[UPDATE] Vintage Championship in France Top33 and Top8 Unpo

[Subaru]

The Top33 lists are here : http://solomoxen.com/?page=7&id=33 (with a button to export the lists to MWS or Apprentice)
The Top8 Unpowered is on-line here : http://solomoxen.com/?page=7&id=43

The Top8 lists :

1.1°) Stéphane Tichadou (France)
Creatures
4 Worldgorger Dragon
1 Caller of the Claw
4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Ambassador Laquatus
Spells
3 Duress
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Time Walk
4 Force of Will
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Sol Ring
1 Dance of the Dead
1 Entomb
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Mana Crypt
2 Animate Dead
2 Stifle
3 Intuition
2 Compulsion
1 Deep Analysis
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
3 Necromancy
1 Vampiric Tutor
Lands
2 Underground River
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
3 Underground Sea
2 Island
2 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta

SB: 1 Duress
SB: 2 Sundering Titan
SB: 2 Engineered Explosives
SB: 1 Misdirection
SB: 2 Chalice of the Void
SB: 2 Coffin Purge
SB: 1 Chain of Vapor
SB: 1 Necromancy
SB: 3 Null Rod

1.2°) Alejandro Escribano (Spain)
Creatures
4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
2 Psychatog
Spells
1 Mystical Tutor
2 Duress
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Death Spark
4 Force of Will
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Sol Ring
3 Brainstorm
3 Zombie Infestation
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Mana Crypt
3 Intuition
4 Circular Logic
1 Mind Twist
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Firestorm
Lands
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Strip Mine
3 Underground Sea
1 Island
1 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
3 Volcanic Island
2 Wasteland

SB: 1 Pyroblast
SB: 3 Arcane Laboratory
SB: 2 Gorilla Shaman
SB: 1 Blue Elemental Blast
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 Shattering Pulse
SB: 2 Engineered Plague
SB: 2 Energy Flux
SB: 1 Rack and Ruin

3°) Jose Antonio Alascio Lopez (Spain)
Creatures
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Pentavus
1 Triskelion
4 Goblin Welder
Spells
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Time Walk
4 Force of Will
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Sol Ring
2 Gifts Ungiven
1 Crucible of Worlds
4 Brainstorm
1 Cunning Wish
4 Mana Drain
1 Mindslaver
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Recoup
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Mana Crypt
1 Intuition
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will
Lands
1 Strip Mine
2 Underground Sea
2 Island
1 Seat of the Synod
4 Polluted Delta
4 Volcanic Island
1 Tolarian Academy

SB: 1 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 1 Jester's Cap
SB: 2 Chill
SB: 2 Arcane Laboratory
SB: 3 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 Lava Dart
SB: 1 Duplicant
SB: 1 Platinum Angel
SB: 1 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 Stifle
SB: 1 Rack and Ruin

4°) Andrea Garella (Italy)
Creatures
1 Sundering Titan
1 Pentavus
1 Triskelion
3 Goblin Welder
Spells
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Force of Will
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Sol Ring
3 Cunning Wish
4 Mana Drain
3 Chalice of the Void
1 Mindslaver
3 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Accumulated Knowledge
1 Read the Runes
1 Mana Crypt
2 Intuition
2 Deep Analysis
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Tinker
Lands
1 Library of Alexandria
5 Island
2 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
4 Volcanic Island
1 Tolarian Academy

SB: 1 Jester's Cap
SB: 1 Fire/Ice
SB: 2 Blood Moon
SB: 1 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 Echoing Truth
SB: 1 Shattering Pulse
SB: 1 Gush
SB: 1 Misdirection
SB: 1 Duplicant
SB: 1 Read the Runes
SB: 1 Starstorm
SB: 1 Rushing River
SB: 2 Rack and Ruin

5°) Daniel Eufinger (Germany)
Creatures
1 Darksteel Colossus
Spells
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Time Walk
4 Force of Will
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Sol Ring
3 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Echoing Truth
1 Fact or Fiction
3 Mana Drain
4 Accumulated Knowledge
3 Future Sight
1 Mana Crypt
1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Intuition
3 Deep Analysis
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Frantic Search
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will
4 Helm of Awakening
1 Vampiric Tutor
Lands
2 Underground Sea
5 Island
2 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
1 Tolarian Academy

