Worlds 2006 – How It Happened, Part 2 *T8*

One of my weaknesses as a Magic player has always been the Extended format. I always felt there were too many available cards, and my personal dislike has led to me avoiding Extended unless I have to play it. Back when I was playing PTQs I won a lot overall, but I could never post better than a 3-3 finish in Extended tournaments.

My philosophy for the second draft was this: the more rounds I win here, the fewer rounds I have to win tomorrow in Extended. At the time, I didn’t have an Extended deck. I’ll talk about it later, and focus on the second draft for now.

On to pod 1:

1 — Kim, Min Su — 24
2 — Fujita, Tsuyoshi — 24
3 — Arita, Ryuuichi — 22
4 — Da Rosa, Paulo Vitor Damo — 27
5 — Warmenhoven, Ruud — 24
6 — Rispal, Jonathan — 22
7 — Andersen, Oyvind W. — 22
8 — Chan, Tiago — 24

You can follow the draft in a first-person perspective here:

I suspect many Magic players won’t check it, so I will go through a brief recap of how the draft went for me.

Pack 1
1- Looter il-Kor, the only Blue card over a bunch of lower value cards.
2- Crookclaw Transmuter over Momentary Blink and Soltari Priest
3- Eternity Snare is the only Blue card. My pick is Corpulent Corpse over Strength in Numbers. I’m not really a fan of Blue/Green.
4- Urborg Syphon-Mage over Cloudchaser Kestrel
5- Crookclaw Transmuter over Clockwork Hydra
6- Feebleness over Viscid Lemures and some Green and Red playables
7- Temporal Eddy over Dreadship Reef, Drudge Reavers and Psychotic Episode
8- Traitor’s Clutch
9- Sarpadian Empires Vol VII
10- Drudge Reavers
11- Eternity Snare tabled back. Possible sideboard card.

If you remember part 1 of this report, I explained that my plan is to ignore White when possible, and draft only one of the removal colors but not both. This means drafting Blue/Black, Blue/Red, Green/Black, or Green/Red. That’s why I stayed in Blue/Black in pack 1. I never saw any good Red cards, and refused to move into Blue/Green or Blue/White.

Pack 2
1- Firemaw Kavu over Mindstab and Gorgon Recluse. I was hoping to get some Prismatic Lenses or Molten Slagheaps or Terramorphic Expanses in order to splash the Kavu.
2- Viscerid Deepwalker over Stormcloud Djinn and Dream Stalker
3- Crookclaw Transmuter over Corpulent Corpse
4- Fathom Seer, passing Durkwood Baloth and Amrou Scout
5- Uncle Istvan, purple card over rare drafting a Restore Balance
6- Careful Consideration over Terramorphic Expanse
7- Scryb Ranger hate-drafted over a second Drudge Reavers. The Scryb Ranger can stop my three Crookclaw Transmuters, and you don’t want to play two Drudge Reavers in your deck.
8- Giant Oyster over Wipe Away
9- Stormscape Familiar over Mindstab. I’m not sure on this pick, I’m probably wrong, and should have picked the Mindstab
10- Dream Stalker

I was probably Blue/Black splashing Red for the Kavu at this point, but I hadn’t seen any Molten Slagheaps. Whenever I saw Prismatic Lens or Terramorphic Expanse I had a good card in Blue or Black that I had to take. Other than the Scryb Ranger and Stormscape Familiar picks, they were all relatively easy picks after establishing my colors.

Pack 3
1- Feebleness over Trespasser il-Vec
2- Assassinate over Deep Sea Kraken, Temporal Eddy and Terramorphic Expanse
3- Coral Trickster over Ixidron
4- Dark Withering over Prismatic Lens
5- Assassinate over Temporal Eddy
6- Errant Doomsayers over Weatherseed Totem
7- Trespasser il-Vec
8- Cyclopean Giant over Smallpox
9- Tolarian Sentinel over Basal Sliver
10- Momentary Blink over Dreadship Reef and Drudge Reavers

This deck is Blue/Black tempo deck. It doesn’t have creatures to play defense, but it has many evasion creatures that hit hard. The Assassinates aren’t perfect in Black/Red as they can’t take out blockers, but in here the creatures have evasion, so your opponent will try to race you as he can’t block, tapping his creatures to attack in the process and increasing the value of cards like Assassinate and Giant Oyster. This also explains the hate-draft at Scryb Ranger and Errant Doomsayers. Both can stop your main offensive. The pick that was criticized the most was Coral Trickster over Ixidron, but I think it was the correct choice here. It has synergy with Assassinates and Giant Oyster, it can tap out some key blockers in race situations, and the deck was lacking three-mana drops. As for Ixidron, it’s a very good card, but I only had a Fathom Seer as a morph. Ixidron is best against big Green creatures, but my deck should handle those quite easy, as it’s much faster and they don’t have many answers to the evasion creatures. And finally, I have played with and against Ixidron a lot, and if your opponent plays correctly he can minimize the impact of the Ixidron. The deck doesn’t look awesome on paper, but it’s a lot better than it seems when performing.

Round 10: Paulo Vitor da Rosa — Red/Black

Paulo’s deck had some very good cards, but also some filler according to his own words. We played three very close games that came down to topdecks. In the first he started with Sedge Sliver and another sliver, creating two 3/3 that regenerate. I couldn’t kill them — I could only slow them down or race them. He had another creature with Undying Rage, but thanks to a Fathom Seer and Dream Stalker I was able to refill my hand with cards and draw some way to stop his 3/3 while I was racing in the air. Then he cast a Void for two, which killed my Dream Stalker, Fathom Seer, Coral Trickster, and Stormscape Familiar. I never recovered after that. I sided in an Eternity Snare, as an answer to Undying Rage, and Drudge Reavers, as it’s hard to kill and it’s good against Red/Black removal and big Green creatures. If only I had that Mindstab…

Game 2 I have to take a mulligan. My first play is a turn 3 Trespasser il-Vec, matched by his turn 3 Basalt Gargoyle. I discarded a card for my Trespasser attack, as I didn’t want to trade before he pays for the echo. That was a significant tempo loss for him, as I played a Crookclaw Transmuter end of turn. He was on seventeen. I attacked with both 3/1s, and he blocked the Trespasser and dropped to fourteen. I passed the turn. He played something, and I played a second Transmuter end of turn, attacking him down to eight. If he had a Grapeshot, I had no outs, but when he played a Rift Bolt on one of the 3/1 fliers I knew he didn’t have it, and I rode the other flier to victory.

