It's all Bobby's fault. See, I work twenty hours a week and go to school full-time. Between those two commitments and my girlfriend and a couple of drafts a week, I really don't have much spare time. But Bobby didn't care - he kept telling me I was going to go to Grand Prix: Atlanta. That didn't work, even though we ended up designing a mono-black aggro deck that pretty much couldn't lose to Wake. Then the nagging about Kansas City. "You know you're gonna go, Jay..."

And after much insistence, he turned out to be right.

We've been drafting Mirrodin from the get-go - I think we did five or six booster drafts right when the set came out. And after the prerelease, we drafted at least twice a week, so I felt pretty familiar with the format. How wrong I was. I was very familiar with booster draft, but when it comes to qualifying for the show,"booster" isn't in Wizards' vocabulary. So after two PTQs of suspect results and a 5-0 Grand Prix trial (eventually losing to my arch-rival, Mr. Lands, in the first round of the Top 8), I felt my Limited grasp of the set was a lot better.

Warning: Boring setup stuff that I've seen other people do. Only read if you're bored.

So Mr. Babbis and I set out to Kansas City for some fun. His dad drove us up to John Wayne International and we caught a direct to KCI. We caught some half-decent airport food and playtested Goblins against aggro Affinity. The flight on Midwest was nice - leather seats, headrests, and thankfully little turbulence. I used to fly so much, but now I'm just a big weenie when the plane starts shaking. We got in around eight or nine and met Elevin there, who was on a flight with PTQ and Starleaf. After a cab vs. rental debacle, Eugene, Bobby, and I rode in our newly rented Cavalier to the tourney site. The sit was pretty dead except for an Extended tournament that wasn't all that enticing - and as much as I like to lurk around the tourney site to see what people are playing, we called it a night.

We woke up the next morning to grab breakfast before the main event. Mikey P was also at breakfast, as well as a number of other tourney goers. After a bite, it was off to the site. I had one bye going in, which isn't impressive at all. Eugene had won the GPT that I was in, and Bobby was going into the tournament raw-doggin' it.

Wow - that wasn't that long and boring after all! Lucky you.

Sooooo, after a nice fifty-minute wake-up period I went into round 1 with a pretty solid deck that featured such hits as Triskelion, Slith Bloodletter, Serum Tank, a Spikeshot Goblin, a Loxodon Warhammer (which seems to be a pretty defining card in winning decks, hmmmmm), and some really above-average equipment. I ended up building a primarily black deck with about even amounts of white and red. In retrospect, I think it's much better to build a two-color consistent deck or merely splash for one or two cards (like Detonate and Goblin Replica, for instance). Bob Maher mentioned not falling behind, which is really important in a set without a lot of board clearers and where board positions can become ridiculous within one turn thanks to cards like Spikeshot and the equipment-ready white creatures.

Now, to be honest, I really don't remember a whole lot of specifics about day one. I tried to concentrate on what I needed to do round-by-round to make day 2. I'll toss out some highlights, though.

Round 2 saw me in typical morning form. "Asleep at the wheel with no windshield..." was the phrase Jacob Dylan coined, and that's not a bad description of me round 2 day 1. So, I ended up losing in three horribly sloppy games and kicked myself in the ass for about five minutes, then got ready for round 3.

Round 3 also went to three games, which became a pretty common theme for me. I remember my opponent's deck coming out pretty nicely in game one, featuring a quick Somber Hoverguard with a Bonesplitter and a Nuisance Engine to stall out the ground. I'm not a big fan of the Engine unless you have a really good late game or killer equipment. My opponent's components didn't show up for the final two games, and I began the steady climb for day 2.

Rounds 4 through 6 were also a blur for me.

Going into round 7, I was x-1 and needed a win to draw into day 2 (my tie breaks were like 55%). My opponent was Otto Schmidtt, the nicest guy I met all weekend. He had a Warhammer in his deck, which turned out to be superior to my turn 2 Slith Bloodletter+Bonesplitter and decent mana curve in game 1.

Game 2 saw my Spikeshot and Pewter Golem making friends with Loxodon Warhammer and Fireshrieker. The final game saw Otto kill my early Bonesplitter and Gauntlets, only to lose the war of attrition to Serum Tank+Spikeshot+Triskelion.

Round 8 was the shake, shake and I was into Day Two with my bad tiebreakers. My opponent that I drew with in the eighth round had a decent deck, featuring three Fangren Hunters, among other goodies.

