Around the World in Three Grand Prix - Part 3

Alex Shvartsman

Having rested for a couple of days after a twenty hour long flight home from South Africa, I embarked on a slightly shorter, thirteen hour long flight to Narita, Japan.

Although the flight itself is almost reasonable (when you get used to traveling often that is) traveling to most Japanese Grand Prix is more difficult than the flight alone. Having gotten off the plane, I had to take an hour-long train trip from the airport to the central station in Tokyo, and then a three-hour long trip on "Shinkansen" (Bullet Train) to get to Shizuoka. All in all, close to twenty hours of traveling one way - and this isn't one of the locations where I would have to fly from Tokyo to get to! I arrived fairly late on Friday, giving me basically just enough time for dinner and lots of sleep, to get me ready for the dual task of selling cards and playing on Saturday.

The previous Japanese Grand Prix gathered well over 1200 people, and I was a little apprehensive of just how many rounds I would have to play on Saturday. The turnout was actually pretty standard for Japan - a bit over seven hundred players. Most other countries would consider a tournament this size record-breaking, but Magic is huge in Japan. They continually break records when it comes to event attendance and boast the largest tournament community outside of United States. This amount of players called for eight rounds on Day 1, followed by six more on Day 2.

Since the overwhelming majority of the players at this tournament were Japanese, sealed deck portion would use Japanese language product. However, the tournament organizers were very considerate to dozen or so foreigners in attendance. We were seated at a separate table and given English language product, making it far easier for us to register the decks we were about to play! Several of the English speaking players were Americans residing in Japan, but other foreign players came as well - including Taiwan's Tobey Tamber and, most surprisingly, Olivier Ruel from France.

Olivier explained that he had no intention to go to Japan until a few days beforehand. He walked over to his travel agency in order to find out about the cost of airfare to Brisbane, Australia. He was unable to find cheap airfare, but they offered him a great deal on a trip to Japan - which he grabbed! Olivier arrived in Shizuoka very late in the evening. He had no idea as to where to find a hotel or other players, so he took a taxi to the tournament site, which was of course closed at this late hour. Olivier camped out near the front door, and was eventually joined by several early-arriving Japanese players, who even offered him one of their blankets. He slept a bit and spent some time playing Standard with the other guys, until the doors finally opened around 8 am.

Anyway, it seems most of the foreign players ended up with pretty poor decks. I can't speak for the others, but my deck was certainly not broken:

1 Afflict
2 Cabal Inquisitor
1 Crypt Keeper
2 Decompose
1 Dirty Wererat
1 Dusk Imp
2 Fledgling Imp
1 Frightcrawler
1 Gravestorm
2 Mind Burst
1 Whispering Shade
1 Zombie Assassin

2 Aboshan's Desire
1 Cephalid Looter
1 Chamber of Manipulation
1 Escape Artist
1 Immobilizing Link
1 Psionic Gift
1 Scrivener
2 Syncopate
1 Think Tank
1 Thought Nibbler

1 Acceptable Losses
1 Barbarian Lunatic
1 Battle Strain
1 Blazing Salvo
1 Demolish
1 Dwarven Strike Force
1 Firebolt
1 Mad Dog
1 Rites of Initiation
1 Tremble

1 Cartographer
1 Chatter of the Squirrel
1 Diligent Farmhand
1 Druid Lyrist
1 Gorilla Titan
1 Krosan Avenger
1 Moment's Peace
1 Nantuko Disciple
1 Refresh
3 Seton's Desire
2 Springing Tiger
1 Skyshooter
1 Wild Mongrel

1 Confessor
1 Dedicated Martyr
1 Embolden
1 Hallowed Healer
1 Life Burst
1 Mystic Penitent
2 Ray of Distortion
1 Second Thoughts
1 Sphere of Law

1 Shadowblood Egg

2 Thaumatog

1 Abandoned Outpost
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Bog Wreckage
1 Seafloor Debris

The one thing that was immediately apparent is that I would have to play green. At around 10-12 playable cards it was by far the deepest color available to me. Although there weren't really many amazing cards in green that make you stand up and take notice, not using it as one of my two main colors I simply would not be able to put together a 21-24 card deck. White offered several powerful cards - Embolden, Hallowed Healer, and Second Thoughts, but nothing else. White also offered a pair of Thaumatogs if I wanted to play them. Red was a little deeper, with Firebolt, Dwarven Strike Force, Barbarian Lunatic, Acceptable Losses and Babarian Ring being the playable cards. Red was clearly deeper than white, but offered slightly weaker cards in the tradeoff.

