So Grand Prix Denver is in the books and all eyes are set towards the future. But before we move on, let’s re-visit this monumental weekend. For many of us, the weekend started out on Friday with a series of unsuccessful grinders and a fairly straight-forward FNM. Interestingly, the sharks were out in full force and the grinders were gladly giving up the goods. What cards were hot? Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, Slagstorm, Black Sun’s Zenith and Sword of Feast and Famine. Any surprises here? No. The aftermath of Pro Tour Paris has set the stage for standard and this trend will continue on until Barcelona in March and Dallas in April. Will Tezzeret decks stay strong or will Caw-Blade be “the” deck?

*Sidenote: Phyrexian Revoker was insanely popular on the trade floor.

For me, this weekend was pretty awesome. I got to sling some cards, I learned a lot about myself as a magic player and I got to do some fun trades. To top it all off, I got to eat dinner with an amazing group of guys and catch up with a long lost friend.

From a player’s standpoint, this weekend was a bit frustrating. Friday’s grinders were a little rough for me, and after two, I decided to call it a day and head home for some much needed rest. Saturday morning came very quickly and I found myself making the forty-five minute drive over to the event site on very little sleep. After a disappointing start, and a frustrating round 2, I dropped from the event. I needed to do this for me as I found myself far more upset than I should have been. After cooling off, my friend Kevin convinced me to play in the SCG Invitational Qualifier. After 9 rounds, I ended up losing in the finals to a friend playing the mirror. Verdict? Caw-Blade is sick. All 3 rounds of Top 8 for me was against this deck and three of the final four decks were Caw-Blade.

Sunday rolled around and I was faced with a dilemma. Do I play a Conley Woods original, or something a little more tested? It was 7:30am and I had to leave within a few minutes to make the PTQ on time. With only 5 hours of sleep, I opted for U/W Control. I arrived on site and found my team mates discussing draft strategies as a few of them had made day 2. We laid the standard version of Caw-blade out and talked about what cards had merit and compared the list to the Extended list. After a bit of tweaking, we were able to build a fairly decent extended caw-blade that started the tournament 3-1 for me and 4-0 for two of my teammates. Unfortunately for me, I fail at choosing Vendilion Clique targets and I dropped 2 straight, ending my tournament life.

Well after the PTQ, I was sitting with the Channelfireball folks and they challenged me to see what I could trade for in the remaining time that was available. Arming me with an empty binder and a foil 9th edition Trade Routes, I was sent to the trade floor. Unfortunately, at that time there was only about an hour left before the Top 8, and many of the sharks and grinders were already gone.

After receiving the card and binder, instead of hitting the trade floor with my limited amount of time, I needed to make a plan. I needed to maximize the trades and I decided to go outside with the smokers to start the trades. I walked outside and immediately was greeted by a group of people who were milling around, holding their binders. I explained to them what I was doing and what my goal was and immediately found receptive folks.

I started my first trade for a M11 Leyline of the Void, Kemba, Kha Regent and a Grindclock. From here, I traded the Leyline of the Void for a Temple Bell and Death Cloud. I then traded the Temple Bell for Cho-Manno and another random rare. My trades were quickly growing and before leaving the smoking area I had almost 2 pages of cards. At this point, I didn’t care too much about what was in the binder. The goal was to get quantity. If a person saw a card they wanted, I asked for ANY two rares (preferably EDH playable).

Once I got inside, I was greeted by a few local players who had just drawn their final round. They were carrying their draft decks and telling me about their day. After a few minutes, they noticed that I had a new binder sitting on my lap and asked me to explain what I was doing with it (as they already knew I sold everything that I had brought with me). They each quickly took a look and asked if I would be willing to trade for cards from their draft decks.

When trying to build a trade binder, it is one hundred and ten percent imperative to be willing to trade for anything. Looking for specific cards limits growth. I quickly went through their decks and sideboards and chose a handful of uncommons/commons and a few rares. They were willing to throw in their commons/uncommons into the trade and I left with almost my third page of the binder full. At this point, I obtained a Geth for a Kemba and Cho-Manno.

After leaving my friends, I walked over to the other side of the event center and saw a group of EDH players trading. I approached them and was quickly recognized. They had seen me talking with Team Channelfireball and began asking me tons of questions about trading and knowing the pros, etc. After a few minutes of chit-chat, one stated that he had just unloaded four hundred dollars worth of bulk to a dealer, which I quickly responded, do you have any more? He confirmed that he did and quickly pulled out the most beat up, grungy binder that I’ve seen in a long time.

I explained to him that I was trying to build this binder up and that I would take literally any 2 bulk rares for any regular rare in my binder. This didn’t include Geth. He seemed excited as he saw the Grindclock and exclaimed that he needed it for his set. I flipped through the binder and I pulled out Kemba, Kha Regent, Hoard-Smelter Dragon, Carnifex Demon and Rings of Brighthearth (Not a bulk rare, but he considered it as one). He grabbed Grindclock and another rare and two of my uncommons (Treasure Mage and Memnite). I was completely okay with this. I added the rares to my binder and traded immediately with one of the other guys at the table.

