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ALL ROADS LEAD
TO ROME (pt1)
While ICON may not be the
best time to hold Nationals, especially due to
the fact that many of the best players in the
country were unable to participate in the M10
pre-release, all in all it was a well organised
event. Admittedly, it was a little squashed
during the early rounds and the first draft, but
the later the tournament went on, the better the
space issue became. Still, the main hall is a
better option for Nats. Savvas did promise that
it would never happen again and even made
announcements about next year’s ICON that got
people cheering, so things seem to be all rosy
again.
My deck of choice for Nats
was GB Elves, mostly on the back of the fact
that I own 4 Mutavault, 4 Thoughtseize and 4
Maelstrom Pulse, but also because I liked the
fact that it was putting up some decent numbers
but not overwhelming the competition. This
meant, in my mind anyway, that while a few
people might play the deck, it wouldn’t be as
widely played as Faeries, for example. Also,
because it wasn’t overwhelmingly good, maybe
some people would almost ignore it and
concentrate on other matchups like Jund Aggro or
5 Colour Blood. I’m still not 100% certain that
my deck choice was correct, but it did the
business in a couple of really difficult matches
when it needed to, so I can’t complain too much.
We arrived on the
Saturday morning still half asleep. Starting
just after 7 hurts Magic players who are used to
sleeping till at least 8… It wasn’t too cold –
unusual for ICON – but shuffling was still tough
in the opening game of the day, especially
seeing as though my new sleeves seemed to want
to escap. Taking them out of my box saw half my
deck and sideboard fly at my opponent. Not
exactly the best way to keep what I’m playing
secret. Eventually, I got my deck shuffled and
stable, and it was on to round 1 of the lengthy
12 round tournament.
Round 1 (v Clint van Alten playing ? – I thought
it was an Esper Lark deck, but later heard that
there were no Larks in it, which makes some of
my sideboarding options really bad)
I win the die roll and elect to play first.
Clint mulligans to 6. I play Llanowar Elves on
turn 1 and attack with it on turn 2, playing
Putrid Leech after combat. Turn 3 I swing for 5,
taking Clint to 15 after paying two of my own
life to make the Leech bigger. I swing for 5
again on turn 4. Clint is now on 10 and has not
really done much except play lands and evoke a
Mulldrifter. I swing for 3 the next turn, taking
Clint down to 7. He had mana up and I was
worried about a potential removal spell, hence
me not pumping the Leech. Clint plays a full
priced Mulldrifter and the turn after that
swings me down to 14 and the turn after that
down to 12. All the while, I have been unable to
attack back because he has Cryptic Commanded my
guys a couple of times. I haven’t missed a land
drop and on turn 8, I bite the bullet and
attempt to Profane Command for 7, using the
Llanowar Elves for the extra 1 mana required. I
haven’t made my choices yet when Clint picks his
cards up.
1 – 0
Clint again mulligans to 6 after sideboarding,
where I brought in Puppeteer Clique to take
creatures out of his graveyard so that Lark has
less targets. Luckily, I never saw the Clique,
so it wasn’t such a huge mistake. Game 2 follows
a similar pattern as game 1, except this time I
manage to get an early Loxodon Warhammer down
and equipped to an early creature (this time
it’s Wren’s Run Vanquisher). By the time Clint
concedes on 1, I am on 34 life and haven’t felt
even a little bit of pressure during the two
games. Nice way to start Nationals.
2 – 0 (1 – 0 for the tournament)
Round 2 (v Rupert Palmer playing Faeries)
Aaah, the Faeries match. I knew there would be
plenty of them around on the weekend, but was
honestly hoping to avoid them as long as I
could, so playing one in the second round,
especially when it belongs to an Anarchy
teammate isn’t great. Still, I felt that I had
the tools in the deck to win against Faeries and
had some good practice against it on the Friday.
Game 1 I mulligan to 6 and keep on the back of
having Thoughtseize and Putrid Leech and the
lands to play them both in my hand. I play the
Thoughtseize on turn 1 and see Jace Beleren,
Underground River, Bitterblossom, Sower of
Temptation, Underground River and Peppersmoke.
