After not being able to attend to the last two Carta Magica tournaments, I was really pumped up for this one. I arrive at the tournament at around 11h30. I was lucky to do so, because the night before, as I was going to bed a friend called me telling me not to forget that we are changing time (thus I slept an hour less
). Without him I would have missed this tournament for sure.
I lend out a few cards and a deck to Mathieu Bedard. The deck wasn't optimal (mostly the side) and was made in 5 minutes. Still he managed to T8 with it. Nice Job!
So anyways the tournament starts on time, 12h00. With 34 players registered, that will make for 6 rounds of swiss + T8. There were alot of Workshop and Dragon decks present, however I played neither. A friend however got paired up against like 3 Workshops Decks, playing GAT. He won them all.
Here is the deck I was playing:
Control Slaver1 Platinum Angel
1 Pentavus
4 Goblin Welder
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Memory Jar
2 Fire/Ice
2 Mindslaver
1 Tinker
1 Time Walk
2 Cunning Wish
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Library of Alexandria
2 Underground Sea
4 Flooded Strand
4 Volcanic Island
6 Island
SB: 3 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 2 Blue Elemental Blast
SB: 2 Rack and Ruin
SB: 1 Shattering Pulse
SB: 1 Stifle
SB: 1 Echoing Truth
SB: 1 Fire/Ice
SB: 1 Fact or Fiction
SB: 1 Vampiric Tutor
SB: 2 Blood Moon
Round 1: Marc-André playing Goblins
Game 1: He starts the round with a mulligan...then another. That sucks. He then lays a few threats but he is stuck on one land. His Mogg Fanatics prevent me from playing welders and recurring all the pretty stuff in the graveyard. I then procede to draw Fire/Ice! Awsome! so I hit them both, and lay the welder. Since its like turn 6 and he only has a land and a Mana Cyrpt in play, I opt to screw him further with Cunning Wish -> Shattering Pulse. But for some reason I forget to play the pulse! What an ass! He obviously topdecks Gorilla Shaman and destroys my 2 Moxen with the Crypt...I then lose to burn. I'm terrible.
+1 BEB, +1 F/I
-1 Memory Jar, -1 Brainstorm
Game 2:This game starts off rather the same as the last one, with him laying a goblin or two and me just developping my mana base. I have a Pentavus in the graveyard and I topdeck a Mind Slaver. I cast it, and next turn activate it and cast the Goblin Welder I drew. So I wreck his board and beat with Pentavus for the win.
Game 3:He starts with a Chain Lightning to the dome. That's fine. I then start digging through my library with Brainstorm and Thirst, while taking minor
damage from some small goblins. But at one point he caught me by surprise: Wheel of Fortune. Oops! I had just Brainstormed 2 Mindslavers back on top of my library so in response I Ancestral myself in order to discard the slavers. Turns out I didn't need to, since the new hand he gave me let me cast a Pentavus on my turn. 2 Turns later a Platinum Angel joins the fun...That's game!
Games : 2-1
Matchs: 1-0
Round 2: Sebastien St-Louis playing Chains Keeper
Game 1:The game starts off with him casting a 1st turn Isochron Scepter with Impulse. He digs for a while, while I don't have much except 2-3 Brainstroms. Then he goes for the throat: Chains of Mephistopheles. A counter war ensues which I win. Great! So with all that drain mana I happily cast a Pentavus and a welder. What does he do? He drops Humulity. Shit! My hand is depleted so I watch it resolve. I beat down for 2 a turn but not topdecking anything except land and more land. Then he drops another Chains, cycles a Decree, and it ended in 3 turns.
-1 Platinum Angel, -1 Brainstorm, -1 Memory Jar, -1 Mana Vault, -2 F/I
+3 REB, +2 Blood Moon, +1 Fact of Fiction
Game 2:Sebastien was relying solely on non basics, so when I saw that my hand contained: Island, Mox Ruby, Sol Ring, Blood Moon, and the rest utter crap, I thought about it for a while: if he has a FoW, I'm in deep shit, if not then we move on to game 3 without any fuss. I took the gamble
He had the FoW, and then cast a Chains turn 3. Chain just shuts down the deck as I can no longer Brainstorm or Thirst. At one point I was so desperate to get something in my graveyard (active welder on my side, plenty of tokens on his), that I cast Thirst milling myself but to no avail.
