(This week is brought to you by seasonal greetings and copious over-eatings!)
This week’s column was going to be a mercilessly short affair, and as this is all I’ve written so far, it still might be! Obviously we’re all somewhat caught up in the holiday season right now, so I figured you’d all be a little understanding if this week’s slab o’ blister was more on the lean side than usual. That was until I remembered that I hadn’t blabbered on about the last two days of Worlds yet, and I’d already waded through all of the Standard and Extended Top 8 replays, so there may be hope for content yet!
Well, not a great deal of hope, but some.
The danger is, of course, that it will seem like the article is disjointed. One half is wish-washy tournament reportage, and the other half is vague Magic Online statistics. So I figure I’ll split it up. Day 4, then the Standard stuff, then day 5, then the Extended stuff, then anything I else I have to say about France that I may not have said yet then some (blisterguy) and {e} like stuff and you can go back to feeling bloated from your holiday feasts.
Day 4
The day the teams play. The thing about Worlds is that it’s a really long event. And the other thing about Worlds is that most people there have had to travel sizeable distances to get there. Once the fourth day rolls around, most of the players are either in the middle of some stress-filled nightmare where they’re playing for the Top 2 (or at least for the money prizes) or they’re just wanting to get this over and done with so they can kick back and actually enjoy Paris.
From a coverage point of view, because if you remember from last week, I was now wearing a reporter’s cap, the Team Day is probably the least interesting of the five. Team Rochester Draft is not a format that anyone at home plays unless they’re forced to do so in a PTQ play-offs or something. With that in mind, we tried to get a more overall feel for what was going on. I have no idea if we achieved that or not, but trying is at least a start.
The thing that stood out the most for me that day was the stand-in Head Judge, Jason Ness. The actual Head Judge Jaap Bouwer was away, for some reason that probably involved saving Paris from almost certain destruction at the hands of dastardly foreign nationals or something. Anyway, I had decided to watch the draft between Team Netherlands and Team Argentina. At one point, one of the Dutch players straightened up one the cards on the table just prior to one of his picks, and the Argentineans went berserk, frantically pointing and gesturing towards the card he had touched, as if to imply that his pick had been made. This isn’t as overzealous as you might think, because in the past this was actually in the rules, but these days judges (quite rightfully!) try to rule more by intent. It was not the Dutch team’s intent to draft that card, so they shouldn’t have to.
Because of this small altercation, their table was now slightly behind the rest of the room, so they had to rush through their picks a little to catch up. This must have flustered one of the Argentineans a little, because he thought his pack was the next one to be opened (when it wasn’t), and he got a glimpse at a pack he shouldn’t have. After the pointing outburst, the Dutch were all like “oh so it’s gonna be like that, is it?” so the gloves were totally off. Julien Nuijten took no time in demanding that the judge do something about the fact that the other team now had additional information in regards to their future picks. It seemed like there were several Dutch players in the audience who also were off this opinion, and before long Jason Ness was in attendance to help tidy up somewhat. Things needed to be done, because nobody wanted to delay the draft for all of the other teams.
I was greatly impressed with the way Ness handled the situation. He was forceful while appearing laid back. You kinda got the feeling that if you pushed the point further he would be happy to go there… but let’s just play the game, huh guys? Unfortunately, Nuijten either didn’t get that impression, or wanted to go there too, and he did press the point. Ness ended up snatching up the pack in question and fanned it out in front of both teams. “Look. Now you’ve all seen it, can we get on with the draft now please?” Not exactly by the book, but exactly what was needed to keep the tournament rolling. Good job at that, Head Judge!
Oh yeah, both teams agreed that the pack was pretty awful in the end.
The rest of the day was just more Team stuff. During said team stuff I got to know one Kelly Digges, who now works for Wizards of the Coast doing some editing-type stuff or something. I had heard of this Digges character, and even read some of his stuff, especially this cracking read about his experience in the coverage team for the U.S. Nationals. I had no idea that he would be such a great guy and all-round fun bloke to hang out with. [Seconded. – Craig.] Suffice to say it was a good thing he didn’t ask me to have his babies, for I would have been unable to say no. [Not seconded. – Craig.]
That’s not to say that the rest of the coverage team were slouches, oh no! I also met Tim “Wallaby” Willoughby and Hanno “bet you can’t pronounce” Terbuyken for the first time, and greatly enjoyed their company as well, although any offers of joint parenting ventures from them would have been turned down unfortunately, as I was now already spoken for by that Digges fellow. Others I had met before were equally good times as well. John Becker and Brian David-Marshall are of course stalwarts of the coverage gig, and where there’s Becker and BDM there’s always Ted Knutson and Scott Johns as well. All terrific, upstanding gentlemen who seemed only capable of making my trip better and better as the weekend went on.
