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Talk about this article in the forums! For the first time in quite a while, I felt an urge to write an article again. In a hurry, because I know that if I linger it’ll have an open ending. I will assemble the ideas; you do the editing. Here we go.
It was all new. That made it all rather exciting. You should try it… I didn’t even check the internet to sneak-peak… ;-) Lately, time has become more valuable than money in my life. Halle has the close to my home thing going for it, so that’s my home-shop. Over the years the crowd there has become an exceptional mix of players. I have to congratulate Mark Wallemans on the superb ambiance he’s gradually nourished at his Mishra’s playground. I’m playing a traditional Grixis deck with lots of removal (capsule, new pyroclasm, charm, infest, -1/-1 enchantment, the –X/-X sunburst removal, agony warp etc), card-drawing (new looter, the new fact or fiction etc) and a load of unearth (2x Dragger, the 4/2 first strike, undead Leo etc). I ended up making two mistakes in deck-building adding this 0/3 sunburst goblin because I had missed the “3: pump him”-ability. I just thought he was X/3 automatically. The second mistake was more subtle, as my black discard sceptre just worked too slowly against most of my opponents. Maybe that was just the match-ups – the cards screams card advantage after all - but that’s how it felt during the games. Round one pairs me down against Robbie (?). Game one, he plays Necrogenesis turn 2 and kills me with the tokens he gets for free when I have to cycle 2 Viscera Draggers to find a third land. In the end, I never see a red mana, and die when he casts some 6/6 multicoloured rare. The second game is more of the same, as I again have mana issues, form no thread and die to the second 6/6 multicoloured rare after killing the first. He beat me dead in fun games too; I had it coming. There are some big, fat, nasty dudes out there… Round two pairs me against John (Do). He stumbles on mana the first game, and after recounting the lands in his deck, it seems he has only 15 sources. I kindly tell him 17 is a minimum, so he rebuilds and we shuffle for game 2 which I win when he attacks with his battle grace angel into a 2/2 who becomes a trampling, flying 7/5 dragon. Never attack with Battlegrace Angel unless you have to… Round three against Nicolas Opdebeeck was tense. He’d told me his deck was insane, and knowing that I had received the pool he’d opened put him at an advantage. He opened like a madman game one, but infest + pyroclasm = WoG . I then emptied his hand with the sceptre + blighting, (discarding Godsire as last card) which was sufficient to take game 1. Game 2 he has a nice opener, but I have too much removal ready. My draw was slightly superior as he seemed to suffer a land-glut in the middle of the game. We play 3 more games of which I win 2. Apparently I didn’t steel the win. I have to keep my cool… Fried, how do you manage it? Round four I play against Peter (?) who whines about the crap deck he's playing. This should be a bye for me… Game one he rolls me over with little dudes, plays realm razer and that’s it. Game two, I keep a dangerous hand, but draw the lands I need to pull off a win. Game 3 he wins a thrilling match on a top-deck which rocked my bowels a little as I had been trying hard to overcome his ‘bad’ deck (the draw 4 lands spell, that healer who makes a dude unblockable, razor, looter, a 3/3 flyer who gives shroud to all your dudes, 7/11 monster, etc) Yadaya Bonzai. Some people always complain. Round five, I’m thinking: How can I be at six points with this deck? I play Morgan”neke” Staelens, who wins the first game when I don’t draw any red lands after cracking Grixis Panorama to find a first swamp. (Déjà Vue anybody?) A chain of removal later, we play the third and deciding game during which I couldn’t find an answer to his draw (+ Battlegrace Angel). He lets me win the consolation fourth fun game. I can’t beat Morganneke anymore. He’s become indestructible. Round six, I play Geertje. (Double my size). He killed me twice with a rare vampire who gets bonus counters each time life is lost. My removal suite didn’t pack answers to everything. Every loss shuts down part of my brain. (X parts = number of rounds) All in all, albeit ending 2-4 and setting “at new pace” my magic career, I looked back on the tournament with a smile. I could’ve avoided a couple of mistakes, but my general performance was satisfactory. I also learned that playing a deck which has to find answers is harder than playing one bomb and then another. The turn you stop being the aggressor, is the turn the game slips out of your control. I rarely was the aggressor, therefore pulling a 2-4 results shouldn’t be such a big surprise. See you in Rotterdam. Belgium, break a leg. Jiri |
