Team SPOD @ BoM3 or pirates raiding Annecy

[spirit of the wretch]

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020694.jpg

Once Annecy was announced out team almost completely decided to head there and play what would turn out to be the biggest European Legacy tournament since GP: Lille. So we leave Karlsruhe on Thursday afternoon and head for France. There is an epic road trip story to tell here, but I’ll leave that one to Clemens, as he was directly involved (spoiler alert: intoxication, getting lost and picked up by the cops). I myself drove with Adan and Manuel in an remarkably uneventful trip. We arrive in time, check in, have some food, play Highlander and Manuel and I start to demolish the beer supply. At 4 AM the rest of the crew finally joins us…
On Friday there’s the Alara Reborn Release, which none of us really gives a crap about, and some eight man single elimination queues to win the entry fee for the main events. Long story short: Most of us suck out horribly at these queues and we start hitting the booze and Highlander again. Way better than watching the Ichorid player across you masturbate on his deck…
That evening we prepare for the Legacy event our usual way: BBQ, beer and whisky (if Jim Beam may be called whisky…). Arguably the best way to prepare for any given situation! Now I could write a lot about drunken fun, epic BBQ sessions, climbing road signs and raiding a graveyard, but I think I’ll just leave you with the pictures and your fantasy =)

Enjoy yourselves (http://s243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/?start=all)

*Insert random “ I substituted sleep for booze”-comment here*

Next day arrives and so does the big event. 474 players battling for fame and glory (or the modern equivalent: e-penis), which means 9 rounds with cut to top16.
Here’s the list Clemens and I have been fine-tuning for this event:

Maindeck:
4x Polluted Delta
4x Flooded Strand
3x Tundra
4x Tropical Island
2x Island
1x Plains

4x Tarmogoyf
4x Qasali Pridemage
3x Rhox War Monk
2x Trinket Mage

4x Counterbalance
4x Sensei’s Devine Top
3x Ponder
4x Brainstorm
4x Force of Will
3x Spell Snare
4x Swords to Plowshares
2x Umezawa’s Jitte
1x Engineered Explosives

Sideboard:
3x Gaddock Teeg
3x Hydroblast
2x Path to Exile
2x Krosan Grip
2x Relic of the Progenitus
1x Tormod’s Crypt
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Pithing Needle

The weapons of choice of the other SPOD members were:

Marius “Chefkoch” Laber: BG Control
Harald “Locutus” Herrlich: Vial Goblins
Clemens ”Der_imaginäre_Freund” Wolff: Grow/w
Daniel “Adan” Scherer: Tempo Thresh
Manuel “DerHeiler” Heiler: 4C The Rock

Honorably mentioned non-member Martin “MSC” Schreiber: Hierarch Grow/w

I’m writing this report completely for my memory, so things may or may not have happened this way. The lack of sleep, bad nourishment and the amount of alcohol that weekend indicate, that most of this report probably arises purely from my imagination =)

Round 1: Bye
Yay, for eternal rating finally being good for something (except the aforementioned e-penis that is, of course!). Clemens and I head for some food. Pizza + sun + free win = totally awesome =)

1/0/0

Round 2: Ladislav Loucka [CZE] with Vial Goblins
Game 1: I win the roll, we both keep our hands and off we go. I start with a Top, while he has the Skirk Prospector into Fanatic and Lackey start. I counter with two Goyfs and we trade some blows (mostly him suiciding his tiny critters in my superior wall). I force a Wort and soon the board is two lethal Goyfs (one tapped) for me and 4 puny 1/1s for him. With me save at 10 life. He draws, grins and slams down Goblin Pyromancer for the win… nice!

SB: -4x CB, -1x Top, -1x Spell Snare, +3x Hydroblast, +2x Path, +1x EE

Game 2: He leads with Vial, I have a Goyf again and again he runs his little dudes into the Lhurgoyf while I rum my Goyf into his face. Everything goes back and forth and finally I’m in a pretty comfortable position: 5 land, a Vial at 5 and two cards in hand for him, 4 land, a 6/7 Goyf and a Blast and a Path in hand for me. I attack with the Goyf and he obviously has the Commander. This is where I screw up big time: Instead of pathing the Commander in response to his comes into play trigger, I path him afterwards and in response he cycles an Incinerator on my Goyf so I blast one of his tokens (he decides not to sac it for some unknown reason). He also decides for god knows whatever reason not to kill my Goyf in combat and drops to 4 instead with two goblin tokens in play and me at 11 life. So the 1.000.000 $ question is: How do you win next turn?
Answer: Play the Ringleader you just drew off the Incinerator, reveal and play a Piledriver, then vial in your top decked Kiki-Jiki, copy that Piledriver and swing for exactly eleven… Frowntown!

1/1/0

Well, this wasn’t exactly how this was supposed to work out. Now it’s balls to the wall for the next seven rounds. Ironically everybody on our team without a Bye was 2/0/0... Life’s a bitch!

Round 3: Laurent Guillaume [FRA] with Stifle Nought
Game 1: Apparently my opponent wasn’t able to register his deck correctly and is consequently awarded with a game loss. Sweet =)

Game 2: He gets an early Confidant, while I get early CounterTop and it all boils down to his fourth turn: He has four untapped lands and a Bob in play, I have I untapped land and CounterTop. So he taps his Usea to play a Dreadnought, which I let resolve (knowing there is a CC2 card on top of my library), then tries to stifle the trigger, I try to look in my Top, which he also stifles, so I attempt to put my Top on top of my library and he shows me the third Stifle… so I calmly point at the Bayou as his lone untapped land. Seems as if he doesn’t know how to tap his mana either. I win easily from here on with the lock.

2/1/0

Did I already mention that free wins are awesome? They really are =)

Round 4: Saverio Magri [ITA] with Merfolk
I honestly don’t remember much of these games.
Game 1 I’m able to win because his first play is a turn 3 Wake Thresher on the draw and his Mishra’s Factories aren’t Mutavaults.
Game 2 his deck does what it is supposed to do and simply overwhelms me with Vial into islandwalking Fish.
Game 3 he has Vial again, but I decide to slow play my EE as mass removal and manage to grind him down with Goyfs.
SB: -3x war Monk, +2x Path, +1x EE

That was a pretty hard fought win. My opponent tells me slightly disappointed, that he started with two Byes and is now 2/2/0. So life really is a bitch!

Round 5: Oddvar Raugstad [NOR] with Death & Taxes
Game 1: he wins the roll and starts with Plains, Vial, Factory, which leaves me pretty clueless about what he’s playing. I quickly assemble ConterTop and can’t help but realize, that this combo isn’t all too hot versus Vials. I manage to kill his Vial with a Pridemage but not before he gets a 3 power flier out (Flickerwhisp or Serra Avenger or something like that) and beats me down. At four life I manage to get a rhino online and he can’t race that.

SB: -3x Spell Snare, +2x Path, +1x EE
The observant reader might realize a pattern in my boarding schemes =)

Game 2: he starts with Vial again, but this time he is able to apply much more pressure: turn 2 Isamaru, turn 3 Avenger… I manage to clear his board with EE @ 1 and a Sword and he reinforces with a Grunt. Next turn he just draws a card without paying the upkeep for his critter and we call a judge. I’m pretty sure the Grunt will just go to fiery hell, but the judge rules, that the trigger goes on the stack now and can still be paid, so the grunt is allowed to stay on the not so fiery table.. Which is pretty unfortunate as I’m at two life with no blocker and no removal.

Game 3: He has the first turn Vial again, but this time I have a great creature heavy draw and am able to keep him on the defense. His deck isn’t very good at that and I quickly run him over.

4/1/0

Round 6: Christophe Miazza [???] with G/W Homebrew
Game 1: He gets a pretty usual Legacy start: Horizon Canopy, Top, Canopy, Vexing Shusher… Yeah, an obvious one =) I myself have the totally funky and unconventional start of Top, Balance, Sword for the annoying goblin. He resolves a Knight of the Relinquary which he only uses as a shuffle effect for his Top, desperately digging for something. I get a Goyf and start to beat down after killing his Knight with EE and he finally shows me, what he has found in form of a Natural Order. I have the Force and we’re on to game two.

SB: -3x Spell Snare, +2x Path, +1x EE

Game 2: I keep a pretty aggressive hand and here’s what happens:

Him: Land, Needle on Top, go
Me: Land, go
Him: Land, go
Me: Land, Goyf, go, eot Sword
Him: *incredulity*, go
Me: Land, Pridemage, Ponder, go, eot Sword
Him: *disappointment*, go
Me: Goyf, go, eot Sword (!!)
Him: *consternation*, go
Me: Pridemage, go
Him: *frustration*, go
Me: Land, Jitte, equip, swing,… GG
He shows me his hand full of Oblivion Rings, Chocks, Knights, NOs, … lucky me, I guess!

5/1/0

Round 7: Rubén Gonzàlez [SPA] with Grow/w
Game 1: He starts with a CB but no Top. I respond with a Pridemage, that resolves but as I pretty much don’t have any relevant spell in hand I decide to just go aggro with him. Next turn I test the water with a cantrip and resolve a Jitte afterwards. Nice, I have just assembled a beatdown plan =) All he can do is cast Goyfs and War Monks to throw them into the claws of my mighty cat warrior and soon enough he runs out of them. So nice!

SB: -3x Rhox, -2x Jitte, +2x Path, +1x EE, +2x Grip

Game 2: I keep a fairly typical 1 land, multiple cantrip hand. While I search for my mana my opponents just cats his in form of double Hierarch. I finally find my second land, cast a Top and my opponent counters with… wait for it… Back to Basics! Who the hell boards in BtB in the mirror?!? It does however totally pay of, as I can’t find enough land to cast the Grip in my hand and after 10 excruciatingly painful turns his Hierarchs have finished me off.

Game 3: I have an aggressive draw with Pridemages and get in some early damage until he resolves “the great staler” aka Tarmogoyf. I make my own Goyf, but he is able to steal it with Sower and things begin to look really grim, so I desperately start digging for a Sword. He plays very defensively, only attacking with an exalted Sower and leaves his two Goyfs at home, so I have enough time to finally draw into the important removal. He has a Path of his own on my Goyf and this leaves me with 2 Pridemages at 3 life and him with a Goyf at 4. Again for some unknown reason he decides not to attack and I topdeck better than he does into CB and Trinket Mage for the win.
Wow, this was really tight and mostly my opponents loss instead of my win.

6/1/0

Round 8: Yves Gillet [TAH] with Eva Green
Game 1: I win the roll, he mulligans once and I have a pretty creature loaded draw again with Goyf and Pridemage. I apply enough pressure to send him in topdeck mode with a lethal Goyf left on my side of the table. He manages to top deck himself out of trouble for two times with chump blockers, than I draw Jitte and that’s it.

