Two or so years ago, not long after I started playing Magic again, I heard about a tournament that had just happened here in Salt Lake City. They'd had about a thousand players in the Salt Palace Convention Center downtown and all the players at my local game store kept talking about what they'd seen, or bought, or played. I'd never heard of a Grand Prix before, but I started keeping my eyes open for the next one. Well, this past weekend I had to work Saturday and Sunday afternoons and I couldn't get them off, but the tournament was back and I wasn't going to miss it again, at least not completely. So Saturday morning I drove out the the South Towne Expo Center and walked into Hall 1.
After a few very confusing moments of wondering where all the players were, and what the inflatables and kiddy swimming pools were doing at a Magic Tournament, and "hey, isn't he a little young to play Magic?" I exited the Autism Awareness convention and wandered down to Hall 5. This was a little more of what I was expecting.
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| More Magic players than I could shake a stick at! Not that I had a stick... |
878 players recording their pools of just opened Sealed decks. I showed up about 40 minutes after the tournament was scheduled to start, and they lost no time in getting things going. Since I wasn't there to play in the main event, I wandered while the judges announced instructions and lots of people followed them. The sides of the hall were lined with vendors, probably 12 to 14 of them in all. Between them, you could find just about every Magic card you were looking for. I saw graded quality cards from Alpha and Beta expansions, foils of Commander, Modern and Legacy staples in multiple languages. I saw boxed sets from nearly every expansion for sale, and a set of Comic Con planeswalkers I really wanted but were so very out of my price range.
For those who didn't participate in, or who dropped out of the main event, there were going to be side events. Drafts and mini-Sealed and Constructed events which you could use to win points for prizes. What prizes? Well, these prizes:
This prize wall was awesome, and I can't tell you how much I wanted the uncut foil sheet hanging there. If I hadn't had to work, I would have played draft after draft until it was mine.Two 3-0 wins in 8 man drafts and I would have got there.
The other attraction there for players not actively playing was the artist's table. Four Magic card artists were there with copies of their art available for purchase: on playmats, tokens or prints to hang on your walls. The only thing I purchased there was a set of tokens with original art from rk post, and they are fantastic.
Next time the Grand Prix comes to Salt Lake, probably another 2 years, I will be there again, and for longer than two hours. This time I'll play something, probably not the main event, though. I'll likely just draft and trade until I can't anymore because they're going shut the building. If the Grand Prix comes anywhere near you, go. At worst, you'll be surrounded by hundreds of people who love Magic as much as you do. At best, you'll win money, cards or other prizes. Sounds good to me.
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