[Report] Winning a Beta Lotus - 2nd at the Gambler's Open

[ELD]

When I saw the announcement for the Gambler's Open, it immediately intrigued me.  Coming in 1st or 2nd would pay for the trip to Spain, and there were prizes for the best unproxied finishes.  I could go to Europe, win an event, and have the winnings pay for the trip.  The opportunity seemed pefect.  The plan was simple.  Go to Spain, and win.  I talked to my wife about the idea and she was supportive, but she also wanted to go.  The mission turned into a vacation, which turned out to be for the best.  The trip was much more enjoyable than it would have been.  Meg being there also helped a great deal with keeping me focused.  She was able to help me stayed hydrated and well feed between rounds.  Having her there also gave me someone to talk to, as English is not as widely spoken in Spain as I thought. 

I prepared for this trip by getting in as much Magic as I could in the proceeding month.  In New England, we have the fortunate situation of having tournaments nearly every weekend.  This creates an environment where there is not only an abundance opponents, but it has continually raised the level competition.  With zero loses in the swiss at my last 3 events, {Chester's Tournament (top 4 split), the tournament in Chicopee (Top 4), and Myraid (1st)} I was confident that my list would get it done if I held up my end of the deal. 

The prizes for the best finish without proxies was also a factor in deciding to attend.  In the month before my trip, I purchased a Lotus, Ancestral, Emerald, Berserk, and 3x Goyfs in anticipation of a high finish.  It payed dividends. 

The follow is a bare-bones description of the events of the day.  Unfortunately I didn't have as much time as I would have like to address some of the bigger issues, but I was able to throw together a match summary.  If anyone involved in the event has additional information, such as my opponents names etc... I would be happy to include it.

"Ron Paul Revolution" (If you don't know what this means, Google Ron Paul)

// Lands
    2  Island
    3  Tropical Island
    3  Underground Sea
    3  Flooded Strand
    3  Polluted Delta

// Creatures
    1  Psychatog
    4  Quirion Dryad

// Spells
    1  Mystical Tutor
    4  Gush
    4  Duress
    1  Echoing Truth
    1  Time Walk
    1  Demonic Tutor
    1  Fastbond
    4  Merchant Scroll
    1  Vampiric Tutor
    1  Yawgmoth's Will
    1  Cunning Wish
    1  Mox Sapphire
    1  Mox Jet
    4  Force of Will
    1  Black Lotus
    4  Ponder
    1  Ancestral Recall
    4  Misdirection
    4  Brainstorm
    1  Mox Emerald

// Sideboard
SB: 2  Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1  Hydroblast
SB: 1  Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 1  Snuff Out
SB: 1  Smother
SB: 1  Berserk
SB: 2  Oxidize
SB: 3  Pithing Needle
SB: 3  Tarmogoyf


Round 1 Octavio's Fish (UW with Decree of Justice and Mana Drain)

Game 1 My opponent leads with Isamaru, but my hand is very explosive.  Duress clearsthe way, and the card drawing piles on.  It is over quickly after a Yawgmoth's Will.

Game 2 My hand is very good, and I start drawing cards quickly.  He gets down a Pithing Needle but names Fastbond so it does nothing.  It lookes like the game will be over in a couple turns due to two huge Goyfs, but Mana Drain fuels an Engineered Explosives detonation.  A couple turns later, Tog takes it down with the help of Gush. 

Round 2 Storm Combo

Game 1  I Duress to see a hand that really needed Mox Jet.  Without it, his Duress and Demonic Tutor are dead.  He has a fairly useless Volcanic for most of the game.  I do see Red Blast from him, but it isn't enough to stop me.   

Game 2  He forces through a tinker for Sundering Titan, nuking my two lands.  I drop a land the next turn, and duress, holding echoing truth and mystical.  I need another mana source to get back in the game and do not draw it in two turns.  I definitely should have mysticaled for Ancestral.  Trying to just rip a Mox or land off the top was just the wrong play.   

Game 3  I make up for Game 2's huge mistake with a very good mix of counters and explosiveness.  I am able to make my key spells resolve and win quickly. 

Round 3 Ichorid

Game 1  My opponent wins the roll and removes a hand with Serum Powder.  I have a hand of 7 that I probably should have kept.  It had fastbond and gush, but only one land.  If I drew a land off the top, I would have had a good chance.  Instead I mull to 4, consider just conceding, and then watch him play out his deck. 

