Archive for the ‘Report’ Category

The Legacy tournaments at the Black Lotus Store in Barcelona are probably the biggest weekly events in the world. With an average turn out that might hit the 35 players, Black Lotus has become an excellent place to practice Legacy at a real high level. You might find there players like Lluis Restoy (GP Madrid Top8), Ricard Tudurí (GP Winner) or Adrià Romero (who recently made top9 at the BOM4).

In the past I used to go every Saturday to the Legacy tournaments, but now, due to my job I can’t hardly get any Saturdays off. And those that I can, I usually make them match with the Vintage tournaments from the LCV6.

Anyways, so this past Saturday I managed to go and I won! Well, even though I really wanted to play because I felt I could defeat easily any of the top4 decks (Reanimator, Zoo and Survi-Auriok) I agreed on splitting the Top4 because the other 3 guys really wanted to, and I was a bit tired.

I expected the following metagame: Zoo, Reanimator, ANT, Merfolks and Countertop (thopters, progenitus, etc). That’s what the usual players play around there. Then there’s always some people with random decks like Belcher, White Staxx, etc… My predictions were almost perfect since there were a lot of combo decks (ANT, Reanimator), some Zoo, and also some Thopter/CounterTop decks.

The night before the tournament I prepared my ANT deck to fight that metagame. I can advance you that this is probably the best sideboard I’ve brought to a tournament. I’m really satisfied with the result and I felt I had answers for absolutely all the matchups that I could face. So this is the list:

Main deck: 4cANT by Jordi Amat
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Brainstorm
4 Mystical Tutor
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
3 Ponder
3 Duress
3 Orim’s Chant
2 Flooded Strand
2 City of Traitors
2 Chrome Mox
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Tundra
1 Scrubland
1 Tropical Island
1 Island

Sideboard:
4 Carpet of Flowers
3 Path to Exile
2 Nature’s Claim
1 Reverent Silence
1 Krosan Grip
1 Angel’s Grace
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Tropical Island

I’m not gonna talk about the main deck choices because the list is pretty standard (15 lands – including 2 City of Traitors, 6 protection spells – including Orim’s Chant, 1 Tendrils, 1 bouncer, etc…). But I do wanna talk about the sideboard.

Path to Exile (3): This card proved to be the MVP of the tournament. And that’s the second time I performed excellent thanks to them. Let’s see it’s advantages:

• It kills Gaddock Teeg, Ethersworn Canonist, Iona, Shielf of Emeria, as well as Tarmogoyf (BANPLZ!), Wild Nacatl, etc…
• It’s white, so you’ll probably kill Ioona 100% of the times with it.
• We run more than 1 copy, so we can use it more aggressively to kill an early menace that will save us some health points. Killing a turn 1 Wild Nacatl with a Path to Exile, if your game plan is slow, can turn into a huge advantage.
• Nobody expects Path to Exile.

Disadvantages:

• It’s white, so you’ll need to fetch for white. That usually isn’t a problem, but it’s not the same as playing Slaughter Pact (which I also run).
• It’s more sensible to Daze/Spell Pierce since it costs more than Slaughter Pact.

Carpet of Flowers (4): In a metagame where blue is everywhere, this card seems the right call. Merfolks disruption is based on the “pay X more or counter this spell” (aka, Daze, Spell Pierce and Curse Catcher), and Carpet of Flowers brings lots of extra mana for free every turn. The only spell you should care about when playing against Merfolks is Force of Will.

The other reason why I run Carpet of Flowers nowadays is because control players expect you to play Dark Confidant Side Board, and they won’t side out their removal. Like this we achieve:

1. We accelerate for free everyturn
2. Opponent is playing with dead cards

Due to this version being 4 colors, Carpet of Flowers will fix our mana base pretty nicely. You’ll have the white, the green, blue or black whenever you’ll need it.

Nature’s Claim (2) + Reverent Silence (1) + Krosan Grip (1): Our worst match up is obviously anything running CounterTop. We can’t have our silver bullets all with the same mana cost, and that’s why I opted to have Nature’s Claim, Krosan Grip and Reverent Silence.

Chalice @1 hurts us a lot, but you should be able to Mystical Tutor for Krosan Grip in response to his Chalice, and get rid of it quite easily. Else, just try to combo out with the double LED + Infernal Tutor Kill.

Angel’s Grace (1) + Tendrils of Agony (1): Since I expected some Zoo decks, Angel’s Grace was a must include! I can’t play combo decks without 2 Tendrils of Agony but it didn’t fit in the main deck, so I finally opted to add it to the SB.

Against Zoo/Aggro decks, my usual sideboard plan is: +1 Angel’s Grace, +1 Tendrils of Agony, +3 Path to Exile, +1 Slaughter Pact (and if I expect Thorn of Amethyst like from Affinity, then I add the 2 Nature’s Claim + Krosan Grip), -2 Duress (I always leave 1 Duress, just in case you need to check for a trap ), -3 Ponder, -1 Tropical Island (unless I have to add the green sideboard spells).

So this was more or less my sideboard strategy. My main game strategy was always to go for the double LED + Infernal Tutor Kill passing through Ill-Gotten Gains. I believe I killed like that around 90% of the times. I’ve been playing Iggy Pop/ iPop Negation / ANT for such a long time, that when I need to combo, I have it so clear that I know exactly what is needed to execute a certain amount of storm at any given situation. The fact that I reduced the amount of Ad Nauseam to 1 makes this plan my primary choice of kill.

I won’t explain my rounds with detail as I didn’t take accurate notes from the games. I’ll try to write about certain plays that were relevant during the tournament.

Round 1: Gonzalo Balot with random deck. 2-0

• Gonzalo was a new player in the scene and he actually didn’t know how to play at all. I helped him understand the game a bit better after I won him 2-0 in less than 10 minutes. I tried to make him understand the phases, construction of the decks, etc… He took notes and I think he’ll be better prepared next time.

Round 2: Alex Mateu with Survi/Auriok. 2-1

• Alex is actually one of the best players of the national Legacy scene. If you search him on deckcheck, you’ll discover a certain amount of good results.
• Game one I cast a turn 2 Ad Nauseam for the win. Game 2 he casts 3 Meddling Mage in 5 turns without any deck manipulation… I killed his first one with Path to Exile, then the second one named Ad Nauseam and the 3rd named Path to Exile, so my only chance was to find Mystical Tutor, for Slaughter Pact and then combo (I had Nauseam and mana enough). I never found the Mystical nor the Pact. Game 3 I believe I combo him on first turn with a Infernal Tutor Kill.

Round 3: Oscar Mesegué with Reanimator. 2-1

• Yet another excellent player with a lot of wins at the LCL/Black Lotus Store tournaments.
• He managed to get Ioona (naming black) into play game 1. I didn’t had many chances since she would kill me before I could actually bounce Ioona. But, I insisted and didn’t surrender, as I wanted to make him believe I could actually bounce Ioona. So I tried to Mystical Tutor at some point, which he obviously countered with FoW (+ Blue card when he only had 2 cards left) fearing a Wipe Away. I told him he did well countering my Mystical as I would have probably won So he actually believed me, and in second game, he put Ioona into play again naming blue! But I had Path to Exile to remove her I won the same turn I played the Path to Exile. Game 3, he had turn 1 Entomb, and he placed on his GY… Inkwell Leviathan, fearing my Path to Exile again. It was obviously a bad choice, as the squid never got to attack (I had a Path in my hand, anyways)

Round 4: My friend, and ex-team mate, Oliver Satizabal aka Owli with Zoo. ID

Round 5: Daniel Sanchez with Spring Tide. ID

Top8: Pedro Grati with ANT. 2-1

• I don’t know him that much. I know he’s performing well in pokemon formats, so I guess he’s a good player. BUT, I actually saw him play at round 5 (scouting FTW!), and I saw him play terribly bad. Misplays, wrong choices, etc… He told me after his last round, he’s not used to play combo. O RLY?
• Anyways, so Game one he casts DOUBLE duress on his first turn, and I win on my first turn! How? Check this out kids! My hand was: LED + Dark Ritual + Ancient Tomb + Lotus Petal + Cabal Ritual + Brainstorm + Sensei’s Divining Top. His double duress hits my Brainstorm and Sensei’s Divining Top. My topdeck was Infernal Tutor, and you know how the story ends
• On game 2, he had a strong play, but I slow him down with an Orim’s Chant in response to his Infernal Tutor. He searches Ad Nauseam (Mistake) which he can’t cast. I eot Mystical Tutor for Duress and take his Nauseam away. We both were at top deck but I had Sensei’s Divining Top. He drew a bomb before I found anything with the Top on 4 turns… He played Sadistic Sacrament so we moved onto game 3.
• Last game was a normal game, I Duress him turn 1 and comb on turn 3 via Ritual + LED + Infernal Tutor -> Ill-Gotten Infernal Tutor for Infernal Tutor for Tendrils for a total Storm of 10.
• As Pedro said “It happened what it should have happened”.

In the end, I accepted splitting the Top4 prizes.

The rest of the top8 went like this:

Sergi Herrero (Reanimator) VS Oscar Mesegué (Reanimator)

Àlex Mateu (Survi/Auriok) VS Daniel Sanchez (High Tide)

Jordi Amat (ANT) VS Pedro Grati (ANT)

Aldo Fernandez (Landstill) VS Oliver Satizabal (Zoo)

I’ll post the Top8 decks as soon as possible. Meanwhile, this is how the metagame looked like:

• 3 ANT (Top8 + Top4)
• 1 Landstill (Top8)
• 1 High Tide (Top8)
• 2 Merfolks
• 2 Dredge
• 2 Dark Depths (1 Countertop, 1 BG Hate)
• 3 Zoo (Top4)
• 2 Reanimator (Top8 + Top4)
• 2 Rogue deck
• 1 Alluren
• 1 Survival (Auriok Combo) (Top4)
• 1 Thopter/CounterTop
• 1 Fatestalker
• 1 Belcher
• 1 Canadian Threshold
• And a couple of lost lists

So, to conclude with something, let me just say…

REAL MEN PLAY COMBO!

This is the story on How I met Dan Frazier, yesterday in Zaragoza (Where? Yes, Zaragoza). If you aren’t familiar with Dan Frazier, let me tell you that he’s the artist that drew the first Moxen. Well, he’s actually drawn lot more cards, including the 12% of the initial Alpha collection. You can check the full list of his artwork for WotC here and his website here.

So, everything started back in this year’s GP Madrid when we saw Jose “El Cubano” giving some fliers away. In those fliers it said something about a couple of tournaments and, surprisingly, that Dan Frazier was the guest artist at the event.

Arnau, Roger, Edu and I started to organize the trip to Zaragoza, and early in the morning our pimp ride started!

This was some of our stuff to be signed before we actually met Dan:

(Sorry for the bad quality of the picture)

It was really needed an Alpha/Beta P9 in order to get to travel with Arnau’s Mercedes

Anyways, once we arrived at Freakland Games in Zaragoza we discovered that Albert & Pedro and Paco and his girlfriend were faster than us, so we weren’t actually the first ones at the queue But that wasn’t the issue, as we had plenty of time to talk with Dan as there wasn’t that many people there in the end.

When Dan realized of Roger’s presence at the queue, his wife Cathy gave Roger a folder and when he opened it we were all impressed to find out that Dan Frazier had drawn a portrait of Roger wearing the harlequin hat from Jester’s Cap. Meet the IMPRESSIVE Roger’s Cap!

I can’t wait to see a full-res scan of the drawing!

This is my personal goodie bag for the day:

Let’s havea a closer look at everything

Hand drawn and dedicated playmat:

A closer look to the drawing:

The Lost and not so Lost Mox Diamond:

The 5 Moxen funky altered:

A closer look to each of the Moxen:

A few more pictures of the day:

Me and Dan Frazier

Me, Dan and his wife Cathy

Filippo, Jose and me

Dan signing some white border swamps… not pimp!

Dan and the Revised swamp attack!

