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Reflecting Ruel – Winning the Lottery: A Grand Prix: Brighton Report

Make plans to join us at SCG 5K Dallas!
Friday, August 14th – Olivier Ruel arrived at Grand Prix: Brighton with little fire in his belly for the tournament. M10 Sealed is not popular, and Oli knew it. However, with a modicum of luck, he powered through both days of competition and won the whole thing! This is his story…

Saying I didn’t want to go to Brighton would be an understatement. The cheapest Grand Prix of the Year (beside Paris) would run what seemed to be the worst format ever seen at competitive level, and therefore I didn’t want to make the short trip. In the week before the event, I had played many sealed decks and drafts, and my average number of wins corresponded to the number of bombs I opened.

Alara Reborn and its gold cards had managed to make an interesting draft format awful, and its cascade spells had the same effect on a Block Constructed Pro Tour. And now M10, its new rules, and its portal-like creatures is becoming the new Limited reference? It can’t be serious.

I mean, I like M10. It brings very interesting cards to Constructed, and it’s even fun to draft, but it is absolutely unplayable at competitive level! It has far fewer tricks than any other Limited format, and the playing options are extremely limited. The draft in itself is interesting, but the difference between the top range cards and the average commons, and the fact that there are so many bombs, make the format rare and uncommon dependant.

In Sealed Deck, it’s even worse. Sealed Deck is, I think, the most skill intensive individual format in Magic. It’s true that 10% of the decks are awful, but most decks have a strong point (bombs, removals, curve, stability, evasion creatures), and it’s your job to find it so you can build your deck around it.

At Pro Tours and Grands Prix, I win about 60% of my matches in Constructed and Draft, and about 70% of my Sealed matches. On Magic Online, I’ve faced many newcomers to the game, players who were just joining queues to discover M10 and have fun, and/or Ornithopter/Holy Strength worshipers. The field was far less competitive than what a GP Day 1 starting on three byes would be, but I still I went 11-9, losing mostly to rares, and winning against low-level players when my rares would overwhelm theirs. It was as disturbing as predictable, but in M10 Sealed, synergy didn’t seem to matter much, and most of the time whoever plays the best card in the game would win.

Manu did try and motivate me to go, repeating the mantra that M10 cards were “very clever,” but what actually made me decide to go was the $500 appearance fee I would get just by showing up. And as Manu said, there were complex cards in the format. Take Griffin Sentinel, for instance:

“Griffin Sentinel is very clever. It can and attack and block in the same turn. And it can block flyers.”

So, on Saturday morning I left France at 4am, along with my super pals Manu B, Youssef Younes, Guillaume Matignon, and Vincent the Driver, the only guy in the group I didn’t know.

After 5 hours of travel, including two hours on a ferry boat, we arrive on the site on time for a great day of fun. Oh, and by the way, talking about the ferry, it inspired Manu to tell one of his finest jokes ever: “Guillaume, one week ago you played Faeries at your National championships and now we’re on a ferry!” And we all laughed. The audience gets more receptive to jokes when sleepless at 5am. [Gotta salute that stinker… – Craig, amused.]

So, back at the site I visit the room where we’ll play, and the 759 players I will be competing with this weekend. There were lots of pros (Nakamura, Saito, Nassif, Lévy, Bucher, Thompson, Juza, Thaler, Summersberger, Sadin, Paulo, etc.), but none of the new Hall of Famers, as Kamiel Cornelissen, Frank Karsten, and Antoine hadn’t made the trip.

Rich Hagon came to interview me later that day to ask me about Antoine’s reaction after his nomination, so I decided to give him a call instead of speaking on his behalf.

“Hmm…?”
“Good morning Toutoune! Rich Hagon wants to know how you felt when they announced your induction to the Hall of Fame!”
“Hmm… What time is it…?”
“4:30pm. About time to wake up. So?”
“Hmm… Very happy, proud, relieved… and tired. Can I go back to bed?”
“Sure! Goodnight Toutoune!”

*SPOILER ALERT*

“Oh, are you still undefeated?”
“Yeah, I just beat Shuhei!”

*END OF SPOILER*

We’ll get back to that later. Before that, I will talk about my deck construction of course, but I’d first like to say a word about Antoine and his Hall of Fame nomination.

