citanul
12-02-2009, 03:19 AM
‘Belgian Legacy Champion, that’s the title we’ll be playing for tomorrow’ I think to myself as we drive off home. Don’t care about the prices that much, the title alone will do even if it’s just for the fame and glory. It’s 1:30 so I’ll be home and asleep at 2 o’clock, 7 hours of sleep and then ready to start a brand new day, hopefully a good one. I wake up to the alarm but press snooze multiple times but I get there eventually. Jelle shows up on time for once but things get bad when we arrive at Wim. I ring the doorbell and his mother informs me that he’s still asleep. He gets out of his bed or the sofa, whatever you want to call it and gets ready as fast as he can. We drive off to pick up JelleF and I call him to ask if he can come to a place that’s on our route so we don’t lose time. Instead he tells me he was still in bed and I just awoke him. So tip 1 of the day: ‘Buy a frigging alarm clock that works!’.
We go and pick him up, follow our GPS to the location, which has road works, great. We drive around, find a small parking spot and Jelle shows us his driving skills as he rides into it. We enter the location 10 minutes in advance, better than we usually do. I sit down with the other teammates and we talk a bit. Kris disagrees on Jelle switching to Ichorid from Merfolk, a choice I strongly vouched for and actually forced on him. Merfolk has a bad matchup against Goblins and I expected plenty of those. We’ll see how it goes. Seatings get posted and I’m seated across a familiar face. He came in late so he still has to make his deck list so there won’t be any small talk this time. Several people come running to the judge station because they didn’t hand in their slip and therefore aren’t on the list. It was a strange system anyway and I can understand the confusion. You pay the entry fee, get your name and DCI number written down and then you have to take that slip to the judge station. So the few people remaining get registered and soon after pairings are posted.
The decklist that I played:
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Tundra
1 Island
2 Chrome Mox
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
2 Cabal Ritual
4 Brainstorm
4 Mystical Tutor
2 Ponder
3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Duress
3 Orim's Chant
3 Infernal Tutor
2 Burning Wish
1 Doomsday
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Meditate
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
Side:
1 Deathmark
4 Thoughtseize
1 Infernal Tutor
1 Doomsday
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
2 Echoing Truth
3 Pyroblast
Round1:
A familiar face! Rith Primeval as he’s known to the most of you guys. I played TopRock the week before and he puts me on that deck. But I just resleeved my deck and I accidently show a Pyroblast when taking my deck. There goes the surprise. He’s still not sure what I’m playing, either NLS or Supreme Blue, two decks I have been debating in my head until yesterday. With Merfolk out of my mind I play tested against JelleF’s Goblins. He sideboarded, I didn’t and I won all but 1 matches. If 4 Chalice of the Void isn’t enough against the maindeck then this is just the correct choice. Anyway, back to the action.
Game1:
I open with Tundra into SDT and he still doesn’t know what to put me on. I play a fetchland after as he drops his third land and passes the turn back. I go EOT Mystical Tutor into Orim’s Chant just to be safe and win the game by resolving Ad Nauseam.
Game2:
Thoughtseize steals a Dark Ritual. Cabal Therapy takes another card while Extirpate takes care of the remaining Dark Rituals including the one in my hand. Gaddock Teeg and Tarmogoyf come down to attack me as Witness brings back more discard. With death on board next turn I bounce the Teeg in the hope of drawing something good but I can’t even think of what would save me. Turns out, nothing saved me.
Game3:
He casts a blind Cabal Therapy followed by a Tarmogoyf later which gets sacrificed to the Therapy. I draw the Doomsday which was lurking on the top of my deck and win through a Meditate pile.
1-0-0 (2-1-0)
Round2:
Never seen this guy but he does look familiar. It’s not the first time people start speaking to me and I have no clue who they are. I apologize to anyone this has happened to.
Game1:
He opens with Savannah and I get all warm and fuzzy inside, thanking my gods for these great matchups. He gets down a Pridemage but he dies one Ad Nauseam later.
