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The One - Autumn Qualifier in Frankfurt, GER

Started by PhilR, 06-11-2016, 03:06:46 PM

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PhilR

Hello fellow Highlander players,
the Autumn The One Qualifier tournament is over and I´d like to share my experiences with you. It was the first "big" Highlander tournament I ever attended, and with 46 players fighting for t8 it was a blast.
I am a regular at the Mannheim Community and therefore used to a certain meta, being mostly 4c-blood, UR and RDW. In Frankfurt, there was a much bigger diversity. I sleeved in my BWr Planeswalker deck (https://deckstats.net/decks/68829/600463-mardu-superfriends , suggestions to improve the deck are appreciated) and hoped not to be paired against my comrades.
We played 6 rounds and top 8. Unfortunately I was not able to make the cut with 12 points going 4-2, only losing to 2 Mannheim players I regulary played with. Since my memory is already fading, I can only share the highlights, both winning and losing me games.

MVP of my deck was, by far, Queen Marchesa. While I had struggle to draw her in my preparation duels against my friend the weeks before the tournament started, I still chose to play her. Especially after many discussions with Ma Qi, who was certain that the card fits in Mardu Superfriends. And boy, was he right. I resolved the lady around 6 times, and she drew me approximately 20-25 cards. A true powerhouse. Even losing the monarch after a few rounds wasnt that big of a deal since the damage was already done and my card advantage led into 2-3 planeswalker on the board, which is hard to deal with for almost every deck. That said I managed to dodge all the RDW decks, so I have no idea wether I could have performed that well getting paired against these decks.
Since my pile is quite strong against midrange decks, I was fortunate to get paired against Boros in the first match. Both times I drew a lucky Wurmcoil soon which made the enemy swords much worse. G1 was decided by an Anguished Unmaking, which I resolved in my enemies combat phase to get my Wurmcoil out of an Oblivion Ring. Too much value and therefore a scoop. G2 I just got the value train going and won without a highlight.

2nd Matchup was Mono B Aggro. G1 was decided by Liliana, the Last hope, which took away so much pressure. Both games I resolved Marchesa and it is stupid to say the least how much I get value out of a Phyrexian Arena without downsides.

3rd Matchup was against my friend Jan-Hinrich Rabe. I hoped to dodge this pairing. Jan is the one I play Highlander the most with so he knew my deck in and out, knows my playstyle and knows the matchup. GW Eldrazi ramp has quite a strong matchup because many of my removal spells are a blank draw against his many many ETB effects and cast triggers. G1 I resolved Ajani, and with 12 points of burn in my hand I decided to burn him down to 6 hp, leaving Ajani with 2 counters and a Fiery Confluence in my hand. Unfortunately, my worst nightmare Emrakul, the promised End hit the battlefield the following turn, killing my Ajani (helix your own face), wiping my own board (Fiery Confluence mode 3 dmg to all creatures), leaving me with nothing but lingering Souls. Which is quite bad since Emrakul has trample. 2nd Game was just bonkers for me, discard into Liliana of the Veil into another discard was too much for him to handle. G3 was a close one, but Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger sealed the deal. I tried to come back, being able to exile Ulamog with Plowshares, but since Jan had a Sylvan Library in play, I just had no way to stabilize against his card advantage.

The 4th match was yet another Mannheim comrade, UR control, played by Christian Hauck. Well, this is not unwinnable, but all the Landhate makes it difficult for me. G1 was decided by an early Blood Moon, while G2 was a close one. Marchesa drew me around 4-5 cards. Ruination and Magus cut me down to 4 lands, but 2 plains, 1 swamp and 1 mountain said that I could continue playing. Then I had a tough decision. I got him down to 5 hp, and knew he had creature removal against my only thread, thalia. I could burn down the Magus and eventually win with the Monarch card advantage, or I could use my burn to end the game quickly. I chose the latter, which unfortunately was the wrong decision. Brought him down to 2, but With no lands drawn in the 10 cards I got within 5 rounds (I didnt care which land. since magus of the moon was in play, any land would have made me red mana) I couldnt play 2 burn spells in one round, and each and every of the 4 (!) lethal spells I had got countered. He took the monarch and ended the game.

