spirit of the wretch
01-04-2010, 04:26 PM
So what happend after we last left our hero (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16000)?
I'll give you the quick and dirty chronological course of events:
Dez, 31st: I head down to Freiburg to celebrate New Year with a friend. WAAAAY too much food, a reasonable amount of booze, dancing Disco Fox to weird electro music in the Wagenburg, free cocktails, carrying a drunken chick through Freiburg for almost two straight hours with my friend, singing irish folk songs. 4h of sleep. All in all, very good times were had!
Jan, 1st: Spend the day cleaning up the flat as my girlfriend is going to stay at my place for the next 4 weeks, because she's got a clinical traineeship in Karlsruhe. If you've ever been to my place (ok, chances are you haven't, but you get the point) you can imagine the effort it took me to get it into halfway decent shape. In the evening the rest of the team arrived and we prepared for the big event the next day. 6h of sleep.
Jan, 2nd: The germanmagic 1 Legacy mainevent: To cut it short, I played Canacian Threshhold again, started out 3/0/0, lost to the eventual winner (Dreamhalls?!?) going 4/1/0 and than completely hit rock bottom ending 4/4/0 drop. This is by far the most disastrous performance for me in a LONG time! Most of the team sucked out, but props to Adan and Heiler for putting up a halfway decent fight. After once again managing to lose to merfolk (god knows how, but in the last months, I can't seem to win against this deck) I was pretty much completely frustrated and not even motivated to play the GP trial the next day. Obviously that attitude changed (you wouldn't be wasting your time reading these lines if it hadn't) during the drive home (the inner nerd is just too overwhelming) and I started pondering which deck to play. Main premises were:
- No Islands (fuck you Lord of Atlantis)
- A lot of burn (fuck you gay fish)
After some partially highly adventurous approaches, I finally settled for the one reasonable deck that had both: Cat Tribal. Finally 7h of sleep.
And this is where today's story starts:
So kids, back in the winter of '10, I still was pretty much hooked up on a game called Magic the Gathering. Basically you travelled long distances to cramp yourself into a tiny shop with a lot of weird nerds to play with some ridiculously expensive pieces of cardboard and pretend to be a mighty wizard. Biggest ripoff of all times!
So once, we drove down to Hanau for the third time that week and attended a GPT for Madrid. GPs were hugh events where you cramp an aweful lot more nerds into a hall and let them pretend they're wizards together.
I played a cat.dec mostly because of mere irrational hate for the fish. Here's what the team brought:
Martin “MSC” Schreiber: Bant Survival
Harald “Locutus” Herrlich: GBu Loam/Rock
Daniel “Adan” Scherer: Ur Dreadstill
Stefan "spirit of the wretch" Czolk: Cats
And to bare with the protocal, here's my list:
[SPOD] ...“out of cheese“-Error...
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Arid Mesa
2 Windswept Heath
1 Mountain
1 Forest
2 Taiga
3 Plateau
1 Horizon Canopy
//20 lands
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Grim Lavamancer
//20 cats and pseudo-cats
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Rift Bolt
3 Fireblast
3 Price of Progress
2 Umezawa's Jitte
//20 fire
SB:
4 Relic of Progenitus
4 Tin-Street Hooligan
4 Red Elemental Blast
3 Krosan Grip
Only 28 players decided to battle for fame and glory and so we hand to play five rounds with cut to top8. Only the first placed would receive three byes and a 100€ travel voucher.
Round 1: Harald “Locutus” with Bgu Loam/Rock
Of course, a teammate. This would be the first of many team-internal duells (what a subtle foreshadowing...). Now we could simply draw or... OR we battle it out like the manly men we are. Yeah, that sounds much better.
Game 1: I win the roll and play a first turn Lynx. Second turn: fetch, attack (16), Nacatl, Chain Lightning (13). Third turn: fetch, attack (6), Price (2), Bolt FTW!
That was fun =)
SB: -1 Fireblast, -1 Rift Bolt, -2 Jitte, +4 Relic
Game 2: I mulligan two 1-lander down to five, because let's face it, keeping only one land against a deck with mulitple landdestruction spells isn't foolish, it's downright suicidal! Harald mulligans to six and I don't get into the game at any point: I play critters → they die, I play land → dies, too, I play burn → Harald .. well doesn't die. Instead he plays Kitchen Finks and smashes me.
