GP Toronto Battle Report!!

First opponent was a nice guy. We chatted on and off throughout the match, which was sort of good for me because I was terrified. I'm not one to let nerves get the best of me in many situations but for whatever reason I was extremely on edge. I was worried that I was going to get rules lawyered out of games. I was worried I was going to make dumb misplays and throw constantly. I was worried I'd get disqualified for something dumb. I was worried I'd be up against antisocial jerks. It seemed though that most of these fears were unfounded. I say most because throughout the day there were some issues here and there, but I'll get to those eventually. Game 1 we midranged each other a bunch until he flashed out his own Samut and blew me out. I was on the back foot from then on At one point I tossed a Torment of Venom during combat onto his Samut which he then saved with a trick---or so I thought. We resolved combat, he tossed Samut into the graveyard I tossed my guys---wait what? What happened there? I was too nervous to speak up for fear of sounding like an idiot or getting disqualified or something. Turns out we resoled the spell improperly and Samut should not have died. For some reason OP thought Torment gave -4/-4 when it didn't. We figured that out after the game ended after he top decked me just barely. I don't think there was anything a judge could or would do at that point, and since he won anyway I don't think there were any issues. I got the feeling from him that had I won from this mistake he would have been pretty forgiving about it after the both of us would have called a judge over to ask what to do. Just my thoughts anyway. Game 2 he played the 3/3 Angel that gains life and tossed a Cartouche of Solidarity on it. I waited till combat to kill it on his turn with Torment of Venom---oh wait. -3/-3. not -4/-4. Somehow his mistake from last game got into my head and I made the exact same mistake! I showed the Venom only realizing my mistake after it was shown to him. Since I didn't drop the car (I guess that's maybe how it works?) he let me 'take it back,' but the damage was done since I would have been able to block it with a Reach dude and kill it had I not been an idiot. Eventually he went on to pull consistent gas against me and I lost. I'm chalked this loss mainly up to nerves, and I fully place all blame upon myself, though I can't be certain if I could have beaten his deck anyway. It was just a little smaller and a little too aggressive with a better top end than my deck it seemed.
Record 0-1

Alright not off to a great start. The ice was broken, however, and for whatever reason that first loss made me feel better. This guy was also pretty friendly, we got to talking and it was his first GP as well. Game 1 we both played creatures, but he hit a few more faster than I did. The board state was absolutely in his favour but he was afraid to be aggressive, possibly due to Obelisk Spider. I started to grow my board and was able to create a few favourable attacks. Then I dropped Pride Sovereign and since he was giving me the time, I created cats until it grew to 9/9 and eventually just overwhelmed him. Game 2 He drew Grind//Dust and exiled my Cat and another creature on the ground, but left a Blighted Bat that was already beating him down alive for whatever reason. I think that Bat did about 12 damage over the course of that game. He never drew another answer for it and once I grew my board with better creatures than his I won.
Record 1-1

Here was the match I knew was coming. My first Spike. (For those who don't know a Spike is a nickname generally given to hypercompetitive players. There are some negative connotations attached here I suppose due to my own 'leaning-towards-the-casual-side-of-things,' and due to my experience with these players in local game stores. I find for the most part, players like this are interested in one thing only---winning---which is fine, but it's often to the detriment of sociability, and sometimes fun.) This guy had no interest in socializing with me. I knew this sort of thing would be a possibility, but if playing games against faceless opponents was all I cared about, I wouldn't bother collecting in paper and trying to scrounge up time to draft once a month or whenever I can barely manage it. I shut my mouth and played the game. Game 1 I played control for the most part---he played stuff, I removed it. Board stall happened, then opponent drew Sunset Pyramid which let him dig through his deck for cards to beat me. With nothing for me to do about it, he eventually drew into a Scarab God (his blue splash) and I scooped up my cards. Game 2 I knew I wouldn't be able to stall since his deck had inevitability so I played a little more aggressively. I dropped a bunch of creatures which were summarily removed with Hour of Devastation. I ended up very low on life but eventually stabilized with Scrounger of Souls and won before he could do anything else. A friend watching me told me after the match that I misplayed at one point in this game by not hasting out a Blighted Bat that I didn't plan on blocking with regardless, and he was right. Gotta watch those misplays. Game 3 I hold onto a hand with Puncturing Blow and successfully play around Hour of Devastation early. He drops the God, I immediately exile it. For the next 5 turns I proceed to top deck like crazy including my first time playing Samut(!!) but he hangs on, eventually finding his Pyramid. I then top deck one final time---Open Fire for the win. He was VERY unhappy after that final game and certainly let me know about it, and I definitely don't blame him given the sheer power of his deck. I just had all the right answers exactly when I needed them. Overall not a particularly unpleasant experience but I think if I had to go the rest of the day playing against opponents like him, I may not have enjoyed myself very much.
Record: 2-1