SB: 2 Duress
SB: 2 Blue Elemental Blast
SB: 2 Mana Maze
SB: 2 Energy Flux
SB: 3 Annul
SB: 2 Back to Basics
SB: 2 Gilded Drake

6°) Paul I (France)
Creatures
 2 Psychatog
Spells
 2 Duress
 1 Ancestral Recall
 1 Demonic Tutor
 1 Time Walk
 4 Force of Will
 1 Black Lotus
 1 Sol Ring
 2 Swords to Plowshares
 4 Brainstorm
 2 Cunning Wish
 4 Mana Drain
 4 Accumulated Knowledge
 3 Intuition
 2 Deep Analysis
 1 Balance
 1 Mox Jet
 1 Mox Pearl
 1 Mox Ruby
 1 Mox Sapphire
 1 Yawgmoth's Will
Lands
 1 Strip Mine
 2 Tundra
 4 Underground Sea
 1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
 2 Island
 2 Flooded Strand
 4 Polluted Delta
 2 Volcanic Island
 3 Wasteland

SB: 1 Pyroblast
SB: 1 Swords to Plowshares
SB: 3 Chalice of the Void
SB: 2 Coffin Purge
SB: 2 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 Fling
SB: 1 Diabolic Edict
SB: 1 Disenchant
SB: 1 Mind Twist
SB: 1 Rack and Ruin
SB: 1 Vampiric Tutor

7°) Tim Bergman (Germany)
Creatures
 1 Darksteel Colossus
 4 Ophidian
Spells
 1 Pyroblast
 4 Mana Leak
 1 Ancestral Recall
 1 Time Walk
 4 Force of Will
 4 Fire/Ice
 1 Black Lotus
 1 Mox Emerald
 1 Sol Ring
 1 Vedalken Shackles
 4 Brainstorm
 1 Fact or Fiction
 4 Mana Drain
 2 Isochron Scepter
 1 Red Elemental Blast
 1 Mox Jet
 1 Mox Pearl
 1 Mox Ruby
 1 Mox Sapphire
 1 Tinker
 3 Impulse
Lands
 1 Library of Alexandria
 1 Strip Mine
 5 Island
 4 Flooded Strand
 1 Polluted Delta
 4 Volcanic Island

SB: 1 Hydroblast
SB: 1 Jester's Cap
SB: 1 Pyroblast
SB: 2 Arcane Laboratory
SB: 1 Blue Elemental Blast
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 2 Energy Flux
SB: 2 Chalice of the Void
SB: 1 Damping Matrix
SB: 1 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 Rack and Ruin

8°) Marco Ardoino (Italy)
Creatures
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Psychatog
Spells
1 Mystical Tutor
2 Duress
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Time Walk
4 Force of Will
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Sol Ring
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Brainstorm
4 Cunning Wish
4 Mana Drain
4 Accumulated Knowledge
1 Mana Crypt
3 Intuition
2 Deep Analysis
1 Mind Twist
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will
Lands
4 Underground Sea
3 Island
1 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Volcanic Island

SB: 1 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 1 Shattering Pulse
SB: 1 Fact or Fiction
SB: 1 Lava Dart
SB: 2 Misdirection
SB: 1 Snuff Out
SB: 1 Skeletal Scrying
SB: 1 Rushing River
SB: 1 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 Stifle
SB: 1 Fling
SB: 2 Rack and Ruin
SB: 1 Firestorm

[Edit : Bugs fixed]

[ELD]

Every deck ran FOW and Polluted Delta, and dammit, I'm ok with that.  The fact that both #1 and #2 ran bazaar squee is great too.  My absolute favorate thing is the deck that won wasn't running Will.  There was a lot of talk about banning Will this weekend, and I hope that quites it down a little.

