Collecting byes in Belgium with UWr Miracles

[mort-]

Hello again!

After - kind of - noticing that my BUG Tempo list would do me no good if I'd play it in Paris coming February, I decided to listen to a good friend and evil Sith Lord, Darth Sorci, and buy into UW Miracles. After various test sessions and some casual tournaments I started reaping the benefits of being initiated into the order of the Sith (which seem to be lucky pairings, lucky miracles on top of my library whenever I'd need one and an increased ability to trashtalk). With my increase in power, the next tournament in Kaiserslautern was planned fast. Enter the Wizards Event Locator, which provided the information that for 60km more, we'd be able to play in the first GPT for Paris. New plans were made, the event organizer was contacted and asked about start times, pricing, players and other things needed to know.
Sunday came and my car was filled with Riccardo, playing Jund, HP, playing Death and Taxes, Darth Sorci, playing UWr Miracle and me, playing the same list as my teacher to the dark side:

„Weihnachtsgeld.dec”

1 Academy Ruins
2 Arid Mesa
3 Flooded Strand
4 Island
1 Karakas
1 Mountain
1 Mystic Gate
2 Plains
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Tundra
1 Volcanic Island
[22 Lands]
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
[03 Planeswalkers]
1 Batterskull
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Sensei’s Divining Top
[06 Artifacts]
3 Counterbalance
[03 Enchantments]
1 Snapcaster Mage
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Vendilion Clique
[06 Creatures]
4 Brainstorm
1 Counterspell
1 Flusterstorm
3 Force of Will
1 Misdirection
2 Spell Pierce
3 Swords to Plowshares
[15 Instants]
2 Entreat the Angels
3 Terminus
[05 Sorceries]
[60 cards maindeck]


Sideboard:

1 Engineered Explosives
1 Entreat the Angels
1 Flusterstorm
1 Force of Will
1 Pithing Needle
1 Pyroblast
1 Pyroclasm
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Rest in Peace
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Terminus
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Wear // Tear
[15 cards sideboard]
[75 cards total]


The drive was pretty uneventful as we enganged in our usual trashtalk (lots of) and listened to Scooter (even more), which is kind of a ritual on our way to tournaments (it's used to fill up on Scooter energy which provides good tournament results). As we were standing in front of the shop half an hour before the tournaments scheduled start, the doors were still closed. Confused as to why no one had told me this - seeing that I was in contact with the TO - we tried to figure out if we could still make it to Kaiserslautern (I checked later: no). Just as we were about to make a disappointing trip back home, the mother of the TO appears and tells us that the venue for the GPT is not the shop, but a location close by. She offers to lead us there and we gladly accept, being able to register ourselves for the tournament with a bit of time left. Now, on to the tournament! 18 players registered (with far more then 20 preregistered, very sad), which would result in five rounds and a cut to top eight. Prices would be handed out before top eight, including a FTV:20 for the first and boosters for the rest.

Round 1: Jeroen with BUG Delver feat. TNN

I win the dice roll and keep my seven while he mulligans to six. I start of with a Top while he gets a DRS. I send it plowing and he lands a second one, but misses a land drop. Noticing this, I'll play my fetchland, but don't use it and just end my turn. He deploys a Delver and a third DRS while I, again, play a land and say go. His Delver flips, hits me together with his Shamans. That would be the last of them though, as I use a Terminus to get rid of the whole field. A follow up Clique shows me a Goyf, TNN, Hymn, Daze and a freshly drawn Catacombs in his hand. I'll let him keep it and he hymns my last card away. Clique gets a hit in, he draws his third land and plays Nemesis. I let it resolve and create some angel tokens end of turn, safely playing around Daze.
Starting game two, he gets to keep his seven while I mulligan into a mediocre five. Delver hits the field on his side and I draw into Explosives - cool. I land it for zero and pass the turn. He brainstorms in response to his Delver trigger and flips him with a Decay, then plays a DRS on his main phase. I'll draw a blue card, which let's me have an interesting decision. I now have Misdirection online and know he has a Decay in his hand. So I can play it safe - just use Explosives for zero and pass the turn - or I can play the Top that's waiting in my hand, baiting his Decay, then misdirecting it to his Shaman. Problem is, if he has Spell Pierce, I'll certainly lose this game. Seeing that I'm up one and I consider this matchup not too bad, I chose the latter. He plays a Tarmogoyf, makes his landdrop, uses his DRS to remove one of my fetches and decays the Explosives. My high risk, high reward play gets even better as I'm now able to misdirect his Decay to his Tarmogoyf and, in my turn, shut down our graveyards with Rest in Peace. I draw into more business while he keeps on flooding away - I think he had all his lands in play at one point - and am able to close the match with Jace.
1-0