SB: -3x Rhox, +2x Path, +1x EE

Game 2: Pretty much a déjà vu of my last matches second game: a 3CC enchantment f**ks up my mana. This time it’s Choke backed up by Hyppie and Goyf for a merciful fast death. Been there, done that!

Game 3: I keep a pretty perfect hand of 2 land, top, 2 Spell Snare, Fore and Ponder. To even things out my opponent takes a mulligan. And then another one for good measure! I find a fast Goyf, sack a Jitte to his Seal of Primordium to pump him quickly, remove all his blockers, counter all his relevant spells and completely wreck him. Yeah, this one was just as one-sided as you would imagine from this description.
Yves draws better next round and also makes it to top8.

7/1/0

Round 9: Marco Camillus [ITA] ID
I do some math, figure I’m almost certainly in with a draw and as my opponent thinks so too, a draw it is.
Great finally some food again! This and the possibility to satisfy my lust for beer, that I quelled since my loss in the second round =)

So after nine rounds the team standings were:
Harald 2/4/0 drop
Manuel 4/5/0
Clemens 4/4/1
Marius 3/2/1 drop
Adan 6/3/0
Stefan 7/1/1 13th and in!

The atmosphere in the top16 was simply awesome! Half of the hall got evacuated to make room for the players, the spectators piling up at the gallery. Damn sweet! Especially in my case, when the spectators are waving a pirate flag =)

Top16: Guillaume De Sauza [FRA] with Burn
Game 1: This game worked like the matchup in my experience usually plays out: He burns me down to very low life, then I stabilize and win. In this special case via CB and double rhino. Funny scene: I’m at 1 with a Force in hand he has one card in hand and passes (you can’t possibly imagine how relieved I was to hear him say “go”!). I connect with my monk, go up to 4 and pass back. He draws, sacs two mountains and points his Fireblast at … my loyal rhino! Yeah, one could have probably played that a little better =)

SB: -2x Trinket Mage, -1x EE, +3x Hydroblast

Game 2: I get two fast Goyfs and start racing him. He largely ignores my effort and shoots me in the face instead. I attempt to cast a rhino, he blasts it, I brainstorm in response seeing: CB, Top, Rhox… Jup, I win that one! In the end I have to send one of my own Goyfs plowing to survive, but that does the trick.

8/1/1

Top8: Filiberto Piernoli [ITA] with U/g/r Painter
Game 1: I win the roll and keep a hand of 3 Pridemages, 2 land, a Brainstorm and a Force and lead with a second turn cat into third turn cat, which my opponent chooses to force pitching force. I think about this move for a while and decide to go for it and force back. He drops a Goyf that looks pretty unimpressive compared to the cat armada I have next turn. Nice to outgrow a Goyf with your bears! We trade my CB for Force (pitching his fourth Force), his Painter for my Force and suddenly we’re in a stalement again: his Goyf versus my kittens. As the true pro I am, I top deck Jitte and kill him. Man, I can’t even say how often that card saved my ass today!

SB: -3x Rhox, -2x Jitte, +2x Path, +1x EE, +2x Grip

Game 2: This is where the fatigue and the beer really kick in and I start to play like crap… REALLY crap!
Basically I lose my CB to his Grip which I could easily have avoided with the correct use of my Top and consequently am not able to counter his Trinket Mage, which tutors up the Grindstone, that combos really well with the Painter on the table and that’s it. Damn my lack of play skill!

Game 3: I try to focus and concentrate more on the game. We shuffle, cut and I start shuffling again, earning me some strange looks from my opponent and the friendly suggestion from the head judge I might want to switch to water. Yep, that additional concentration worked out really well…
I don’t even have exact memory of what happened in this game. I played less than optimal (which my team mates make very clear after the game), but am able to compensate quite well by drawing optimal and ninjaing (that isn’t a word now, is it?) my opponent into drawing bullshit. Better lucky than good, I guess.

9/1/1

Top4: Benito Hernandez Alcaraz [SPA] with ANT
Game 1: I keep a hand of 2 land, 2 Goyf, 2 Force and Brainstorm, which is arguably one of the best possible hands but my opponent easily trumps me. His first turn Ad Nauseam gets obviously forced and second turn he ponders and decides to play a Chrome Mox and a LED afterwards. That never is a good sign! Sure enough he cracks the LED in his upkeep to pay for the Ad Nauseam he draws. I haven’t drawn another blue card for my force and so he starts flipping cards. Here the situation balances out, as he flips pure, untainted, undiluted crap and dies miserably to his own Ad Nauseam. That was unexpected but I take what I can get =)

SB: I don’t remember but it was terribly wrong! Yeah, that’s foreshadowing. Somehow I take the Gaddocks in the main.

Game 2: He opens up with first turn double Confidant. I get CounterTop, but that can’t beat the Psionic Blast/Inspiration combo he has going on. He finishes me with a lot of fast mana into tendrils for 12.

Game 3:I mulligan into 2 land, 2 Top, 2 Rhox… not exactly the hand you want to keep against a player who immediately says “keep” sounding quite confident.
I lead with the top, while he goes for another first turn Mage. I use my Top in the upkeep and realize three things:
1.) No countermagic whatsoever
2.) No third land for my rhinos
3.) Why on god’s green earth is that Jitte still in the deck?!? And why haven’t I boarded in my Paths instead as I did in almost every other match? WHY?
I manage to find a Teeg but he wishes for Wipe Away and finishes me with a Tendrils…
Oh well, you can’t win them all and my stroke of luck had to run out eventually.

9/2/1

As the third and fourth place are distributed according to the standings after swiss I end up in the fourth place and win an unlimited Ancestral Recall.
After the event we head for our room and celebrate with champagne that Manuel won at the event. Good times!
The only change I would make to the list is cut the Spell Snares for Dazes. Apart from that the deck is really solid without any too bad (or too good for that matter) matchups.

Probs:
Team SPOD for being awesome fun to hang out with!
Clemens for his imba trading skills ™ making me way more money off that Ancestral than I was supposed to get.
Everybody who helped to organize and run the event! Really good work.
Beer!
The hotel room.
Qasali Pridemages because they really are THAT good.
Jitte for the same reason.

Slops:
Me for not winning against ANT
Jim Beam for probably being the worst brew under the sun.

[Julian23]

Great report, well written. And I totally dig your pirate-flag! :D

[Wargoos]

Nice report.
Congratz to the finish, but there's still one question:
How did the trinket perform?

[jeanbathez]

Very good and interesting report !!!
Gratulation for 4.th place !!!
How was your feelings after the Top 5 match against ANT ?
Nice pictures :smile:
The deck looks very good !!!

[diffy]

I lost 100 rating points.
Discuss. (i.e. more to come after I sort out my real life)

[Misplayer]

Stefan, congrats on the finish!

Much respect to all you SPOD guys for consistently coming up with solid lists, putting up great placements and writing awesome reports.

[Jaynel]

Awesome picture, great report. Congrats on the finish!

[Shawn]

When you said your oppponent play ANT wished for Wipe Away do you mean Mystical Tutored into Wipe Away? Awesome report, btw.

[Piceli89]

:eek: EQUILIBRIUM shirt ! Good music, dude!
Congratz for the result, althou it's kinda funny to see you lost to ANT and kicked asses in harder MUs..

[spirit of the wretch]

When you said your oppponent play ANT wished for Wipe Away do you mean Mystical Tutored into Wipe Away?

Jup.


:eek: EQUILIBRIUM shirt ! Good music, dude!


That would be Clemens. I'm the guy with the flag.

[KillemallCFH]

Awesome report!

I'm still unconvinced by Trinket Mage, but Pridemage is nutty. Great list, and great showing!

[thefreakaccident]

Congrats on the finish.. nice report and a very nice list.

[MSC]

I've run my Grow-List to a 5:4 in the end. And Playing 3:2 Drop in the Vintage Event with a crappy Fish-List. Beating Full Powered Painter, Full Powered Oath and Powered Icchorid with a Deck worth ~200€ was fun like hell...

The 4 Days were totaly EPIC. We had a lot of fun, a lot of beer and a lot of EPIC moments. Even the 11h / 9h drive (to Annecy / back home) , cause my Navi sucks, my Navigation sucks and my Cars Engine is broken, can not reduce this.

[Xero]

Great report. However, this:

Jim Beam for probably being the worst brew under the sun.

is a filthy lie.

[jakolhops]

in your pictures whoever the guy with the long hair is in the front seat is watching porn on his computer, i saw that and started laughing. Also congratz on the Finish!

[Adan]

A short report from me as well:

After disagreeing all night long with Clemens about the UGw build which gets more and more clunky and strange (no Dazes, w00t), I decided to play UGr canadian Thresh as the Burn is awesome against the random field, as well as Stifle-Waste (and well, I won a side-event with it on Friday, winning the Entry Fee for both the Legacy and the Vintage tournament)

However, during the tournament I should get to know that it was a terrible idea to copy-paste David "goobafish" Caplan's list 1 to 1: The Disrupts were dead all day long. Seriously. I'd have gone 8-1 with BEBs.

So, Match 1 against Stefano Dusso with URg...Faerie...Goyf...Still...whatsoever. Probably this PoC or something: http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=25005

Game 1 I just remember that 2 Standstill of him get Spell Snare'd and 1 Mishra wasted. I believe that 1 Goyf went the distance.

Game 2 I get surprised by 2 Tarmos on his side which I can't handle as I boarded out the Bolts and left the Submerges in the SB. I go down.

Game 3 I win with 2 Nimble Mongeese after he counters irrelevant spells with Spellstutter Sprites, then gets ripped off by Fire//Ices.

2-1, 1-0-0

Match 2 against Matous Trajhan with URg Dreadstill

Game 1 I just see cards that let me think of UR Landstill. I play 2 Goyfs that win. But he had a Tropical Island which foreshadows Goyfs he might have.

Game 2 my guess turned out to be right: It's not URg Landstill but Dreadstill.
The game goes liek the first one, but he plays a Nought under an active CB-Top. Since I have a Wipe Away, I still can win.
When I play Wipe Away on the Nought, he flips a Krosan Grip. ARGH!

Game 3 I have again 2 Goyfs, but he has Relic and 2 Mishra's. In a good position, I attack. He activates the 2 Mishras an blocks. I Wipe Away his Relic and his Mishra's die. He draws a 3rd one and replays the Relic.
I attack and he activates the Mishra. I submerge it. And as I reveal him the Stifle to the Relic activation, he extends his hand.