Game three saw plenty of action. I neutralized his creature with Undying Rage, thanks to the sideboard Eternity Snare, after taking a hit. I Assassinated Soul Collector after taking a hit, but there was still a Viscerid Lemures. I was getting through with my own creatures – most notably a huge hit with Viscerid Deepwalker that took away a big chunk. Eventually I locked Viscerid Lemures under Giant Oyster and we’re on topdecking mode, both on the ropes, sat on something like one or two life apiece. Paulo topdecked Ironclaw Buzzardiers, which was enough to kill me next turn as none of my creatures on the board fly. Since we’re the feature match, and Paulo and I are friends, lots of Portuguese and Brazilians were watching the match, talking a lot about our topdecking skills… it was quite emotive, and very fun to play.

I needed an answer to the flying Buzzardiers, and next to me was one of the luckiest Portuguese guys I know. I turned to him and asked…

“Come on dealer, this one time…”

I drew… Yes! Thanks!

I told Paulo that I’d drawn a very good card, and passed the turn. He activated his Buzzardiers, and attacked.

I played the topdecked Crookclaw Transmuter, using his ability to make him a 1/3. I blocked, and then struck back for victory.

9 — 1

Neither Paulo nor myself had a clue about what to play in Extended, so we made an agreement. We’d win our remaining rounds, ending the day as the only 11-1 players at the top of the standings (Paulo was the lone 9-0 coming into this round). Then we’d play the exact same Extended decklist – we were leaning towards Boros, probably a deck that can sneak three wins – and we’d play the first round of tomorrow an exact 75 cards mirror match.

Round 11: Min Su Kim — Green/Black splashing Void

This was my fastest round in the tournament, as my deck came out of the gates like a lightning bolt. Even though my opponent suspended a Search for Tomorrow on turn 1, his first creature was a Corpulent Corpse on turn 6, after I Temporal Eddy one of his lands since he wasn’t playing creatures. He played Void taking down two of my creatures, but I don’t remember him playing anything that I would consider problematic. After refuelling with either Fathom Seer or Careful Consideration I managed to make to final push through his depleted life total.

Game 2 we both had slow hands. I played an end of turn 4 Crookclaw Transmuter, attacking him to seventeen, and then played a Viscerid Deepwalker instead of holding onto a second Transmuter. First, he had no creatures. The Viscerid could potentially hit for more damage. Second, if he played blockers I could pump the Viscerid’s power to take down the blocker and then play the Transmuter to have the Viscerid survive, switching the high attack power into defense, leaving me a board of two Transmuters and a Viscerid to nothing. Third, if he had Void, it would force him to choose between a Void for four or a Void for five. Four would hit both fliers, while five would kill only the Viscerid. If I pass planning to play Transmuter number 2 and he has Void, he will choose four and it’s probably game.

What happened was scenario three – the Void – and he chose to take down the Viscerid, since he didn’t have a creature for the turn. The Viscerid would make a big hit, probably six damage. He also left the flier as he was holding Spinneret Sliver, which he played next turn. After the Void I attacked with the Transmuter down to fourteen. He played the Spinneret Sliver. I didn’t play my second Transmuter, as I don’t want to trade one of them for the Sliver, and attack with the first one. He knows about the Transmuter in my hand, but chooses to block anyway. I switch my Transmuter number 1 to 1/3 after stacking damage, leaving me with two 3/1 fliers to his empty board with him at fourteen. He knows about Assassinate thanks to the Void, and meanwhile I’ve drawn Coral Trickster. He played Mana Skimmer. I played the Trickster and unmorph it to tap the Skimmer. I attacked him down to eight, and Assassinated his tapped flier. We still played one or two more turns, but he didn’t draw more answers to the fliers. A long description, but the round took about ten minutes… that’s why I remember everything.

10 — 1

Round 12: Tsuyoshi Fujita — Blue/Red

Game 1 he suspended a turn 1 Keldon Halberdier, and had a turn 3 morph. I had a quick start with a face-up Trickster on turn 2, morph, and Syphon-Mage to follow. He refused to trade his morph in combat. On turn 5 his Halberdier came into play, and he attacked, leaving the morph on defense. I attacked back, and he blocked one of my creatures and unmorphed Vesuvan Shapeshifter, turning him into a copy of the Halberdier. I killed it with Feebleness and Assassinated his Halberdier, leaving him with nothing against my creatures, and the game doesn’t last much longer.

Game 2 he suspended Halberdier again on turn 1, and followed with a 2/1 creature. I played a morph, which is Temporal Eddied back to the top on his turn 4. On my fourth turn, and facing an incoming Halberdier on turn 5, and being at sixteen life from two attacks with the 2/1, my hand was: lands, Firemaw Kavu (with Red mana available), Feebleness, and Coral Trickster. At four mana my options are:

1 – Play the Trickster morphed with blue mana left.
2 – Play the Trickster face-up and have two mana open to play Feebleness on the Halberdier.

3 – Pass the turn, play Feebleness on the Halberdier, take a hit from the 2/1 down to fourteen, and then play turn 5 morphed Trickster and turn 6 Firemaw Kavu.

Since I made a longer description of option number three, you can guess that’s the one I chose. It seemed the best option, after analysing the board, my hand, and life. I killed his Halberdier when it came into play in his upkeep, but then he played a fuelled Empty the Warrens for six tokens, with me at fourteen. Option number 1 would’ve been better, as it would only give him four tokens, but I would’ve take an extra four damage as I didn’t want to tap his Halberdier. If I wanted to avoid taking four damage, then option 3 was probably the best. Having a face-up Trickster isn’t exactly the best defense against four 1/1 tokens.

The tokens left me at a low life despite my best attempts to block. It seems I’d finally stabilize, having dealt with most of the tokens. The board was now random creatures on each side, but I had Firemaw Kavu still in play… and I drew and played Tolarian Sentinel, which can be awesome with the Kavu. He played Ixidron, so the board becomes even once again, and he managed to deal the remaining few life points.

