a 30:1 crowd ratio then his counterparts (not taking anything away from them, they are amazing artists) as he has made cards such as Vapor Snag, Wurmcoil Engine, Wolfir Silverheart, Arid Mesa, and even the GP Toronto Limited edition play mat but even he was very open and receptive to every question and request that he received! For those of you interested and with the talent, you’ll be surprised to know that wizards is always looking for new talent and you can always bring your portfolio out where their V.P is attending and show him your stuff for your chance to join the Wizards team. I can’t draw stick figures, but thought that was still awesome to find out! Check out some of the goodies that I got! Believe me when I tell you the pictures barely do them justice!

It is also important to note that although it is not required to pay for signatures, it is required for alters and anyone with a large number of cards to be signed to tip the artist afterwards. For the most part I was very pleased to see this was followed as I was hearing about the horror stories about guys who bring 100+ cards to sign and walk off with barely a thank you. (Yikes!) Otherwise Wizards might change this to a more businesslike approach and it would create a disconnect between us and the artists. So please be courteous and respectful and do what you can to support these amazing artists!

I was walking around and my friends would stop me to share their stories and for the most part everyone was really excited and happy. I did hear of one poor sport that refused to shake hands after a match loss to my friend because he felt my friend played poorly (even though my friend won) and wanted to make sure my friend knew all about it. I think it supports the position here this subreddit that when you win a match, you wait for your opponent to extend a hand as my friend extended his hand this person reached out and then pulled back with a childish explanation that followed. So as much as I did hear about all the great people and all the great sportsmanship (which is way more prevalent) it is important to remember that you will encounter a few bad apples but to laugh it off with some friends and move into the next round refreshed and ready to rock! Speaking of rocking, my friend Christian S. was able to put himself in a position to win and advance to Day 2. The only person standing in his way? William Jensen. You can read all about that here. Click on Round 9 Feature Match. Christian S vs. William Jensen.

On Sunday, even though two of my friends did make it to day 2 and there were other side events that I wanted to attend, I decided to stay home. (Family life takes precedence, or so I want to believe) However, Saturday is the big day where everyone comes out and should you ever be in a position to attend I highly recommend that you do so. I haven’t even had a chance to mention the Franken Sealed event where you get 7 packs, 1 from each set starting from Innistrad to M13 and 3 packs of Return to Ravnica, make a 40 card deck and go to battle! Crazy shout out to Allan T. for going 5-0 and winning that event! Then there was a Legacy event, then there were $15 drafts, and you get the picture, so much to do, so little time. (Yes 3 days goes that fast!) Get a few friends from your LGS together and make it an all day or weekend event! Important to note, there is always food at the venue but its prudent to bring a few snacks along and a drink or two and follow it up with a great dinner. (Mad shout out to Zet’s!) I’m a local guy so I know all the hotspots!

Up to a certain point being able to play Magic is what it is all about, but the experience and the memories that you get from attending an event like this will be totally worth the cost of admission (especially if you win!) I think even without playing in the main event I was able to accomplish that, and for me anyways that’s what is most important. I can’t wait for next year!

And of course, I can’t forget this guy!