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?

Ladies and gentlemen Legacy is on fire! GP Madrid has beaten any previously attendance record and that’s something Spain is really proud of. Well, we (eternal players) should all be proud of! Every now and then, the attendance records gets beaten but that ain’t new. What’s new and surprising is that GP Madrid was played under the Legacy format. Obviously Wotc never expected GP Madrid to be such a success. Their constant work to improve the game, has forced them to implement Legacy for Magic Online. With that many players playing Legacy on Real Life™ it was an obvious movement to release Legacy for the online fans.

The announcement came published yesterday (9th of March) on their official website.

Legacy Comes to Magic Online

Wizards of the Coast
Tuesday, March 09, 2010

[...] We are pleased to announce the Legacy Format will debut on Magic Online as a new Core Format following the scheduled downtime on Wednesday, March 31. At that time, Legacy 2-player queues, 8-player queues, Daily Events, and Premier Events will all be scheduled.

Continue reading the official announcement Legacy comes to Magic Online.

Personally, I’m not a big fan of playing magic online (neither on MOL or MWS). I just can’t stop loving the feeling of a head’s up game, the feeling of having the cards in my hands, shuffling, looking at your opponent in a tournament or at friends in a casual game. I love the charm from old cards and the beauty of alterations, foil and foreign languages being played on a game.

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.

Can’t stop laughing at Ruben’s T-shirt! He’s wearing it the other way around!

By the way, I’ll hopefully have the 3rd part of the report finished later today or tomorrow morning. So stay tuned!

Sideboard
3 Dispel
3 Firespout
2 Krosan Grip
2 Pithing Needle
1 Ravenous Trap
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Rhox War Monk
1 Volcanic Island

Sideboard
1 Empyrial Archangel
2 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Krosan Grip
4 Mindbreak Trap
3 Relic of Progenitus

Sideboard
1 Animate Dead
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Echoing Truth
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Misdirection
2 Perish
1 Show and Tell
3 Spell Pierce
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Wipe Away
1 Woodfall Primus

Sideboard
3 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Gaddock Teeg
3 Krosan Grip
3 Pyroblast
2 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Volcanic Fallout

Sideboard
1 Chain of Vapor
4 Dark Confidant
1 Echoing Truth
1 Extirpate
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
3 Reverent Silence
1 Sadistic Sacrament
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Thoughtseize

Sideboard
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Krosan Grip
3 Mindbreak Trap
2 Pyroblast
3 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Umezawa’s Jitte

Sideboard
1 Brain Freeze
1 Chain of Vapor
3 Dark Confidant
1 Duress
1 Extirpate
2 Pact of Negation
2 Reverent Silence
1 Sadistic Sacrament
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Thoughtseize

Sideboard
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Krosan Grip
3 Mindbreak Trap
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
3 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Wasteland

I’m very, very, very proud to show you my ultimate acquisition (thanks to Angelo) at the Grand Prix Madrid 2010: A Yawgmoth’s Will altered by Ron Spencer & Terese Nielsen.

Terese Nielsen drew the C3PO and Ron Spencer did the remaining. C3PO is actually painted with Gold Leaf which the scanner can’t really get the shine of it.

This is my second alteration featuring both of them. The previous one was the one I got from eBay: Willfull Fiction.

Next step? Getting a playset of Force of Will altered by them!

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

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

I’m back home from Madrid. WHAT A WEEKEND! We’ve had one of the greatest mtg parties of all times. Insane amount of people, including the new World Record of attendance in the history of mtg (2220 players); excellent organization, who solved quite well all the problems generated by having 2K+ players; tournaments ran very smooth all weekend; queues for Mark Poole were long but not endless, etc…

I got some really cool PIMP stuff to show you guys, lots of alterations (including another card altered by Terese Nielsen and Ron Spencer together!), some foil japanese and few other stuff.

I will write a more elaborated post tomorrow or the day after. I just wanted to let you know that I survived! Let me finish this post with a Michael Jackson classic!

