2019 July
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Grand Prix / MagicFest Seattle Photo Dump: I wasn't actually planning to play much competitive Magic this year, at least not on paper, but when the family planned a US trip in June, I figured I'd take a short side trip to attend and experience a US GP. I had the choices of Washington DC on the 14th-16th (Limited), Seattle on 20th-23rd (Limited), or Dallas on 28th-30th (Modern). After some wrangling with the family's schedule, Seattle was the one most convenient to go to, and Limited meant I didn't have to try and put together a decent deck. (IDK how
2017 December
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I had booked the Singapore trip earlier in the year, since I almost always attend Grand Prixs in Singapore as its an easy trip and gives a good opportunity to visit friends. Unfortunately, I ended up not having time to prepare for the tournament itself. Fortunately, it was a limited event rather than constructed, so I figured maybe I could wing it and still do well. (Spoiler: I could not.) Prior to the trip, my prep for the sealed format had consisted of a single pool at my prerelease and reading a few articles online the night before the trip.
2017 June
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I don't really play Magic regularly anymore; Last year I only played Standard because I was Q'ed for the WMCQs. But when there's a local Grand Prix, oldies like me crawl out of the woodwork and try to believe we can still do well in a tournament with minimal prep. Grand Prix Manila 2017 was to be Standard format, held on June 2-4, 2017, at the SMX convention center. At the start of the year I already knew I would be playing in this year's GP Manila, but since I hadn't played Standard for well over a year, I didn't
2015 August
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I was sent to London for work for a few months, which meant an opportunity to play a third GP for the year after Manila back in January and Singapore back in June. This will be the most GP events I've played in a one year period. I didn't have time to practice, so I went with an updated version of the Jeskai tempo deck I was playing at the start of Khans rotation. Jeskai Tempo Creatures 4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy 3 Soulfire Grand Master 2 Harbinger of the Tides 4 Mantis Rider 2 Stormbreath Dragon Spells 2 Wild Slash
2015 June
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GP Singapore 2015 would be my first Modern GP and maybe only my 3rd or 4th Modern event altogether. Modern is a difficult format to prepare for; there are many decks to prepare for and it's almost impossible to master all the matchups. For this reason, I felt much less prepared for this event than for GP Manila back in January. I put together Grixis Twin for this event. It's a bit difficult to pilot, but I felt it had a reasonable matchup across the board and there's always a chance of comboing out when you're falling behind. Here's the
2015 February
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One of my many, many loyal blog readers pointed out to me that I had yet to post about Grand Prix Manila, which took place in the first week of this year. I've been meaning to post about it, but it got lost in my backlog. So here we are. Yes indeed, I still play Magic, "on and off", as it happens with most Magic players with busy lives and/or multiple other hobbies. I wouldn't miss a chance to play a local Grand Prix of course, so I started getting back into standard as soon as Khans of Tarkir rotated
2012 June
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Last weekend was Grand Prix Manila 2012, held at the SMX at Mall of Asia. I don't really consider myself a "regular" Magic player anymore so I'm not going to give a full tournament report, though I will record some details for posterity. Let's start with the deck. I played some version of Naya Pod, limited by what cards were available as usual: A Pile of Naya Creatures 4 Birds of Paradise 3 Avacyn Pilgrim 1 Ulvenwald Tracker 4 Strangeleroot Geist 2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben 1 Daybreak Ranger 2 Borderland Ranger 2 Blade Splicer 2 Fiend Hunter 2 Wolfir
2011 June
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Haven't done a tournament report in a while. Heck, I haven't really played tournament Magic in a while, not seriously at least. For that reason it may have been a bad idea to run with a deck that requires a lot of matchup knowledge to play. The tournament was Grand Prix Singapore 2011, the format was standard and my weapon of choice was Caw Blade: Lands 4 Island 3 Plains 4 Celestial Colonnade 4 Glacial Fortress 1 Inkmoth Nexus 1 Marsh Flats 1 Scalding Tarn 4 Seachrome Coast 4 Tectonic Edge Creatures 4 Stoneforge Mystic 4 Squadron Hawk 2 Mirran
2009 August
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#mtg #gpbangkok Yes, I performed poorly. Overall record was 3-8 including side events. =/
[16:44] #mtg #gpbangkok Correction: My weekend record was 4-9. 7-9 with byes. Will do better next time!
2008 September
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Grand Prix Manila 08 has come and gone and is in the history books. While the Wizards official coverage gives you the play-by-play and the results, I’ll see if I can’t provide any interesting stories about my first constructed Grand Prix event. For the PTQ on day two, I decided to just use the Kithkin build we made for Paul, except that I put in Stillmoon Cavaliers maindeck, taking out Knight of Meadowgrain. I also fixed up the sideboard a bit. The list I played: Lands 4 Windbrisk Heights 4 Rustic Clachan 2 Mutavault 16 Plains Creatures 4 Burrenton Forge-Tender
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Grand Prix Manila 08 has come and gone and is in the history books. While the Wizards official coverage gives you the play-by-play and the results, I’ll see if I can’t provide any interesting stories about my first constructed Grand Prix event. Day One Tournament Report As mentioned in the previous post , I'm playing QnT and I hope to fight aggro decks all day long. Round 1. I shuffle up with my first round opponent. I keep a two-lander with some good creature control spells. He starts with a Forest and I realize he'splaying some sort of monogreen elves
2006 March
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Maybe it's just me, but Wizard's coverage of Grand Prix Manila last weekend seems just a tad condescending to Filipino Magic players. Not that we mind, after all, local bets actually did kick ass and shrugged off the Japanese invasion. If you are in fact a Filipino Magic player, then I hope you know what I'm talking about -- last weekend at the Robinson's Galleria Trade Hall, almost four hundred local and foreign Magic: The Gathering players gathered for the third-ever Grand Prix event held in Manila. I was there, of course, since for some reason I enjoy this expensive