[27/09/06 - Italy] - MySexyGiftsForYou 1st Place

[MaxxMatt]

hi all,

Yesterday I come to a 56players' competitions here in Italy, winning the whole tourney with my version of Control Gifts.
We had 6 swiss' rounds and Top8s.
A lot of hints and general informations would be added later.



Those ones have been my matches results:

Round 1 - UGb-Oath - 2-0
Round 2 - BGu-Dragon - 2-0
Round 3 - MUD-Monobrown - 2-1
Round 4 - UBw-Madness - 0-2
Round 5 - Urw-Landstill Control - 2-0
Round 6 - Ur- Fish - 2-1
Quarterfinals - MUD-Monobrown - 2-0
Semifinals - 5c-Affinity - 2-0
Finals - UB-TPS - 2-0 ( by drop )

I won 16 games, losing 4. It can be considered my best score ever done.
The match loss to Madness shocked me a lot.
I have tools to stop his engine and counters but his pletora of fatties is nearly impossible to stop with that deck configuration. The only thing to do is to combo him out Game 1 and protect yourself from T.Crypts and O.Chant Game 2 and 3. The first part is easier than the latter, of couse; so I have to arrange different solutionsto rise winning rates.

Dragon and Affinity have been a non-issue post side while I saw the right things during Game 1 in both games ( restricted, P.Needle, Rebuild and T.Crypt ). I'm sure that TFKs should be optimized in a better way ( more than 13 artifacts to discard ): I found myself discarding lands and counters too often against them to consider the full set of TFKs untouchable into the deck,  but, at now,  there are no free slots to dedicate do different artifacts/tools/utilities.

I faced twice the same MW.dec, without Welders' recurions but with the complete sets of available locking pieces. It is as nasty as funny to see winning games as easy as losing one almost by itself. I appreciate a lot the lower number of Sorceries into my maindeck if compared to MDGifts. There are subtle things that MW.dec can do when you HAVE to counter Wires too. I almost let them resolve, playing all my drawers during the upkeep with huge results. I countered only key pieces and double threats. This is another interesting thing to observe. MW.decs are on the winning side of the table when the can pull out 2 or 3 threats really quickly. With my maindeck configuration, I can avoid countering a lot of his things, without needing to worry to much about their impact over the game: SoRs and Wires are minor annoyances, when you can develop a good number of mana sources and play during your upkeep almost any early-game spell of your deck. Sorceries are deadly slow, instead. Overcosted and "un-tricky", they need opponent's board clear of threats to be effective at their most.

I faced different control decks. Intuition/AKs' based ones and WallOfCounters' ones. Both of them can die to my Gifts' deck, but in different manners: Preside, I can offer a lot of medium sized EoT threats that they are, in some way, obliged to stop or I would build up the perfect hand and win. Postside, I need more time to win, because, Duresses, ReBs ( and if needed because of opponent's build, T.Crypts and Deep Anal too ), while offering a better protection's shield, usually slow down your winning plan. Game 2 and 3 are really balanced and a lot is decided by well timed decisions and good draws. I have been happy to win both games of the two Control.Mirror faced on Sunday.

I have to admit that I played almost any game with good hands ( no God ones ) and I mulliganed only twice in the entire tourney.
The resilience of the deck and the different archetypes faced, surprised myself: I was not aware about how difficult can be for my opponents to try to beat me with this deck configuration and I have been pleased by reading it in their faces during the tourney's matches.


I had troubles tweaking my sideboard for this competion because I forgot a couple of key cards at home ( Needle#2, Titan, R&R#2 ) and because I don't fully know about their own metagame.
I expected less artifacts than usual ( because a lot of local players switched to combo and control-combo decks ) but I was not aware about the possibility to face decks like PinkShit, Madness, Affinity and other busted and hard to face decks.
My sideboard was watered down against them, but luckily for me, my maindeck choices and a lot among sideboarded ones, let me happily play against the rest of the field.



I travelled 4 hours alone by train, by bus and by car until I reached the beatiful pub where the tourney took place. I have to thank the organizer for the special treatment that he reserved to me, and I still fell in love of the extraordinary natural scenario ( mountains, forests, peace, lakes, silence and go on... ) that surrounded the entire location.







I played this list: MySexyGiftsForYou with minor tricks and little to nothing maindeck diffferences.
According to the probable metagame, I made more crucial choices in the sideboard.

This is my current list.
I bolded the choices different from the previous ones.
Italicized are, instead, the cards that I found MVP in a lot of matches.




