Pro Tour: Geneva was my fiftieth consecutive PT appearance. No one really seemed to care… and neither did I. Most importantly, it’s the first PT of the season. I started last year by scrubbing out in both Hawaii and Prague, and had to battle hard to look for points at the end of the season. This year though, I feel like I must not scrub out, for several reasons.
This season is following my “Hall of Fame” nomination. I must prove that I’m still worth it.
I have to write about Magic weekly, both here and on MagictheGathering.com. I guess what I say won’t be taken as seriously if I under-perform in tournaments!
So that’s the spirit I have, beginning this new season. Of course, I’d like to have an even better season than last year, but I suppose I’ll just wait before setting myself high expectations.
I’m currently in Toulouse. I had been living at Olle Rade’s apartment while he was studying in Malmo, and I had to leave when he moved back to Gothenburg. I figured I would come back to France for a while, as I didn’t really feel like looking for a place in Sweden when so many events were to come. That’s also the reason why I’ve already booked my flights to GP: Dallas and GP: Singapore… I might as well travel when I don’t have an apartment of my own. This way I hope I won’t have to dig for points at the end of the year.
Anyway, back to business! As I’ve said before, my gang and I gathered in the French Alps to ski and draft. Even though it was hard to set up more than one draft some days, I believe our practice was efficient. I knew what to expect, and I’ve never felt more prepared for a draft tournament.
Entering the tournament, I had the following things in mind:
1) Don’t draft White under any circumstances.
2) Try to avoid G/B if possible.
I hated White in triple Time Spiral, and even though Planar Chaos gave it a little boost, I still hate it. In all the practice drafts I played in Avoriaz, 75% of my losses were with Plains. To me, it feels that White is just the worst color by far. Sometimes, you end up with the Nut Deck, like the one Ervin Tormos drafted in the Top 8… and even then he failed to pass the quarterfinal stage, as his deck had seven or eight dead cards in his matchup.
Green/Black is a fine archetype, but I never feel really excited about it.
Friday, February 9th
PT: Geneva, Day 1
Pod 1:
Hermes, Maxime
Gomersall, Sam
Nurmi, Mikko
Weile, Daniel
Levy, Raphael
Brassem, Camille
Yasooka, Shouta
Ruel, Olivier
That’s quite an interesting first pod to draft on. Sam, Shouta, and Olivier are all experienced pros, Mikko Nurmi is a solid Finnish player, and Maxime has been drafting with us for the last week in Avoriaz and showed he had quite some skills in the format.
The draft had been covered on the Sideboard. Thanks to the draft viewer, you can check all my picks here.
Some comments about my picks:
Pick 1 – Stuffy Doll: As I mentioned in a previous article, I’m not a huge fan of Stuffy Doll. It’s not as indestructible as it was without Planar Chaos – it now also dies to Merfolk Thaumaturgist, Piracy Charm, Shaper Parasite, and Erratic Mutation – but it has something: it’s an artifact. I would pick Viscerid Deepwalker over it if I’m already Blue, or Corpulent Corpse if I’m Black. Duskrider Falcon is the best card of the pack, but I had planned to stay away from White so it wasn’t really an option there.
Throughout the first pack, I tried to figure which color was open. Blue, Black, and Green seem open, while not being really stellar. I tried to go for B/U, but a pick 5 Gemhide Sliver and pick 6 Hunting Moa showed me I had a better shot at Green. I didn’t really have a deck after pack 1, and I just hoped my read was correct and that the good cards didn’t really show up on my side. It turned out that Olivier, sitting on my right, was drafting White/Red.
My strategy to cut all the Blue in pack 1 paid off, as I was rewarded with two Errant Ephemerons, Crookclaw Transmuter, Ghost Ship, and Deep-Sea Kraken in pack 2.
