Sorry, should have written this sooner!
Last week I went to GP Manchester. Meant a very early start (left at 6.30) but I had a really great day. Stocked up on plenty of food and was there in plenty of time. Definitely the way to do it, don’t want to be rushing. There were 8 of us from my local game store, including Ed Guise who blogs on Wrongwaygoback and a Gabriel Carthew, who should be blogging here!
Anyway, sat down, opened 6 boosters which seemed pretty bad except for a couple of Diregraf Captains. Luckily, this was just the pool I was recording and this got passed on. Got passed my pool and it had some fantastic cards. Olivia Voldaren, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Lingering Souls, Intangible Virtue, Dungeon Geists and plenty in other colours too. Had a tough time choosing which colours to play and went with BW tokens splashing red for Olivia Voldaren. Having such good cards made building/choosing my deck actually quite difficult, it would have been easier if the cards from the other colours were really weak, as this would have made my deck building easier. Anyway, built the deck, could have done with some mana fixing but could hardly complain with the pool I had.
Match 1 I played a French player, from Paris. He played extremely slowly much to my frustration with a Green/Red werewolf type deck. Took us nearly 35 mins for the first round alone. I very nearly called the judge over for slow play but thankfully I won game 2 as he kept a colourless one lander and had no answer to my Lingering Souls followed by Sorin, Lord of Innistrad (while he was stuck on 2 lands).
Match 2 I played against a deck which I didn’t see much of. He played Delver of Secrets turn 1, flipped turn 2 and proceded to beat me down. Unfortunately, my ‘removal’ was Avacynian Priest and Burden of Guilt in game one, which didn’t do a whole lot and in game 2 he went delver, flip, Darkthicket Wolf. Didn’t really stand a chance against these nut draws. I had to mulligan down to 5 game 2 as well.
Match 3 didn’t end well for me. I think I went 2-1 but my deck didn’t really work all that well. After this, I spoke to another player and we “rebuilt” my deck. Of course in game 1 I had to play with the deck I registered, but every game 2 I sideboarded in 8 cards to improve my deck. My deck played much smoother after this, removed the red splash (including Olivia Voldaren) and added in a few cards which I didn’t know were that good (this was only my second DKA/INN limited event). Shame I didn’t build my deck like this the first time, maybe would have gotten through to day 2, but thanks go out to the player who helped me out. At this point I was 1-2 and needed 6 wins in a row to qualify for day 2
Match 4 was against a pretty average GW deck, using spirits. Can’t remember much about this, won 2-0 in pretty quick time I think. Lingering Souls was just better than his Midnight Haunting and I landed Sorin for game 2.
Match 5 I had the opportunity to play against an ex-pro, David Grant, who played for England in the Magic World Cup a few years ago. Really nice guy, ad a nut draw game one. Played T2 Intangible Virtue, T3 Lingering Souls, T4 flashback lingering souls. He then scooped, went to his sideboard and sided in a lot. I think he must have sided in to life gain because I saw a whole lot of it games 2 and 3. Won 2-1 in the end, after a couple of close games, but this was my favourite match of the day. Really close games and I played really tightly. Just won, managing to play really well to hit the last 1 life for the 2-1 win. 3-2 overall
Match 6 I played against a Venezuelan named Humberto. He was a great player, good to talk to and had a good BW tokens deck just like mine. I mulliganed to 4 for the 3rd time in the tournament. Closely fought game, I feel like I could have won, he dealt me exactly lethal damage (12) on game three when he was on one life and this was only due to a topdecked victim of night. Can’t complain too much, would have been nice to have won but sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. This unfortunately sent me out of the tournament, as I had lost 3 games. Dream over, but I was still happy. By this point, a lot of people had dropped, including a few of my friends, but I was happy to carry on, especially with the x 8 multiplier.
By Match 7 I was exhausted, knew I was out but carried on, relaxed a little and beat down some werewolves with intangible virtue and Sorin, much to the surprise of my opponent, who thought that I should be higher up the rankings, not playing the people down at 3-3. I think this was fair, I should have done better with my deck. Played some werewolves again here, which are fun to play against but also pretty difficult. Long games, but I was in control. By this point I was almost mulliganing until I hit my lingering souls. Lingering Souls is such a bomb in limited, especially with Sorin and Intangible Virtue in the deck. By this point my competitors were taking it a bit more easily and relaxing a little more.
Matches 8 and 9 were much of the same, won fairly easily against opponents with weaker decks. If I’m honest, my deck was too good and I should have beenn higher up the rankings. I did enjoy playing under competitive rules enforcement level, made sense as I think I play pretty well according to the rules anyway. I will do a deck breakdown soon, but overall I went 6-3 which I was very happy with. Ed Guise also went 6-3 so we both just missed out on Day 2, which I couldn’t go to anyway. One of Ed’s friends, Womble went 8-0-1 after winning 8 from 8 and got through to day 2 and just missed out on the prizes when he came 66th.
Overall I had a fantastic day, met some great people, did a few good trades for EDH (not much for standard, except completing my Innistrad set), got good cards and played lots of good games. My deck was awesome and maybe I should have done better, but I am almost glad I didn’t do any better. Happy overall with 6-3. I would definitely go to another one and I enjoyed the high standard of opponent I player against.
Anyway, that’s all for now, any questions just let me know