I’m on the draw and Rupert has already played a
land. I decide to take the Bitterblossom,
keeping him off that wonderful turn 2 that Fae
players have wet dreams about. When I draw on
turn 2 and see another Thoughtseize, I really
think that it’s going to be my day. The card
drawn by Rupert in his turn was a Cryptic
Command, so I decide to take the Jace this time,
keeping him off a third turn play as well. I was
really hoping that the fourth land would be
stubborn and not appear at the top of his deck
at this point. Alas, a Secluded Glen on Rupert’s
next turn signalled that he had indeed drawn the
fourth land, and this game was going to tough
again, especially since I’d spent the first two
turns not playing creatures. I play Putrid Leech
on turn 3. To my horror, Rupert draws and plays
a Bitterblossom. I attack the next turn but my
draws are not exactly brilliant and that’s all I
can muster.
Rupert draws and plays a second Bitterblossom
(that’s 3 he’s seen for the game…) and there’s
absolutely nothing I can do as my Wren’s Run
Vanquisher gets Spellstuttered and he just
starts swinging away with Flying black Faerie
tokens. My life total drops alarmingly quickly
and after I walk into the Peppersmoke I have
already seen, I can’t deal any more damage. I
die a couple of turns later.
0 – 1
After sideboarding, I especially feel like this
match is winnable, so I shuffle up feeling like
I can pull this one out. After taking a mulligan
to 6 again, however, my confidence begins to
wane once more. I do manage to rip a
Thoughtseize on turn 3 and see Bitterblossom
(there’s already one on the table), 2 Scion of
Oona, a Deathmark and lands. I take one of the
Scions because if my testing against Faeries
taught me anything it’s that 2 Scion of Oona on
the table equals auto loss for Elves most of the
time. Rupert again has the audacity to play a
second Bitterblossom, but again has so little
pressure being applied due to my horrible draws
that he can afford to do it and speed the clock
up. I die, taking 10 damage from Faerie tokens,
when he is on 2, most of that damage coming from
his own Bitterblossoms.
0 – 2 (1 – 1 for the tournament)
Round 3 (v Christof Kuun playing Blue White
Lark)
Christof is yet another teammate of mine, which
is a little annoying, but I suppose with 20% of
the field wearing the same shirts, it was bound
to happen that we would play each other a lot.
Game 1 goes well until I have Christof on 4
life. I have Vanquisher and Leech on the table
and have Thoughtseized the only playable card at
the time (a Mulldrifter) out of Christof’s hand.
After that he was left with only land in hand,
but drew Lark the next turn and things started
to turn. A Wall of Reverence joined the party
soon after and suddenly I was unable to break
through a barrier that was not only protecting
his life total but actually adding to it. When a
second Wall came down, I almost scooped, but
decided that I had answers in my deck that could
still deal with that. When Christof reached 75
life, while nibbling away at mine with a
Mulldrifter, I knew the game was up. Stupid Wall
of Reverence…
0 – 1
Game 2 was even closer. I have Christof down to
5 life (which goes up to 6 with Wall of
Reverence), then 2 (which goes up to 6 because
Lark has hit the table), then 3 life. There are
multiple cards in my deck that can win the game
at this point, even after Christof Wraths
everything away, including his Reveillark and
returns a Mulldrifter and a Meddling Mage naming
Profane Command. What do I draw, after having
about 6 dead draw phases before this? Profane
Command. In Christof’s next turn, another
Meddling Mage comes down and names Maelstrom
Pulse. My next draw phase yields me… Maelstrom
Pulse. I die the next turn to his repeated
swings with silly 2/2’s.
0 – 2 (1 – 2 for the tournament)
I know now that my
draft section of this year’s Nats is going to be
extremely important. I open my first pack and
see almost nothing of real significance until I
get to the rare. Staring back at me is a Caldera
Hellion. Without a doubt, it’s the best card in
the pack and a bomb, so I take it. My second
pack contains a Tower Gargoyle and a Naya Charm.
With me already having picked the Hellion, I
don’t really want to take the Gargoyle, even
though it is awesome. By passing it, I am
putting the guy to my left squarely in Esper,
meaning that red should be quite open from his
side during Conflux. I take the Naya Charm. Pack
3 presents me with a Manaplasm, a card I’ve
never played with before Nats weekend, but one
which I have serious respect for now. A Soul’s
Fire, Hissing Iguana and Rip-Clan Crasher later
and I was deeply into red/green with a splash of
white. I pick up a relatively late Druid of the
Anima, which was handy, but in general after
that my picks weren’t that exciting and I was
getting worried that maybe my colours had dried
up. I do pick up a Stoic Angel really late and a
Clarion Ultimatum second to last to fill up my
rare count, but not my playables (although I was
seriously considering splashing blue to play the
Angel as well at this point).
