Usually, when I go to tournaments, I arrive early so I can visit the place where I am going. However, when it comes to Pro Tours, it always ends the same way. Instead of sightseeing, I mostly see my room and my hotel lobby, as I playtest constantly until the event starts. This time, I tried to act smart and decided to stay before and after the event. I mean, no offense to Spongebob and Patrick, but no matter how much I like you guys, I kinda regret spending a week in Hawaii watching your adventures when my own adventures were calling.
This time, I’m playtesting without a second thought, and it feels pretty good.
“A Rainforest, you say? No thanks, I’ll have time for that later… let’s draft! Guys? Guys?!”
Okay, got it. I’ll just start Magic Online.
Even though most of my draft preparation was on MTGO, I was rarely on my own. It’s always interesting to have other people watching your drafts, and to have a chance to debate over your picks. I was lucky enough to be surrounded by many good players, and it helped me improve pretty quickly in the format. As I felt ready for the Limited portion of the tournament, I could focus on the Constructed part. The first testing results were telling us to play either Mono Red or UW. Eldrazi decks seemed too slow for Mono Red, and the only one which seemed to be fast enough – Mono Green Eldrazi – had too much of a hard time stopping Kargan Dragonlord to be playable.
In this rock-paper-scissor metagame (Mono Red > Green Eldrazi > UW Control > Mono Red), the first good option we found was Antoine’s deck, which attempted to add Whiplash Trap in Red’s sideboard (supported by Evolving Wilds and Scalding Tarn) in order to win the mirror match, and it was pretty efficient. I came up with another idea, which was to run a UW version sideboarded for UW and Red decks for game 1 (maindeck 4 Kor Firewalker, 4 Gideon Jura, 4 Luminarch Ascension, 3 Kor Sanctifiers, and 3 Spell Pierce). The deck was doing well, but the idea came to my mind a touch too late for me to have time to playtest it efficiently. We were now only two days away from the Pro Tour, and all the French players were gathered in the same hotel. Jérémy Dezani, who was qualified for his first PT, showed us an interesting URG token deck based on the combination of Beastmaster Ascension / Eldrazi Monument and token producers. I watched and played some games, and was quickly convinced that the deck, even though it had many flaws, had great potential. After Guillaume Matignon, Raphael Lévy and I worked on the deck, it looked better, and we had it tested against Mono Red, UW, and Green Eldrazi to see if it was really the right deck. The results were: about 50-50 against Mono Red, 25-75 against the most annoying version of Eldrazi (with many token producers to make Unified Will useless), and 80-20 against UW Control, which simply had far too many threats to handle in order to win.
Then, as we didn’t think many people would dare play a deck which can’t deal with Kargan Dragonlord, we were feeling pretty confident about the format. “We,” in this instance, means Guillaume Matignon, myself, and two PT newcomers (Jérémy Dezani and Arnaud Guyon).
Our decklists were slightly different. My main difference than I wanted to kill two guys with one card, in case people played Boros or the unlikely White Weenie. This pushed me into running a Forked Bolt main deck and another in the sideboard. Otherwise, the decklsits were 95% identical.
Here is the list I ran:
Creatures (10)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (24)
Spells (23)
- 1 Forked Lightning
- 2 Beastmaster Ascension
- 4 Burst Lightning
- 2 Eldrazi Monument
- 1 Bestial Menace
- 4 Awakening Zone
- 2 Flame Slash
- 3 See Beyond
- 1 Staggershock
- 3 Unified Will
Sideboard
The tournament could now begin.
Round 1 – Benjamin Rozhon (UW)
I opened with turn 3 Awakening Zone and followed up with a Predator, which was Canceled. Turn 5 Jace resolved and gave me an advantage in the early game. Indeed, he had to tap all of his Blue to cast his own and deal with it, allowing me to resolve Eldrazi Monument. He had to tap his Blue mana once again to cast a Sphinx, and I immediately resolved Beastmaster Ascension. When he eventually drew Into the Roil on the following turn, it was only after casting Jace in the same turn, so he didn’t have the mana left to cast Day of Judgment in the same turn, leaving him with not much of a choice but to bounce my enchantment during my following attack phase. He didn’t find a second bounce spell and had to concede.