Antoine and I started playing Magic together in the summer of 1995. I’ve spent more than half my life playing this game with him. I have witnessed, more than anyone else, his dedication to the game, his passion, and his skills, which are the best in our family. Antoine is both my brother and my best friend, and seeing him inducted in the Hall of Fame, even though it wasn’t much of a surprise, was a fantastic piece of news.

When the Hall of Fame was created, I was so disappointed Antoine and I were not on the same ballot. In our first years of competitive Magic, people would never differentiate between us, and we would compete to try and be distinguished as individuals. Even when we started doing well, it was mostly as a team (a win in GP: Cannes ’00 and Team Challenge ’00, along with our friend Florent Jeudon), and the day Antoine eventually won an individual Grand Prix (Porto ’01) was after he beat me in the finals. A few years later, we were eventually acknowledged as individual players, and it took us a lot of time to shine on the same stage again. It was in PT: Honolulu ’05. After many years on the gravy train, we were eventually able to compete together on the highest stage. When the Top 8 was announced, we knew Antoine had about 50% chance to make it.

“And in eighth place… from France…”

We never heard the end of the announcement. We were surrounded by our best friends. There was so much noise and happiness around us, it was like the time had stopped for a few minutes. Those few minutes of eternity were the best moments in my Magic life; no, they were actually the best moments in my entire life, as they were the greatest accomplishment we could dream of. While a few years before we were struggling for individual acknowledgement, there was nothing as good as being rewarded as a pair.

In Rome, Antoine will achieve his best individual accomplishment, alongside winning a Pro Tour and casting a Ranger of Eos. It’s also be our best team accomplishment, as we will both be wearing a ring.

Antoine, if you read these lines – and I will make sure you do – thanks a lot for those amazing 15 years of playing and travelling together, and congratulations on this fantastic and well-deserved accolade!

Back to the tournament… here’s the card pool I opened:

Artifacts:

Angel’s Feather
Gorgon Flail

Gorgon’s Flail is amazing with pingers, but still excellent on its own; it is very likely to make it to the deck.

White:

Stormfront Pegasus
Silvercoat Lion
Veteran Armorsmith
Veteran Swordsmith
Palace Guard
Griffin Sentinel
Razorfoot Griffin
Captain of the Watch

Harm’s Way
2 Holy Strength
Righteousness
Glorious Charge
Solemn Offering
Tempest of Light
Angel’s Mercy

Lots of good creatures, including Captain of the Watch, and another MVP with the splashable Harm’s Way, but a little short on playables.

Blue:

Merfolk Looter
Sage Owl
Alluring Siren
Coral Merfolk
Wall of Frost
Horned Turtle
Wind Drake
Air Elemental
Djinn of Wishes
Serpent of the Endless Sea

2 Unsummon
Time Scour
Telepathy
Jump
Ponder
Negate
Ice Cage
Disorient
Mind Control

Not many good cards, but the best uncommon (Mind Control), maybe the best common (Merfolk Looter), and several other top cards (Air Elemental, Djinn of Wishes). I must play Blue, and it won’t be with White as the deck would be very short on playables.

Black:

Child of Night
Cemetery Reaper
Vampire Aristocrat
2 Warpath Ghoul
Kelinore Bat
Looming Shade
Bog Wraith
Zombie Goliath
Nightmare

Duress
Unholy Strength
Soul Bleed
Assassinate
Diabolic Tutor
2 Tendrils of Corruption
Consume Spirit

Niiiice. I needed a dominant color to go along with my Blue and what do I have? Nightmare, double Tendrils, Consume Spirit, Cemetery Reaper, Diabolic Tutor to search for all the bombs, and lots of playables to fit around those. Just perfect.

Red:

Sparkmage Apprentice
Fiery Hellhound
Viashino Spearhunter
Prodigal Pyromancer
Goblin Artillery
Berserkers of Blood Ridge
Siege-Gang Commander

Burning Inquiry
Kindled Fury
Ignite Disorder
Shatter
Trumpet Blast
Seismic Strike

One of the top cards in the expansion (Siege-gang), and two other excellent cards (Pyromancer and Artillery) which are even better combined with Gorgon Flail. But this color’s a little short on playables, in particular when Blue and Black seem so strong, and when two of those three cards cost double Red.

Green:

Llanowar Elves
Deadly Recluse
Runeclaw Bear
Elvish Visionary
Elvish Archdruid
Awakener Druid
Borderland Ranger
Emerald Onyx
Giant Spider
Stampeding Rhino

Fog
Naturalize
Oakenform
Overrun
Bountiful Harvest

Many good cards, Overrun, but nothing here to make me consider not playing the very obvious UB.

