all your report are belong to us

As the clock was turned back an hour here due to winter time I was not to
worried about getting on time. As the tournament was played in my hometown of
Eindhoven I had about a ten minute drive until I was there. After getting to the
floor where it was held I tried to find my teammates and go re sleeve my deck.
Its always nice to start a tournament with new sleeves. As there were a lot of
contenders chances were we wouldn't meet eachother for a long time. It started a
little bit late but nothing dramatic. This is what I played:

1 Underground River
1 Tolarian Academy
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Llanowar Wastes
2 Forbidden Orchard
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald 
1 Mox Pearl 
1 Sol Ring 
1 Black Lotus 
1 Mana Crypt 
1 Mana Vault 
1 Lotus Petal 
1 Darksteel Colossus 
1 GaeaÕs Blessing 
1 Regrowth 
1 lim-Dul's Vault 
1 Wheel of Fortune 
4 Duress 
4 Dark Ritual
1 Vampiric Tutor 
1 Demonic Tutor 
1 YawgmothÕs Will 
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain 
1 Necropotence 
2 Tendrils of Agony 
4 Brainstorm 
1 Windfall 
4 Force of Will 
1 Rebuild 
1 Ancestral Recall 
1 Time Walk 
1 Tinker 
1 Mystical Tutor 
1 Timetwister 
1 Hurkyl's Recall 
1 MindÕs Desire
SB:
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
3 Sacred Ground
2 Forbidden Orchard
1 Blazing Archon
1 Woodripper
4 Oath of Druids
1 Sundering Titan
1 Rushing River
1 Chain of Vapor

I started playing at table 9 and it turned out that I would never go lower than
table 15 over the day. With 177 players that is not a bad feat as you do not
have to find your seat as it is where you last were or close to that.

Round 1 Erik (blue/white/green control concoction)
As I shuffle his deck I think it is a little bit on the big side. (70-80 cards
or something) But perhaps it is something I do not know about and a lot of
people try their luck with a black lotus as first prize so I start seriously. I
win the toss (would happen a lot during the day) and I get a reasonable hand. I
can go first turn duress and as I see his hand I know this should not get too
hard. It contains counterspell, StP, harrow and some lands. I get rid of the
counter. Second turn I go wild after playing a wheel. After playing will I
miscount. I play demonic for the tendrils win but have only 3 mana left. Quick
thinking gets me my lotus and I play my desire that I discarded with my wheel
for 11. Not too much in there except some carddraw, a colossus and a duress. I
duress him and get another StP out of his hand and play colossus. was end of the
game there.
The second game was over after some duresses. I could play my necro and that
killed him harder than expected but that was more because necro didn't give me
the expected kill, but it did get me enough to get the win. I didn't even
sideboard against him.
2-0/1 0 0

Round 2 Ronald (mono green landdestruction)
I won the toss again and kept a very good hand. I duressed him and he only had 5
lands of which 1 was a wasteland and 2 thermokarst. I got a thermo and played a
mox. He wasted my land and said go. I could safely go land ritual necro for a
turn 3 comfortable win.
The second game I boarded almost my entire sideboard in and got rid of my FoW,
duress, windfall, desire, bargain and one more. I got my 2 orchards, 4 oath,
akroma, blazing archon, 3 sacred ground. He played land elf. I went turn 1 oath.
He went living wish for maze of ith. Setback but not too bad. I got out my
colossus which was still in there and an orchard. He went ground seal land. I
went blazing archon from oath and sacred ground go. He then played another
ground seal land living wish and got another maze. As he had already played a
land he couldn't play anything else and in my turn after getting akroma from
oath I played a twister for the win. He didn't draw his last maze and I could
attack for the kill after that.
2-0/2 0 0

