Hello. Sit down, introduce yourself. My name is Rick Radzville. Let's shake hands so that we will know that neither of us is holding a knife in his right hand, the origin of that particular custom. When you present your deck, I'm going to shuffle it, and I expect you to shuffle mine. I don't expect to become your best friend this match, but I am going to be cordial enough, and I expect a modicum of civility from you. Like yourself, I have endured countless cases of mana-screw and other arrows of outrageous fortune in this game... But it's still not a good enough reason to behave like an ass. Capice?

When Chris Esko proposed the idea of traveling to New Orleans for the Grand Prix, it immediately seemed like a good one, and it upgraded to great when our plane took off from Baltimore on Friday morning at the beginning of a snowstorm, and landed in 600 New Orleans. Check-in goes smoothly, and after we track down lunch, we decide to while away an hour in Harrah's waiting for the GP Trial to start. Straight Texas Hold-Em is the game I purchase an education of, with a complimentary gin and tonic thrown in. Then, it's show time!

After we register we run into Rick Ralsten and Geremy Prosise from The Time Capsule in Colonial Heights, and sit with them. That's a good thing, because they're good players and good company. Here's my card list:

White
Restrain
Reviving Dose
Holy Day
Wayfaring Giant
Spirit Weaver
Sunscape Apprentice
Ruham Djinn
Razorfoot Griffin
Rampant Elephant
2x Obsidian Acolyte
Glimmering Angel
Protective Sphere
Dismantling Blow
Blinding Light

Green
Fertile Ground
2x Serpentine Kavu
Nomadic Elf
Kavu Chameleon
Vigorous Charge
Bind

Red
Turf Wound
Goblin Spy
Savage Offensive
Overload
Kavu Scout
Obliterate
Pouncing Kavu
Viashino Grappler
Kavu Aggressor
Slimy Kavu
2x Scorching Lava

Blue
Worldly Counsel
Sway of Illusion
Probe
Prohibit
Tolarian Emissary
Phantasmal Terrain
Tower Drake
Vodalian Serpent
Metathran Zombie

Black
Tainted Well
Spreading Plague
2x Ravenous Rats
Urborg Phantom
Cursed Flesh
Phyrexian Battleflies
Soul Burn
Hate Weaver
Mourning
Recover

Gold
Frenzied Tilling
Galina's Knight
Treva, the Sideboarder
Lobotomy
Yavimaya Barbarian
Yavimaya Kavu
Stormscape Apprentice
Shivan Zombie
Llanowar Knight
Recoil
Vodalian Zombie
Plague Spores
Blazing Specter
Urborg Drake

Duskwalker
Non-basic lands
Tinder Farm
Ancient Spring
Coastal Tower

Artifacts
Drake-Skull Cameo

Split cards
Pain/Suffering
Spite/Malice

PLEASE SLOW DOWN
CONSTRUCTION ZONE AHEAD
ALL FINES DOUBLED
Here's what I built:
7 Swamps
5 Islands
4 Mountains
2x Scorching Lava
Probe
Phyrexian Battleflies
Pouncing Kavu
Stormscape Apprentice
Soul Burn
Viashino Grappler
Tower Drake
Hate Weaver
Kavu Aggressor
Vodalian Serpent
Mourning
Slimy Kavu
Metathran Zombie
Recover
Plague Spores
Spite/Malice
Duskwalker
Blazing Specter
Urborg Drake
Shivan Zombie
Vodalian Zombie
Recoil

The GP Trial is the largest to date in the U.S., at 128 people. It started at 6 P.M. Think about the seven rounds of Swiss, then Top 8 draft, and the single-elim rounds. If you lose in the quarterfinals, do you GP or no?

In the first round, I face Aaron Todd, a pleasant LSU fan. Game 1 is a stand-off until he drops a turn 5 Dromar! After my stomach returns to its' proper place and position, my thought is "Blazing Specter doesn't look so good now". After I pass the turn, he drops another Dromar! I'm so stunned, I forget it's a Legend. I wasn't holding anything to handle the first, so I enter my scoop phase. The second game I outrace him, but in game three he makes the plays that I have nightmares about: turn two, Llanowar Knight, turn three Armadillo Cloak. If he hadn't gained sixteen life, he would've been at four when I died. Does that count for anything? No? Just checking. I refrain from whining, and consider the fact that maybe I have betrayed excellent cards with a sub-par build.

I console myself with the Swiss Gambit Theory: I have taken an early loss to rise through the theoretically weaker loser's bracket. However, since I work with computers, I am aware of the sometimes-wide divergence between theory and reality. My next opponent is Bryan McGraw, a pleasant fellow stuck playing forests and plains. I also start game 1 with a mulligan. Is that a kick in the teeth? I get a fast hand out of it, and am outracing him. He thinks he has pulled it out when he Cloaks a Hill Giant and sends, and lays a blocker, putting me to six and him to eleven. After I Agonizing Demise with kicker, I send my monsters to collect a W. Game 2, he is mana-screwed. At 1-1, I should be feeling better, but I am developing a killer headache.