Game 3: I mulligan down to five again (remember how well that worked out last time) while Harald imideately keeps. I lead with a Nacatl and he responds with Swamp (funny), Mox Diamond (still funny), Smallpox (now it's sad)... So I start my second turn with no board and two cards in hand... Fucking great! Harald can't really put any pressure on me, so I've got some time to draw/fetch into my two basic lands and develop a board of double Goyf and Nacatl against his double Finks and … Deed (whap whap whap whaaaa). I burn the Finks, Harald clears my board and I have the third Goyf.
If you didn't already know it, there's the Three-Goyf-Rule: If you manage to resolve three Tarmogoyfs in a legacy game, you win, no matter what! True Story.
As usual the rule proves true as Harald can't handle the last Lhurgoyf and dies. Nice comeback, if I may say so myself.
1/0/0 2:1
Round 2: Mike with Gbw Trainwreck (?)
Game 1: I win the roll and drop a Nacatl. He has Scrubland, Top. As Jesse (Krieger on The Source) performed the exact same start with ANT against me the day before, I fire 2 Bolts into Mike's face the next turn. He untaps, plays Bayou and … Smallpox. Bollocks! And, really, the second Smallpox.dec? ... In round 2? REALLY??? Sometimes I just hate this format. He has Vindicate, Smallpox, Sinkhole and Wasteland while I on the other hand only have 8 mana producing lands. I end up without permanents and him at one life and he does me in. Dammit, so close!
SB: The same as in the first round
Game 2: See game 1 only worse, if that's somehow possible. He manhandles me like there's no tomorrow (NO TOMORROW) and I preety much can't do anything. All Sinkholes and no cats make Stafen a sad boy.
1/1/0 2:3
Round 3: Julian with Merfolk
Game 1: I win the roll (this will be a recurring theme during this report, watch out and enjoy =) and lead off with a Nacatl. He has a Vial. I enforce with a Lynx and he plays a Standstill. Ballsy! I beat down and he trades critters for my cats. Soon enough the board is cleared of creatures, he has a Vial on three, the Standstill and 8 life and we both have a full grip. So I suspend three Rift Bolts to set up my big turn. He manages to counter some of them, but it really doesn't matter, as my and is full of gas. And gas burns. In his face! *wink, wink* If you know what I mean =)
SB: -3 Price, -3 Fireblast, -2 Lynx, +4 REB, +4 Hooligan
Game 2: No clue what happend here, but my life count suggests this one was brutal! I get myself down to 18 while his number drops way more rapidely. A wild guess would be that cats and red cards simply slaughtered fish and blue cards, but who knows... could have been anything.
2/1/0 4:3
In this round, Adan beats Harald and knocks him out of contention.
Round 4: Daniel with Bant Survival
Game 1: I win the roll (jadda, jadda) and lead with a Nacatl. He has a Hierarch which I burn on my turn. God, how I love Bolts! He ponders on his second turn and I manufacture a Jitte for my brave cat. On his third turn he summons the arch enemy: Rhox War Monk, also known as „Rhox Mox, Ender Of Hopes And Destroyer Of Dreams“. So imagine you have only two land, a cat, an unequipped Jitte and a Fireblast (and pretty much nothing else) in hand, what do you do, go! After some deliberation I decide to go for the risky manly play: equip, burn, swing. Everything resolves as planned and I have visions of cats with painted faces, wielding Jitte marauding through Bant, Braveheart-style. So nice! To get rid of the pest Daniel filters through his library and finally finds a Survival. But all the broken enchantment is able to do with his last hand card, is cough up a chump-blocking Goyf for the cat. See who's the fittest here? Miau! He draws, doesn't find another creature and dies.
SB: -3 Price, -1 Rift Bolt, +4 REB
Game 2: Remember that Braveheart scenario we were in? Well now imagine there aren't just the Scots raiding nothern Bant England, but also the Irish, the Canadians, the Australians and every other once suppressed people. It's still not even close to what happend in this game. I play Lynx, go, he brainstorms and I have fetch Lynx, Nacatl .. CATS, motherfucker! He swords the two Lynx but I decide to simply ignore his actions and continue to vomit more guys on the board: various cats, Lhurgoyfs, wizards everybody is welcome to rampage through the smoldering ruins of Bant. And so they do. Hardcore. „What would you do without freedom!“
3/1/0 6:3
Daniel was a really fun and cool opponent. I felt a little sorry, that I steamrolled him the second game, while his deck decided to take a break.