Europe has a huge tradition of playing Vintage and Legacy. Tournaments like the Eurovino, Bazaar of Moxen, UAL Power9 Series, DDAY, etc… had proven to be successful at gathering eternal players from all around the continent. Those tournaments had turnouts between 100 and 400 players. Some (standard) GPs hardly get better turnouts than some of the previously mentioned tournaments. I believe, GP Madrid is going to set a new participation record on any eternal tournament ever done.

GP Madrid is an excellent movement by WotC. They knew in advance than placing a Legacy GP in Spain would be a total blast. They made the small mistake of placing it in Madrid instead of Barcelona, but we can forgive them about that. Spain is a well connected with the rest of the world. The east american coast is just 6-7h by plain from Madrid. Biggest cities in Europe are about 2h away as well.  All in all, it seems to me that WotC is experimenting the impact of an eternal format in the professional scene. They couldn’t have chosen a better moment, a better place.

Spanish players are motivated and excited about the GP. The eternal communities in Spain are all moving to Madrid to play this event. There’s no reason to not show up there unless you can’t really make it. Traveling to and sleeping in Madrid isn’t expensive at all. You can sleep 2 nights and go by plain there for less than 100€ from almost any point of the country.

Personally, I’m also very excited about this event. I know I haven’t playtested a lot, but I feel confident about my 75 card choice. I’ve played combo for years already, and no matter what pro is sitting in front of me, that I’ll go for the win. I trust in myself and in my deck, as it is probably one of the most competitive decks at the moment.

Of course, to win a Grand Prix you need more than a deck. You need to stay calmed and focused, you need to play well during many rounds, you can’t make lots of mistakes/misplays, and of course, you need a bit of luck.

I always liked how Mike Flores uses this illustration to express a state of mind of a winner player:

Believe in yourself, believe in your luck & believe your deck.

While being totally sure what and how to play in Legacy, something different happens to me with Vintage. If my performance at the GP aren’t as I expected, there’s a very interesting Vintage tournament I’d like to play on Sunday.

http://www.team-pataners.com/gp-madrid-vintage-side-event-info/

I’m not certain about what decks are the decks to beat in Vintage at the moment. I love playing control, but decks like Tezzeret start to lose power against some other archetypes such as Noble Fish and the Golem Aggro Staxx.

Shall I…

… play Confidants?

… play Spell Snare?

… play Spell Pierce?

… play DSC, Sphinx or Leviathan?

… play red or green for SB?

… play none, 1 or 2 Tezzerets MD?

… play Misdirection?

And these are just a few of the questions I get while building a control deck. If I start thinking of building a combo deck, then I’d get even more.

People say that Spell Pierce are good. People say that Tarmogoyfs are good. People say, people say.

I can’t say what’s the right thing to play because I haven’t played enough lately. I would have loved to play every Vintage tournament held lately, but my work has made it impossible for me to attend to most of them. Anyways, no matter what 75 cards I sleeve (if I play that Vintage side event), I’m sure it’s not going to be good enough. Not good enough, because there’s no deck capable of not losing stupidly against Time Vault + Voltaic Key in the early game. Some times, you have an excellent hand with Force of Will, 2 lands, Mana Drain + some bussiness spells, and you get owned by first turn time vault + key with FoW backup from them. Ok, it’s a 2 card combo, and he got lucky… but dude, your hand was fucking awesome and you still lose without being able to play a fucking turn.

Two years ago, when Time Vault wasn’t working as it is right now, I was 100% sure of my deck being able to defeat ANY deck in the format. I was playing Gifts Tendrils and had great success with that deck. I knew what to play, how to play and when to play it. Now I’m a bit lost as the format is a bit random, luck depending and less skilled based. Of course skill counts, but when they Vault/Key you first turn, there’s nothing much you can do rather than Force of Will.

I hope we get some changes to the restricted/banned Vintage list in June. I hope they fix the problem, and I also hope they finally print some good business spells for the control players. All we do now is watch how all blue cards get restricted while awesome creatures and artifacts are printed collection after collection.

To end this post, I’d like to tell you guys that I’ll try to update the blog during this weekend with news about the GP. I probably will be broadcasting some games (you’ll find that at the top menu labels – “live TV“) live from there.

Stay tuned and wish me luck!

