Hey all,

This was the last of the last of the last of all the Chicago PTQs in the
World, and it was held in Metz, east of France. Having played in 4
Chicago PTQs before including GP Copenhagen with my funny "crazy torch
deck" (well of knowledge-early harvest-mana production-torch) I got my
tohughts together and decided it'd be good to qualify.

So I started playtesting with a not-original-at-all-monoblue-shit deck,
and I liked it. But then a friend crushed me with Armoured Meerkats, and
I decided to go with Mono Red for the hell of it.ded to go with Mono Red for the hell of it. Enoguh talk, here's
the deck:

creatures
4 Talruum Minotaurs
4 Suqtata Lancers
3 Serrated Biskelions
4 orcish settlers
2 dwarven miners
1 Thundermare

Damage
4 incinerates
4 hammers of bogardan
4 kaerverk's torch
3 fireblast

Misc
1 amber prison
1 final fortune

Mana
18 mountains
2 dormant volcanos
3 quicksands
2 mindstone

Sideboard:
4 stone rains
4 reign of chaos
4 bogardan firefiend
1 illicit auction
1 cinder cloud
1 amber prison

This deck differs from most Celerity Burn decks becasue of the land
destruction part. Land destruction was here to beat blue, and I had
amber prison to deal with both Maros and Sands. Firefiends were included
becasue I found them better than aetherflash against tog', at least in
my deck.

So.....We went to the PTQ town, 6 hours of car away...we almsot had a
car crash, and most of us (I went with 3 friends) didn't sleep that
night. A really shitty trip, but we arrived 10 minutes before end of
registeration so it was OK.

Now to the tournament:

It is 9 rounds swiss, no finals.

Round 1 - Laurent Pagorek

Awwwwwww I couldn't believe it, why do I have to play all the french pro
tour players in any PTQ? Laurent is a regular PT player (he's been to 3
PT I think) and he runs a very good deck. I remember playing him in
Copenhagen, on the second round after we both had a bye. I beat him on
manascrew.

Game 1 : We play two lands and start discarding.screw.

Game 1 : We play two lands and start discarding. He plays a third land
first and start hammering me with creatures, and I recover too late.

Game 2: I sideboard in my antiblue cards=4 stone rains, 4 reign of chaos
. I now have 14 land destruction cards in my deck. And it works...though
he plays 8 lands in a row, he has none when I finish him.

Game 3: He plays two lands and put his cards down. He's manascrewed
again. Oh my god, I love this format :=) I destroy him fast. Later he
shows me his hand, with waterspout djinn and bubble matrix, and says
"you can't deal with that" ..I just show him my reign of chaos..:)

Matches 1-0 games 2-1

Round 2 - David Duvoyé

I remember him from Nationals, he's an average player. He runs monoblue
too, but a much more defensive version with floodgates and undos.

Well this match isn't a legend. He's stuck with 2 lands twice, which is
deadly against my heavy LD. We play a third game for fun and I beat him
easily.

Matches 2-0 games 4-1

Round 3 - Jérôme Legras

Awwww another pro tour player from Paris! He finished 35th at PT Paris,
so I know he's a tough opponent though I never played him before.
He's running the recursive peace-talk version of my EarlyTorch deck.
This deck is unknown outside France except by a few lucky ones, I
designed it this august and tried to qualify with it but discovered it
couldn't win consistenty (but it's still a good deck). TO sum it up, it
consists of veteran explorers, rampamt growf veteran explorers, rampamt growth, wall of roots to get the
mana, the nwell of knowledge /cadaverous bloom to empty the library and
then peace talk/gaea's blessing/gerrard wisdom recursion under a city of
solitude. The deck also has elephant grass to delay defeat, and
abeyances. HOw does it win? It decks you but when you're locked you give
up most of the time.

game 1: I play early creatures including 2 talruums, and my deck just
goes too fats for him to handle. Later he remembers he could have played
an elepahnt grass to delay me and win the game, but forgot.

game 2: I side in the Stone Rains and destroy him. Although he plays 2
veteran explorers and 2 rampant growth, land count when I kill him is 12
- 0. DId I mention Orcish settlers where amazing? He manages to play a
8/8 Maro out of the sideboard, but has to keep it untapped to defend and
die.

Matches 3-0 Games 6-1

ROund 4 - Damien Colsenet

Another average player with a red/black voodoo-like deck.

In both games he only gets 2 mountains and an undiscovered paradise. In
both games He has to ritual out his discard spells, and in both games I
already have creatures on the board before he can empty my hand and
start dealing with threats. The funny moment was when he cast coercion,
and I show him my hand = 3 hammers of bogardan and 1 dwarve miner! he
chooses the miner, who would've been useless, so thats cool. :)

Matches 4-0, games 8-1

Round 5 - Jordane Machepy

Whoa anond 5 - Jordane Machepy

Whoa another red/black. I like these guys, their creatures are smaller
than mine, they have no LD and less DD.

Game 1 : we trade creatures and blows for a while, but he go down faster
. At one point he plays a necrosavant to handle my thundermare. I get an
ambe prison into play to deal with the savant but I only have 3 lands
left, he's at 5..He also had necromancied my settlers...he's going to
destroy 2 dormant volcanoes during his turn and keep me down to 3
mana..but he doesn't and says "go ahead, during your upkeep I destroy
your volcanoes".....huh, ok I'll use them to put the savant in jail and
kill you with thundermare...he bangs his head on the wall :)

Game 2 : I bring him down to 1 life, he has me down to 5 with a crypt
rats out. He knows he can draw anytime so takes his chances and wins the
game. real close.

