If you only want the Tourney report and the decklist, scroll down.
Sunday morning, 8 am: I have just gotten up for like 30 minutes, took a shower and ate something. Steven comes pick me up at my home with his borrowed car and we go off to come pick up Armand. When we arrive at the place he would be, no Armand to be seen. I call him, I get his voicemail but see that I got a text message from him earlier, that he couldn't go because he had some trouble with his parents... great, lets get on with the two of us then. Steven and I are both playing TPS, almost the same build. We are both very familair with the deck, we tested a lot, and because the tourney was 12 (!!) proxies, I expected a lot of control, the best matchup for TPS.
The room opened up at 10 am, and we got in Leiden at 9:30, but not able to find the room. After asking several people, we finally get there at 10:30, seeing there is a lot of control as we expected. I borrow some money of Pyro to get new sleeves, and start resleeving. At 11:30am round 1 finally starts.
The Deck of all Decks:
Mana:
  1 Tolarian Academy
  1 Library of Alexandria
  2 Swamp
  2 Island
  4 Underground Sea
  1 Flooded Strand
  4 Polluted Delta
  4 Dark Ritual
  1 Black Lotus
  1 Lotus Petal
  1 Mana Vault
  1 Sol Ring
  1 Mana Crypt
  1 Mox Sapphire
  1 Mox Ruby
  1 Mox Pearl
  1 Mox Jet
  1 Mox Emerald
Protection:
  4 Duress
  4 Force of Will
  1 Cunning Wish
  1 Rebuild
Tutors:
  1 Demonic Tutor
  1 Mystical Tutor
  1 Vampiric Tutor
Draw 7:
  1 Tinker
  1 Memory Jar
  1 Timetwister
  1 Time Spiral
General Draw:
  4 Brainstorm
  1 Ancestral Recall
Broken:
  1 Necropotence
  1 Yawgmoth's Will
  1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
  1 Mind's Desire
  2 Gifts Ungiven
  1 Time Walk
The Kill:
  2 Tendrils of Agony
The Sideboard:
SB: 2 Chain of Vapor
SB: 2 Rebuild
SB: 2 Misdirection
SB: 1 Echoing Truth
SB: 1 Darksteel Colossus
SB: 1 Platinum Angel
SB: 3 Skeletal Scrying
SB: 1 Brain Freeze
SB: 1 Capsize
SB: 1 Fact or Fiction
Some choices about the maindeck. I decided to play the Spiral over the rebuild 10 minutes before the tournament started, because I felt that the deck sometimes just sometimes runs out of gas and needs a good topdeck before getting crushed. Topdecking a Spiral late game is good
I actually only used the Time Spiral once, but it won me the game, so I think I'll keep testing Spiral in the second rebuild slot. The sideboard has some random choices like a lot of bounce, but I feared stacks and chalices, and I could not find any Hydroblasts or Red Elemental Blasts (which would not have helped me anyway). The Platinum Angel was there mainly against Oath, the Rebuilds for the Stax matchup, Colossus against fish, Scryings for Drain decks, or the mirror and FoF just as a basic Wish target. On to the rounds.
I am very bad at remembering names, I only remembered one. I'm sorry!
Round 1, UGw Oath: Game 1 I see a FoW, a Drain and an Oath, but no Orchard, so I take his Fow. Next turn I go Necro and win. Game 2 he goes broken turn 1: Lotus Sapphire Orchard Chalice for 0 and he passes. I drop a fetch land and when I activate it, he Stifles. Ok, I still got a fetch and a sea on hand. Next turn I fetch again, and he Stifles again.. He drops wasteland, great. I play my sea, and Sol Ring, which he naturalizes and activates his wasteland. He counters some Stuff of me after I have an island. In the mean while he has heared of the player next to him that chalice for 1 is so good against TPS (not ment to inform my opponent), my opponent had no idea, but he follows the advise, and I'm totally locked out with only one land on the table and chalice for 1 and 0 on the table. I start kicking with the spirit tokens. 18... 16... 14... 12... 10... 7... 4... 1... I won by spirit beatdown
He tried to play Oath when he was at 10, but I fow'ed as a desperate action just because I had no other choice then to win by spirit beatdown. Amazingly he had no counters himself and he failed to find another oath.
Matches 1-0, Games 2-0
Round 2, Parfait: I had no idea what he was playing until I remembered he was talking about playing Belcher instead of the old kill, Island Sanctuary, so he was playing Parfait. Ok, not too shabby
I tell him parfait is dead, he answers with: "Yes, I know, but I like it" Ok that's perfectly fine, he apparently won round 1, but I don't fear his deck at all. He wins the roll and starts with Lotus, Pearl and further nothing. I get to get turn 1 Sapphire -> Recall, Sea, Jet, Ritual, Ritual, Bargain. Game 2 I side in my Colossus because I expect him to board out his STPs and his only answer would be Balance, with no way to tutor it without land tax/rack combo. He goes down to 5 cards, and I know I win this match. He goes turn 1 ruby, pearl, jet, thran foundry, I didn't even bother to read it, which I should have. I go turn 1 duress, turn two bargain, turn 3 make a hell lotta mana, tutor for will, will, in response he activates thran foundry. I read it and slap myself. But with the mana left over and the tendrils in my hand I tendrils him for 14 life, and win next turn with the new life gained from the Tendrils.
Matches 2-0, Games 4-0
Steven, the guy I carpooled with, is 2-0,4-0 too, with almost the same list, so we're pretty confident about making top 8.
