Hello,
It's been a long time since I've been to a big Magic event.
When I got the confirmation that there would be a scheduled Type I side-event at
PT Venice, I was settled. I booked a cheap flight thanks to Ryan Air and told
friends (qualified for the PT) that I would come.
3 days before leaving, I realise that I have no hotel and that the others had
already arranged a room for 3 without me
Fortunately, my girlfriend studied in Venice and she has a friend who still
lives there. So, she gives a few phone calls, get in touch with Kuno and make
sure I can sleep there, so I could concentrate on what to play.
Since Mask has been popularised by Chris Flaaten, I have always wanted to build
a non-black competitive Illusionary Mask deck. The card is so funny, but black
discard doesn't sound appealing to me. In April 2002, I tried to build a U/r
version with counters and a lot of digging cards like Impulse. I took it too a
local tournament in Belgium in July 2002 and went 3-1-0 in a weak field. So, I
dropped the deck and started working on an U/W version with Intuition and
Argivian Find. But it was too slow compared to other combo decks like
Pandeburst, so I just set the idea aside.
Some time ago, I had a look at some discussions on Full English Breakfast (the
Survival deck designed by Paul Barclay killing in one turn with Volrath's
Shapeshifter, see
http://www.neutralground.net/Forums/ForumItem.asp?NewsID=1205)going on on themanadrain.com. I always thought that it wasn't possible to port
FEB to Type I successfully. But then it hit me: why not add Illusionary Mask to
the deck, since there already was Nought in the deck. That's how Vengeur Masqué
was born.
I tested 2 Willbender and 2 Voidmage Apprentice, then kept only 1 Apprentice and
put 3 Brainstorm (combo with fetchlands and Survival).
I tested a bit more in the plane with Gert Coeckelbergh, then in Venice with
other Belgian players who suggested me to add Flowstone Hellion like in FEB to
get a kill in one turn. Since I wanted a streamlined version, I had first
discarded the idea. But testing proved that it would be a nice addition, so
Saturday morning, I looked frantically after a Hellion, but nobody had one of
course, not even the 3 dealers on site.
So, this is what I played:
Vengeur Masqué:
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Genesis
1 Nantuko Vigilante
2 Quirion Ranger
4 Survival of the Fittest
3 Wall of Roots
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Ancestral Recall
3 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Gilded Drake
1 Morphling
1 Time Walk
1 Tradewind Rider
1 Voidmage Apprentice
3 Volrath's Shapeshifter
1 Black Lotus
4 Illusionary Mask
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
2 Flooded Strand
4 Forest
4 Island
2 Polluted Delta
4 Tropical Island
1 Wooded Foothills
Sideboard:
1 Druid Lyrist
1 Elvish Lyrist
1 Naturalize
1 Ravenous Baloth
2 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
3 Back to Basics
2 Misdirection
1 Suq'Ata Firewalker
1 Waterfront Bouncer
1 Bottle Gnomes
The tournament was supposed to start at 5 pm, but was delayed, then we had to
move and finally started the 5 swiss rounds at 6 pm.
There were 22 players, plenty of power cards and even 2 PT regulars playing
keeper (Mickey P and Victor van den Broeck).
Round 1: Emanuele Canavari - U/b/r Psychatog
He starts on fire with Land, Lotus, Mox, but doesn't do anything. I get a Mask
out, he plays Future Sight, I flip a Nantuko Vigilante to get rid of it. He is
displeased, wondering which jank I am playing. I hit him twice with the Insect,
he plays a Tog. I draw into a Nought and Mr Teeth's grin suddenly fades away. He
Ice the Nought, I untap it with Quirion Ranger and swing.
Game 2 he starts with Gush followed by Fact or Fiction (revealing a Control
Magic). I have a Tradewind Rider which delays his nasty enchantment. He plays
Yawgmoth's Will, I Force and he counters. I scoop.
Game 3 I play Tropical Island, Lotus, Ancestral, Mask and Nought. Next turn, he
Ice my Nought, I play a Wall of Roots and a 2nd Nought. That's all she wrote...
2-1, 3 points.
Round 2: Michael Pustilnik - 4 color control
I played Mickey P several times already and I enjoy playing him a lot. We played
a few games the day before so he knows my deck. He has a pretty tight mana
distribution (26 mana sources, 2 Factories) and always manages to draw what he
needs (like Lotus Balance when I locked him with a Dwarven Miner).