When I was 16-19 year old, my “win” concept was:

• Reaching day 2 at the GP main event.
• Playing a metagame deck (rogue style)
• Get those white borders dual lands I’m missing to complete a certain deck.
• Get my junky commons signed by the artists attending.
• Eating my mum’s sandwhich, who made it with tones of love in order to wish me luck
• Saturday’s night party takes place at the hotel, with cheap vodka and a nameless “cola”. Your hangover is the only thing you will remember from that night.
• Travelling for 100€ including bus and hotel/hostel.

When I was 20-25 year old, my “win” concept was:

• Winning a GPT in order to start with some byes and increase the chances of making day 2 and fight for the money.
• Playing the best deck of the moment. You copy/paste from pro’s on the internet and no longer from ink-printed magazines.
• Get those FBB dual lands I’m missing to complete a certain deck.
• Get your playable rares and playmat signed by the artists attending. I would buy something from them to seem nicer.
• Finding a good Kebab/McDonnalds/Burger King nearby to eat.
• Saturday’s night party takes place at cheap bars and later at the wrong disco. The ugly girls at the disco is all you will remember from that night.
• Travelling with your friends by car, find a nice 2 star hotel and share 2 rooms.

When you are my age, soon 30, teh win concept is:

• Finding the Side Events board to see when the Vintage events are starting.
• Real men play combo, and you love it.
• Get those beta duals and foil jap fetches from your usual dealers.
• Queueing less than 3 hours and getting all your beta/foil japanese playable cards signed and altered. You also want the artists alter your playmat. Instead of buying their art like younger noobs do, you give them a 50€ bill straight away so you don’t have to worry about that piece of paper all day.
• Finding a Michelin graded restaurant in the area to enjoy a good meal. If you are doing well at the main event, who cares? You drop and go score a good meal.
• Saturday’s night party takes place at the most glamorous places. First a good cocktail in some chick lounge and then some champagne at the best club in town. You’ll remember hardly anything, but then your friends will find out you did crazy stuff! No hangover, indeed.
• Travelling by car/bus or cheap train ain’t an option. You want to be there fast and comfortable, and that’s why you go by plain or high-speed train. You want the hotel to be at least 3 stars and  no longer share beds.

No matter how old you are, remember:

I’m not sure whether or not is the right time to include Perish maindeck. With the uprising hype of Bant decks packing Natural Order / Progenitus, Tarmogoyf, Noble Hierarch, Qasali Pridemage, etc… I believe it’s the time to step forward and be ahead of the metagame.

If you hate Tarmagoyf as much as I do and would love to annihilate them all, Grand Prix Madrid would be the perfect scenario. Some random numbers I can come up with from my metagame predictions:

• GP Madrid attendance (based on nothing xD) = 2000 players
• Average of decks running x4 Tarmogoyf = 70% (Healthy format my ass!)

With those two numbers, you can come up with one idea: THERE’S GONNA BE A LOT OF GOYFS! exactly:

70% of 2000 players = 1400 times 4 = 5600 Tarmogoyf all together in less than 10000 m2.

Now imagine just casting a RL® Perish! OMG, you would make Legacy a healthy format in a matter of seconds!

Last Sunday I had the chance of making 2×1’s and 3×1’s thanks to Perish. Man, that retaliation feeling you got once you see your opponent (with tears in his eyes) placing those hordes of green creatures (I miss you Grizzly Bears!) in his graveyard is just PRICELESS!!!!!

I think I’m gonna My friend Jorge (aka the_juzam_dijnn) has created a Facebook group (join here) named:

I love the smell of Perish in the morning.

Just sayin’, if you don’t play green but black, you’d better play Perish!

If you are going to play at 2010′s Eternal event of the year, or if you just got a little interest on what’s going on in Legacy, you shouldn’t miss the chance of reading from this excellent judge.

[Article]: The Justice League – Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition! By David de la Iglesia

In my first article for StarCityGames.com, I’d like to write about what promises to be the event of the year in Spain: the European Legacy Grand Prix. Legacy is my favorite format for many reasons: the huge amount of playable decks, the power-level of some old cards, the complicated rules interactions…

Hope to read more articles from him! Thumbs up for David!