While in Freakland we played some Vintage games, enjoyed the awesome environment and had fun, lots of fun!

Around 18:45 we decided to go back to Barcelona because we still had something very important to do: Watch the FC Barcelona vs Real Madrid game of the millenium! If you are a soccer fan, then I’m sure you know that the spanish soccer league is incredibly crazy right now. I just have a picture to illustrate how the game went:

I’ll remember this day my whole life, for being the day I met Dan Frazier, having an excellent day with my friends, and Barça winning 0-2 against Real Madrid. Hope you guys liked the report.

Thanks for reading!

Our japanese hero & Legacy combo player, Tomoharu Saito, has finally published his Top4 report at Grand Prix Madrid 2010.

Tomoharu Saito GP Madrid 2010 Top4 report @ChannelFireball.com

What I liked from his report is the previous analysis of the deck & card choices. Even though I might differ with some of his conclusions, I have to admit his done an excellent job! I totally recommend reading the report for any kind of player, not only from Legacy.

By the way, have you ever seen Saito shuffling?

Vintage players have either grown to love or hate the card Gush, and the effect that it had on the metagame over the past half decade during the times when it was allowed to be played. When Gush (and Brainstorm, Flash, Merchant Scroll, and Ponder) landed on the Restricted List again on June 1 2008 many people were saddened by the news, as the “Gush Metagame” was one full of interaction, excitement, many interesting deckbuilding ideas, and of course the broken plays that Vintage players are accustomed to.

In January 2010 the Team ICBM Vintage extraordinaire tournament organizer and Vintage arms dealer Ben Carp decided to take matters into his own hands. He announced that in March there would be an ICBM Retro Vintage Open tournament using the old Restricted List and card pool, with the following rules to mimic the metagame from early 2008:
1. Gush, Brainstorm, Flash, Merchant Scroll, and Ponder are unrestricted. Gifts Ungiven is still restricted. Shahrazad is legal and unrestricted.
2. Time Spiral, Personal Tutor, Dream Halls, Mox Diamond, and Chrome Mox are still restricted.
3. The “M10 rules update” is NOT in effect. This means:
3a. Combat damage stacks.
3b. Tokens are “owned” by whoever controlled the effect that created them.
3c. Mana burn exists.
3d. No more simultaneous mulligans
3f. Wishes fetch RFG’d cards as well as SB cards.
4. All errata updates after July 2008 are NOT in effect. This means:
4a. Illusionary Mask works the old way.
4b. Oath does not target.
4c. Time Vault/Voltaic Key does NOT work.
5. Cards printed after Shadowmoor are not allowed. This includes Eventide, Alara Block, M10, Zendikar, and Worldwake.

Many locals were very excited about this, as the Key-Vault era has grown stale to a lot of people, and they enjoyed the Gush era. Deckbuilding strategy and technology is constantly changing and adapting, so it would be very interesting to see how the deckbuilding of today matches up with the metagame from nearly two years ago. Would the GushBond engine (Gush + Merchant Scroll + Fastbond) dominate, or would new technology and ideas trump the decks of yesteryear?

The tournament was hosted today at Milwaukee Magic Cards and Games in Milwaukee, WI (USA). Turnout was unfortunately only 11 people (to play for MOX SAPPHIRE!!), but it was a star-studded field with many of the Midwest’s best Vintage players, and a number of recognizable names. There were many different deck types represented, as most of the players seemingly had their own idea of how to trump the metagame.

After four rounds of Swiss the following gentlemen and scholars were left standing with the best record to square off in the Top 4 for the rights to own a nice piece of Power 9:
1) Ben Carp, playing DEEZ Noughts
1) Mike Solymossy, playing Tropical Storm
3) Jeremy Seroogy, playing Reveillark Flash
4) James King, playing GushBond Tyrant Oath

In the semi-finals Jeremy Seroogy took down Mike Solymossy in three closely contested games, and in the other bracket James King narrowly edged Ben Carp in an epic three game set. Seroogy then went on to best James King in the finals in three games, making Jeremy Seroogy and Reveillark Flash the winner of the first ICBM Retro Vintage Open!

We’ve provided the complete decklists from all 11 competitors below, so check out the technology. As Stephen Q. Mendendian would say, “That’s Gush, Boys!”

DEEZ Noughts, by Ben Carp aka Broodstar3000
Business (36)
4 Force of Will
4 Thoughtseize
2 Spell Snare
4 Stifle
1 Echoing Truth
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
4 Dark Confidant
2 Dimir Cutpurse
2 Illusionary Mask
1 Engineered Explosives

Mana Sources (24)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Lotus Petal
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
4 Underground Sea
1 Watery Grave
1 Island
1 Swamp

Sideboard (15)
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Duress
1 Pithing Needle
2 Trygon Predator
1 Sealof Primordium
2 Sower of Temptation
1 Control Magic
2 Mystic Remora

Trinket Nought, by Ryan DuBois
Business (37)
4 Force of Will
1 Duress
3 Thoughtseize
4 Stifle
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Trinket Mage
1 Phyrexian Dreadnought
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Aether Spellbomb
1 Engineered Explosives

Mana Sources (23)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Academy Ruins
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
4 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
1 Island

Sideboard (15)
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Duress
1 Pithing Needle
2 Trygon Predator
1 Sealof Primordium
2 Sower of Temptation
1 Control Magic
2 Mystic Remora

Confidant Remora, by Jason Jaco
Business (39)
4 Force of Will
4 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
3 Spell Snare
2 Mana Drain
1 Echoing Truth
1 Repeal
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
3 Mystic Remora
1 Time Walk
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Dark Confidant
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Tinker
1 Sundering Titan

Mana Sources (21)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mana Crypt
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
2 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
2 Island
1 Swamp

Sideboard A (15)
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Helm of Obedience
1 Darkblast
3 Threads of Disloyalty
3 Ingot Chewer
2 Magus of the Moon
1 Gaea’s Blessing

Jones Mind Trap (aka Dredge), by Tom Jones
Business (47)
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Unmask
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
3 Careful Study
1 Life From the Loam
3 Darkblast
4 Golgari Grave Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
3 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Bridge From Below
2 Dread Return
1 Angel of Despair
4 Serum Powder

Mana Sources (13)
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Cephalid Coliseum
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine

Sideboard (15)
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Oath of Druids
1 Gaea’s Blessing
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Sundering Titan
4 Forbidden Orchard

Tropical Storm, by Jake Kempfer
Business (38)
4 Force of Will
1 Misdirection
4 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
1 Chain of Vapor
4 Gush
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Timetwister
1 Necropotence
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Merchant Scroll
1 Fastbond
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
2 Doomsday
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Research and Development

Mana Sources (22)
4 Dark Ritual
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Lotus Petal
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
4 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
3 Island

Sideboard (15)
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Extirpate
3 Xantid Swarm
1 Thoughtseize
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Echoing Truth
1 Threads of Disloyalty
1 Swamp

GushBond Tyrant Oath, by James King
Business (38)
4 Force of Will
3 Thoughtseize
1 Chain of Vapor
4 Gush
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
1 Time Walk
3 Merchant Scroll
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Fastbond
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
4 Oath of Druids
2 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Krosan Reclamation
1 Brain Freeze
1 Flash of Insight

Mana Sources (22)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Lotus Petal
4 Forbidden Orchard
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
2 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
2 Volcanic Island
1 Island

Sideboard (15)
1 Blazing Archon
1 Darksteel Colossus
2 Extirpate
1 Pyroblast
1 Ray of Revelation
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Trickbind
1 Pyroclasm
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Tinker
1 Pithing Needle
2 Tormod’s Crypt

BrianDemars.dec (aka Confidant GAT), by Jimmy McCarthy
Business (39)
4 Force of Will
2 Duress
3 Thoughtseize
1 Echoing Truth
4 Gush
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
2 Ponder
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
4 Merchant Scroll
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Fastbond
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
4 Dark Confidant
3 Quirion Dryad
1 Tendrils of Agony

Mana Sources (21)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Lotus Petal
4 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
3 Tropical Island
2 Island

Sideboard (15)
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Extirpate
1 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Oxidize
3 Seal of Primordium
2 Smother
2 Uktabi Oragutan

Reveillark Flash, by Jeremy Seroogy
Business (40)
4 Force of Will
1 Misdirection
4 Pact of Negation
2 Duress
1 Chain of Vapor
3 Summoner’s Pact
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Flash
4 Protean Hulk
1 Reveillark
1 Body Double
1 Mogg Fanatic
1 Carrion Feeder
1 Body Snatcher

Mana Sources (20)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
1 Tundra
2 Island

Sideboard (15)
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Tinker
1 Platinum Angel
3 Trickbind
2 Duress
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Echoing Truth

Tropical Storm, by Mike Solymossy
Business (38)
4 Force of Will
1 Misdirection
1 Pact of Negation
4 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
1 Chain of Vapor
4 Gush
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Timetwister
1 Necropotence
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Merchant Scroll
1 Fastbond
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
2 Doomsday
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Research and Development

Mana Sources (22)
4 Dark Ritual
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Lotus Petal
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
4 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
3 Island

Sideboard (15)
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Extirpate
3 Xantid Swarm
1 Thoughtseize
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Threads of Disloyalty
1 Swamp

Sliver Flash, by Shawn Brook Williams
Business (40)
4 Force of Will
4 Pact of Negation
1 Chain of Vapor
3 Summoner’s Pact
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Street Wraith
4 Flash
4 Protean Hulk
4 Virulent Sliver
1 Heart Sliver
1 Elvish Spirit Guide

Mana Sources (20)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Lotus Petal
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island
1 Island

Sideboard (15)
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Threads of Disloyalty
2 Echoing Truth
1 Tropical Island
1 Time Walk

TinkerGush, by Derek Wochinski
Business (38)
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection
3 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
2 Spell Snare
1 Echoing Truth
4 Gush
4 Brainstorm
3 Mystic Remora
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Merchant Scroll
1 Fastbond
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Tinker
1 Darksteel Colossus

Mana Sources (22)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
2 Island

Sideboard (15)
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Phyrexian Dreadnought
2 Trickbind
3 Smother
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Spell Snare

Chapter 3: The rise of the golems.

So it’s finally Sunday, our last day in Madrid, and we are heading again to the GP with brand new objectives. I still need to visit Mark Poole to get some stuff signed & altered, and I’m planning on conquering the Vintage side event that starts at 9 am.

So, before we move with the Vintage tournament, let’s get in the mood:

IF you are a STAXX (my ass) player please click play on the following youtube video. If you aren’t, move on to the next one!

So if you ain’t listening the previous video, then you deserve some real good shit! How about one of the coolest Justice videos?

The deck I’m playing at the tournament is a mix between the list JACO passed me the night before and the cards I brought to Madrid. There’s a thing I loved about his list: 3 main deck “fuck-your-golem” Ingot Chewer. He also had a couple of the new Jace there, but I wasn’t gonna pay the 240€ (120€/each) that the Asian_foil_cards were asking for. So in the end, this is what I played:

TP Golem my ass! by Jordi Amat

4 Force of Will
3 Mana Drain
3 Spell Pierce
2 Duress
3 Ingot Chewer
3 Repeal
1 Lighting Bolt
1 Fire/Ice
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Brainstorm
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Tinker
1 Sundering Titan
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Yawmoght’s Will
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
3 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
2 Island
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Swamp
1 Tolarian Academy

Sideboard:
3 Ravenous Trap
1 Extirpate
1 Darkblast
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
2 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Duress
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Greater Gargadon
1 Claws of Gix
2 Hurkyl’s Recall

I’m not 100% satisfied with the decklist tho. I’ll scan my new version of the deck and post it tomorrow or the day past. So, let’s move on with the rounds!

Round 1: Roger Subirana with UW Fish

Meh! First round and I get paired with a well known player from the LCV. I know him a bit and I know he’s playing UW fish usually.