I didn’t know before pack 3 if I’d end up Black or Green, although I would probably have to go for Green, as Black isn’t too exciting in Planar Chaos. I picked up all the necessary tools in Planar Chaos for Blue/Green to work. I had a couple of removal spells in Erratic Mutation and Utopia Vow, and a handful of good creatures: Mire Boa, Chronozoa, Citanul Woodreaders, and most importantly, Veiling Oddity and Merfolk Thaumaturgist.
While not being high on the pick orders, mostly because no one likes them, the latter two have a huge effect on the game in the right deck. Veiling Oddity is what gives U/G an almost uncounterable way to sneak through a bulk of damage. I wasn’t sure how good the Thaumaturgist was, but this weekend it was dominating all of my games. It looks like a bad common that rarely does anything, but once you’ve tried it, you love it. It doesn’t just say “this creature gets -1/+1 or +4/-4,” it also screws most of your opponent’s math during combat. When there are enough creatures on the board, it becomes almost impossible to play around, and I really prefer to have it on my side. And in my deck I don’t even have any combo like Saltfield Recluse, Bewilder, or Serendib Sorcerer with which to abuse it.
Creatures (18)
- 1 Spiketail Hatchling
- 1 Ghost Ship
- 1 Hunting Moa
- 1 Crookclaw Transmuter
- 1 Deep-Sea Kraken
- 2 Errant Ephemeron
- 2 Gemhide Sliver
- 1 Stormcloud Djinn
- 1 Stuffy Doll
- 1 Tolarian Sentinel
- 1 Aquamorph Entity
- 1 Chronozoa
- 1 Citanul Woodreaders
- 1 Merfolk Thaumaturgist
- 1 Mire Boa
- 1 Veiling Oddity
Lands (17)
Spells (5)
Relevant Sideboard Cards:
None. I had just enough playables.
Round 1: Weile, Daniel. W/U. 2-1
Round 2: Gomersall, Sam. G/R. 2-0
Round 3: Hermes, Maxime. B/R. 0-2
A 2-1 result was probably fair with this deck. Maxime proved that he was a force to be reckoned with, and posted a 3-0 in a pod where he was far from being favorite. As usual, the matches themselves don’t have much to teach, or at least to report, so I’ll just go on to the next draft.
Score after Draft #1:
2-1
Pod 2:
Herberholz, Mark
Larsson, David
Yothinsopolgul, Sompol
Snepvangers, Bram
Seki, Keita
Krebs, Markus
Sajgalik, Eduardo
Levy, Raphael
I was lucky enough to first-pick a Bogardan Hellkite. I passed a couple of White cards (such as Amrou Scout), hoping to put my left neighbour into White. I second-picked an Ancestral Vision, over a Prismatic Lens and more White cards. Red wasn’t coming in pack 1, but I did my best to cut all the Blue cards I saw: Dream Stalker, Stormcloud Djinn, Slipstream Serpent. Once again, the first pack wasn’t exactly good for me, but Red and Blue were open. Even if the picks were not great, they were good enough signals for me to continue on those colors, and most importantly, I hadn’t passed anything good in those colors.
Pack 2 rewarded me with 2 Fathom Seers, Looter-Il Kor, Rift Bolt, and Orcish Cannonade. And as planned, I also got quite nice cards in pack 3: Rough / Tumble, Aeon Chronicler, and a late Serendib Sorcerer.
I ended up with one of the best decks I’ve had in this format:
Creatures (17)
- 1 Bogardan Hellkite
- 1 Bogardan Rager
- 2 Dream Stalker
- 2 Fathom Seer
- 1 Looter il-Kor
- 1 Sage of Epityr
- 1 Slipstream Serpent
- 1 Stormcloud Djinn
- 1 Tolarian Sentinel
- 1 Aeon Chronicler
- 1 Blood Knight
- 2 Merfolk Thaumaturgist
- 1 Primal Plasma
- 1 Serendib Sorcerer
Lands (17)
Spells (6)
Relevant Sideboard Cards:
Mogg War Marshall
Mystical Teachings
Terramorphic Expanse
Sage of Epityr
About the draft…
There’s one pick, late in pack 2, that I wish I had made: ninth pick, I had the choice between Tolarian Sentinel and Bewilder. The Sentinel is a better card overall, but the synergy of Bewilder in my deck would have been insane with the two Thaumaturgists.
