all your report are belong to us

Hello,

I was looking forward to going to Clichy 3 (Paris).
I managed good results with Welder Mud, but I wanted to play Vengeur Masqué
anyway. Since the U/G version is not viable with all the combo decks around, I
had to squeeze black in. Still, I wasn't convinced I could beat My Klong's deck
until Womprax showed me the light (of the dark side): Chains of Mephistopheles.
I was bought.

I went there with Frederik Goussey again, he brought suicide.

I hadn't taken any maps with me but I had some notes. We managed to find the
street thanks to an old lady who gave us a map, but it stopped at #4 while the
venue was #22-26. Problem was I didn't have any phone number, there weren't on
the net either (I had called my girlfriend to check). And we were starting to be
late. After 10 minutes, I finally realized we weren't in the right suburb or
Paris :/
Saint-Ouen is just next to Clichy and there is a Henri Barbusse street there as
well... So, we rushed to Clichy, I got lucky and found the good Henri Barbusse
street and fortunately, they were late so we could still register in time.

Vengeur Masqué  

4 Birds of Paradise
1 Gigapede
2 Quirion Ranger
4 Survival of the Fittest
1 Wall of Roots

1 Squee, Goblin Nabob

1 Demonic Tutor
3 Duress
1 Phage the Untouchable
1 Withered Wretch

1 Ancestral Recall
3 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Time Walk
1 Tradewind Rider
1 Voidmage Apprentice
3 Volrath's Shapeshifter

1 Black Lotus
4 Illusionary Mask
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought

4 Bayou
2 Forest
4 Tropical Island
2 Windswept Heath
3 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard:
1 Genesis
1 Nantuko Vigilante
1 Ravenous Baloth
1 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Bane of the Living
4 Chains of Mephistopheles
1 Plaguebearer
1 Withered Wretch
1 Gilded Drake
1 Magus of the Unseen
1 Seasinger
1 Bottle Gnomes

55 players, 6 rounds swiss followed by top 8 single elimination.
So, 4-1-1 (13 points) is likely to make it.

I was expecting a lot of aggro, some good combo and few control.

Round 1: Christophe Richard - Dragon.dec

I see some dragons while he is shuffling. Good, I love random dragons. Then I
look more closely and realize it's not a random dragon, it's Dragon.dec. Not
that good, actually.
Game 1 I duress him picking Buried Alive, counter his Vampiric. He then
brainstorms, but sees the 4th card. I call a judge who says it's drawing an
extra cards which leads to a game loss. Wow, it's REL 3. Harsh. We move onto
game 2.
I have a strong start with turn 1 Duress, Lotus, Survival and dump my only
creature in hand for a Withered Wretch. I don't think I can afford to spend the
time to get Squee. Second turn Wretch. I counter his Smother, but he then Edicts
it. When I finally draw another creature, I get Squee, dump it for my second
Wretch which gets a concession from Christophe.
2-0, 3 points.

Round 2: Kevin Desprez - Welder Mud

Kevin borrowed Toad's deck, he isn't familiar with Type I but is good enough to
pick it up after some goldfishing and being briefed by Toad on what is played.
Game 1 is a quick one when he drops a first turn Metalworker and drops his whole
hand on turn 2. There is not much I can do apart from getting a warning for
forgetting to sac a permanent to Smokestack.
I don't get a great hand in the second game, but I get 3 Moxen, which is nice to
fight Tangle Wire locks. He is running out of gas while I start drawing 2 cards
a turn thanks to Survival. When he sees nothing coming, he concedes. Still 10
minutes to go.
Our last game is the most tense. He starts with Worshop Sphere. I play land, Mox
Jet. He plays a Mountain and passes. I play another land and drop Survival. He
then drops Skullcap hoping to get some gas, I lay a Mask, get out Magus of the
Unseen to get rid of his smokestack and Wretch to prevent him to recur artifacts
with his Welder. A timely Sex Monkey lets me take the upper hand, and a
Dreadnought delivers the final blow the the 5th extra turn. That was a close
one. Nice to see that Kevin didn't try to stall.
This was the best match from the swiss rounds.
2-1, 6 points.

