SPOD Worls Raiding Tour - Annecy 2011

[spirit of the wretch]

You Asked for it! or … well … at least one of you did =)
And who am I not to deliver?
So grab yourself a beer or whatever dependence causing substance it is that keeps you going and enjoy the ride, this isn’t going to be over soon.

Not much was heard for the last few months from your friendly neighborhood pirates. No epic reports, no flaming forum posts, no hot secret deck tech. One could just get the impression that our endless quest to break the format, conquer top8s and (most importantly) annihilate the local beer supply had come to an end.
Rest assured, this is not the case.

[warning]
Oh, before I continue, a fair warning: If you’re here for actual MtG content, I have to disappoint you. This first part of our journey only touches this subject very peripherally. I know we all love reports for the play by play analysis. Wait, no.
[/warning]

So now that this is out of the way, where were we? Right:
Real life has struck and as usual it struck quite hard!

• First of all our probably most efficient deck builder and writer extraordinaire Clemens (the artist now known as diffy) has left for distant shores. And awesome shores for sure! But sadly the country of Whiskey and Haggis is not one of magical cards and so someone else had to do the dirty work. And as a team of notoriously lazy bastards we were all eager to pick up the metaphorical pen, get our creative mojo flowing and craft well sounding articles to please the audience. Yeah, that was a lie...
• Secondly, the core crew of the team got employed. And I’m saying this with the utmost disgust anybody should muster for the trivial task of labor. What this means is that Martin (MSC) and me got some decent nerdy 9 to 5 jobs as software engineers. Go figure. And it’s truly distasteful how much time being a productive member of society consumes! Don’t try this at home, kids.
• And lastly, I got an apartment together with my girlfriend. That meant leaving the beloved harbor of Karlsruhe for Mannheim (which some might see as an improvement buuuuut I doubt it!). And while this is all sorts of awesome (well apart from the “Mannheim”-part ;-) that meant significantly less time I wanted to spend sitting at home in front of my computer writing about random tourneys.

So combine fact two and three and you end up with a serious lack of time you can devote to your hobby (you know, besides actually playing it. That still works surprisingly fine =) It's just like work and social life cut down your hobbies. Weird.
It’s not even like there was nothing to write. I am running good lately. (This isn't just a blatantly obvious brag... it actually should clarify... leave me alone!) Smashing people in the face with giant creatures still works. And so does combo. But I’m getting ahead of myself…

[Annecy]
As soon as Annecy was announced, the remainder of what is left of this once mighty Legacy team decided to go there. So we immediately made plans, booked out hotel room and all was good…
(Did you catch the sarcasm in the last sentence?) Anyway Annecy was a great event last time we were there and rumors that you weren’t allowed to drink anymore because a group of pirates got shitfaced two years ago couldn’t possibly be true, could they?
[/Annecy]

Fast forward to Thursday, 12.05.11.

Day 0: Thursday
I’m sitting in front of my computer, counting the seconds. 16.00 came and went and every minute my cellphone might ring to signal the end of the working day and the beginning of an epic road trip. It’s impossible to focus on work, my head is spinning around matchups/SB plans/prize payout and beer. Well mostly beer. Heavens, how I could use one right now.

[Beer]
Latest studies have shown that drinking beer is roughly 29 times more satisfying than work. True story!
[/Beer]

Tick, tack, that imaginary clock is driving me mad. Clam down, look busy, don’t start shaking! Tick. Open another XML, scroll through it slowly. Tack. Walk to the window nonchalantly. No one will notice. Tick. OhMyRidiculousFriggingGod, come on now! Ta… RING.
Finally!

I leave the office head down to the parking lot and am greeted by my fellow pirates, drinking buddies and road trippers:

• Martin MSC Schreiber
• Harald Locutus Herrlich

We head for the highway driving northwards for an hour (which is exactly the opposite direction of Annecy from where we started), pick up the latest goodies from New Phyrexia and are finally on our way to France.

We hit the highway and Harald and I start to demolish the 12l of beer we brought for supplies. Everything progresses pretty much according to the standard road trip: epic music, eloquent and profound magic theorizing followed by an alcohol induced blackout after the supplies where annihilated.

We arrive at the hotel and I somehow manage to convince the concierge to give us the keys to the room I booked. Not really all too adept in the French language and heavily drunk, I consider this a major achievement and proudly pass out on the floor.

Day 1: Friday
I lie on a floor…
This isn’t my apartment…
The sun is shining directly into my brain…
My head hurts!
It’s way too early.

After a few moments of disorientation I realize where I am and why I’m here. I also realize that working life has deprived me of the ability to sleep for more than 7-8h straight.
Boy, this sucks!
I stumble under the shower while the rest of the crew slowly awakes and we ponder what to do at this ungodly hour. Neither Harald nor I are particularly thrilled to start drinking again (still some work to do before we develop into full-blown alcoholics ;-) and the trial doesn’t start for 3 more hours.
So we head to the tournament site and battle some mean rounds of Ascension.