I start controlling the first game thanks to my Lighting Bolt, that killed his Ninja of the deep hours. Later on, my Gorilla Shaman manages to eat a Null Rod and my Sower of Temptation controls another Ninja. Despite all the advantage I manage to obtain, i get totally mana flooded and I can’t get to stop his Jötun Grunt. He finds a Swords to Plowshares that exiles my Sower and returns his Ninja, and it’s GG.

Game 2 I open with Polluted and pass turn. He goes for Tundra + Sage of Epytir, and I get it REB’ed. It’s super important to stop 1st turn Sage if you don’t want him to go 2nd turn Ninja. I had Mana Drain up for turn 2 but he finds Wasteland for my Volcanic. Then I’m there with 1 Island, 2 Off Color Moxen and Sensei’s Divining Top. He plays Kataki, the war’s edge and his first Meddling Mage, naming Tinker. I find Sower of Temptation with my Top, and play it protected. With it, I control his Meddling Mage, but again, he has Swords to Plowshares. He’s beating my ass hard and I can’t find any answers on time.

0-2 | 0 points | 0 wins 2 losses

Round 2: Guillem Ragull with Drain Tendrils (?)

Meh! (again). Second round and I get paired with my ex-team mate Guillem. Guillem is right now one of the strongest players from the LCV. He’s playtesting a lot more than me and he knows the business quite well.

I have a strong control hand with Spell Pierce, Duress, Mana Drain, Ingot Chewer, 2 lands and Fact or Fiction. He opens the game with Tolarian Academy + Mox Emerald. I think for a while to see what my 1st movement should be. I decide that the best opening would be Fetchland for Underground Sea + Duress. He plays only 1 Brainstorm to avoid my play. But there he goes, he plays Brainstorm in response and hides Mana Drain + Gifts Ungiven (correct me if I’m wrong). I take Vampiric Tutor from his hand. Next turn he plays land and passes.

Obviously my Duress opening was the wrong choice. I should have played Ingot Chewer to his mox. Then on turn 2, he would have had 1 land, and his play would have been Vampiric, which would have got with Spell Pierce. Anyways, let’s keep moving.

I Try to play Ingot Chewer to his Mox and he casts Mana Drain I play Spell Pierce but he plays Force of Will. He draws his Gifts Unviven and with 5 mana he finds enough business spells to leave me out of the game.

Game 2 I mulligan to 6 and he mulligans to 5. There’s some Duress played by each of us. In the end, I manage to play an eot Fact or Fiction followed by a Tezzeret with protection.

Game 3 is kind of raw He mulligans to 5 again, plays Underground and pass turn. I begin with Land + Mox Sapphire + Sensei’s Divining Top with Spell Pierce in hand. He plays Island and pass turn. I find another Mox with Sensei’s Divining Top and on my turn I play another land + another Mox and cast Tinker, he tries to Mana Drain, but I Spell Pierce it. Sundering Titan hits the board and he scoops.

2-1 | 3 points | 2 wins 3 losses

Round 3: Bagus Bender with Bomberman

Bagus isn’t exactly what I’d call a “fast” player. He took his time on every single play of this round. To that let’s add the fact that he plays with Sensei’s Divining Top and we got the right formula to tie the round.

Game 1 I’m in control of the game, even though he’s got a Trinket Mage that is beating me down badly. I manage to kill his Trinket Mage when I’m down to 4 with my Lighting Bolt. He’s got Sensei’s Divining Top and Black Lotus in play. It shouldn’t take him long before he finds Auriok Salvagers. On my last chance to win the game, I cast Fact or Fiction that brings me Mystical and Vampiric Tutor. Both tutors works for me, as I’m killing him via Yawgmoth’s will the next turn. Well, there wasn’t any “next turn” for me as he finds the Auriok and goes off.

Game 2 is getting long and complicated. He’s played 2 Pithing Needle naming Time Vault and Voltaic Key (name Tezzeret next time… plzkkthx!). He’s beating me again with a Trinket Mage. When I’m down to 4 (again) they call “Time’s up” so I have to work some Magic! I dunno how I did it exactly but I remember being able to play Tezzeret, untap 2 artifacts and play Time Walk after a Yawgmoth’s Will. Then I attacked and GG.

1-1 | 4 points | 3 wins 4 losses

Round 4: Magin Calvo with Welder Staxx.

I can’t believe how I lost game 1. I opened with Island and pass turn. He went Workshop + Sphere of Resistance which I got with Spell Pierce. I play fetchland and pass turn with Mana Drain, Spell Pierce and Brainstorm. He plays a 2nd Workshop and starts with another Sphere of Resistance. I cast another Spell Pierce to which he attempts to pay the 2 extra with his other Workshop. I tell him that’s not possible. Anyways, he does nothing else, so I cast Brainstorm but I find no third land A third land would have been lovely as I got 1 Ingot Chewer in hand and the Mana Drain! On his third turn the fest starts to go on. Smokestack + Tangle Wire. I got the Smokestack with the Mana Drain. I can’t kill the Tangle with my Chewer coz I know there’s no land coming due to Brainstorm. So I have to get tapped and pass turn. He topdecks Strip Mine and I scoop

Game 2 I first turn kill him with Tolarian, Sol Ring, 2 Moxen, Voltaic Key and Tezzeret!

Game 3 is what I call “HELL”. He opens with Mountain + Goblin Welder. Then another Goblin Welder, and then ANOTHER Goblin Welder. I get to counter 1 Sphere of Resistance with Spell Pierce and manage to counter 2 more artifacts he plays. So, all he can do is beat me with his 3 welders… LAME! When he finally manages to resolve his artifacts, I start to get trapped due to his Tangle Wire and Smokestack. I cast Ingot Chewer targeting his Smokestack and he doesn’t put Sphere of resistance in response with Goblin Welder. Chewer resolves I pass turn and then he tries to rectify the play. I say “Dude, no”. Then on his upkeep he forgets to remove a counter from Tangle Wire and to tap anything. He draws a card and plays Mox Emerald. Then I call the judge because everything that happened in few secs there. I was hoping the judge would call that as a game loss due to him having extra information from the draw, being able to change what he tapped out of Tangle Wire. It was probably my only chance of winning there but the judge just went back few steps and he actually changed what he tapped with Tangle Wire. I call the judge again telling him that that wasn’t what he initially tapped after I told him that he missed his upkeep phase. The judge was again very permissive and he just got a warning. Anyways, I found Tinker out of nowhere and plays it for Sphinx of the Steel Wind. They call “Time’s up” and we ain’t given extra time for what happened before, so my Sphinx if missing a turn to just finish the game. LAME!

1-1 | 5 points | 4 wins 5 losses

Round 5: Michael Twoun with Aggro MUD.

On game 1 I have 2 Ingot Chewer in hand and 2 fetchlands. Open with first turn fetchland + Mox and he goes with Workshop + Mox + Golem. No problem! I go fetchland again, then crack for Volcanic and cast Chewer to his Golem. He’s so surprised of my main deck Chewer that he asks the judge if I’m really playing those maindeck. The judge actually performs a deckcheck on me and he finds out I’m right. He gives Michael a warning (only?) we keep going. No extra time given neither, even after being deckcheck! I manage to resolve my other Ingot Chewer kill a Karn, Silver Golem and my Chewer kills him.

Before starting game 2, I know I need to slow down a bit because there’s not a lot of time left. But, I can’t compete at all when he opens with first turn Golem again! I Force of Will his Golem, then I play Island, Mox Emerald and Sensei’s Divining Top. He plays a second Golem, I look with Top and there’s nothing worth in there. I play my second land with Mana Drain and Gifts Ungiven in hand. He plays nothing else in the game and swings me 4 times with the Golem for the Win. The last time he attacked we were already on the extra turns

1-1 | 6 points | 5 wins 6 losses

After round 5 I lost my interest on keep playing due to judges and my deck being unable to finish games fast.

I took some pictures of the vintage tournament. Here there’s the slideshow:

After the Vintage tournament there was still lot to do! I needed to get some cards re-signed and altered and I had to close the deal with Angelo for the Yawgmoth’s Will. We sit down with Menor and Angelo in a table and meanwhile I start a “Play Vintage with ante” event. I get only one victim whose promo Umezawa’s Jitte ended up in my binder Some pics of the games with ante:

So, I finally close the deal with Angelo. And get my brand new Yawgmoth’s Will altered by Ron Spencer and Terese Nielsen.

Now some pimp we had around with Angelo

This “Will” will have a new owner pretty soon, right Miguel?

This Gorilla was once mine, but was included in the trade for the Yawgmoth’s Will.

I also have one of those Islands, but mine is double signed

My Islands! I got the altered one from Antonio, and then I got them re-signed ^^

Best Island EVER! Property of Comeback.

Now that I mention Francesco, aka Comeback, when he showed me his Ancestral Recall altered by Mark Poole, I felt the need to rush back to see Mr. Mark Poole and get my cards altered the same way! I didn’t have much time left as we were soon heading back home. 20€ were needed to convince a friendly guy in the queue to accept my Library + Ancestral. I also gave him 50€ extra (just in case) to give to Mr. Poole to get my alterations done. This is the result!

In the end the 50€ weren’t needed as he made it with markers instead of paint (as he originally did with Francesco’s Ancestral). I have to admit, it’s the best alteration idea I’ve seen on any Ancestral or Library of Alexandria. There’s LOTS of Ancestrals altered after GP Madrid, but like this, there’s only 2: Francesco’s and mine.

So, it’s about time to finish this EPIC report of this EPIC weekend in Madrid. I’m not gonna end it with the typical PROS and CONS because I’m so freaking satisfied with everything that I’ve done. Of course I could have done better in the tournaments, but in the end, Magic is just a game folks!

Part I of the GP Madrid Epic Report can be found here.
Part II of the GP Madrid Epic Report can be found here.

Chapter 2: The assault

It’s finally Saturday and the biggest GP of the history of MtG is just about to begin. Once there, we see huge queues to register again. Luckily for us we don’t need to queue anymore so we move inside and wait, and wait, and wait, and w…

When 2220 people show up in a tournament, lots of things can happen:

• The room of the event isn’t big enough.
• There’s not enough chairs.
• There’s not enough promotional Jittes.
• The DCI reporter can’t handle more than 1000 players per tournament.
• There’s not enough waiters at the cafeteria.
• There’s lots of people who registered that weren’t on the lists once started.
• There’s lots of people with byes that were missing those, so they had to complain.
• Moving 2220 people isn’t the same than moving 1000.
• Etc…

Some of the problems were solved quite fast, some other were almost impossible to fix. Anyways,  let me introduce you my deck before I move on with the rounds report.

As you might have read in the blog before, I had very clear that I was going to play ANT with a transformer sideboard, ala french style.

TP ANT v5.0 by Jordi Amat

Main deck: (60)

4 Dark Ritual
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Brainstorm
4 Duress
4 Orim’s Chant
3 Mystical Tutor
3 Chrome Mox
3 Cabal Ritual
3 Infernal Tutor
2 Ad Nauseam
2 Tendrils of Agony
2 Ponder
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Wipe Away

3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Tundra
1 Scrubland

Sideboard: (15)

4 Tombstalker
4 Dark Confidant
3 Serenity
2 Angel’s Grace
1 Echoing Truth
1 Sadistic Sacrament

The maindeck choices are very standard. I’ve always believed that running 2 Tendrils of Agony main deck is necessary. It allows you to have a plan B against control decks and you can also use it to gain some time and life against aggro decks.

The sideboard is what might surprise you. The 4 Tombstalkers are there as a personal bet to beat a CounterTop based metagame. My predictions proved to be wrong, as it was lot more aggro than CB based, so in the end my Tombstalkers didn’t see much play.

Round 1 is about to begin but before, some speeches from the head judges staff featuring our new spanish level 4 judge Carlos Ho.

Carlos Ho before he actually gets the official Head Judge shirt.

I’m placed in the blue tournament and this is how it went:

Round 1: Pablo Capdevila (ESP) with Zoo/Burn

First game is kind of a short, as I manage to cast Ad Nauseam turn 2 being at 17 life. Nauseam brings stuff enough to end the game. Luckily, I lost the dice roll and I managed to see Taiga + Kird Ape followed by a Savannah, so I knew exactly how to side.