In
3 Spell Pierce
2 Deprive
1 Unified Will
Out
2 Flame Slash
2 Burst Lightning
1 Staggershock
1 Forked Bolt
In game 2 I started with a pair of Invaders, while he missed his land drop on turn 4. I then cast Beastmaster Ascension with two counters in back up, and when he drew his fourth land, the game was already over.
2-0
1-0
Round 2 – Tom Martell (Monument Green)
I’m surprised to be featured against a player I haven’t heard of, but Tom apparently won the LCQ the day before, and followed up with a first round win. Here is the coverage of the game.
I played a total of two spells in two games, which led to me being destroyed in ten minutes. Had we been quicker at shuffling, it would have been five or six minutes, total.
0-2
1-1
Round 3 – Matthias Kunzler (Monument Green)
And again, the same match up. And again, the same draws, except that this time I can’t cast more than one spell before I die.
In
1 Forked Bolt
2 Flame Slash
3 Vapor Snare
1 Eldrazi Monument
2 Deprive
Out
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Beastmaster Ascension
3 Unified Will
1 Kozilek’s Predator
2 See Beyond
(The sideboard plan was the same in round 2)
I took a risk by removing a pair of card draw spells, but my deck didn’t have any bad cards to be reshuffled any more, and it seemed to me the other cards were more useful.
In game 2 he opened with Lotus Cobra on turns 2 and 3, which met with a couple of Burst Lightnings. A Vapor Snare on Vengevine then stabilized a board, onto which Eldrazi Monument soon arrived on my side to give me the win, as the Plant token the Control Magic allowed me to make each turn had expanded my board.
In the third, Matthias drew a few too many lands, and I quickly took control of the board. At some point I could cast Vapor Snare on Mul Daya Channelers, which would have been great with my Jace, but I actually thought the combination of those two cards would be better if the 2/2 stayed on his side, as it would allow me to keep him from drawing good cards, while building up card advantage any time he had something pointless on top. I therefore chose to steal Vengevine again. As I even had Deprive in hand for the whole game (which I brought in for Monument), this game was a lot easier than the first two, and didn’t last much longer.
2-1
2-1
I still was surprised I would face two decks which seemed both bad against Red and against UW. Was I wrong about this metagame?
Round 4 – Owen Turtenwald (Mono Red)
Here is a deck I had been waiting for! In the first game, I take a mulligan and don’t do much on the first turn, but his start is also quite slow, and he ends up drawing too many lands.
In
2 Flame Slash
1 Forked Bolt
2 Jaddi Lifestrider
3 Vapor Snare
Out
3 Unified Will
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Beastmaster Ascension
2 Eldrazi Monument
He opens with double Goblin Guide and follows up with turn 3 Searing Blaze on Nest Invader and Burst Lightning on my token. We move to game 3.
This time my situation is a lot better. I have Forked Bolt in hand, there are no guys on the board, I’m on 16, and I’ll win if he doesn’t play more Dragonlords than I play removal spells. He plays two, and even though I eventually draw Vapor Snare to deal with the second, it’s only after it has hit me for four and put me down enough for him to finish me off with a couple of blast spells.
1-2
2-2
Round 5 – Mike Nyberg (Eldrazi Green)
Mike is not playing too many tokens, so the matchup is not that bad, as Unified Will is alive. This is quite good news considering that it is about how many All is Dusts he resolves. One and I’m in big trouble. Two and I’m dead. None and I win.
In the first game I mulligan and draw no guys, so he ends the game on 20 without any trouble.
In
2 Deprive
1 Forked Bolt
3 Spell Pierce
1 Unified Will
1 Vapor Snare
Out
1 Staggershock
1 Bestial Menace
1 See Beyond
2 Flame Slash
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Beastmaster Ascension
1 Emrakul’s Hatcher
The main problem is knowing how many removal spells you need to stop Lotus Cobra and Oracle of Mul Daya. Eight would probably be good, but I didn’t find enough slots and went for six, which should be at least enough for the Cobra.