For game 3, we looked at our hands, and Tsuyoshi immediately said, “keep.” Later on, I found out that he’d kept a one-land hand. I kept four lands, including a Mountain and two Islands, Firemaw Kavu, Viscerid Deepwalker, and Careful Consideration. Tsuyoshi played a turn 1 suspended Greater Gargadon, turn 2 Goblin Skycutter, turn 3 Sage of Epityr. Since this was a feature match, many players were closely watching and later told me he could’ve played a turn 6 Pardic Dragon if he wanted, but opted for something else. I drew many cards from the Consideration and a later Fathom Seer, and probably played a little too aggressively. For example, after Tsuyoshi attacked me, I used Feebleness to remove his sole blocker – the Sage of Epityr – and make a big attack with Viscerid Deepwalker among others. I tried to race with some chump-blocks and Syphon-Mage activations. I lost after he Rift Bolted one of my chump blockers, forcing me to change my plans. I was counting on drawing one of the Assassinates, Dark Withering, or Giant Oyster to help me deal with the Gargadon and the Pardic Dragon.

After the match, Masahiko Morita – who had been watching game 3 – pointed me toward a different approach to the game, a path I could’ve taken many turns earlier. I let a Firemaw Kavu die, to kill his Bogardan Rager. At the time, the Greater Gargadon was already low on counters and threatening to come into play soon. Morita made the point that by keeping the Kavu into play it was enough to kill the Gargadon if it attacked, instead of chump-blocking. The Pardic Dragon wasn’t in play yet, so Tsuyoshi probably had to suicide his Gargadon into my Kavu before playing his Dragon, and it would’ve been a completely different game from there. The point was that maybe I was too aggressive, and sometimes people let go Firemaw Kavu too easily.

10 — 2

Another 5-1 on Day 2 was an excellent result, but I had a tiny taste of defeat as I had just lost and could’ve played differently. Like I said, every round won today was a round that I didn’t have to win on Extended Day. I was still very concerned about my Extended deck. Fortunately, the taste of defeat faded during dinner, and I was quite happy with my good performance so far. I’ll flashback a little into my Extended preparation, and then I’ll return to this evening, before choosing my Extended deck for the following day.

Extended

Some time ago I wrote an article for this site about U/R Tron in Extended, when Aggro-Loam and Gifts-Rock dominated the Online metagame. The deck had good matchups against those soft control decks with no counters, but wasn’t very good against pure aggro strategies. Later, the problem was solved by making the Tron deck U/W. By then, I was set in playing either U/R or U/W Tron according to the metagame before Worlds.

Meanwhile there was a huge rise in popularity of the Boros deck, just because it had a very good matchup against both versions of Tron, which by now had taken the top spots as best decks in Extended. I looked at the decklists of the Extended PTQ at Pro Tour: Kobe, and there were three Tron decks, two Psychatogs, one Scepter-Chant, one Aggro-Rock and one Tooth and Nail. That’s a lot of control, and they’re all good matchups for the Boros deck… except maybe for the Rock deck. So it was natural that we’d see the re-emergence of the Boros deck.

With the help of some Portuguese friends (Frederico Bastos wasn’t qualified, but I asked him to help me build some decks in order to test), I had a U/W Tron, a Psychatog, a Boros deck, and I tried to rebuild Masahiko Morita’s Scepter-Chant from the PTQ as the online decklist was missing a lot of cards. Finally in New Jersey, Shuhei Nakamura helped me to discover the missing cards. I liked the Scepter-Chant build, as it could basically hard-lock any opponent by forcing a Teferi on his end of turn with an Orim’s Chant, and then play a Scepter with Chant on his own turn. After New Jersey, I decided to cut some options and dismissed Psychatog because it seemed a bad choice, and the U/W Tron because Scepter-Chant seemed better. I kept Boros because you can’t count it out.

After some playtesting with the Chant deck, I realized I didn’t liked the deck very much, as it had a hard time versus Tron decks and wasn’t performing much better than 50% against Boros (like all other decks). Bernardo da Costa Cabral suggested playing CAL – the old version, more controllish with Solitary Confinement – as it was better prepared to survive after a Tormod’s Crypt. I built that deck as well, following his advice to replace the Sakura-Tribe Elders with Wall of Roots, which seemed a natural replacement. Back in Portugal, I went with my friends to a nearby PTQ just to cheer them on and to play some Magic. My friend Tiago Fonseca was there. He’s already qualified for Geneva thanks to a Top 16 at GP: Athens, so he spent the day playing Constructed with me. He’s a Constructed specialist. If you’re into Magic Online, you may have heard of Sheitan / Illuminati from the Diplomats clan… all of them are very good Constructed players and deckbuilders.

We played around 10 games of CAL against Boros, and we stopped after we realized that it was 50-50 – whoever went first wins. Then I played CAL versus Scepter-Chant, and would straight lose to a Scepter with Chant. To make things worse, the CAL was extremely difficult to play, and Worlds was approaching fast. Tiago Fonseca suggested a new Aggro-CAL version he had been playing lately. It was more easily disrupted by Tormod’s Crypt, but faster and easier to play. Following his advice, I built yet another deck, played with it for a while, but it had too few lands – 23 counting the Cycle lands – and it took too much damage, as it only had a couple of basic lands. I was confused.

Then I remembered a conversation I had at the PTQ. It’s always good to pass by a 100-person tournament, as you’ll probably meet players and friends you don’t see so often and have a chat about what’s happening. Another friend of mine who’s very into Magic Online, Gonçalo Pinto – or Madcatxes from Dragonquest, another clan full of very active and talented players – suggested me playing Red/Green beats. He had played the deck himself at GP: Bilbao last year, before Guildpact was released, and was 4-0 in Day 2 before losing the last two rounds. He made a valid point:

“They play Isamaru, you play Kird Ape; they play Silver Knight, you play Wild Mongrel; let them Sudden Shock the Mongrel, you play Call of the Herd; you can always outclass Boros, and still have the same tools: Lightning Helix, Firebolt, Lavamancer…”

Since I had many things to do before leaving for Paris (such as resting from the jet-lag, sleep twelve hours a day, going out with my girl, and helping my mom with some stuff I promised) I asked him to build me a decklist and test it a little on MTGO, which wasn’t a big thing for him as he plays daily. He split in the finals of two queues and posted a 4-2 in a Premier Event before handling me a Red/Green decklist splashing White for Lightning Helix and sideboard cards. It seemed like a deck that could claim a favorable matchup (without lying), but probably didn’t had the speed or disruption to fight control decks. I built the deck anyway, asked for DI cards in order to be able to build without proxies as many decks as possible in Paris. My plan was to loan this deck to a friend for him to play the PTQ at Worlds (almost all the Portuguese who went PTQing for Worlds asked me for a built deck to play in the PTQ).

