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This was me, yesterday:
"Sorry Patrick, I don't feel like I have much to say. I lucksacked my way through the Pro Tour, the Top 8 has been covered, you wrote an article about the deck, and there's a deck-tech about it on the coverage. And I don't want everyone to know that I died to onboard tricks."
If this report sucks, and you feel like it wasn’t worth your time, you can always blame it on Cedric Philips.
Ironically, I was pretty upset about the mixed format Pro Tours. Even though I've had a lot of success at Worlds, I didn’t feel super confident for the upcoming year. I think I'm a decent drafter when I'm focused and have a bit of experience with the format, but my Limited play isn’t always super-solid, to say the least (there’s proof later on). On top of that was the fact that the Standard format wasn’t really new, despite the addition of . This sucked, as that's usually what's cool about the Constructed Pro Tours.
If you've read Chapin's or ManuB's article, you more or less know what went down in the weeks prior to the tournament. I don't remember exactly what they said, but the truth is we were basically obsessed with trying to make Five-Color Control work, even though ManuB claimed in his article he tried to build other decks. I mean, if you're gonna lie to people's face, try at least to come up with something better then 'Howling Mine/Burn.' (Joke!)
We tried versions with for a while, but I was never a fan even though the interaction with was appealing at first. It just made it too rough on the manabase, and the card wasn’t even that great as it died too often to a or . Patrick still had it in some of his deck a few days before leaving for Japan, and it was performing decently, but I think he would have end up cutting it too. Most of our testing consisted of playing Five-Color Control versus Faeries and it was really an uphill battle. The deck didn’t even seem that great versus Black/White Tokens either, but as I said, we're just a bunch of Five-Color Control maniacs. I didn’t really feel like playing anything else.
Finally, ten days before the PT, we talked a lot with Wafo-Tapa, and after playing some more games against Faeries, Black/White Tokens, and Boat Brew, I decided I liked it. I ended up playing something only a few cards off of the version he sent us.
I left for Japan on Sunday with ManuB. The flight went smoothly, even though I can't claim I slept as much as Manu did. Thank god I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to movies, especially when flying, as the selection featured such hits as 'Nights in Rodanthe' (Richard Gere and some chick), as well as Cedric's new favorite movie of all time, 'The Secret Life of Bees.' I slept after watching the two movies, and as I woke up, the last film was about to start. It opened with some high school kids playing in a basketball game. Looks pretty sweet. Turns out, it was a musical. Good beats are good beats.
We landed in Osaka around 5pm and got on a bus for Kyoto. We arrived at the train station and decided to cab it, since we didn't exactly know where our hotel was. The two cab drivers waiting at the bus stop laughed in our face when we told them where we wanted to go. It ended up being a two-minute ride. More good beats.
I woke up the next day and got the sad news from Chapin. At that point, there was still some hope, but things looked grim. ManuB and I spent most of the day playing sideboarded games of Five-Color Control versus Faeries. He tried a plan that brought in 4 , 2 Wydwen and 2 , while I tried bringing in random control cards: a couple of s, a , a , a , a , and a couple of other cards. We both posted winning records with Five-Color Control. His plan seemed like it might be a bit better, but I like my cards for other matchups.
Herberheezy and Jamie Parke arrived in the evening, along with Mike Jacob, and we hit a sushi place at the train station. Heezy and myself obviously followed it up with some McDonalds in what would become our infamous combo meal.
The plan for Thursday was to get in as many drafts as possible at the site, and to try to finalize our decklist, especially the sideboard. Mark and Jamie decided to run Red/Black , and their playtesting mainly consisted of coming up with catchphrases to say whenever they played a card in their deck:
- : "... Figures." (Also works when your opponent plays it.)
- : "It's fantastic."
- : "It's outlandish."
- : "Knock knock." (This is the clean version.)
- : "Greased ." (This was the weakest one, I think.)
- : For JamieP, "fallout mmh mmh," using the Ludacris song Roll Out voice tone. For Heezy: "Volcanic Balls-out." (I personally like Volcanic Blowout.)