Game2:
This game is rather close. He casts Enlightened Tutor EOT for a Thorn of Amethyst. I am soon facing lethal on board and have to go for it. I cast Echoing Truth on his Thorn and get the turn. Some Ritual effects get cast and I go in the thinking tank. I have Mystical Tutor, LED and Meditate in hand. I can cast Mystical in something to draw with the Meditate and then float mana. I don’t want an Infernal Tutor as I’ll need to play all cards in hand then and that’s just awful. Burning Wish forces me to get red from LED, also not optimal. I go with Dark Ritual and see what comes. I cast LED, Meditate and crack LED for BBB. I draw Dark Ritual, Doomsday, Tendrils of Agony and a useless Ponder. Dark Ritual gets me to 7 mana, enough to cast both Doomsday and Tendrils for just enough storm.
2-0-0 (4-1-0)
Round3:
I have to play Jelle with Ichorid. He plays maindeck Unmask so that can hurt.
Round1:
He just plays Putrid Imp turn1. I cast land, SDT and pass. As soon as I pass I realize I should have casted both LED’s and the Petal in my hand and pray I find an Infernal Tutor if he goes off. To late now and I don’t ask for the take back. He gets the feared Hypnotist and I lose.
Round2:
I win to fast. His Cabal Therapy manages to hit a Dark Ritual but it’s soon over.
Round3:
He mulligans to 4 and I mulligan to 6. he opens with unmask and sees land, Ponder, Mystical Tutor, Cabal Ritual, Infernal Tutor, Burning Wish. He almost starts crying, that’s how much whining that was going on from him. He fails to make the correct choice in Ponder and takes Cabal Ritual instead. I Ponder and have to shuffle, I draw Brainstorm and pass. He draws and passed. I Brainstorm during my turn but find nothing but another Brainstorm. He casts a second Unmask followed by a LED. Brainstorm finds nothing again and I pass the turn. He discards a dredger and goes insane. Hypnotist eats the hand and I lose.
2-1-0 (5-3-0)
Round4:
I never seen this guy before so I have no clue what he’s playing. The horror of the loser bracket!
Game1:
He opens with Tropical Island and I assume he’s playing Tempo Treshhold. I decline to use my Polluted Delta during my turn. He doesn’t give me the opening for it and I have to during my turn, there’s the Stifle. Petal into brainstorm gets a FoW, Petal into Ponder gets another FoW. I get beaten by Tarmogoyf. I draw the land during the last possible turn, cast Brainstorm and irony wants it that I see land, land, land.
Game2:
I start fixing my hand and ask if it’s ok with every spell I cast. The way he reacts tells me he’s annoyed with me asking so he probably doesn’t have one. I cast a bait Infernal Tutor which resolves and I go off that turn3 without protection.
Game3:
He casts a Nimble Mongoose while I build my manabase and hand with SDT. I have to start soon as Tarmogoyf joins the party as a 2/3. Vendilion Clique comes down and takes Ad Nauseam. Another Clique comes down and takes Burning Wish. I get hit for 7 facing lethal next turn. I draw the Doomsday that was lurking, Chant resolves and Doomsday wins the match. I only realize this now but Vendilion Clique is legendary, they would’ve died. It wasn’t relevant but it’s something to look for in the future.
3-1-0 (7-4-0)
Round5:
I saw this guy play round1 against AnT so I know he’s playing Pox.
Game1:
He tries some discard and disruption with SmallPox but the game is over one Ad Nauseam later.
Game2:
I fail to find the kill and he shreds my hand with two Hymn to Tourach. Two Mishra’s Factory come to beat me. I try rebuilding but he finds another Hymn and I lose.