5th game as against Sultai Midrange. Again, midrange matchups are favorable for me, but I had not as much exprience against the blue ones since the only Mannheim player who used to play these kinds of decks chose to adept to Mannheim UR meta, playing UBr control. After 2 close games going 1-1, Marchesa hit the field again and made the Superfriends party happen. 4 resolved planeswalkers, 2 of them in ultimate range. Tough to lose, is it? Well, I almost threw this game. My opponent was on 7 lands. Daretti, Ingenious Ionoclast was on 7 and boy, I always wanted to use his Ultimate to get 4 Wurmcoils in play. Ajani was on 7. So i could Armageddon his side and he couldnt counter - Force of will was already gone. I smiled, and used Ajani ult. 2 of my friends who watched the game took a suprised breath and ran away, not to spoil anything - it seemed they saw something I didnt. Well, it was the Titania on the opponents side of the field. 7 5/3 tokens. In the End, the 4 Wurmcoils made the cut. But one of the other planeswalker was Ob nixilis with enough counter to simply kill Titania before the Armageddon.

The Last game was against UWR. Unfortunately, none of these were real games, since my opponent struggled hard with lands, not getting double white in g1 and stuck on 2 lands g2.

All in all I had a very pleasant experience, only losing to comrades and getting to play against decks I never faced before. Kudos to Ma Qi, Kai Gonzales and all the other tournament organizer!

Vazdru

#1
Hey Phil,

thx for your report. I've enjoyed reading.

Here my resumé of The One - Autumn Qualifier.

After some medicore rather weak performances with 4c Blood at Frankfurt WMCQ Sideevent and MGM in Berlin I've needed a change.
As I still believe 4c Blood is one of the best decks around (and the downfall was caused more by sloppy plays but by the deck itself) I took it as shell for my Council Abzan and only changed the red spells to the next best WGB-Spells which haven't made the cut in my latest 4c Blood Deck like Brimaz, Fauna Shaman, Garruk Relentless etc. I've added my built to mtgpulse already http://mtgpulse.com/event/26238#346419.

I've had the idea to play more basics as I've expected a mass of RDW and Izzet-Control decks which have knocked out my 4c Blood by a single hate-card far too often. In fact non-basic-land-hate is still quite dangerous for my Abzan so I maybe have raised my matchup vs named decks marginally by maybe 2-3% while lowered vs most other match-ups same way. So it was more or less a mental thing.


First round I've played vs local Paul B. with 4c Blood, 21st after Swiss
It is coin-flip and depends mostly on better draws which I've had in both games.
1:0 // 2:0

Second round I've played vs Mats J. from Mannheim with UBr-Control, 34th after Swiss
In game 1 I've had the chance to capture the role of the control-player as he had no answer vs Tasigur+Karakas so I created some cardadvantage which lead to a safe win.
In game 2 I've had full control with Tasigur, Thrun, Sorin vs his empty board and 30-13 lp. Then Fact or Fiction resolved. I misordered the revealed cards and Mats played Jace TMS bounced Tasigur and went down to 8 with next swing. I replayed Tasigur but next turn he used 5 lp for Toxic Deluge going down to 3 life. I bounce Thrun instead of Tasigur so his Blood Moon crushed me as i haven't had the chance to play a single spell out of my 7 cards hand. He slowrolled his mountain all game and as I gave him Jace TMS + Blood Moon i've ruined myself. But as I was on 30 lp and he had only 2 minutes left till overtime I survived this situation on 10 lp quite luckily.
2:0 // 3:0:1

Third round I've played vs Philip E. from Mannheim with RDW, 7th place
He won the roll and curved out so I've had no chance to survive turn 6 in game one. In second game I've had the better creatures and lifegain so I can stand his ambush. In game 3 he had to mulligan to 5 to keep a one-lander with Lava Spike and Grim Lavamancer. I curved out this time with 2drop, 3drop into Garruk Relentless which took down Grim Lavamancer for a concession.
3:0 // 5:1:1

