After the draft and our return to the hotel room, I finally decided to play Gifts Rock because it seemed like a lot of players were playing Boros. Gifts Rock generally crushes Boros, and the only way to lose is if they get a draw involving multiple Molten Rains to deny you of your mana. After tweaking the sideboard and goldfishing for a while, I was just hoping that I would not face any Tron decks because that is the deck’s worst matchup. Cards like Sundering Titan and Mindslaver devastate this deck, and there’s not too much that can be done about it. All I wanted to play was Boros and Affinity, because this deck crushes aggressive decks. Here is the list that I played for the Extended portion of Worlds:
Creatures (18)
- 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Genesis
- 1 Ravenous Baloth
- 3 Eternal Witness
- 2 Carven Caryatid
- 3 Loxodon Hierarch
Lands (22)
Spells (20)
The deck was tuned to perform well in a sea of aggressive decks. The great thing about Rock is that you can tune it to beat just about anything. We added two maindeck Carven Caryatids and two Smothers for aggressive matchups, and we also added two Vindicates because they are good in just about any matchup. When we added the second copy, we were doing it mostly to help against the Tron matchup to keep them off hitting Tron mana, but it’s not terrible against aggressive decks either. I was pretty happy with the list, and I only needed a 4-1-1 to make Top 8! Once again I couldn’t get sleep the night before, but this time it was because I was so excited at the prospect of making Top 8 at the event.
I kept telling myself that in order to Top 8 I would just have to 4-1-1, which is the equivalent of making Top 8 in a six-round Extended Premier Event on Magic Online… only much harder. Luis was also in contention, and this was going to be a pretty exciting day. Pairings were called and I was a little late getting to my seat, so I started running towards my seat only to have somebody tell me that I had a feature match. Then I had to make a dash to the feature match area, and I saw that the other feature match between Luis Scott-Vargas and Chris McDaniel was already going on. Fortunately, I didn’t receive a game loss. That would’ve been extremely embarrassing, and I would probably have gone on tilt for the rest of the tournament. My opponent for Round 13 was none other than Hall of Famer Olle Rade. I don’t know exactly how much he plays anymore, but for him to be doing this well this late into the tournament… he seems to know what he’s doing!
Round 13: Olle Rade (Mono-Red Goblins with Empty the Warrens)
This was a featured match and it was covered by Ted Knutson in detail here. For game 1, I played a turn 1 Birds of Paradise followed by a turn 2 Pernicious Deed. This slowed him down enough for me to cast Gifts Ungiven and start the recursion with Genesis and Loxodon Hierarchs, to prompt the concession. I looked over my maindeck and saw almost no cards that would be bad against him. I decided to take out a Duress for a Naturalize just in case he brought in Blood Moon, Sulfuric Vortex, Pithing Needle, or anything similar to that.
For game 2, he mulliganed down to six and played out a turn 2 Blood Moon against me. Fortunately for me, I had a turn 1 Birds of Paradise and a Sakura-Tribe Elder, so I had all the colors I needed. He followed the Blood Moon up with a Goblin Warchief, which I Smothered. He didn’t play anything on the following turn, and I cast Gifts Ungiven fetching Plow Under, Eternal Witness, Living Wish, and Genesis to go for the long game because I had nothing in my hand. Once again he drew nothing for his turn, and showed me his hand of lands and a Chrome Mox.
Record: 10-3. I looked over at Luis’ feature match, and he also ended up winning against “Star Wars Kid” Chris McDaniel. We were off to a pretty great start and were feeling pretty good… until we received some pretty terrible news. While I was waiting on the next round to start, I saw a group of Portuguese players, who were staying at the same hotel as me, walking around with their entire luggage. I asked one of them why they were carrying around their bags, and they told me that the Hotel Manager went crazy and kicked all of them out of the hotel, and that they were going to throw the baggage from our room onto the street if we don’t pick them up by 6pm.