Checking up with some friends here I seemed to be on par with one guy who actually had a Bye first round and is attempting to grind to the Pro Tour. Not that that means much 3 rounds into a huge tournament like this, but still, i felt good about it. That guy had Mirror, Glyph Keeper, Obstructionist, Earthshaker Khenra and a bunch of other really solid stuff for a UR deck. Anyway I digress. After the last game, facing another super friendly guy was nice. At the start of the match he says to me he is currently 2-0 in matches against Dans. I say 'Well I personally go by Daniel, so I don't think that counts.' Pretty amusing that he's played against 3/4 guys so far with the same name. Game 1 guy drops Planeswalker Samut. I had kept a hand of 4 lands, Shefet Monitor, Manalith and Scrounger because I didn't want to risk drawing a worse hand. I took some hits early with Samut giving somebody double strike but I managed to get Scrounger down. I had a bunch of Deserts on the field already so to stabilize I buffed my Scrounger with Hashep Oasis to gain life and attack Samut, he chumps to protect her. Eventually she goes down and there's a board stall. The typical cycle of him playing stuff and me removing it goes on; a particularly good play was with him having two creatures on the board I used Lethal Stong to remove one, then Doomfall to force him to exile the 6/7 Hexproof crocodile I would have otherwise been unable to deal with. I topdeck Sovereign, he topdecks Ramunap Hydra. I topdeck my second Lethal Sting to kill his Hydra and prevent my death but after a fun sequence of super topdecks from both of us, I hit 3 lands in a row and lose. Game 2 I mulligan to 6 and manage to never draw a green source and get crushed. I actually sided in Torment of Scarabs for some reason in this game while taking out Cartouche of Ambition and I proceeded to draw it when it was useless. I think I threw it in because I had heard some commentary at GP Kyoto that was going on at the same time that a lot of players were running it. That was the first game out of 9 I actually had to mulligan despite my mildly greedy manabase so I definitely couldn't complain too much. Looks like the dude's winrate versus Dans increased to 3-0!
Record 2-2

This guy was another Spike. Was somewhat friendly it seemed except he kept calling me 'brother.' An odd idiosyncrasy that seemed innocent enough but also sort of condescending? I didn't know what to make of it. During shuffling/cuts at the beginning of Game 2 or 3 he also called me 'little brother' which is definitely condescending. Maybe I'm overly sensitive but I don't know. Whether I'm physically bigger/smaller or older/younger than him, I feel like it's sort of rude. I've got two kids and I'm the eldest in my family,. I'm nobody's 'little brother.' In any case, from Game 1 it was already pretty evident what this guy's gameplan was. He was hardcore burn, having 4 on colour rares in his deck. I can't remember what they all were but they included Cut//Ribbons and an Invocation Diabolic Intent. I missed two land drops in this game and got burnt out by a bunch of Firebrand Archers and aggro cards. Didn't even need to play the Inferno Jet he was running. Game 2 I managed to keep my life up with Cartouche and Scrounger. He never drew a second Swamp he seemed to need and lost. Game 3 this guy flooded more heavily than anything I've ever seen. I think he had drawn 11 lands in 17 or 18 cards and I just crushed him.
Record 3-2