I showed up on Friday morning, still unsure what to run in my sideboard. The Ruels told us they tried bringing in four for the Faerie matchup, and it seemed good. I was pretty desperate at this point and decided to run it, since it's also a pretty good card to have in the mirror. That's what I end up running:
Patrick and ManuB talked extensively about the deck and the card choices, but I'll add a few comments.
If I had to play the deck again, I'm not sure I'd change the maindeck that much. I am pretty sure four was a mistake, and the deck should have had a second , but I wanted to able to cast on turn 2 as often as possible after sideboarding. Same goes for the second Orchard: I am not sure if it's better than a fourth , or even a twelfth Vivid land, but I wanted one more source of Black for the Scepter (since you bring them essentially versus Faeries and Five-Color Control), and I wanted to limit the number of comes-into-play-tapped lands to the minimum.
I still like 61 cards. In testing, it seemed like we were getting flooded with 33 spells and 27 lands, and screwed with 34/26. I know it sounds dumb, but that's the feeling Mark and I had. After a lot of games, I decided I did not like , as it was a bit too slow and did not always do enough, so 26 lands and one or two copies of Capsule wasn’t an option either. ManuB end up cutting a (a choice with which I disagree), but I just stuck with 61 cards.
The "random" maindeck one-ofs: the reasoning behind those is that I never felt like I really wanted to draw multiples in most match-ups, but that the first one was usually pretty good. They gave me cheap answers to an early , a couple of answers to , and so on. The deck originally had one copy of which serves the same purpose, and it might belong to the maindeck, but I had to make some cuts eventually.
I was pleased with my sideboard, but I'm sure it can be improved. I'd probably add a second to it. is an option versus Black/White Tokens, but it leaves you open to . Wydwen was okay but not spectacular, and I don't think you really want more as I don't want to overload the deck with situational one-for-ones. The s and the miser's were good, as was the . The mix of and seemed good too, but I still haven’t really figured out what's best against the White decks, or even what exactly to board out.
I'm not gonna put an in and out guide, since Oli/Patrick/Manuel already did it I believe (even if I don't agree on everything), but feel free to ask about the deck and matchups or anything else in the forum, I'll gladly answer as many questions as possible.
On to the Tournament!
Round 1 - Yoni Skolnik [USA] with R/B/G Mana Ramp
He started off with a mulligan to five, and my draw was solid enough that he never really had a shot.
Game 2, I countered his turn 3 and he stalled on three lands for a while. He got a Garruk into play, and I forgot to his token at the end of turn, which made the game a little closer. I was sure to play in a way that I did not get wrecked by (which he had), and he could not overcome his slow start.
1-0
It's always nice to start with a win, even though my play was a bit sloppy.
Round 2 - Yuutarou Hirashima [JPN] with W/R
I don't remember much of the match. I think he won the die roll and got a good draw, while I stumbled on lands. Game 2, I got a solid draw which was good enough to beat his solid draw. Game 3, he mulliganed to six and kept a one-land hand on the play. That didn’t work out to well for him.
2-0
Round 3 - Nathon Braymore [CAN] with Five-Color Control
He had a box of dice on the table, so I figured he might be playing Five-Color Control (Vivid counters etc), and I was happy to keep a "five-land plus and another spell" hand. He stopped playing land after turn 4 or 5, while I kept hitting my land drops. He got an into play, but I think I kept it out of range with some s. He scooped when I Purged it at the end of his turn, as he was too far behind.
Game 2, he got a going and all I could do was sneak a Wydwen into play. I got him down to 5 or 8 life, but he eventually took control of the game as I could never get rid of the Scepter despite the fact that I resolved a bunch of s and s.
Game 3 was pretty close. I think he had an Ajani and a Scepter out at some point, but I was still in decent shape, and managed to make him fight over a Wydwen at the end of his turn so he only had two mana left up. I untapped, and I could cast with one mana up for a potential Broken Ambition. He didn’t have , and I managed to take over the game at that point as the Ultimatum left him with one or zero cards in hand. He told me he messed up trying to get rid of Wydwen, as he would have had mana available for my Ultimatum if he didn’t.
