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MKM Series Frankfurt - Highlander Event 14.05.2016

Started by Vazdru, 15-05-2016, 01:22:07 PM

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Vazdru

47 players have participated in yesterday's tournament

Standings after 6 rounds Swiss, Top 13 Archetypes (all players with 12 points and more)

      
   PLACE            NAME            POINTS      OPP-Score      Archetype   
   1            Thomas Stier            14      66,61%      4c Reanimator
   2            Tom Fischer            14      57,78%      Eggs   
   3            Christian Hauck            14      55,74%      4c Blood   
   4            Manuel Hauck            13      62,04%      Gruul   
   5            Dalibor Szegho            13      61,98%      4c Reanimator   
   6            Bernd Fritsch            13      54,98%      Elves   
   7            Fabian Moyschewitz            13      53,75%      Izzet Control   
   8            Alexander Rosenberger            13      50,93%      Azorius Control   
   9            Marc Bauerett         12      65,74%      RDW
   10            Ronald Lehmann            12      62,04%      Izzet Control      
   11            Christoph Ohlrogge         12      48,09%      Jeskai Control      
   12            Bernhard Feige            12      48,04%      Jeskai Twin         
   13            Sebastian Winkler            12      39,70%      RDW      
Far below the earth
Where the demons hunt the souls of those that sleep
In the city of the Vazdru and the Drin
Where the black flame burns inside the palace fountain.

Dr. Opossum

Top 8 Bracket:


   Quarterfinals      Semifinals      Finals      Highlander   
   Stier, Thomas       Rosenberger               
   Rosenberger, Alexander            Szegho      
                        
   Hauck, Manuel      Szegho            Fischer, Tom   
   Szegho, Dalibor                            
                        
   Fritsch, Bernd         Hauck               
   Hauck, Christian            Fischer         
                        
   Moyschewitz, Fabian   Fischer               
   Fischer, Tom                        



Decklists:

http://mtgpulse.com/event/24550#330648

Dr. Opossum

A short analysis of the tournament:


Decktypes:



Count: absolute number
Mean Place: average of achieved placement (arithmetic mean)
Sd Place: standard deviation of the placement


Archetypes:



Count: absolute number
Mean Place: average of achieved placement (arithmetic mean)
Sd Place: standard deviation of the placement


Color Combination:



Count: absolute number
Mean Place: average of achieved placement (arithmetic mean)
Sd Place: standard deviation of the placement


Color Ratio:



Count: absolute number of decks, which played this color (including splash; at least one source produces and uses this color)
Mean Place: average of achieved placement (arithmetic mean)
Sd Place: standard deviation of the placement


Key Cards:



Count: absolute number
Mean Place: average of achieved placement (arithmetic mean)
Sd Place: standard deviation of the placement
Color %: x% of all [color] decks played this card


Anomalies:

- count of erroneous + not corrected deck lists is remarkably high (6 of 47 deck lists)
- 46 players are on the final standings (including dropped players!), despite 47 players hand in their deck list -> player was removed before the first round or disqualified (?)


Please consider that this analysis is only a tiny sample concerning the overall meta. Therefore, it should not be interpreted as "statistical meta analysis", but can be indeed seen as a "reference point".

ChristophO


Thx for the effort!

It would be really great if you could include the raw data, though.
So just a list of placement, points, dech type. Currently you have not posted that info for the deck types with multiple representatives.
For example, now I cant have a look myself at the data and just ignore bottom half or bottom third to reduce impact of inexperienced players on results.
Maybe somebody else wants to have a look at something neither of us has thought about. That's why it is very important to gather raw (uninterpreted) data
for the beenfit of the community. (I know - deck type is already an interpretation but uploading 47 deck lists is neither practical nor feasible).   
Anyhow we had a long talk about the topic of to decide which categories to use and I feel quite confident that we have achieved quite good deck type definitionswhich makes the "interpretation" quite trustworthy.

I am quite surprised by the numbers of archtypes and the dominance of midrange numbers-wise. It felt differently for me in the upper half of the field. Combo certainly performed much better than any other archtype. Average placement of the combo guys 6,75!  Which combination of the followeing factors causes that result: small sample size, great players only chosing combo, deck strength?

Dr. Opossum


Maqi

I'd be interested in a statistic of team "moon, b2b and/or pop" vs. team "3+ colors". Comparison of avg. place.

