A cup of Espresso, How not to make Top 8 but end in the worst spot of the event.

Yes, this report is late, the event was in May, but June and most of July has been insanely busy for me (spend a month in South Africa with no Internet) and I still wanted to get it up there. So I hope you guys enjoy.

So I get up around 7.15 in the morning, hop in the shower and grab my bags. One final check shows me that I have everything, I'm feeling very excited to be making my return eventhough no sane human should be up around this time on a Sunday morning. My girlfriend agrees and turns back over to go to sleep when I leave.

A short ride to Waalwijk where I'll be picking up Ibrahim, a Tilburg local (since I moved I'm surrounded by a ton of Magic players and several judges). It's going to be his first ever Vintage event, having only played Constructed and Limited and a few Legacy events. He's going to be sporting Dredge (well, the list I have together) we arrive around 8.45 at the central station in Breda, we're supposed to meet Arjan there and proceed to Rotterdam, Arjan shows up with Sybrand (a Tuesday Vintage regular when we still had those events) who will be sporting his own Merfolk brew for Vintage, Arjan tells me he's playing the Doomsday Gush deck he's been testing, everybody but Arjan is asking me what I'll be playing and I show them the list as seen below.

Espresso Stax

Artifact mana
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring

Artifact mana and Fixer
4 Serum Powder

Bolts
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Thorn of Amethyst
2 Sphere of Resistance
1 Trinisphere

Locks
4 Smokestack
4 Tangle Wire
3 Crucible of Worlds

Creatures
4 Lodestone Golem
3 Karn, Silver Golem
2 Phyrexian Metamorph

Lands
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Rishadan Port
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Wasteland

Sideboard:
4 Leyline of the Void
3 Pithing Needle
3 Ghost Quarter
2 Duplicant
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Sphere of Resistance
1 Phyrexian Metamorph

Onward to the report:

Round 1: Brenda Schurkens – Oath
She was my first round opponen in the last event I played and there she managed to sneak a win against me (ending up with her making top 8) we chat a little as we know each other from all the events and her boyfriend (Roel Jans) is the judge for the Breda events. She tells me because he is playing as well they had to split up their set of power, which immediately makes me put her on her pet deck (Oath) with some minor tweaks, turns out I was right and history wouldn't repeat itself.

Game 1:
I lock the game up pretty easy after winning the die roll and landing Tomb – Sphere, turn 2 Waste her Tropical and chalice @ 1, turn 3 Shop, Lodestone (she scooped after drawing a card for the turn)

Game 2:
She had Oath turn 1 off Orchard Mox, Emrakul on turn 2 and I didn’t have Metamorph.

Game 3:
I try turn 1 3sphere which gets countered. She proceeds to play fetch, go, I go for Mox, Chalice @ 1, Thorn, both resolve, I drop wasteland and waste her dual. She Land, go’s another turn and I land a second shop to play both Tangle and Stack, she scoops when I flash her the Crucible I was holding, knowing that she can’t ever make a comeback.

Round 2: Thomas Hendriks – Elves.
Thomas has the habit of killing himself when he's facing me (flipped himself to death with Ad Nauseam 2 times in our last match) He's poking fun at how awesome his deck is and I knew he was running Elves! The first 2 rounds aren't giving me any easy games but I feel confident in pulling this off.

Game 1:
I lock up his options a bit with Thorn and a Chalice @ 1, which he removes by casting Viridian Shaman (Pact) He gets down a lot of stuff having played Mox Emerald I quickly count his mana, look at pact, count again (2 lands, Mox Emerald), look at my hand and realize that if I play Karn (which I was holding and had the mana to play) and Kill his mox (had 1 non-shop mana left after casting Karn) he wouldn't be able to pay for pact in his next upkeep unless he's holding double Spirit guide (unlikely) I proceed to kill his mox and pass, he shows me a single spirit guide in hand and dies to his pact.