Soon, enough people will realize how good the Merfolk is. Just try to figure how good it is in my deck…
In a deck like this, with a lot of card advantage, Sage of Epityr is really worth the slot. It helps you dig into your most powerful cards, and it’s what you need early in the game to give you some time to set up, especially with Dream Stalker.
Round 4: Bram Snepvangers. R/G. 2-0
Round 5: Mark Herberholz. R/G. 2-0
Round 6: David Larsson. U/W. 1-2
The deck was great, and if I hadn’t been so tired after round 5, I would probably have won the sixth round.
Happily, I’d be playing in Day 2, and I’d hopefully wake up for the next draft and the seventh round.
Score after Draft #2:
4-2
Pod 3:
De Rosa, Antonino
Wolowiec, Przemyslaw
Boyes, Richard
Levy, Raphael
Gräfensteiner, Daniel
Valori, Kim
Kaliuk, Pavlo
Rohde, Karl Heinz
In the third draft, I opened Stonebrow, Krosan Hero, and followed the guide to drafting R/G. The signals I received made it pretty clear that it was open, and I went for a super aggressive version of R/G:
Creatures (14)
- 1 Ashcoat Bear
- 3 Herd Gnarr
- 1 Penumbra Spider
- 1 Stonebrow, Krosan Hero
- 1 Thallid Shell-Dweller
- 1 Mire Boa
- 1 Radha, Heir to Keld
- 1 Skirk Shaman
- 1 Stingscourger
- 3 Uktabi Drake
Lands (16)
Spells (10)
Relevant Sideboard Cards:
Evolution Charm
2 Essence Warden
Special notes about the draft…
I picked the Gnarrs quite early in the draft, as I know they are the key to making this archetype work. The most questionable pick of this draft was when I had to choose between Empty the Warrens and Orcish Cannonade. At that point, my deck was very light on removal, and I opted for the Cannonade. The next booster offered Strength in Numbers and Empty the Warrens. Both cards are excellent in this archetype, but I thought Fury Charm in the next booster could make up for the Strength in Numbers I would pass.
In Planar Chaos, I had the choice (many times) between Skirk Shaman and Uktabi Drake. I already talked about the Drake when I introduced R/G in my previous article, but I’ll get back to it when I’ll be covering the Green in Planar Chaos. It’s a lot better than people think, and comparable to Skyknight Legionnaire. In a deck with 3 Herd Gnarrs, it’s definitely better than most creatures. You basically pump your Gnarr for G, attack for two as a bonus with the Drake, and then pay for the 2/1 flyer on the next turn.
The problem with this kind of decks is that it lacks any way to handle mana problems. There are no real ways to get card advantage. You can overwhelm your opponent in a couple of turns, and if he stabilizes, and you draw one or two lands too many, the game is usually over. Luckily, I had a Disintegrate in case that happened.
Round 7: Wolowiec, Przemyslaw. W/R/G. 1-2
This was the second match in which I felt quite bad. Had I been a little more awake, I would have probably won that match. I guess the older I grow, the more sleep I need before a tournament!
Saturday, February 10th
PT: Geneva, Day 2
Round 8: Grafensteiner, Daniel. B/G. 2-1
Round 9: Boyes, Richard. B/U. 2-1
I really wanted to make up for the last two matches I had lost the day before. My deck was pretty good, but my games were a lot closer than those in my previous drafts. The main reason was that it was quite easy to deal the first seventeen points of damage, but the remaining three were really hard to take out when I didn’t draw Disintegrate. Richard Boyes had an interesting B/U deck featuring two copies of Magus of the Bazaar and a bunch of madness cards. He had one Dark Withering, two Gorgon Recluse, a couple of Muck Grubbs, and two Call to the Netherworld.