When we got back to our room the night before, there was a note on our door asking us to keep the noise down. We didn’t think too much of it, but we did make an effort to be quieter. Too bad the Hotel Manager didn’t think so… This put a damper on things, and the thoughts of having to find a new hotel room and gathering luggage that might be on the street were going through my mind for the rest of the day. Apparently, he was upset that we were being messy and loud, and decided to kick us all out of his sorry excuse of a hotel. Anyway, I had to gather myself for the task at hand… and that was my quest to make Top 8!
Round 14: Paulo Carvalho (Boros)
This was Paulo’s first Pro Tour, and he qualified by being part of the Portuguese National team. He was one of the most pleasant players to play against, and looked happy just to be there. He told me that he would be happy with a Top 32 in the event, but as we all know he ended up making Top 8 (congratulations Paulo!). Game 1, he started out by playing a Grim Lavamancer. I was thinking to myself, “Yes, Boros! I’d better win this one!” I played a Birds of Paradise turn 1, which he immediately fried. I smothered his Grim Lavamancer and passed for my turn. He then proceeded to cast Molten Rain for his next three turns, getting me down to 11 and no lands. He dropped a Soltari Priest afterwards, and I managed to draw no answer to that guy. I was dead shortly afterwards, with the backup of some burn spells.
I was pretty demoralized after losing this game, but as I said earlier, the only way to lose to Boros, barring a horrendous draw, is through their land destruction spells keeping you from casting your heavy hitters. I was never able to hit four mana that game, and my hand had Loxodon Hierarch and multiple copies of Gifts Ungiven. Still, I was pretty confident in the matchup, and I knew I had a good chance of winning the next two.
In: 1 Duress, 1 Krosan Grip, 1 Naturalize
Out: 3 Cabal Therapy
I brought in the Grip and the Naturalize to deal with random enchantments that he could have boarded in, and the second copy of Duress. I could have brought in the third Duress, but I didn’t see anything in the maindeck worth taking out for it.
Game 2 I got a fast draw, involving a turn 2 Sakura-Tribe Elder. I powered out a Loxodon Hierarch and Pernicious Deeded away his guys. I played another Hierarch and ended the game at 22 life. This matchup was really dependent on the die roll, and losing game 1 hurt a lot!
For game 3 I kept a hand with two lands, a Birds of Paradise, Living Wish, a Duress, and a couple of other business spells. I played a Birds on turn 1 and he Firebolted it immediately. In hindsight, I think I should have Duressed him first to try to get a burn spell out of his hand before playing the Birds on turn 2 to increase the chance of its survival. For my second turn I Duressed him, and he had all creatures in hand including two Dwarven Blastminers that I hadn’t seen before. He only had a second land in hand though, and would need to draw a third land before he could start destroying my lands. He played his Blastminer on his turn, with a look of frustration, and I was pretty sure he didn’t draw the land for his turn. I had no other land drops to play, so I Living Wished for a Golgari Rot Farm, and played that for the turn and passed. On his turn, he drew the card for his turn, smiled, shrugged, then played the Wooded Foothills that he just drew, and proceeded to crush me with the Blastminer. Every land that I had in play was a non-basic, and I drew no answer for the Blastminer… and that was that.
Record: 10-4. I was extremely disappointed after this round because I knew that this matchup was very favorable for me. It was the reason why I chose to play this deck, and the fact that I lost was pretty unfortunate. Paulo was a real friendly guy so I couldn’t be too upset after the loss. Disappointed and still thinking about whether or not I would be able to get my bags, I had to gather myself because there were still four rounds of Magic to be played.
Round 15: Kim Min Su (G/R/B Flow Rock)
I’ve talked to Kim Min Su before on MTGO, and he plays in the Extended Premiers a lot! If you play in the 2x Extended Premiers you will usually see him in the Top 8. His account name is Manabirds or Manabirds7. I told him about who I was, and he acknowledged it but he didn’t speak a lick of English. He’s Korean, and I’m also Korean so I thought he would try communicating with me in Korean, while I respond with my broken Konglish (Korean English Hybrid), but he was all business. Before going into Worlds, I noticed that he played a lot of Dragonstorm in the 2x Premiers and assumed that he would still be playing that. I’ve never actually played against Dragonstorm in Extended so I didn’t really know how the match would play out.