Game 2 Turn 1 is nearly lethal.  I also get down Needle & Crypt.  His hand has tons of crap, including answers to Leyline.  After this game, he realizes I don't have Leylines, and makes the adjustment. 

Game 3 He mulls hard, and doesn't have bazaar.  I get down Needle and eventually Crypt.  I win after a few attack steps. 

Round 4 Trinket Mage Storm

Game 1 There is a small war of attrition before I'm able to combo out.

Game 2 Things look good for me, until he empties for 10 goblins.  I swing with my 7/7 Dryad, and he blocks with all of them.  At that point, I should be able to make my way back into the game, but I make some mistakes and we move on to G3. 

Game 3 He Thoughtseizes an early Dryad, and smothers another.  He plays very defensively, and extirpates my Dryads. I get gushbond online, and dig for a kill as I build resources. When Time is called, he has Engineered Explosives set at 3.  I drop my Tog, the only win condition left in my deck.  On my next turn, I swing and pump to 12, which is met with Explosives.  The last card in my hand is Yawgmoth's Will, with enough gas to Make a lethal Tog and Time Walk. 

Round 5 Rector Flash plays slowly

Game 1  I get down an early dryad.  My opponent manages to Flash an Academy Rector which finds Form of the Dragon.  On my turn, I grow the Dryad to a 5/5.  He kills the dryad, and sends some damage to my face.  I Cunning Wish for Blue Blast to remove Form.  He Forces through flashes again, and gets Yawgmoth's Bargain, but doesn't get there in the 3 cards he draws. 

Game 2 He manages to hard cast Bargain on me, and I'm caught without a Force.  It was pretty sloppy on my behalf, and I need to scoop it up to save enough time for Game 3. 

Game 3 starts of terribly with a mull to 5.  I manage to get down a Dryad, and resolve Ancestral to pull back into the game.  The next turn I Misdirect his Ancestral, and things are looking very good.  Dryad ends up in a stand off with Rector even though I have Tormod's Crypt on board.  I was hoping to draw into some protection as to not lose to rebuild.  I wait too long to attack and time is called.  Chain of Vapor ends up reseting the board during turns, and I just fall short. 

At this point, the language barrier is proving to be an issue.  Without being able to communicate clearly with my opponents or judges, I was unable to control the pace of the matches.  Were that match played in English, I would have made certain that it ended in a win for one of us no matter what. 


Round 6 Gush Tendrils plays even more slowly

Game 1  I win with Gushbond in extremely savage fashion. 
Game 2  I am forced to scoop it up as it's taking way to long to find the kill during a Will turn.  This bordered on stalling, but I was unable to address the situation.  I kept it in mind for Game 3, and had a mindset of making sure the match did not go to time as I played. 
Game 3 My opponent was clearly playing for a draw.  He played very defensively, and when time is called, he's staring down a 6/6 dryad, and enough turns to die from it.  I cast mystical tutor for Yawgmoth's Will with Fastbond in play and just lands in hand.  He draws Echoing Truth and casts it in response to Will.  He targets my Dryad instead of Fastbond, and I'm able to combo out and replay the Dryad, Walk and win. 

Round 7 ID  I'm able to relax and prepare mentally for 4 more rounds of Magic.  At this point it's getting late in the day, and I'm not used to playing Magic for so long.  I focus on trying to not allow the grind to effect me. 

Top 16 Tyrant Oath

Game 1 Gushbond on turn 1 leads to a very early win. 

Game 2 is more in his favor.  He gets some explosiveness off Mana Crypt, but it punishes him all game.  He manages to get down an Oath, and oath out Tidespout Tyrant.  My plan to win is a long shot.  I hope his next activation leaves him within range of a lethal Ancestral Recall.

Then it happens.  He goes to roll for Mana Crypt, and then says he wants to play brainstorm during my endstep.  I ask him why he pointed at Crypt, and then went to pick up the die.  I call the judge over, as I do not want this kind situation to come up in Game 3.  My opponent proceeds to lie to the judge, saying he did not point to Mana Crypt, and did not motion to roll the die.  The judge decides that there is no incontrovertible proof that he pointed, and we back up to my endstep.  Despite spectators clearly seeing it and explaining, the judges ignored the flagrant lie.  I could not believe that my opponent had lied point blank to the judges, with a large amount of witnesses, and got away with it.  Trying to remain unphased, we continue. 