Round four i faced Jan-Hinrich R. from Mannheim with Gw-Eldrazi-Ramp as featured match, 18th place
Game one he crushed me to pieces as I've had no chance to beat this Ulamog, the ceaseless Hunger. I've had to bounce it once with Karakas to stay alive but in the end there was no way out.
He keeps a medicore hand in game 2 and I've had something like T2 Lotus Cobra into T3 Brimaz + Tarmogoyf.
Game three was more like a thriller but I've made the right play by killing his Wall of Roots with Shriekmaw Turn 2 instead of playing my first critter as he was screwed after that for a turn or two which gave me the edge in this game...but have a look at the coverage which will be online soon probably :)
4:0 // 7:2:1

Round 5 ID vs Andreas A. from Mannheim with RDW, 5th place
Round 6 ID vs Daniel S. from Mannheim with RDW, winner

Quarterfinal vs my buddy Sebastian Z. from Karlsruhe with 4c Scapeshift as featured match - same deck btw which took him to the finals at MGM # 7 http://mtgpulse.com/event/26238#346421
His deck is slightly favoured in this matchup but as small edge I've know how to fight his deck and which hands are keepable and which aren't.
In game 1 he drew a mass of cards with Ancestral Vision and Dig Through Time but can't find a solution for my Aven Mindcensor anyhow which leads to my victory.
In game 2 we both went down to 6 cards and I keep a hand with Wasteland, Sylvan Libary, Aven Mindcensor, Eternal Witness + 2 other non-land-cards. As I've found 2 lands after scrying I can outbeat him easily with some land destruction + Aven Mindcensor as he can't develop any preasure anyhow.
5:0:2 // 9:2:1

Semifinals vs Sebastian N. from Mannheim with Scapeshift ...again
He had some weak draws and me Aven Mindcensor again which I can protect long enough to win game one.
Game 2 was on camera again. I will link the vids as soon they are available on YouTube.
6:0:2 // 11:2:1

Finals vs Daniel S. from Mannheim with RDW
I tried to revive my concentration with doping which didn't worked that well. Furthermore I've had too many mulligans vs a nice curve from Daniel. Anyhow I should have had a chance in both games but took the wrong decisions in the end and overlooked Koth Ultimate at 5 loyality in game two which sealed my final loss.
6:1:2 // 11:4:1

I've enjoyed the tournament very much. Nice people, decent location and organisation flowed!
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.

Maqi

The "The One - Autumn Qualifier" is in the books. The tournament was a blast and I want to thank everybody who participated and those who helped with organizing the event. Congratulations to Daniel Scherer and Gerry Stahl who qualified for the finals.

This is shaping up to be the "Red Autumn" with MGM, "The One" and the "Library of Slovakia" tournaments being won by RDW. Randy Buehler would just say: "Wow!". Also, Skred Red winning Modern GP Dallas adds to the domination of Mono Red these days.

Here are the results of the tournament:

