Posts Tagged ‘piZZero’

The Legacy tournaments at the Black Lotus Store in Barcelona are probably the biggest weekly events in the world. With an average turn out that might hit the 35 players, Black Lotus has become an excellent place to practice Legacy at a real high level. You might find there players like Lluis Restoy (GP Madrid Top8), Ricard Tudurí (GP Winner) or Adrià Romero (who recently made top9 at the BOM4).

In the past I used to go every Saturday to the Legacy tournaments, but now, due to my job I can’t hardly get any Saturdays off. And those that I can, I usually make them match with the Vintage tournaments from the LCV6.

Anyways, so this past Saturday I managed to go and I won! Well, even though I really wanted to play because I felt I could defeat easily any of the top4 decks (Reanimator, Zoo and Survi-Auriok) I agreed on splitting the Top4 because the other 3 guys really wanted to, and I was a bit tired.

I expected the following metagame: Zoo, Reanimator, ANT, Merfolks and Countertop (thopters, progenitus, etc). That’s what the usual players play around there. Then there’s always some people with random decks like Belcher, White Staxx, etc… My predictions were almost perfect since there were a lot of combo decks (ANT, Reanimator), some Zoo, and also some Thopter/CounterTop decks.

The night before the tournament I prepared my ANT deck to fight that metagame. I can advance you that this is probably the best sideboard I’ve brought to a tournament. I’m really satisfied with the result and I felt I had answers for absolutely all the matchups that I could face. So this is the list:

Main deck: 4cANT by Jordi Amat
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Brainstorm
4 Mystical Tutor
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
3 Ponder
3 Duress
3 Orim’s Chant
2 Flooded Strand
2 City of Traitors
2 Chrome Mox
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Tundra
1 Scrubland
1 Tropical Island
1 Island

Sideboard:
4 Carpet of Flowers
3 Path to Exile
2 Nature’s Claim
1 Reverent Silence
1 Krosan Grip
1 Angel’s Grace
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Tropical Island

I’m not gonna talk about the main deck choices because the list is pretty standard (15 lands – including 2 City of Traitors, 6 protection spells – including Orim’s Chant, 1 Tendrils, 1 bouncer, etc…). But I do wanna talk about the sideboard.

Path to Exile (3): This card proved to be the MVP of the tournament. And that’s the second time I performed excellent thanks to them. Let’s see it’s advantages:

• It kills Gaddock Teeg, Ethersworn Canonist, Iona, Shielf of Emeria, as well as Tarmogoyf (BANPLZ!), Wild Nacatl, etc…
• It’s white, so you’ll probably kill Ioona 100% of the times with it.
• We run more than 1 copy, so we can use it more aggressively to kill an early menace that will save us some health points. Killing a turn 1 Wild Nacatl with a Path to Exile, if your game plan is slow, can turn into a huge advantage.
• Nobody expects Path to Exile.

Disadvantages:

• It’s white, so you’ll need to fetch for white. That usually isn’t a problem, but it’s not the same as playing Slaughter Pact (which I also run).
• It’s more sensible to Daze/Spell Pierce since it costs more than Slaughter Pact.

Carpet of Flowers (4): In a metagame where blue is everywhere, this card seems the right call. Merfolks disruption is based on the “pay X more or counter this spell” (aka, Daze, Spell Pierce and Curse Catcher), and Carpet of Flowers brings lots of extra mana for free every turn. The only spell you should care about when playing against Merfolks is Force of Will.

The other reason why I run Carpet of Flowers nowadays is because control players expect you to play Dark Confidant Side Board, and they won’t side out their removal. Like this we achieve:

1. We accelerate for free everyturn
2. Opponent is playing with dead cards

Due to this version being 4 colors, Carpet of Flowers will fix our mana base pretty nicely. You’ll have the white, the green, blue or black whenever you’ll need it.

Nature’s Claim (2) + Reverent Silence (1) + Krosan Grip (1): Our worst match up is obviously anything running CounterTop. We can’t have our silver bullets all with the same mana cost, and that’s why I opted to have Nature’s Claim, Krosan Grip and Reverent Silence.

Chalice @1 hurts us a lot, but you should be able to Mystical Tutor for Krosan Grip in response to his Chalice, and get rid of it quite easily. Else, just try to combo out with the double LED + Infernal Tutor Kill.