I wasn’t expecting to go 3-0 with that deck, so I guess I should be happy with my 2-1.
Score after Draft #3:
6-3
Pod 4:
Van de Veen, Steffen
Levy, Raphael
Cheon, Paul A.
Schiermeyer, Robert
Menard, Antoine
Hasnes, Øystein
Malin, Antti
Mihara, Makihito
My first pack offered Temporal Isolation, Liege of the Pit, and Riftwing Cloudskate. At that point, the pick was quite obvious. I love the Liege of the Pit, but I didn’t want to commit to Black that early, so I just want for the Cloudskate, totally forgetting about the White enchantment.
The way the draft went was decided by my second pick. I could either stick to Blue by picking a Viscerid Deepwalker over a Dark Withering, or go for the Black removal spell. I really like drafting Black in the format, so I went for the second option. As everyone pretty much hates Black, I was passed a Nightshade Assassin third pick, which comforted my second-pick choice, and I picked up three Pit Keepers picks four, seven, and eight. I took two Gorgon Recluse in picks six and ten, and even a managed a Withered Wretch pick eleven. I had cut all the good Black cards from the pack, and was definitely looking forward to the next booster.
My second pack didn’t include any Black cards. Only a Wipe Away and a Rift Bolt were worth picking. Even though I already had a Riftwing Cloudskate as my only non-Black card, I picked the best card – Rift Bolt – as a good splashable option. Antti passed me a Firemaw Kavu that definitely set Red as my second color. That was the card I wanted to have in my deck with my three Pit Keepers. I also got passed a Soul Collector, another Nightshade Assassin, and a couple of other playables.
In Planar Chaos, after I picked a Stingscourger first pick, I had the choice between a second Stingscourger and a Magus of the Cabal. I believe that was the hardest pick of that draft, as Stingscourger would have been quite a premiere card in my deck, but I needed a creature with power more than three, and I didn’t want to play too many Red cards.
Creatures (17)
- 1 Withered Wretch
- 1 Soul Collector
- 1 Drudge Reavers
- 1 Firemaw Kavu
- 2 Gorgon Recluse
- 2 Nightshade Assassin
- 3 Pit Keeper
- 1 Skulking Knight
- 1 Magus of the Coffers
- 1 Mirri the Cursed
- 2 Ridged Kusite
- 1 Stingscourger
Lands (17)
Spells (6)
Relevant Sideboard Cards:
2 Brute Force
Mindstab
2 Psychotic Episode
I really liked how the deck ended up. I could have hoped for a Tendrils of Corruption, but the deck was already good enough. This is how I like to draft R/B. Not the super aggressive archetype, but the control / removal type. That’s also why I left the Brute Force in the sideboard. I prefer to keep my removal and utility cards, like Call to the Netherworld and Shrouded Lore, which can provide a lot of card advantage in the late game, especially with Pit Keepers.
The Ridged Kusite isn’t all that exciting by itself, but I liked the fact that I could cast my Assassins and Gorgons at instant speed. They also help the Pit Keepers sneak some damage, and they are unlikely to be blocked with the Kusite backing them.
Round 10: Mihara, Makihito. W/G. 2-0
Round 11: Malin, Antti. U/W. 2-0
Round 12: Cheon, Paul. W/B rebels. 1-2
I was expecting to 3-0 with that deck, but Paul Cheon won the table with his rebel deck. I think he had two Blightspeakers, who could fetch about eight other companions including Riftmarked Knight, Aven Riftwatcher, Errant Doomsayer, Knight of Holy Nimbus, and double Amrou Seekers.
Score after Draft #4:
8-4
I was then out of contention for Top 8. A single win would put me into Top 64, another 2-1 into Top 32, and a 3-0 into Top 16.
