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ALL ROADS LEAD
TO ROME (pt2)
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We arrive on day 2
of Nationals 2009 at Jabula by 8:00,
knowing that we are going to start
playing once again at 8:30, later than
day 1 at least. I’m still a little
concerned about my second draft deck. I
am bound to be playing Michael Nurse or
David Hofmeyer after winning my first
match of the pod. Or so I think. At the
end of day 1, I had spoken to Christof
about the possibility of us meeting in
this pod, even though he had lost his
first match and I had won mine. I was
not expecting to win the second match
and Christof felt like he could, so we
were half expecting to play each other
in the second round of day 2. We had
decided that whoever felt they had the
best chance of going to the top 8 and
then actually being able to go to Rome
should we make top 4 would be given the
game. Somehow, it worked out that I
would play down and meet him in the
first round of day 2.
Christof was
seriously considering conceding the
round to me while we were shuffling up,
but I could see the anguish in his eyes,
and so tried to put him at ease and said
that we should play regardless.
“Whatever happens is meant to happen” is
the gist of what I ended up saying to
him. And so, it was on to playing Magic
once more.
Round 8 (v Christof Kuun – again,
playing Esper)
I passed Christof a Magister Sphinx
during the draft and so was not
surprised to hear that he had drafted
Esper. It actually turned out that he
was already Esper before that, but the
Sphinx didn’t hurt his draft any.
Game 1 turns into a race once Christof
plays Magister Sphinx (I was on 18 life
before that) quite late. Remember that
my deck is quite slow and while we were
shuffling I actually told Christof that
he would probably have time to play the
Sphinx by the time I could play anything
significant. As it turned out, I had
significant creatures on the board
already and had attacked him down to 12.
After the Shpinx came down, I knew that
Christof would be pretty unwilling to
trade for a lowly ground 5/x creature
and so attacked him down to 2 in my
turn. He swings back with the Sphinx and
gets me down to 5. Christof does have a
couple of smaller creatures ready to
block my fatties. Luckily, I draw
removal and am able to swing in with
enough creatures that he can’t block
them all and I win game 1.
1 – 0
Game 2 seems to be going really well for
me. I have Christof down to 3 (from 24
earlier in the game) and have some
serious beaters on the board. Christof
has played Tezzeret and Esper Battlemage
and is trying to stay in the game. I am
at 20 and feel quite comfortable.
Christof does manage to stall the
ground, however and I unable to break
through with my ground creatures to deal
the final killer blow. Magister Sphinx
once again hits play and Christof
decides to take his life total up to 10
and 4 turns later I have taken 20 damage
from it while Tezzeret calmly untaps the
flying artifact each turn, basically
making it a vigilance creature.
1 – 1
Game 3 is completely different to the
previous two. Neither of us are really
able to deal too much damage early in
the game. My Manaplasm dies quickly
because Christof has seen it in action
and says himself that he “respects it”.
It did manage to get Christof down to
17, with me still untouched on 20. I
play and crack Armillary Sphere and
retrieve my solitary Island and Swamp,
already having enough Forests, Plains
and Mountains to play everything in my
deck and the next turn I play Paragon of
the Amesha. With an online Paragon of
the Amesha, I now have the biggest
creature on the board and am able to
begin bashing away. When I have attacked
once with it and have moved myself up to
25 life, I see the Sphinx for third time
in the match and lose a whopping 15
life, the biggest life swing so far. We
are now both on 15 life and the game has
changed suddenly.
Paragon of the Amesha, however, does
have first strike. I attack with it,
pumping it up to a 5/5 and going back up
to 20. I then Soul’s Fire the Sphinx and
I have completely turned the game in my
favour. I also gain another 5 life from
the Fire. After I attack once more and
gain yet another 5 life, Christof knows
the game is up and offers the hand.
2 – 1 (6 – 2 for the tournament)
Round 9 (v Clint van Alten – again!)
Clint is 0 – 2 in the pod, which means
that I am once again playing down. Upon
hearing that Clint is 0 – 2 in the pod I
think that I might just be able to 3 – 0
a pod for the second time over the
weekend.
