Seated in 7th place at the beginning of the day, I need 4-1-1, possibly 4-2, to advance to Top 8. As I still don’t know exactly how good my Standard deck is, and as my current draft deck is great, my plan clearly is to win the final two Limited rounds in the tournament.
ROUND 8: Guillaume Matignon (Grixis)
Sometimes, you arrive at the table and you know you’re going to win. I like Guillaume a lot, and I respect him both as a person and as a player… But I don’t lose to Guillaume. Ever.
In the first game, he takes the control and kills all my guys in combat. As I draw three more lands than him, he has one guy and two spells in reserve. But I don’t panic. I’m actually pretty confident.
“I’ve a plan, Guillaume. I’m going to draw one of my bombs, and you won’t have an answer.”
I draw Spellbound Dragon and he can’t kill it, and I take the first game. Guillaume is not happy, which I can understand. In the second game he takes a mulligan and has quite a slow draw. I play Goblin Razerunners on turn 4 and he already can’t attack. When I add Vein Drinker to the board, it puts an end to the game and we can go for breakfast.
7-1
ROUND 9: François Lemaître (UWGR)
In the first game he doesn’t do much besides playing lands of 4 different colors, and I’m wondering what he’s doing here. I’ll figure from game 2 his deck is actually really good. However, he seems to be under a lot of pressure, and makes a lot of mistakes in that second game.
When Scourglass cleans my board, he takes a clear advantage. At some point, after a few mistakes of his, I’m still in the game without exactly knowing why. We both have a lot of lands, I also have a Borderpost, and he owns the only guy on the board: Qasali Pridemage. Life totals are 16-1 for him when I draw Drag Down. I pass and kill his guy during his upkeep. Too focused on his next draw, he doesn’t sacrifice it to destroy my artifact. He draws and plays Jungle Weaver, which I answer by drawing Grixis Grimblade. Nice top deck, but which would have been pretty useless if he had destroyed my borderpost when he could. I draw Absorb Vis and go back to 5 life, a total at which I feel a little better. On his next turn, he draws Vengeful Rebirth and targets Qasali Pridemage, as he has forgotten I have just gained life. Unfortunately, despite a few more turns of struggling, I end up losing this game.
As the matchup is pretty slow, and as I have seen many flyers and artifacts in his deck, I choose to add a fourth color to the deck. I now have Firevein Borderpost, Grixis Panorama, Mistvein Borderpost, Jhessian Lookout, Forest, Island, and Absorb Vis to cast my splash cards: Filigree Fracture, Deadshot Minotaur, Spellbound Dragon, and Deny Reality. It may make my deck less stable, but it should still be able to handle that, and I feel like I need that little risk to take on the match. I keep an opening hand with 2 Swamp, Forest, Filigree Fracture, and a mix of Red and Black cards. The game seems tense until I find a Mountain on turn 4. I can now start the beating; he is not drawing well, and his first artifact, Courier’s Capsule, ends up being destroyed by the cantrip Disenchant. On turn 9 I swing for the win, and take my eighth win in nine matches. I now have one foot in the Top 8.
8-1
Back to Standard. In the first round I can play either against my best matchup (Wafo, 5CC), my worst (Hamon, Faeries), or some another good matchup, some unknown guy who has won the LCQ (Mongilardi, GB Elves).
1 Hamon, Yann vs. Ruel, Olivier
Well, I guess I couldn’t avoid Faeries for two days.
ROUND 10: Yann Hamon (Faeries)
For those of you who have never heard of Yann, he has a PT Top 8, 2 GP wins, and he’s eligible for the Hall of Fame this year. Therefore, he’s no exactly the guy you want to face using your deck’s worst matchup.
In the first game, despite losing the dice roll, I manage to resolve a turn 2 Howling Mine. I play cantrip artifacts one by one, resolve a Time Walk, and, on the next turn, resolve Tezzeret thanks to Silence. I search for Time Sieve.