Game3:
Raven’s Crime steals a card during this match but I manage to go off through Ad Nauseam. Here’s the tricky part, I know he has Extirpate in the sideboard so I want to play around that card. I reveal a Doomsday and would be able to put Tendrils on top of the stack, switch SDT and cast it. So I call a judge and ask if I can cast Doomsday and only find one card. The first judge thinks so but wants to be sure and asks the head judge, Jurgen. The ruling is that I have to find 5 cards. I ask the judge what the difference is between this and another search card such as a fetchland. The number of cards in a library and graveyard is public information. This means that the opponent knows that there are 5 cards that I can find while fetchland searches for a specific type of card and that is hidden information. So I think a bit longer and find the solution, the pile becomes, Tendrils, Infernal Tutor, Infernal Tutor, Burning Wish, Burning Wish. Crack both LED’s for black and red, switch SDT into pile. He didn’t have the Extirpate.
4-1-0 (9-5-0)
Round6:
Playing for a place in the top8 and I’m paired against Enchantress. He sits down and tells me he doesn’t know what I’m playing. Either TopRock or NLS. He knows I’ve been playing NLS but I played TopRock before. Tim, a teammate didn’t know either so he couldn’t tell him in advance.
Game1:
He keeps the hand hoping I play TopRock. I bring the bad news very soon as I open with Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, LED, Infernal Tutor for Ill-Gotten Gains, Dark Ritual, LED, Infernal for Tendrils. I feel sorry for the man.
Game2:
We both mulligan to 6 and I keep a turn1 kill again, this time with Chrome Mox. He foils my plans by casting Chalice for 0. I draw and pass the turn, getting some reaction from him. He can’t apply pressure but there’s a Runed Halo for Tendrils of Agony. I have fixed my hand so that if I draw a land I can cast LED for storm count and reach 7 cards In the graveyard. Then cast all the Rituals, Duress, SDT and Infernal for Ad Nauseam which should find me Echoing Truth for the Halo. The land doesn’t come before he starts taking me down with an Angel Token generated by the feared Sterling Grove.
Game3:
I keep a slow but good hand. He gets a Runed Halo in play with Sterling Grove. He sacrifices it and finds a second one. Replenish attempts to get it back and I cast Echoing Truth on the first, hoping he’ll sacrifice it and sets up his next draw into a death one. He doesn’t and just recasts it with no cards in hand. I cast Ad Nauseam with the 4 lands I have in play but fail to go off this turn after falling to 4. I cast LED, LED, SDT with the remaining mana and discard to 7, including my second Echoing Truth. He draws a land and passed, assuming he’s safe behind his Runed Halo. I generate enough storm to cast Burning Wish into Empty the Warrens for 14 tokens and pass the turn with 4 land, LED, LED and Infernal Tutor in hand. He sacrifices one Sterling grove to find a card and puts a Runed Halo on the table, he quickly realizes his mistake and wants to get another card. I act like a jerk and call a judge over, he’s forced to take the Runed Halo. Second Sterling Grove hits the bin during upkeep and he soon shows there are no answers in his deck for Goblin Tokens.
I’m still thinking about if I had an out. Ill-Gotten Gains for more tokens and double Echoing is possible but he would get back the second Sterling Grove as well, foiling my plans. So I apologize for the move I made.
5-1-0 (11-6-0)
Round7:
We get to see standings and I’m 8th with a resistance of 50%. There are two players behind me both at 13 but they played eachother. Johan, a teammate has 52% resistance and the other one had 48%. I take the risk and draw against Merfolk.
Johan gets paired against Goblins, a great matchup and he wins 2-0.
The other player played Goblins and faced Merfolk, a bad player on top of that. So he wins his one as well.
I check around, fearing my top8 spot and check the match with Jelle and Baptist. I quickly realize that if Jelle wins my resistance will increase as I played him round3. Baptist declines to scoop because there are three teammates in top8 who have a bad matchup against AnT.
Results are out and I end 9th with 0,3% behind on the 8th player. I receive no prizes. I check top8 and see Johan lose against Zoo with 1-2. We decide to hit town for food after the finish of top8, congratulations Abel.