2-1, 2-0-0

Match 3 against Roberto "3eowulf" Maffei with a Team America variant with Countertop (see his post @ NLU Thread)

Game 1 I just remember that I pecked him ith 1 or 2 Nimble Mongeese. The Stalker he drops can't save him from Fire//Ices.

Game 2 I punted the whole match in the first 2 turns and got manascrewed by a Wasteland and a Stifle. Counter-Top seals the game.
I think it was like this:

He plays a Land, go. I play a Land, go. He plays a SDT, I brainstorm and try to find a Daze as SDT is fucking annoying. I fail to find a Daze and he wastes my Land. Game.

Game 3 I overextend quickly, counter a Counterbalance that would have cost me the game if it would have resolved and ignored the 2nd one. He's short on mana and so I can back up my position consisting of Goose, Goose, Goyf with a Explosives set on 2 to blow up Goyfs that might come down and the Balance.

2-1, 3-0-0

Match 4 against Maicol Beltrame with Mono Red Gobs.

Game 1 I have a huge speedadvantage as I have 2 Stifles and a Wasteland. He has got a lot of mana, but my creatures are big and I have collected a shitload of Burn to run him over.

Game 2 I lost since he screwed me this time. Additionally, he played Vexing Shushers and had a lot of mana. The Goyf that is supposed to stop him is handled by "Matron -> Stingscourger" and then Piledriver for 23714 Damage into my face.

Game 3 he mulls to 5, but has got an acceptable hand. However, I have 2 Goyfs and he scoops as I reveal him the Clasm when he's on low life.

2-1, 4-0-0

Match 5 against Guillame De Sauza with Stupid Burn

Game 1 I just lose. I just can't do anything as I kept a controlish hand with only 1 Goose that can't compete with his Hellspark Elementals and Marauders and stuff.

Game 2 I win with 3 quickly-played Goyfs. I win on 1 life I think.

Game 3 went similar to Game 2, except that I only had 2 Goyfs.
The situation in the last few turns was as follows:

He fireblasted me down to 1, saccing 2 of his 4 lands. I swing with the Goyfs and have a hand with 2 Disrupt, 1 Daze and 1 Lightning Bolt. I'd win on the next turn as I'd simply Daze-Disrupt his next Burnspell.
He topdecks Mogg Fanatic...
I play Daze on the Mogg and Disrupt the Daze to draw a card. Guess what? Not a Stifle at all...

1-2, 4-1-0

Match 6 against Daniele Conigliaro with 2004 RW Goblins.

Game 1 he plays a 1st Turn Lackey which I Lightning Bolt. 2nd Turn he plays a second Lackey after he wasted my Volcanic. So I FoW it. On Turn 3, he plays a 3rd Lackey and a Rishadan Port.
On Turn 4, the Lackey connects into a topdecked Siege Gang. FUCK THAT SERIOUSLY.

Game 2 goes like game 1, except that he had 2 Lackeys and I had a Goyf instead of the FoW:

I play land, go, he plays a Lackey which I burn, then play a Goyf in my turn. I have nothing relevant in my hand. He plays a Lackey and passes the turn. I draw-go. He fetches a Plateau (he's not having a StoP now?!) and plays a Swords, then connects into a Ringleader which brings him absolute annihilation. My only hope would me Pyroclasm which I don't draw.

0-2, 4-2-0.

Match 7 against Carlo Ottaviani with RG Gobs

He wins Game 1 EXACTLY like the Goblin player before: 3 Lackeys. I was boiling. Seriously.

But I crushed him the next 2 Games somehow (but I think in Game 2 he kept a hand that was highly dependant on Vial which I FoW'd. His 2 Wastes and the Port couldn't do anything against my Goose)

Match 8 against Benoit Seveno with ElfBall

No need to say that I simply win this. Game 1 he dies to his Pact as I Fire//Ice 2 Manaelves and Game 2 I run him over with 2 creatures and massive Burn.

Match 9 against Fabrizio Perfetti with UGW undefinable.

Game 1 I spell snare 2 Standstills and waste a Mishra, but he suddenly has got Wastelands and Stifles for my manabase and drops 2 Goyfs and a Counterbalance. What the heck???

Game 2 I lose the same way: I handle a Counterbalance, Spell Snare 1 of 2 Goyfs, block-burn the other one, but lose to a Standstill and the 3 Mishra's he draws afterards in a row. I have to break the Standstill which brings him Wastelands and another Goyf. I fail to draw Submerges and lose.

0-2, 6-3-0

However, I have to give David Caplan credits again for his deck and take the Disrupts as a memorial for my soulless netdecking. BEBs would have been better and more versatile.

But after all, the deck (and I) had performed well and I had a lot of fun.

I have to sleep now, maybe I'll add some random trivia about the trip in here tomorrow.

[diffy]

EQUILIBRIUM shirt ! Good music, dude!


Equilibrium's pretty good, aye.

On that behalf, here's the playlist the awesome (but awesomely slow) car (i.e. the one Harrald, Marius, MSC and I were in i.e. the 4am car) put up.

Music selection courtesy of your truly, alphabetical order:

ACDC
Across the Border
Alestorm (guess why? That's right: Because we are friggin' Pirates!)
Amon Amarth
Avantasia
Blind Guardian
Cruachan
Die Apokalyptischen Reiter
Die Toten Hosen
Die Ärzte
DIO
Eluveitie (since we'd travel through Elveti, we might as well have some Swiss music with us)
Ensiferum
Equilibrium
Eths (it'd be a shame not to have anything French to listen to on a trip to... France)
Fahnenflucht
Finntroll
Flogging Molly
Heidevolk
In Extremo
Iron Maiden
La Polla Records (Spanish punk is better than you'd think)
Lordi
Nightwish (c'mon you haters, the Fishmaster is a classic!)
Saxon
Seguismundo Toxicomano
Slayer (fuckin' Slayer! Also, the beer s-layer*)
System of a Down
Tanzwut
The Pogues
The Tossers
Turisas
Volbeat

*: That only makes sense if you understand some German, not like it'd be terribly funny even if you do get it, however, it's a classic pun, so what do you expect me to do?



I'm still unconvinced by Trinket Mage

Trinket Mage fetches Engineered Explosives which simply is that good (as in utterly amazing in most matchups) - totally worth it. Being able to randomly pull out a Sensei's Divining Top against control or with a Balance on the table also wins games: there is a reason for Top being one of the most FoWed cards in this deck.


Whoever the guy with the long hair is in the front seat is watching porn on his computer, I saw that and started laughing.

That'd be Harrald.





Slops:
Jim Beam for probably being the worst brew under the sun.

This is a filthy lie.

Com'on, even I know that Stefan dropped a Truith Bomb™ here. And I don't even drink.



But after all, the deck (and I) had performed well and I had a lot of fun.


Honey, how often have I told you that you can only perform (as in top8) with my brews?
I know, I'll still have to tell you at least one more time...


Also, the French motivated me to get that report done. It should be going up some time this weekend.

[kabal]

...
Blind Guardian


Excellent choice ... But when I am in the mood to listen to some power metal it tends to be Dragonland (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUP6LlIloXA).

[godryk]

Hey Stefan, congrats on the finish. Would you change the list if you had to play it again this weekend? Specially considering your SB strategy in Annecy.

[diffy]

Report Part I aka. The Odyssey, take 2

Report Part II aka. First Blood (http://mtgthesource.com/forums/showpost.php?p=343205&postcount=34)
Report Part III aka. Back in Business (http://mtgthesource.com/forums/showpost.php?p=364269&postcount=36)


(I am writing this eating a can of tuna, so no worries if I sound somewhat disgusted)
(Also, you better thank the French for motivating me to get this report done.)
(Yes, really. The French.)

created by
carter bays &
craig thomas


Okay, where was I? Right. So back in 2009, there was this one time a couple of pirates (and a pineapple shit-ton of beer) headed out for Annécy...


Martin 'MSC' Schreiber arrived at my doorstep on Thursday, April 30th 2009, 1720 hours GMT+1. As I sat my finals in Philosophy that day (where I scored a solid 95%, by the way), I was over-eager to get as far away from Karlsruhe as anyhow possible. We therefore quickly picked up Harrald Herrlich and off we were for an awesome weekend full of Magic Booze, Nerds Drugs, and Rock 'n Roll err...? Metal and Folk Punk.

Backed by aforementioned (http://mtgthesource.com/forums/showpost.php?p=342940&postcount=17) awesome playlist, we headed off set sail for Freiburg where we were to pick up Marius Laber who recently moved there for university-reasons plundering. After a rather uneventful first one-and-a-half hours we reached Freiburg. (And by uneventful I obviously mean full of win, as in Harrald enjoying the first of many, many, many beers whilst watching some porn – yup, the guy can not live without his daily dose of naked flesh (http://s243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/?action=view&current=P1020618.jpg), and he's proud of it – while MSC and I enjoyed some awesome music [this won't be that last time I tell you that Spanish punk really is that much better than you give it credit for] and all that with some wild, wild, wild t(h)rashtalking going on. During that first hour, Harrald also pulled a Yufka out of his jacket at one point. Obviously. [Know that you can always find a Yufka or a Burger in Harrald's jacket.])

Back in Freiburg, we raised the black flag and Marius didn't show up. Strange. Harrald and I decided to head out and look for him. We found him in the pool of booze that are German student-accommodations, still packing, and, from what he told us, with one hell of a hangover. As Marius decided that, before leaving for Annécy, he needed some pot, we decided to not be cruel and have Martin await us in the uncertainty that is being sober. Marius therefore phoned him up and directed him to the nearest parking space. As he hang up the phone, he was all excited (and that without him having started his joint yet). To quote him: “Ya' kno', fella's, it's quite amazing t'have someone say 'Roger, understood' after ye' tell him some directions for one time. If that'd been good ole' Stefan, he'd be callin' back in ten minutes and askin' why on earth I directed him t'Prague.”. Some minutes later Marius finished his joint and we met Martin, who, in our absence, tuned his car (i.e. destroyed the exhaust pipe, giving his ride a Ferrari-style sound), transferred the beer from Marius's to MSC's car and ready we were to go for good.