Angel’s Grace (1) + Tendrils of Agony (1): Since I expected some Zoo decks, Angel’s Grace was a must include! I can’t play combo decks without 2 Tendrils of Agony but it didn’t fit in the main deck, so I finally opted to add it to the SB.

Against Zoo/Aggro decks, my usual sideboard plan is: +1 Angel’s Grace, +1 Tendrils of Agony, +3 Path to Exile, +1 Slaughter Pact (and if I expect Thorn of Amethyst like from Affinity, then I add the 2 Nature’s Claim + Krosan Grip), -2 Duress (I always leave 1 Duress, just in case you need to check for a trap ), -3 Ponder, -1 Tropical Island (unless I have to add the green sideboard spells).

So this was more or less my sideboard strategy. My main game strategy was always to go for the double LED + Infernal Tutor Kill passing through Ill-Gotten Gains. I believe I killed like that around 90% of the times. I’ve been playing Iggy Pop/ iPop Negation / ANT for such a long time, that when I need to combo, I have it so clear that I know exactly what is needed to execute a certain amount of storm at any given situation. The fact that I reduced the amount of Ad Nauseam to 1 makes this plan my primary choice of kill.

I won’t explain my rounds with detail as I didn’t take accurate notes from the games. I’ll try to write about certain plays that were relevant during the tournament.

Round 1: Gonzalo Balot with random deck. 2-0

• Gonzalo was a new player in the scene and he actually didn’t know how to play at all. I helped him understand the game a bit better after I won him 2-0 in less than 10 minutes. I tried to make him understand the phases, construction of the decks, etc… He took notes and I think he’ll be better prepared next time.

Round 2: Alex Mateu with Survi/Auriok. 2-1

• Alex is actually one of the best players of the national Legacy scene. If you search him on deckcheck, you’ll discover a certain amount of good results.
• Game one I cast a turn 2 Ad Nauseam for the win. Game 2 he casts 3 Meddling Mage in 5 turns without any deck manipulation… I killed his first one with Path to Exile, then the second one named Ad Nauseam and the 3rd named Path to Exile, so my only chance was to find Mystical Tutor, for Slaughter Pact and then combo (I had Nauseam and mana enough). I never found the Mystical nor the Pact. Game 3 I believe I combo him on first turn with a Infernal Tutor Kill.

Round 3: Oscar Mesegué with Reanimator. 2-1

• Yet another excellent player with a lot of wins at the LCL/Black Lotus Store tournaments.
• He managed to get Ioona (naming black) into play game 1. I didn’t had many chances since she would kill me before I could actually bounce Ioona. But, I insisted and didn’t surrender, as I wanted to make him believe I could actually bounce Ioona. So I tried to Mystical Tutor at some point, which he obviously countered with FoW (+ Blue card when he only had 2 cards left) fearing a Wipe Away. I told him he did well countering my Mystical as I would have probably won So he actually believed me, and in second game, he put Ioona into play again naming blue! But I had Path to Exile to remove her I won the same turn I played the Path to Exile. Game 3, he had turn 1 Entomb, and he placed on his GY… Inkwell Leviathan, fearing my Path to Exile again. It was obviously a bad choice, as the squid never got to attack (I had a Path in my hand, anyways)

Round 4: My friend, and ex-team mate, Oliver Satizabal aka Owli with Zoo. ID

Round 5: Daniel Sanchez with Spring Tide. ID

Top8: Pedro Grati with ANT. 2-1

• I don’t know him that much. I know he’s performing well in pokemon formats, so I guess he’s a good player. BUT, I actually saw him play at round 5 (scouting FTW!), and I saw him play terribly bad. Misplays, wrong choices, etc… He told me after his last round, he’s not used to play combo. O RLY?
• Anyways, so Game one he casts DOUBLE duress on his first turn, and I win on my first turn! How? Check this out kids! My hand was: LED + Dark Ritual + Ancient Tomb + Lotus Petal + Cabal Ritual + Brainstorm + Sensei’s Divining Top. His double duress hits my Brainstorm and Sensei’s Divining Top. My topdeck was Infernal Tutor, and you know how the story ends
• On game 2, he had a strong play, but I slow him down with an Orim’s Chant in response to his Infernal Tutor. He searches Ad Nauseam (Mistake) which he can’t cast. I eot Mystical Tutor for Duress and take his Nauseam away. We both were at top deck but I had Sensei’s Divining Top. He drew a bomb before I found anything with the Top on 4 turns… He played Sadistic Sacrament so we moved onto game 3.
• Last game was a normal game, I Duress him turn 1 and comb on turn 3 via Ritual + LED + Infernal Tutor -> Ill-Gotten Infernal Tutor for Infernal Tutor for Tendrils for a total Storm of 10.
• As Pedro said “It happened what it should have happened”.