Game 1 helps enhance this thought
further. After both playing very little
early on, we both start playing fatties
and the ground gets clogged up. After a
while of playing fatty after fatty, I
decide the time is right to play
Mayael’s Aria, which has been sitting in
my hand for about 10 turns. Once again,
after 2 activations of the Aria, an
opponent concedes. This time, however,
Clint was still on a massive 15 life.
1 – 0
I keep a sketchy hand in game 2, but
haven’t really seen anything from Clint
that worries me and I feel like I have
time to develop both my hand and the
board. Unfortunately, I draw nothing and
Clint just beats me down without any
sort of defense on my part. I don’t
concede and force him to deal lethal,
simply because if I draw any
decent-sized creature, I’m back in the
game. It doesn’t happen. Disappointing.
1 – 1
I again keep a sketchy hand, but with a
Forest, a Plains and an Armillary
Sphere, I feel like the fatties in my
hand will come down sooner rather than
later. In all of the games before this,
Armillary Sphere was used to fetch at
least one of my miser’s basic lands.
This game, however, after failing to
draw a third land, I am force to go for
a second Plains (to play the Sigiled
Paladin I just drew) and a Mountain, so
that my removal won’t be dead when I
draw it. Fetching the second Plains may
have been a mistake because I was
sitting with Mycoid Shepherd in my
opening hand. I never get to play it and
Sigiled Paladin has a short-lived life
on the board and once again I can only
watch as Clint smashes me with the
creatures he has been able to play while
I sit with a hand full of good stuff
that I am unable to. When I die, I have
1 Mountain, 1 Island, 2 Plains and 1
Forest in play, having missed 6 land
drops, holding a Soul’s Fire, a Beacon
Behemoth, Mycoid Shepherd and Mayael’s
Aria. Even more disappointing. One more
Forest and the game would have been
completely different. Again, it would be
fair to say that I made a mistake in the
lands I fetched early in the game, so I
can’t exactly put this one down to bad
luck.
1 – 2 (6 – 3 for the tournament)
If I now wanted to make top 8, my days
of losing had to be over. 8½ would be
guaranteed to be top 8, but 8 – 4 would
struggle. Back on to constructed and it
was time for the little green men to
show their mettle.
Round 10 (v Pierre Venter playing
Turbofog)
I come out quite aggressively, playing
Treetop Village on turn 1, Wren’s Run
Vanquisher on turn 2 and attacking with
both on turn 3, putting Pierre to 14. I
play a Mutavault on turn 4 and attempt
to attack with the Vanquisher and the
Ape land once more. It is now when I
realize what I’m up against. Angelsong
stops my damage for that turn. Howling
Mine comes down 2 turns in a row on his
side after that while I am still unable
to deal any damage. I play a Putrid
Leech (possibly a mistake) and get
Wrathed. I am able to attack with
Mutavault and Village the next turn,
unimpeded, and force Pierre down to 9. I
deal 2 more damage the next turn,
attacking with Mutavault only, trying to
force Pierre into fogging for almost no
reason, but he doesn’t fall into the
trap. I play Chameleon Colossus and pass
the turn. He plays Jace and fogs
sufficiently to get Jace up to 12
counters. After Jace goes ultimate, I am
left with 5 cards in my library and one
draw step. I do have one more possible
out. I am holding Profane Command and
Pierre has surveyed my graveyard, seeing
2 more. GB Elves normally only play 2,
so I’m hoping that he doesn’t expect a
third. I attempt a Profane for 7 in my
turn, but he has the Negate and we’re
onto game 2.
0 – 1
During game 1, I noticed that
Cloudthresher was damage that Pierre
couldn’t prevent and knew that if I
could get him into Thresher range, I
might still be able to win a match that
is almost unwinnable through
conventional means. I come out of the
gates pretty quickly, through first turn
Mutavault and turn 4 Putrid Leech.
