Ah, it feels nice to be able to wake up in your own bed the morning after a tournament. I love traveling, hanging out in other places before tournaments. I like the fact that you can enjoy the place you’re in, visit the people you know who live there, and play some Magic to prepare for the upcoming tournament. It’s all about excitement and things to look forward to. When it’s all over, unless you have won, you always have that bitter taste of unachieved business (at least I do), going through everything you could have done better, a feeling that lingers until you reach home. The further from home the tournament takes place, the longer that taste remains.
Lyon is a five-hour drive away from Toulouse, and I was so tired after the two days of competition that I didn’t even have the chance to think about the tournament itself on the way back home on Sunday evening. Maybe because I was satisfied with the outcome. Sure, I didn’t win the thing – I didn’t even make Top 8 – but I’m happy about how everything went. I hadn’t made money in the last 3 tournaments I played (GP: Oakland, PT: San Diego, GP: Brussels), mainly due to my lack of preparation and motivation.
Going in the tournament, any results below Top 32 would have been disappointing. I was pumped, as prepared as I could have been, and motivated. I didn’t master the draft format 100%, but I felt confident enough, especially in Sealed deck.
Saturday, May 8th
GP: Lyon ’10 —DAY 1
I arrived the day before and stayed at my good friend Jérémy Berthoux’s place on Friday night for a good night sleep, lack of rest being, by far, the number one factor in making mistakes. The older you get, the more you need to rest… I can feel the difference: when I only needed a couple of hours of rest years ago to be fit and fresh for a tournament, I need that amount plus two now. It might also be because the tournaments were not as long as they are now. Ten rounds of Sealed deck on Day 1… talk about a marathon!
GP: Lyon — Day 1
Sealed deck Pool
White:
Puncturing Light
Repel the Darkness
Harmless Assault
Hyena Umbra
Lone Missionary
Ikaral Outrider
2 Eland Umbra
Wall of Omens
Totem-Guide Hartebeest
Knight of Cliffhaven
Demystify
2 Emerge Unscathed
Black:
Baneful Omen
Cadaver Imp
Corpse Hatch
Gloomhunter
Curse of Wizardry
Escaped Null
Nighthaze
Perish the Thought
Shrivel
Suffering the Past
2 Death Cultist
Contaminated Ground
2 Essence Feed
Vendetta
Last Kiss
Red:
Fissure Vent
Grotag Siege-Hunter
Goblin Arsonist
Kiln Fiend
Ogre Sentry
Akoum Boulderfoot
Lust for War
Magmaw
Rage Nimbus
Vent Sentinel
Battle Rampart
Explosive Revelation
Flame Slash
Spawning Breath
Blue:
Domestication
Recurring Insight
Frostwind Invoker
Halimar Wavewatch
Drake Umbra
Venerated Teacher
Sphinx of Magosi
Regress
Skywatcher Adept
Sea gate Oracle
2 Merfolk Observer
Green:
Beastbreaker of Bala Ged
Overgrown Battlement
Growth Spasm
Ondu Giant
Kozilek’s Predator
2 Wildheart Invoker
Kazandu Tuskcaller
Aura Gnarlid
Spider Umbra
2 Stomper Cub
3 Might of the Masses
Gravity Well
Irresistible Prey
Haze Frog
Naturalize
Artifacts/Colorless:
Prophetic Prism
Warmonger’s Chariot
2 Reinforced Bulwark
2 Skittering Invasion
2 Hand of Emrakul
I was a bit lost with that pool at first, as I didn’t feel anything strong could emerge from it. I tried a few builds and came up with a really strong one. Trying to build the right deck with this pool is a very good exercise, and I strongly recommend you try to build it before you read what follows.
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Done?
Here is how the deckbuilding went:
I sorted the cards by colors, piled up the unplayables, and labeled Black as the color I wouldn’t play.
