The Tale of a Man That Wore Two Different T-Shirts in the Top 8
by Vincent Thibeault
The response for part 1 of Vincent’s Thibeault tournament report has been overwhlemingly positive. Instead of having our Mana Deprived readers wait any longer, I have decided to post part 2 of his excellent report today and it is definitely another goodie. Keep the feedback rolling in. We need to encourage VT to continue writing!
Day 2 started a bit like day one, but I managed to sleep six hours instead of four. There was a real possibility that I get into the top 8, maybe even qualify for the Worlds, so I had to do well. I needed two victories out of five matches and I was in. My first match was a feature match and I won in two fast games, curving out the first time and managing to get back into contention in the second game after drawing tons of quality cards with 2 Sign in Blood and 1 Foresee.
8. WB: 2-0
9. WU: 1-2
10. Jund: 2-0
11. Jund: Conceded to a friend: 0-2
12. UGR Destructive Force: Id with Pascal Maynard.
My ninth match was against Martin-Eric Gauthier and this is where I committed my worst mistake of the tournament. Even when you play tight it is really hard not to get confused at least one time in a tournament and do a blunder. I had mine when playing versus MEG in the 9th round. At that point I was still undefeated and needed only one win to make sure I was in the top 8. I could not help it but started to get a little bit nervous, remembering my performance at Washington DC GP where I started 6-0 and finished 6-3, barely missing day 2.
The last time I played MEG was at the first PTQ Amsterdam in Montreal, where my UG Polymorph beat his Mythic Conscription in the finals, after him mulling to 4 cards and almost managing to kill me. He obviously wanted his revenge. I was really low on life and had a Howling Banshee in play and a Bloodstone Vampire and some other dorks where he had an Assault Griffin. The game had been quite long and tense and there was a lot of banter. I was getting low on life and I needed to draw well to survive. At one point he slammed Mind Control on the table, on my Banshee. I was taken aback and felt a bit disheartened when I saw that with all the goodies he drafted he managed as well to get the best uncommon of the set, Mind Control. I said «ok then», not realising immediately that all I had to do was to sacrifice my Banshee to my Vampire. The game was not looking great but I would have survived a turn longer and it could have made the difference.
The slam tactic was a pretty good bluff, though elementary, and despite getting owned this time, I was not going to let that affect me and put me on a tilt. And anyway, the next three rounds were going to be constructed and I was confident with my deck choice. Quite a few people had limited experience against it and some believed that the side tech that was useful versus pre-m11 Valakut was also effective versus Titan Ramp. They were usually wrong. For instance, Goblin Ruinblaster is usually just too slow and rarely does something good in that match-up.
I then won my tenth round versus Aggro-Jund, the same guy that I would meet in the semi-final, Kyle Duncan. Friendly and relaxed, but at the same time very competitive, he got slow hands and no early Putrid Leech actions, and I managed to win in two fast games. I did not realize that he was playing 4 Eldrazi Monuments and 4 Lotus Cobra and just thought he had a stock version. We talked about other players who will be ready to lose all their civilized manners to slightly increase their chances of winning by acting like jerks.
There is a strategy in tournaments which I could qualify as the «jerk» strategy. Instead of being pleasant and civil with your opponents, you do your best to annoy them, showing little respect and even at times being totally rude. Some people do it naturally, without really thinking about it, and other people do it intentionally, as a way to increase their odds of winning. Such an attitude will obviously intimidate certain opponents, or push them to lose their focus. It is a strategy, however, that does not seem to bring many advantages in the middle or long term. Acting in such a way will alienate yourself from many people and you will not be able to expect any good will from their part in the future. For instance, if a player treated me rudely, I am less likely to draw with them so they can make the top 8, and I would not consider scooping so they can get in. As well, if you play regularly in the same local magic community, you will come in contact often with the same players, and the better your relationship is with them, the more likely they will share secret techs and metagame information with you. The most important aspect of all this, however, is that you will just have a better time if you do not generate resentment towards yourself. After all, Magic is just a game and you can have a good time as well as being competitive. So here is my opinion about this tactic, maybe useful in the short term, but for sure a hindrance in the long term.
VT in action!
Once I had won my tenth round, I was assured of a top 8 position. First in the standings, I could use the next two rounds to relax, eat, scout and cheer for my friends in the PTQ. After the standings were up, a rather interesting part of the tournament started: diplomacy time. Few players came to check with me if I would scoop if I was paired with them so they could get to play in the top 8. Others wanted me to play no matter what if I was paired against a stranger, so it would increase their chances to get in.
I said I would consider it and that if it was a friend I would probably scoop, so he could get into the top 8. I was told by others that I should play the round if I was paired against bad match-ups, so I could increase my chance to kick him out of the top 8. Another guy that I did not know, hearing our conversation, introduced himself so he would not be a total stranger and that I may consider scooping if paired together. Overall it was operation seduction from a lot of players and even if I did not commit to anybody, I told everybody I would consider it seriously.
In the end, I was finally paired against Guillaume Daoust, a guy who I have met a few times at pre-releases and to whom I lent some Verdant Catacombs for his Jund deck. I consider Jund generally a good match-up and I knew his version. At the same time it was a friend, so I conceded. I was only losing few points of rating for a lot of future goodwill and a potential ally in the top 8. We went to the Chinese quarter next to the Palais des Congrès and we got some nice and healthy Vietnamese food. I try to avoid heavy meals before the top 8 and would not go near junk food as it hinders my concentration. We got a take-away meal and went back to the tournament, chatting about non-magic-related stuff. The last round finally started and I was paired with Pascal Maynard. Never spoken to him before but my friend Mathieu Roberge knew him and told me he was ruling the Magic scene in Quebec City. I spoke with him a bit and he revealed himself to be quite a decent guy, somebody I could get along with while preparing for the Worlds. We decided to ID and after signing the slip I went to meet some friends of the Farfadet team that came over to congratulate me and wishing me the best of luck for the top 8, including Maxime Choquette, Christian Rochon (who found Primeval Titans for my deck) and François Richard.
