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koba
05-07-2012, 04:33 AM
Around 70 people present, so 7 rounds it is. I am pretty bad at names and write this from memory, so I could be wrong from time to time.

Anyway, this is the list, as straightforward and alike all the other sneak show decks:

4 Polluted delta
4 Scalding tarn
2 Island
1 Mountain
3 Volcanic island
3 Ancient tomb
2 City of traitors
3 Lotus petal

4 Sneak attack
4 Show and tell
4 Emrakul, the aeons torn
3 Griselbrand

4 Force of will
2 Misdirection
2 Flusterstorm
3 Daze

4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
3 Intuition
1 Preordain

Sideboard

2 Surgical extraction
3 Grafdigger’s cage
4 Leyline of sanctity
3 red elemental blast
3 Blood moon

Christophe, a player from the well-known magic club Ghent (well-known in Belgium at least) plays the except same decklist but for one different card in the main (the exact same mana and all that), so that boosts my confidence in the list.

Round 1 Nic fit

This is one of the strangest games ever for me. I open a hand with a fatty, lands and lots of counters. We both keep and I play draw go for a long time. I just keep drawing more lands and a few more counters.

I force top (ditching daze), hardcast force for eternal witness, hardcast misdirection at thoughtseize, hardcast force at recurring nightmare. Luckily he does not do all that much else. After what seems like hours, I topdeck sneak attack and immediately put griselbrand and emrakul into play.

After game one, he complains that my sleeves are marked. The judge tells us that there is no pattern, but I should change them after this game. He appeals to the head judge and because one sleeve in particular is badly worn, I get a game loss.

I feel pretty stupid for not bying new sleeves in advance, but really want to beat him game 3.

I do so. He does nothing on turn one, plays a goyf on turn 2, plays a living wish on turn three. As he already played a land (I do not want karakas), I let it resolve. He gets gaddock teeg from his sideboard. On my turn, I play show and tell into sneak attack into emrakul. I win a few turns later.

I buy some new sleeves.

Round 2: Maverick

He mulls to 5, but plays a thalia on turn one and jitte on turn 2 with 2 wasteland into play. As I have a lot of nonbasic lands, I go for it and show and tell emrakul into play on turn 3. He has the knight and that is all she wrote.

Game 2, I mull to 6 and have an awkward hand of force, petal, blood moon, tomb, daze and a brainstorm. I do not want to go to five and put all my hopes on the turn one blood moon. He does play a forest, but all his other lands are non-basic, so it is not so bad. I have to force a hierarch and get beaten down by a 3/3 ooze though.

I find an island and a sneak attack afterward. No creatures however. At 2 life, I draw griselbrand and sneak him in to gain 7 life. The next turn I pondered into emrakul and beat him down from 15 life exactly. Got there by the skin of my teeth.

Game three was, luckily, less exciting. I play turn 4 show and tell into sneak attack into emrakul and wipe his board.

Round 3: UWr stoneforge

Game one, I have the turn 2 show and tell for emrakul. Obviously, he plays his singleton karakas. Luckily, I draw sneak attack next turn and play it, after which he wastes my single source of red mana. He gets clique down and chooses (after trying to take volcanic island) one of my three emrakuls. As this draws me closer to my second red mana, I am fine with that. He bounces the clique next turn and takes the second emrakul. That lets me draw into griselbrand, netting me 7 cards (and gets bounced by karakas).

The turn thereafter, I have volcanic island and petal and a very angry emrakul eager to dispose of his karakas. I am at low life though and he has 7 permanents. With the annihilator on the stack, he bolts me, which I misdirect at clique. Good game.

Game 2, I play turn 3 sneak attack with 2 counter backup. I find a creature soon after that and win.

Round 4: Ant

I won pretty easily, despite his probe and two cabal therapies. The second one whiffs thanks to my brainstorm. I think I played show and tell on turn 4 into griselbrand, giving me so much cards advantage he cannot recover. I had flusterstorm and a blue mana open after turn one.