• In: +2 Angel’s Grace + 1 Echoing Truth
• Out: -1 Ad Nauseam  -2 Duress

The second game is a total different story. My hand has full of accelerators and a Tendrils of Agony. He has a strong hand with land + Wild Nacatl, followed by land + double Kird Ape. I can’t find any tutor to go off, and my following draws are Ill-Gotten Gains and Wipe Away.

I’m down to 11 lives and if I pass turn, he’ll attack for 7 and will probably cast a bolt or two. Can’t really pass turn, since either I die before being able to play my own turn, or either I die after casting Ill-Gotten Gains.

So, I start counting and all I can get is 9 storm. I count again, 9 storm again. I count again, 9 storm again. My opponent is getting nervous and I ask him a bit of patience since it’s either I win the game or I lose it after passing turn.

Finally I found out how to get 10 storm. I play my double Lion’s Eye Diamond, I play Lotus Petal + Dark Ritual. I also cast Chrome Mox but I imprint nothing. Then I cast Ill-Gotten Gains and in response break the 2 LEDS for UUUBBB. I bring back to my hand, Wipe Away + Dark Ritual + Tendrils of Agony. With UUU I cast Wipe Away on Chrome Mox, recast Chrome Mox imprinting nothing again, then Dark Ritual and Tendrils of Agony for a total of 10 storm.

2-0 | 3 points | Total: 2 wins – 0 losses – 0 ties

Round 2: Sergio Agudo (ESP) with Zoo/Burn

I lose the dice roll again, and he starts by fetching a Savannah to play Wild Nacatl. I follow with Duress and take a Chain Lighting as all the remaining were creatures and a Path to Exile.

When I’m at 6 life left, I’m forced to cast a 8 storm Tendrils (leaving him at 2) to gain some time and not die by passing the turn. I can’t find any tutor after that turn and his creatures end up killing me.

• In: +2 Angel’s Grace + 1 Echoing Truth
• Out: -1 Ad Nauseam  -2 Duress

The second game I first turn kill him with a Dark Ritual + Dark Ritual + Ad Nauseam. Nothing you’ve never seen before.

The final game he opens with fetchland and passes turn. I follow with land and pass turn to cast Orim’s Chant in his following upkeep. I’m just missing a Dark Ritual to be able to cast Ad Nauseam. He plays land and pass turn  (obv). I draw another Orim’s chant, so, i play land again and pass turn to cast the chant again. I’m just missing 1 mana now, since I have 2 lands, Dark Ritual and Ad Nauseam in my hand. One Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual or another land is just what it takes to go off! He answers my chant with Lighting Helix and passes turn again. I draw Wipe Away, so I’m forced to pass turn and get owned badly as he casts Gaddock Teeg AND Ethersworn Canonist.

My next draw? A Lotus Petal. I keep playing waiting for a miracle, but he’s creeps end up beating me down to 0.

1-2 | 3 points | Total: 3 wins – 2 losses – 0 ties

Round 3: Joao Souza (BRA) with Red Deck Wins

Probably the fastest round of the whole tournament, excepting those who didn’t play due to a match loss or something similar.

Game 1 I have a hand I do love to play: Lotus Petal +Lotus Petal + Brainstorm + Dark Ritual + Mystical Tutor + Ponder + Duress.

My play was: Lotus Petal + Brainstorm. Brainstorm draws what it needs to go off: Dark Ritual, Ad Nauseam and a fetchland! Can you ask for better cards? No. I follow with the other Lotus Petal + Duress, followed by Fetchland + double Dark Ritual + Ad Nauseam winning without much difficulties.

• In: +2 Angel’s Grace + 1 Echoing Truth
• Out: -1 Ad Nauseam  -2 Duress

Game 2, he plays mountain and pass turn. I first turn kill him again with double Lotus Petal, double Lion’s Eye Diamond and Infernal Tutor. Tutor fetches for Ill-Gotten Gains, replay the 2 LEDs and Tutor for Tendrils of Agony. Exactly 10 storm.

2-0 | 6 points | Total: 5 wins – 2 losses – 0 ties

Round 4: Sergio Santos (ESP) with White Weenie

I lose the dice roll, AGAIN and he opens with Plains + Mother of Runes. I look at my hand and think this game ain’t gonna last long. Well, I was wrong

I open with fetchland for Island + Ponder. I get the Nauseam I needed to go off next turn. So I pass. He plays another Plains and casts OMGETHERSWORN CANONIST!

Nerf rogue decks playing main deck canonists!

Don’t panic, I have Mystical Tutor and Wipe Away main deck, so he can’t protect the canonist with his Mother of runes.

A turn later, I cast Wipe Away on his eot and on my turn and at 14 lives I cast Lotus Petal + Dark Ritual + Dark Ritual + WAIT! -He says! He responds to my second Dark Ritual with a OMGMAINDECKSILENCE! It’s ok, I tap my 2 other lands and in response to his Silence I cast Ad Nauseam. You know what? He answers my Nauseam with OMGMAINDECKORIM’SCHANT!

I resolve Ad Nauseam and get few cards to fill my hand up to 7. You wanna know how I die in that game? Soltary Priest equipped with Umezawa’s Jitte! Pur3 pwn4g3!

• In: +4 Tombstalker +4 Dark Confidant + 1 Angel’s Grace + 1 Echoing Truth
• Out: -2 Ad Nauseam -3 Infernal Tutor -4 Lion’s Eye Diamond -1 Ill-Gotten Gains

I can’t lose this round! I can’t! I keep repeating myself those words when I start drawing my hand: 2 fetchlands + Duress + Dark Confidant + Tombstalker + Ponder and Sensei’s Divining Top. After watching my hand I thought: He’s not gonna last long in this game! So I open with Polluted for Swamp and cast Duress to see what he’s up to. GUESS WHAT? He has 3 Path to Exile!

C’mon… I lost to a guy who plays Silence, Orim’s Chant, Canonists main deck featuring Soltary Priests. And game 2 he doesn’t side out his Path to Exile. That’s Magic!

0-2 | 6 points | Total: 5 wins – 4 losses – 0 ties

I didn’t start that well… so let’s have a break and enjoy some of the pictures from the people, the place and the event on Saturday.

The goodie bag of foil japanese for the day:

Let’s go back to the rounds!

Round 5: Daniel Campos (ESP) with Rock

I don’t have many notes from this round. All I can see from my notes is that I win game one out of a Nauseam when being at 20 lives.

• In: +2 Angel’s Grace + 1 Echoing Truth
• Out: -1 Ad Nauseam  -2 Duress

I lose game 2 against Kitchen Finks and Eternal Witness. And game 3 I first turn kill him with double LED and Infernal Tutor.

2-1 | 9 points | Total: 7 wins – 5 losses – 0 ties

Round 6: José Gavaldà (ESP) with Enchantress

Yet another first turn kill on game 1! I promise you guys, I’ve never done that many 1st turn kills in a tournament before. Luckily, I lost the dice roll AGAIN and he played first turn Wild Growth

• In: +3 Serenity + 1 Echoing Truth
• Out: -1 Cabal Ritual -1 Infernal Tutor – 1 Lion’s Eye Diamond -1 Mystical Tutor

Game 2 doesn’t begin very well as he develops his game quite nice and fast. A turn 4 serenity on my side destroys 11 enchantments (including 2 Runed Halo). I kill him that same turn.

2-0 | 12 points | Total: 9 wins – 5 losses – 0 ties

Round 7: Ben Miller (CAN) with Burn

He starts with Mountain+ Mogg Fanatic and my hand, that had plenty of mana + 1 Ponder fails to get anything worth out of Ponder. He attacks and casts double Chain Lighting. I’m down to 13. My chances of winning through Ad Nauseam are getting slim. It’s either I draw it now or I’ll have to go via double LED + Infernal Tutor. Problem? I have no LED, nor the Infernal Tutor. I draw another Ponder. There’s chances! Ponder brings a Mystical Tutor which is good enough but I’ll have to pass turn. I never got my turn back

• In: +2 Angel’s Grace
• Out: -1 Ad Nauseam -1 Cabal Ritual

Game 2 I cast a first turn Duress, taking his Pyrostatic Pillar out. His hand isn’t very impressive as he has 4 lands. I can combo him with Ad Nauseam without many troubles.

My game 3 hand has Angel’s Grace + 2 Dark Ritual + Ad Nauseam. I have only one land, so I chose to cast Ponder first. I get the white producer I needed to draw the whole deck on game 2 and win the match.

2-1 | 15 points | Total: 11 wins – 6 losses – 0 ties

Round 8: Germánico Huecas (ESP) with Dream Halls

I just need 2 more wins to pass to day 2. I’m feeling confident  with my deck and my game play. I’ve lost 2 rounds to Gaddock and Canonists. I believe I can make it!

Game 1 I cast Duress and see what he’s up to: He has Show & Tell, Progenitus, Ancient Tomb, Lotus Petal, Force of Will, Ponder and Thoughseize. I take his Force of Will and wait to see how greedy my opponent is. Exactly! He casts 1st turn Show and Tell for Progenitus. His only problem was that the 10/10 never got to attack me as I had turn 2 Ad Nauseam. If only he would have cast his thoughseize…

• In: +4 Dark Confidant + 1 Sadistic Sacrament +2 Angel’s Grace
• Out: -3 Infernal Tutor -4 Lion’s Eye Diamond

Game 2 I get pwned by his first turn Progenitus (AGAIN?) as my hand was slower than I wished.

• In: +3 Infernal Tutor +4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
• Out: -4 Dark Confidant -1 Sadistic Sacrament -2 Angel’s Grace

I return to my initial configuration as I’m starting now and need to combo out. My opponent mulligans to 5. So I open with Swamp and Duress, and he stops it with Force of Will, pitching Spell Pierce. OMG, he’s down 3 to 3 cards!

Well, he draws and guess what? Ancient Tomb + Lotus Petal + Show & Tell to place Progenitus on the board!!!!!!!!!!111111oeneneneneleven

Don’t panic, I still have a couple of turns to sculpt my hand and try to go off. I also have an Orim’s Chant that will gain me a turn. So, I draw, cast Ponder and pass turn. I can’t pay the kicker yet, so he draws and swings for 10. On my turn, I can’t do much, as I need the 2 lands to play the chant with kicker. So I pass turn, I cast the Chant and he draws & passes turn. I draw what I needed! My 2nd Lion’s Eye Diamond! So there we go to the final round! WELL WAIT! I cast 2 LED’s Infernal Tutor and in response I sac the LEDS and he FORCE OF WILLs my Infernal Tutor!!!!!!!! NERF YOUR LUCK BROTHER! Progenitus kills me, again.

1-2 | 15 points | Total: 12 wins – 8 losses – 0 ties and I drop.

All in all, my performance didn’t go quite as I expected. I would have loved to play against more tier 1 decks, but I found myself playing against few rogue decks that did some heavy damage to my final score. But that’s Magic folks!

Some of us (“the losers” xD) decided to move back to the hotel area with 2 goals in our minds:

1. We wanted to eat some dinner.
2. We wanted to watch F.C. Barcelona game.

Achieving the first one wasn’t hard. Worst was finding a place to watch the soccer game in Madrid. (In Barcelona is actually very hard to find a public place to watch Real Madrid games). We succeeded and just next to the hotel we had dinner in a bar while watching the 1st half of the game, and then we moved on to another one, where some other were waiting for us, to have some drinks.

And then the fun began!

To summ up the day:

• Entrance to GP Madrid – 18€
• A pork & cheese sandwich – 3€
• A Tanqueray + Sprite – 4.5€
• Singing the F.C. Barcelona anthem in a bar in Madrid with lots of supporters from Real Madrid  – PRICELESS!