Pod 5:
Madan, Daniel
Gregoir, Christophe
Ootsuka, Koutarou
Brucker, David
Oomens, Wessel
van Medevoort, Robert J.
Levy, Raphael
Perez, Bastien
Just like in Draft #1, I decided to go Blue and complete my deck with whichever color came along. I opened Errant Ephemeron and Word of Seizing. I took the Flyer and put my left neighbour in Red. I proceed to pick more Blue cards, like Prodigal Sorcerer pick two, a Viscerid Deepwalker pick three, a Dream Stalker pick four —which was the only Blue card in the pack – and a Giant Oyster pick five that I took over a Magus of the Scroll to make sure I would get the Blue in the second pack. My sixth pick offered me a Mystic Snake and a Gemhide Sliver. Green was definitely open, and I took the Mystic Snake, planning to draft U/G.
I ended up with a very explosive U/G deck:
Creatures (19)
- 1 Prodigal Sorcerer
- 1 Mystic Snake
- 1 Giant Oyster
- 1 Ashcoat Bear
- 1 Durkwood Baloth
- 1 Errant Ephemeron
- 1 Herd Gnarr
- 1 Primal Forcemage
- 1 Scryb Ranger
- 2 Thallid Germinator
- 1 Thelon of Havenwood
- 2 Viscerid Deepwalker
- 1 Ana Battlemage
- 1 Aquamorph Entity
- 1 Giant Dustwasp
- 1 Mire Boa
- 1 Veiling Oddity
Lands (17)
Spells (4)
Relevant Sideboard Cards:
Chromatic Star
Stingscourger
Dead / Gone
Dream Stalker
Chromatic Star
Foriysian Totem
It’s interesting to see that my Erratic Mutation makes me leave my Chromatic Star in the sideboard. I would have preferred to play eight Forests, eight Islands, and one Chromatic Star, but as Erratic Mutation was my only removal, I wanted to make sure I could hit for two. That’s also the reason why I haven’t drafted Uktabi Drakes.
I’m loving one card more and more, each time I play it: Primal Forcemage. I consider it one of the best Green card in Time Spiral at the moment. It was already good with Suspend and Flash creatures before, but it became even better with the not-so popular Uktabi Drake and Veiling Oddity. In my deck, it was just great, even without Drakes.
I loved my deck and the explosive starts it could generate. With six suspend creatures and a smooth curve, it could be worth a 3-0 result.
Round 13: van Medevoort, Robert J. U/B. 1-2
Round 14: Madan, Daniel. R/U. 2-0
Round 15: Oomens, Wessel. W/G. 2-0
I lost round 13 to Robert van Medevoort and his excellent U/B deck. He was sitting on my right and cut most of the Black in booster one. I passed him two or three Dark Witherings, and expected him to have most of the Black at the table. I had a great draw in game 1, attacking for 40 unblockable damage on turn 8 thanks to Veiling Oddity, suspended on the same turn as a Deepwalker, and Primal Forcemage. For the record, I lost game 2, keeping a hand with double Deepwalker, Errant Ephemeron, Durkwood Baloth, Primal Forcemage and two Islands in my starting hand, on the draw. I never drew my Forest (hey, I can’t have everything), but that would probably have been the best start I would have ever managed in Limited! I also lost game 3, as his deck as far too good.
I proceeded to win the following two matches… but unfortunately, I failed to make Top 32. Cruel tiebreakers…
Score after Draft #5:
10-5
Finish: 33rd
I’m quite satisfied with the tournament. I managed to draft five good decks, posting a 2-1 result with all of them. I probably could have done better on day 1, but I feel fine about it. The ten days we spent figuring the format have been really useful. Five points to start the season is okay, even though it’s always frustrating to miss one point in this fashion.
I hope you found some useful material in this report, and I’ll be back next week for more Planar Chaos draft reviews.
Until then,
Raph