Monday, March 30, 2015
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!!
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!!
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Magic Stats
As everyone else is doing, I decided to post here my Magic stats. ;)
Overall Stats:
Overall record: 737-430-75 Win percentage ignoring draws: 63.153385 Win percentage including draws: 59.339775
Stats by Event Format
Standard: Overall record: 387-192-55 Win percentage ignoring draws: 66.839378 Win percentage including draws: 61.041009 Casual - Limited: Overall record: 7-2-0 Win percentage ignoring draws: 77.777778 Win percentage including draws: 77.777778 Legacy: Overall record: 32-17-4 Win percentage ignoring draws: 65.306122 Win percentage including draws: 60.377358 Trios - Limited: Overall record: 4-5-0 Win percentage ignoring draws: 44.444444 Win percentage including draws: 44.444444 2 HG Sealed: Overall record: 6-3-0 Win percentage ignoring draws: 66.666667 Win percentage including draws: 66.666667 Extended: Overall record: 16-12-2 Win percentage ignoring draws: 57.142857 Win percentage including draws: 53.333333 2 HG Standard: Overall record: 2-2-0 Win percentage ignoring draws: 50.000000 Win percentage including draws: 50.000000 Sealed: Overall record: 153-98-3 Win percentage ignoring draws: 60.956175 Win percentage including draws: 60.236220 Booster Draft: Overall record: 69-50-6 Win percentage ignoring draws: 57.983193 Win percentage including draws: 55.200000 Modern: Overall record: 58-49-3 Win percentage ignoring draws: 54.205607 Win percentage including draws: 52.727273 Casual - Constructed: Overall record: 3-0-2 Win percentage ignoring draws: 100.000000 Win percentage including draws: 60.000000
Stats by Event Type
Magic Casual Event: Overall record: 12-5-3 Win percentage ignoring draws: 70.588235 Win percentage including draws: 60.000000 Friday Night Magic: Overall record: 137-78-19 Win percentage ignoring draws: 63.720930 Win percentage including draws: 58.547009 Magic WPN Premium Tournament Qualifier: Overall record: 6-3-2 Win percentage ignoring draws: 66.666667 Win percentage including draws: 54.545455 8 players Side Events: Overall record: 4-5-0 Win percentage ignoring draws: 44.444444 Win percentage including draws: 44.444444 Magic National Qualifier: Overall record: 9-8-0 Win percentage ignoring draws: 52.941176 Win percentage including draws: 52.941176 Magic Launch Party: Overall record: 5-0-0 Win percentage ignoring draws: 100.000000 Win percentage including draws: 100.000000 Magic Grand Prix: Overall record: 107-68-5 Win percentage ignoring draws: 61.142857 Win percentage including draws: 59.444444 Magic Pro Tour Qualifier: Overall record: 71-54-5 Win percentage ignoring draws: 56.800000 Win percentage including draws: 54.615385 Magic WPN Premium Tournament: Overall record: 8-9-0 Win percentage ignoring draws: 47.058824 Win percentage including draws: 47.058824 Magic Tournament: Overall record: 212-91-29 Win percentage ignoring draws: 69.966997 Win percentage including draws: 63.855422 World Magic Cup Qualifier: Overall record: 7-9-1 Win percentage ignoring draws: 43.750000 Win percentage including draws: 41.176471 Magic Team Grand Prix: Overall record: 3-3-0 Win percentage ignoring draws: 50.000000 Win percentage including draws: 50.000000 Magic Game Day: Overall record: 14-6-1 Win percentage ignoring draws: 70.000000 Win percentage including draws: 66.666667 Public Event at Grand Prix: Overall record: 43-29-2 Win percentage ignoring draws: 59.722222 Win percentage including draws: 58.108108 Magic France Prize Supported Event - Stores: Overall record: 13-8-4 Win percentage ignoring draws: 61.904762 Win percentage including draws: 52.000000 Magic Grand Prix Trial: Overall record: 41-30-2 Win percentage ignoring draws: 57.746479 Win percentage including draws: 56.164384 Magic Prerelease: Overall record: 45-24-2 Win percentage ignoring draws: 65.217391 Win percentage including draws: 63.380282
Friday, May 3, 2013
Preparing for the BAZAR OF MOXEN 2013 (Standard)
Hello everyone!
I have been kind of going crazy in the last few days. Next week is the Bazar of Moxen, the biggest tournament we have in France, and I have 2 formats to prepare for. Normally I would not care about Legacy at all, but since GP Strasbourg, I can't say that's the case anymore. For those of you who don't know what the BOM is, it is a huge Legacy tournament that takes place in Annecy - France (A very beautiful place by the way), that has better prizes then a GP. There is also other very profitable tournaments in different formats: Vintage, EDH, Standard and a PTQ.
The reason why I’m going crazy is because I have no clue in what to play. Dragon's Maze just came out, but the cards aren't legal until this weekend, so it means we won't have real tournaments to base our choices for the event. My big concern of course is the PTQ, but there seems to be so many choices that I don't know where to start brewing. The last French PTQ/WCMQ weekend had the following stats:
Gruul Agro : 4 (4%) Naya Blitz : 6 (7%) Aristocrat : 13 (14%) Zombie : 4 (4%) Bant Hexproof : 2 (2%)
Other Agro : 5 (6% Bant Control (Midrange) : 4 (4%) Jund Control (midrange) : 8 (9%) Uwr Midrange : 14 (16%) Esper Control : 6 (7%) 4CControle : 4 (4%) Other controls: 4 (4%) Réanimator : 16 (18%)
In the top 8: 3 UWR, 2 Aristocrats, 1 jund Agro, 1 bant control, 1 esper control (Who won the event).
Before analyzing that, there some major factors to consider (this is pure speculation):
1) This PTQ is in a Wednesday (although holiday bank) in a very distant location, and a big part of the grinders that do not play legacy don't think its worthy going;
2) There are no major tournaments to take lists from, so people will probably tweak their decks by one or two cards, but I don't expect new archetypes to pop out very strong;
3) Card availability may be an issue;
4) The legacy players that will play the PTQ won't be invested in standard (not very well prepared);
5) Many people will have already left for the PT San Diego.
I guess this means: This is a great chance to qualify. I'm not taking people for granted, I just think that seen the High Level competition that French PTQ's normaly are, this is a great opportunity.
Back at the stats: Reanimator was by far the most played strategy on the last events, but UWR and ESPER were the most represented decks on the top8. Aristocrats is another issue, so lets take a look at this 3 archetypes:
REANIMATOR:
Strengths: Strong Midrange strategy and it does not depends exclusively on the graveyard to win. Dominates board states quite fast and with hard to deal threats. King of the midranges.