To be continued…

You can now read the third part of the report:

The GP Madrid epic report! Part III

2010′s Grand Prix Madrid has been an EPIC and LEGENDARY weekend. It isn’t easy to explain everything that happened this past days. There’s too many stories, too many great moments, too many friendly moments, too many people!!!!

I’m going to divide this report in three chapters. Each chapter represents one day: Friday, Saturday and Sunday (How smart!). So, before we begin with the first chapter, let’s get the picture of it:

Chapter I: You sir need forces!

My plain takes off at 11:40 from BCN’s new airport terminal. On the way to the airport I was listening the latest album from MIA to start getting in the mood. I unexpectedly meet many of my eternal mates there (including Ruben González, who managed to top8 at the GP as you will read in chapter 3). They were taking a plain a bit earlier tho, so I moved to my boarding gate and kept listening my music.

Once in Madrid, David Menor (a crazy taxi driver from Madrid and one of the best spanish dealers we have), came pick me up with his mercedes SLK. Dude, that was fast! He took me to his place and he packed his stuff before we went to a local “burger” (they call restaurants like that in Madrid) and had a 10€ menu: Raviolis with Pesto for starters followed by “Huevos fritos con chistorra y patatas” (go google translate it!).

That’s the kind of meal you do expect when you travel abroad. If you go to Italy, you want to eat good pizzas. If you go to germany, you want to eat good sausages. And if you go to Madrid you want to eat many things, including the “not-so-greasy-and-almost-cholesterol-free” eggs with chistorra and french fries. I forgot to take pics of it! Anyways…

After lunch we moved to my hotel, where I checked in and left my bag, and then we headed to the GP location. It wasn’t far.

Once there, we started greeting many well known friends, some other less-known came greet me, and we finally placed ourselves at the registration queue. It was around 17:30 when we arrived and it was crowded already. Four hours later, it was as crowded and the queue was the same or even longer. Before leaving, we were told that there was around 1600 pre-registered players, and that they got around 1500-1600 chairs only.

If lunch wasn’t enough energies to play properly during the GP, what comes next will actually make it. I can promise!

At 21:00 my friend Angel (aka Angelo) calls; he’s waiting for me downstairs at the hotel hall. I properly dressed for the occasion with a not-so-formal jacket + shirt + tie. Dressed enough for what was coming next.

We ask the taxi driver to take us to Hotel Hesperia, which he didn’t know… Once there, and while waiting for David, we moved to their lounge and asked the barman for a couple of cocktails. I went for a G’Vine + Sprite with natural grapes and Angelo tasted a London Gin with Tonic.

Minutes after, David shows up and asks for a Belvedere Vodka with raspberry juice that seemed quite tasty, actually.

David and Angel enjoying their drinks.

So, after the drinks we moved next door. Our destination was the 2 star Michelin graded restaurant Sant Celoni from Santi Santamaria. The place was nice, chic and really classy. Initially we were supposed to be four for dinner, but our friend Miguel (aka Juzam2) finally couldn’t make it.

We decided to go for the Menú Gran Gastronómico. I got real shocked with the outfit from the sommelier. He was walking around with a skirt-like thingie and with a HUGE GOLD necklace that was holding a big golden cloister. He looked more like Puff Daddy than a wine experte, I gotta say! Actually, we laughed when I suggested he looked like a mix between Gravesen (from R.Madrid) and John Malkovich.

What would you like to drink for starters? – He asked.

Catalan Cava - I answered.

There’s nothing better than drinking a good catalan cava. Well, there is: Drinking a good catalan cava in Madrid! Ok, drinking champagne beats both!

I took some pictures of the dinner, so I’ll just place here a slideshow for those of you who’d like to watch:

Food was excellent, seriously. We paid a lot for the whole meal (including the drinks and stuff), but it was definitely worth it. It’s a thing you should do once in a while, or present somebody you care or love with it.

We started around 22:00 and exited the restaurant around 1:00. It was probably one of the best eating experience I’ve had lately. 1000% recommended to any of you guys!

So, after the dinner we had the thought of going out and drink some cocktails at the new Sergi Arola’s lounge/bar. They supposedly have the best cocktails in Madrid… BUT! (there’s always a BUT), I had to be fresh and ready for the Grand Prix, so I decided to skip the fun and we headed back to the hotel.

If you ever drive with David, don’t expect to have a calmed ride! He decided that the best way to return was going through some creepy neighborhood that was filled with transsexuals, bitches and weirdos. Best moment was, when David decided to stop next to a guy/girl über tanned that looked like a boxing fighter just to piss us off and then a police car came  with the bells and lights on. Hahahaha, they scared the hell out of us!!!!! Anyways, in the end, we managed to scape from Moria land, and no creatures of the devil assaulted our car.

Minutes after I close the door from the hotel, Sergi and Toni knock the door. They were finally there, after a 5-6 hour road trip from Cabrera to Madrid. They went straight to bed because they were tired, and I still had some sleeve’ing up to do.

At 2:30 I finally go to bed.

To be continued…

You can now read the second and third parts of the report:

The GP Madrid epic report! Part II

The GP Madrid epic report! Part III

As you might have noticed I’m working on a more simple, easy to navigate, and intuitive template for the blog. This might cause you some problems, so let me apologize for the inconvenience. I think this template offers a lot more possibilities than any other template tested in the past. It’s just a matter of time till I master it and make it work in its pure splendor.

Need to redesign the header of the blog, but I’m not 100% sure how it should look like. If you have any suggestions please let me know!

Soon, I’ll be able to announce something very cool. It comes in the form of a new co-writer for the blog. Someone you might already know from some of his articles for MTG Salvation. Ok, ok, I stop giving tips now! He deserve a presentation post for himself, so I ain’t unveiling his name yet! Who do you think he is?

It’s only a month left till we hit Grand Prix Madrid, and there’s something that worries me a lot. No, it’s not the decklist I’ll play that I’m worried about, it’s actually what artists are going to be present at the event. Considering the type of event, Legacy (Eternal), I hope they bring someone important. Someone with a huge card pool, from alpha to latest expansions. I also hope, they don’t bring Mark Tedin, Terese Nielsen or Rob Alexander. Why would I say that if they’ve actually drawn cards from alpha to nowadays? Simply, coz I’ve met them many times already. WotC should make an effort to make other artists travel around. I’m talking about artists like Ron Spears or Pete Venters, to name a couple. I know it’s not gonna happen; it’s just some wet dream of mine.

Anyways, last Sunday I headed to Badalona (lawless city next to Barcelona -  They should actually release a new video game called GTA: Badalona) to play the 1st tournament of the 2010 Catalan Vintage League (LCV). Only 50 players showed up due to a Legacy Grand Prix Trial (GPT) being held at Black Lotus Shop in Barcelona (70 players).

I was planning to play a different deck than the one I used to win the mini tournament at La Màquina del Temps a week ago, but I lacked the time to change it, so I decided to give it another try.

Regular structure for a tournament like this, 6 swiss rounds followed by top8. Prizes were pretty cool, at least for the winner: 1 Beta Tundra + 1 Beta Scrubland. Thumbs up for Alfredo, the organizer!.

My performance went from poor to lame. I scored a 2-4 total. The deck worked well, but I had the feeling my opponents had the hands of their lives. You know, when round after round, you lose being unable to actually play your cards. Lost 2 rounds against Vault/Key with FoW backup. Another one, where my opponent, in game 3, opens with Jet + Duress (taking my FoW), Sapphire + Ancestral, Swamp + Black Lotus, cracking for BBB, and casting Null Rod + Dark Confidant. I go Island, play Sol Ring (and still had 2 dual lands + Tinker in hand), and his Confidant reveals Strip Mine turn 2, and Wasteland turn 3. GG.

I might have made some mistakes, wrong hand choices and mulligans. But I’ve never felt smashed like this in a tournament before. Maybe it’s really me, who’s getting rusty. I know I ain’t play-testing that much lately, but I’m still confidant about my skills and about my knowledge of the format. Who knows…

Now, I’m 100% focused again in Legacy. I don’t think I’ll be able to test much before the GP, but that’s a thing that doesn’t worry me much. I’ve been playing combo decks in Legacy for ages now and there isn’t much to be seen or to worry about at this point. The only thing that is starting to annoy me, is the growth on the amount of decks abusing Natural Order/Progenitus. Man, that 2 card combo is overpowered. In the Legacy context it might be even more powerful than what Tinker is in Vintage. It’s not restricted (people is playing 2-3 copies of Natural Order) and the creep you put in play is even better than any Tinker Robot that you might put into play. I still hope they ban Tarmogoyf soon. Hey! Do you remember the Biezcorp video? (It’s in spanish, but worth watching)

That’s all for today folks!

It’s been a while since my last Vintage tournament appearance. It was December’s LCV4 in Lloret de Mar. There I managed to top8 with a pretty solid UB Tezzeret Control deck. Well, I gotta admit that I’ve played zero Vintage games since then. Work is keeping me too busy to be able to meet with my buddies to play-test at all, but from time to time I have the chance to sneak into one of the small vintage tournaments that are held at La Màquina del Temps (shop who organizes LCV and LCL).

Today was a rainy Sunday and my girlfriend was busy meeting some friend for a coffee, so, I decided it was a good time to show up and play some vintage! Opened my binders and check what I could play with the hope of finding something new and original to have some fun. Saw my AK’s and those led me to my gorgeous playset of Thoughtcast Foil Japanese. Man, I had an idea!

Tezzcast Reloaded, by Jordi Amat
As a non-competitive deck for a competitive tournament.

4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
1 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Thoughtcast
1 Tinker
2 Misdirection
2 Tezzeret the Seeker
2 Sower of Temptation
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Voltaic Key
1 Time Vault
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Inkwell Leviathan
3 Underground Sea
2 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
4 Seat of the Synod
2 Island
1 Snow-Covered Island

Sideboard:
2 Spell Snare
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Rebuild
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Extirpate
1 Yixlid Jailer
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Pithing Needle
2 Sperzoa
4 Master of Etherium

While searching my Thoughtcasts I met Master of Etherium and Sperzoa, and convinced myself of playing them to fight the fishy metagame that I would probably find at the shop.

Maindeck is a simplified version of the Tezzcast deck that has been played around here and there. I wanted to make it slightly more solid to improve the matchup against Fish, so I decided to make it plain blue/black. No red nor green to support. But I said I was expecting a heavy Fish metagame, so, how would I combat Null Rod then? I wouldn’t! Instead, I transformed my deck into a more aggro-control version substituting the combo parts for creatures. (Notice as well the 2 main deck Sower of Temptation).

17:30 at the shop. Only 8 people showed up (understandable) so I actually knew I was gonna Top8 xDDDD We are playing 3 straight rounds of swiss, no top4. That equals home for dinner which is also nice!

Round 1: Xavier Muntada with UW Fish

Game 1: He mulligans, and land passes. I open with Island + Mox + Mana Vault. He casts Spell Pierce to which I answer with Ancestral Recall. I see Force of Will but I don’t care about the Mana Vault anymore, since I got my 2nd land and had Tinker + FoW back up for turn 2. He shows me Swords to Plowshares and we move onto game 2.

In: 4 Master of Etherium, 2 Sperzoa, 2 Spell Snare, 1 Hurkyl’s Recall

Out: 2 Tezzeret the Seeker, 1 Time Vault, 1 Voltaic Key, 2 Misdirection, 1 Gifts Ungiven, 1 Fact or Fiction, 1 Thirst for Knowledge

Game 2: He opens with Ancestral Recall to which I draw myself thanks to Misdirection. I resolve a Master of Etherium but I can’t find myself more than 1 artifact. The 2/2 ends up dead blocked by a Kataki, war’s edge. I remember I actually had ALL my lands in game and I just needed to draw something usefull to finish the game. He recovered just in time and I couldn’t make it.

Game 3: A fast 5/5 Master of Etherium followed by a 5/4 flying Sperzoa finished the game for me. They actually worked as intended!

