Almost All The Way – A PT Honolulu Report *T4*

In the Fall of 2005 I finished college and became officially unemployed. There are stories about Magic players taking a year off college. That was not my case. I graduated in Journalism, and there is not a job vacant even if I offered to work for free. Being Portuguese I wasn’t worried, you know; the average Portuguese guy is lazy, free of responsibilities, clumsy, and a klutz, because we do believe that things will eventually happen by themselves. It’s probably one of the reasons why we suck at everything compared to the rest of Europe. For example, in High School, grades going from zero to twenty… and almost every student is aiming for the magical “ten” that allows him to pass to the next year, because that’s just enough for them to carry on with their lives.

I could start working infinite hours for free waiting for an opportunity, or I could take another degree, or even apply for jobs in another area. But I didn’t. I went to Grand Prix Bilbao, then headed to Grand Prix Beijing, and from there to Worlds. It was neat. I could get used to all that travelling and freedom. I was already a Level 3 (in the Pro Player’s Club) at the time, and until the end of 2006, so I figured: I can do Magic related things, such as playing Grand Prixes and Pro Tours, and who knows… maybe things will eventually happen and a job opportunity will arise.

Things did happen, but not quite what I expected. I made Top 8 at a Pro Tour to which I did minimum testing. I didn’t know that the Owl deck existed until I boarded the plane, and I chose to play it mere hours before the event started. I certainly did not deserve to make Top 8 at Pro Tour Honolulu, but many players that know me feel that I was already deserving of a Top 8 slot. Like I said it, things will eventually fall into place by themselves.

Testing (almost)

I liked the idea of playing B/W cards. Those colors have access to some of the most powerful spells available in Standard, and have the tools to stop the beatdown decks and to disrupt the control and combo decks. Oddly, the decks were not working. Maybe because there are so many cards and so many options available for the deck, starting with how one should focus the build: towards beatdown or control. Or maybe because the version of a Portuguese player had three Isamaru, four Hand of Cruelty, four Paladin-en-Vec, three Hypnotic Specter and four Descendant of Kiyomaro. At this point, I’d heard that Márcio was set on playing a pretty straightforward G/W beats – which was basically the deck that won Worlds, without the Glares and the clunky cards, replaced by more efficient stuff like Watchwolf. I wish I’d tested the B/W deck a little more but I was busy doing some translations (which were really well paid, but had a really tight schedule), so playing the exact same list of Márcio was becoming a reality.

At Grand Prix Dortmund I am told that Greater-Gifts is powerful. The problem was, after Dortmund, I was going to Barcelona with my girlfriend (I tried to convince her to go in the same week of Grand Prix Barcelona, but she didn’t fall for it), so what could I do? The only thing that a lazy Portuguese could do. I gave a Greater-Gifts decklist to a friend of mine, who was unqualified, to play some games with it, and gave the decklist to another unqualified friend to build and get the cards. When I returned, I asked the first one if the deck was worthy of the Pro Tour, and since he answered me Yes, I went to Frederico Bastos’s house to get the deck. Thank you both! It’s good to know I can count on you when I’m away.

At San Francisco airport, while waiting for the plane to Honolulu, we played Magic (how original). I needed to familiarize with the Greater-Good deck. Meanwhile, multiple-time Grand Prix Winner Stefan Jedlicka decided to make an incursion… the best pick-up line he came up with? He introduced himself as a reporter, and started filming with his photo machine and inquired about which decks we were playing. It was fun. I didn’t laugh (to be respectful) and even told him I was going to play Greater-Gifts. Right now, he’s probably thinking I’m the biggest liar ever, but at the time I was telling him the truth.

