Report European Championship 2001 :
 

Introduction

I qualified for Euros due to playing top 8 in the Belgian Nats. The type 2
format at Euros was the same as in the Nats but the limited format had changed.
It was rochester draft with the full Invasion block. Since I had exams untill
may 27th I didn’t have  time to practice the new limited format. I played a
couple of drafts but not as much as I would have liked.

For constructed I relied on my counter rebel deck from Nats and I thought I was
ready for Euros.
 

Thursday may 28th
I woke up at 7.00h and my friend, Peter Desmet, picked me up to go to the train
station. There we should take the train to go to the airport. Unfortunately
there was a train strike and my train had a delay from about 2 hours. We managed
to get into the airport just in time and we just made it to our plane. There we
saw the other Belgian players who qualified and we also saw The Notorious
Stefaan Verlinden. He’s a guy who isn’t interessed in qualifiying for main
events but he always accompagnies us when we travel abroad.
Our plane left at 11.30h and we arrived in Milan at about 13.00h. Gert
Coeckelbergh, Jan Doise, Fried Meulders and me were in the same hotel so we took
a taxi and we went to the hotel. We placed our luggage there and we started to
search for the Fiera Milano, where the Euros where held.
We went to the player’s registration and we went back to the hotel for some
testing.

Friday may 30th
After a good night rest, we walked for 40 minutes to the site. The tournament
started a couple of houres too late so round 1 began at 11.00h.

I played this deck :

4 coastal tower
4 adarkar wastes
10 island
5 plains
1 kor haven

4 absorb
4 counterspell
4 brainstorm
4 ramosian sergeant
3 dismantling blow
3 wrath of god
1 rout
2 defiant vanguard
3 lin sivvi, defiant hero
2 tsabo’s web
2 defiant falcon
1 jhovall queen
1 rebel informer
1 thermal glider
1 ramosian sky marshall

sideboard :

4 gainsay
1 wrath of god
2 teferi’s response
2 cop : green
2 cop : red
3 misdirection
1 lightbringer

Round 1: Lasse Norgaard (finished 181)

He won the die roll and played first. He looked at his hand and took a mulligan.
When he looked at his 6 cards, he decided to go to 5. He kept that hand. I had a
hand that contained 2 linn sivvi, 1 vanguard, 1 falcon and 3 lands.
I played a turn 2 falcon that got counterspelled. My turn 3 vanguard got
absorbed but  my turn 4 Sivvi hit the board. I started my rebel chain and I drew
into some counters so when he wanted to play wrath of God, I countered and my
rebel chain did the rest.
I sided in 4 gainsays and 2 misdirections. Out went 2 tsabo’s web, 3 dismantling
blows and 1 defiant vanguard.
In game two he chose  to play first but now I had to take a mulligan.  He tried
to play some card drawing spells in the first few turns but I countered his
second acc. Knowledge with a gainsay and I absorbed his fact or fiction. He
didn’t have the counters, so I sneaked some rebels through and he never
recovered.
1-0
Round 2 : John Ormerod (finished 6)
John was playing a static orb deck with magpie, merfolk looter and spiketail
hatchling. He won the die roll and chose to play first. When we ended shuffling,
we got a deck check and after 10 min. we started playing. He played a turn 3
static orb, which I dismantling blowed during my turn. He followed that up with
a turn 4 static orb and things didn’t look well for me. A couple of turns later
he had his lock on the table and game 1 was over.
I sided in 4 gainsays and 2 teferi’s responses.
I played first. I started with a turn 2 falcon and on his 3rd turn he played a
static orb. I didn’t have a counter nor did I have a dismantling blow. And just
like in the first game the devastating lock was there a couple turns later.
We shaked hands and went on to the next round.
1-1

Round 3 : Olle Rade (finished 75)
He played a red/green/white deck with early creatures and lots of burn spells.
He wins the die roll and plays first. I have a  hand that contains 3 land, some
rebels and a wrath of God. He starts with llanowar elf, followed up with kavu
titan. I stall on tree lands for a while and he keeps playing creatures, he
beats me down to 10, that’s when I absorb a battery token and I go to 13. I
finally draw a 4th land and I clear the bord with a wrath of god. He tries to
play ghitu fire for 5 but it runs into a counter. He has only 1 card in hand
against  my 7. My rebel chain starts  to do  its job and I win the first game.
I side in 2 cop : red, 2 cop green and a 4th wrath of God.  Out went 3
dismantling blow and 2 tsabo’s web because I hadn’t seen ports or bursts.
He plays first in game 2 and he plays a turn 2 titan. I play a turn 2 cop: green
and a turn 5 cop: red. He plays a lot of creatures to get some damage through.
When he has 2 cards in hand, I decide to clear the bord with a wrath of God. The
rebel chain comes out and does what it’s supposed to do.
2-1

Round 4: Nicolas Labarre (finished 22)
Nicolas played a U/W control deck with millstone. Game one starts with me
playing some searchers. He kills my dorks with wrath of God holding
counter-backup. He gets out a millstone and he millstones me to death.
I side in 4 gainsay and 1 misdirection. I take the 2 tsabo’s web and the 3
dismantling  blows out of my deck.
In game two I counter some of his card drawing spells with 2 gainsays. I then
play some rebels who where once again destined to die horribly to a wrath of
God. He then plays a mageta and I die...... .
2-2