I checked for synergy and potential color combinations:
1) Totem-Guide Hartebeest+ Domestication/Drake Umbra
2) Overgrown Battlement+ Wall of Omens+ Rage Nimbus + Vent Sentinel
3) Venerated Teacher+ Beastbreaker of Bala Ged / Kazandu Tuskcaller / Hallimar Wavewatch / Skywatcher Adept / Knight of Cliffhaven
The synergies were all over the place colorwise, and I tried 3-color builds. I was tempted to play all my rares in a RGU deck that included the wall subtheme, Magmaw, Sphinx of Magosi, Rage Nimbus and Kazandu Tuskcaller. I had put White aside since there were not enough playables and I couldn’t really see myself splashing a fourth color in a deck that already needed double Green for Wildheart Invokers and triple Blue for Magosi Sphinx.
There are about 30 cards you can play in the UGR deck, and quickly enough you realize that Red is not as necessary as you thought it was. Double Red for Magmaw and Akoum Boulderfoot makes your mana shaky, and your four-mana slots can’t fit the Vent Sentinel.
I ended up cutting all the Red to have 20 UG cards. At that point I started considering White, especially for the Hartebeest and the Knight of Cliffhaven. The White splash looked neat, but I could see that the deck needed some answer. Except for Domestication, I had no way to deal with an Enclave Crytologist or a Dawnglare Invoker. Since my deck was not exactly very aggressive, and especially in a 10-round tournament, I needed more maindeck answers to these buggers. So I tried to add some Red to the mix. Here is what I came up with:
Sea Gate Oracle
Skywatcher Adept
Regress
Sphinx of Magosi
Venerated Teacher
Drake Umbra
Halimar Wavewatch
Frostwind Invoker
Recurring Insight
Domestication
2 Wildheart Invoker
Kozilek’s Predator
Ondu Giant
Kazandu Tuskcaller
Growth Spasm
Overgrown Battlement
Beastbreaker of Bala Ged
Spawning Breath
Flame Slash
Knight of Cliffhaven
Totem-Guide Hartebeest
Prophetic Prism
1 Mountain
1 Plains
8 Forest
7 Island
UG with double splash, W and R. W for Kinght of Cliffhaven and Totem-Guide Hartebeest, and R for Spawning Breath and Flame Slash.
White adds a lot of power to the deck. The Hartebeest gets you two of the best cards of your deck. Knight of Cliffhaven is another Leveler for your Venerated Teacher, and a flying threat for the late game. Red gives you some actual removal to get rid of one-toughness creatures that are likely to beat you single-handed.
The thing I had to think of when I decided to add both of these colors was how much value do these cards bring to my deck, and how much stability do I lose by adding them. Eight Forests and seven Islands, and one Prophetic Prism, could support the heavy Green and Blue base, and one extra land of each would not make that a big difference. The Prism, Ondu Giant, and Growth Spasm allowed me to virtually have 4 sources of Red and White (including the basic Plains and Mountain), easily enough to support two cards of each color without hurting the main manabase. Sea Gate Oracle also helped smooth it out. In that set up, I would not have played a third White card or a third Red card. You don’t want to be jammed with too many spells you can’t cast in the early game.
I do believe these two splashes give you a significant advantage compared to a basic third color splash. Red is crucial for the removal, and White for the overall power level of your deck.
Even after 10 rounds (7 rounds played), I would not change anything about the main deck.
There were a ton of options when building that particular deck, and a lot of sideboard possibilities. The most significant one, and a question I asked around during the byes, was: “Red for Flame Slash and Spawning Breath, or Black for Vendetta and Last Kiss?”