Round 3 Rudi Van Soest(gifts)
Rudi is my teammate and we know eachother pretty well. He had told me about the
secret tech he had for the mirror and it would be good against me as well. He
won the toss and said, hmmm, perhaps not too good an omen.
He choose to keep and I mulled to 6 cards. I had a pretty solid hand after with
the six cards as I could go tinker colossus turn 1 with still some mana left and
a FoW backup. Rudi was using his resources to get rid of the colossus (bouncing
it) after getting hit once. A fetchland made it he was at 7 so I needed a
tendrils of 4 to kill him. As I already had my tendrils and I drew into a
demonic tutor I was counting on rudi he would expect me to play for will to get
my tendrils kill. He did and after getting my lotus and playing it and playing a
ritual and then tendrils he could for 1 but still be dead as he was at 7.
As usual when I play people who know about my sideboard plan I put my whole
sideboard in, shuffle and get out 15 cards after that. People will never know
what to expect after boarding. I got out my colossus and tinker and got in my
bounce spells. I would be going for the combo all the way as his secret tech is
bribery and with mana drain easy to cast. Rudi mulls to six and then keeps his
hand. I have a pretty solid hand with some tutors, enough mana and a FoW with
blue card. He goes land mana vault. I go land mox. He goes land and plays the
bribery. I think for a bit and decide he can look for a critter. His face is one
of disbelief as he never finds one. It then turns out his whole plan was the
bribery. He takes some damage from the mana vault and I keep building my hand
with my tutors with the need of using my FoW. He then tries to build some
pressure with a tinker for colossus. I already got the bounce so I let it go. I
then at the end of his turn chain of vapor his colossus which he FoWs and I FoW
back. I then have a 4 card hand against a tapped out opponent with 1 card left.
So I know I am free to go for the kill and I do that turn as I fetch my will for
the kill.
2-0/ 3 0 0

Round 4 Jos Scheurs(grimlong)
I win the toss and get to play a duress turn 1. I can see at once he is playing
grimlong as I need to get rid of a tutor. I get to FoW some and he gets to
search some and in the end his deck is way faster than mine and after resolving
a draw seven (I think it was a twister) and cracking his LED it is game.
The second game I start again but again it is Jos who gets to do the first
blows. He duresses me and then plays a twister for the win but his deck stalls
on mana. How lucky, as he gives me the perfect hand for the win. Which I
promptly do. 1-1
The third game he starts and he duresses me. We exchange some duresses and blows
until I duress him and he has ritual, necro, wheel. I am wondering why he hadn't
played the necro for the kill but I am not one to think twice and get rid of the
necro. This forces him to play the wheel and at that time I have a lot of mana
on the table, drop my lotus and petal leaving me with 1 card in hand, a land. He
has only 2 lands and I am hoping he will not draw too much acceleration from the
wheel. He playes the wheel and has 1 black in pool. No untapped lands and again
he goes duress go. He duresses my will but as I also got my regrowth I get will
back and after that with my lotus and graveyard I kill him with ease. As he
should he makes me play it however and I get to show him my tendrils at the end
after which he congratulates me. I asked him about not playing the necro. He
answered he was afraid of walking into a little tendrils from my side when he
would have gotten ten cards. He didn't know my hand consisted of 2 lands, a
lotus and a petal.
2-1/4 0 0

round 5 Jan (drainslaver I think)
I am unsure but I think I won the toss. I get to duress him and get down my
bargain with 20 life points. He still has not too much on the table. So little
that I think he is playing mono blue at the time. But bargain down pretty much
is game and it is a swift win.
Game 2 I board in my oath plan with colossus, akroma and sundering titan. It
seems like a good plan against mono blue but soon after I understand he is
playing something different. He opens with a tinker for platinum angel. There is
a turn of events. He has a volcanic island on the board and I understand he is
playing probably drain slaver. Still, my sideboard plan is a good one against
that deck as well. As I do not often see him at type 1 tournaments I suspect he
netdecked the deck and has played it well until now. I also suspect he will not
suspect my oath plan. So I go turn 1 oath. I keep my orchard in hand as he
already has a critter and say go. He beats me with his angel and drops another
land. He now has 3 cards left in hand. I brainstorm to get the sundering titan
from my hand in my deck and start oath. I destroy his manabase, play orchard and
say go. I drew my colossus which is nice as I now know the next critter will be
akroma. I get hit and play brainstorm. He drops library and I suspect him to try
and get to seven cards before I can get rid of his platinum. I get my Akroma
from the oath after playing another brainstorm of of orchard. I beat him to
death and when he has six cards I get to duress him. He then knows it is over as
the next turn I get a tutor for the win as I can put his angel in his hand and
cruise for the kill.
2-0/5 0 0