Why we then did not head out for the highway is a mystery that probably never will be solved, but then again, a stoned Marius, a porn-and-beer-enjoying Harrald and I didn't really mind us only traveling at 80km/h (with some 600km to go) anyway. Especially not since small roads have the incredible advantage of being awesome for pirate-arrrr business: we obviously set the jolly roger every time we overtook some other car. Again, to quote Laber: “Wit' 'is flag and 'is exhaust pip', I'll hav' so much fun on 'is trip”. With that, and with those 12 six-packs of beer (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020624.jpg) he and Harrald started killing (picture-backstory: Harrald and Marius kept all the cans in order to throw them at French pedestrians after reaching France – luckily for the pedestrians, we reached France at around 1am).



http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020616.jpg
Quartermaster Marius 'from the M-N to the' S. Laber


After a seemingly endless eternity of awesome, we reached Switzerland with a yeyheyhey (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020622.jpg) and a yarharhar (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020621.jpg) (picture-backstory: something about a drunken sailor and what one shall do with the former), and, shortly thereafter, Basel, where MSC's navigation device punted for the first time of many to come and sent us straight downtown Basel city.
After a quick pause (Harrald: ”MSC, you do know that I just finished my third beer...?” MSC: “C'mon, get a better bladder dood” Harrald: “You also do know that I won't hesitate to piss right into your fucking car.” MSC:”(pulls in right and stops the engine)”) we continued our journey, traveling on small roads because we're all too poor to afford Swiss highway-tariffs. I do think that I was the only one actually noticing the awesome panorama that is Switzerland because others were too busy doing other stuff (MSC: drive like he's never done anything but play Need for Speed in his life; Harrald: watch porn and, more importantly, drink beer; Laber: be frightened by Martin's driving and, more importantly, stoned), however, let me tell you that the panorama was friggin' awesome. You be a good boy and listen to this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coTd0UoFyXY) song while imagining some lavish mountains and you could get a feel for it.
At one stop Marius, telling me that the best idea of this trip so far was to smoke a joint before starting it, and that the worst idea was not to bring the pot along, starts discussing political economy concepts with me. He also told me he was sober again. In retrospect, I don't think that was quite true though. At that same stop, Martin re-programs his navigational device ('ya kno' an ICT-graduate when you meet one!) making us drive back a full 100km.

Fast forward three hours. It is around 1am, we reach France – at that time, Marius has dozed off and Harrald is still busy watching porn (hooray for netbooks lasting 7 hours off grid and an even greater hooray for MSC's nerd car starring elect... wait for it... ricity!) and drinking like it is bromageddon. I casually look out of the back-window and see a police car. Apparently it has been following us since we entered France. I holler at Martin to quit the crazy driving and we continue our journey unmolested for another hour, after which Harrald's bladder asks for another stop. At that time, the cops are still following us. We pull off the road, onto a pull-in, Harrald takes a dump and I wander off only to find wait for it... snow? And loads of that. Where the hell are we? We've been following Martin's navigation device all day long only to find it exiling us somewhere in Europe where there still is snow at this time of the year? That shock overcome, we get back into the car and want to drive off, but then, all of a sudden, a car's floodlight lights up the midnight sky and we find our car surrounded by French cops, all battle-suited up (incl. springer stiefel – and I though we were supposed to be the Germans). Did I mention one of our mates still being partly high and the car being full, full, full of beer-cans?
As I'm the only one speaking French, I want to get out of the car and casually fix the situation with the cops... not a good idea: me opening the door only made them even more nervous with one of them blocking the door like his life depended upon it. Pocket-torches light up the interior of our ride as we are told to open the windows. The head-cop starts talking to the driver, Martin, in French. Martin does no more but shake his head. As the cop asks “Ahnt Englitsch? To yhou spek Englitsch?” (no offense, but most French really fail that badly at foreign languages - I must know, I've lived among them for almost my entire life) I feel that the conversation would not take a turn for the better if Mr. Tough Guy is forced to communicate in that raped gibberish he names Englitsch and therewith casually tell him that I'll speak for the group, in French.
The following went a little like this:

Him (thinking): Germans. Sneaking into France. At night. Didn't Grandpa always tell me about this?
Him (nervous): Why did you pull onto this resting space?
Me (puzzled): Errr, to take a rest? (No, Mr. Officer, we totally did not see your car and did not pull off road to hide the drugs until after you scrutinize us.)
Him: Where are you heading?
Me: To Annecy
Him: Annecy?
Me: Annecy.
Him (extremely nervous): What the hell do you want in Annecy?!!
Me: Errr....? Play a cards tournament (a millisecond later, out of fear of him misunderstanding this statement for something like an illegal poker tournament, I add:), collectible cards.
Him: Your Ids. I want to see your Ids.
Me (in German, to the other guys): He needs your Ids. (No, Mr. Officer, I am most definitely not telling me hearties to hide the drugs we brought.)

Martin can't find his purse and so we all start fiddling around with the interior of the car, in order to find it. I notice the disturbed look of the police officers and tell them that everything is all right, we're just looking for a purse... it's only a purse... a purse. Laber and Harrald give their best to hide the masses of cans. I notice that there still is a can of beer standing on the dashboard and hope that they mistake it for some softdrink due to it being all yellow- and happily-colored and a 0,33 can. I ask the officers if it's okay if we get out of the car in order to facilitate the search of the purse – they nod but you could literally see them gripping their guns even tighter. As we get out we notice that every-one of us, even the dwarf that is yours truly, is taller than the officer. He grips his gun tighter. About a minute of fiddling later, Martin notices that, in fact, his purse is in his back-trouser-pocket. (No, Mr. Officer, we were definitely not hiding the drugs we smuggled during all that fiddling.) We hand him our Ids – he gives them to his two colleagues for a check-up. He asks me to open the boot – massive amounts of luggage slosh out of it. He asks me if there is only cloth in there - I reply: only cloth and a shit-ton of beer we smuggled into France not to have to endure carbonated cat piss all weekend long but rather be able to drink actual beer provisions for the weekend.
The cops don't notice that my passport expired two months ago and tell us that we can go... mais doucement sur la route! Yeah, yeah.
Five minutes later, the cops and this incident are no more than a slowly shrinking point of light in the rear mirror. Martin really likes to drive fast.
Harrald goes on boasting about how we should have offered them a beer and then notices that he's actually pretty drunk and starts talking smack about how I should have let him do the talking (“I've already trashtalked German cops in English in Germany after Bang Your Head with them seeing my German and two months expired passport before you were born!”) and about how bad his canned-beer is (“The only good canned-beer is Tip-Dosenbier. And that's so AWESOME. And it's only 24 cents per can. And you get in on palettes. And it's so AWESOME. And it's only 24 cents per can.”).

An hour or three later we finally approach Annecy, however, the main road leading to random Annecy is closed. Martin quickly re-programs his navigational device and we follow its lead up a house gateway (Navi: “But yes, the road to Annecy is right here.” No it's not, it's not – that's a... wait for it... HOUSE!) and down into a deserted valley (Navi: “But yes, the road to Annecy is right here.” No it's not, it's not – that's... wait for it... the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!). I finally manage to convince Martin to not follow his navigational device blindly but rather to trust my mad French and Geography skills (i.e. follow the sign saying ANNECY in big, white letters) – he complies and an hour (or five?) later we finally reach the city limits.

Finally arrived, Harrald can't resist the urge to piss onto the first building he sees (coincidentally our hotel). I suggest we call Stefan to lead us to the hotel room, however, the dudes can't get their mobile phones to work. We therefore get into the hotel lobby and an over enthusiastic guy welcomes us. I tell him that we are a part of the group Czolk as in C-Z-O-L-K. He goes all like “Ahhh, you're the judges, right? I've been waiting for you. Your friends have already arrived and are in room 504 – your room is 304”. I'm like whatever, just give me the damn keys. I ask myself whether Stefan got two rooms for the price of one or why on earth he would have chosen to double our costs – sure 7 people in a 4 person room isn't exactly luxurious, but totally fine for three nights. We head up to the room and decide to holler at the other guys. Harrald and Marius go up to 504 – now I wasn't there, but apparently the following went like this: they knocked onto the door, loudly, shouting “Ouvrez, Gendarmerie!” and... two drowsy French guys opened the door. Wait a minute? When did Stefan and the other guys stop being German again? So down I go to the receptionist and tell him that there's a misunderstanding and blahblah and that we are a part of the group Czolk as in C-Z-O-L-K (damnit!). He begs for our forgiveness and directs us to the correct room.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have finally arrived at our terminal destination! (however incredible that may sound)

We lay down our shit and want no more but sleep, however, Harrald, still (or rather again?) fully drunk, decides that now, 0400 hours, is the correct time to tell the epic tale of our odyssey: “And I pissed into a German, a Swiss and a French forest today. True story. That was nice!” “And then I would have thrashtalked those cops. Like back at Bang Your Head. In English. With an expired German passport. In Germany” “And tipp Dosenbier. That's so AWESOME. And only 24 cents per can. And it comes in palettes”. Marius talks back annoyed “is that true? Tipp Dosenbier comes in palettes? And it's only 24 cents per can? And it's really that AWESOME?” - as Harrald doesn't get the irony, he continues rambling on about tipp Dosenbier for another 40 minutes until he finally falls asleep.

And that kids, is the story of how we managed to turn a 5-hour journey (that's how long it took the others to reach Annecy using highways, with a car starring an actually working navigational device) into an odyssey of epic proportions.






Tune back in tomorrow for the report of the second day, now with actual Magic content!

[MSC]

Pff, who wants to reach Annecy in 5h? You wouldn't had more to do in Annecy than play more freaking Magic if we arrived earlier. So it turned out to be an EPIC trip. *g*
For all people who think: Where the hell did these guys go? Here (www.lightstarstudios.de/MSC/Annecy.kml) is a Track-Log of our Tour, that my GPS captured. Just download the File and open it in Google Earth to see the Route. The Cops pulled us out at the Parking lot around 1:10 o'clock.
I wish I had a Log of our Back-Trip, cause it had real nice Mountain-Roads, but the Memory was full...

@driving fast: What should I do? When the engine don't want to accelrate, you have to keep your speed through the corners. ^^
Driving like that without people complaining, was a hell lot of fun.


If anyone is interessted, I will post my matches the next few days too...

[KillemallCFH]

Eths (it'd be a shame not to have anything French to listen to on a trip to... France)Kragens is pretty good French thrash, although their vocals leave something to be desired. Heavenly is one of the better pure power metal bands I've heard, and they hail from France.

Also, that list needs more Finsterforst. Epic German Folk metal that I recently discovered.



Trinket Mage fetches Engineered Explosives which simply is that good (as in utterly amazing in most matchups) - totally worth it. Being able to randomly pull out a Sensei's Divining Top against control or with a Balance on the table also wins games: there is a reason for Top being one of the most FoWed cards in this deck.Yeah. I just can't help but compare it to Enlightened Tutor of your older builds, which does the same thing and more at two mana less, although, quite obviously, Card Advantage >>> Card Disadvantage.

[diffy]

Also, that list needs more Finsterforst. Epic German Folk metal that I recently discovered.

