Last weekend was GP Baltimore! Like the other judges on staff, I was very excited for this event. In the days and weeks leading up to the show, I made travel plans, found a place to stay, and waited patiently for our shift schedule. So when I finally arrived at the venue on Friday, I immediately jumped into the first on-demand draft I could.

Wait, what?

In this tournament report, I’ll talk a little about how I occupied myself on Friday, and then share some of the things I’ve learned from not judging on the Friday of Grand Prix events.

The Best-Laid Plans

When I applied to GP Baltimore, I initially stated I wouldn’t be available on Friday, since I wasn’t sure what my travel plans were going to look like. By the time I realized I would be in Baltimore on Friday, the Friday staff had been locked in. Although I would have enjoyed working the extra day, I was nonetheless quite happy to have an opportunity to relax and play some Magic!

As it turns out, I really like drafting. And if there’s one thing I like even more than drafting, it’s drafting ridiculous four-color do-nothing decks. Even when I start off intending to build an aggro deck, it’s hard to resist the temptation to drift into midrange or control nonsense, especially when I get passed Treasure Cruise.

At GP Baltimore, I managed to buck this habit…at least a little. Although I considered jumping into some of the scheduled events, the timing didn’t quite work out, so I registered for an on-demand draft. The format was triple Khans of Tarkir, Regular REL, with an “8-4” prize structure, which meant the winner would receive 8 packs (plus a GP Baltimore playmat) and the runner-up would get 4 packs. This basically made the event single-elimination. Our judge was Heidi Sitten, who handled everything professionally and with a smile.

Somebody Set Up Us the Bomb!

My draft started off very well, with a Butcher of the Horde as my snap-pick Pack 1 Pick 1. Unfortunately, the rest of the draft was basically a trainwreck. I wasn’t getting too many good Mardu cards, and although I tried to be flexible enough to shift into Abzan if the opportunity arose, I wasn’t able to fully commit to that idea either. I ended up with a bizarre pile of cards that was basically a red deck splashing white, black, and green. Yeah, I’m not exactly proud of it either. If you want to share in my disappointment, you can check out the deck by following this elegant and finely-crafted link.

I later discovered that both of the gentlemen on my right were also drafting Mardu, which explained the source of my woes. Although I put up a heroic struggle, I was ultimately dispatched in the first round of the event.

If At First You Don’t Succeed…

Undeterred by my poor performance, I decided to see if I could reforge my fate, so I gave the wheel another spin. Once again, I started things off by first-picking a powerful rare wedge card: Flying Crane Technique! I hadn’t drafted Jeskai yet, so I was excited to try it.

The rest of the draft went about as well as I could have asked for, giving me some absurdly powerful rares (particularly High Sentinels of Arashin) and a very solid core of evasive creatures, tricky morphs, and strong spells. With three on-color taplands, my mana looked reasonable as well.

Here is another elegant and finely-crafted link to see what I played for this draft!

In my first round, I played against a very aggressive Mardu deck. Each game was very close, but a misplay almost cost me the first game. It turns out that Arrow Storm is a sorcery, not an instant, and trying to cast it during your opponent’s upkeep will make you sad. Fortunately, my opponent let me go back to my second main phase to cast the spell. Later on, I repaid the favor when he tried to Bring Low my High Sentinels of Arashin. The Sentinels had a +1/+1 counter, so it looked like a 4/5, but it was actually a 6/7 due to my controlling two other creatures with counters. In a bit of tit-for-tat, I let my opponent pick a new target that he could actually cut down to size.

Ultimately, my opponent found a Kill Shot for my Sentinels, and he was able to put away our first game. Although I won the second game, in our third game he overwhelmed me with removal and aggressive beaters. On the plus side, he then went on to win the whole draft, so I didn’t feel quite so bad at the end of it.

…Maybe Just Go Get Dinner

At this point, it was almost time for dinner, so at least I had an excuse to stop drafting. I stayed a little while longer in the venue testing some Legacy, jamming my Omni-Show deck against Kevin King (formerly of Amherst, now of Baltimore) and his UR Delver deck. Then Kevin and I were off to the Cheesecake Factory for a delicious dinner with Eric Levine and Casey Brefka. Afterwards, we retired to Kevin’s house to play a few games with Joe Hughto’s Vintage gauntlet—I mean, get some sleep before judging the main event. Yeah…definitely that.

Why Post This?

In spite of losing every sanctioned match of Magic I played, I really enjoyed spending my Friday playing Magic. In fact, I’ve recently made a habit of playing on Friday of a Grand Prix, rather than judging.

I do this for a lot of reasons, but here are four of the biggest ones.

First, reminding myself of what judges look like from the other side of the table has been a valuable and thought-provoking experience. It’s easy to forget that not everyone knows what an 8-4 is, or that the presence of judges can sometimes be very intimidating, or that Magic at Regular REL often does involve some degree of “takesie-backsies.” Drafting a set also makes it easier to handle judge calls involving those cards, which is especially relevant when the main event is Limited. This knowledge is particularly useful for evaluating rewinds, where calculating how many decision points were involved or how complex the board state has become are of paramount importance.

Second, working three days straight at a Grand Prix can be exhausting. Taking Friday off instead of jumping right into judging helps me avoid burning out. The risk of burnout has only become higher since I’ve become Level 3, given that I am more likely to be asked to take a leadership position on any (or all) of the days I’m working. It’s important to find balance in your own life in whatever way works for you, and this is one of the ways that works for me.

Third, being in the venue but not staffed for Friday is a great opportunity to connect with other judges in a more relaxed and low-key setting. Sometimes this manifests itself as formal mentorship activities or project work; for example, at a recent GP, I helped run a workshop on investigations for an L3 candidate’s supplemental activity, which wouldn’t have been possible if I’d been working that Friday. But sometimes this just means having a leisurely dinner with folks you haven’t seen in person for a while, which is its own kind of reward.

Finally, I think it’s good for our program’s image if more players come to see judges as players who are also judges, rather than some sort of “other” organization or group. I tend to use my SCG Judge mat when I’m playing, which is a great conversation starter. But even without the obvious playmat, I tend to find that folks will often ask “are you playing in the main event?”, which provides a great opportunity to mention I’m a judge (if I feel so inclined). I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how many people remember me on Sunday from a side event I played with them on Friday.

I’m not saying that we judges should always broadcast our identities, let alone that it’s required or expected for us to do so. In fact, I think it’s critical to treat judges who are playing in an event just like any other player. But, at the end of the day, I genuinely enjoy interacting with players, so I’ll always take an opportunity to do that while also painting the judge program in a better light.

Overall, Grand Prix Baltimore was a great weekend, and my experiences on Friday were just one of the reasons for that. I hope this “tournament report” has taught you a few things, and maybe convinced you to consider taking a day off at your next Grand Prix as well!

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