Final Standings ( after top 8 ) - The One Autumn Qualifier 2016                              
                              

   Rank      Player      Pts      Deck      OMW%   
   1      Scherer, Daniel      25      RDW      61,2963   
   2      Stahl, Gerry      20      Abzan Midrange      62,0370   
   3      Nötzel, Sebastian      18      Scapeshift      43,7037   
   4      Hauck, Christian      16      Izzet Control      56,4815   
   5      Atzori, Andreas      14      RDW      57,4074   
   6      Ziesche, Sebastian      13      Scapeshift      55,5556   
   7      Ehrle, Philip      13      RDW      52,7222   
   8      Hittel, Matthias      13      Sultai Control      51,7963   
   9      Rosenberger, Alexander      12      Izzet Control      54,5741   
   10      Rilke, Sebastian      12      Hermit Combo      53,1482   
   11      Hintze, Joern      12      Suicide Black      51,9815   
   12      Redl, Philip      12      Mardu Control      50,8704   
   13      Groh, Sebastian      12      GW Hatebears      50,8148   
   14      Muench, Jan      10      5c Oath ComboControl      60,1852   
   15      Behnert, Carsten      10      4c Blood      52,6667   
   16      Stier, Thomas      10      Izzet Control      48,0926   
   17      Feige, Bernhard      10      Izzet Control      47,1111   
   18      Rabe, Jan-Hinrich      9      GW Eldrazi Ramp      66,6667   
   19      Zimmermann, Martin      9      Mono U Control      56,4259   
   20      Lauter, Alban      9      Jeskai AggroControl      54,7593   
   21      Brenndoerfer, Paul      9      4c Blood      54,5741   
   22      Tobisch, Tim      9      RDW      53,8333   
   23      Lehmann, Ronald      9      4c DarkBant      52,7222   
   24      Hauck, Manuel      9      Gruul Beatz      50,9259   
   25      Nelle, Robin      9      Gruul Beatz      45,2593   
   26      Dietrich, Tobias      9      High Tide      42,6111   
   27      Deutscher, Markus      8      Jeskai Twin      50,8148   
   28      Walter, Manuel      7      Esper Midrange      39,5926   
   30      Knauer, Max      6      Sultai Midrange      63,8889   
   31      Ebert, Marvin      6      Gruul Beatz      53,6482   
   33      Yang, Xiaoliang      6      Jeskai Control      52,6667   
   34      Johansen, Mats      6      Ubr Control      49,0185   
   35      Balikci, Hüseyin      5      Golgari Midrange      43,4074   
   36      Gölz, Markus      5      4c BloodPattern      41,0444   
   37      Detzner, Denis      4      5c PW Control      51,7408   
   41      Ravano, Patrick      3      Jund Midrange      40,8704   
   42      Lewis, Dominik      2      Orzhov Control      39,8333   
   44      Haussmann, Georg      1      Rakdos Midrange      36,8148   
                              
Dropped players (in alphabetical order)                              

   Rank      Player      Pts      Deck      OMW%   
   -      Diefenbach, Claus      -      Boros Aggro      -   
   -      Dimlagard, Romain      -      Naya Midrange      -   
   -      Farnung, Benjamin      -      Esper Control      -   
   -      Hohenberg, Thomas      -      RDW      -   
   -      Kaiser, Benny      -      U(w) Control      -   
   -      Yuyubov, Alexander      -      4c Blood      -   
   -      Zanotti, Danilo      -      UG Midrange      -   
   -      Zarges, Florian      -      Mono G Ramp      -   

Top 8 and some top 16 decklists can be found here: http://mtgpulse.com/event/26238

Stay tuned for the overall leaderboard and some more infos.                        

Maqi

Leaderboard "The One - 2016/2017"


Player

Points

avg. OMW%

already qualified

Stahl, Gerry

35

59,3254

Q

Scherer, Daniel

31

53,7686

Q

Hauck, Christian

31

53,4709


Ehrle, Philip

27

56,9828


Nötzel, Sebastian

27

48,1744


Stier, Thomas

25

54,1588


Thiemann, Kai

22

55,5923

Q

Vey, Alexander

19

58,0244

Q

Hittel, Matthias

19

55,8365


Rosenberger, Alexander

19

54,4198


Zimmermann, Martin

19

53,6374


Behnert, Carsten

19

52,3473


Hauck, Manuel

18

51,2068


Yang, Xiaoliang

18

48,1575


Dietrich, Tobias

15

49,2222


Lehmann, Ronald

15

48,1204


Templin, Paul

14

62,3677


Atzori, Andreas

14

57,4074


Zarges, Florian

13

55,8836


Ziesche, Sebastian

13

55,5556


Feige, Bernhard

13

47,1667


Rilke, Sebastian

12

53,1482


Hintze, Joern

12

51,9815


Redl, Philip

12

50,8704


Groh, Sebastian

12

50,8148


Hohenberg, Thomas

12

49,1508


Ziemes, Malte

12

39,6482


Muench, Jan

10

60,1852


Rosengren, Lars

10

57,2752


Franke, Jörn

10

52,6451


Iacono, Giuseppe

10

50,7932


Rabe, Jan-Hinrich

9

66,6667


Lauter, Alban

9

54,7593


Brenndoerfer, Paul

9

54,5741


Tobisch, Tim

9

53,8333


Flinkert, Sven

9

48,6543


Fischer, Tom

9

46,4167


Nelle, Robin

9

45,2593


Kannegiesser, Thomas

9

39,25