Some pressure, followed up by Monument when he’s on eight, closes game 2 pretty quickly, and we move on to game 3, a game in which he casts Ulamog on turn 5, destroying my only non-Green mana source (alongside my three Forests and two spawns), and keeping me from casting Vapor Snare on his big monster. No regrets, as he had All is Dust in hand anyway.
1-2
2-3
It would be an understatement to say this first part of the tournament was disappointing. Is the deck worse than I had assumed? Are there that many Green decks which we didn’t see coming? I’ll go check with everyone, see how they are doing. Guillaume is 5-0, Jérémy is 4-1, and Arnaud dropped at 1-3 after admitting he had given his opponents a couple of decisive games.
I was confident in my draft ability. I had to remain confident in the deck. If I could 3-0 my draft pod (which I needed to do in order to qualify for Day 2), then I’d probably be able to do well.
And there was my draft pod:
233 – Heynen, Paul [NLD] 6 54.66%
234 – Ruel, Antoine [FRA] 6 54.66%
235 – Rascato, Pier Paolo [ITA] 6 54.66%
236 – Ruel, Olivier [FRA] 6 54.66%
237 – Demars, Brian [USA] 6 54.66%
238 – Khodasevich, Egor [RUS] 6 54.66%
239 – Abe, Motoki [JPN] 6 54.66%
240 – Saporito, Dante [BRA] 6 54.66%
Only one familiar name here, but definitely a VERY familiar one.
The draft started pretty well, as I opened Lord of Shatterskull Pass. Forked Bolt and Spawning Breath were next, and I received a surprising Lighthouse Chronologist at pick 7. A couple of See Beyonds made the wheel, putting me most certainly in UR. Pack 2 started well again, with Domestication and Narcolepsy, making me consider a White splash if Hartebeest came soon, as I already had a Prophetic Prism. Pick 4 gave me the 2/5, which I declined as the super bomb Hellion Eruption was in the same pack. Now all I had to do was to pick cards that went well with it, and make my deck as controlling as possible in order to optimize my rare and my mythics. Emrakul’s Hatcher and a couple of Sea Gate Oracles supported that quite well. In pack 3, I opened Kargan Dragonlord (yes, I know: skills) and got passed another Hatcher and two more Oracles, making my deck quite unreal. Not only did I have bombs, I also had enough draws spells and a good enough control deck to be able to draw them most of the time.
9 Island
8 Mountain
1 Kargan Dragonlord
1 Lighthouse Chronologist
2 Guard Gomazoa
4 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Lord of Shatterskull Pass
2 Emrakul’s Hatcher
1 Mnemonic Wall
1 Akoum Boulderfoot
1 Forked Bolt
1 Prophetic Prism
2 Spawning Breath
2 See Beyond
1 Narcolepsy
1 Domestication
1 Dreamstone Hedron
1 Hellion Eruption
Round 6 – Brian Demars (RG)
Turn 2 Kazandu Tuskcaller was pretty annoying, as I didn’t have a Red in my opening hand to play Spawning Breath. I still got it from Sea Gate Oracle and was able to limit the invasion to one elephant. I then did just as planned: played blockers, drew cards, and eventually found rares. The Chronologist gave me 3 extra turns. On the last, I found Lord of Shatterskull Pass, which won the first game. The following one was identical, with my 5/7 active until he drew Raid Bombardment and put me down to two life, forcing the 5/7 to block and die to Might of the Masses. He only had one small guy left on the board, and I cast Hellion Eruption for 4. He didn’t find a small guy in the next turn, nor a burn spell in the two turns after I had played my bomb, and I took the match.
2-0
3-3
Antoine and I had shown each other our decks after deck construction, and it was pretty obvious mine was much better than his. Antoine then offered to scoop to me if we played each other.
“You’ll do better than me. Your draft deck can go 3-0, while mine can’t, and even your block deck is better. And I still owe you one or two concessions,” he said, referring to the time I had conceded to him a PTQ finals so he could discover the PT 11 years ago, or at Worlds in Memphis when I gave him my Standard deck after he lost his, leading me to lose the next round as I wouldn’t have time to rebuild it. I didn’t really mind both times, as I wanted him to play in a PT for the first and as I had three points fewer than him for the second, but he still thought conceding would be right at this point. Considering his poor deck and the fact he would have much less of a chance to go 3-0, it did seem like the best plan, even though I was not very enthusiastic about it.
