As of this posting, I am currently here beside a charging station near the Gate 107 of NAIA Terminal 3 International Departures waiting for my Hong Kong flight at 3:30pm. I am feeling sleepy as I was awake I think since last night and was not able to sleep well at the airport back in Iloilo. Arriving here at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 at 5:00 in the morning, it seemed that all I wanted to check was an area where I can lay down and rest.

Unfortunately, I have to be wary of my stuff as all of my bags are hand carried. That said, I was only able to sit down and rest my back on the seats. Sleepiness has been trying to catch up with me especially after eating my breakfast at Chowkings and I was not able to take at least a quick doze.

I then spent my time checking on the videos of the playtest on Humans and trying to digest every combat and play scenario that is optimized for gaining an advantage. Unfortunately, though its matchups aren’t that great as most opponents play unusual cards in their Modern deck. Well, it is still learning more than nothing.

It is still hours to go before the boarding time and I am hoping that the flight will go smoothly and I won’t have any problems entering Hong Kong, especially with immigration. As mentioned, I got to utilize my Travel Authority as a supporting document during the Philippine immigration interview process. They’d then surely know that I will be coming back to the country.

I am also supposed to start my video blogging this morning but then again the lack of sleep is having my mind clouded and less of ideas to think about. I cope with that by watching smartphone camera tips and tricks.

I have not yet again planned my things to do after I check in at the hostel, but most likely I will wait for Ramon’s contact after their trip to Lantau Island aboard the cable car of Ngong Ping 360.

That is a wrap. Until the next post.

We almost did not make it to the main event. Yes, you have read it right. We were too relaxed to expect that the venue cap of 800 players would not be met. I based on the previous Grand Prix Hong Kong wherein there were only around 600+ attendees. I then realized that those are of Limited format GPs. The fan base of Modern this time is much higher, given that it is also the season of Modern Preliminary Pro Tour Qualifiers.

It was Saturday last week when I found out that the main event was capped. I instantly lost interest, was devastated, and took the blame on myself. I reasoned out that there were no freebies for the early birds, unlike those of the previous organizers.

Anyhow, it was good news days after during my birthday last Wednesday that Panda Events announced that they will be opening 200 slots on Friday, September 7 at around 6:00pm. That said, I immediately went home after that office on that day and sat in front of my PC, and waited for the 6:00pm time. I remembered that I was having trouble with the internet connection 30 minutes prior to that time and it came back at around 5:50 pm. My friend Ramon was also on standby for the registration and he was more prepared with fiber internet. The clock ticked at 6pm and I immediately clicked on the GP Hong Kong registration page and filled up my info. The order was placed but then I encountered another blunder during the payment page for Paypal. I did not know what really the cause is but when I clicked the Pay Now button, it resulted in a Paypal error. Good thing though I had Ramon do the registration for me. The perks of having a friend with fast internet and a credit card haha. He was able to sign me up before the 200 slots were filled, in just about 8 minutes after 6:00pm. Whew, that was close.

Now that the main issue has been answered, what is next? Probably a whole lot of playtesting and familiarization of the decks in the current Modern metagame. That I will talk about in Part 3.

That is a wrap for now. Until the next blog post.

Tournaments reports are always in a way demanding in terms of the publication time as it should be out in my personal schedule the week after the event. As of the current, I still have three more to write and thoroughly discuss but then being not in a mood is taking its toll. Plus, that I have to cope up with the office work and preparation for graduate school’s Urban Planning diploma next semester.

What I am sharing today is the Grand Prix Hong Kong 2017 Day 1 recap. It is very long overdue but I still wanted to share the experience anyway. I can also say that this is a relevant tournament for me as it was the first time I made it on Day 2 in a major Limited event. With the deck building practice and familiarization of the archetypes in Ixalan Limited, that maybe sort of helped me and a little luck of course. Let me follow up my Part 1 report with what we did on that Friday afternoon.

Day 0 Revisited

After registering for that Standard LCQ, we still could not make it to the right number of players so we could get the byes as the first prize. On-site registration for the Grand Prix was about to open that time and so JayR and I went to fall in line on that side of the venue. After a few moments, the registration started. Each was given lanyards, IDs, a sling bag and the GP HK Playmat after confirming our registration online. I think the foil promo card will be distributed that Saturday morning.