[dexter]

dragon is still a very good deck, it draws are very consistent and if you learn how to play it correctly its not a bigger problem playing around the hate. Although this dragon player obviously had alot of luck its acctually one of the more random lists ive seen in a looooooong time, just take the example with 2 ug rivers and only 3 ug seas.

[Toad]

Dragon is a very good deck in a metagame where no one runs Wastelands. It beats Drain Slaver. It beats Gifts decks. What else do you need more? The Dragon player is the best Dragon player I know, he is very competent with the deck. There is little to no luck behind this, he has been playing Dragon for 2 years now. He knows his shit.

Calling a Top8 "horrible" when you had 9 rounds of Swiss and all the best European players is pretty dumb.

[Kowal]

dragon is still a very good deck, it draws are very consistent

...huh?  It draws the most inconsistant of anything out there.  The only saving grace about how random this deck's opening hands are is that it can safely mulligan to 6 and 5 and still have some solid game if that hand has a Bazaar in it.

As an aside, I'd like to ask a couple questions.  Toad, perhaps you could relay these.

To Stephane, why Dance of the Dead over Animate #3?  Is Meddling Mage a problem or something?  Why maindeck Chain of Vapor instead of a bounce spell that can't backfire if you need to cast it while going off?  Why did he choose the Ambassador/Caller setup over Witness and like anything that isn't Caller?  Is Root Maze more prominent in France, and if so, in what archetypes?

To Alejandro, what's the deal with Death Spark?  How could it possibly be better than running a 4th Brainstorm?  This list is interesting, but frankly it looks pretty bad and shows a lot of room for improvement.  What kind of a list would you run if you were to take this to another massive tournament in reflection?  What if you were to take it to the States?

To Andrea, what's with Read the Runes?  Is it as good as you thought it would be?  Is it anywhere near better than running the 4th Thirst for Knowledge?  Why did you run so many Cunning Wishes?  How can you feel comfortable piloting a blue based control deck with no Brainstorms?

To Daniel, how was the maindeck Tendrils of Agony?  Did you ever wish an Intuition in your hand was something else?  Did you miss Cunning Wish?  What are your thoughts on running Duress?

To Paul, why White of all colors in Psychatog?

To Tim, what kind of matchups were you getting?  Did you feel like you were getting overpowered at all during the tournament?  In reflection, how were your maindeck Red Elemental Blasts?  Was there a reason you went one and one with REB and Pyroblast, or just because?

I don't have any comments specifically for Marco and Jose, but congratulations to all the top eighters.  I do think (especially in the 2nd list) that there is a ton of room for improvement though.

[fluffy]

yes Toad, all the best European players were there, just like all the best american players...

[Kowal]

yes Toad, all the best European players were there, just like all the best american players...

There was exactly one American.  What are you talking about?

[moses2k]

Yeah and Dragon can win with Mulligan 4.. even if there isn't a bazaar in the opening grid..
just draw Mana Crypt,Mox Sapp,Uriver,Deep Analysis... then the next 5 cards something like bazaar,double-squee,stifle for the fetchland and ancest ;>

Like Stephane did against me in the t8..
I think the coverage will be up soon.

Maybe you shouldn't blame everything that doesn't match ur expectation of a T8, rather you could see it as an possible metagame shift for the future..

Well, it was a nice tourney and I'm looking forward to visit the French Vintage Championship 2006..

Tim

[Kowal]

Maybe you shouldn't blame everything that doesn't match ur expectation of a T8, rather you could see it as an possible metagame shift for the future..

I'll be frank--  I highly doubt this is anything more than people building decks less than optimally, but because I want to cover all my bases and leave the opportunity for people to prove me wrong, I'm asking, rather than asserting that you suck and generally being obnoxious about it.

[Jacob Orlove]

Any chance we could get an archetype breakdown for the t32?

[fluffy]

yes Toad, all the best European players were there, just like all the best american players...

There was exactly one American.  What are you talking about?

this is just like the time when the US got to host the world championship, the best players from all over the world were there...

[Subaru]

Any chance we could get an archetype breakdown for the t32?

