FONMP - GP Gothenburg, PT Amsterdam

So if you read the last post, you'll know I had a bit of a messy ten days in mainland Europe. Good times, bad times, I had them all. I didn't go into depth about my latest scrub outs though which a lot of you Magic players might want to read about. Kind of an extended why I suck at Magic. I dropped a hundred DCI points in one month.

Day One, GP

Opening the sealed pool at the start of the day was the most disheartening thing. Inferno Titan, 3x Chandra's Outrages, 1x Sun Titan and considerable red and white cards to back the big guys up. Sadly, I was going to have to pass all of this to someone else. Someone who didn't utilize all this goodness to the full effect.

The pool that I was passed wasn't all that bad though. I build a U/G/b deck with two Mind Controls, Garruk Wildspeaker, Garruk's Packleader, Cultivate, Doom Blade, Assasinate and a few other pieces of fat. I can't really complain except for the fact it's a little slow. There's only two two drops and at the three slot there's a couple of cloud elementals and an aether adept. Whilst this is often not an issue in many sealed matches, it meant in a couple I took a harsh early beating.

Starting the day with three byes meant that I was going to have a lot of time on my hands. With most GPs there is a considerable amount of time doing nothing, waiting in between rounds for the next one to start. When you start a day with three byes, you're pretty much doubling the waiting time. Thankfully though it was annonced over the intercom that there would be a drafting happy hour - half price draft, 75SWK (about £7) for a draft, not bad. I build a fairly good U/W rush deck with two scroll thieves, stormfront pegasi and a couple of inspired charges. Win the first two rounds pretty quickly but draw dead in the third round, getting beaten down with a turn four conundrum sphynx both games. I was happy enough coming second, if I could go a ratio of two wins for every loss during the day, I'd make day two.

First match: Sami Valkamaa
So what beats double mind control.dec? Double acidic slime. This guy was running a vicious G/B build that was able to recurr the two acidic slimes he was running. In the match this just wrecked me. I got two-for-one-d all over the show. Not so good. We played a couple of games after and I was able to win, making me a question a few of my plays during the games. At one point in time, I was on 8 life and chose to block his Acidic Slime with my Azure Drake. Never a great trade but one I thought I was going to have to make to stabilize a particularly bad one whenever he is able to Nature's Spiral the Slime back to his hand. Knocking out one of my few sources of black mana. Doom Blade and Assasinate were virtually dead draws.

Second Match: Peter Floderus
At the begining of this match, my deck seemed to be 39 cards. Rather than risk getting DQed, I brought this to a judge's attention and got rewarded with a game loss for tardiness. As it turned out, two of the cards were stuck together. Stupid crap sleeves. If my deck list was ever checked I was bound to get a gameloss anyway for failing to write down that I had a Doom Blade in the deck. I go on to win game one against his aggressive U/R deck that looks to pair Goblin Tunneler with Fiery Hellhound. On top of that Chandra's Spitfires, Triskillion, Prodigal Pyromancers meant he was inflicting a lot of damage quickly. I was able to win the first game by dropping a mainboard harbour serpent and putting the island walk creature to its full potential. I lose the second getting beat down by a whispersilked fiery hellhound, during this game I make a major play mistake - mind controlling a prodigal pyromancer. 5 mana doom blade. Great. We play the third game that would have been and I lose anyway. Dead draw vs solid draw. Ah well. The guy goes on to beat Saito and makes day two.

Third Match: David Stenberg
I can't remember the exact nature of this match except that I won it, finally playing OK for a change. I apologize for knocking out of contention and he wishes me the best of luck for the rest of the tournament.


Fourth match: Fredrik Anesten
This guy was a nice guy but he was a little bit rusty, being a year out of the game he opts to play G/R as he thought it'd be easier to play. His deck isn't too bad being quite aggressive and good enough to give him three wins. He can't deal with the two mind controls and my deck just seems to wreck him. I look at his pool and see that he has bonkers U/W cards, advising him his deck could have taken him a lot further. We play a few games with the proposed deck and he beats me. Not bad.

Fifth match: Jan H. Ruess
I get a text from DJ telling me that I better have won this match or he'll kick my ass. The reason why? Ruess is a Dutch pro and it would have been a great victory. Unfortunately Ruess is packing double Blinding Mage, multiple Assassinates and a Royal Assassin. My flaws of my deck building appear - if I had put in two Yavimaya Wurms rather than two Harbour Serpents I could have won this. I drop a Harbour Serpent and whispersilk cloak it, if I can draw an island, he's on a clock. Unfortunately for me, Jan scrys into Solemn Offering using his Crystal Ball. At this point there's nothing I can do to take it. At this point I'm on slight tilt, I keep a slow hand and get punished for it. A turn one Elite Vanguard gets in for twelve damage and he gets his blinding mage royal assassin combo once again. My day two dreams are over but I decide to play the last match anyway for rating, experience and prizes.

Final Match: Paul Hodgson
Paul is an English guy that I have a laugh with as soon as I start playing. His deck is the nuts though, despite the fact he's playing the colours of mana screw (W/B), he wrecks me with Baneslayer Angel, with Visera Seer tech to make my mind controls useless. Double Mind Rot is harsh too. No prizes for me.

Paul and I go drinking in a mediocre bar and here is where I decide to play the PTQ the next day.