MySexyGiftsForYou  --- Gifts Control 2006

(25) - Mana Base
3 Island
3 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
1 Snow Covered Island
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Vault

(8) - Protections
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain

(12) - Drawers & Fixers
4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst for Konowledge
2 Gifts Ungiven
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Fact or Fiction

(6) - Tutors
2 Merchant Scroll
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Tinker

(3) - Winners
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Burning Wish
1 Darksteel Colossus

(6)
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Chain of Vapors
1 Pithing Needle
1 Time Walk
1 Rebuild
1 Recoup

Sideboard - (15)
1 Rack & Ruin
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
1 Hurkyll's Recall
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Sundering Titan
2 Pyroclasm
3 Duress
1 Tendrils or Agony
1 Deep Analysis
1 Shattering Spree
1 Darkblast






Round 1 - Ubg-Oath - Even Angels, eat beans
Game 1
He started land, mox, go.
I had a discrete hand with FoW's backup, Brainstorm and Ancestral. I lead with the latter during his next upkeep and we traded both our FoWs. He tried an Intuition ( maybe for Deeps/Duresses or AKs: I weighted, from his face, that he had only AKs into his deck, so I it resolve ) that I let him resolve, leaving him tapped out with that AK for 3 in hand. I had B.Wish in hand and I thought about Duressing him, thanks to the red tutor.  I drew a card, I Brainstormed and resolved some more mana fonts. I Walked once and set up that B.Wish for Duress. I have a couple of utilities in my hand while he had AK and Drainx2. I let him keep Drains and Duressed away AK. He played draw go for 2 turns and I traded my Drawers with his well known M.Drains. I quickly resolved Gifts for brokeness and resolved an huge Y.Will. DSC went to town.
Game 2
I was not aware about what specific archetype he was playing. I only saw Intuition/AK's engine, that could have been easily inserted in any blue-based-deck. I opted to add a single Duress and a single ReB from my side, taking out both Mystical Tutor and a Merchant Scroll. The first one is cards' disadvantage and the second one had his power lowered by the insertion of the red and the black card. I could have taken out V.Tutor instead of Mystical one, but, I sometimes prefer to have the ability to check for P.Needle or T.Crypt. Especially when Intuitions are all around. I kept P.Needle too only because I can have interpreted his deck in a wrong way and I didn't want to be unprepared to his surprises. I switched DSC for Titan too, because I wanted to power up at his maximum the impact of Tinker itself onto the game. Usually, Tinker for Titan is really more troubling to handle during Game2 in control matches, because opponent's Duresses and ReBs might force him to fetch for duals. In that scenario, Titan is a "Death  On Two Legs". ( I have been more than One Nights At The Opera )
So, I started with a mean hand. No FoW backup or restricted at all, but Brainstorms&Fetches's pair to optimize things, a Drain and a TFK coupled with T.Crypt. He started with Orchard and I realized how poor have been my light-sideboarding-menthal-thinking against him. He left two mana opened on table and passed the turn. I lead with T.Crypt to encourage him countering and he, of course, did it. I'm so good at reading young players' mind . Then I proceed to set up my hand with two Brainstorms in two subsequent turns. He tried to gain advantage over my manipulation with his EoT Intuition, but I Drained it, fueling with this mana both TFK#1 and TFK#2. I put an artifact into the grave and a couple of useless lands. He tried to resolve Oath, I let him doing it because of Chain of Vapors into my hand. I beat with 3 Tokens, Tutor for Walk, I Walked into other mana and protections. I attacked again and bounced back the green card. He stared at my large mana development and tried to weight my hand's situation. Maybe I could have had a counter for his Oath and he wanted to be sure to resolve it, so he choosen to wait, build up a better hand and passed the turn. Unluckily for him, I went broken two turns later, Storming with almost all my deck into my grave and winning with 40Spells' ToA.

1-0

Round 2 - Bgu-Dragon - NoRedAllowed
Game 1
I played against this good combo player but he surprised me playing Dragon instead of other StormBasedDecks. His initial hand contained a Bazaar of Bagdhad and double Squees. He drew into Laquatus too and discarded all those goodies into the grave, feeling safe from my hate, because it was Game1. Once done, he Duressed me seeing Drainx2, Brainstormx2, mana & accelerations ( no fetches ). He thought hard and opted to discard Drain. BoB plus double Squees recursion can pull out a quick win, so he decided to discard my counters. Once I got my first turn, I quickly Brainstormed once and found Walk. I Walked once and Brainstormed for the second time after fetching for U.Sea. Into this proces, I found Demonic Tutor. I used it to Crypt-away his grave. He was astonished by the card that I maindecked this time and the game was getting worse for him. He put out another land and another Duress ( for Drain#2 ). We both cannot optimize our spells/permanents because of a little flood. We draw go for two turns and he Bazaarred only once, discarding Swarm, Land and Dragon. Then he managed to resolve another Swarm. I cannot coounter and it resolved. I had 6 mana on table, and I have been able to chain M.Scroll for A.Recall and a TFK. I discarded two lands holding my ever present Chain of Vapor, a FoW and a blue card into my hand. I bounced Swarm back to his hand during his UpK and then I countered it during his first mainphase. He Bazaarred once, discarding Deep and resolved it too. He then passed the turn. My deck showed me my own FoF that transmuted itself into a "Gifts+1" deadly configuration of cards ( Recoup, Mystical, Lotus, Academy and Needle ). He scooped as soon as he realized that he cannot divide cards into two piles without giving to me a secure way to Y.Will into brokeness.
Game 2.
I opted to side in T.Crypts#2, Darkblast#1 ( for Swarms ), ToA and H.Recall#1, switching them for Tinker, DSC, M.Scroll#2 and TFK#4. My pre-match, menthal plan, consisted of being able to resolve one or two bounce spells and ToA in order to win past through his hate ( I was sure about his T.Crypts and maybe Rods ). He had no FoWs, so I had to fear only Swarms and Duresses. During this game, he was cursed by double mulligan and I take a breath of relief. My hand was rock solid and no Duresses or Animate spells resolved. During turn 3 I had mana, bounce and Tutors. He had 2 T.Crypts in play. I bounced hate back, forcing him to break one to RFG out of the game strong but not so crucial things into my grave. Then I replaced my Moxen and killed him with ToA and Recoup ToA in two subsequent turns. I could have played an additional ToA grabbing it out of the game thanks to B.Wish, but it had not been necessary this time.