Eventually, Antoine won his first round as well, and we went to the pairings board together.
Round 7 – Egor Khodasevich GB
Egor had quite a good deck and was able to play removal on my bombs, but in both games I managed to keep him from dealing me damage and eventually cast Eruption for 8 both times. He did cast Eldrazi Conscription on the turn following my 4/4 army’s arrival in game 2, but he couldn’t really attack, and my bomb won me both games.
2-0
4-3
Antoine had won too, and it still seemed like he wanted to concede to me, which made me feel both grateful and ashamed. I told him we could now play as we had no other opponents, but he seemed pretty happy about the course of this draft, as if his only goal from the moment he realized he had an awful deck was to send me to Day 2. As I knew we’d be featured and he wouldn’t concede right away, I wanted to try and have a fair and square win. No matter how generous he was being, I was more stressed before that match that I have been in a while. I didn’t want to win in return for an old favor, and at the same time crush his PT, and the time and the money he had lost on it; I wanted to win with my own strength, and to deserve that spot in Day 2.
Round 8 – Antoine Ruel (Rgb)
“Feature matches for round 9 are: Taisuke Ishi versus Yuuya Watanabe, and Matt Sperling versus Tom Martell.” I guess they wanted undefeated players. All of them are 5-2? Fair enough.
In the first game, Antoine casts Lord of Shatterskull Pass. As he only has three Mountains, I’ve some time before he levels it up to the max, so I dig for an answer but can’t find anything better than an Eruption for 5. It’s not enough, as I put him to 6 life and he can crush my team in one attack. Luckily, I draw Narcolepsy for his big monster and, a couple of turns later, my own Lord of Shatterskull Pass appears for the win.
Game 1 was close, but game 2 was even closer. Once again, Antoine had an early Lord but this time he only had one Mountain, leaving me much more time to find an answer. We both had many guys, and I played Dreamstone Hedron, which Antoine Naturalized. He thought his sideboard card would give him game 2 and help his guy grow to level 5, but he couldn’t really guess my last card in hand was a sideboard card as well. I played Traitorous Instinct on his 6/6, gave it the level up counter it was missing, and swung for the win.
2-0
5-3
“Too bad I didn’t even get a chance to concede”, he said. Usually, when I play against Antoine, they are the worst games possible. We don’t want to win, and we don’t like losing much either. Also, as we have a very similar skill level, it’s almost always luck which determines our matches. This time it was a little different, as he felt a bit disappointed he hadn’t had the opportunity to actually give me that match, while I was happier than ever about beating him, as he had missed Day 2 in a fair way.
Brotherhood is a complex thing!
My pod on Day 2 was pretty tough, as it had mostly people with bad breakers, meaning players who had won their first pod as well:
128 – Honnami, Tomoyuki [JPN] 15 48.06%
129 – Reitbauer, David [AUT] 15 47.39%
130 – Stark, Ben [USA] 15 47.39%
131 – Ruel, Olivier [FRA] 15 47.02%
132 – Vieren, Peter [BEL] 15 46.87%
133 – Saitou, Tomoharu [JPN] 15 46.35%
134 – Stefaniw, Christopher [USA] 15 45.83%
With only seven players in the pod, I knew I couldn’t go 0-3, but this was only half a satisfaction, as I intended to post a minimum of 2-1. Let’s just say I had more chance to pick up a bye.