Oh gosh, they are so horrible. Well, you can't really blame them - they're only a local band after all. I saw them live together with Adorned Brood (also pretty bad), Heidevolk (decent), Týr (solid) and Alestorm (epic) some time ago at Black Sails over Europe.
For Christ's sake, listen to Ensiferum, Eluveitie or Equilibrium before Finsterforst (and that's only the bands starting with an 'E').


When I am in the mood to listen to some power metal it tends to be Dragonland (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUP6LlIloXA).

Sweet, Let's-kick-the-singer-in-the-balls-before-the-act Metal. Thanks for making me feel like I'm 14 again (good? were the times when Hammerfall was all you needed).

[godryk]

The only Sourcer I know from the top was Stefan Czolk, I guess the SPOD guys will feed us with more info sooner or later, I expect it to be in the form of an awesome report.

Mission accomplished! Never hesitate to provide us with moar non-MTG stuff!

[KillemallCFH]

Oh gosh, they are so horrible. Well, you can't really blame them - they're only a local band after all. I saw them live together with Adorned Brood (also pretty bad), Heidevolk (decent), Týr (solid) and Alestorm (epic) some time ago at Black Sails over Europe.
For Christ's sake, listen to Ensiferum, Eluveitie or Equilibrium before Finsterforst (and that's only the bands starting with an 'E').The fuck? Not sure what you could find so unpalatable about ...zum Tode hin. Better than Ensiferum? Hell no; few bands are. Better than Eluveitie? Probably, although it's certainly debatable. I haven't listened to Equilibrium, but most Finsterforst reviews compare them to Equilibrium (in a positive way).

[spirit of the wretch]

Hey Stefan, congrats on the finish. Would you change the list if you had to play it again this weekend? Specially considering your SB strategy in Annecy.

I'd switch Spell Snares for Dazes and probably add more Paths to the SB (seeing how I almost always wated to have them).



The list is really solid, but I missed the Dazes in the Spell Snare slot. I debatet this issue a lot with my team member Clemens (Der_imaginäre_Freund) and we didn't come to the same conclusion, but I really like Daze for its flexibility, the CC2 and the psychological effect it has on your opponent. So if I were to play this deck again any time soon (which I probably won't), I'd cut the Spell Snares for Dazes.
But as I said, this choice mostly is a preference thing. Whatever you like better is fine =)

[KillemallCFH]

I'd switch Spell Snares for Dazes and probably add more Paths to the SB (seeing how I almost always wated to have them).I've been playing a full set of Paths in the board and it has been impressive thus far. I originally added them as an answer to Merfolk, and having access to eight StPs is pretty phenomenal at swaying the aggro MU in your favor.

[MasterC]

...Harrald enjoying the first of many, many, many beers whilst watching some porn – yup, the guy can not live without his daily dose of naked flesh (http://s243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/?action=view&current=P1020618.jpg), and he's proud of it

Mental Note: Skip Shakehands at next encounter.

[FredMaster]

The fuck? Not sure what you could find so unpalatable about ...zum Tode hin. Better than Ensiferum? Hell no; few bands are. Better than Eluveitie? Probably, although it's certainly debatable. I haven't listened to Equilibrium, but most Finsterforst reviews compare them to Equilibrium (in a positive way).
Thing is that the music itself is quite rousing and they would be one of the best in their art, if it wasn't for the plane BORING vocals. I still like them.
I really recommend you to try out Equilibrium, they're latest album is a masterpiece.

[diffy]

Thing is that the music itself is quite rousing and they would be one of the best in their art, if it wasn't for the plane BORING vocals. I still like them.
I really recommend you to try out Equilibrium, they're latest album is a masterpiece.

Just what I told the guy in a PM: Finsterforst's singer isn't really any good.
Also, Equilibrium give out free mead at their concerts - that alone is pure win.
I'll have to disagree with your assessment of Equilibrium's albums though. In my opinion, Turis Fratyr is the much 'rounder' one of the two albums: it feels like a complete piece of intertwined art, whereas Sagas is more like a collection of solid songs without a strong musical theme/leitmotiv.


I'd switch Spell Snares for Dazes

Aye. While I really like Spell Snare, the full set (and no Dazes) is the wrong choice: 14 cards at converted mana cost two is just very, very, little. Too little, actually.
Someone who still has some enthusiasm for NQG work some 3 Dazes into that list and you'll pretty much have what I'd consider, to date, the optimal list.


I just can't help but compare [Trinket Mage] to Enlightened Tutor of your older builds, which does the same thing and more at two mana less, although, quite obviously, Card Advantage >>> Card Disadvantage.

The comparison of Trinket Mage to Enlightened Tutor is, in fact, quite solid. However, if you follow this comparison, you'll find Trinket Mage at least as good as the Tutor, if not better against anything but combo (and maybe, just maybe, the mirror). Not only does he provide card advantage over card disadvantage (as you already stated), but also Trinket Mage really isn't that much worse than Enlightened Tutor in any matchup:
Against Aggressive decks, having more bodies for Jitte/to block/to boot is important. Fetching Engineered Explosives while having a body to chump with balances out the relative slowness of Trinket Mage if compared to the Tutor. Furthermore, Trinket Mage doing something at the time you play/draw it is also important because you often can't afford to loose a turn with Enlightened Tutor, even if what you pull out is quite broken.
Against anything controlish, the card disadvantage provided by Enlightened Tutor is a back-breaker - the point clearly goes to Trinket Mage, especially since Sensei's Divining Top is almost as big as a bomb as anything you could fetch with Enlightened Tutor.
In the mirror, being able to pull out a Counterbalance with Enlightened Tutor is really good. Totally worth the card disadvantage because Counterbalance is about the only really relevant card in the mirror anyway. However, I play this deck very conservatively/controlish: as long as the opponent doesn't win, I consider that I will win eventually. I therefore still like Trinket Mage in the mirror because he prevents me from loosing (i.e. handles a resolved Counterbalance more often than not).
Against Combo, Trinket Mage is inferior to Enlightened Tutor in all aspects but pitching to Force of Will - no argument there. However, combo is rare enough for this to not be a very strong point in favour of Enlightened Tutor.

With these arguments in mind, I support the thesis that Trinket Mage is, in fact, superior to Enlightened Tutor in the current build: its strength in bad matchups (anything aggressive) and him providing card advantage over card disadvantage outweigh the very little edge Enlightened Tutor has over it in some of the other matchups.

[Damnosus]

Someone who still has some enthusiasm for NQG work some 3 Dazes into that list and you'll pretty much have what I'd consider, to date, the optimal list.



Wait, do you no longer have an interest in NQG/w? Did I just read too much into that? I hope that is not the case, because I think you give some of the best input around.

If that is the case, what deck are you more interested in?

[KillemallCFH]

Against Aggressive decks, having more bodies for Jitte/to block/to boot is important. Fetching Engineered Explosives while having a body to chump with balances out the relative slowness of Trinket Mage if compared to the Tutor. Furthermore, Trinket Mage doing something at the time you play/draw it is also important because you often can't afford to loose a turn with Enlightened Tutor, even if what you pull out is quite broken.Being able to find Jitte against aggro is game-swaying. That being said, so is a body + EE. One is significantly clunkier than the other though, and I'm not as quick to give Trinket Mage the nod is this MU.

Against anything controlish, the card disadvantage provided by Enlightened Tutor is a back-breaker - the point clearly goes to Trinket Mage, especially since Sensei's Divining Top is almost as big as a bomb as anything you could fetch with Enlightened Tutor.No question here. Trinket mage is quite obviously superior against control.

In the mirror, being able to pull out a Counterbalance with Enlightened Tutor is really good. Totally worth the card disadvantage because Counterbalance is about the only really relevant card in the mirror anyway. However, I play this deck very conservatively/controlish: as long as the opponent doesn't win, I consider that I will win eventually. I therefore still like Trinket Mage in the mirror because he prevents me from loosing (i.e. handles a resolved Counterbalance more often than not).Having access to CBs 5-6 is a bomb in the mirror, whereas having access to a 3cc dude who might answer CB in 2 turns is... less so. I will concede that Trinket Mage is a much more reliable CB answer, but even he is far from guaranteed to land against an active CB/Top. From my experience the mirror is largely a race of who can get active CB/Top first. Enlightened Tutor is infinitely more useful in achieving this goal.

Against Combo, Trinket Mage is inferior to Enlightened Tutor in all aspects but pitching to Force of Will - no argument there. However, combo is rare enough for this to not be a very strong point in favour of Enlightened Tutor.Agreed on both points. Combo is an already strong matchup that seldom comes up; including it in the discussion is somewhat pointless.
With these arguments in mind, I support the thesis that Trinket Mage is, in fact, superior to Enlightened Tutor in the current build: its strength in bad matchups (anything aggressive) and him providing card advantage over card disadvantage outweigh the very little edge Enlightened Tutor has over it in some of the other matchups.This is reasonable. Despite my arguments in its favor, Enlightened Tutor's card disadvantage cannot be overlooked. It is often a much worse late-game topdeck and Trinket Mage having a body is highly relevant. I'll do some more testing with them; I may find Trinket Mage the superior choice, but all of my past experience with him has led me to label him as clunky more than anything else.

Also, I just listened to Turis Fratyr. I wouldn't label it as amazing just yet, but it is very good, and it usually takes me a couple listen-throughs to warm up to any album.

[FredMaster]

Also, I just listened to Turis Fratyr. I wouldn't label it as amazing just yet, but it is very good, and it usually takes me a couple listen-throughs to warm up to any album.
It is obviously much more awesome if you're capable of the German language. The lyrics are oftentimes fun and somewhat easy to understand.

Just what I told the guy in a PM: Finsterforst's singer isn't really any good.
Also, Equilibrium give out free mead at their concerts - that alone is pure win.
I'll have to disagree with your assessment of Equilibrium's albums though. In my opinion, Turis Fratyr is the much 'rounder' one of the two albums: it feels like a complete piece of intertwined art, whereas Sagas is more like a collection of solid songs without a strong musical theme/leitmotiv.
I agree with you on the point of Tyris Fratyr being much "rounder" BUT
just listen to "Mana" from the Sagas album... pure pr0n

Especially to a non-german Sagas will sound much better than "TF".

[diffy]

Report Part I aka. The Odyssey, take 2 (http://mtgthesource.com/forums/showpost.php?p=342975&postcount=20)

Report Part II aka. First Blood

Report Part III aka. Back in Business (http://mtgthesource.com/forums/showpost.php?p=364269&postcount=36)


It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a 'plop' rang through the deserted overcrowded abyss hotel room. All awoke, for Harrald 'Tipp Dosenbier is hawt' Herrlich had taken a dump. Terrified by having witnessed this event, none but the most hung-over thought of sleep no more... and thus began the second day of the odyssey of a couple of pirates (and a pineapple shit-ton of beer).