Here you have their profiles:

Artist Information

Mark Poole
Mark Poole is one of those artists that needs little introduction. He is one of the original illustrators for the Magic: The Gathering Alpha set. He painted 26 Alpha cards and over a hundred Magic: The Gathering cards over the years.

His work includes Ancestral Recall, Birds of Paradise, Counterspell, Balance, Fastbond, Tropical Island, Crusade, Jump, King Suleiman, and many more.

• Magic: The Gathering card art by Mark Poole

Steve Argyle
Steve Argyle has done some impressive artwork since he started working as a Magic: The Gathering artist a good year ago. He painted Chandra Ablaze for Zendikar and Liliana on Snuff Out from the Duel Decks: Garruk vs. Liliana. Other cards from his hand include Celestial Mantle, Slave of Bolas, Mayeal’s Aria, Naya Battlemage, and Child of Alara.

For Worldwake , Steve produced Admonition Angel and Everfowing Chalice. Steve’s website contains an excellent overview of his sketches and paintings with comments from the artist himself.

• Magic: The Gathering card art by Steve Argyle
• Official web site of Steve Argyle

True? I can’t tell you anything coz it hasn’t been said anything yet on the official site from the GP.

This, if true, is GREAT news! I can’t really believe it! I’ll keep you updated as soon as there’s more news!

I really hope I’m not playing this tournament! That would mean I’d be playing day 2 of the Legacy GP Madrid. On the other hand, it’s an AWESOME tournament that, in case of epic FAIL at the GP, i’ll be attending for sure.

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!

With the upcoming eternal event of the year, Legacy Grand Prix Madrid, many players are seeking the best deck to play at it. In the following article I’d like to analyze some possibilities for those of you who like to play combo decks.
First of all, we must understand what kind of tournament a Grand Prix is. A GP isn’t at all like any other eternal tournaments. Ok, there’s some big events around the world that gather from 100 to 400 players. That’s big, but nothing compared to what predictions for GP Madrid attendance. Spain is, with no doubts, the country that has the biggest tradition on eternal formats, both Legacy and Vintage. Spain hosts the biggest weekly/monthly leagues, so we can expect GP Madrid to be a tournament with an attendance between 1000 and 2000 players. I believe the attendance will actually be closer to 2K than 1K.

So, we better forget of playing 5, 6 or 7 rounds + top8, and start thinking of a 2 day event with a total of 15-16 rounds followed by a top8.

Knowing this, my question is very clear. Is ANT the best combo deck to play?

Assuming you don’t have any tournament byes (1,2 or even 3), you gotta ask yourself if you are capable of keeping the same play level during 9 straight rounds. Combo decks usually have the advantage over other decks of being a fast winner. Some rounds could be actually solved in less than 20 mins if your hands are spectacular. Those rounds actually give you some free time to either scout or relax. But, imho, you can’t actually rely on that fact to choose a deck.

Even tho you can win rounds fast, you have to be sure and confident on your game-play. Playing combo ain’t easy, no matter what deck you play (Mmm…. maybe we can exclude Flash xD), and you can get easily mentally tired.  Let’s now assume that ain’t an issue coz you are a well prepared player who knows your deck perfectly.

Next thing you need to know is what kind of metagame is expected for a tournament like Grand Prix Madrid. It’s really hard to predict an exact metagame but, right now this is my bet:

• 15% – Combo decks (ANT, Iggy, Dream Halls, Entomb, Painters, Dredge, etc…)
• 15% – Control decks (CounterTop, Supreme Blue, Landstill, etc…)
• 30% – Aggro decks (RG, Burn, Naya, Goblins, Merfolks, Affinity, etc…)
• 25% – Aggro-control decks (Survi-Bant, Canadian Threshold, Threshold, Team America, etc…)
• 5% – Lock decks (Staxx, Enchantress, Aggro-Loam, Eternal Garden, etc…)
• 10% – Rogue decks and others (Survival, Mono Black, Pikula, etc…)

I actually believe that any of the decks listed above (and others not listed) have chances to make a good performance in a big tournament. It all depends on what your pairings are and how good of a player you are.

So let’s focus on ANT now.