Weakness: Control decks, very fast agro decks and Threaten effects (Naya Blitz/MonoRed/ Aristocrats).
UWR and ESPER
Strengths: You do not have many threats, but you can deal with everything (or almost) your opponents plays. Counter Magic, Wrath, Spot Removal, you have it all, all you need is a finisher and you are good to go. That can be Angels, Nephalia Drownyard, Aetherling, Assembly the Legions or planeswalkers. (Add win out of nowhere if it contains Boros Reckoner/Harvest Pyre)
Weakness: Cavern of Souls, Hand disruption/Slaughter games, not drawing the right solution on time/Acidic Slime.
Aristocrats:
Strengths: This deck is a combo deck disguised as a midrange strategy. Cartel and Falkenrath are such strong cards that if left unchecked will dominate the game. Versions with Reckoner and Blood Artist ("Act II") can be even more tricky, so you need to be really careful with it. The best thing is that most people don't know how to play against it.
Weakness: Eletrickery, Staticaster, Terminous, Tragic Slip, Rest in Peace, Sigarda, Curse of Deaths Hold, Craterhoof Behemoth, Blood Baron, Renounce the Guilds, Warped Physique. I think the deck looses a lot with dragon's maze, but it will still be played.
Agro decks do not gain much with Dragon's Maze, but probably a few Jund agro players will try to integrate new cards like Syre of Insanity and Ruric Thar. Speaking of them, I think JUND Midrange should play Syre, as if your control opponents do not have an answer on the spot, they will probably loose the game. Anyway, its probably very bad against Reanimator, and if the trends continues, I would not play JUND.
===============================
So the question is, what should I play? I want to be able to beat those decks if I want to have a chance at actually winning the tournament. If it wasn't for Renounce the Guilds and Wraped Physique (As well as far/away) giving ESPER good weapons against Aristocrats, I think that would be my choice. I also think that people have already learned how to play against it, so the deck lost most of its force. UWR is the next on my list, but If I am going to play it I want to be well prepared against the mirror (and also find a way to beat ESPER). Wait a second... Maybe ESPER is the deck to play, I just need to find a good list!
There is another strategy that Im interested... Im not going to say a lot about it because is untested theory, but I will leave you guys with a picture of its core...
Talk to you guys soon!
I have been kind of going crazy in the last few days. Next week is the Bazar of Moxen, the biggest tournament we have in France, and I have 2 formats to prepare for. Normally I would not care about Legacy at all, but since GP Strasbourg, I can't say that's the case anymore. For those of you who don't know what the BOM is, it is a huge Legacy tournament that takes place in Annecy - France (A very beautiful place by the way), that has better prizes then a GP. There is also other very profitable tournaments in different formats: Vintage, EDH, Standard and a PTQ.
The reason why I’m going crazy is because I have no clue in what to play. Dragon's Maze just came out, but the cards aren't legal until this weekend, so it means we won't have real tournaments to base our choices for the event. My big concern of course is the PTQ, but there seems to be so many choices that I don't know where to start brewing. The last French PTQ/WCMQ weekend had the following stats:
Gruul Agro : 4 (4%) Naya Blitz : 6 (7%) Aristocrat : 13 (14%) Zombie : 4 (4%) Bant Hexproof : 2 (2%)
Other Agro : 5 (6% Bant Control (Midrange) : 4 (4%) Jund Control (midrange) : 8 (9%) Uwr Midrange : 14 (16%) Esper Control : 6 (7%) 4CControle : 4 (4%) Other controls: 4 (4%) Réanimator : 16 (18%)
In the top 8: 3 UWR, 2 Aristocrats, 1 jund Agro, 1 bant control, 1 esper control (Who won the event).
Before analyzing that, there some major factors to consider (this is pure speculation):
1) This PTQ is in a Wednesday (although holiday bank) in a very distant location, and a big part of the grinders that do not play legacy don't think its worthy going;
2) There are no major tournaments to take lists from, so people will probably tweak their decks by one or two cards, but I don't expect new archetypes to pop out very strong;
3) Card availability may be an issue;
4) The legacy players that will play the PTQ won't be invested in standard (not very well prepared);
5) Many people will have already left for the PT San Diego.
I guess this means: This is a great chance to qualify. I'm not taking people for granted, I just think that seen the High Level competition that French PTQ's normaly are, this is a great opportunity.
Back at the stats: Reanimator was by far the most played strategy on the last events, but UWR and ESPER were the most represented decks on the top8. Aristocrats is another issue, so lets take a look at this 3 archetypes:
REANIMATOR:
Strengths: Strong Midrange strategy and it does not depends exclusively on the graveyard to win. Dominates board states quite fast and with hard to deal threats. King of the midranges.
Weakness: Control decks, very fast agro decks and Threaten effects (Naya Blitz/MonoRed/ Aristocrats).
UWR and ESPER
Strengths: You do not have many threats, but you can deal with everything (or almost) your opponents plays. Counter Magic, Wrath, Spot Removal, you have it all, all you need is a finisher and you are good to go. That can be Angels, Nephalia Drownyard, Aetherling, Assembly the Legions or planeswalkers. (Add win out of nowhere if it contains Boros Reckoner/Harvest Pyre)
Weakness: Cavern of Souls, Hand disruption/Slaughter games, not drawing the right solution on time/Acidic Slime.
Aristocrats:
Strengths: This deck is a combo deck disguised as a midrange strategy. Cartel and Falkenrath are such strong cards that if left unchecked will dominate the game. Versions with Reckoner and Blood Artist ("Act II") can be even more tricky, so you need to be really careful with it. The best thing is that most people don't know how to play against it.
Weakness: Eletrickery, Staticaster, Terminous, Tragic Slip, Rest in Peace, Sigarda, Curse of Deaths Hold, Craterhoof Behemoth, Blood Baron, Renounce the Guilds, Warped Physique. I think the deck looses a lot with dragon's maze, but it will still be played.
Agro decks do not gain much with Dragon's Maze, but probably a few Jund agro players will try to integrate new cards like Syre of Insanity and Ruric Thar. Speaking of them, I think JUND Midrange should play Syre, as if your control opponents do not have an answer on the spot, they will probably loose the game. Anyway, its probably very bad against Reanimator, and if the trends continues, I would not play JUND.
So the question is, what should I play? I want to be able to beat those decks if I want to have a chance at actually winning the tournament. If it wasn't for Renounce the Guilds and Wraped Physique (As well as far/away) giving ESPER good weapons against Aristocrats, I think that would be my choice. I also think that people have already learned how to play against it, so the deck lost most of its force. UWR is the next on my list, but If I am going to play it I want to be well prepared against the mirror (and also find a way to beat ESPER). Wait a second... Maybe ESPER is the deck to play, I just need to find a good list!
