Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Wrapping up 2013

If I could define 2013 in one word, it would be AWESOME. I've been to 4 different continents, got married, promoted, met wonderful people, consolidated friendships, spent time with my family... Basicly everyone single area of my life improved this past year, and I'm grateful for that. Magic wasn't any different, but I'm still a few steps away from my goals. At the beggining of the year, I told myself that I wanted to qualify to the PT this year, and I got pretty damn close. But let's not rush into things, lets see how did the year go for my magic carreer...

GP BILBAO - Modern

My year started at GP Bilbao in january, where I decided to play Jund after testing UWR for 2 weeks. I wasn't confident enough with it, so I decided to play a trial on friday with Jund to see it goes and I lost on the finals... I was convinced. Of course the GP itself I got destroyed after playing 4 mirrors, Pod, Junk and Storm. I finished day 1 at 5-4, to another very poor result in modern. By the way, a friend of mine to whom I have give my UWR list finished on the top 16, and another one won the GP...  I made the wrong choice, as always, and changed decks on the last minute...

GP LONDON - RTR Sealed

This GP was MASSIVE. I was going to stay at a friend's house, so I decided to go by bus. I left on friday night and traveled all night long to get to London at 7am. It was one of the poorest decisions I could have made, as I barely slept. The GP had almost 2thousand players, and we were going to battle for 10 rounds on day one. I registered a unplayable Simic deck, with which I won only 2 games all day, and then sideboarded into an Esper deck with Gideon who carried me to day 2 at 8-2. It was quite a challenge and every match was awesome. The first draft went quite well, and I managed to 2-1, but needed a 3-0 or a 2-1 to try to make into the top 64. Well, I had an insane deck but played badly finishing the GP at x-5. I wasn't that desapointed as it was still a good finish considering how little I tested for it....

GP RIO - Standard

I had to go to Brazil to renew my driver's license, so I chose to stop by in RIO on my way home (I come from Manaus, AM for those wondering) for the GP. The place was horrendous, the heat unbearable, the organisation a nightmare but still was one of the best GP's I played as it was my first on my home country and I got to meet some of the finest brazilian players. It all started on twitter, where I met Jose Dantas (kAoz.Zeh on MTGO), and we became friends. I suppose to bring a few cards for his deck, and getting there he introduced me to Willy Edel, Pedro Carvalho (_Megafone_), Tiago Saporito (Bolovo), Allison Abe and others... I honestly regreted not starting playing before moving to Europe, I would probably have meet them before, but complaining doesn't do anything for me. It was great to meet this guys and learn a little more about professional magic in Brazil. Anyway, back to the GP: I played UWR and finished day one at 6 wins, 2 defeats and a draw, not being able to make day 2. It was pretty close, and I leteraly throwed away my chances against bant control on G3 using a Thought Scour on myself with a RIP in play and milling both my 2 last win conditions. It was pure reflexes, but it costed me a lot.

GP UTRECHT - Team Sealed

Just a week after that and I was back in Europe to play my first Team Sealed tournament at GP Utrecht. I got to team up with two very good french players: Pierre Sommen (I call him my mentor as he worked on the shop when I came back to the game and he helped me to improve a lot) and Antoine Maugard. We had good expectations but we didn't have a very strong pool after a 3-0 start, we got 3 losses knoking us out of the tournament. It was a good experience, and It was great to see some friends doing well in a another tournament (some guys I usualy draft with lost their win and in for the top 4...)

GP STRASBOURG - Legacy

Well, you all know the story here. This was my best shot at going to the PT, and I missed. I still think about my 3 losses this weekend, as they taught me a lot. Maybe I will be able to repeat that next month in Paris. I hope so. =)

After this GP came a few PTQ's and the Bazar of Moxen, but I did poorly in all of them. I was just a couple of months away from my wedding, and I had literaly no time to test so I wasn't expecting anything different. I got to say yes on the 8th of June, and had the "Time of my life" with my friends and family, followed by the most amazing trip I ever took: We left Paris to LA, and went straight to the French Polynesia (paradise on earth). On our way back, we rented a car in LA and drove to Vegas where I got to play at the biggest GP of all time. Modern Masters was awesome, and being there it was unbelievebly good even if I never had the intention at playing the whole event (I was on my honeymoon). I was at 4x2 when I conceded to my opponent in round 7 because I had to go back to the hotel (it was already 8pm), but I had a great time! It was in Vegas that I had the chance to talk to Willy about the World Magic Cup in Amsterdam, and he said I could come to watch if wanted!