My Conflux booster is pretty unexciting for my
colours and I end up picking a Fiery Fall. Not
the best first pick, but it served two roles in
my deck – find the Plains or Island (still
considering splashing 2 colours) I needed or be
a removal spell late game. Pack 2 wasn’t
fantastic either, and the Ignite Disorder I
picked didn’t feel like an overly powerful card
and I was starting to get worried. The draft,
however, took a turn for the better when, over
the next few picks, I managed to gather in 2
Nacatl Outlander, a Matca Rioters and a Sylvan
Bounty. I also pick up 2 Rhox Meditant and a
Might of Alara as potential playables as well as
a Filigree Fracture, which is a fantastic
sideboard card, especially when I know that
there is at least one Esper drafter in the pod.
The deck is starting to look half decent, but
Alara Reborn is where my deck really takes
shape.
I open a pack that contains a Lavalanche and a
Behemoth Sledge and wish that this booster had
been in the box I opened only a month ago. I
could now potentially go into a fifth colour and
take the Lavalanche, but I’ve seen too many
games where a Sledge sticks and wins the game
almost on its own. For me the pick was
difficult, but not too difficult and I feel like
I made the right choice by picking the Sledge.
Pick two is a Sangrite Backlash, removal for a
deck that isn’t exactly removal heavy. When I
look through the third pack and see another
Behemoth Sledge, I now know my first pick was
justified and I take a second Sledge. From here
I felt the draft played nicely into my hands. I
pick up a Naya Sojourners, 2 Colossal Might, a
Naya Hushblade, 2 Pale Recluse and 2 Violent
Outburst (both really late), which all make my
final deck. The Outbursts made it simply because
of the fact that they Cascaded into the majority
of my deck. I also manage to get a 9th pick
Qasali Pridemage as a sideboard card for that
pesky Esper matchup that I feel has to be
coming.
In the end, my final decklist for draft 1 looked
like this:
7 Mountain
7 Forest
2 Plains
1 Rip-Clan Crasher
1 Druid of the Anima
2 Nacatl Outlander
1 Naya Hushblade
1 Manaplasm
1 Hissing Iguana
1 Matca Rioters
1 Caldera Hellion
1 Naya Sojourners
2 Pale Recluse
1 Ignite Disorder
1 Sangrite Backlash
2 Colossal Might
1 Naya Charm
1 Soul’s Fire
2 Violent Outburst
2 Behemoth Sledge
1 Fiery Fall
1 Sylvan Bounty
It’s possible that
the Ignite Disorder should not have been main
board and that I maybe should have played a Rhox
Meditant or maybe even the Might of Alara, but
it can be good against a lot of different decks.
Green White and White Blue are two strategies
that I expected to be prevalent and let’s not
forget about Esper.
Round 4 (v Keraan Chetty)
I asked Keraan while we were shuffling what he
thought of the draft and he said that he wasn’t
happy. I saw why when we started playing. Keraan
had gone the 5 colour route, meaning that either
he got caught out, or it’s a strategy he enjoys.
In the end, it turned out that he had been
caught out and felt that he was receiving mixed
signals from his right all the time.
Game 1 I go down to 9 on the back of a couple of
annoying things that I can’t block, but
Manaplasm in play is always a threat. With
Keraan on 14, I attack with it. After Keraan
decides against blocking, I cast Colossal Might,
pumping the Ooze to a 3/3 before the Might hands
an extra +4/+2 and trample to the once tiny
creature. Keraan falls to 7 and with the 3 mana
I have available I cast Soul’s Fire, making my
Manaplasm deal 10 damage to my opponents shocked
– and now dead – face.
1 – 0
Game 2 didn’t go so well. Keraan kills off my
Manaplasm before I can really get it online and
I deal a grand total of 4 damage in the game
because I can’t draw any relevant creatures
against his active Fleshformer. My 2/2’s are a
little dead against that. Even after gaining 8
life from a hard cast Sylvan Bounty (I still had
2 mana open after casting it as well), I only
had two more turns to live.
1 – 1
Game 3 was where my deck showed its true
potential. A turn 4 Behemoth Sledge equipped on
turn 5 to a 2/2 guy and I was off and running.
