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By: Pyrosin, Matt Rossi
Aug 02 2008 4:22pm
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Grand Prix Madrid

The Palacio de Comunicaciones in Madrid,
tell me does your Post Office look like that?

Welcome to the Highlight Reel where this week we get our first look at what kind of effect  will have on the hybrid-centric environment of the block.  The first European Summer Series Grand Prix event saw a huge turnout of 1458 players, making it the third largest GP ever.  Almost all the big name Pros were here, so follow along and find out how they faired in the brand new format.

 in Sealed

When the near record-setting crowd sat down to play on Day One, they were split into two brackets and given their Shadowmoor tournament pack plus 2 Eventide booster from which they would build their Sealed decks from.  They then used this deck during the 9 rounds of Day One with the Top 64 players from each bracket advancing to Day Two. 

And following those 9 rounds, we had an impressive number of Pros near the top of the standings including winner of the last limited GP in Indy Jelger Wiegersma, Manuel Bucher, Mario Pascoli, Sebastian Thaler, Olivier and Antoine Ruel, Raphael Levy, Joel Calafell, Steven Sadin, and Frank Karsten.  The biggest names not making Day Two of this tournament were the Japanese duo of Shuuhei Nakamura and Tomoharu Saitou, who finished 357th and 367th, respectively.

As far as the new set is concerned, besides making enemy-color strategies viable, Eventide's biggest impact on limited appears to be the addition of the Retrace spells such as Flame Jab.  That's right, turning all your extra lands into spells is as good as you thought it would be.  

Flame Jab

Drafting with

The addition of Eventide also seems to make the format a lot more complicated.  Remember back during Ravnica, Ravnica, Guildpact draft how you would go with Selesnya and Golgari cards during the first two packs so you could then go Orzhov in the third?

Ravnica

Selesnya Evangel

Ravnica

Shambling Shell

Guildpact

Pillory of the Sleepless

Between all the Signets, Bouncelands, and other enablers you could feel pretty comfortable about drafting a  deck to get maximum card value out of the multicolor cards in each pack. 

 


 

Well, the hybrid nature of Shadowmoor, Shadowmoor, Eventide gives us a similar challenge with a twist.  Take a look at these 2 Shadowmoor commons, which I'm sure most would gladly draft together as mid-range picks. 

If you were drafting triple Shadowmoor, then most likely you would have been drafting Scuzzback Marauders and Scar planning they would go into either a , , or  deck. 

 

Shadowmoor

Scuzzback Marauders

Shadowmoor

Scar

Now let's say that when you get to that third booster, which is now Eventide, that you open up a Creakwood Liege.  BOOM!  You don't want to be passing a free Call of the Herd every turn.  That's the kind of card to build a deck around.  But due to the limited mana fixing in this environment, you're not going to want to play a  deck. 

No problem, the beauty of the hybrid nature of the Shadowmoor block is that you can easily shift your colors and move into .  Both Scuzzback Marauders and Scar will fix just as seamlessly in your new colors.  Of course, if you had some real bombs in  that you don't want to sit out, then you can still go  and play the Creakwood Liege.  The key to this format is to stay flexible; don't commit to your colors until you absolutely have to.

Eventide

Creakwood Liege

 


 

Of course, instead of having your deck spun on its heels after the first two boosters, you could also plan your picks in the first two boosters to play to enemy color pairs.  Let's say during Shadowmoor you drafted  staples such as Silkbind Faerie and  spells like Puncture Bolt.  With a pool consisting of these cards, then you can either go  or  when that Eventide booster comes along.

 

Shadowmoor

Shadowmoor

Silkbind Faerie
Puncture Bolt

 But if none of that multicolor stuff sounds like any fun, then you can still go with a monocolor deck, which from early returns seems to be more viable in this format.  The format still looks fast, and the addition of enemy colors that more people are competing for the good hybrid cards that now overlap with an increased number of archetypes.

So back to the competition...

Eventide
 

OR

The big names hung around for much of Day Two, and going into the final round of Swiss it looked like we would have a star-studded Top 8.  Quick'n Toast creator Manuel Bucher had already secured his spot in the Top 8, along with Allan Christensen of Denmark, Tommi Lindgren of the Czech Republic, and Geir Bakke of Norway who were all on 37 points and could ID their last round.  But fighting for the final 4 spots, we had the likes of Frank Karsten on 36 points, Jelger Wiegersma, Steve Sadin, Joel Calafell, Mario Carvalho, and Olivier Ruel all on 33 points, needing to win and get some tiebreaker help to find a way in.  Unfortunately for these guys, Frank lost and the others could not get help they needed.  Instead, rounding out the Top 8 we had Sergio Salas Martinez of Spain, Rami Fenaux-briot of France, Lasse Nørgaard of Denmark, and Dan Martin Bermejo of Spain.

Top 8

No draftviewer (whatever happened to that thing?), but you can check out the Top 8 decklists here.  As the only known factor in the Top 8, Rich Hagon and crew decided to follow Manuel Bucher's draft, so if you like, you can listen to the decisions he made and how he ended up with his almost exclusively mono- deck here.

