I love going back to my hometown to play Magic. Grand Prix Atlanta happens every year or so, and once again I was there last weekend to battle in Kaladesh Limited. I was ready to break through my 11-4 Grand Prix ceiling. Unfortunately, I did not. It ended up being fortunate, as day two was run so slowly that I would have had to drop after round fourteen to catch my flight home even if I hadn’t just picked up my sixth loss that round and therefore lost any stakes to play for.
The tournament was disappointing in many ways, but it provided many opportunities to learn. Let’s get to it.
I am not a morning person. While I’ve been able to start my grand prix with two byes for a while now, I probably have a worse win percentage in round three than any other. I resolved to improve that this time, so I woke up at 7:00 and walked two miles down the road to my old favorite breakfast place beside the apartment I lived in a decade ago. West Egg Cafe is great. Atlanta is flush with amazing breakfast restaurants, and West Egg was the new hipster joint in West Midtown when I frequented it years ago. I was glad to go back and confirm it is still thriving. They even played The Killers and Band of Horses over the speakers while I ate, giving me the full 2006 experience.
The “Georgia Benedict” is a nice vamp on biscuits and gravy, with turkey sausage and garlic grits.
I was fully awake and ready to dominate day one when I rolled in for my sealed build. My pool really disappointed me. I had good rares, and some strong uncommons, but no bombs and nothing close to a playable red or green deck. Dovin Baan continues to follow me through this sealed format. While he is good, he’s not amazing, and blue-white is not at all what I want to play. My black was mediocre too. I used almost all of my build time, looking for something strong. This is what I came up with:
Great Deck, Wrong Format
As I told my friends before round three, this deck can beat anything going long, but is almost hopeless against a curve of green creatures. In most sealed formats, this deck would be nuts. Not broken, but well above average. Yet I knew I was in for a long day. Sure enough, I got crushed by two green decks curving out and was quickly 2–2. So much for waking up early ready to play. (I also should have played the second Impeccable Timing over Ninth Bridge Patrol, which is not very good. And maybe the Consulate Skygates should have made it in to help me survive.)
I sleeved up a white-black version (still splashing Wildest Dreams because that card is absurd) to side into in the hopes of possibly competing with green decks. The rest of the way, I went 1-1 against green and 3-0 against slower decks, eking my way into day two at 6-3. I felt like I went 8-1 considering how mediocre my options and luck were. At least I could still run the tables on Sunday and win $1000.
Draft one went well enough:
Blue-White Affinity
I picked the Chrome Mox over Padeem, Consul of Innovation in pack two, which I think is correct for this deck even absent raredrafting considerations. In many draft decks Chrome Mox might not be great, but this one had plenty of aggression. Even if I didn’t want to throw away a card to ramp, I could always drop it for free without exiling a card to trigger Weldfast Wingsmith or make Gearseeker Serpent cheaper.
I won my first round, and went out in the hallway to chat with Shawn Sloan. We do this often at grand prix, and know well to stay in view of the round clock. Once they reset it to 50:00, the pairings are coming and we will head back for the next round. Except this Sunday, the tournament staff decided they would not reset the clock until a minute after posting pairings. I don’t know what was going on. Shawn and I saw the clock hit 50:00, walked the short distance back to the day two tables, and saw everyone already seated. We both got game losses and then lost our second games for the total whammy. I was no X-4, out of all prize contention thanks to my breakers. Even worse, Shawn was now X-3, eliminated from top eight contention.
I appealed the game loss to the head judge, who told me that I should watch the clock reset to 50:00 if I couldn’t hear the pairings announcements, which is exactly what I did, especially since the official announcements were practically indecipherable in the hall. Only the two called drafts were easy to understand, and it was common all weekend for announcements to be repeated, ignored, and repeated again because they were not clear. Anyway, I watched the clock going into round twelve. Sure enough, I heard the pairings announcement, got my assignment, and walked to my seat, all with the clock continuing to tick up from the previous round. As I sat, it reset to 50:00. And a minute later, the round started. I told the head judge after that round (a close loss to a great opponent) about this, and he acknowledged the clock resets might be a problem.
This is unacceptable. I go to a lot of grand prix, and I’ve never seen this. Combine that with the late start to the morning, and I suspect the staff deliberately shortened the time between rounds to make up delays. We didn’t start the first draft until 9:30, for no apparent reason, and it was 2:00 before round twelve finished. Normally a Limited day two finishes the Swiss around 5:00, and like many I plan my flights home to take off around 7:30 or 8:00. As it stood, Round fourteen started at 4:30 and it was clear the Swiss would not end anywhere close to the normal time.
Like I said before, I lost round fourteen, my sixth, and quickly dropped around 5:00 to head to the airport. When I arrived at my gate, I heard from friends that round fifteen had been significantly delayed and was just starting. What the hell? I don’t know what time the top eight ended, but this might have been a rare event where the Super Sunday Series finished before the main event. Wizards of the Coast needs to investigate why day two ran so poorly, and why the clock was not operated as normal. I’m glad this didn’t happen on a weekend where my luck put me in contention down the stretch.
Anyway, here’s my second deck:
Izzet a Good Deck?
My round thirteen opponent didn’t show up, apparently content at 7-5 to raredraft and drop. And then I got barely outraced by a sweet green-white deck in round fourteen. This deck needed a couple extra artifact creatures to be great, but it felt strong. Both games I lost, on turns five and six, I was certain to win the next turn. My opponent needed removal plus Inspired Charge to win the first, and Nissa to win the second. Good beats.
Live and learn. Kaladesh is a powerful, fast Limited environment. You can be strong and fast, or strong and slow, but you must be strong. People complain about the Gearhulks and other expensive bombs. I believe Wizards designed the set to have great aggressive strategies to balance the powerful bombs. You should err in the direction of attacking. If you want to block, you better have a good plan. I have a feeling that the draft rounds at Pro Tour Kaladesh will go by quickly.
Carrie O’Hara is Editor-in-Chief of Hipsters of the Coast.