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Eudemonia was very crowded, with players pushed into the back room.
So, since I know nothing about block constructed, I sat down before the event with Luis Scott-Vargas, reigning US national champion, and Jeff “F.O.B.” Huang, to find out a little before the event started.
Ryan: So what decks are good? Luis: Mono-blue pickles, white/green and blue/green aggro are the three most-played decks. After that you've got blue-black teachings, poison slivers, and white/green/black rack, which is like mono black rack with mystic enforcer. That sums up most of the decks.
R: I notice there's no red in that list. L: That's right, there's not very much red. It's not very good in aggressive or control decks, so that's where that leaves it.
R: Any thoughts, Jeff? Jeff: The format is pretty fun. There are a lot of decks, it's very open. There are just a lot of good decks around. If you know a deck and can play it well, you can do a good job. Like, even red, which Luis didn't list, can just win sometimes. Red's problem is Tarmogoyf. If they don't run into that, they're okay.
With that out of the way, we're ready to start playing the first round of 6 with 64 people in the running to win 3 byes in Grand Prix San Francisco as well as various other prizes provided by the store.
Round 1: Jeff Huang (blue/green aggro-control) v. Sean Simmons (black/red control)
Sean begins this match a little skittish. Since his opponent has several Pro Tour top 8s to his name, his uncertainty is understandable. Jeff's magic fails him and he loses the die roll, and begins the match with a mulligan.
Game 1: Sean starts the action with a turn 2 Withered Wretch, and Jeff plays Looter il-Kor with a +1/+1 counter thanks to his Llanowar Reborn. After both players attack, Jeff follows that up with a morph creature. Sean's turn 4 sees a Korlash, Heir to the Blackblade join his team. Jeff gets a second looter, and now it's Korlash and wretch against two looters and a morph. Sean plays Molten Disaster for 2 and Jeff responds by morphing up Vesuvan Shapeshifter to copy Korlash. All the creatures die, and on Sean's next turn he plays another Korlash only to pick it back up when Jeff plays Venser, Shaper Savant. Jeff attacks and suspends Riftwing Cloudskate and then Snapback on sean's replayed Korlash. After another attack, Sean is down to 10 life.
When sean untaps with 8 lands, he plays his Korlash a third time, only to have it sent back to his hand when Jeff plays Momentary Blink on his Venser he drops to 8 life. Sean plays Void on his turn and Jeff Delays it. Korlash comes in yet another time, and Sean ruefully says that he has made a mistake.
Predictably, Jeff's Riftwing Cloudskate returns Korlash to Sean's hand, and an attack takes him to 4 life. When Sean plays Bogardan Hellkite, Jeff flashes back Momentary Blink to return it to his hand. With a lethal attack on the following turn, the game is over. Game Score: Jeff 1, Sean 0
Game 2: Jeff leads off with Looter il-Kor, which Sean does away with via Damnation, and Jeff fires back with Tarmogoyf. Sean develops his mana a little and plays a second Damnation to kill the Lhurgoyf, which Jeff replaces right away with another. With Sean all out of Damnation, this one stays on the table, at least until the attack, when Sean tries a Tendrils of Corruption to kill it, only to have Jeff counter with Mystic Snake. Sean plays a split-second Molten Disaster on his next turn to kill Jeff's team. When Sean plays Haunting Hymn, Jeff hits him with Psionic Blast and discards Momentary Blink and Terramorphic Expanse.
Jeff cycles a Horizon Canopy to find Call of the Herd, and Sean makes Stuffy Doll. Jeff flashes back his call, pumping up his token with a Llanowar Reborn counter. His tokens bite the dust when Sean plays Void for zero, however. Jeff's Riftwing Cloudskate bounces the doll on the other side temporarily, and his next attack brings sean to 5. Sean drops to 3 on the next attack, and then to 1.
Sean tries to stop the would-be lethal attack with Strangling Soot, but Jeff has a Delay and seals the match. Game Score: Jeff 2, Sean 0
Round 2: Orie Guo (Red/Green/White aggro) v. Eric Campusano (Blue pickles)
Orie pulls out a 20 to beat Eric's 18 and we get interrupted because Orie is being deck-checked. As it turns out, he has registered 8 of a card, and so we begin this round on game 2.
