GP: Lille, Day 2, overall 90th place.
18-12-05
After a lot of preparation, finally the GP arrived. I'd been committed for months to playing Solidarity, and put in a lot of work in getting a good list, but a week before the GP I finally accepted that it was going to be a truely dreadful metagame call. Two highly popular decks in U/G/x Threshold and B/w Confidant were both extremely tough matchups, and while the Goblin matchup was and is pretty good, it wasn't THAT good. So, I resorted to plan B:
U/G/w Threshold
3 Tundra
4 Tropical Island
1 Forest
2 Island
3 Windswept Heath
4 Flooded strand
1 Plains
2 Mystic enforcer
3 Meddling Mage
4 Werebear
4 Nimble Mongoose
1 Fact or Fiction
2 Counterspell
3 Daze
3 Predict
3 Sleight of hand
4 Serum Visions
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of will
1 Engineered Explocives
4 Swords to Plowshares
Sideboard:
1 Misdirection
3 Submerge
4 Hydroblast
2 Armagedon
1 Mystic Enforcer
1 Meddling Mage
1 Naturalize
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Disenchant
I'll cut the traditional 'how I got there' bit of these reports, and go straight to the matches. I'll talk about the deck, what worked, and what didn't, at the end.
Round 1: Patrice Mahieux, U/G Madness-Threshold
A nice French guy in his first ever tournament. His deck appeared to be an OBC Madness deck with a few extras thrown in - I saw threshold creatures, Yavimaya Coasts, plus the usual U/G madness cards. He opened game 1 with a nasty Island-Study-Rootwalla*2 draw backed up by Wonder, but I was able to stabilize with Mystic Enforcer on defense plus Plows and counters on the Madness outlets. I cleaned up with a bunch of thresholded monsters.
Game 2 was more one-sided, I simply played an effective control game and then mopped up. He gave me one nasty moment with his single SBed Back to Basics, but I had the Daze.
1-0
Round 2: Jerome Prin, U/G Enchantress
Another Frenchman, this time a more sombre character. His deck was a control enchantress build, centred on stalling with creature-control enchantments and winning with Genjus and Blanchwood Armour. Game 1 I was able to play my game and delay for long enough to get the damage home, while in game 2 I was flat stopped by a combination of Wastelands, Propagandas and Genjus. Game 3 he got some hits in with Genju of the Cedars while I cantripped to threshold, but my Plows and his lack of blue mana bought me the time I needed. I had one nasty moment on his final turn when I realised that I'd left myself open to Genju of the Cedars off the top, but the gods of magic smiled on me and he didn't draw the out. After the match he said that he thought he would have won easily given a better mana draw, but none of the cards he showed from his hand led me to agree with that.
2-0
Round 3: Stefan Lochner, Goblins
A German this time, we split the first two games in uneventful fashion. In game 3 he kept a 1-land hand with 2 Lackeys and a Vial, but I had answers to all 3 and killed him before his mana sorted itself out.
3-0
Round 4: Guillaume Perbet, U/G/b Confidant Threshold
An excellent opponent, with a very interesting deck. His deck appeared to be a regular Threshold deck with a black splash for Dark Confidant and Ghastly Demise. He didn't have a 'big guy' like Enforcer or Fledgling Dragon, he relied on his Mongooses and Werebears to do the damage. Unfortunately, he wound up just missing out on day 2.
Game 1 was one-sided, as he outdrew and out-thresholded me and beat me to a pulp. In game 2 I was behind all the way but managed to get him below 4 life for 2 turns while he had a Confidant out, giving me a chance to win if Confidant revealed FoW. I didn't get lucky, and so the match was over.
3-1
Round 5: Damian Murphy, B/w Confidant
An Irishman this time - there seemed to be a fair-sized group of players come from there. Once again, an excellent opponent who I enjoyed meeting. I feel the Confidant matchup is somewhat in my favour, providing I am able to keep a land or two around and prevent them going nuts with card-advantage creatures. If Hyppie or, far worse, Dark Confidant get going then I face an uphill struggle. My match notes don't say much about what happened, although I can remember that he was unhappy with his draw in game 2.
4-1
Round 6: Olivier Levy, Goblins
When I saw the name, I was worried. I knew there is a notable French pro with the surname Levy, and also one with the first name Olivier. I was in luck though, as Pro first name + Pro last name =/= Pro player. He had no byes, just like most of my opponents. I can't remember much about the games, but I'll type out my match notes:
Game 1: Control->Stomp
Game 2: He drew 4 Pyroblasts, I drew 3 Enforcers, => I win.
5-1
Round 7: Christian Dietl, Red Deck Wins
This RDW deck had most of what would be expected - Mogg Fanatic, Jackal Pup, Cursed Scroll, Fireblast. In the midgame of Game 1 I used Serum Visions to set up an Enforcer on top of my deck, and then cracked a fetch to play another cantrip to draw it. Whoops, now I feel stupid... I got away with it, but the game was far closer than it needed to be. Game 2 I was able to take control and win before he could draw enough burn. I had another bad moment in that game when something interesting happened at a nearby table while I was resolving Predict, and once our attention returned neither of us could remember whether I'd drawn the card. A judge was called to do a card count and it was decided that I hadn't, but then she walked off with my spangly free Arena League pen
(I got it back). The game ended with a tense volley of Fireblasts, but he didn't have enough firepower to kill me.