I pass on the next turn with six artifacts on the board. At the end of my turn, he plays Mistbind Clique, which I counter and bounce his land. He takes the mana, animates Mutavault, and plays Peppersmoke on it to draw a card. I’m not sure I’ve enough fuel to go off, but as he has only one mana left, this seems to be a one time opportunity. I sac everything but a Borderpost. On my turn I play another post, untap them both, and cast Open the Vault with the exact mana necessary. Kaleidostone and Elsewhere Flask give me two cards: Open the Vaults and Kaleidostone. I take another turn, search for Flask with Tezzeret and manage to get just enough artifacts for another extra turn. My next Open the Vault is lethal, as it gives me 4 draws, and an extra turn which doesn’t require scarifying my Howling Mine. The first four draws reveal Time Warp and a second Tezzeret, which I play on the next turn, using the Planeswalker to untap two lands, and my next attack phase is lethal.
After boarding, though, things get more complicated, as Yann boards in 4 Thoughtseize and 4 Countersquall. Under these conditions, I’m totally unable to develop my game. In game 2 I just don’t draw anything besides a Thoughseized Howling Mine, while in game 3 he counters and forces me to discard anything he could possibly fear. More important, a turn 3 Vendilion Clique gives him some pressure and improves the quality of Spellstutter Sprite. Not much I can do here. I’ll have to win two of the next three.
8-2
ROUND 11: Yohan Allouche (Blightning)
“He’s running Wild Ricochet.” That warning comes from my brother Antoine, standing next to the pairing board. Antoine may have dropped after a disappointing 3-3 in draft, but he’s still going to do something good today and make me win a game.
In the first, I draw nothing but lands and die very quickly. In game 2, though, I resolve an early Howling Mine and plan to play a Time Warp when I remember my brother’s wise words. I cast a pair of artifacts and pass instead. Losing patience, Yo plays Demigod of Revenge and swings in, so I must kill him now. This is not exactly a problem with my Howling Mine and double Time Walk hand. At the end of the match, Yo tells me he did have Ricochet in hand. Thanks Antoine!
I open the third game with Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender and Vedalken Outlander, but then I don’t do anything and he blasts me out before I can actually make a move. I’ll need a perfect record going forward to hope for a 6th National’s Top 8.
8-3
The pairings are posted, and it seems pretty clear I’ll make it if I can win the last two, while many x-3 players are already out. I took notes on all the decks I could play again in the next round, and there are 60% Five-Color Control. Maybe I will eventually face one. In the meantime, I must absolutely avoid Lous Deltour playing Faeries.
ROUND 11: Julien Hadjadj (Blightning)
I don’t draw a thing game 1, and in game 2 I’ve a pair of Howling Mines on the board, but the only other three spells I drew in the game are Time Warps. He has five mana open, and I can’t afford the risk to play around Ricochet and go for Time Warp. The smile on his face doesn’t leave much of a doubt on what’s coming next. Two turns later, he attacks for the win and I extend my hand, which he refuses. He fills the slip: 2-0 for me.
“I’m pretty sure I can’t make it anyway. I just wanted to kick your ass,” he said.
After making sure he wanted to do this, I signed the slip. I had lost three straight rounds, but I was still in contention. It felt really weird as I went from the “out of the tournament” state of mind to a strange feeling mix of guilt and gratitude. I absolutely had to win the last one now.
ROUND 12: Christophe Haim (Elementals)
One minute before the tournament started, when I was still wondering which of my 61 cards I would cut, Christophe had another problem. When the judge arrived at the table to collect his list, he realized both his deck and his list had only 55 cards.
“You have two minutes to find five cards before you get a game loss.”
“Give me one sec… Yeah I think I’m missing lands, whatever, bring me one basic land of each.”
With his fantasist manabase, Christophe had made it this far, and we’d be playing for Top 8, just like 8 years ago. He had beat me and made it to the National team that time, but considering the matchup, I should be able to take revenge.
I thought Five-Color Control was my best matchup. I mean, winning about 90% of my game 1s and 80% after boarding is not such a common thing in Constructed. Well, Elementals is about as good for me, but it doesn’t have a sideboard. Both games went exactly the same, I played a pair of Silences in the early turns, and comboed off before he could cast any significant thread.
