Report
Tobias Egelhof
Eurovino 3 - Milan 07.09.2008
9th place
For the big vintage tournament in Milano the organizer expected more than 300 players, so I tried to make my participation possible. I finally got the weekend free and organized trip and occupation.
The deck for this event, where 9 rounds of swiss are likely to be played, should be something I am really confident with. Combo is usually really hard to play over the course of nine rounds, but I played my team's Tendrils version in a lot of tournaments already and with such success, that I also opted for it for Milan.
Here is the list:
Horden Tendrils
4 Force of Will
3 Tendrils of Agony
1 Time Walk
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Duress
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mind's Desire
1 Timetwister
1 Tinker
1 Memory Jar
1 Windfall
1 Chain of Vapor
3 Sleight of Hand
3 Chromatic Sphere
4 Dark Ritual
3 Cabal Ritual
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Sol Ring
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
2 Underground Sea
1 Island
1 Swamp
60
Sideboard
1 Darksteel Colossus
3 Dark Confidant
2 Yixlid Jailer
2 Defense Grid
2 Duress
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Island
1 Swamp
15
It is basically the same list I played at the last Darmstadt tournament, replacing 3 Brainstorm and one Ponder with Time Walk and 3 Sleight of Hand.
The sideboard was tailored to what we expected to be mostly played: Workshop, Fish, Dredge and Control.
So I started the 550 km trip to Milan on Saturday together with Andreas, who was still undecided what to play, Landstill or Drain Tendrils. He finally took Drain Tendrils with a light green splash for Goyfs sideboard.
Next morning we arrive at the location in Milan and meet a lot of friends from Germany, and also a lot of people from all over Europe. The number of players reached a tremendous 313, meaning 9 rounds of swiss.
1st round
Stefano Nucci
Oath
Before we start he sees my Spirit tokens and asks to buy them. I say no because I need them for all of the Oath matchups.
I win the coinflip and keep a solid hand, but Stefano has Negate for two of my bombs. He resolves Oath, finds Orchards soon after and end it up with a flashbacked Reclamation for Will and Brain Freeze for a lot. Not really the kind of start I wished for.
I board in some combination of Explosives, Hurkyl's, Defense Grid and Duress.
Second game he mulls to 6 and does not find Oath. Orchards give me tokens and after some manaburn, damage from Crypt, swings with tokens and a Tendrils with 3 storm I win this game.
Third game he tinkers 1st round for Platinum Angel and attacks a few rounds. I duress him seeing Oath and an Island and play Defense Grid. We go into the extra turns and I finally manage to bounce his Angel and Timetwister into a lethal Tendrils in an epic last extra turn.
Stefano seems to be sad, so I am a nice guy and sell him one of my Spirits
Matches 1:0:0
Games 2:1:0
2nd round
Fabian Moyschewitz
MUD
We both mourn about having to play people from our home tournaments and muse about IDing. Fabian wants to play and so we do.
He wins the coinflip, which is bad for me. I keep a hand with some mana and Force which I need for his 1st turn Thorn. He plays Trisk and Tangle Wire and I misplay, tapping my fetchland instead of fetching, and he has Wasteland out. A turn later I manage to bring out Bargain with 12 life left. I draw down to 4 life but miss one mana for the win. Stupid me.
2nd game I win first turn (best strategy against Shop
). I ancestral into lotus and Tendrils, having Petal, ritual and Will in hand...
3rd game is almost a copy of game one. Again, Tangle Wire is out giving him some time. No big deal as at some point I have Lotus, Petal, Sapphire, Will and Bargain in hand. He has Karn out and plan to play the Mox so he can eat it and I can replay it after Will, giving me one more mana. Instead I play the Lotus first (don't ask why), he activates Karn, I take mana off Lotus and play Sapphire. He initially wants to destory the Mox, but then decides not to (I am very sure he would have destroyed it if I had played it first). I play Petal, Will and Bargain with 13 life left. And again, I draw into nothing, missing one mana.
Matches 1:1:0
Games 3:3:0
These two misplays have cost me the top 8 spot in the end...
3rd round
Patrick Hiness
Dredge
I cannot believe I get paired against a friend two times in a row, in a tournament of 313 players this is absurd. Anyway, we have a good laugh about it and again think about IDing. We finally agree to ID, but play anyways.