[Ascension]
This game is truly amazing! If you’ve never played it I highly recommend you check it out. This trip we basically spend our whole non-Magic-time battling. Highlights involved my “All-in Heavy Infanty”.dec which in the end was able to produce exactly two runes (one Wolf Shaman and a lonely Apprentice) and MSCs “Hedron Cannon for 5 each turn”.dec which both won their respective rounds.
I can’t wait to get my hands on the expansion!
[/Ascension]

After one hell of an awesome time slinging Ascension we decide to play the Legacy trial to grab two Byes for the following day. Apparently about 140 other nerds have the same idea and so the trial (!!!) would be easy 8 rounds without top8 and byes for the top 4… Yeah, nice guys… really nice!
So, if you think I’m now finally going to add some Magic content to this article, you still are mistaken. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

I scrub out pretty hard and so I’ll spare me the shame of going over it all again and give just you a quick rundown:

- Round 1: Merfolk 2 : 1
- Round 2: Team America 2 : 1
- Round 3: ANT 1 : 2
- Round 4: ??? but I won
- Round 5: Big Zoo with Punishing Fires 1 : 2
- Round 6: ??? and I lost

So 3/3/0 drop. Awkward...
MSC at least manages to go one more round and ends 4/3/0 and Harald goes for the ever so solid “0/2/1 => drop => fetch Pizza for the team”-plan.

Needless to say we all are pretty much fed up with Legacy and decide to spend our time with cards more fun. Read: More Ascension!

The evening is spent in an epic barbecue next to the ancient cemetery of Annecy. We stuff ourselves with meat, drink hard liquor (because we finished all the beer during the road trip…) and witness what we can only guess was a crack deal: A man meets two women on a deserted parking lot (well almost deserted that is. There still was a crew of drinking pirates, you know), they talk secretly, no one drops pants and then they part their ways… Sounds highly suspicious if you ask me!

Once we finish feasting on meat and rum we stagger back to the hotel, finish our decks for the following day and play some final games of drunken Ascension (it’s like real Ascension, only more common where I play, and way more fun ;-).

[Deck]
Sa, 01.01.2011, Karlsruhe
People are all over the place with fancy new Legacy tech right now. Be it Junk, MUD, Show & Tell, Counterbalance or High Tide the stream of data streaming in from American 5k events is endless.

This leaves many players in an awkward position: One hell of a lot of lists but no real first-hand experience and definitely no clear "best deck".
How to find the right tool in that haystack?

I myself have a very fine tuned method of choosing the proper deck to break the metagame. It involves quite, solemn contemplation and quite a few cans of 5.0. Yeah all right, I like drinking, you got me.
This is the story of one of those sessions.

So I am sitting there on my bed spinning thoughts about how I used to own people with High Tide and Counterbalance in the days of yore.
Maybe it is time again. After over a year of abstinence from the blue cards (due to some fishy pest...) maybe it finally is time to break out the Islands again.
This is where my train of thought had arrived when an enormous shadow falls upon me. I turn my head, not too rapidly mind you, as the earth already is spinning enough the way it is, and there he stands: dressed in fur and leather, skulls of beasts hanging from his neck, tattooed and two huge-ass axes on his side:
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, jungle warrior, beastmaster and chief consultant of the green force!

"Arrrr, pirate what are those blasphemous thoughts of you I hear about?"

"Arrrr to you, alcohol induced hallucination. What the hell are you talking about?"

"Slinging the blue cards again, eh? Playing some slow-ass combo deck again, eh? Trying that pseudo soft lock again, EH? Getting fed to the friGGING FISH AGAIN, HEH?!?" (Yeah he didn't really say frigging)

"Well, there is this sweet new tech you see"

"Elfshit! What are these pathetic spells compared to sheer manpower? Force of Will my ass, force of mother frigging Slagwurm is the way to go."

"But maybe now is the time to sling the counterspells again? It's been a while you know?"

"And didn't it work out for you? Playing the guys, smashing those tiny blue decks? Wasn't it great? Ravenous Garruk! GP Madrid, German Legacy Championship, GP Bochum sideevent... Didn't you crush face? And rightfully so? Wasn't the way of the beast always a good way to you?

"Sure, but, you know, they kind of axed Survival of the Fittest..."

"AAAARRRR puny pirate, haven't you learned anything on your journey into the pits? Survival of the Fittest is not a card. It is a way to game! Embrace the Baloth and beat down! You know you want to. It's it your blood. It calls for you!"

"Hell yeah, you got it! Let's kick it with big guys once more! For Yavimayaaaaaaa!
...
...
You don't happen to have a decent idea on how to build a deck, do you?"

"Ah, little pirate, listen to the wisdom of Tooth and Nail: Remember when I said survival of the fittest was a way to game? Well, there is one creature in particular that expresses just that. Add a few big and bad ass monster and you're pretty much set."

"Oh, how very subtle of you..."

"AAARRRR you don't want subtle , you want bloody! But if you insist on some fancy tricks, might I suggest a spell to restore the natural order? It goes pretty well with my old companion Silvos!"

"Yeah, about that. There kind of is a new kid on the block. It kicks it a little better that the old elemental, you know what I mean?"

"Bah, the wilds aren't impressed with some random newcomer snake! But do what you have to do. Good luck in the battle. And let it be violent!
See you around, pirate"

At this point I doze off into an alcohol induced haze.
[/Deck]