Maqi

Here is a 'little' report I wrote. I hope you enjoy it:

MKM Tournament Series – Frankfurt am Main – Highlander Side Event

Notable Highlander events don't come often. The upcoming MKM Highlander was advertised as just a side event of the big Modern tournament, yet I still estimated an attendance of about 40 players. I'm always very excited for those out-of-the-monthly-schedule tournaments anyways! In the end it was 47 players, which is fine.

This time around, I forced myself to not play 4c Blood. Not because the deck isn't strong anymore or I didn't like it anymore. I just needed a change of pace. In the past, whenever a bigger tournament came around, I either was set on 4c Blood way before or I would dabble into several different archetypes beforehand only to find myself audible to 4c Blood last minute. This approach usually went well but I had the feeling I didn't grow as a player by piloting the same deck in every major tournament. I always brew stuff but never take those brews to the level of refinement I've achieved with 4c Blood.

So, now that I had forbidden myself the 'safe choice', the question was: "What should I play?"

I wanted something spicy. A deck with flashy and powerful plays, strong interactions and deep decision trees. After a little pondering and browsing through my card-pool I discovered an inconspicuous red dude in my SOI Prerelease stack: Insolent Neonate.

A new turn one discard enabler that digs you deeper towards action. Worse than Hapless Researcher but only by a small margin. My deckbuilding neurons started firing and soon after I was set on brewing Reanimator.

Building Reanimator

I already had some experience with the archetype. I played the deck in some local tournaments and in casuals. But as I mentioned, I never went super deep into the refinement stage. I would get four to five painful losses in a row and would discard the deck, hopping to the next archetype.

One thing I had previously learned is that most lists play too few creatures for my taste. There are those Reanimator lists, which play only about 13 haymaker creatures. These decks most of the time behave like a control deck which eventually reanimates a fatty for the win or they even try to win with the Dark Depth/Thespian Stage combo after a rather prolonged game.

I never really liked this approach too much. I wanted to go the other route: Maximizing early reanimation potential by upping the sheer number of combo pieces (creatures to reanimate, reanimation spells and discard outlets) while still maintaining a reasonable lategame.

In order to achieve this I cut some holy cows, notably Life from the Loam (which I deemed too slow), Liliana of the Veil and the Stage/Depths-combo. Also, I cut way down on lands. You really only need two lands in your starting hand. Most hands with four or more lands are mulligans anyway. Usually, Bazaar of Baghdad and your digging discard spells will typically find you more lands in time and Maze of Ith, Bazaar of Baghdad and The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale might tap for mana through Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth or Riftstone Portal. Consequently, I went down to 32 mana lands.

Furthermore I didn't run creatures which I deemed too situational, namely Resolute Archangel and Magister of Worth. I wanted my possible t2 haymaker to be able to win the game on its own. Also: Magister sucks with Living Death... ;)

I added the aforementioned Insolate Neonate and Hapless Researcher. Upping the number of Oath of Druids blanks was fine for me since I also raised the fatty count to 20.

Now, since I wasn't playing Life from the Loam to grind out games and eschewed the lands combo, I really needed ways to force through my one-two punches of discard a guy/reanimate against those pesky Counterspell wielders (read: blue mages). For a while I ran Boseiju, Who Shelters All, but ultimately chose to cut it because it was a real liability against Midrange and RDW.

One approach I chose was to play counterspells myself in the form of Mana Drain, Remand and Swan Song. I also included some instant mana denial with Fire//Ice and Beast Within. Those spells together with the discard triad of Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek and Duress formed my "force-through" package.

I tuned the deck in a way to better beat aggressive strategies like RDW or Blood (by raising the likelihood of assembling the combo parts early enough). I think I might have weakened it a bit too much against control decks by cutting Life from the Loam and have already added it back into the deck. It has a unique effect and provides much needed grinding capabilities especially against control decks.

Overall, through my testing I was pleased with the deck's consistency and power and I learned to mulligan aggressively, since the deck will naturally produce very awkward hands sometimes.