He flips Simic Sky Swallower after just a few cards, and my plan for victory goes out the window.  He loses the roll to Mana Crypt, going to 6, and a new plan emerges.  Now I need him to lose the roll next turn, and mana burn after Draining a 3+CC spell.  I set it up.  I try targeting Ancetral at myself during his endstep, we fight, he draws 3.  No Drain yet.  On my turn, I float 2 and Gush.  He Drains.  Fantastic.  He loses the roll, goes to 3, and proceeds to attack.  I inform him that he has burned from his Mana Drain mana.  He then attempts to untap his creatures.  I call the judge and explain the situation.  My opponent then proceeds to lie and say he didn't attack, despite his creatures being still tapped.  I was expecting the judges to DQ him at this point, as it was unreasonable to say you did not attack when your creatures are still tapped.  They did nothing about it.  The sizable audience was shocked by this.  Somehow the Tidespout Tyrants ability was brought into things, and removed the focus from the fact that he had forgotten his Mana Drain mana and burned.  I wanted to only make an issue about the fact that he had lied to the judges on two separate occasions, but the judges were not interested.  The judges then decide that the way to handle it is to ignore the lying, back up to his main phase and give him a warning.  At that point he uses the mana and attacks for the win.

Game 3 He starts giving me spirit tokens early, as I Force a turn 1 Oath.  I end up with 3 tokens, who are beating down each turn.  He goes for another Oath, and I Force, he pitches Tinker to Force back, I have Mis'D.  He loses both of his bombs and I continue to beat down.  I drop a Dryad and grow it a little.  With death in 2 turns he echoing truths the tokens to give himself some breathing room.  Dryad grows crazy the next turn and duress shows no cards to worry about.  I pass and get ready to counter any card he draws.  My ending hand is Force, Force Misdirection, with 5 mana up.  I was relieved to win this match after all the bad calls, lying and cheating.  This match will require some addressing if I am going to consider attending another event overseas. 

Top 8 Control Slaver

Game 1  I played Control Slaver forever, so I was very happy to be playing against it.  The deck plays quite a bit of mana, and this can make it less than impressive in the early game.  I was able to pick apart his hand with Duress and he drew quite a bit of mana.  Duress allowed me to leave him with only reactive spells, and they were not enough to stop me.  I resolve Yawgmoth's Will with Dryad out, and he scoops.

Game 2  Very little action on his side again, as a gorilla shaman starts to beat down.  He had a full mana base, and counters, but not enough counters to contain me.  I actually use a pithing needle against it, as I happen to have drawn some Moxen and Lotus.  A Yawgmoth's Will later and it's on to the Top 4. 

Top 4 Gush Tendrils

My opponent and I had already played, but I thought he was playing Ichorid.  In a huge break for me, they showed us decklists before the matches for the final 4.  Had I thought I was playing Ichorid, I would have probably mulled into oblivion. 

Game 1 he wins the roll and opens with a Turn 1 Tinker for Platinum Angel.   I go with the less impressive Mox Land Dryad.  I draw some cards, and then merhcant scroll for Echoing Truth. I make it resolve and take it down a few turns later.   

Game 2  I duress early and leave him with REBx2 Forcex2 taking Mind's Desire.  I cantrip around, and resolve ancestral after duress without a fight.  I have 4x Mis'D and he's got nothing going on.  He rips Twister and I can't stop it.  The 7 I draw are amazing, including Force, Mis'D and Recall.  His 7 are much less impressive and it's over shortly after with a Berserked Dryad for 20. 



Finals MUD

Game 1  I have a very strong hand, leading with Duress on Chalice.  He wastes my land.  I drop an Island+Ancestral, but do not draw any green mana.  He follows with Mox Pearl, Strip Mine, Sphere, which I Force.  I drop another land and Demonic Tutor.  On his turn, I Gush in response to Stripmine.  I fully expect to win this game, but then wheels fall off.  I do some Gushbond, get down dryad, run out of gas.  I should have tutored for Yawgmoth's Will in there somewhere and passed the turn.  I was in no real danger, and it would have sealed the deal.  Instead I proceeded to spin my wheels and keep a weak 3 with Ponder, which allows me to Echoing Truth a Metal Worker hoping to out tempo him.  The remaining draws are less than useful.  Metal Worker comes down and sticks, which leads to Ravager and Trike.  The combination proved lethal. 

