The weekend before last saw Rivals of Ixalan’s limited format get thoroughly broken in for the Pro Tour, with Grand Prix Houston across the pond and Grand Prix London on my own home turf. Last time round, I lost three win-and-ins for day two – this time, it would be different. It was time to buckle down, shuffle up, and get that first day two under the belt.  

Ah, how often the plans of mice and men go awry. First things first though –

Friday  – The Monsters

Post-ban Standard is pretty much the Wild West at the moment, with only HazoRed acting as Biff ‘Mad Dog’ Tannen. No-one wants to be Biff Tannen – they want to be the plucky underdog and time-traveller extraordinaire, Marty. That in mind…

I am absolutely in love with this card. If cards were people, this would be my crush, and it would hastily ignore me in favour of the Glorybringers and The Scarab Gods of the world (sigh).

The Phoenix is a whole lot of card for a pretty low investment, demanding either an exile effect or a pair of removal spells to be brought down. There are only so many Vraska’s Contempts and Cast Outs to go around, so when I saw a Monsters list piloted to a 5-0 finish on MTGO by Brennan Dicandio, I was sold. On arrival to the GP venue, I immediately went to the Troll Trader stand, and more or less thrust my cash at them in exchange for a playset of these beauties.

Fast-forward roughly an hour later, and I had sleeved up the following:

RG Monsters

You may be wondering what the playset of Resilient Khenra are doing there. The original list had a small Black splash for Scrapheap Scrounger in it’s place, but I was suspicious of a two drop that can’t block in a deck packed with so many haymakers, and not a huge fan of fastlands with so many curve-conscious four and five drops. I figured that often you’d want to draw the game out a little, and lean on your top end to overwhelm the opponent. I figured right.

So, how did the Khenra perform? A long and hearty ‘eh’. Anytime the game went long it’s embalm was fantastic, often killing the opponent outright, and in your good curve outs it was fine. The only problem? Um, it doesn’t actually block all that well. Not having a third power on the opposing turn also means that it only crews Heart of Kiran on offence (and only the once, no less).

I’m getting ahead of myself. I signed up for two Standard side-events, and got right to work earning myself a round one bye due to my own incomprehensible hand-writing. Good to know that I can unintentionally cheat myself into wins!

The first event was short but sweet. My opponent in round two brought GB Snek to the table, and was swiftly overwhelmed by my aviary of Phoenixes, Dragons, and metallic contraptions. The second opponent (now in round three) agreed we would take the intentional draw, so we could both join the next Standard side starting immediately afterwards.

Standard two was a bit spicier. My opponent showed up twelve minutes late to the round, and was awarded the lightest of slaps on the wrist for his transgression (which even at regular REL felt lenient, but hey ho). We played identical lands and spells for three turns, and it transpired it was the mirror. What are the odds. A mull to five from him in game one and several missed lands from me in games two and three later, I can confirm that the guy with more wings on the table is probably doing fine.

A round down, I pair against Temur Energy, and I’m greeted once more by the menagerie of Servant of the Conduit, Whirler Virtuoso and Glorybringer. The difference here? She played four Dragons, and I played twelve. The once mighty King of Standard crumbled to dust in the face of the fiery KindyP and GloryB, and onwards I marched to round three and an unexciting but respectable 100 tickets.

The last round of the day begins, and another BG land hits the table. Evidently, the Standard multiverse hadn’t received a visit from Samuel L. Jackson recently, as there were definitely too many snakes on this Plane. Dragons happened, Snakes were vaporised, and 100 tickets were got. I caught up with my TT compatriots, found my travel companions, and headed back to the budget-but-remarkably-comfortable hotel we’d found nearby. An unreasonable amount of pizza and even more unreasonable amount of sleep happened, and we moved onto day two.

Saturday– The Dryads

After my friends and I enjoyed our ‘sleep-in special’ (one Bye does not a lay-in make), I sit down for deck construction, and happen across another of Troll Traders’ own across from me: Luke Palmer. We open our deck boxes, examine our pools, and identify that we have literally identical Rivals’ rares. A weird start to the day, but not one either of us were too unhappy with – both pools involved this guy:

While Rivals’ is a bomb-heavy format, the Dryad sits in the upper echelon of answer-me-or-lose rares. As a 2/2, that answer shouldn’t be too hard to find, but still. My pool was absurdly straight-forward to build, as my bomb (great), my curve (solid), and my removal (plentiful) all fell in RG. After sleeving up RG and a board-plan of GW (almost mono two-drops, ready for the aggro decks), it was time to Gruul it up.

The first three rounds went by in a blur. I played fine Magic, hit my lands, and drew the Dryad a bunch. Before I knew it, I was 4-0, and sitting next to a Magic celeb, Eric Froehlich. Not the type to be starstruck, I focused on my own game, in which I was swiftly dispatched by a plethora of BW removal alongside a splashed Etali, Primal Storm finding my own Tendershoot Dryad. The second game ran back as more of the first, but with less bombs – just a good old-fashioned clunky mono-creature draw from me vs. a mono removal draw from him.

At 4-1, I pair against one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. I’m not one to name non-celeb names, but if you’re reading this, you were one seriously chill dude. We had a pretty great back and forth, with his UW tempo deck clobbering me in game one, but my GW plan meeting his early game post-board before my five drops closed things out. Amidst all of this, we cracked jokes and banter flowed freely. While the pair of us were focused on playing good Magic, we could have been at an FNM for the total lack of tension in the air.