It didn’t take long for Keraan to realise that
he wasn’t winning this one and 3 turns later I
was back to an even record for the tournament
and really happy with my draft deck.
2 – 1 (2 -2 for the tournament)
Round 5 (v Andrew Cullen)
Another Durbanite who was unhappy with his deck.
He also felt like he was getting mixed signals
from his right and didn’t commit early enough.
He also said that he switched twice in the
draft. Game 1 I play Manaplasm on turn 3, Sledge
on turn 4, equipping on turn 5, Cascading off
Violent Outburst into Colossal Might on turn 6
and winning on turn 7 after Andrew has dealt me
6 damage all game. Wow that was quick.
1 – 0
Game 2 was similar except there was no Sledge
and I actually dropped below 20 (13 to be
exact). Andrew’s life total went down from 20 to
17 to 13 to 8 to 7 to 4 in the space of 5 turns,
starting on turn 4. Another quickish kill,
although Andrew was particularly upset when I
Cascaded off an Outburst into Sangrite Backlash
before blockers to kill his only potential
blocker for that turn and the Cascading into a
2/2 guy the very next turn. He scooped ranting
about Cascade.
2 – 0 (3 -2 for the tournament)
Round 6 (v Matthew van Rensburg)
The battle of the 2 – 0 drafters was a really
good match. Matthew had managed to build a solid
Grixis deck with a hefty removal package –
something that would be quite tough on my deck,
seeing as though there weren’t really an
abundance of creatures. Game 1 showed me exactly
the kind of problems I was going to have in this
match. My Manaplasm bit the dust to a Vithian
Stinger and when a second Stinger came down to
deal with any 2/2’s I might play, Matthew was
winning the race easily. I died without changing
his life total once and having 2 Behemoth
Sledges on the table but no creatures to equip
them to. One creature bigger than 2 toughness
would have seen a completely different game, but
that’s what Matthew’s deck was designed to do.
During the game, I also saw Agony Warp and Deny
Reality.
0 – 1
I saw slightly bigger creatures in game 2, being
able to cast my Naya Sojourners and the Rhox
Meditant I sided in. Even though I didn’t see a
Sledge, one Colossal Might and 2 Violent
Outbursts in one turn were enough to see me
through to victory with me sitting on a healthy
13 life.
1 – 1
Game 3 went even better, with me ending on 20
life and Matthew taking an absolute beating from
Manaplasm. Damn that creature is really good. I
even sat with Caldera Hellion in hand for most
of the game without casting it, simply because I
didn’t need to. I also didn’t see a Behemoth
Sledge, but it just didn’t matter. Manaplasm got
pumps from Colossal Might, Rhox Meditant and
Violent Outburst into Nacatl Outlander before
finally dealing the damage required to win the
game.
2 – 1 (4 – 2 for the tournament)
Going into Nationals this year, my goal was to
beat the record I achieved last year, which was
5 – 7. After 6 rounds in 2008, I had been 3 -3
so I was happy with my record up to this point
and after 3 – 0’ing the pod with another draft
coming, I felt like I could do really well
suddenly.
Then I sat down at my pod. David Hofmeyer,
Christof Kuun, Michael Nurse, Clint van Alten,
Ravi Moodley and two others that I can’t
remember (sorry whoever you were). This was
going to be a tough pod. Because of this, I
didn’t feel like my draft went anywhere near as
well as the first one. I thought it was going to
be another great one when I opened a Branching
Bolt. There were other cards in the pack, but I
don’t pass the Bolt. When I looked through the
second pack and saw another Manaplasm, I thought
that this draftwas going in exactly the same
direction as the first and I wasn’t entirely
upset with that, actually. A pick 3 Soul’s Fire
and it’s looking almost exactly the same.
Hissing Iguana and a Rakeclaw Gargantuan later
and I feel like I’m going into red green again,
but then comes a pack with almost nothing, but
there is a Sigiled Paladin. I have to take it,
but I’m now solidly in three colours – not a
great place to be in this format as I prefer to
be 2 main colours splashing for a third. I pick
up an Algae Gharial as well, but only 7
playables after the first pack and I’m a little
worried.
The first Conflux pack doesn’t offer much hope
and I pick the Armillary Sphere amongst cards
that are either not in my colours or simply
aren’t better than the artifact. I pick a
Bloodhall Ooze over a Magister Shpinx from the
second pack because I’m still thinking that I
can go aggro here and the Ooze would be a
decent, if not spectacular, 1 drop for the deck.