The Owling Mine deck

I was still unsure about the sideboard and hoping to clarify that during the player’s luau. Pierre Canali told me the best sideboard was to transform the Greater-Gifts deck into a Gifts Control build, with Hana Kami and Soulless Revival. Then it hit me: I’d never played Gifts Control in Kamigawa Block or Standard. I had skipped the entire Kamigawa Block season as I didn’t need to go to the Pro Tour Qualifiers, and didn’t intend to play any Grand Prix in that format. I wasn’t even comfortable with the concept of Hana Kami recursion, so I wasn’t going to play that for sixteen rounds in a Pro Tour. I headed to the Hotel where the large group of Portuguese players were staying, and asked for a deck. They had an extra Zoo build, and an extra G/W deck. After a couple of games to test both decks, I declined both, since my starts were first turn Forest, second turn Selesnya Sanctuary, and turn 3 Watchwolf. Still, I’ve heard the deck plays okay… Lucky Márcio played it, and commonly made turn 3 Kodama of North Tree or Yosei, the Morning Star.

Luckily for me, I still had one out. A Portuguese player was unsure if he was playing Owling Mine or Magnivore–Wildfire, and brought cards for both. At this time he was settled on playing Owls, so he loaned me the cards for Magnivore: except the ones he was using in his Owl deck. I arrived at my hotel and discovered that André Coimbra had bought seven Booster Boxes of Ninth Edition, planning to sell the singles in Portugal. He was separating the cards by rarity, so I helped him… and I realized how much of the Owl deck came from Ninth Edition.

I woke the next day, with Pierre Canali’s words from our previous deck discussion echoing in my head… The Owl deck is a good metagame gamble because it crushes control, and there will be a lot of control decks. With the cards from the boxes of André Coimbra, I was lacking the same amount of cards for Magnivore and Owl, so I return to the other Hotel to get an Owl decklist, and find out exactly what cards I needed to pick up at the site.

I borrowed some cards from the Brazilians, and I “happily” paid one dollar apiece for Eye of Nowhere – in fact, it hurt me more to pay for Eye of Nowheres than twenty dollars apiece for Steam Vents. So, almost done… but I couldn’t get Kami of Crescent Moons. No one had them. I was set on playing Magnivore, until Olivier Ruel pointed out… Saitou had Kami of Crescent Moons. He’d loaned Antoine some cards from that deck. I checked with Saitou, and he did indeed have four Kamis. As Saitou points out, his cards are lucky cards… both Antoine and myself made Top 8 with Saitou’s cards! Thank you!

I would like to make this public: when I filled the decklist, I had no idea where my Owling Mine list came from. Now I know that both the Owl and Magnivore decklists I planned to run were designed by Nikolas Nygaard. He is perhaps better known on MTGO as das hopper, but he’s having quite an impact on the Pro Tour with back to back tenth place finishes – in Honolulu playing the Magnivore list.

My Owling Mine decklist:

Pro Tour Day 1

Round 1: Ryuuichirou Kozawa
Round 2: Brian Gates

They were both playing the same kind of deck: G/W/B Control, an easy matchup for Owl. I won 2-0 both rounds. I do remember some details.

In my first game of the Pro Tour, versus Kozawa, I played turn 2 Howling Mine and passed. He went to draw a card… and so did I, saying “draw”. He replied, “Yeah… I draw”.

Then I read Howling Mine.

So… that’s how it works, huh? I thought that in both draw phases, both players drew a card. I’m glad I paused and said, “draw,” instead of just drawing a card. On the other hand, I wish I knew what my own cards did…

Against Brian I played first game 1, and he didn’t play many spells. He didn’t have Green mana in game 2.

2 — 0

Round 3: Adam Chambers, GW Ghazi-Glare

I feel I should have won this round 3-0, but instead I lost 1-2. I made plenty of small mistakes and bad strategic options.

In game 1, Adam’s first play was a turn 3 Wood Elves… and I still lost. He did have main deck Naturalizes, and a Viridian Shaman that slowed me down. In this game I played two Kami of Crescent Moon (and it was a feature match)… but the worst is, it didn’t matter. It wasn’t the worst misplay.

I had only lands in my hand and one Kami in play. I drew two cards: two more Kami. I played the second one, and the judge informed me they both died, so I just played the third and said go.