I will post the Top33 (All players who have more than 19 point) and the Top8 Unpowered tomorrow.

I think the coverage will be up soon.

I post the coverage of your match this week (Yes I have written on my PC and paper all the action of this game).

[dexter]

@toad

he might be a good dragon player but it doesnt explain the odd choices in the deck, for example only 6 animation spells, the random maindeck chain of vapor, 2 river 3 seas instead of 4 seas, the caller over witness as secondary wincon, the single deep anal. If i can get an explanaition of thoose very odd choices then i might bellive he didnt have a good amount of luck. Cuz the way the deck looks it seems to be suboptimal at best. The lack of full 4 compulsion might be explained with that people there didnt seems to been aware of wastelands.

[Kowal]

There are few things as bad as compulsion, so I can totally understand not running 4.

However, the other things you brought up (like Rivers vs Seas) make very, very little sense, unless he was a budget player or something.

[Green Knight]

However, the other things you brought up (like Rivers vs Seas) make very, very little sense, unless he was a budget player or something.

As far as the Underground Rivers, those can be explained by the sideboard:

1.1°) Stéphane Tichadou (France)
[SB: 2 Sundering Titan

[DuKeLiO]

@Kowal

I'm one of the spanish that play regulary with Alejandro (we all call he for his second name -Escribano-), and the Death Spark is for beat Welders. In Spain some of the lastest tournament in the south were won with Stax and Slaver and he want to win over that. The deck is so powerful but the best that the deck had was that nobody knows about this deck, and every player that faces with Escribano not play well beacuse they didn't know the deck, everybody thinked it was a CA or Dragon and not a Control-deck.

Escribano don't visit themanadrain but I can respond almost any question for him.

Sorry for my bad english.

[ColeCash]

To Andrea, what's with Read the Runes?  Is it as good as you thought it would be?  Is it anywhere near better than running the 4th Thirst for Knowledge?  Why did you run so many Cunning Wishes?  How can you feel comfortable piloting a blue based control deck with no Brainstorms?

Hi. I've thought that I'll play with a lot of storm.decks. The strongest card against this deck is chalice of the void. CotV setting it on one is the better choice because TPS and other tier 1 as T1T,Keeper and Belcher have a lot of spell with cc 1. So I've tried to reduce the number of spell with cc1 in my deck to "exchange" 6 cards (sol ring,mystical,ancestral and 3 welders) with duress,brainstorm and all spells with cc1 that my opponents could play. I think that with 4 AK,3 TFK,2 Intuition,2 Deep Analysis and 1 Read the Runes plus Gush and the second read on side (avaible by wish) Brainstorm isn't necessary.
I play read the runes because is usefull to sacrifice CotV when I'm in full control. That allow me to play goblin welder.
I play 3 cunning wish because I've not removal in my maindeck and because I've played Hulk Smash and T1T for a lot of time and I cannot play without them.
Sorry for my bad English. I hope that MaxxMatt will help me and will explain in a better English my thoughts.
Andea Garella
 

[dexter]

@ all you people who are complaining about the quality of this top 8 (especially you americans)

I realize this t8 has some random lists in it, but look at last waterbury from america, fish taking first place (the deck has been dead, fried up and eaten a loooooong time ago), a UG madness that shouldnt been a t1 deck in the first place and i can go making remarks about your nice "perfect" americans t8 looking back for a few years. So dont judge the "europeen" meta over this single tournament. It still was in france a pretty expensive trip for most people not living in the nearby region.

[Grand Inquisitor]

Let's try to stick to analysis of the deck/card choices instead of having a pissing contest over who's metagame is better.

There were over 300 people at this event.  That says something by itself about decks needing to be both consistent and powerful.  Nobody is saying these decks are perfect, but in order to navigate this field, you have to know what you're doing and have a decent amount of luck...

draw Mana Crypt,Mox Sapp,Uriver,Deep Analysis... then the next 5 cards something like bazaar,double-squee,stifle for the fetchland and ancest

[Dante]

I'll wait until I see the breakdown before commenting further, but I believe this was a sanctioned tournament?  thus no proxies, which means that many players were (probably) playing less-powered or unpowered decks because they had no choice... which totally changes the metagame from a 5 or 10-proxy tournament like SCG or Waterbury...

but we'll see when he posts the breakdown...