He started the game with a basic Mountain, and I thought my suspicions were correct. I played a Cabal Therapy on my first turn and named Burning Wish. I saw a hand of Umezawa’s Jitte, two Call of the Herd, Troll Ascetic, and lands. Apparently, he was playing a three-color Aggro Rock deck, probably with Destructive Flows in the main or side. We both started going about playing our spells, and after I Deeded away his Jitte, his 3/3 Elephants and Troll Ascetics couldn’t do too much against my Loxodon Hierarch and Ravenous Baloths. The game ended up being a long stalemate where he had a bunch of 3/3s and 3/2s to my 4/4s. I eventually drew a Gifts Ungiven fetching Plow Under, Living Wish, Eternal Witness, and Genesis, and that prompted the concession.
In: 1 Krosan Grip, 1 Naturalize
Out: 2 Cabal Therapy
The therapies didn’t seem too good in this match-up, and game 1 saw him playing Destructive Flow and Umezawa’s Jitte, so the Grip and Naturalize were natural additions.
Game 2 he mulliganed into a pretty weak hand. He started off strong with a turn 1 Birds of Paradise and a turn 2 Destructive Flow. But I also started with a turn 1 Forest plus Birds of Paradise followed up with a Sakura-Tribe Elder. He played nothing after that and I dropped a Hierarch. He passed the turn again and I cast Plow Under on his two lands. I just kept bashing with the Hierarch while he continued to draw lands, and the Hierarch went all the way.
Record: 11-4. Starting off the day at 2-1 was pretty nice, and I just had to win the next two rounds and draw the last one to be sure of a slot into the Top 8!
Round 16: Shaheen Soorani (U/W Tron)
It was pretty nice that all I got paired against were good matchups thus far, and it was a matter of time before I got paired against a bad one. Shaheen is an American player who qualified through rating. Maybe I’ve been pretty lucky, but most of the players that I played throughout the whole tournament were pretty pleasant to play against. Shaheen was no exception. This round is going to be short because, pure and simple, he destroyed me. He beat me game 1 at 20 life and game 2 at 19 life. I didn’t have a chance. This matchup is absolutely dreadful. His combination of card draw and powerful late game cards, including Decree of Justice, Mindslaver, and possibly Sundering Titan, make this matchup a nightmare.
Record: 11-5. This was obviously the biggest disappointment in the tournament, because now I was out of Top 8 contention. I still had a chance to make big money if I won my next two rounds. Strangely enough, all the stress and pressure was gone after knowing that I was out of contention for Top 8. I was a lot more relaxed for the following rounds, and playing a player that I recognized in the following round could have also contributed.
Round 17: Aylon Manor (U/W Tron)
I recognize Aylon because he was in the MTGO clan I was on for a while – Clan Dragonquest. We talked for a while and then proceeded to play. He said that he just picked up his deck the day before from his friend “Noobs Lord” on Magic Online. When he started the game with a Tron land, I felt pretty hopeless. Not only does the deck have a good late game, they have cheap and efficient counters against your expensive and powerful ones. Remand versus Gifts Ungiven. Memory Lapse versus Plow Under? You have a chance if you can strip their entire hand with your Cabal Therapies and then resolve your big spells, but it doesn’t usually play out that way.
Game 1 I managed to destroy his hand with a combination of Cabal Therapies and Eternal Witnesses. However, I quickly ran out of gas afterwards and we were off to a war of topdecks. He morphed an Exalted Angel, unmorphed it and I went from 23 to 0 unable to draw any answers to it.
In: 1 Cranial Extraction, 2 Duress, 1 Haunting Echoes, 1 Global Ruin
Out: 2 Carven Caryatid, 2 Smother, 1 Loxodon Hierarch
Sideboarding here was pretty simple – take out creatures that don’t do anything, removal that doesn’t do anything, and a clunky creature for awesome disruption cards.