Round 6 Claudius (oath gifts)
I know that if I win this round I will be able to draw into top 8. Claudius has
already 1 draw and will have to play next rounds anyways.
We exchange some early duresses. We get to play some FoW and he fetches some
lands. He then manages to get a gifts. Unable to counter I fear the worst. He
gets demonic, orchard, vampiric and oath. As I have an orchard as 3 land in my
hand and he has already tropical island on the table I suspected him to play
oath and I kept that orchard in hand. I give him oath and vampiric. I pretty
much know that he will try to find an orchard as soon as he puts down the oath.
I then topdeck my necro and I have to play orchard to be able to play my necro,
but it is worth it as he gets a token, I get to draw 10 cards (going to 7) and I
get to go for the win next turn. If he plays the oath he will not have a token
unless he searches for an orchard in his upkeep giving him no real advantage as
I have an orchard. He only has 2 cards and some mana but he goes for the tutor
and draws that card and chooses not to play the oath. He now only has 2 cards in
hand and I know 1 is an oath. He beats me with the token and I am on six. If I
want to kill him it has to be now. But my necro has not given me a great hand. I
have lots of acceleration but only 3 spells that really count. I have a demonic,
a time walk and a brainstorm. I open with brainstorm, which he counters as he
fetches a pyroblast with the cunning wish he looked for. I then walk and look
for will, untap and win.
As I suspect him to play regular oath I board in my orchards and some critters.
I have to mull to 6 and I keep a shaky hand at best. I had lotus as my only mana
source, ancestral, time walk, duress and 2 big spells. I was hoping he didn't
play a duress which he did and I was screwed majorly. It then turned out he was
playing gifts as he took out his oaths and just went for the win with gifts
tinker colossus. He was playing very slowly and gave me plenty of time to get to
a land (which I never got as I only got my critters). In the end it took him
over 10 minutes, and 2 duresses to see I had no FoW before he dared put down
colossus to kill me. When he killed me my next draw would have been my first
land.
As the first game had taken up a lot of time and the second game almost took us
up to time for the round I made a decision. I could start and I was the only one
able to win fast as I had seen nothing to hint at a possible tendrils win with
him. So I decided to go for the combo all the way. Would I succeed it would be
great, if I didn't I counted on him for not being able to win fast and get the
draw anyway. I got a really good opening hand. But he needed not to have a FoW
for a turn 1 kill. I had black lotus, dark ritual, demonic tutor, tendrils of
agony, mox pearl, chain of vapor and another card I didn't even use. He kept his
hand which is never good but I tried it anyways. I opened with lotus, no FoW,
followed with ritual, no FoW, by then I was almost sure he didn't have any and I
went wild. Played mox pearl (3) and demonic tutor for will (4). I then played
will leaving 1 black in pool (5). Out of the graveyard I played lotus and ritual
of the black (6 and 7) leaving me with 3 black in pool. I then cracked lotus for
blue and played chain of vapor on mox pearl which I then again played (8 and 9)
leaving me with 2 blue, 3 blackand an untapped mox for a tendrils of 10. I
backed away with a sigh and as time had already been called I was very very very
relieved to get a turn 1 win. My opponent didn't believe it but was smiling as
he held a good hand but without a FoW.
2-1/6 0 0

I then ID twice going into top 8 as third.

Top 8 Quarter Steffen (gifts with time vault flame fusillade)
I won toss but never really had a very good hand. He got out his colossus after
some plays and I never recovered.
The second game I got a decent start with orchard mox oath as I put in my oath
plan. I then made the mistake of playing a wheel and not being able to do
anything with it. I got my colossus out of the oath but tapped out for the wheel
and lost it from there. Steffen went absolutely wild of of my wheel getting 2 or
3 extra turns before giving me the turn. He already had gotten rid of my tokens
so I could not oath and he had 2 counters to counter everything I threw at him
and lissing out on 1 mana to play walk for the win. So I almost made it but I
didn't and he played well. The wheel was a mistake but it was a gamble to being
able to play something. So I got what Jos had in round 4. Play a draw seven and
stall.

I had a very good day and was very pleased to go 6 0 0 after 6 rounds. My deck
worked miracles again and I won both due to oath and combo. The mind playing
tricks on your opponent when playing virtually 2 decks is worth something. Even
when they know you get to turn it around on them. So I really can make a
recommendation to all people to try it out. But be assured that it took me a
long time to play it to this level and I still make mistakes. When I would not
have played the wheel in the quarter I do not know what would have happened, but
perhaps I could have won. I do not know if it was a mistake or a miscalculation
or bad judgement. All I know is that my deck got me to there so I was happy.

Props:
- my deck for not letting me down
- organisors for make it altogether, running it smoothly and getting a very nice
prize support
- my teammates for doing well but missing top 8 just
- having 6 dutchies in the top 8 getting 3 to the top 3 in an open dutch
championship.

slops:
none really, except perhaps getting too relaxed and making a mistake in the
quarters. But I was down 1-0 already so it would have only brought me back to
level the game and I have no idea what would have happened the third game.

I had a great time and will try to defend my place next year.

Marco