Round 4 - Hugo Mariano [PRT] with RB Blightning
We sat, and I asked him to take out his sideboard of his bag as he's supposed to have it on the table (I believe). We obviously get deck checked, and I joked about the fact that he might have gotten a game loss, but he didn’t have any other cards in his bag so he probably would have been fine. My draws were ridiculous in both games, and in game 2 he forgot to make his a 2/2 at the end of my turn, which sets him a little behind. I got a slightly favorable board position, but he Mind Shattered the rest of my hand. I drew off the top like a champ. He got a with Blightning, but I just drew a couple of other good spells to seal the deal.
4-0
I obviously felt pretty good at this point, and hoped I could get some W's in draft for once in my life.
I opened a pack of no playables and a . I then got passed another pretty weak pack, and picked a over virtually nothing else. The draft was fairly uneventful, and I ended up with a fairly solid Naya deck splashing Blue for Rafiq. I think I drafted pretty well, but I misbuilt my deck as I ended up playing a (for the curve) and an (to go with my two ). They're just too weak, and they should have been a (I didn’t want to have another Blue card besides Rafiq, as I had very few sources of Blue) and something else.
Round 5 - Yoshitaka Nakano [JPN]
I kept a two-Forest, hand, but never drew a third land. Game 2, I got a pretty good start and he was missing his third color, but I just drew nothing but lands, ending the game with eight in play and six in hand. I shrugged it off as there wasn’t much I could have done anyway, as those were two extreme cases of mana screw. I talked to Heezy about it, and he told me I should tell a judge about it, just in case it was something suspicious. I was in an awkward spot, as it made you feel like a whiner and a little b*tch if you report it my mana screw as something potentially more sinister, and I felt bad for being suspicious of someone that was probably innocent. However, it does pay to be safe rather than sorry.
This is also good advice for situations where your opponent plays sloppily in spots where it could be advantageous for him. It is probably an honest mistake, but you probably still should call a judge when it happens, just in case.
4-1
Round 6 - Shu Kumuro [JPN]
I got off to a good start versus his five-color deck, but he took down my big guys one by one with removal spells, and I was eventually left with a bunch of irrelevant critters, including a , which could have won me the game if it was a instead. I drew lands while he drew Dragons.
He then proceeds to get mana screwed twice in games 2 and 3... well played by me!
5-1
Round 7 - Peter Ingram [USA]
I apologized for being a jerk during the draft as we sat down. We were three picks in, and I saw him just picking up his drafted cards and looking at them. I overreacted and called a judge on him, which was probably not necessary. He said he was really tired, and he was used to drafting online etc.
I had a good opening hand, but I was stuck on four mana for a touch too long. while he had into .
Game 2 I mulliganed down to five and kept a hand of Red card, Red card, , , and Rafiq. I peeled and , and Rafiq followed by a couple of creatures was enough to get me there, as he never drew a removal spell for it.
My hand for game 3 wasn’t great, but I drew Rafiq on turn 5 and once again he could not find his one to get rid of it.
6-1
I am not sure I had ever cast a Rafiq in a Limited game before this match, online or live, but it was sure worth the wait.
It's always nice to finish the day with a couple of wins, and I couldn't complain about how things were going thus far, especially since the not all of the others did that well with the Five-Color Control deck.
I got a good night sleep and show up on Saturday for the second draft, hoping I could pull another 2-1 before heading to the last four rounds of Constructed.
I had a choice between and in the first pack, and I ended up taking the . I'm not sure if it is the right pick, but it ended up being better for me than Thunder in the games. I then had a choice between and . While it seems the Battlemage might be the obvious pick, I'm not so sure it's the case as the Kiss might actually leave you more open in the end, especially with . I took the Battlemage ( I ended up not playing it), and I struggled throughout pack 1 to figure out which archetype I was gonna settle in. I eventually ended up with a decent five-color deck featuring a , a , decent mana, and a bunch of removal spells.
Round 8 - Tsubasa Kai [JPN]
Game 1 was close, as he got a good start with his Jund deck, but I was able to get a hit in with a enchanted by , leaving him with one card in hand. He had a couple of turns to draw something good before my more powerful cards took over, as I was pretty low on life but he doesn’t get there.
Game 2 is not as close and I curved out nicely with an Obelisk and a bunch of good creatures and removal spells. He told me after the match he had in hand at the end of both games.
7-1
Round 9 - Yann Massicard [FRA]
I don't really remember what happened in this match.
...
...
...
