I've just returned from the gaming convention I was at last weekend, which included a Team Sealed tournament (which was so well organized that I had to teach the ad hoc judge how to use DCI Reporter and the teams were given Odyssey starters and Onslaught boosters), a Type 1 tournament (in which a drunk player made the quarterfinals), an Extended tournament (in which I went a stable 0-2-drop with my monoblue deck, one of my losses being to the monogreen deck I lent to another player) and a Type 2 tournament, the subject of this report.

Since November had just replaced October as the hip month to be in, the rotation of Invasion had just occurred and I was looking forward to see what the new environment looked like. I think everyone expected the OBC decks to make big splashes, including monoblack control and different versions of blue-green. This is also pretty much what I saw.

I was playing Fahrenheit, the red-green deck whose first version (then three-colored, including black) I played at the Swedish Nationals. I've written about this deck in several articles, lastly detailing the effects the rotation would have on it. The finalized decklist that I played this weekend looked like this:

4x Birds of Paradise
4x Wild Mongrel
4x Basking Rootwalla
4x Arrogant Wurm
4x Fiery Temper
4x Violent Eruption
4x Grim Lavamancer
4x Jalum Tome
2x Patchwork Gnomes
2x Roar of the Wurm
4x Karplusan Forest
4x Wooded Foothills
8x Mountain
8x Forest

Sideboard:
3x Compost
3x Words of Wilding
3x Naturalize
1x Rorix Bladewing
2x Gurzigost
3x Sudden Impact

I've made a few changes to this list since my last article. First of all, the single maindeck Slate of Ancestry was removed and replaced with Jalum Tome. The physical card I replaced it with was the only 7th Edition Jalum Tome in the deck, and every time I drew that card I thought about whether I'd rather had a Slate of Ancestry. I never did, so this seems to have been the best call.

The other change was to the sideboard. Both copies of Silvos, Rogue Elemental were removed and replaced with one Rorix Bladewing and a second Gurzigost. This was the result of a discussion whose major points included"trample is basically a bad version of flying" and"regeneration doesn't matter, it's not like you're going to keep mana open in case they manage to double-burn him." I also really wanted to try out Gurzigost and his effect against red-green beatdown.

On to the actual tournament. There were 27 players, which meant five rounds of swiss and cut to top 8. The tables are situated between rows of seven-foot lockers, which means you can't see more than five tables at a time, and there are people crawling around on top of the lockers to look at the more interesting matches. My own most enjoyable time of the weekend was playtesting Extended on top of those lockers while watching Type 1 matches played out beneath.

Anyway, the pairings get posted and my first opponent is Simon Carlsson, previously famous for top 8-ing four tournaments out of four during another convention, as detailed in another article of mine. If it hasn't been made obvious before, Simon is pretty good and stuff and I subconsciously start listing this match as a loss.

I win the roll and choose to play first. I get a fast start with Basking Rootwalla, Wild Mongrel, Grim Lavamancer, Arrogant Wurm. Simon isn't doing too badly with his blue-green Opposition deck, playing two Call of the Herd and two Phantom Centaurs... But I keep drawing burn to clear the way for my troops while my Grim Lavamancer works overtime. Pretty soon, my board situation is overwhelmingly good and Simon starts drawing nothing but land. I attack for the kill and am in the lead by one game to none.

Although I didn't see an Opposition this game, I know that he's running them since I saw him playtesting earlier. Maybe I should have boarded in Naturalize, but I didn't, opting instead to leave my maindeck intact. That's a problem I have; when I win I usually want to board as little as possible, since it worked the first time around. I know this logic is severely flawed and that it's a habit I have to break.

The second game starts and Simon gets a better start - while I get a worse one. He plays Call of the Herd and Phantom Centaur and start applying the beats. I start peeling burn off the top of the deck and executing his creatures one by one; although those Phantom Centaurs certainly tax my resources. Grim Lavamancer helps immensely, minimizing my card disadvantage when dealing with the Centaurs. Simon plays Opposition but doesn't have enough creatures in play to lock me down significantly. Grim Lavamancer shoots down his Birds of Paradise, and nothing comes out except other Birds of Paradise - which are easily dispatched. I can soon attack for the win.

1-0 in matches, 2-0 in games. Hey, I beat Simon!

The second match is against Sam, whom I've never met before. I win the roll and play first again. He's playing red-green beatdown as well, which is a matchup I enjoy playing. I get a quick start and beat down. He plays Spellbane Centaurs and a few other creatures and we trade guys with each other while the game drags on. He hard-casts Roar of the Wurm when at three life. All I have in play is a Birds of Paradise and a Patchwork Gnomes, so neither of us can attack now, since I'm at 15 life. All he has to do is flashback Roar of the Wurm and I'm dead. Luckily, he forgets it for a few turns...