Round 3, Sui-Black. I get to play ANOTHER bad deck (no offense though) I look at my hand, and I'm pretty confident, I don't know what happened exactly, I got turn 1 duress, had a shitload of mana in my hand, and a bargain and a necro which I could cast both next turn. I take his duress over his hymn with my duress because he had no mana to cast hymn this turn. He topdecks a ritual and hymns my bargain and something random away. I go necro, and force his negator, which seals the game. Game 2 I go turn 1 Necro and misdirect his Hymn.
Matches 3-0, Games 6-0
This is where the real fun starts, too bad it was against Steven though. I get to play the mirror match, we calculate if we can draw into top 8 and we decide to just play. Game 1 I don't remember too much about, but I know I lose to a huge will turn 4 or so. My first game I lose this tourney. He had the duress 2x, I had none. This mirror is all about duresses. I board in my 2x Misdirection and 3x Skeletal Scrying because you never want to give the other TPS player a new hand. I start, and duress him, nothing broken. He brainstorms, duresses me, takes my will or so. This goes forth a few games, he's down to two cards, I have 3 cards, he has a lot of mana I have only 3 seas or so. He vamps for Will (i supposed) I have no FoW on hand, so I was afraid it was over. I topdeck a necro, draw 9 cards, keep a hand which will win me the game next turn with Fow for his will and misdirection for his fow (which he probably didnt have because he would have countered my necro then) I countered his will and he gave up. 1-1 Game 3 was the nicest game the whole tourney I had. I kept a hand with 2 land, brainstorm, scrying, petal, duress, misdirection. He goes turn 1 fetch, pass. I duress him, see his hand of 2 fetch, 2x scrying, recall and fow. I take his Fow. He drops a fetch and a crypt, plays ancestral, I misdirect it, and he slaps himself for not seeing that coming. In response he Scrys for 2 but it doesn't matter, I draw 3 of his own ancestral. Next turn I duress his other skeletal away, and drop a lot of mana and a Necro. I draw to 8, discard one, and I'm in full control, he has only 1 card in hand, which is a land. He topdecks and plays a Gifts, but I counter it with a hardcasted Fow. He extends his hand and I win the mirror.
Matches 4-0, Games 8-1
Round 5, Stax. I am hungry, I'm in top 8 for sure but he doesn't want to draw, he just wants to play (he's in top 8 for sure too) I keep a mediocre hand, and scoop after I fow two threats. Game 2 I keep another mediocre hand and scoop almost immediately, because I was hungry.
I get some food, smoke another ciggie and I watch Steven play against Elves in a fully powered meta at table number 4... Ok.. weird. I see Steven smash his face game 1, and see him board in Colossus. Game 2 Elves are just too fast built up, and Colossus gets outraced. Steven thinks for a second and decide to keep in the Colossus. He gets a perfect hand with a turn 2 colossus and a Time Walk in his hand to kick Elves in the nuts. He brainstorms and accidentally puts the tinker on top... Ok, shit happens, he time walks and draws the tinker into Colossus. His opponent plays another elf, and a Timberwatch Elf. Stevens hits for 11, and passes. His opponent goes Quirion Ranger, Quirion Ranger, and can chump his colossus by pumping 3 times with the Timberwatch, and eventually he races Steven out. :[ Ok, Steven feels bad, everybody laughs at him because he lost to elves, and right they are!
The players of the top 8 get to choose or we play for the mox and the other players get some boosters (we only had a 40 man turnout, from 40 people, the mox would be turned out) and I came here for the mox, like everyone else, not for some Ali, from Cairo which I will never play anyway, nor bad duals.
Round Top 8, Elves. Haha, I feel overconfident because I get to play the Elves. I keep a slow hand. He outcheats me with an emerald turn 1, into... Wirewood Hivemaster! He goes Concordant Crossroads, Llanowar Elves, Fyndhron Elves, Skullclamp. I decide to Fow the skullclamp because of all the tokens he gets with elves. His hand is empty, and kicks me for 5. I brainstorm, find nothing useful, and pass. He topdecks another skullclamp and finishes me that turn
Ok, shit happens, I have to become some less confident, and tell him a bit cocky, ok whatever, you win game 1, I'll go turn 1 bargain next game, and win
Of course you get it, I draw 1 card, Sea, next card, Ritual, next card, Lotus, next card, Bargain. =] Three other random cards, but I win game 2. Because I had seen his decklist because it is top 8, I saw he has only one answer to Platinum Angel, a Zealot he could tutor up with wirewood heralds. I boarded in the Angel just to get some extra turns to set up the combo. I get turn 1 Swamp, Ritual, Necro, draw 6 extra cards, no blue mana source. On my next turn I vampiric tutor for Tinker, draw 7 cards, so that I precisely don't die to his elves on the board, and draw not one single blue mana source, so I extend him the hand. I feel real bad about losing to elves. He faced three TPS players, and kicked them all three in the nuts with as only hate 3 root mazes... which I never even saw.
I get TWO boosters, for getting top 8. Two...
Props:
- A real good organised tourney
- Steven, for driving
- My deck for doing good in general
- Misdirection for drawing me three cards of Steven's Ancestral.
Slops
- The heat
- Pyro and RVS, Pyro going 1-4 (actually 1-3, because the judge didnt drop him (well, he scooped round 4 because RVS dropped too, so actually 2-2)) and RVS, going 2-2
- My deck crapping out on me
- Armand's parents for not letting him go
