We arrived to the site few minutes before the end of registration for the Championships. I registered and waited for the first round to begin. There were about 230 players or so.
In the first round I played against mirror. I knew this after I played my first discard spell and got a peek at his hand. Unfortunately I played Inquisition of Kozilek and not Thoughtseize so I was incapable of discarding Batterskull. In the upcoming turns I still did not get Cabal Therapy or Thoughtseize so I could get rid of that Batterskull. It landed in play few turns later and I did not have any response to that. So I tried to survive. Lingering Souls were helping me in that. Finally Stoneforge Mystic showed up, I tutored Batterskull and put it into play later. I was at 6 life at that time. I equipped my only creature with the skull (Mystic) and started attacking as well. This allowed me to survive long enough till I managed to get rid of all the opposing souls. The last one was hit by Liliana's second ability and the opponent conceded the game. We did not have much time for the remaining games. The second game was quick though and it was not in my favor. We asked some judges when the round ends. We got few answers like 1 minute, 2 minutes or 3 minutes. So we signed the result slip and waited for round 2. By having a draw in the first round there was a pretty high chance that I would play against yet another stone blade.
In the second round my opponent mulled to five. I played Cabal Therapy on Force of Will as that's probably the most played card (considering all types of deck). I hit it. The remaining cards were Counterspell, Karakas, Island and Plains. I decided that this deck is most probably a miracle deck. I played Bitterblossom and hoped that it would suffice. It did. In the second game I sided in Pithing Needle, Enlightened Tutor and what not but it was not even necessary as I managed to discard all his counterspells, play Stoneforge Mystic, fetch Batterskull and kill with it.
In round 3 I ended up really badly. I played Inquisition of Kozilek as my first spell and peeked at a hand full of Bloodbraid Elves. I hoped to draw a Cabal Therapy but it did not show. On turn 4 the first Bloodbraid Elf ended up on the table and cascaded into Baleful Strix. The next one brought Scavenging Ooze and the last elf brought Brainstorm. I did not have any removal and my only chance was to block the creatures and kill them in combat. But my 1/2s were not capable of stopping the elves. In the second game my first discard hit Umezawa's Jitte. But still I was under quite some pressure from Shardless Agents and creatures they brought in play. I had Jitte in my hand and drew Batterskull. This card could have saved me but my opponent top decked Tower of the Magistrate and played it. My only chance of survival was thus doomed to fail and I conceded.
Round 4 - Stone blade. Not entirely sure what was happening in these games except that I played Dark Confidant after Dark Confidant and it was always hit by Swords to Plowshares. I was discarding equipments and Vendilion Cliques and I was getting rid of other cards by playing Dark Confidants^^.
Round 5 was really interesting. I looked at my opponent's hand and I had no idea what he was playing - Ethersworn Canonist, Pernicious Deed, Enlightened Tutor, Phyrexsian Tower, Verdant Catacombs, Forest, Scavenging Ooze and Eternal Witness. Later in the game Veteran Explorer ended up on the table that's when I realized what I play against (or at least I had an idea). A turn later Grave Titan showed up. I played Swords to Plowshares on it but still the little zombies beat me. In the second game I tried as hard as I could and tried to avoid Pernicious Deed. My equipments got hit by Harmonic Sliver and my sideboard cards did not show up. I really needed Rest in Peace or Grafdigger's Cage. Anyway everything looked quite ok when I managed to play Lingering Souls, flashback them and attack with them (and Jitte) but turn before my opponent's death he drew Pernicious Deed and swept the board. He played Sun Titan and Recurring Nightmare then. I did not drew graveyard hate and died few turns later.
My opponents hand in round 6 consisted of 6 lands and Life from the Loam. Unfortunately all the discard cards force to discard so the Loam ended up in graveyard. I won this game but I did not really know what I was facing. I did not see any creatures so I was siding out Swords to Plowshares. In game two my opponent sided in many cards. Not entirely sure what they were but the card that certainly killed me was Tarmogoyf. I got overrun by three of them and Jace TMS was yet another problem I couldn't deal with. Game 3 I reevaluated my sideboard but my opponent did the same and the game did not end up good for me. I could fight Jace TMS and discard some annoying Cliques but what killed me this time was Life from the Loam + Wasteland. I did not get the chance to remove Life from the Loam nor the land.