After a quick morning-routine, Stefan and I head down to what the hotel called 'breakfast'... and, major bummer, it turned out to be your below-average hotel continental standard stuff – for Christ's sake, we're in France. You know? France? Home of the most awesome pastry as in Éclairs and Croissants and God knows what else... French croissants were probably the only good thing about 1871, 1916 and 1940 (http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/victories.html) and nowadays we don't even get that? Damn you, economic crisis! I definitely have to find a Pâtisserie later that day to make up for your average Joe's cornflakes soaked in €0.08/liter milk (and jeesh I did find my Éclair au Chocolat, although only on the Saturday. And jeesh, it sure was good.).

As Stefan and I head out of the hotel, we are joined by Adan (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020626-1.jpg) and Stefan completes his breakfast with the first beer of the day. A French guy from Lyon (if I recall correctly) leads us to the site: a large room bellow a church... wait for it... church? At first I was like 'this can't be the right place', but then I saw people in front of that church, young people. I told myself that the only reason people, young people, would ever be near a church was to play with magical cards have an awesome weekend, and indeed, the room beneath the church was the correct place.

This is where the report starts to get boring. Because, you know, MtG gets involved.

While Stefan sits down and kills another beer, I start my Mad Trading Spree™ which, with a “¿Hola, qué tal?” and a “S'lut, ç'va?”, would only end on Sunday, after grossing in over €1k... obviously including some really good deals.

“Il est à combien ton Estuaire Pollué (how much is this Polluted Delta)?”
“Ton prix est le mien (your price is mine [as in: you tell me what you value it])”
“15. (no, not Dollars - actual money)”
“uh... seriously? Deal!”

“¿A cuanto lo ves tu Cruel Bargain en Allemán? (how much do you value that German Cruel Bargain of yours?)”
“Que sé yo... dime un precio. (I have no idea. You tell me.)”
“No voy a decirtelo porque yo se lo que vale. (I won't tell you because I know how much it is really worth)”
“Pues... 20? (Uhm then, how about 20 [to myself: I bought this for €6, let's start at 20 to then sell it for around 15])”
“Vale! (deal!)”
(a deal including some other German playables and €86 later)
“En Espana, me hubiera costado 50 (in Spain, these Bargains fetch €50)...”
“WTF! (I beg your pardon?) Pues, qué tal que te muestro mis otras cartas alemanes? (So how about I show you my other German cards?)”
“Ah, eso es muy sucio (That's dirty and downright nasty, and you know it!)”

The following two days I'd also sell my team-mates stuff on commission (the commission being 1 [one] pizza) and make another good bunch of money – so already here, after 1.5 reports, the trips was totally worth it, if alone for the incredibly awesome feeling of having a big, huge, thick bundle of money in your pocket (Stefan: 2.5cm €10 bills, Laber: 2.5cm €20 bills, me: 2.5cm €50 bills)... which, after all, isn't exactly a common feel for students.

An hour or so later, the other nerds pirates finally come along. Two of them leave relatively soon thereafter on an epic quest to find some cigarettes (on a public holiday, mind you), and the others start playing some 8-man single-elimination trials to win free entry to both main events. After watching Stefan and Heiler get beat up, in round one, by Ichorid and Enchantress respectively, Harrald and I head out to hunt down some food. Ten minutes later, we return with a truly commendable booty: nice, greasy, and, above all, large pizzas. You think your pizza is greasy? I don't think so, Tim – this (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020627.jpg) pizza is greasy! (yes, that actually is mince on that pizza – all the Italians please puke now.)

Some time later, Marius and Martin return – their glorious quest was successful, although only after a long and tiresome journey: they managed to return those cigarettes to the lands of the free and therewith ensure Marius's good mood.
Also, beer. Some mad drinking starts, only to slightly slow down after a judge begs us to not leave bottles and cans all over the place: “It would not be good if this stuff were all around and the police came in to have a look at the place.”.
We poke some fun at Martin Schreiber who decided to play one 8-man queue after the other and, despite some serious skill, manages to come in second place at one. Here's a token of the mad skill you need in order to top2 an 8-man queue: playing against ANT, he has a Counterbalance down and plays a Ponder. He sees a Sensei's Divining Top and decides to shuffle it away. He drops a Gaddock Teeg and passes the turn. Next turn, he drops a Tarmogoyf and another Gaddock Teeg. He then proceeds to win the game.
We also make friends with a group of Spaniards (or, to be politically correct, Catalanes) who don't seem to quite know whether to be amazed by our awesomeness (i.e. levels of alcohol consumption + general awesomeness [one spyware-free cookie for whoever saves me the burden of playing the obvious pun is obvious pun-card here]) or disturbed by the later. One of them would tell me on the next day something about us (and especially Stefan) being “un poco loco”.



Out of a strange swing of mood, I decide to play one of these queues myself. My weapon of choice: Elves – any deck can go 2-0 or better, so why not have some fun while playing?

My decklist can be found here (http://docs.google.com/Edit?id=dgbs8px8_15gh2qt5f6).


Round 1 vs. [FRA] Mathieu with AfFoWnity

I drop a first turn mana dude, he has an early Chalice of the Void. I play an Imperious Perfect and another Lord, building up a board of tokens, he plays actual broken shit aka. 2x Master of Etherium + Somber Hoverguard + Cranial Plating. Then comes along the all-deciding turn: he has a board of the aforementioned broken stuff plus an Arcbound Ravager and a Frogmite. I have two Lords and a bunch of crappy 3/3 elves. His Somber Hoverguard + Plating will take me down in two turns - I Jedi-mind-trick him into going all-in i.e. attacking with everything. I brain a little over my blockers, and after declaring them, Stefan tells me that I screwed up. It wouldn't really surprise me if I had because I'm not focused at all: I'm much too cold for that. Seriously, I was shivering like there was no tomorrow – something Stefan was already poking fun at (“Ohhh, look, lil' kiddie is all excited 'bout playin' Magic.”). Screw you, Sir, I really am that cold and not excited about playing Legacy (now why would I be that?). One quick demonstration (i.e. stone-cold hand touching arm) later, he admits that, in fact, why ever, I am friggin' cold. However, I did not screw up my combat math and therefore drop to one. At the end of my opponent's turn, I make another token with my Imerpious Perfect and tell my opponent to hit me with his best shot, turning my lethal board sideways. He doesn't have no further trick – my Jedi-powers have reasserted themselves once more.

-3 Sylvan Messenger
-2 Llanowar Elf
-1 Quirion Ranger
-1 Magus of the Moon
+4 Krosan Grip
+1 Viridian Zealot
+2 Elvish Champion

Second game was over real quick: he has a Force of Will for my two early Survival of the Fittest, I waste my Krosan Grip on his Chalice of the Void. He then proceeds to get an Umezawa's Jitte + a dude. I don't draw a Natural Order in time.

The third game was a testimony to what unfocused play (am I seriously the only fucking one noticing that it is frigging cold in this hall?!) can lead to.
He, once again, has a Force of Will for my Survival of the Fittest and a Chalice of the Void. I get in some early beats with Wren's Run Vanquisher. Turn four, I have an Imperious Perfect and a Krosan Grip in hand. I attack. Why the hell didn't I play that Perfect pre-combat? Right. To handle that Chalice of the Void preventing the gazillion mana dudes in my hand from entering play. At his end of turn, I don't play the Grip. Why again did I do that? Ah, right. My board position is solid and I want to prevent his random win i.e. topdeck Jitte. Next turn, I turn my Vanquisher sideways again. Why the fuck did I not play that Lord again? Seriously, F-O-C-U-S. No, Sir. Much too cold for that (I'm not using the long lost art of the hyperbole one inch if I say that my teeth were literally rattling at this point). At some end of turn after that, I finally manage to destroy his Chalice. I manage to get into quite a bad position from there on, with him again having Cranial Plating + flying dude + double Master of Etherium (that deck only wins if it gets 3+ of its 8 good cards anyway, aye?). I carefully brain over my next play, drop a Quirion Ranger, a Priest of Titania and Natural Order for... wait for it... Viridian Zealot. His attack only brings me down to 8 (from 17, mind you), thanks to Zealot preventing most of the damage by blocking + destroying a Cranial Plating. I carefully brain over my other blocks, not to die but also to still be able to win on the next turn: one other dude of mine therefore has to sacrifice himself. On my next turn, I play a Lord, tap my Priest, play a Lord, play a Lord and use Quirion Ranger to untap my Priest. I swing in for lethal.

1-0 (2:1)


Round 2 vs. [FRA] Darius with Ugr Dreadstill

First turn Llanowar Elf, second turn Llanowar Elf meet second turn Fire/Ice. Eeeeeeeeew. I proceed to loose from there on (i.e. he gets a Dreadnought down and has two Engineered Explosives to prevent my Wren's Run Packmaster-powered Wolves to take his thing down).

-2 Sylvan Messenger (damn you, Stifle!)
-1 Llanowar Elves
-1 Quirion Ranger
+3 Krosan Grip
+1 Viridian Zealot

I get a solid start with some mana dudes and an Imperious Perfect (on which he plays a Pithing Needle). I then proceed to race his Phyrexian Dreadnought with my Wren's Run Packmaster + Vanquisher. Rawr!

Third game was a fail-fest (and a testimony to what is stopping Elves from being an actual good deck): he has a Force of Will for my Survival of the Fittest and then another one for my Natural Order. Meanwhile, two Tarmogoyfs are nibbling away my life total. I proceed to draw Krosan Grip, Krosan Grip, Land, Land, Land and die a slow and green death... and that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is why Elves isn't Tier 1: Force of Will a threat and some Tarmogoyf beatdown (+possible role as The Abyss i.e. way too large blocker) is enough to defeat this deck more often than not. However, that game was also a testimony to the suckitude of Dreadstill: he revealed Pyroclasm, Pyroclasm, Fire/Ice, Firespout after the game... with a landbase of double Mishra's Factory, Wasteland and double Tropical Island.

1-1 (3:3)


Queue Props:
(n/a)
Queue Slops:
No one showing up with a Materazzi shirt on the first (actually, on any) day of the event



After this queue, everyone was more or less sick and tired of playing Magic.
Martin Schreiber brought along some meat and I have the seemingly amazing idea of going to Lake Annecy to barbecue said stuff. Seemingly amazing. That's exactly what the idea was: only seemingly amazing - we didn't manage to find a single inch of the lake (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020633.jpg) that wasn't either a yacht-club or a paying-beach. We therefore headed out set sail for the parking space on which Martin had parked his car during the night: a classy little thing right between two graveyards (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020636.jpg) – Stefan immediately felt at home (back in Karlsruhe he lives right next to a graveyard. In a basement. Yeah, I know, it doesn't really get any more cliché than that). Adan missed out on the unbelievable amount of win that would follow (due to preferring to hang out with some true mtg-nerds rather than with awesome pirates – seriously, wtf dude?).



http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020674.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020665.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020679.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020655.jpg

Asi-(as in totally asocial)-Time aka. barbecue on a parking space!