Round 2: HP with Death and Taxes

I again win the dice roll and keep my seven while he has to mulligan. He has no Vial, while I assemble Counterbalance / Top by turn two. His Cavern on Horror enables him a Phyrexian Revoker. I just play a land. He attacks and plays Mother of Runes. In response, I sword his Revoker and use Top to place a Brainstorm on top of my library. Mom gets countered and he lands a Thalia, for which I also have a fitting spell on top. Seeing that he won't cast anything again, we shuffle 'em up.
Game two starts slow and without a Vial on his side again. I just have a Top which gets revoked pretty fast. The boardstate gets confusing pretty fast, with creatures getting put on the bottom of their respective libraries, a Ratchet Bomb joining the party, a Needle on Sword of Fire and Ice, Counterbalance (which gets killed by Ratchet Bomb at some point), Swords to Plowshares, Cavern of Souls, a Karakas on each side bouncing his Thalia back and forth and some Vials on various counters. The turning point comes when I make angel tokens in my turn (due to Top being unusable). He attacks with Batterskull and I start to think, but decide to block. Cataclysm follows and leaves our field devastated. It's now Mom, Revoker, land for him and angel, Top, land for me. I draw a land but am unable to play the Pyroclasm in my hand. The race begins one turn later, I'm able to Clasm finally, but not after he found his second Mother of Runes, and ends with him on four life and me dead.
The last game is pretty uneventful. He keeps seven, I mulligan to five and have the option to play a Top or leave Spell Pierce open for Vial. As I just have a nonbasic land as my only mana source, I decide for Top. He plays Vial, I don't find a land in my top three cards and he - of course - has a Wasteland.
1-1

Round 3: Damien with Sneak and Show

He wins the dice roll and we both keep our seven, mine including three Brainstorms, Swords and three lands. Not good, but if he doesn't get a fast Show and Tell, it might get there. He plays probe and we both laugh at the hand. I draw for my turn and play an Island. He has the Show and Tell on his second turn. I brainstorm in response and find a Terminus, but no countermagic. SnT resolves with me praying for an Emrakul (how often does that happen, eh?). He slams the CMC 15 monster and I get a Plains for my troubles. In my drawstep, a miraculous Terminus appears and a not so miraculous Force of Will makes short work of it. Not before I use another Brainstorm though. Saying a silent "thank you" to Lady Luck, the Terminus gets binned and the Karakas that I found three cards deep appears on my field. I bounce the Emrakul and can establish a Jace a few turns later, fatesealing him Sneak Attacks away and winning the game in short order.
Game two is short. I have a mulligan to five, he has a Show and Tell with backup that draws him 14 cards.
The last game lets us both start with seven. He Show and Tells on turn two again, I use Redblast but he has a Force of Will. My Brainstorm bricks on countermagic and Emrakul enters the arena for him while I get a land. I untap, play my fourth land and resolve a Jace that immediately bounces the noodle dude. Jace starts brainstorming to stock up on some counterspells while my opponent plays lands and stocks up on cards in his hand. A war ensues when I try to deploy a Top. I win and get left with a single force in my hand while he has the Emrakul I still know as his single card. He draws and says go. I start fatesealing with Jace and see a Show and Tell. Now, being pretty sure that he does only have an Emrakul in his hand, I'll let him have it, because it's basicly a dead card at this point and I'd rather know his card then let him have a cantrip. He plays Show and Tell. I consult my top three cards, fetch and do the same again. Still not happy with them I shuffle again and find Entreat the Angels. I plan to set it up for the next turn and let Show and Tell resolve. Turns out his mystery card was in fact a Griselbrand. I immediately feel evil force waves from the side of the table where Darth Sorci is watching my every move and know that I just lost a game I had pretty much in the bag. He draws seven, going to six and passing the turn. I play a land, bounce his Griselbrand and pass. He found a Sneak Attack in his freshly drawn seven and plays it, leaving RR up. Now, I do have enough life and enough permanents to survive Emrakul and Griselbrand, seeing that I can block with an angel token. Still, this would leave my board devastated and him in a firm position to win. He then taps his first red for a sneak attack. Griselbrand enters the battlefield. A second red is tapped.. and a second Griselbrand enters the fray. I'm so confused that I stare at the board for a few seconds, then notify him that one dies. He realizes his mistake and attacks with the one left. I draw a card and use Entreat for a few token. He shows me his hand, consisting of two Spell Pierce and Swan Song, but with no mana up, and concedes to my angel army. Immediately after the game I get force punched by my evil Sith master (which basicly was just a regular punch) for playing so poor, then get punched again for lucksacking out of it.
2-1