My first pack revealed the excellent Pestilence Demon, as well as Vendetta and Domestication. From that point I could hardly leave the rare, but I was willing to avoid Blue, so if possible to go BG, an archetype in which the demon could shine. I was soon to realize that Ben Stark, seated to my right, was drafting Green, and he wasn’t passing me anything but White and Black. As Plains and Swamps are the worst combination for any Limited Magic deck (it is the association with the worse synergy by far), I kept on picking Black stuff. Also, I had passed Sphinx-Bone Wand in the second pack, and was hoping for the pack to wheel, so I picked See Beyond and Mnemonic Wall even though I had poor targets. The artifact didn’t come back, and my deck was only decent after pack one, which was quite annoying considering I would probably not have much on the return. I took pick one and two Heat Rays in pack 2, as, even though I didn’t have fixers, the card would have to be good in a Mnemonic Wall control deck. As being aggro wasn’t really an option anymore, I would just try and build the best deck in the long run. I then received a pretty good surprise in pack 3… with Sphinx-Bone Wand. I guess the card and my deck were meant to meet.
Some drawing spells meant the deck could compensate for its absence of fixers, and the 40 cards seemed, if not great, at least pretty decent.
8 Island
8 Swamp
2 Mountain
1 Zulaport Enforcer
1 Cadaver Imp
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Gloomhunter
2 Bala Ged Scorpion
2 Mnemonic Wall
1 Pestilence Demon
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Deprive
3 See Beyond
1 Shrivel
1 Perish the Thought
1 Induce Despair
2 Heat Ray
1 Recurring Insight
1 Sphinx-Bone Wand
Round 9 – David Reitbauer (WGb)
I’ve played David several times (including three times in the swiss rounds of GP: Brighton, in which only tiebreakers prevented a 4th battle in the top 8), and I know he’s quite a good Limited player.
David doesn’t draw a single Green land in a the first game, which means it’s not so close. In the second, he draws his third land on turn 5, and his fourth on turn 8, while I’ve cast my Pestilence Demon… but he still wins! Indeed, the 7/6 doesn’t manage to deal with Mammoth Umbra on an Aura Gnarlid, which already packed a Snake Umbra.
In game 3, I stop his team and play the Demon, which wins on its own. Yay bomb, nice match…
2-1
6-3
Round 10 – Tomoharu Saito (RB)
Another non-feature match, but we still had so many spectators watching, and both games were so good that it still tasted like it. Removal after removal, we kill everything we see in twenty minutes, which is a lot when you play as quickly as Saito and I. Still, two things give me the advantage. First, his removal may be excellent, but most of the spells have “non-black” in the text box. You can have another look on my decklist and you’ll understand he didn’t have many better options than playing Corpsehatch on Mnemonic Wall at some point. It ended up with my Imp bringing back the 0/4 and a Heat Ray, which killed an Ulamog’s Crusher. This is when we reached the point where we had more removal than guys, and our life totals were 17 to 1 in my favor due to an unlikely early beating. At some point, while I had been holding Inquisition of Kozilek until I could draw a guy, I actually found my Wand and play the Inquisition for the win. I guess it can be a decisive card in the late game after all.
In between games, I’m about to sideboard out Ulamog. I mean, both games were as long as could be, but and I still had only 9 mana at the end. That’s when I remember having Ulamog is what made me pick Gloomhunter over Keening Stone pack 3 pick 4. I already had enough win conditions, and facing the artifact would mean my opponent would probably Time Walk himself for 3 or 4 turns before realizing he can’t deck me. In game 2 I had my Wand on turn 8, and managed to play enough instants and sorceries to race Skeletal Wurm.
At the end of the best Limited match I had played in a while, Saito showed me the Keening Stone he had brought in, and I showed him Ulamog. We laughed, wished each other good luck, and went for the final Limited match.
2-0
7-3
Round 11 – Ben Stark (Ugr)
In game 1 I stop his beating by killing Broodwarden, but I am only on 9 life while facing a lot of tokens. At least I’ve nine lands and Ulamog, so I have a winning plan. I draw my tenth land and pass. Ben then draws a second Broodwarden and put me down to 3. A land or removal spell should win the game, while a creature would buy one more turn. I draw… Deprive.