Pierre plays 2 Howling Mines but sees
them Pulsed away. When Pierre has 3
cards in hand after Wrathing the board
to get rid of the Leech, I top deck a
Thoughtseize. It takes me precisely 2
seconds to lay it on the table and tap
the black mana I need (a habit that
would come back to haunt me later). I
see Runed Halo, Batwing Brume and
Negate. I decide to take the Runed Halo,
given that I now have two Mutavault on
the table and can do some serious damage
with them, knowing that there is only
one fog effect in hand.
It still takes me time to beat down.
Pierre draws Pollen Lullaby and keeps my
creatures tapped for a turn (including
my Mutavault, which I’m still not sure
about, but the judge decided that that
was the case). The turn I couldn’t
attack saw another land for my opponent,
but then he drew Cryptic Command and
Jace Beleren off successive draws. The
game was becoming more and more
difficult to win. I manage to play and
stick a Wren’s Run Vanquisher and beat
for 7 after Batwing Brume seems to be
the very last fog effect in Pierre’s
hand. Pierre is now on 3, has 3 unknown
cards in hand, a Howling Mine down, from
which he is about to draw 2 more cards
and I have lethal on the table. In my
turn, I draw my 2 cards, both being
Cloudthresher. I declare my attack.
Pierre Cryptics, so in response I play
my Cloudthresher. In retrospect, I
probably should have let the Command
resolve and then played the Thresher,
but I was starting to get excited. He
goes to 1 from the Thresher damage. In
his turn he plays a second Jace (the
first died to a Maelstrom Pulse) and
says go after forcing us both to draw a
card. I again draw 2 and declare my
attack. He again Commands, tapping my
guys and drawing a card. Again, I play
Thresher in response to the Command, and
we’re all square.
1 – 1
I felt really good about the way I
played the previous game and feel
confident that I can pull it off after
all. We both keep our opening 7 for game
3. He plays a land, taps it and plays
Mistvein Borderpost and returns the
land. I don’t really concentrate on
what’s happening, still deciding what my
first plays are going to be. As it turns
out, I play a Gilt-Leaf Palace tapped,
even though I could play Llanowar Elves.
The reason I keep the mana Elves in hand
is because I also have 2 Wren’s Run
Vanquisher, which I plan to run out on
turn 2 and 3.
I pass the turn and actually watch what
Pierre does in his turn. He plays the
same land as turn 1, taps it again,
plays Fieldmist Borderpost and returns
the land. The land in question was
Reliquary Tower. I read the Borderpost,
almost sure that it has to be a basic
land that is returned. I am correct and
point it out to Pierre. With a bit of a
sigh, he returns both Borderposts to his
hand, puts the Reliquary Tower back into
play and then plays Sunken Ruins.
It is clear that Pierre has made an
awful mistake and doesn’t have coloured
mana, leaving the way open for my
beatdown to begin. I play Wren’s Run
Vanquisher on turn 2, attack Pierre down
to 17 on turn 3 and play the second
Vanquisher after combat. I draw a Putrid
Leech the next turn and play that after
attacking Pierre down to 11 with the
Vanquishers. All this time, Pierre has
only managed to play another Sunken
Ruins and cycle an Angelsong. I attack
for 10 on my 5th turn and send Pierre to
1. He draws, shakes his head and
concedes.
2 – 1 (7 – 3 for the tournament)
I walk outside with a smile on my face,
simply because of the stroke of luck I
have encountered, but I do feel sorry
for Pierre to a certain extent. It’s a
mistake that anyone could have made, and
one that I didn’t pick up on
immediately, either. It took a second
turn of exactly the same mistake
occurring for me to see it. If he hadn’t
played the second Borderpost, there’s a
good chance that I would have just
carried on playing and not picked it up
at all.