Round 4: Amaury with Affinity

I win the dice roll, we keep our seven and he empties his hand on his turn one. I use Brainstorm to set up a Terminus, he gets one hit in, then his board get emptied and draw - go ensues. I use Jace to bounce his Ravager and play a Clique to remove Tezzeret from his hand. Counterbalance enters the Battlefield and Explosives for one clears his Springleaf Drums. He tries to get a creatures on the board, my Balances misses but the Terminus on top ensures that his field will be empty. I attack with my Clique and he plays two Ravagers. I go to my turn and set up another Terminus. In my attack step, we notice that the Clique should also be on the bottom of my library. The judge gets called and we both get a warning with the faerie staying on the field. Feeling pretty bad (as I honestly didn't notice with all the noncreature permanents on my side of the board) I declare no attacks. He tells me it's ok, I tell him it's fairer that way, he tells me I should just attack, it's ok. Well.. I attack and the field gets emptied when he tries to kill Jace. Finding a two- and a threedrop for the top of my library, he can't cast useful spells anymore and starts packing for game two.
In this one, he plays a land and says go. I get a Top and pass. On his turn, he plays Thoughtseize and finds two Force of Will, Pyroclasm, Snapcaster Mage and Explosives, taking the Clasm. I draw a land and set the Explosives on two for Plating. He just lands Ornithopters and uses Thoughtseize again to get rid of the Snapcaster Mage. My freshly drawn Counterbalance runs into Spell Pierce (didn't know Affinity was playing those, now I know better). I decline to force and just keep on setting up my hand with countermagic for his relevant spells. They never appear though, a Clique on my side leaves him with a Tezzeret and a Mox Opal in his hand. I do have three Force of Will in my hand at that time, so I'm feeling pretty safe. I counter the first Tezzeret. He actually found the second one on his next drawstep, but concedes when I show him (an actual) Counterspell.
3-1

Round 5: Xavier with Deathblade

Final standings are up and I'm paired against the only 12-pointer. A quick trip to the judge tells me that the play/draw rule will be after standings for the top eight. My opponent offers a draw so we're both set for top eight. Seeing that he'll be first for sure and I'm most likely giving up my ability to be on the play for the rest of the day I ask him if he wants to do a price split (favouring him). After a bit of talk we call the judge for the negotiations and also to ensure that everything we do is legal and fine within the rules. We end up splitting, he gets the Jace, I get the rest of the pack and the additional boosters they'll be giving out... which turned out to be one.
3-1-1

So, final standings are posted with me being fifth, Darth Sorci being sixth and HP lucksacking himself into place eight with a meager seven points thanks to some draws and drops in the last round. This would mean that we'd be dodging us in the quarterfinals, which is pretty great. We're all getting handed one booster for our troubles, which isn't that great, so I'm happy I atleast got to split with the first.
Turns out the judge won't pair us after standings but at random, so I say goodbye to the good matchup that I would have faced in the Patriot player and instead get.