There is another strategy that Im interested... Im not going to say a lot about it because is untested theory, but I will leave you guys with a picture of its core...
Talk to you guys soon!
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
GP STRASBOURG REPORT #TOP16
Hello Everyone!
Quick recap with what has been going on :
(Just jump to the Report session if you don't want to read about me)
It has been quite a while since the last time I wrote, but I have a good reason: I got promoted, and what was a quite place where I could play Magic Online at least 2 hours everyday, became a nightmare. I mean, I like it a lot, especially because I am the one who decides peoples schedules (So I can always finish early on Friday and begin late on Monday - very useful for travel arrangements), but I do not have as much spare time as I use to. That meant that my time spent with Magic would take a hit, so I just assumed my results would reflect that.
Since last time I wrote, I went to 4 Grand Prixs: Bilbao (Modern), London (Limited), Rio (Standard) and Utrecht (Team Limited).
I am not going to give you details on those, as I am here to talk about Legacy this time, but I will tell you briefly how they went:
Bilbao: Played JUND and got destroyed. 5x3 drop. I have no luck (or skills on this format).
London: Finish day one at 8x2, and felt pretty confidant going to day 2. Manage to 2x1 my first draft, and needed to 2x1 the second one to be able to top 64 (and cash in my first GP). Lost the last round playing for top 64, finishing X-5.
RIO: This GP deserved a report, as it was as much fun as a GP can be. I met a lot of people that I only knew online: Jose Dantas (@kaOz_Zeh) - who won the GP, Willy Edel (@bazardebagda) and Pedro Carvalho (@_Megafone_) are amongst them, and they have been encouraging me to do better and not give up, so a big thanks to them. I missed day 2 at RIO because of a Draw that could have become a Win haven't I screwed up at the second game... anyway, I will write about this another time.
UTRECHT: I teamed up with Antoine Maugard and Pierre Sommen, and what promised to be a awesome GP turned in a disapointement. We had average decks, but we faced awesome decks with lots of bombs, got a game loss for deck list, and saw Antoine get very Unluckly to barely win a match the whole day. Droped right after.
After this results, and not much time to PTQ this season ( I am getting married in June, so between the preparations and playing the drums at church on sunday, I was going to be pretty busy this semester), I was not very proud of myself in magic. I had a bunch of below average results, and as I much as I could think of myself as a good player, my results were not helping. Everybody seems to be writing about losing on Magic nowadays, and I can say that I have been doing it a LOT. Except in drafts. This a fun fact actually, but in 3 of this 4 events I decided to play in drafts on sunday, and I won 90% the drafts I played (2 each). I started to think that I should stick to casual... Than comes GP Strasbourg.
GP STRASBOURG
I played in a total of 6 Legacy events since 2011 (When I started playing Magic). 1 GP (Ghent 2012), 1 GP Trial and 3 FNM's. When I was learning how to play, Pierre Sommen (GP Amsterdam 2011 champion - Probably one of the best Legacy Players in the World) and I jammed a bunch of games in a store where he worked during a summer, but thats that. I didn't have any other Legacy experience, and therefore no expectation about doing well at this GP. I just wanted to play in a high level event before my wedding, and have a good weekend with my friends.
I told Sommen that I would play whatever 75 he tolds me to play, as I didn't know much about the format, and when he told me that he wanted to play BUG Shardless. I jumped in right away, and was great to see Gerry Thompson win the Invitational the week before in Atlanta with the deck. I watched a bunch of videos during the week to see his line of plays, and thought that the deck fitted my play style very well. I asked around for some cards, and I was ready to go.
We booked a house 30 minutes from the site with 10 other Frenchies, and it was THE place to be: Louis Deltour, Guillaume Vincent, Cyril Terroy, Pierre Sommen, Maxime Mangenot and others excellent Legacy players. They arrived on thursday to start testing, but because of work I had to take the train on Friday afternoon. I arrived on the site at 4 pm, and as I still had to collect a few cards with people I did not had time to play in a Trial. I watched my friends play and got back to the house.
After some food (Cyril Terroy made a "Risotto" that should be able to be used as ciment or super glue, but it was pretty good) and boozes (And bad jokes by Pierre Picot and Louis Deltour), we were ready to discuss the maindeck and sideboard. Here is the list that we came out:
I thought that was really weird to have only one random Hymn on the main, but I couldn't argue much with them. (Vincent and Sommen were the ones working on the list). I thought the maindeck was pretty solid, but asked why we were not playing any thoughtseizes. They argue that the deck is not made to win against Combo (The deck's worst MU) game 1 anyway, so it was 4 or nothing.
The Whipflares were an awesome addition against Elves, Goblins, Maverick, WW and even StoneBlade (Sometimes good against storm if you feel they will play Empty the Warrens), and the red/black dual wasn't so BAD ;). The revokers and Sower were mainly against Show and Tell, Thoughtseize against all the combo decks (and some control) and cage, well, don't need to say. The plan seemed pretty solid.
We jammed in some games, and were quite happy with the final list, and went to sleep.
I waked up quite early, and felt like something was missing. I knew that I didn't have the same knowledge of the format as the other guys, and some games I would just loose for not knowing what I was playing against. So, I decided that I was going to bring 2 thoughtseizes to the main deck to give me an edge game one against this unknown decks, allowing me to sideboard properly. I also knew I wanted at least one maelstrom pulse in the 75 to deal with annoying permanents like Sneak Attack, Jace and Batterskull, and it can also act as the 4th Whipflare in some cases.
So, this is what I ended up playing:
Thiago Rodrigues, 16th
I needed to make room for the 2 thoughtseizes so I moved the Hymn to the sideboard and cut one Strix.