Both options offer pretty much the same possibilities, but I wouldn’t have been asking around if I knew one was strictly better than the other. All four cards get rid of the main problem, which is Dawnglare Invoker. Spawning Breath gives you a token, an extra mana on turn 4, and can ping your opponent for one. Last Kiss’s life bonus is quite irrelevant. Flame Slash doesn’t kill Halimar Wavewatcher, or Eldrazi, but it kills pretty much everything else with no drawback. Vendetta loses you life and can’t kill Black creatures. Tough call. Pretty much everyone told me Black was better. I still believe Red is better as a maindeck choice. Not being able to kill Black creatures and losing life was what made me feel Flame Slash was better than Vendetta. I did board out the Red for the Black in some cases, mainly to get rid of Halimar Wavewatcher and Transcendent Master. What would YOU have done?
I often boarded out the Knight of Cliffhaven to board in Emerge Unscathed. I like both cards, and the Knight has more potential in long games. I love Emerge Unscathed, but when it is splashed, you’re not sure you will be able to play it at the perfect time. I mainly used it as a Disenchant against Guard Duties and Narcolepsies. By boarding out the Knight, I remained with my two White cards.
I once boarded out all Red against a WU deck that had a lot of auras, so I could play both Emerge Unscathed, Demystify, and Naturalize, adding a Plains in the process.
As for single card strategies:
Recurring Insight was the card I was the most impressed with. In sealed deck where the games are usually slow, you rarely draw less than 5 cards off it. You do lose a turn when you cast it, but with 5 or 6 more cards than your opponent, you will make up for the lost tempo. In a deck with Green mana acceleration and decent resources, this card becomes a total game breaker… if you survive the turn you cast it.
I have never lost to Kazandu Tuskcaller. Until now, every time my opponent had cast it, I had an answer or was ahead on the board and it was just too slow to turn things around. I now wonder how that happened. I haven’t lost a single game when I had it in my opening hand. I could win games by just playing it on turn 2, leveling it up, and wait for the Elephants to start attacking. As simple as that.
When I first saw Halimar Wavecatcher, I didn’t think it was that big a deal. I now think it’s Blue’s top common. Blue has very few ways to deal with that guy, and only two turns after it enters the battlefield, it can hit you for 6 unblockable damage. One of my matches was decided by who could have one online first (one of the matches I lost).
I haven’t read many reviews of ROE Limited, and I wonder how others rate Lust for War. It does look like a bad card. The picture reminds me of Ruinous Minotaur, which wasn’t a card I fancied very much. It’s a Red aura you play on an opponent’s creature —never a good sign. I didn’t have room for a third Red card in the deck, but had I had some, I would have played Lust for War (another target for the Hartebeest too). This card has the potential to deal between 9 and 21 damage. Sure, you can’t play it on every creature your opponent plays, since that one may eventually kill you but you will find a suitable target for sure. Your opponent will either have to deal with his own guy —given the fact he doesn’t remove the aura itself – or he will die, eventually. I am not sure how high you should pick this card, but it is a very, very good card one should not underestimate.
I finished Day 1 at 8-2, losing the last round to Damien Reaubourg and his Student of Warfare, Sphinx of Magosi, Gideon Jura deck. My deck had the potential to go 9-1, but 8-2 is an acceptable result. In such a big tournament, finishing Day 1 at 7-3 leaves you no shot at Top 8 and very little chance at money. I would need to 5-0 on the following day to Top 8.
Sunday, May 9th
GP: Lyon ’10 —DAY 2
Going into the draft portion, my plan was to try to read the signals, hopefully open a card that would lead my draft, and stick to it.