1st game Patrick starts but has no significant disruption but a Chalice which I force. I get a Bargain out one turn later and pass. With 12 life left (lost 6 life from my own Mana Crypt) I win the next turn.
I board two Jailer, basic lands for LED and Cabal Ritual and a Colossus.
Second game he crushes me Ichorid style.
Third game I board back the mana stuff and rip a first turn kill.
Matches 1:1:1
Games 4:4:1 (I count one game as draw here)
Well, that's not a very good start into a tournament of this size, but still nothing is lost. Still angry about my play-mistakes and the stupid pairing I shout out loud in Feinstein mania: "Now, it's TENDRILS TIME!!!!". Well at least I do so in my imagination
4th round
Filippo Cacci
UR Fish
Poor Filippo is the first one to feel the ultimate power of Horden Tendrils when unleashed with fury. I win both games with Necro followed by Will.
The second game is really close, since he has Cursecatcher and a Daze to diminish my mana in my winning turn. Fortunately, I have exactly 2 excess mana for my Will-stunts, so I can save Force of Will for his last out: Stifle.
Sideboarding included Colossus and 2 basics.
Matches 2:1:1
Games 6:4:1
5th round
Mario Namtan Smianti Larcher (please correct me if this is spelled wrong)
Faerie Bomberman
Mario is a nice guy and we have some fun playing. I win the coinflip and Vampiric in preparaion of a Will turn, which I can protect with Force.
I board in my anti-control plan: 3 Bobs and 2 Duress for 3 Spheres, Consultation and one Tendrils
Second game takes some more turns. He manages to resolve Tinker getting Titan and destroying 2 of my lands. I play Desire with 4 storm and 3 mana left, revealing Time Walk, Vampiric Tutor, Tinker and Lotus Petal. In my hand I hold Tendrils.
Matches 3:1:1
Games 8:4:1
6th round
Niccolo Lai
TPS
When Niccolo comes to sit across me I feel he is not very happy (probably lost last round). Well, at least he is polite and we start playing. I win the coinflip.
The first game we play is really one of the strangest games I ever played with Horden Tendrils. We both start slow and I hold a Force of Will without blue card while he misses his 2nd land drop. 3rd turn he plays a Ritual off his Swamp, and I decide to counter it. Instead of a blue card, I have Demonic Consultation in hand and play it for Sleight of Hand. No Sleight in the first 6 cards, and no Sleight in like the following 30 cards until finally one shows up. I force the Ritual and look through the removed cards (and so does Niccolo). All of my bombs are there, and one Tendrils. Even Chain of Vapor is gone, so I really need some luck to pull out a win here. I have a Tendrils in my hand and I think 2 Moxen but nothing that could get me anywhere close to 10 storm (Niccolo is still at 20 life). We go on with the game and he draws Academy and plays Mana Vault off his Swamp. I also have Academy and cut him off blue mana, switching his mood to "cloudy". I draw Vampiric and think about what I could effectively do now. Niccolo again failed to draw into blue mana and is now getting impatient, urging me to play faster. Of course, I don't
I play Vampiric EOT and look through my library, finding nothing but mana, a few cantrips, the third Tendrils and Windfall. I take Windfall with Niccolo holding 5 cards and start into my winning turn. Mox, Mox, Windfall (storm 3), draw Brainstorm, Mox, Vault, Sleight of Hand and fetchland, play Sleight of Hand into nothing (land and Force)(storm 4), brainstorm (storm 5) into ritual, Chromatic Sphere, Tendrils, put back Fetchland and Tendrils, play mox (6), Vault(7), Chromatic Sphere(8), crack Sphere for B, draw Tendrils, play Ritual (9) and Tendrils (10).
At this point I perceive Niccolo's emotional situation as "not amused". He boards aggressively fast and hammers his deck to me so I can cut. I take my time to board correctly and shuffle extensively.
The second game he mulligans to 6 and starts with Island, Lotus, go. I hold a hand with land, Crypt, Tinker, Petal, Demonic, Duress and Sleight of Hand. I draw Imperial Seal,play land and Duress him. He saccs his Lotus for black mana and plays Vampiric in response, searches his Library and shows me Ancestral (assuming I passed the turn, which I didn't). I play Petal, Crypt and Demonic for Force. Pass.