My rounds day one went like this:
Bye 2
Round 3: Maverick - 2x0
Round 4: Jund - 2x1
Round 5: Goblins - 2x1
Round 6: UW Miracles - 2x0
Round 7: Esper - 2x0
Round 8: Alluren 2x0
Round 9: Show and Tell Omniscience 0x2
Ok, so this was unexpected! I have to confess that until round 5, I just felt that I was getting lucky. The deck was awesome, well tuned and I was winning because I was playing against good MU... 5x0 wasn't a big of a deal and I have done it before, but when I won round 6 against Miracles, I knew I was running good. Something really interesting happened this round, as in game 2, he plays fetch, look for an island and say go. I play a Deathrite shaman out of a bayou, and pass the turn back. During his turn he plays a Rest In peace. I think for a while, and say ok. He puts it into play, don't do anything, and say GO. So here, I untap, draw my card, and realize that when he put RIP into play, he didn't actually exile his graveyard. He didn't announce the trigger, he didn't made any motions towards it or anything. I decided to call a judge to ask if I could activate my shaman, seen that the trigger from RIP requires a visual representation (exiling your graveyard), and he didn't do it. He asked me to describe what exactly happened, and I did. He asked my opponent to do the same, and he says that he made a movement with his hand pointing to his graveyard, but didn't actually moved it, and I said that it was not true. After some discussion, I feel like the judge will rule in my favor, but he decides to check with a Head Judge. When he comes, he call both of us aside (My opponent first), and then asked me to describe what happened. I did, and he asked me if I was familiar of what RIP did, and I said of course, so I felt that his tone changed like if I was saying something wrong, or a different version of what I said earlier. I have saw this happening many times, and I knew he was trying to see if I was telling 2 different versions of the story, and that would mean a DQ. I was up one game, there was not much time left on the clock, and we were both at 5x0, it would be a shame to be out of the tournament because of this, and tell him: "Look, all I did was asking the judge if it was POSSIBLE to assume he missed the trigger. I haven't tried to perform an illegal action or even said anything during the game about activating my shaman. He was the one who decided to call you to get your opinion, so please take that into consideration. I am only asking a question and would like an answer so I can play accordingly." He thinks for one moment, and tell me to be very careful with what I say next time. He ruled that the trigger resolved, and we continue the game. I won anyway.
Round 8 I won despite not having any clue what I was playing against. I saw a bunch of creatures and all I did was destroy his lands and mana creatures and kill him quickly with a Tarmogoyf. He seemed very mad because he could see I didn't know what he was playing, and still won anyway.
I was 8x0 in a legacy GP. I could not believe that. I was playing really well, getting some amount of luck, and the deck did the rest. I played round 9 against Jean Mary Accart, the guy that actually made the list we were playing (he came up with the whipflares on Magic Online), and he smashed me with his ST Omniscience deck. 8x1 was still a really good result (my best day one finish so far) and I was really excited to play 6 more rounds on sunday with Brainstorm, Jace and Ancestral Vision.
Only me and Deltour made day 2 from the house, so the mood wasn't the best around us. Still, they helped me review a few sideboard plans for sunday, and we got some rest.
DAY 2
This is how my rounds went:
Round 10: ROCK - 2x1
Round 11: MIRROR - 2x1
Round 12: Jund - 2x1
Round 13: Merfolk - 0x2
Round 14: UW Miracles - 1x1
Round 15: Cloudpost 2x0
Round 16: Death and Taxes 0x2
Against Merfolk I made a lot of mistakes and lost game one because I forgot that they have dismember on their deck. I probably could have won this game if it wasn't for this, but who knows.
My draw against Miracles came in the worst way possible, as I had a Jace on 9 counters on game 3 by the final additional round. I hated myself even more because I called a judge when my opponent talked in german to a guy behind him, and we lost 10 minutes discussing about it, but nothing happened. The thing is that they only gave 6 minutes of extra time, so in the end I paid for it... Winning this match would probably have changed everything, as with a Win I could draw in to top 8... But thats not how things happened, and I ended up playing on camera against Death and Taxes round 16 (you can see the game on the coverage archive at twitch.tv/magicprotour) and I mulled to 5 game one, didn't know how exactly Thalia, cascade and a fetch land worked (Could not play my spell in the end), and got Crusaded game 2.
After the match I was still pretty happy with my performance. I knew I was probably going to finish in the top 16, witch is pretty good for my first money appearance at a GP, but did not realize that I have just lost on the finals of a PTQ. That was the game that separated me from Dublin, and was not until later that day that I felt the frustration of loosing this shot. Its really hard to top 8 a GP nowadays, and one bad decision can take everything away from you, and I know that is what happened.
I asked myself what has changed. What made me play so well that weekend, with a deck full of complicated interactions in such a deep format as legacy? I would say that not putting pressure on myself and luck were the reason, not forgetting about the awesome team mates we had at the house, but something else has changed that week: I started working out again. I know that a lot of people have talked about it, and its not that easy to believe but I actually could feel that my mind and my body were much more prepared than ever, and it certainly made a difference. If I could give an advice to anyone after this GP is: Don't take yourself for granted. As any sport, if you want to play the best of your magic, put yourself in the position to be on the best state of mind and as healthy as possible. You will see the results for yourself.
Thanks everyone for the support and kind words. They meant a lot, for real.
I Hope I have some other good stories to tell you soon.
Thiago Rodrigues
Quick recap with what has been going on :
(Just jump to the Report session if you don't want to read about me)
It has been quite a while since the last time I wrote, but I have a good reason: I got promoted, and what was a quite place where I could play Magic Online at least 2 hours everyday, became a nightmare. I mean, I like it a lot, especially because I am the one who decides peoples schedules (So I can always finish early on Friday and begin late on Monday - very useful for travel arrangements), but I do not have as much spare time as I use to. That meant that my time spent with Magic would take a hit, so I just assumed my results would reflect that.
Since last time I wrote, I went to 4 Grand Prixs: Bilbao (Modern), London (Limited), Rio (Standard) and Utrecht (Team Limited).
I am not going to give you details on those, as I am here to talk about Legacy this time, but I will tell you briefly how they went:
Bilbao: Played JUND and got destroyed. 5x3 drop. I have no luck (or skills on this format).
London: Finish day one at 8x2, and felt pretty confidant going to day 2. Manage to 2x1 my first draft, and needed to 2x1 the second one to be able to top 64 (and cash in my first GP). Lost the last round playing for top 64, finishing X-5.
RIO: This GP deserved a report, as it was as much fun as a GP can be. I met a lot of people that I only knew online: Jose Dantas (@kaOz_Zeh) - who won the GP, Willy Edel (@bazardebagda) and Pedro Carvalho (@_Megafone_) are amongst them, and they have been encouraging me to do better and not give up, so a big thanks to them. I missed day 2 at RIO because of a Draw that could have become a Win haven't I screwed up at the second game... anyway, I will write about this another time.
UTRECHT: I teamed up with Antoine Maugard and Pierre Sommen, and what promised to be a awesome GP turned in a disapointement. We had average decks, but we faced awesome decks with lots of bombs, got a game loss for deck list, and saw Antoine get very Unluckly to barely win a match the whole day. Droped right after.
After this results, and not much time to PTQ this season ( I am getting married in June, so between the preparations and playing the drums at church on sunday, I was going to be pretty busy this semester), I was not very proud of myself in magic. I had a bunch of below average results, and as I much as I could think of myself as a good player, my results were not helping. Everybody seems to be writing about losing on Magic nowadays, and I can say that I have been doing it a LOT. Except in drafts. This a fun fact actually, but in 3 of this 4 events I decided to play in drafts on sunday, and I won 90% the drafts I played (2 each). I started to think that I should stick to casual... Than comes GP Strasbourg.