Round 3: Clément Lemaitre - Rector Trix

One can wonder why run Rector Trix when you could play Tendrils? Not being fully
powered explains it for Clément.
I get a turn 1 Mask, turn 2 Ancestral. Clément cast Vampiric tutor, casts
Duress, then Balance my creatures away. I top deck Withered Wretch he blocks it
with a Rector. He didn't know I could remove it from the game to prevent him to
fetch an enchantment. A Dreadnought finishes the job.
Clément starts game 2 with a Therapy on Mask, which hits, followed by a second
turn Rector to get Form of the Dragon. I can't get Nantuko Vigilante out in time
since I need 5 mana to get rid of the pesky enchantment.
Game 3 looks similar with a Survival on my side and Form of the Dragon across
the table. I topdeck a Demonic Tutor, get Lotus which gives me the needed mana
boost to play Vigilante face down and unmorph it in one turn. I then Duress his
Illusions of Grandeur, but he topdecks again and cast Yawgmoth's Will, gains
suddenly 20 life but fails to get Donate and dies to his own Illusions.
2-1, 9 points.

Round 4: Pierrick Mode - Rector Trix

Pierrick is running the same deck as Clément, so no surprises here.
Not my best performance though.
I get another strong start with Duress on his Ancestral, leaving him with
Brainstorm and Therapy, followed by Lotus, Survival and Birds. Turn 2 Mask and
on turn 3 I topdeck the creature I needed to get the engine going. He dies to
his own Illusions.
Pierrick nabs my Survival with a Duress, I topdeck a Wretch. He searches through
his library with multiple Brainstorms and DT, then casts Balance at 6 life, then
cast Therapy, missing Mask. Next turn I draw... Mask obviously :) Since are
looking good until he plays a Rector and gets his combo out. I curse myself for
not getting my second Wretch with my Demonic Tutor to seal the match.
Game 3 Pierrick has to mulligan to 6 and keeps a one land hand with bites him.
He concedes when I play as Shapeshifter with Dreadnought in the graveyard.
Another player who was watching remarks that I should have sacrificed 12 power
and couldn't have. Lucky me. Actually, after checking with the head judge, Toad,
it turns out I don't have to sacrifice anything since the Shapeshifter becomes
Dreadnought as it comes into play and the sacrifice occurs just before.
2-1, 12 points.

Round 5: Alexandre Ly - GroAtog

At this point we could draw, but we can lose and draw next round, so I decline
the draw he offers me.
Game 1 is dumb. I have to mulligan (Squee, Brainstorm and 5 mana) and keep a
slow hand (2 lands, 2 Shapeshifters, Tradewind and Brainstorm). He duresses the
Brainstorm before I can do anything and he counters all the spells I cast during
the whole game: 2 Mask. He kills me with a Psychatog without Berserk.
Game 2 starts better for me with turn 1 Lotus Tutor for Survival that hits. Turn
2 Chains of Mephistopheles. Alexandre drops Libray but doesn't seem to know he
can still use it during my draw phase. He drops a Dryad and Tutors for
Naturalize to get rid of Chains. I play a Tradewind, he plops Deed, pops it for
5. Too bad I have sided out Phage since I had a Shifter in play. I bounce the
Tradewind back to my hand and grab Seasinger with Survival. I drop the
Seasinger, take constrol of one of the 2 Dryads he plays. He concedes a few
turns later, when I have an active Tradewind.
We don't have time to finish game 3, which was still undecided.
1-1-1, 13 points.

Round 6: Laurent Cella - G/R beats

I get the best start I can against aggro: turn 1 Survival, turn 2 Tutor for Mask
that hits turn 3. He dies 3 turns later without realizing I am playing blue.
I have Ancestral and Brainstorm in my opening hand of the second game, but it's
not enough to get things going. He finishes me with Cursed Scroll.
I get out a turn 3 Dreadnought thanks to Mask. Force of Will on his Naturalize
seals it.
2-1, 16 points.

Fred is 4-1-0, he needs to win his latest round to make top 8 as he can't draw
in seeing his bad resistance (his loss came round 1).
I end the swiss round as first seed at 5-0-1. All 4-1-1 but one (Thrond with
mono-blue) make it.

