all your report are belong to us

Hello,

I went to the French Vintage Championships. I wondered what to play, but since I
don't test much these days, I took good old Vengeur Masqué:

1 Devout Witness
1 Enlightened Tutor
2 Swords to Plowshares

4 Birds of Paradise
2 Quirion Ranger
4 Survival of the Fittest

1 Squee, Goblin Nabob

1 Phage the Untouchable

1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Gilded Drake
2 Old Man of the Sea
1 Time Walk
1 Voidmage Apprentice

3 Volrath's Shapeshifter

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
2 Windswept Heath
3 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard:
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Dawnstrider
2 Ground Seal
1 Root Maze
3 Arcane Laboratory
3 Energy Flux
1 Gilded Drake
1 Seasinger
1 Suq'Ata Firewalker

Note: I lost all 8 tosses, so my opponents all started in game 1 :/

Round 1: Tobias Wennemann (Germany)- Drain Slaver

I get a turn 1 Survival countered (Force of Will). He draws some cards, plays a
Welder, protects it when I try to plow it and is soon facing some creatures
holding no cards. He then topdecks a Cunning Wish to grab Rack and Ruin and
wreck my army. Next turn he topdecks a Mana Drain to counter Gilded Drake, then
gets Pentavus and flying 1/1 kill me while he stays at one life.
Game 2, he counters my first turn Ancestral Recall, but turn 2 Survival gets
through. I kill him with a Phageshifter.
Game 3, I manage a turn 1 Ground Seal. He tinkers a Platinum Angel. That's
annoying, as I have no means to get rid of it. I play a Volrath's Shapeshifter,
he attacks with the Angel again. I shift into Birds of Paradise, block, shift
into Dreadnought. Angel dies. Then he does too, after showing me Rack and Ruin
(but there was only one artifact in play: a Noughtshifter).
I am happy to take this one, as testing showed that I should lose Slaver.
2-1, 3 points.

Round 2: Jean-Luc Metz (France) - Gifts.dec

I know Jean-Luc is playing Carsten Koetter's deck. Serge, Jean-Luc's father,
gave me a good sideboarding tip against that deck just before :)

Jean-Luc starts with duress, picking Mask and leaving me with Survival,
Enlightened Tutor, 3 lands and a Dreadnought.
I tutor for a Mask. My Mask is drained next turn. The mana fuels a Gift: Tinker,
Duress, Mox and a fetchland (I give Mox and fetch). Jean-Luc casts Demonic
Tutor, cracks his Lotus for Ancestral Recall and Time Walk.
I cast Survival.
He goes for recoup on DT and goes for Yawgmoth's Will, getting back Walk, Recall
and Tinkers a Colossus. Next turns he attacks and gets another Walk thanks to
Burning Wish. Game.
I open game 2 with Lotus, Arcane Laboratory. Turn 2, I topdeck Survival which
hits. Jean-Luc casts Mystical Tutor on Ancestral that he casts on his turn 3. On
turn 4, he tinkers for Colossus. I get a Gilded Drake and steal the Colossus
which goes to town. Jean-Luc told me later that he should have waited an extra
turn to be able to drain the Drake.
In the decider, I cast a turn one Mask with gets forced, then Lab goes through.
Survival hits, then a Phageshifter takes care of Jean-Luc.
2-1, 6 points.

Round 3: Christian Hangeln (Germany) - Stax

I manage to get a Dreadnought thanks to Mask, get him to one life, but Christian
controls the board thanks to Smokestack and kills me with fatty artifacts.
Game 2 is no better, as he locks me with Crucible of Worlds. He plays Titan, I
play Birds and Quirion Ranger to get some mana to cast Survival. At that point,
Christian activates the Mindslaver that was lying there for a long time. That's
too much for me to handle.
I really needed to see Energy Flux to stand a chance.
0-2, 6 points.

Round 4: Loic Caron (France) - U/G Madness
I get a turn 1 Birds, turn 2 Shapeshifter, Turn 3 Quirion Ranger. He casts a
Bouncer. I steal it with Gilded Drake (great combo ;)
I discard a Dreadnought to seal the game.
Game 2 I get a turn one Mask, he forces, I force back. I play a second turn
Survival, he activates his Bazaar and Circular Logic takes care of Survival.
I play a Dreadnought. Turn 3, I attack with a 0/1, he drops Basking Rootwalla
and blocks, I turn up Dreadnought and he dies turn 4.
That was a pretty fast game where he couldn't do anything.
2-0, 9 points.

