JamieW89
11-08-2011, 03:59 PM
A little late, but I decided to write a report anyways. I've forgotten alot, but here's what I remember:
Friday:
After a pretty bad GPT season a few members of our team decide to grind the GPT’s on Friday and then stay at my place in Amsterdam during the entire weekend for the GP. Myself, Joran, Luke and Adriaan head to Amsterdam at around 11 and arrive at the site just after 12. Stef was already there by car, he wasn’t staying at my place.
Everyone enters a trial and I happen to be in one with Luke and Adriaan. Luke is playing Esper Blade and Adriaan & Stef Are playing BW hatebears. I’m on UBw ANT but without Grim Tutor as I couldn’t find the person I was lending them from in time. I replace the singleton Grim Tutor with a second Ad Nauseam.
GPT-1:
Round-1: Luke [NED] with Esper Blade
So yeah, I get paired against my friend in the first round, that sucks. He cannot put pressure on me and only has a clique to stop my first attempt but I get there with another chant after.
I keep a risky hand in the second game with LED, Tutor, Ritual, Petal, Chant, Ponder, Probe but it has everything I want other than lands and I know he’s not playing Wastelands. He leads with Thoughtseize and takes Petal, ouch! I draw a blank but luckily Probe into a land and win not long thereafter.
1-0
Round-2: Sergio [ESP] with UWr Control
I do not remember much but chant is king and wins the first game pretty easy.
In the second game he lets me go off and I cast Tendrils for 20 with 2 float and him on 19. He still has double Spell Pierce for some reason but cannot fetch and Pierce twice as that still puts him on a lethal 18. So I win.
2-0
Round-3: Mirko [FIN] with Solidarity
I scouted the previous round so I know what he’s on and take the first game with chant protection after him remanding it a few times.
I really miss Xantid Swarm in the other games as he’s able to Counter/Misdirect my protection for long enough to save a hand that wins for him. He takes control of my Ad Nauseam in game-2 which was pretty funny. I lose and have to start a second trial.
2-1
GPT-2:
I enter one of the last trials firing, this time with a Grim Tutor in my 60 (Thanks Ward!).
Round-1: Lorenz [GER] with Rbg Goblins
He has a terribly slow hand with Punishing Fires and Gempalm Incinerator in the opening game which gives me plenty of time to safely kill him through IGG.
He didn’t draw any hate in the second so I won that as well, simply outracing him.
1-0
Round-2: Gottfried [SWE] with UR Painter
I later learned that I’ve played him online a few times, pretty funny :)
I don’t have much going in the first game and just lose to his combo.
I win the second game with an Ad Nauseam after a few turns from 15 which only just gets there using Chain of Vapor as storm engine.
In the third game he eventually has his combo on the table together with a top that is floating a force (and 5 mana). I have Path to Exile, 2 Chants and the win. He activates Grindstone, I Path in response, he activates Top and I Chant in response and win next turn.
2-0
Round-3: Lukas [GER] with Reanimate
He gets a quick Jin and I don’t find a kill or a way to stop him in the opener.
I can extirpate and path his first attempts in g2 but have no gas and he manages to stick a Jin the turn before I can go off protected. His fresh 7 didn’t provide an answer however and I win.
In the final game his only counter was a daze which I played around to win.
3-0
Round-4: ??? with The Rock
Two very fast kills, even a turn-1 in the second to ignore all his 2 drop hatebears.
4-0
Round-5 Medvedev [RUS] with NO
He already has byes and scoops to me :).
5-0
By now it is around 9 PM and the last trials are finishing up. Joran just beat Stef in R4 of another trial and I watch him win the finals against a Canadian Thresh deck. Luke won byes earlier on the day and Adriaan already had byes from a normal GPT. So everyone who’s staying at my place has byes, awesome. We go out for dinner and get back around 11. Instead of going to bed immediately we change some decklists around and talk SB strategies for the GP. I cut the Vendilion Clique in my board for the 7th Chant as I wasn’t exactly sure when I wanted the Clique, I’ll properly try it out sometime though as I like the idea.
[B]Grand Prix Saturday:
After a bad night with not enough sleep we get some breakfast at the supermarket and catch the tram to the site. The four of us who stayed at my place meet up with the three others in our team who are playing the GP and we find our places for the seatings.