I was feeling pretty good about the trip so far. With seventeen amateurs in Day 2, I was pretty much guaranteed to see some money. After looking at the standings, I saw that Tim Aten and John Sonne were in my first pod, but those were the only names I really recognized.

The draft started out with the guy in seat two snaking both Glissa and Molder Slug, and seat 4 landing a Solar Tide to cement him in white. I started taking red from the get-go as it looked to be a decent seat for it and no other colors really presented themselves. In the second pack, it became apparent that no one was playing black, but that was largely due to the fact that the packs were just didn't have any good black cards. After picking up a Bloodletter, I started snaking Consume Spirits and Terrors. Packs two and three were especially good to me when Warhammer and Clockwork Dragon got opened to my left; I netted the Dragon and proceeded to open Arc-Slogger. In the third pack, black showed up in a big way with a Promise of Power, which Jon Sonne took, and two more Consume Spirits showed up and made their way all the way around the table into my deck, along with a Barter in Blood.

My last wheel in pack three was Consume Spirit and Skeleton Shard - not too shabby. I ended up with bombtastic rares, two Terrors, three Consume Spirits, a Shatter, and a Skeleton Shard.

The draft was rather lopsided in my favor. The guy in seat 1 seemed to start out in white, then tailed off into U/R as the draft went on. Seat 2 was solid green, featuring Glissa Sunseeker and Molder Slug. Tim Aten was in seat 3 and drafted a really good U/R deck, featuring two Spikeshots with the equipment to back them up. Fourth seat ended up drafting G/W with Solar Tide. I was in seat 5 drafting R/B; the guy to my left ended up drafting W/R, even though I was to his right drafting red and the guy to his left was drafting U/W. Jon Sonne rounded out the table, drafting an amalgam of green, black, and red.

Round 9 vs. Edwin Witte, playing G/W
Game one lasted almost half the time for the round. Edwin went first and accelerated into a turn 3 Tel-Jilad Exile with a Myr. After that, he dropped two more creatures, which my Myr and Pewter Golem had trouble with. After killing his Myr, I cast Barter in Blood and Moriok Scavenger to recover my Pewter Golem. He dropped Bonesplitter on his Exile; I answered with Slith Bloodletter. After attacking into his Exile and Edwin drawing six lands, he cast Solar Tide while I was tapped out. He then dropped Titanium Golem and I answered with a lethal Clockwork Dragon.

Game 2 went much faster, as I drew removal spells and Arc-Slogger showed up to eat some cards.

Record 7-1-1

Round 10 vs. Justin Swierczek playing U/R
Justin told me while watching my round 9 match that his opponent had misregistered his deck and gotten a match loss. So I was feeling pretty good about my chances against him, as he had seemed to drift between blue, red and white during the draft.

As it turned out his deck was pretty good. He drafted a lot of artifacts to power out early Somber Hoverguards. I won game 1 on the back of removal and a turn 2 Slith Bloodletter. Game 2 saw Justin draw three Aether Spellbombs and Crystal Shard and saw me cast Clockwork Dragon a bunch of times. He won that game.

Game 3, Justin had mana problems after keeping a mana-light hand. I killed his Myr and he wasn't able to recover.

Record 8-1-1

This is a good time for an aside: Given that everyone plays Myrs, it's really tempting to keep one land, a Myr, and Spellbomb hands on the draw. I've kept them and more often than not I've been punished for it. The odds say you should draw lands by turn 2 and definitely do it with the Spellbomb, but that's just the odds. Unless you draw land #2 by turn #2, you're effectively Time Walking yourself to draw off the Spellbomb. And if your opponent gets an aggressive draw...

Round 11 vs. Tim Aten, playing U/R
No, that wasn't foreshadowing! Tim's deck had double Spikeshot and a ton of other goodies. I thought he had the next best deck at the table. When I told him so, he looked at me nonplussed and said,"Your deck is stupid and you know it."

And he was right. With five removal spells for them and a Shatter to keep them under control, his Spikeshots didn't really become that much of a factor the whole match. He won a game where I kept a one-land, Spellbomb, Myr hand and failed to draw land #3. Tim was right - that deck was stupid.

Record 9-1-1

After the first draft, I was in 8^th place. I never dreamed I'd be in a spot to possibly qualify for the Pro Tour at a Grand Prix... Much less be at the first table with experienced Rochester drafters. I consider myself a good Limited player, but watching some of the moves that the other players made at the first table, I knew this was the closest I'd ever been to the big leagues.

