Pojo's MTG
MTG Home
Message Board
News & Archives
Deck Garage
BMoor Dolf BeJoSe

Columnists
Paul's Perspective
Jeff Zandi
DeQuan Watson
Jordon Kronick
IQ
Aburame Shino
Rare Hunter
Tim Stoltzfus
WiCkEd
Judge Bill's Corner

Trading Card
Game
Card of the Day
Guide for Newbies
Decks to Beat
Featured Articles
Peasant Magic
Fan Tips
Tourney Reports

Other
Color Chart
Book Reviews
Online Play
MTG Links
Staff

Magic the Gathering Tournament Reports

Green affinity
John bonnell
Kamigawa Block constructed
Salt lake city UT grand prix
248 people
August 2005

This article is about my trip to a grand prix. It was held in Salt lake city, UT. I live in Idaho so it wasn’t to far to go to. I have been to one other big event and that was a PTQ in Knoxville, TN and that was a shorter trip whereas I lived in a town close by. I had planned and mentally prepared for my deck and the trip down there. Had to get family sent off to family so I would not have any distractions whatsoever. I did arrive there with 10 to 15 minutes to spare in registering. Once Registered, got my deck list and found people I knew and joined them at a table as I was registering my deck. I played a heavy deck, more than sixty cards. some of you are going to say no wonder things didn’t go well but I was there to HAVE FUN and for the experience and grandeur of it all and to say I was there and to come home with some money. I finished registering my deck, asked my table mates if they had any manriki gusari I could borrow, but they were either using them or left them back at the hotel, also asked for a wear away and a sachi daughter of seshiro no go there, then I remembered there were two dealers so I went and found the sachi’s and the wear away. I went back up there at least two more times looking for other cards such as quash and the manrikis were sold out on them. I am kind of glad I was able to find them. I altered my deck list to put them in there and in my sideboard.

After all that was done and i was ready to start. It was 930 am MST so I had half an hour to wait for the start of the first match. This being my second big event, I was new somewhat to this type of tournament and basing it all off of my first ptq. I told the wife that it might run late but there were only seven rounds. So my friends were saying we would be done by six pm, which I thought was cool then maybe I could pick up the wife and kid and go to dinner somewhere or hang out at her sister’s place. I thought to go chat with r k post and have stuff signed but hesitated on doing so do to time constraints. I also wasn’t aware of a players meeting at first where they explain what is going on and things are run and who the judges would be and some basic rules and guide lines of what level of magic it was and all that stuff.

This is an article for budget people or ones that don’t have much fundage also. I play mostly with cards that I get via packs and drafts and rarely buy singles do to budget constraints. I don’t have a two hundred dollar budget to spend on cards I want for various decks I have in mind or would like to finish. So during my day like always I was reading the web site (http://www.wizards.com/magic/welcome.asp) and then started talking about combos. I forgot who wrote the article but it mentioned sachi daughter of seshiro + orochi leaf caller + Freed from the Real. Also of note was Bennie smith’s article http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/bs19 that mentions a deck that used it. I incorporated the first two parts but left out the last part because I had no way to dump all that mana into a big finale, leaving my opponent reeling from the final killing blow (that he would remember). During the middle of the tourney my friend and others were discussing block-constructed options to use that mana. I could of thrown in the beefy black creature Maga, Traitor to Mortals and I got to thinking of a card I traded for called Enshrined Memories allows me to put x creatures into my hand which I could have used all the mana from the above combo thread to build a deck, but didn’t think of it until that day.

So this is the deck I went with (and called it green affinity): 3 Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro; 2 Tatsumasa, the Dragons Fang; 1 Promised Kanushi; 1 Honden of Life’s Web; 3 Dampen Thoughts; 3 Orochi Leafcaller; 1 Shinen of Life’s Roar; 3 Orochi Sustainer; 1 Flood Bringer; 1 Consuming Vortex; 2 Honden of Seeing Winds; 1 Reki, the History of Kamigawa; 2 Sakura-tribe Elder; 1 Taproot Kami; 2 Time of Need; 1 Minamo Scrollkeeper; 1 Graceful Adept; 1 Myojin of Life’s Web; 1 Humble Budoka; 1 Phantom Wings; 1 Child of Thorns; 1 Kaijin of the Vanishing Touch; 2 Patron of the Orochi; 1 Body of Jukai; 1 Tendo Ice Bridge (land); 1 Keiga, the Tide Star; 1 Sakura-tribe Scout; 1 Soratami Cloudskater; 1 Reweave; 1 Dream Catcher; 1 Shizuko, Caller of Autumn; 1 Konda’s Banner; 1 That Which was Taken; 1 Veil of Secrecy; 7 Islands; 12 Forests. Sideboard consisted of as follows: 2 Vital Surge; 2 Rending Vines; 2 Quash; 2 Consuming Vortex; 3 Hisoka’s Defiance; 4 Wear Away.