2-0

Round3 - MUD-Monobrown - Beasts for Lunch?
Game 1
....
....
To Be Continued...

[Dxfiler]

I understand you report has alot of detail every round, and respect that... but why is it to be continued?

You literally cut off your report at what I think is round 3.  It was hard for me to follow the report because you didn't mention rounds or who you played against.

I understand you're from Italy, so the jargon may be a little different than what I'm normally used to reading, but it would be easier to follow if you went:

Round 1 vs UBG-oath

<description of match>

I like what you wrote so far, as it's very descriptive and your list looks good.  I just don't understand why it's "to be continued..."

I'm pretty sure you could have gotten in everything you wanted to say about a medium sized tourney you won in a single report.  Cutting it off at round three completely distorts the flow of it and could potentially make people not want to read the second half.

Just some friendly criticism.

- Dave Feinstein

[Webster]

I understand you report has alot of detail every round, and respect that... but why is it to be continued?

You literally cut off your report at what I think is round 3.  It was hard for me to follow the report because you didn't mention rounds or who you played against.

I understand you're from Italy, so the jargon may be a little different than what I'm normally used to reading, but it would be easier to follow if you went:

Round 1 vs UBG-oath

<description of match>

I like what you wrote so far, as it's very descriptive and your list looks good.  I just don't understand why it's "to be continued..."

I'm pretty sure you could have gotten in everything you wanted to say about a medium sized tourney you won in a single report.  Cutting it off at round three completely distorts the flow of it and could potentially make people not want to read the second half.

Just some friendly criticism.

- Dave Feinstein

For the rare instances when I write a full report, I find it useful to write down as much as I can as soon as I can because I don't take notes about what happened. As a result of not taking notes, if I forget what happened, I have nothing to fall back on. With that in mind, a reason why this is a partial report could be because Maxx was trying write down as much information as possible before retiring to bed.


Web

[MaxxMatt]