Me & Joran are playing UBw ANT, Luke is playing Esper Blade, Adriaan & Stef are playing BW Hatebears, Tim is playing GW Maverick and Jeroen is on manaless Dredge. Me, Joran, Luke and Adriaan all have 3 byes but the rest has to play the full amount of rounds. Most of us are seated in the blue area, and we recognize a lot of people from yesterday there as well.
Here is my decklist for the GP:
// Main Deck: 60
4 Infernal Tutor
1 Grim Tutor
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Preordain
3 Orim’s Chant
2 Silence
2 Duress
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
1 Chrome Mox
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
1 Marsh Flats
2 Underground Sea
2 Tundra
1 Island
1 Swamp
// Sideboard: 15
3 Dark Confidant
3 Extirpate (For all the expected Reanimate, which turned out to be the most popular deck)
3 Chain of Vapor
2 Path to Exile (Against hatebears and Iona, but also good against Painter and other stuff)
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Duress
1 Orim's Chant
1 Silence
Day-1:
Round 1-3: * BYE *
My friend wants to get some stuff signed by Mark Poole so I stand in line with him and get the basic Island I play signed and altered as well. After that I resleeve and eat something, byes rock.
3-0
Round-4: Raul Carcelen [ESP] with UGr Threshold
I keep an awkward hand with Tendrils in game-1 but I am able to kill him from 18 after a few turns as he lets Chant resolve.
Game-2 I have a Bob Snared but I land a second one. When I’m facing lethal I kill him from 16 with another tendrils in hand.
4-0
Round-5: Frederico Barca [ITA] with non-LED Dredge
I win the die roll and play fetch, go. He leads with Cabal Therapy which I consider for a brief moment before allowing it; he then names FoW. I win through Ad Nauseam on my turn fairly easy.
The second game he goes nuts on his second turn, dredging 4 Narcomoebas, casting a couple of therapies and reanimates Iona ftw.
The third game his second turn is scary as well (I couldn’t win t2 this game), and he dredges a lot of cards with breakthrough but luckily only hits one therapy which doesn’t really hit much and no way to reanimate Iona. So I untap and win through an Ad Nauseam which takes me from 20 to 1 before I find the kill.
5-0
Round-6: Kim Grymer [DEN] with Imperial Painter (Eventually made Top-8)
I win the first game fairly easy with a fast Ill-Gotten Gains loop, not much to say about it.
Game-2 I open a t2 kill with a chain of vapor, nice. He starts with Painter and a chrome mox for a blast. I EoT bounce the painter, he blasts my land in resp; had he countered the bounce I would have won. I play land and pass, he plays Thorn. I then punt massively. He had a thorn and painter in play the turn after and I calculated how to go off through the thorn but forgot about him simply blasting my tutor..
Game-3: He has 4 Thorn of Amethyst (..) and I was just always 1 mana short of hurkyl’s recall them all, untap, win (he had a blast but couldn’t cast it under the thorns and it would be useless when his painter was bounced). He eventually found the Grindstone and won.
5-1
Round-7: Roberto Sartini [ITA] with RUG Thresh with Punishing Fires
My opponent starts and plays a lot like a big zoo deck so I feel pretty confident. I then brainstorm into no shuffle effects or win twice in three turns and can only just in time manage to assemble a kill, facing lethal goyfs next turn. However my tutor catches a Force of Will without him having blue lands in play. Strange.
The second game I’m behind the entire game, although he takes a while to actually pressure me. He has Sprite and Clique in hand and lethal in play (including another Clique) I have the win, he Sprites my chant and I win.
The third game goes for a while and I eventually brainstorm facing a 2 turn-clock if he cliques me EoT and hit nothing so I’m looking at no outs without a shuffle effect. He EoT Cliques me, takes nothing and then proceeds to Surgical Extract something irrelevant giving me outs again. I suppose he thought I hid a tutor from the known clique but this mistake will cost him dearly. I topdeck Grim Tutor and just win on my turn as I have plenty of Chants and Rituals.