Game 2: Orie, on the play, starts off with a pumped-up Kavu Predator via Llanowar Reborn, and he follows it up with Call of the Herd, which gets Delayed. Orie plays Riftsweeper to take out Eric's suspended Ancestral Vision, and Eric gets a morph, which Orie goes after with Dead, and then plays Tarmogoyf. On his next turn, Call goes off, and Eric scoops to the attack. Game Score: Orie 1, Eric 1
Game 3: Orie starts the action with Saffi Eriksdotter, and starts attacking. A few turns later, he plays a second grizzly bear, this time a Riftsweeper, with no target for its ability. On the next attack, Eric plays Venser to bounce Riftsweeper, but he doesn't get to block thanks to Dead, and the sweeper comes back in. Eric tries the same trick on the next attack, with the exact same result, but Orie has a Mystic Enforcer this time, which gets Delayed, and Eric makes a morph. Orie makes a pumped-up Kavu Predator and attacks Eric down to 11.
Eric makes a second morph, and Orie remarks that he is about to lose the game. He attacks with his Saffi and pumped-up Kavu Predator. Eric double-blocks the predator and unmorphs Vesuvan Shapeshifter to kill Saffi, sealing the deal for Orie's team. In response to Eric tapping out to pump his Dreadship Reefs, Orie kills a morphed shapeshifter with Dead. An attacking morph takes Orie to 14. Orie's Mystic Enforcer finally resolves, joined by an end-of-turn Sulfur Elemental. The enforcer attacks Eric to 5. Eric makes his morphed shapeshifter into a Mystic Enforcer, and then bounces Orie's enforcer with a cloudskate. The enforcer gets back in, but Eric stops it with Cancel this time, giving himself threshold. On eric's turn, he makes another morph and passes back.
Orie decides this is the time, and plays Fiery Justice to kill the clousdskate. Then he attacks with everything and uses Stonewood Invocation on his unblocked creature to win the game. Game Score: Orie 2, Eric 1
Eirik, a Eudemonia regular, is usually entertaining when he plays. He starts this match with this gem:
Q: How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? A: Banana
Game 1: After suspending Ancestral Vision and Riftwing Cloudskate, our first action is Josh's Mangara of Corondor, which immediately goes after Eirik's Coalition Relic. He follows it up with Serra Avenger and another suspended vision. Eirik makes a second relic, which returns to his hand when cloudskate comes in, and Josh draws 4 cards. He attacks with his flying creatures for 5. Eirik's Haunting Hymn gets countered by Mana Tithe from Josh, and the attack brings him down to 10.
Eirik plays Damnation to wipe out Josh's team, and Josh returns Prismatic Lens to Eirik's hand with Venser, following that up with a morph. Eirik replays his lens and takes out the morph with Tendrils of Cooruption. Eirik replays his relic and transmutes Tolaria West into Urza's Factory. Eirik charges up Coalition Relic and plays Shadowmage Infiltrator. Josh removes the infiltrator with a new Mangara and plays Maelstrom Djinn, which shortly attacks Eirik down for the game. Game Score: Eirik 0, Josh 1
Game 2: Josh plays the first nonland (a morph), and Eirik takes it out with Tendrils. Josh, stuck at 3 lands, suspends a cloudskate and counters Eirik's Careful Consideration with a Mana Tithe. He finds his second plains and makes Mangara of Corondor. Eirik finds a Coalition Relic and transmutes Tolaria West to get Slaughter Pact, killing Mangara, and Josh makes Serra Avenger. The cloudskate comes in the following turn, returning Coalition Relic, and Josh attacks for 5.
Eirik gets off a Careful Consideration and draws a bunch of cards. Josh continues the beatdown unimpeded and takes Eirik to 14, who very quickly expands his manabase with 2 prismatic lenses and a Coalition Relic. The next attack takes him to 9, but Josh plays nothing further and neither does Eirik, who drops to 4.