Round 11 (v Theuns Prinsloo playing
Faeries)
When I see the pairings for this round,
I notice that I am playing the top
ranked person, while I am in a
comparatively lowly 10th place. I
question the pairings when we sit down,
asking how it’s possible that a guy on 7
wins can possibly be playing someone on
9 wins and only one defeat all weekend
so far. In the end, after a few minutes
delay, Savvas decides that the pairings
should stay as they are because the
algorithm is trying to keep potential
top 8 opponents away from each other in
the late rounds. What this means is that
on day 2 so far, out of 4 rounds, I have
played down twice and heavily up once. I
shrug my shoulders and carry on
shuffling.
I have been told already that Theuns is
playing Faeries, but even so I am a
little surprised when a turn 2
Bitterblossom hits play because Theuns
mulliganed to 5. I fight gallantly
through it and a Scion of Oona, managing
to play my solitary main board
Cloudthresher during the game. It
doesn’t do any damage to Theuns (apart
from coming into play) because Faerie
tokens are still coming down every turn
and are able to chump. It does open the
pathway for a Wren’s Run Vanquisher
(played for the full 5 mana because I
have no Elves in hand) and a Mutavault
to beat face. Theuns manages to stall
the board when he gets to 6, dropping to
4 over the next two turns from
Bitterblossom damage, but taking no
combat damage, thanks to a timely
Cryptic Command and a turn of chump
blocking. My next attack is lethal,
though, Theuns having used up all of his
resources.
1 – 0
Theuns played really well to almost stop
me winning from only 5 cards, so when I
Thoughtseize early in game 2, it by no
means says to me that I am going to win
the game. He has managed to play a
Bitterblossom and three lands, but
nothing else by this time. I see
Plumeveil, 2 Sower of Temptation and 2
Mistbind Clique. A fourth land and I’m
in serious trouble. I decide to take the
Plumeveil so that I can attack with my
Wren’s Run Vanquisher this turn and keep
my fingers crossed that he doesn’t draw
the fourth land soon. My hopes are
dashed when a Secluded Glen is slammed
onto the table.
Theuns also manages to draw another
Mistbind Clique over the next two draw
phases and even though I manage to kill
two of them and a Bitterblossom with
Terror in upkeep on the second, which is
Championing the first, then Pulsing the
second and Pulsing the Bitterblossom on
the same turn after it comes back into
play. Eventually, his tapping me out and
beating for four over a lot of turns is
too much and I succumb to the pressure.
1 – 1
We both mulligan in game 3, me to 6 and
Theuns to 5. I don’t have the turn 1
Thoughtseize to really punish him, but
do play a turn 2 Wren’s Run Vanquisher
and start forcing the pace. Incredibly,
I still see a Bitterblossom this game.
Theuns’ deck loved him. An Agony Warp
takes care of my Vanquisher. I play
Putrid Leech and continue attacking. I
Pulse his Bitterblossom and swing with
the Leech and Mutavault, activating the
Leech and sending Theuns to 8. Theuns is
getting desperate and all but taps out
in his turn to play Scion of Oona. He is
stuck on 4 land and leaves only an
Island up. I again smash in for 6,
having played a second Leech. He blocks
one of the Leeches, so I activate the
other and send him to 2. He takes
another damage from his Underground
River in my upkeep to play a Mistbind
Clique, but I respond with Terror on his
Mutavault and the game is mine.
2 – 1 (8 – 3 for the tournament)
Round 12 (v Seraj Haroun playing
Faeries)
Seraj and I are placed 3rd and 4th
before this round and after perusing the
standings, I quickly realize that it is
possible that 9th place will end on 25
points, meaning that it isn’t a given
that 8½ will be enough for everyone. Our
tie-breakers are good enough to get us
in, though, so we decide to ID.
1 -1 (8 – 1 – 3 for the tournament, good
enough for 7th place)
Quarter-final (v David Hofmeyer playing
5 Colour Control)
I had a lot of luck making it to the top
8, but the real luck had just begun.
David mulligans to 5 in game 1. I keep a
hand that has Thoughtseize and Putrid
Leech. I can’t remember what else,
because I didn’t have to play any of it.
After David lays a land and says go, I
draw a land and play Thoughtseize. I see
Broken Ambitions, Mystic Gate, Terror
and Nucklavee. I take the Broken
Ambitions, not wanting him to be able to
counter the only early pressure I have.