Here's what I played:

4C Monsters

Planeswalker [1]
1 Dack Fayden

Creature [23]
1 Anger
1 Hapless Researcher
1 Insolent Neonate

1 Ashen Rider
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Empyrial Archangel
1 Grave Titan
1 Griselbrand
1 Inferno Titan
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
1 Pelakka Wurm
1 Primeval Titan
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Sylvan Primordial
1 Terastodon
1 Titania, Protector of Argoth
1 Trench Gorger
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Wurmcoil Engine

Sorcery [20]
1 Buried Alive
1 Careful Study
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Dread Return
1 Duress
1 Exhume
1 Faithless Looting
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Life // Death (Life)
1 Living Death
1 Personal Tutor
1 Reanimate
1 Show and Tell
1 Stitch Together
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Thoughtseize
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Vigor Mortis
1 Zombify

Instant [16]
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Beast Within
1 Crop Rotation
1 Fire // Ice
1 Firestorm
1 Frantic Search
1 Intuition
1 Izzet Charm
1 Makeshift Mannequin
1 Mana Drain
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Remand
1 Shallow Grave
1 Swan Song
1 Tainted Pact
1 Wake the Dead

Artifact [1]
1 Expedition Map

Enchantment [4]
1 Animate Dead
1 Dance of the Dead
1 Necromancy
1 Oath of Druids

Land [35]
1 Arid Mesa
1 Badlands
1 Bayou
1 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Breeding Pool
1 Darkslick Shores
1 Flooded Strand
1 Forbidden Orchard
1 Forest
1 Homeward Path
1 Island
1 Marsh Flats
1 Maze of Ith
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Polluted Delta
1 Riftstone Portal
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Snow-Covered Swamp
1 Steam Vents
1 Swamp
1 Taiga
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Tropical Island
1 Underground Sea
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Volcanic Island
1 Wasteland
1 Watery Grave
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills

100 cards


Maqi

Onto the games!

Round 1 – vs. UB Control (Mike Straßburg)

Before the match, my tournament nerves started tingling. I'm always a little nervous during the first round, pretty much in any tournament I play – be it FNM, a GP, a Prerelease or a monthly HL. It really doesn't' matter. I've come around to it though and am usually able to handle it quite well.

G1: I win the die roll and open with Personal Tutor for Demonic Tutor. My hand also contains Titania, Protector of Argoth. The plan is to tutor for Bazaar of Baghdad and dig for reanimation. My opponent plays Island. Inwardly, I'm rolling my eyes in fear and disdain! There are only few openers I despise more than "Island, go".

On my second turn I cast Demonic Tutor and search up Bazaar of Baghdad. I specifically tutored for Demonic Tutor on turn one instead of Sylvan Scrying for two reasons. First, I want to leave me with as many options as possible. If my opponent had dropped Relic of Progenitus on turn one for example, I might have gotten Oath of Druids instead, or something else. Second, I want to camouflage what I am playing. That way my opponent might misjudge me for a different deck. The one little drawback to this line is that my Demonic is gone and I'm left with Sylvan Scrying in the library instead the other way around. But that's fine in comparison.

He plays a Swamp and passes. I drop my Bazaar of Baghdad and spin. I discard Titania, Protector of Argoth and other stuff and find Animate Dead. I also have Duress and Remand. I choose to pass with Remand open. The plan is going for Duress + Animate next turn. My opponent doesn't play into the Remand trap, just deploys an Island and passes.

Now it's time to go for it. I make my third mana land and play Duress. He Mana Leaks. I then proceed to Animate my Titania, Protector of Argoth, which he answers with Force of Will. Ah... those blue mages. So far nothing is lost. He has no pressure and I just have to find another reanimation spell to get going again. That is, until he untaps and plays Back to Basics. Good Game!

Not the start into the tournament I'd hoped for.

G2: I don't remember much of this game. I know I again had Titania, Protector of Argoth, some discard and counters, a Faithless Looting and Makeshift Mannequin. Naturally, the game drags on for a while before Mannequin comes online. Titania eats a removal but I manage to get a 5/3 Elemental onto the board which is sacrificed to a Diabolic Edict soon after. The whole game is kind of a grind, but Titania, Grave Titan and Consecrated Sphinx force enough two-for-ones on my opponent to let me pull ahead. I believe a 5/3 Elemental and a Sphinx of the Steel Wind seal the game in the end.

G3: Again, my memory is blurred here. Once more this game is a grindy one. The one remarkable thing I'm remembering is my opponent's look on his face which is best described as a mixture of shock, loathing and awe when I present Living End as my last trump against his tapped down board, bringing back Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur (aka "The Jin"), Primeval Titan, Sphinx of the Steel Wind and Pelakka Wurm. "Is this card legal?" he asked. Oh yes, you bet it is!

