[report] 19th with Slaver at Clichy 13

Here is my recollection of Clichy 13, held in Paris, France yesterday.
There were 81 players and very nice prizes: Mox Sapphire, Mishra's Workshop, Bazaar of Baghdad and Mana Drain.

I didn't know what to play, thought about fish, then decided that since I am playing so few tournaments, I'd better grab a deck I enjoy: keeper.

I meet my buddy Geoffrey at 6:30 am for a 3 hour drive to Paris where he has to listen to my ramblings against lowering taxes, social dumping and the "Bolkestein" European directive project.

We arrive early on, so I get to play 2 games with the deck I chose: burning slaver.
Since keeper is dead, I picked up the closest deck.
But I don't feel confortable with Demars's decklist, so I make some changes on site to play this:

3 Goblin Welder
2 Gorilla Shaman

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoths' Will

1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
1 Echoing Truth
4 Force of Will
1 Gifts Ungiven
4 Mana Drain
1 Mystical Tutor
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker

1 Black Lotus
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mindslaver
1 Platinum Angel
1 Sol Ring
1 Sundering Titan
1 Triskelion

1 Darksteel Citadel
2 Flooded Strand
2 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
2 Polluted Delta
1 Snow Covered Island
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island

Sideboard:
1 Echoing Ruin
2 Rack and Ruin
1 Red elemental Blast
2 Stifle
1 Pyroblast
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Echoing Truth
2 Fire / Ice
1 Duplicant
1 Pentavus
2 Tormod's Crypt

Geoffrey is playing TT Confidant.

Round 1: Stephane Tichadou (5C Ubastax)
Last time I played Stephane, it was in the swiss rounds of the French championship where he split in the finals.
He starts with Gemstone Mine. At the end of my turn (I played at Jet), he casts Vampiric Tutor (a Gorilla Shaman to slow me down). He plays the Mox Monkey, then Tangle Wire. I forget to tap my lands in the upkeep and get a caution. We go back to my upkeep, so I get to use my Library before tapping stuff for the Wire :P I play a Welder, he gets out a Mask. When the Tangle Wire dies, I switch it for the Mask, which shuts Stephane down as he has few permanents due to mild mana screw.
I then play Yawgmoth's win and he concedes.
Game 2 sees an early Chalice at one which doesn't hurt me at all. I force a Mask, tinker for Pentavus which goes to town while Stéphane is holding 3 one mana cost spells.
2-0, 3 points.

Round 2: David Gaspard (Salvagers Oath)
David chose to play this deck "parce que c'est un deck ou il faut reflechir tout le temps" (it's a deck which needs you to think constantly). No comment.
He managed to get an early Oath both games and I am twice short of one counter to win when he tries to go off (first time he had more library, second time he had "as much mana as you want" in the pool when he casts Cunning Wish, I counter twice, but he got a second Wish in the lucky Brainstorm from the previous turn.
0-2, 3 points.
I am quite frustrated.

Round 3: Charles To (Goblins)
He starts with Lackey which got forced. Then Vial which also got forced. I play Crucible of Worlds. His turn 3 Vial gets force as well and I lock him with a Strip Mine (his board is empty). He still goes on playing, manages to get a Vial, but I kill him with a Trike.
Game 2 Lackey hits turn 1, turn 2 he drops 2 Piledriver, so I tinker into Trike and kill the Lackey and a Piledriver. He plays a Fanatic and things start to look bad for me 14, 11, 7 life when he casts a Warchief which I drain. This allows me to play Platinum Angel and strip his lone white mana source (he boarded Plows in). Mana Vault allows me to drop the Bus and secure the win.
2-0, 6 points.

Round 4: Frederic Courtois (Dragon.dec)
No surprise, Frederic is sporting U/B dragon.
He gets his combo going rather fast game 1 and I can't stop it. I make him mill himself to see how he kills and it's with Caller of the Claw.
Game 2 is slow, meaning I get the upper hand. At some point, he manages to resolve Intuition. I thought he would take extra Squee to get the Bazaar engine going (he only had one), but he choses 2 Animate Dead and an Ancestral. I let him Tral since I am not holding any counters (I had the impression he had duressed me the turn before, but it seems I was wrong, so he didn't know I was holding only lands). I finally manage to cast the most broken T1 spell and we move to game 3.
We don't have enough time to finish it: he has a bad hand (he mulliganed in game 2 and 3) and my deck is too slow (although I had boarded in extra fat in the last game).
1-1-1, 7 points.
This means that I can't lose anymore to make top 8.

Round 5: Michel Massue (Oath)
I get a great start with turn 1 Crucible, turn 2 Strip Mine, but he has Furnace and he removes my fetchland and Strip Mine, so Crucible is useless. He casts 2 Pithing Needle on Welder and Mox Monkey, but they enter the red zone and make him stagger.
Game 2 he plays Needle on Welder turn 1, Oath on turn 2 that I Force and Oath on turn 3 that goes through. Pristine Angel does the dirty job.
Game 3 he manages to play Oath again, but doesn't have Orchard. I am holding 2 Drains and his hand is depleted and I don't counter his Impulse :( He finds Orchard and I die.
1-2, 7 points.
Bubye top 8 :/

Round 6: Sebastien Gonnet (U/W control)
Sebastien plays a subpar deck but he doesn't mind.
Game 1 I get Library going and he can't match it, stuck at 4 lands. I think he is playing U/W landstill since all I saw is Disk and Faerie Conclave.
Game 2 he gets to Disk a Welder, but I've got another one. I have the Slaver + Crucible + Citadel hard lock, so I explain it to him and he concedes.
2-0, 10 points.

Round 7: Stéphane Rigal (EBA variant)
He has Duress and Forces, Chalice and Needle, Pikula and Dimir Cutpurse.
I've seen him play the previous round again Geoffrey (who BTW will make top 8 if he wins the last round).
He is on the draw but still plays Chalice at zero. He plays Needle on Welder, followed by another one on Monkey.
The third Needle is on Polluted Delta as I fail to fetch (two on the board) :/
I still have a plan: bounce the Needles with Echoing Truth and start Welding stuff.
He quickly beats me with Pikulas. The Chalice screws me badly (drew 2-3 moxen and Lotus I believe).
In the second he is badly mana screwed.
The decider starts with Chalices at zero and one from him. I tinker, he Forces I drain. I get Titan and kill 3 of his lands. On the next turn, I use the 5 drain mana to cast a Triskelion. End of story.
2-1, 13 points.

I get 19th with me 4-2-1 record, one win away from top 8.

My round 2 opponent got 6th and my round 5 opponent is the runner-up.

I am disappointed of course, especially for the Salvager Oath deck loss.
It seems my version wasn't read to deal with Oath.
I also learnt that I should play more often (the Needle / Delta mistake shouldn't have happened) in general instead of reading TMD forums ;) and especially with Slaver, as it feels like playing keeper in the good old days.

I am happy about my decklist, I sideboarded all cards at least once.
Funny that I never activated Mindslaver.

Looking back, 2 Mox Monkeys is probably one too many, and there should be more stuff to deal with Oath.

Thanks to Serge Metz and his crew for organising yet another very nice tournament.

Top eight was:
1 Serge Metz (Grim Long)
2 Michel Massue (Oath)
3 Basile Andres (Oath)
4 Quentin Anne (Frigorid)
5 Florian Delafosse (Cerebral Assassin)
6 David Gaspard (Salvagers Oath)
7 Pierrick Mode (Uba Stax)
8 Quentin Cotton (Oath)

5 and 8 might be the other way around.

Cheers,

--
Carl