Now 5-1, it was time for things to get real. At Liverpool, I went from 5-1 to 5-4; while I actually couldn’t do as badly this time by the nature of the GP structure changes, I was aiming to do just a little better!

I sit down for round seven, and another celeb sits by my side – Brian Braun-Duin, last year’s Magic World Champion. We exchange some pleasantries, and I crack on with my match. I begin bringing the pain to my opponent by mulling to six and never finding a third land; in what I can only assume is a totally intimidated state, my opponent fearfully lets me mull to six in game two, then lands a Profane Procession on an empty board. A few turns later, I’m casting a Hunt the Weak on a Ravenous Daggertooth into eight open mana and a Procession, in the hope that my raw unadulterated Magic mastery had terrified him into a state of pure submission. Shockingly, he plucked up the courage to make mincemeat of my Dino, and sent me onto my second win-and-in of the day.

The whole match lasted around eleven minutes, so I at the very least got to watch BBD stomp his opponent with a turn five Ghalta, Primal Hunger. Turns out he recognised that five mana 12/12 Tramples are cards worth playing. I made a mental note of this for future, and moved onto my next and potentially final round.

The pairings go up for round eight, and I’m thrown into the ring with a vague acquaintance and friend-of-a-friend. Of all the rounds that went down, this was the most interesting, and not least because the stakes actually mattered.

Game one I stumble on a second red mana and get rolled because of it. Game two, I land my splashed Huatli, Radiant Champion, and spend four turns defending it before I’m able to fire the Ultimate. Just as I do, my opponent sticks his own Huatli, Radiant Champion, and the grind gets serious. I don’t find creatures for a few turns, while the opponent gets the initial upper hand by chaining four in one turn. Fortunately for me, I chain three back over the next two turns, and realise I’m up about four cards in deck. In game two of round eight of GP London, I beat my opponent by both of us running a Huatli Ultimate, and him decking.

The decider. Twelve minutes on the round. I open my seven, and see a Thrashing Brontodon, two removal spells, and a sideboarded Storm Fleet Pyromancer. It’s slow, but it’s good. The only downside of the hand is that’s it’s soft to a fast curve-out with tricks or removal to backup.

The opponent proceeded to cast one drop, two drop, three drop, double two drop, removal, and I spent the next few minutes spitting up mud after having had my face thoroughly rubbed in the dirt. Unlike my Planeswalker, I was not destined to be a Champion, Radiant or otherwise.

So, another main event, another missed day two, and another pair of lost win-and-ins for the books. I played reasonably, built my pool well, and generally gave myself every chance at a good record. It’s unfortunate, but that’s Magic – you can’t win them all.

Unless you’re Seth Manfield, who finished first in the Swiss. Because of course he did.   

Sunday – The Dinos

Unlike previous GPs, I wasn’t particularly bummed to have missed day two, as I was pretty pumped to be jamming Standard. As mentioned, the format is pretty diverse at present, and the tasty brew in last week’s article on Dinos beckoned to me. Another visit to Troll Trader and a lightened wallet later, and I was bringing the following to the Standard Double-Up:

Naya Dino Ramp

As it turns out, Rampant Growth is still too strong for Standard. Round one my opponent slithers to the table with Snek once again, and his 4/5 Winding Constrictors and 6/5 Jadelight Rangers crane their heads upwards at my army of eight drops. Rounds two and three I serve up a nice platter of pan-seared Fish, as Kumena and the Merfolk Mistbinders of the event were repeatedly charred up by the Sweltering Suns and finished in one bite by Gishath, Sun’s Avatar. With 400 extra tickets in the bank, it was time for my last event of the weekend.

Standard two gets going, and I’m greeted once again by Surf over my Turf. Chandra, Abrade and Suns happened, and I found myself personally responsible for the genocide of Snakes and Fish in London.

Round two begins, and I’m paired against a gentlemen I played in a side at GP Birmingham. Last time, he was packing four-colour Deploy the Gatewatch, and my Vehicles took him down before he’d even drawn his opener. This time, he brought GW five-colour Ramp to the table. While I was jamming Ramp spells and Dinosaurs, he was busy Fumigating and inviting the Superfriends of Ajani, Nicol Bolas, Nissa and Vraska to the now empty battlefield. When my second Carnage Tyrant attacked a second fresh Nissa, Vital Force and got hit by an obnoxiously large wave in Settle the Wreckage, I wisely decided it was time to scoop ‘em up.  

After a third round ID to gather the last tickets I needed for a second box of product and being whisked back to the car to Cardiff, I found myself finished with GP London.

Summary

The first time I was in GP London was at Kaladesh, when I sat down for my first GP main event. This time, I entered my third. Though my finish has been around the same in all three, it’s obvious to me how far I’ve come. My play has improved, my attitude has improved, and my wacky side-event brewing skills have culminated in a mess of beasts and nine-drops.

You may not see me in the top eight of the next GP I enter, nor the one after that, but don’t count me out yet – I may spend years smashing my head against the brick wall of premier event success, but I am one stubborn dude with a seriously tough skull. Between the wall and I, I fancy my chances.

As always, thanks for reading, and good luck.