In the end, I accepted splitting the Top4 prizes.

The rest of the top8 went like this:

Sergi Herrero (Reanimator) VS Oscar Mesegué (Reanimator)

Àlex Mateu (Survi/Auriok) VS Daniel Sanchez (High Tide)

Jordi Amat (ANT) VS Pedro Grati (ANT)

Aldo Fernandez (Landstill) VS Oliver Satizabal (Zoo)

I’ll post the Top8 decks as soon as possible. Meanwhile, this is how the metagame looked like:

• 3 ANT (Top8 + Top4)
• 1 Landstill (Top8)
• 1 High Tide (Top8)
• 2 Merfolks
• 2 Dredge
• 2 Dark Depths (1 Countertop, 1 BG Hate)
• 3 Zoo (Top4)
• 2 Reanimator (Top8 + Top4)
• 2 Rogue deck
• 1 Alluren
• 1 Survival (Auriok Combo) (Top4)
• 1 Thopter/CounterTop
• 1 Fatestalker
• 1 Belcher
• 1 Canadian Threshold
• And a couple of lost lists

So, to conclude with something, let me just say…

REAL MEN PLAY COMBO!

You might have noticed that lately we haven’t been posting much, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have things to explain! Let me begin with the off-topic:

Personally, I’ve been loaded with work the past couple of weeks (which I can’t complain about) and that’s taken really a lot of time. On top of that, last week I found a new apartment in Barcelona to where I’ll be moving soon. The thing with the apartment also took me a lot of time, you know… visits, meetings to negotiate the contract, etc, etc… If there’s one thing I love about my new apartment are its views!

I guess the moving to the new apartment will also reduce my free time, but I’ll do my best to keep you guys updated. Hope you understand!

And now let’s move back to the mtg related stuff. I hope to be able to announce something in the following days that will benefit the “pimp” community a lot. I can’t give you more information right now, but I can advance you it’s something huge. You’ll just have to be a bit patient!

Also, hopefully this weekend we’ll have a post with a very exclusive sales. A friend of mine is willing to sell a couple of really rare staples (I mean REALLY rare, caps intended) and I’ve offered him to use the blog as his publicity platform. If you are a collector or you like to play with rare stuff, you’d better stay tuned for the following days.

Regarding JACO, he’s disappeared! Hope he’ll be back soon to surprise us with his awesome articles, MOL reports, etc…

Once again, thanks for reading!

Yesterday afternoon, I was taking some pictures of my deck (Dark Jace UBR) when my friend Arnau passed me a link with a picture to his deck. Lately he got some of my stuff, and I got some from him. It’s always nice to have a close partner to share/trade pimp with! Can you find the differences between both decks?

Arnau’s Dark Tezz deck!

My Dark Jace UBR!

When it comes to pimp, it turns out we are constantly evolving and creating new trends. Few days back, I believed my playset of Mana Drains were the most Pimp playset one could actually have (well, I was just missing Richard Garfield‘s signatures but that was just a matter of time). Being that playset Signed and Altered by Mark Tedin seemed the tops for me until I found these babies:

Arnau Rovira, aka Albareda, is a friend of mine who’s recently got involved in this pimp movement and already has a huge amount of awesome stuff. I’m lucky to know him, because he loves to travel a lot to meet artists and get his cards signed. Past weekend, he went to Lyon and in there he met Mark Tedin (and Anthony S. Waters). Inspired by my Ancestral Recall + Library of Alexandria alterations, he asked Mr. Tedin if he could alter his drains in a similar way. He actually asked him if he could take them to his hotel and elaborate a little more on the alterations. The result is the amazing playset I posted above. Arnau, who’s not a big fan of heavy altered cards (expect from Ron Spencer/Terese Nielsen commissioned works) got a bit shocked with the result  thought those Mana Drains were too much for him. They obviously didn’t match his deck’s style. But he knew that the Mana Drains would find a home in my collection, and then we started the negotiations. I think today’s deal is the most impressive trade I’ve ever been involved in. Over the table we had up to 3 Beta Volcanic Islands, the Mana Drains, Foil Japanese Signed stuff, very hard to find signed stuff, etc… No money involved actually.