Black was similar to red, but slightly deeper. It had Afflict, Crypt Keeper, Dirty Wererat, Dusk Imp, Whispering Shade, Zombie Assassin and a couple of barely playable cards like Frightcrawler and Gravestorm, and even a pair of Fledgling Imps if I really got desperate. Blue had the makings of a very strong splash color with a pair of Syncopates and a Cephalid Looter, but clearly nothing else. Having weighed by options, I arrived at the following deck configuration:

1 Crypt Keeper
1 Dirty Wererat
1 Frightcrawler
1 Dusk Imp
1 Whispering Shade
1 Zombie Assassin
1 Dilligent Farmhand
1 Gorilla Titan
1 Krosan Avenger
1 Nantuko Disciple
2 Springing Tiger
1 Skyshooter
1 Wild Mongrel
1 Hallowed Healer

1 Afflict
1 Gravestorm
1 Refresh
2 Seton's Desire
1 Embolden
1 Second Thoughts
1 Shadowblood Egg
1 Abandoned Outpost
1 Bog Wreckage

Green and black were the deepest colors. Red over black was a remote possibility, but it would leave me playing with too many marginal cards for my taste. The toughest choice was deciding whether to splash white or blue. They are roughly equal in power - but I felt that my deck is very mana-intensive, and Syncopates would be slightly less potent than in a controllish u-b or u-w deck. Even with what I've learned of the format since, I am still not sure my decision was correct. Perhaps it is too close to call - I went with the cards I was more comfortable playing, which is a good bet in such a situation. The one clear mistake I made was including Gravestorm. It was far weaker than I initially thought. After a couple of rounds, I ended up sideboarding it out after every game 1, often replacing it with Moment's Peace, which is very decent in sealed, though not great in draft.

Since my card pool was very weak - I went for what I considered to be somewhat of a desperation tactic. I played two of my three Seton's Desires - a card I tended to play no more than one of in most decks. What I thought was a marginal card, was actually very good. Yes, it is almost devastating to have a creature enchanted by the Desire Repelled, and very unpleasant to have it bounced or killed - but the risks are worth it. Giving your monster an additional +2/+2 is difficult for many sealed decks to deal with. Often, they will trade two good creatures for your two-card combo - or try to, giving you an opportunity to play tricks such as Refresh. Desire's threshold ability can be devastating in the right situation as well, forcing an opponent to chump-block and allowing your smaller creatures to come right through.

I sat out my three rounds of bye, only to start out the day by playing a feature match. My opponent was Michihisa Onoda, whose resume includes a Top 8 finish at GP-Singapore and 4th place at the Japanese National Championship. We traded a couple of creatures early on in game one but by turn 5 I've enchanted a Krosan Avenger with Seton's Desire. Then I untapped and enchanted it with another one. I now had a 7/5 trampling monster in play, and both Refresh and Embolden in my hand playing against a red-green-black deck, so I did not fear Second Thoughts or Repel. Onoda had no way whatsoever to deal with my monster, but he did have far better cards overall than I. He kept summoning large monsters of his own, using some to chump-block in order to stay alive, and attacking with others. I had to actually cast Embolden both times to stay alive, but ultimately the local favorite succumbed to the Avenger.

I was mana-hosed in game two. Fortunately though, I had the two mana needed to summon Wild Mongrel. Omada summoned a pair of Crypt Keepers and eventually one or two more creatures, but could not punch through the Mongrel. It kept me alive until I finally drew some more land. A few turns later I managed another cool combo. I summoned a Gorilla Titan with only two cards in my graveyard, and an active Zombie Assassin. Omada made a pretty serious mistake here - he tried to Ghastly Demise my Titan with something like five cards in his graveyard. I responded by activating an Assassin to take out a creature on his side of the table, countering the Demise and making my Titan 8/8 in the process. I did not manage to attack for eight as Omada finally drew and cast a way to deal with my Mongrel - Patriarch's Desire - but the game swung in my favor by then. I summoned some more creatures and, although reduced down to three life points, managed to make a comeback and win the match 2-0.