2-1 | 3 Points

Round 2: Eduard Castro with Steel City Vault

Game 1: I play land go. He opens with Goblin Welder and I play Brainstorm in response. I see force of Will and a Mana Drain. I decide to Force of Will the Goblin. I play my 2nd land and pass. He casts something and I drain it. I cast my Willfull Fiction out of the extra mana from Mana Drain and win him few turns after.

In: 1 Tormod’s Crypt, 1 Pithing Needle, 1 Extirpate

Out: 2 Sower of Temptation, 1 Snow-Covered Island

Game 2: He plays land and passes. I go with something like: Land, Mox and Pithing Needle (naming Goblin Welder). He doesn’t find any relevant bombs while I do thanks to a couple of Thoughtcast.

2-0 | 6 Points

Round 3: Roger Lladó with TPS

Game 1: He mulligans to 5. Opens with Ancestral Recall and I actually Misdirection it. Let’s move to game 2.

In: Tormod’s Crypt, 1 Extirpate, 2 Spell Snare

Out: 2 Sower of Temptation, 1 Snow-Covered Island, 1 Hurkyl’s Recall

Game 2: I start UBER strong and develop my game a lot thanks to Time Walk and a couple of Thoughcasts. He Extirpate my Force of Will and from that point I lose gas. He manages to gather 8 storm for a lethal Tendrils with me being unable to find answers (Mana Drain) with Sensei’s Divining Top in play and 2 fetchlands…

Game 3: I don’t remember it at all. All I know is that he was gonna launch his attack when he Extirpates my Force of Wills, poor him, I had 2 or 3 Mana Drain in hand + Misdirection. So that delayed his plans while me, being 100% at topdeck, summoned the power of Mr. Yawgmoth’s via Vampiric Tutor for the win!

2-1 | 9 Points

So I actually had some fun, won and I brought home 10 boosters from Zendikar. My girlfriend opened them (as usual) with some luck actually: 2 fetchlands!

Regarding the deck, I think it’s pretty solid but I’m not sure about it. I mean, how would it perform against Oath, MUD or other heavy played decks at LCV. Against Control and Fish it worked really well, but it certainly lacks answers against Ionaa or MUD.

Next week I’ll play the 1st tournament of LCV. I’ll be broadcasting some games live from there. Stay tunned to my USTREAM channel!

No hace demasiado que Raptor nos regalaba un excelente análisis sobre la Naya Burn. Pues bien, sus estudios sobre la baraja y el dominio sobre las chisas, le han llevado a alzarse con el segundo puesto del torneo de Legacy que se celebró durante el GP de Barcelona (163 jugadores). A continuación os dejo con el report que, muy amablemente, Raptor nos ha escrito:

Mi historia con el GP empieza el sábado a las 19:00, momento en el que me pasé a curiosear como iba el GP de Barcelona, ver un poquito a los pros y comprarme algunas cartas.

Empieza a las 19:00 del sábado porque a partir de esa hora empecé a existir. No se que demonios me dio el viernes por la noche Filippo que me dejó literalmente fulminado arrastrándome por los suelos.

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Se que a muchos de vosotros os apasiona el poker y es por eso que me permito el lujo de compartir con vosotros el report que mi hermano, Xavi, aka ImPEACHment, se ha currado de su Top3 Split en el pasado torneo de poker celebrado en el Casino de Perelada.

Sin más dilación os dejo con el report:

Con JJ (como mejor mano en toda la noche y sin llevarla al show down, claro) se puede ganar un torneo de poker, os lo aseguro! Este martes (12) me desplacé hasta Peralada con Rodman (aka “MEGA RANGO” xD) para jugar el Petit Hold’em, torneo de 90+10€ de buy-in con ciegas de 25′ y, en este caso, un total de 30 jugadores (habitualmente oscila entre 25 y 50). Se trata de un torneo bastante peculiar en el que se mezclan franceses, catalanes, regulares y fishes (básicamente casi todos los perfiles menos…los pro’s).

Tras registrarnos (también otro amigo de Calella, Marc) y comprobar que habría 30 jugadores, tocaba empezar a jugar y estudiar la mesa (coincido con Marc, él asiento 2 y yo asiento 6). Un gordo enfadado, un francés tatuado, un joven nervioso y un abuelo…(siempre se agradece tener un abuelo en la mesa…te obliga a estar atento y constantemente te haces preguntas como…”sabrá jugar?”, “tendrá 200k en Stars y me la clavará cuando le resuba con mi AJs?”, “sabe que existe internet?”…y básicamente…”qué coño hace aquí un tío de 80 años que no parece estar disfrutando?”).

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Roger Subirana nos ha mandado el report del torneo de la Liga Catalana de Vintage que se celebró la semana pasada en Cabrera de Mar. ¡Espero que lo disfrutéis!

No soy muy ducho en esto de escribir reports, pero sinceramente me aburro un poco en el curro asi q voy a relataros como me fue personalmente el torneo q se celebro en cabrera

Quedamos los miembros de la fundacion (nuestro eqipo se llama “fundacion gamelan”, eduard castro, xavi de grandes y luis codera –este ultimo esta un poco “apartado”) debajo de mi casa y el ultimo en aparecer soy yo, biofrutas en mano (pocas horas dormidas xD); me han guardado un croissant, q m como en el coche, viaje ameno, risas varias y en un plis llegamos a cabrera (les digo q si no m va muy bien, hago drop y m voy a comer una paella xD)

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Lo prometido es deuda, y aquí va el report del torneo que se celebró el pasado sábado en Cabrera de Mar correspondiente a la Liga Catalana de Vintage.

La expedición, con Tudurí, Filippo, Txep i Guillem, zarpa con 30 minutos de retraso por culpa de Tudurí que se durmió. Guillem, como siempre, rabia un poco y propone dejarle, pero yo prefiero esperar unos minutillos más ya que es feo no esperarle y Cabrera no estaba tan lejos.

Llegamos a Cabrera y vemos a mucha gente en la puerta, aparcamos justo delante y justo a tiempo para inscribirnos. Finalmente 70 jugadores, que no está nada mal ya que el torneo se anunció con muy poco tiempo de antelación y se celebraba en un fin de semana algo atípico (normalmente se celebran el 3º o 4º fin de semana de cada mes).

La baraja que jugué ya la conocéis, la TP Tezzcast que os posteé hace unos días. En lugar del DSC opté por el Inkwell Leviathan, y en lugar del Gifts, por el 2º Trompo, tal y como ya había dicho anteriormente. Y del sideboard sólo cambié las 2 Pithing Needle por 2 Duress, ya que creí que habría más decks de combo y combo/control de lo habitual. (Efectivamente acerté )

El torneo lo empiezo contra uno de los mejores y miembro del Jack Drain’s, Miquel Alcoriza.

R1: Miquel Alcoriza con Tezzeret Control

La primera partida es la típica partida entre Alcoriza y un servidor, donde ninguno de los 2 hace absolutamente nada durante 6-7 turnos y nos limitamos a bajar tierras, robar y go. Tras estos turnos, mi mano era: Ancestral, FoW, Misdirection, Mana Drain, Thirst for Knowledge, Tezzeret, Hurkyl’s Recall. Miquel, finalmente decide romper el hielo y juega un Ancestral en mi eot. Yo en respuesta juego el mio, le cae Drain. Yo amago mi Misdi y mi Drain, y juego a lo débil, con un FoW (pitching Hurkyl’s) a su Drain. Me juega Force of Will a mi Force of Will, a lo que intento cazar esos 5 manás con mi Mana Drain. PERO, Miquel me enchufa un Spell Snare muy maligno a mi Drain. En respuesta a ese Snare, juego el Misdi (Pitching Tezzeret y no Thirst) a su Ancestral, pero Miquel me juega otro Force of Will!!! En la mesa de la izquierda teníamos a Broadcast y a Ávalos flipándolo con nuestra partida y con un Stack de 9 cartas. Finalmente Miquel resuelve su Ancestra, roba 3, destapa y tiene 1 maná del Drain que usa para jugar Thirst for Knowledge. Yo intento jugar el mio en respuesta pero me lo contrarresta.

Mis siguientes topdecks son pésimos, mientras que los suyos son normales-buenos. Termino concediendo cuando me junta su Vault borde blanco ( xD ) con Voltaic.

Cara a la segunda partida sabía que tenía que salir muchísimo más agresivo si quería tener opciones. Su baraja tiene más elementos de control que la mía, con lo que al mid-late game tengo las de perder. Hubiera forzado mulligans si hubiera sido necesario, pero me quedé una manó de 7 espectacular. Salgo con Seat of the Synod, Mox, Mana Vault, juego Thirst for Knowledge, descartando de una Crypta, el TFK además, me trae un Thoughtcast y un Sapphire Bajo Sapphire, y me robo 2 más. ¡Ale 2 Thoughtcasts más! Le doy turno y miquel sale de Fetchland para Underground y Trompo. En mi turno 2, juego los 2 Thoughtcasts que me traen el 4º que también puedo jugar. Tengo la mano llena de counters y el Tezzeret. Miquel mira en el Upkeep a la busca de la 2ª tierra (aparentemente), y me baja una Tolaria y un Mox, teniendo así UU abierto para un posible Drain. Mi Topdeck, no podía ser otro para acabar con el atraco, que la Tolaria. Le hago un Tolaria Strip, bajo un Trompo y le doy turno. Miquel no encuentra tierra y da turno. Finalmente 2-3 turnos más tarde le combo con el Tezzeret sin ningún counter de por medio aunque intentó jugarme un repeal a mi Vault que resolvió, pero que volví a bajar.

En la tercera partida opté por seguir el mismo plan de la segunda. Mulligan a algo explosivo para intentar no llegar al mid-late game. Mi mano de 7 tiene Seat of th synod, Mana Crypt, Time Vault, Thoughtcast, FoW, Mox, Trompo… Sale él de tierra vas, y yo procedo a salir de Seat, Mana Cryp, Trompo (se lo piensa), Mox Sapphire, con el Seat juego el Thoughtcast, que me contrarresta con su Pyroblast. con el maná que me queda, bajo Time Vault que se resuelve. 2 turnos más tardes Topdeckeo el Tezzeret y se lo bajo (anteriormente había robado carta azul para el FoW). No me lo contrarresta y me concede.

Como siempre contra Miquel, partidas super intensas que requieren de mucho ingenio para adivinar por donde atacar para poder ganar. Esta vez, lo de intentar atracar rápido a Miquel funcionó a la perfección La última vez que lo intenté, jugaba yo Gush Tinker y perdí la final (Vídeos: Game1, Game2, Game3 part1, Game3 part2).

2-1, 3 puntos, 1-0-0 (2-1)

R2: Pedro García con Transmuter Control

Me acordaba de Pedro porque no hacía mucho habíamos ido a Berga con Tudurí a jugar el torneo que organizaba Siles (con victoria de Tudurí) y él también estaba allí. Además, ya jugué contra él y contra su baraja, con lo que algo de ventaja tenía. Bueno, la misma que él sobre mi, ya que también sabía que jugaba yo

La primera partida la pierdo ya que me cuela un Triskelion super tempranero que inutiliza mi plan de victoria, que pasaba por el Tezzeret que tenía en mano. El Triskelion termina la faena tras juntarse con un Weldercillo.

La segunda partida creo recordar que le bajo mi Tezzeret de turno 2, a lo que concede.

Y la tercera partida es la típica partida que yo hubiera perdido de no ser de los errores de Pedro. La cosa se alarga infinito, el tiene un Welder en mesa que lo deja ahí un buen ratillo mirando las musarañas por si tengo intenciones de combar. Una Tormod’s mia me salva el culo pq me estoy oliendo su thirst con mega robot en mano y eso no era bueeeeeno. Meto otra Tormod’s en mesa, que curiosamente me daría la partida por permitirme petar mi cementerio. ¿Cómorr?? Ahora os lo cuento.

Resulta que Pedro tenía una Remora en mesa desde hace mil, yo un trompillo con el que urgar un poco en la biblioteca. Mi mano era decentilla, con Counter’s, y con el Time Vault. Me faltaba la segunda pieza para combar. El problema ahora reside que nos cantan turnos, con lo que únicamente me daría la victoria un hipotético Tezzeret.

