Grand Prix Trial Brussels in London

So I just won the Grand Prix Trial Brussels which is still a shock to me. For those not in the know, the Grand Prix for Magic: The Gathering is like the biggest casual tournament for players to take part in, meaning anyone at all can participate. Unlike the Pro Tours which are exclusive to Pros who have made a mark in major tournaments or those who have qualified through Pro Tour Qualifiers (which I managed to Top 8 some time ago but didn't win).

There were 66 players and the format was Lorwyn / Morningtide (that's the most recent expansion sets they were using) sealed deck with a booster draft play-off for the top 8. I managed to get a decent card pool with quite a few bomb cards: Masked Admirers, Reveillark, Epic Proportions and Thoughtweft Trio, Titan's Revenge and Knowledge Exploitation. My Red pool was weaker than the Green and White and I had hardly and Rogues to use Knowledge with so I settled for a Green White deck splashing Black. Here's the deck I built:

Creatures:
1 x Cenn's Tactician
1 x Kithkin Greatheart
1 x Leaf Gilder
1 x Woodland Changeling
1 x Bosk Banneret
1 x Wolf-Skull Shaman
1 x Fertilid
1 x Burrenton Bombardier
1 x Masked Admirers
1 x Reveillark
1 x Burrenton Shield-Bearers
1 x Moonglove Changeling
1 x Thoughtweft Trio
1 x Plover Knights
1 x Everbark Shaman
1 x Walker of the Grove

Spells:
1 x Epic Proportions
1 x Pollen Lullaby
1 x Nameless Inversion
1 x Violet Pall
1 x Fertile Ground
1 x Coordinated Barrage
1 x Weight of Conscience

Lands:
7 x Forests
5 x Plains
3 x Swamps
1 x Shimmering Grotto
1 x Vivid Grove

Sideboard:
1 x Lignify
1 x Spring Cleaning

The deck may look unimpressive apart from the bomb rares but what the deck has is synergy and consistency which is really what made this deck fun to play with. Here's how my deck did in the 7 round sealed deck tournament:

Round 1: Joe
I started the tournament by pairing up against Joe who I had the pleasure of playing at the Two Headed Giant tournament finals at the Morningtide Pre-release event. He was playing a Blue / Red / Black Elemental deck with Wydwen and Aethersnipe being notable mentions. Game 1 goes to me with a splendid opening hand of Thoughtweft Trio with early beats. In game 2 I manage to pull off a win by drawing into removal spells later in the game and running my display of bombs consisting of Reveillark, Masked Admirers and Thoughtweft Trio.
Result: 2 - 0 (Win)

Round 2: Glenn
As luck would have it, my next opponent was someone I also met at the Two Headed Giant tournament as my first opponents. I knew who he was from way back as a pretty decent player with a huge sense of humor. He played a Black / Blue deck with Wydwen, Dread and 2 Cryptic Commands. Again I manage to win Game 1 due to early beats and some card advantage in the form of Masked Admirers. Game 2 was mine due to an unfortunate draw by Glenn; by the end of Game 2 he had 5 Swamps and 1 Island with 2 Cryptic Commands in hand and little on the board.
Result: 2 - 0 (Win)

Round 3: Pepe
Pepe turns out to be a friend of my Thai friend, Parn which was pretty cool. Pepe was running a very aggressive Black / Green deck with some notable bombs like Shriekmaw and Imperious Perfect. Game 1 goes to me with a nice Turn 4 Thoughtweft Trio and Reveillark in the air. Pepe makes a play who forgot Trio has first strike and wastes a Final Sting Faerie on it. Game 2 goes to Pepe who manages to get his creatures out of the gate at the same speed I was. I nearly won it when he plays Morsel Theft bringing his life total just out of my strike range while bringing mine into his. Game 3 was terribly close, with a late game Reveillark swinging in the air while our ground forces were stuck in a Trio-Perfect stalemate. Had he drawn into a Shriekmaw, the game would have turned out pretty badly for me.
Result: 2 - 1 (Win)

Round 4: Zul
Zul turns out to be Malaysian like me, a student at UCL. He was running a White / Green splashing Black deck just like mine, with more emphasis on the late drops than mine like Oakgnarl Warrior and Orchard Warden but with respectable early drops like Militia's Pride and Imperious Perfect. Game 1 goes badly for me with a Imperious Perfect on turn 3 and me stuck on 2 land for a better part of the game. I manage to quickly stabilize but end up getting beat down by a few creatures supported by Militia's Pride to make things worse. I manage to spice things up in Game 2 by bluffing him with a bluff that I had Epic Proportions in hand which I drew a few turns later. Game 3 sees me dominating the board with him having a very slow start in comparison to mine. By the time he starts to play his threats, I have a whole bunch of removal in hand waiting for them.
Results: 2 - 1 (Win)

Round 5: Bruno
Since round 4 I had been sitting at the 1st table meaning I was either 1st or 2nd in the entire tournament. I was feeling pretty good about myself. And along comes Bruno, playing Morningtide for the 2nd time in his entire life. He plays a Black / Blue Faerie deck with Bitterblossom, Scion of Oona, Oona's Blackguard and Scion of Oona. Game 1 goes to me with a slow start by Bruno with Scion of Oona followed up by a brutal early beat and Reveillark. Game 2, Bruno plays Pestermite, Violet Pall for another 1/1 Faerie and Spell-Stutter Sprite and drops Scion of Oona on the table. Its at this point that I realize how useless my deck was against flyers as he beats me to a pulp for 7 a turn in the air. Game 3 is even more brutal for me: he plays Oona's Blackguard turn 2 and follows up with Bitterblossom turn 3. Talk about bombs.... 3 turns later he smashes me in the face with 4 2/2 Faeries generated by Bitterblossom. I was genuinely impressed that he managed to reach the top tables seeing as its his first time playing the set.
Results: 1 - 2 (Loss)

Round 6: Alex
I can't rightly recall his name but I know he studies at Southbank and is staying in halls. His deck was INSANELY good which is a shame that he didn't manage to make top 8. He was playing a very, very aggressive Red / Green /Black deck with Countryside Crusher, Glareweilder and lots of removal. Game 1 goes to me as he mulligans down to 5 and proceeds to run out of steam a couple of turns later. Game 2 is again goes to me due to his bad luck; he starts the game with a nice hand and follows the draws with 4 Green cards with no forests in play.
Result: 2 - 0 (Win)

Round 7: Rob
I reach the final rounds with a soaring heart as all I needed to do was Intentionally Draw with my opponent and I would have made the top 8. And then I find out my opponent is Rob, who has an insanely good deck and is one of the top players at the GPT that day. Funnily enough, he's a pal of my friend Danial and so he agrees to ID with me IF he doesn't lose more than 5 rating points. So we go over to the Tournament Organiser's desk and proceed to calculate the rating points he loses which turns out to be 5. Unfortunately, we had taken so much time doing the calculations that he was forced to ID with me or receive a game loss. I bought him a beer for the 5 rating points he lost.

And thus I managed to make it to the Top 8 of the GPT with a record of 5-1-1, ranked 3rd in the tournament! Needless to say, I was ecstatic with joy. Now all that was left was the booster draft play-offs, which I only needed to win the first round in order to get to Brussels. I'll leave the finals report for another time as I think this article is long enough as it is. Till next time then.