In my defense, let me say that legendary creatures usually have a distinct first name, followed by a comma and some description. Example: “Boseiju, Who Shelters All,” “Yosei, the Morning Star,” “Meloku the Clouded Mirror”, etc. Kami of the Crescent Moon doesn’t sound like a legendary creature. I could’ve won the game – I had double Sudden Impact – I just had to shoot one in his draw step, and another in the next draw step. But I played the first only at the end of his turn, because I opted to leave mana open for Remand or Evacuation. So the Impact was only for six instead of nine or ten. When I played the second, he cycled three Arashis to stay at one… and I lost.

I won game 2 on the play. I didn’t have the chance to make mistakes.

In game 3, I am stuck on two lands with Boomerang and Pyroclasm in hand. My opponent has three lands and Jitte. He plays Llanowar Elves, equips it with Jitte, and plays Selesnya Sanctuary. Now, here I could play Boomerang targeting the Jitte or Selesnya Sanctuary to gain a tempo advantage, and play Pyroclasm on my turn to kill the Elf. Instead, I play Boomerang on the Elf, and I don’t know why.

In the end, I also have some bad draws. I had two or three Mines in play, and at end of turn I play Evacuation returning three Loxodon Hierarchs. He didn’t have a basic Plains, so if I draw Blood Moon the White cards become useless, or I could draw Exhaustion to prevent him from replaying them, or I could draw anything to kill him.

I draw nothing. He replays everyone.

My next draw step gives me Blood Moon, Blood Moon, and Blood Moon, and I’m dead.

2 — 1

Round 4: Mathijs Wageningen
Round 5: Steven Utter

BW aggro: The beginning of many matches against Orzhov Beatdown. In theory, it looks like they have plenty of threats, between Castigates, Cranial Extraction, and Shining Shoal… but most of them are in the sideboard, and it’s different from version to version. Somehow, it’s not enough to stop the Owl. One crucial factor is this: they don’t have answers to Ebony Owl Netsuke and Howling Mine (other than Terashi’s Grasp in sideboard, and not all of them have that). So, resolving one of these artifacts is key. The Pyroclasms help, especially against versions with Isamaru, Savannah Lions, and Hypnotic Specter, and I bring in the Melokus too – it’s another winning condition to play around Cranial Extraction, and overall, they’re just too good (if they don’t have a Jitte) as they serve on both offensive and defensive. I played many matches against this deck, so I don’t remember details. However, all games are really close, but by drawing so many cards, you will eventually find the answer you need.

4 — 1

Round 6: Jasper Blaas, G/B/W aggro

This matchup is not as easy as the control one from the first rounds. As an example, he started game 1 with a turn 1 Elves of Deep Shadows, turn 2 Shrieking Grotesque, and turn 3 Ghost Council of Orzhova. I did not win that game.

In game 2 he has infinite creatures on the table, including 2 Elves and Ghost Council. I have Kami of Crescent Moon, play my fifth land and pass, holding Evacuation. He plays Mortify on my Kami, and attacks with everyone leaving only one mana open, which was great. His options are use Ghost Council ability in response to my Evacuation – and next turn I play Eye of Nowhere on it – or he just allows Evacuation to resolve and replays the Elf. Both plays are good for me, and I take the game from here.

Game 3 I play a turn 2 Eye of Nowhere and a turn 3 Blood Moon. That left him only with Red mana for the next few turns and I take a huge advantage from here.

5 — 1

Round 7: Will Nelson, G/W

Game 1 I mulligan to three or four on the play, without lands and no chance to win. I just played to see what deck I was facing.

Game 2 saw me draw nothing relevant, and his turn 3 Loxodon Hierarch is enough to take me down.

5 — 2

Round 8: Rashad Miller, Owling Mine

After a really long game 1, where his Gigadrowses helped him to gain an advantage, on his turn he targets me with a lethal Sudden Impact, and I Remand it twice. On my turn I draw four cards. I needed Exhaustion or Sudden Impact, but failed to pull either and lose on the following turn. Most of the damage I took was from Ebony Owl Netsuke he played on turn 2, with me on the draw.