Round 5: Bram Snepvangers (finished 118)
Bram played (once again) a creation of his own. His deck contained the rebel
chain, 4 eladamri’s call and some other creatures like mageta the lion.
Game 1 he starts to get out his rebel chain. I also play some searchers but he
has his rebel informer and lots of mana and i lose. In game 2 I play first and
this time my rebel chain is faster and kills him. In game 3 I ran into the most
crazy card I encountered during the whole tournament: by turn 9 he has some
creatures and on the end of his turn I trie to cast rout as instant. He taps 3
mana and casts RETHINK!!! My rout was countered and I start to use my rebel
chain. At this point there isn’t much time left in the round and by the time the
judge calls time ha has a better board position than I have. The turns in
overtime were all about me not trying to lose. I manage to survive and the game
ends unfinished.
2-2-1

Round 6: Zidek Arnost (finished 154)
He plays u/w control with millstone. In game 1 I start with turn 1 sergeant and
after that I maintain control by holding back counters for his wrath of God. The
good old rebel chain does the rest.
In game 2 I have to mulligan and I draw into a suboptimal hand. He starts and he
plays some early card drawing cards. On turn 6 he plays Mahamotti and I don’t
have the answer...
In game 3 I start with a second turn falcon who searches for the rest of the
chain. I, once again, only need to counter his mass removal spells.
3-2-1

Round 7: Frank Karsten (finished 20)
He’s playing gomar with nether spirit.
Game one is a very weird game. After some early counterwars and some mass
destruction from his side, he eventually gets a nether spirit out. I then get a
thermal glider in play. I allready did some damage with early rebels and I got
him to 17. I’m at 20 and the nether spirit gets me to 18. I attack him to 15, he
attacks me to 16, I attack him to 13, this continues for a while and when he’s
at 1, I attack one last time and he dies. He showed me his hand, containing 3
dismantling blows, I show him mine : 3 wrath of Gods and 2 dismantling blows.
In game 2 he has a better start with some card drawing in the early game. We
have some counterwars over rebels and over wrath of God.  After most of the
counters are played, he casts Mageta the lion. I don’t have an answer and the
games are tied.
Game 3 is far from exciting. He gets heavily mana screwed and on turn 7 he still
only has 2 lands. By that time I allready had the entire chain going and due to
his mana problems he couldn’t recover.
4-2-1

Saturday : Limited (rochester draft)
draft 1 : I drafted at pod 8 with these players :

1: Jocumsen Bjorn
2: Ongena Frederick
3: Koskimaki Antti
4: Steinaa Jakob
5: Garcia Carmelo
6: Gudmundur Jon, Viggosson
7: Tschirch Marc
8: Santin Andrea

The draft:
Bjorn opened hid pack and took a llanowar knight, I took a soul burn and Antti
took a faerie squadron. Bjorn was set on w/g, I went for r/b and Antti went for
u/w. The three of us drafted friendly during the entire draft. I drafted an
aggressive b/r deck with these highlights : 2 soul burn, 1 ghitu fire, magma
burst, terminate, illuminate and aggressive creatures like 2 shivan zombies, 2
viashino grapplers, kavu aggressor,...

Round 8 : Mark Tschirsch (finished 55)

Mark drafted a u/b/r deck with doomsday specter, Urza’s rage and Phyrexian
scuta. In game 1, he had to mulligan. I had some mana problems in the early game
and by the time he got his mana right, my horde was allredy present to kill him.
In game 2 I deal some early damage but he recovers. I get him down to 3 and hope
to draw magma burst for a couple of turns. In the mean time, he’s beating me
down with flyers. I can’t find the magma burst, ghitu fire or illuminate and I
die. In game 3 he gets a turn 4 scuta who keeps the ground locked. He builds his
army and starts beating me down. I hold a ghitu fire when he’s at 8. I only have
7 lands. I can kill his scuta but then it takes longer to beat him down so I
hope to draw 2 lands. I don’t draw them and I die.
4-3-1

Round 9: Jakob Steinaa (finished 201)
He also drafted a b/r deck but he had more aggressive creatures where I had more
removal. He also splashed a bit of blue for razorfoot hunter.  Game 1 was one of
the fastest games I ever played. I keep a hand with 2 mountains, some creatures
and some removal. I only need to draw 1 swamp but I had 9 in my deck so that
couldn’t be a problem. He starts with turn 3 kavu aggressor, turn 4 aggressor
and turn 5 pouncing kavu. I can’t find a 3rd land and I start discarding. By
turn 5 I’m as good as dead and we start shuffling for game 2.
I start with some creatures and he also plays some dorks. We trade some
creatures and some damage. I get him down to 2 and that is where ghitu fire
comes in. In game 3, he’s the guy with mana problems. Now he only draws
mountains and my creatures beat him down.
5-3-1
 