Game 2 He began by mulling to 6, while I have a playable, though not explosive hand of 7.  I end up under multiple sphere effects, chalice at 1, and tangle wires.   I sit there with oxidizes in hand, and a single Hurkly's Recall an out.  I don't draw it, and Karn and friends takes it down.  I win the feeling of wondering how Game 3 would have went, as well as a Beta Lotus and a Library for 2nd highest finish w/o proxies.  It's not 1st, but it will have to do. 

Props
Meg - for being the best
The spectators who tried to lobby my case to the judges
New England - for being the best training ground for Vintage in the World
Expo Hotel - for having excellent meals
Valencia - for having the coolest playground I've ever seen

Slops
My Round 16 Opponent - for lying and cheating and getting away with it
The Judges - for tolerating the events of my Top 16 match

[RaleighNCTourneys]

Thanks for the report and CONGRATS!!

I thought about trying to attend a Vintage event this summer while I was in Europe. It just didn't seem worth the trouble and missing out on actually enjoying the countries I visited. With that said, I don't think I'll be attending one the next time I visit. I can't imagine flying all the way to Europe to play Vintage to get BSed out of the top 16. I'm really glad that didn't happen to you. Do you feel it had anything to do with your being American, or was it just poor judging, or what?

[Smmenen]

2º Eric Dupuis - GAT
"Ron Paul Revolution"


4 Ponder

http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=34921.0

2) WHERE  IS YOUR FOURTH PONDER?  Seriously.   It's, probably, the very best turn one play in gat using unrestricted cards.   It's better than Scroll cause of the predominance of Duress and its better than turn one Brainstorm most of the time.

Ponder is an absolute house.  It is better than brainstorm turn 1.  That said, I just feel the draw engine has worked fantastic so far.  The deck doesn't really need any more cantrips.  It is certainly not better than Merchant Scroll.  Scroll gives you a draw engine that is basically a free Yawgmoth's Bargain that sets up Yawgmoth's Will while it thins your deck.  Ponder gets you online, and digs.  Once you're online, Ponder starts to lose it's value. 

In time, I think you will come to see that running less than 4 Ponder is an obvious error.   

*AH-HEM*

You have some explaining to do, me thinks.

Now that you have apparently changed your mind on this point, what do you think it was in your thinking process that led you to spend 4 posts adamantly defending the position of only running 3 Ponder (and in fact, you convinced other people that you were right: http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=35030.0

Reading through the arguments posted by ELD and Stephen Menendian, I could agree with ELD that three Ponder is actually enough for the deck.

I ask not to say "ha ha" look how I was right and you were wrong, but to actually get to a deeper issue.

In magic, alot of times people are bad at learning.  Let me elaborate on what I mean by this.

We all have mental processes to evaluate our options and make decisions.  Since you spent quite a bit of time defending your position and elaborating on that defense, I am curious not just why you changed your mind, but if you can identify if there was something more general or more routinized in your thinking process, some principle or rule that you relied upon to make the decision, that you now see was mistaken.  For example, based upon what you wrote, it seemed that one possible principle you were relying upon was a belief that "7 cantrips was the maximum amount of cantips needed for GAT." 

To extrapolate for a bit: Assuming that that was the principle that led you to only run 3 Ponder, there are many ways of approaching that principle as a flawed decision rule.  For instance, it assumes, in some degree, that cantrips are uniform.  Another problem with it could be that there is a distinction between "necessity" and general utilty.  For example, 7 cantrips may be needed to support the Gro mana base, but 4 Ponder might just make a better deck.   Anyway, that's just speculation, but speculation designed to exemplify the kind of analysis I'd like to hear from you.

It's one thing to acknowledge a mistake, but it is altogether more important (for you) to understand better what mental process led you into that mistake in the first place.   The reason is that the decision rule that led you to it could easily guide your decision making on another matter into the wrong decision.  I'd like to know what that decision rule was.   

Congrats on your performance.   

[MrJolly]

Congrats ELD.

[oneofchaos]

And lying still doesn't win games!

Congrats ELD

[The Atog Lord]

Congratulations, Eric. Way to represent.

[GUnit]

Congrats on the win; your reports are definitely entertaining to read.