Round 2 – vs. UW Control (Alexander "Rosi" Rosenberger)

Rosi is a buddy of mine and we playtest rather often. The last session between us was just a few days before and it went 5:0 in my favor. I really think Azorius Control is a favorable matchup for me (at least his version of it). Nevertheless, blue cards can always pose problems to my strategy and I'm of course not stoked about playing a friend so early.

G1: He pulls a special trick and forgets to scry after a mulligan to six. I make sure to mention it to him just to make him tilt a little. ;) Of course, the card he could have scried to the bottom is a complete blank: Timely Reinforcements, a card I persuaded him to include in his deck for this very event. What a double taunt!

He loses the game with exactly one card left in his hand against a Consecrated Sphinx on my side dominating him. Guess which card it was!

G2: My hand contains Inkwell Leviathan, Reanimate, some lands and more reanimation spells. I chose to not play a land on my first turn in order to discard the Leviathan. Beginning on turn two, I start trying to cheat it onto the board every single turn but every attempt gets countered. Rosi sticks a Gideon with counter backup and rides the planeswalker to victory. This game went perfectly after script for him.

G3: He has a turn two Jace, Vryn's Prodigy. I have a turn three Iona, Shield of Emeria through Life//Death. I ponder for quite a while which color to choose. In the end I choose blue; mostly because I want to take away his velocity and flexibility. His white cards are more or less not very scary to me. Another reason was, he would only hit his third land drop during his next turn. That leaves him with Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares, Unexpectedly Absent, Council's Judgment and Karakas as outs. If he hasn't one of those, then my Mystical for Mana Drain at the end of his turn would buy me enough time to ride Iona to victory. Even if he had one of those, my Mystical Tutor would find me more action to keep my pressure going (I still have a 4 cmc reanimate spell in hand and Bazaar going). Turns out he doesn't have an immediate answer (he later tells me the blue card he couldn't cast because of Iona is Back to Basics). I tutor for Drain to back up Iona and attack during my turn. He attempts Wrath of God, which I Drain. I gas up a little more with some card filtering and swing. He again tries to Wrath with Jace, Telepath Unbound. I Remand and that's all she wrote.

Round 3 – vs. RDW (Marc Bauerett)

I don't know Marc and I don't know what deck he plays. For some reason, while he shuffles, I am 100% certain that it must be RDW. I don't know why, but I have a good instinct when it comes to telling if somebody is playing RDW or not. Basically there are two types of red players. The one type is rather young, usually uses worn out sleeves. More likely - but not necessarily - those are red sleeves. They tend to move around a lot and are usually either introvert or chatty; though specifically not collected and calm. Then there is the other type of RDW player. Most of the time they're a little older but look rather fit and sporty. They come collected and friendly, have an open attitude and a clean mind – focused. Their habitus suggests they see Magic as a sport. Not as a lifestyle. I don't know how to grasp it better. Marc was of the latter type. His sleeves perfectly white.

With the notion of him being on RDW, I feel a bit relieved. The matchup is rather good for Reanimator though obviously still losable, should I stumble.

G1: I start on Overgrown Tomb, having The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale at the ready. He opens with Zurgo Bellstriker. I deploy the Tabernacle to make him pay for his aggression. He pays, swings (down to 18 life) and adds a Figure of Destiny to his board. I topdeck Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth (!) and now have Beast Within castable. My hand doesn't have much reanimation action otherwise. I kept the hand because of Tabernacle mostly. I'm thinking about blasting one of his two Mountains. This would let him pay for the Beast and start swinging with it. My hand is actually very soft to a 3/3 attacker. I therefore decide otherwise and wait until he attacks. I Beast Within my Overgrown Tomb and ambush his Zurgo Bellstriker. I take one from the Figure of Destiny (down to 17). My plan is to pay the upkeep for the Beast and stall his attacks until I find action. His post-combat Wasteland on my Urborg (!) totally wrecks that plan. I'm left with just Tabernacle. Then I draw Maze of Ith! My land setup looks sketchy at that point, to say the least. With Maze and Tabernacle, I pass the turn.

From there on, a weird game is about to develop. He continues to be stuck on two Mountain even though he Magma Jets me (down to 15) and scrys two. Several turns pass with not much going on on either side.

