European Championships report
By Manuel "Poulidor" Bevand

Hey all!

Here's another report from the land of fried frog legs and soccer. I
embarked on a dangerous trip to the far city of Brussels (at least 5
hours of train, boo) on thusday morning. I won't describe the trip as I
know most of you really don't care, and also because it was pretty
uneventful.

All I'll say is that the trip ended in the lobby of the Holiday Inn at
the Heyzel Exhibition Park in Brussels. It was a small and expensive
hotel with tiny overpriced rol and expensive
hotel with tiny overpriced rooms, but heh, we used the traditionnal
travellin' magic player trick (we gathered 5 people in a 2-people room).
As the first day of competition was 6 rounds of type 2 I had to do some
"playtesting" (actually, pretourney scouting) with a fake sligh deck,
while my real deck (the monoblue I took at nationals) was resting. I met
with Sigurd Eskeland and the other norwegians there. Sigurd changed
decks about a hundred times then decided (a not-so-wise move) to copy my
deck, as my roommates had decided to do.

Here it is:

4 Counterspell
2 dissipates
1 Dismiss
1 Forbid
1 Force Spīke
2 Powersink
2 Memory Lapses
2 Mana Leaks
1 Desertion

1 Suqata Firewalker
1 Ophidian
4 Steel Golems
4 Disks
4 Legacy's allure

4 Impulse
4 Whispers

4 Quicksands
2 Stalking Stones
16 Islands

Sideboard:

1 Rainbow efreet
1 Air elemental
2 Vision Charm (TECH!!)
2 Disrupts
1 Ice Floe
4 Hydroblasts
3 Bottle Gnomes
1 Treasure Trove

Now the Tournament! I didn't note opponent's name but I remember a few.

Round 1 - Nicolai Herzog, Norway, Sligh

Game 1 - I usually lose game 1 vs Sligh, this one was no exception,
though I almost gained control

Game 2 - I usually sweep sligh after SB, but this time I got a poor
draw, my only late game counters being powersinks, and he had more mana
than I did, so the fireblasts just killed me.

0-1

Round 2 - A spanish player using Bloom

Game 1 - he starts with 3 Islanpanish player using Bloom

Game 1 - he starts with 3 Islands, so I quickly play a legacy's allure
(thinking he ran monoblue), then he starts playing other lands and I
feel not as secure. He starts the combo, memory lapses me 3 times and
goes off. BUt he empties his pool to cast a second natural balance and
has no green mana left and no bloom in play. No forests come out of the
deck. He tries to play a city fo Brass, but we're not sure if he played
a land or not already, so we call the judge which rules in my favor,
since my opponent didn't use anything as a "played a land" counter. I
win the first game.

Game 2 - I vision charm twice to mill a tutored card and a lapsed
abeyance (unfortunately I don't catch the drain). Again he starts the
combo with few cards in hand, and leaves me with 2 blue open but only
disrupt in hand. this time he's farly going for the kill, but he makes a
crucial mistake: he discards his whole hand to the bloom but one card
and emtpies his pool for a 13 point prosperity. I disrupt. He has to
discard the drain to play the prosp, so as I charmed him twice he has no
chance of decking me.

1-1

Round 3 - Dominic Symens, Belgium, XCW

Game 1 - he wins because of Winter Orb main deck.

Game 2 - I win because of disrupting his pyroblast on crucial spells.

Game 3 - I win because of disrupt and him not playing winter orb on me
this time.

Very close games, and Dominic was a gentleman. He allowed me to take
something back, because I had alloething back, because I had allowed him in the first game.

Round 4 - Luxembourg National Champ playing monowhite/Humility-scroll

Game 1 - he goes plains-scroll, I'm thinking (damn scroll WW I'm dead)
but then he plays a diamond, so I reply with ophidian, draw about 20
more cards, and win.

Game 2 - Third turn golem then 10 counters to back him up, I win despite
his Peace of Mind.

3-1

Round 5 - Scottish player with an original Red-Green Graveyard
manipulation deck

Game 1 - I win without relaly understanding what's happening, though he
almsot managed a comeback. He's playing with firewhip, nature's
resurgence, Survival of the fittest, hammer, phoenix ...?

Game 2 - I draw a single dissipate as a counter for the whole game, I
die

Game 3 - I draw a single desertion as a counter for the whole game, I
die

That was a bit frustrating, I think I should have won despite the bad
draws.

3-2
Round 6 - Dutch player with Bloom

Game 1 - He sinks me, goes off but doesn't see a balance and loses.

Game 2 - He sinks me again, goes off, doesn't draw enough draw cards and
loses.

So I'm 4-2, 37th seeded after the first day.

DAY 2 - Rath Cycle rochester Draft

I knew almost nobody was gonig to go for green , so my only original
plan was to draft green early if nobody else picked it.