We pick up an extra passenger who tags along for the ride, if only we could find where we parked our car. We went in a wrong street, then another wrong, backtracked and eventually found it. Jelle had a parking ticket and we all paid our share of it. Another display of parking skills, rerouting because of roadworks and we are off! We want to park somewhere close since it rains but some crazy driver cuts us off and steals our spot. We make the 10 minute walk, grab food and go and eat it followed by playing some more cards, preparing for next time.
We go and pick him up, follow our GPS to the location, which has road works, great. We drive around, find a small parking spot and Jelle shows us his driving skills as he rides into it. We enter the location 10 minutes in advance, better than we usually do. I sit down with the other teammates and we talk a bit. Kris disagrees on Jelle switching to Ichorid from Merfolk, a choice I strongly vouched for and actually forced on him. Merfolk has a bad matchup against Goblins and I expected plenty of those. We’ll see how it goes. Seatings get posted and I’m seated across a familiar face. He came in late so he still has to make his deck list so there won’t be any small talk this time. Several people come running to the judge station because they didn’t hand in their slip and therefore aren’t on the list. It was a strange system anyway and I can understand the confusion. You pay the entry fee, get your name and DCI number written down and then you have to take that slip to the judge station. So the few people remaining get registered and soon after pairings are posted.
The decklist that I played:
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Tundra
1 Island
2 Chrome Mox
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
2 Cabal Ritual
4 Brainstorm
4 Mystical Tutor
2 Ponder
3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Duress
3 Orim's Chant
3 Infernal Tutor
2 Burning Wish
1 Doomsday
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Meditate
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
Side:
1 Deathmark
4 Thoughtseize
1 Infernal Tutor
1 Doomsday
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
2 Echoing Truth
3 Pyroblast
Round1:
A familiar face! Rith Primeval as he’s known to the most of you guys. I played TopRock the week before and he puts me on that deck. But I just resleeved my deck and I accidently show a Pyroblast when taking my deck. There goes the surprise. He’s still not sure what I’m playing, either NLS or Supreme Blue, two decks I have been debating in my head until yesterday. With Merfolk out of my mind I play tested against JelleF’s Goblins. He sideboarded, I didn’t and I won all but 1 matches. If 4 Chalice of the Void isn’t enough against the maindeck then this is just the correct choice. Anyway, back to the action.
Game1:
I open with Tundra into SDT and he still doesn’t know what to put me on. I play a fetchland after as he drops his third land and passes the turn back. I go EOT Mystical Tutor into Orim’s Chant just to be safe and win the game by resolving Ad Nauseam.
Game2:
Thoughtseize steals a Dark Ritual. Cabal Therapy takes another card while Extirpate takes care of the remaining Dark Rituals including the one in my hand. Gaddock Teeg and Tarmogoyf come down to attack me as Witness brings back more discard. With death on board next turn I bounce the Teeg in the hope of drawing something good but I can’t even think of what would save me. Turns out, nothing saved me.
Game3:
He casts a blind Cabal Therapy followed by a Tarmogoyf later which gets sacrificed to the Therapy. I draw the Doomsday which was lurking on the top of my deck and win through a Meditate pile.
1-0-0 (2-1-0)
Round2:
Never seen this guy but he does look familiar. It’s not the first time people start speaking to me and I have no clue who they are. I apologize to anyone this has happened to.
Game1:
He opens with Savannah and I get all warm and fuzzy inside, thanking my gods for these great matchups. He gets down a Pridemage but he dies one Ad Nauseam later.