The following involved pirates making fire, the manly way (1 (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020675.jpg), 2 (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020676.jpg), 3 (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020677.jpg)), pirates fighting (1 (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020680.jpg), 2 (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020681.jpg), 3 (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020682.jpg), 4 (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020718.jpg), 5 (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020722.jpg)), pirates chilling in cars (1 (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020659.jpg), 2 (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020719.jpg)), booze (1 (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020711.jpg), 2 (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020728.jpg)), drinking (1 (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020717.jpg), 2 (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020714.jpg)), traffic sign climbing [with ensuing wounds] (1 (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020709.jpg), 2 (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020716.jpg)) and meat (1 (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020686.jpg)).
At some point, someone also had the amazing idea to climb (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020697.jpg) the graveyard's walls (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020702.jpg) and explore (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020705.jpg) its crematory (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020707.jpg) (picture backstory: Pirates Raiding Annecy ('s Gravyard))

Long story short: it was one amazing evening.


Back at the hotel (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/P1020726.jpg), one sad-panda Adan, waiting in front of the room for hours (yup, graveyard raiding does, in fact, take quite a while), couldn't even reckon what he'd missed.
Due to all wanting to get in as much sleep as possible in order to be fit for the Legacy event on the next day everyone being tired/drunk as hell, we all fell asleep rather quickly.



Tune back in tomorrow (as in sometime next week after I sit my Math and ICT finals) for the incredibly boring fail-story of an NQG-player. Now with even more actual Magic content.

[Adan]

There WAS a guy with a Matterazi Shirt. I was standing beside him when checking out the trader for Ichorid-Stuff.

[diffy]

Disclaimer:
I reckon this comes pretty late – better late than never, I guess: it's been an extremely busy time for me, sitting A-Levels and organizing my post high-school way through life i.e. one year of civil service in Togo (http://mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13976) and further education at Edinburgh University.

Also, please don't be surprised if any of this doesn't make much sense - I'm writing this report while drugged as if there where no tomorrow with a rather large bunch of different vaccines.
_____________________________________________________



Report Part I aka. The Odyssey, take 2 (http://mtgthesource.com/forums/showpost.php?p=342975&postcount=20)
Report Part II aka. First Blood (http://mtgthesource.com/forums/showpost.php?p=343205&postcount=34)

Report Part III aka. Back in Business

...and that was when the awesome stopped.

Getting Up? Check.
Way too early? Check.
Horrible breakfast? Check.
Walk to site? Check.
Be pre-registered? Check.
Decklist? Check (http://docs.google.com/Edit?docID=dgbs8px8_51g258qddm).


Round 1 vs. [FRA] Pâtisserie with Éclair au Chocolat

I have a pretty good matchup thanks to my first-round rating bye. Stefan comes along and gives me some outside assistance. We move to game two the exterior.

-1 One Euro Coin
-1 Twenty Cents Coin
-1 Ten Cents Coin
+1 Delicious Pastry
+1 Good Time

We find a Pâtisserie, get some food and be awesome instead of playing Legacy - there is absolutely nothing he can do.

1-0 (0:0)


Round 2 vs. [GER] Christian Reuschel with Rb Goblins

He has one of these 'non-Vial, non-Lackey but strong (?) midgame' starts. I do what I always do and throw a Tarmogoyf at the problem. Then, Tarmogoyf does what he always does and gets gunned down. Then, I throw another Tarmogoyf at the problem. Then, he gets gunned down. Then, I throw another Tarmogoyf at the problem. Then, he gets gunned down. Then, I loose.
I now know how Americans felt in and after Vietnam.

-1 Trinket Mage
-4 Counterbalance
-2 Sensei's Divining Top
+2 Hydroblast
+1 Blue Elemental Blast
+1 Pithing Needle
+2 Path to Exile
+1 Engineered Explosives

He gets all Vial-y on me. Twice. I play it Bogart and drop a Pithing Needle. I then proceed to introduce my opponent to Mr. Tarmo 'Cheaper than Wall-mart' Norris and his dear friend Umezawa's 'World of Pain' Cheatee while Spell Snaring his two consecutive Warren Weirdings.
Oh and yes, I won that one.

-1 Rhox War Monk
+1 Trinket Mage (I saw some Relic of Progenitus, being able to get to that Pithing Needle therefore is even more important)

Once again, he doesn't have a fast start while I have a seemingly amazing hand: I hit double Tarmogoyf (topdecks turn 3 and 4), double Qasali Pridemage, double Spell Snare and double Umezawa's Jitte in the first few turns. I drop one of the Jittes turn two, he Tin Street Hooligans it. I then proceed to drop another one, followed by a Tarmogoyf on the next turn. As I didn't hit a third land, he can safely Warren Weirding my dude and Wasteland my only green mana source (Tropical Island). He doesn't do anything in the following turns. I draw another Tundra and drop my second Jitte, ready to kick some shiny metal ass.
Obviously, I don't hit another green mana source that game.

1-1 (1:2)


Round 3 vs. [FRA] Richard Dumetz with RGw Zoo

I mulligan once. He has an early Figure of Destiny and then another one. While they hit me, I assemble Counterbalance + Sensei's Divining Top and send one of his dudes farming. The turn before I get my soft-lock active, he resolves a Woolly Thoctar and the outlook is rather grim for me. I play a Tarmogoyf - he's too small to be a challenge for his guys.
If Counterbalance and Goyf aren't any good, NQG is no good either, I reckon.

-1 Sensei's Divining Top
-1 Trinket Mage
-1 Spell Snare
-2 Qasali Pridemage
+2 Hydroblast
+1 Blue Elemental Blast
+2 Path to Exile
+1 Engineered Explosives

He has a first turn Aether Vial - I certainly didn't see that coming and therefore Force of Will it. On his second turn, he has another one of the nasty artefacts and drops some random one mana dork. I find an Engineered Explosives, buying myself close to infinite time. I drop a Rhox War Monk which he Red Elemental Blasts. I then find a Sensei's Divining Top to go with my Counterbalance – everything looks very good. I drop a Tarmogoyf and kill his two Vexing Shushers, while swinging in for the win.

-1 Plains
+1 Qasali Pridemage

After a swingy first few turns involving a Rancored Wild Nactal (I totally didn't see that coming - again), a Rancored Tarmogoyf, and me handling the two: triple Rhox War Monk. 'Nough said.

2-1-0 (3:3)


Round 4 vs. [AUT] Jacob Ederer with Rg Sligh

You know why I dislike writing tournament reports with me playing Threshold? Because you always write the same thing – or you loose. I guess, I can write the same old stuff again this round: Goyf + Goyf + Counterbalance + Sensei's Divining Top = Win (after stabilizing from early Mogg Fanatic + Keldon Marauders + Rift Bolt bleeding).

-3 Qasali Pridemage
-1 Sensei's Divining Top
-1 Trinket Mage
-1 Tropical Island
+2 Path to Exile
+1 Engineered Explosives
+2 Hydroblast
+1 Blue Elemental Blast

He has a solid start with some burn sending me down to 6 life and some three peasant Tarmogoyfs sending him to 29. I then proceed to drop two Tarmogoyfs of my own and get an Umezawa's Jitte active. I Force of Will two of his Price of Progress and proceed to tell myself that it's a good thing we invested so much time into improving this deck's matchup against Aggro!

3-1-0 (5:0)


Round 5 vs. [ITA] Coruzo Manera with Geddon Stax

Long (and tiresome) story short: I trade some Qasali Pridemages for Smokestacks (2) and a Trinisphere (1) plus a Force of Will for an Armageddon while he has a Ghostly Prison and Crucible-Wasteland out. Meanwhile, damage from Ancient Tomb, Horizon Canopy and my Tarmogoyf bring him down to 6 life. He gets a Magus of the Tabernacle out (Swords to Plowshares) and then another one. He proceeds to resolve Armageddon the turn before I draw another Force of Will - I have no lands left in my deck and therefore move on to game 2.

-4 Counterbalance
-1 Swords to Plowshares
-2 Umezawa's Jitte
+3 Gaddock Teeg
+1 Engineered Explosives
+2 Krosan Grip
+1 Pithing Needle

I get a fairly solid start, Spell Snaring a Chalice of the Void of his and beating down with a Tarmogoyf and a Qasali Pridemage. At one point, I have to sacrifice my Pridemage in order to get rid of his Trinisphere blocking my cantrips to find more lands. He then proceeds to drop double Magus of the Tabernacle. I manage to get rid of one of them via Swords to Plowshares and then something really goofy happened: he moves through his phases rather quickly, untaps, draws, and plays a Ghostly Prison, tapping four mana – I was going to say that there was something wrong regarding Magus of the Tabernacle, pointing at the mana my opponent just tapped. My opponent was already on his way to put his Magus into the graveyard when a judge stops us, saying that we both get a warning for missed triggers and that the Magus lives, with my opponent not even having to pay the mana – if he wanted to pay the mana that'd be 'very fair good sports' of him, but he didn't have to: the game state had advanced too far to 'repair' the situation. I look weirdly at him and he proceeds to draw out an even stranger allegory for the situation stating that if he played an Akroma on his first turn and I as his opponent didn't notice it immediately (i.e. until another action is taken) the Akroma were to stay in play. Stefan, watching the match, can't believe it and says that he has a new deck idea: Progenitus Trashtalk. I protest saying that back in the day when I was still following the rules, a missed trigger was to be put on the stack the moment one notices it, with the default action (i.e. not paying) taken. The judge says that I'm wrong - I ask him if this is some recent rules change and he says that yes it was rather recent. I therefore don't appeal the ruling. I proceed to point out to the judge that this ruling opens the doors wide open to cheating and abuse, stating that by his ruling I'd never have to pay the upkeep costs again if I manage to move through my upkeep fast enough. The judge gets angry and says that if I were to do it, it'd be cheating and he'd disqualify me on the spot, au contrary to if my opponent did it. Yeah, that's right. Anyway, my opponent and I both can't understand the judge's verdict, I proceed to play a Swords to Plowshares on said Magus and swing in for the win – not that it made any difference, but the situation was really goofy.

Third game was over real quick – the only damage he took was from his Ancient Tombs: he gets down an early Trinisphere and Magus. I get rid of the Magus – he plays an Elspeth, Knight Errant and a Crucible of Worlds (+Wasteland). He goes for Armageddon - I don't have the Force of Will (but triple Spell Snare) and am left with no non-basics. Not drawing a single Gaddock Teeg all two postboard games long makes this matchup way more swingy.

