this isn't really a tournament report cause i don't remember much of the actual matches that took place, but a rundown of the events, for me.
my deck - mono white control:
14 plains
4 temple of the false god
4 secluded steppe
4 cloudpost
4 wrath of god
4 akroma's vengeance
4 damping matrix
3 chalice of the void
4 exalted angel
3 eternal dragon
3 decree of justice
4 silver knight
2 renewed faith
3 pulse of the fields
sb:
4 purge
2 mindslaver
2 mind's eye
4 circle of protection: red
3 scrabbling claws
day 1:
match 1:
omer dittman.
unfortunately, i don't remember what he was playing, but i won, 2-0.
1-0.
match 2:
danny yoseph, playing ravager-affinity:
game 1 i get the god draw, with vengeance and 2 cloudposts, and vengeance on turn 4 (when i'm playing first)..
this was obviously enough to win.
game 2 he plays first and gets the god draw, killing me on his 4th turn, despite me cycling renewed faith on my 2nd turn, and casting pulse on my 3rd.
game 3 was close, it got down to me being on 8, with him having an enforcer with skullclamp on it in play.
he had 2 mana open which screamed mana leak, but i haven't seen one yet, and wasn't convinced he had them.
so i went for vengeance (for the win), and he had the leak, and on his turn he attacks me and adds shrapenl blast for the win.
in retrospect, maybe i should've played a morphed angel on my turn (which he can't leak), and on his turn play pulse. if he doesn't counter the pulse, i don't have to chump the enforcer, and i have an angel (it would've probably gotten shrapneled, but i had another one ready in hand).
if he counters the pulse, i chump, and on my turn play vengeance.
so this was a judgement call, and maybe i made the wrong one, still not sure about it.
1-1.
match 3:
assaf grossman, playing goblin bidding.
testing showed that my deck isn't that good against goblins. i can usually take initial control of the board, but then comes the bidding, and i lose.
luckily, assaf drew really badly against me (one of the games gave him only lands and prospectors, at first..), while i drew pretty well.
in addition, assaf didn't get to playtest very much, so he made a few mistakes with the deck. i won 2-0.
2-1.
then we went on to the draft.
i was 2-1, and was seated at a table i was quite comfortable with.
my table contained:
israel caspi
maxim dubrovnski
yura karasik
yoav amir
tomer shiran
manor abromvitz
benny trileski
most were solid players, obviously, but none were at the caliber of uri or yoni, so i liked my chances.
i drafted a blue-green deck which was really strong. had shaman, deconstruct, fireshriker, mask of memory, copperhoof vorrac, mirror golem, and some more goodies.
match 4:
yura karasik
i just remember that i smashed him 2-0.
but then the draft was cancelled.
we started the redraft.
my deck was very good again - i had spikeshoot, scimitar, 2 goblin replicas, bolt, tel-jilad archers, heartseeker, 4 myrs/talismans (great acceleration), tel-jilad exile.
the deck didn't have bombs, but was fast and consistent, and i felt good with it.
day 2:
match 4:
israel caspi, playing blue-black affinity.
israel described this match in his report, probably better than i can.
first game is mine, and he makes a mistake in the second, attacking with myrs that didn't go any good, but could stay back and chump for the win. i won 2-0.
3-1.
match 5:
tomer shiran, playing quick black-white weenies.
tomer has a very fast deck, with some evasion and whispersilk cloack.
my deck is a lot slower, so it's a problem for me.
we split the first two.
in the third, he starts very quickly with several weenies.
i play spikeshot and try stabilize, but he has the removal.
i then play another fat blocker and he runs out of removal.
he can't deal the last few life points to me, and i take control of the board with my fatties and win eventually.
4-1
match 6:
maxim dubrovenski, playing something.
this match was really annoying.
i win the first game, as he stalls on mana.
2nd game, i start with 1 land, paris.
draw 6, 2 lands and only cards that cost 4 or more, paris.
draw 5, 3 lands, but don't see any more lands for the rest of the game, lost.
3rd game, i'm swamped with lands, drawing 13 mana sources and only 6 spells, and lose again.
quite annoying.
i made have made a mistake in the 2nd game, mulliganing my first hand.
it only had 1 land, but it had 2 myrs, and i was playing 2nd, so i probably should've kept.
mulliganing such a hand is debatable, but my deck needs a lot of mana to operate.
i need 4 mana, not 2.
so drawing 2 lands in the next hand won't do me any more good.
on the other hand, if i draw 1 land here, i have 4 mana sources and i'll be ok. so this was probably a mistake.
i hang all blame of it on uri, who always urges me to paris more aggressively (and after i told him about this hand played all righteous and went on about how this is obviously a keeper... bastard).
so i lose and i'm now 4-2.
match 7:
yoav amir.
don't remember much. win 2-0.
5-2.
match 8:
renan gross, playing slide.
he also described this match in his report.
first game he stalls on 5 lands, and my dragons easily win.
second game is close, but i draw the decrees, and my mindslavers seal the deal. they were really good tech here.