Quarterfinals of Hell: Darth Sorci with the 75 card mirror

Well.. that's what you get for joining the dark side. Due to him being sixth, I actually get to be on the play and start with a ok hand without a Top. My Brainstorm on his turn gets pierced and I just play a land on my turn, leaving Pierce open. He plays Mystic and fetches Batterskull, I resolve Brainstorm and put a Terminus on top, play it in my draw step and get my own Stoneforge with Batterskull. He plays Top on his turn and suddenly I'm behind. I try to land a Jace after attacking with my Mystic but it gets forced. He lands a Counterbalance soon after. My Batterskull goes to work, then he gets a Jace and a second Stoneforge while my spells stop resolving due to his Balance.
The second game starts with him forcing my EoT Vendilion Clique (with Karakas out). I don't make a landdrop and play Top, he forces yet again and I drop my Academy Ruins. Top resolves next turn and I start digging for cards while he gets a Vendilion Clique. As I boarded out all of my removal and don't want to bounce it with Karakas, I wait for a window to use my Redblast. It finally shows itself when I win a counterwar against his Jace a few turns later (with him bricking on lands and me making every drop thanks to Top). I'm too far ahead at this point and we go to game three.
I mulligan to six while he keeps his seven and starts with Top. I immediately use Needle to name it and rob us both of future activations. He does nothing and I try to recover from the Mulligan. We fight a little war over his Counterbalance, which I win, then land a blind Balance on my own. On turn five, he slams Batterskull, with Academy ruins in play. I Brainstorm and put Misdirection on top to counter it. The next turns consist of him getting Batterskull on Top of his library and me drawing four Brainstorms in a row to counter it each time with Misdirection. I land a Jace and start fatesealing, he also gets a Jace and brainstorms, trying to use his Redblast to kill my Jace. That plan is foiled by my one-drop on top. I use Brainstorm, kill his Jace with Redblast and use my countermagic to stop his Entreat. He shakes my hand as the Sith battle leaves me as the winner.

Semifinals: Xavier with Deathblade

So I get to play against the number one seed, which leaves me on the draw for the first round. I think this matchup heavily favours me and the following games will pretty much prove that. I get to keep a beautiful seven while he takes a mulligan and starts with a land. I draw a second copy of Sensei's Divining Top and decide to run that into his countermagic. He plays a Force of Will and has only a Deathrite Shaman for his turn. I play my second top while he deploys Stoneforge Mystic, finding him a Batterskull. Terminus cleares the board and he tries to get back into the game with two Deathrite Shamans. I play my own copy of the Kor and get a Batterskull. He tries to hardcast his version of the artifact, but I have Spell Pierce. Soon, my Equipment joins the Battlefield and a resolved Jace starts to work. Not for long, as he concedes soon after.
The second game features more of the first with him discarding Terminus on his first turn, then play a Stoneforge Mystic while I find a Pyroclasm from the top. He plays Meddling Mage on Terminus that starts to beat me down a bit. I find a Vendilion Clique that sees Detention Sphere, Batterskull and Polluted Delta, so that's ok. He plays his Sphere on the Clique and waits until he got to seven mana, knowing from his first turn discard that I have a Spell Pierce in hand. When he lands the Batterskull with two mana up, I let it resolve, then use Wear / Tear to destroy his Sphere and the Equipment. My first attempt to Entreat the Angels is countered by Spell Pierce (and I wasn't even greedy). Next turn he casts TNN. I look at the top three cards, shuffle, look again and find a second Entreat. With me at 11 and him at 17, I try Entreat for two tokens again and it resolves. Two attacks later and we shake hands.