Game2:
This game is rather close. He casts Enlightened Tutor EOT for a Thorn of Amethyst. I am soon facing lethal on board and have to go for it. I cast Echoing Truth on his Thorn and get the turn. Some Ritual effects get cast and I go in the thinking tank. I have Mystical Tutor, LED and Meditate in hand. I can cast Mystical in something to draw with the Meditate and then float mana. I don’t want an Infernal Tutor as I’ll need to play all cards in hand then and that’s just awful. Burning Wish forces me to get red from LED, also not optimal. I go with Dark Ritual and see what comes. I cast LED, Meditate and crack LED for BBB. I draw Dark Ritual, Doomsday, Tendrils of Agony and a useless Ponder. Dark Ritual gets me to 7 mana, enough to cast both Doomsday and Tendrils for just enough storm.
2-0-0 (4-1-0)
Round3:
I have to play Jelle with Ichorid. He plays maindeck Unmask so that can hurt.
Round1:
He just plays Putrid Imp turn1. I cast land, SDT and pass. As soon as I pass I realize I should have casted both LED’s and the Petal in my hand and pray I find an Infernal Tutor if he goes off. To late now and I don’t ask for the take back. He gets the feared Hypnotist and I lose.
Round2:
I win to fast. His Cabal Therapy manages to hit a Dark Ritual but it’s soon over.
Round3:
He mulligans to 4 and I mulligan to 6. he opens with unmask and sees land, Ponder, Mystical Tutor, Cabal Ritual, Infernal Tutor, Burning Wish. He almost starts crying, that’s how much whining that was going on from him. He fails to make the correct choice in Ponder and takes Cabal Ritual instead. I Ponder and have to shuffle, I draw Brainstorm and pass. He draws and passed. I Brainstorm during my turn but find nothing but another Brainstorm. He casts a second Unmask followed by a LED. Brainstorm finds nothing again and I pass the turn. He discards a dredger and goes insane. Hypnotist eats the hand and I lose.
2-1-0 (5-3-0)
Round4:
I never seen this guy before so I have no clue what he’s playing. The horror of the loser bracket!
Game1:
He opens with Tropical Island and I assume he’s playing Tempo Treshhold. I decline to use my Polluted Delta during my turn. He doesn’t give me the opening for it and I have to during my turn, there’s the Stifle. Petal into brainstorm gets a FoW, Petal into Ponder gets another FoW. I get beaten by Tarmogoyf. I draw the land during the last possible turn, cast Brainstorm and irony wants it that I see land, land, land.
Game2:
I start fixing my hand and ask if it’s ok with every spell I cast. The way he reacts tells me he’s annoyed with me asking so he probably doesn’t have one. I cast a bait Infernal Tutor which resolves and I go off that turn3 without protection.
Game3:
He casts a Nimble Mongoose while I build my manabase and hand with SDT. I have to start soon as Tarmogoyf joins the party as a 2/3. Vendilion Clique comes down and takes Ad Nauseam. Another Clique comes down and takes Burning Wish. I get hit for 7 facing lethal next turn. I draw the Doomsday that was lurking, Chant resolves and Doomsday wins the match. I only realize this now but Vendilion Clique is legendary, they would’ve died. It wasn’t relevant but it’s something to look for in the future.
3-1-0 (7-4-0)
Round5:
I saw this guy play round1 against AnT so I know he’s playing Pox.
Game1:
He tries some discard and disruption with SmallPox but the game is over one Ad Nauseam later.
Game2:
I fail to find the kill and he shreds my hand with two Hymn to Tourach. Two Mishra’s Factory come to beat me. I try rebuilding but he finds another Hymn and I lose.
Game3:
Raven’s Crime steals a card during this match but I manage to go off through Ad Nauseam. Here’s the tricky part, I know he has Extirpate in the sideboard so I want to play around that card. I reveal a Doomsday and would be able to put Tendrils on top of the stack, switch SDT and cast it. So I call a judge and ask if I can cast Doomsday and only find one card. The first judge thinks so but wants to be sure and asks the head judge, Jurgen. The ruling is that I have to find 5 cards. I ask the judge what the difference is between this and another search card such as a fetchland. The number of cards in a library and graveyard is public information. This means that the opponent knows that there are 5 cards that I can find while fetchland searches for a specific type of card and that is hidden information. So I think a bit longer and find the solution, the pile becomes, Tendrils, Infernal Tutor, Infernal Tutor, Burning Wish, Burning Wish. Crack both LED’s for black and red, switch SDT into pile. He didn’t have the Extirpate.
