I'm both happy and surprised by the result. Affinity is usually a pretty rough match up (looking back at my match-up spreadsheet, it was one of my worst matches) but it looked like Affinity kept a pretty slow hand both games.
I have never been at a paper tournament, only MTGO tournaments. I am wondering, are there no judges at the top 8? Is there nobody next to the feature table checking things like that RIP/Ravager interaction?
There are judges, but they're really mostly there to keep track of life totals and communicate information regarding game state to the announcers.
Though I suppose they could try to have one judge do that, and another judge keep an eye on the game itself.
I have never been at a paper tournament, only MTGO tournaments. I am wondering, are there no judges at the top 8? Is there nobody next to the feature table checking things like that RIP/Ravager interaction?
If the judge sees it they will say something, but for the most part they will only step in if a player says something. Part of it is to make it so that every game is actually the same because they don't want certain games to be judged while everyone else isn't.
I'm both happy and surprised by the result. Affinity is usually a pretty rough match up (looking back at my match-up spreadsheet, it was one of my worst matches) but it looked like Affinity kept a pretty slow hand both games.
It's very draw dependent. When I first started playing Grishoalbrand, I heard that Infect and Affinity were 2 of its worst matchups. In my first 16 matches against Affinity, I was 8-8. I had never even drawn Shatterstorm, the much maligned 2 of SB card. Since switching to Shattering Spree, I have drawn these a decent amount of the time, especially for a deck that has a lot of card draw to get to them. I still feel that Affinity is unfavored, but I am proud to say that I have won more than 60% of my matches vs. Affinity with Grishoalbrand to this day. 32-20.
There's very little they can do about our goldfish turn 2. There's very little we can do about their turn 2-3 Infect or otherwise kill. It just really depends on what you draw and I think until you've played 1,000 matches with the deck, you will see some variance in the matchup.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
Vexing Devil topdeck with opponent at 1 dropped Devil's MTGO price from 1.84 to 1.49
I cringed whenever I saw that played. It is such a high variance card I'd almost rather have any other burn spell or aggressive creature instead.
It was cool seeing Jon Top 4 though, cool guy to see on the circuit again.
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The "Crazy One", playing casual magic and occasionally dipping his toes into regular play since 1994.
Currently focusing on Pre-Modern (Mono-Black Discard Control) and Modern (Azorious Control, Temur Rhinos).
Find me at the Wizard's Tower in Ottawa every second Saturday afternoons.
Pretty slow news day. No GPT winners on D1 and no D2 meta breakdown.
Burn 111
Bogles 11
5C Humans 111
BR Hollow One 111
Elves 1
Affinity 1
Dredge 1
Jeskai Control 11
Jeskai Breach 1
UR Pyromancer 1
Mardu Pyromancer 111
Traverse DS 1
BG 1
Eldrazi & Taxes 1
BG Tron 111
Titanshift 11
G Tron 1
Amulet 1
Grishoalbrand 1
Most of the decks that T8ed the PT also T32ed this GP. Except Lantern, which is a good thing. Seems like a lot more big mana decks and less blue decks with SB Disdainful Stroke compared to the PT.
The winner (Dan Ward) previously T8ed GP Vancouver 2015 with the same deck, Bogles.
I think there's enough Tron in that T32, thank you very much.
I have an article from a year ago where a pro stated that decks that could poop out a bunch of creatures were bad MUs. While that article is old, the advice is still relevant; DS decks haven't gained new cards while the rest of the field is catching up. Mardu/UR Pyromancer seem like they would have great DS matchups, not just because lol tokens (in all likelihood the YP is going to die as soon as it's played) but also because of their cheap ways of catching up (Ancestral Vision and Bedlam Reveler).
Storm is another victim of the hot new decks. Humans has the speed to race it, and some of their bodies come with disruption attached (12 of them main, in fact). Meddling Mage in particular auto-wins G1 if you only have Grapeshot. Postboard they get to dip into their Sin Collectors and Kambals while all you can do is bring in Bolts or hope to Blood Moon them.
Spirits
Spirits
No lantern tearing it up? Funny that.... Lol
Though I suppose they could try to have one judge do that, and another judge keep an eye on the game itself.
Spirits
If the judge sees it they will say something, but for the most part they will only step in if a player says something. Part of it is to make it so that every game is actually the same because they don't want certain games to be judged while everyone else isn't.
It's very draw dependent. When I first started playing Grishoalbrand, I heard that Infect and Affinity were 2 of its worst matchups. In my first 16 matches against Affinity, I was 8-8. I had never even drawn Shatterstorm, the much maligned 2 of SB card. Since switching to Shattering Spree, I have drawn these a decent amount of the time, especially for a deck that has a lot of card draw to get to them. I still feel that Affinity is unfavored, but I am proud to say that I have won more than 60% of my matches vs. Affinity with Grishoalbrand to this day. 32-20.
There's very little they can do about our goldfish turn 2. There's very little we can do about their turn 2-3 Infect or otherwise kill. It just really depends on what you draw and I think until you've played 1,000 matches with the deck, you will see some variance in the matchup.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)I cringed whenever I saw that played. It is such a high variance card I'd almost rather have any other burn spell or aggressive creature instead.
It was cool seeing Jon Top 4 though, cool guy to see on the circuit again.
Currently focusing on Pre-Modern (Mono-Black Discard Control) and Modern (Azorious Control, Temur Rhinos).
Find me at the Wizard's Tower in Ottawa every second Saturday afternoons.
There was ton of tron at the GP.
Twitter: twitter.com/axmanonline
Stream: twitch.tv/axman
Current Decks
Modern: Affinity
Standard: BW Control
Legacy: Death and Taxes :symw::symr:
Vintage: NA
Bogles 11
5C Humans 111
BR Hollow One 111
Elves 1
Affinity 1
Dredge 1
Jeskai Control 11
Jeskai Breach 1
UR Pyromancer 1
Mardu Pyromancer 111
Traverse DS 1
BG 1
Eldrazi & Taxes 1
BG Tron 111
Titanshift 11
G Tron 1
Amulet 1
Grishoalbrand 1
The winner (Dan Ward) previously T8ed GP Vancouver 2015 with the same deck, Bogles.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
I have an article from a year ago where a pro stated that decks that could poop out a bunch of creatures were bad MUs. While that article is old, the advice is still relevant; DS decks haven't gained new cards while the rest of the field is catching up. Mardu/UR Pyromancer seem like they would have great DS matchups, not just because lol tokens (in all likelihood the YP is going to die as soon as it's played) but also because of their cheap ways of catching up (Ancestral Vision and Bedlam Reveler).
Storm is another victim of the hot new decks. Humans has the speed to race it, and some of their bodies come with disruption attached (12 of them main, in fact). Meddling Mage in particular auto-wins G1 if you only have Grapeshot. Postboard they get to dip into their Sin Collectors and Kambals while all you can do is bring in Bolts or hope to Blood Moon them.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Or maybe different tournaments just have a different landscape. :). Different folks, parts of the world. All that jazz