He draws and plays Anc, I force. In my turn I draw Ritual, then Tinker for Jar and pass. He draws nothing and passes. I play ritual, Seal for Lotus and activate Jar. Niccolo draws seven, smashes all of them on the table and concedes. Pretty choleric, but ok. A win is a win.
Matches 4:1:1
Games 10:4:1
7th round
Gabriele Schito
UR Shop (probably Shop Slaver)
I win the coinflip and resolve a second turn Bargain that wins on the spot.
Second game he mulligans to 5 and has nothing to stop my Bargain again. I cannot immediately win, but have to Tendrils him for 18, then draw more cards and finally play another Tendrils for the win.
Matches 5:1:1
Games 12:4:1
8th round
Stefano Mastini
TPS
Stefano wins the coinflip but is forced to mulligan to 5. We duress each other until he topdecks Necropotence, which I force (he has Force and Tendrils in hand). Back to back I also topdeck Necro and win a turn later with double Tendrils.
Second game Stefano opens with Mystic Remora (ouch). I duress him on my turn to check how long he may be able to support the upkeep and see 3 more lands, Time Walk and Sundering Titan. So this may take some time... I do nothing but play lands until he finally doesn't pay for Remora and plays Necropotence. I hold Force but no blue card, and a Duress, so my chances are not too slim to be able to disrupt his Necropotence hand significantly. I cannot counter at this point anyways, so I wait for him to decide how many cards he wants to set aside with Necro. He thinks about it and tells me "17". I ask him if he is sure but he already starts to set the cards aside. I look onto my life notation sheet and see his last life total at 17, and I tell him so. It turns out he forgot to note 2 fetchland activations so he assumed he was at 19. Poor guy is really looking desperate and I feel his pain, but of course I cannot let him change his decision at this point.
After filling out the result slip I ask him if he wants to have a cigarette and he says "YES!"
While smoking he tells me he has slept one hour in the last 2 days...
Matches 6:1:1
Games 12:4:1
9th round
Steward Shinkins
Dredge
Steward is an irish guy, and despite me having watched a lot of games at the top tables I have no clue what he is playing.
He wins the coinflip and thinks a long time about his hand of 7. Finally he decides to keep. I cannot hold a hand with only Black lotus and a Mox on the draw and mulligan. Next hand has no mana at all, so I go down to 5, which is not spectacular but as good as it can get.
He opens with Leyline, plays Chalice zero and Unmask (taking Tendrils), but no land. So he is hoping to draw into Bazaar. We play draw-go (I actually play draw-chromatic-sphere-go) and after 2 or 3 turns I play Desire with 5 storm. He shuffles and reveals Ancestral, Petal, Tendrils, Tendrils and fetchland.
I board in Colossus, 2 Jailer and the basic lands.
Second game he mulligans to 5 and again starts the game without Bazaar. I have an early Tinker for Colossus and draw a Force of Will the next turn. Steward plays Contagion on Colossus which I let resolve, buying him one additional turn, and finally blocks with 2 Dryad Arbor going down to 1 life. I finish my last game of the day with a 7/9 Colossus in play and Force of Will with blue card in hand.
[worthless information]
Did you know that Ireland has no postal codes? Only the city of Dublin uses numbers 1-24 (and additionally 6w) for it's districts.
[/worthless information]
(That's what you learn when sitting in a car together with an SAP programmer for 5 1/2 hours.)
Matches 7:1:1
Games 14:4:1
So that was a quite good performance after a not so good start into the tournament. I try to figure out if it is enough for top 8, but have no clue what the people at the top tables where doing.
Stefano finally announces the top 8 seats and I end up not making it, placing 9th place. 6 people had 22 points, and 2 of them didn't make it into top 8. Oh well.
At least I receive a Mishra's Workshop and we can take the trip back home. It is 11PM when we leave the location.
Andreas finished a mediocre 4-4-1 and we debate wether Landstill would have been the better deck for him today (of course it wouldn't because of all the dredge and goblin decks out there).
Props:
- My wife for taking care of our 2 little children while being ill and me having fun in Milan.
- Stinfo for organizing a great event.
- My deck for being broken.
- Mostly very nice opponents.
Slops:
- Getting paired against friends in a 313 ppl tournament.
- Missing top 8 due to tiebreakers.
- Choleric Magic players.
Pics:
Top 8:
