Hometown winner takes home trophy!

“Humans did really well this tournament. There were four Humans decks in Top 8” said the hometown winner of the recent Grand Prix on Minneapolis Memorial Day Weekend, Alex Johnson. He secured the win with his own G/W humans deck. The second place winner was Shota Takao, also with a humans deck.

There seems to be a big change in the metagame during the Grand Prix Minneapolis. There are more Humans agro decks being brewed and very few Eldrazis floating around to bust through to the top. Shota's hyper-aggressive Humans deck, with creatures that have double digit one drop and Reckless Bushwacker, blasted through to the quarterfinals and semifinals in 15 minutes total, but he was taken down by Alex’s Humans deck in just two rounds to 0.

The next Grand Prix will take place in the beautiful Costa Rica, on June 3-5, 2016. I wonder what kind of metagame will take place there? Will there be more Humans aggro decks? Will the people learn about the decks that appeared at the Grand Prix Minneapolis and develop counter strategies? We will see once the tournament gets under way.

As always thanks for reading my blog!

Modern play, Gone?!

Wizard of the coast has made an announcement a while back concerning modern play at the pro tour events.  They decided to do away with the format, why? Here’s just some of the reason why they are getting rid of the format.

Wizards of the Coast made an announcement a while back concerning modern play at the pro tour events;  they decided to do away with the format. Why? Here’s just some of the reasons why they are getting rid of the format.

Wizards of the Coast's goal for the pro tour is to reward the players for their drafting skills, innovative deck building and skillful game-play in an environment they are not too familiar with. They also want to highlight the newest card set in the tournament, which seems like the biggest reason why they’re getting rid of modern. Wizards usually set the pro tour for modern just a few weeks after the new set comes out, which allows the players to showcase the new cards in their modern decks by showing how the new cards work in a premier level setting.

Since modern became a format back in 2011, Wizards of the Coast has questioned if the format is a good fit for a pro tour setting. Even top players have pointed out that the format isn't about being innovative or solving problems with the newest set; it gives rewards for repetitive, established decks. That wasn't what the pro tour was suppose to be about.

As always thanks for reading my blog.

creatureless take over

Seth Manfield, with a white black control deck that he built at 1 am on Friday morning, has beaten the 2007 other players that showed up for the big apple’s Grand Prix New York 2016. In the finals he took on Louis-Samuel Deltour, a French player, with his 4 color cryptolith rite deck. Louis-Samuel had as much of an uphill battle as Scott Lipp had in the semi-finals before him, facing endless spot and mass removal. Who knew that making a last minute, creatureless, deck would afford such a coveted prize?

G/W tokens were pretty well used by players around the Grand Prix New York play area and made the top 8 decklist 3 times. Bant company deck did not make the top 8, even though a lot of players have used the deck.

The top prize payout for Seth Manfield was $10,000,with Louis-Samuel taking home $5,000 for coming in second place. That's a pretty nice payout for both guys, just for playing a good ol’ intense game of Magic: The gathering. Every player will get a stoneforge mystic promo just for participating at any Grand Prix event (while supplies last).

As always, thanks for reading my blog.