GP STRASBOURG
I played in a total of 6 Legacy events since 2011 (When I started playing Magic). 1 GP (Ghent 2012), 1 GP Trial and 3 FNM's. When I was learning how to play, Pierre Sommen (GP Amsterdam 2011 champion - Probably one of the best Legacy Players in the World) and I jammed a bunch of games in a store where he worked during a summer, but thats that. I didn't have any other Legacy experience, and therefore no expectation about doing well at this GP. I just wanted to play in a high level event before my wedding, and have a good weekend with my friends.
I told Sommen that I would play whatever 75 he tolds me to play, as I didn't know much about the format, and when he told me that he wanted to play BUG Shardless. I jumped in right away, and was great to see Gerry Thompson win the Invitational the week before in Atlanta with the deck. I watched a bunch of videos during the week to see his line of plays, and thought that the deck fitted my play style very well. I asked around for some cards, and I was ready to go.
We booked a house 30 minutes from the site with 10 other Frenchies, and it was THE place to be: Louis Deltour, Guillaume Vincent, Cyril Terroy, Pierre Sommen, Maxime Mangenot and others excellent Legacy players. They arrived on thursday to start testing, but because of work I had to take the train on Friday afternoon. I arrived on the site at 4 pm, and as I still had to collect a few cards with people I did not had time to play in a Trial. I watched my friends play and got back to the house.
After some food (Cyril Terroy made a "Risotto" that should be able to be used as ciment or super glue, but it was pretty good) and boozes (And bad jokes by Pierre Picot and Louis Deltour), we were ready to discuss the maindeck and sideboard. Here is the list that we came out:
Main Deck
60 cards
|
||
| 1
Badlands 2 Bayou 2 Misty Rainforest 4 Polluted Delta 2 Tropical Island 3 Underground Sea 4 Verdant Catacombs 4 Wasteland 22 lands 3 Baleful Strix 4 Deathrite Shaman 4 Shardless Agent 4 Tarmogoyf 14 creatures |
4
Abrupt Decay 4 Ancestral Vision 4 Brainstorm 4 Force of Will 1 Hymn to Tourach 18 other spells 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 3 Liliana of the Veil 6 planeswalkers
Sideboard
2
Grafdigger's Cage2 Phyrexian Revoker 2 Sower of Temptation 4 Thoughtseize 2 Vendilion Clique 3 Whipflare 15 sideboard cards | |
I thought that was really weird to have only one random Hymn on the main, but I couldn't argue much with them. (Vincent and Sommen were the ones working on the list). I thought the maindeck was pretty solid, but asked why we were not playing any thoughtseizes. They argue that the deck is not made to win against Combo (The deck's worst MU) game 1 anyway, so it was 4 or nothing.
The Whipflares were an awesome addition against Elves, Goblins, Maverick, WW and even StoneBlade (Sometimes good against storm if you feel they will play Empty the Warrens), and the red/black dual wasn't so BAD ;). The revokers and Sower were mainly against Show and Tell, Thoughtseize against all the combo decks (and some control) and cage, well, don't need to say. The plan seemed pretty solid.
We jammed in some games, and were quite happy with the final list, and went to sleep.
I waked up quite early, and felt like something was missing. I knew that I didn't have the same knowledge of the format as the other guys, and some games I would just loose for not knowing what I was playing against. So, I decided that I was going to bring 2 thoughtseizes to the main deck to give me an edge game one against this unknown decks, allowing me to sideboard properly. I also knew I wanted at least one maelstrom pulse in the 75 to deal with annoying permanents like Sneak Attack, Jace and Batterskull, and it can also act as the 4th Whipflare in some cases.
So, this is what I ended up playing:
Grand Prix Strasbourg 2013 – Legacy
Main Deck
60 cards
| ||
| 1 Badlands 2 Bayou 2 Misty Rainforest 4 Polluted Delta 2 Tropical Island 3 Underground Sea 4 Verdant Catacombs 4 Wasteland 22 lands 2 Baleful Strix 4 Deathrite Shaman 4 Shardless Agent 4 Tarmogoyf 14 creatures | 4 Abrupt Decay 4 Ancestral Vision 4 Brainstorm 4 Force of Will 2 Thoughtseize 18 other spells 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 3 Liliana of the Veil 6 planeswalkers
Sideboard
2 Grafdigger's Cage1 Hymn to Tourach 1 Maelstrom Pulse 2 Phyrexian Revoker 2 Sower of Temptation 2 Thoughtseize 2 Vendilion Clique 3 Whipflare 15 sideboard cards | |
I needed to make room for the 2 thoughtseizes so I moved the Hymn to the sideboard and cut one Strix.
My rounds day one went like this:
Bye 2
Round 3: Maverick - 2x0
Round 4: Jund - 2x1
Round 5: Goblins - 2x1
Round 6: UW Miracles - 2x0
Round 7: Esper - 2x0
Round 8: Alluren 2x0
Round 9: Show and Tell Omniscience 0x2
Ok, so this was unexpected! I have to confess that until round 5, I just felt that I was getting lucky. The deck was awesome, well tuned and I was winning because I was playing against good MU... 5x0 wasn't a big of a deal and I have done it before, but when I won round 6 against Miracles, I knew I was running good. Something really interesting happened this round, as in game 2, he plays fetch, look for an island and say go. I play a Deathrite shaman out of a bayou, and pass the turn back. During his turn he plays a Rest In peace. I think for a while, and say ok. He puts it into play, don't do anything, and say GO. So here, I untap, draw my card, and realize that when he put RIP into play, he didn't actually exile his graveyard. He didn't announce the trigger, he didn't made any motions towards it or anything. I decided to call a judge to ask if I could activate my shaman, seen that the trigger from RIP requires a visual representation (exiling your graveyard), and he didn't do it. He asked me to describe what exactly happened, and I did. He asked my opponent to do the same, and he says that he made a movement with his hand pointing to his graveyard, but didn't actually moved it, and I said that it was not true. After some discussion, I feel like the judge will rule in my favor, but he decides to check with a Head Judge. When he comes, he call both of us aside (My opponent first), and then asked me to describe what happened. I did, and he asked me if I was familiar of what RIP did, and I said of course, so I felt that his tone changed like if I was saying something wrong, or a different version of what I said earlier. I have saw this happening many times, and I knew he was trying to see if I was telling 2 different versions of the story, and that would mean a DQ. I was up one game, there was not much time left on the clock, and we were both at 5x0, it would be a shame to be out of the tournament because of this, and tell him: "Look, all I did was asking the judge if it was POSSIBLE to assume he missed the trigger. I haven't tried to perform an illegal action or even said anything during the game about activating my shaman. He was the one who decided to call you to get your opinion, so please take that into consideration. I am only asking a question and would like an answer so I can play accordingly." He thinks for one moment, and tell me to be very careful with what I say next time. He ruled that the trigger resolved, and we continue the game. I won anyway.