PTQ
My sealed pool does the exact same thing as it did for the GP. Double titan. This time though it's Frost Titan and Grave Titan with the blue/black stuff to back it up. I end up having to pass it and get back an intreguing pool. I build U/W/B. It's not the best deck ever, I'm running six two drops - 2x Ajani's Pridemate, 2x Augury Owl, 2x White Knight. I try to get further value from the Pridemates by running Tireless Missionaries and Ajani's Mantra. Whilst this is pretty good in the odd match, it's kind of a case of one mediocre card plus one mediocre card = two mediocre cards. I raise questions about the way I've built this deck later on. There's a Chandra Nalaar and a Magma Phoenix in my red cards with some mediocre stuff to back it up.

Match one: Robert J. van Medevoort
This is a solid Dutch player, he's build a good G/W aggro deck and nails me with a Baneslayer Angel. Ah well, I'll take the loss and win out from there, I hope. Later on in the week I see Robert playing in the Pro Tour. I don't mind getting beat by a pro.

Match two: Laertis Vaso
Ok, I probably shouldn't say this but there's something I don't like about this Italian guy. It doesn't help the fact that he beats me by a narrow margin. I have him on two life and he top decks mind control to steal my Vengeful Archon. I even clone the Archon but he packs the removal to deal with it. Crap. Game two I play like a dick. With a Serra Angel out, I decide not to Clone it, with the intention of saving it for the Vengeful Archon I have in hand. During one attack I'm pretty sure he's had a Diminish in hand for about four turns yet I push the Angel forward anyway and he 2 for 1s himself by blocking with an Augury Owl. Worth it, I'd say. If I'd cloned the Angel I'm sure I would have won this game and he packs two mana leaks to wreck my day, the second one shutting down my chance of a Vengeful Archon win.

I win Match three and four but I can't remember for the life of me how I did. I can't remember who I played or what they played. I'd say the euphoria from actually winning a few games wrecked my short term memory.

Match five: Santi Pettersson
I really shouldn't have lost this one but due to bad plays I do. After taking a vicious pounding from an Awakener Druid'd forest and some other green/red/white aggro cards, I manage to stabilize with a Vengeful Archon and Ajani's Mantra. After some nice combat trades and this guy failing to read Archon properly I'm in a decent position. If I'd cloned the archon, then attacked I would have won without doubt. Unfortunately he Condems the Archon. I scoop without playing the game out, half by accident, half because I'm on tilt. I get beat down Game two as well, probably due to my own damn mistakes.

Match six: Jake Guld
No chance of making top 8, I'm playing to get some prizes. Jake is an American fellow with a very odd U/R deck odd because he uses Reverberate in an odd way, copying his own Ingenuity. Triskillion + Chandra's Spitfire wreck me in one game, I have no idea how he wins in the other.

Match seven: Jan Von Ortloff
The guy gets mana screwed both games. I don't. 'Nuff said.

Match eight: Oliver Biessmann
This is a really well fought match and the guy holds me off for several turns in the second game by bluffing me into thinking he's got removal in his hand when the one card turns out to be a White Knight. This U/W match up contains a lot of Aerial Battles but is settled quite firmly by my Air Servant.

Match nine: Pontus Johansson
This is a very odd match. I wreck him with Vengeant Archon in game one and he returns the favour with Overwhelming Stampede game two. Judges get called on our third game several times, as he naturalizes my Ajani's Mantra during my upkeep and questions why I still get to gain life, failing to understand the begining of up keep trigger. Then the way clone works was called into question, I go to clone my serra angel and he doom blades it, I clone greater basilisk instead. I should have cast clone and declared the target on resolution but I didn't because I'm a dick. He thinks the clone should have fizzled. The judges learn. We also have a question about number of cards drawn so judges have to piece it together. I'm pretty sure I was still right and hadn't drawn for one turn but manage to win anyway. By the time the judge thing is settled, Pontus and I aren't too happy, it took them far too long to make their decisions and didn't act in a very professional manner. No real point complaining.

With a record of 5-4 I scrape into prizes and pick up three boosters. After almost twelve hours work it's kind of stupid but I established my "warrior's spirit". Rather than bitching and moaning, feeling sorry for myself like I did at national's qualifiers, I force myself to learn from every experience and keep on playing even if the payout is small.

I play an unsanctioned "chicken draft" with my Swedish friend, a kooky old English guy and six Serbian guys. The Serbian guys are great fun and I end up drafting the nuts. Red/white with Gladiator Cyclops, Brittle Effigy, Chandra Nalaar, Vengeful Archon. The commons/uncommons were great too, Assault Griffins, Infantry Veterans, Elite Vanguard, mmm aggressive.

I play a Generic GPT in Amsterdam and scrub, popping and passing another ridiculous sealed pool. With an aggressive R/W deck I play like an absolute hero in Match One, get beat by a fast and good U/W deck and something else. I got a bye then I got beat by a girl. I had her on two life but she top decks Inferno Titan, wrecks my board and prevents me from ever winning. Game two I side in celestial purge to take out the Inferno Titan. She follows up the Inferno Titan with a Sun Titan. That's just.. great. That was it for my big tournaments in Europe. I didn't want to pop a sealed pool for quite some time. I didn't want to get beat by the sealed pool that I should have been allowed to play ever again.

So I play one last draft on the Sunday and take my small victories. Drafting U/B, I somehow manage to rare draft two dual lands and a Primeval Titan, instantly making my money back. My slightly creature shy but still fairly impressive deck makes it to second place.

Overall I was happy enough playing the game over the ten days. I'm not happy with my performance but I think I was a little drained on the day of the GP by lack of sleep and a slight nervousness. I'll be back though and I'll drag my rating up whether it has to go up kicking and screaming.