He draws and plays the Mystic Gate. I
draw another Thoughtseize and don’t
hesitate to play it. David has drawn a
Mulldrifter, a card that could
potentially draw him out the trouble he
is in, so I gladly throw it in the
graveyard. David draws a Vivid Creek and
plays it. I now think that I am open to
play the Putrid Leech. I am, but not
before I play Thoughtseize, having drawn
the third one off the top. I force the
Nucklavee into the graveyard and keep
smashing with Putrid Leech, pumping it
every turn after this. David concedes
with him on 6 and me on 8, me having
taken 6 damage from Thoughtseizes and 6
damage from Putrid Leech activations and
nothing from David.
1 – 0
David again mulligans, this time to 6.
My early pressure stems from a Mutavault,
but not much else. When David misses a
third land drop, I know that if I draw a
business spell, things may start going
my way. I rip a Thoughtseize off the top
and see Terror, Wrath of God, Esper
Charm, Broken Ambitions, Cruel
Ultimatum, Hallowed Burial and Story
Circle. It’s a really scary hand to be
looking at. I feel that getting in
damage as quickly as possible is the way
to go, and I have Chameleon Colossus in
my hand, so I take the counter spell
away from David’s grip.
He does hit a land on the next draw, but
it’s a tapped land in the form of Vivid
Creek. I play Chameleon Colossus and
pass the turn. Another
comes-into-play-tapped land hits play
and David is now up to 4, although only
next turn. I draw another Chameleon
Colossus and attack him down to 10 after
activating the Colossus. He plays Story
Circle set to green on the next turn
after Cryptic Commanding the Colossus. I
get another Thoughtseize and take a
second Cryptic Command, leaving all the
removal, including a Cruel Ultimatum. I
make the comment that I’m not sure it’s
the correct choice and David says that
neither is he. Three turns later, he has
destroyed one Colossus and then has
Ultimatum mana for the second one. He
plays Broodmate Dragon the turn after
that, and two turns later I am dead.
1 – 1
David mulligans down to 5 once again. He
then says “Come on, turn 1 Thoughtseize”,
to which I reply “If you insist” and
play it off a Llanowar Wastes. Upon
seeing a Mystic Gate, Reflecting Pool,
Runed Halo, Cruel Ultimatum and Wall of
Reverence, I take the Halo. I have
Chameleon Colossus in hand and don’t
want it to be switched off that easily.
I play the Colossus on turn 4 and bash
David down to 12 on the next turn. He
finally sees his fourth land and plays
the Wall, going up to 13 at the end of
his turn. I Deathmark the Wall and
attack with Colossus and Mutavault,
having not drawn a fifth land. David
draws and passes the turn after evoking
a Mulldrifter and playing a Reflecting
Pool that he obviously drew off the
Drifter. He has 2 Reflecting Pool
untapped and can produce any 2 mana he
wants to. I untap and draw and decide to
think a bit about what he could possibly
have. I was surprised when he basically
tapped out to Evoke the Mulldrifter, but
now had to make sure that I was sitting
as pretty as I thought I was.
Having seen the decklists before the
match and between games, I knew what his
possibilities were. I thought a little
longer, going over all of the potential
outs he could have. Eventually, I look
him dead in the eyes and say “I don’t
think you have anything.”
I turn the Chameleon Colossus sideways
and push him forward slightly. David
declares no blocks, so I pump the
Colossus. As soon as I do that, David
extends his hand, and I am in the
semi-finals of Nationals!
2 – 1
At this point, I nearly broke down. At
no point in the past did I ever expect
this to happen. I have been playing
Magic since 1997, stopping in 2001, when
I moved back to Witbank from Pretoria. I
then started up again in 2005. I have
since seen the once large group of
players in Witbank dwindle down to just
me. I was invited into Anarchy after my
first Nationals 2 years ago and have
felt a steady progression in my game.