3-2-0 (6:5)


Round 6 vs. [GER] Didnttake Namedown with Ugw Progenitus Threshold

All-right, if there was any low-point to my mood at this tournament, it definitely was this round. My opponent mulligans. Twice. And leads with some Counterbalance action I can Force of Will. I then get Counterbalance + Top of my own and lock him out of the game, with a two- and three-costed card floating on top of my library at all times. The only thing bugging me: a Werebear is slowly nibbling away my life total. I drop to four life and do have a Swords to Plowshares in hand, but don't want to use it since my now active Rhox War Monk + Qasali Pridemage will more than neutralize the threshed Werebear – I'll rather save that StP for a random, uncounterbalanceable threat like Mystic Enforcer he might be playing alongside those oldschool Werebears... I thought. And then he went for Natural Order. And then I turned pale (didn't see that coming, did I?). Activate Top, no Force. Fetch, activate Top, no Force. Fetch, activate Top, no Force. Fetch, activate Top, find Force. What, I'm on one (and now tapped out)? Screw you.

-2 Umezawa's Jitte
-3 Rhox War Monk
-1 Ponder
+2 Path to Exile
+2 Krosan Grip
+1 Engineered Explosives
+1 Relic of Progenitus

Second game I'm paranoid about Natural Order: I know that I am the better and more experienced player and therefore will definitely win the mirror if nothing stupid and swingy (like Natural Order, for instance) happens. I therefore sword every single green critter he gets into play. He swords every single green critter on my side of the field (Pridemage, Goyf, Pridemage) simply because he can. Eventually he runs out of gas because I can Spell Snare his Counterbalances and therefore have some excess Krosan Grips for his Sensei's Divining Tops, unlike him, and Goyf gets there once again.

Third game, we both get CounterTop online. I totally can't figure why we went to time.

3-2-1 (7:6)

I'm out of contention at this point, but I continue playing just for the hell of it – not that Legacy is any fun, or anything, there just was nothing better to do: it was France after all. They speak French there, I hear. God, that place is a mess.


Round 7 vs. [CZ] Jan Zusak with Ugwb Landstill

I keep one of these typical Threshold hands with a land and some cantrips. Cantrips resolve, finds a fetchland and a nonbasic, land gets Wasted, fetchland Stifled, next two Lands wasted and two Fetches stifled. Meanwhile, I'm getting killed by a Tarmogoyf and a Mishra's Factory - I didn't get into the game at any point.

-2 Umezawa's Jitte
-1 Rhox War Monk
+2 Krosan Grip
+1 Pithing Needle

He gets an early Pithing Needle on Sensei's Divining Top - I can't handle it and so have to do it the oldschool way: Rhox War Monk, Goyf, Swords to Plowshares his Goyf, Force of Will a Deed, get him on low life, let him clear the board, drop another beater – game. Like back in... uh... 100 b. C.? (before Counterbalance, that is)

Third game was bo(o) wait for it. Actually, that doesn't need the '...ring' to be correct. Basically it came down to me Counterbalance+Top-locking the living hell out of him until he dropped his super (?) secret (!) sneaky (?) tech of Masticore? After my initial perplexity I thankfully accepted my Krosan Grips and Swords to Plowshares now getting in for two cards for the price of one (only today, special offer!). After me dropping a Pithing Needle on Pernicious Deed and starting to slowly beat him down with a Trinket Mage he conceded.

4-2-1 (9:7)


Round 8 vs. [GER] Marc Tobias with Ugb Crystal Shard

I dropped some Goyfs. And Counterbalances. Thankfully I saw what he was playing before the only way NQG can win let me win: Intuitions, Accumulated Knowledge, Volrath's Stronghold and the like.

-3 Rhox War Monk
-2 Umezawa's Jitte
+2 Krosan Grip
+1 Path to Exile
+1 Pithing Needle
+1 Relic of Progenitus

No, wait, actually his deck doesn't loose to Counterbalance? It is quite good against it, too, I hear – Mystic Snake, Kitchen Finks, Shriekmaw and Crystal Shards oblige – but how the hell did He Who Plays The Deck Whose Curve Starts At Three make it to this table? I want to play against all the Threshold decks he played against too!

Meh, see game 2. Not being able to kill people with Tarmogoyf (Kitchen Finks + Volrath's Stronghold/Crystal Shards) and a curve mostly outside of Counterbalance range really are no good news for Threshold. True story.
The deck that had already induced panic and terror into my team-mate Manuel Heiler in some previous round found another victim – me. Harald Herrlich (also of epic SPOD fame) was so impressed by the deck's sneakiness that he built it himself. He is still playing it to date. Although he still is due to top8 with it, many, many people have been added to the 'Official List of People Traumatized by Crystal Shards' list – walking straight into limited tricks (“Cute Goyf you have there, guess what my Briarhorn will do with it? Right!”) and loosing to stuff you didn't even play in block constructed is no fun, I tell you!

4-3-1 (10:9)

Round 9 vs. [ITA] Ronzo Gampiero with Team America

Before the round, Fabian Moyschewitz, a Hassloch regular, had a little chat with my opponent – apparently an old friend. Fabian told him to watch out for my mad playskill – Ronzo's only reply: “Don't worry, I'll fuck him.”
And that's what he did, all-right.

Thoughtseize, take your Swords to Plowshare, Goyf, Goyf, Goyf. Spell Snare your Tarmogoyf, Force of Will your Swords to Plowshares, Stifle your Engineered Explosives, Tombstalker, game.

-1 Trinket Mage
-2 Rhox War Monk
-2 Umezawa's Jitte
+2 Path to Exile
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+1 Engineered Explosives

See game 1 (replace the Spell Snare with Snuff Out, though) – quick and painful. Apparently not only Canadians have the fundamental skill of always drawing more than half of their winconditions in a very limited amount of turns, when playing Tempo decks.

4-4-1 (10:11)


4-4-1. With one Bye. What an inglorious outcome, especially if contrasted to Stefan's performance. I guess this shows how Threshold nowadays works, though: sometimes Counterbalance and Tarmogoyf win, sometimes you loose.



As always, to end a report:


Props:
Roadtrips
Slops:
Magic – if it wouldn't be such a convenient excuse for road-trips, it'd be downright unbearable
Motivation - it's a bitch (especially the 'to write a report' type thereof)


That's it gents, this should be the last extensive report you'll be getting from me - I hope you enjoyed that gibberish I like to call English writing you got from me in the past.





Bonus Section aka. What I went on to play after the Annécy-NQG-overdose

After a whopping (and rather disappointing too) nine consecutive rounds of Threshold, and way too many hours (and top8s) logged with that deck anyway, I needed something else to put my teeth into.
I therefore looked through my archives and found Bardo's Vorosh Landstill which arose my curiosity once again - I went on to butcher the deck. To date, it doesn't bear much resemblance to what I started with any more, and could rather be seen as a mutation of NLU or ITF – nevertheless, the deck is very strong and enjoyable to play. I am currently holding back (http://mtgthesource.com/forums/showpost.php?p=344941&postcount=130) to back (http://mtgthesource.com/forums/showpost.php?p=363410&postcount=134) top8s with it at Hassloch.

With no further ado, here's Vorosh Landstill bastard child aka. Team Canada (name courtesy of Bryn Jones):



/// Maindeck (60 cards)

// Lands (22)
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
4 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
4 Island
1 Swamp
1 Academy Ruins
3 Mishra's Factory

// Dudes (4)
4 Tarmogoyf

// Card Advantage (15)
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
2 Standstill
1 Life from the Loam
3 Intuition

// Permission (11)
3 Spell Snare
4 Counterbalance
4 Force of Will

// Removal (8)
2 Smother
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Vedalken Shackles
3 Pernicious Deed
1 Engineered Explosives


This (http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgbs8px8_50dv57cwhd) page will be kept updated with the newest list.

The haters (i.e. my team mates) will, after only two pints of beer, tell you that the deck is a pile of crap, and after only one more pint add “just like any other deck you have ever conceived” to their statement, however, I find it very enjoyable since, thanks to its hybrid approach, it has more gas than either Landstill, NQG or ITF individually while maintaining a high density of control cards and minimizing the angles from which it can be attacked (i.e. less reliance on the graveyard thanks to Landstill-component).

Current record: 8-3-1 (4-1-1, 4-2)
At the May Hassloch event I defeated Threshold/w, Hypergenesis-Cascade Combo, Aggro Loam, and Goblins loosing to Imperial Painter due to non-Blood-Moon-caused colour screw. I drew one round intentionally.
At this month's Hassloch event, I defeated Imperial Painter, Belcher, White Weenie and Affinity, loosing to Bgw Sui's Tombstalker and quite bad-beats-style to Ugr Thrash (he has three cards in hand, three Tarmogoyfs on the table, I have a Tarmogoyf, a Relic of Progenitus and a Pernicious Deed – block Goyf, pop Relic, Stifle, pop Deed, Stifle, Force, Red Blast - I loose).

I personally think that the deck is promising, but apparently also hard to play – to date, everyone, but me, failed miserably with the list.
Since I won't be around long enough to optimize the deck, feel free to give it a shot – I'd hate to see potential wasted.

[mossivo1986]

team canada's cute. Nice report. Need more spod remarks.
edit:

and pictures.

[Bardo]

Very nice report, DIF.

I continue to tweak Vorosh (now VoR/osh) as whim and fancy strike me.

“VoR/osh”
'Glint-Eye' (no /w) Landstill with Counter-Top/Goyf

4 Sensei’s Divining Top
4 Brainstorm
3 Standstill
3 Ponder

4 Force of Will
4 Counterbalance
3 Spell Snare

3 Pernicious Deed
3 Doom Blade

4 Tarmogoyf
3 Dark Confidant
1 Vendilion Clique

4 Mishra’s Factory
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
3 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
1 Island

Sideboard
4 Hydroblast
3 Pyroblast
3 Firespout
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Krosan Grip / Annul

Again, great report.

[mossivo1986]

I really like glint eye.

[spirit of the wretch]

Need more spod remarks.


We're all pretty awesome! Brillant players, visionary deck-builders, excessive drinkers, mean pirates...

Glad to be of service.

[diffy]

excessive drinkers

Fuck you.


pictures.

Feast your eyes (http://s243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/).

[The Grim Reaper]

Fuck you.



Feast your eyes (http://s243.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Der_imaginaere_Freund/annecy/).

Nice report Clemens! It was really a pleasure to play Magical cards with you guys. I'm back in Canada now, but give me a shout if you're ever in the neighbourhood! Team Canada ftw!

Take care,

Bryn