Zvi's Grand Prix Manchester Report, Conclusion *Top 8*

**[You can find part one of Zvi's report at [{here]](http://magic.mindripper.com/Index.cfm?ArticleID=955&SectionID=3&Show=All).]

To review, I'll back up a step to the draft that started Day 2:

Xavier didn't show up in time to draft, so that put Justin into seat 1 of a seven man draft, followed by Le Pine and then me, with Fuller in last position. The first pack contains both of the good Apprentices, Thornscape and Stormscape, plus Wings of Hope and Urborg Drake . Uh oh. Even if no one takes either the Apprentice or the Wings before I get to draft, someone's going to get the other one and I'll probably end up fighting them. Justin starts with Urborg Drake because his version of The Rule is to draft U/B, and Le Pine takes the Thornscape Apprentice . So far so good, so I take the Stormscape Apprentice . Finally, the pack gets to Fuller with the Wings still in it and I expect him to wheel that and the Prison Barricade and fight me. At least he's across the table, this won't be all that bad. But he takes Explosive Growth as his second card instead! By some miracle, the Wings gets back to me! I take it, and the pack has turned out better than I could have hoped. Mattias seemed to make an actual effort to stay out of my colors, to the extent that the one time he took a Benalish Lancer he actually apologized, seeming as if he'd just forgotten. It's very much a 'Sorry!' format, since some people are constantly splashing colors.

But aside from a few small battles over individual cards, I got along with everyone after that. I made only one mistake, letting the five color green mage have a free Ordered Migration I could have easily counterdrafted (and it's W/U so he could hardly complain), and that would come back to haunt me. I made one mistake in deck construction, where I played Samite Ministration since I thought it worked on creatures. Strangely, I didn't get a chance to realize this for two and a half rounds. My deck had three Stormscape Apprentices at the one level, two Sky Weavers as its two drop and its curve went all the way to Lotus Guardian again along with two Wings of Hope and other good tricks, so I played eighteen land so I could pay my kicker costs reliably. I thought I had the second best deck and could beat anyone except Justin Gary, who I expected to crush me.

Round 8: Allan Christiansen

Game one went turn six Ordered Migration for five, turn seven Ordered Migration for five. That's ten 1/1 flyers. Look ma, no Harrow ! He just drew all five basic lands naturally. I thought about it for a little with a Sky Weaver and some dudes, asked out loud "Who am I kidding?" and scooped. I sided in Fight or Flight , which combos really well with the Apprentices but I was reluctant to start. Against such streams of 1/1 flyers, I felt I had no choice; by forcing half to stay back, I could pick them off without dying. It definitely helped out in the second game, although it didn't combo with the Apprentices (they died). It did fight against Migration well. What ended up happening was that he could only attack with half his creatures, so I used that to race him to death in the air. Third game, his mana finally caught up with him and I got enough time that even without a heavy beatdown draw I put him away without too much trouble.

Round 9: Mark Le Pine

Mark's deck wasn't as good as mine, but his matchup was good. He thought he should beat me, although I don't agree. He definitely had a decent shot, though. What happened was I drew really well and he drew really poorly. Game one I opened with turn one Apprentice, turn two Sky Weaver and turn three Wings of Hope. I have multiples of all three cards in my deck, but that's still pretty brutal. I kept to my mana curve and kept casting creatures, and he drew too much land; game two was similar. He wasn't happy about it. After the match, I went to watch Justin's match and see if his deck was as good as I thought it was. It was exactly as good as I thought it was. I knew I had a really good deck and three Apprentices, but I was in deep trouble.

Round 10: Justin Gary

We both expected Justin to win the match. But I definitely had ways to get lucky; he expected to lose one game to either mana screw or too many Apprentices. And I got one game off of both. He took game one, with his deck performing as expected. But game two he didn't get his mana, and I took him out. Game three I dropped all three Apprentices, and started pumping out my other creatures without their kicker costs. With the ability to get through six blockers, he couldn't mount a defense, and I had too much tempo (plus the three Apprentices) for him to have a chance to go on the attack. So after much tapping, I got through for the win.