While I have been playing competitive
Magic for four years, it is still more a
hobby than anything else. Did I ever
really believe that one day I would be
going to Worlds? Not really. I always
expected others in the team to beat me
there, if I ever got there at all. After
two years of travelling all over the
country to play Magic, I had now
qualified for the greatest Magic stage
there is. It was almost too much for me.
The amount of concentration I had put
into the quarter final, and the
intenseness of the entire weekend was
now catching up with me. After waiting a
good half hour for the last quarter
final to finish, it was time to battle
in the semi final.
Semi Final (v Seraj Haroun playing
Faeries)
Those damn Faeries just won’t die, will
they? To be honest, this match was a bit
of an anticlimax, and seeing as though
this article is already over 4300 words,
I will keep it brief, but feel that I
have to talk about a specific incident
that occurred.
Game 1 is over pretty quickly, even
after I take a Scion of Oona with a
Thoughtseize. I maybe shouldn’t have a
kept my opener, but was still in shock,
I think. I get beaten by a lot of tokens
and a Mistbind Clique, which came down
in my fourth upkeep. There was no real
way back from that and I died a few
turns later.
0 – 1
Even though I am going to Rome, I am
still in the running for the annual
Anarchy “Scrub of the Year” award after
what happened in game 2. I undoubtedly
played better, but will not be forgiven
for what happened at the end of the
game. I have enough creatures on the
board that I am winning the race against
Bitterblossom, Scion of Oona and
Mistbind Clique. Then things go
completely wrong. I miscalculate the
potential damage I have on the table and
fail to attack with a Treetop Village,
even though I do activate and swing with
a Mutavault, along with a Putrid Leech.
Seraj is on 5, so he blocks the Leech
and takes 2 from Mutavault, putting him
on 3. I can’t activate the Leech so lose
it because of this.
I later claim that I was afraid that he
might have an Agony Warp in hand and
that I knew that he could not kill me in
his turn (I am also on 6 and he has a
Mistbind Clique that can attack the next
turn), and that is why I didn’t attack
with the Treetop Village. I could also
claim that I was representing Chameleon
Colossus, trying to get him to not play
Cryptic Command, but the honest truth is
that I wasn’t concentrating on the game
as I should have been. This was
highlighted on my next turn when, after
being attacked by Mistbind Clique, I
draw Thoguhtseize and without even
thinking, I play it. My nasty habit
comes back to haunt me.
After a few seconds, I realize what I’ve
done, but surprisingly, Seraj doesn’t. I
start looking around at the shocked
faces of the spectators, most of them
Anarchy members. Seraj is really taking
his time over this decision and I begin
to hope that he might counter the
Thoughtseize. He taps 4 mana and places
a Cryptic Command on the table. I am now
starting to feel a bit better. I’m not
going to lose to my own stupidity…
When he announces his choices, my heart
sinks a little. “Tap your team and
bounce Treetop Village.” Is what Seraj
decides. I chuckle a little and inform
him that I am dead. He looks at me with
a puzzled look, but when I let him in on
the joke that I am currently on two life
and am about to take 2 damage from
Thoughtseize, he too chuckles. I extend
my hand feeling a little sheepish.
0 – 2
The other semi final takes an age to
complete. I am so tired at this stage
that I can hardly stand, so when I do
finally sit down across from Theuns for
the 3rd and 4th playoff, I’m in no real
mood to play another Faeries match. I
offer him third spot, as I am just happy
to be going to Worlds. In hindsight, I
should have played, but the probability
was high that I would have lost. I take
my prizes and leave the venue to travel
the hour and a half back to Witbank,
nearly falling asleep 3 or 4 times
during the journey. I give my wife a
huge hug, eat and promptly fall asleep
on the couch. A satisfying end to a
fantastic weekend.
At this point, I would like to
congratulate Claude Hulimaar for
becoming the 2009 South African National
champion, as well as Seraj Haroun and
Theuns Prinsloo for rounding out the
South African National Team for Worlds.
I look forward to seeing you all in
Rome.
“When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”
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Dean Hatton |
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