With regard to the ponder debate, it's my personal opinion that there likely isn't a perfect GAT list (with the assumption of a random/typical metagame) in the entire world, and if there is it's probably only by accident. Even if you two (Smennen and ELD) had never disagreed and you'd both been 100% pro quad-ponder from day one, that still doesn't necessitate that it is, in fact, the correct configuration from an objective standpoint. But then again, bearing in mind the premium article that Steve just posted on SCG, you already know about how your opinions and past experiences skew your perspectives.

I'm not about to argue one way or the other on the matter myself, but I will say that none of the arguments for or against have been anywhere near rigorous enough for me to arrive at a conclusion, and appealing to intuition is a pretty weak way to win a logical argument.

As a side note, the term "optimal" is another matter of judgment in any debate like this, as the clunkiest looking deck in the universe might be totally busted in the hands of the M:tG version of Deep Blue, but totally awful in the hands of even a relatively skilled normal player. There might be some random card that is more deserving of the spot that 4th ponder is occupying that hasn't even been considered yet. Also, as someone who generally just silently observes the format, and participates infrequently, I've seen a lot of the great minds flip-flop on card choices more than a few times, and be totally convinced of their preference both before and after the fact. While I'm not one of those minds, I'm certainly guilty of this myself.

[Phele]

This match will require some addressing if I am going to consider attending another event overseas.

I can't imagine flying all the way to Europe to play Vintage to get BSed out of the top 16. I'm really glad that didn't happen to you.

Sorry for your bad opponent, but there is no need for generalisations! You don't have to worry about goeing to european events.

[breed]

Congrats ELD!

For the the Oath match: there is some cheaters in all countries, the fact that you are american as nothing to do with that. The main problem is why the judge let get him back after attacking... For the first problem, that's difficult to choose a player version when one is lying. The ruling may have been one warning for each player and go back to last time were you agreed together.

 

[piZZero]

Hey Eric,

First of all, congratz on your excellent tournament! I hope you enjoyed coming to Spain enough to return another time

I'm Jordi from Spain. You might remember me from Valencia, i was the guy that came to you while you were sat down selling your proxies (which are amazingly well done). I was interested on your beta Volcanics. We had a little talk and i wished you good luck.

That said, one BIG issue that everyone is complaining about among the players that attended to the event is "How the Judges acted and performed" during the tournament. In the spanish website "El Santuario" it's being discussed and we are consulting our spanish lvl 3 judges on why this performance took place in a tournament that was supposed to run under highly competitive rules.

Your top 16 problem with the oponent lying was just a 2% of what happened during all the day.

I had few situations where i required of a Judge. At some point of the swiss, while playing against a Staxx player, i told my oponent that i was gonna discard. While i was looking to my 8 cards to choose which one i was gonna discard, i hear "I play the stripmine from my GY using my Crucible of the worlds" and i was O_O what? I told my oponent that i was discarting... and he supposed that i gave him turn. Then i asked him if he had drawn the turn card, to which he answers me with a "I don't think so" (Either you do or u don't... u don't forget this type of things...), but he ends up saying that he hadn't. I mentally count cards in table/hand/GY to know that he indeed drew a card. I call the judge, explain the situation and told him that he's said that he hadn't drawn the card, which he agrees (trying to get an extra card). The judge makes the same count as i did mentally and he does absolutely nothing than giving both a warning for "Verbal Misscomunication".

My oponent was clearly lying and trying to get an extra card to his own benefit... and that turned to be a "Verbal Misscomunication" when i clearly stated that i was going to discard. Normally, this situation would have end up with a DQ for him... but sadly it didn't.

What i mean with all this, is that you weren't the only one affected by the "Judge permissivity" (is permissivity really a word? ;P), lots of spanis players (like me and many other that are complaining) were also affected by this issue. The organizers should consider this problem for future events and maybe have a talk to the Head Judge to make him clear that the tournament should be ran under lvl 3 rules.

Well, i hope you get my point, and i hope you'll return to future european events.

Cheers,

piZZero - Jordi Amat

[Neonico]

I must admitt that im really impressed by players saying : ho i need to top2 in a very big tournament to pay my travel to the tournament and actually do it, even if you seem to be totally on fire actually. Congrats for that, hope you enjoyed your stay in south Europa
That said, im really surprised in your deck list, by the 4 misdirection. What did lead you to this really surprising choice ? Especially considering that in Europe, we actually see a bunch of Stacker/MUD players.

[ELD]

@ everyone - thank you for the congratulations. 