Rounding out the team was the Japanese powerhouse Keita Mori, who always seems to end up doing the same amount of work as the rest of us put together. Photographer Craig Gibson, who has the coolest mouse pad ever, and Grand Master Overseer Greg Collins, who has the power to break a man with his mere presence alone.
Right, now that I have dropped everyone’s name sufficiently, we can move on to the end of the day. The night before, we had dined in a café with a bunch of the Wizards RnD guys, and were all a little bowled over by the price. I think everyone had been hoping that Randy Buehler was going to throw it all on his expense account, but after checking the prices on the menu he was like “lol, good luck with that one guys!” I mean, it was still very good food, don’t get me wrong, and the service was also very good. BDM had no trouble communicating to the waiter that he wanted his steak to still be breathing as it was brought out to him, and Buehler amused everyone by ordering the escargot, or cooked snail for those of you not in the know. If I remember correctly, Willoughby was the only one brave enough to eat one when offered.
But despite the good eats, we were definitely of the mind to find something more affordable than the night before. I didn’t have a problem with paying through the nose for food – it’s not every day you’re in France you know? But it wasn’t just up to me, so affordable it was. Anyway, for some reason, we had our hearts set on a place that somebody had labeled “Adventure Pizza.” I thought it was actually called that, but once we actually found the place, I found that it had only been nicknamed that because some of the guys had eaten there a few nights prior, and were still feeling a little ill. Apparently the “adventure” was that you weren’t sure what shade of green you’d be the next morning, or something.
However, our little entourage was made of sterner stuff than that. We lacked the RnD members of the night before (I assume they were off having another crack at trying to soil Buehler’s expense account) but what we lacked there we made up for with the English National team (and various other English or Welsh or Scottish players – at least I assume they were) and the Mox Radio gents, all of whom were also stellar peoples and well worth breaking bread with.
Now good ol’ Dave, who shares the rent with me here and didn’t make the trip to France – which is why I was able to (thanks bud!) – likes to relate a tale of when he did once go to France with his family. Apparently he tried to order a Margarita pizza without olives in some café, and was promptly scoffed at by the waiter, who proclaimed that “you cannot have a Margarita pizza without le olives!” When Dave’s mother then tried to order a warm chicken salad, the waiter was heard to quip “hoh! I suppose you want a warm chicken salad without le chicken?” The best bit about the story is that Dave’s pizza came covered in olives.
Anyway, we lined up to place our orders at “Adventure Pizza” and I heard that rascal Kelly Digges ask for a Margarita pizza without olives. This was of course quite uncanny, not only because of the tale above, but because that happened to be exactly what I had been going to order as well! This was only made better by the fact that we were both successful in receiving delicious Margarita pizzas sans-olives. Hah!
The delightful evening ended with me initiating a big group-hug outside the hotel the English were staying at, which many of them no doubt still wake up sweating about, thankful that I live on the other side of the world, literally. I then chatted with Mox Radio’s Rich Hagon for what seemed like only a few moments but was probably something like three-quarters of an hour, before finally making my way back to my own hotel… only to be assaulted by some ruffian on the way.
I know, I know… that sounds a whole lot worse than it actually was. Basically, I kinda saw this guy walking towards me, and as I moved to go around him he shoulder-barged me roughly, spouting something that sounded a bit like “you got a problem pal?” in French, before belting me in the back of the head. I was surprised by this to put it lightly, and could only keep walking hoping he wouldn’t follow me. I put on a big show of shrugging a lot and not opening my mouth in the hope that he would realize I was a non-threatening target or something, and thankfully it seemed to work. I made it back to the hotel a great deal faster than I had on previous evenings, but this may also have been because I finally had a vague idea of which way to go instead of just wandering aimlessly until I found it.
Anyway, here are the Standard results from the Premier Events of the last week. I won’t talk about them this week, but next week, maybe I’ll do some kind of recap of the year that was. I think that’s the kind of thing journalists do, right? Just as long as nobody pegs it for what it will really be, which is the equivalent of one of those clip shows where everyone reminisces about crap so the writers can avoid coming up with content for the week.
(cough)
17 (14) Boros Deck Wins (Red/White Aggro)
13 (14) Dimir Control (Blue/Black Control, made to tick by Desert apparently!)