I am finally able to ditch Pelakka Wurm and Sphinx of the Steel Wind to my yard and have Life//Death as my reanimation spell. I'm at 15 Life. I have 3 non-basics in play (Maze, Tabernacle and a Badlands). My other lands are Swamp, Island and Windswept Heath. I think for a while and choose to play around Price of Progress. I crack the Heath, get Forest (down to 14), play Death on the Pelakka Wurm (specifically not the Sphinx since it would leave me dead to EOT burn into burn on his turn). I go down to 7. He does have Price of Progress! I go down to 1. Then up to 8 again. That was close. The Wurm starts swinging. Over the next couple of turns I prop up my hand with Fire//Ice and Swan Song, feeling a little bit safer. He manages a block with a Mishra's Factory in order to buy himself another turn and goes to exactly two life. I finish him with Fire. Super close game.

G2: I'm on the draw and have the following hand: Blood Crypt, Trench Gorger, Reanimate and four other cards. That's a plan! He opens with Mountain, go. Good! I use my cleanup step to ditch the Gorger. He goes Mountain, Keldon Marauders, pinging me down to 19. On my turn I play Blood Crypt (17 life) and cast Reanimate (9 life). A 30/30 Trampler has entered the stage. He attacks, I block (down to 8). He doesn't have another Mountain. He now needs Fireblast + 4 dmg to finish me off. He doesn't have it and extends the hand.


Maqi

Round 4 – vs. Izzet Control (Fabian "I'm a Machine" Moyschewitz) ;)

Ok, so be it. The non-blue match streak shouldn't last very long it seems. I don't like the Izzet matchup at all. I think it usually is one of the worst matchups for Reanimator since the combination of cheap counterspells, flash creatures, reach and non-basic hate is hard to navigate. Also, Fabian is a veteran pilot of the deck. That doesn't make it any easier. Our last testing session went something like 6:1 in his favor (although I played a very different Reanimator deck then). Let's see how this one goes...

G1: I keep a hand with Fire//Ice, Bazaar of Baghdad, Animate Dead and Duress plus some lands. He is on the play and starts with a turn two Young Pyromancer which is met by my Fire//Ice. On turn four I spin Bazaar and wind up with Consecrated Sphinx and Sphinx of the Steel Wind in the yard. I knock with a Duress which is met by Cryptic Command (counter + draw), I then Animate Dead Consecrated Sphinx. It sticks and draws me two cards. He has no other option but to cast Flametongue Kavu to establish some kind of board presence. Next turn I manage to Stitch Together Sphinx of the Steel Wind. Then I Remand his follow up Stormbreath Dragon for the win.

G2: My hand has: Duress, Sylvan Scrying, Animate Dead and Trench Gorger. Again, that's a plan right there. If I recall correctly, he goes Temple of Epiphany, go. I Duress and see a hand of Brainstorm, True-Name Nemesis, Fiery Confluence and other rather clunky sorcery speed stuff. I take his Brainstorm so that his hand stays more or less like it is right now. He plays a second land and passes. I also play a land and Sylvan Scrying for Bazaar. It resolves. He then opts to tap out for True-Name Nemesis. On my third turn I play Bazaar, spin it and find... drum rolls... Shallow Grave! That's better than Animate Dead for sure. I put the hasted monstrosity onto the board and start searching for lands. Fabian lets me do it. In the middle of the process I ask why he makes me go through it. He only then realizes the haste clause on Shallow Grave and scoops them up. Pretty good draw on my side, I'd say.

So. I'm now 4:0 and on top of the standings. A double ID should lock up top 8. I only need to find opponents willing to draw. My round four match ended rather early and I have time to spectate some matches. I watch the game between Christian Hauck and Dalibor Szegho. Oh boy, what a spectacle it was! Let me reiterate some amazing plays I witnessed between those two masters of their decks.

Round 4 - Christian Hauck (4c Blood) vs. Dalibor Szegho (5c Reanimator)

G2: Dalibor has a turn four Griselbrand with Animate Dead and draws seven, ditching a Resolute Archangel during cleanup among other things. Christian already has Ajani Vengeant in play and looks at three cards through Sylvan Library. There is Thundermaw Hellkite! He casts the Dragon, taps the Griselbrand, serves for 5 and locks down the Demon with Ajani. On his next turn, Dalibor reanimates Resolute Archangel, going back to 20. He then passes. Christian Attacks again with the Dragon, continues to lock Griselbrand and adds several small creatures to his board (which has about seven critters right now). Dalibor untaps, draws 14 with Griselbrand and unleashes an inferno on Christian's board like I've never seen before. Firestorm for 8 (!) can do quite the damage! He then finishes him off with an attack by the Archangel.