[Lunar]

@Kowal, I agree and disagree with your disdain for the death spark in the 2nd place deck.  I fully agree that a death spark should be in any deck running bazaar/squee, however dropping brainstorm #4 for it rather than Squee #4 does seem very out of place.

[Limbo]

I'll wait until I see the breakdown before commenting further, but I believe this was a sanctioned tournament?  thus no proxies, which means that many players were (probably) playing less-powered or unpowered decks because they had no choice... which totally changes the metagame from a 5 or 10-proxy tournament like SCG or Waterbury...

but we'll see when he posts the breakdown...

Yes it was sanctioned. If I am correct, only 50 out of 350 people were unpowered, so I don't think that is a valid argument. On hindsight, it might have been worthwhile to actually go for the unpowered prizes. As for "sub-optimal" decks going top 8, I think that any player going top 8 here had at least a very good deck, a lot of skill and a decent amount of luck. Having only one loss or so in nine rounds is brutal, so anything that survives that should be good.

As fas as the tournament itself, I stopped playing when I hit two losses (2-2), as there were a lot of other fun things to do there. Many thanks for the frenchies that supplied us with room to stay, an awesome vacation and a great tournament to boot. Onward to 2006

[Klep]

As for "sub-optimal" decks going top 8, I think that any player going top 8 here had at least a very good deck, a lot of skill and a decent amount of luck. Having only one loss or so in nine rounds is brutal, so anything that survives that should be good.

And you would be right. Something that survives that long should be good.  However, that is not what happened.  There is no excuse for a blue-based control or combo deck running a decent number of shuffle effects to not also be running Brainstorm.  Other things Kowal mentioned are more arguable (not that I disagree with Kowal on any of it), but the fact that Brainstorm is one of the best cards in the format is not.  Any deck that could be running and effectively using Brainstorm but isn't is merely a poor imitation of that same deck with Brainstorm included.

[Subaru]

Yes it was sanctioned. If I am correct, only 50 out of 350 people were unpowered, so I don't think that is a valid argument.

145 players were unpowered in this tournament
246 players were powered

I'll wait until I see the breakdown before commenting further, but I believe this was a sanctioned tournament? thus no proxies, which means that many players were (probably) playing less-powered or unpowered decks because they had no choice... which totally changes the metagame from a 5 or 10-proxy tournament like SCG or Waterbury...

but we'll see when he posts the breakdown...

I post the breakdown next sunday, because I must read all the 391 lists

[DuKeLiO]

I would want to see some of you playing Slaver vs. Escribano "Ronaldo Rouls" deck. It overdraw any deck without Wastelands o Bazaar (or maybe Blood Moon or B2B) pretty easy. In Quarterfinals Marco Ardonino with all is draw can't overdraw the Bazaar Engine. Definitively Ronaldo Rouls is a strong Control Deck

[Monk(fr)]

Gentlemen, i still don't understand why you're underestimating the french level
What a shame because you miss something, I personaly think that you're wrong saying that that european top8 isn't relevant.

To Stephane, why Dance of the Dead over Animate #3?  Is Meddling Mage a problem or something?

And what's the problem with DoD?
It has the same CC than Animate Dead and it is used the same way. And if it was the case, I'd rather not loosing time because of a Meddling Mage or a Cranial extraction.

Why did he choose the Ambassador/Caller setup over Witness ?

The reason is simple: the wincon is aviable with Inuition which can be done without BoB.

To Paul, why White of all colors in Psychatog

If you didn't notice it, it's not totally a ToG deck. I'd say it's more like a crossover between 4cc and ToG. It takes the advantages from both of them.

4cc: the "rule-the-game" items like Swords to Plowshares, Wasteland, Strip Mine, Disenchant and Balance which allows him to handle Madness and its BoB for instance.

ToG: the kill "hulk", and the draw engine far better than 4cc's.

