Report T1 Karlsruhe, 03.04.2004
Tobias Egelhof
So its Karlsruhe for the third time. Last time Dragon and Tog dominated the meta, but this time I expected more artifact based prison-decks, and Tog, too. Dragon would be played less, I hoped.
I played R/G Beats for the last 4 tournaments, and it served me very well. But this time I wanted to try something else, and in the latest testings, I found UR Landstill to be a deck for my mood. It's a good combination of aggro and control, and I really like it.
I had to check which pieces of power I could obtain from my friends, since I do not own any. At least, Rych could give me the Mana-Drains, which are essential. I would not have played Landstill without them. Marcus then gave me his Mox Ruby and the Library of Alexandria, and so the following list came up:
Stillstand im Sperrbezirk (Ur Landstill)
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
3 Stifle
2 Mana Leak
2 Misdirection
4 Standstill
4 Nevinyrral's Disk
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Fire/Ice
2 Chain of Vapor
1 Mox Ruby
1 Lotus Petal
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Faerie Conclave
4 Island
4 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Flooded Strand
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Mountain
1 Library of Alexandria
SB
4 Red Elemental Blast
4 Maze of Ith
4 Tormod's Crypt
3 Rack and Ruin
Marcus Quandt (Q), Stefan Rychlewski (Rych), Maik Hofmann and me started with time pressure, since we knew a big traffic jam was blocking the Autobahn to Karlsruhe, so we tried a different route. Luckily we came directly to where we wanted and arrived early. Some Heidelberg people stuck in the trffic though, and so we needed to wait.
The event started an hour late, but with 32 players we were able to play 6 rounds of swiss.
1st round, Nils Herndler
Blue Control
Nils played a blue control deck with expensive cards, and I was able to put early pressure, drop Standstill and counter his threads. Both games were over quickly.
Life:
Nils: 20 18 15 10 4 0
Me: 20 19
Sideboard:
out: 4 Ligtning Bolt
in: 4 Red Elemental Blast
Nils: 20 18 17 15 14 12 19 8 4 0
Me: 20 19 18
1:0:0 ; 2:0:0 ; 3 points
2nd round, Thilo Mothes
Elves!
Elves are the bane of finely tuned T1 decks, since they can be very explosive and run over you quickly. Plus, its always a shame to loose to Elves
Though, Thilo is not very confident, he lost a lot of games in the second round lately.
Ok, first game starts and Thilo comes out fast. I can Bolt and Fire some elves, but run out of responses. It's over quickly.
Thilo is happy and tells me "At least I will not loose 0:2.". I start sweating and fear his second game assault...
Second game he has no land, but a Chrome Mox and starts casting elves. I manage to Drain one and cast a Disk, which clears his side. He cannot recover and we move to game 3.
Third game I manage to deny him his mana sources and win quickly.
Life:
Thilo: 20 18 16
Me: 20 19 18 17 16 14 7 0
Sideboard:
out: 2 Misdirection, 2 Stifle
in: 4 Maze of Ith
Thilo: 20 16 12 7 3 1 0
Me: 20 19 14 13
Thilo: 20 18 15 13 9 5 0
Me: 20 19 18
2:0:0 ; 4:1:0 ; 6 points
3rd round, Lukas Hellmann
UW Landstill
We get deckchecked and have to wait 20 minutes before we can start. Lukas has a mistake in his decklist and gets a gameloss, so we move directly to the second. As we both have no idea what the other one is playing, we do not sideboard.
Second game I start slow and he gets a Library of Alexandria active for like 20 turns. I manage to hold him back, but die to some soldier tokens.
We sideboard and start the third, which gets awfully stalled with Maze of Ith on both sides. I decide to burn him down, but it takes too much time and we end up tied after the extra turns.
Life:
Lukas: 20 19 17 16 15 13 11 9
Me: 20 19 18 16 15 12 10 4 0
Sideboard:
out: 4 Standstill, 2 Chain of Vapor, 2 Disk
in: 4 Red Elemental Blast, 4 Maze of Ith
Lukas: 20 19 17 14 11 8 7 5 4
Me: 20 19 18 17 16
2:0:1 ; 5:1:1 ; 7 points
4th round, Felix Brezinski
Scepter Tog
Felix is a very good player and I expect a difficult match.