First of all, the list:

ANT 1.0, by piZZero

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

Sideboard:
4 Dark Confidant
3 Serenity
2 Echoing Truth
2 Angel’s Grace
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Desfigure
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Plains

With the nonstop growth of Aggro decks like burn, Naya Burn, RG’s, etc… I believe this might be a serious issue for a 15 round tournament. Average speaking, you should face these decks in 4 or 5 rounds during the swiss and then again, if lucky, once again in the Top8. Nowadays aggro decks they’ve got 3 ways to hurt you:

1. They drop fast creatures supported by burn spells (Naya Burn, RG, etc…)
2. They drop fast creatures supported by disruption spells (Merfolks, Slivers, etc…)
3. They drop fast creatures (Goblins, Elves, Affinity, etc…)

Game one is a total race against their clock. If you are able to setup your hand fast enough then you might have a chance of winning. If your hand suffers from lack of speed or is over-protected then they might reduce your life fast enough to make it very difficult for you to combo.

Games two and three are the key games. Even if you win G1, your sideboard should be prepared for what’s comming: Gaddock Teeg, Aether Canonist, Pyrostatic Pyllar, Thorn of Amethyst, etc… If your chances on winning G1 vs aggro decks were around 50-55%, chances you win 2nd and 3rd games are heavily reduced. I wouldn’t bet you are over 50% against all those decks that are heavily packed with hate on their sideboards.

So, what’s the solution? There’s plenty of cards ANT can play to face all that hate. Angel’s Grace, Serenity, Smother, Slaughter Pact, Desfigure, Echoing Truth, Hurkyl’s Recall and many more. But, are all those cards effective? Let’s check out an standard ANT sideboard:

• 4 Dark Confidant
• 3 Serenity
• 2 Angel’s Grance
• 2 Echoing Truth
• 1 Slaughter Pact
• 1 Desfigure
• 1 Ill-Gotten Gains
• 1 Plains

First problem this sideboard has is that it’s 100% predictable by your opponents. It’s one of the most standard sideboard choices lately. So, he’ll play games 2 and 3 around them. He’ll probably know you’ll pack the 2nd Ill-Gotten Gains to be less Nauseam dependant; he’ll know you’ll have 1-2 creature killers, and he’ll know you’ll play Angel’s Grace.

Those sideboard cards are all good and effective. I’m not going to analyze them, and their choice over other cards. I’ve played them in many tournaments with great success, but personally believe NOW they ain’t the best choice for a 15 round tournament. Actually, I believe ANT isn’t the best combo deck choice for a 15 round tournament.

If predictions are right, I’d suggest you play a more solid, less life-dependent combo deck. An example of this, is the last month new hype  deck that’s been rising around the Legacy scene: Dream Halls! The new reborn Dream Halls deck has been achieving excellent results at some big events lately, like Jonas Harbili who won the German Magic with a very innovative list.

Dream Halls, by Jonas Harbili

4 Flooded Strand
2 Scalding Tarn
5 Island
1 Polluted Delta
3 Ancient Tomb
2 Underground Sea
1 Bogardan Hellkite
4 Progenitus
4 Dream Halls
4 Show and Tell
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Force of Will
3 Cruel Ultimatum
4 Conflux
3 Lotus Petal
4 Thoughtseize
4 Lim-Dul’s Vault

Sideboard:

1 Hydroblast
2 Pithing Needle
1 Rushing River
3 Propaganda
2 Duress
2 Meditate
4 Spell Pierce

Dream Halls is a good choice. Solid rock, good mana base, hard to disrupt, well protected and hardly suffers from Countertop.

But if you are an storm passionate and would like to play Tendrils, this is the list I suggest for you:

Iggy Reloaded, by Jordi Amat
As a competitive deck for Grand Prix Madrid.