This was a very memorable match. Although I certainly do not wish to offend my other opponents, I simply do not remember the details of the other matches much. I beat Yusuke Nakamura 2-0 in the next round but finally faced a solid u-w deck that did not let me get away with any Desire tricks, navigated by Hisaya Tanaka, who swept me 2-0. I went on to defeat Daisuke Haneki and Naoki Kubuochi to finish 7-1, guaranteeing myself a place at the top table. Although I was not undefeated, I was ecstatic about my result, considering the deck I had to work with.

Olivier Ruel also ended up with a poor deck. As we both won our first match, we agreed to split our prize winnings, with whoever wins more paying the loser 20% of the difference. We figured that at least one of us would finish in the money and that way we would both feel like we won something. I was 8th after day 1, but Olivier was not as fortunate. He finished the day 6-2, coming in 44th. However, it also meant a slightly easier table for him to draft at.

The draft on Sunday morning worked out beautifully. The players to both of my sides were cooperating - none of the problems I'd had in South Africa! I established myself as a u-w mage, picking up the following deck:

2 Angelic Wall
2 Aven Cloudchaser
2 Aven Flock
1 Hallowed Healer
1 Luminous Guardian
2 Mystic Zealot
1 Aven Fisher
1 Dreamwinder
1 Thought Eater

2 Embolden
1 Second Thoughts
2 Shelter
3 Aether Burst
1 Repel

1 Abandoned Outpost
9 Plains
8 Island

Relevant Sideboard:

1 Mystic Visionary
1 Patrol Hound
2 Escape Artist
1 Psionic Gift
1 Ivy Elemental
1 Krosan Archer
1 Demoralize

The deck was very good and I hoped to 3-0 the table with it, or 2-1 at the very least. Everything started out according to plan, as I dispatched Toshiharu Niwa's red-green deck 2-0. Things went downhill from there though, as I managed to lose two matches in a row to simply not drawing enough land. I put 18 lands into the deck and opted to draw first (an easy choice with a pair of Angelic Walls and a bunch of bounce to help regain tempo advantage) - but mana gods frowned upon me that day. I lost both of the remaining matches. The way I see it, competitive Magic is a little like Poker. A better player will walk away with more money at the end of a day/season/year, but no amount of skill in the world will let you pick any one individual game or match to win. My opponents did not outplay me - that certainly happens, and they might have, but they didn't have to. I did not draw lands, and was now wondering if I could even make it into the Top 8 even if I won my next table.

Any hopes of winning the second table evaporated as I was building my three-color special. Once again, players mostly cooperated in the Rochester draft, but the cards just weren't there for me. Players at the other end of the table opened their Iridescent Angels and Cephalid Brokers, while I opened packs where Peek could be considered the best blue card. Here is what I ended up with:

1 Chainflinger
3 Aven Fisher
1 Aven Flock
1 Balshan Griffin
1 Cephalid Looter
1 Scrivener
2 Blessed Orator
1 Hallowed Healer
2 Mystic Visionary
1 Patrol Hound

1 Acceptable Losses
1 Repel
2 Kirtar's Desire
2 Second Thoughts
1 Torment of Faith
1 Shadowblood Egg
1 Sungrass Egg

1 Seafloor Debris
1 Abandoned Outpost

Sideboard

3 Cease-Fire
1 Mirari
2 Psionic Gift
1 Dematerialize
1 Sphere of Duty
2 Anarchist

Remember that Iridescent Angel I mentioned? It was joined by any number of amazing blue-white cards in one of the best decks I've ever seen, drafted by Takao Higaki. Higaki just ran over me. I wasn't manahosed, nor were my draws particularly bad - but I could not deal with even half of the cards he put onto the table against me. Out of contention for the Top 8, I was now fighting for a chance to finish in the money - a battle where I was defeated by Hisaya Tanaka in a close match. I did win my last round, but it was a futile victory, as it only allowed me to finish 40th overall.

On the more positive note, Olivier did make Top 8 and managed to finish 4th, earning $1000 (and thus $200 for me) - so the tournament was not a total loss. Only hours later I would be on my way to Brisbane, Australia to see if third time was indeed the charm!

Please send your comments, questions, and suggestions to me at ashv80@hotmail.com.