Mystical Teachings gets Eirik a Sudden Death, which on the next attack kills the clouskate, keeping Eirik alive at 1. Eirik flashes back teachings to get Strangling Soot. Eirik goes after the avenger on Josh's upkeep, but Josh keeps it alive with Momentary Blink. With nothing else, it is Eirik's turn again, and he flashes back the soot only to see the avenger Momentary Blink yet again. Spell Burst counters the Blink, but Josh has another Blink to keep the Avenger alive. Eirik, with all his mana tapped, concedes defeat. Game Score: Eirik 0, Josh 2
Round 4: Iain Bartolomei (Blue/Black Teachings) v. Kevin Lung (Slivers)
Game 1: Kevin gets off to a quicki start, with Screeching Sliver x2 and Gemhide Sliver. Iain gets out a Coalition Relic, and Kevin slivercycles for Frenetic Sliver. Iain summons Shadowmage Infiltrator and Kevin adds Two-Headed Sliver to his team. His attack takes Iain, who has been drawing lots of cards thanks to his infiltrator down to 11. Ian plays Forsee, and then Strangling Soot and flashback to kill gemhide and two-headed. Kevin's next attack takes Iain to 7, who digs further with Careful Consideration. On the next attack, a Slaughter Pact kills the Frenetic Sliver and a Tendrils of Corruption kills a screecher. Kevin goes for a Dormant Sliver with Summoner's pact, and puts it into play.
Iain continues drawing extra cards with his infiltrator and gains 7 more life with another tendrils on the dormant sliver, bringing him all the way back up to 19. Iain makes Bogardan Hellkite, and Kevin packs up. Game Score: Iain 1, Kevin 0
Game 2: Iain plays the first nonland, a Shadowmage Infiltrator, and Kevin, who was delayed two turns by missing a land play and relying on a Terramorphic Expanse, gets a Two-Headed Sliver. Iain gets a Coalition Relic online which helps him get an early Triskelavus, and Kevin slivercycles for Dormant Sliver, which Iain prompty takes out with Tendrils of Corruption. Triskelavus and infiltrator reduce Kevin to 13, and Frenetic Sliver resolves.
The next attack makes Kevin's life total 8. Kevin gets a Firewake Sliver and a Virulent Sliver into play, and he attacks for 6 damage and 5 poison counters. However, Kevin decides he cannot win and concedes the match. Game Score: Iain 2, Kevin 0
Round 5: Shane Mason (Blue Pickles) v. Mario Moreno (Green/White aggro)
Game 1: Mario plays the first nonland card in Call of the Herd with a graft counter, and a Griffin Guide the following turn, which gets Canceled but the attack is successful. Shane makes a morph, and Mario adds a Mystic Enforcer to his team. Shane shuts him down for a turn by unmorphing Brine Elemental, and plays and unmorphs a Vesuvan Shapeshifter on his next turn. Shane has the lock together now, and the game ends quickly. Game Score: Shane 1, Mario 0
Game 2: Mario gets out a Saffi Eriksdotter, and Shane suspends Riftwing Cloudskate. Mario puts Griffin Guide on his creature and attacks for 4. Shane gets a morph, and Mario kills it with Sunlance. When he attacks, though, Shane bounces Saffi with a Snapback. Edge of Autumn gets Delayed, and cloudskate bounces a Llanowar Reborn. The cloudskate is joined by a morph, attacks trade, and Mario resolves a Call of the Herd. Shane bounces the token with Venser and attacks Mario to 11.
Mario gets a Griffin Guide on his Saffi and takes Shane to 8, but drops to 5 on shane's turn. An attack with Stonewood Invocation seals the game for Mario. Game Score: Shane 1, Mario 1
Game 3: Shane suspends a cloudskate on his third turn and makes a morph on his fourth. Mario gets a Scryb Ranger, but is seriously lacking beatdown. In response to the cloudskate targeting his Llanowar Reborn, Mario plays a second ranger, which Shane returns to his hand with Venser. An attack for 4, and an unmorphed fathom seer put Shane ahead on both life and cards. Mario's Griffin Guide gets Canceled and Shane takes his opponent down to 11. Shane pushes further with a morph, and Mario, with quite a few lands at the ready, plays a 3/4 Tarmogoyf. Shapeshifter unmorphs into Fathom Seer and Mario gets a second ranger Canceled. A Sunlance takes out the facedown Brine Elemental, and Mario plays a double-pumped Timbermare and attacks for 7, taking Shane to 11 as well.