7 (8) Panda Connection (Black/White Aggro with hand disruption)
7 (4) Dragonstorm Combo (Blue/Red/Black Combo)
6 (2) Angel Control (Blue/Red/White Control)
5 (7) Simic Aggro Control (Blue/Green)
5 (3) Solar Flare (Blue/Black/White Control)
4 (6) Trisketron (White/Blue Urzatron Control)
4 (6) Mono Black Aggro (Small Black men and Bad Moon!)
3 (2) Gruul Aggro (Red/Green Aggro)
2 (4) Izzetron (Blue/Red Urzatron Control)
2 (3) Azorius Control (Blue/White Control)
2 (2) Proclamation Control (White/Blue Martyr of Sands, Proclamation of Rebirth Combo)
2 (2) Izzet Snow Control (Blue/Red Snow Control)
2 (1) White/Red/Black Angel Control (Trading the Compulsive Researches for Phyrexian Arena and Castigate)
2 (0) Soggy Pickles (Brine Elemental and Vesuvan Shapeshifter lock down combo)
1 (2) Orzhov Control (Black/White Control)
1 (1) Goblin Combo (Seething Song and Rite of Flame and Empty the Warrens)
1 (1) Azorius Green Control (Blue/White/Green Control)
1 (0) White/Red/Blue Momentary Blink Control (For Avalanche Riders, Riftwing Cloudskate and Bogardan Hellkite)
1 (0) Reanimator (Blue/Red/Black cheat fatties into play)
0 (2) Zoo (Green/White/Red Aggro)
0 (2) Unknown (We’ll never know…)
0 (2) Izzetron with White (Or is it Azorius Urzatron with Red? Confusing)
0 (2) Hierarch Aggro Control (Green/White/Black Aggro Control)
0 (2) Green/Black/Red Aggro Control (Why stick with just Green, when you can get the cow for free?)
0 (1) Magnivore (Blue/Red Land Destruction Control)
0 (1) Selesnya Aggro Control (Green/White Aggro Control. Yes, sometimes with Glare)
0 (1) Blue/White/Black Momentary Blink Control (Ravenous Rats baby, Ravenous Rats)
0 (1) Rakdos Aggro Control (Black/Red Aggro Control)
Day 5
We were all a little worried about how we were going to divide up the Quarterfinals matches. We knew that Gabriel Nassif deck was capable of making the match last most of the day, if not the following week. Ted had already stated that it wasn’t going to be him, because he’d been the one that ended up under the lights for something like two hours at last year’s World Champs watching Frank Karsten defeat Ding Leong in five games. It became increasingly obvious that the short straw was going to go to Hanno, because for some reason he ended up arriving quite late. Thankfully for Hanno, the match didn’t stretch on nearly as long as anyone feared, and he was soon joining us over on the sidelines hammering away at our laptops.
However, between Kelly and I, our behaviors were not the best. I mean sure, we were getting on with our respective work, but I remember at some point Kelly, Hanno, and I practically wetting ourselves to a looped sound file of Randy Buehler yelling “It’s Lightning Helix! Oh my god! Oh my god!” from the Craig Jones and Olivier Ruel semifinals match at Pro Tour: Honolulu earlier this year. There was also a plan to get our own Craig Stevenson to charge into the sound booth where Randy and BDM were holed up, pretending to be drunk and loudly proclaiming in his especially-charming Scouse accent… “hey up fellas! This is a funny lookin’ bathroom, innet? *unziiiip! …tinkle, tinkle, tinkle* ” but we never plucked up the courage to attempt to make that become a reality. [Thank the lord. – Craig.]
As far as my quarterfinals match went, I was fortunate enough to land the Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa verses Makihito Mihara match. It seemed like a pretty reasonable match… right up until the end where Mihara tried to go off and found he was a mana short before ripping one of his only two outs off the top to take the match, and of course, go on to become the World Champ. It was so tense sitting there watching Mihara sweating it out as he continuously counted and counted again up to eight, when he needed to reach nine. His face was an absolute priceless picture of panic. After a couple of cautions from the Judge for slow play, he finally Repealed a Savannah Lions to find the third Rite of Flame, the only possible card he could get to finally get the nine mana to storm out a bunch of Dragons.
Once I had finished with my reportering, I wandered out into the main room with Tim Willoughby where we spied what appeared to be an RnD draft starting up. Tim mentioned that he would literally kill to get in on that action, so I showed him how it was done by charging over and demanding they make room for the pair of us.
