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<\/p>\nHey fans and followers! \u00a0My name is Shawn Ellis and this is my first article on Average Joes. \u00a0I’ve been a “Joe” for almost 6 months but having been “Average” for most of my magic career has been the story. \u00a0I started playing in 2006 and have been on and off through the years until now. \u00a0Its time for me to to STAY.<\/p>\n
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I want to think of myself as just a kid with a dream to finally make card games not only a hobby, but a career. \u00a0I’ve been playing card games since I was 12, starting with my original team, The Couch. \u00a0It consisted of my lifelong friends of Felix, Ace, Twan, and Pat. \u00a0As the youngest of the group, they always said my ideas and card “Shawn” choices were great, but I just have to find a way to make them work for me. \u00a0I’ve always just been a player that plays what he loves and people’s opinions about the cards that I play have never affected me. \u00a0I just believe that everything I build will go as planned, every piece of the puzzle will be put into place and that my ideas will be a success.<\/p>\n
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July 14th 2012<\/strong> <\/p>\n October 16 2012 FLORIDA STATES<\/strong> That’s a little bit about myself and my career so far. \u00a0I’m looking forward to doing a lot more work on the battlefield and making a lot more articles. \u00a0I just hope I can bring home some more wins for the Average Joes Team and until next time….remember, we’re all just average.<\/p>\n Shawn “Grizzy B” Ellis Hey fans and followers! \u00a0My name is Shawn Ellis and this is my first article on Average Joes. \u00a0I’ve been a “Joe” for almost 6 months but having been “Average” for most of my magic career has been the story. \u00a0I started playing in 2006 and have been on and off through the years until […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,10],"tags":[135,134,57,36,115],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ajmtg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1626"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ajmtg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ajmtg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ajmtg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ajmtg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1626"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"http:\/\/ajmtg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1656,"href":"http:\/\/ajmtg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1626\/revisions\/1656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ajmtg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ajmtg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ajmtg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThis is the day I play my first big event in Magic in nearly 5 years, the TCGplayer 5K in Orlando, Florida. \u00a0I go into this event like every other player with the dream of winning big and I have full confidence in what I’ve built is ready for the format. \u00a0The deck I built and showed up with was called Grites, also known as Griselbrand<\/a> Rites. I made it to beat the No. 1 deck in the format, U\/W Delver, which was sitting at the top for a while now. \u00a0The deck design consisted of many board sweepers, tons of removal, and the legend himself, my favorite card, Griselbrand<\/a>. \u00a0At the beginning of the tournament, they let us know that there were 229 players and there would be 9 rounds of competitive play. \u00a0I’m thinking to myself “Oh it was a good day boys, let’s pack it up and go home. There’s NO way I’m making it 9 rounds.” \u00a0 The tournament starts, short and sweet, I make it to round 4 undefeated and then receive my first loss to Delver. I was\u00a0devastated\u00a0because I know that you can only receive one loss and one draw to proceed to top 8. So that means I would have to win 5 straight rounds and I was already mentally beat. \u00a05 rounds seemed forever away and impossible to accomplish but beating ALL odds, I win the next 4 rounds and draw the last and make it into top 8 by the skin of my teeth. \u00a0In at 8th place and on to Top 8 we go! So at this moment I’m just glad to be in top 8 at a major event and I’m grinning ear to ear. \u00a0Looking at the live\u00a0commentating\u00a0on before we get started, I am excited to see Frank T Lepore commenting as he is my idol. \u00a0I go to my first match, going against the 1st place player who was also undefeated, and I win 2-1. \u00a0The next match is a sweep winning 2-0. \u00a0So NOW…I’m in the FINALS of an event and not looking back. \u00a0I’M GOING TO WIN. \u00a0So after a hard fought games 1, 2, and 3, I pull off the seemingly impossible and beat my opponent 2-1. \u00a0I took the game down with the most under-rated card in my deck Slayers’ Stronghold<\/a> and some Lingering Souls<\/a>. \u00a0I don’t think I could have won this event without the help of all the Average Joes and all the play testing we put in.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/ajmtg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/SlayersLingeringTokens.png\" "\\"SlayersLingeringTokens\\"")
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\nStates is always fun as Standard Rotation has just happened. \u00a0Return to Ravnica is upon us and the deck that I won the Orlando TCG 5K with is now new and improved and I believe it is the number one deck in the format. \u00a0Once again, with 251 players, there are 9 rounds of Standard play. \u00a0The only difference between the 5K and this tournament is that I am confident in the deck that I’ve been playing for nearly 4 months. \u00a0At the end of the 9 rounds, I am the ONLY undefeated player. \u00a0Going into Top 8, I am not the only Joe to make it as Bryan Elliot also had a great record to squeeze in at 8th. \u00a0The only downside to this is we have to play each other Round 1 of Top 8. \u00a0Even though he is a teammate, he is also an opponent during this round. \u00a0We are both battling with Grites but not the exact same list. \u00a0After shaking hands, I make quick work of him by going 2-0. \u00a0Next round I face the GP Lincoln winner, Bronson Magnan. \u00a0Nevertheless, I out battle him and finish the match 2-0. \u00a0What a great and similar feeling going to the Finals of a large tournament. \u00a0In the finals I play against Mark Nestico, a player who has just as much confidence as myself. \u00a0I take game 2 fairly quickly and we start to sideboard for the second, all the while he is saying how much of a bad matchup this is for him. \u00a0I have some unlucky draws in games two and three, striking me with my only loss of the day. \u00a02nd isnt 1st, but at least I proved that I was not a one hit wonder and am here to stay in the winners\u00a0circle.<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/ajmtg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Griselbrand-Avatar.png\" "\\"Griselbrand"){kind=avatar}
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