Decido tirarme a combar, ya que perder no puedo perder (pq con su welder no me va a matar), lo que pasa es que Pedro se olvida de robar con su Remora 4 cartas que corresponden a un Thirst mio, un Thoughtcast, un Loto y un Mox. Me viene la Yawgmoth’s Will, un Time Walk. La jugada clave es cuando le bajo el Time Vault, y me olvido de petar la tormod’s mia en respuesta (de hecho, podía haberla petado 1º y luego bajar el Vault xDD). Total, que SUERTE que se lió una guerrilla de counters, y pude responder petando mi cementerio en respuesta para eliminar el otro artefacto que había. Finalmente el Time Vault no se resuelve y quedó ahí todo solito en el cementerio. Juego mi Time Walk (a todo esto que él no roba con la remora unas 4-5 cartas) y me la juego a: Yawgmoth’s en el siguiente turno, para jugar el Vault + miro 3 con trompo y fetchland para mirar 3 más y así encontrar el Tezzeret.

Miro con el Trompo, viene caspa, peto fetchland, vuelvo a mirar, viene Brainstorm. Cambio, juego Brainstorm, rejuego Trompo. Juego mi Yawgmoth’s, meto el Time Vault, juego el Brainstorm y miro con el Trompo para en la 3ª y última carta encontrar el Tezzeret. Lo bajo con mi mega Tolaria (daba 10 o 12 manás), Pongo contador para destapar el Vault y otro artefacto. Me doy turno extra (que ya era el 4º) y le ataco con mi horda de 10-12 artefactos en un alpha strike de 50-60 de daño xDDD

Conclusión: Si juegas Rémoras, úsalas.

2-1, 6 puntos, 2-0-0 (4-2)

R3: Rubén González con Drain Tendrils feat. Dark Confidant

Pues na, en 3 rondas me toca contra 2 de los mejores jugadores de la liga, sino los mejores. Antes de explicar la ronda me gustaría felicitar a Rubén por que finalmente ha conseguido ganar un torneo de la LCV. Realmente se lo merecía y tanto esfuerzo se ha visto recompensado.

La idea de cómo afrontar esta ronda estaba bastante clara. Intentar atracarle rápido en los primeros turnos tal y como hice contra Miquel.

En la primera partida, sale Rubén de tierra + Trompo. Esta salida es bastante complicada de analizar ya que puede que se haya quedado la mano por el Trompo y en su segundo turno tener el Drain o poder buscar el FoW, o puede que sea un cañón con Trompo y FoW. Sin embargo, yo me decanto más por la primera opción ya que tanto Rubén como Miquel, juegan muy conservadores y le dan un valor extraordinario al Trompo, quedándose la mayoría de manos (yo he visto manos de Miquel de 6 productores + trompo y quedársela).

Total, que le apalizo tal y como describe Rubén en el blog del Jack Drain’s:

En la primera me mete una paliza de campeonato, de primer turno ancestral en el segundo Thoughcasts y sed, así que en el tercer turno no tiene mas remedio que combarme.

La segunda partida empieza con Mulligan a 6 por mi parte, para intentar encontrar alguna bomba con la que meter presión. Rubén sale de Confidant de turno 1 y Duress si no recuerdo mal. Analicemos: Confidant de turno 1 y Duress. Yo mulligan a 6, que se convierte en 5. Él Confidant. MAAAAAAAALO

El Confidant, un Demonic (a Tendrils) y un Gifts le dan la partida sin demasiada complicación.

La tercera partida me quedo una mano de Tolaria, Pétalo, Drain, Thirst, Thoughtcast, Pyroblast y Fact. Es una mano bastante “risky” por el hecho de que no tengo el tercer productor, pero tengo Drain o Pyro de turno 1 por si Rubén se lanza a combar a lo loco (que yo no soy el único que hace salidas atraco, eh? xD). Por desgracia mía, Rubén vuelve a salir de Duress (yo creo que juega 6 xD) y me saca el Drain. Yo no encuentro la 2ª tierra o artefacto en los próximos 2 turnos. Además, durante 3 turnos, mi Lotus Petal se ve subiendo y bajando por los 3 Repeals que me enchufa. Demasiada ventaja de cartas y landrops que le dan el tempo de la partida. Finalmente me comba sin que yo pueda hacer demasiado

¡Bien jugado Rubén!

1-2, 6 puntos, 2-1-0 (5-4)

R4: Toni Garcia aka Safriquicut con Manaless

Toni es el ganador del último torneo de LCV y del torneo del 1 de mayo en Berga. 2 Moxes en 1 mes no está nada mal la verdad.

La primera partida, hago Mulligan a 5 para poder hacer Tinker a Calamar de turno 1 saliendo yo. Me comba en el turno 2 con Street Wraith en mi eot, dragando 6, etc…

La segunda partida hago otro mulligan a 5 para encontrar Yixlid o Tormod’s. Salgo de Loto + Sol Ring + x2 Yixlid, sin tierra y sin nada más. Concede ya que no se había puesto los Contagion.

La tercera partida no hago Mulligan ya que tengo esta mano: Volcanic, Underground, Lotus Petal, Yixlid Jailer, Pyroclasm, Ingot Chewer, Force of Will. Sale él sin ningún Mulligan: Bazaar, robo 2, descarto troll, puente e imp. Chalice de 0. Vaaaaamos!

Obviamente ya no puedo salir de Yixlid de turno 1 La de turno me robo un FoW. Bajo la Volcanic y le doy turno. No quiero pertarle el Chalice con el Ingot ahora pq si en el siguiente turno cae algun puente, puedo petarlo igualmente y bajar el Yixlid con la Underground y el pétalo. Bueno, OTRA VEZ en mi eot Street Wraith dragando 6, tirando 2 amebas y dos terapia. Vengaaaaa Boys! Draga en el upkeep, Draga la Draw, me juega terapia, le tiro el FoW (pitching FoW), me juega la 2ª terapia y dice… “Mystical Tutor” :O casi! Me juega la 3ª terapia y nombra… “Ingot Chewer”! Me da turno, bajo mi Yixlid Jailer. Toni tiene exactamente 2 cartas en la mano. ¿Cuáles son? CONTAGION y CARTA NEGRA.

Recojo, concedo y me voy.

1-2, 6 puntos, 2-2-0 (6-6)

R5: Roger Riera aka gRR!! con TPS

Siempre es un honor y un placer jugar contra Roger. Personalmente me parece una persona excepcional, además de un cachondo de la vida!

En la primera partida me curte a Duress (3 sino recuerdo mal), y me juega una Yawgmoth’s Will. Le concedo para no perder tiempo (Roger jugando combo es aún más lento que Guillem o Galito jugando Remoras xDD).

La segunda partida tengo Tinker de mano, sin protección alguna. Lo juego de turno 1 y se resuelve. Meto el calamar y Roger poco puede hacer con sus 2 Duress para frenarme.

En la tercera partida Roger tiene una mano MUY espectacular, pero yo tengo una mano realmente cargada de counters. Sale él de tierra vas. Y yo lo hago de tierra + Sapphire + Ruby, con lo que tengo: Drain y Pyro además del FoW y carta azul En su turno 2 se tira a combar: Ancestral –> Pyroblast, Mana Vault, Ritual, Ritual, Bargain –> Mana Drain. Yawgmoth’s Will ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿??????????? A Roger le queda una carta en la mano, 0 maná en el Pool. Me miro a Roger y veo que dice “Merda”. Le pregunto a Roger si está seguro Total que dejo que se resuelva, coje la Yawgmoth’s y la pone en la zona de removidas y dice “vas!”. Con los 6 manás del Drain a la Bargain le bajo el Calamar que tenía en la mano y me concede.

Moraleja: PISCINAZO RULZ!

2-1, 9 puntos, 3-2-0 (8-7)

R6: Francisco Ávalos con Dredge

Miquel, Rubén, Safriquicut y Ávalos. ¿Alguien puede pedir más? Me estoy montando mi All Stars y yo sin saberlo

La primera partida poco que contar: “Bazaar, drago, drago, drago y en tu cara me cago.” – Abraham Ureña

La segunda partida salgo de Tormod’s de turno 1 y Yixlid de turno 2 a lo que recoge.

Y la tercera partida no dista tanto de la segunda. Yo Mulligan a 6 y Ávalos a 4. Sale él de Bazaar, draw, go. Y yo Yixlid de turno 1. Le cae un Contagio. ¡No pasa nada! Tengo otro en la mano y un Ancestral me traería el 3º Le acabo matando al beat down con los 2 Yixlid Jailer ^^

Ávalos no me ganó pq no tubo la suerte de Safriquicut Suerte que, por otro lado, yo si que tube.

2-1, 12 puntos, 4-2-0 (10-8)

R7: Ramón Romero con UW Fish

Ramón es un conocido jugador de Fish de la LCV. Analicemos el avantmatch: Yo juego un deck lleno de cacharros y él juega 4 Null Rod. Yo juego un deck sin básicas y él juega 4 Wastelands y una Stripmine. Mmmm hay que forzar la máquina si quiero ganar a Ramón.

La primera partida me quedo la siguiente mano tras Mulligan a 6: Loto + Mox + Trompo + Tinker + Thirst + Drain. Vaaamos allá! Si tiene FoW, vamos a mirar que me cuenta el Sideboard, sino, pues el Calamar le obligará a meter hurkyl’s y demás historias Efectivamente, mi Tinker se resuelve y me quedo en mesa con el trompillo y el calamar, sin tierras. Ramón tenía Tierra + Sabio, Wasteland, Null Rod y Daze en su mano inicial. Vamos que por poco no me voy al hoyo xD

La segunda partida es más standard aunque consigo esquivar sus wastelands gracias a los moxes que me robo. Si me llega a bajar un Null Rod hubiera concedido, pero no fue así. Finalmente, estando yo a 3 de vida y muriéndome al siguiente turno (Ninja + 2 Mother of Runes), encontré una Tolaria que me permitió bajar el Tezzeret, buscar el Vault, jugar mi Time Walk, y combar. UFFFF

2-1, 15 puntos, 5-2-0 (12-9)

Finalmente creo que terminé 10º o 11º, que no está nada mal dado el escaso testing que hago ahora y el poco tiempo que le dedico al juego.

PROPS:

• A toda la gente de Cabrera y su organización por montar un evento tan cojonudo.
• A Raül Rabionet por llevar el torneo con tanta soltura, clase y alegría.
• A Fillipo por hacer Top8 con su Monoblack HATERA HASTA LA MUERTE!
• A Rubén por ganar el torneo.
• A todos en general por el buen rollo y las risas!

SLOPS:

• Perder las opciones de entrar al top en la ronda 4 contra Toni y su manaless. Creo que voy a crear un nuevo grupo del Facebook que se llame: “Yo también odio a Ichorid”

Tras unas semanas totalmente apartado de lo que vienen a ser los torneos de Eternal (Vintage y Legacy), finalmente este Sábado pasado pude disfrutar del privilegio de poder jugar uno. Bueno, de hecho, no lo llegué a jugar entero, sino que sólo pude jugar 3 rondas por la mañana y una por la tarde.

Como ya os dije hace unos días, ahora en Legacy voy a jugar combo sí o sí. No es que antes no lo jugase, pero últimamente venía jugando otro tipo de combo: pintores. Ahora, ya más centrado en lo que viene a ser la baraja de combo por excelencia, es el momento de ganar con los Tendrils of Agony.