I believe the trade was good for both of us. It’s always a pleasure to deal with Arnau, so if you ever get to meet him, don’t be shy and ask for trade!

To finish this post, let me show you some other recent stuff I got my hands on:

I’ll be posting my latest Vintage deck soon!

Keep it real pimp, boys!

Chapter 3: The rise of the golems.

So it’s finally Sunday, our last day in Madrid, and we are heading again to the GP with brand new objectives. I still need to visit Mark Poole to get some stuff signed & altered, and I’m planning on conquering the Vintage side event that starts at 9 am.

So, before we move with the Vintage tournament, let’s get in the mood:

IF you are a STAXX (my ass) player please click play on the following youtube video. If you aren’t, move on to the next one!

So if you ain’t listening the previous video, then you deserve some real good shit! How about one of the coolest Justice videos?

The deck I’m playing at the tournament is a mix between the list JACO passed me the night before and the cards I brought to Madrid. There’s a thing I loved about his list: 3 main deck “fuck-your-golem” Ingot Chewer. He also had a couple of the new Jace there, but I wasn’t gonna pay the 240€ (120€/each) that the Asian_foil_cards were asking for. So in the end, this is what I played:

TP Golem my ass! by Jordi Amat

4 Force of Will
3 Mana Drain
3 Spell Pierce
2 Duress
3 Ingot Chewer
3 Repeal
1 Lighting Bolt
1 Fire/Ice
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Brainstorm
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Tinker
1 Sundering Titan
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Yawmoght’s Will
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
3 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
2 Island
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Swamp
1 Tolarian Academy

Sideboard:
3 Ravenous Trap
1 Extirpate
1 Darkblast
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
2 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Duress
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Greater Gargadon
1 Claws of Gix
2 Hurkyl’s Recall

I’m not 100% satisfied with the decklist tho. I’ll scan my new version of the deck and post it tomorrow or the day past. So, let’s move on with the rounds!

Round 1: Roger Subirana with UW Fish

Meh! First round and I get paired with a well known player from the LCV. I know him a bit and I know he’s playing UW fish usually.

I start controlling the first game thanks to my Lighting Bolt, that killed his Ninja of the deep hours. Later on, my Gorilla Shaman manages to eat a Null Rod and my Sower of Temptation controls another Ninja. Despite all the advantage I manage to obtain, i get totally mana flooded and I can’t get to stop his Jötun Grunt. He finds a Swords to Plowshares that exiles my Sower and returns his Ninja, and it’s GG.

Game 2 I open with Polluted and pass turn. He goes for Tundra + Sage of Epytir, and I get it REB’ed. It’s super important to stop 1st turn Sage if you don’t want him to go 2nd turn Ninja. I had Mana Drain up for turn 2 but he finds Wasteland for my Volcanic. Then I’m there with 1 Island, 2 Off Color Moxen and Sensei’s Divining Top. He plays Kataki, the war’s edge and his first Meddling Mage, naming Tinker. I find Sower of Temptation with my Top, and play it protected. With it, I control his Meddling Mage, but again, he has Swords to Plowshares. He’s beating my ass hard and I can’t find any answers on time.

0-2 | 0 points | 0 wins 2 losses

Round 2: Guillem Ragull with Drain Tendrils (?)

Meh! (again). Second round and I get paired with my ex-team mate Guillem. Guillem is right now one of the strongest players from the LCV. He’s playtesting a lot more than me and he knows the business quite well.

I have a strong control hand with Spell Pierce, Duress, Mana Drain, Ingot Chewer, 2 lands and Fact or Fiction. He opens the game with Tolarian Academy + Mox Emerald. I think for a while to see what my 1st movement should be. I decide that the best opening would be Fetchland for Underground Sea + Duress. He plays only 1 Brainstorm to avoid my play. But there he goes, he plays Brainstorm in response and hides Mana Drain + Gifts Ungiven (correct me if I’m wrong). I take Vampiric Tutor from his hand. Next turn he plays land and passes.

Obviously my Duress opening was the wrong choice. I should have played Ingot Chewer to his mox. Then on turn 2, he would have had 1 land, and his play would have been Vampiric, which would have got with Spell Pierce. Anyways, let’s keep moving.