Game 3 : I just overrun him with 3 Talrrum minotaurs on turns 3, 4 and
5. He nekraatals one and dies to the other two. Minotaurs are cool :)

Matches 5-0 games 10-2

At this point I am getting nervous. At the PTQ the week before, I went
5-0 and ended up 7-2, 5th seeded on 178 players and pretty upset.

Round 6 - Clément Merville

Whoa, third red/black deck of the day. I thought it was going to be
easier than the first two??it was a nightmare.

Game 1 : I draw MY 3 QUICKSANDS and play a biskelion...He incinerates
the Bisk' and plays *4* orcish settlers in a row...needless to say, I
die...

G..needless to say, I
die...

Game 2: I am pretty upset but I know I can still beat him...all he has
is small creatures and less burn than I do.
I start strong and he looks manascrewed...I draw a lot of lands, dormant
volcanoes, but no burn. I play thundermare, he banishes it. Minotaur?
banish. BOgardan firefiend? Quicksand. Oh well, I'm just wiating for ANY
burn spell since with the fireblast and the 2 incinerate I have in my
hand I can bring him down to *3* at anytime. Here's a summary opf the
next 8 turns;

I draw play a mountain  -> he incinerates me JUST to avoid discard
I draw play a mountain  ->he incinerates me
I draw play a mountain  ->he incinerates me
I draw play a mountain  ->feeling something, he f..incinerates me
I draw play a mountain  ->he hammers me
I draw play a mountain  ->he hammers me (he still has 3 lands on the
table)
I draw, play a mindstone,sac it, play a mountain        ->torch for 2
I draw play a mountain  -> torch for 3

Result : I'm dead. He's at three, and he kills me because I drew 14
f*/-*$ù* lands and NO damage dealer...DId I mention that I hated this
format? :=)

Matches 5-1, games 10-4

ROund 6 - Julien "Pipo" Mozziconacci

No mistake or bad draw allowed for now. And julien is *another* PT
player...oh well, that's only the third one today, and I am a PT player
also :=)
He plays the recursive peace talk deck, with gerrard wisdom standard.

Game 1 : I am stcuk with 3 mana, and cannot cast anythih 3 mana, and cannot cast anything bigger than a
lancer and 2 orcs. He slows me down enough to set pu the combo and lock
me. I know I can unlock myself with a final fortune, but I give up when
he starts going "I gain 14 life" every turn... :)

Game 2: I am a bit mana-screwed again, but he cannot seem to draw the
combo. HIs explorers allow me to recover and I can destroy all his
non-green lands with my LD. He dies.

Game 3: this one was a killer. We both start strong, but I'm in a LD
mood today and starts destroying all his colored mana leaving him alone
with forests. He recovers fast with rampant growth and explorers, and
I'm 1 turn away to kill him...he has no part ofthe combo on the table
but 7 cards in hand and 9 mana available...he has to play cadaverous
bloom, city of solitude, well of knowledge and peace talk in one turn so
he can live and lock me. I quickly realize it and try the Jedi Mind
Trick 'oh, too bad you only have 9 mana, you're 1 mana short from going
Bloom-Well-Talk and lock me"..he goes "yeah, too bad", plays well/bloom
and says go ahead....PHEW!! He forgot he could discard cards with the
bloom to generate extra mana! I take my turn and torch/fireblast him to
death...

I should have lost this match, but my opponents all look like "we want
you to go to chicago" today! :)

Matches 6-1 games 12-4

Round 8 - Denis Oblet

Hehe guess what..another red/black guy.
The games aren't worth a story. I win 2-0 in 6 and 7 turnory. I win 2-0 in 6 and 7 turns respectively.
I get my best hands of the day, with several celerity creatures and
fireblasts/torches. He a bit shocked by the speed of this match... :)

Matches 7-1 games 14-4

Round 9 - last round - Emmanuel Sempéré

This guys is playing the 5 color Falcon Armor deck, very popular here,
and called "Piou Piou" by most players. The deck has manowars, several
protection from somthing creatures and armors, along with some utility
spells (firestorm, incinerate, meddle)...and of course 4 HONORABLE
PASSAGES STANDARD.

Game 1: He plays plains, plains longbow archer. I go mountain, mountain
orcish settlers. He attacks, doesn't play a land and say "go". I attack,
play a land, two mindstone and say "go". He doesn't play a land,
discards and brings me down to 16. I destroy his 2 lands and soon all
his remaining life points...  :=)

Game 2 : He manowars early, and I made the mistake of letting the
manowar on the table and tap out to play small creatures. He quickly
plays an armor on the manowar and attacks for 7...ooops...I take it and
have to torch for 3/fireblast that manowar, but it brings me down to 2
single lands. Lucky me, I draw settlers, miners, a biskelion ands
another land...HE firestorns all my creatures away and play a prot-black
falcon with an armor but it's only 3/3. I hammer it and goes
lancer/biskelion/settler/settler/lancer in the next 5 turns as he
doesn't play any creature. After a last Honorcreature. After a last Honorable Passage he dies and I
QUALIFY FOR CHICAGO!!!!! :)

I finish 1st seeded, alone at 24 points while 8 players are tied at 21!
The other qualified is Clément Merville (the red/black guy who beat me).
Being first seeded I also won the plane ticket and a box of BB japanese
4th...:). I give the packs to my friends who haven't won anything, and
we happily drive for 9 hours back to Lyon....
I can't wait to play in my thid PT this year! :=)

See you In Chicago maybe!

Manuel Bevand
Team "The Legion", european wing manager :)
designer of "The crazy Torch deck" and its variants
happiest MTG player on earth