I then went to back to check on the Standard LCQ as there was still no announcement or update from the judges. It was still short of four players so I just decided to tell the organizers to erase my name and move it to the other event that JayR was joining which was the Turbo Sealed event. They had a registration fee of 90 HKD but since we already registered months ago, we were given 3 vouchers for a 50% discount on selected side events. We each used one voucher so it only cost us 45 HKD. We were then paired as there will be only one round match and then given six Ixalan boosters each. We were given a time limit to build a 40-card deck out of those boosters. I recall to have built a Black-White Vampires aggro deck and JayR made a Red-Green Dinosaurs.

My Turbo Sealed deck, a mix of Vampires and Dinos in Black and White

We then started the match and ended with me winning in three games. He had a good card pool but I think I was able to answer all his threats while pushing my damage with small life linking Vampires. We submitted our results and got the winning points tallied before we go to the Airbnb apartment. Before that I dropped by RK Post’s booth to buy some tokens to be used tomorrow.

The venue, Kowloonbay International Trade & Exhibition Centre, was two-MTR rides away from the Air BnB apartment that we rented as I stayed with JayR’s family. We were not familiar with the exact location of the apartment at first so after dropping off the nearest MTR station, we used Google maps to locate the address. It was a two-block walk from the station but the hard part is that the block going to the apartment is somewhat inclined and it was difficult to walk upward while carrying the baggage. I think I had my best sleep that afternoon after an overnight travel and Friday gaming. I woke up that evening and prepared my things and other stuff needed for the big day tomorrow. I also discussed with JayR his card choices for his pool earlier from that Turbo Sealed event and the possible deck setup. I wrapped up the night with two cans of Tiger Beer while checking some Ixalan draft videos.

The possible build from JayR’s card pool which we also discussed.

Main Event Day 1

I woke up around 7:00am and checked on JayR if he is also up. I checked to see if there is coffee available and immediately got a cup along with some bread. I then rechecked my stuff to bring to the Grand Prix: ballpen, pad paper, sleeves, dice and deck box, towels, my wallet and a power bank for recharging. We left at around 7:30 am and since we only have to travel by train, we would still be arriving early. The player meeting is set to be at 9:00 am. We arrived at around past 8:00am so we dropped by McDonald’s located on the ground floor for the breakfast meal. It was just in time when we went back to the venue that the player seating was being posted.

The Sealed Deck

The player meeting started with a short introduction and welcome message by the head judge. A total of 731 participants was announced in the Grand Prix. The sealed packages were then distributed on the tables, which were previously listed and registered. That saved us time opening the packs, listing them on the checklist and passing them on a judge count like those done in the previous GPs. We were then instructed to double check the cards on the list if it really were included in the package.

My Day 1 Sealed deck already registered and ready for deck building.

While listing the cards, I had noticed some decent Rares from the Black color but the relevant ones were Settle the Wreckage and Wakening Sun’s Avatar for White and Rampaging Ferocidon for Red. With some playable removals (i.e. Ixalan’s Binding) and cheap-costed creatures that go along with the theme, that convinced me to go to the Red-White Dinos route. I then added a Green splash for the RG Dinosaur that deals one damage to each creature when it enters the battlefield. Here is what the deck looked like.

The Day 1 Deck on a Red-White Dinosaurs strategy with Settle the Wreckage & WSA reset card.

The Matchups

Here is the recap of the matchups results per round.

Round 1 vs Yau, Winnie – Won
Round 2 vs Chun Yuan, Liu – Won
Round 3 vs Yu, Yin – Lost
Round 4 vs Ka Chun, Chu – Won
Round 5 vs Jeong, Wonjun – Lost
Round 6 vs Chong, Ernest – Won
Round 7 vs Lark, Robert – Lost
Round 8 vs Gu, Ruo Chen – Won
Round 9 vs Profeta, Francis Robert – Won

I would recall one of the highlights in the matches was during Round 8 Game 3 wherein we were just top decking and outlasting each other’s creatures. We were trading up until I have drawn a new creature and he had none. That took two more turns of attack before I got him down to zero and he just had drawn blanks.