First game I deny him mana and beat him down quickly. I love Landstill in aggro mode.
We sideboard, and I think he is playing Keeper, so I keep the Mazes out --> mistake!
Second game he casts his Tog and Scepter with Mana Drain. I get eaten a few turns later.
I sideboard again, Mazes and Crypts in.
Third game takes forever, in the end he has 3 Scepter out, with Mana Drain, Swords to Plowshares and Stifle. I manage to beat him down until he plays a Zuran Orb. I have 3 Mazes out, and we both realize he has some cards less in his library than I do. I try to counter his Cunning Wish, but he win the duel and a turn later I die to a flinged Tog. Great finish
Life:
Felix: 20 19 17 16 13 11 9 8 6 4 3 0
Me: 20 19 18
Sideboard:
out: 4 Lightning Bolt
in: 4 Red Elemental Blast
Felix: 20 18 17
Me: 20 19 18 17 16 15 5 0
Sideboard:
out: 4 Fire/Ice, 2 Disk
in: 4 Maze of Ith, 2 Tormod's Crypt
Felix: 20 19 18 17 13 12 11 9 5 3 2 1 15
Me: 20 19 16 13 12 0
2:1:1 ; 6:3:1 ; 7 points
5th round, Steven Loch
BR Smokestack
Steven is playing a Smokestack variant with black splash for hand disruption and Dark Ritual.
He gets mana screwed in both games (with a little help from my side) and concedes. Nothing special happened.
Life:
Steven: 20 17 15 13 concede
Me: 20 19 18 17
Sideboarding:
out: 2 Misdirection, 1 Stifle
in: 3 Rack and Ruin
Steven: 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 5 concede
Me: 20 19
3:1:1 ; 8:3:1 ; 10 points
So it's a top 8 seat or not in the last round. Rych has the same record as I do, and he is afraid to face me in the last round (he lost almost all test-games against UR Landstill with his Food Chain Goblins), but we are lucky. We sit side by side, facing 2 guys from Heidelberg Team, so it's a Heidelberg-Ried showdown!
6th round, Philipp Mayer
Vengeur Mask
Mask is a strange matchup and I have never played against it, but I know it can win quickly, so I need to be careful.
I start with an early Standstill and put some pressure with Manlands. He has an active Bazaar with some Squees running, but I have answers for his threads, when he finally broke the Standstill in my favor. He gets out a Survival of the Fittest and casts a Shapeshifter with a Dreadnought on top of his graveyard and attacks for 12. But he already low on life, so I attack with lands and kill him with a Lightning Bolt.
Second game is similar. I get out a first turn Standstill and start attacking. He breaks the Standstill and tries to Stifle its effect, which I explain to him is not possible. I Drain a Mask and he casts a Survival. On my turn I use the mana to play a Disk and attack. He fetches a Viashino Heretic and blows my Disk (Anger haste), but he is low on life again and I hold 2 Bolts, which hit him next turn for the win.
Life:
Philipp: 20 19 17 15 13 12 8 2 0
Me: 20 8
Sideboard:
out: 4 Fire/Ice
in: 4 Maze of Ith
Philipp: 20 18 16 14 12 11 9 8 6 0
Me: 20 19 18 14
4:1:1 ; 10:3:1 ; 13 points
Rych also wins his match, so we both top 8, Rych 4th, me 5th. Q ends up 3:3:0 with his Tog which won Mannheim, but lost twice to Goblin Sligh today. He plans to nail Lackeys heads down onto his room wall
Maik finishes 4:2:0 and ends up 8th place with his Trix build without Necropotence (he made too many play mistakes with the Necropotence, so he cut it (no joke!)).
It's already late when we drive off (22:30), but still time for a burger and extensive magic talk and plans for the next events...
Props:
Karlsruhe event organizers, for holding great tournaments in a nice location.
T1 Magic-People, for being friendly and funny as almost always.
Elves for not beating me!
Jens for winning it with Goblin Sligh!
Slops:
Frank Schöner for being ill. Gute Besserung!
Traffic jams.