6-1
Round 8: Tobias Füllhase, 4c Threshold
At 6-1, I got to be way up at the lofty heights of table 6! Of course, once I got there I had to lose, this time to a powerful 4-colour threshold deck. My opponent was a nervous German guy who came in with no byes and was as surprised as I was to be in the 6-1 bracket. He crushed me utterly, of course :-/
This match was the point when I realised just how bad my deck was in the mirror - my opponent drew himself to threshold much more quickly than I could and actually had relavent sideboard cards (Tormod's Crypt) as opposed to cards which do nothing (Submerge). Memo: You need non-targetted removal to deal with Nimble Mongoose.
6-2
Round 9: Jeroen Remie, B/w Confidant
Ah, so I get my first name pro. You really couldn't miss Remie at the tournament, he's a gigantic Dutch guy speaking English with an American accent, wearing a tasteful yellow-and-purple sweater.
At this point I thought I could easily ID in, but he clued me in to how the 2-pod setup was actually working. He felt he might scrape in with a draw, but I would have no chance. So we played. Game 1 my notes say I 'gained control and mopped up', so presumably I stopped all the nasty creatures from doing their thing and then hit him with some monsters. He offered the ID back to me then, but I wanted to play another game. Game 2 he destroyed me with a massive disruption draw, leaving me with a grand total of 1 land and no cards in hand when I died. Game 3 I fought him down to topdeck mode, then dropped a Werebear and started beating. With him at 10 life, I dropped Meddling Mage and named Dark Confidant - a mistake, as he pointed out afterwards. I should have named Nantuko Shade or maybe Vindicate. Anyhow, he drew nothing and I took the game.
7-2
7-2 left me in 73rd place overall after day 1, and so comfortably in for day 2. Had we ID-ed the last round we both would have just made the cut, but that was only because there were very few IDs in the last round. I defied tradition and didn't hit the town that night, I went for the tech option of getting a good night's sleep
Round 10: Vasillis Fatouros, Goblins
I'll go with the match notes here:
Game 1: Opp mulled*2 into Port, Mountain, Wasteland, Lackey, Warchief. No StP, Ringleader off the top = gg
Game 2: My hand is strong if he doesn't play turn 1 Vial and abuse it (2 Blast, creature, 2 cantrip, 2 land). He plays turn 1 Vial and goes nuts while messing with my mana.
7-3
Round 11: Rene Rifisch, U/R Flame Vault
Apparantly he is a German Vintage player, although he said he didn't post much on forums. The deck here was U/R combo-control Flame Vault.
Game 1: Turn 1 Time Vault off Ancient tomb resolved, and so I dropped Meddling Mage on Flame Fusillade. He Intuitioned for Fire/Ice and I had no counters, so he comboed out the next turn at a comfortable 8 life.
Game 2: I fanned out the following hand - 4 Lands, Sleight of Hand, Fact or Fiction, Werebear. Given I have 2 lands too many, one card which won't do anything for some time, no counters and no Mages, I feel justified in sending it back. Neither my six card hand or my 5 card hand have any lands, and while the 4-card one does, I'm too far behind to have any chance.
7-4
Round 12: Henk Van Der Vaart, Goblins.
Game 1: Stomp
Game 2: Vial Awfulness
Game 3: He drew bad. Stomp.
8-4
Round 13: Joris Müller, UGR Threshold.
I took a wild guess at what deck just from looking at him. Threshold players always seem to look young and be a 8 inches shorter than me
. I guessed right...
Game 1: He outdrew me then burned me out.
Game 2: I'm tired and get a game loss for drawing extra cards. I played Serum Visions and draw the card, then take the two cards and look at them. My mind decides I'm actually resolving Sleight of Hand, so I put one of the cards to my hand, realise what I've done, and call a judge. My opponent can't remember what card it was, so I get a game loss.
8-5
Round 14: Berenger Lefebvre, Belcher
Now there's a name not designed for Anglo-Saxon tongues. This is the Belcher deck which got people talking, but it's not doing well today. He's coming off the back of two straight defeats and is on full-blown tilt.
Game 1: He drops 2 LEDs on turn 1, so 'Goblin Charbelcher' seems like a reasonable guess for my turn 2 Meddling Mage. He conceedes on 10 life with the Mage and a thresholded bear on my side.
Game 2: He again plays 2 LEDs, I use counters to contain him. He scoops after I drop some monsters and Engineered Explosives at 0.
9-5
Round 15: Frank Roelofs, Goblins
Another Dutchie, another goblin matchup.
Game 1: I think this one was Vial brokenness, but I don't remember. I took far too long to get threshold, anyhow.
Game 2: I mull into Plains, 2 Swords, Predict, Werebear and Sleight of Hand. I StP a Lackey, but the land shows up too late and I do the wrong thing anyhow (he had a Waste, and I dropped the bear, which was Gempalm Incinerated. I should have played Sleight of Hand to find my next land.
Final record: 9-6, 90th place overall, way out of the prizes.
So what did I find out from all this, and how would I have modified my deck? I'll list some conclusions:
- Nimble Mongoose is the nuts. Untargetable, +2/+2 at threshold, 1 mana. Play it, play it *4. The untargetability is absolutely huge.
- Mental Note is superb for turbo-ing threshold, and should probably be played wherever people would play Predict, given it does the same thing with 1 extra mill ~60% of the time, and costs 1 less. I was at a massive disadvantage in the mirror because I was significantly slower to threshold than decks with Mental Note.
- Tormod's Crypt seems to be the best option for the mirror, Submerge is awful because it can't hit Mongooses.
- Confidant Gro is worth a look, especially if you can sqeeze in White for StPs (Removal, emergency lifegain, and Confidant disposal)
- You don't absolutely need a big guy (Dragon/Enforcer), but they are very useful.
- You can get away with playing 4 colours, but be very careful.