Round 10: Viggosson Gudmundur Jon (finished 150)
He drafted a slow w/g/u deck. In game one he has to mulligan and my aggressive
creatures beat him down. He plays some defensive creatures but I have removal
spells ready for his creatures and I win the first.
In game two I’m able to do him some early damage. I’m able to get him to 13 when
we get into a stall. He has a jungle barrier and a vodalian serpent, so I can’t
get through. I do have some good direct damage spells in my deck and this time
they’re ready to compete in the battlefield. When I have 8 lands, I tap them all
to play illuminate with red kicker on his jungle barrier, which just blocked one
of my dorks. He’s now at 9. On my next turn I sacrifice my morgue toad and I tap
out to play ghitu fire for 9. He has nothing up his sleeve and dies.
6-3-1

Round 11: Andrea Santin (finished 23)
He drafted a very solid u/w/g deck with many flyers and the green volver. He
allredy went 3-0 at our table so this wouldn’t be an easy match-up. In game 1
I’m able to deal some early damage but he’s soon able to establish board control
with some big creatures. He gets his flyers out and they kill me. Game 2 is
about the same story. I’m aggressive during the first couple of turns but his
ground creatures and flyers come out to attack, this time helped by the green,
double kicked,  volver.
6-4-1

Draft 2 : I drafted at pod 9 with these players :

1: Andersson Thomas
2: Tschirch Marc
3: Levy Raphael
4: Bethencourt Daniel
5: Lars Dam
6: Scott Wills
7: Ongena Frederick
8: Koskimaki Antti

This time, the draft didn’t go very friendly as I choose to draft a domain deck.
I got solid mana fixers such as 2 quirion explores, nomadic elf, quirion
trailblazer, lay of the land. I drafted good cards for my deck such as
terminate, hobble (my neighbeour Scott Wills hated me for that), 2 mirrorwood
treefolkss and collective restraint. I also had a sulam djinn and agonizing
demise.

Round 12: Scott Wills (finished 96)
He drafted a solid w/u deck with a splash of green for jungle barrier. In game 1
his flyers are to much to handle for my deck and he got the ground closed with
jungle barrier. Game 2 is exactly the same and I lose 2-0. I think his deck was
far better than mine and I think I would never stand a chanche against his deck.
6-5-1

Round 13: Raphael Levy (finished 92)
He also drafted a domain deck but his featured 2 questing pheldagriffs and 1
obliterate. These are some game winning cards and my deck didn’t really have
bombs of that kind. In game 1 we trade some damage and he starts to build up an
army. I keep attacking in the air and when I attack him to 2 he decides to
attack with all his creatures. When we calculated the damage his creatures would
do, it was just enough to kill me. He didn’t know I had terminate and agonizing
demise in my hand, he attacks with everything and when I kill two of his
creatures he can’t kill me and I only need to attack for the win.
In game 2 he starts with turn 2 yavimaya barbarian and turn 3 yavimaya
barbarian. He couldn’t find a third land though. I played some domain spells and
on turn 5 I had all five of my basic land types in play. I also had the
collective restraint and since he only had 2 lands this was quite a problem. I
started playing fatties. My kavu kameleon ran into his 2 barbarians and then I
played 2 mirrorwood treefolks, followed by sulam djinn. He finally started to
draw lands and I killed him when he had 7 lands in play. After the game he
showed me the obliterate he was holding and if he drew land number 8 in time it
would have been very devastating.
7-5-1

Round 14: Thomas Andersson (finished 88)
He drafted a u/b/w deck and had planar despair in his deck. Game 1 he has to
mulligan. I play some early creatures and I’m able to gat him to 1 life. Then he
plays a devastating planar despair that kills all our creatures. We go into
topdecking mode and he manages to pull this one out.
In game 2 we trade lots of damage and when we were both at 6 he plays his
devastating planar despair again. This time he held back some creatures but so
did I. We don’t get through for a lot of damage but I get him to 3 and I need to
attack once with my kicked faerie squadron and a kavu climber to kill him since
he only has 1 blocker. I’m at 2 on that point and when I attack I have no
blockers left. I attack to kill him and he has a pollen remedy up his sleeve to
win the game.
7-6-1

I finally finished 95th which wasn’t too bad for my first european championship.
I had a great time playing in the main event and the overnight side events where
lots of fun too. I had a great time playing Mtg and on monday we went out to
visit the beautiful city of Milan. In the evening we took the plane back home
and at about 20.00h we hit Belgian soil again.
Props to :
- Peter Gysemans for showing his gymnastic skills at 5 in the morning to get
into the hotel :)
- All the other Belgian players for the fun we had.
- Stefaan Verlinden and Jan Doise for an incredible  race at 4 in the morning.
Stefaan chased Jan for a couple of minutes accross the side event area.

Slops to:
- The Belgian train compagny for the strike on the day of our departure which
made us nearly miss our flight.
- Stefaan Verlinden for not being able to shut up for 5 minutes.
- Our Italian hotelmanager dor being a lazy $^ùµ=:!!.

Thanks for reading and if you have any questions or comments, feel free to
e-mail me at [email protected]

Frederick Ongena
 

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