GP Italy (Como) Report
By Manuel "Poulidor" Bevand, Team Legion

Hey all,

On Friday morning I and 3 friends (Gilles Martineau from my hometown
Lyon, Julien Oriol and Christian Chapuis from Saint-Etienne) met at
the train station in Lyon. We were supposed to get to Milan then Como
by train, but unfortunately the italians train drivers were on strike
this weekend. To strenghten the difficutly, the french truck drivers
are also on strike and blocking roads and highways, making car trips
hazardous. But as we were highly motivated we rented . But as we were highly motivated we rented a car for the
weekend and went on a 6-hour drive directly to Como, Italy.

On saturday we went to the tournament location, which was the beautiful
Villa Olmo. I think no nicer place has ever hold a magic tourney. The
Como town itslef was quite awful, old and ugly, but the Villa was a
wonderful piece of architecture with an awesome inside. This had a lot
of charm and pleased everyone.
Now to the tourney. First day was a 6 round swiss sealed deck (5th
starter and 2 visions boosters) with top 64 advancing to sunday.
Wotc had a great idea, they preregistered decks so that we did not have
to fulfill that boring task twice. It left our minds ready for deckbuil-
ding. 211 players only were attending.

I don't remember exactly my saturday deck. It had a lot of heavy green
fatties (Force of Nature, Bull Elephant, Cockatrice *and* Basilisk..),
2 fireblasts, and some good blue cantrips and decisive cards (spout,
undo..). FIrst I thought it was an amazing deck but playing proved it
was way much weaker than I thought.

Sorry I didn't note names, but I think people will recoginze themselves
and/ptr the games.

Round 1 - I have a bye due to my 1755 rating (which should normally
exceed 1800 soon...)

Round 2 - I play against a player from the USA who's in the military
there in Italy.
Game 1 and 2 I get horribly manascrewed. I never have more than 2 lands.
I am playing 18 lands in a 40 cards deck and I have an elf, ards deck and I have an elf, a druid, a
wild growth and 3 cantrips that cost 1-3 mana. ANd I still manascrew.
Damn. I lose 2-0 to fliers with mystic veil on them so that I can NEVER
recover. Anwyay, on to the next round.

1-1

Round 3 - I play against an Italian player, and soon I identify him as
a scrub. He's making some minor mistakes and reading most of the cards
I play.
Game 1 - He plays Gahzban Ogre, Boa, Warthog and Shanodin Dryad in his
first 3 turns. I try to compete in the creature race by playing
Cockatrice and Waterspout, but he runs over me with the dryad. I lose.
Game 2 - I start manascrewed and really feel bad. He has a weenie deck
so he does a lot of damage early with vampire bats and dryad. I tremor
the dryad but can't do much more. I am even forced to fireblast the
bats as he plays krovikan fetish on them. It leaves me with 1 forest.
I draw island and impulse for another land. I play undo. I play druid.
THen he plays Deathgrip. Ouch. I have 5 big green fatties in hand, and
now that I have the mana I still can't play them...:( I manage to get
some defense on the table though, and he dies to my force of nature
which finally comes through.
Game 3 - I start mana short AGAIN; I just can't believe it. He beats me
down with a cloud elemental that I can't stop and play deathgrip again.
While I deal with his ground creatures with tremor and basilisk the
Cloud monster is beating me down fast. I come down to 2 life. He's
goingown to 2 life. He's
going to kill me next turn. He attacks, I play emerald charm on the
elemental. He has 2 black mana but seems worried and DOESN'T counter! I
block with my ambush party and kill the beast! Ten seconds later he
realizes his mistake and just goes "me stupido" (I don't know italian
but I can guess what it means) :). I play an elf the turn after, and he
's so pissed of that he counters. I play bull elephant that he cannot
counter...he concedes.. :) I am such a good player :=)

2-1

Round 4 - Another Italian player.

Game 1 - He starts strong with some knights and breezekeeper but I play
knight of the mist and kill the keeper with the help of one of my
fireblasts. He draws a lot of land..I play force of nature on my 8th
turn, he looks at it amazed and desert twisters it! damn, I beat him
down with my elephant and this is game over.

Game 2 - He starts slow this time and I can play ambush party and some
other fast attackers. He plays a teferis honor guard and some fliers
and counter attacks. We're in a damage race. He takes the advantage by
passaging my ambush party. I try to put more pressure and play bull
elephant after my attack. I'm at 6, and he can only get 3 damage
through...but he rays of command my elephant! that taps him out and I
can safely fireblast the elephant by saccing 2 mountains and finish him
off thereafter.

3-1

Round 5 - Again an Italian player

Game 1 - He wins because his deck is faster. ns because his deck is faster. He has a lot of fast
attacking creatures and some DD. He manages to play a jothull wurm.
I can't stop it.