I was left with seventeen minutes to win, so I board in Meloku to find out they are sub-optimal in the matchup. He had the Swan (Ivory Crane Netsuke), so it nullified my Owl. Most of the damage came like this: he played the Swan and passed with seven cards due to Kami and/or Mine on the table. I had the Owl, and bounced the Swan… he takes four. He replays the Swan, and passes with seven cards. I bounce the Swan again and he takes four, and so on…

I did win game 2, but there was no time left for game 3.

5 — 2 — 1

I think this draw was good because it put me in a bracket where most likely I wouldn’t face Zoo decks. The gamble had paid off so far.

Pro Tour Day 2

Round 9: Maxime Hermes, B/W aggro

I won 2-0, but both games are close versus B/W agro. Pyroclasm shines once again.

6 — 2 — 1

Round 10: Jeff Cunningham, Greater Gifts

Jeff had some tempo advantage because he had Birds of Paradise. On the coverage his list has only one Birds, but he had it on first turn games 1 and 2. We split the first two games. This was also a feature match, which meant some of my friends were watching and feel that I should have played much faster because this was a good matchup, but it also meant we couldn’t see the clock – we had to ask a judge to find out how much time was left. On one occasion, I ask and the judge replies, “thirteen minutes,” but I hear “thirty minutes.”

I am surprised that a while after we’re already on extra turns. Jeff had changed into Gifts Control and Extracted my Ebony Owl Netsuke… and the next turn, he Extracted my Sudden Impacts. Nevertheless, I was still going to win if I had another turn….

On the fifth extra turn, Jeff’s down to two life, and all his lands are tapped. I attack with Kami, taking him to one. I have Exhaustion to keep him tapped, and Boomerang in case he goes land, something. I just need to attack once more with the Kami, but it’s a draw.

I should have played faster.

6 — 2 — 2

Round 11: Zsolt Tokoli, G/W/B Control

I consider this an easy matchup, but Zsolt had played round 9 next to me and beat Rashad (also playing Owl). One thing I have to keep in mind: G/W can only kill Kami with Jitte. This is difficult when facing a deck with 8 Boomerangs. B/W can only kill Ebony Owl Netsuke and Howling Mine with Terashi’s Grasp, after sideboarding. This three-color control deck has ways to deal with Kami and Mine in the maindeck.

Game 1 is simple: I drew three Sudden Impact, so I just aim them all at him.

Game 2 I stall his mana deployment with an early Blood Moon, and after he recovers I slow him down with multiple Exhaustions.

7 — 2 — 2

Round 12: Antti Malin, B/W aggro

Antti is a friend and one of the most consistent guys on the tour right now, but he plays so slow… it’s no surprise to find him on the “two draws” bracket playing a beatdown deck. Once again I have a good matchup, and it was relative easy. Most of the time, Antti had nine or ten cards in his hand. As usual I’m not going into detail in these matchups, because I’m sure I’ll be mixing things from other rounds. However, in this second game, I remember I played Meloku and made some tokens, and the game was close due to him having a Jitte with counters.

8 — 2 — 2

Round 13: Craig Krempels, B/W Control

I don’t remember what happened in game 1, but it was probably mana flood from his side. Mulligans are hardly an issue versus this deck, and usually no one stays manascrewed when drawing two or three cards per turn.

In game 2, his three Orzhov Signets allow him to stay immune to Exhaustion. He plays Cranial Extraction. I have two Sudden Impacts in my hand, good enough to kill him shortly after. Obviously, Craig felt it was the only way he could still lose, and hits. One of my Meloku was already dead, and I didn’t board the second in.