Shane turns his shapeshifter facedown and plays Cloudskate to bounce a forest. Mario plays Call of the Herd and a second Tarmogoyf. Shane attacks with both cloudskates, taking out Scryb Ranger and reducing Mario to 9, and Mario goes all-in, attacking with two 4/5 Tarmogoyf, an elephant, and a Scryb Ranger. Shane blocks the lhurgoyfs and Mario uses Stonewood Invocation to take Shane to 2.
Shane plays a second morph and passes back. Mario's Call of the Herd gets Delayed, but his Saffi resolves. Shane draws extra cards by unmorphing shapeshifter to copy Fathom Seer and then plays a third morph creature. Drawing more cards, he adds yet a fourth morph creature to his army of greyish spider beings, and Mario gets in with double Tarmogoyf and an elephant. Shane blocks them all, getting creative to kill a lhurgoyf, an elephant, and use up Saffi. Shane unmorphs a Brine Elemental and has the one-sided Stasis lock.
Mario, thanks to his Scryb Ranger, is not completely shut down, and gets enough resources together to cast Call of the Herd. Shane draws more cards and does away with both of Mario's elephant tokens before going all-in with his army. Mario counts up the damage and concedes. Game Score: Shane 2, Mario 1
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Round 6: Standish Choi (Green/White/Blue aggro-control) v. Rafael Solari (Blue/Black Teachings)
Game 1: Choi wins die roll, elects to play, keeps hand. Solari also keeps. Choi leads with a Riftsweeper, no graft. Rafael fires right back with a suspended cloudskate. Oh the irony! Not to be outdone, a elephant appears on the other side as if by magic! (Perhaps more are on the way?) Rafael morphs and passes the turn. Swing go the sweeper and the token. Standish Momentary Blinks his Riftsweeper to shuffle back the cloudskate, and adds a Tarmogoyf to the team. With Rafael at 13, Standish keeps swinging, and trades his elephant token for the facedown Brine Elemental and a Desert activation. Rafael attempts another morph, and Standish attempts a Mystic Snake, but the snake is Delayed in its arrival.
Next up, a morphed Willbender trades for the Riftsweeper, and the Call of the Herd comes back. Rafael takes out the elephant with a cloudskate, which chumps Tarmogoyf. Standish gets a Looter il-Kor, but he is now out of cards. Another cloudskate comes in, to remove the graft counter from Tarmogoyf. Mystic Snake reappears after its trip to suspend land, and the team gets in for a big hit. Rafael, with a total lack of answers, gives up game 1. Game Score: Standish 1, Rafael 0
Game 2: Standish's first card is, once again, a Riftsweeper. He follows that up with Tarmogoyf, and continues attacking. Rafael plays Venser to bounce Riftsweeper and block Tarmogoyf, killing it. Standish has another Tarmogoyf, though, and a Sunlance to take out Venser. A few attacks later, Standish has a significantly larger Tarmogoyf and a Riftsweeper, and Rafael, once again, plays Venser to bounce the 'goyf and trade with the sweeper, which is instantly replaced. Damnation takes out Standish's team. A third Riftsweeper gets in, Teferi shows up, and Standish attempts Spell Burst, but Rafael Delays it. Standish resigns. Game Score: Standish 1, Rafael 1
Game 3: Standish, entirely predictably, leads with Riftsweeper. He flashes in a Mystic Snake to counter nothing. Rafael, at 12, makes a morph creature, which Standish Spell Bursts. Rafael drops to 8 on the next attack, and tries to Damnation, but Standish uses Momentary Blink on his snake. The blink gets Delayed, however, and the creatures bite the dust. Rafael makes a morph, and Standish bounces it with Venser. Rafael fires back with cloudskate on a forest. Rafael tries to replay his morph, Standish Spell Bursts again, but the burst gets delayed... again.
The Blink resolves, blinking Venser, and bouncing Rafael's heavily charged-up charge land. Then Standish plays a cloudskate to bounce the morph again, and Rafael Damnations away the board again. The morphs swing a few times and time is called. Rafael plays a Teferi and kills Standish's morph, and Standish has a cloudskate to bounce Rafael's morph as time is called. Rafael replays his morph and his cloudskate bouncing choi's cloudskate, and the morph, once again, goes back to his hand. Another Venser shows up for Standish, bouncing the morph, and rafael, seeing that there was no way he could have won, sees also that standish would have had the game in a few turns. Gracefully, he concedes rather than turn the match into a draw. Game Score: Standish 2, Rafael 1
And the top 8 is:
Iain Bartolomei v. Andrew Jung
Devin Nambiar v. Standish Choi
Joseph Albert v. Shane Mason
And... Top 8: Matt Benjamin (Blue/Black Pickles) v. Gary Dumlao (Slivers!)