Let’s be honest… I am extremely lucky. This card pool must be in the top 5% of what you can open. I could even make Day 2 with my sideboard, but here, I’ll take every single loss as a personal failure. That deck just shouldn’t lose; it has bombs, it has infinite ways to deal with your opponents’ top cards, and even when my start is bad, cards like Mind Control and Tendrils can turn the tables in an instant.

11 Swamp
7 Island

1 Merfolk Looter
1 Child of Night
1 Looming Shade
1 Wind Drake
1 Kelinore Bat
2 Warpath Ghoul
1 Bog Wraith
1 Air Elemental
1 Djinn of Wishes
1 Nightmare
1 Ponder
1 Duress
1 Ice Cage
1 Negate
1 Gorgon Flail
1 Assassinate
2 Tendrils of Corruption
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Mind Control
1 Consume Spirit

There are two cards I regularly boarded in through Day 1: Coral Merfolk and Unsummon. I would bring in the first against any low curve deck to trade with the first attackers, and the Blue instant against the decks using and abusing auras.

I’m not going to talk for hours about my games, as they were not that interesting. I would only lose the games when my opponents would play bombs and I would not, with the exception being my second game versus Shuhei.

Round 4: Anti Malin 2-1

I beat the World Champion!

Round 5: Matteo Orsini-Jones 2-0

My second round, and my second feature match. Game two is very good, as I can see an interesting 6-spell hand with Duress (including Magma Phoenix, Pyroclasm, and Lightning Bolt), which allows me to play around everything to push him to play his cards when needed, and then play Cemetery Reaper. Then I’m able to kill his Phoenix and remove it for good from the game, and I finish him off with a 4/4 flyer to take the match. It’s a game I could never ever have won without Duress.

Round 6: Thomas Reeves 2-1

I draw my rares two games out of three. He plays Liliana Vess in the second, and doesn’t draw enough lands in the third.

Round 7: Shuhei Nakamura 2-1

I beat the Player of the Year!

My third feature match, against Shuhei, whom I’ve now beaten for the last 4 times we’ve played. He played brilliant Magic in this match, which allowed him to win an impossible game 2, but my deck is just too strong for him to stand a chance in game 3. Even though Shuhei’s deck is still good, he won’t make it to Day 2 as he’ll lose the next two.

Flash news: Shuhei Nakamura is human; he too can lose at Magic.

Round 8: David Reitbauer 0-2

He has double Garruk when I draw badly. I don’t know it yet, but we’ll meet again this weekend.

Round 9: André Mosholen 2-0

Once again, my deck is so good than I don’t need any effort to win. I finish Day one in 16th place at 8-1, which was really the minimum I wanted with the deck. Sleeping only one hour before the tournament didn’t affect me much, as M10 is not very complex.

Matignon went 8-1, losing the final round to a double Baneslayer Angel / triple Serra Angel deck. Sweet.

Manu lost the last two and ended up three points from the cut. Not sweet.

Youssef had dropped a while ago. Not sweet.

And what about Vincent the Driver? He advanced to Day 2 thanks to a 7-2 score, and he had even defeated Helmut Summersberger. Quite amazing, I’m very glad for him, but let’s face it… the guy wasn’t even close to the level of a GP Day 2 mage. I guess I’m not the only one in the car who won the lottery. And this is only the beginning of his festival.

At the end of the day we look for a restaurant, and lose Vincent the Driver for a moment. He’s buying postcards. After we explained to him we’re very hungry and want to go for food, he speeds up a bit and then, when we get close to the hotel, he says he must absolutely take a shower. 45 minutes later, after a brief stop at the reception to buy stamps (“Est-ce que you have des timbres?” which could be translated by “Do you avez some stamps?”) we can eventually go for food. As his mastery of Shakespeare’s tongue is quite rudimentary, he asks me to translate the menu. He apparently can’t figure on his own what a “hot pepper steak” is. Fair enough.

When the waiter brings our orders, he displays a steak on a plate in front of Vincent the Driver. He says he didn’t order it, but as it seems to be what he asked for, I try to keep him from sending the steak back to the kitchen. I can’t, as he is absolutely convinced this is not what he ordered.

“You have ordered a steak, right? How did you know it was not the right one?”
“He said it was “taboulé”.”