So the Day 2 dream was still alive at this point, needing 3 more wins out of my next 4 matches to go 6-3 and make the Draft portion of the Grand Prix. Again, my hopes weren't particularly high but it was nice to have something else to fight for. Anyway, Game 1 I had a disgusting start. Turn 2 Bitterblade Warrior into Cartouche of Ambition to remove a 2/1 from OP's board. Looked like maybe I could have won right there but OP drew a couple Puncturing Blows while I couldn't draw mine when he pulled a 6/6 Hydra on me. And then a Samut planeswalker. Then right after he played the 7/7 Sandwurm, and while I topdecked Lethal Sting there was no way that would be enough. Game 2 he plays Samut, Hydra, and surpise! Rhonas. I manage to deal with Samut but I can't deal with both the trampling Hydra and keep creatures off the board to avoid Rhonas activating. I also made a really stupid play here by using Puncturing Blow on Rhonas (since dealing 5 damage to Hydra wouldn't kill it) even though I KNOW full well the creature has to die to be exiled. No idea why I did that, but there was no way I was winning that regardless. Just too many huge on-colour bombs for me to deal with.
Record 3-3

Now I had to fight to stay alive. Any loss from here on meant I'm out of the tournament. Even if I lost this match I could keep going and play my remaining matches for the day but it was getting late and it was a lot of Magic already. This guy was super nice. He was disabled and so had his wheelchair at a set end of a table where he didn't have to move around between matches. Kinda cool that they can do that for people at these events. Game 1 he played three Thorned Molochs and not a whole lot else? I was afraid of Prowess triggers when he attacked but he just really didn't...do anything. Especially when I played bigger stuff and he was forced to chump and just won without much effort. Game 2 I got screwed off of red mana and lost. Game 3 I got screwed again but managed to survive thanks to buffed Scrounger yet again and drew into Samut for the blowouts and eventually the win. Felt bad to be the one to knock someone out of Day 2 contention but he wasn't particularly broken up about it. Another awesome opponent. A fun little interaction we had to call a Judge for at one point was when I had both of my Obelisk Spiders on the board at once. Turns out when they block each one sees the other put a -1/-1 counter on something and they trigger twice each for 4 triggers total! No wonder Jon Finkel's insane quadruple Obelisk Spider deck did as well as it did at the Pro Tour. Card is super nuts.
Record 4-3

This match was to continue to stay alive. I recognized my opponent here from one of the stores I frequent, and he recognized me as well as the guy who beat him during Shadows Over Innistrad with a Triskadekaphobia draft deck! Game 1 I beat him with Blighted Bat essentially as I removed threats and had good blocks on the ground until late in the game when he dropped a Sandwurm on me and threatened lethal. I pretended to think a while, said something along the lines of 'Hmm..ok this'll work' (lol) and swung out with an exerted Bitterblade Warrior and my Bat, threatening lethal if I had a pump spell. All my opponent had to do was not block to win.....and the bluff paid off! Maybe an obvious play but one I was fairly proud of. Game 2 I mulled to 5 so hopes were not high. I managed to stabilize just barely with some my old friend the Scrounger but at 4 life he topdecks a Trial of Zeal and pings me for one with Fervent Paincaster which I wasn't able to deal with for the entire game. That one was nailbitingly close. Game 3 he draws multiple cartouches and Trials and just removes and outvalues me off the board immediately. GG. We shake hands. If I had to get knocked out by someone, I was happy it was him. I wished him good luck in making Day 2 and I dropped. Probably could have just played my last match of the night for fun, but like I said, it was getting late and a full day of Magic can get pretty grueling.