He wanted Geth, Kemba, Rings and 3 other rares from my binder and said he had a few binder pages full of common/uncommon foils that had literally sat in the binder for the past 10 years. He counted the pages and told me there were 8 full pages. Before even looking at them, I told him he could take whatever cards he wanted for the foils. As he looked at the cards I had, I flipped through the binder. A foil Hedron Crab (not 10 years old) was on the front page. Next to it, a Foil Diplomatic Immunity. The only place with one for sale that I could find on my smartphone had it listed at $1.49, but it was sold out. I knew this couldn’t be the price for it, so I took a gamble. After another minute or two, my trading partner had 4 -5 cards out, including the Geth. I accepted the trade, knowing that a friend of mine would want the Foil Diplomatic Immunity. After this trade, I had 10-11 pages of the binder full and I approached the CFB booth to show them my progress. I asked Tristan what the value of the Foil Diplomatic Immunity was and he confirmed my suspicion, $12.00 – $14.00+.

It’s important to note, that when dealing with bulk, it’s always better to let the other person decide on what they consider to be bulk. Now there is some obligation to inform them if they try and tell you that Jace, the Mind Sculptor is bulk, but for the most part if it’s less than a $4.00 rare, I won’t correct them

The friend who wanted the Foil Diplomatic Immunity for his Zur, the Enchanter EDH deck decided to trade me 4 Kitchen Finks and a Celestial Colonnade for it, which was completely fine by me as we both valued the Finks at $2.50 (SP) and the Collonade at $3.00. I then turned the 4 Kitchen Finks into a Wurmcoil Engine, 4 Tectonic Edge (throw-in) and another Celestial Colonnade.

This effectively ended my day of trading as the last trade occurred as I was getting into my car to go and meet Conley and the rest of Team Fireball for some Fogo de Chao’s. At first, I didn’t realize how many people were going to be there. Downtown Denver was only about 20 minutes from the event site and I made it there fairly unscathed. The one aspect of traveling downtown that I find to be annoying is the lack of accessible parking spots. As a person in a wheelchair, I find it a headache at night to try and park on the street and many of the downtown ramps will not have enough accessible spots, which makes parking interesting. Knowing this, Conley called me right before I arrived downtown to tell me about the complimentary valet service at Fogo’s. Even though my car was a mess, I gladly accepted this service.

For those who have never been to Fogo’s, it’s a Brazilian Churrascaria Steakhouse. Churrascaria roughly translates to Barbeque. It’s pretty expensive, but the food is pretty insane. Now, when I walked in, I saw the group and there were about 10 or so guys quickly making short work of the slurry of meat that was being presented to the table. A quick glance at the faces surprised even me. This table was stacked with Magic talent.

Now I am not a fan boy, nor have I really ever been one, but this table was definitely intimidating. The table had some of the best players in the world, and the comradery that existed between the different teams was pretty amazing. The table consisted of Paul Rietzl, Conley Woods, Patrick Chapin, Luis Scott-Vargas, Brad Nelson, Eric Froellich, Josh Utter-Leyton, David Ochoa, Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa, Zaiem Beg and James Dykes.

It was a fascinating dinner to sit down to. Many players joked that they would try and spend their winnings on this dinner as Fogo’s is definitely not a cheap place to eat. Topics for the table spanned from potential Player of the Year winners to the play styles and successes of different domestic and foreign pros to the average daily pieces of fried chicken consumed by Patrick Chapin and finally the origins and explanations of being “left-handed.” Interestingly, the table talked a lot about Magic, but almost none of it was actual strategy. Many shared stories from past Pro Tours/Grand Prix’s, PTQs and the origins of “the train.”

I spent most of my dinner simply listening and talking to those down on my end of the table. It was interesting to hear why people continue to write articles as I believe every single person at the table was a paid writer for at least one Magic site (if not multiple). I enjoyed hear them to discuss their writing process, motivations for writing and tips and tricks on deciding what to write was pretty awesome. Interestingly, almost every single one of them writes because they like who they write for. I don’t think one person said that they write only for the money and that in itself was pretty awesome. In fact, most of them talked about how they loved the feedback, whether it was positive or negative, as it helped them in their own process of analyzing as well.

In the end, the night was the perfect way to end the Grand Prix weekend. As tradition with all major dinners, the credit card game was played and I would like to thank our very own editor, Zaiem Beg for a delicious dinner.

Until Next Time,

Brian Grewe
MTGO: briangrewe

Bonus:

For those who do not know, this game is played with the intention of one person paying for an entire tab, while the rest free roll it. The credit card game can be played when there is more than two people eating dinner or paying for something that the group experienced (movies, gas tanks, cab rides, etc). This game entails every person putting their credit cards into a pile. Any person within the group is allowed to “buy-out” of the game, by paying their portion of the tab. One person will shuffle all the cards together and make a pile, hidden from the general view of the participants. Then, one person is selected to pick a number (equal to the number of cards present). The person holding the cards then reveal them and count down from the top until the number is reached. That person’s credit card is removed from the pile and they are able to choose the next number. This process continues until two cards are left. The final choice is made, but with the decision on what to do. Meaning, the person who chooses the last card also chooses on whether or not the person selected pays.

The “Next Level” credit card game uses the same rules, except at the end, when there are only two players left, the one selected not to pay, is awarded all of the buy-out money.