As the games progressed, I realized I had left a few things out of my deck that could have been useful during each match up.

1st round’s opponent was Shane Oddo. I called him the mace as a nickname because of an old dungeons and dragons spell. I forgot where he said he was from but his deck was blue/black with Meloku of the Clouded Mirror and various other blue wizards. He later had a mirror match where he could disrupt the other blue wizards by removing them with his black cards. This was a home brew he stated. Also of note were his pithing needles (targeted my fang and sakura tribe elder). I won the second game, but he ended up winning two to one.

2nd round’s opponent was a guy from Switzerland. Jorg kuo was very soft spoken, but a pleasure to play against. He played a blue deck with counters with Meloku and swept me two to zero. I nicknamed him the silent hammer. Of note I put out the autumn caller for extra mana (which I think he was unsure about) so he didn’t utilize it very much to his advantage and also returned it to my hand at one time. He won 2 to zero.

3rd round’s opponent was nick solick I believe. I will nickname him sol the taciturn. He ran a multi colored deck. During game one, he used a Cranial Extraction on me naming sachi, daughter of seshiro. I wasn’t able to recover from it and proceeded to lose two to zero.

4th round’s opponent was a coworker of mine (sometimes that happens my previous ptq first round was a guy I used to play against over at the barony in Oakridge, tn). Her name was necoline asay. She was playing a green deck. I lost to her one to two.

5th round’s opponent was Jed silcox. Jed the red is what I will nickname him today. I believe I won one game and he won the rest and this is how he did it using various creatures to get me to ten life and then finishing me off with Hidetsugu’s Second Rite second game. For the third game, he used the Myojin of Infinite Rage + Burning Shoal combo with his unblocked Glitterfang. (I had untapped Myojin of Life’s Web and didn’t think to block it assuming to take one point not eleven points of damage and also surprised him with a Quash I sided in to counter an Yamabushi’s Flame).

6th round’s opponent was Michael buck from Colorado. I asked him a few questions about his last name. I won the first game with a bunch of green weenie creatures. He did play a jitte first game, but was unable to use it to his advantage and conceded the game to me. The other two games he was able to put out the jitte but I was able to wear away it one game (side boarded it in) and did use my Dampen Thoughts to put another jitte into the graveyard. He did win those last games fair and square with countering my stuff and using kodama’s reach also.

7th round’s opponent was myself. You see I got a bye

As the rounds progressed and I found time in between them (do to technical difficulties), I went looking for a piece of paper to get a sketch on it from r k post (awesome artist and friendly also) got that and some cards autographed that friends gave to me besides the one I brought. I also admired another friend who ended up with twenty thorn elementals, some foil and others non and got those signed with various things drawn on them. I noticed, to my amazement, this guy I had seen on the web site (see link above) and looked like the guy who won nationals and the next day ended up taking that same grand prix. I went and got another piece of paper and asked him for his autograph. He was slightly taken aback because how many people ask you for your autograph if you win a major title or tournament (unless you are a major sports figure, rock star, celebrity, or some one you admire)?? I also noticed a kid who looked familiar and believe he took home forty thousand dollars and asked him if he was famous and said he had won a major tourney (I asked that of many of the pros there and some were pointed out to me also by a local named jack s.). I was also encouraged by another friend named brad c to go and get some basic lands signed so I got a forest with osyp l. and de Rosa signed my island (he questioned why an island at the time but who knew he was playing blue at the time or that he would win). I was there to play but didn’t know there would be many pros there so I also went around and collected some autographs. I went and got Gabe walls, Kenji tsumura, osyp lebowitz, Antonio de Rosa, and many others I can’t read them because they aren’t to legibly clear. Well this is what happened to me that Saturday. I have analyzed it myself and have found some of my mistakes that I did with not playing certain cards in my deck.

John bonnell d_lilith1@hotmail.com