Round 8 I won despite not having any clue what I was playing against. I saw a bunch of creatures and all I did was destroy his lands and mana creatures and kill him quickly with a Tarmogoyf. He seemed very mad because he could see I didn't know what he was playing, and still won anyway.
I was 8x0 in a legacy GP. I could not believe that. I was playing really well, getting some amount of luck, and the deck did the rest. I played round 9 against Jean Mary Accart, the guy that actually made the list we were playing (he came up with the whipflares on Magic Online), and he smashed me with his ST Omniscience deck. 8x1 was still a really good result (my best day one finish so far) and I was really excited to play 6 more rounds on sunday with Brainstorm, Jace and Ancestral Vision.
Only me and Deltour made day 2 from the house, so the mood wasn't the best around us. Still, they helped me review a few sideboard plans for sunday, and we got some rest.
DAY 2
This is how my rounds went:
Round 10: ROCK - 2x1
Round 11: MIRROR - 2x1
Round 12: Jund - 2x1
Round 13: Merfolk - 0x2
Round 14: UW Miracles - 1x1
Round 15: Cloudpost 2x0
Round 16: Death and Taxes 0x2
Against Merfolk I made a lot of mistakes and lost game one because I forgot that they have dismember on their deck. I probably could have won this game if it wasn't for this, but who knows.
My draw against Miracles came in the worst way possible, as I had a Jace on 9 counters on game 3 by the final additional round. I hated myself even more because I called a judge when my opponent talked in german to a guy behind him, and we lost 10 minutes discussing about it, but nothing happened. The thing is that they only gave 6 minutes of extra time, so in the end I paid for it... Winning this match would probably have changed everything, as with a Win I could draw in to top 8... But thats not how things happened, and I ended up playing on camera against Death and Taxes round 16 (you can see the game on the coverage archive at twitch.tv/magicprotour) and I mulled to 5 game one, didn't know how exactly Thalia, cascade and a fetch land worked (Could not play my spell in the end), and got Crusaded game 2.
After the match I was still pretty happy with my performance. I knew I was probably going to finish in the top 16, witch is pretty good for my first money appearance at a GP, but did not realize that I have just lost on the finals of a PTQ. That was the game that separated me from Dublin, and was not until later that day that I felt the frustration of loosing this shot. Its really hard to top 8 a GP nowadays, and one bad decision can take everything away from you, and I know that is what happened.
I asked myself what has changed. What made me play so well that weekend, with a deck full of complicated interactions in such a deep format as legacy? I would say that not putting pressure on myself and luck were the reason, not forgetting about the awesome team mates we had at the house, but something else has changed that week: I started working out again. I know that a lot of people have talked about it, and its not that easy to believe but I actually could feel that my mind and my body were much more prepared than ever, and it certainly made a difference. If I could give an advice to anyone after this GP is: Don't take yourself for granted. As any sport, if you want to play the best of your magic, put yourself in the position to be on the best state of mind and as healthy as possible. You will see the results for yourself.
Thanks everyone for the support and kind words. They meant a lot, for real.
I Hope I have some other good stories to tell you soon.
Thiago Rodrigues
Monday, November 12, 2012
STANDARD, THE COME BACK!
Hello everyone!
First of all I would like to thank all of you for your support! More than 200 views of my last report, and even though I know its complicated to leave a comment, feel free to do it!
After almost 3 months dedicating myself to Modern and Limited, its time to play some Standard again! This week I'm going to GP Bochum in Germany, and Im very excited about it! First of all, I have never been to Germany. It might be that Bochum and Dusseldorf (where I am landing on saturday) aren't the best places to start visiting, but I am pretty sure its going to be a great time!
Second, after 6 exhaustive months of Delver of secrets, it feels great to be back at the format where I got to learn how to play, and where I got my best results until now. Before getting this job, I was a student, and had most of my afternoons free. That means twice a week I would be battling at Magic Corporation for a few boosters and other prizes. I knew the format inside out, and last season was Delver season... It was just hard to play something else. Anyway, since RTR came out, I didn't really give that much attention to standard, only watching some videos and occasional coverage. Before actually playing the new format, it seemed that Zombies would be the Deck to beat, mostly for not loosing anything from the rotation. Well, people decided to gain life. And Lots of Life. Huntmaster gives me 2? I want more? Centaur Healer 3 life? Not enough. Thragtusk 5 life?? Almost there...
Sphinx's Revelation Its probably the card that makes all things possible. Too far, I know. Have you ever cast it? I guess thats what a revelation feels... You feel actually iluminated after casting it. This is actually the reason why you want to ramp in your control deck. Speaking of which, it seems that's what everyone is playing nowadays... UWR Control, Bant Control, Grixis Control, Mono black Control, UW... Zombies, Mono Red, Humans and Selesnya agro decks are still there, but the only ones really having any relevant results are the ones that remembered that Cavern of Souls is still legal... And that probably explains the recent success of the new Delver decks. If everybody is only playing their threats turns 4 or 5, Im just going to put a small creature into play and counter whatever they do. Does that sound familiar?
After playing with Bant control at the Standard Championship in Lyon, with a list full of one of (One Jace, One Tamyio, One Angel of Serenity), and I could feel the power of the deck. It was far from an ideal list, but it was enough to convince me that that's what I want to do in Standard.
I played in a win a box on saturday, and went 4x1. Tomorrow Ill give you the report of that tournament. Got to go back to work now.
See you guys soon!
First of all I would like to thank all of you for your support! More than 200 views of my last report, and even though I know its complicated to leave a comment, feel free to do it!
After almost 3 months dedicating myself to Modern and Limited, its time to play some Standard again! This week I'm going to GP Bochum in Germany, and Im very excited about it! First of all, I have never been to Germany. It might be that Bochum and Dusseldorf (where I am landing on saturday) aren't the best places to start visiting, but I am pretty sure its going to be a great time!