Round 3 - MUD-Monobrown - Beasts for Lunch
Game 1
I knew a lot about my opponent. He is trong and he was playing some sort of MW.dec; I was not aware about the exact deck that hechoosen this time because he can switch from 5c-stacks to MUD-monobrown, but his love for Workshops, always let his opponents have at least this menthal advantage over him. I mulliganed a mana light first hand ( with FoW ) and I kept a second hand of FoW, Brainstorm, 3 mana to put on table and Mystical Tutor. He won the roll and resolved a first turn Triskelion  with 3 mana still open. He usually play tricky matches, bluffing and making opponents think hard. I was sure that Trisk wasn't his only first turn spell. At that time, I was fearing Trinisphere or CotV or Spheres or Resistances far more than this creature, so I let Triskelion resolve. He tapped MW too and resolved Tangle Wire which I countered removing Brainstorm. My next draw was Y.Will and I developed my own mana on table. He untapped, beated me with Triskelion and then played another Wire, followed by Stripmine. I managed to Mystical Tutor for Rebuild but fail to hit 3 mana on table during the remaining turns of the game and I lost the first game. My bad habit of understimating creatures cursed for me and I have no reasons to discredit his win: I made a single bad evaluation and lose a game .
Game 2
I put into the deck both H.Recall and R&R. I toyed about playing with maindeck S.Spree too, leaving ToA into side for a backup plan. I started surfing through the deck and I realized that the worse cards against him were both Tinker and DSC, because of multiple Wires and Duplicants. I mumbled about the risk of being Jester Capped to death during the first/second turn of the second game: I weighted that because I was starting this game, I have a lesser rate on being cursed by this stupid dead. I opted to side out both Tinker and DSC, aside with T.Crypt and TFK#4. In their slots, I put ToA, H.Recall, R&R and S.Spree. I have more defences, more ways to combo him off and a lot less "dead" cards. I would have changed the plan during the eventual Game 3, when he would be on the play again.
I started in a good way with land, mox pass, FoW in hand and a couple of business spells ready to be played. He mulliganed once and started with Wasteland, Mox and SoR. No tricks this time for him. I thought about some perverted ones but they were TOO contorted to be possible ( Land, Mox, SoR only to see it countered, Lotus, Mox, Bomb ). EoT, I Mystically Tutored for Ancetral, drew into 3 fresh cards and a global artifact removal. In the subsequent 2 turns, he played Metalworker, Karn and T.Crypt that I let them resolve, because of the Rebuild into my hand. I toyed a bit about expanding my mana development and decided to bounce things up to his hand. Into the process, he RFGed my grave out of the game thanks to T.Crypts and while he had just lowered a bit my life points because of Metalworker & Karn's attacks. With that hand and board situation, the mana on table, recurirng Moxen and Chain of Vapors iteself, let me rise the storm count up to 12 and win with a single ToA.
Game 3
I noticed him switching cards, so I thought about him siding in and out some CotVs, depending on who was going to start... Of course, I was going to do the same. I sided in Titan, Tinker, DSC, leaving in ToA too. The first J.Cap's hit would have not killed me and I felt safer now than during game two. Retrospectively speaking, I opted for another strange but effective cards' swap. I sided out the only cards that could be considered almost dead when facing denial decks or locking ones and you are not on the play: Mana Drains. -4 Drains, -1T.Crypt, -1 M.Scroll and I added, Titan, ToA, R&R, H.Recall, S.Spree. ( I obviously reintroduced in TFK#4 ). He lead with CotV for 0 and Smokestack and I responded with Volcanic and S.Spree on Smoke. He Wasted me and resolved SoR. I played fetch and passed the turn while he resolved a Tangle Wire. I continued to put in play unwastable lands and he continued to resolve soft lock pieces. With me at three mana open on table during my upkeep I resolved TFK, that showed me FoF, Land and R&R. I discarded an useless Mox and drew into Rebuild. He started beating me with Metalworker and managed to resolve CotV for 2 to protect his future threats from my Mana Drains. He followed it with Triskelion and I decided to kill both him and Metalworker with R&R, taking Rebuild for other desperate situations. We draw go for almost the rest of the game, with me drawing and sculpting my hand while him cursed by an extraordinary mana flood. I showed him B.Wish, Walk and Y.Will to force his concession and refresh us with a more relaxing beer

3-0


Round 4 - UBw-Madness - No Mercy for the Wimps
Game 1
I faced the deck I discovered to be my nightmare: UBw-Madness. He had quick and huge beasts, resilient removals, almost uncounterable drawers and good counterspells. I had to see my own 1of special tools in order to stop him from winning and they could have tried to save the game for me only if they would have showed faster than his creatures. An usual start involving Mongrels and FoW or Bazaar, C.Logics and Squees, usually put him on the winning side of the table. It had a lot of tricks too that I was unware of, and I died without too much to do almost both the games. He started with Bazaar, Lotus, Mongrel, which I FoWilled and he FoWilled back. Mongrel discarded Deep Anal and he draw two more cards, draw 2 with Bazaar and then discarded Squee and another Deep. I played Land, Mo, Walk, Land, Go with an active Drain into hand. He weighted my hand and started drawing cards with Bazaar, beating me with his Mongrel and being able to recur Squeex2 during this process every turn. I drained his Deep Analisys only to see him resolving Time Walk. He then discarded Walla with Mongrel and in the Walk turn he repeated the previous processes, but with a Mongrel and a Walla in play. I was at 4 ilife point in 3 turns and I tried to desperately save me with Mystical for Tinker. He smiled and showed both C.Logic and StP, arguing with me about which death I would have preferred to embrace
Game 2
I was in trouble, because none of my side cards ( aside T.Crypt ) can be considered a "good" sideboard card to add during the Madness matchup. I tried to focus on what could have let me win this game. No Y.Will or late game plans, because he would bring in 2-3 T.Crypts and probably 3-4 Orim's Chant. I could only try to win with a quick race ( both DSC and Titan in ) of my fatties or try to stop his Drawers in a better way. Mana Drains clunked into my hands too often when playing against Madness, but I was on the play so I could have optimized my first turns plays in a better way. So, I added in 3 Duress and a single ReB. It would have helped me more than Drain, expecially if I would have seen them into my initial hand. Titan and T.Crypt saw play instead of TFK#4 and Pearl. My initial hand, contained a first turn Tinker. He let me resolve it and DSC hit the board. I saw him smiling at my play, damn. He played Tundra, Lotus and tried to StP my fatboy. I FoWilled it and he FoWilled back too. Then he resolved Mongrel and passed the turn. I draw into nothing of consequence for 2 turns ( land and Brainstorm ) and nothing crucial come into my hand. He discarded both Walla and Deep again, trying to gain more advantage over me. I Brainstormed into a T.Crypt and reset his grave, but those creatures were beating me down and I have no gas excluding TFK. His C.Logic got Duressed away but TFK revealed me only Chain of Vapors while his attackers were two

3-1

Round 5 - Urw-Control - One, noone, thousands' ones
Game 1 & 2
I played against an URw-control deck that don't impress me for his "speed". He played it "landstill-style", but without too much mana accelerations. He played a single spell every turn without being able to do nothing "extraordinary". I had 2 busted hands with restricted cards and synergic protections; he tryed to counterspell me twice and more without too much effort and I won with ToA both games.