At Worlds, during Day 1 I received something like five text messages (paying for each one received) from Gonçalo with a decklist. It seemed he was on a huge winning streak with this deck — U/W/R with Meddling and Trinket Mage, full of utility stuff and the Counterbalance / Top lock, a deck that Tsuyoshi Fujita has played for a long time, and eventually Gabriel Nassif led to a 6-0 finish. I try to scramble for the cards I needed, but eventually I realized he sent me a fifty-something card decklist. I threw the list in the trash.

End of Extended… back to Worlds Day 2.

After this recap, you have a better idea of how things were in my head concerning Extended at this point. I had no clue! This was probably because I tried too many decks, always looking to find a better deal instead of picking one, but the problem was I never found one that I liked or felt comfortable playing. If I felt confident playing the Scepter-Chant, I would’ve picked it right away by the time GP: New Jersey rolled around. I would really like to “connect” myself to the deck, but it never happened. My choices the night before Extended were:

– Boros
– Red/Green
– U/W Tron

The problem with U/W Tron, beside the Boros matchup, was I could never find a decklist I liked, but I think my friend the Portuguese Champion Kuniyoshi Ishii fixed that, as he rode my U/W Tron to a 5-1 record after making tweaks of his own.

Red/Green seemed solid against Boros, but I was very sceptical regarding other matchups. None of the Portuguese managed to register in the Extended PTQ, so I didn’t get to see the deck in action.

In the end, I stuck to Boros, like the Portuguese Paulo Carvalho and Márcio Carvalho, and all the Brazilians. I talked with Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa, and he was also running it, so I guessed it would be a 75-card mirror list, even tough I failed the promise to win my final two rounds like he did. Many pros advise me to play Boros with four Kird Apes )and one Stomping Ground and one Temple Garden out of ten fetch lands), bringing the one-mana creature count up to sixteen if needed. The Portuguese and Brazilians preferred a straight Red/White version with many Pro-red creatures, probably six maindeck up to nine or ten after sideboard. I packed all the possible cards for both versions in my box, and decided to go earlier to the site the next day and ask for some help there to build the Boros deck.

Day 3 — Extended

I woke up early and went to the site as soon as possible in order to build my Boros deck. I joined a table with some Americans finishing their decks, and Billy Moreno offered to give me some advices and built me both a Boros with Kird Apes which he recommended, like all the Pros, and an alternative version of straight Red/White Boros. Then I caught up with the Brazilians and the rest of the Portuguese who had by now arrived at the site. They opted for a straight Red/White Boros, very well tuned for the mirror. Paulo Rosa, Paulo Carvalho, and myself were all at the top of the standings on X-2, with Paulo Rosa the lone X-1. We expected lots of Boros, but I had two things in mind: there were many Japanese near the top of the standings, and they lean towards control decks, and in case we grabbed early losses, we would fall into a different bracket.

The tournament was supposed to start at 9am, but due to some cancellations in the Metro, they decide to hold back meeting a little longer in order to allow the time for many Magic players to arrive. During this time I was walking in the room where the player’s meeting was supposed to take place. Frank Karsten was sitting down shuffling his deck and asked me if I wanted to play some games. After a very short conversation, I decided to switch into Frank’s build – Boros with Kird Ape. I took out my box and built an exact copy, borrowing and buying what I needed, while Frank was writing my list and sleeving my deck. The only change we made for my deck was to replace two of the four Firebolts for two Lava Darts, as they seemed just a little better for the mirror and probably wouldn’t made such a difference in other matchups. Time went by so quickly, and I was still finishing everything, and everyone else was already seated waiting for the meeting to start, and since they seat us alphabetically by last name, Kastle – Darwin was standing up right there, waiting me to leave the seat in front of Karsten – Frank. I packed everything, and didn’t even bother to check my seat, as it was the only one remaining near Cheon – Paul and Chiera – Luca. I turn in my decklist, finally. I blind-trust Frank Karsten’s decisions, even when he doesn’t playtest that much, because he does it properly.

Round 13: Katsuhiro Mori — U/B Psychatog

I won the dice roll and kept. He agonized a little over his starting hand, but after a while decided to keep it anyway. I played a turn 1 creature, and another one on turn 2. His first action was turn 3 Psychatog. I Sudden Shocked it, and he conceded after a while. Many people were curious about Mori’s Psychatog after the match, and kept asking if it had any tech. I just told them I didn’t see much, as I only saw a Psychatog in game 1.

Game 2 was quite different. He played first and Force Spiked my turn 1 creature, followed by a Duress that took my Sudden Shock. Then he safely played a turn 3 Psychatog. This was probably one of the best starts he could ask for. I played a pair of Lavamancers on turn 2, and turn 3 I burned the Psychatog, forcing him to discard and remove many cards. I did again next turn, until he let the Psychatog die. He replayed another. With the help of Lavamancer, I burned to death the second Psychatog as well, as the Lavamancer doubles the effect of my burn spells. I was cracking fetch lands every turn. Shortly after came Psychatog number three. I sent some creatures into combat. After he blocked and pumped his Tog to kill one of my guys in combat, I cast more damage spells on the Tog, still with the Lavamancer as backup. A turn later, I managed to kill his third Psychatog, but I was down to a single Lavamancer with the graveyard very empty. At this point he had no cards in hand, as he’d discarded them in order to try to keep the Togs alive. I played a Pyrostatic Pillar, so even if he drew good spells he couldn’t cast many. My next draw was a Molten Rain that dealt him an extra two, so it was one less spell while taking down a Watery Grave leaving him only with an Underground River for Black mana. His next draw was an Opt, taking two more life from him, and at this point he was around five life, and I had a Lavamancer in play. I think I have the game. Maybe he could drawn into Meloku, but I still had the Lavamancer.

