Grand Prix Pittsburgh Report

Grand Prix Pittsburgh Report
3/25/13

What is the Grand Prix? Imagine if you will an event, open to the public, offering play mats and exclusive promos to the first to register. A gathering of people from all walks of life and experience levels for one purpose. To play Magic: the Gathering.

Most come with friends to participate in something larger than themselves. Some come to experience the size and scope of the event, which is the largest public event held for Magic. Some come to grind out planeswalker points in the main or side events to acquire better standing or possibly round-byes at future events. Some come to compete at the chance for cash prizes. For these reasons and more, approximately 1600 players registered for the main event.

This past weekend I played two parts in this grand play. On Saturday I stood in black, launching side events for Professional Event Services as a judge. On Sunday, I returned in plain-clothes to take care of judge program related concerns and to get in a few drafts while I was at it.

Truly to appreciate the atmosphere of a Grand Prix, you absolutely must go to one. Any report of events that I supply pales in comparison to the actual experience of being there. The sound of 1600+ people tearing into booster packs is awe-inspiring, yet at the same time comfortably familiar.

My personal experiences are, unfortunately not particularly enlightening. Does it really matter how many win-a-boxes I launched? [6-8, I think]; Or how many booster drafts I seated? [Probably twice that many]. Did I have any interesting rules questions? - Just these 2.

Another judge steps over and asks if I am familiar with EDH/Commander, to which I reply that I am, he takes me back to a table where a player has just been eliminated. However, he owns a Rakdos, Lord of Riots currently controlled by another player thanks to Treachery. The players just wanted to confirm that Rakdos leaves the game when it's owner is eliminated which is exactly how it should work. [CR800.4a]

Another judge steps over to me and asks about Sigil of the Clans. From reading the card, it would appear that the three revealed cards remain revealed as the player selects one of them at random. This is technically correct, but in practice players will often turn the cards to shuffle them face down to select one at random. This practice is fine, as long as the opponent knows which card is (randomly) being added to hand since that piece of information should be known.