Then he draws Silvos, Rogue Elemental and the big green guy comes down to play. With a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach I realize that there's absolutely no way for me to kill Silvos, and I have to pull a burn spell in the next few turns or I'm dead. The green Elemental attacks and I slow him down a little with a Bird of Paradise. I drop from fifteen to eight. I draw a Birds of Paradise and play it. Silvos attacks again over the flying little speed bump, and I'm at one. I take a deep breath and draw the next card. Fiery Temper. I win.

I elbow the locker next to me in triumph and shout"That's how you win this game: You topdeck burn spells!"

I board out two Jalum Tomes, since I don't want to draw them early in this matchup, and one Grim Lavamancer. I board in my fatties - namely, Rorix Bladewing and two Gurzigosts.

He draws seven and chooses to keep. I draw three Birds of Paradise, Karplusan Forest, Wooded Foothills, Rorix Bladewing and Roar of the Wurm. That's a potential third-turn Rorix, right there. If there's a land in the next three cards, the big dragon will be attacking for six on turn three. I say a short prayer to whatever gods may be listening and say"keep."

Sam plays Forest - Basking Rootwalla. I draw a Grim Lavamancer and play Karplusan Forest - Birds of Paradise. Sam attacks for one and plays another Basking Rootwalla. I draw another Grim Lavamancer, play Wooded Foothills (passing on the chance to immediately sacrifice it; I want to maximize my chances of drawing that third land) and two Birds of Paradise. Sam attacks for two and plays Spellbane Centaur. I pull the top card off the deck... And it's a Forest.

I slam it down, sacrifice Wooded Foothills for a Mountain, and play the third turn Rorix Bladewing.

Sam just looks at me.

Rorix attacks for six and Sam's at fourteen. He counterattacks with all three of his creatures (it's not like there's any point in staying home to block), pumping both Basking Rootwallas and attacking for nine. I drop to seven, play two Grim Lavamancers and attack for six, bringing him to eight. He draws a card, looks at the board, realizes that I can chump block his attackers, attack for six next turn and then finish him off with a Grim Lavamancer shot, and scoops.

Fifth turn kill, baby! I'm now at 2-0 in matches, 4-0 in games. It appears that the gods are smiling at me today. I only have to win one more match to be able to draw into the top 8.

My next opponent is Magnus, member of my team from the Team Sealed tournament the day before - Team Curiosity, named after one of my favourite cards of all time. Although we went 0-2-drop, we apparently own Constructed, since all three of us are now at 2-0.

For the third time I win the roll and choose to play first. I don't get a very quick start, but Magnus gets one for both of us, playing Wild Mongrel, getting it burnt, playing Wild Mongrel, getting it burnt, and then playing Aquamoeba, getting it burnt. Without madness outlet his blue-green madness deck has a hard time. I play Jalum Tome and activate it as soon as I can, drawing and playing two Arrogant Wurms. A real blood bath ensues, with us trading creatures and me burning his out. In the end his hand is empty and I have an active book on the table. Soon after that, he scoops.

I don't really know how to sideboard, but I decide to try out the Words of Wilding and pull out the Roars of the Wurm for two of them. Now, I know that was the wrong decision to make, and that the Words of Wilding are probably wrong altogether.

I mulligan once, then keep. Magnus cannot find forests and I keep burning his Looters dead (Violent Eruption owns Merfolk Looters). Wild Mongrel is soon joined by Arrogant Wurm on my side and they attack together. Moment's Peace slows me down a bit (Magnus has now been able to find a forest, but cannot play his own Arrogant Wurms with only one forest) but in the end I burn him out with Fiery Temper and a Grim Lavamancer shot.

Another match win, and I feel secure that I'm in the top 8. I'm at 3-0 in matches and 6-0 in games, and I should be able to draw into the top 8.

...Or that's what I thought. There are only three players at 3-0 (including Björn, the third member of Team Curiosity), and although I do have the best tiebreakers I get down-paired. I see myself losing this match and then losing the next, ending up in ninth place and missing the top 8.

I sit down opposite Olof at table 2. I win the roll again and choose to play first once more. I play Forest, he plays Swamp - Duress. My hand consists of Wild Mongrel, Arrogant Wurm, two Violent Eruption and land. He has to take a Violent Eruption, and I play Wild Mongrel. He plays Mesmeric Fiend, but by then I've drawn a Fiery Temper, and he takes it instead of the second Violent Eruption. The Wild Mongrel attacks and I play Arrogant Wurm via madness. Olof drops to seventeen and plays Malevolent Awakening.

