Speak Little, Do Much!

Sorry guys if couldn’t write this report before but I had some exams and after I enjoyed some holydays! Anyway I still cannot believe to what happened during those past days
This time, instead of relegating the props in the end, more than ever I want to put them at the beginning, because if all of this happened it’s only thanks to you!

So I want to especially thank:
- The Team in Lille whose members are also my friends: Riva, Tasso, Dipa, Masciu, Gianchino, Bob and Rocco! Mates, but in particular best friends.
- The Italians guys and other friends that there did a cheering stadium, showing them all together, and particular thanks go to: Kai Sawatari who is a really good friend and a strong player too, Johannes Gutbord who, even if we knew each other for a few months we became good friends and together with Kai he stayed until I won the final! And I would say ‘thank you’ to: Tomas Vicek, Johan Steurs (finally I had the chance to meet you), Tobias Maucher and Martin Vonasek (I was glad to know you man).
- To those who couldn’t be there, but somehow they were!
- To our league! The legendary WLL: Wooded Legacy League (take a look on Facebook), a league and a family to whom I owe much.

For anyone who doesn't know me yet I’m Claudio Bonanni , a 26 year old, Italian player who loves playing Legacy since I’ve started to draw a Magic card. As player I was born with my beloved deck Canadian Threshold, then I moved on and I started to play many decks ( you can check it on tcdeck): from Landstill to Dreadstill,Team America, Esper Blade and also Miracle obv. I mean....more or less i could say I’ve played every deck with Brainstorm!
Untill the GP Lille I didn’t reach many results, just some Top8 here in Italy in tournaments from 20 to 100 players and I went to Day2 at GP Paris last year.

It was two months ago when I tried for the first time Mentor Miracle in a tournament here in Italy, it was during the Tarmogeddon ,a GP trial for Lille. I’ve never played Miracle before, I mean, just some games online, because I didn’t like it so I decided to build a deck that could be strong as Classic Miracle, but with less clunky cards in the starting hand. Indeed I saw the GP Kyoto list and I started from there. The first thing I did was to cut the whole Stoneforge+Batterskull package because I didn’t think that I needed it, Mentor is better in many situations, so the only card I was pondering about was Snapcaster Mage that can squeeze all the value from our istants.
The Tarmogeddon went well and I made Top8 quite easily (5W-0L-2 ID), then I won the quarter finals in a mirror match and proceeded to split the Top4 where the other players agreed that I should win those Byes.


1. The Day Before
I was in the middle of the street when suddenly I heard: “Claudioooo! Claudiooooo!” so I looked back and I was happy to see Johannes together with Kai, and finally I could meet Tomas Vicek too! Then we went all together to the Zenith (the GP building)where I’ve played in a trial because I would test the deck and maybe try to figure out how to setup the deck for the big event.


During the tournament I found:

Omnitell won 2-1

Merfolks won 2-1

ANT won 2-1 (during G1 I called the judge because I had Jace in the deck, so I took game loss ofc, by the way I won G2 and G3 but I conceded because my opponent was Tobias Maucher,a ANT player who is Kai’s friend and he needed those byes that I already had).
The deck was great and I’ve set the deck up against Control and Combo, because Mentor alone is able to take care of all those creatures who can’t fly.

2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Monastery Mentor
1 Counterspell
2 Dig Through Time
2 Pyroblast
3 Daze
3 Swords to Plowshares
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Terminus
4 Ponder
4 Counterbalance
4 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Plains
2 Arid Mesa
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
4 Flooded Strand
4 Island

SB
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Disenchant
1 Wear // Tear
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Rest in Peace
1 Pyroclasm
2 Flusterstorm
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Blood Moon
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

2. Day One


T1 bye

T2 bye

T3 3W-0L-0D. Nousiainen, Janne [FIN] Landstill Ur

He told me: “I think I know you, are you B88 on thesource?”
Me: “yes, i’am! how could you know me? Who are you?”
He smiled: “I think we are interested to the same deck!”
Indeed he played Landstill!
G1- the game lasted for 35 minutes more or less! He draws 6 for 2 Standstill while I try to
survive through his burns spells! At the end Mentor makes many tokens and let me win the game.
G2- he was in screw (just 3 lands) and he hadn’t no more time to close the game.
After we finished the game he showed me his cool tattoo on his chest: “Take your time”
I can say that’s (stand)STILL my hero!