Even though the top tables had about 50% Five-Color Control, the players were well prepared for it, and none of the Quick n ‘Toast lists actually made the cut. I saw them all lose their matches to Faeries and Blightning, and I started doing the math. Top 8 would be:
Yann Hamon (Faeries)
Guillaume Matignon (Faeries)
Louis Deltour (Faeries)
Antoine Ménard (Blightning)
Yohan Allouche (Blightning)
Gilles Mongilardi (GB Elves)
Camille-Olivier Albert (Jund Aggro)
And me. As a result, when the field, even in the top tables, was about 40% good matchups, 50% 50/50, and 10% bad matchups, the Top 8 will be 3 bad matchups and 4 close ones.
I go and ask the Head Judge if the pairings are random or the classic 1-8, 4-5, 3-6, 2-7, in which case I would play versus Faeries in the quarters. He has no idea. All he knows is the games will be best of three. Fair enough. While we’re taking the Top 8 pictures, Antoine Ménard tells me he actually read on the player package it will be best of five. We go check with the Head Judge, and he confirms these. One last question, will we have the decklist? He doesn’t know either.
Twenty minutes later, he figured out everything. Best of five, decklists available, and crossed pairings. Ouch… best of five versus Faeries, couldn’t be worse. And yes, we can see the decklists. So, what does he have?
4 Vendilion Clique, 3 Thoughtseize maindeck, plus 3 Glen Elendra Archmage and 1 Thoughtseize in the sideboard. It definitely can’t be worse. My only hope is the name of my opponent.
Quarterfinals: Guillaume Matignon (Faeries)
I manage to take the first game thanks to an early Howling Mine. The matchup becomes pretty easy from then. You should actually win most games when you are able to resolve an early Howling Mine. In that first game, I try and take advantage of the new M10 rules. Every time I play a spell, I tap extra mana to play it, and announce how I pay for it. Then, if he plays Broken Ambitions and hasn’t noticed I have mana floating, I’ll be able to pay. Stupid, right? But that’s the kind of thing those new M10 rules end up encouraging. It could have worked the first time, but if it didn’t work for the whole first game, I’ll stop for that match.
1-0
In the second game I also managed to resolve a Howling Mine, but I keep on drawing bad cards. I play Cryptic Command every time I’ve an opening to prevent him from having five lands, but at some point he does. Luckily, he doesn’t have Archmage yet, so I’m still in a good position. However, despite drawing lots of cards I don’t draw anything relevant for a while, and he ends up resolving his 2/2.
I still have a shot at going off, as I force him to counter a spell. But he still has a Blue open and I only have one relevant spell in hand, Tezzeret. I cast it, and he surprisingly lets it resolve. Therefore, I go for Time Sieve and take an extra turn. I will have to draw two spells to counter in two draws to win. I find enough can trip artifacts to take another turn, and my hand on the following turn is Silence-Open the Vault. I play the first.
“You really think I’m an idiot don’t you”? He says.
“Well, no offense, but you being stupid is my only out.”
He counters Open the Vault and equalizes.
1-1
In the third game, once again, I resolve Howling Mine while he’s having trouble finding his Archmage. After I’ve resolved a second Howling Mine, I play Silence, intending to resolve Time Warp. In response, Guillaume makes a big mistake and taps out for Scion of Oona. Just like Malo yesterday, Guillaume’s instinct told him to play a spell in response to an Orim’s Chant-like effect, which would have been the right call against any other type of combo deck. I was able to replay one turn, and my hand was Time Sieve, with already 3 artifacts on the board. I had good chance to go off from then, but my draw step gave me a pair of Islands and a Borderpost. Guillaume drew, on his next turn, Glen Elendra Archmage, and that was game. My next draw steps gave me Time Warp, Kaleidostone, and Open the Vault, one turn too late, as he was able to counter twice and had enough damage to kill me on his following turn. Well, I did try to play Silence on his next turn, but he seemed to know the difference between the M10 rare and Orim’s Chant with kicker.
1-2
Now I was in big trouble, despite three good fights against three bad draws, I had only been able to take one game. Sad, as I could have been 3-0 if he wasn’t running Archmage.