Wild Mongrel and Arrogant Wurm attack. I play Violent Eruption via Wild Mongrel, killing the Mesmeric Fiend and dealing three to Olof's dome. He's now at seven. Olof draws a card and then scoops. Fifth turn kill!

I board out two Roar of the Wurm and a Grim Lavamancer for three Compost.

I start with Forest - Basking Rootwalla, and Olof plays Chainer's Edict. I follow up with second turn Compost, third turn Compost and a Grim Lavamancer to taste. From there, the match quickly gets ridiculous. I play creatures and he is forced to play Diabolic Tutor (drawing me two cards) for Mutilate and play it (drawing me two more cards). The end result is that he spends two cards to kill three of my creatures and give me four cards. I follow up the Mutilate with Patchwork Gnomes, Arrogant Wurm, and some burn to finish him off.

Phew. I won another one. I'm now 4-0 in matches and 8-0 in games, definitely in the top 8, and probably winning the Swiss. Not too bad.

Since the other two at 3-0 drew, I now face Robert who's at 3-0-1. He wants to take a food break before the top 8, so we draw and I sit down to watch a couple of friends play their match. It's Björn (not the Björn that was on Team Curiosity) playing Cycling.dec (Astral Slide, Lightning Rift, Teroh's Faithful, Exalted Angel, and a lot of cycling cards) and Thomas Rosholm playing the Mirari's Wake deck that uses Mirari, Cunning Wish, and Elephant Ambush to produce a huge amount of elephants. Thomas's first comment is that he cannot believe how easy this matchup is. He and Björn are friends and joke around a lot, and eventually Thomas decides to make the match a little more entertaining by attempting to deck Björn instead of killing him the easy way. Thomas starts recurring Moment's Peace to stave off Exalted Angel and then plays Opportunity repeatedly, targeting Björn. Flash of Insight removes Opportunity from the game, ready to be fetched again with a copied Cunning Wish. There's never much doubt regarding the outcome and Thomas wins, with a final result of 3-2, actually making the top 8 after having decided to go out and get drunk once this match is over.

In the quarterfinals, my opponent is Felix. For the first time I lose the roll, and wonder whether that is a bad omen. I shouldn't have worried, since I get a good start, taking no damage except from my own pain- and fetchlands. Chainer's Edict and Smother decimate my creature force, but I keep throwing out new ones. An Engineered Plague on Bird actually helps me more than it hurts, since my Birds of Paradise become Grim Lavamancer food.

Until my opponent taps two swamps and Cabal Coffers, and plays Visara the Dreadful.

Whoops.

Except for double-burning, there's no way for me to kill Visara. However, I do have a few beefy creatures and a Grim Lavamancer in play. I attack for a lot... Felix kills one of my creatures with Visara but doesn't dare block because of the Grim Lavamancer, and he cannot afford to kill the Grim Lavamancer since he's low on life. The Grim Lavamancer and a Fiery Temper take away his last five life - and just like that, I'm in the lead.

I board out four Basking Rootwallas, since he's running maindeck Engineered Plague. Next game he's unlikely to say Bird, instead saying either Lizard or Wizard. Since the Grim Lavamancers are just so freaking good and since he might very well not know what creature type they are, they stay in while the Lizards leave. I board in three Compost and a Rorix Bladewing, reasoning that a big creature with haste is good against a deck whose sole non-sorcery removal is Smother.

Next game is horribly unexciting. I double mulligan, get out a few creatures that die to Mutilate, and then Visara comes out. I'm dead, and that's that. My first game loss of the tournament, due to a double mulligan.

In the third and final game, I get out a second-turn Compost and a third turn Compost. From there, monoblack just cannot win. There's lots of killing, but every removal spell he plays draws me two cards and his life total drops fast. I burn him out and am in the semifinals.

In the semifinals, I meet Filip, playing blue-green. Unfortunately, this isn't the best of matchups for me - especially not when he gets the power start he gets the first game. There's just no way I can keep up, and I'm soon dead.

I board out two Birds of Paradise for two Gurzigosts, basically because they're all I have that can kill a Wurm token and live to tell the tale.

He mulligans and I see a light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, the light turns out to be a flamethrower as I stall at three lands while he gets out Wild Mongrel and pitch Roar of the Wurm and Wonder. The flying creatures kill me quickly, and my undefeated streak is at an end. Filip goes on to win the finals and the tournament.

No matter. I still did better than I've ever done before, and my deck worked perfectly, delivering the goods whenever I needed them. My impressions with the deck:

• It's good. Sure, this wasn't exactly a Pro Tour, but I still went 5-1 in matches and 10-3 in games against my peers.
• Grim Lavamancer rules the world. Most of you knew this; I'm just a little slower than most.
• The fetchlands are great. All of you knew this.
• Burn is really, really, really nice. Especially topdecked burn for the kill.

