by Kyle Duncan
Mana Deprived is proud to present yet another top 8 tournament report from Canadian Nationals. This one comes from the alternate of Team Canada, Kyle Duncan. Kyle sent in a mammoth-sized report that I had to split into two parts. In part 1, he describes his first day at Nationals, which saw him heading to war with Monument Jund and going undefeated in Limited.
Better late than never is what I always say! Hey everybody! For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Kyle Duncan and I am part of the Hamilton/Toronto Magic scene. Although I will play any format available, I consider myself mostly a Standard and Limited player, which I believe are the two most skill intensive and wallet intensive formats that I know of. I started playing Magic back when Odyssey had just been released; however, I have only recently been able to commit some serious time to appreciating and testing the game we all love. Between university, working part-time, and sports, I did not have enough time in the day to really devote to the game which now pretty much consumes my life.
It was last week when KYT contacted me to let me know that if I ever wanted to post anything on his site, that I was more than welcome to. So it seemed fitting with Nationals in the books that I would write my report on my first ever Canadian National Championship experience and the weekend that was.
The weekend started off Thursday after work by scrambling to find all the necessary cards and trying to pack for a four day weekend in Montreal. By 6:30pm I was in Woodstock meeting up at Dmac’s house with Mike and Brandon. From there we headed towards Kitchener/Waterloo for a brief stop at Kelsey’s for some cheap wings and beer. After impressing the guys by devouring twenty-four wings handily, we were back on the road and Montreal bound by 9pm. Rolling into Montreal, and more specifically Matt Schmaltz’s apartment at 3am, was a little awkward, but he loves us all like family so he quickly forgave us.
Friday morning came way too soon, but arriving at the venue at 8am allowed Dmac plenty of time to attempt to qualify for Nationals. Being ranked 102 the day of the cut off, when only the top 100 receive invitations, was more than frustrating for Dmac, so we were all empathetic to the situation. The only positive side of being at the venue for fourteen hours the day before the main event was that there was plenty of time to sharpen my Limited skills.
After about three different team drafts, Mike Vasovski’s back must have been killing him; carrying a guy my size for that long couldn’t have been easy. Although I felt comfortable in my drafting ability, and knowing all my decks were significantly overpowered, it seemed that I kept losing to the most random combinations, which included an Overwhelming Stampede, with a Fire Servant on board, into a Flinging of a Spined Wurm, for exactly twenty damage, when I was winning next turn. Not to be discouraged, I kept 1-2’ing and with Mike Vasovski on my side we somehow kept walking away winners. In the meantime, after two consecutive grinders’ finals, Dmac finally qualified himself and was feeling on top of the world with his standard deck posting a total 9 and 1 record. After a solid night’s sleep and a little breakfast before the event, the day I had been testing so much for had finally arrived.
I had spent all of my free time testing and discussing the meta-game with some of Hamilton’s best which included Jon Boutin, James Vance, Rob Lombardi, and Steve Crevar. Most, if not all, of my card evaluation in the Limited portion of the tournament can be attributed to the advice from Dmac in the previous weeks. Constant drafting of M11, and talks about comparing rares to uncommons, proved to be very valuable during the tournament. After many hours of testing standard decks, both known and rogue, I finally had made a conscious decision as to what I would be playing for Nationals. While, however, testing at Sammie T’s place in Oakville, Sammie showed me a “tweaked” Jund list he had been working on. No matter what deck I grabbed from our gauntlet, Sammie’s Jund deck was blowing it over: too fast to be handled by any of the Control decks, too much card advantage to be dismantled by another Aggro deck, and no matter how much board position I thought I had at any point in the night, all it took was Sammie to tap his five colourless mana to crush my dream. Before I go any further with explaining, here is my Canadian Nationals Standard decklist:
–Monument Jund–
4 Putrid Leech
4 Nest Invaders
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Sprouting Thrinax
4 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Obstinate Baloth
3 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Eldrazi Monument
4 Savage Lands
4 Raging Ravine
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Dragonskull Summit
1 Evolving Wilds
3 Forest
3 Swamp
3 Mountain
SB:
4 Doom Blade
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
4 Blightning
3 Obstinate Baloth
Round 1 vs. Mythic Conscription [Patelakis, Steve]
Steve is an acquaintance from Oakville who at the same time is one of Sammie T’s close friends. Steve and I had met once before in the first round of a PTQ back in Kitchener with me squeaking a victory out in extra turns. A gentleman of the game, Steve was not excited to be playing me in the first round of Nationals to say the least.