6-1
Round-8: Christophe Miazza [FRA] with UGr Thresh
I don’t remember much from these games, just that I wasn’t really in them. I try to go off in both games but he had more than enough disruption for my attempts.
6-2
Round-9: Alexander Zamura [RUS] with Dredge
I open a t2 kill on the play. When I probe him I see he’s dredge and smile inside. He can therapy me on t1 but I hid a tutor on top with Ponder and he whiffs on it. I then win through IGG.
For the second game I play out LED’s with 2 brainstorms, dark rit and lands in hand. He takes a brainstorm with Thoughtseize and I untap, brainstorm into tutor and win. Pretty pleased to make day-2.
7-2
From our team only me & Joran make day-2, both playing UBw ANT and both scoring 7-2 after he lost his last round. Tim goes 6-2-1 scooping the draw to a fellow dutchie (who ended up making 40th). Luke went 5-1-3, getting the win from one draw but scooping the other one. Stef went 6-3. Adriaan & Jeroen both went 5-4. Noone with a negative record is pretty nice, and two people in day-2 is about what we expected after Friday.
Grand Prix Sunday:
Day-2:
Me and Joran get up way too early after a few hours of sleep and walk to the tram stop. We meet Markus from Sweden there, who is 8-0-1 after day-1 with Bant. It seems there was a fair bit of Bant on the first couple of tables but none on the tables below so I dodged it for the entire weekend, sadly. We discuss our somewhat bad metachoice (Me and Joran both being on combo in a field filled with Thresh and Reanimate) and we get to site on time.
We sit down for the seatings and fill in some forms and soon the pairings are posted and I get a pleasant surprise; the bye!
Round-10: * BYE *
So yeah, I got the uneven player bye on day-2, how sweet is that? During the bye I find the table with dutchies where I leave my stuff, eat between the rounds and get updated how all the remaning dutchies are doing, which was pretty awesome (thanks guys!).
8-2
Round-11: Chistophe Alsheimer [GER] with Doomsday (Eventually made Top-32)
I keep a terrible hand in the opening game but never get punished for it as he’s taking it easy as well. Eventually he wishes for Duress (Showing Deathmark first, but the judge rules that he can get Duress) and passes, so he’ll know what’s up next turn. I untap, ritual (ok), IGG. I get back my topdecked Tutor, Chant and Probe. He gets duress, a win and something else but discards double chant. I win the game eventually after infernalling for more chants a few times. If he duressed directly after wishing for it the game would have been his.
Game-2 is another long game, he eventually makes some goblin tokens, chants me in my upkeep and chains 2 tops into a wished-for tendrils next turn to kill me with the goblins + tendrils as I was one chant short here.
We start the final game with 2 minutes left on the clock, I mull a terrible 7 and open Petal,Ritual,LED,LED,LED,Infernal. How sick.
9-2
Round-12: Inaki Catena [SPA] with Maverick
I win game-1 fairly easy with an IGG-loop facing some irrelevant creatures.
I lose the second to Choke and Teeg. I managed to gather a hand of rituals, infernal and grim tutor but I don’t have the blue mana to grim for chain and kill him after due to choke. If I had a singleton Slaughter Pact I would have won this one.
In game-3 I chant his upkeep on turn-2 to avoid all his hate and combo out with IGG on my third turn.
10-2
Round-13: Ciro Bonaventura [ITA] with UGr Thresh (Eventually made Top-8)
I duress and see Stifle,Force,Stifle,Snare,Mongoose and Lands on turn-1. I take Force and win with Chant protection a few turns later when I find my tutor.
I try to go off three times in the second game but he had a lot of FoWs this game and I just can’t get through.
Then I open a turn-1 kill on the play in game-3 without chants or cantrips and only 1 dual. He has 23 counters postboard (counting stifle and reb) of which only 4 are live on turn-1. I take the 60% and lose to Force. I do try to go off facing lethal a fair amount of turns later but I didn’t really get close. So I’m out of contention for Top-8 at this point.
10-3
[Rich Hagon gets me to play a sample match out for some podcast after that round]
Round-14: Hannes Knabe-Paulsen [GER] with Maverick
Game-1 I lead with Island go on the draw after his Savannah, Hierarch as I have a second turn kill and don’t want him to zenith into a maindeck teeg which he might be more inclined to do if I Ponder (without needing anything anyways). He plays Stoneforge and passes it back. I then win turn-2 and seeing the Teeg sitting in his hand makes me smile.