Game two I cannot remember at all, except that he was flooded and did not do all that much and I annihilated all his lands.

Round 5: Reanimator

I open a very good hand with sneak attack, fat guy, mana and counters. He tries to daze when I flusterstorm his discard outlet (that draw 2, discard 2 spell), which is awkward for him. He cannot find another discard outlet and I get there with sneak attack.

I mull and open a hand with ancient tomb, sneak attack, extraction, force of will and two blue cards. Not the very best keep ever, but a keep nonetheless for me. I extract his entombed blazing archon (and force his force). I draw into volcanic and city of traitors and play sneak attack. Even though I mumbled something like ‘float one colorless’, he dazes. He feels pretty bad about his misplays and I hope he top 8 as well (which he does).

Top 8!

As an aside: On the table next to me, Ilja somehow won against sneak show for the second time in a row with none other than UR painter, beating his opponent senseless with a painter and 2 welders. I am glad for him that all his vintage experience (like attacking with welder) has been so useful for him.

When the seven rounds of swiss were over, it was pretty late already and most people wanted to draw and get a 125 store voucher as prize. As I would face the same ant opponent from round 4 and do not really feel comfortable about that matchup, that is fine by me.

Big thanks to David and Tist for borrowing me a ton of cards and for the organizers to run the tournament smoothly and with nice prize support. Also kudos for griselbrand who has outperformed throughout the tournament.

Setherial
05-07-2012, 05:25 AM
congrats mate!!

ivanpei
05-07-2012, 05:27 AM
Nice report! Congrats. Just wanted to remind you regarding a trick with griselbrand. In your game when you had 2 life, I think sending griselbrand in for 7 life is not the right play. If you didn't draw the ponder into. Emrakul, you would have loss. Another trick is to hold the griselbrand until the opponent's attack step, drop griselbrand to block, gain some life and kill a dude. Use the extra life to draw cards and. Next turn, smash face with your fresh 7 cards.

koba
05-07-2012, 05:37 AM
Nice report. Just wanted to remind you regarding a trick with griselbrand. In your game when you had 2 life, I think sending griselbrand in for 7 life is not the right play. If you didn't draw the ponder into. Emrakul, you would have loss. Another trick is to hold the griselbrand until the opponent's attack step, drop griselbrand to block, gain some life and kill a dude. Use the extra life to draw cards and. Next turn, smash face with your fresh 7 cards.

Thank you and you are right.

Problem was that, by that time, he had just played a second ooze. I could have killed one, but not drawn any cards. He would also still have been at 22 life, so I needed to peel more than just an emrakul by that time (he had plenty of lands). Attacking was the best option at winning.

Kich867
05-08-2012, 02:19 AM
People are so fucking petty sometimes in this community. Your first round with that nic fit player, things like that are so frustrating to read. I had a guy try to do that to me when I went to a 36 player event, he was playing goblins, I was playing elves, I absolutely shit on his face because the matchup is usually pretty easy. After he realized how badly he was screwed after game one he literally spent what felt like 15 minutes examining every single one of my cards--I'm playing elves, I could literally have Emrakul in a black sleeve in an orange deck and it wouldn't change a damn thing.

I didn't even have a particularly good hand either which was funny..

Congrats on the finish, it's unfortunate you had to deal with an asshole and get punished for it.

citanul
05-08-2012, 05:06 AM
It's a competetive event, 1000€ on the line. If his opponent expected him of cheating he was in his right to call a judge and ask him to inspect the sleeves. The initial judge ruled they were fine and then his opponent appealed. The appeal seems a bit dickish but still within his opponents rights. The head judge then ruled a single sleeve could be deemed marked and give him an advantage. As I know the OP, I'm sure he didn't intend on it but what if he was? Should everyone just be nice and allow a cheater to do as he pleases because other people don't want to look like the bad guy.

In your scenario, your opponent was in the wrong to inspect your sleeves. He should call a judge and that judge inspects the sleeves.

Anyway, congrats on the finish!