Game One: I keep a very loose hand game one because it has a lot of land and I have absolutely no idea what Steve is playing. I quickly start to wish I had mulled into more removal as his threats start hitting the board; turn one with a Noble Hierarch followed by a turn two Knight of the Reliquary. With no Pulse in hand, I swing my Lotus Cobra into his untapped Sovereigns turn five as a last ditch effort and he bites, allowing me to Lightning Bolt his combo piece from the game. With a look of relief on my face, Steve starts to mutter that he can’t believe he bit on that when he could clearly afford the two damage.
After crashing in again with his Knight for a big hit, Steve leaves six mana up, four cards in hand, and passes turn. At this point I am a little confused to what he may have in his hand. Jace’s Ingenuity? Multiple Mana Leaks? Trying to apply more pressure, and with practically no other options, I decide to turn my lone Putrid Leech sideways. Meeting me halfway there is Steve’s Summoning Trap, which digs him up a Baneslayer Angel, ready to block and then smash. I quickly scoop up my cards and mention how “techy” I thought Summoning Trap was (even though I may have been a little sarcastic and still bitter from losing). Steve laughs and mentions that this is not the matchup he intended it for. We sideboard quickly and shuffle up for game two.
Sideboarding Note:
-2 Eldrazi Monument
-1 Nest Invader
-1 Obstinate Baloth
+4 Doom Blade
Game Two: Game two I choose to play first and after some deep thought, decide I will keep a seven card hand with Raging Ravine x2, Mountain, Lightning Bolt x2, Doom Blade, and Lotus Cobra. After Bolting Steve’s turn one Noble Hierarch, I drop my turn two Cobra and ship the turn. Steve reveals a second Hierarch and passes back. Noticing two fetch lands in Steve’s bin already, I realize my Bolts will simply only deal with his Nobles from this point on. I decide to Bolt his second consecutive Hierarch and crash for two. Now this is the point in the match where my deck decides it’s not going to be my friend anymore, Steve drops turn three Knight, followed by turn four Baneslayer, and then turn five Sovereign. I say my deck decided not to be my friend, because for the rest of the game/match, all it did was tease me by giving me multiple Doom Blades and Maelstrom Pulses without any more land. Having Steve crash with big daddy Banes for five and searching up a Canopy Cover, I looked down at my three measly lands which could only produce red or green, and chuckled. I thought to myself is this really how this day is going to go? I one by one start revealing my spells from my hand to Steve, he smiles, and like most of my opponents seem to do when they beat me like this, he apologizes. I shake Steve’s hand and wish him the best of luck for the rest of the tournament.
0-1
Round 2 vs. Next Level Bant Conscription [Maguire, Doug]
Walking over to check the pairings next round, I kept telling myself that I am just here to have a good time and to take in as much as possible, who cares if I go 0-4 drop.
Game One: I don’t remember specific details of this game; however, I do remember I got there off of only two of my three colours. My opponent did get far enough into his deck for me to identify that he was playing a hybrid of Next Level Bant with Eldrazi Conscription combo.
Sideboarding Note:
-2 Eldrazi Monument
-1 Nest Invader
-1 Obstinate Baloth
+4 Doom Blade
Game Two: My deck finally decides it is going to do exactly what it was designed to do. Following a turn two Noble Hierarch, my opponent quickly starts clogging up the board with a turn three Elspeth and a turn four Vengevine. Although I am a step behind my opponent’s every move, my deck reveals its true powers when a turn six Eldrazi Monument goes un-Negated and I crash in for more than half his life. My opponent quickly tosses down an Oblivion Ring, but when I cast one of the two Pulses in my hand, my stunned opponent kindly extends his hand for a shake.
1-1
Round 3 vs. Jund [Tower, Scott]
Game One: I win the die roll and immediately fall in love with my opening hand, finally a visible curve! We both exchange first turn Savage Lands, followed closely by my second turn Lotus Cobra. He untaps and Bolts it and ships the turn back to me. Like a pro, I tap two mana, drop my second Cobra, drop a Verdant Catacombs, proceed to add two mana off of my landfall and then a third from the land itself to drop a Sprouting Thrinax. My opponents turn three play was less than spectacular with him Pulsing my Thrinax and then passing. I untap, play my land and trigger Cobra, drop my Bloodbraid Elf and cascade into another Thrinax, all the while holding mana up for the Lightning Bolt in my hand. In the mirror match, I believe this is what they refer to as “the nuts,” my opponent quickly concedes and it is on to game two.