In game 2 I take a couple of mulligans on the play but open with Gloomhunter and Bala Ged Scorpion, while Perish the Thought shows me he has kept an excellent hand, which happens to be very Blue, with no Islands. If he doesn’t play an Island here, I’ve good chance at winning this, as I’ve a counter back up. He draws Island, casts Frostwind Invoker, and forces me to play my last card in hand, Deprive. I then attack for four, put him on ten and look with great hope at my last draw: Recurring Insight. With five lands on the board and four cards in his hand, the card will most probably win this if I can cast it quickly. He plays another guy, I need land or removal and draw: Induce Despair. Ouch, no problem, next turn should still be okay. Heat Ray? No Red mana, sir. I eventually get that land one turn too late, and end up one mana from winning that game.
0-2
7-4
It did feel good to play six straight rounds of draft. Man, I miss one-format Pro Tours. I don’t remember who I said that to after my match, but he answered thusly:
“You wouldn’t say that if this was Amsterdam.”
Why? What is Amsterdam?
“M11 Draft and Extended.”
Oh my god. Unbelievable.
When I bet a few months ago that there’d be an M11 draft PT and no more instants in Magic in 2010, it was actually a joke. I won’t judge until I see the actual spoiler list, but it does sound like the most dramatic news I’ve heard since damage on the stack and a Pro Tour being removed. I understand M10 sold well, and it answers to an economical logic to organize GPs in the format, even if it is awful for players. But for a PT? Seriously?
I’ll stop there. I haven’t seen the full set yet, and will wait another few months before talking about other 95% of what I am thinking about this idea… or, hopefully, I’ll just be wrong.
And now back to the Block portion.
Round 12 – John Kolos (Eldrazi Green)
In game 1 he has a couple of All is Dusts, which is too much for me to handle.
In
2 Deprive
1 Forked Bolt
3 Spell Pierce
1 Unified Will
1 Vapor Snare
Out
1 Staggershock
1 Bestial Menace
1 See Beyond
2 Flame Slash
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Beastmaster Ascension
1 Emrakul’s Hatcher
In game 2 I don’t draw a thing, can’t deal with a turn 2 Cobra, and only manage to put him down to 5 because he doesn’t do much either, but at some point he plays a pair of Pelakka Wurms while I still don’t do a thing, and the party is over.
0-2
7-5
Round 13 – Samuele Estratti (Mono red)
He misses a third land drop on turn 2 in game 1, but he goldfishes on games 2 and 3 in which pretty much my most spectacular action is seizing my pen to write 16 when he cracks a fourth fetch land.
In
2 Flame Slash
1 Forked Bolt
2 Jaddi Lifestrider
3 Vapor Snare
Out
3 Unified Will
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Beastmaster Ascension
2 Eldrazi Monument
1-2
7-6
The deck is bad. It is just not stable enough, I keep on having mana problems, which doesn’t even feel like bad luck, and I am facing a few too many Forests. Well, let’s check how everyone is doing with the deck. Jérémy? 6-2? Nice! Guillaume? 8-0? You’ve gotta be kidding me!
Okay, so the deck isn’t so bad. Come on, let’s win the last three for money!
Round 14 – Ludvig Londos (Eldrazi Green)
Turn 1: Forest, Ancient Stirrings. HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Stop it! Can’t I play against anything but this deck for a ch… Kozilek’s Predator? Oh, so my counters are dead. Worst match-up possible. I don’t do anything to bother him in two games, except for a Deprive in game 2. Not even close to enough.
In
2 Deprive
3 Spell Pierce
2 Vapor Snare
Out
1 Staggershock
1 Bestial Menace
1 Flame Slash
1 Sea Gate Oracle
3 Unified Will
0-2
7-7
Round 15 – Kenneth Ellis (UW)
I’m not battling for money anymore, but a pair of wins will give me a pro point, which I’ll be trying to fight for. Also, I’m glad Guillaume has remained undefeated with the deck and is now in the Top 8, but I’ll try and avoid a drop at 2-7 with the deck which may end up winning the PT.
It’s good that I get to face UW again. The deck is over 25% of the field, so it had to happen at some point. I lose the first to Spreading Seas on the deck’s only Mountain, and at least get to die before I have to discard with 6 Red cards in hand.
In
3 Spell Pierce
2 Deprive
1 Unified Will
Out
2 Flame Slash
2 Burst Lightning
1 Staggershock
1 Forked Bolt
In game 2 I show him my perfect draw with a couple of early guys and Beastmaster Ascension for a turn 5 kill.