Game 2 I started off by Duressing him and his hand had Fact or Fiction, Memory Lapse, Remand, Thirst for Knowledge, and lands. I didn’t have a Therapy in hand, and this game started out looking pretty grim. I took the Fact or Fiction and was hoping to draw a Therapy pretty soon. I cast a Sakura-Tribe Elder on the following turn while he did nothing. On his third turn, I expected him to pass so that he could cast Thirst for Knowledge, but he morphed an Exalted Angel instead. On my turn I drew a Cabal Therapy and cast it naming Thirst for Knowledge, and then played an Eternal Witness getting back the Duress in the yard, and flashbacked the Therapy to rip apart his hand. He unmorphed his Angel on his turn and I played a Pernicious Deed the turn after, after Duressing him again. He hit me down to 10 life, and he was up to 24. After I Deeded the Angel away, I cast a Loxodon Hierarch to go up to 14 life. He cast nothing and I played an Eternal Witness nabbing a Duress from the yard, cast it on him, and he had nothing but lands and a Signet. I played the Sakura-Tribe Elder in my hand as well and he drew nothing and three attacks for seven later, he went down.
Game 3 I started out the game with a Duress to see a hand of Eternal Dragon, Remand, Fact or Fiction, Exalted Angel, double Teferi’s Response. He kept a one-lander on the play and my hand was pretty strong. I wasn’t exactly sure why he brought in the Teferi’s Response, and then I realized that I had Vindicates and Plow Unders but it still seems like a pretty weak sideboard option. I drew a Therapy to go with the Duress, and I stripped the Eternal Dragon out of his hand to continue his mana screw. I eventually drew a Vindicate but never played it, and he ended up drawing all 3 of his Teferi’s Responses. He was pretty hosed, and I killed him with a couple of Eternal Witnesses and a Ravenous Baloth pretty quickly.
Record: 12-5. I knew that the only way I could beat Tron would be to get a bit lucky, and this match was pretty fortunate for me. Game 2 he had a nearly unbeatable opening hand, but he got extremely flooded and lost. Game 3, he probably should have mulliganed a questionable hand, but then proceeded to never draw a second land to even stand a chance. At this point, it was around 4pm, and I was just hoping for the round to end pretty quickly so that I could finish the last round and make a dash to get our bags from the crazy Hotel Manager. I talked to Australian National Champion Tim He, and his record was also 12-5 with his trusted Affinity deck. We were joking about playing each other in the last round, and how I would smash that deck. The pairings went up and I was matched up against… Timothy He. If you don’t know, Affinity is the actual best matchup for this deck because there are so many cards in the deck that hose it. Pernicious Deed – and Living Wish for Kataki – are hard to recover from. Not only that, I have Hierarchs, Baloth, Vindicates, Putrefies, Smothers, Caryatids, and others that are all great against that deck.
Round 18: Timothy He (U/R Affinity)
We started off with the die roll and I knew that this would be extremely important in determining the outcome of this match. If he wins the die roll and goes first, there’s a pretty good shot that he’ll kill me. He was playing a U/R Affinity deck that was playing with Chrome Moxes and it was lightning fast. Fortunately, I won the die roll and he had to mulligan. My opening hand had Sakura-Tribe Elder, Vindicate, Pernicious Deed, Gifts Ungiven, and lands. Sweet hand… let’s go to game 2! He started out turn 1 with a Seat of the Synod, Chrome Mox imprinting Thoughtcast, Chromatic Star, and two Frogmites… Maybe this game won’t be as easy as I thought.
I played my Sakura-Tribe Elder on the second turn and passed. For his second turn he cast a Thoughtcast, played a Darksteel Citadel, an Arcbound Ravager, and a Myr Enforcer and passed. So this was the board position after turn 2. I have in play three lands after sacrificing a Tribe Elder, and he has 2 Frogmites, an Arcbound Ravager, and a Myr Enforcer in play. On my turn I Vindicated his Myr Enforcer, and things were looking pretty grim. On his third turn he attacked me with everything, floated a Red and a Blue mana, sacrificed all but one artifact, and then Shrapnel Blasted me after damage was on the stack. I went from 16 to 0 in one attack on turn 3. Affinity can get some pretty good draws sometimes…
In: 1 Naturalize, 1 Krosan Grip, 1 Loxodon Hierarch, 1 Global Ruin
Out: 3 Cabal Therapy, 1 Plow Under
I brought in the Hierarch because when I cast Living Wish against Affinity, I always find myself fetching an Eternal Witness, Kataki, or Meloku for the late game. The Naturalize and Krosan Grip are obvious additions, and the Global Ruin is basically a one sided Armageddon against them, and Gifts Rock does a pretty good job of staying alive until then.