WMC

The dream vacation was over, and I got back at work but still managed to scape to go to Amsterdam (once again by bus) to support both of my teams: Brazil and France. It was my second time attending a ProTour - level competition (First was Magic Weekend in Paris), and I have to say, I never felt so much enthousiasm about playing magic as this weekend! Raphael Levy and Willy Edel were so inspiring in their ways of leading theirs teams round after round onto day 2, that all I could think about was: I need to be a part of this next year! I have to admit: I would love to be able to play with team Brazil, but as I don't live there anymore, its impossible. But at the same time France is my home now, and if I'm back at playing this awesome game I have to thank the French Community. So if I qualify this year, I will play for France with all my heart!

SECOND SEMESTER.

GP RIMINI - SEALED

The first GP after my vacations was Rimini, and M14 was a fun format and I was doing pretty good on Magic Online. Well, for the first time since I started playing, I went 0-3 in a tournament. I can't really explain what happened. Its quite possible that I played badly, but I can't really say. I thing I did my best, and sometimes, shit happens.

GP WARSAW - STANDARD

At this point, I hated standard. Everybody was playing Jund and Reanimator, and I couldn't stand this decks. I decided to sleeve up Esper Control, but got destroyed by Domri Rade and the new manabarbs all day long. My bad run was only beggining...

GP ANTWERP - MODERN

I already stated how much I dislike this format. I couldn't find a deck that I had fun with, and all my past tournaments went downhill. I decided to ask my brazilians friends for help, and they told to ask the Modern Master himself (Willy) what he would play. He told me about this Merfolk deck that he was testing that crushed JUND with 4 master of waves, but I could not buy it at first. I got the deck together online and I felt in love with it. I was having fun in MODERN!!!! And wining!! Unbelieveble. There was still a problem though: Affinity was a horrible match up, and POD was not that easy... Anyway, I thought: Why not. On friday I got to the venue and saw Raphael Levy asking for jund cards... I told him: I can't believe you are playing JUND! When I told him about Willy's deck he quickly joined me. Well, for him, the rest of the history is here: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/deck/1358

For me: I finished day one at 6x3, loosing twice against Affinity and once against POD, as predicted. They were close games, and I really thing I played really well through the day.

GP VALENCIA - SEALED

Here I have to confess: I played really really badly. I had a decent UG deck with Sphinx and some removal, but no Monsters and finished the day AGAIN at 6x3. My match on camera against Nico Bonni was brutal, and I make some really bad decisions that game that my have costed me. Although,
it was amazing to visit Valencia for the first time, and I really want to go again (Unfortunatly, Im not qualified for the next PT). On sunday, I decided to play on the super standard tournament with Esper Control. It was my first time playing the format after the rotation, and I was really impressed by the deck. I made top 8 fairly easy, and was pretty sure that this was going to be my deck for this year.

GP VIENA - STANDARD

Well, I continued to play Esper Online, and after everybody started playing Mono Black, things got a bit harder. I still didn't think I should change decks, so I decided to stick to it and play the GP with almost the same list. I made day 2 at 7x2, avoiding a few MonoB, but on day 2 my results got infested by Pack rats. The 3 losses that I had on day 2 that took me away from the money were to Pack Rat, and it felt like RTR sealed all over again. To complete my missfortune, afterwards I lost 26 cards from Dezani's cube, and had to replace them. =(

I thought the year was over after the last GP. As you may have noticed, I don't really talk about many PTQs, and thats because I could not play in many. I played in exactly 3 Qualifiers and 2 WMCQ through the year, mostly because Im not free on sunday and a very poor schedule by our organizers... But at the very last weekend I managed to go to one in Lille, where I decided to play UW this time.
If you are not aware, PTQs around here are very high level, so to take one down you really need to be prepared. It was not easy, but I managed to arrive on the semi-finals where I lost to Elie Pichon, who took it down with Mono U devotion. He certainly deserved it, and I was happy of doing well and that he was the one taking home the blue envelope (not as happy as I would be if It was me)...

And that's how my 2013 went down guys! Not many impressive results, but I can see my game evolving and have high hopes for 2014! The important thing is to never give up, and keep pushing forward. As Levy would say: Your tournament start now!!




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