In short, I love this deck... And it loves me. I have a seriously amorous relationship with this deck. It shows its love to me by giving me exactly the card I need at exactly the right time and occasionally giving me a fifth-turn win, and I show my love by playing it as often as I can.

However, the sideboard needs work. I never did get to try out the Words of Wilding but am now sure that they would never have been good. The kind of control that they were meant to combat just doesn't seem to exist in the environment anymore, and Words of Wilding isn't very good against blue-green decks that give as good as they get. Also, Sudden Impact won't be useful until Upheaval becomes big again (and I'm prepared to bet that it will).

But let's shut up about the deck and talk about the environment instead. Initial impressions (these are just observations and opinions, and not to be taken for canonical):

• Blue-green and monoblack are indeed big and will continue to be.
• There's no"counter everything and then win at my leisure" deck anymore. Today's control decks are either aggro-control (blue-green, which is basically beatdown with a little countering and card drawing thrown in) or combo (Mirari's Wake). This means that the"Forest - Bird - Mountain - three mana threat to avoid Counterspell" play isn't going to be as important, and the environment will hopefully be more than just quick threats or trading counters. Great.
• So far, it's pretty fun. As long as Upheaval doesn't rear its ugly head, I think I'm going to enjoy the next year of Magic.

And now, our bonus feature: the worst game of Magic I've ever seen
The gaming convention turned out to be what Simon called a Mecca of misplays. I could mention the"Desolation Angel when the opponent has an active Waterfront Bouncer" play, or the"float mana before Awakening's ability resolves, then try to play Hull Breach, realize it's a sorcery, try to play Flametongue Kavu, realize it's a creature, then burn for six" play, but those aren't bad enough.

This is the worst game of Magic I've ever seen. Names changed to protect the guilty.

The format is Extended, the match one of the semifinals, the score is 1-1. An Enchantress player (henceforth known as the Enchantress) is playing against a Rock player (henceforth known as the Rock). The Rock has two Deranged Hermits, eight of their Squirrels, a Druid Lyrist, a Ravenous Baloth, and a Spike Weaver with three +1/+1 counters in play. The Enchantress has two Auratogs, two Argothian Enchantress, an Enchantress's Presence, a Seal of Cleansing, and some other stuff.

First of all, the Rock has Recurring Nightmare in his hand, and elects not to play it. Using it to fog indefinitely or to get any number of Squirrels he desires is apparently too good, so he'll keep the black enchantment in his hand instead, where it can really go to work.

Then, the Enchantress plays enchantments until he's down to very few cards left in his library. He attacks with an Auratog with two Rancors and an Ancestral Mask. The Rock decides that fogging with Spike Weaver is too good - and so is destroying the Ancestral Mask with Druid Lyrist. Instead, he blocks with everything except the Spike Weaver, and everything dies, including the attacking Auratog. But hey, at least he saved the Spike Weaver!

The Rock draws a card and says go. The Enchantress attacks with the other Auratog, and now the Rock feels that the time has come to fog, and he does so. Still, the Recurring Nightmare remains in his hand, which he has apparently decided is the best place for it to be. The Enchantress attacks again, now down to one card in his library.

One. Card. Remember this part.

The Rock fogs, removing the second counter from Spike Weaver. The Enchantress plays Bind. The Rock removes the last counter in response, fogging again. The Enchantress plays another Bind. There are now two cantrips on the stack, and their controller has one card in his library.

The Rock scoops.

Being the temporary judge since there was no-one else available, I lean forward.

"You're scooping?" I say.

"What?" the Rock answers.

"You're giving up? He won?"

"Yeah."

"He just cast two Bind with one card left in his library. All you had to do was say okay, and you would have won."

Roars of laughter from the audience.

This match was basically one player saying"Here, I'll refuse to win, you go win instead," with the other player answering,"Oh no, I don't want to win - why don't you win?", getting the response,"Wouldn't dream of it, you take the win" and then responding,"No, I insist, you win". The Rock had a totally sure forced win in his hand, and he just refused to use it. This also shows the peril of netdecks, as I'm certain that the player had copied his deck and never learned how to use it.

He obviously had no idea what Recurring Nightmare was for, that's for sure.

Oh, and when we pointed out to the Enchantress player what he did wrong and so forth, and how the Rock player had a forced win he didn't use, his answer was"But I had Exile on my hand. If he'd attacked with everything, I would have killed a Deranged Hermit."

God help me. Where do you start?

That's it for me. See you next week, when I'll be looking at Pro Tour Houston and examining the results of the Ben Bleiweiss Challenge.

E-mail address provided below; please flame liberally.
Patrik Linell, pls@claymore.nu