T4 4W-0L-0D. Ventura, Alessandro [ITA] Rug aggro

He is a friend of mine, I was so sad! And each other we know what deck we play...
G1- he hasn’t drop 1 threats so I have time to set up Countertop lock, then I drop Mentor to close the game.
G2- Was different: he start with Delver and I hadn’t removal. After some cantrips I found Pyroblast and I finally take the Aberration off. The key moment was when he fetched with 2 left open mana and in response I saw the top of my library, he went for Krosan and I revel Mentor. Then he dropped Sulfur that was Plowed and Mentor made a bunch of tokens turn after turn. I won the game with one life left!

T5 5W-0L-0D. Hofmann, Mike [DEU] Infect

G1- he had 3 Nexus and I couldn’t deal with them!
G2- i had Terminus on turn 3, than i resolved Blood Moon and Snapcaster closes the games.
G3- I started with Island+Ponder and it shows me: FoW, Terminus, Fow. i keep Terminus as last card and i draw 2 Fow. On turn i tried the Miracle and we had a counterwar which I won at last. Then I dropped Counterbalance and I was quite lucky with 2 blindflip counters. Vendilion closes the game along with the Countertop lock.

6 5W-1L-0D Alex, Mortimer [ENG] Lands

G1-I was in a good position: Counterbalance + Top for me and just one card in his hand. i chose to switch 2 Sensei because i had Mentor, but in my draw phase he goes for Crop to find DD and then he makes the 20/20 token. I couldn’t find a Swords or a Terminus....
G2- was like the G1 but he could draw the combo 2 times and the second 20/20 left me just with 2 life...and he had also P. Fire, which together with Boseiju killed me even if I had Counterbalance on board.

T7 6W-1L-0D BRESSY, Guillaume [FRA] Omnishow

G1- we started both with some cantrips. He found Boseiju and he went for Show+Omniscence+Omniscence wich resolved. Than he tried Cunnig Wish but i had Fow, and in my turn i Pyroblast one Omniscience, then Snapcaster+Pyroblast took the other enchantment off.
G2- He has again Boseiju + Combo. He tried Dig and we started a counterwar that I won thanks to Flusterstorm. The game finished when i played Vendilion he casted another Dig in response but with Counterbalance i blindflipped my own Dig! lol!

T8 7W-1L-0D Lundberg, Viktor [SWE] Lands

G1- That was a strange game: I played with just one island but he hadn’t Loam, that allowed me to find more lands thanks to Sensei’s Divining Top, then I set the CounterTop lock up and Mentor gets me there.
G2- He resolved Choke but my Wear//Tear destroyed his enchantment. On the battlefield he has only one green land, Taiga so he couldn’t play all his spells and Mentor succeeded in making many damages in few turns.

T9 8W-1L-0D Gilligan, Daniel [IRL] Miracle

G1- He tried to jam a Balance without any mana left,but my daze was there for it. Then we start a counterwar on our Digs which I could win thanks to Snapcaster+Pyroblast. I found the CounterTop lock and he scooped at last.
G2- On turn 4 i dropped Mentor to which he responded with Counterspell, me Flusterstorm for 3....Mentor resolves. He goes for Jace but i had 2 Daze, so easy game over.

I finished the day with 8W-1L-0D that’s was quite good! But I was exhausted because into that place it was so hot…like I were in Hell!

3. Day Two

All my friends went out the previous night in Lille for some party so I had to wake up alone…it was pretty sad. But it wasn’t time to think about it: “I need to not let my concentration down!”


T10 9W-1L-0D BAGLIN, ARNAUD [FRA] Grixis Control

G1- I’ve kept a one land hand with 2 Ponder+Top. He started with Gitaxian, Delta and Cabal for all my Ponders…I was near to concede! I drew a land an after 2/3 turns I could find Counterbalance and I dropped it (I can win this game only if I force my game plan)…resolved! I cleaned the board with Terminus and the game was finally over.
G2- I couldn’t remember well the whole game but I think that he saw Daze with Probe and after I played 2 Brainstorm and other stuff he goes for Keranos when I was tapped out but it found my Daze! He thought that maybe I should shuffle it away…that was what I was hoping to.

T11 10W-1L-0D Sánchez, Ricardo [ESP] Infect

G1-I mulled to 6 and he had 3 Nexus so my Terminus without Top wasn’t good enough!
G2- I took all his creatures off and I saw him with only non-basic lands: so I dropped and a resolved Blood Moon let me say gg.
G3- he hadn’t infect threats and that allowed me to find what I need: Swords to Plowshares and some counters. Thanks to my Vendilion in his End of Turn I close the game because he couldn’t find a proper answer. I would say that he was quite unlucky that time!