In this round Martin defeats Adan much to the amusement of the bystanders.
Round 5: Michael (?) with Dragon Stompy
As every player with at least nine points is in for sure we ID. Then I proceed to smash his deck to pieces just for shits and giggles. Good times =)
3/1/1 6:3
So after five rounds the (surprisingly succesful) performance of the team:
Martin “MSC” 3/0/2 and 4th
Harald “Locutus” 3/2/0 and 10th
Daniel “Adan” Scherer: 3/2/0 and 8th (that little lucksack =)
Stefan "spirit of the wretch" Czolk: 3/1/1 and 5th
So team SPOD representing 3 out of 8 players still in contention. That seems quite appropriate, indeed =)
Quaterfinals: Martin “MSC” with Bant Survival
Of course, let's continue the team-internal meat grinding...
Game 1: We both mulligan and my hand is 4 Bolts, a Lavamage and a land. We play draw (beat), go until I find a Nacatl and am finally able to apply some pressure. He counters with a Rhox Mox. The mage with fire support takes him down. So Martin plays … wait for it … another Rhox … still wait for it … Mox (yeah, you really didn't need to wait for that). He shares the grim fate of his brother *another one bites the dust* and the cat prevails!
SB: -3 Price, -1 Rift Bolt, +4 REB
Game 2: Sorry, I have pretty much no memory of that game. Martin will fill this hole in his report, I suppose.
4/1/1 8:3
Semifinals: Daniel “Adan” with Ur Dreadstill
Yeah, seems logical, I haven't played him yet... Just fucking perfect. But nevertheless, I enter the match with the power of history on my side: I'm undefeated against Adan in tournament matches. I know it, he knows it and today is not the day I'm going to let that change. Not under the cats watch!
Game 1: He forces a first turn Lynx, so I play Nacatl and Lavamancer while he establishes a Counterbalance. He manages to blindly counter my Pridemage and nuke my board with an EE, but I manage to resolve a Goyf and some red cards later he's ashes.
SB: -3 Price, -3 Fireblast, -2 Jitte, -3 Chain Lightning, +3 Grip, +4 Hooligan, +3 REB
Game 2: He starts Island, go and I have a Fetchland. Second turn he slams down the Stifle/Nought... Ok that's actually kind of scary! But when I'm scared, I stop beeing scared and be awesome instead! So land, fetch, Hooligan.
Basic forest: 1 cent, Tin-Street Hooligan: 20 cent, the look on Adan's face when the little goblin smashes his hugh-ass monster to smithereens: absolutely fucking priceless!
From that point on, I start bringing the pain. Adan is able to explosive me twice, but as I specifically pay attention not to overextend my board and to mix up the casting cost, the damage isn't too severe. Contrary to the damage done to Adans face by my kittens, that is.
So no change in the fairly one-sided Stefan-Adan matchup. And hey, what's so great about change anyways?
5/1/1 10:3
I finish my semifinal match just in time to see the second game … of the fourth quterfinal. Screw all those slow decks, I want to go home, goddammit! But no, we wait for at least one hour till finally somebody emerges as my final opponent for the day.
The hall is almost empty at that point and it's freezing. Not a particular terrific atmosphere for the showdown.
Finals: Eske with Merfolk
I've played Eske in the main event the day before and he was one of the Merfolk players I couldn't beat... revenge time! I offer him a split where I get the byes. He declines. I ask him if he knows what I'm playing. He calmly nods and still declines. He's got cojones that one, now let's see if he can back them up.
Now kids, here's a piece of advise: if you're facing a scruffy bearded Legacy played with a shaved head and a good amount of facial piercings and said player offers you a split, you sure as hell better take it! The alternative will be way less pleasant.
Game 1: I mulligan a 1-lander into Taiga, 2x Lynx, 2x Bolt and Goyf... less than ideal to say the least. I lead with the land and he has the predicted Wasteland. I topdeck a Fetch and make a cat. He has Island, Cursecatcher, go. I topdeck another fetch (hell, I'm awesome) and cast the Goyf. The just has land go. I don't have another land so I try to bolt the Catcher. He has Spellslutter Sprite and I bolt that one too. For some obscure reason (I mean hey, it's Legacy, there's got to be a reason right?) he thinks about saccing the Catcher to counter the second Bolt but decides against it. Fair enough, I take what I can get. On his turn he summons a Merrow Reejerey. I finally find another Fetchland play it, play the second Lynx and attack with the team. He doesn't block, so I skillfully don't crack the land and just put him down to eight. Now comes his big turn: land, Reejerey, untap land, Catcher, tap both of my lands, Catcher, untap two lands, Standstill... Yeah right... whatever. To even things out I have the Canopy from the top (never been so relieved to draw back to back lands), crack my fetch and turn my team sideways. After a good amount of consideration he double blocks a Lynx and the Goyf and we trade. As the smoke clears he has a Reejerey and a Catcher at 4 life, while I have a cat and a Canopy at 17. Good times =) He does the only reasonable thing and attacks with both guys but I find the Fetch and the cat takes it home.