I did it for game 3, and win a close game with Meloku all-in, returning all my lands. In one turn Craig miscounted his mana available and that gave me one more turn of Meloku, which made the difference. I have Meloku with Faith’s Fetters and some tokens, and I’m holding Boomerang, which Craig knew. He plays a Signet and Persecutes me. I respond with Boomerang on Faith’s Fetters. Since Craig played that Signet, he didn’t have four mana to replay the Fetters that turn. When he does it, I am all untapped and returned all my lands. The following turn he transmutes Dimir House Guard, and if he left Wrath of God I lose, but he didn’t. I took the game (with some luck) from there.

9 — 2 — 2

Round 14: Nicola Scardone, B/W aggro

Game 1 I’m on the ropes for many turns, but drawing multiple cards per turn I manage to take it.

Game 2 he mulligans to three… but that may be (or not) the tech versus Owl. It’s so difficult to win against an opponent with no cards in hand. He starts with land, land, creature, so I’m eventually forced to play Mines and give him cards. This was the first time I played against Shining Shoal and they prevent me from wining in one turn. I’m forced to topdeck to win, against a mulligan to three from my opponent.

10 — 2 — 2

Round 15: Masaki Yokoi, Greater Good

I wasn’t sure about Masaki’s deck so I checked the coverage right before writing this and I must say I like his deck a lot. I’m probably going to build it to play a random Standard tournament in Portugal, or use it for gunslinging at upcoming European Grand Prixes, if by any chance someone has a Standard deck. Masaki’s deck is Ghazi-Glare from Worlds, with maindeck Greater Good replacing the Glares.

I won the first, just as I expected, despite my only losses so far being to G/W decks. This time I didn’t make multiple mulligans or mistakes.

I’m not sure how I lost the second, but I’ll risk it and say it was with Greater Good lock.

While shuffling for game 3 I remember thinking I never wanted to win a game of Magic more than this one. I’m rewarded with a good hand, I was busy in all turns casting business spells. He plays Ivory Mask, but I already have the Boomerang for it. I just need to draw into Sudden Impacts. Meanwhile, I was trying to keep myself alive and not locked under Yosei. Eventually, I drew into Sudden Impact – they couldn’t possibly be all on the bottom – and I Boomerang his Ivory Mask. When he picked it up, Masaki’s face knew it. Game over.

11 — 2 — 2

Despite winning that game, I still wasn’t in. I needed to win the final round, but at least I was in the driver’s seat… success depended on my own results, and not those of someone else. Many other players had to win and go to tiebreakers.

Round 16: Michael Diezel, B/W Aggro with Husk and Promise of Bunrei

This feature match was well covered. Being on the outside, Aaron noticed every single detail from the game.

In the first I’m on the play, and cast multiple Boomerangs on his lands, followed by multiple Mines.

In the second, Michael could have played it differently – much more aggressively. After he played Hokori, I needed a basic Island in four draws to stay alive… I got it, and survived at 1 life. It allowed me to play Boomerang on Hokori, untap and then I drew the cards I needed for the win.

12 — 2 — 2

Making my first Top 8 gave some distinct feelings. I remember when my good friend Frederico Bastos made his first Top 8, back in Tokyo 01, I was really happy. Possibly happier than my own Top 8 now. Bastos’s achievement meant a lot for the Portuguese Magic community at the time. It made everyone in Portugal believe it was possible. For Portuguese Magic, we followed the double Top 8 from Worlds with another one. For myself, it was gratifying. I knew I was lucky the whole weekend, and I didn’t care enough about this Pro Tour for me to actually deserve my placing. However, Antoine Ruel described it best: “You’ve been around for a long time, and every European Pro Player knows who you are, despite you being unknown to the rest of the world. You deserved it.”

In Journalism, I learnt that most times you won’t get recognition from the mass public, but by doing a good job you may get the recognition from your peers. I was surprised when I realized how many Magic players knew that I existed.

I was facing Ruud in the quarters and it seemed a really good matchup. He was B/W aggro with no Shining Shoal, no Cranial Extraction, and no Terashi’s Grasp. I played against six B/W aggro decks in the Swiss rounds, and never dropped a single game. So, I was confident.