Game 1 he goes Lotus Ancestral turn 1. I play a second turn Survival that he
forces, I force back and he cracks his Lotus to drain my Force. Next turn he
geysers himself for 5. He plays his lone Shaman that I force. I play Mask, he
forces. I play a Shapeshifter, he wishes for Diabolic Edict to get rid of the
Shifter and casts Timetwister. He casts Morphling, I Force. I play another Mask,
he drains. The next Mask hits, but all I can play is a Birds of Paradise. He
casts Mystical Tutor on Braingeyser, casts Balance, Geyser himself for 7.
I don't draw any Dreadnought and he beats me with 2 Factories.
I side in the Back to Basics and Misdirection.
He goes turn 1 Fact or Fiction that I split like this: Drain, Plow and Flooded
Strand or Stroke of Genius and REB. He takes the Stroke and REB. I get a second
turn Mask out, but he plays Mox Monkey and kills it. Man, how did he manage to
draw his lone Monkey and get 6 mana on turn 2? He goes turn 3 Stroke for 3 with
REB backup for my Force. He then proceeds to Mind Twist away my hand; I was
holding 2 Mask and Morphling. I top deck a Survival of the Fittest, hoping to
draw a creature, but Mike has Dismantling Blow ready for it that he kicks of
course. I then cast a Shapeshifter that got drained. Mike follows with a Geyser
for 8. I concede at that point, there is nothing you can do to beat Yoda.
0-2, 3 points.
Round 3: Fabrizio Torretta - Goblin burn
I force his turn 1 Lackey, play a Mask and get a timely Nought. I get a Voidmage
Apprentice and top deck a Force of Will. I have to use both of them to stay
alive. He dies with me at 2 life.
Side in Baloth and Gnomes.
Game 2, I get a turn 1 Survival out, turn 2 Wall of Roots, turn 3 Baloth. He
concedes soon after.
2-0, 6 points.
Round 4: David Beduzzi - Psychatog
David is quite friendly. He plays with 4 Pernicious Deed, which is rather
annoying for me.
He gets a turn 1 Library of Alexandria. That should be game, as I don't have
anything to get rid of it. I play a turn 2 Survival that he forces, then a turn
3 survival that resolves followed by a turn 4 Mask to play Quirion Ranger and a
Nought. He plays a Deed, I counter it. He edicts hitting the Wall), then casts
Gush with 4 cards in hand (6 with the 2 Islands that go back in his hand), I
counter it with Voidmage Apprentice, so he isn't able to use his Library
anymore. He plays a 2nd Deed that resolves and things go downhill for me from
there on.
Game 2 he has an early Library again. I play a second turn Mask, third turn
Nought, but he drops Deed. I still manage to hit him once for 12. I play a
Shapeshifter which is 0/1. He goes down to 1 due to fetchlands and forces. I get
out Back to Basics, he is not that much disrupted thanks to Gush but at least it
stops Library cold. He drops an Atog and I top deck Waterfront Bouncer. Since I
can block with Shapeshifter, then attack for one with the Bouncer, or just wait
for his end of turn to bounce Tog and swing for 1, he concedes.
So it *is* possible to win facing an early Library.
Game 3 I get another good start with turn 2 Survival, turn 3 Birds, turn 4 Mask
and Nought while he is stuck at 2 mana. Alas time is called and I am one turn
short of killing him. But David is a good sport and concedes.
2-1, 9 points.
Round 5: ID
3-1-1 makes it for sure, there will be a 3-2-0 who makes it.
I took some pictures and relax.
It's finally Alexandre Darras, playing Devil's Bile (Nether Void) that I lent
him that makes it as 8th seed after a controversial concession from his
opponent.
The top 8 looks as follow:
1 Marco Ardoino (5C Donate)
2 Marko Cicin Sain (G/R)
3 Me (Vengeur Masqué)
4 Vittorio Zaffrani (Turboland)
5 Michael Pustilnik (Keeper)
6 Cyril Meteyer (Zoo)
7 Danilo Marra (keeperish)
8 Alexandre Darras (Void)
The other player with 3-2-0 who doesn't make the cut is Emanuele Canavesi, my
round one opponent.