I Try to play Ingot Chewer to his Mox and he casts Mana Drain I play Spell Pierce but he plays Force of Will. He draws his Gifts Unviven and with 5 mana he finds enough business spells to leave me out of the game.

Game 2 I mulligan to 6 and he mulligans to 5. There’s some Duress played by each of us. In the end, I manage to play an eot Fact or Fiction followed by a Tezzeret with protection.

Game 3 is kind of raw He mulligans to 5 again, plays Underground and pass turn. I begin with Land + Mox Sapphire + Sensei’s Divining Top with Spell Pierce in hand. He plays Island and pass turn. I find another Mox with Sensei’s Divining Top and on my turn I play another land + another Mox and cast Tinker, he tries to Mana Drain, but I Spell Pierce it. Sundering Titan hits the board and he scoops.

2-1 | 3 points | 2 wins 3 losses

Round 3: Bagus Bender with Bomberman

Bagus isn’t exactly what I’d call a “fast” player. He took his time on every single play of this round. To that let’s add the fact that he plays with Sensei’s Divining Top and we got the right formula to tie the round.

Game 1 I’m in control of the game, even though he’s got a Trinket Mage that is beating me down badly. I manage to kill his Trinket Mage when I’m down to 4 with my Lighting Bolt. He’s got Sensei’s Divining Top and Black Lotus in play. It shouldn’t take him long before he finds Auriok Salvagers. On my last chance to win the game, I cast Fact or Fiction that brings me Mystical and Vampiric Tutor. Both tutors works for me, as I’m killing him via Yawgmoth’s will the next turn. Well, there wasn’t any “next turn” for me as he finds the Auriok and goes off.

Game 2 is getting long and complicated. He’s played 2 Pithing Needle naming Time Vault and Voltaic Key (name Tezzeret next time… plzkkthx!). He’s beating me again with a Trinket Mage. When I’m down to 4 (again) they call “Time’s up” so I have to work some Magic! I dunno how I did it exactly but I remember being able to play Tezzeret, untap 2 artifacts and play Time Walk after a Yawgmoth’s Will. Then I attacked and GG.

1-1 | 4 points | 3 wins 4 losses

Round 4: Magin Calvo with Welder Staxx.

I can’t believe how I lost game 1. I opened with Island and pass turn. He went Workshop + Sphere of Resistance which I got with Spell Pierce. I play fetchland and pass turn with Mana Drain, Spell Pierce and Brainstorm. He plays a 2nd Workshop and starts with another Sphere of Resistance. I cast another Spell Pierce to which he attempts to pay the 2 extra with his other Workshop. I tell him that’s not possible. Anyways, he does nothing else, so I cast Brainstorm but I find no third land A third land would have been lovely as I got 1 Ingot Chewer in hand and the Mana Drain! On his third turn the fest starts to go on. Smokestack + Tangle Wire. I got the Smokestack with the Mana Drain. I can’t kill the Tangle with my Chewer coz I know there’s no land coming due to Brainstorm. So I have to get tapped and pass turn. He topdecks Strip Mine and I scoop

Game 2 I first turn kill him with Tolarian, Sol Ring, 2 Moxen, Voltaic Key and Tezzeret!

Game 3 is what I call “HELL”. He opens with Mountain + Goblin Welder. Then another Goblin Welder, and then ANOTHER Goblin Welder. I get to counter 1 Sphere of Resistance with Spell Pierce and manage to counter 2 more artifacts he plays. So, all he can do is beat me with his 3 welders… LAME! When he finally manages to resolve his artifacts, I start to get trapped due to his Tangle Wire and Smokestack. I cast Ingot Chewer targeting his Smokestack and he doesn’t put Sphere of resistance in response with Goblin Welder. Chewer resolves I pass turn and then he tries to rectify the play. I say “Dude, no”. Then on his upkeep he forgets to remove a counter from Tangle Wire and to tap anything. He draws a card and plays Mox Emerald. Then I call the judge because everything that happened in few secs there. I was hoping the judge would call that as a game loss due to him having extra information from the draw, being able to change what he tapped out of Tangle Wire. It was probably my only chance of winning there but the judge just went back few steps and he actually changed what he tapped with Tangle Wire. I call the judge again telling him that that wasn’t what he initially tapped after I told him that he missed his upkeep phase. The judge was again very permissive and he just got a warning. Anyways, I found Tinker out of nowhere and plays it for Sphinx of the Steel Wind. They call “Time’s up” and we ain’t given extra time for what happened before, so my Sphinx if missing a turn to just finish the game. LAME!