The rest of the Portuguese were busy doing a Draft, so I gave André Coimbra a copy of Ruud’s decklist and asked him if he could switch his deck to that to play for a while. Have I mentioned the average Portuguese being klutz and clumsy? Well, having lots of guys trying to help sometimes leads to a big confusion…

At some point, we realize that we were playtesting Ruud’s deck with a fifty-eight card build. Not the best way to test a Pro Tour quarterfinal matchup. Soon after, the rest of the Portuguese are done (since the draft was a massacre), and we went to dinner. There I played a couple of games with Ruud’s deck – or at least, with 58 of the cards. It’s always good to have a feeling for your opponent’s plans. I wasn’t too concerned in testing, because I figured Ruud probably wasn’t playing that much either.

Top 8

I woke up around 8am, which left me some hours to spare before the top 8. I built Ruud’s deck post-sideboard – this time with sixty cards. I arrive at the tournament site about half hour before the top 8 begins, and finally I’m able to play some decent games with our two decks.

Here are ten things I learnt:

André Coimbra is lucky.
André Coimbra is very lucky.
Getting Howling Mine into play is the key to winning.
I was losing because I was playing sloppily.
André Coimbra becomes really upset when someone says he’s lucky.
It’s better to be known as lucky than as a cheater.
Ten-topic lists don’t always have ten topics.

Conclusion: Don’t play sloppily, and get that Howling Mine into play.

Quarter Finals: Ruud Warmenhoven, B/W

Aaron Forsythe did once again a great job covering the match. Despite the score of 3-0, in all games I was playing with the cards I was drawing from the top, which frustrated Ruud a little. However, drawing multiples each turn helps finding the answer you need.

It looked like all the other games against B/W. They pile on the pressure but don’t have burn, so it’s easier and safer to trade life points for board advantage. If your draws are not horrible, you will eventually win. I might had a little luck during the matches versus this deck, because I won all games, and could’ve lost almost all of them had the day been different.

After the quarters I receive the disappointing news: Osyp had lost. I was playing Mark Herberholz. I could have won it all if I avoided the Zoo, but I only did it for seventeen straight rounds. My roommates built Heezy’s deck totally from proxies to play some games. It wasn’t my intention to have a transformational sideboard versus aggro… but Howling Mine and Ebony Owl Netsuke are so bad against him that I had to take them out. Kami of the Crescent Moon at least blocks, and dies only to Char.

My sideboard plan was:

– 4 Howling Mines
– 4 Ebony Owl Netsuke
– 2 Sudden Impact
– 2 Evacuation
+ 2 Meloku
+ 4 Threads
+ 3 Pyroclasm
+ 3 Mana Leak

I wanted to side out more cards, but I decided against it, since the last three cards I had were Blood Moons. This didn’t seem a good plan, but it was better than having none. Before doing something, make sure you have a plan and follow it, even if it’s a terrible plan.

I played some games with it, and to my surprise I stood a chance. I actually won some of them. Since the deck had less burn than Three-Color Zoo, neutralizing his permanents was viable. I could counter them, bounce, Pyroclasm or steal them, and hopefully ride Meloku (or some Threaded guy) for the win. Game 1 is unwinnable, so I needed to win games 2 and 4 where I was playing first: catching Mark by surprise, for example, by making those Tin Street Hooligans worse. Then, if that happened, the match would be tied at two apiece with Heezy going first in game 5.

Here, I don’t know what I was be hoping for… a miracle, I guess. But, when you don’t have many chances of winning you have to visualize how you are gonna do it.

Semi-Finals: Mark Herberholz, R/G beats

Game 1 I’m on the play. I mulligan and keep a land with only one land and several two drops. I don’t draw the second land in time, and I’m swarmed by a pair of enhanced Scab-Clan Maulers.

