Hi to all,

Here's my GP stockholm report. I went to the capital of sweden unsure of
whether it was a good thing or not. I didn't know if I could afford to
lose some more money, time and efforts trying to qualify in such a
random format (TE sealed for those who didn't know). Don't get me wrong,
I love sealed deck and I sincerely think it's more about skill than
luck, but when you're on a low budget you think twice before buying
plane tickets.
Well, Stockholm turned out to be my favorite Grand Prix in several ways.
But let's start wit Prix in several ways.
But let's start with the begining:

Friday:

I take the plane in Lyon, and fly to Stockholm via Frankfurt. I arrive
at 12.30 and head up to Stockholm's magic place, "TV Spelbörsen". There
I met Mikko Makipaa from Finland (AKA Hobbe5 on IRC), and Rickard
Nilsson, a swedish player who offered us to stay at his place. Also
there was Tomi Hovi, who was busy playtesting some new formas of Stasis
decks (who'd have thought? :). I got to visit the city afterwards, I
walked around without a map for 3 hours, and of course I got lost.
Stockholm was way bigger than what I expected! After miraculously
finding the game store, I followed Mikko, Rickard and a bunch of
norwegians (including the adorable Kim Eikefet and her boyfriend and
Sturla Bingen (PT Paris Quartefinalist).

We get to Rickard's house at night after a stop into some good italian
restaurant (what's good about these italian restaurants is that the menu
items rarely change names in other countries..I chose some spaghetti
bolognese cause it was one of the few things I understood in the menu
:). We practised TE sealed deck a bit (I got a deck with 12 shadows and
2 propagandas, that was nasty and effective). We played until 11.30,
then I succombed to sleep.

Saturday!

We head downtown and find the tournament location, which was actually
nice (not as good as Como's, but better than London's at least). It
looked like a factory made of red bricks reconverted into a
conference/spectacle center. It was more than OK for a GP.

At registeration I met the other french players. There were 8 in total
including me. Michael "I come to play and pick up good cards" Debard was
there, along with his teammate and friend Laurent Pagorek. Also Clément
"Diplomacy God" Merville, QD "Sands" Nguyen and Stéphane "Stasis"
Gentric braved the scandinavians storms, snow and blonde girls this time
again. Our national pride was somewhat hurt in Copenhagen, the only
european GP that had no french players in the finals, so this second
scandinavian Grand Prix had a smell of revenge :)

Let's stop country pride rambling, on to the tourney!

WotC did the same as in Como: they preregistered decks. That's the best
idea since the design of homelands. All we have to do is study the deck
and build it, we lose very few time filling out those stupid sheets. The
only problem remaining is that card lists are printed alphabetically on
4 pages. It's horrible for eyes and mind to find every card. That is so
easy to fix, for example the sheets used at the PTLA qualifier were
great cause they contained all the cards on one page, sorted by COLOR.

Enough whining, preregistering decks is great, and huge thanks to the
WotC dude that had to do that....what a horrible job, how can you still
play magic after that? :)


My deck:

Well, to talk simply, that is the best sealed deck I ever drew in my
life.

BLACK
Coercion
2 enfeeblement
2 evincar justices
reckless spite
Skyshroud Vampire
Corpse dance (!)
Diabolic edict
Marsh Lurker

GREEN
2 Skyshroud trolls
Rootwalla
Trained armodon
Canopy spider

RED
Searing Touch
Mogg fanatic
2 Rolling thunders!
Sandstone Warrior

Others: Vhati il-dal , Teletopter and Phyrexian Hulk

7 swamps
6 forets
5 Mountains

Sideboard worthy cards: Choke, Dread of night, extinction

That's right, 10 removal spells!!! And nothing but fat creatures. The
only problem was playing with 12 2-colored mana spells in 3 different
colors.

Round 1,2,3: I have byes due to my PT points (I have 16 points, 2 points
shy from direct Qualification :(

Did I ever say byes were horribly bad for concentration? And it is so
boring to wait while everyone is playing!
I don't remember my opponent's name, so please if you played me excuse
that.

Round 4:

My opponent has a red/white/black deck. He draws a lot of lands during
game 1, but plays torture chamber. I refrain to play creatures, he
doesn't draw any that I can't kill, and he takes 14 torture chamber
damage and I finish him with thunder....:)

Game 2. He starts a bit color screwed, and my card quality is so much
superior that I have no problem killing him with my vampire.

