Today was a little longer than expected but the format was still fast enough that I was able to enjoy a leisurely dinner with Mike Turian and Randy Buehler at the staff hotel. The restaurant here is pretty absurd. Randy and I also grabbed lunch here and when we had the tomato soup we knew we were coming back.

They bring out this large white bowl with a dollop of marscapone cheese drizzled with reduced balsamic vinegar and a basil oil which gets drenched in a shower of steaming hot soup at your table. Utterly amazing both times I had it today.

I also had, what is apparently a house classic, a tuna tartar that was perfumed with apple brandy as my entrée. It is among the very best meals I have ever enjoyed at a Pro Tour.

Afterwards we went to the bar and did the only thing you can do after a long day of watching 400 of the world’s best play Magic: The Gathering. We busted out a box of Shards of Alara and started drafting.

I was talking with Randy last night about drafting an actual shard as opposed to simply taking mana fixing and the best cards that come along. Normally I choose the latter strategy but when I opened Stoic Angel and was passed another it seemed like I wanted to be Bant.

The problem is that you end up taking weaker cards that are on-shard while passing ridiculous picks in each direction. I passed crazy stuff to Bill Stark while I stubbornly fought for Bant with drafters to my right. I shoulda just first picked a tri-land.