Game 1

Well, he started off with a Ritual and two creatures, so I knew right off what he was playing… I was a little nervous—I knew this could go pretty badly for me. But I was holding 2 Disks so I didn’t panic too much. Essentially I just blew up his stuff with the Disks, and then drew another so didn’t have to worry about countering too much. It was still close—he got me down to one life. But nobody comes back from 20–1 down like I do, and soon I was beating him down, drawing lots of cards with Whispers, and countering anything he did. He conceded at 11 life.

Game 2

I don’t know what he sideboarded; looked like one card. I SBed in 2 Propaganda, another Gnomes, and 1 or 2 Force Spike, taking out high cc stuff like Whispers and Dismiss.

This started off slowly for him, and a lot better for me. I stole a Black Knight from him and got a Gnomes out, and was holding off his creatures okay. I had a counter or two in hand and felt confident. However, I then made a mistake; I used a Quicksand to kill one of his creatures and he then managed to slip a Dauthi Horror past my counters (I think I had to counter a Scroll). That Dauthi killed me. Doh!

Game 3

I went first and played an Island.

This was his start:

Swamp, Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Erg Raiders, Unholy Strength, Bad Moon

Analysis

This was a tough matchup, but his style of Suicide Black was the more common low-fat version, with no Horrors or Barrow Ghouls or Necratogs (unless he just didn’t draw any). That style has to kill me in like 7 turns or less, or I’ll just sit there and build up Allure tokens and outdraw it. Given the prevalance of both burn and Allures, I think the version with some fat is currently stronger. I should have won Game 2 but screwed up—but made up for it by playing like a god in game 3. I’d rate the 2 decks at about 50/50, with much of it dependent on how fast a start the Suicide Black gets.

2–1 games, 2–0 matches, 6 pts.

Game 1

I wasn’t worried here. In testing and at a warmup tournament my deck was 11–0 against Tradewind. Con didn’t want to meet me, having lost to me in that warmup last week. This game went according to plan; I took early beatdown from a Maro, then stole his stuff and Whispered and took control. He conceded on 13 or so.

Game 2

He sideboarded in 15 cards against me. I sideboarded in a Spike and a Hydroblast, taking out a Gnomes and something else.

We both started slow, but I was worried because I started with:

• 1 Island
• 2 Quicksand
• 1 Stalking Stones

I managed to Sink or Spike something early, but when we were both on 6 land I only had 3 Islands, and didn’t like it. Sure enough, he Lobotomies, I Counterspell, he Pyros. Ouch. My hand was:

• 2 Dissipate
• 2 Allure
• 1 Disk
• 2 Whispers.

Analysis

As I said above, my deck is extremely strong against Tradewind; especially his version which didn’t have main deck counters. Fighting a sideboard of 15 is kinda tough, but OTOH he must have really gutted his deck to do that. I don’t think he had WOrbs either, so it always looked like my match.

4–1 games, 3–0 matches, 9pts.

Game 1

Oh no! The Fitz! He’s been my personal nemesis in MTG for over a year, always destroying me with outrageous luck and topdecking (on top of the fact that he’s a pretty good player) and as far as I could remember I hadn’t beaten him in competition since mid 1997. Doh!

Still, he’s rusty and his deck was certainly suboptimal. He played 4 Capsize 1 Whispers, instead of the other way around, which should have made this a clear win for my deck.

Game 1 he snuck out a Rainbow Efreet early, but I got out 3 Allures and grabbed it when he misplayed and attempted to Capsize it back to his hand. I can see some reason in this, but he really shouldn’t have paid the buyback on the Capsize, because I just countered and ended up with his Efreet. Beatdown commenced soon afterwards. I got a Gnomes on the table, and was on 8 life, when Fitz tried to Earthquake for 8. I had 2 counters in hand, but let it go off. Fitz realized his error and tried to alter the Quake to 11, but a judge ruled that it was for 8 and that Fitz took 3 burn… enabling me to kill him next turn.

Game 2

This started out well for me, and I got Fitz low on life with a Golem and something else. However, I couldn’t draw any counters in the midgame (my normally solid ability in that area deserting me whenever Fitz is my opponent) and continually drew land instead, and he eventually killed my creatures and got out a Rainbow, all backed up by counters. That decided the game. I was pretty annoyed, but that’s the way it goes.

Game 3

This never happened because we had something like 4 minutes left.