11 — 2

Round 14: Jonathan Rispal — Second Sunrise / Eggs

Of the six feature matches that I had at Worlds (Edel, da Rosa, Fujita, Mori, Rispal, Ogura) this was the only one that all the sites decided to cover – not only the official coverage, but from other countries as well. During playtesting, and since I had a Boros deck build, many players asked me to play against them with Boros just to be their dummy opponent, to see how well their new deck handled the R/W beatdown machine. That was the feeling I got in this round. I was just a dummy that everyone expected to lose against this new super-cool deck.

I had a potential kill on turn 4, with a hand that enabled a turn 1 Kird Ape, turn 2 Savannah Lions and Kird Ape, plus some burn spells. Unfortunately, I lost the die roll, he suspended a Lotus Bloom on turn 1, got it on his turn 4, and went off one turn before I could kill him.

I sided in four Pyrostatic Pillar and three Ancient Grudge, taking out some random stuff as I wasn’t expecting the deck. I think I took out Sudden Shock – two damage for two mana makes it the worst burn spell in the deck, when you compare the ratio of damage dealt to mana paid. This match was about speed. I kept with one Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author], one Savannah Lions, one Isamaru, one Firebolt, one Pyrostatic Pillar, one Ancient Grudge and something else. I decided to keep it on the play, as it had two two-power creatures for the pressure, as well as two sideboard cards. I played turn 1 Isamaru, turn 2 Savannah Lions, but missed a land drop. Turn 3, still with one land, I played Firebolt, bringing him down to 12 (from two attacks with Isamaru and one with the Lions). On my fourth turn I attacked him down to eight. Thankfully I drew a second land, so I had the option to play Pyrostatic Pillar, or play Ancient Grudge on his upkeep in his Lotus Bloom, suspended on his turn 1, and coming active on his incoming turn 4. I thought for a bit, and realized if I destroyed the Lotus in his upkeep, he could very well sacrifice it for three mana, break some eggs and have everything back with Second Sunrise, so I went for the Pillar plan. He was at eight, going down to six when the Lotus came into play, so he could only play two spells under the Pillar (which could very well be Cunning Wish for something like Echoing Truth, and in this case I pack it). On his turn he went down to six, sacrificed some eggs and Chromatics, played a Coliseum to dig for answers, brought everything back with Second Sunrise, dug some more until he found an Engineered Explosives. He played them, went down to two life, and sacrificed to get rid of the Pillar. After that he did a massive amount of random-looking stuff. I thought I was dead, but he didn’t draw into another Second Sunrise and conceded.

For game 3 I eventually decide to keep a hand of two Savannah Lions and two Molten Rains plus land. It’s not excellent, but it can definitely be a lot worse. It can make a turn 1 creature (a must), and I have two draws to improve my turn 2 play, which in the worst scenario can be a second Lions, with Molten Rains to follow. Of course the Molten Rain plan was nullified when he started yet again with turn 1 suspended Lotus Bloom. I played a turn 1 Lions, and one of my two draw steps gave me the Pillar for turn 2. Turn 3 I cast the Molten Rain, and he had two Islands and a Ghost Quarter. I target the Quarter. Of course I wasn’t hoping to deal extra two damage – I wanted to prevent him from playing Ghost Quarter Tricks once he had the Second Sunrise going. He was sure going to sacrifice the Quarter to destroy a land. Hopefully, as I expected, he hit one of my tapped duals for the Molten Rain, so I gladly searched for a Plains in my deck and played the second Savannah Lions in my hand, still on turn 3 after the Molten Rain. He played another Island, and passes the turn with the Lotus Bloom already in play. I attacked on my turn 4 with both Lions bringing him down to eight, and I played the second Molten Rain, as I had nothing better (drawing the Pillar for turn 2 was good enough… I can’t complain, though an Ancient Grudge for his Lotus would’ve been sweet). He played Cunning Wish fetching Angel’s Grace and going down to six. On his turn he plays the Angel’s Grace, going to four, but having immunity to go off this turn. He did a lot of stuff, mostly Reshaping some Spheres into Lotus Bloom, and cast a Second Sunrise with no cards in hand. It brought him back three Lotus Bloom and some Eggs/Sphere. My chance was for him to not draw into another Second Sunrise (or cards that could fetch the Sunrise). I think there was a mistake here, as when he sacrificed one of his Eggs to draw, he flipped two cards by accident. The judge ruled the extra card should be shuffled back into the deck. I think that was not the correct ruling, but I couldn’t think of anything better. (I should’ve just appealed, but I didn’t know what I should appeal for). Maybe the best procedure would be – since we knew the bottom card of his deck was the Second Sunrise put there thanks to a Conjurer’s Bauble – we should probably just shuffle the extra card back into the deck, and then put the Second Sunrise back into the bottom, as we had information about the exact location of the card. I’m sure if I had remembered this and told the Table Judge, we would’ve done exactly that. I’m not putting any blame on him – no one remembered that. After breaking some eggs, Jonathan drew into some more Eggs, and then into a Mystical Teachings, which was game. I made him play just a little more for me to be sure – after all, game 2 he fizzled when I thought I was going to die – but this time was for real, and he won.

Awkward.

I don’t think anybody watching was rooting for me, as everyone wanted to see the Egg deck in action, and after all Jonathan is French and was on the French National Team. I’ve heard multiple times in French (or English with a French accent): “Pack it up, scoop it Tiago, you have no chance against this deck.” Well… since I would have won first game if I went first, and since he needed a little luck in game 3 to go off, despite having Lotus Bloom suspended on turn 1 all three games, I accepted my defeat but got the feeling it was close to a 50-50 matchup. Anyway, I don’t have many games against it to make such a statement, and I’m sure they tested intensively against Boros.

11 — 3

Round 15: Makihito Mihara — CAL (obv)

I won the roll, and played a turn 1 creature. He dropped down to seventeen to play a Bird, fetching a dual land untapped. On my turn 2 I killed it and played another one-mana creature. He dropped down to fifteen, facing two creatures on the board. He played Wall of Roots, to absorb some of the incoming damage. Over the next turns, I extended by adding more creatures to the table, as they had pro-Red so they could survive Burning Wish for Pyroclasm. He was a little tight on land drops, and he was using a Sensei’s Divining Top to look for answers – Solitary Confinement would probably give him the game. He found a Life from the Loam but had almost no lands in his graveyard, so the first few turns of Loam recursion aren’t very productive, and I managed to burn him out before things got out of hand. All about the roll again, I think.