SB: -3 Price, -3 Fireblast, -2 Lynx, +4 REB, +4 Hooligan
Game 2: I kick it off with another mulligan and he only plays an Island. I stupidly (and completely avoidable) walk my Nacatl into a Daze, just to find out that I don't have another creature except a Hooligan which I don't want to play without target. He makes a Adept and as I try to bolt it he has the Sprite. I finally find a Pridemage and he responds with Mind Harness and Jitte. Ok, time for some hot (pun intended) Burn On Fish action: I hooligan the Jitte, blast his Force and burn the Adept. He swings. I burn my own cat (not nice!). He swings and I'm out of everything: No creatures, no burn. We both draw (suck) go, until at three life I finally find the burn for the faerie. Then he draws guy from the top, I burn them from the top, he draws Mutavaults, I draw Goyf and Cats until I finally manage to draw the shotgun-sorcerer. Once the wizard isn't sick a mighty Goyf starts beating Eske down from 18. After two attack steps he's at 4 and goes for an all-in attack with 3 Mutavaults and a Vial at 2. I misblock (read don't block with my Mancer) but as he hasn't the Lord of Atlantis I survive at 1 life. Wow, tough one!
6/1/1 12:3
So I end up in first place (well deserved I'd say =) and take the byes and the travel voucher. And I've learned one important thing about myself: I'm awesome!
Props
Team SPOD: great as usual
Eske for the really tight finals. Good Games!
Jens Kessel for the great event
Cats, most underrated tribe in Legacy
Slops
Weather
No beer
Only 28 players at a GPT
Smallpox
I'll give you the quick and dirty chronological course of events:
Dez, 31st: I head down to Freiburg to celebrate New Year with a friend. WAAAAY too much food, a reasonable amount of booze, dancing Disco Fox to weird electro music in the Wagenburg, free cocktails, carrying a drunken chick through Freiburg for almost two straight hours with my friend, singing irish folk songs. 4h of sleep. All in all, very good times were had!
Jan, 1st: Spend the day cleaning up the flat as my girlfriend is going to stay at my place for the next 4 weeks, because she's got a clinical traineeship in Karlsruhe. If you've ever been to my place (ok, chances are you haven't, but you get the point) you can imagine the effort it took me to get it into halfway decent shape. In the evening the rest of the team arrived and we prepared for the big event the next day. 6h of sleep.
Jan, 2nd: The germanmagic 1 Legacy mainevent: To cut it short, I played Canacian Threshhold again, started out 3/0/0, lost to the eventual winner (Dreamhalls?!?) going 4/1/0 and than completely hit rock bottom ending 4/4/0 drop. This is by far the most disastrous performance for me in a LONG time! Most of the team sucked out, but props to Adan and Heiler for putting up a halfway decent fight. After once again managing to lose to merfolk (god knows how, but in the last months, I can't seem to win against this deck) I was pretty much completely frustrated and not even motivated to play the GP trial the next day. Obviously that attitude changed (you wouldn't be wasting your time reading these lines if it hadn't) during the drive home (the inner nerd is just too overwhelming) and I started pondering which deck to play. Main premises were:
- No Islands (fuck you Lord of Atlantis)
- A lot of burn (fuck you gay fish)
After some partially highly adventurous approaches, I finally settled for the one reasonable deck that had both: Cat Tribal. Finally 7h of sleep.
And this is where today's story starts:
So kids, back in the winter of '10, I still was pretty much hooked up on a game called Magic the Gathering. Basically you travelled long distances to cramp yourself into a tiny shop with a lot of weird nerds to play with some ridiculously expensive pieces of cardboard and pretend to be a mighty wizard. Biggest ripoff of all times!