Game-2: He has a few Mindcensors and a Teeg which turns out to be enough.
The final game was pretty funny. He overwhelms me with hate and when I’m facing lethal in two attacks his board is Mother of Runes, Canonist and Teeg. I infernal for a second Chain of Vapor in my turn and pass. He attacks, then I EoT bounce the Canonist which he gives protection with the Mother. I untap, play Lotus Petal, Lotus Petal, Lion’s Eye Diamond, Chain of Vapor my artifacts and the Canonist. He calls a judge to confirm if this is allowed under a Canonist and clearly forgets about his teeg at this point. I follow it up with two cantrips but fail to find the last removal or bounce spell I need and show him my hand of Rituals and Grim Tutor. He then tells me he just didn’t have enough hate to board in and scoops despite his Teeg on the battlefield in order to show me about 8 cards he boarded in. Pretty awesome.
11-3
Round-15: Marijn Lybaert [BEL] with Team America (Eventually made Top-16)
He clearly didn’t put me on combo which allows me to resolve a quick chant after he taps out for Goyf and IGG him out. He had Force and Snare but no second blue card, but he didn’t Force the Chant anyways.
In the second game I mull to 5 and get Hymned and Inquisitioned. My first Confidant is snared but the second sticks and fights me back into the game. He’s on 13 due to his own confidant and some other things so I have a chance. I need to flip a zero cmc spell on my confidant and then draw anything that gives mana to win here but I reveal a Dark Ritual which kills me seeing as I’m on 1 life.
In the last game I make the second major punt of the tournament. After a long game with a few stopped attempts my hand is Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Tutor and I have just enough mana to go mana->tutor->igg, get back Chant, Cabal,Tutor and win through the FoW,FoW,Brainstorm in his grave. I completely forget about him having 5 mana open and just die as he can cast double FoW. I had enough life to wait another turn and if I drew another mana source or chant it would have won me the game (assuming he topdecked nothing). I’m terrible and out of contention for Top-16 & Top-32 now.
11-4
Round-16: Lukas Maurer [GER] with Elf Combo
Just like Saturday I face a good matchup in the final game, recognizing him as an Elf Combo player as he beat my friend earlier on the day. He leads Forest->Elf, I chant his upkeep and win with IGG on turn-2.
I mull to 6 in the second game, but he goes to 5. I can either go Ad Nauseam from 16 on the third turn or wait to find an Infernal Tutor so I can IGG. Seeing how he is stuck on mana I just go for the Ad Nauseam to nullify any hate he has but cannot cast. I go down to 4 without seeing the win but I have about 5 cantrips that I can cast to find either Tendrils or Infernal+LED (and possible an IGG). I quickly find an Infernal but I only find the LED with my last Ponder. Sweet.
12-4
So I finish 37th, and win €200 and a pro point in my first GP. Not too bad although I could have definitely done better. Joran finishes out of the money in 92nd after losing three in a row sadly. Still top-100 is not a bad result out of nearly 2000 people. We meet Markus at the tram stop again and he also cashed with 11-3-2, his second day wasn't as good as his first.
I straight up punted two matches and made a few other errors I usually wouldn’t make as well (forgot to fetch after a brainstorm once lol), and some of my opponents made terrible mistakes as well. I guess I’ll blame all that on the lack of sleep and food.
I liked my deck but the sideboard was definitely not perfect. I didn’t like the Confidants too much and I want a singleton Slaughter Pact so that I can Grim Tutor for removal without blue/white mana. I might want Swarm back in the board, but green is a little tough on the mana. I might also just want 7 Chants over a split with Duress.
Some irrelevant statistics:
I went 15-5 over 3 days without byes (19-5 with). 34-17 in games.
Our team went 44-23-4 with byes and 35-23-4 without during the GP. During the entire weekend we went 61-31-4 without byes.
In 51 games I only cast Ad Nauseam 5 times, of which 4 were succesfull (the Solidarity player took control of my Ad Nauseam). I cast Ill-Gotten Gains or went for a Tutor chain in every other game.