4 Leyline of the Void
3 Ill-Gotten Gains
3 Infernal Tutor
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
3 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Confidant
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
2 Mystical Tutor
2 Tendrils of Agony
4 Duress
1 Wipe Away
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
2 Island
2 Swamp

Sideboard:
4 Tombstalker
4 Extract
2 Thrashing Wumpus
2 Echoing Truth
2 Desfigure
1 Ill-Gotten Gains

If we look at the decklist, we can observe that this version lacks Ad Nauseam. Yes, that’s the 1st biggest step forward towards a metagame packed with Aggro decks. Historically, Iggy Pop has always defeated aggro decks in the past. Even with the speed raise of aggro decks, the fact that we aren’t HP dependent gives us those 2-3 or even 4 turns we need to prepare the 2 Lion’s Eye Diamond + Infernal Tutor Setup. We have 4 Brainstorm, 4 Ponder, 2 Sensei’s Divining Top + 3 Infernal Tutor and 4 Lion’s Eye Diamond. It shouldn’t be that hard to find the combo, seriously.

Next thing we observe is the presence of 4 Leyline of the void. This card is a Game 1 silver bullet that will alone defeat some decks that abuse of their graveyard or from cards like Life from the Loam. If you are lucky enough to get your LotV game 1 and face a random Ichorid player, you should check out his face. Even if you don’t start G1 with LotV in play and never reveal it to your opponent, it’s always one of the strongest sideboard choices vs decks like Next Level Dredge, Aggro Loam or Eternal Garden.

But Leyline of the Void isn’t just there for that reason. It’s actually the half piece you need to resolve your 1st turn Mind Twist, named Ill-Gotten Gains. Against Aggro decks without any counter magic, 1st or 2nd turn Ill-Gotten gains with LotV in play equals GG. The 4th Ill-Gotten Gains has been added to the sideboard in order to improve and reinforce this strategy in the aggro matchup.

If we compare this deck with ANT, there’s an aspect that might seem weaker: protection. I agree, but not at 100%. Our weaknesses aren’t the same as are in ANT. We aren’t forced to combo that fast. We have more turns to sculpt our hand and find the combo pieces and a Duress. Against control we’ve added 4 Dark Confidant which work as both game breakers or Force of Will magnets. It’s important in combo decks to have “fake bombs”. That’s what allows you to reduce the amount of protection. First turn Confidant grabs his Force of Will, 2nd turn Duress grabs his Daze/Snare/whatever, and then you are good to go.

Talking about control, we got a better game 1 than ANT does, thanks to our Dark Confidants. Each time confidants successfully hits the enemy equals 1 less storm we need to generate. A turn 1 Confidant will hurt your opponent, on average, for a total of 4 damage. On top of that, we have to consider that most of control decks are packed with fetchlands, so you’ll probably win one spell more thanks to the 2 damage from 2 fetchs. So, more or less, what you’ll have to generate is an storm cout of 6. If you open with Duress and he counters it, you’ve got most of it already. Follow it with a Ritual and expect it to get countered too, then Cabal Ritual and Tendrils of Agony for lethal damage. That was just an example of how you could win against control without the use of LED + Infernal, by the simple use and abuse of Dark Confidant.

To improve the control matchup I’ve added 4 Tombstalkers to the sideboard. With Tombstalker we are increasing the amount of turn 2 bombs, therefore reducing the time for the control player to find his answers. He’ll probably kept his Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile, but we don’t care much about them. It’s just another bomb, we can still beat him by storm or by finding more bombs via Brainstorm, Ponder or Sensei’s Divining Top. Obviously Tombstalker is also a silver bullet against those decks that try to lock us down with Chalice of the Void, Thorn of Amethyst, etc… If we manage to hit our opponent twice with him, then we’ve got a very advantaged position in the game. Trust me.

Tombstalker adds the surprise factor that you need in a 15 round tournament where you can pass unnoticed all day. I wouldn’t recommend playing Tombstalkers in a 20 men tournament, coz right after 1st round, everyone knows your secret.

Another secret that can be found in the sideboard are the 4 Extract. We’ve said our deck is slightly slower than ANT, so let’s just search for a turn 1 card that can win us games for U: Extract. If you opponent is man enough, he’ll probably play the deck with only 1 Tendrils. Big mistake! I’ve always said and advised that it’s better to play 2 instead of 1, no matter what deck you play. If extract resolves, you win.