Round 7 was the best match I played^_^. I played against yet another Esper Stone Blade. In the first game I simply got rid of my opponent's Stoneforge Mystic and then played Lingering Souls and yet another Lingering Souls. These managed to win. In the second game it did not look good for me. I managed to play Pithing Needle forbidding Jace TMS but that did not stop my opponent dealing damage to me. When I finally managed to look at my opponent's hand it looked like this: Stoneforge Mystic, Jace TMS, 2x Supreme Verdict, Darkblast, Perish, Snapcaster Mage. That was even worse for me than I thought. My souls and Stoneforge Mystic would simply die to Supreme Verdict. It would take some time till I would draw more creatures and then it would get swept once again. Anyway I played the SFM and fetched Batterskull. My opponent then played Thoughtseize. I was ready to discard the equipment but my opponent decided to discard Liliana of the Veil while having four spirits in play. After that he managed to mess it up once again by playing Jace, the Mind Sculptor and thus losing one whole turn. His friend standing next to him seemed that he wants to kill him after such play but he didn't say anything. I pointed at my Pithing Needle and my opponent realized what he did. He passed me the turn. I drew Umezawa's Jitte and put it in play, equipped it and attacked. My opponent was down to 2 life. He had Stoneforge Mystic in play, 4 spirits and Jace TMS. He played Brainstorm and found Disenchant and Swords to Plowshares. Anyway he drew something and let me play. I expected him to play Snapcaster Mage and flashback Swords to Plowshares and then simply kill me. But to the surprise and entertainment of all present he did not do it. My draw was Wasteland, so I decided to destroy a blue source. I thought that he had Underground Sea untapped, but when targeting the land I realized that it was actually Scrubland. Anyway he tapped it for mana and played Disenchant on my already charged Umezawa's Jitte. After this my opponent's friend started yelling at him because this was already too much for him^_^. Me and Honza we started laughing so badly that I couldn't even talk for a while. I pumped my Mystic, killed the opposing Mystic and swinged for the win. My poor opponent was listening to his friend who just couldn't understand how he managed to mess the game so much. Judge came to us wondering what the hell happened so we filled in the result sheet and gave it to him.
Round 8 was not so much fun. But I've met a really cool guy. He came late and was given a game loss. But I knew that this would not stop him from winning the round. Japanese and German combined that can't be a bad player^_^. I looked at his hand and found 2 cards I did not like at all. Terminus and Moat. There was Repeal, Jace and some lands as well but those cards did not really concern me. Entreat the Angels was what would kill me and I knew I couldn't do a thing against that. I knew that this match up is rather unwinnable for me but I tried anyway. I played what creatures I could and attacked but after a third Terminus there was nothing I could play or attack with. Soon I was facing several 4/4 angel tokens. In game two I sided in all I could against this deck but I did not have Engineered Explosives in my hand. My opponent played the Entreat pretty soon where x was 3 and that was all he needed. I got rid of one angel and extracted the Entreat. But no decay, no sword, no liliana nor explosives for me. After the game ended we discussed my deck a bit. I had some free time before the next round for the first time during the tournament.
When I arrived to my table I was already too tired to take the game seriously. I did not even mulligan when I was supposed to. I played against Maverick. My top decks though were good and I won even though I certainly did not deserve that. In game 2 I had to mulligan to five. I managed to get two lands but one of them was Wasteland. This land was destroyed and I was left with one Swamp. I couldn't do much. In game 3 my hand was quite ok. But my opponent wrecked my plan with Pithing Needle on turn 1. The card I couldn't use was Liliana of the Veil and that was a problem. I needed to get rid of the needle so I could destroy Knight of the Reliquary. But my opponent was one turn ahead of me and played one more creature. So I decided to play Abrupt Decay on Knight of the Reliquary and hoped to draw something that would help. Unfortunately my following draws were only lands.
After the tournament I wanted to play more legacy and I decided that this deck is what I like. I should have played more Scrublands than Bayous but it did not kill me during the tournaments anyway. Having more duals though was ok except for the game against Life from the Loam + Wasteland. Also I was lacking more Pithing Needles.
We left the site about 9 or even later. We arrived to Prague round 3am and then we went to some Nonstop Bar. The first bar was closed. The second one as well...the third though was open. So we ordered some drinks and had some fun. This time finally I had the chance to play against Kumano. We played EDH till 6 am and then we left and parted our ways.
I'm really glad that I went to Grand Prix Strasbourg even though it cost me a lot of money that I would need now. It is something I really needed to get some energy and will to continue surviving in this madness of a world. This GP felt small and it was pretty expensive. Other GPs I went to where far better. For the money you paid you got something extra, could play in many different events and there was always something to do. Here it was rather meh, but as I spent the day playing Legacy anyway it was fine.
stsung
Legacy
Main Deck:
4 Dark Confidant
3 Deathrite Shaman
3 Liliana of the Veil
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Abrupt Decay
1 Batterskull
2 Bitterblossom
2 Cabal Therapy
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
1 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Thoughtseize
2 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Bayou
1 Forest
4 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
1 Savannah
2 Scrubland
3 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Wasteland
Sideboard:
1 Disenchant
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Humility
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Perish
1 Pithing Needle
1 Rest in Peace
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
Cool :) I wonder why you still not writing for any popular site like cmus...
ReplyDeleteYou seriously think that anyone at cmus would be interested in my reports or articles? I really doubt that. But thanks for reading.
ReplyDelete