So once, we drove down to Hanau for the third time that week and attended a GPT for Madrid. GPs were hugh events where you cramp an aweful lot more nerds into a hall and let them pretend they're wizards together.
I played a cat.dec mostly because of mere irrational hate for the fish. Here's what the team brought:
Martin “MSC” Schreiber: Bant Survival
Harald “Locutus” Herrlich: GBu Loam/Rock
Daniel “Adan” Scherer: Ur Dreadstill
Stefan "spirit of the wretch" Czolk: Cats
And to bare with the protocal, here's my list:
[SPOD] ...“out of cheese“-Error...
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Arid Mesa
2 Windswept Heath
1 Mountain
1 Forest
2 Taiga
3 Plateau
1 Horizon Canopy
//20 lands
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Grim Lavamancer
//20 cats and pseudo-cats
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Rift Bolt
3 Fireblast
3 Price of Progress
2 Umezawa's Jitte
//20 fire
SB:
4 Relic of Progenitus
4 Tin-Street Hooligan
4 Red Elemental Blast
3 Krosan Grip
Only 28 players decided to battle for fame and glory and so we hand to play five rounds with cut to top8. Only the first placed would receive three byes and a 100€ travel voucher.
Round 1: Harald “Locutus” with Bgu Loam/Rock
Of course, a teammate. This would be the first of many team-internal duells (what a subtle foreshadowing...). Now we could simply draw or... OR we battle it out like the manly men we are. Yeah, that sounds much better.
Game 1: I win the roll and play a first turn Lynx. Second turn: fetch, attack (16), Nacatl, Chain Lightning (13). Third turn: fetch, attack (6), Price (2), Bolt FTW!
That was fun =)
SB: -1 Fireblast, -1 Rift Bolt, -2 Jitte, +4 Relic
Game 2: I mulligan two 1-lander down to five, because let's face it, keeping only one land against a deck with mulitple landdestruction spells isn't foolish, it's downright suicidal! Harald mulligans to six and I don't get into the game at any point: I play critters → they die, I play land → dies, too, I play burn → Harald .. well doesn't die. Instead he plays Kitchen Finks and smashes me.
Game 3: I mulligan down to five again (remember how well that worked out last time) while Harald imideately keeps. I lead with a Nacatl and he responds with Swamp (funny), Mox Diamond (still funny), Smallpox (now it's sad)... So I start my second turn with no board and two cards in hand... Fucking great! Harald can't really put any pressure on me, so I've got some time to draw/fetch into my two basic lands and develop a board of double Goyf and Nacatl against his double Finks and … Deed (whap whap whap whaaaa). I burn the Finks, Harald clears my board and I have the third Goyf.
If you didn't already know it, there's the Three-Goyf-Rule: If you manage to resolve three Tarmogoyfs in a legacy game, you win, no matter what! True Story.
As usual the rule proves true as Harald can't handle the last Lhurgoyf and dies. Nice comeback, if I may say so myself.
1/0/0 2:1
Round 2: Mike with Gbw Trainwreck (?)
Game 1: I win the roll and drop a Nacatl. He has Scrubland, Top. As Jesse (Krieger on The Source) performed the exact same start with ANT against me the day before, I fire 2 Bolts into Mike's face the next turn. He untaps, plays Bayou and … Smallpox. Bollocks! And, really, the second Smallpox.dec? ... In round 2? REALLY??? Sometimes I just hate this format. He has Vindicate, Smallpox, Sinkhole and Wasteland while I on the other hand only have 8 mana producing lands. I end up without permanents and him at one life and he does me in. Dammit, so close!
SB: The same as in the first round
Game 2: See game 1 only worse, if that's somehow possible. He manhandles me like there's no tomorrow (NO TOMORROW) and I preety much can't do anything. All Sinkholes and no cats make Stafen a sad boy.
1/1/0 2:3
Round 3: Julian with Merfolk
Game 1: I win the roll (this will be a recurring theme during this report, watch out and enjoy =) and lead off with a Nacatl. He has a Vial. I enforce with a Lynx and he plays a Standstill. Ballsy! I beat down and he trades critters for my cats. Soon enough the board is cleared of creatures, he has a Vial on three, the Standstill and 8 life and we both have a full grip. So I suspend three Rift Bolts to set up my big turn. He manages to counter some of them, but it really doesn't matter, as my and is full of gas. And gas burns. In his face! *wink, wink* If you know what I mean =)
SB: -3 Price, -3 Fireblast, -2 Lynx, +4 REB, +4 Hooligan
Game 2: No clue what happend here, but my life count suggests this one was brutal! I get myself down to 18 while his number drops way more rapidely. A wild guess would be that cats and red cards simply slaughtered fish and blue cards, but who knows... could have been anything.