4-1

Round 6 - UR-Fish - Seven little Indians
Game 1
I was going to face UR-Fish. He had the exact compendium of spells that you would not face during the match would have decided our reciprocal Top8's entrance. By the way, I went cursed by a "statistical" mana screw instead of an "induced" one, both game 1 and 3. I mulliganed a no-land-hand into a new one, risky but interesting. I remember the spell sequence so well because his hand seemed the perfect one to kill mine. I played U.Sea, Mana Crypt ( Head=Damage as usual ) and Pithing Needle, blindily naming Wasteland. He let me resolve it, so I managed to play Merchant Scroll for Ancestral too. I was holding FoW, hoping to use it to protect my own Ancestral. He started Land, Petal, Rod, which I though about countering. I have no Brainstorm in my hand and a Demonic Tutor that I would have likely tried to resolve next turn, after the A.Recall. So I FoWilled it and he Dazed my own FoW. Damn. That worst scenario is becoming real . I drew no other lands, but the "strong" Recoup showed up itself. I tried to A.Recall but he Misdirected it to himself. I cursed my self for my decision to keep this hand and proceeded to see him beating me with 2 1/1 for almost 5 turns. I saw another land only when Mishra's Factory started to reinforce his army. I lose with a lot of red, black and blue unplayable spells into my hand.
Game 2.
I was a bit confused on how to approach that (last? ) crucial game. He would have reduced the impact of a midgame Y.Will with multiple T.Crypts and ReBs would have been sided-in too. I tried to figure how to kill him without being too predictable. T.Crypt went out for Titan while Drain#4 became Piroclasm. At this point I added ReB, Darkblast and H.Recall for TFK#4, Drain#3 and M.Scroll. I have a lot of different tools now, that can race his denial but they were almost off color. During this game his deck failed to let him play and he mulliganed down to five, without too much to do during the 4 turns that this game went on. I killed his only land with Titan ( he FoWilled but I FoWilled it back ) and I won with it 3 turns later, nearly undisturbed.
Game 3.
I was completely satisfied by my own sideboarding decisions, but I missed the secure sensation that Duress can give to you when facing tricky decks. I put them in and out at least three times before starting the game, but in the entire deck, I was not able to find a single sacrificable spell to make room for them. They are terribly off color too and I blessed myself after this game for my choice of leaving them in my sideboard. I won this game with only two island in play for the total lenght of the game and all my artifact mana on table, WHILE Null Rodx2 and T.Cryptsx2 were controlling my board. He was unlucky at drawing and resolved Rod first and then T.Crypt. I started good with 3 mana on table ( mox mox island ) but TFK got countered and my own Drain on his Rod went FoWilled. He seemed a bit without gas, but I had nothing to resolve, too. His Shaman killed part of my board and I was continously topdcking shit like moxen, Red Spells and Black Spells. When another Island came in my hand, I took a breath of relief. H.Recall was ready to be played and I waited only my own third mana font in order to avoid Daze. I H.Recalled back his artifacts and replayed both Y Will and Walk and Ancestral and Lotus and Moxen and Chain ( rising up the storm count, too ) and a gigantic ToA for 38 life points of damage killed him in a single shot.

5-1


Quarterfinals - MUD-Monobrown - Beasts for dinner
Game 1 & 2
I don't remember well this game, but I felt well during both of them. He shoudl have mulligened down to 5 his second hand because it only had Wasteland, Mox, SoR.


---
---

To Be Continued. I'm too tired to continue writing and I'm expecting general tourney results from my friends too. Tomorrow I would add both of them here. See you.

[MaxxMatt]

....
I understand you're from Italy, so the jargon may be a little different than what I'm normally used to reading, but it would be easier to follow if you went:

Round 1 vs UBG-oath
<description of match>

...so the missing part of my report is only the "<<vs. UBR-Oath>> tag".
The same "tag" that I summarized in the first part of the report.
Why I summarize first and then started to report?
Because today, yesterday and tomorrow I had really a few time to dedicate on writing detailed and long reports, breakdown and friend's reports.
If you know me and my old reports, you would have seen HOW MANY things I try to add to them in order to have them detailed and interesting. I usually report more than my own results. I usually cover ALL the breakdown and deck's categories and other interesting reports.

//sarcasm on//
On the other hand, without the summary you would have not realized which winning path I followed because I was aware not being able to write the report in a single shot.