@ Neonico -  4x Misdirection is amazing.  With my playstyle, they are Force of Will 5-8 vs the best decks in the format.  I would run more if I could.  Vs Workshops, they are pitched to Force, and dodged via Cantrips.  That is an acceptable trade off for me. 

in regards to the cheating in the Top 16 - My issue is not the cheating, it was the judges.  If someone wants to blatantly cheat right in front of me and a crowd of people, that is fine.  Any competent judge is going to make sure things are handled fairly.  The fact that I was unable to communicate effectively with the judges was a big issue. 

@ Steve

We have very different ways of thinking and approaching the game.  I don't think in terms of "right" and "wrong" when it comes to deck building.  I think in terms of only how the deck functions.  A card can make the deck more consistent, give you new options, make the deck easier or harder to play, and/or have many other effects.  These effects are neither right nor wrong, they are simply the result of card choices.  My goal in regards to card choices is maximizing the ability to win tournaments.  This involves balancing consistency, power and versatility.  It involves accepting certain situations as a loss, and trading edges in certain match ups to have what I perceive as the best chance to win the tournament.  The fact that I do not have any other goal in mind besides winning tournaments means my card choices cannot be labeled "right" or "wrong" very easily.  I mostly deal with degrees of effectiveness, and how the card impacts power, consistency and versatility. 

Other people make card choices in other ways.  Some people want to have a deck that is as consistent as possible.  Some want to be able to answer a wide array of situations.  Some want to play a Goblin only deck.  Some want to not play Blue cards.  When one has those kind of ideas during deckbuilding, then ideas can be labeled right or wrong.  Adding Ancestral would be wrong in TMWA.  Adding a single Strip Mine and a Wasteland would be a mistake in Tog, for instance, if your goal was to make it as consistent as possible.  That is the configuration I used, however, for the time between Gush's restriction and the advent of CS.  Most players felt that was "wrong," but the results showed otherwise.  The same can be said about my running a single Strip Mine in Gifts.  It made getting UU on turn two slightly less consistent, but my goal was to win, not to be as consistent as possible.  I have won countless tournaments with those kind of deck choices.

I did sweep through the swiss of 3 straight events with my previous list.  It was definitely not "wrong" or a "mistake" by the standards that I hold.  I'm certain I could have achieved the same results in Spain with the maindeck Tormod's over the 4th Ponder.  I boarded in Tormod's in most of my match ups, and the few games I lost to the swiss mostly involved Will or Ichorid.  This build is simply different by one card from my previous posted list.  I would be fine with running that last slot as a variety of cards, but for an unknown metagame Ponder was a reasonable choice.  As I have said before, the 4th Ponder adds a small amount of consistency.  I would certainly trade that small gain in consistency for more utility on any given day.   

When I construct a deck, I always try and identify the minimum of each effect needed.  This is why my first post-unrestriction list of GAT, (which I won Myriad 6/2/07 with), featured numbers that were very different than I played in 2003.  I decided on a single Cunning Wish, a single Psychatog and a single Echoing Truth main.  Those choices, which have become almost standard, were based off seeing how I could minimize the space needed for "answers" in the deck.  The function of those cards is to get out of situations that are likely, but unpleasant.  Once I identify that minimum, I often use it.  There are times, however, where I might pile on extra effects of certain types, despite the deck functioning well with the minimum.  A second Cunning Wish or Tog, for instance, would not be wrong in GAT, it would simply result in a different range of plays available.  The minimum is a guide, but not a rule. 

The fact that I only run 4x Duress effects is similarly to related my theories on deck construction.  I'm certain the deck would function just fine if I swapped out the 4th Ponder for a Thoughtseize.  The swap would change quite a bit of things, but it would not be "right" or "wrong."  It would give me less consistency, and more disruption.  It would give me a higher potential for card disadvantage and dead cards.  It would conversely, give my a higher change for a turn 1 discard effect to neuter explosives starts.  I won't waste my time trying to argue either choice being "right" or "wrong."  I considered a large amount of effects for the 4th Ponder slot.  Those cards ranged from Thougtseize, to Tormod's Crypt, Hydroblast, Regrowth, Imperial Seal, Predict, Night's Whisper and many more.  All of those cards had multpile sides to weight, but I would not call any of them "right" or "wrong."  I simply weighted the anticipated results against each other, and I could easily choose to run any of them in the future. 