Oh wait, I do. I punted both games 1 and 2, even though game 1 wasn’t as bad.
Basically, I had the choice to play around or not. He was playing Grixis, and was on my immediate left in the draft, and I remembered passing it to him. I also had a read he might be holding it, but in the end I decided to go with the more "standard" play. He untapped, cast the Mastery, and attacked for the win.
Game 2... well, I was at seven and decided to attack with my flyer and tap out for . He untapped, pumped his twice, and killed me. Outplayed again.
7-2
At this point, I am obviously on stone life tilt. It doesn’t really get any worse than that, since I probably would have won both games too. I found a table, put on my iPod on, and sat there until the next round started.
Round 10 - Nathan Zimmerman [USA]
I asked him which round he lost and which he won, and he told me he actually has a loss and a draw. Game 1, he went , , , , Plains, and didn’t cast a spell.
Game 2 was another story. His Esper deck decided to deliver, and while I was able to play a few spells and fight back a bit, I got stuck with too many I could not cast.
Game 3, my draw was powered up by an and a , and his draw wasn’t fast enough to punish me. He got a bit flooded, and I had the game well in control. I tried to play around as many bombs as I could, even something like , since my hand was really good, and I eventually killed him with my big guys. I felt pretty bad for him since his deck seemed really good, and it didn’t seem fair he didn’t get a single win out of it, but what can you do.
8-2
Round 11 - Brian Robinson [USA] with Dark Bant
I was pretty sure I saw him playing next to me in round 4, and that he was playing some kind of Doran deck, but I still decided to keep a poor hand in the matchup. I was screwed because I drew Orchard, which didn’t produce Blue in this spot, and I was unable to play my s right away.
My hand was pretty good in game 2 and I got to his turn 1 , but he then played , and I never drew an answer. I died holding , , and some other expensive spells.
8-3
So much for a winning return to Standard. I now needed to win out to have a shot at Top 8. I hadn’t really checked the standings all day, but I started the day in the third draft pod despite a 6-1 record, so I didn't imagine that my breakers were stellar. I did start the tournament 4-0, so I still had hope. From then on, it was do or die.
Round 12 - Tyler Sage [CAN] with Five-Color Control
His draw was superior in game 1, as he was ahead on lands, but despite this fact he decided to try and force an Ultimatum through with Cryptic Command and backup. I was able to win the counter war and from there on. I had the upper hand. I was able to resolve an Ultimatum of my own, and we proceeded to game two.
I got pretty lucky in the next game, as I drew my two s to get rid of his two s. He got an Ajani into play, but it didn’t do enough and I resolved a Scepter. My draw was a bit superior, and I won pretty easily.
We talked about game 1, and we both agreed he probably could have played the waiting game, but he told me he was scared of (he was playing one maindeck, and assumed I might have one too).
9-3
Round 13 - Shouta Yasooka [JPN] with Faeries
I hadn’t had a feature match yet, and I gladly would have kept it that way if it meant not having to play Shouta. I thought he was playing Swans, and I had no real idea of how the matchup was supposed to go, but it turned out he was playing Faeries. The match is covered on the mothership.
My draw wasn’t very smooth in game 1, and he eventually started resolving some spells, first a then a . I got 20- or 25-cards deep in my deck, and still hadn’t drawn a , which doesn’t help, and he eventually got me with his Clique.
I finally have a chance to see if Scepter is good enough, but he was manascrewed for both remaining games. The games lasted for a while, but I was never really in trouble. Shouta is one of the players I respect the most, and he's probably far more deserving than me, but unfortunately for him, I tend to run pretty well when I'm in contention for Top 8 in the last few rounds.
10-3
Round 14 - Brian Kowal [USA] with Boat Brew
Once again, the matchup is covered on the mothership, and once again, I got to showcase my skills as he mulliganed to five both games. Game 1 was somewhat close, but I drew a timely to make sure he didn’t resolve any serious threat.
11-3
I was 9th before the round, and Yann (who was one spot ahead of me) lost in the last round for Top 8, so I was pretty sure I was safe, but I was still anxious. It wasn’t like I could do anything about it anyway. They announce the Top 8, and I make it in 7th, meaning I'm playing Matteo Orsini-Jones in the quarterfinals.