After reading it I supposed that would be easy to connect

Turn 1 - UGb-Oath - 2-0

to

Turn 1
Game 1
..
Game 2
...

Thanks for suggesting me a clearer way to write
//sarcasm off//



Webster's answer covered the last feelings I had towards my writing methods for this report.
I would complete the report tomorrow and I would add as much details as I can.
I'll hope that these readings and European info are of some interest.
Enjoy
 

[TheDB]

One confusing part, that I think Dave is trying to point out, is that you are calling the rounds "turns".

Which makes it hard to read the report.

[MaxxMatt]

_

Touchè. My bad.
I would edit for clarifications, thanks
...Back to the report now!!!



@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Quarterfinals - MUD-Monobrown - Beasts for dinner
Game 1
He should have mulliganed his first hand. He thought hard and more than a minute; then he procedeed to resolve Emerald, Wasteland and SoR. It is a good play, I tried to think if that spell could have stopped too much my win. I had a couple of cc1 spells and a single mox. On the other hand, I had FoW, TFK and 2 Fetches. SoR would have forced me to resolve TFK not before turn 3. Too late to have a decent bust. I decided to FoW his spell and he proceeded to pass the turn, without resolving nothing nastier than it.
My turn was blessed by Ancestral Recalls' draw, that showed me other accelerations and a Brainstorm. I had 4 permanents on table and 4 cards in hand, not bad for a first turn start against a clunked MW.dec. He revealed another Wasteland and a Tangle Wire. I was unable to counter it, but I "mumbled over dedicidng to play some spells for a while", trying to mimic a possible answer to that little threat. Then they resolved. During my upkeep I float some mana to resolve both TFK and Brainstorm. They showed me more gas ( Gifts ) and B.Wish. Cool. I tried to arrange a stylish win, only focusing on Storming as high as possible. His turn ended with land mox smokestack and nothing more. My mana development and the Chain of Vapor into my hand choosen for me. Smokestack resolve. Another Fetchland/Brainstorm combination revealed me Y.Will and Rebuild too. So I M.Tutored for Walk during the Upkeep, I Walked into a new turn B.Wishing for ToA and then, during my upkeep, I tap 3 mox for the wire, I bounced them back to my hand, I replayed them all, I Rebuilded them into my hand again and then resolved Y.Will to repeat the same process too. The seen of that black card forced his concession.
Game 2
I was on the draw again against a MW.dec. My feelings of being too often unable to drain resources forced me to think about siding out those counters again. My drawers/tutors compendium is always useful on gaining advantage over him and I have to add solutions too. My choice consisted on switching 4 Drains and a T.Crypt for 1 R&R, 1 H.Recall, 1 Shattering Spree, Sundering Titan and ToA. At now, I had 4 maindeck winning conditions and a full set of answers for his threats. I was confidant on this sideboarding tecnique, because I tried in in test a lot and many games were won on this way: Opponents would fear your Drains and they would play more conservatively while you have a full set of answers and you can try to "goldfish" against him, with only minor annoyances.
That was another strange game. He had a better start with a first turn Smokestack and CotV for 0. I doesn't auto-scoop because, he consumed a lot of cards in hand into that process ( a couple of moxen, crypt and wasteland ) and I have both Mystical tutor and the two necessarily lands to tutor for Chain or Spree in two turns. I luckily draw FoW during my draw phase and I was able to counter his second turn CotV for 1 . I then resolved M.Tutor for Spree, killed my land and I resolved Spree on Smoke. He continued to draw ONLY a single card every turn but he found and played that damned third CotV@3. I was nearly as shoked as hungered for this lucky draws, but it is a card's game so I gulped hard and menthally invoke for some justice! My next two turns were the needed land and H Recall, while his next plays where nothing and Bottle Cloister. I cannot believe that he played it and I had a so "yummy" opportunity to reset his board. In response to the Cloister trigger, I played H.Recall, all his board went into his hand and he had all the artifacts completely freezed out of the game. With this single play, I was able to re-establish some sort of balance and my deck followed to bless me with mana, drawers, tutors and Tinker in a quick and deadly sequence. I shaked his hand hard and went to play my Semifinal!