Game 2 - He starts excellently with fallen askari, primal clay
 and suqata lancer while I'm still looking for mana. I finally draw an
island, impulse for my orangutan, kill the clay, fireblast the lancer
and then block-feral instinct with my orangutan to get rid of the
askari. He looks a bit manascrewed with only 4 lands but he beats me
down to 5 life. I ping him consistently with my rod of ruin and bring
him down to 4. Then he plays squandered resources, with still 4 lands
in play. I say "ouch, I'm dead, he's going to fireball-fireblast-
anything me, but he just plays his jothull wurm. That leaves him almost
landless and it's time for undo...I kill him shortly after.

Game 3 - Not much of a story, he draws only 2 swamps and discards.
He draws a 3rd land and plays crypt rats. I have enough mana to play
my force of nature, but I suddenly realizes that the rat would kill
my ley druid and thus get my force to kill me first!
 I Fireblast the rat and go on beat him with warthog and portent on
him, so that i can show him his next 3 cards that aren't lands. He
concedes.

4-1

At that point I need to intentional draw to get to the top 64. I do
it. I play a few games for fun with my opponent and realize that he
has an amazing deck (pestilence, crypt rats, millstone, fireball, cloud
elemental, viashino sanoud
elemental, viashino sandstalker..). We play 6 games and tie 3-3.
Maybe my deck wasn't that bad...

4-1-1, 30th seeded, going into day 2. My friend Gilles has gone 5-0-1
and is 4th seeded.

DAY 2 -
I get the kind of selaed deck I like. Very few fatties (my biggest
creature is Diabolic Machine, all others are 2-1 or 1-1) but a lot
of control and removal. This time I kept the deck. here's the list:

black:
2 crypt rats, wall of bone, creater werewolf, python, torture, funeral
charm
red:fireblast, dwarven soldier, suqata lancer, sab.tiger, viashino
sandst.
blue: manowar, shimmering efreet, knight of the mist, prodigal sorcerer
impulse, flood, time elemental.
Green:Hurricane
Artifact:Diabolic Machine
Gold: Mundungu
Lands: karplusan forest, quicksand, syvulentie temple and basic lands

Round 7 - Cyrille de Foucaud
Cyrille is a fellow french player and one of the best (T2 rating 1910).
He doesn't like limited though. He plays in a very relaxed and
talkative mode, but can catch you on the slightest mistake.

Game 1 - I play my time elemental early, and start bouncing his
creatures to his hand while I start controlling the board. I finally
get him down with the amazing shimmering efreet.

Game 2 - I gamble with a second turn mundungu (sacrificing my syvulenite
temple) becasue i have a lot of lands in hand. He tremors it, ouch.
it appears that he's playing with several fatties (ogre
enforcer, bull elephant, talruum champ..). I bull elephant, talruum champ..). I play an early wall of bone
followed by diabolic machine (I draw a lot of land) but he counterpsells
it. I torture his cloud elemental but he has several ground pounders
and deals a lot of damage. Then he ray of commands my lancer and kills
me. I have drawn 2/3rds of lands..:(

Game 3 -  He appears a bit manascrewed but starts to recover. I have to
torture his cloud elemental again, and gain control with flood,
mundungu and prodigal sorcerer. He taps out for some creature and I can
hurricane/fireblast him to death.

5-1-1

Round 8 - Alessandro betti I think, a kid with some good gameplay.

Game 1 - He kills me with a huge magma mine and a cloud elemantal (god
I hate that card!!). I didn't draw any creature control.

Game 2 - He's color screwed with only mountains and 1 island. He plays
and replays his talruum champ (I have time elemental in play). He also
has fountain of youth to deal with my prodigal. But the flood comes
in, and I can get my diabolic machine through for the kill.

Game 3 - He looks pleased ad he plays a third turn army ants. I put an
end to his dreams with manowar and then crypt rat of 1 as he replays it.
I start beating him down and flooding his creature away. He still has
that damn fountain of youth, but I can ping him with my 2 sorcerers
enough and annoy him with the "living force spike guy" for several
turns. As a last hope he plays magma mine but I hurricane him for 7
before heurricane him for 7
before he can use it efficiently.

6-1-1

Round 9 - Alexander Blumke

Hey, you don't have the opportunity to play against a world champ every
day! I know Alex a bit, and he's one of the nicest players in the Game.
But he's a really slow player, and as my deck (and, I must admit, my
 playing style) is slow I have to look for the time limit...

Game 1 - I get a really good draw with my 2 rats, my time elemental
(which Alex disintegrates away) and beatdown with knights of the mist
and suqata lancer. Alex is looking for lands with a jalum tome, but
when he has them, it's too late, I have control of the board.I can
finally achieve to win the game in 20 minutes.