Round 3, I square off against Kevin Rose. He is slightly color-hosed, I have manic removal, and take three damage total in two games. It appears that drinking and smoking are not good tournament prep, especially if neither are regular activities for you. I totally surprise the scorekeeper by dropping after a win, but I don't feel like vomiting all over my next opponent. That was at 10:15 p.m.; I found out the next day that it ended at 7 a.m. Saturday!

I feel much better at 7:30 the next morning, and proceed to the GP. Here's my card list:

Green
Might Weaver
Llanowar Cavalry
Pulse of Llanowar
2 Serpentine Kavu
2 Tranquility
Treefolk Healer
Vigorous Charge
Wandering Stream

White
Atalya, Samite Master
Benalish Lancer
Dismantling Blow
Liberate
2 Orim's Touch
Prison Barricade
Protective Sphere
2 Rampant Elephant
Restrain
Strength of Unity

Blue
Teferi's Response (foil!)
Psychic Battle
Tolarian Emissary
2 Dream Thrush
Thornscape Apprentice
Opt
Manipulate Fate
Barrin's Unmaking
Prohibit
2 Stormscape Apprentice
Vodalian Hypnotist
Tower Drake

Black
Nightscape Apprentice
Urborg Emissary
Cursed Flesh
Tainted Well
Urborg Phantom
Duskwalker
Reckless Spite
Soul Burn
Urborg Skeleton
Mourning
Bog Initiate
Phyrexian Battleflies

Red
2 Slimy Kavu
Scarred Puma
2 Scorching Lava
Tribal Flames
Viashino Grappler
2 Maniacal Rage
Hooded Kavu
Halam Djinn

Gold
Armadillo Cloak
Heroes Reunion
Noble Panther
Hunting Kavu
Yavimaya Barbarian
Galina's Knight
Crosis the Purger
Vodalian Zombie
Shivan Zombie
Cinder Shade

Artifacts
Tigereye Cameo
Bloodstone Cameo

Non-basics
Shivan Oasis
Geothermal Crevice
2 Ancient Spring

All sorts of goodness here, isn't there? The first two tournaments I ever won I played Erhnamgeddon, and I've loved green-white ever since, but the first decks I ever built only tapped Mountains for mana. There's something about directly killing someone that appeals to my inner assassin. That's why I like Invasion Sealed. Summon monsters, send monsters, summon, send, more, more, more! Kill, Kill, KILL! And all the neighbors said he was a quiet and polite guy...Isn't this more entertaining than white space? (Isn't ANYTHING? -- The Ferrett)

My deck list:
8 Swamps
5 Mountains
4 Islands
Nightscape Apprentice
Halam Djinn
Dream Thrush
Urborg Emissary
2 Maniacal Rage
Stormscape Apprentice
Reckless Spite
Hooded Kavu
Tower Drake
Soul Burn
2 Scorching Lava
Crosis the Purger
Duskwalker
Tribal Flames
Vodalian Zombie
Urborg Skeleton
Viashino Grappler
Shivan Zombie
Mourning
Cinder Shade
Bog Initiate
Phyrexian Battleflies

I think that playing 24 spells was a mistake, and would cut the Bog Initiate upon further reflection. It's the little kid in me wanting to Soul Burn for a bunch. Playing 24 spells and 17 land is a bad habit I have indulged in far too long. My New Year's resolution is to cut the crappiest creature.

Round 1 I am paired against Duane Bellamy. Game 1 he can't get anything going after I Spite his first two monsters. Battleflies and StormDrain Apprentice do a lot of wetwork. Game 2 is frustrating for me. I take one from his red Apprentice, five from my Spite, and fourteen from Smoldering Tar! I couldn't get a sufficient offensive momentum going, and bounced a creature with Urborg Emissary instead of the Tar. Game 3 is a dream come true for me. Turn 2 Dream Thrush, Turn 3 Maniacal Rage, and the Thrush starts enjoying the combat phase. The game lasted seven turns before I killed him.

Round 2 I sit down across from Mikhail Karasovlis, who started playing because his son did. I really like hearing that, especially after he crushes me in two straight, because I see one mountain all match long, which happened to get Frenzied Tilling before I got to use it. I start siding out a swamp for a mountain the rest of the day.