Analysis

Based on the decks alone, this should have been my match, with my 4 Whispers to his 1 and my 4 Impulse to his 4 Brainstorm making my deck simply better. On the flip side, given my record against Fitz I should be happy with a draw rather than a loss, since it might mean that the curse is lifting…

5–2 games, 3–0–1 matches, 10 pts

Game 1

He didn’t get a quick enough start, I Disked away a lot of stuff (including a second Scroll which I don’t think he should have played), took control and beat him down with Firewalkers and Golem.

Game 2

I sideboarded in 7 I think; 4 Chill 1 Hydro and 1 Propaganda, taking out expensive stuff. I had to Mulligan away a beautiful hand with Impulse, Whispers, Propaganda and Chill because the only land was 1 Quicksand. Damn. I never had a chance here. It went something like Pup, Miner, Pup, Ball Lightning, Incinerate, Fireblast, game.

Game 3

We both started out low on mana, which should mean a win for Sligh. I managed to get out an early Firewalker though to slow him down, and just kept begging for my deck to give me a Chill before he got more land. That didn’t happen, but I got one soon after we both drew land, and then got another. That should have simply sealed the game for me, but he had a Scroll out and got rid of my Firewalker, and hit me once, despite having 7 cards in hand. I was getting nervous about it but managed to kill him with Gnomes before the Scroll could wreck the game.

Analysis

I’ve done a lot of testing against Sligh; it probably has a 60–40 edge before SBing when played by an expert player. Brian is good, but not expert; his playing the second Scroll early in game one may have decided the match in my favour. After boarding Sligh needs a damn fast start, and has to hope I don’t draw any Chills.

7–3 games, 4–0–1 matches, 13 pts.

Game 1

This was not a good matchup. For one thing, I had planned on meeting a lot less control. For another, Ger and I playtested together. Lastly, I thought his U/R had a (slight) edge over my monoblue. Ger offered me an ID beforehand but I refused, thinking it didn’t make sense for either of us.

I managed to win this one, a long game, in part because Ger forgot to bring back a Phoenix for a long time while I was killing him with a Firewalker.

Game 2

I can’t really remember what decided this, but it was a fairly one-sided affair as far as I remember. I couldn’t deal with the Phoenix or the burn, and died. I almost caught Ger out with an unexpected SB Rainbow, but I had to bring it out under pressure and he killed it with lots of burn.

Game 3

I started out strong in this game, getting out an early Golem. However, I made a hideous error in the midgame. With the Golem on the table I had 6 mana free. I thought it was 6 Blue, but it was in fact 5 Island 1 Quicksand. He shatters the Golem, I Dismiss (with 4 Islands!) he Pyros, I try to counter—and then Ger points out the Quicksand. I couldn’t believe it. I was sure it was an Island! I take burn, lose the Golem, and cannot believe I made such an appalling scrub error. Ger begins to take control after that, but I keep making him recast the Phoenix by stealing it with Allures. Time runs out and we draw. As Ger pointed out, I made us both go through all that for nothing…

Analysis

I’d give Ger’s version of CounterPhoenix about a 55–45 edge against me. The recurring Phoenix is what makes the difference on his side, and possible consistency problems with his deck don’t matter so much against a slow deck like mine. My Suq’Atas can be trouble for him, but he has main deck Quakes if they get out. His SB Shatters hurt against my Golems too. A draw was probably fair, since the errors we made effectively canceled each other out.

8–4 games, 4–0–2 matches, 14 pts.

So I go into Day 2 lying in 9th place; a strong undefeated showing. I was pretty happy. My deck proved to be the good choice I thought it was; I was a little annoyed at meeting 2 Blue/Red decks instead of another weenie deck, but that’s the luck of the draw. I would have liked to meet White Weenie, which of the 3 common weenie decks was weakest against mine in testing.

Game 1

I thought this was a good matchup because Ger was extremely unhappy with his deck and his drafting, and had to go three colours with double-cc cards in each colour. In the first game his lack of consistency showed and I came through for the win. I thought at this point that maybe I had a chance.

Game 2

Ger took out all the Black from his deck for the next two games, and his deck ran a lot smoother.

This was a long game that started well for me but then Ger shut me down with Mawcor, Stinging Licid and Master Decoy which I just couldn’t handle.