A second Armillary Sphere is drafted out of pack
3 and I could have had another one, but I take
Rhox Meditant over it. Having 3 Spheres may be
overkill on mana fixing. The draft is not going
well, however. I have to take 2 Paragon of the
Amesha, now thinking that I can go green white
aggro, splashing red. The creatures that are
tabling are bigger than I really want, though.
Beacon Behemoth, while not a bad card in and of
itself isn’t the best card for an aggro deck.
When Nacatl Hunt-Pride tables, however, I know
that my deck is taking on a different shape. I
finally realise that this isn’t going be
aggressive. This deck is going to a mid-range
deck with biggish creatures. The only other
relevant card I manage to pick is a Molten
Frame. I’m scared of that Esper deck I know is
on my right…
Once again pack 3 saves me, although a first
pick Firewild Borderpost didn’t signal that. A
second pick Enlisted Wurm and the deck is
officially taking shape as a green white fatty
deck splashing red for the pitiful removal I’ve
picked up to this point. A third pick
Crystallization remedies that to a certain
degree. Mycoid Shepherd joins the team as does
Rhox Brute and 2 late-ish Grizzled Leotau. I
could have maybe grabbed a third, but I took
Mayael’s Aria over it. A Pale Recluse was a nice
late addition and a Vithian Renegades would be
waiting in the wings should I face the Esper
deck.
When building the deck, I realised that the
draft really hadn’t gone as planned. I had a big
curve, very little removal and no acceleration
to speak of, although the mana fixing was quite
good. The final build was as follows:
6 Plains
6 Forest
2 Mountain
1 Island
1 Swamp
2 Grizzled Leotau
1 Sigiled Paladin
2 Paragon of the Amesha
1 Hissing Iguana
1 Manaplasm
1 Rhox Brute
1 Mycoid Shepherd
1 Algae Gharial
1 Rhox Meditant
1 Beacon Behemoth
1 Rakeclaw Gargantuan
1 Enlisted Wurm
1 Nacatl Hunt-Pride
1 Pale Recluse
2 Armillary Sphere
1 Crystallization
1 Firewild Borderpost
1 Soul’s Fire
1 Branching Bolt
1 Mayael’s Aria
1 Captured Sunlight
The plan with the deck was to get through the
early game without taking too much damage and
then drop fatty after fatty and overwhelm the
opponent with sheer size.
Round 7 (v Ravi Moodley)
Ravi wasn’t happy with his deck, but neither was
I really. I felt that mine was not going to be
fast enough in the format. As it turned out,
Ravi’s was even slower than mine.
Game 1 ended up being a race, but the race only
started from turn 5, after we both played lands
and said “go” a lot, and stopped on turn 8 or 9
once we’d both played a significant number of
creatures to clog up the board. By the time my
creatures had a second +1/+1 counter from
Mayael’s Aria on them, however, Ravi knew that
there was no way he was going to stop my army of
massive creatures (I was playing a fatty a turn
at this stage, while he playing nothing) and
conceded.
1 – 0
I was pleasantly surprised that the card
everyone said should not be in my deck (Mayael’s
Aria) had, indirectly, won me a game already. I
couldn’t wait to get outside and rub all their
faces in it, but I had to get through the match
first.
Game 2 went a lot better for me, but only
because a turn 3 Manaplasm - followed by a turn
4 Mycoid Shepherd (which died immediately,
gaining me 5 life), followed a couple of turns
later by Enlisted Wurm cascading into Grizzled
Leotau and then Captured Sunlight cascading into
Paragon of the Amesha - is awesome. Manaplasm
for the win!
2 – 0 (5 -2 at the end of day 1)
All in all an extremely satisfying day 1. I was
well ahead of my score from last year and even
had a remote possibility of top 8, although I
wasn’t thinking about that when I left the
venue. I went to News Café in Boksburg with Ian
de Villiers (he of mtgsa.co.za fame) and began
drinking Jager-Bombs, which are not only
expensive, but when drunk on an almost empty
stomach (I ate about a quarter of a lasagne, and
had eaten nothing else the entire day) are quite
potent. We stopped drinking when the bill got
over R500. We drove to Ian’s place in Brakpan,
had a chat and went to bed at about 11 that
night, chilled out and relaxed for day 2. |
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