nice performance of HL players in Utrecht:
gratz to Björn / MMD to 5th place in team competion
Thanks for the lead Vazdru!
I would like to post a short report for my first (and most probably only) “original” Grand Prix Top 8.
I can just say that Team Limited is a blast to play, especially with fellow teammates. The weekend was pure fun! My teammates were Roland Hoyer (formerly Bode) and Mathias Wigge both are retired (semi-)pro players, so I was the noob player of our team this weekend without any life time pro points on my belt (which is now history
). Btw, Roland is quite successful in Team Magic with a nice trophy in his vitrine earned in 2004
We wanted to play GP Utrecht just to have a time out from family and working life and just to have a good time with old fellows. Our intention was to play day one with a positive result and find a good pub to drink a lot of beer and share some good stories from the past in the evening. We all had our Highlander decks with us for day two but in the end we “unfortunately” had nearly no time to play the even better format this time
Roland and I had just read the Gatecrash spoiler and therefore had just a theoretical and very vague understanding of the format. When the dust has settled after the 16 rounds we ended 13-3, so my experience with Gatecrash is now 17 matches in total (I played a 0-1 at the GPT single elimination tournament the day before). Even in the last draft I had to read some cards as was unaware about what they do exactly. Mathias played some Gatecrash drafts online and was our “Gatecrash Limited mentor” and teached us the basics of Gatecrash Limited before round 1 - we had no byes.
Fortunately we received a very good sealed pool. Mostly Mathias built our decks which were:
Mathias - Orzhov – with 12 of the good extort guys and a lot of removal (Merciless Eviction in the sideboard…)
Roland – Simic – just a mediocre Simic deck splashing Gruul Ragebeast, but Roland is the most skillful player from us and won a lot of games because he outplayed the opponent
Me – Boros – above-average overall quality plus four rare/mythic bombs (see below)
We played 8-2 (me 8-2) in Sealed and 5-1 (me 4-2) in Draft. I drafted an excellent Boros in the first (sole Boros player on the table), a good Dimir splashing two Nimbus Swimmer for winning in the second (sole Guild player again) and a very bad Boros in the third draft (second Boros player to the right, shipping me a 4th pick Boros Charm to trap me while I opened a Frontline Medic). My two draft losses were both with the Dimir Deck.
Some personal highlights:
- Getting three deck checks on day two !?!
- Most over-the-top decision I had to make this weekend: What card to play after drawing Angelic Skirmisher with a hand consisting of Aurelia´s Fury, Assemble the Legion and Gideon with a balanced board and life total
- Honorable mention win out of a tight spot: Racing the much better Boros Deck in Round 15 with my Court Street Denizen and two Knight Watch in a row.
- Bad play of the weekend: Playing Aerial Maneuver on my sole attacking 3/2 Halberdier before my opponent declared his block with his flashed in Shambleshark
(Side note: Aerial Maneuver was my pet card that weekend but Mathias forbid me to play it Maindeck, so I had to sideboard it in every time on day one
I was so happy with the occurring game state that I immediately slammed the Maneuver after my opponent flashed in his creature…)
- Most memorable play of the weekend: Last Round of the GP. Total Match score 12-3, while 4 losses will drop us out of the Top 8. Team match score 1-1. Game score 1-1. On the draw. Mulligan to 6 with a weak Boros deck against a good Simic built. My two teammates are sitting left and right to me playing the game together with me. Opponent on 14 life. Five-Alarm Fire (one counter) in play. Play a 1/1 dork before the attack phase. Attacking with four 2/2 creatures into a 2/3 and a 5/5 creature (tapped out opponent). Playing Massive Raid for 5 damage to the head before trading the creatures 0-2 and dealing another 4 damage to him with the two unblocked attackers. Finally finish him off with the now fully loaded Five-Alarm Fire for exactly 14 damage in that turn to win the total match for my team and finishing GP Utrecht in the Top 8!
Unfortunately we just missed Top 4 which received not only another 1500 bucks but also the flight to PT San Diego.
I usually play blue based decks for my whole magic life but after this weekend and 12-2 with Boros I have now a new weapon of choice. See you in Hanau on April, 20th to fight out the next Highlander! Prepare to get smashed and burned!
@ Peeler: I am finally enlightened by the god of war!
Btw: Crazy Planeswalker points. I verified how many Planeswalker points the Top 8 should gain me which will be about 380 points. Cumulated with my current season points this will be about 380 points in total
, so I will not be allowed to play the WMCQ which will be on the same day as the HLGP as the participating threshold is 500 points. However, I wouldn´t played WMCQ anyway. I just wondered about the weird system.
