Here is my report of the tourney held in Liege (Belgium) last Saturday. On Friday Eric Hanuise, Vincent Gieling and me went to the other side of the country to take part in a local type II. Vincent won, I lost twice to a Sligh with a poor (no Pyroblast nor Anarchy) sideboard and to a R/G Johns-like with me playing a counterpost. Highlight of the tourney is when the guy from the store found out who Eric is (it's the guy maintaining the tourney listing on the web for our country): 'Da's den Eric!' ('it's the Eric') then he added: 'Wait as second, I'll present you my wife' :) We then crashed at my place, and a bright sun wake us up (along with Vincent's shriek - he managed to get ice cubes in his sleeping-bag). We arrived a bit early at the site, it seemed they had a Cantus the evening before as there were candles on the tables and a guy sleeping in a corner. Actually they had played Masquerade or something similar. It turned out that only 13 players showed up, so the Mox vanished and a box of Weathlight took its place. I decided to give a try at the Keeper, since I wanted to play a Mirror deck for a while and since Gilles was nice enough to lend me his 5ML and Walk. Here is what I played (thanks to the Duelist for Mike Long's listing): 1 Balance 2 Disenchant 2 Swords to Plowshares 1 Regrowth 1 Fireball 1 Gorilla Shaman 2 Pyroblast 1 Demonic Tutor 2 The Abyss 1 Amnesia 1 Ancestral Recall 1 Braingeyser 2 Force of Will 1 Foreshadow (the fun card) 4 Mana Drain 1 Merchant Scroll 1 Mystical Tutor 1 Recall 1 Timetwister 1 Time Walk 1 Elemental Augury 1 Black Lotus 2 Fellwar Stone 1 Jayemdae Tome 5 Moxen 1 Mirror Universe 1 Sol Ring 1 Zuran Orb 3 City of Brass 1 Island 1 Library of Alexandria 4 Strip Mine 3 Tundra 3 Underground Sea 3 Volcanic Island 59 cards 60th I can't remember, might be a land. Sideboard 2 CoP Red 1 Disenchant 2 Moat 1 Aetherflash 2 Gorilla Shaman 2 Pyroblast 3 Hydroblast 1 Mana Short 1 Anvil of Bogardan Round 1 - Pierre Cools Jade/Bugs It's 2-0 for Pierre, but we only met in type II. I know his deck (he mailed me the listing :) It's an offensive Abyss deck, featuring Jade Statues and Insects plus some bolts and Psi Blasts. Amasing are the 34 Mana sources (counting 4 Strips and 4 Mishra's). In the first game, I pull the combo: Amnesia followed by Mirror. Side out Abyss for Moat, the Extra Disenchant and Mana Short. In the second game, I am slightly color screwed (drew 2 Strips) as his Mishra's give the beatdown (should have striped them instead of his colored lands). In the 3rd game, I manage to cast Elemental Augury. I feel secure with a Moat on the board. Still I have to give him a LoA, but I proceed to draw a timely Strip. Didn't make any mistake and Mirror-Fireball him as I have no CoB. These were 3 good games. 2-1, 3 points Round 2 - Frederik Goussey U/R bolt with Dibs In the first game, a Serendib is pounding me, helped by assorted bolts. That's when Mr. Mirror Universe showed up. Game. Side in REBs and BEBs. 2nd game is more interesting: he drops a Blood Moon I can't counter. I then cast a Mirror while I am at 4. He copies it, Next turn, he summons a G. Shaman. I can either FoW or Hydroblast. I decide to let it go, and Hydroblast the Blood Moon. He Drains, I FoW, he Arcane Denials. I must be dead. Still, I Mirror. I top deck a Fireball :) Boy is this luck. Nothing else could have saved me. I guess I am improving my Magic skills. 2-0, 6 points Round 3 - Pierre Warginaire Abyss/Insect/counters I don't remember those games very well (forgot to take notes), but Pierre is making mistakes. 2-0, 9 points Round 4 - Olivier Delcambe R/W/U creatures and some heat Olivier is a good player and a good sport from Liege. I met him only once, it was in a ALICE PTQ and I had won. Game one, he's mana screwed big time. Game 2, I am mana screwed big time. Time for some jokes about game 3. Game 3, I am slightly mana screwed, he drops a Dib. I Balance. He drops a Miner. I don't draw the land which would have allowed me to drop the Abyss. I lose. 1-2, 9 points Round 5 - Thierry Verhoest Mono-black Necro Never saw this guy before, and won't complain about that. He wins the roll and starts. 1st turn Hyppie I can't FoW. 2nd turn Hymn I can't counter. Hard to recover from that... In goes Aetherflash, Anvil of Bogardan and maybe a Moat. Game2, I Ancestral in the end his 1st turn. Still no counters. Geyser for 3 in my 2nd turn. Still nothing. Things start to look ugly when I can't counter his Hymn. He dropped 3 Knights and I can't do anything about it. Well, I knew Necro would give me a hard time. Still, he didn't need to cast a Necro to win. That's pathetic. Funny thing is that he sideboarded Ashnod's Transmogrant to fight the Abyss. Even Funnier to kill them with a Shaman :) (should I have sided it? I kept it to kill his ZOrb and Tower. Probably since Necro is not supposed to hit the board). 0-2, 9 points Round 6 Patrick Nizet - B/U/g/w no theme. He was playing Hymn, Counters, Knights, but his deck clearly lacks of focus. Again I forgot to take notes. Game 1 is all about Elemental Augury. I win. Didn't sideboard. In game 2, He casts a Helm of Obediance followed by an Underworld Dreams. I top deck a Disenchant, but have to sac my Lotus to cast it. Regrowth my Demonic Tutor, waiting for a white mana to pick the 2nd Disenchant. Mistake, as I should have gone for the Mirror of course. But I drew it. Better lucky than good. 2-0, 12 points Final round - Vincent Gieling U/W Land Equilibrium/geddon. Vincent has sold most of his power cards to pay his trip to the worlds. So, when he decided to come to the tourney, he built this combo deck, killing with the Vise and a pair of Chimeric Sphere (he plays Moat in the main deck). Game 1: again, I take control of the game with the Elemental Augury. I have to Timetwister because he will get only good cards and I have crap coming as well as in my hand. I get a good draw, he gets crap and I Mirror him. I side in the Shamans and extra Disenchant, out went the anti-creature stuff. Game 2: 1st turn Shaman. Hydroblasted. 2nd turn Shaman, followed by a Strip. He's mana Screwed. I proceed to hit him for 10 rounds. He never recovered from the mana screwed. I was sorry to win like this, but such is Magic... He's not happy as he threw his deck on the wall. 2-0, 15 points. The winner is Olivier Delcambe from round 4 with 18 points (he lost to Pierre from round 3). 2nd Alexandre D'Hondt, 3rd Thierry from round 5, 4th me (winning 5 packs of WL!), 5th Jean-Louis D'Hondt (Top 50 in type 1). Thanks to Roger who ran a nice tourney. Too bad no more people showed up. I think it's due to a type II held in Brussels the same day. We have too many tourneys around :) For my version of the Keeper: I am happy about it. Still I would make the following changes: Out Foreshadow, this was supposed to be funny, but few people were playing a lot of Tutors. Also out: Timetwister, altough I got twice a 1st turn twister, it doesn't help that much. Now, what to bring in? I was thinking of a 2nd Mystical Tutor along with a Counterspell or a StoP or Fireball. For the sideboard, Rudy Edwards told me he used FoW to fight Necro. The Aetherflash is there against weenie and TOST (to fight Abyss). I'd also like to put in a Cap.