Game 2 was quite fast. I played some creatures and a Pillar, and he fetched himself lands in order to have triple-Red available. Down came Seismic Assault killing both of my creatures — I had no Kird Apes or pro-Red men. But he had taken a considerable amount of damage from the creatures and fetches, and would also be hurt with every Life from the Loam he cast from then on. He dredges Life from the Loam and played it, grabbing three lands and going down to five life. He threw two lands at me, bringing me down to thirteen, and said go with seven cards in hand. At least one of the cards was non-land, because if he had seven lands, he would just deal me the remaining life points. There was a Pyrostatic Pillar in play, so I had to be careful with my spells. If he had at least six lands, there was no way I was winning, as any spell I cast put me at eleven life, so I had to hope he only had five lands in his hand. I played end of turn Lightning Helix, the Pillar triggers and brings me down to eleven. He let the Helix resolve, so it means he didn’t have six lands, only five. I gained three from the Helix and went back to fourteen. In my turn I Firebolted him… and he revealed a hand of five lands.

12 — 3

Round 16: Ryo Ogura — Ichorid

His turn 1 Putrid Imp revealed his deck choice, and he followed it with a turn 2 Zombie Infestation. He dumped all the cards in his hand to make Zombie tokens, and for the rest of the game he just dredged to feed his Ichorids. I started with turn 1 Kird Ape that still squeezed in for some damage, and turn 2 Lavamancer. Turn 3 I played Molten Rain on his Island, to negate the Wonder effect so that I could block the zombies with the Kird Ape. I took some huge attacks bringing me down to a very low life total, but my Kird Ape and Lavamancer eventually controlled the Zombie tokens while a Lava Dart was the perfect answer for the Ichorids. Eventually my Lavamancer and burn spells outclassed his ability to generate tokens – one in every two turns – and I started taking the offense here. A Silver Knight on defense held back the Ichorids. He flashed back a Cabal Therapy with an Ichorid, naming Lightning Helix. This failed to hit, but I still had some action spells and we’re soon on to game 2. I finished at one life, unable to use more fetch lands.

I sided out Soltari Priests and Molten Rains to bring in one Worship, the Jittes, and Armadillo Cloaks. I don’t think they’re particularly good in here, but I did not want so many Molten Rains in the deck as their sole purpose was to deny the Island for Wonder if they don’t have two fetches in their opening hand. Interestingly the game ended with the Armadillo Cloak. I thought they could be okay, if only to race the Ichorids.

He started with Polluted Delta into a Watery Grave, and thought for a while about whether he wanted it tapped or untapped. He decided to tap it, so I suspected a possible Cabal Therapy. Indeed it was, and he played it on turn 2 naming Sudden Shock. I don’t have any, but this clears the way for his turn 3 Psychatog. I played a turn 1 creature, and turn 2 Lavamancer. I attacked with my turn 1 creature into his Psychatog, and after some damage, Lavamancer activations, and a Lightning Helix, I was able to kill the Tog this turn. It would be problematic from now on, as he had dumped a Stinkweed Imp to the graveyard. He dredged it back, milling himself five cards, including the three remaining Psychatogs of his deck. Wow. Suddenly, I don’t have to worry about the Togs anymore. He just played the Stinkweed Imp. I didn’t want to kill it right away, as I didn’t want him to dredge – it would fuel Ichorids and possibly bring some flashback spells online, so I just played more creatures, including a Silver Knight. Then I put Armadillo Cloak on the Knight, and I was attacking with a 4/4 trampling first striker with a lifegain ability. Stinkweed Imp can’t kill it since it dies to first strike. It never dealt any damage to the Knight, and soon Ryo Ogura (my twin) conceded, putting me at the door of the Top 8.

It seems the next round took forever to start. I assumed I had a 50% chance of playing against Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa and ensure my draw, but I was ready to play if I got another pairing.

13 — 3

Round 17: Nicholas Lovett — Intentional Draw

I wasn’t aware of Nick’s amazing 4-0 run in Extended which put him on the same points as me, so we immediately agreed on a draw that put us both into the Top 8.

13 — 3 — 1

Round 18: Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa — Intentional Draw

At first I was paired against Portuguese Paulo Carvalho and was ready to give him the draw to put him in Top 8, but then there was a repairing on the top tables, pairing me against another Paulo. Portuguese Paulo suddenly went from the assured Top 8 with my draw to a repairing against someone who had to play. Must be heartbreaking. Brazilian Paulo was on forty points as well, so we settled on a draw. I went back to my hotel to get some stuff back and talk to the hotel owner.

13 — 3 — 2

I don’t remember if it was immediately after or before my round with Makihito Mihara, but all the Portuguese that were staying at our hotel who weren’t playing at Worlds (either because they were dropped or playing in the PTQ) arrived at the tournament site carrying a lot of bags. Everyone was kicked out of our hotel, including me! They told me there were still some bags to be picked up before 7pm.

Why were we kicked out?

The story starts at Portuguese Nationals…

Usually, the Portuguese National team gets a flight to Worlds, as well as two twin hotel rooms to accommodate the four players. I usually ask them to stay as well, as I used to be the only Portuguese gravy trainer. This time was no exception, and with the champ Kuniyoshi Ishii being a good friend, there was no problem. Only this year there were more Portuguese qualified for Worlds besides me and the National Team, and since Worlds is in Paris, very close to Portugal, a lot of players decide to come just for the good times or to PTQ.

After I returned from Yamagata, I was informed that there are a lot of people staying in the National Team rooms, and that the rooms were already upgraded from twins to triples because two of the Portuguese coverage reporters were legally joining them. At the one occasion in which I managed to get almost everyone present, I suggest that because there were so many of us, we should just book another triple room in the same hotel and split the cost of that extra room (the one being paid by us) by everyone who was not on the National Team and wasn’t sent to do the coverage work (as they had access to a free room as well). Then we should split the extra people evenly across the three rooms. This becomes more or less settled, and we book another triple room.

The National Team (and some guys who tagged along) flew one day before me on Monday, and once they got there they found some extra beds on floor 5. They decided they had no need for the extra room that we’d booked, as they could sneak extra beds into the free rooms.

When my friend and I arrived on Tuesday they were already installed, claiming they were free rooms and so they were not paying for the extra room. That left me, Andre Coimbra, and two unqualified players alone in a triple room, paying for it all by ourselves, as the others were in the free rooms. Sure, we were four people in a triple room, but I guess it wasn’t a big deal, as each one of us slept on the floor – one each night – we didn’t steal beds. In the end, each triple room had four guys sleeping in there.