Draft 1 - VERY TOUGH table with Lukas Ladra, Mattias Jorstedt, Gabriele
Pissichio, Michael Sochon...

I draft a weird green-white full defense d.

I draft a weird green-white full defense deck, with a cool Oath of
Lieges/Constant mists combo.

Round 7 - Gab Pissichio

Game 1 - I have a single plains but I don't mulligan (I have oath). I
didn't draw a land the whole game. I discarded 10 times. I lose.

Game 2 - I draw the oath/mist combo but first attempt is counterspelled.
I die.

All VERY frustrating.

4-3

Round 7 - Michael Sochon (Feature Match? what the hell? :)

I was eager to take revenge from nationals (Sochon was my only loss in
the 12 preliminary rounds). We played quite relaxed with jokes flying
over the table all the time, so that was cool.

Game 1 - He rolls over me (he runs red/green and got ALL the spieks at
our table :( even the cannibal).

Game 2 - I establish defense and kill him with my only flier (spirit
enkor).

Game 3 - he plays a heartwood treefolk, but I pacify it at 10 life.
We're in a stalemate (he has frog tongue to deal with my Spirit) but
then he draws and plays tranquility, builds a 10-11 treefolk and
attacks, so I can constant mist my way to victory.

5-3

Round 9 - Kai Lange (Germany I believe) playing red/black with cool
gamebreakers (corpse dance, recuring nightmare ..)

Game 1 - I just draw all my good creature and rush him as I went first,
I win because of temper.

Game 2 - We're engaged in a very long game. He gets Corpse dance
rolling, but I have COP: Red and some defense so I can stop him from
killing me. We draw and draw lands, until killing me. We draw and draw lands, until I finally get a lancers en-kor
(the trample one) so I can attack and get him low on life. One turn
before I kill him, time is called, but I win the match anyway.

6-3

Draft 2

Again I'm with Mattias Jorstedt, 2 other french players, one of the good
spanish players and random guys.

this draft was exceptional. I went monogreen. 5 players fought for red,
4 for blue, 4 for black ... I got all the green cards! (at least before
everyone started to draft against me :). I built a monogreen
monstruosity with lots of big critters as you can guess, but also
Skyshaper (gamebreaker) and flying-shadow defense, and 3 OVERGROWTH!

Round 10 - Mattias Jorstedt, Sweden, Green-Red

Mattias switched to green when he saw I was the only one drafting it, so
it got him the opportunity to draft good cards.

Game 1 - I just put down the fattest creatures ever while he has
fireslinger and mage il-vec. I draw the skyshpaer for the kill, but that
was not needed.

Game 2 - He runs over me with early creatures and maniacal rage, then
flame wave for the kill.

Game 3 - I stall him as he's a bit manahosed and can hardly defend, then
I play skyshaper for the kill.

7-3

Round 11 - A german player with Green-blue-black

Game 1 - I just stomp on him with largest creatures.

Game 2 - He races me with shadow and wins.

Game 3 - I should win cause I play first, but he gets a perfect start
against me (regenerator turn 2 enchanted with predatory hunger). I can't
get through as his flying kills me.

7-4

Round 12 - Xiao-Gun cheng (spelling?), France, Monoblack weenie

Game 1 - he tries to rush me but I play the fat guys who stop his
offense and then skyshaper for the kill.

Game 2 - same kind of stalemate, except that I didn't draw the skyshaper
but the spike feeder. Predatory Hunger on a Basilisk is kinda cool, let
me tell you.

8-4

So I finish 29th, earn $575, play in the nightly team event, lose in
quarters, go find some sleep, watch the finals on sunday, watch Sturla
Bingen beat Jakub Slemr in the finals, then hurry to find a bar that
shows the World Cup finals. France beats the hell out of Brazil 3-0 and
wins its fisrt soccer World Title ever. A good weekend, after all :).

Now the traditonnal Props/Slops thingie:

Props to:

- Sturla for winning it all.
- Jakub for being Jakub.
- Tommi Hovi, for the chips.

Slops to:

- French players, none in the top 8, we suck.
- Mikko Makipaa, next time play a real deck :) (just kidding).
- The judge staff that ruled wrongly during my match vs Mattias
Jorstedt. Get a clue.
- The commentaries during the finals ... why in hell wouldn't you let 2
good players do the commentaries?! I dunno, Sigurd Eskeland and Chris
Manners would have been perfect! Even Olle Rade or Kurt Foket! Even
myself! Hum .. ok maybe not me, but anyone would have been better. Chris
"65th" Pikula and Brian Weisman do it on the Tour, why does Europe has
to be forsaken !? Face it, you guys may be good judges, but you are
mediocre players or game analysts.

That's all for the rambling folks,

Manuel "Poulidor" Bevand
Team Legion
1998 french nationals RUNNER-UP :)