Second, after 6 exhaustive months of Delver of secrets, it feels great to be back at the format where I got to learn how to play, and where I got my best results until now. Before getting this job, I was a student, and had most of my afternoons free. That means twice a week I would be battling at Magic Corporation for a few boosters and other prizes. I knew the format inside out, and last season was Delver season... It was just hard to play something else. Anyway, since RTR came out, I didn't really give that much attention to standard, only watching some videos and occasional coverage. Before actually playing the new format, it seemed that Zombies would be the Deck to beat, mostly for not loosing anything from the rotation. Well, people decided to gain life. And Lots of Life. Huntmaster gives me 2? I want more? Centaur Healer 3 life? Not enough. Thragtusk 5 life?? Almost there...
Sphinx's Revelation Its probably the card that makes all things possible. Too far, I know. Have you ever cast it? I guess thats what a revelation feels... You feel actually iluminated after casting it. This is actually the reason why you want to ramp in your control deck. Speaking of which, it seems that's what everyone is playing nowadays... UWR Control, Bant Control, Grixis Control, Mono black Control, UW... Zombies, Mono Red, Humans and Selesnya agro decks are still there, but the only ones really having any relevant results are the ones that remembered that Cavern of Souls is still legal... And that probably explains the recent success of the new Delver decks. If everybody is only playing their threats turns 4 or 5, Im just going to put a small creature into play and counter whatever they do. Does that sound familiar?
After playing with Bant control at the Standard Championship in Lyon, with a list full of one of (One Jace, One Tamyio, One Angel of Serenity), and I could feel the power of the deck. It was far from an ideal list, but it was enough to convince me that that's what I want to do in Standard.
I played in a win a box on saturday, and went 4x1. Tomorrow Ill give you the report of that tournament. Got to go back to work now.
See you guys soon!
Thursday, November 8, 2012
GP LYON
The weekend has arrived!!! It was time for me to get my third Day 2 in a GP, and this time, I was prepared for it! We did a lot of testing, and the deck seem as solid as possible! I got to Lyon on Thursday afternoon with my Fiancé, as Lyon its her hometown. It would be great to have a day just to relax and have sometime with her and her family, as a fresh mind is a great recipt for success. We slept in the afternoon and had an awesome dinner at night at my (to be) brother in law birthday party. Friday morning I woke up at 10, and got ready to go to the Venue.
The GP was in a big convetion center, a very nice place in the middle of Lyon. I still had to pick up some cards that were missing, and help friends building their decks for the trials. I got pretty good deals with the German stores (they always have great prices at GPs), and I just had to wait for a friend to arrive with the Vendilion Cliques and my deck would be done. Here is the list I played at the trial:
We realized that Geist was definatly the worst card in the pack, but we didnt want to cut all of them, because against combo decks can still win the game on its own. Consacrated Sphinx was the creature to go over the top against Jund and other creature decks, and the rest was pretty much the same. I decided to cut the Eiganjo Castle as we didnt rely on Geist as much as before, adding another fetch land to make sure we would have our red early in the game.
The room was fool of TRON, Poison and Affiniy, as we expected, and it felt really good to be playing this deck. I won Round 1 against robots, in game 2 playing pyroclasm T2, and Stone Silence T3. He conceded right after. Round 2 was against tron, and my opponent mulligan to 6 both games didnt help him much. Round 3 was a pretty easy win against a Naya deck, where we both had about the same amount of creatures on the board, just until I landed Sphinx. So much card advantage! At 3-0 I was up for the Top 4, but I couldnt beat TRON this time. I mulliganed G1 to five, without any counterspell, and he had the tron on t3. Game 2 another mulligan to 6, and one turn before killing him, he tutors Emrakul up, I vendilion click at his draw step to make sure not to get Annihilated that turn, and take away his Giant. What he draws? All is dust. I loose my geist, clique and detention sphere, he gets his Karn back, and I lost. =( I still feel favorable in this much up, and even though I couldnt get to the finals, I was pretty confidant with the deck.
So, it was time to go home and rest for day 1!
SATURDAY
I did a couple of changes before giving my list in the morning: After reading PV's article about the Pro-Tour, where he suggests that Baneslayer Angel would be a nice addition to the UW decks, I decided to replace the sphinx for it. I felt I could use some life gain, and one less mana was a big deal. Another change was to add a Surgical extraction and take out the Dumping Matrix, that didnt do much. After my byes (2), I was ready to battle:
Round 3 - Kohl, Reinhold - Boremandos.
I think I have played him before, and I asked him if he remembered me, and his answer was: Yeah, when was the last Pro-Tour you played? ... Sigh...
He starts with Delver T1, and I didnt have any removal in hand. After a long game he burns me out, and we are up for game 2. On the play, he starts with step lynx, and turn 2 adds a delver and a delver to the board. I pyroclasm everything away, and we Draw-Go for a while, Until I resolve a Clique and a Restoration Angel, telling me that his hand was all burn spells. I won that one, but we didnt have time to finish game 3... Draw. Not a very good way to start, as in day 1 a draw is worthy as much as a loss.
Round 4 - DURIF, Vincent - JUND
My opponent starts with inquisition, taking out my spell snare and leaving me with snapcasters and restoration angels in hand. He plays dark confidant, and just overwhelms me.
Game 2 I did probably the WORST MISPLAY IN THE HISTORY OF THE GAME. It was so bad that I wanted to concede right away. I had 3 lands, a celestial colonade, a mountain and an island. My hand was: Kitchen Finks, Snapcaster Mage, Angel, Baneslayer, and Supreme Veridict. I had a Lightning bolt and a Path to exile on my graveyard, that I used to took out his Tarmogoyf and His Dark Confidant. I used my clique at his draw step and he kills it right away, and I see that all he had was a tarmogoyf and lands in hand. I leave it, as I had the veridict and even baneslayer once I draw my lands. He attacks me with TreeTop, plays another one, and sais go. I draw another kitchen finks, but still no forth land, so my plan was to path to exile my own snapcaster at his turn. For some reason I forgot that treetop has trample, and when he attacks me with his treetops I play my snapcaster, and say: "Block, than flashback path to exile on my own snapcaster". My opponent says: Sorry, but you didnt anounce that you target path to exile with your snapcaster. You forgot your trigger. I kept looking to the board, and move my snapcaster to the cemitery, without complaining, and thinking that I was the one who should be put in the cemitery, not the snapcaster.
Guess what happened? Never draw my 4th land, and I was dead with 2 attacks to his treetops.
I was devasted by this, how could I make such a thing? It was a horrible mistake, and now I couldnt loose anymore games for the rest of the day.
Round 5 and 6 - Fernandez, David and Hanke, Dustin
I won both of this rounds, but I dont remember against what it was. I guess I was still a little bit dizzy with round 4.
Round 7 - Collinet, Patrick - JUND
Do I really have to tell you? I lost. Not with misplays this time, but because I think the Match Up its 50/50, and this time I was out of favor. On game 3 his draws were much better than mine, and after 3 bloodbraid elves, there wasnt much I could do.