G3: This game is played masterfully by Christian. Here's how it goes: He starts with a land and an Elf. Dalibor drops a land, says go. Christian has only one more land in hand (a fetchland), his hand contains Lotus Cobra, Garruk Wildspeaker, Ajani Vengeant and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar among other cards which I don't know. He slowrolls the fetchland and drops Lotus Cobra only. Dalibor proceeds and casts Oath of Druids!

Christian untaps, plays and cracks his fetch, then plays Garruk, untaps his two lands and Arc Trails (!) both of his creatures. Dalibor may now not Oath. He casts Careful Study if I recall correctly and plays a land. Christian deploys Ajani Vengeant with the help of Garruk and his two lands and locks a land on Dalibor's side, who on his next turn has no action. Christian then uses Garruk's untap ability to play Gideon, which ticks up, again not adding a creature to the board. Dalibor can only pass again. Christian calculates, ticks down Ajani for a Helix to the face, ticks down Garruk for a Beast, lets Gideon produce a Knight Ally and plays two small critters (an Elf and a two-drop I think). Dalibor may now Oath. He hits an Iona, Shield of Emeria, naming White. He has no plays otherwise. Christian untaps, drops Bloodbraid Elf (into something), animates Gideon and attacks with his massive Garruk-Overrun-infused squad for the win!

But wait, Dalibor has Crop Rotation into Maze of Ith! Nevertheless, it's just not enough. The second Helix of Ajani seals the deal. What a hilarious match and beautifully played by both players. Much respect!

Round 5 – vs. 4c Blood (Christian Hauck)

ID

Round 6 – vs. Eggs (Tom Fischer)

ID

With a record of 4-0-2 I enter the top 8 at first seat. That's a real upside with Reanimator. Rosenberger manages to crawl into top 8 at last seat. That's nice! But we are therefore paired again.

Quarterfinals – vs UW Control (Alexander Rosenberger)

G1: It's getting late already. Something like half past nine and my memory of the match is hazy. I think I win by an early reanimation of The Jin and having him unanswered.

G2: Rosi starts with a Ponder. My hand is good. I have Crop Rotation, Life//Death and an Empyrial Archangel. I go for the turn one Crop Rotation into Bazaar of Baghdad so that it doesn't get countered. Turns out he has Mental Misstep! I mentally log out of the game at that point. A clear weakness of mine. I should play like nothing had happened but instead I'm already thinking about game three. However, the game drags on forever. I'm always just a little step behind because of that crucial Mental Misstep. Some very tricky situations arise, like the option of me animating his Linvala, the Preserver during combat as a blocker and similar out-of-the-box scenarios. I think I wasn't as sharp as I could have been and consequently lose a match that was still very close in the end.

G3: I have Careful Study, Personal Tutor, Exhume, good mana and an overall good hand. I just need to find reanimation targets. On the play, I decide to lead with the Study just to see if I can randomly hit fat and – should that fail – to better inform what Personal should get. I do hit though! It's The Jin once again. Rosi plays an Island and passes. I go for the Exhume to seal the game right there. He has a Spell Snare at the ready... Geez, those blue mages!

Like game two, this one goes on forever. We are the last quarterfinalists playing. It is already half past ten or so. There comes a point where he has only three Plains and an Island, no other permanents and only two cards in hand. I can reanimate and have the choice between Woodfall Primus and Griselbrand. I choose the Primus to destroy his only blue mana. In hindsight, this was a lazy move and probably wrong. He was only two hits away from dying and I wanted to get the game over without having hard decisions to make. By now, I really think it is Griselbrand at this point. I leave him with both his colors but I gas up so much, that he shouldn't be able to handle Griselbrand and my more than likely follow up play. Instead, he topdecks an Island and has Into the Roil. Then he topdecks a Flooded Strand and has Mystic Confluence. A couple of turns later it's Mystical Tutor into Entreat that seals it for me.

After the game, he tells me the turn two Spell Snare was a topdeck. Oh, that bad beats....

It's always disappointing to lose during top 8 because the win is so near. At least it feels that way. Overall though, I was happy with my deck. Not so much with my decision-making during the quarterfinals. Oh well, now I could at least watch this Eggs deck that was running hot all tournament. Tom Fischer seems to be on fire last winter with consecutive wins at the HL Cup and at the Berlin MGM.