Short break here… for those of you who don’t know what taboulé is, or should look like, click here.

“Vincent, I doubt what was on your plate was taboulé. I doubt the waiter said taboulé. I doubt he knows what taboulé is. I doubt they serve taboulé here.”
“But he did say “taboulé”.”

For those of you who, like Vincent the Driver, don’t know what a steak should look like, this should help.

A good night of sleep later, Day 2 could begin.

This was my first table for day two:

9 Berkemeier, Chris [DEU] 24 77.77%
10 Tuduri, Ricard [ESP] 24 77.08%
11 Nørgaard, Lasse [DNK] 24 77.08%
12 Reitbauer, David E [AUT] 24 76.38%
13 Kohl, Reinhold [DEU] 24 74.07%
14 Gorski, Michal M [POL] 24 72.42%
15 Cadwallader, Aaron [ENG] 24 72.36%
16 Ruel, Olivier [FRA] 24 72.22%

As Guillaume is in 17th place, we won’t have to play each other in the first three rounds.

The draft starts with maybe the best first pick possible: Chandra Nalaar. As I’m passed White only, I end up playing a WR deck which is heavy White based. As you can see, except for my bomb, it’s not exactly dreamy:

10 Plains
7 Mountain
1 Soul Warden
1 Elite Vanguard
2 White Knight
2 Silvercoat Lion
1 Veteran Armorsmith
1Sparkmage Apprentice
1 Goblin Artillery
1 Griffin Sentinel
1 Rhox Pikemaster
2 Siege Mastodon
1 Righteousness
1 Lightning Bolt
2 Safe Passage
2 Seismic Strike
1 Panic Attack
1 Rod of Ruins
1 Lava Axe
1 Chandra Nalaar

My plan is beat an opponent because I played Chandra twice, and another because of double White Knight, and go 2-1.

By the way, that draft is a good illustration of why I don’t like this format. I pick the rare, then receive a pack with no rare, then one with one rare and one uncommon missing, then 2 uncommons missing, then one rare and two uncommon missing. In these conditions, how can you expect to get any signals?

Round 10: Ricard Tuduri 2-0

Nine years later, I can take revenge for the finals of GP: Valencia in IPA draft. Talking about IPA, I played in a sealed deck online last week and I was lost. So many options, so many tricks, it was the Magic I loved, but I had the feeling that one week of playing M10 had brainwashed me.

Back to the game: I don’t play Chandra once, but Ricard deck and draws are pretty bad, so I take a 9th win in 10 rounds.

Revenge!

Round 11: Aaron Cadwallader 2-1

I draw Chandra in game 1 and 3, and lose game 2. Weee.

Round 12: David Reitbauer 1-2

His deck is the worst I’ve faced this weekend, but I can’t complain much, as going 2-1 with that deck is pretty good. David is pretty good, and as he seems to be quite a nice guy. Oh, and by the way, the only game I won was to Chandra. Obviously.

In the meantime, Guillaume posts a 1-2 after losing a match in which both he and his opponent had two Magma Phoenixes on the board. His opponent played Tendrils on one, and creatures took damage 14 tables from their match.

As I was drafting in pod 1 for my second draft of the day, I knew 2-1 had a chance to make it.

1 Grove, Kevin [NLD] 36 75.46%
2 Stone, Dennis [BEL] 33 74.07%
3 Reitbauer, David E [AUT] 33 71.25%
4 Havlik, Michal [SVK] 31 68.07%
5 Bengtsson, Stefan [SWE] 31 64.15%
6 Samuele, Estratti [ITA] 30 76.85%
7 Menten, Robbert [BEL] 30 76.11%
8 Ruel, Olivier [FRA] 30 75.92%

Not so many familiar faces here, except for my new Nemesis, David, who’s seated on my left.

First pick first pack, I pick Cemetery Reaper in a quite empty booster. In pick two I pick Warpath Ghoul over Seismic Strike, to avoid committing to a second color. Pack three reveals Lightning Bolt, Lightwielder Paladin, Dragon Whelp and Pacifism. As I still hope I can go on a heavy Red based deck, I go with Lightning Bolt, which seems to be the best support card. From now on, I will almost pick Red cards, but David, seated to my left, has taken Strike and the little Dragon, and will go on to make mono Red.