Game 2 was going well. I managed to keep his guys out of the border. My Kami was stopping his lone Kird Ape and, in theory, helping me find ways to win the game. Unfortunately, it also helped Mark find one of his Skarrg, the Rage Pits, so the Kird Ape finally dealt damage and down came those Bloodthirsty Maulers. I only had Meloku as an out, and went for it, hoping he didn’t have Char… but he did, and I was too far behind to recover. It was all about Skarrg.

I won game 3 in a damage race. Some of my plays may be questionable; it looked like my board wasn’t improving, and my life totals were below his, but it was all about tempo, not card advantage. I could’ve killed the first Dryad by playing Boomerang on my Shivan Reef. I could’ve taken two, and used Pyroclasm to melt away three Dryads. Any of these plays is card advantage… but I didn’t want that. I wanted the tempo.

If I killed those Dryads, with Mark drawing two cards a turn, chances are something uglier would appear next. I wanted to bounce those Dryads, taking the least damage possible to guarantee that in the following turns Heezy would replay those same Dryads. I obviously had to play counting on the top of my deck. I was drawing two cards a turn, and I had to assume I would draw into something. If I don’t, then it’s game for him anyway. I was hoping for Meloku, but other cards did the job too.

Sadly, one miracle wasn’t enough. I actually needed two miracles: one for game 4, the other for game 5 (where I was on the draw). I told myself that being on the draw is not so bad, as you can Remand or Mana Leak the biggest threat – Burning Tree Shaman.

In Game 4 he started with Frenzied Goblin and Scab-Clan Mauler. I had two options. My hand had two Threads of Disloyalty. I could Boomerang the land to prevent him from playing Burning Tree Shaman, or I could Boomerang the Mauler hoping that he doesn’t have the Shaman. When he replays the Mauler, I can use the Threads on him. With this play I only take two damage, have a 3/3 on my side and another Threads in hand, and I have chances of winning… if he doesn’t have the Shaman.

Playing around the Shaman was a mistake. I would take much more damage, and I would only delay it for a turn. I couldn’t attack my stolen Maulers into the 3/4 body, nor could I block him properly due to Frenzied Goblin. Which means…

He started with Frenzied Goblin, Scab-Clan Mauler. If he has the Shaman, he wins. If he doesn’t, I have a chance.

I went for it.

He had it… multiple copies of it.

My only out was to topdeck Evacuation (which I boarded in) or another Pyroclasm (since I was holding one). It turns out that drawing only one card per turn makes your chances of topdecking minimal.

The 3-1 score for him accurately reflects the matchup. I can only be resigned with this loss, but at least it wasn’t in the quarters.

Conclusion

Don’t play Owling Mine.

It was a metagame gamble for sixteen rounds, where we could afford to lose some, that paid off for both Antoine and myself. Many other Pros played it, and did terribly. However, the same doesn’t apply to the upcoming Team Standard events. In unified Standard, a Team can only build one deck with Kird Apes… so if you decide to have an Owling Mine in your Team, you have chances of 2/3 to get a really good matchup. That seems worth the risk.

At the time, I thought the Twincasts were really good, but I’m starting to think they are unnecessary. I would cut at least one Ebony Owl for one Muddle the Mixture. The Owl is clunky sometimes, especially when you’re on the draw, and Muddle the Mixture gets it later (or the Howling Mine), and it can even counter spells. I would try to fit more of these. As for the Sleight of Hand, they allowed me to keep one-land hands, something that will happen when running only twenty-two lands in total. The deck is straightforward, with four copies each of the key spells. In the sideboard, the two Melokus are worth the slots, and you need four Pyroclasms. I think these six are staple sideboard necessities.

I’d like to thank the following people:

• Everyone who congratulated me and felt I was deserving of this. It meant for me.
• Those who believed since way back that I could break through. They know who they are… actually, there aren’t that many.
• The usual guys in Portugal
• You, for reading this far.

Tiago Chan

Extra: You might want to ask Olivier again, but I’ll leave my personal view: the best player without a Top 8 finish is arguably Bernardo da Costa Cabral… but I predict he will Top 8 a Pro Tour this year.