Hello, On Sunday 14 Dec was the Mox tourney at Fantasyspeldagen in Turnhout (Belgium). Nice to have a tourney only one hour away from home. I came there with Alexandre Chuffart who came back from the grave or so (first tourney since 1997) and Hans (Hanzalot). Alexandre was running an Isochron control deck variant of his sporting Shrapnel Blast and Magus of the Unseen while Hans and I were both with Vengeur Masque. Hans chose black as third colour and I stuck with white. One main deck change since Duelmen (Voidmage Apprentice got the kick), a few more in the sideboard (I wanted to try Ben Kowal's tech: Ground Seal): 1 Devout Witness 1 Enlightened Tutor 2 Swords to Plowshares 4 Birds of Paradise 2 Quirion Ranger 4 Survival of the Fittest 1 Sylvan Library 1 Squee, Goblin Nabob 1 Phage the Untouchable 1 Ancestral Recall 3 Brainstorm 4 Force of Will 1 Gilded Drake 1 Time Walk 1 Tradewind Rider 3 Volrath's Shapeshifter 2 Meddling Mage 1 Black Lotus 4 Illusionary Mask 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Pearl 1 Mox Sapphire 4 Phyrexian Dreadnought 2 Forest 4 Savannah 4 Tropical Island 3 Wooded Foothills 2 Windswept Heath Sideboard: 2 Seal of Cleansing 1 Swords to Plowshares 2 Ground Seal 1 Naturalize 1 Uktabi Orangutan 1 Sylvan Safekeeper 1 Magus of the Unseen 2 Misdirection 4 Chalice of the Void We got a high turnout for a Belgian T1 tourney with 53 players, so the TO upped the number of swiss rounds to seven (no top 8 single elimination). Round 1: Koen van der Hulst (Thug) - Stacker Last time we met we both played Welder MUD and I drew better than him. This time Koen is still with Workshop and Red, but he plays a more aggressive build with Juggernaut and Su-Chi. He opens with a Su-Chi that I Force, then drops Mox Ruby to slip in a Welder. I get Ancestral but can't deal with the Welder recursion. Game 2 is another fast one as I hard cast Phage on turn 3. Koen plops a Su-Chi but I send it farming and kill turn 4. In the decider Koen opens with turn 1 Juggernaut. I fetch a Savannah (holding Devout Witness) and play a Ranger. Nonetheless Koen strips my Savannah which goes back to my hand, hits for 5 and drops a Su-Chi. All I can do on my second turn is play the Savannah again. Koen hits for 9 and plays Blood Moon. I could play a Mask and chump with the Ranger, but next turn I would die so I concede. 1-2, 3 points. Round 2: Pascal Delfosse - Long.dec Too bad I have to play my good friend Pascal in the losers' bracket. He wins the toss and starts with Duress on my Force of Will, followed by a second turn Wheel of Fortune. I play a Meddling Mage naming Tendrils of Agony since he plays one main deck. He goes turn 3 Timetwister, casts Vampiric Tutor, Brainstorm, Demonic Tutor, then bounces my Mage with Chains of Vapor and kills me. Next game, Pascal gets his turn 1 Burning Wish countered, I drop a turn 2 Mask and a Dreadnought, turn 3 attack for 12 and kill him next turn. In game 3, Pascal lays a land and passes. I drop a Chalice at zero. He planned to play Mox Diamond and Wheel on turn 2 but can only play a land now. I drop a Chalice at 1 and he concedes. 2-1, 3 points. Round 3: Bart Nuyts - G/R beats He plays a couple of Kird Apes and Briar Shield in the 2 first turns while I have a slow start and can't stabilize in time. I get Mask and Dreadnought and he can't stop it. He goes Taiga, go. I play a fetchland, he bolts me. He plays Ghazban Ogre, Reckless Charge. I am holding 2 Brainstorm, a Plowshares, Mask, Dreadnought, a Shapeshifter and some other card. So, what to do: take 5 (going down to 11) and Brainstorm to get my second mana source or fetch a Savannah and plow the Ogre before Reckless Charge resolves and stay at 16. I opt for the latter and don't draw a land for several turns. He plays a Wild Mongrel with a Briar Shield and will probably kill me next turn (flashing back the Reckless Charge and discarding his hand). I draw a land hand have to play Gilded Drake to take control of the Hound. He kills me with the Drake before I can get rid of it. 1-2, 3 points. Round 4: Peter Borgmans - B/r discard He starts with turn 1 Ostracize (picking Dreadnought) turn 2 Ritual Specter. I play a second turn Mask, third turn Shapeshifter under the Mask. He drops a Hill Giant (well, the one with The Rack built in), I swing with the face down Shapeshifter, he lets it through, I flip the Shapeshifter and discard Phage to kill him. Game 2, I get a Survival, then a Mask and kill him turn 5. 2-0, 6 points. Round 5: Dominik Bermel - Turboland He starts with turn 1 Exploration, I drop a Meddling Mage and can't remember the name of this artifact to draw cards when you drop a land. I call the judge and tell him all the characteristics, but the doesn't know it. So, I rememeber it's Horn of something, check in the Oracle and name Horn of Greed. Shame on me, I was playing it in my twister.dec. I then play a Mask and a Dreadnought face down. He balances, I force, he forces, I force again but he forces back. I topdeck a Dreadnought and kill him. Game 2, I cast Ground Seal but he counters. Tradewind Rider goes through and I soon start bouncing 2 permanents a turn thanks to Quirion Ranger. I play Devout Witness to blow his stuff. Time is called. I attack with a Shapeshifter and discard Phage for the kill. 2-0, 9 points. Round 6: Kris Bijnens - Suicide black Kris opens with Dark Ritual, Carnophage and Erg Raiders. This is a true suicide black, no disruption. He gets me down to 1 before I kill him with Phage helped by Survival. He mulligans to 5 and doesn't do anything in his first turn. I drop Birds of Paradise. Turn 2 he goes Swamp, Ritual, Dauthi Slayer, Unholy Strength. My turn 2 consists of Lotus, Survival, Time Walk. Then Mask and 2 Dreadnoughts. He paralyzes one of them and attacks for 4. I grab a Ranger, untap the Dreadnought and swing for 24. 2-0, 12 points. Round 7: Joram de Kraker - Five colour MUD I play Survival and Mask, he drops a Memory Jar. He gets 2 Tangle Wire off the Jar, I counter the second one. I kill him with a PhageShifter. He casts Chalice of the Void at 2 which is bad for me. I Force his Smokestack. He plays Karn and swings for 12, putting me at 3. I send Karn farming get rid of the Chalice with a Sex Monkey, but he has another Smokestack which I can't handle. I start with land, Mox, Seal of Cleansing. He goes Lotus, Metalworker, Mox, Glimmervoid. I nail his Mox, plow his Metalworker and he suddenly has no permanents on the board. I play a turn 3 Survival and he soon concedes. 2-1, 15 points. So I finish 10th with a 5-2-0 record and bad tie-breakers due to my early losses (rounds 1 & 3).