Note: You should also notice that he made this by himself and he is only 15. That's why saying it was luck or that the european level is so "low" is totally out of the question. Moreover he beated Carsten Kötter with "that" deck.

Oh, by the way it's name is ToG-er (ToG- Keeper).

Monk (who still doesn't understand why people ain't happy to see some new decks in top 8).

[BigMac]

I was there playing deathlong. I dropped after going 5-2 as i was very hungry and had no chance for top 8 anyways anymore.

As i see the field there was a lot of gifts/drain/combo decks there and a lot of people anticipating as much trying to beat those. As for the top 8, i think nobody will say a deck is perfect. Nobody will say a person is perfect, but indeed to come through 9 rounds with 7 wins and a draw or 8 wins or better, did very well. Off course there are people that had luck, off course there are people that played well, but please do not comment about the meta if you werent there. Comming through a field of 391 people to win just is plain good and desreves respect. As for what meta is good or bad, as i see it, europe and the states both have a very different meta. I am waiting for the day those two meta's clash to see what will come out on top. When there is a 50/50 divided group of euros and americans, chances are that top 8 will have an even share of both on most occasions.

I dont think one meta is better than the other, just different. As for cardchoices, some things will always be open to debate. In the end this was a very nice tournament which i hope will find some continuance in different countries as well as another one next year in France.

Good job you frenchies and when i can make the time i will be back next year.

[MaxxMatt]

To Andrea, what's with Read the Runes? 
Is it as good as you thought it would be? 
Is it anywhere near better than running the 4th Thirst for Knowledge? 
Why did you run so many Cunning Wishes? 
How can you feel comfortable piloting a blue based control deck with no Brainstorms?

Hi Kowal,
Andrea told me to speak for him.
He played this deck since three months at least, without failing to do a single Top8s at our events with it.
Read the Runes is synergic with Welders ( the discarding effect ) and with CotVs ( sacrificing permanents ) and with Intuitions ( it would have been far more synergic with Gifts, gifting for different drawers ).

He played with CotVs maindeck because he need to play them in order to face and win Storm.decs, and they function really well especially in a deck not so full of 1cc spells.
The deck is not totally Welder dependent and it is generally a good thing, especially in a field where Welders can be hated out.

Read the Runes can appear a bit random, but at worst it is an other way to contemporarily get rid of clunky things in hand ( acting as the TFK#4 ) and possibly draw more cards ( acting as a powered TFK#4 )

His deck plan really often to play and win with a couple of CotVs on board.
They slow the game down so much that there aren't any drawbacks at all, even if you are holding a couple of 1cc spells in hand.
OTOH, Read the Runes, Tinker and Wishes are addional ways of getting rid of CotVs when needed WHILE those cards are good by themselves. We are talking about a deck that have an HUNGRY need of throwing things into his grave. Read the Runes does it really well and CAN do things that TFK cannot do.

Playing without Brainstorm, automatically put into the deck a nearly full set of CotVs.
Any deck that his not going to abuse of 1cc spells should thing to act as the one that Andrea played in Paris. While Brainstorms help you to fix your mana development, the deck that Andrea played last weekend, tried to stop the opponents before they could use their own 1cc bombs ( ifpossible ), leaving all his draw engine totally untouched.
The deck is mana intensive, but a start with a land and a mox allow you to easily play any one of you Istants bombs during the opponents second EoT ( planning on not failing the second land drop, in such a case you should have mulliganed anyway... )

You could choose to go for the throat with AKs when possible, or abuse of Deeps or abuse the TFK or anything is in the deck, almost as soon as you draw them.

As you pointed out, he uses a large amount of Wishes. While they seemed to slow, they are, IMHO, the best way to get rid of Null Rods and nasty Critters. The high number of basic lands let you act as a MonoU deck almost anytime you need to gain a massive control board,while Wishes let you to getrid of all the nasty permanents that a well build Fish or BirdShit or Random.dec can throw on board agaisnt you. The deck gain the needed flexiblity, almost without losing nothing but a bit of speed. I saw him Wish for anyone of the possible targets in his sideboard more than twice during the entire tourney, a clear sign of the extremely huge impact of any single Wished card.