Sideboarding Note:
-4 Lightning Bolt
-3 Maelstrom Pulse
+3 Obstinate Baloth
+4 Goblin Ruinblaster
Game Two: No matter on the play or the draw in the mirror match, I still side in the Ruinblasters because I have eight maindeck cards which allow me to cast my trump sideboard card before my opponent. Both my opponent and I keep rather slower hands this game and it’s not until turn four that my opponent taps all his mana and grabs a card from his hand. At this point I’ve used my Bolt to kill his Leech and he has Terminated my turn three Thrinax. I’m not sure what else had happened, but I distinctly remember having three cards in hand, all turn four eligible plays: Bloodbraid Elf, Goblin Ruinblaster, and Obstinate Baloth. My mana is a little shaky this game and for some reason I notice I cannot produce double red to cast the Ruinblaster, when and if I get to untap.
Still dreading my opponent dropping his own Ruinblaster, he quickly reveals a Bloodbraid Elf for his turn four play and I breathe a little sigh of relief. Still not out of the woods as my opponent begins to cascade and when he stops I initially think it is a Terminate. Having three Saproling tokens on board I think Hey it could’ve been a lot worse. I then hear my opponent mutter, “targeting you.” I look again and notice it is a promo textless Blightning. I look down at my hand, and I am pretty sure fireworks started going off in my head. I decide the Ruinblaster is no good to me because who knows how long it will be until I can cast it, and then put Baloth right in the middle of the board! My opponent slouches back into his chair and grumbles something along the lines of, “wow I am pretty sure that just wins you the game.”
I might not have been that quick to agree with him until I untapped and top decked a second Bloodbraid Elf to go with the one already sitting in my hand. After consecutively casting both Elves turn after turn, my opponent throws his hands up in the air and yells “how lucky.” At this point I try to ignore him and reflect that his mis-sideboarding of Blightnings most likely cost him the game and the match and not my “lucky” draws. I reach across to shake hands, but only find a limp limb there to greet me. I felt like I was shaking a dead fish. I apologize for straight up “Jund”ing him, quickly pack up my stuff and try to conceal the giant smile I can’t seem to remove from my face.
2-1
After three rounds, I still don’t feel excited to be two and one. With plenty of “sharks” in the field I feel like I dodged a lot of competition in the first three rounds, aside from my lone loss. Realizing it is almost time for the first draft portion of Nationals, I start to feel a bit nervous; not because I am second guessing my Limited skills, but merely because if a couple things go wrong during the draft itself it could end up costing me three straight losses. Unlike the Standard portion, each round of Limited isn’t entirely individual of itself. If my deck were to end up being a joke, I will quickly be joining the people on the other side of the ropes, a spectator for the rest of the event.
In the first draft pod, the first pack of M11 I opened was pretty boring aside from the rare, Brittle Effigy. Being a colourless removal spell, I quickly snaked it up and began to fan out my remaining cards in preparation for my second pick. After analyzing the second pack, the strongest card was the white Blinding Mage, with the next three strongest cards all being blue and green. I decided that a second pick Blinding Mage was right up my alley and sent the rest of the pack on its way. Little did I know that following closely behind in the third pick was another Blinding Mage and I decided at this point that my new “friend” to my right wanted me in white. In the first packs I tried to stay as mono white as possible, telling myself that I would let my opponent to my left dictate what colour I should be added during the second pack. Coming from the left I started receiving multiple Doom Blades and Howling Banshees. The highlight of the second packs was the third pick Serra Angel. Other notable cards that filled out my deck during the third packs were a couple of Cloud Crusaders and an Angelic Arbiter. When the draft was over I quickly scurried back to my table where I would begin to build this gift from above as it were. At this point I could barely contain my excitement, knowing how fortunate I had been during the draft.
Round 4 vs. U/R [Machabee, Dan]
This match was over and done with fairly quickly due to my opponent’s land screw in game one. I got to see a Prodigal Pyromancer and some drakes but in the end my deck completely over powers him. Dan, a really nice guy to play against, wishes me luck in the rest of the draft, shakes my hand, and we part ways.
3-1
Round 5 vs. G/X [Toussaint, Francis]
Not recognizing anyone at my draft table as being a shark did not prove to be entirely accurate. It was almost the start of game one when my good friend James Vance, who was sitting next to us, informs me of Francis’ previous successes at Canadian Nationals. With two prior top 8 showings I felt like the underdog for the first time all day. For those of you who have met Francis, know he is not much of a talker or even a “smiler” for that matter. Feeling a little threatened of losing my second round at Nationals; I quickly do what Jon Boutin has taught me over my entire Magic career: talk.