Games : 0-2
Matchs: 1-1
I really didn't expect to see this deck and therefore did nothing to prepare for it. Later in the T8 I was just hoping not to face him!
Round 3: Felix playing something bad, awfully bad, "not even close to good in T2" bad.
Game 1: Not much to tell he played a few Wirewood Elf and a bad blue wizard. I tinkered for a Platinum and beat face. What was funny though was the way his eyes just opened in amazment when he read the text on Platinum Angel.
No sideboarding (he didn't have one)
Game 2:Pretty much the same except that this time I Thirst and discarded the Angel only to bring it back using a welder.
Games : 2-0
Matchs: 2-1
Felix was a young kid (12 at most) and he said it was his 1st T1 tournament. However seeing as he arrived with gold-bordered forests in an unsleaved deck I don't doubt it was his 1st tournament. Period.
It wasn't all that bad for him as he still managed to pull of a win against powered academy...how? I just don't know...
Round 4: Mathieu Bernier playing U/B/R control (with Shadowmage Infiltrator)
Game 1:This game started out as many control mirrors do: drop a land, go. Maybe a few Brainstorms here and there but nothing spectacular. Then when I had a convincing hand (2 Thirst, Mindslaver, Welder, counters), I bait a counter with the 1st Thirst. He counters. Hehehe. I untap, Thirst again counter his FoW, drop Welder. The Mind Slaver that followed made him scoop.
-1 Memory Jar, -2 F/I, -1 Platinum Angel
+3 ReB, +1 Fact or Fiction
Game 2:This time I have a very explosive hand: 3 Moxen, 1 land, 1 Tinker, 1 REB and something. Since one of those Moxen was a ruby, I could Tinker 1st turn for Pentavus (with REB back up) and beat down fast. So that's what I did.
Games : 2-0
Matchs: 3-1
At this point I was starving but since we didn't have a lunch break I had to go buy some chocolate bar. Something which I hate to do since they are full of fat and have nothing nutritious. It was sooo good
Round 5: Martin Charette playing U/W Control Belcher (Drains, FoW, StP, Scepters, Charbelcher/Mana Severance)
Game 1:I get an early Pentavus (probably off Tinker) and I'm able to protect it long enough for the win (he was mana short, so that helped too). Simple enough!
-2 F/I, -1 Platinum Angel, -1 Memory Jar, -1 Mana Vault
+3 REB, +2 Blood Moon
Game 2:This on starts off really shity for me: land, mox, Scepter, Orim's Chant!! Ah crap. So I draw go, for a while, but he has me locked. I'm still able to
keep ahead of him because I had a few thirsts in response. I finaly find a Cunning Wish -> Rack and Ruin to destroy that very annoying combo.
I had 6 cards in hand to his 3 with 2 lands to his 1 (1 mox each). You guessed it: during his turn he balanced. So we have to start all over again, except I topdecked better and dropped a Pentavus and a Welder after some time. He StPed the welder and disenchanted the Pentavus. Eventualy though, I got a Blood Moon (he was using all non-basic lands) and finished the game with a huge Yawgmoth's Will.
Games : 2-0
Matchs: 4-1
At this point I'm almost sure of getting into the T8. A draw would be enough.
Round 6: Nick (from Ottawa) playing Rector Trix
We ID into T8, me entering as 5th seed.
Matchs: 4-1-1
We still play the match for fun. Both games he destroyed me.
The first one was a 1st turn kill (Sol Ring, Petal, 2 ritual, Demonic Tutor, Yawgmoth's Will). The second one I kept a sketchy hand and got demolished by duress/therapy.
T8:Jean-Phillipe : U/R Landstill
??? : U/B/G Dragon
Mathieu Bedard : Goblins
Jean Beaulieu : Control Slaver
Nick : Trix
Justin Wilder : GAT
Sebastien St-Louis : Chains Keeper
Martin : Food Chain Goblins
T4:U/R Landstill
Control Slaver
GAT
Food Chain Goblins
FinalsU/R Landstill
Food Chain Goblins
Split!