(Alert! More names to be dropped in just a moment)
Tim ended up teamed with Paul Sottosanti, Aaron Forsythe, and Nate Heiss, which is like saying he got a large chunk of retired team CMU members to back him up. I was landed with Mark Rosewater, Mark Gottlieb, and Henry Stern, which is like saying I didn’t get a large chunk of retired team CMU to back me up. Needless to say, my team didn’t do a whole lot of winning in the face of those Limited powerhouses, and I ended up carrying them somewhat on the back of my Green/Red Tromp the Domains machine. That is until Paul Sottosanti was cheeky enough to side in his Cancel and countered by Tromp, then it was all over for us quite unceremoniously.
We then headed off towards the staff dinner, which was held on a riverboat that floated along the Seine right under the Eiffel Tower in all of its well-lit-up glory. True to form, a bunch of us grabbed one of the round tables to have our dinner at, mostly so we could get another draft started. This one featured Tim, Paul, and Teddy Knutson playing off against Aaron, Randy, and I. Unfortunately, we didn’t get enough of the games finished before it was time to disembark again, but I’m pretty sure we had them right where we wanted them. At one point, someone mentioned that this was probably one of the most expensive drafts to be played out, based solely on the price tags on admission. Thankfully, Wizards of the Coast picked up the tab on this one.
After that, it was back to the hotel for more drafting. Hanno had a flight out first thing, and Scott Johns wanted to stay up all night so he would be just as worn out as his wife when she arrived in the morning, you know, so they could be jet-lagged together. Take note lads, that’s the kind of dedicated behavior the ladies look for in men. All-night drafting for the win!
Paul S and Mark G also joined us for this round after card slingery, as well as John Becker and Craig the photographer extraordinaire, but those four gradually faded away leaving Hanno, Scott and I drafting to through to the wee hours with some tarty princess called Kelly Digges. Eventually, the morning rolled around, and some of the judges came down stairs to check out of their rooms and commented on how we were getting started remarkably early on the drafting. “yeah” we replied, “… early.”
Eventually Scott went off to freshen up before he caught his cab out to the airport, Hanno to pack his bags, and Kelly and I were left shootin’ the breeze, chewin’ the fat, and generally making the most of what time we had left. Deep down, we both knew we wouldn’t get another chance to just plain hang out in the near future, what with him living in Seattle and me on my wee island paradise in the South Pacific.
(sniff)
I miss my Kelly Digges.
(cough)
Err, anyway, uhh, here are the Extended Premier Events results from the last week. There be Extended PTQs on the horizon… I can feels in it me bones!
7 (5) Tendrils Combo (Extended’s Seething Song, Rite of Flame Combo deck)
7 (4) Goblin Combo (Rite of Flame Goblin Aggro)
6 (3) Four to Five Color Gifts Rock (Green/Black/White Control with Blue and Red for goodies)
5 (1) Destructive Flow Aggro (Green/Red/Black Aggro, designed to work around Destructive Flow while letting the opponent choke on it)
4 (10) Counterbalance Aggro Control (Nassif’s Blue/White/Red Trinket Mage deck from Worlds)
4 (4) Boros Deck Wins (Red/White Aggro, sometimes with Kird Apes and their natural Foresty habitat as well)
4 (3) Affinity (The dreaded Artifact deck)
4 (1) Friggorid (Blue/Black Aggro Dredge)
4 (0) CAL (Life from the Loam Control)
4 (0) Scepter Chant (Blue/White/Red Control)
3 (1) Loam Aggro Control (Green/Red/White Life from the Loam Aggro Control)
3 (6) Azorius Urzatron (Blue/White Urzatron. With Mindslaver, Eternal Dragon, Sundering Titan and Decree of Justice)
2 (0) Green/White Tooth and Nail (for Decree of Justice)
1 (4) Gruul Aggro (Green/Red Aggro)
1 (1) Green/Blue Tooth and Nail (With Cloudposts!)
1 (1) Psychatog (Blue/Black Control)
1 (0) Unknown
1 (0) Eggs (The French Blue/White Second Sunrise Combo)
1 (0) Enduring Ideal Combo (Similar to Tendrils Combo, but finishing with Ideal)
1 (0) MBA (Mono Black Aggro)
0 (3) Tooth and Nail (Mono Green, classic Urzatron!)
0 (1) Azorius Control (Blue/White Control, sometimes splashing Red for Fire/Ice)
Wow, that certainly didn’t end up being very short. It’s probably time I hit the sack, I have to get up for work in three hours, because I’ve got no annual leave left after all of the globetrotting I’ve done this year. Do I regret it? Not in the slightest. After all, Kelly and I will always have Paris…
{e}