Last Friday, me and the boys headed down to Grand Prix Oklahoma City. I’m going to keep the text here to a minimum, in the interest of presenting a somewhat-different photo essay of my trip and my opponents. On Friday, we played a couple drafts, wherein I went 0-1 and 1-1, respectively, with UB control and RB aggro, facing the following three gentlemen:
Robert, the Fish With the Carnivorous Teeth.
Kim, from Edmonton, Canada.
Chris, Kim’s buddy from Woodward, Oklahoma.
Matt Jones made me this. I shall not reveal to you the sentence which prompted it.
At the restaurant, I told Matt he still had some meat left on those chicken-wing bones. This is what he did in response.
Then on Saturday, the big day, after a lovely breakfast at Flint, a (really nice) hotel restaurant near the Cox Convention Center, I sat down alongside fellow Hipster Carrie O’Hara for my two-bye Sleep-In Special build time (at 12:30pm), and assembled this beast:
UBr Ashiok/Cerberus control
And a beast it was. I’ll refrain from including my other colors (white, green, and red) in the aforementioned decklist, as I’m fairly certain that white and green were weak, and the blue/red build—despite having Underworld Cerberus and Magma Jet—just didn’t have the power level I wanted.
The big decision was whether or not to try and raw-dog splash (as it were) Underworld Cerberus, and how many (and which) of my many five-drops to play. As for my numerous fives, I opted for a one-of-each strategy, playing one Prescient Chimera, one Sealock Monster, a Gray Merchant of Asphodel—and the Underworld Cerberus. Despite having no fixing, I felt that running 18 lands (including three Mountains) would be justified for such a powerful card. And throughout most of the day I didn’t have a problem with my mana—except in a later round, when I opted to board into Magma Jet and a fourth Mountain, and suffered for that land. (More in that in a minute.) For now, on to the games.
Matt, Carrie, and Dave at GP Oklahoma City.
My GP OKC notebook.
R1 and “Wooo.”
Aaron, my R1 (really R3 b/c of byes) opponent. After I beat him with Ashiok, he went on to X-0 the rest of the day, finishing day one at 8-1. Nice!
“Wooo” or “a butt pooping”? You decide.
R2 (R4) & R3 (R5) notes.
Scott, my R2 (R4) opponent. Dude went on to finish the day undefeated. Crazy.
Crossman, a game-design professor from LA, my R3 (R5) opponent.
Dale, Magic pros spotted, and R5 (R7), against Jack.
Dale. Check out his playmat-storage system. Genius.
Jack (R4/R6) cont.
Jack, my R4 (R6) opponent.
R5 (R7), against Ivan.
Ivan, my R5 (R7) opponent.
Miles, in R6 (R8).
My R6 (R8) opponent, Miles, a very meticulous player.
The end of Miles.
James, friend of Dusty Ochoa, and my last-round (R7/R9) opponent. Unfortuantely I didn’t take any notes on this match, but basically Shipwreck Singer destroyed Jack, a really nice guy, in two games. Congrats again on your recent promotion, man!
The End.
Oh wait—not the end. After the last round on Saturday, in which Dave “Bones” McCoy narrowly and tragically missed day two, we went to—no kidding—Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill to celebrate. The food was actually pretty great, I’m not going to lie.
Me and the rest of the GP OKC Two-Bye Crew. See you next year, Bricktown!
23/17 is a Hipsters of the Coast column focused on Limited play—primarily draft and sealed, but also cubing, 2HG, and anything else we can come up with. The name refers to the “Golden Ratio” of a Limited deck: 23 spells and 17 lands. Follow Hunter at @hrslaton.