Friday:
After a pretty bad GPT season a few members of our team decide to grind the GPT’s on Friday and then stay at my place in Amsterdam during the entire weekend for the GP. Myself, Joran, Luke and Adriaan head to Amsterdam at around 11 and arrive at the site just after 12. Stef was already there by car, he wasn’t staying at my place.
Everyone enters a trial and I happen to be in one with Luke and Adriaan. Luke is playing Esper Blade and Adriaan & Stef Are playing BW hatebears. I’m on UBw ANT but without Grim Tutor as I couldn’t find the person I was lending them from in time. I replace the singleton Grim Tutor with a second Ad Nauseam.
GPT-1:
Round-1: Luke [NED] with Esper Blade
So yeah, I get paired against my friend in the first round, that sucks. He cannot put pressure on me and only has a clique to stop my first attempt but I get there with another chant after.
I keep a risky hand in the second game with LED, Tutor, Ritual, Petal, Chant, Ponder, Probe but it has everything I want other than lands and I know he’s not playing Wastelands. He leads with Thoughtseize and takes Petal, ouch! I draw a blank but luckily Probe into a land and win not long thereafter.
1-0
Round-2: Sergio [ESP] with UWr Control
I do not remember much but chant is king and wins the first game pretty easy.
In the second game he lets me go off and I cast Tendrils for 20 with 2 float and him on 19. He still has double Spell Pierce for some reason but cannot fetch and Pierce twice as that still puts him on a lethal 18. So I win.
2-0
Round-3: Mirko [FIN] with Solidarity
I scouted the previous round so I know what he’s on and take the first game with chant protection after him remanding it a few times.
I really miss Xantid Swarm in the other games as he’s able to Counter/Misdirect my protection for long enough to save a hand that wins for him. He takes control of my Ad Nauseam in game-2 which was pretty funny. I lose and have to start a second trial.
2-1
GPT-2:
I enter one of the last trials firing, this time with a Grim Tutor in my 60 (Thanks Ward!).
Round-1: Lorenz [GER] with Rbg Goblins
He has a terribly slow hand with Punishing Fires and Gempalm Incinerator in the opening game which gives me plenty of time to safely kill him through IGG.
He didn’t draw any hate in the second so I won that as well, simply outracing him.
1-0
Round-2: Gottfried [SWE] with UR Painter
I later learned that I’ve played him online a few times, pretty funny :)
I don’t have much going in the first game and just lose to his combo.
I win the second game with an Ad Nauseam after a few turns from 15 which only just gets there using Chain of Vapor as storm engine.
In the third game he eventually has his combo on the table together with a top that is floating a force (and 5 mana). I have Path to Exile, 2 Chants and the win. He activates Grindstone, I Path in response, he activates Top and I Chant in response and win next turn.
2-0
Round-3: Lukas [GER] with Reanimate
He gets a quick Jin and I don’t find a kill or a way to stop him in the opener.
I can extirpate and path his first attempts in g2 but have no gas and he manages to stick a Jin the turn before I can go off protected. His fresh 7 didn’t provide an answer however and I win.
In the final game his only counter was a daze which I played around to win.
3-0
Round-4: ??? with The Rock
Two very fast kills, even a turn-1 in the second to ignore all his 2 drop hatebears.
4-0
Round-5 Medvedev [RUS] with NO
He already has byes and scoops to me :).
5-0
By now it is around 9 PM and the last trials are finishing up. Joran just beat Stef in R4 of another trial and I watch him win the finals against a Canadian Thresh deck. Luke won byes earlier on the day and Adriaan already had byes from a normal GPT. So everyone who’s staying at my place has byes, awesome. We go out for dinner and get back around 11. Instead of going to bed immediately we change some decklists around and talk SB strategies for the GP. I cut the Vendilion Clique in my board for the 7th Chant as I wasn’t exactly sure when I wanted the Clique, I’ll properly try it out sometime though as I like the idea.
[B]Grand Prix Saturday:
After a bad night with not enough sleep we get some breakfast at the supermarket and catch the tram to the site. The four of us who stayed at my place meet up with the three others in our team who are playing the GP and we find our places for the seatings.