What had to happen eventually did. I took two mulligans and didn’t play a spell in the fourth game. I didn’t even feel frustrated about it, as it was a fair balance with my draws so far in this match. Also, Guillaume is definitely the player in the Top 8 to whom I didn’t mind losing.
1-3
There would not be a 5th National team for my 6th Top 8, but I had lost a bad matchup to a friend in a Top 8, a Top 8 in which I wouldn’t have joined without Julien’s concession earlier on, so I was pretty satisfied with my tournament overall.
In the end, the tournament was won by Gilles Mongilardi, a totally unknown player before the tournament, who actually qualified in the last open. Since the start of that qualifier, he posted a 21-1 record to claim the crown, which forces admiration. I’ll keep an eye on him at my next tournaments, and I know I won’t be the only one. The team is completed by Antoine Ménard and Guillaume Matignon, who have about 35 PT appearances. They are two very solid players, and nice guys too, and I’m pretty sure the French team will be stronger this year than it was in Memphis. But whether they’re an underdog or a true outsider will mostly depend on Gilles Mongilardi’s true level.
To conclude this tournament report, I’ll talk a bit about the deck I ran this weekend.
Time Sieve is a very fun deck, the one I’ve been enjoying to play the most in a while. Now how good is it? And is it really a good choice for your tournaments? That totally depends on the field you’re expecting. Here are, more or less, your odds to win against the most popular decks in the field:
Five-Color Control: 85%
If they don’t play Austere Command, they almost can’t win game 1. If they don’t have sideboard Glen Elendra Archmage, it’s very hard for them. Your plan is just to resolve a Howling Mine, or lots of artifacts including one Time Sieve, which shouldn’t be very easy for them to counter. Then it takes so much time, but at some point, you are able to force them to counter spells and tap their mana, after which you sac your artifacts, play again, and go off. Otherwise you can just wait for them to try and cast Broodmate or Ultimatum, pretty much their only chance to win. You shouldn’t care much, and you should be able to kill them on the following turn.
Blightning: 50%
A close match up which should go to the player winning the dice roll, as both decks are about as fast. After board, the pro Red guys help a lot, but possible Wild Ricochets are a pain.
Faeries: 30%
Can you resolve Howling Mine? The answer to that question will determine the result of each game. In the first game, as they don’t usually know what you’re playing, they can choose to play Bitterblossom on the play and not keep the mana to counter. Also, if you can resolve an early Time Sieve, they won’t be able to move too much otherwise they will expose to an end of turn “Time Walk” effect. If they can put some pressure on you, you’re supposed to die anyway, so don’t even think about keeping Lullabies in. It’s a mistake I’ve made in the past, and it penalized me.
Elves combo: 50%
The version I’ve played in Aix was over 50%, but I don’t think you actually need Canonist. In a more classic version (see below), he is one turn faster, but you have four Silence, so both decks are about as fast.
GB Elves: 65%
As long as you don’t play several copies of the same artifact in the early game, in order to stay out of Maelstrom Pulse’s reach, you should be fine. Their disruption is a little annoying, but as they’re not too aggressive you should be able to save time with your Fogs and kill them when needed.
Jund Aggro: 50%
A very similar matchup to GB Elves, except that they have Blasts, which are pretty annoying, and push you to play your Fogs and try and go off a little faster.
White Weenie: 75%
You’re faster, and they hate Fogs and Cryptic Command. Quite an easy matchup.
The deck has several strong points:
+ It is only negative versus one deck from the Tier 1 plus Tier 2 decks in Standard
+ Your opponents usually don’t know how to play against you, and therefore misplay
+ You play on your own most of the time, and have a lot of fun.
However, it also has a weak point: it is too dependent on its Howling Mines, and neither Jace Beleren nor Font of Mythos is good enough to replace it. I would run the deck in a field in which I expect Five-Color Control and White aggro decks, but absolutely avoid playing it if Five-Color Control is not popular, and especially if Faeries is everywhere.
Here’s the list I would go with if I were to play the deck again:
Until next week!
Oli