11 Mountain
5 Swamp
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Raging Goblin
2 Jackal Familiar
1 Child of Night
3 Fiery Hellhound
1 Warpath Ghoul
1 Viashino Spearhunter
1 Goblin Artillery
1 Cemetery Reaper
1 Vampire Aristocrat
2 Dragon Whelp
1 Bog Wraith
2 Lightning Elemental
1 Berserkers of Blood Ridge
1 Deathmark
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Seismic Strike
2 Panic Attack

I regret counterdrafting Armored Ascension in pick two, over Goblin Piker. I don’t know what went through my mind, but that mistake costs my deck a lot, as my Jackals are much less efficient with almost no early drops and as two-drops in general would be amazing in my deck. This deck is worse than 1-2… I’ll need a little miracle.

Round 13: Michal Havlik 2-0

I draw well, his deck isn’t fantastic, and I even manage to attack twice with Jackal Hound on turn 3. One more win to go!

Round 14: David Reitbauer 2-1

David has just lost, and his opponent has told me he is mono Red with 4 Dragon Whelp. As that same opponent, Kevin Grove, has also told me he is running 2 himself, that’s a lot of small dragons at the table. After we have both won a Whelp fight, my 2/3 survives in the last game and brings me the win, alongside Cemetery Reaper. I’m in the Top 8…

Round 15: Kevin Grove 1-2

… or maybe not. Top 8 seems to be locked, as the first 8 are playing each other, and as the 9th place player, Arnost Zidek, is 3 points behind, but Kevin wants to play it out to go 15-0. If I lose, I will have to catch over 2% in tiebrakers on the winner of the Arnost match, so I’d better win here.

I don’t.

My deck ends up in the next garbage bin, right where it’s suited. In understand his decision to play out, but I still feel a little mad about it.

And then I check the breakers, I did, after all, just play against a 15-0 guy, when Arnost won over an 11-4 guy. That should make some difference. As my three-time opponent David has won too, I do have a good chance. I go dig in the garbage… I’ll need that deck if I want to write a report.

The Top 8 is announced:

“In first place, with… ”

Yeah who cares, next…

“In second place…”

Next!)

“And in 8th place…”

Please…

“… With 36 points…”

Come on!!

“… The only player who made it with 36 points…”

Stop toying with my nerves if you don’t want trouble, Head Judge. I know where you live.

“… From France… Olivier Ruel!”

!!!

I forgive you, Head Judge!

I forgive you, Kevin Grove!

I forgive you, M10!

(Actually, I won’t go that far.)

I took back 3.5% from Arnost, which means I will do a third draft in the format. No fourth match with David though, as he finished 11th with the same record as me. In the meantime, Vincent the Driver finished 93rd, losing the last one for money, while Matignon 2-4ed on Day 2, and his Fireball/5 Lightning Bolt brilliant mono Red deck couldn’t give him the 2-1 he needed to make it to the Gravy Train.

1 Grove, Kevin [NLD] 45 74.8380%
2 Stone, Dennis [BEL] 37 75.0926%
3 Juza, Martin [CZE] 37 74.7436%
4 Menten, Robbert [BEL] 37 72.7350%
5 Kohl, Reinhold [DEU] 37 70.1852%
6 Dictus, Mark [BEL] 37 67.1708%
7 Jackson, Joseph H [SCO] 37 64.9939%

8 Ruel, Olivier [FRA] 36 75.7407%
9 Zidek, Arnost [CZE] 36 73.2804%

The Top 8 draft goes well for 28 packs. I’ve started with a Fireball, built a solid RB deck around it, but it doesn’t seem good enough to win the whole thing. Until I open pack three, and find… Ignite Disorder. Crap, that’s my third of those already. At least I should have one super bye in the Top 8. And then things go crazy. My next three picks are Siege-Gang Commander, Nightmare, and Doom Blade. My deck is now excellent.

7 Mountain
10 Swamp
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Child of Night
1 Drudge Skeletons
1 Goblin Piker
1 Dread Warlock
1 Vampire Aristocrat
1 Viashino Spearhunter
1 Wall of Fire
1 Howling Banshee
1 Dragon Whelp
1 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Inferno Elemental
1 Nightmare
1 Duress
1 Deathmark
1 Weakness
1 Doom Blade
1 Mind Rot
1 Seismic Strike
1 Rod of Ruin
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Fireball
1 Consume Spirit

Quarter-Finals: Robert Menten 2-0

Robert is playing well, but the best card he plays in the whole match is Giant Spider. That’s not enough when I cast Fireball twice, Siege-Gang, Nightmare, and Dragon Whelp.