T12 11W-1L-0D Vonasek, Martin [CZE] ANT

I didn’t recall him even if I met him the day before…I mean, I was stressed and I’m not so good when it comes to remember names!
G1- He had 3 discard spells…no way out! In every scenario I tried to figure out I couldn’t win that game.
G2- Blood Moon helped me to take enough time to kill him with Canonist.
G3-I played Surgical on his Decays after he took my Balance off. Then I could resolve 2 Canonists and together with other 2 Snapcasters I was able to close the game shortly before he could find some outs.
If someone is interested in it, he also made a Report on thesource,so check it out!

T13 12W-1L-0D Sochurek, Petr [CZE] Brug Tempo

After that Tomas Mar told him which deck I played we sat down on the table….
G1- He starts with Shaman or Delver, I can’t remember exactly who, but my Sensei resolves. That means that he hasn’t Daze probably so: 3 mana Mentor with Fow backup. Then I dropped the second one and I made every token I could create.
G2- He resolved Sylvan but I had Wear//Tear in my hand. Then my deck decided that he wouldn’t lose…I was all 4 Mentors…oooops!


It was the time to see what my ranking was: then after speaking with my friends I decided that there was no way I could make the ID.

T14 13W-1L-0D Boucek, Jaroslav [CZE] Aggro Loam

The first thing he asked me was the ID, I refused and he got upset, really upset!
G1- He won the game with Chalice followed by Sylvan Library and Liliana.
G2- after some Wastelands from his side he dropped Shaman, then Zenith for Gaddock and finally Confidant. I let all his creatures resolve because I had Pyroclasm burning in my hand. I cleaned the board and my Mentor closes the game.
G3- It was a long game…he had Sylvan + Chalice, but I finally found Wear//Tear. But there were other problems because Loam and Punishing are really annoying recursions. I casted my Dig and I picked Rest in Peace and Mentor up . In few turns I resolved Rip, Blood Moon, Mentor and Jace….game over.


T15 14W-1L-1D Van der Paelt, Thomas [BEL] Brug

This time I was glad to accept the ID!

4. Top8


There were many players I met during Day One and Two, and together we started to take some photos and fill them in our profile.

Quarter final Boucek, Jaroslav [CZE] Aggro Loam

G1- I was in CounterTop lock but he had Knight and Chalice. However, suddenly the game is over because I got game loss for “drawing an extra card”. I understood “end” and I drew my card, but (according to what he said) he didn’t pass…I was ingenuous enough to not sign the combat damage so I had no evidence to prove my innocence,so I picked my cards up!
G2- my turn 3 Vendilion takes him many life and when I could make some tokens with Mentor he went for Zealus Persecution. He was at 6 life and he dropped Confident who resolved. I had Snapcaster and Blood Moon in hand and I thought that maybe I could lock him and in his EoT try to kill him with Snap. So I decided to go for the enchantment. He was unlucky with Confident: first blind reveled card was Knight and the second was….Knight, seems I didn’t need my own Mage.
G3- He hadn’t many threats and my turn 3 Vendilion, again, open the way for Mentor. At last my beloved Jace on turn 5 was a simple win more…

Seminfinal Christoph Alsheimer con Aggro Loam

He was a nice guy even more because he knows some my friends from Firenze, I’m really happy to know this kind of players!

Here the official report: http://magic.wizards.com/en/events/c...nni-2015-07-05

The Final
I’m honest, I didn’t know who was Oliver Ruel!

Here the video (minute 20:00): http://www.twitch.tv/magic/v/6961330

Let me say something about this final match:
I saw he was a good player or he couldn’t be there so I kept all my Dazes because he could think that I took them off when I was on the draw. Thanks to this, in G2 I dind’t bluff Pyroblast and I started with Ponder, hoping that he would go for Balance, indeed he did it on turn Two.
I don’t know what to say…I mean, I had good hands against him and the match up I think is quite positive for me. More than that I wouldn’t ever judge how he played, those kind of players can see things that the ones like me can’t!

I know that I wasn’t the best player in the room, not at all, but the deck performed very well and I even if I did some mistakes I could go head match after match…but let me say that: the most beautiful thing was see people from different countries stay there and supporting me all the time, this Is the best prize!
Before this event there was many players who told me that this deck wasn’t good enough and weak, but I hadn’t any doubt about my choice and I follow my way despite what they said. So if you have a good idea keep it in mind and improve it, because the worst enemy will be always one: ourself.

Thank you all guys!!!!!!!!