The match with Francis Profeta, a Philippine National Champion, was also intense as it was the elimination stage. The good thing though was that my two White bombs answered his threats until I was able to push through the lethal damage. Final Day 1 Record, 6-3 and qualified for Day 2. Woot!

I was very happy that time to be able to qualify in a limited major event. I guess the preparation had its worth. After a few browsing at the sellers’ booth looking for the cards needed for our Modern deck back at home, we decided to go back to the apartment. It was just in time that JayR’s mother-in-law bought some ingredients for her planned hotpot dinner and we got excited to have a taste of it. It was a heavy meal and I enjoyed every sip and bite of the noodles, squid balls, kimchi, tofu, and stuff.

Our GP HK Post Day 1 Hotpot Dinner

I then rested for a while after dinner and checked the GP coverage at the mothership website. There were three 9-0 players on Day 1, one of which was the hometown favorite Lee Shi Tian. I think there were only five or six of us Filipinos that made it to the second day. With that setup, I focused on the previous draft practice we did and noting the possible archetypes and signals which I am still not very familiar. I then read some more Ixalan draft guide before I ended the night.

That is a wrap for Day 1. Day 2 to be continued.

Hong Kong is currently my most traveled place abroad. It was my third time to visit the country with the same main reason for joining the scheduled MtG Grand Prix event. This is actually my third Grand Prix HK that I have joined with the same Limited format, this time on the Ixalan set of Pirates, Dinosaurs, Vampires, exploration, and stuff. The event was dated to be held on October 27-29, 2017. I did not bring much except for a Standard deck which I would play for Friday’s GP Last-Chance trials for byes.

To be honest, I had not initially planned to travel there last year but upon after renewing my Philippine Passport, and with a lot of convincing from my friend and kumpare Jayr, I decided to go and started looking for promo airline tickets. I was then able to purchase one last May which cost me around 6K plus for round-trip tickets, Iloilo to Hong Kong vice versa.

Jayr was to travel with his family and brother and they will be renting an apartment on AirBnB and so I was opted to join. This was quite new as my previous accommodations were only at hostels in the urban areas in Tsim Sha Tsui. We also planned to purchase an Octopus card which we can use to pay for public transportation, like the bus traveling to and from the airport and for our MTR travel to the event venue. The card can also be used to pay for items bought from supermarkets and food from restaurants. I also purchased some HK dollar currency beforehand for pocket money needed for purchasing the said card and other stuff after arriving at the airport. Do take note to have at least 500 HKD with you, especially if you still have a balance to pay for your hotel reservation.

The flight from Iloilo was around 10:30 pm and arrived at past 1 am in the morning at the Hong Kong International Airport. Thankfully the whole trip was calm as there was no typhoon that time though I was not able to get enough sleep even with the leaned back of my chair. Arriving after the usual security checks, we were welcomed and greeted by Jayr’s mother-in-law and she brought food for us to chow down while we wait for the morning. I somewhat got sleepy after eating and so I positioned myself in a comfortable flat part of the square fountain in their waiting area for a quick nap.

It was already past 7 am when the booth for the Octopus card opened and we quickly lined up to purchase ours. The card costs at 100 HKD but it is preloaded with a 50 HKD amount which we can initially use for the bus fare from the airport. It can then be reloaded at convenience stores in train stations. We decided to just proceed to the Grand Prix venue at the Kowloonbay International Trade & Exhibition Centre since the check-in time at the apartment will still be at 3 pm that day.

After the breakfast at Mcdonalds located on the ground floor, we then went to the venue at the third floor, which was the same venue as the last GP HK I played, to check on the on-going tournaments and to register to the main event as well. There were a lot of players playing sealed and booster drafts and the artists’ signing booth were also crowded.

I immediately signed up for the Standard LCQ and there were only three players listed with me as the fourth player. The scheduled time was 12:30 pm which was almost an hour to go, so we went around to observe the players’ matches to get familiar more with Ixalan Limited.

To be continued…