As to the effect of running a 4th Ponder, it has created an interesting side effect.  I now consider 2 Ponders as cards that can be sidelined for Game 2&3.  Previously, I have not touched the draw engine when designing a Sideboard.  The excessive cantrips are easily traded for more a powerful sideboard effect, and the deck is still more than capable of finding the cards it needs.  This has been a benefit of testing with the 4th Ponder.  When I was running 3, I had not thought about cutting one, and thus my sideboard options have improved. 

My argument in regards to upper and lower limits is a theoretical one.  My question was never answered.  The question I posed was how many brainstorm/ponder effects would you run, given the ability to run more than 8.  I ask this, because I do not believe there is a "right" answer.  I think there would simply be different results for each choice. 

In the past, you have been able to follow a relatively simple deck building process.  You have determined what you believe is the best unrestricted card available, and then build a deck that best abuses 4x copies of the card.  Merchant Scroll has lent itself very well to that end.  Diminishing Returns, not so much.  While, certainly by my standards, your approach has been very successful, I believe we're seeing an expanded card pool which is starting to make this approach less possible.  As deckbuilders, we're going to need to be able to identify the minimum and maximum number cards required in each role.  These ranges will no longer be set at 4 for us by Wizards.  With the ability to run 8x "brainstorm" and 8x "duress" we now have choices to make.  We will be tinkering with power, consistency, versatility and many other properties of our decks.  These tweaks will not be judged in terms of "right" and "wrong" (at least not by me) but valued on the results they produce. 

[The_Avatar]

Congratulations, Eric, we met at valencia, we had a little talk after the game against the italian player playing gush tendrils.I followed you on all the top16 and I loved your playstyle and the way you took all decisions.

I just can't guess how you simplify things as you've talked about the top 4 game as a easy one and the ancestral you played at that point you just metion it and it was a CRAZY play. I still can see the face of your opponent who opened his eyes wide open when he saw you were casting ancestral just after casting duress and seeing in his hand 2FOW + 2 reb. He just was thinking for a whole minute or so... just aking himself what the hell were you holding in hand to be able to cast an ancestral on mainphase, after seeing all his active disruption... he just conceded the war moaning and, in my oppinion, taking the game as game over.

A pleasure meeting you and you wife and I'd like to congratulate you personally.

About the cheating on top 16 I hope you noticed the mass of people who were supporting you there (most of them spanish people) who were regreting the attitude of that player (who was Spanish) and the attitude of the judges, which was horrible. We tried to give you a warm enviroment and we really cheered your victory.

Again, a pleasure to meet you, I hope one day we'll meet again.

Cheers.

Alvaro

[scipio]

Awesome win, despite the honesty issues.  Congrats to a fellow Paul aficianado.  Ready for the Tea Party?

What was 1st prize?  A beta lotus and library is an excellent haul, and as you hinted at the beginning, made the trip more than worthwhile.  The rumor has long been that Euro prize support is much greater than Stateside, and I guess this supplies further evidence! 

Thanks for the discussion on card choice above.  If you have time, it would be great to hear about key moments during the matches.  I agree that the main phase Ancestral was incredible, and one I would never have thought of in that situation.  How did you sell it to your opponent?

[SyntheticAngel]

Congratulations to you ELD, a great victory for you and for America. That said that playground pretty much is the coolest playground of all time. 4 Misdirections seems interesting.

Brennen

[Shock Wave]

Well done Eric. The last time I went to Spain to play I never encountered the sorts of judging issues you've had the misfortune of dealing with. If anything, I've had more problems at events in the US with such problems. The fact of the matter is that these sorts of issues are not more prevalent overseas, in the US, or in any particular part of the world. It's just unfortunate that sometimes things go awry at your expense. This is not something that we should dismiss as acceptable, but we should definitely be prepared for as players.

[ILBERNA]

Well done ELD, good result & good report.

also good deck but I would have played 1/2 more bouncers (I think you missed in 1st turn of final match) maybe rebuild and/or repeal..

Round 7 ID  I'm able to relax and prepare mentally for 4 more rounds of Magic.  At this point it's getting late in the day, and I'm not used to playing Magic for so long.  I focus on trying to not allow the grind to effect me. 

LOL
you should come to Italy...
sometimes we have 8 or 9 rounds tournaments

Greetings & Congratulations by ILBERNA

[TopSecret]

     Congratulations, ELD.

You're one of the only players I've met who can plan on winning a large event in a foreign country
and not be overconfident in my eyes.

I'm glad all of your hard work pays off.