Team SPOD @ BoM3 or pirates raiding Annecy

[spirit of the wretch]

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

*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
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]

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.

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.

[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
Report Part III aka. Back in Business


(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 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, 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 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).

Quartermaster Marius 'from the M-N to the' S. Laber

After a seemingly endless eternity of awesome, we reached Switzerland with a yeyheyhey and a yarharhar (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 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!