That is another advantage of playing in a team; you get a lot of support and a lot of positive energy coming from your teammates. I could not help but smile, a bit taken aback by so much encouragement. Team Face à Face, with which I trained for the last two weeks, were very supportive as well. KYT and the Manadeprived crew showed also their pride in my accomplishment so far, so I was not in the slightest feeling alone. I knew, however, that the toughest part of the weekend was ahead. I was getting a bit tired, my concentration was not as acute as it was in the morning, and I was feeling mildly worried about the potential outcome of the whole thing. I had an hour to kill anyway and needed to find a way to get my energy back. Talking endlessly about sideboard strategies just would not do it. So I went to the restroom, changed, and went to my bicycle. I put some music on and rode for 40 minutes at quite an intense pace. Intense physical efforts release endorphins in your brain as well as take your mind off potential sources of worries. When I came back, I felt energised and my will to fight was fully restored. I felt more alert and more focused and could only consider myself lucky not to have had to play the last two rounds.
The top 8 match was a quick affair. I was paired versus a stock Jund and managed to play Siege-Gang Commander as a tribe of chump blockers before my other threats came on the battlefield. He pumped once his Leech after seeing a Bolt on the top of my library because of my Oracle of Mul Daya, but he forgot about it and his Leech got Bolted. That was a mistake serious enough to give me the first game and I saw that he was getting a bit stressed out because of that blunder. Matthew MacMullin was a polite player from Halifax and he did not seem to have a lot of experience playing against Valakut Titan, which gave me an edge. He kept his Blightnings maindeck when I brought in the Obstinate Baloth in, which seemed a bit of a surprise to him when I played one for free, following a Blightning played before the attack phase, making it impossible for him to attack this turn with his Bloodbraid and his Thrinax.
The top 4 match was a lot closer, and I saw the power of the Lotus Cobra in Monument Jund. Kyle Duncan joked that he could at last get his revenge from the Swiss rounds, to which I answered “Do not set your hopes too high”. So we had a bit of a trash talk confrontation, but nothing in bad taste and always in a half-joking way. Kyle is a sympathetic guy but we were among the last men standing and it was not the time to get sentimental. I had the job to get done. The fifth game was really tense, both of us now mute, his board filled with creatures, mine with Overgrown Battlements and huge plant tokens that looked like Japanese anime characters. One Monument from his part and I was out of contention for the title. I could clearly see that he did not have the kill card in his hand, as he was too tense for that, but he could always top deck it. He did not and I drew a Summoning Trap, which I played at the end of his turn after he played another Putrid Leech. A Titan was among my seven cards and I managed to get two extra Valakuts to the one already in play. One attack with the Titan did 18 with the Valakut triggers and the mountain in my hand finished off my opponent. We shook hands and I went to the finals.
There is the coverage of the last match here: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/canat10/welcome.
The match-up was not so bad but I lost my two first games due in part to the fact that my Summoning Trap resolved and that I did not get any quality creatures in the seven cards that I looked at. I do not think it is because my creature ratio was too low. With the Avengers, the Titans, the Siege-Gangs and the Oracle of Mul Daya there are quite a few guys that can get the jobs done. Titan is especially efficient in that match up. Elarar was playing an absurd number of counterspells and getting to resolve one spell was quite a feat, but the traps were there in part to beat UW control decks. I got an Overgrown Battlement the first time with the Trap, and in the second game I did not get anything at all. The second trap that whiffed was a hard blow to my chance to get the first place, and I had to take few deep breathes to be able to swallow it without getting too emotional. I finally lost the 4th game, not drawing more that a threat or two, looking at my Back to Nature that had clogged my hand the last two games, not doing much beside being a dead card. It was right to bring it in, as Elarar brought in Leylines of Sanctity and was playing Spreading Seas (as my scouts reported), but Elarar never casted the Leylines in our matches.
I extended my hand and congratulated the Canadian champion for his repeat performance. He played really tight and it was going to be great to be together with Maynard on the national team and getting to Chiba. There could be a lot more anecdotal stories to tell and I may have simplified or dramatize some parts of my days just for the sake of story-telling, but it is overall very faithful to my experience. Now that the euphoria of winning fades slowly away I am going to put my effort into the preparation for Pro Tour Amsterdam. I am getting familiar with the new extended metagame and I will draft on MODO until I have a really good grasp of the format. Thanks everybody again for your support and looking forward to training for the Pro Tour with Robert Anderson, Jay Elarar and Andrew Noworaj.
Vincent Thibeault
P.S.: The t-shirt business is about the fact that I wore a Manadeprived t-shirt in the top 8 and top 4, and a Face à Face t-shirt in the final, to finally change back to Manadeprived for the trophy photo. The owner of Face à Face is a friend of mine and I trained with his team quite a lot so as a favour I agreed to wear his t-shirt, like the dozens of other people at the Nats. I was not given any money or gifts in exchange for wearing it, but a favour is usually returned and I am quite happy that I could please both.
Kar Yung Tom (KYT) is the Digital Content Manager for Face to Face Games. He oversees the F2FTour.com and Magic F2F websites. He is also the lead host of the First Strike podcast.