Round 1: Mathieu Bedard playing Goblins (the one I lent him)
Game 1: This wasn't very close. I get an early Demonic Tutor -> Tinker -> Platinum Angel, which I'm able to protect with ease: 2 Drains, 3 FoW.
-2 Cunning Wish, -1 Memory Jar
+2 BEB, +1 F/I
Game 2:I FoW a 1st turn Lackey. Mathieu has a Mogg Fanatic and a Goblin Vandal. I have a Pentavus that I hard cast. He swings with the fanatic. As I'm fearing Lightning Bolt/Incinerate/Chain Lighting I don't block. So he casts Goblin Grenade. Shit!!! I'm able to make 1 Token and block his Vandal with it. Then he resolved a Piledriver and a Cadet (thanks to REB). He has one card in hand. I have a Welder and a newly found Mindslaver (Tinker is broken!). I activate it, he smiles, shows me his hand: a mountain... what am I supposed to do with a mountain damn it! I draw and almost jump for joy. He topdecked a Goblin Grenade! So I attack his Cadets into my Welder and sac his Piledriver to the grenade. He is at 13. I beat him down to 1 but he deals with my 2 goblins. 2 turns later Yawgmoth's Will seals the game.
Games : 2-0
Mathieu thanked me for lending him the deck and gave me his $10 store credit. I thank him but refuse, he won the $10 after all. But he insisted and I accepted. Thanks alot Mat!
Round 2: Jean-Phillipe playing U/R Landstill
Game 1:After he dropped a Standstill in the first few turns, we play draw go for a while. Then when his hand hits 7 cards, I end of turn Thirst to bait a counter. It worked. I also then tap his 2nd blue land with Ice. During my turn I play a Mindslaver, but fearing Stifle I chose to wait a few turns before activating it. In the mean while, I cast a Memory Jar and test the waters with it. It works!! But the turn after he casts a Standstill. I'm all happy inside since I was sure he was going to break it when I would slave him. It's obvious he doesn't have a Stifle so I decide it's time to slave.
What he did had was 2 FOW and 2 Mis-D. So I had to break the Standstill with my Brainstorm. This got him 2 Drains and a land. He FOW the Brainstorm, then drains the FoW, then drains the Drain, then FoW the 1st FoW. Platinum Angel wins shortly after.
-2 F/I, -1 Platinum Angel, -1 Memory Jar, -1 Mana Vault
+3 REB, +2 Blood Moon
Game 2:I don't remember much about this one, but I think he was countering everything I was trying to do and wasted a bunch of my lands. As a last attempt I go for Blood Moon which resolves. Two turns later he draws Nevinyrral's Disk and makes short work of me.
Game 3:I keep a hand with one land, but with lotus + Blood Moon. So I go for it. BM resolves! He answers with lotus + Disk. This sucks... So while I'm stuck on one land for maybe 6 turns (even though I cast a brainstorm and a thirst), he drops Standstill with plenty of back up. Even when I do
find the mana I'm looking for he just ends up using dust bowl to deal with it.
Games: 1-2
So my tournament ended there, but it was alot of fun. I trade a bit, got an Italian Chains of Mephistopheles with my $25 store credit (so that no one will ever find them again in Montreal! Mwouhahaha), then catch the bus and metro fairly quickly and return home to relax.
I was happy with the deck, except for the Memory Jar. Yeah I'm probably crazy but I only used it once. I never Tinker for it. So I was thinking of adding 1 Fact or Fiction in its place. Problem with that is that this deck already has few artifacts. Not sure this is the way to go...
Props:- To Mathieu for being super nice and giving the $10 store credit.
- To my opponents for being nice guys.
- To the little kid for comming and trying his luck at a tournament.
- To Tinker for winning me so many games.
Slops:- To the TO, for not giving a lunch break.
- To the TO, for crappy second place prize ($30 store credit? come on!)
- To Chains of Mephistopholes for being such an annoying card.
Jean