2/1/0 4:3
In this round, Adan beats Harald and knocks him out of contention.
Round 4: Daniel with Bant Survival
Game 1: I win the roll (jadda, jadda) and lead with a Nacatl. He has a Hierarch which I burn on my turn. God, how I love Bolts! He ponders on his second turn and I manufacture a Jitte for my brave cat. On his third turn he summons the arch enemy: Rhox War Monk, also known as „Rhox Mox, Ender Of Hopes And Destroyer Of Dreams“. So imagine you have only two land, a cat, an unequipped Jitte and a Fireblast (and pretty much nothing else) in hand, what do you do, go! After some deliberation I decide to go for the risky manly play: equip, burn, swing. Everything resolves as planned and I have visions of cats with painted faces, wielding Jitte marauding through Bant, Braveheart-style. So nice! To get rid of the pest Daniel filters through his library and finally finds a Survival. But all the broken enchantment is able to do with his last hand card, is cough up a chump-blocking Goyf for the cat. See who's the fittest here? Miau! He draws, doesn't find another creature and dies.
SB: -3 Price, -1 Rift Bolt, +4 REB
Game 2: Remember that Braveheart scenario we were in? Well now imagine there aren't just the Scots raiding nothern Bant England, but also the Irish, the Canadians, the Australians and every other once suppressed people. It's still not even close to what happend in this game. I play Lynx, go, he brainstorms and I have fetch Lynx, Nacatl .. CATS, motherfucker! He swords the two Lynx but I decide to simply ignore his actions and continue to vomit more guys on the board: various cats, Lhurgoyfs, wizards everybody is welcome to rampage through the smoldering ruins of Bant. And so they do. Hardcore. „What would you do without freedom!“
3/1/0 6:3
Daniel was a really fun and cool opponent. I felt a little sorry, that I steamrolled him the second game, while his deck decided to take a break.
In this round Martin defeats Adan much to the amusement of the bystanders.
Round 5: Michael (?) with Dragon Stompy
As every player with at least nine points is in for sure we ID. Then I proceed to smash his deck to pieces just for shits and giggles. Good times =)
3/1/1 6:3
So after five rounds the (surprisingly succesful) performance of the team:
Martin “MSC” 3/0/2 and 4th
Harald “Locutus” 3/2/0 and 10th
Daniel “Adan” Scherer: 3/2/0 and 8th (that little lucksack =)
Stefan "spirit of the wretch" Czolk: 3/1/1 and 5th
So team SPOD representing 3 out of 8 players still in contention. That seems quite appropriate, indeed =)
Quaterfinals: Martin “MSC” with Bant Survival
Of course, let's continue the team-internal meat grinding...
Game 1: We both mulligan and my hand is 4 Bolts, a Lavamage and a land. We play draw (beat), go until I find a Nacatl and am finally able to apply some pressure. He counters with a Rhox Mox. The mage with fire support takes him down. So Martin plays … wait for it … another Rhox … still wait for it … Mox (yeah, you really didn't need to wait for that). He shares the grim fate of his brother *another one bites the dust* and the cat prevails!
SB: -3 Price, -1 Rift Bolt, +4 REB
Game 2: Sorry, I have pretty much no memory of that game. Martin will fill this hole in his report, I suppose.
4/1/1 8:3
Semifinals: Daniel “Adan” with Ur Dreadstill
Yeah, seems logical, I haven't played him yet... Just fucking perfect. But nevertheless, I enter the match with the power of history on my side: I'm undefeated against Adan in tournament matches. I know it, he knows it and today is not the day I'm going to let that change. Not under the cats watch!
Game 1: He forces a first turn Lynx, so I play Nacatl and Lavamancer while he establishes a Counterbalance. He manages to blindly counter my Pridemage and nuke my board with an EE, but I manage to resolve a Goyf and some red cards later he's ashes.
SB: -3 Price, -3 Fireblast, -2 Jitte, -3 Chain Lightning, +3 Grip, +4 Hooligan, +3 REB
Game 2: He starts Island, go and I have a Fetchland. Second turn he slams down the Stifle/Nought... Ok that's actually kind of scary! But when I'm scared, I stop beeing scared and be awesome instead! So land, fetch, Hooligan.