Marco Ardoino (Donate) beat Alexandre Darras (Void)
Marko Cicin (G/R) beat Danilo Marra (keeperish)
Michael Pustilnik (Keeper) beat Vittorio Zaffrani (Turboland)
Quarters: Cyril Meteyer - Zoo
Cyril is from France, he is pleased to play someone with French as mother
tongue.
He starts with 2 Factories while I get a turn 1 Lotus, Survival, Wall of Roots.
He then casts Timetwister. I can force it but let it go. I play Mask and 2
Dreadnought. He concedes.
Game 2, I play a turn 2 Mask and Nought. I swing, he goes to 7. He attacks with
Mishra's Factory, then cast Balance. He has one more land than I do, but makes
the huge mistake of not sacrificing the Factory, which means I can keep my
Nought in play. That costs him the game. His roommate is happy as he was waiting
for him to leave the tournament site.
Semis: Marko Cicin - G/R
I win the die roll and open with Ranger.
He goes Taiga Kird Ape
I play a Mox, Mask and Nought
He Incinerates the 0/1, I flip it into a 12/12.
On my third turn, I attack for 12 and play a second naught.
That's a turn four kill, folks!
We sideboard, shuffle our decks. I present him my deck to cut and he remarks
that I have some sleeves which are darker (I am using japanese silver sleeves).
He asks for my sleeves to get checked. The judge agrees that I have some marked
sleeves, but there is no pattern. He asks me to change sleeves nonetheless. So,
I have to desleeve the Void deck I lent to Alex, desleeve my deck, and resleeve
my deck. This take some time, my opponent is sorry about asking for calling the
judge, but I tell him he did the right thing.
Game 2, he starts with a Factory and a Strip Mine and Sol Ring, but doesn't get
coloured mana. I kill him on turn 5.
I check the other semi final, Mickey P (keeper) is playing against Marco Ardoino
(Donate). Mike manages to let his opponent think he is in a bad shape while he
is actually controlling the game, so it take some time before he wins. He is so
funny playing with his opponents like a cat with a mouse. I even enjoy it when
*I* am the mouse Which leads us to the...
Finals: Michael Pustilnik - 4 color control
I get out a turn 1 Birds of Paradise than Mike Plows, turn 2 Mask, turn 3
Nought. Mike plays a Shaman, gets rid of Mask, takes a hit from the 12/12
trampler, brainstorms into a Cunning Wish, fetches his Plow from the board, and
takes control of the game. I concede.
This time I board only 1 Back to Basics, as I want to keep as many creatures as
I can for Survival of the Fittest.
Game 2, he misdirects my first turn Ancestral.
'So, you lost?'
'Holy Pikula!'
I get out a Mask and a Naught. He once again drew his Mox Monkey, which kills my
Mask and chumps the Naught. Mike then balances with UU in his mana pool and
sacrifices all his lands to Zuran Orb to go back to 16 with a couple of Moxen
and a Sol Ring in play. I have 2 cards in hand, Tropical Island and Squee, and
Survival of the Fittest on the board, so I keep GG in my pool and Balance
resolves. I fetch Genesis from Survival and then discard it to get a Birds of
Paradise. I top deck a Forest while he is stuck without lands, and he concedes
when I Survival Tradewind Rider.
Game 3 starts strong again with Mike casting Ancestral in my upkeep on turn 1, I
misdirect, he forces. He plays The Abyss, then Timetwister to prevent me from
recurring creatures with Genesis. I play Survival, he drains, I Ancestral, he
REBs, I brainstorm. REB resolves, I Misdirect the Drain and Survival Resolves
(instead of misdirecting the REB on his Drain and get my Ancestral to resolve,
but it's 2:30 am at that point, and we are playing since 6 pm). He untaps, draws
a card, casts is own Ancestral, pokes with his Library of Alexandria, casts
Dismantling Blow on my Survival and takes control of the game, killing me with 2
Mishra's Factories.
This was a great match. That's why I enjoy Type I so much.
I get 10 boosters for my trouble and hang out with Italians and Alex until 6 am,
then go back to Venice (PT site is on Lido which not the main island in Venice)
to get some sleep.
I get up at noon and go sightseeing in one of the most beautiful cities on earth
in a cloudless sky.
Carl