I start trying to do anything to get a read on Francis, maybe throw him on tilt, or even just disrupt his calm style of play. Through our entire match all Francis asked, in his quiet monotone voice, was “do you play poker?” I pretended like I didn’t hear the question only because I wanted to hear him speak again. When I finally answer with my own question of “why,” he informs me that he knows I am trying to get a read on him. At this point I try to sound overconfident (almost cocky) by telling him it doesn’t matter how much of a read I get on him, or even how much of a better player he might be than me, that my deck is going to pummel him. In the end that is exactly what my deck did, every threat he played I had an answer for. I cannot remember exactly, but I am pretty sure I won this match in two straight games. For the rest of the weekend, even after the event, I continued to take credit for stopping Francis’ routing of the top 8 again, and he was a good sport about it. Francis is one of the most polite and sportsmanlike Magic players I’ve ever met, I had a lot of fun that weekend meeting him and getting to talk later on. I hope he doesn’t take anything I said or did personally; I’m just a big joker. But for future reference Francis, try not to run your Baneslayers directly into Cancel mana, even if your opponents are making it seem like they don’t want to see it. 😉
4-1
Round 6 vs. R/G [Daoust, Guillaume]
In game one, Guillaume keeps what must have been an explosive one-land hand. Not seeing a second land until turn four or five, he starts with a Sylvan Ranger followed by a Cultivate, into some pretty nice threats. Unfortunately, my deck was running as smooth as a baby’s ass and before Guillaume himself becomes a threat, my Banshee/Crusader combination gets there. Game two is much of the same. Although Guillaume hits all his land drops my solid creatures are backed up by Doom Blades and Blinding Mages and my deck runs right over for the match win.
5-1
Going into the second draft pod, I was still a little worried. Knowing that there was practically no way my next draft deck could supersede my last, my plan was to compile a deck that could muster me a two and one record in this pod and hopefully putting me into a good position to start day two.
The highlights of this draft included me opening an Obstinate Baloth and then being passed a second Baloth early in the third pack: a Crystal Ball, Two Spined Wurms, two Yavimaya Wurm, three Greater Basilisk, my deck was all beef backed up by two Chandra’s Outrage and a lone Lava Axe. The Llanowar Elves I had passed up early in the draft for the threats had been cut somewhere along the line in packs two and three. Feeling a little disappointed in this round of drafting, both Dan Kramer and Jay Elarar reassured me that my deck was strong and could do really well.
Round 7 vs. U/R [Desrosiers, Benoit]
Everyone who watched this match live will never forget what took place. After being smashed game one by early fliers and my threats practically never hitting the table, game two was where the “magic” for Kyle Duncan began to kick in. With two Greater Basilisk and a lone Sylvan Ranger on the board and staring down lethal next turn from Benoit’s fliers, I shrug my shoulders and turn all my men sideways. At this point Benoit is at eleven and I am at six, and he is representing permission mana having an island and a mountain untapped. I have seven untapped mana and three cards in hand, one of which Benoit knows of because of the Aether Adept he had played the turn earlier, bouncing one of my three Greater Basilisk.
Knowing he has the win next turn, Benoit decides to put his Aether Adept in front of my 1/1 Sylvan Ranger. I hesitantly ask “are those your blocks” and he confirms. I then announce that before damage I am going to cast Thunder Strike on one of my unblocked Basilisks. Benoit quickly reaches into his hand, taps his two mana, and reveals Flashfreeze. I move my attention to my score pad where I have Benoit’s life total at eleven before my attacks, he agrees, then says yes to taking the six damage from my two attacking creatures. With Benoit all tapped out sitting at five life and me with two cards in hand and five mana up, I contemplated how I wanted to ruin Benoit’s day. Up until this point, Benoit had been one of the ruder and more ignorant players I had played all day. He had been muttering things his friends had said about me, about what they thought about me, and how I would be faltering very shortly. Having no previous encounters with this kid, and wanting to remain a gentleman, I decided to take the high road by slowly tapping my five mana, and revealing the Lava Axe in my hand. The crowd erupted in surprise and Benoit slowly sunk deeper into his chair. With a big smile on my face I said “game three” as if almost a question.
Game three moves along more quickly with Benoit having issues with his mana and my deck just dropping fat and turning cards sideways. Only seeing one mountain until it was too late, Benoit reveals his hand of Fiery Hellhound, Chandra’s Outrage, and something else that is slipping my mind right now and begins scooping up his cards. Normally I would apologize for the unevenness of the match, but karma is a bitch, and I felt no remorse for getting the match win over one of the more miserable players I have come across in my history of playing cards.
6-1
After seven gruelling rounds on day one, I was more than exhausted and ready to pack it in. Being X and one at this point I believe had me sitting in 5th spot and I was ecstatic. Initially we had planned to have a long night of drinking and clubs in downtown Montreal with people I had not seen in a while, but with the recent success of day one, everyone understood why I wanted to just call it a night after dinner and get some rest. The next morning was very similar to the first. After a quick walk across the street from Matt’s apartment for breakfast, we were on our way back to the venue.
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.