Round 3 is against Carl James. I mulligan once, he gets two pro-red knights going, and it's over painfully quick for me. Game 2 is a closer race, with his pro-red guys coming across, and one turn where I add Halam Djinn to my team and drop him from seventeen to eight. It comes down to his attack phase, when he sends for four unblockable, dropping me to one. He then drops a Slayer as one of three blockers, to stop my kicked Duskwalker or Hooded Kavu. I untap, and look at my cards in hand and on the board, trying to figure out how to do four points of damage to him to kill him. I'm torn between conceding and trying to figure it out, when suddenly, a neuron in my brain fires, and I remember the second part of Maniacal Rage, play it on the Slayer, and kill him. When I figured it out, I had that smile and yelp of inspiration when a good play reveals itself to you, and I hope it didn't come across the wrong way to Carl. He was a very cool customer, very hard to read.

Game 3 he outraces me.

Who drops at 1-2 at a 40K event with a rating under 1700? Well, not me. Besides, I have yet to cast Crosis. Round 4 I play Alex Hilsman, who talks some ill-advised trash about the Ravens and me. Game 1 he makes excellent use of Tidal Visionary to use his black removal on my black creatures, and it helps him win the race to victory. Game 2 I win the race, partly because I Plague Spores a creature and his only swamp at an opportune time. Game 3 he endures the pain of no swamps, and I clean up.

Round 5 is a rematch against Bryan McGraw. He is using much better cards this time, like Mountain and Swamp. Game 1 I outrace him easily, and expect an easy match. However, Game 2 is all him, with two Aggressors and other quick beats. It really surprises me how strong he comes at me, and I can't even stabilize by dropping Crosis. Is that a good play? Would you just concede, instead of revealing The Dragon? I think it helped me, as Bryan sided in about six or seven cards to deal with it, which might have cost him his tempo cards. I don't take any damage from him game 3, as he gets color-screwed.

Back in the winners bracket, I get paired against Geremy. Great...our match is over in fifteen minutes, as he wins the tempo in game 1, and then game 2 drops a turn 3 Cloak on a Slimy Kavu. Before I can burn it with two Lavas, he drops Strength of Unity on it. My last chance is blocking with Cinder Shade, but he Growths it in response, and finishes mopping up what's left of me next turn.

Round 7 is rather anti-climactic, as I play Dan Burdnick, a good player with a good deck. Game 1, on turn 6 he Hypnotic Clouds with kick, turn 7 Treva, turn 8... What turn 8? Game 2 is a close race that I lose by two. Where's my burn? So I finish at 3-4, much less than I hoped. I enjoyed myself all day.

I played in a Japanese Rochester Draft that evening, drafting first, to the left of Toby Wachter and directly across from Craig Wescoe. I open and pick Rith, but no tappers or burn, and my deck is sub-optimal. Craig crushes me in two straight, but he had some very helpful advice, pointing out how strong blue is in Invasion.

I'd like to go on some more, but I'm sick and tired - literally - and want to give out some props:

Chris Esko - Good Idea Man. Thanks for all your advice. I appreciate it.

Colin Sellar - Sorry you missed such a devastatingly good time. GP Boston or no?

Rick Ralsten - You've got a lot of class.

Geremy Prosise - Thanks for the support. Do you need help for Tokyo?

Craig Wescoe - Sorry about the Titans. I think you've got a good attitude, I enjoyed playing against you, it was a learning experience.

Jonathan Lewis - Thanks for the advice.

Dan Grandon - Couldn't someone watch the store for you? The Lucky Frog in Annandale, VA and also in Arlington, VA are excellent places to game, for fun or blood.

Please send comments and questions to rixter@rickysmail.com.
Rick Radzville
Team Forbidden Donut (It's sacrilicious)

Bonus Track: This is a shameless rip-off of Rui on Mindripper (AND HERE! -- The Ferrett), but I enjoy it, so I thought I'd use it. It's not plagiarism, it's homage...honest. Would a Magic player lie to you? Chris and I are sitting at table in the Convention Center Saturday night around two a.m., leafing through the cards we've drafted, wondering what excuse there is to stay up any later, when Jon Becker walks up. He turns to Chris and says, "Hey, are you doing anything? I need a partner for a friendly 2-on-2 draft for just the cards. Are you any good?" It's slightly amusing, as Chris went to CMU, and played with Buehler, Lauer, and Cuneo, and Becker actually played against him ages ago. Chris might not be Q'd, but he's good. They sit down against Andy J and Adrian (I think), and start to draft. Adrian shows me his 1st pick Rith. Then Gary Wise bursts in, wearing huge beads, proclaiming, "Magic Players! Cease these senseless games and join the topless nymphs lounging on Bourbon Street!" He and Becker start conversing for a few minutes, and Becker exclaims, "I'm going to write an article 'Wise Breaks Bourbon Street'." Andy J then says, "I'd like to read an article called 'Becker Drafts A Card'," as there are three piles of cards to Becker's left. Then Adrian opens another Rith. Favorite play: Becker drops turn 4 Crusading Knight, and extends his hand. Andy thinks for a minute, picks up his library and looks through it, and then says "Yeah, there's nothing in my deck that'll handle that." And starts shuffling up game 2. Good times? Most assuredly, Grasshopper.