Having swept my first table, I needed only to go 1-1-1 at the top table to make the Final Eight, and I might be able to go 1-2. I sat down to draft again.

First pack, things seemed to be going well. I was in fourth position, and the first pack went fine; Ruel took a green card in front of me, and I took a Tower Drake . Then came pack two, and ahead of me Ruel took a Faerie Squadron. What the hell? That's a double blue spell! If he'd honed in on something more splashable that would be one thing, if very confusing and counterproductive at this stage of the draft. But the Squadron means serious blue. That also left me without a good white or blue card to draft. I took a Trench Wurm instead. Next pack Ruel opened a Sky Weaver , and I sat there wondering if he'd take it. If he did, that was it; he'd changed colors from his first pack and I had to get out. I was thinking probably into R/B. But he acted like his second pick had never happened, so I got the Weaver and got back on track. Still, that little gap put a Glimmering Angel on my left and stuck me with a black card, and there was no way to fix the situation. I was stuck in U/B rather than W/U, and my position for that proved not to be all that great. After much fighting, I emerged with a decent deck but nothing like what I had the first time. I had a good curve and good cards but I was missing any kind of bounce; somehow I just never got a shot at any, and all my removal I had to open myself. But while I may have been in trouble, Edward Fear (who I was rooming with for this GP) got absolutely wrecked two seats to my left. I've never seen anyone be denied a card every pack in so methodical a fashion; he ended up first picking mana near the end of the draft he was so spread out on cards, and without any compensation in card quality. Ruel actually apologized for taking the Squadron after the draft, and to me that's the end of that. Everyone screws up. Anyway, I now needed one of the next two.

Round 11: John Ormerod

John was still undefeated and already had a lock on the top eight, but actually had more at stake than I did. His rating had just gotten into the range that would qualify him for the Masters due to his sweeping his first seven matches, but if he lost in the Swiss and again in the Top 8 he would definitely be out of range again. All I was playing for was top eight. Game one I played out my dudes, but it wasn't enough. My one trick that game was a Power Armor , but he used the new Uktabi-like creature to kill it and that put me too far behind. Game two was looking even grimmer. Again, having to just play creatures and hope they were enough wasn't cutting it. Scrambling for blockers for his ground assault, I drew an Undermine off of Recover with him at 7. I had the Power Armor and one 2/2 creature was going to survive his assault, a Voldalian Zombie. This was my only chance. He attacked, I went down to 1. I came back, used the Power Armor and sent him to 3. Now the only way I could win the game was if he decided either not to attack (yeah, right) or to cast a spell first. My one asset is that he'd cast a Kavu Climber the previous turn after the attack, then muttered that he should have killed me after drawing his card. So at least there was something useful in his hand. So I'm thinking about what line I'm going to use (something along the lines of asking how he could have killed me probably) when he casts Might Weaver . Before I even knew what spell it was I slammed down Undermine with my remaining three lands. Score! But then game three I stalled at four mana with Duskwalker and Faerie Squadron . I also had two Prohibits. So I basically had to say go and hope he cast something I could counter. He put out a Kavu Climber , and I never recovered from the tempo loss.

Round 12: Noah Boeken

Noah chose to draw first, which I consider an odd choice and definitely had something to do with his playing only fifteen lands. It was even stranger given that he was playing a beatdown deck; his explanation was that he "really doesn't like to mulligan going first." I can't argue with that, but going first is huge when both players have good, two color decks. At any rate, Noah said didn't draw very well; essentially the match ended up coming down to me having to let him go with Prohibit in my hand, and he cast Pouncing Kavu . Because Prohibit counters Kicker cards, I stopped it and got to pull out of my land stall in time.

