Reports
Hi,
My name is Frederick Ongena and this is a report of the ptq Chicago,
held in
Brussels on July 30rd.
This is my first tournament report so bare with me on this one.
I had been testing for some time and after the ptq of August 23rd I
decided
to make a deck that crushed rebels because that was the most played
deck
last week.
I decided to play this deck :
12 plains
10 forests
2 kor haven
1 dust bowl
4 parallax wave
4 mageta the lion
3 wave of reckoning
4 disenchant
4 vine trellis
4 blastoderm
2 jolrael, empress of beasts
3 saproling burst
3 rib cage spider
4 chimeric idol
Sideboard
1 rib cage spider
2 aura fracture
4 rushwood legate
3 topple
2 predator flagship
3 spidersilk armor
So it became sundaymorning and me and 4 other guys met in Ghent to
drive to
Brussels.
After 45 minutes, we arrived and the tournament began at 10.20 which
was
very reasonable.
The tournament would be 6 rounds swiss with top 8.
Round 1 : Fried Meulders r/g.
Fried played a deck of his own which made it hard for me to find its
weaknesses and to sideboard against it. I didn't know what to expect.
Game 1 starts and he plays turn 4 blastoderm and turn 5 blastoderm.
I
go
turn 5 blastoderm whith which I block his first. His second beats me
to
10
and then I block it whith my second Blastoderm that I played turn 7.
I draw a mageta which he rhystic lightnings. Then I play a third
Blastoderm
and he plays a squirrel wrangler.
Then I play a second Mageta which he lightnings again and finally he
kills
me with an acient hydra.
Game 2 : I play second turn vine trellis, 3rd turn blastoderm, 4th
parallax
wave.
Blastoderm takes him to 5 then he reverent silences my wave. I drew
another
one and he silences it again. So I'm at 26 because he payed the mana
cost
for the second silence.
After this I play a second blastoderm which becomes blocked by a vine
trellis, then by an arc mage and then by another vine trellis.
After this I draw nothing but land and he again finishes me with an
ancient
hydra.
0 - 1 : not a good start but still possible
My friends from Ghent all had lost except for two.
Round 2 : Evan Van Lissum.
Evan is one of the best players in Belgium so I think I didn't get
very
lucky on this one.
He playes rising waters and this is a deck with wich I seem to have
many
troubles so it doesn't look very well.
Game 1 : Turn 3, he plays eye of ramos, followed by a turn 4 waters.
I
hadn't much and I try to cast a Mageta on turn 5 which he counters.
He
proceeds with a turn 6 stronghold zeppelin. When I get 5 untapped lands
I
try to cast another mageta which he counters again. He beats me down
with
his zeppelin.
Game 2 : I sided in 2 aura fractures thinking that 2 aura fractures
+ 4
disenchants would be enough against waters. It turned out not be
enough.
I keep a draw with only plains holding a legate, vine trellis and
blastoderm.
I draw no forests until turn 6 when it was too late because he had
an
active
bouncer and a bashing zeppelin.
0 - 2. Top 8 was no longer possible but I continued because some of
the
guys
which whome I came in the same car had a shot at top 8.
Round 3 Dimitri Vereecke
Dimi is one of my friends from Ghent and I played him during testing.
We
came in the same car and we make a lot of fun together. I knew he
played
rebels so this would be an easy match up.
Game 1 : I get turn 3 blastoderm, turn 4 idol, turn 5 Jolrael. He plays
rebels but needs them to block my creatures. When I make my lands 3/3
creatures, I kill him.
Game 2 : I draw an excellent hand against rebels : topple, wave of
reckoning, vine trellis, rib cage spider, forest, 2 plains. At that
point I
knew this would be my game. When he had about 4 rebels I killed them
with
the wave of reckoning and the surviving lieutenant I parallax waved.
Then I
atacked with my idol and when I drew a mageta the next turn it was
game
over.
1 - 2
Round 4 : Shadi Torbey
He is one of the Belgians who qualified for the Europeans so once again
it
wouldn't be easy.
Shadi plays a r/w control deck.
Game 1 : He gets out early creatures witch I neutralize with rib cage
spider
and vine trellis. When he gets Latulla, arc mage and 2 kris mages and
I
have
a vine trellis, a rib cage spider and a mageta, he decides to kill
my
mageta
which I use to clear the bord. I have no cards in hand at that moment
and he
his holding a squee. From that moment I draw nothing but lands while
he
plays Latulla, arc mage and kills me.
Game 2 : No action for the first turns. He plays creatures and I
neutralize
them with parallax wave. I drew a second par. wave which helps me
getting
some more turns. I have 2 chimeric idols which take him to 8. When
the
second parallax wave is waved out, it doesn't look good to me but then
I
topdeck a wave of reckoning which kills all his creatures and I kill
him
with the idols.
Game 3 : He got mana screwed and I got 2 blastoderms so this didn't
took
long.
2 - 2
Round 5 : Mats Clays
Mats is playing rebels which seemed to be beatable but Mats is a good
player
and he would give me a hard time.
Game 1 : this game could go either way. He gets a mageta, I parallax
wave
his and cast my mageta when he responds by playing a disenchant on
my
wave
so there goes my mageta and his is back.
It doesn't look to good but then I play wave of reckoning and I have
chimeric idol, which he disenchants. The board is cleared and now we
both
have a chanche. I draw better and win the first.
Game 2 : I keep a hand with 4 plains and 2 wave of reckonings and a
rib
cage
spider. I draw another wave of reckoning and I see no forests. I play
wave
of reckoning on turn 5 but he plays reverent mantra. I play one on
turn
6
because he allready got a mageta and a steadfast guard, he responds
on
my
wave of reckoning by playing a cho manno's blessing on his mageta.
Game!!!!
Game 3 : I open very good : 2nd turn vine trellis, 3rd turn idol, 4th
turn
parallax wave to fade out his rebels, 5th turn mageta. Game!!!
3 - 2
Round 6 : Pavlos Akritas.
Pavlos is a cool guy and on every magic tournament in Belgium, he's
present.
Since it was a match without importance it would be a very friendly
game.
He played a deck of his own. A g/u beatdown deck with bouncers and
zeppelins
and eye of ramos.
Game 1 : I get mana screwed by drawing only forests and holding a wave
of
reckoning 2 parallax wave and a mageta. This while he's beating
me
with
silt crawler and zeppelin. I have rib cage spider and vine trellis
but
he
also has rath's edge.
This was game one. He still doesn't know my second color and he guesses
it's
black.
Game 2 : he draws 3 briberys and kills me with my own creatures.
Final result 3 - 3. A very bad result but I had lots of fun.
Positive
The judges for starting on time and being very good judges.
The guys from Ghent for testing.
Davy ‘orc' Tavernier for the ride.
Mini for the 2 parallax waves.
Negative
Guys who can't stand losing and act very unsportsmanlike because of
this.
Mini for taking so much space in the car.
Regards,
Frederick Ongena