Semifinals – Tom Fischer (Eggs) vs. Christian Hauck (4c Blood)

Tom won the first round, which I didn't watch. Game two Christian was on the back foot after a mulligan to six and an awkward mana draw that only allowed for a slow start of turn two Demonic Tutor for Aven Mindcensor, turn three Aven Mindcensor and then nothing for several turns. Auriok Salvagers on Tom's side could not be handled because Christian was lacking double red for his Lightning Bolt and Lightning Helix in Hand. Also Thundermaw Hellkite couldn't be cast because of this. Falkenrath Aristocrat was held in check by three Thopters and so on.

However, Tom couldn't find a win either. Aven Mindcensor was doing quite the job. Then Eggs did what only Eggs can do. It digged and cycled and searched and cantripped and rebought stuff that would dig and cycle and... you get the gist. The game took forever. Then at some point, Christian was issued a slow play warning after thinking a little longer about how to attack. Naturally, his turn was - in spite of his longer thinking - much shorter than each of the last five individual turns of the Eggs deck before.

In no way did Tom play slow. He managed the Eggs deck fluently, but it lies in the nature of the deck that the turns take very long. I bring this up because I think judges often make the mistake to hand out slow play warnings to the non-combo player because their decisions seem simple at first glance. They are not!

Actually, in this case Christian had to think through all the options which the Eggs deck has, calculate its outs to draw certain things etc. He kind of had to play the combo deck, too. Handing out the slow play warning because the attack was seemingly easy is kind of unfair in my opinion. This, together with the fact of the combo deck is taking disproportionately more time off the clock than the opponent should give a little more leeway to the non-combo player than normally. Anyways, I just wanted to get that out there.

Finally, there came a turn where Tom was left with only Ponder in hand. He casually had 16 mana or so floating but it was mandatory to find something off of the Ponder. Indeed he did find Memory Jar with it, which in turn found the missing combo piece to go infinite with Crucible of Worlds , Fastbond, Zuran Orb. And that was game.

Tom then manages to 2:0 the finals against Dalibor's Reanimator.

Congratulations to Tom for winning the event! It's cool to see Eggs claim its first tournament win on a bigger stage. That deck does some cool things!

Addendum

Ten tricks with Reanimator

- When in doubt - and contrary common practice - crack your fetches first before playing normal lands. Achieving Threshold fast is very important for Stitch Together and Treasure Cruise.

- Terastodon and The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale are BFF! Think about it! Also, Tabernacle functions as a sac outlet for Woodfall Primus and the like.

- Anger bestows haste to all of your creatures. Remember this when you have Grave Titan or Terastodon. Few things are funnier than swinging for an unexpected 18 damage with an Elephant stampede.

- Life//Death has a green side! Life can finish off opponents and gets really nasty with Elesh Norn on the battlefield!

- Crop Rotation is deadly with Titania, Protector of Argoth on the battlefield. Rotate for Wasteland and destroy one of your own lands for three instant 5/3 Elementals.

- Maze of Ith works well with Dance of the Dead. It can save the 1B untap cost by being activated after combat damage has been dealt. Also, opponents tend to forget about the +1/+1 of the Dance. Use this to your advantage. Furthermore, Dance is nice on Sphinx of the Steel Wind or Elesh Norn because of Vigilance.

- Makeshift Mannequin is good with Woodfall Primus (Persist), Inkwell Leviathan and Empyrial Archangel (Shroud).

- Necromancy can be cast as an Instant anytime. Even during your own mainphase. Use this with Woodfall Primus or Ashen Rider for double kills.

- Don't forget you can target yourself with Thoughtseize and Firestorm. Also, Forbidden Orchard and Life//Death can up the number of targets for Firestorm.

- Jin-Gitaxias can be reanimated at the end of your opponent's turn with Necromancy. Necromancy will fall off during cleanup procedures. However, the first thing that happens during the cleanup step is discarding. That way you can Mind Twist your opponent. They won't see it coming! (Even better is Shallow Grave, since The Jin will live until your next end step, netting you a full seven cards before he leaves.)

Dr. Opossum

Wow! Your report is very extensive and informative! Thank you for the effort!  :)

Payron


Vazdru

Quite enjoyable to read!

And thanks for sharing your tricks  ;D some were really new for me and inspiring.
Far below the earth
Where the demons hunt the souls of those that sleep
In the city of the Vazdru and the Drin
Where the black flame burns inside the palace fountain.