Game 2:
For some reason I felt I needed Pithing Neelde although I couldn't remember why exactly. I boldly name Heritage Druid with my needle thinking there was some reason I boarded them in but forgot. (obv this doesn’t work but if he falls for it just the better after forgetting why I felt I needed them this seemed like a pretty decent gamble), he proceeds to go apeshit with Skullclamp and I remember why I was boarding in needle again… he also didn’t fall for my little trick but whatever…(Mentally I wasn’t really into it all as will show later on, definitely some rust going on here as I was basically clueless about why I felt I needed needle)

Game 3:
he had 15 cards dedicated to beating shop 4 Viridian Shaman, 4 Infect shaman (no clue about the name), 4 Gleefull sabotage, 4 Nature’s Claim. He was able to deal with 3 Lodestone Golems, 2 Karns and a Stack before I died to poison counters .

Round 3 - <some guy from Spain forgot his name> - Oath
Oh goody, again, Oath... he was a really nice guy though and we chatted abit in English. He said he was working in Holland for a year and wanted to play Vintage.

Game 1:
He never gets more then LoA and 1 island into play, I lock up the board and Lodestone finishes the job.

I have no clue what he’s running at this point so I board out 4 powders, 1 Thorn and bring in 3 GQ’s, 1 Crucible and a Sphere. Seems pretty decent against base blue decks.

Game 2:
He starts off playing pretty passively, I notice he’s using Islands, Wastelands, LoA, so I assume it’s some form of control deck (Keeper style), imagine my surprise when he lands Orchard and Oath… He Oaths up Darksteel colossus and manages to bash me once wit hit (I wasted his Orchard), I land Metamorph copying DSC enabling him to Oath again (Holding a second Metamorph so I felt safe, probably should have chumped with my token though) he oath’s again and gets Akroma, Angel of Wrath which has haste (or so it says on the card) for enough damage to seal game 2

Boarding is easy, out come the GQ’s, in come the 3rd Metamorph and 2 Duplicant’s.

Game 3:
We fight over who gets to have which land in the beginning (all the while I keep a shop sandbagged) after the dust settles I’m at a Shop + Crucible, 2x Tangle locking his board up. I draw Karn, eat his moxen and beat him to death.

Round 4: Roel Jans - Turbo Tezz

Game 1:
I lock him out of doing basically anything with a brutal Lodestone - Chalice @ 0 opening, soon Tangle + Stack join the party and he scoops it up.

Game 2:
He shows me an opener including Land, Mox, Mox, Lotus, Key, Key, Tezz or something equally silly and we soon move on to game 3.

Game 3:
I have him on the backhand for most of the game, he has to defensively bounce my board or he's dead (Lodestone and he's on 3). I rebuild choosing to apply pressure (replay the lodestone) instead of more locks and holding back the lodestone feeling he only has 1 turn to topdeck an out being better then giving him 2 if I choose the lock route. Sadly he has a second Hurkyl's recall, a Vampiric (going to 1) and a Time Walk to go with the key already in play. He shows me he's grabbing TV with Vamp and flashes Tezz in hand.

This loss means I'm out of Top 8 (barring some unlikely event). I'm not really sure if going for pressure and denying him turns vs denying him mana was correct or not, there are cases for either choice to be made that are valid. There's also the problem of me getting bounced in the first place (Played Chalice @ 0 and @ 1 while Lodestone was in play, Chalice @ 2 might have been way better even though I lock out my own spheres.)

Round 5 - Timo - Gush Storm
This round probably was the least interesting of the day

Game 1:
I take him apart with a good opener en he's never able to have more then a single island in play.

Game 2:
He takes me apart with solid play and his deck just having better stuff at the rigt time.

Game 3:
I win after I manage to lock him out of doing basically anything relevant. Karn, Tangle, Stack mop him up.

Conclusions

There was an outside shot at me still making T8 if 2 other players drew or tied their game, they went into turns but eventually settled on a winner which made me end up in 9th place. I stick around to watch the top 8 since Arjan (my ride) and Guus are both in it. Sadly they get paired together which Guus wins, then the top 4 splits and we head back home after a long day.

I made some mistakes and I felt there was more to be reached then a 9th place finish, that being said, I had a great day meeting all the guys, hanging out and slinging cards. I'm pretty sure my deck selection was spot on, if only I wasn't as rusty from not playing and had a more clear head I could have easily reached higher.