Game 2 - Alex starts to build up a large army of panther warriors and
sea serpents, but I can delay the attack with my wall of bone and
some manowar action and several weenies. He has wall of swords but
that can't stop my shimmering efreet to hurt him for 2 every other
turn. He plays a falcon, then a breezekeeper, then an archangel! I
start to think of a good epitaph for my tombstone, but I suddenly
notice my hurricane sitting in my hand (I am missing the karplusan
forest, my only green mana source)...My shimmering efreet phases out..
And I Draw....KARPLUSAN FOREST!!! I say "this is what I call top
decking!", and plays the hurricane for 5. For the first time of the
match, Alex reacts visibly to something I play (he goes like "ho").
This guy isn't only a gre.
This guy isn't only a great player and a nice person, he's also a
psychological wall. I proceed to attack like crazy with my little
army of 2/2s and 2/1s, and finally take him down with my shimmering
effreet and funeral charm to give it +2/-1 while alex is tapped out.

Wow, today's my day.

7-1-1

Round 10 - Michael Debard

Michael has been the french nationals finalist this year, and he's one
of Europe's strongest players (he's been to 3 PT and Worlds). He also
plays "parisian style", which means relaxed and talkative in appearance
but damn serious in reality.

Game 1 - He wins becasue I can't draw a black mana and have 2 rats in
hand. He has a brothers of fire and can kill all my creature with it,
so I cannot recover.

Game 2 - Again, I take early damage but then my deck takes control and
I beat him down with diabolic machine and viashino sanstalker.

Game 3 - I take early control with my 2 sorcerers, but he plays
scalebanes elite! I have no non-black defense in hand except manowar
so I manowar it and have my mundungu ready for the next time he brings
it into play (he only has 5 lands at that point). He draws a land
2 turns after and plays it along with a suqata lancer and proceeds to
beat me down. I have hurricane and firebalst in hand, but only 1
mountain (but I have the karplusan forest) so I start thinking about
getting him down low in life and then go for a surprise kill. My
sorcerers help me to survive a few turns,help me to survive a few turns, and I fireblast him at the
end of his turn. He's a 7. I can attack with my greater werewolf and
bring him down to 5, then hurricane for 5 (I have 6 lands). But he's
got 6 untapped lands, including 2 plains, so I start thinking about
white prevention of life gaining. I attack and funeral charm for 4
damage but he fireblasts my werewolf! I sit here helpless, impulse
and can only find a python. The turn after he goes attack-incinerate
-hurricane boom you're dead. DAmn, that was close.

7-2-1

Round 11 - Another Italian player whose name sounds familiar to me,
probably some PT player. I need to win to have a chance to get to the
top 8.

Game 1 - He threatens me with a breezekeeper but I got a torture on it.
HE plays repentant blacksmith and goes parapet-castle! all his
creatures are +0/+3! Hard time for me. My time elemental kicks in,
and I have to go through tricky paths (bounce parapet and castle to
ping-funeral charm his creatures..). Then my flood arrives and I have
control. My prodigal finally deals some damage, and I can crypt rat
for 3 and fireblast for the kill.

Game 2 - I side in my army ants and am very pleased to see it in my
opening hand. As he let me go first, I play the ants ASAP. HIs benalish
hero pings me for a while, but then I start getting prodigal sorcerer
and suqata lancer, while keeping him under 4 lands. At one point I let
him have a 4th land because I have my manowar in hand and ove my manowar in hand and only 3 lands.
He plays his breezeker which soon is bounced back to hand. Next turn
I go use ants-play emerald charm-untap ants-use ants, and he never
recovers.

8-2-1

While waiting for the final standings I talk with Gilles and he's 8-2-1
too. We both have a chance...the standings are up...and....

(incredible suspens) (drum roll)

I'm 9th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fortunately, Gilles comes in 8th and goes to the draft session. There
are some players in the top 8 that are already qualified (Including
Ireland's Dave Kerney, Menthal on IRC) so I am told that I should get
an invitation to the Tour also.

W0000w0000!

This is gonna be my 4th Pro Tour event. I hope this time I won't screw
up like in Chicago or Paris (118th and 185th respecively).
Gilles loses in quarterfinals to Lukas Ladra, Czech National Champ.
Julien finishes 20th and Christian couldn't make 2nd day, as my poor
teammate Jakub S. from the Czech Republic who got a weak deck. :(

We drive 7 hours back home, all happy and wild as 2 players in our
little rental car are qualified. A pretty good weekend! :)

See you in Mainz !

Manuel "Poulidor" Bevand
Team Legion
Top decking expert against former World Champs (sorry again, Alex)