Draft #1
I opened and took a Skywatcher Adept out of a very weak pack with no other Blue card and nothing else worth picking. The Adept is a fine card that fits any Blue deck in any theme. I would have preferred a stronger first pick, but there was really nothing else. Then followed a pack just as weak, with Wall of Omens and Sea Gate Oracle as my options. I picked the Oracle to stick to the color of my first pick, and I then got a Wall of Omens, a second Oracle, and a Guard Gomozoa. At that point, I knew I had to pick some power cards, since playing too defensively in this format never really works out. But with 2 Oracles, Wall of Omens, and potentially See Beyond and other card drawers in the next two packs, I was confident I could get some game-enders. White wasn’t exactly flowing in the packs, and I picked a Bala Ged Scorpion out of another empty pack. I was still undecided whether I would go for Black or White as my second color. I opened a Cryptologist in pack 2, and picked some Blue flyers and a couple of White cards, as well as a Domestication. In pack 3, I opened a Dawnglare Invoker, which made me think White would be my second color, but was then passed Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief. I still needed game-enders, and you don’t really want to pass Drana. So I took it, thinking there would be a way to play it. The Oracles would help me fix my mana, and along with a Prophetic Prism, I should be able to get there.
Prophetic Prism had been huge for me on Day 1, and was great in this draft too. Having it in your opening hand is such a big advantage. You won’t have to worry about your colored mana, ever. It was a great relief to draw it on Day 1 in my four-color deck, and it allowed me to splash my Drana and have a good chance of actually casting it here.
Here is what I ended up with:
Prophetic Prism
Guard Duty
Affa Guard Hound
Dawnglare Invoker
Puncturing Light
Ikaral Outrider
Wall of Omens
Makindi Griffin
Kabira Vindicator
Fleeting Distraction
Domestication
2 Sea Gate Oracle
Guard Gomozoa
Regress
2 Skywatcher Adept
Merfolk Skyscout
Enclave Cryptologist
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
Bala Ged Scorpion
Bloodrite Invoker
Narcolepsy
7 Islands
6 Plains
4 Swamp
Relevant sideboard cards:
Luminous Wake
Skeletal Wurm
Lay Bare
2 Demystify
The deck doesn’t look very exciting, but it’s solid nevertheless. An average manabase, a couple of removal spells, flyers, and a couple of very strong cards (Cryptologist, Domestication, and Drana). Its focus is not exactly obvious, but it is there, somewhere: control the ground for some turns, while attacking in the air. If Plan A doesn’t work, wait for the bomb. The 23rd card was either Fleeting Distraction or Lay Bare. With so few Blue sources, Lay Bare was far from optimal, and far too situational. You don’t want to play an 18th land since the deck has too few ways to use its late game mana, and with double Oracles, Wall of Omens, and Prophetic Prism, you don’t want another dead late-game card. I didn’t expect Fleeting Distraction to do anything but draw me a card closer to Drana.
Believe it or not, I managed a 3-0 record with this deck. Cryptologist won the two first matches on its own. The draft didn’t provide many removal options for Red and Black players (I saw one Vendetta and one Last Kiss during the draft, and that’s it). Along with his fishy friend Merfolk Skyscout, there was not much my two Green opponents could do against me drawing 3 cards a turn. I did board in the Skeletal Wurm against my BG opponent. The Wurm might be a little expensive, but it deals with Pelakka Wurms just fine.
You can follow my last match of this draft, against Simon Görtzen, in the coverage. I finally had the pleasure of casting the legendary vampire, and yes, it’s just very unfair.
Simon was the one who had all the good Black cards, all the levelers and unblockable creatures. Luminous Wake was a very good addition to my own removal arsenal. It helped me win an already unbalanced race between his remaining guys and my Drana when I enchanted her to gain 4 life a turn in addition to him losing a creature a turn.