He dejado aparcada mi antigua configuración de la iPop Negation para probar los Ad Nauseam. Esto conlleva perder los Force of Will que tan buenos resultados me han dado jugando este tipo de barajas. La baraja que jugué este Sábado es una adaptación de esa baraja, pero con la inclusión de los Nauseam y retocando el paquete de protección del deck. La lista es esta:

TP Nauseam: (60)
4 Polluted Delta
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Mystical Tutor
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Orim’s Chant
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
3 Underground Sea
2 Ad Nauseam
2 Tendrils of Agony
2 Pact of Negation
2 Duress
2 Flooded Strand
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Wipe Away
1 Mox Diamond
1 Chrome Mox
1 Tundra
1 Scrubland
1 Island
1 Swamp

Sideboard:
4 Yixlid Jailer
3 Disenchant
3 Defense Grid
2 Pithing Needle
1 Angel’s Grace
1 Thrashing Wumpus
1 Duress

La base de maná de la baraja es exactamente igual a la de cualquier otra versión de mis barajas de combo anteriores, con el mismo número de fetchlands, básicas y duals. Si algo funciona, “pa” qué cambiarlo, ¿no?

El deck ha funcionado de manera excelente. Tengo pensado añadir una copia de Boseiju, who shelters all al main deck, y otra copia al sideboard para así mejorar el pairing contra control. De paso de esta manera, puedo vaciar el sideboard y sacar las rejillas para meter el 2º Thrashing Wumpus y una Serenity. También voy a añadir un par de Chrome Mox más, y dejarlos en 3. Para ello, sacaré el Mox Diamond (que aunque bueno, sólo mola post Nauseam) y un Ponder. Y para meter el Boseiju sacaré la 6ª fetchland.

Dicho esto, procedo a explicar brevemente cómo trascurrieron las 4 rondas que jugué:

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A continuación os pongo las fotos que tiré del pasado torneo de la LCV5 celebrado en Barcelona. No pongo subtítulos pq hay demasiadas fotos y tampoco me acuerdo del 100% de los nombres ^^¡

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Este pasado fin de semana se celebraron 3 grandes eventos:

1. LLBL con más de 50 jugadores
2. LCV con más de 70 jugadores
3. PTQ Honolulu con una multitud de jugadores (no sé el número exacto pero obviamente eran más de 100)

Pues bien, los resultados obtenidos por el Team este fin de semana en estos torneos han sido “casi” perfectos.

Por su parte, Owli pactó en el Top4 de la LLBL llevándose un buen pellizco. En la LCV, Guillem llegaría a la final, perdiendo contra Ichorid aka la “Safriquicut.deck”, llevándose una Library of Alexandria. Y finalmente también ayer, Ricard Tudurí ganó el PTQ de Zaragoza y se va a Honolulu!!!!!!

Ricard ya me ha prometido un report, y espero que Guillem y Owli se animem también.

¡Sólo queda felicitarles por su excelente actuación!

[ratings]

Esto de no poder ir a jugar los torneos grandes de los Sábados es jodido, y a uno le entra el monillo de jugar algo de vez en cuando. Para este pasado Domingo Alfredo, dueño de La Màquina del Temps, tenía organizado un torneo de Vintage, así que me pongo en contacto con Owli y nos dirigimos hacia la ciudad sin ley, aka, Badalona.

Para el torneo tenía pensado jugar un deck de control con Master Transmuter y demás maldades (Mindslavers, etc…), pero finalmente, y como a mí eso de jugar las cartas que no sean Foil-Japo a veces me da cosa, pués me eché “patrás” y me monté un deck que tenía muchísimas ganas de volver a jugar: TP Gifts Tendrils. Aquí os dejo las fotos para que podáis ver la lista:

(Click en las imágenes para ampliar)

¡Lo sé, lo sé! Los carceleros foil japo ya están pedidos xD

La verdad es que la baraja sigue funcionando a la perfección y se portó de maravilla durante el torneo. Tras la corrección del texto del Time Vault y la aparición del Tezzeret, me había obsesionado en que debía jugar Tezzeret y había dejado totalmente de lado esta maravilla de baraja. La verdad es que me siento super a gusto jugando Gifts Tendrils y me la conozco de maravilla.

De la baraja no haría ningún cambio de base. Son exactamente las mismas 60 cartas con las que gané el torneo de la LCV de Mataró el año pasado. Me parecen las mejores 60 cartas que uno puede jugar en esta baraja. Bueno, quizás no, pero al menos para mí lo son Del sideboard sí que han cambiado cosas respecto a versiones previas. He potenciado bastante el sideboard para no perder contra Ichorid y Fish, además he añadido un Ingot Chewer para mejorar aún más, si cabe, el pairing contra Staxx (y de rebote contra Ichorid). Quizás voy un poco flojo contra combo, ya que el Pyroblast + REB, el Tinker + Colosos y las 2 Tormod’s Crypt se me antojen algo insuficientes. De todos modos, como ya leeréis en el report, gané 2-0 a Sergi Hernández jugando combo.

Antes de empezar a explicar las rondas, decir que al torneo acudieron 13 jugadores y se jugaron 5 rondas de suizo sin top. Para el ganador había un Tinker Foil Japo y para el segundo una Tundra de Revised.

También decir que no tomé excesivas notas durante el torneo, así que perdonadme (y corregidme) si alguna jugada no es tal y como sucedió.

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El archiconocido Raptor, es decir Manel Gómez Figueroa, ganó el pasado Sábado el quinto torneo de la LLBL (Liga Legacy Black Lotus) en el que se juntaron 52 jugadores. Al mismo torneo acudió nuestro compañero del Team Pataners, Ricard Tudurí aka Mimosín, quien fue eliminado en cuartos de final

Bueno, pues Raptor se ha currado un report de su logro y aquí os lo dejo:

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Tal y como os prometí, aquí os dejo el análisis “play-by-play” de las 3 rondas que jugué el pasado Sábado en el torneo de Legacy de la tienda Black Lotus. Decir que, para intentar optimizar mis resultados, opté por jugar combo llevando una adaptación de mi iPop Negation. La lista que utilicé fue la siguiente:

TP iPop Negation v.2: (60)
4 Duress
4 Pact of Negation
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Brainstorm
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
3 Ponder
2 Ill-Gotten Gains
2 Orim’s Chant
2 Tendrils of Agony
2 Mystical Tutor
1 Mox Diamond
1 Chrome Mox
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Repeal
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
1 Tundra
1 Scrubland
1 Swamp
1 Island

La inclusión del Nauseam parecía obvia en este deck. El Nauseam es una manera alternativa de matar además de las 2 existentes: Guerra de Counters (con Duress y pactos de por medio) para generar storm + Tendrils, y la clásica (pero GYdependiente) de los 2 LED + Infernal Tutor.

A continuación os pongo cómo fueron las 3 rondas:
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Muy amablemente Edu Gil nos ha mandado su report del torneo que se celebró el pasado Sábado en la tienda Black Lotus de Barcelona correspondiente a la LLBL (Liga Legacy Black Lotus). Decir que al torneo acudieron 30 jugadores a pesar de celebrarse la LCL (Liga Catalana de Legacy) el mismo día. Todo un éxito sin duda alguna de participación. Así que, sin más divagaciones, os dejo con el report:

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Esta es la (breve) historia de cómo se puede ganar un Lotacy de casi 50 personas con perros, gatos y un par de chispas a la cabeza. Con ella me dirijo a todos aquellos que disfrutan haciendo Mana-Gatusso, a los que sueñan con lanzar rayos de 5, a los que no aspiran a hacer jugadas maestras para ganar, a los que están convencidos que un Confidant comba mejor con una baraja llena de costes bajos que con un Top…. A todos vosotros os digo: SI, PODEMOS!!!

No voy a entrar muy en detalle a narrar los enfrentamientos, ya que es totalmente irrelevante dado lo malos que somos todos los que jugamos en el Loto. Simplemente resaltaré las jugadas más lamentables y los errores más tremendos tanto míos como de mis rivales para ver si aprendemos algo todos de una vez por todas… y si no aprendemos, pues al menos alguien se consolará viendo que siempre se puede encontrar a alguien mas tremendo que uno mismo.

Escogí Zoo por un motivo obvio e inapelable: tiré el dado y salió el 19, que equivalía a esta deck. Nada más que añadir. Le metí las cartas que más me gustaron y quedó tal como así:

ZOOLANDER 1.0
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Badlands
1 Bayou
1 Plateau
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Taiga
1 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island
2 Bloodstained Mire
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Isamaru, Hound of Konda  aka “Perro”
3 Grim Lavamancer
4 Kird Ape   aka “Mono”
4 Wild Nacatl   aka “Gatusso”
2 Tin Street Hooligan
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Gaea’s Might
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
4 Tribal Flames
4 Vindicate
SB:
1 Gaea’s Blessing
2 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Pithing Needle
2 Yixlid Jailer
2 Gaddock Teeg
3 Pyrostatic Pillar
3 Krosan Grip

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Ya podéis disfrutar de la clasificación actualizada de la Liga Legacy Black Lotus tras su primer torneo (Podéis encontrar dicha clasificación en el menú superior). Decir que acudieron 52 jugadores y que Cortijo hizo 1 punto (sin dropear xDDD). Os dejo con algunas imágenes del torneo:

LLBL#1

Cuando tenga tiempo escribiré el report de mi Top10 (Cortijo Wars included) y pasaré las listas del Top8

¡El Sábado que viene más LLBL!

[ratings]

Rara vez escribo reports de pokemon. Primero por que son formatos que no me interesan demasiado y que, además, no domino nada. De todos modos, tengo la costumbre de jugar algunas presentaciones de vez en cuando para así estar un poco al día.

La noche antes al torneo le pregunté al jefe de la división de Pokemon del Team Pataners, cómo hay que montar un deck de alara + conflux. En resumen: 17 tierras + las 23 mejores cartas (incluyendo matabichos, chispas, pinos, etc…). Esa misma noche se alargó de manera escandalosa xD Primero Ramón (NES_One) casi me agota la paciencia mientras le enseñaba a usar su nuevo Mac. Luego me lié a mirar algunas series de TV que tenía atrasadas (últimos episodios de “The L word” y el último de “Desperate Housewives“). Luego puse la tele un rato y ví que daban la mesa final del EPT (European Poker Tour) del 2007 en Mónaco. De pasada me enteré que a las 3:15 daban los Lakers de Gasol en Cuatro, así que me miré los episodios de la serie “Las Vegas” que daban en Cuatro antes del partido, y finalmente pude disfrutar de la paliza de los Lakers vs los Timberwolves. A eso de las 5:30 me voy a dormir.

8:30 suena el despertador.

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Weno, pues tras seis arduas jornadas de suizo atravesando la ciénaga de los muertos por fin llegamos a Minas Morgul para celebrar el Top8. Solo ocho miembros elegidos de entre los 62 que partieron formaban la Compañía del Viaje a Honolulu. La variedad de armas escogidas para la batalla demostraba la riqueza del Extended actual. Forjadas por rudos enanos, sabios elfos y Chuck Norris en persona se presentaron: 2 Hadas, 1 Affinity, 1 Dredge, 1 Rock, 1 D&C, 1 Zoo y una Elves del menda.

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Wola, soy Ricard Tuduri, aka Mimosin, aka Elrond; Lord of the Elves y escribo para narrar lo acontecido en las tierras de Valinor (Mallorca en Alemán), allá hacia donde partí junto a mi ejército élfico durante la Tercera Edad de los hombres para batallar junto a los Dúnedain Rodman (Francis Gonzalez) y Coyote (Ivan Boza) por el domino del Viaje Único a Hawaï. Un viaje para codiciarnos a todos, un viaje para enfrentarnos, un viaje para atraernos a todos y atarnos en las tinieblas…

En un principio consideramos la opción de partir de los Puertos Grises hacia las Tierras Imperecederas, pero Círdan no nos hizo tan buen precio por los barcos como Ryanair por los aviones, así que volamos desde Reus a Palma por unos míseros 45 € (viajes Tuduri, mejor precio garantizado) Por si eso fuera poco, alquilamos un coche durante todo el finde por 50 €, bastante cutre eso sí el Kia Picante, pero Sombragrís no estaba por allí… Rematamos la faena durmiendo en la Posada de Bree por tan solo 13 € por persona y noche…. BONA FEINA!!!

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