Game 1: Matt leads by suspending a cloudskate, and Gary gets a Two-headed Sliver. Matt's morph gets Deaded, and Gary makes a Screeching Sliver and a Firewake Sliver and mills a little. Matt makes a Brine Elemental, and the slivers keep milling. Matt swings with his skate and his elemental, and all the slivers block the elemental. Matt mills for 3, and Gary sacs two-headed to pump up screeching. Matt finishes off Firewake. Gary on 14, Matt suspends Ancestral Vision and plays a Shapeshifter only to have him Delayed. Matt keeps getting his cards put in his graveyard, and Gary gets a Gemhide Sliver and a Necrotic Sliver.
Gary down to 8. A sliver kills the skate, and Vesuvan Shapeshifter is a Necrotic Sliver. Two slivers trade for the shapeshifter, and Matt plays Venser, returning Gemhide and then attacking Gary to 6. He delays a Frenetic Sliver and keeps up the attack, Gary down to 4, and plays a morph. When Brine Elemental goes face up, Gary concedes. Game Score: Matt 1, Gary 0
Game 2: Gary has a turn 1 Gemhide Sliver – oh wait, no, a Virulent Sliver. A turn 2 Gemhide Sliver allows him a turn 3 Screeching Sliver and Mystic Enforcer. A Frenetic Sliver gets Canceled, and Matt mills for 3 counterspells. A Damnation, however, extincts the Sliver genus, and a morph gets Deaded. Gary plays a Dormant Sliver and 2 more, and then Deads a second morph. We repeat that process one more time, and Gary gets another Mystic Enforcer into play.
An attack takes Matt to 10, and then his vision resolves and he draws 4 cards. Matt takes two more hits, down to 4, gets his Teferi on, and then plays a morph. He attacks Gary, and unmorphs Brine Elemental. On his second attack, a sliver blocks and gets Freneticized. Gary's next attack kills Matt. Game Score: Matt 1, Gary 1
Game 3: Matt is A COWARD and mulligans. He starts by suspending Ancestral Vision, and Gary goes virulent sliver, virulent sliver, screeching sliver. He, however, has to content himself with milling rather than try to attack through a Desert. Gary may be getting mana flooded, as he plays no more slivers just yet. He Deads a morph, and matt plays Damnation to stop the milling. Gary, however, has another screeching sliver. Cloudskate comes in, returning Gary's good land, and Matt makes a beefy Brine Elemental and attacks for 7. Gary, sitting on just his 1/1 guy, chumps the next attack to take only 2, down to 9 life. Firewake Sliver comes in, and when Matt shows Teferi at end of turn, Gary concedes. Game Score: Matt 2, Gary 1
Top 4: Iain Bartolomei (Blue/Black Teachings) v. Standish Choi (Blue/Green/White aggro-control)
Game 1: Standish suspends a Riftwing Cloudskate, makes a Tarmogoyf, and Iain is mana screwed at 3 land. He puts a Temporal Isolation on Tarmogoyf, but can't put up much resistance against Standish's 'goyf, 'skate, and newfound 'phant. When the skate has a momentary blink, Iain realizes he is so far behind he can't catch up. Game Score: Iain 0, Standish 1
Game 2: Standish suspends a cloudskate and then another cloudskate and makes a tarmogoyf. When one cloudskate comes in, he bounces a land and attacks for 4. In the meantime, Iain has been drawing a bunch of cards with 2 Careful Consideration. Another Tarmogoyf, another cloudskate, and another bounced land. Damnation gets Delay, and Iain takes 8 dropping to... 8. Second Damnation kills 2 skates and 2 goyfs, and then Standish Psi Blasts Iain down to 4 and plays 6/6 Mystic Enforcer. With no non-black answers, Iain gives up. Game Score: Iain 0, Standish 2
Given that one of the two players was not planning on attending the GP, the finals is an anticlimactic prize split negotiation.
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Posts: 213 | From: Berkeley | Registered: May 2004
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