4-1-0 (9-5-0)
Round6:
Playing for a place in the top8 and I’m paired against Enchantress. He sits down and tells me he doesn’t know what I’m playing. Either TopRock or NLS. He knows I’ve been playing NLS but I played TopRock before. Tim, a teammate didn’t know either so he couldn’t tell him in advance.
Game1:
He keeps the hand hoping I play TopRock. I bring the bad news very soon as I open with Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, LED, Infernal Tutor for Ill-Gotten Gains, Dark Ritual, LED, Infernal for Tendrils. I feel sorry for the man.
Game2:
We both mulligan to 6 and I keep a turn1 kill again, this time with Chrome Mox. He foils my plans by casting Chalice for 0. I draw and pass the turn, getting some reaction from him. He can’t apply pressure but there’s a Runed Halo for Tendrils of Agony. I have fixed my hand so that if I draw a land I can cast LED for storm count and reach 7 cards In the graveyard. Then cast all the Rituals, Duress, SDT and Infernal for Ad Nauseam which should find me Echoing Truth for the Halo. The land doesn’t come before he starts taking me down with an Angel Token generated by the feared Sterling Grove.
Game3:
I keep a slow but good hand. He gets a Runed Halo in play with Sterling Grove. He sacrifices it and finds a second one. Replenish attempts to get it back and I cast Echoing Truth on the first, hoping he’ll sacrifice it and sets up his next draw into a death one. He doesn’t and just recasts it with no cards in hand. I cast Ad Nauseam with the 4 lands I have in play but fail to go off this turn after falling to 4. I cast LED, LED, SDT with the remaining mana and discard to 7, including my second Echoing Truth. He draws a land and passed, assuming he’s safe behind his Runed Halo. I generate enough storm to cast Burning Wish into Empty the Warrens for 14 tokens and pass the turn with 4 land, LED, LED and Infernal Tutor in hand. He sacrifices one Sterling grove to find a card and puts a Runed Halo on the table, he quickly realizes his mistake and wants to get another card. I act like a jerk and call a judge over, he’s forced to take the Runed Halo. Second Sterling Grove hits the bin during upkeep and he soon shows there are no answers in his deck for Goblin Tokens.
I’m still thinking about if I had an out. Ill-Gotten Gains for more tokens and double Echoing is possible but he would get back the second Sterling Grove as well, foiling my plans. So I apologize for the move I made.
5-1-0 (11-6-0)
Round7:
We get to see standings and I’m 8th with a resistance of 50%. There are two players behind me both at 13 but they played eachother. Johan, a teammate has 52% resistance and the other one had 48%. I take the risk and draw against Merfolk.
Johan gets paired against Goblins, a great matchup and he wins 2-0.
The other player played Goblins and faced Merfolk, a bad player on top of that. So he wins his one as well.
I check around, fearing my top8 spot and check the match with Jelle and Baptist. I quickly realize that if Jelle wins my resistance will increase as I played him round3. Baptist declines to scoop because there are three teammates in top8 who have a bad matchup against AnT.
Results are out and I end 9th with 0,3% behind on the 8th player. I receive no prizes. I check top8 and see Johan lose against Zoo with 1-2. We decide to hit town for food after the finish of top8, congratulations Abel.
We pick up an extra passenger who tags along for the ride, if only we could find where we parked our car. We went in a wrong street, then another wrong, backtracked and eventually found it. Jelle had a parking ticket and we all paid our share of it. Another display of parking skills, rerouting because of roadworks and we are off! We want to park somewhere close since it rains but some crazy driver cuts us off and steals our spot. We make the 10 minute walk, grab food and go and eat it followed by playing some more cards, preparing for next time.