Round 5: Stéphane Tichadou (France) - Dragon
I haven't met Stéphane yet, he is talkative and very nice to play against.
He starts with Bazaar that he activates and dumps 2 dragons, plays Mana Crypt.
I play a turn 1 Mask.
Turn 2, he plays a land and Necromancy. Game.
Game 2, I open with Birds of Paradise, he plays a land and Mox Sapphire.
On my second turn, I play Ground Seal, he casts Vampiric Tutor. Thinking he will
get Bazaar, I force it. On his turn, he drops a Bazaar (the tutor was a good
bluff), activate it, thinks some time, drops 3 cards in his graveyard, thinks
some more, and drops another land. That's a game loss :(
Game 3 starts like the first one, he opens with Bazaar, ditching 2 Dragons and
Squee. I play Survival, he digs further in his library, drawing more Squee while
I don't draw my sideboard cards. He then casts Intuition on 3 Duress at the end
of my turn and seals the deal next turn.
1-2, 9 points.

Round 6: Jiri Nitsche (Czek Rep) - Landstill
He starts with Phyrexian Furnace, then Standstill. I break it with a turn 2
Mask. Turn 3, I play 2 Dreadnought. Turn 4 attack for 24. He plows one of the
meanies, but I counter.
Game 2 he has Standstill which I break for a Shapeshifter, then drop a Survival.
He plows the Shifter, I Force. He has a Furnace, Strip Mine and Wasteland out
which are foiling my plans. Still, after several Survival activations and thanks
to Quirion Ranger, I manage to kill him.
2-0, 12 points

Round 7: Florent Cotte-Pattat (France) - Slaver
He doesn't know my deck, which helps a lot. I kill him with a Phageshifter.
Game 2 I get a good start with Lotus, Mask that he forces, second maks gets
through. Still he has a Welder out and that's enough to control the game.
Game 3 is hot. I get a turn 1 Survival out, he casts Time Walk and Brainstorm.
He gets Triskelion out, I plow it. We are reaching extra turns. He asks me to
play faster because he wants to kill me (he will kill me on the 5th turn). I
attack with a Shifter, he blocks, I make it a dreadnought, assign damage (some
trampling) and shift to Phage for the win. Woohoo! Another slaver's scalp.
Florent is upset.
2-1, 15 points.

Round 8: Lucio Castaldini (Italy) - Tog with 4 Wishes
I mulligan. He starts by duressing my Survival, then turn 2, Recall, land, Mox,
Walk. He drains my turn 2 Old Man of the Sea to fuel his Deep Analysis. He
forces my turn 3 Old Man. He plays a turn 4 Psychatog, wishes for Fact or
Fiction, I counter it by morphing Voidmage Apprentice. He attacks, boosts the
Tog, casts a 2nd Wish for Fling and kills me.
Game 2 I play a turn 1 Mask, he drops land, Lotus. I play 2 creatures under the
Mask. He Walks but does nothing. I attack, flipping a Dreadnought, he wishes for
Rack and Ruin, casts it but I force, bringing him to 6. He wishes again for
Shattering Pulse and gets rid of the Dreadnought. We don't do anything for 3
turns, then he intuitions on 3 Accumulated Knowledge, intutions again on Mind
Twist, Accumulated Knowledge, Deep Analysis (which I give him). He plays the
Analysis, then AK for 4, followed by Yawgmoth's Will to draw plenty of stuff,
tinkers Colossus. He hits me with the 11/11. I play a Dreadnought under the
Mask. He hits me, I flip the Dreadnought and block. Next turn, I attack and kill
him. Unbelievable.
Game 3 we both mulligan and are both mana screwed. I cast a Mask, he wishes for
Shattering Pulse and cracks his Lotus to use buyback (shattering the Mask before
I can use it). Survival hits the board, but he drains my Shapeshifter, Intuition
for 3 Accumlated Knowledge and cast it. He tinkers a Colossus and forces my
Plow. I get Gilded Drake and steal the Colossus. He attacks me with the Drake,
Walks, attacks me again, plays a Tog and wish for a Fling to finish me off.
We had really good games I enjoyed a lot and Lucio was a true gentleman.
1-2, 15 points.

I drop before the last round because it's late and I still have a 3 hours drive
to go back home. I am happy with my 5-3-0 record.

I had a great day, it was fun meeting all these people.