Me & Joran are playing UBw ANT, Luke is playing Esper Blade, Adriaan & Stef are playing BW Hatebears, Tim is playing GW Maverick and Jeroen is on manaless Dredge. Me, Joran, Luke and Adriaan all have 3 byes but the rest has to play the full amount of rounds. Most of us are seated in the blue area, and we recognize a lot of people from yesterday there as well.
Here is my decklist for the GP:
// Main Deck: 60
4 Infernal Tutor
1 Grim Tutor
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Preordain
3 Orim’s Chant
2 Silence
2 Duress
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
1 Chrome Mox
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
1 Marsh Flats
2 Underground Sea
2 Tundra
1 Island
1 Swamp
// Sideboard: 15
3 Dark Confidant
3 Extirpate (For all the expected Reanimate, which turned out to be the most popular deck)
3 Chain of Vapor
2 Path to Exile (Against hatebears and Iona, but also good against Painter and other stuff)
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Duress
1 Orim's Chant
1 Silence
Day-1:
Round 1-3: * BYE *
My friend wants to get some stuff signed by Mark Poole so I stand in line with him and get the basic Island I play signed and altered as well. After that I resleeve and eat something, byes rock.
3-0
Round-4: Raul Carcelen [ESP] with UGr Threshold
I keep an awkward hand with Tendrils in game-1 but I am able to kill him from 18 after a few turns as he lets Chant resolve.
Game-2 I have a Bob Snared but I land a second one. When I’m facing lethal I kill him from 16 with another tendrils in hand.
4-0
Round-5: Frederico Barca [ITA] with non-LED Dredge
I win the die roll and play fetch, go. He leads with Cabal Therapy which I consider for a brief moment before allowing it; he then names FoW. I win through Ad Nauseam on my turn fairly easy.
The second game he goes nuts on his second turn, dredging 4 Narcomoebas, casting a couple of therapies and reanimates Iona ftw.
The third game his second turn is scary as well (I couldn’t win t2 this game), and he dredges a lot of cards with breakthrough but luckily only hits one therapy which doesn’t really hit much and no way to reanimate Iona. So I untap and win through an Ad Nauseam which takes me from 20 to 1 before I find the kill.
5-0
Round-6: Kim Grymer [DEN] with Imperial Painter (Eventually made Top-8)
I win the first game fairly easy with a fast Ill-Gotten Gains loop, not much to say about it.
Game-2 I open a t2 kill with a chain of vapor, nice. He starts with Painter and a chrome mox for a blast. I EoT bounce the painter, he blasts my land in resp; had he countered the bounce I would have won. I play land and pass, he plays Thorn. I then punt massively. He had a thorn and painter in play the turn after and I calculated how to go off through the thorn but forgot about him simply blasting my tutor..
Game-3: He has 4 Thorn of Amethyst (..) and I was just always 1 mana short of hurkyl’s recall them all, untap, win (he had a blast but couldn’t cast it under the thorns and it would be useless when his painter was bounced). He eventually found the Grindstone and won.
5-1
Round-7: Roberto Sartini [ITA] with RUG Thresh with Punishing Fires
My opponent starts and plays a lot like a big zoo deck so I feel pretty confident. I then brainstorm into no shuffle effects or win twice in three turns and can only just in time manage to assemble a kill, facing lethal goyfs next turn. However my tutor catches a Force of Will without him having blue lands in play. Strange.
The second game I’m behind the entire game, although he takes a while to actually pressure me. He has Sprite and Clique in hand and lethal in play (including another Clique) I have the win, he Sprites my chant and I win.
The third game goes for a while and I eventually brainstorm facing a 2 turn-clock if he cliques me EoT and hit nothing so I’m looking at no outs without a shuffle effect. He EoT Cliques me, takes nothing and then proceeds to Surgical Extract something irrelevant giving me outs again. I suppose he thought I hid a tutor from the known clique but this mistake will cost him dearly. I topdeck Grim Tutor and just win on my turn as I have plenty of Chants and Rituals.
6-1
Round-8: Christophe Miazza [FRA] with UGr Thresh
I don’t remember much from these games, just that I wasn’t really in them. I try to go off in both games but he had more than enough disruption for my attempts.