If you deck can often resolve spells such as Welders and/or CotVs on turn one you can easily imagine why he felt comfortable even without the strong card that Brainstorm is at now.

he might be a good dragon player but it doesnt explain the odd choices in the deck, for example only 6 animation spells, the random maindeck chain of vapor, 2 river 3 seas instead of 4 seas, the caller over witness as secondary wincon, the single deep anal. If i can get an explanaition of thoose very odd choices then i might bellive he didnt have a good amount of luck. Cuz the way the deck looks it seems to be suboptimal at best. The lack of full 4 compulsion might be explained with that people there didnt seems to been aware of wastelands

How can you write things such as those ones and believe to appear at least credible?
Are there any manuals about " the NON-ODD configuration of spells to play a good deck ?"
The history of the tourney ( the one you have not joined ) told us about Wastelands.dec ( Landstill, BirdShit, Crucible+Strip, 3C-C, 4C-C, FCG, W-Slavery+Strips, Madness, Sligh, RG-Beatz, SortOfOath.dec, Fish.dec, MW.dec, Welder-MUD, Welders.dec ) being perfectly contrapposed to Non-Wasteland.dec ( Atog, C-Slavery, Fast-Combo, Drago, Oath, TPS ).

The "weird" configuration ( for you ) that seemed ( to you ) to come out from the deck only resemble the NEED of playing an "all around deck" with all the possible ways to escape from nasty and UNSUAL situations that NATURALLY come out during a 9-turns-competition.

Any ipermetagamized or too specialized deck ( such as mine for example ) have been trashed out without too many difficulties.

I would like to point out that RANDOM, at this tourney doesn't translate itself automatically with "WEIRD" or "SUBOPTIMAL".
The crew of the entire Europe played at the event.
The crew of the other continent played ( when possible ) at the event.
If you are used to made connection and state conclusions based on your own experience and mostly besed minor events or possible little metagames, I can assure to you that they sadly cannot apply to things such as THIS one.

I'm sure that ( to be more specific ) the Dragon.dec won MOSTLY for the lone Deep, the few 6 animating spells, the random Chain, the strange Caller of the Claw and so on...
THinking out of the box usually pose you in a favored situation, when you have to face and fight and win UNKNOWN opponents coming from all around the world.





 

[dexter]

@maxxmatt

Speaking from my own experience with dragon (played / playtested it for over 2 years now), it seems like some of the cards he include are basiclly dead before going off and dragon already suffers from a good amount of dead cards and should already win against most of the random decks game1 and bring in answers for whatever they might bring in game 2 and 3 instead. Thats why i dont understand adding more of thoose to the deck. As far as running caller over witness there is accutally nothing to say that can convince me that the caller is better in anyway unless you a are a fan of winning one round later in the game. You might have an opinion that the dragon list that won acctually is good but to me its just looks like he took the base of a good deck and made it slightly worse at least from my point of view.

And as far "The crew of the entire Europe played at the event." thats just bullsh*t. I know many very competent players that didnt show up for the very simple reason that the trip was about 450$ which is way more than most not to wealthy students / unemployed / regular people can afford.

p.s Gz to the dragon player even though the decklist to seems random its still a dragon deck

[Toad]

You might have an opinion that the dragon list that won acctually is good but to me its just looks like he took the base of a good deck and made it slightly worse at least from my point of view.

Stéphane has been playing and playtesting Dragon for more than 2 years now. He has won multiple pieces of Power9 with it, including Black Lotuses. He has good reasons for playing this decklist. The fact that he took It to the first place of the biggest T1 tournament ever says something. It's not because he doesnt run 4 Compulsion and stuff that his decklist is bad. You guys are very narrow minded.

All the best Italian, German, French and Spanish players attended. 9 rounds of Swiss is far more than what you need to get rid of bad decks and bad players. Yeah, we had no Fish, no Salvagers, no UG Madness, no Sligh and no EBA in Top8.