So I was out of contention, and pretty disapointed. Not with the deck, but with myself, for that round 4, and even for not playing faster on round 3 to avoid the draw. I droped after that, and went to see some games at the feature tables.
The GP was a great experience, despise things not going so well for me, but I had a great time with my friends and got to see some great names of the game playing. Next week Ill be going to GP Bochum, so next post it will be about standard!
Have a great week!
The GP was in a big convetion center, a very nice place in the middle of Lyon. I still had to pick up some cards that were missing, and help friends building their decks for the trials. I got pretty good deals with the German stores (they always have great prices at GPs), and I just had to wait for a friend to arrive with the Vendilion Cliques and my deck would be done. Here is the list I played at the trial:
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Seachrome Coast
3 Tectonic Edge
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Steam Vents
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Arid Mesa
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
2 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Restoration Angel
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Vendilion Clique
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Consacrated Sphinx
3 Mana Leak
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Spell Snare
2 Cryptic Command
2 Izzet Charm
4 Seachrome Coast
3 Tectonic Edge
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Steam Vents
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Arid Mesa
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
2 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Restoration Angel
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Vendilion Clique
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Consacrated Sphinx
3 Mana Leak
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Spell Snare
2 Cryptic Command
2 Izzet Charm
Sideboard
2 Supreme Veredict
1 Pyroclasm
2 Aven Mindcensor
1 detention sphere
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Dispel
2 spell pierce
1 Negate
1 Dumping Matrix
2 Stone Silence
1 Graffdigger's Cage
2 Supreme Veredict
1 Pyroclasm
2 Aven Mindcensor
1 detention sphere
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Dispel
2 spell pierce
1 Negate
1 Dumping Matrix
2 Stone Silence
1 Graffdigger's Cage
We realized that Geist was definatly the worst card in the pack, but we didnt want to cut all of them, because against combo decks can still win the game on its own. Consacrated Sphinx was the creature to go over the top against Jund and other creature decks, and the rest was pretty much the same. I decided to cut the Eiganjo Castle as we didnt rely on Geist as much as before, adding another fetch land to make sure we would have our red early in the game.
The room was fool of TRON, Poison and Affiniy, as we expected, and it felt really good to be playing this deck. I won Round 1 against robots, in game 2 playing pyroclasm T2, and Stone Silence T3. He conceded right after. Round 2 was against tron, and my opponent mulligan to 6 both games didnt help him much. Round 3 was a pretty easy win against a Naya deck, where we both had about the same amount of creatures on the board, just until I landed Sphinx. So much card advantage! At 3-0 I was up for the Top 4, but I couldnt beat TRON this time. I mulliganed G1 to five, without any counterspell, and he had the tron on t3. Game 2 another mulligan to 6, and one turn before killing him, he tutors Emrakul up, I vendilion click at his draw step to make sure not to get Annihilated that turn, and take away his Giant. What he draws? All is dust. I loose my geist, clique and detention sphere, he gets his Karn back, and I lost. =( I still feel favorable in this much up, and even though I couldnt get to the finals, I was pretty confidant with the deck.
So, it was time to go home and rest for day 1!
SATURDAY
I did a couple of changes before giving my list in the morning: After reading PV's article about the Pro-Tour, where he suggests that Baneslayer Angel would be a nice addition to the UW decks, I decided to replace the sphinx for it. I felt I could use some life gain, and one less mana was a big deal. Another change was to add a Surgical extraction and take out the Dumping Matrix, that didnt do much. After my byes (2), I was ready to battle:
Round 3 - Kohl, Reinhold - Boremandos.
I think I have played him before, and I asked him if he remembered me, and his answer was: Yeah, when was the last Pro-Tour you played? ... Sigh...
He starts with Delver T1, and I didnt have any removal in hand. After a long game he burns me out, and we are up for game 2. On the play, he starts with step lynx, and turn 2 adds a delver and a delver to the board. I pyroclasm everything away, and we Draw-Go for a while, Until I resolve a Clique and a Restoration Angel, telling me that his hand was all burn spells. I won that one, but we didnt have time to finish game 3... Draw. Not a very good way to start, as in day 1 a draw is worthy as much as a loss.
Round 4 - DURIF, Vincent - JUND
My opponent starts with inquisition, taking out my spell snare and leaving me with snapcasters and restoration angels in hand. He plays dark confidant, and just overwhelms me.
Game 2 I did probably the WORST MISPLAY IN THE HISTORY OF THE GAME. It was so bad that I wanted to concede right away. I had 3 lands, a celestial colonade, a mountain and an island. My hand was: Kitchen Finks, Snapcaster Mage, Angel, Baneslayer, and Supreme Veridict. I had a Lightning bolt and a Path to exile on my graveyard, that I used to took out his Tarmogoyf and His Dark Confidant. I used my clique at his draw step and he kills it right away, and I see that all he had was a tarmogoyf and lands in hand. I leave it, as I had the veridict and even baneslayer once I draw my lands. He attacks me with TreeTop, plays another one, and sais go. I draw another kitchen finks, but still no forth land, so my plan was to path to exile my own snapcaster at his turn. For some reason I forgot that treetop has trample, and when he attacks me with his treetops I play my snapcaster, and say: "Block, than flashback path to exile on my own snapcaster". My opponent says: Sorry, but you didnt anounce that you target path to exile with your snapcaster. You forgot your trigger. I kept looking to the board, and move my snapcaster to the cemitery, without complaining, and thinking that I was the one who should be put in the cemitery, not the snapcaster.
Guess what happened? Never draw my 4th land, and I was dead with 2 attacks to his treetops.
I was devasted by this, how could I make such a thing? It was a horrible mistake, and now I couldnt loose anymore games for the rest of the day.
Round 5 and 6 - Fernandez, David and Hanke, Dustin
I won both of this rounds, but I dont remember against what it was. I guess I was still a little bit dizzy with round 4.
Round 7 - Collinet, Patrick - JUND
Do I really have to tell you? I lost. Not with misplays this time, but because I think the Match Up its 50/50, and this time I was out of favor. On game 3 his draws were much better than mine, and after 3 bloodbraid elves, there wasnt much I could do.
So I was out of contention, and pretty disapointed. Not with the deck, but with myself, for that round 4, and even for not playing faster on round 3 to avoid the draw. I droped after that, and went to see some games at the feature tables.
The GP was a great experience, despise things not going so well for me, but I had a great time with my friends and got to see some great names of the game playing. Next week Ill be going to GP Bochum, so next post it will be about standard!
Have a great week!
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