6-2
Round-9: Alexander Zamura [RUS] with Dredge
I open a t2 kill on the play. When I probe him I see he’s dredge and smile inside. He can therapy me on t1 but I hid a tutor on top with Ponder and he whiffs on it. I then win through IGG.
For the second game I play out LED’s with 2 brainstorms, dark rit and lands in hand. He takes a brainstorm with Thoughtseize and I untap, brainstorm into tutor and win. Pretty pleased to make day-2.
7-2
From our team only me & Joran make day-2, both playing UBw ANT and both scoring 7-2 after he lost his last round. Tim goes 6-2-1 scooping the draw to a fellow dutchie (who ended up making 40th). Luke went 5-1-3, getting the win from one draw but scooping the other one. Stef went 6-3. Adriaan & Jeroen both went 5-4. Noone with a negative record is pretty nice, and two people in day-2 is about what we expected after Friday.
Grand Prix Sunday:
Day-2:
Me and Joran get up way too early after a few hours of sleep and walk to the tram stop. We meet Markus from Sweden there, who is 8-0-1 after day-1 with Bant. It seems there was a fair bit of Bant on the first couple of tables but none on the tables below so I dodged it for the entire weekend, sadly. We discuss our somewhat bad metachoice (Me and Joran both being on combo in a field filled with Thresh and Reanimate) and we get to site on time.
We sit down for the seatings and fill in some forms and soon the pairings are posted and I get a pleasant surprise; the bye!
Round-10: * BYE *
So yeah, I got the uneven player bye on day-2, how sweet is that? During the bye I find the table with dutchies where I leave my stuff, eat between the rounds and get updated how all the remaning dutchies are doing, which was pretty awesome (thanks guys!).
8-2
Round-11: Chistophe Alsheimer [GER] with Doomsday (Eventually made Top-32)
I keep a terrible hand in the opening game but never get punished for it as he’s taking it easy as well. Eventually he wishes for Duress (Showing Deathmark first, but the judge rules that he can get Duress) and passes, so he’ll know what’s up next turn. I untap, ritual (ok), IGG. I get back my topdecked Tutor, Chant and Probe. He gets duress, a win and something else but discards double chant. I win the game eventually after infernalling for more chants a few times. If he duressed directly after wishing for it the game would have been his.
Game-2 is another long game, he eventually makes some goblin tokens, chants me in my upkeep and chains 2 tops into a wished-for tendrils next turn to kill me with the goblins + tendrils as I was one chant short here.
We start the final game with 2 minutes left on the clock, I mull a terrible 7 and open Petal,Ritual,LED,LED,LED,Infernal. How sick.
9-2
Round-12: Inaki Catena [SPA] with Maverick
I win game-1 fairly easy with an IGG-loop facing some irrelevant creatures.
I lose the second to Choke and Teeg. I managed to gather a hand of rituals, infernal and grim tutor but I don’t have the blue mana to grim for chain and kill him after due to choke. If I had a singleton Slaughter Pact I would have won this one.
In game-3 I chant his upkeep on turn-2 to avoid all his hate and combo out with IGG on my third turn.
10-2
Round-13: Ciro Bonaventura [ITA] with UGr Thresh (Eventually made Top-8)
I duress and see Stifle,Force,Stifle,Snare,Mongoose and Lands on turn-1. I take Force and win with Chant protection a few turns later when I find my tutor.
I try to go off three times in the second game but he had a lot of FoWs this game and I just can’t get through.
Then I open a turn-1 kill on the play in game-3 without chants or cantrips and only 1 dual. He has 23 counters postboard (counting stifle and reb) of which only 4 are live on turn-1. I take the 60% and lose to Force. I do try to go off facing lethal a fair amount of turns later but I didn’t really get close. So I’m out of contention for Top-8 at this point.
10-3
[Rich Hagon gets me to play a sample match out for some podcast after that round]
Round-14: Hannes Knabe-Paulsen [GER] with Maverick
Game-1 I lead with Island go on the draw after his Savannah, Hierarch as I have a second turn kill and don’t want him to zenith into a maindeck teeg which he might be more inclined to do if I Ponder (without needing anything anyways). He plays Stoneforge and passes it back. I then win turn-2 and seeing the Teeg sitting in his hand makes me smile.