The other sideboard cards are also focused to improve your games against aggro decks. Thrashing Wumpus is, for example, an excellent win condition against absolutely all tribal decks. Merfolks, Goblins and Slivers they’ll all surrender against a turn 1-2 Thrashing Wumpus with BB mana open after that. Desfigure is excellent against Gaddock Teeg and Aether Canonist, as I’ve already stated previously. So if we are afraid of those, make sure to put them in. Finally, Echoing Truth plays a bit the “Joker” card role. You can add it against all decks that could possibly play some hate cards like Chalice of the Void or some enchantments like Ivory Mask, etc…

Let’s say you ain’t 100% convinced with my arguments and you still want to play ANT at Grand Prix Madrid. What decklist shall you play?

I’m pretty convinced that the maindeck is the strongest of all of the available choices right now. People play it without Lion’s Eye Diamond and with Ancient Tomb, people play it with red for Burning Wish, etc… In my honest opinion, who’s been debated a lot by many other excellent combo players, the best version of ANT is the one that packs Orim’s Chant main deck and Serenity + Angel’s Grace sideboard. But still, I’ve said before this wasn’t the best choice. Agree, and I think some small changes could be done at your sideboards in order to improve your performance at a 15 round tournament. If I were you, I would play this list:

ANT 2.0, by piZZero
As a competitive deck for Grand Prix Madrid.

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

Sideboard:
4 Tombstalker
4 Dark Confidant
3 Serenity
2 Echoing Truth
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Ill-Gotten Gains

Main deck suffered no changes, but the sideboard does. This sideboard is what I believe could work best. You have a HUGE surprise factor vs CounterTop decks: 4 Tombstalker + 4 Dark Confidant. Your matchup against aggro improves thanks to the Tombstalkers as well. You don’t have many answers for the mirror of ANT but your main deck Orim’s Chants should help you out.

I hope this article helps you decide what to play if you were going to play combo. There’s still plenty of time before Grand Prix arrives so start testing and playing to become a better player. And always remember kids:

Real men play combo!

2010 couldn’t start better for the Legacy european fans:

That’s great news for a country like Spain. As you may already know, Spain holds the biggest eternal leagues in the world: LCL ( Catalan Legacy League), LML (Madrid Legacy League), LLBL (Black Lotus Legacy League), etc…

Spain, somehow, creates trendies in Legacy, therefor the expected metagame for GP Madrid shouldn’t be that different from what we can find in our leagues. I’d totally recommend you taking a close look at deckcheck.net and search for the events listed before. Other events you should take in considerations are the past tournaments like Bazaar of Moxen, Eurovino3 or the recently played German Magic 1.

Personally, I’ve already decided what list I’ll be playing at GP Madrid. No secrets, I’ll be playing combo. What version? ANT. People tend to say that in a GP, where it’s gonna be loaded with CounterTop and AggroJunk decks, playing combo is kinda a suicide. Not really when you got a hidden Ace in your sideboard (and no, it’s not Thrashing Wumpus LOL).

By the way, changing a bit the topic, but still Legacy related, I’ve recently contacted Mr. Iggy Pop, and sent him my playset of japanese Ill-Gotten Gains for him to sign. MAN, THAT’S PIMP! Scanns as soon as the cards come back, if they ever do!.

Talking about pimp, I’m soon done with my 2nd legacy deck to be 100% foil japanese. When I say 100% I really mean it. Legacy’s Affinity allowed me to complete a deck with 75 out 75 cards in foil japanese. Right now I’m only missing 2 Cranial Platting (got those located already), 2 Ancient Den and 1 Vault of Whispers. If it happens that you own some and are willing to trade/sell, please contact me at jordi.amat@gmail.com.

Back to topic, the following weekends, starting Saturday 9th,  at the Black Lotus shop there’s gonna be a series of tournaments that will provide byes for GP Madrid. If I were you, I wouldn’t miss the chance of playing those. Unluckily for me, I’m working on Saturdays and won’t be able to attend those.

You might have noticed that I placed a video player on the top of the right sidebar and in there it says there’s a broadcast planned for this Saturday. Guys, that won’t be possible. Even tho, I promise to be LIVE broadcasting all the events I’ll attend in 2010. Stay tunned to my USTREAM channel if you wanna watch some games.

One last thing you should never forget:

Real men play combo!

(Ladies play countertop+goyfs and kids play pikachus+bolts)