Basic forest: 1 cent, Tin-Street Hooligan: 20 cent, the look on Adan's face when the little goblin smashes his hugh-ass monster to smithereens: absolutely fucking priceless!
From that point on, I start bringing the pain. Adan is able to explosive me twice, but as I specifically pay attention not to overextend my board and to mix up the casting cost, the damage isn't too severe. Contrary to the damage done to Adans face by my kittens, that is.
So no change in the fairly one-sided Stefan-Adan matchup. And hey, what's so great about change anyways?
5/1/1 10:3
I finish my semifinal match just in time to see the second game … of the fourth quterfinal. Screw all those slow decks, I want to go home, goddammit! But no, we wait for at least one hour till finally somebody emerges as my final opponent for the day.
The hall is almost empty at that point and it's freezing. Not a particular terrific atmosphere for the showdown.
Finals: Eske with Merfolk
I've played Eske in the main event the day before and he was one of the Merfolk players I couldn't beat... revenge time! I offer him a split where I get the byes. He declines. I ask him if he knows what I'm playing. He calmly nods and still declines. He's got cojones that one, now let's see if he can back them up.
Now kids, here's a piece of advise: if you're facing a scruffy bearded Legacy played with a shaved head and a good amount of facial piercings and said player offers you a split, you sure as hell better take it! The alternative will be way less pleasant.
Game 1: I mulligan a 1-lander into Taiga, 2x Lynx, 2x Bolt and Goyf... less than ideal to say the least. I lead with the land and he has the predicted Wasteland. I topdeck a Fetch and make a cat. He has Island, Cursecatcher, go. I topdeck another fetch (hell, I'm awesome) and cast the Goyf. The just has land go. I don't have another land so I try to bolt the Catcher. He has Spellslutter Sprite and I bolt that one too. For some obscure reason (I mean hey, it's Legacy, there's got to be a reason right?) he thinks about saccing the Catcher to counter the second Bolt but decides against it. Fair enough, I take what I can get. On his turn he summons a Merrow Reejerey. I finally find another Fetchland play it, play the second Lynx and attack with the team. He doesn't block, so I skillfully don't crack the land and just put him down to eight. Now comes his big turn: land, Reejerey, untap land, Catcher, tap both of my lands, Catcher, untap two lands, Standstill... Yeah right... whatever. To even things out I have the Canopy from the top (never been so relieved to draw back to back lands), crack my fetch and turn my team sideways. After a good amount of consideration he double blocks a Lynx and the Goyf and we trade. As the smoke clears he has a Reejerey and a Catcher at 4 life, while I have a cat and a Canopy at 17. Good times =) He does the only reasonable thing and attacks with both guys but I find the Fetch and the cat takes it home.
SB: -3 Price, -3 Fireblast, -2 Lynx, +4 REB, +4 Hooligan
Game 2: I kick it off with another mulligan and he only plays an Island. I stupidly (and completely avoidable) walk my Nacatl into a Daze, just to find out that I don't have another creature except a Hooligan which I don't want to play without target. He makes a Adept and as I try to bolt it he has the Sprite. I finally find a Pridemage and he responds with Mind Harness and Jitte. Ok, time for some hot (pun intended) Burn On Fish action: I hooligan the Jitte, blast his Force and burn the Adept. He swings. I burn my own cat (not nice!). He swings and I'm out of everything: No creatures, no burn. We both draw (suck) go, until at three life I finally find the burn for the faerie. Then he draws guy from the top, I burn them from the top, he draws Mutavaults, I draw Goyf and Cats until I finally manage to draw the shotgun-sorcerer. Once the wizard isn't sick a mighty Goyf starts beating Eske down from 18. After two attack steps he's at 4 and goes for an all-in attack with 3 Mutavaults and a Vial at 2. I misblock (read don't block with my Mancer) but as he hasn't the Lord of Atlantis I survive at 1 life. Wow, tough one!
6/1/1 12:3
So I end up in first place (well deserved I'd say =) and take the byes and the travel voucher. And I've learned one important thing about myself: I'm awesome!
Props
Team SPOD: great as usual
Eske for the really tight finals. Good Games!
Jens Kessel for the great event
Cats, most underrated tribe in Legacy
Slops
Weather
No beer
Only 28 players at a GPT
Smallpox