And that was my first night. When I woke up everything was fine, and I went to play Standard.

During Day 1 of Worlds some guys were complaining that one of the Portuguese coverage reporters snored too loudly. They wanted to kick him out, but they couldn’t. Technically, the free rooms belonged to the National Team and the reporters. So they decided to move into my room. My friend and I weren’t very happy about it, because basically they had bailed on us. We had to pay more than 200 Euros each for that room for our stay, while they were in the free rooms saying “we’re not paying anything.” After some more talk we’re all friends again — “we didn’t sleep the past two nights,” etc etc. They all came downstairs into my room. The problem was that they brought the extra beds with them.

I woke up for Day 2 at Worlds. No one had dropped yet, so we all got ready to go to the tournament site, and we made them get all the extra stuff (beds, blankets) out of our room.

After Day 2 of Worlds, the same story happened. The guys complained they couldn’t sleep, the guy was snoring too loud, etc… the same scene from the day before. Plus the guy in our room who was supposed to sleep on the floor said, “if they can bring beds, I’m gonna get one for myself.”

As I told you before, Day 3 saw me leave the hotel very early, going to the tournament site with Andre Coimbra to build my Boros deck. Of course I asked them to take the stuff out of the room, exactly like the day before. The problem is that some were already dropped, while others didn’t want to go to the PTQ as they tried the day before and couldn’t register. So they just stayed there sleeping the whole morning. From here, I assume the hotel owner missed the extra beds that were supposed to be on the hall of each floor, and started looking for them.

This is what they told me: He stormed furiously into my room, screaming like a madman, and tried to assault my friends. They explained we weren’t six in that room; they were from the room above. They were actually guests from that hotel, but he didn’t listen. He took off his coat and tie, and unbuttoned his shirt. He tried to punch some of them while grabbing some of the others by the necks. He ordered them to leave immediately, so they just packed everything randomly inside random bags and left the hotel with all the stuff they could carry, while the rest of the luggage had to be picked by 7pm.

My friend, who reserved the extra room, paid for it and left. My good friend Rui Mariani was the last one to leave the Hotel. When he was about to go, he was grabbed by the irate hotel owner demanding that he paid for the other room. The thing is, the National Team rooms were already paid by Portuguese distributor Devir. Mariani was grabbed by the hotel owner while other hotel employees were flocking to reception and taking off their coats as well. They refused to call the police, so Mariani was robbed of his money by some crazy French hotel owner.

Since we were supposed to pick up the rest of the luggage that night, after I agreed to my Intentional Draw with Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa, I joined Frederico Bastos to return to the hotel. Frederico was also one of the reporters, and pretty much “the Devir representative.” We didn’t go back there to argue, or to demand our rooms back; we just wanted to make things clear, hoping that the hotel owner had some time to calm down a little. When we got there, he was helping a French guest, so it was all “oh Madame ici, oh monsieur par la, et voila” … all nice guy and smiles, but as soon as he saw us…

He dispatched the French guests, took off his coat and tie, unbuttoned his shirt and raised his fists. He started yelling, and wouldn’t let us talk. Frederico’s attempts to say some words are met with more violence from the hotel owner – he tried to give him some head hits, punching him aggressively. Frederico tried to dodge as best as he can. The hotel owner took Frederico upstairs, and at this point Frederico feared for his life, because if the owner had a loaded gun in his hands he would have shot it. The owner showed us a room… a triple room that had six people staying in there the previous night. It was quite a mess (it was the U.S. National Team room), but it had nothing to do with us. Apart from that, no other conversation was possible. We picked up the rest of the bags, and thankfully escaped alive, but we never had the chance to say anything, or try to explain, or even apologize. He called us animals, said that we had disrespected his hotel (actually it was a residence, and quite a crappy residence to say the least). He shouted a bunch of other insults and bad stuff, but once again he refused to call the police.

Who’s to blame here? Certainly not the guy who snores loudly. The guys who moved into my room? No, they were hotel guests – they just went from one room to other. Sure, they acted wrongly by moving beds without permission, but I think the hotel owner overreacted and went mad. Being foreigner sucks, as I’m sure we wouldn’t be treated like this in a hotel in Portugal under the same circumstances.

Anyway, back into Magic.

I went back to the tournament site, as I had made Top 8 and there were the procedures: the reunion, brief explanation, questionnaires, interviews, photos. Soon after I arrived there they start announcing the Top 8. I’m the third seed, which should be good in case I lose my quarters… and then Gabriel Nassif is announced as the sixth seed. I recalled what Gab was playing: Martyr-Proclamation with Tron and counters. In test games, my deck never won a single game against that deck, and now it was best of five against one of the best players in the World, one of the elite Constructed deckbuilders. I had all my luggage by my side at this moment, and my first reaction was to get a taxi to the airport and take the first flight back into Lisbon. Yes, I was very upset with the whole hotel situation. I had no place to stay that night, and nothing for the remaining ones either. Playing in the Top 8 might lead to rescheduling my flight, as I booked Sunday as my return date. Most of all, I was just sad. I wanted to leave this place as soon as possible.

Soon after that it’s the Top 8 reunion, and I start asking Wizards staff what would happen if I didn’t show up on Sunday. Do I still get the money and the pro points (it would put me at Level 6)? The answer is yes, but I can see they’re not happy about it. Word spreads that I’m going to concede my quarters, and suddenly lots of people are telling me to reconsider. Antoine and Olivier Ruel say I can stay with them at their parent’s house… even Gabriel Nassif offers his place for me to stay. Julien Nuijten is one of the loudest voices forcing me to play, explaining countless reasons to do so. My answer to him? Get me Frank Karsten!

A minute or so later, Julien is back with Frank le Tank, and since he has some spare time on Saturday he accepts helping me prepare for the matchup. Meanwhile, the Ruels phoned home, and it was official: I could stay at their parents. I was staying… but that wasn’t enough for Julien. He wanted me to believe with conviction and fight for it, even if it looked bad. “We’ll see about that tomorrow, after I test with Frank,” I answer.