Round 13: Neil Rigby

Edward said a while before this that he'd done the math and the high 30s would make it in. As it turned out, there was what he described as a perverse set of pairings and decisions, and if I lost and he won only one of us would make it into the top eight. If we both won we would both make it; we had the highest tiebreaks of anyone in the potential tie at thirty points. But that was after the match; during the match I thought I was in regardless. In fact, people who as it turned out had no chance at all had tried to convince me not to draw, claiming I was a lock and I could help them make it in. Anyway, the match itself was my first feature match. It figures; Justin Gary, Mark Le Pine, John Ormerod and Noah Boeken were scrubs but the guy who walked to the tournament site was someone to keep an eye on. Someone who it should be pointed out had said only recently that Armadillo Cloak was 'not all that good.' All right, enough of that. The big motivator in this match was that he'd taken away my Crypt Angel late in the draft; counterdrafting in Rodchester is a really bad move unless the card is specifically good against you. Game one I lost a Tower Drake to an Aggressive Urge on a Llanowar Knight because I figured he was trying to trade, then he put Wings of Hope on a Benalish Heralds and I was wrecked. Not having bounce or much removal in your deck sucks, especially when you're playing U/B. Second game a Rainbow Crow decided to go get two Armadillo Cloaks. I had nine points of beatdown coming his way, and because of the way the stack works he was still below 20 when I died, but it was no contest. They are definitely 'that good.'

Lucky for me, my tiebreaks went up in the last round while Edward's went down, so I made it in as Seed 8. Of course, that meant that I had to draft from position one, but at least that meant I could start the draft by taking a blue card.

The final eight draft started out fine. I got established into W/U, Mark Le Pine was on my left drafting green, and Darwin was drafting his B/R/u deck as per usual on my right. A lot of people have said they felt Darwin screwed me in the draft, but that's just not true; he was blue long before he ever took a blue card and I knew that. He won the GP on his three color draft strategy, and he earned it; I didn't appreciate it until I saw it in action, but after that the only thing that kept me from trying it in the top eight table was that he was going to be doing it on my right. Well done. Anyway, the draft seemed to be going fine and my first round opponent John Ormerod seemed to be in trouble. Then it all went to hell.

First, John started getting everything he wanted. If I didn't take a Voldalian Serpent, he would get it, and we were both blue - he was U/B and I was W/U. Other cards went similarly, as multiple players who would play blue cards in their decks decided to let him have every card he could use. Meanwhile, I was eeking out a deck on the other side of the table. That doesn't mean it was bad or that I was in danger of not getting a deck; I was always going to get a decent deck. But there were a lot of tricks missing. You know why?

BECAUSE MARK LE PINE DECIDED TO TAKE ALL MY CARDS, THAT'S WHY! He decided that a couple of Harrows gave him a license to destroy me, and nothing was safe, not even gold cards like Samite Archer . Every pack I'd be holding my head in my hands or just shuddering or taking a moment. If I wanted something, bang! There he was, grabbing it. He claimed afterwards it wasn't intentional, that he was just taking cards for his deck. Well, ok Mark. As Darwin would say, "Oh, good." But you know what you did. Anyway, that was about the time John decided to open the WUB dragon, and then got to WHEEL a Sleeper's Robe and Voldalian Serpent. Needless to say, I did not like my quarterfinal chances. But again I knew that I had a shot.

Sadly, that's not how it turned out. I took game one with a creature rush. But game two I got a slow draw and didn't have the mana to start paying my echo costs, and Sleeper's Robe came down for the win when I didn't have either of my Attendants. Then game three that Robe came down again, this time on turn three. Drawing two cards, he found this little thing called a Dromar, The Banisher . I had a bunch of creatures and had him low, but I couldn't find any of my answers to the Dragon. He got my only flyer out of the way with a Recoil , and suddenly my entire army was in my hand. Without the rush I had no answer to the Dragon, with Stand/Deliver coming one turn too late to give me the win.

The Result: 8th place, 3 PT Points.

So after that, I watched the Semifinals and Finals, got some sleep, and then flew back to New York again. I didn't get The Quick Six, but I did at least get a Quick Three and some quick cash too, more than paying for the trip. Not all that bad. Emboldened by this, I checked to see if I could go to GP: Helsinki, and this morning I bought my ticket. I'll be there, playing day one on no sleep again. Damn that Friday class!

- Zvi Mowshowitz

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