At this point, I would only need two more wins to make Top 8…
Draft #2
I hate drafting next to people I know. Guillaume Wafo-Tapa was sitting on my right, and I knew pretty much what he liked to draft. He hates White and likes Black. I opened a Nirkana Shade and a Dawnglare Invoker. I have never played the Black Mythic before, and have no idea how good it really is. But here was not the time to try it; I knew it was safer to pick the white Invoker, considering Guillaume was on my right. The problem with this fact – that I knew what he liked – is that it could have misled me if he had opened a White bomb, and had I known the Shade was a powerhouse (I still don’t know about that). When he passed me the second pack, I was somehow relieved to find a Deathless Angel still in there… For a while, I thought I was the only White drafter, and I stuck to White for as long as I could, as Blue didn’t seem to be open and I wasn’t passed Champion Drakes nor Venerated Teachers. The other problem I had with Blue is that I picked a Knight of Cliffhaven over Halimar Wavewatcher, and if I decided to go into Blue, they would be very likely to wreck me. I had to make a crucial decision when opening pack 2: no White card, Venerated Teacher or Enclave Cryptologist. At that point, I only had one Caravan Escort, one Knight of Cliffhaven, and one Skywatcher Adept. I went for the Cryptologist, maybe because I was biased by the fact that it single-handedly won the last draft and would likely destroy me if I had to face it. If only I had known that I was getting five Caravan Escorts and three Knights of Cliffhaven, I would have taken the Teacher. Maybe I wasn’t optimistic enough. Cryptologist was the safe choice, while Venerated Teacher was the better choice… I never saw another Teacher. Training Grounds made up for it in pack 3. I had never tried that card before, but it’s amazing with the Flying knights. 4 mana instead of 12 to reach the Serra Angel status makes a huge difference that is worth “wasting” a card on.
Here is deck#2:
5 Caravan Escort
3 Knight of Cliffhaven
Skywatcher Adept
Champion Drake
Deathless Angel
Ikaral Outrider
2 Emerge Unscathed
3 Repel the Darkness
Dawnglare Invoker
Training Grounds
Smite
Puncturing Light
Enclave Cryptologist
11 Plains
7 Island
Relevant sideboard cards:
2 Guard Duty
Soul’s Attendant
Lust for War
Wrap in Flames
I had a plan to fight Halimar Wavewatcher: take out my Blue and replace it with Red and add some more fillers. I never used it, but it would have been a good plan if Wrap in Flames had many targets in my matchups, but it didn’t. Guard Duty was just a better plan against Wavewatcher after all, since my maindeck Blue is just too good.
I was confident I could 2-0 with this deck. This deck is focused on beating on the first turns with any of the five Caravan Escorts, level them up for some turns, and use the three Repel the Darkness for the kill. It had a hard time dealing with Dawnglare Invoker (no way at all, in fact). It was definitely missing Time of Heroes and Venerated Teachers, but the deck seemed solid nevertheless.
My dream got crushed in the first round of the draft, when I lost to Vladimir Komanicky. I thought for some time that I had Game 1 in the bag against his WUb deck. I attacked with my horde of Escorts and flyers while he was pumping his Student of Warfare. I wasn’t expecting him to kill me in two blows thanks to Distortion Strike on the 4/4 double striker: 5*2+5*2=20… Brutal.
I also lost what seemed to be a tough match to lose against Florian Pils and his RB deck. Again, I thought I had game 1 in the bag, I had so many guys to level up that he had to take care of. The key play was to avoid trading Caravan Escorts for his Gloomhunters to push extra damage and just wait a turn or two to attack with 5/5 first strikers instead. However, his deck was packing a thousand removal spells. When he had played five already, he shot my 5/5 wannabe with the fifth counter on the way with a Last Kiss, and took care of two other levelers with more removal. Emerge Unscathed was key but didn’t help enough. Game 3 saw him wreck me with Staggershock when I didn’t have any Emerge Unscathed. With that said, I would put Staggershock in my top 2 best commons of the set. It destroys UW strategies, is insanely good with Mnemonic Wall, can dome for 4…
I proceeded to win my last match, putting me in the Top 32… Quite disappointing, when I could almost see myself sitting at the final draft table with that WU Blue deck in my hands.
As I said, the disappointment didn’t last, since Top 32 isn’t that bad after all. It was also a relief to see that practice does pay off sometimes, even if it could have been better.
GP: Washington and PT: San Juan are coming up very soon. Be sure I’ll be ready for these events!
Until then!
Raph