2-0

Round 5:

My opponnent has a blue/red/black deck. The first game is very close, he
gets me down to 3 life and I kill him with evincar justice...
Game 2, he muk deck. The first game is very close, he
gets me down to 3 life and I kill him with evincar justice...
Game 2, he mulligans and start with few lands. These few lands include 2
islands that are soon paralyzed by my choke. I just stomp on him with my
Phyrexian Hulk.

2-0

Round 6:

My opponent has a white/red/green deck with some good features. In the
first game he rolls over me with red fatties, while I manage to damage
him some way. He's down to 8, and I'm at 9. He can attack and pump his
sandstone warrior to do 9 damage, but I have mana untapped, and that
would reduce him to 7 (he has a red/white painland) and I could do 7
damage in return if I manage to survive. There's nothing I can do about
it though, but I try the good ol' "look at my untapped lands and my
cards in hand with apparent saftey" bluff, and it works. He doesn't
pump, and I top deck a mountain next turn and thunder him away.

Second game is pure destruction. I get 13 mana on the table and corpse
dance/mogg fanatic/Vhati Il-dal. The mogg does 14 damage. That's game.

2-0

So at the end of day 1 I'm at 6-0, undefeated in matches and games. With
that kind of deck, that's what I thought I could do :) I was first
seeded, with Tomi Hovi and Olle rade not far behind.

Almost everyone our group that sleeps at Rickard's place is qualified
for sunday (that means top 64), but poor Sturla Bingen who got
"bye-screwed". He got a weak deck, and his 3 byes disadvantaged him by
making him play vs good players with better decks. Mikko, Rickard and
Kim are all Q'd., Rickard and
Kim are all Q'd. Also 4 other french players make it (Clément Merville
at 17th seed and Michael Debard at 34th seed). Fellow Legionnaire Sigurd
Eskeland qualifies also, by drawing his last match.

Sunday:

My deck is A LOT weaker but it is still interresting. I managed to get
some good combos and 1 or 2 broken cards out of this pile of crap.

BLACK:
Enfeeblement
Rats of Rath
Sadistic Glee
Marsh Lurker
Darkling Stalker
Gravedigger
Coercion
Disturbed Burial
RED:
Flowstone giant
Mogg Raider
Kindle
Mogg fanatic
Barded sliver
Heart Sliver
Goblin bombardment
GREEN
Muscle Sliver
Apes of Rath
Rampant Growth
Rootwalla
Heartwood dryad
Rootbreaker Wurm

Broken cards: Puppet string and spontaneous combustion

Round 7:

This guy went 6-0 the day before without byes. What to expect? an
excellent unranked player (I know so many of these) or some lucky scrub?
Well, I still don't know, all I remember about our games is that I got a
10/10 flowstone giant using Goblin bombardment/sadistic glee (completely
overlooked card) in the first game (BOOO :) and that he was sort of
manascrewed (playing 4 colors) in the second game.

2-0.

Round 8:

My opponent is playing a green/black/white deck. I am surprised to see
no red is some TE sealed deck, cause red is absolutely the #1 color in
that environment (maybe tied with black). You must get really bad cards
not to be playing red or black.

I win the first game on accouplaying red or black.

I win the first game on account of a sliver rush followed by goblin
bombardment and a lot of sacrifices.

The second game is also very fast, as he doesn't draw a second swamp for
a long time (I have coecioned him and I know that he jolds a lot of 2
black mana spells). He delays with a spring, but I just hit beat him
down with my creatures.

2-0

Round 9:

I play against a member of the swedish national team. We're the only
undefeated players so far, so I expect a tough matchup.

Game 1, I put some pressure on him as he doesn't seem to draw many
creatures. He draws a single marsh lurker, so he cast living death,
killing my 3 creatures and reanimating his lurker. In response I use my
spontaneous combustion to kill my own creatures and get them back. He
has puppet string, I coercion him and realize that he has 2 edicts in
hand, so he can deal with my critters, so I get rid of one of the
edicts. He's very low on life when I announce my attack. He's at 3, and
I have a 1/1, a 2/1 and the 5/4 apes, while his murker has just been
enfeebled. Before my attack, he only taps my apes. I attack, he edicts
and of course, I sack my apes, so he dies. Understandably, he was a bit
worried about that mistake.