Finals: HP with Death and Taxes

The games themself were pretty long but also pretty uneventful. We both keep our seven and I start with Island into Top. His Vial gets forced and I establish a Counterbalance on turn two. He plays Thalia, I miss and brick on removal. He starts to port stuff, play more lands and gets stuff countered by my Balance. While I'm at five (yes, Thalia dealt about 14 damage) I finally get to control the board with a Jace that bounces his human ball of spellhatred. There's also a two on top of my library, so we go to the next game.
Which is even more of the same. He mulligans to six and starts with a Vial. I start with a Top, he gets a Thalia. I rip Needle from the top and play it on Vial. He keeps on flooding away while I brick on anything useful against the Thalia - at least I can establish a Counterbalance. I somehow manage to run into an Aven Mindcensor without it being necessary, but have a Vendilion Clique to keep it at bay. I find a Sword to remove the bird but HP refuses to stop the Thalia Karakas shenanigans while the top cards of my library will not provide a card with the same CMC. The moment he taps five lands for Cataclysm - which I force - I can land a Jace, brainstorm a CMC2 on top and finaly be able to counter her after a bounce on my next turn. The board is stabilized with me at three life and the GPT is won soon thereafter.

So.. after a long time, finally my first GPT win. Felt pretty good. Embracing the dark side seemed to help pretty much. On our way home, the usual trashtalk ensues when we get pulled over by the police. It's quite common for us as this happens almost every time we drive to Belgium / the Netherlands. Four guys in a VW Polo.. yeah. The conversation was not out of the exception.

Bonus Round: Police guy with drug control:

"This is a drug control. [insert stuff they have to say to inform you here]. Where have you been?"
"I think it's called Waremme."
"....what?"
"Waremme." I don't know how it sounds in whatever of the three languages they speak in Belgium, but in agressive german, I speak it as it's written, so it's WAREMME!
"And there is what?"
"A card tournament."
Confused look. "Ok.. passports please. You sure you have no drugs here? We do have a dog, he'll find it."
"No, nothing."
"Well... I'll go fetch the dog then."
At this point, the guy goes to check on our passports (and presumably to get the dog) when my friends start laughing because we were in a control once were the police guy told us that "DER HUND KOMMT!" (the dog's coming) in the funniest way possible. So that kind of is a running gag whenever we get pulled out by the police. I tell them to shut up, because I really don't want to stay there and get controlled even longer when the guy comes back with our passports.
"Please open the trunk."
So I go back, open the trunk and he gets to see our bags.
"And you were in?"
"Waremme."
"And...?"
"We played cards. It's called Magic the Gathering."
That's when I get the "really? you drove there.. for THAT?" look on his face.
"Want me to show you?"
"No.. just drive, it's ok..."

I guess technically this counts as a draw, but because we didn't get controlled any further, I'll count it as a win. We end the day at a chinese restaurant (all you can eat, wheee) and I'm at home at about 22:00PM. That's it ;D


Props:

- Well.. winning and the 2 byes
- 3/4 in the top eight
- SCOOTER
- Very nice people everywhere
- Finally got to play my new set of Force of Will :D Pics will follow in the pimp thread
- The chinese buffet at the end of the day

Slops:

- Price support, while first place was over the top, getting one booster for fifth place and 10€ tournament fee is.. meh
- I didn't find a place to insert a random "germans raiding other countries for xy"-joke
- Poor Riccardo losing to his own deck the whole day
- Random pairings in the top eight
- Missplays and stupid things I did the whole day (and got (force-)punched for)

Edit: The deck in its full glory!
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...l=1#post774523

[Julian23]

I seriously read your titel as "Collecting babys in Belgium"

Currently at work but will read later

[Myelectronicdays]

great writeup!

[twndomn]

could you explain the reasoning behind 4 Scalding Tarn, 1 Mountain, and 1 Volcanic? how do you like it when you run this Mana base?

[mort-]

could you explain the reasoning behind 4 Scalding Tarn, 1 Mountain, and 1 Volcanic? how do you like it when you run this Mana base?

Well, for starters, I'm missing the fourth Strand, so the manabase is -1 Arid Mesa, +1 Flooded Strand.
The mountain is pretty easy explained. You want a non-wasteable red source for most decks where you want to cast your red spells (RUG, BUG, DnT, etc). Having a Mountain in the 60 / 75 allows you to cast Redblasts / Pyroclasm without the fear of getting wasted.
The Mountain not being a second Volcanic mattered only one time where I couldn't fetch it (Volcanic being on the field and the fetchland being a Flooded Strand - the irony) to have my second Redblast open.