Game 3

This game went badly. I countered a turn 3 COP: Blue, but Ger just put out a Mawcor later and got Hero’s Resolve on it; he also got the Stinging Licid/Master Decoy combo going again. This was really a massacre, as I had no chance at all.

Analysis

Once he took out the Black Ger’s deck was simply better than mine. Any removal at all on my side and it might have been very different.

9–6 games, 4–1–2 matches, 14 pts.

Game 1

I had a hand with only 1 Island and kept it for some reason I cannot fathom. Needless to say, I failed to draw land for a few turns and he beat me down. If I had drawn land it might have been close, because I was consistently 1 mana away from being able to deal with his threats in time.

Game 2

I had to mulligan away a good hand with 1 Island again—and this time there were Islands on top of my Library. Doh! He beat me down after that, my creatures proving no match for his. Mind Games and Puppet Strings would have helped a lot, but I never saw them.

Analysis

My deck needed time, and I never got any. Simple as that.

9–8 games, 4–2–2 matches, 14 pts.

From here I’d have to win 4 in a row to get to top 8. I felt I might be able to do that at the next table, but that winning a game with the deck I had was the biggest problem.

Game 1

I managed to win this, can’t remember exactly what happened but he didn’t seem to be able to do much at all in this game.

Game 2

This started badly; he beat me down to very low life but I got my Puppet Strings and Double-Mind Games working and hit him a lot with Mistfolk. This actually went on for a long long time and was something of an epic, but I managed to scrape out a win

Analysis

I’m not sure; he had 3 Pacifism(!) but seemed lacking in other good stuff. If my deck is given time it’s very strong, since it has Whispers and Mind Games.

11–8 games, 5–2–2 matches, 17 pts.

Stewart Shinkins won the Table of Death 3–0.

Right. Now all I had to do was draft as well as I could and go 3–0.

Game 1

Last year, Tom put me out of contention in a very very tight 2–1 victory in Sealed, a match I remember as a classic. I could have won it had I not made a bad judgement call and played defensively at a critical point.

This year, it was close again in the first game. I was winning the creature war early. Key call: I figured he was holding some form of removal but I put out Fireslinger and Seeker of Skybreak anyway, as I had more creatures in my hand and thought I could force him to use the removal and beat him down.

He used Spontaneous Combustion to kill everything, and then I laid more creatures. It became quite close, but he was beating me with a Bellowing Fiend. I had about three turns to topdeck Goblin Bombardment or Fling, but it didn’t happen, and he killed me on 1 life.

Game 2

This one just wasn’t as close. His removal (especially his 1 Kindle) decided it early and he also Coerced away my Flowstone Wyvern. He beat me down with the Fiend again and that was it for my Worlds chances.

Analysis

Well, Tom’s a very good player and it didn’t bother me too much for him to put me out of contention for the second year in a row. His deck was better than mine, with the removal making all the difference.

11–10 games, 5–3–2 matches, 17 pts.

Game 1

I can’t remember it too well, I eked out a win by overloading his removal ability with lots of fat.

Game 2

My mind went to lunch for this game, completely. I made a bunch of errors, including not realizing that my Barbed Sliver gave his Clot Sliver its ability, enabling it to kill my Horned Sliver and also not realizing that my Horned Sliver had gained regenerate and so burying it… I made another dumb move as well which mercifully has gone from my memory… I deserved to lose this game badly and did.

Game 3

This game was like a replay of the first one, and even his 2 Dark Banishings(!—on his last table he had gotten 4 on his way to a 3–0 sweep) didn’t save him from the onslaught of fat.

Analysis

His deck seemed reasonable but perhaps his creature base wasn’t quite strong enough; he could remove my creatures but not compete with them with his own creatures.

13–10 games, 6–3–2 matches, 20 pts.

Game 1

He had lots of removal also but got destroyed by large Green things. Crude but effective.

Game 2

This turned on an early Servant of Volrath with Sadistic Glee on it. He sat there with small creatures; I sat there with some larger creatures and a Fireslinger but couldn’t kill his smaller ones because then the Servant would be too big to kill. Eventually I was able to Elvish Fury a creature and Fling it at the Servant, and ping the Servant with a Fireslinger, to kill it. It all went downhill for him from there, and I ended up doing him 16 pts of damage in one turn for the kill.

Analysis

Like JC’s deck, this one had removal but the creatures weren’t good enough to cope with mine.

15–10 games, 7–3–2 matches, 23 pts.