6-1


Semifinals - 5C-Affinity - The Show Must Go On
Game 1
Affinity can be broken. It is as good as a "combo deck", when artifacts, drawers and critters, appear with a good timing into opponent's hand. I tried to focus on my deck, talking with him and trying to convince it that it can be as good as any combo one. Not always I have the pleasure to speak with human beings and be understood. This time, I reached this goal with an inanimated one .
He played land mox Disciple. It resolved. I played Sapphire, Pearl, Lotus, Ancestral, Academy, Mystical Tutor ( for FoF, because Gifts is into my hand too ), Walk, Sol Ring. He tried not to be RFGed from the game, trying to argue about my big ass, but the crowd all around me was going crazy supporting me as an hero. We are all aware about the card that followed during my next draw phase, aren't you? I drew into Y.Will, then Chained back things making spells, then I Mystically Tutored for B.Wish, I resolved FoF and TFK going up to 10 cards into hand, THEN.... I played another turn, completely freezing all the people in the room. I have half of the deck out of the game, and nothing more than 20 cards into the deck. It was only the second turn. I looked at the ones seeing my match, then I argued about something called "being able to play the entire deck in three turns" and then proceeded to draw or tutor the remaining cards. The opponent was as much enterteined as them. I stopped the process with exactly 2 cards left into my hand, a DSC in play, ToA in hand and 4 Drains and 4 FoW into my hand. All the rest of the deck was RFGed or played. He smiled at me, attacked with his Disciple saying: "Concede"?
Game 2
I was so happy about the performance done that I was going to forgot sideboard cards. I checked a bit without finding anything useful. Some artifacts removals and nothing more. I added only H.Recall, Darkblast and R&R. Then I weighted about how poor are the two latters against multiple targets or weenies/fatties so I decided to put in only H.Recall. I sided out TFK#4. He played first and had a better start. Double Worker and Skullclamp. I let him resolve the critters but I countered the Clamp. Then the game went on with me Drawing cards and him beating me with double Worker first, then with Workerx2 and Ravager, then with Workerx2, Ravager, Frogmite and M.Enforcer.. then... then!??!!? WHAT?!?!? ....then I realized that I was a bit mana & life short too soon and that I let him resolve too many spells without countering anything BUT... with the FoWs and the Drains into my hand... Snort! I had both Y.Will and B.Wish in hand, a medium sized grave and M.Tutor/Brainstorm/Walk into the grave. Y.Will let me play Tinker and Walk. B.Wish let me grab Walk again. Recoup helped me play Walk another time. Affinity is dead! Long life to Affinity!

7-1



Finals - UB-TPS - Believe me, I'm God! No way to deal with me!
I was aware of his deck and I tested a lot against him both pre and post side. Preside, I cannot win more than 40% of the game. Post side our reciprocal winning percentages usually switch together. There is little to nothing excitement playing when you are almost aware about possible endings or lucky factors connected to the same wins.  We decided to split the prices, go to the restaurant where the organizer arranged a party for his birthday and I got the win too because of the perfect behavour of my last opponent. I made some many kilometers to reach the tourney's place that he rewarded me dropping into my favour.

8-1




The party went on for a while, we eat in a futuristic bar/restaurant/pub made of steel and glass, glossy lights, asimmetric tables and a computerized media-entarteinement system. Whoa!!! and Kudòòs!!! for it and the beauty girls inside. Leffe-beer is the best I reached my own 400-km-far-from-there house later, faaaaar more later! ...but this is another history

Thanks again and more and again and more and again to the "male angel" that brought me at home... without sexual need involved!!! What the luck!!!! Thanks "Kalle", thank you!







"...And now, something completely different!

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56 Players
K16 - REL 2
6 Swiss' Rounds + Top8


I played against and seen all around a lot of skilled players.
We had at least 80% of powered decks this time.
It is astonishing on HOW MANY complete P9s were resident on that Italian area!
I was sure about finding good decks and good players, but NOT so many
I saw a lot of "international" decks too.
Pitch-Long and USA-$t4k$ showed on and I saw really an hell of different versions of "Gifts.decs".
I was the only one playing the "controllish" version of this deck, while all the other players where playing MDGifts or a new Italian and more Combo-Oriented one ( no TPC, more Tutors and ToAx2 as winner ). The latter is similar to Thug's Gifts version but withour Red and without Confidants.
We had traditional TPS and Dragons too. A lot of players tried to "upgrade" with a lot of success their unpowered Fishes.dec adding p9s and the third color ( UBR, WBU, WUR, BR and so on... ).
I was a bit surprised seeing only a single C.Slavery and almost no WelderMUDs, because they are usually the decks of choice in that area.





Top Tiers after the last swiss round

SWISS:
1° Marchi Fabrizio aka Shaman, TPS UB, 18 pt (6-0!)
2° Mattioli Massimo aka MaxxMatt, MySexyGiftsForYou, 15 pt
3° Zanotto Andrea aka Thrall, UGw - Pink Shit, 14 pt
4° Larcher Mario aka Krimine, UGw - Madness, 13 pt
5° Di Pace Alex, TPS UB, 13 pt
6° Giulianini Rodolfo, 5C-Affinity, 13 pt
7° Slongo Davide aka Jotarokujo, MUD-Stacker, 13 pt
8° Azzalini Carlo aka Infernalover, Urb-Control Slavery, 13 pt
9° Valsesia Edoardo aka ev, TPS UB, 13 pt ( out for rating )


I can summarize Top8s results and matches.