Game 2 was as big a blowout for him as it was for me in game 1. I started with a turn 1 Birds of Paradise. He started with a Seat of the Synod and an Arcbound Worker. I laid a Sakura-Tribe Elder on turn 2, and his turn 2 play was Blinkmoth Nexus and two more Arcbound Workers. I sacrificed the Elder and then cast a Pernicious Deed, and blew it up for one, destroying all three of his Arcbound Workers and his Seat of the Synod. He followed up his turn with a land and a Cranial Plating. I cast Global Ruin, killing the remaining two of his lands, and followed that up with a Loxodon Hierarch. He conceded, and I ended the game at 24 life.
Game 3 was very similar to game 2. He played out a Seal of Fire and I had to Deed away his board plus the Seal of Fire before I could Living Wish for a Kataki. I went down to 11 life at one point, but then dropped a Loxodon Hierarch and used my second Living Wish to fetch a Meloku the Clouded Mirror. At that point my board had a Loxodon Hierarch, Kataki, and a Meloku, and he conceded.
Record: 13-5 I ended up in 12th place, which I think is a pretty respectable finish. Luis ended up going 3-3 on the day and made the Top 75, so he finished in the money at least. One of my losses could have easily have been a win, but I feel that I got lucky in some of my matches so it all evens out. I’m happy with my performance and after the ratings are fixed, I think I will be qualified for the next two Pro Tours. My goal next year is to hit Level 3, and I think with some hard work, preparation, and attending some Grand Prix tournaments, I can get there.
I was extremely drained after this tournament and the last thing I wanted to do was to go look for a new hotel to stay in, but it had to be done. I also realized that we had the team competition on the following day. Before we went up to the hotel, we talked to the Portuguese guys who were staying in our room about the situation, and one of them apparently almost got attacked by the manager. If you wanted to know what exactly the hotel manager looked like, think Danny DeVito. We didn’t really want to deal with the manager, so we took the elevators up and just dashed into the rooms and got everything we could as fast as we could. We managed to find another cheap hotel room to stay for the night.
As far as the team competition goes… it was a nightmare. Our first opponents were against the Chinese National Team, and we were pretty confident in our decks. We did a good job of drafting and I ended up with a very solid U/R deck featuring double Ephemeron and Teferi, among other things. The match came down to the third game between my opponent Wu Jia and myself. We both had very good starts. He suspended Viscerid Deepwalker on turn 1, Errant Ephemeron on turn 2, and Riftwing Cloudskate on turn 3. I suspended Deepwalker on turn 1, Errant Ephemeron on turn 2 and I had a Teferi in my hand. Unfortunately I had 2 Mountains and an Island in play, and I needed to draw two Islands in a row for the total blowout. I had the option of casting a morph on my third turn but opted to Think Twice instead to try and draw the second and third Islands. Unfortunately, I was not able to draw the Island. His suspends ended up out-tempoing me, and I lost a heartbreaker of a match.
I don’t remember too much about the rest of the day, but our team ended up going 1-3 and it was very disappointing. We thought we did the appropriate testing for team Rochester, but I guess we could have used a little more. All in all, the Magic playing experience at the Louvre was very fun, and I had a great time while playing. However, the experience with some of the people there and the overcosted food really was a downer. Five-dollar Cokes and ten-dollar ham sandwiches was not really what I had in mind in terms of a food budget. The next time I’d go back to Paris would be when I would be able to afford the luxuries of the city.
Have a Happy New Year!