Game-2: He has a few Mindcensors and a Teeg which turns out to be enough.
The final game was pretty funny. He overwhelms me with hate and when I’m facing lethal in two attacks his board is Mother of Runes, Canonist and Teeg. I infernal for a second Chain of Vapor in my turn and pass. He attacks, then I EoT bounce the Canonist which he gives protection with the Mother. I untap, play Lotus Petal, Lotus Petal, Lion’s Eye Diamond, Chain of Vapor my artifacts and the Canonist. He calls a judge to confirm if this is allowed under a Canonist and clearly forgets about his teeg at this point. I follow it up with two cantrips but fail to find the last removal or bounce spell I need and show him my hand of Rituals and Grim Tutor. He then tells me he just didn’t have enough hate to board in and scoops despite his Teeg on the battlefield in order to show me about 8 cards he boarded in. Pretty awesome.
11-3
Round-15: Marijn Lybaert [BEL] with Team America (Eventually made Top-16)
He clearly didn’t put me on combo which allows me to resolve a quick chant after he taps out for Goyf and IGG him out. He had Force and Snare but no second blue card, but he didn’t Force the Chant anyways.
In the second game I mull to 5 and get Hymned and Inquisitioned. My first Confidant is snared but the second sticks and fights me back into the game. He’s on 13 due to his own confidant and some other things so I have a chance. I need to flip a zero cmc spell on my confidant and then draw anything that gives mana to win here but I reveal a Dark Ritual which kills me seeing as I’m on 1 life.
In the last game I make the second major punt of the tournament. After a long game with a few stopped attempts my hand is Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Tutor and I have just enough mana to go mana->tutor->igg, get back Chant, Cabal,Tutor and win through the FoW,FoW,Brainstorm in his grave. I completely forget about him having 5 mana open and just die as he can cast double FoW. I had enough life to wait another turn and if I drew another mana source or chant it would have won me the game (assuming he topdecked nothing). I’m terrible and out of contention for Top-16 & Top-32 now.
11-4
Round-16: Lukas Maurer [GER] with Elf Combo
Just like Saturday I face a good matchup in the final game, recognizing him as an Elf Combo player as he beat my friend earlier on the day. He leads Forest->Elf, I chant his upkeep and win with IGG on turn-2.
I mull to 6 in the second game, but he goes to 5. I can either go Ad Nauseam from 16 on the third turn or wait to find an Infernal Tutor so I can IGG. Seeing how he is stuck on mana I just go for the Ad Nauseam to nullify any hate he has but cannot cast. I go down to 4 without seeing the win but I have about 5 cantrips that I can cast to find either Tendrils or Infernal+LED (and possible an IGG). I quickly find an Infernal but I only find the LED with my last Ponder. Sweet.
12-4
So I finish 37th, and win €200 and a pro point in my first GP. Not too bad although I could have definitely done better. Joran finishes out of the money in 92nd after losing three in a row sadly. Still top-100 is not a bad result out of nearly 2000 people. We meet Markus at the tram stop again and he also cashed with 11-3-2, his second day wasn't as good as his first.
I straight up punted two matches and made a few other errors I usually wouldn’t make as well (forgot to fetch after a brainstorm once lol), and some of my opponents made terrible mistakes as well. I guess I’ll blame all that on the lack of sleep and food.
I liked my deck but the sideboard was definitely not perfect. I didn’t like the Confidants too much and I want a singleton Slaughter Pact so that I can Grim Tutor for removal without blue/white mana. I might want Swarm back in the board, but green is a little tough on the mana. I might also just want 7 Chants over a split with Duress.
Some irrelevant statistics:
I went 15-5 over 3 days without byes (19-5 with). 34-17 in games.
Our team went 44-23-4 with byes and 35-23-4 without during the GP. During the entire weekend we went 61-31-4 without byes.
In 51 games I only cast Ad Nauseam 5 times, of which 4 were succesfull (the Solidarity player took control of my Ad Nauseam). I cast Ill-Gotten Gains or went for a Tutor chain in every other game.