6-2
match 9:
itay tsiddon, playing ravager:
we tested together, so we weren't really happy about playing each other.
he offered me a draw, and we though about what the right move was.
the reasons against drawing, is that if we play this, then the winner would draw next round in the top 8, while the loser maybe could still make it, if he wins next round.
eventually we ruled out this way of action as we calculated it and saw that the loser wouldn't qualify to the top 8 even if he won the next one (most likely), plus the winner could be paired down, in which case he won't be able to draw in , and would be forced to play again. so we drew.
6-2-1
match 10:
yoni eshel, playing deatch cloud:
this is supposed to be a really bad match up for me.
as a draw doesn't do any of us good, we agree that if time runs out, the player who has more life wins. it's legal, and there's no other legal way to do it. dice aren't allowed in determining the winner.
first game, i have an angel, but he has the banishing.
luckily for me, i have another angel, plus a decree, and he doesn't develop his mana fast enough to get to a big enough death cloud.
2nd game, he has some creatures, and i try to wrath, getting a caller of the claw in my face. that might have been a mistake, but i'm not sure i had much choice. i didn't have the tools to deal with his offensive without the wrath.
i didn't have the 2nd wrath, and i lost horribly.
3rd game i start with 2 angels but he has a double banishing. really annoying.
i play some tokens and he almost gets a cemetery going, and i feel that almost everything is lost, but then i draw mind's eye, and start drawing more cards and evening the playing field.
eventually he makes the mistake he told about in his report and death clouds for too much, which makes him stall on mana later, which mind's eye enables me to continue playing lands.
that mistake costs him the game as i play an angel and when the time's out and the extra turns are over, i'm on more life then he is.
he's a man of his word and concedes, and i advance to the top 8.
7-2-1
this was really exciting for me, as for the last 3 years i failed in making the top 8, and for the past 2 years, finishing on the verge, finishing 12th and 13th, or something of that sort. so this was sweet.
eviatar and i decide to play our quarters tomorrow, as we're both beat and tired.
day 3:
we arrive in the morning, and start playing our quarters.
quarter-final:
eviatar olpiner, playing ravager-affinity:
in testing, the 1st game is mine over 50%, but after sb, it's a lot harder cause of mana leak.
1st game i start, and am able to stall him with silver knight and life gain and the wrath and vengeance win me the game.
2nd game he starts really quickly, and wins in short order, while i don't have the wrath, if i recall.
3rd game was an absolute god draw on my part. amazing how timely that one was.
2nd turn purge, 3rd turn purge, 4th turn wrath of god, 5th turn akroma's vengeance (with temple), 6th turn angel.
simply amazing. couldn't ask for more.
was a shame to play eviatar in the quarter though, cause i wanted him to fly too. hopefully, one of the others won't fly, and eviatar could come.
so i'm in the top 4 and am going to worlds. sweet
i finished in the top 4 twice before, but going to worlds never worked out, the first time cause it was in japan and therefore very expensive, so no one else wanted to go there, so we went to the european championships instead. the second time, it clased with army duties, so i had to go the teh europeans instead, again.
but this time, hopefully, nothing will stop me, and i'll be at worlds
from there on i was satisfied, and everything else would have been just a bonus.
semis - grek markovski, chamber-affinity:
his build is probably better against me then the usual one, cause he has 8 counters, which really bugs me.
i don't think the chambers are especially good, but when you always draw the clamp with it, it's quite insane.
this was quite boring.
game 2 i won cause he taps out (i think he had the counter and that it was a mistake), and i vengeance and win consequently.
games 1 and 3 he has the clamp + chamber which win handily unless i deal with them.
unfortunately for me, i don't draw in either game neither matrix, chalice or vengeance, nor even an angel to put some pressure him.
by the time i draw something, he already used the clamp like a gazillion time, and sits with some counters in hand.
i lose 2-1.
match for 3rd place: danny yoseph, ravager-affinity:
i wanted payback for the swiss, but it wasn't to be.
i don't remember the first game other then he won.
2nd game i have the purges and vengeances ready and win.
3rd game he has the clamp going early which is quite discouraging.
eventually i have the matrix but he has the shatter.
he drop some creatures. wrath, and he drops some more creatures.
i drop a chalice for 2 which stops his leaks, shatters, ravagers, shrapnels.
he drops some more creatures and can kill me that turn, but he fears to commit because of purge, but he fails to see i can't cast the purge cause of the chalice for 2.
so he gives me more time and i cast another wrath, and a matrix.
then he drops 2 more creatures.
i need to draw a pulse, faith, wrath, vengeance, and my odds would've been great, but i don't, and can only play a dragon, but he swarms me and wins.
so i finish 4th.
i would've gladly agreed on finishing 4th prior to the tournament, as going to worlds is mostly what matters here.
and i've never been to worlds, so this is even more exciting.
i hope that when time comes i'll have the time to prepare for it as it deserved, but even if i don't, worst case i'll take the deck uri builds and smash people with that
i won't mention all the organizational blunders here, in order not to spoil the report, cause it's supposed to be a happy one.
had lots of fun, cya in upcoming pre-releases, PTQs and the like.
Orr.