The draft picks were covered by the lovely Mary Van Tyne. Kibler opened up Luminous Angel to my right in pack three, taking Electrostatic Bolt and shipping me the Angel. I ended up opening another Angel as well as a Reiver Demon. That pack had Arrest and Terror in it as well, which would have been better against my deck, but I wanted to take away answers to the Luminous Angels, so it was more of a defensive draft. My deck turned out to be mediocre besides the three rares - unlike my first draft deck, where the rares were just the icing on the cake.

Round 12 vs. Rob Dougherty playing W/R
Rob went into white right behind me during the draft and I asked him about it during our match. He told me he values card power over color positioning, and given the artifact-heavy nature of the set and equipment, he felt it was fine to go into the same colors as the guy to your right. It made enough sense, even if I thought it was better to position yourself for colors.

Game one was pretty short, as my Auriok Transfixers went to work on his Ornithopter+Sword of Kaldra. Luminous Angel came down, and game one was surprisingly short.

Game 2 saw extensive sideboarding into blue by Rob and his Leonin Abunas-backed Ornithopter+Sword of Kaldra. My Transfixers did not shine in this game. After Irradiating a creature Rob tried to equip, he attacked with his Sword of Kaldra+Battlegeared Ornithopter and his Abunas. I misspoke, saying,"Before damage, I'll Irradiate your Abunas." It would have been an 0/3 that would have been blocked by my Skyhunter Cub and Transfixer, shutting down his Ornithopter plans... But after a judge was called and I explained that I meant to say it before declaring blockers, and the head judge ruled I couldn't block. I ended up losing that game and winning the third on the back of Slith Ascendant and Leonin Scimitar on a Skyhunter Cub.

Record 10-1-1

Round 13 vs. Mark Zadjner playing B/R
Mark had the deck I drafted in my first draft, minus a lot of the power cards. But he sported double-Terror, three Consume Spirits, a Barter in Blood, and a Betrayal of the Flesh.

Game one was really close, as I opened with a Slith Ascendant on turn 3 going second. After some racing, I dropped Skyhunter Cub and equipped it. Mark cast Betrayal of the Flesh, getting back a guy and killing my Skyhunter and Terrored my white Slith. His creatures came over while I was stuck on four swamps, two plains, and two Luminous Angels in my hand.

Game 2 was over pretty quickly as Mark drew a lot of removal and sent two Consume Spirits at my face for thirteen total.

Record 10-2-1

At this point, I'm surprisingly not feeling any pressure. I'm one win away from the Top 8, but I've got the Top 16 locked and prolly an invite to Amsterdam in the pocket. A win for me (or a loss by the next best amateur) locks me in for top amateur prize as well. Naturally, I wasn't exactly excited to see who my 14^th opponent of the tournament was....

Round 14 vs. David Rood playing U/G
When we sat down, Dave confessed he didn't think his deck was very good. He was taking primarily blue during the draft, but had to sink into green as neither Rob nor I wanted any part of it. He did have double Icy Manipulator and One Dozen Eyes.

Game 1 saw my Transfixer battling his Icy Manipulator. I had to tap out to cast Luminous Angel, letting David's Icy run amok. Within a few turns of the Angel doing her thing, David conceded.

Game 2 was rather anticlimactic, as I led with a Transfixer and David's draw turned out to be pretty poor until he made a 5/5 with One Dozen Eyes. I cast the Angel a few turns later, and eventually he couldn't deal with her.

Soooooo, Top 8? I was pretty much in shock. After playing competitive Magic for about three years, this was what I had dreamed about doing. It was quite an emotional rollercoaster and by the time I got to the Top 8 draft, I was so spent I could barely play the first round. Kibler can attest that I barely did that, although I must say he did topdecked his only Granite Shard with no cards in hand to steal the"unwinnable" first game. I guess that's how the pros do it, eh?

Props

• Bobby: Great trip and great company."What happened?"
• Eugene: For taking tough breaks well over the weekend.
• The TO: I think at one point he said,"Come on people, we're already five minutes behind." I also heard he used to be in the military. He ran an very tight and efficient tournament; I wish he could run them all.
• My opponents: For being good sports.

Slops-

• Me: For losing in the second round and not being rested enough to play well in the top 8.