Semi-Finals: Mark Dictus 2-1

No revenge for round 15, as Mark has just defeated Kevin. This reminds me of a discussion with Raph Lévy and Gab Nassif, just before the Top 8 started.

Raph: “Your opponent is stupid. Why wouldn’t he concede?”

Gab: “Yeah, now if he’s in the same situation some day, he can be sure his opponent will play out too.”

Raph: “Who cares about that? He doesn’t know Oli; why would he concede? It’s about karma, man! He’s so going to lose his quarters in 10 minutes! The X-0 guy never ever wins the whole thing. He always loses very quickly, and no one remembers he went undefeated.”

And exactly 10 minutes after the quarters started, the crowd applauded as Mark defeated Kevin to advance to the semis. It’s still a pretty amazing job he has done here, and I say that with no irony.

In his Top 8 profile Reinhald Kohl said Baneslayer Angel was the most overrated card in the format. Maybe he wants kids at his local store to open it and pass it to him when he gets back home, but smart Mark Dictus didn’t fall for it and first picked the Angel. Excellent draws allowed me to kill it twice (Disentomb) in the first game (Fireball and Doom Blade), before finishing him off with Siege Gang. In the second game, I killed it twice too, but spent all my resources to do so. In the third game, I played Duress and he revealed a hand with only three spells: Stormfront Pegasus, Blinding Mage, and a spell I don’t remember, but the one I made him discard anyway. As I drew one of my three Ignite Disorders, the game was almost over on turn 3, and Dragon Whelp dealt him 20 damage.

Finals: Martin Juza 2-0

Martin and I decided to show each other our decks if we both made it to the finals, to avoid scouting and make things fair. See for yourself what he revealed to me, and you’ll understand I didn’t consider myself a favorite going into the finals.

In the first game he drew awfully, in the second was barely better, but I finished him off with Fireball one turn before he could play Sleep for the win.

I was Grand Prix: Brighton champion!

10 Pro points, $2400 (split, with 500 for Arnost before the Top 8 was announced, and 600 with Martin before the finals). I now had money and motivation to go to Bangkok and Niigata. I gave myself 48 hours to decide whether I’d go to those tournaments.

Right after the finals and on the way back, I felt pretty weird. I was very happy, but something was missing. Those 10 points and $24000 were a blessing, and I had another trophy to display at home, but something was different from the previous times I had won.

When I won along with Antoine and Flo in Cannes, and when I won in Bologna, Bilbao, and Helsinki, I felt proud because I knew I had played well and deserved a good result.

Pride.

That’s what was missing.

This time, I merely felt I had won the lottery. I had not been the best of the 760 players this weekend, only the best of the 5% luckiest. It still felt good, but a little strange. I’d won a Grand Prix in Portal Limited.

By 4am, as we boarded our ferry home, I had already made my decision. Manu B and Guillaume were sleeping, Youssef wouldn’t stop talking, Vincent the Driver was driving, and I had decided to attend Bangkok and Niigata, so I would get a chance to be Level 8, and maybe to catch up with Kai Budde on lifetime pro points, as he’s only 9 points ahead.

But the trip wouldn’t end without one last Vincent the Driver “special.”

Guillaume: “Pay attention! We’re way too close to that truck, and it’s slowing down.”

Vincent the Driver: “Yeah yeah, don’t worry. Things are under control.”

Guillaume: “Please brake now!”

And then, two minutes later:

Vincent the Driver: “I’m a pretty good driver. The only two things I have trouble with are respecting the speed limitations and the legal distance between vehicles.”

Guillaume: “So, the only things that actually matter, right?”

This report is now coming to an end. While writing the lines above, I’ve been watching Manu lose in an Online release event to another member of the Unholy Sect of Ornithopter Worshippers. His words of joy cheer me up, and I understand that I’ve made the right decision in buying my plane tickets to Bangkok and Niigata.

After all, while it may be M10, it’s still Magic.

I love this game.
I love this game.
I love this game.
I love this game.
I love this game.
I love this game.
I love this game.
I love this game.
I love this game.
I love this game.
I love this game.
I love this game.
I love this game.
I love this game.
I love this game.
I love this game.
I love this game.
I love this game.
I love this game.

Until next week!

Oli