1-1 | 5 points | 4 wins 5 losses

Round 5: Michael Twoun with Aggro MUD.

On game 1 I have 2 Ingot Chewer in hand and 2 fetchlands. Open with first turn fetchland + Mox and he goes with Workshop + Mox + Golem. No problem! I go fetchland again, then crack for Volcanic and cast Chewer to his Golem. He’s so surprised of my main deck Chewer that he asks the judge if I’m really playing those maindeck. The judge actually performs a deckcheck on me and he finds out I’m right. He gives Michael a warning (only?) we keep going. No extra time given neither, even after being deckcheck! I manage to resolve my other Ingot Chewer kill a Karn, Silver Golem and my Chewer kills him.

Before starting game 2, I know I need to slow down a bit because there’s not a lot of time left. But, I can’t compete at all when he opens with first turn Golem again! I Force of Will his Golem, then I play Island, Mox Emerald and Sensei’s Divining Top. He plays a second Golem, I look with Top and there’s nothing worth in there. I play my second land with Mana Drain and Gifts Ungiven in hand. He plays nothing else in the game and swings me 4 times with the Golem for the Win. The last time he attacked we were already on the extra turns

1-1 | 6 points | 5 wins 6 losses

After round 5 I lost my interest on keep playing due to judges and my deck being unable to finish games fast.

I took some pictures of the vintage tournament. Here there’s the slideshow:

After the Vintage tournament there was still lot to do! I needed to get some cards re-signed and altered and I had to close the deal with Angelo for the Yawgmoth’s Will. We sit down with Menor and Angelo in a table and meanwhile I start a “Play Vintage with ante” event. I get only one victim whose promo Umezawa’s Jitte ended up in my binder Some pics of the games with ante:

So, I finally close the deal with Angelo. And get my brand new Yawgmoth’s Will altered by Ron Spencer and Terese Nielsen.

Now some pimp we had around with Angelo

This “Will” will have a new owner pretty soon, right Miguel?

This Gorilla was once mine, but was included in the trade for the Yawgmoth’s Will.

I also have one of those Islands, but mine is double signed

My Islands! I got the altered one from Antonio, and then I got them re-signed ^^

Best Island EVER! Property of Comeback.

Now that I mention Francesco, aka Comeback, when he showed me his Ancestral Recall altered by Mark Poole, I felt the need to rush back to see Mr. Mark Poole and get my cards altered the same way! I didn’t have much time left as we were soon heading back home. 20€ were needed to convince a friendly guy in the queue to accept my Library + Ancestral. I also gave him 50€ extra (just in case) to give to Mr. Poole to get my alterations done. This is the result!

In the end the 50€ weren’t needed as he made it with markers instead of paint (as he originally did with Francesco’s Ancestral). I have to admit, it’s the best alteration idea I’ve seen on any Ancestral or Library of Alexandria. There’s LOTS of Ancestrals altered after GP Madrid, but like this, there’s only 2: Francesco’s and mine.

So, it’s about time to finish this EPIC report of this EPIC weekend in Madrid. I’m not gonna end it with the typical PROS and CONS because I’m so freaking satisfied with everything that I’ve done. Of course I could have done better in the tournaments, but in the end, Magic is just a game folks!

Part I of the GP Madrid Epic Report can be found here.
Part II of the GP Madrid Epic Report can be found here.

2010′s Grand Prix Madrid has been an EPIC and LEGENDARY weekend. It isn’t easy to explain everything that happened this past days. There’s too many stories, too many great moments, too many friendly moments, too many people!!!!

I’m going to divide this report in three chapters. Each chapter represents one day: Friday, Saturday and Sunday (How smart!). So, before we begin with the first chapter, let’s get the picture of it:

Chapter I: You sir need forces!

My plain takes off at 11:40 from BCN’s new airport terminal. On the way to the airport I was listening the latest album from MIA to start getting in the mood. I unexpectedly meet many of my eternal mates there (including Ruben González, who managed to top8 at the GP as you will read in chapter 3). They were taking a plain a bit earlier tho, so I moved to my boarding gate and kept listening my music.