Top 8 consists of:
1 Me with Vengeur Masqué
2 Jean-Luc Metz with Keeper
3 Pierrick Mode with Rector Trix
4 Clement Lemaitre with Rector Trix
5 Pierre Yvonnet with my klong's deck
6 Laurent Cella with G/R
7 Alexandre Ly with GroAtog
8 Raphael Puleo with U/r Trix

Quarter finals: Raphael Puleo - U/r Trix

I get 5 minutes to review his decklist and spot a lone Morphling in case he
can't get his combo going (3 Illusions of Grandeur and 3 Donate). He has
Accumulated Knowledge, Intuition and 4 Merchant Scroll but only 8 counters
(Drains and Force of Will). His 3 Fire/Ice could be annoying if played timely.
He only has one Capsize to get rid of permanents which is good news: if I
manage an early Survival or Mask, it will be very difficult for him to recover.
His sideboard has 4 Annul and 2 Pyroclasm.
Game 1, he mulligans. I drop a first turn Survival but he has Force of Will. He
plays Volcanic Island and passes the turn. I topdeck another Survival which
hits. He forgets to play a land. Turn 3 Shapeshifter and turn 4 kill with Phage.
He sideboards 4 Annul.
I get a turn 1 Duress and see the following hand: 2 Island, Sapphire Medallion,
Donate, Annul and Merchant Scroll which I take. I play a turn 2 Survival, he
annuls and I force. He can't do much and I kill him quickly again.

Semi finals: Jean-Luc Metz - Keeper

Jean-Luc goes for an early Future Sight, I ancestral in response, it resolve,
and then I force the Future Sight. Next turn I play Mask and 2 Dreadnoughts. He
plows one, but the second one hits him twice.
I debate about whether I should sideboard Chains of Mephistopheles and finally
decide against as he only has 6 draw spells + 1 sideboard. This might be a
mistake, I am not sure.
I start the second game with Duress and see Mystical and Vampiric Tutor, Scrying
Glass and Cunning Wish. I pick the Wish. He casts Vampiric Tutor (on Balance).
Next turn, he tutors for Ancestral, and cast a wicked Balance with one card in
hand to my five ones. He has to get rid of a land down to 2 and my creatures go
away. I keep Survival, which I play next turn. He ancestrals, then strips my 2
lands while I don't draw any. I am stuck with a lone Survival as permanent while
he casts some more card manipulation spells then resolves a Future Sight. I
can't come back and concede.
Game 3, I play a turn 1 Birds of Paradise, turn 2, Quirion Ranger, Lotus, Mask,
he forces, I force back but he has another one, so I only have a Dreadnought in
hand. I then play Withered Wretch and start using it on his counters (not
utility instant as I am afraid of Cunning Wish). He fires both the Birds and
Ranger and strips a land, which means I am again low on mana with one land. He
plows the Wretch while at 11 life, I Force since I have nothing else in hand, he
drains. Next turn Fact or Fiction, he capitalises on card advantage and quality
as keeper should. A few turns later, I get killed by an army of Goblin Soldiers.

3rd/4th place: Laurent Cella - G/R beats

Game 1 I have a hand with no Mask nor Survival, so I Mulligan into a 1 land and
a Mox hand and drop a turn 1 Survival. But he has one of his 4 strips and delays
me long enough so that I can't stabilise.
Game 2 I play Survival, get Baloth out, Genesis in my graveyard so Naturalize on
the Survival doesn't matter, get back a Dreadnought and kill with Vengeur Masqué
:)
Game 3 is a long one, he starts by blasting me rather than my mana creatures, so
I low on life and have to get out both Baloth and Bottle Gnomes to survive. I
finally pull it after summoning a Sex Monkey on his Cursed Scroll. Kevin, my
round 2 opponent, points out that Laurent could have won when he had 2
Incinerate and Mogg Fanatic with me at 1 life spells since I wouldn't be able to
gain life 3 times in response to his burn.
2-1, 3rd place.

I am happy with my 7-1-1 record, the deck still loves me. It seems still
competitive, but is prone to land destruction since it needs a lot of coloured
mana (2 basic lands). I got colour screwed only once (on black). Phage didn't
make any difference but I will test it some more.

Many thanks to Serge for organising the tournament and to the judging staff
(Matthieu and Julien). I hope to be able to come next time again.