In game 3, things get complicated again as I must take a triple mulligan. I eventually keep a one-lander and on turn 2 I’m about to scoop when my deck gives me a second Island. Then I am about to scoop again, but Khalni Garden is on top, and the game can begin. Awakening Zone touches the ground, and he races it with Gideon and Celestial Colonnade. He could sit quietly behind the White Planeswalker and wait, but he is a little careless (which is totally understandable, judging how much control he has on the game), and three counters in two turns allow me to resolve Beastmaster Ascension, and keep him from destroying it. Two attacks later, my tokens finish the job one turn before I die.
2-1
8-7
Round 16 – Ben Lundquist (Mono Red)
My opening hand gives me four removal spells and two lands. I look at Ben and ask him.
“Are you playing Control?”
“Maybe.”
“Aggro?”
(Smiling) “Maybe…”
Aggro…? I do feel like Ben always plays aggro when we play each other. I keep.
Mountain, Goblin Guide? Yes!
I stop the beating pretty quickly, but his burn puts me down to 4, and he only needs to find a land in order to finish me with Searing Blaze. He does not do so for two turns, and I take the first.
In
2 Flame Slash
1 Forked Bolt
2 Jaddi Lifestrider
3 Vapor Snare
Out
3 Unified Will
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Beastmaster Ascension
2 Eldrazi Monument
In game 2 he opens with a pair of Bushwhackers, forcing me to shoot one right away. A 7/1 token from his Shrine puts me to 7, but Jaddi Lifestrider puts me back on 13. When the 2/8 came into play, I chose to tap it in order to gain an extra two life when his combo would have finished me right away. It was far from sure two life would make the difference, but as he had already used two of the 1/1s, I felt more threatened by burn at that point. In the end he didn’t have it, and I ended up taking the game and the match a few turns later.
2-0
9-7
At some point I asked Ben, who went 3-7 in Block, how good his deck choice was in his opinion, as my matchups over the weekend made me regret very deeply not running Antoine’s Red-splash-Blue deck. With so many Red decks in the field, I would have felt pretty confident with it, as its only bad matchup — UW — wasn’t even so bad.
“Seven of my opponents played Kor Firewalker.”
To be honest, even though Guillaume made Top 8 with the deck, I think it was bad in this field. Was it our misinterpretation of the format that led us to think we wouldn’t run into many Forests? Or was it Green mages misinterpretation of the format that made them think they would beat Mono Red?
Probably a little of both, and having at least Tajuru Preserver in the sideboard for the Green Eldrazi matchup would definitely have helped a lot.
Still, now that this tournament is over, I’d like to say congrats to PV and Guillaume. PV has been one of the five best players in the world for a few years now (if not the best), and it is more than deserved that he eventually won a PT. Guillaume has been a very good player for quite a while, as well as someone I appreciate a lot. Guillaume, you may have been extremely lucky going 8-0 with that crap deck of ours, but I’m still very happy that you had such a good result.
One more word: thanks to Antoine for being willing to throw away his tournament for me, which I’m glad he didn’t have to do, but it still means a lot to me when I know how important that event was for him.
And one last thing. This weekend, I made it into first place in the list of lifetime pro points earned. I wish I could have done it after a better result, but I guess it suits me. I’m not Kai Budde, nor John Finkel, and I will never be. I don’t add pro points to my total 25 by 25 or 32 by 32 like they used to do. I’m standing on top of this list, not because my skills have ever been close to them, but because I dedicated myself to the game for much longer and tried harder than they did. Am I the best Magic player ever? Not even close. Being top 10 or 20 would be enough to make me happy.
The reason I broke this record last weekend is because of my investment in the game. And being first place in “lifetime self investment and passion for the game” may not be as cool as a “best player ever” epithet, but it still means a lot to me. And I’d like to thank all the people who make the game what it is, the people creating it as well as the friends I’ve met through the game, and you who are reading my articles… all the people who’ve been sharing that same passion for 14 years now. I owe this to you, so thank you!
Oli