Top8s results

Quarterfinals
UB-TPS vs Urb-C-Slavery - 1-2
MySexyGifts vs MUD-Stacker - 2-0
PinkShit vs 5C-Affnity - 1-2
UGw-Madness vs UB-TPS - 0-2

Semifinals
Ubr-C-Slavery vs UB-TPS - 0-2
MySexyGifts vs Affinity - 2-0

Finals
MysexyGifts vs UB-TPS - 2-0 ( by drop )


Final Standings - ( I would add decks categories and breakdown as soon as it will be ready )


Deck - Place - Name - Swiss Points+OtherPoints
3C-Control Gifts - 1   Mattioli   Massimo   n.d.   15   10   25   2   
UB-TPS - 2   Dipace   Alex   n.d.   13   8   21   5   
5C-Affinity - 3   Giulianini   Rodolfo   n.d.   13   6   19   6   
3C-C-Slavery - 4   Azzalini   Carlo   n.d.   13   5   18   8   
UB-TPS - 5   Marchi   Fabrizio   n.d.   18   4   22   1   
3C-PinkShit - 6   Zanotto   Andrea   n.d.   14   3   17   3   
3C-Madness - 7   Larcher   Mario Namtao Shianti   n.d.   13   2   15   4   
MUD-Monobrown - 8   Slongo   Davide   n.d.   13   1   14   7   
UB-TPS - 9   Valsesia   Edoardo   n.d.   13       13       
10   Gereon   Andrea   n.d.   12       12       
11   Marchiori   Thomas   n.d.   12       12       
12   Bin   Mattia   n.d.   12       12       
13   Pinto   Antonio   n.d.   12       12       
14   Bonato   Alessandro   n.d.   12       12       
15   Trettel   Marco   n.d.   12       12       
3C-MadDragon - 16   Baxter   Nicholas   n.d.   12       12       
UB-StormGifts - 17   Callegari   Matteo   n.d.   12       12       
18   Baggio   Fabio   n.d.   10       10       
19   Lenzi   Roberto   n.d.   10       10       
20   Zavan   Alessio   n.d.   10       10       
21   Colledan   Fabrizio   n.d.   9       9       
22   Magalini   Emanuele   n.d.   9       9       
23   Equisetto   Francesco   n.d.   9       9       
3C-Dragon - 24   Ferragotto   Carlo   n.d.   9       9       
25   Trintinaglia   Diego   n.d.   9       9       
26   Basso   Andrea   n.d.   9       9       
27   Romanelli   Marco   n.d.   9       9       
28   Piva   Marcello   n.d.   9       9       
29   Zanatta   Paolo   n.d.   9       9       
30   Cicolella   Andrea   n.d.   9       9       
31   Barovier   Nicolò   n.d.   9       9       
32   Pini   Francesco   n.d.   9       9       
33   Fabris   Marco   n.d.   9       9       
34   Tassini   Alessandro   n.d.   7       7       
35   De Vanna   Francesco   n.d.   7       7       
UB-StormGifts - 36   Oss   Alberto   n.d.   7       7       
MD-Gifts - 37   Oppo   Alessandro   n.d.   6       6       
38   Scremin   Mauro   n.d.   6       6       
39   Cartelli   Federico   n.d.   6       6       
40   Romanelli   Emanuele   n.d.   6       6       
41   Pini   Stefano   n.d.   6       6       
42   Chieregato   Emmanuel   n.d.   6       6       
43   Dellai   Andrea   n.d.   6       6       
3C-MW-Slavery - 44   Cavalera   Riccardo   n.d.   6       6       
45   Grassi   Mauro   n.d.   6       6       
46   Bridarolli   Walter   n.d.   6       6       
47   Mason   Gianfilippo   n.d.   6       6       
48   Rotunno   Alessandro   n.d.   4       4       
49   Ceccato   Alberto   n.d.   4       4       
50   Mason   Nicola   n.d.   4       4       
51   Delaiti   Gino   n.d.   4       4       
52   Chiarato   Alessandro   n.d.   3       3       
53   Borgan   Giacomo   n.d.   3       3       
54   Fagarazzi   Massimo   n.d.   3       3       
55   Ferrarelli   Alessandro   n.d.   0       0       
56   Gusi   Manuel   n.d.   0       0


More, more & more to come... ( it isn't a porn-kudos )

[MaxxMatt]

I rewrite and correct almost all the report, trying to fix grammar and add more contents.
They are mixed together and not added to the bottom, so you can reread again all the words written

Enjoy!!!

MaxxMatt

PS: Statistical data are a bit slow to be assembled. Sorry.

[Kelme]

I just want to drop by and say that this is to date one of the best reports Ive ever read.
Thank you.

[Shaman]

Hi maxx, THIS is a huge report! Congrats for your finish and your report as well. It has been a pleasure for us seeing you coming up and playing at our tournament, and I am really pleased by your win that I think is really deserved.

I hope we'll face against each other at the next tournament: this time I missed a great chance to reach the final, since I lost in the quaterfinals due to an unperfect play from my part that cost me that match.

I appreciate your work as deckbuilder and your "therotical" attitude towards the Game: an attitude that has proved to be somewhat "practical" and efficient as well, now that you took home the whole thing.