The second game is a formality as he calls for a mulligan and I just
overrun him with lots of naughty creatures.

2-0

At that point I'm the only undefeated player, with 27 points, and still
no game loss. That means top 8 for sure, so I sThat means top 8 for sure, so I switch to relaxed play
mode. :)

Round 10:

A play a kid from a small island between Finland and Sweden. He just
crushes me with huge fat green monsters. My first game is really
unusual: during the first 10 turns, I didn't draw ANY creature. The
second game goes less fast, but still he played 3 big creatures after my
spontaneous combustion got rid of his weenies. If you look at my
decklist, you'll find out that I have very few ways to deal with a 5/6
Dirtcwol wurm :)

0-2, my first game losses in that tournament.

Round 11:

I intentional draw like most of the top table players, which guarantees
me the top seed.

TOP 8:

After a quick and funny photo session, the top 8 rochester draft starts.
Noticeably, Olle Rade and Sigurd Eskeland made it. There are also my
round 10 and 11 opponents, and 3 complete strangers :).

The rochester draft was conducted by the head judge with unusual timing
rules, which was a bit disturbing but turned out to be more friendly for
most of the top 8 non-pro players than with pro tour rules. I personally
think DCI rules should be applied the same everywhere. To sum up the
facts, we had 15 seconds to PICK the card, and when someone drafted, the
other one could draft immediatly. Whatever, I still drafted what's
called a decent deck in my opinion. I was seated next to Olle, who of
course got a cursed scroll (lucky swede!).

My deck:

GREEN
Skyshroud Troll
Heartwood tre
GREEN
Skyshroud Troll
Heartwood treefolk
Heartwood dryad
Rootie wurm
Muscle sliver
Elvish fury
2 skyshroud elves
Nurturing licid
OVERRUN
RECYCLE

BLACK:
3 DARK BANISHINGS
Diabolic edict
Skyshroud vampire
Screeching harpy
Servant of volrath
Mindwhip and Clot slivers
Spinal gratf

Artifact and gold:
2 Coiled tinviper
Grindstone
Spontaneous combustion

10 forests
7 swamps

QUARTERFINALS:

Game 1, I play a lot of slivers and try to outnumber my opponent, which
appears easy since he looks color screwed (he draws only swamps, and I
thought he played red/black). I win with overrun.

Game 2, I get a HORRIBLE draw. 6 lands in my opening hand (I will never
mulligan such a hand) but I draw 14 lands and 3 spells overall, and he
crushes me. He appears to be playing monoblack. I need to side out my
dark banishings, the only good removal spells in my deck...gotta
concentrate on pure beatdown.

Game 3, We trade hits, him with a 2/1 shadow and me with with my
skyshroud vampire. I get him to 1 so he's gonna die next turn. He
attacks with his 5 creatures, I blocck all I can and he gets me to 2
life and cast evincar justice. Draw.

We have to play a 4th Game.
Well, that was just insane. He goes, first turn swamp, ritual, Servant.
Ok. Then he puts spinal graft on it on his second turn. And of course, I
get a bad draw and I can't target the damn thing with anything! I had
sideboarded in a frog tongue only to deal with his spinal grafts, rog tongue only to deal with his spinal grafts, but I
didn't see it. I'm forced to double block and lose a lof of life, before
I can finally see the end of the tunnel, but that's too late and he kill
me with evincar justice depsite my own Root Wurm with my won spinal
graft!

So i'm kicked out a a 2nd turn 6/6 unaffected by summoning sickness
creature, in draft. I was a bit disappointed, but qualifying for NY and
getting enough cash to refund my trip to Stockholm was the original
goal, so I feel ok!

Some props (no slops today, I'm in a good mood):

-To WOTC for running a smooth GP.
-To swedish girls, as pretty as danish ones :)
-To Sigurd Eskeland for qualifying and being back on the tour
-To Olle Rade for his victory and sportsmanship, and also because he
pointed out Flailing Drake's flavor text to me during the draft. Check
it out, it's really funny :)
-To Terese Nielsen for being so nice and talented
-To my lucky deck on day 1 :=)

Seeya in New York!

Manuel "Poulidor" Bevand
Team Legion