I started testing the matchup with the help of some Frenchies. Guillaume lent me the cards I needed, and we played some games. I then went back to the hotel with Mark, Jamie, and co, and we played some more games. The matchup didn’t seem bad, but it wasn’t great either. The fact that he had over Terror was definitely a plus for me, but is pretty annoying too. I wasn’t sure if he was going to board in the Forge-Tenders or not, but I didn’t think it would make a big difference anyway.
You can find the coverage of the whole Top 8 on the mothership, but I'll still go over a few things.
I obviously got really lucky, but I don’t feel like I stole the match. I think I played pretty well, and the reason I had to get lucky multiple times is because Matteo's draw were so good in the first place. There is one play I can think of that might have cost game 2, when I didn’t use my second Cryptic Command to counter Forge-Tender. I had Volcanic Fallout and in hand, and I had a read that he had in hand so I thought I'd be able to let it resolve, Needle Forge-Tender, then Fallout eventually as he was also stuck on three lands. But he had drawn , so it put me in a real bad spot. The better play might have been to just counter the Forge-Tender and play off the top of my deck. Sometimes, when you try and play it to safe, you don't always give yourself the best chance to win the game, and I believe that might have been the case.
Game 5 was out of this world. It reminded me a lot of the game 5 I played against Tiago Chan at Worlds in Paris, where I had a really poor draw but I hit a bunch of runners to stabilize and win the match.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, take a look.
Almost makes me wish I was in the crowd.
Matteo seemed to take it extremely well considering the circumstances, and I'm sure he'll be back on the Sunday stage soon enough.
The semifinal was a little less dramatic even though I did manage to mess up game 1, and I was in pretty bad shape game 2. I was able to stabilize, and game 3 and 4 were a lot easier.
I had to face LSV in the finals for a shot at my first individual Pro Tour. I can think of opponents I’d rather face in this situation, but I was pretty relieved at this point (for some reason). I didn’t feel like I had to win; I was just hoping to not mess up for once.
I took game 1 fairly quickly thanks to a couple of good peels, then he rolled me in games 2 and 3. Game 4 was epic, and it pretty much revolved around the turn where I decided to let an resolve. He was on five lands, including a , and drew for his turn. He immediately cast an with untapped. I had two mana up for Negate, and had the choice of countering it and exposing myself to a game-winning , if he had it and was holding a land (he hadn’t played one the turn before), or letting it resolve and having to fight an uphill battle versus the Planeswalker and LSV's army.
I tanked forever, and decided I could beat the Ajani so I let it resolve. For some reason, I had the feeling he had the land and the under Heights. I'm not sure how much of it was me having a read and how much of it was me playing scared, but I just went with my gut He passed the turn without playing a land, and I felt like an idiot.
The game went on for a while. I cast another Dragon, resolved an Ultimatum, got hit by Head Games, and we were both in topdeck mode, something I had been pretty good at this Sunday. I eventually got there, and we moved on the deciding game.
Unfortunately for the show, it came down to a pretty lame game 5 in which LSV mulliganed to five and had little to no action the whole game. I misplayed one last time when I cast leaving him with nothing but with the opportunity to draw one of his two Head Games, where I could have just played a Dragon with Negate backup. It didn’t matter, and there I was, Pro Tour: Kyoto champion!
I was really happy, but it was weird at the same time because I had the feeling my win was tainted by the fact that I didn’t always play good Magic, and that I beat a lot of players that were really deserving too, probably more than me. Usually, I don’t win, so ultimately I don’t feel that bad for anyone else. When I did win the Team Pro Tour with Dave Rood and Gab Tsang, I had the feeling we fully deserved it. This time was a little different.
I found out after the match that LSV was holding a Cave of Koilos in hand the turn I chose not to Negate Ajani, which made me feel a bit better about the whole thing. Sorry Luis, but winning the Pro Tour wasn’t enough... I had to know!
I want to thank everyone who supported me, both at the Pro Tour (such as my playtesting group, Lan, Eric, Matt and a bunch of others) and back home. I didn’t realize how many people had actually followed the broadcast live. I was overwhelmed... it was a pretty crazy week-end and I feel so fortunate.
And then I went to Chicago.
Gabriel Nassif
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