Once in Madrid, David Menor (a crazy taxi driver from Madrid and one of the best spanish dealers we have), came pick me up with his mercedes SLK. Dude, that was fast! He took me to his place and he packed his stuff before we went to a local “burger” (they call restaurants like that in Madrid) and had a 10€ menu: Raviolis with Pesto for starters followed by “Huevos fritos con chistorra y patatas” (go google translate it!).

That’s the kind of meal you do expect when you travel abroad. If you go to Italy, you want to eat good pizzas. If you go to germany, you want to eat good sausages. And if you go to Madrid you want to eat many things, including the “not-so-greasy-and-almost-cholesterol-free” eggs with chistorra and french fries. I forgot to take pics of it! Anyways…

After lunch we moved to my hotel, where I checked in and left my bag, and then we headed to the GP location. It wasn’t far.

Once there, we started greeting many well known friends, some other less-known came greet me, and we finally placed ourselves at the registration queue. It was around 17:30 when we arrived and it was crowded already. Four hours later, it was as crowded and the queue was the same or even longer. Before leaving, we were told that there was around 1600 pre-registered players, and that they got around 1500-1600 chairs only.

If lunch wasn’t enough energies to play properly during the GP, what comes next will actually make it. I can promise!

At 21:00 my friend Angel (aka Angelo) calls; he’s waiting for me downstairs at the hotel hall. I properly dressed for the occasion with a not-so-formal jacket + shirt + tie. Dressed enough for what was coming next.

We ask the taxi driver to take us to Hotel Hesperia, which he didn’t know… Once there, and while waiting for David, we moved to their lounge and asked the barman for a couple of cocktails. I went for a G’Vine + Sprite with natural grapes and Angelo tasted a London Gin with Tonic.

Minutes after, David shows up and asks for a Belvedere Vodka with raspberry juice that seemed quite tasty, actually.

David and Angel enjoying their drinks.

So, after the drinks we moved next door. Our destination was the 2 star Michelin graded restaurant Sant Celoni from Santi Santamaria. The place was nice, chic and really classy. Initially we were supposed to be four for dinner, but our friend Miguel (aka Juzam2) finally couldn’t make it.

We decided to go for the Menú Gran Gastronómico. I got real shocked with the outfit from the sommelier. He was walking around with a skirt-like thingie and with a HUGE GOLD necklace that was holding a big golden cloister. He looked more like Puff Daddy than a wine experte, I gotta say! Actually, we laughed when I suggested he looked like a mix between Gravesen (from R.Madrid) and John Malkovich.

What would you like to drink for starters? – He asked.

Catalan Cava - I answered.

There’s nothing better than drinking a good catalan cava. Well, there is: Drinking a good catalan cava in Madrid! Ok, drinking champagne beats both!

I took some pictures of the dinner, so I’ll just place here a slideshow for those of you who’d like to watch:

Food was excellent, seriously. We paid a lot for the whole meal (including the drinks and stuff), but it was definitely worth it. It’s a thing you should do once in a while, or present somebody you care or love with it.

We started around 22:00 and exited the restaurant around 1:00. It was probably one of the best eating experience I’ve had lately. 1000% recommended to any of you guys!

So, after the dinner we had the thought of going out and drink some cocktails at the new Sergi Arola’s lounge/bar. They supposedly have the best cocktails in Madrid… BUT! (there’s always a BUT), I had to be fresh and ready for the Grand Prix, so I decided to skip the fun and we headed back to the hotel.

If you ever drive with David, don’t expect to have a calmed ride! He decided that the best way to return was going through some creepy neighborhood that was filled with transsexuals, bitches and weirdos. Best moment was, when David decided to stop next to a guy/girl über tanned that looked like a boxing fighter just to piss us off and then a police car came  with the bells and lights on. Hahahaha, they scared the hell out of us!!!!! Anyways, in the end, we managed to scape from Moria land, and no creatures of the devil assaulted our car.

Minutes after I close the door from the hotel, Sergi and Toni knock the door. They were finally there, after a 5-6 hour road trip from Cabrera to Madrid. They went straight to bed because they were tired, and I still had some sleeve’ing up to do.

At 2:30 I finally go to bed.

To be continued…

You can now read the second and third parts of the report:

The GP Madrid epic report! Part II

The GP Madrid epic report! Part III