Before leaving I had to wait for the Ruels to finish a side-draft, so while I was waiting for them, I took the time to release my mind from the pressure and all the problems. What did I do? I side-drafted with Rogier, Geoffrey, Tomoharu, Ruud, and Quentin…

Day 4 — National Teams Day

We went back to the site in the morning and took an hour to get there. Paris is big. To start, I proxied Nassif’s deck using the system of writing with the marker in some random cards, then I realized I was missing my own deck, as everything was mixed during the “escape” from the hotel… so I actually had to rebuild and proxy some cards of my own deck. Thankfully Frank played with the same deck, so I could borrow some cards from him. We played a couple of games with our hands face up. The goal was not to win, but rather understand what’s happening and what options one can take. For example, Frank playing Nassif’s deck started with turn 1 Weathered Wayfarer, so on turn 2, he asks. “what would Nassif do here?” He could play a land and a Signet, play a land and stay for Remand, or not play a land at all.

We realized decking wasn’t an option, as in the long game Nassif could lock me with Muse Vessel and Spell Burst, and he could dump Chronosavant in the graveyard and activate his ability multiple times. We play two games – I actually won one of them, attacking with 44 pegasi tokens – but then I looked at the clock and it took 1 hour and 40 minutes. I left Frank go and write his Online Tech column, while I had an interview scheduled with a Portuguese magazine. It was a non-Magic publication, so I was just asked dumb questions, as the guy had no idea what Magic actually was, and I’m sure they will quote me all wrong. After that I was joined by some Portuguese friends for lunch, and we went to watch the big match between the Portuguese and the Brazilian National teams. Let’s just say that between the Portuguese and Brazilian spectators there was a lot of friendly wagers.

I inform Randy and the staff that I have made up my mind and was ready to play. A good night of rest made me rethink everything. Near 400 players entered Le Caroussel du Louvre to play for the World Championship. It would be disrespectful to all the competitors who battled hard, to the organization, and to the Pro Tour itself to just not show up. Even if my chances of winning were very low, they were certainly better than when I registered on Tuesday, and I still showed up to play on Wednesday. By now, I already had a place to stay, and if I lost in the quarters it was probably on time for me to catch my flight. Even if I missed it, I would just buy another. In fact, if not for the whole hotel incident, I would never have considered conceding.

In the afternoon I played some more games. After realizing I could only win game 1 with the lone Sacred Mesa, I tried different sideboard plans and faced different opponents. Antoine Ruel, Olivier Ruel, Frederico Bastos. Every single one had a very different play style. My question was, which one was closer to Gab’s style? The correct one, for sure. I played some games, and then my head hurt and it was already time for dinner. I decide to end it, as I didn’t want to exhaust myself. Sadly, the results weren’t very satisfying.

Day 5 — Top 8

I’m the first Top 8 competitor to arrive, almost one hour before the time required, as Antoine was doing commentaries for the French version and he needed to be there early for test sounds. The room was closed and due to the intense lights it was very hot. After a while, I had to take off most my clothes, wearing only a semi unbuttoned shirt, as it was the thinnest and freshest piece of cloth I had. [No trousers? Brave man… – Craig.]

I knew I was doomed to failure, but I still had to go through the motions until the inevitable happened. No one – and I mean absolutely no one – believed that I could win this match best of five. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to win as well, but I was sure going to put up all the fight I could. Playtesting with Frank (and everyone else) was quite productive. It showed me the few outs I had to win this matchup, even if they were unlikely. I’d rather be playing Owling Mine against Red/Green aggro again. At least it was faster.

It occurred to me that maybe I was meant to lose. Everyone was expecting me to lose my match, and everyone was expecting Gabriel to win the whole thing, as he deserved it; he’d put a lot of efforts into this goal, had some accessible matchups, and was the hometown boy. I still had a chance at Player of the Year, and Shoota Yasooka could do nothing about it as he had already finished all of his matches for this year. But even Shoota wasn’t worried about it. I felt like a dummy again… so powerless.

I won’t go into details about the Top 8 games, as it was covered by the official coverage team, and the match took three hours. As soon as the match begun, I forgot about all the crap I was thinking and focused only in winning the match. I did what I could (what a cliché) and I kept believing that I could actually do it. One interesting choice that was a result from the playtesting – I was choosing to draw. I had no chance to win with an early rush of Lighting Angels, so I was giving him one less card to find the Tron, one less card to find the combo of Martyr and Proclamation, and one less White card. Fast Annexes were not the key – he had Remand and Disenchant – instead it was more about key Annexes. It would also make his Wayfarer worse in case he kept them, and I was taking out my removal, so it made sense for me

After winning the third game and taking a 2-1 lead, it seemed that I was claiming game 4, and it would be an upset win, but Gabriel can’t be that unlucky and recovers. Turn 5 he had Adarkar Wastes in play, and the three pieces of Tron. He played Compulsive Research and discarded two cards. He didn’t play a land. I Annexed his Adarkar Wastes, as this prevents him from playing Disenchant for now, and it puts him further away from Wrathing. Later I Annexed one of the Tron pieces, and if he failed to draw colored mana for just a little longer, I might have won this game and match. He finally drew Hallowed Fountain, and from there the game slowly slips away from my grasp. Game 5… I was never in the game. From the beginning there was not a single turn where things looked good for me. If you happen to have these decks built in your gauntlet, then try playing a best out of five with sideboard of this matchup… then imagine you’re playing in a single elimination playoff.

After being eliminated, there was the Top 8 lunch to cheer me. It was quite delicious. Then it was time to go back to the outside and meet everyone. I was invited for some drafts, and I wish I could’ve joined them. Unfortunately, I had my flight to catch – I was still on time. I wanted to stay a little longer, draft all afternoon, go for dinner and then celebrate with a Hall of Famer. Everyone had reasons to celebrate. Raph, Julien, Kamiel, Katsuhiro, even me. I guess I won’t be scheduling return flights on Sunday again… Who knows what things might be happening on Sundays?

…

As you’ve probably noticed, the strategy of this article ended almost six pages ago. If you’ve managed to read until the end, I have to thank you for your time. I also have to thank many people – pretty much everyone mentioned in these articles, even those who went uncredited, like all the unnamed Portuguese — but there are too many names to thank for everything they done for me during Worlds. I really have to thank the Ruels for everything, and of course Frank Karsten, to whom I credit a great share of my success at Worlds.

I’m sure I’ll have to chance to see all of you guys somewhere around the world in 2007. See you then!

Tiago