Quaterfinals

Lasse Nørgaard () vs Geir Bakke ()

Most of the work in Game 1 was done by a Lingering Tormentor from Norgaard, who was content to take 2 points of life per turn from Bakke.  On the other side built up an army but was only able to get any damage through with a Tatterkite.  At 5 life, Bakke used Thoughtweft Gambit to push 10 damage through and leave blockers up with Norgaard now at 3.  But, Norgaard had Soul Reap to deal with the untapped Tatterkite, forced 4 damage through and then finished off his opponent with one activation of Spiteflame Witch.  Norgaard has to mulligan, and Bakke has a quick start to Game 2, which forces Norgaard to use up his removal early.  Bakke then uses Beseech the Queen to find the  God aura Clout of the Dominus and enchants a Riverfall Mimic.  A few more big blue creatures are too much for Norgaard to handle, and the match is tied at 1.  In the decider, Norgaard had a Puncture Bolt to deal with a Riverfall Mimic that Bakke attempted to enchant with Steel of the Godhead.  Both players build up their ground forces while Tatterkite from Bakke takes Norgaard down to 12 before its removed.  Now its Norgaard's turn to attack in the air with (Faerie Macabre), which takes Bakke all the way down to 4, allowing Puncture Blast and Spiteflame Witch to finish the job.  Norgaard advances 2-1.

Manuel Bucher () vs Sergio Salas Martinez ()

Game 1 saw both players lay out several Green men each and the race was on.  Facing lethal damage from a Rune-Cervin Rider on the next turn, Bucher attacked with his entire army to try and force through a final 4 points of damage.  Instead of blocking, Martinez had a conspired Aethertow to remove two attackers, but Martinez had miscalculated as he forgot about the 1/1 Elf token that had been pumped by a Nurturer Initiate, and he took 4 damage when he thought he would take 3.  In Game 2, Martinez had to mulligan twice, and was then stuck on two lands.  Bucher finished him off rather quickly and advanced 2-0. 

Allan Christensen () vs Dan Martin Bermejo ()

Bermejo got off to a quick start, and before Christensen could stabilize, a conspired Burn Trail to the dome from Bermejo ended Game 1.  Christensen got stuck on three lands, and was unable to cast any of the 4 and 5 mana spells he drew.  Bermejo advances 2-0.

Rami Fenaux-briot () vs Tommi Lindgren ()

Game 1, Lindgren got stuck on two lands and a pair of Cinder Pyromancers quickly finished Game 1 for Fenaux-briot.  Game 2, Lindgren had to mulligan and was then mana-flooded.  He fell to some red guys and Giantbaiting.  Fenaux-briot advances 2-0.

Semifinals

Manuel Bucher vs Lasse Nørgaard

Bucher curves out over the first three turns to take the early lead in the first game that takes Norgaard down to 7 life.  But Gloomlance and Incremental Blight from Norgaard clear Bucher's side of the board, allowing Norgaard to attack Bucher from 17 to 0 unabated.  Bucher has nothing until Turn 4, but that was a Drove of Elves which then got enchanced with a Presence of Gond.  This allowed Bucher to build up an army, Norgaard just couldn't deal with and the match was tied.  In the decider, Bucher gets Presence of Gond on Drove of Elves again, while Norgaard sneaks in 2 damage a turn with Lingering Tormentor.  The Tormentor takes Bucher all the way down to 4, all the while building up an army of tokens and searching for an answer to the Tormentor, but Demigod of Revenge comes into play giving Norgaard the 2-1 victory.

Dan Martin Bermejo vs Rami Fenaux-briot

The first game of the match quickly became a race as Bermejo attacked with a Clout of the Dominus-enchanted Briarberry Cohort versus Fenaux-briot's Hearthfire Hobglobin.  But Bermejo had no answer as Rami built a large ground force and pounced in to take the early 1-0 lead.  Both players came firing out of the gates in Game 2, playing creatures, attacking, and refusing to block.  After 5 turns, each was down to 8 life apiece.  At this point the players had to slow down the pace a bit, but Cinder Pyromancer and Burn Trail from Bermejo evened the match.  Unfortunately, the last game of this match was not nearly as intense as the first two,  Fenaux-briot got stuck on two lands for several turns, allowing Bermejo to cruise to the 2-1 victory and advance to the finals.

Finals

Dan Martin Bermejo vs Lasse Nørgaard

Congratulations to Lasso Norgaard, Winner of Grand Prix Madrid,
and uh... nice hair...

 

In the first game of the finals, both players got out a number of creatures that bounced back and forth of each other, but the removal spells such as Puncture Bolt and Gloomlance for Norgaard got  him far enough out in front to take Game 1.  Game 2 starts off with both players using a lot of removal to try and keep the other side of the board clear.  Then Bermejo has Clout of the Dominus for Stream Hopper and then Merrow Levitator to make an army of flyers.  From there it was double conspired Burn Trail for Bermejo to even up it up and take the final match to a decider.  The final game starts with Bermejo playing out three scarecrows that are then removed with an Incremental Blight from Norgaard.  This allows Norgaard to apply pressure with Lingering Tormentor and Grief Tyrant.  A few more attacks from Norgaard and a Puncture Bolt give the match to Lasse Norgaard, who wins Grand Prix Madrid 2-1.

 

Top 20 in the 2008 Player of the Year Standings 
Following Grand Prix Madrid

Ranking Player Points
1 Shuuhei Nakamura* 36
2 Mario Pascoli 29
3 Jon Finkel* 28
3 Jan Ruess 28
5 Olivier Ruel 27
6 Guillaume Wafo-Tapa 26
6 Manuel Bucher 26
8 Charles Gindy* 25
8 Raphael Levy 25
10 Jelger Wiegersma* 24
11 Brandon Scheel 23
12 Marcio Carvalho 22
12 Joel Calafell 22
14 Martin Juza 21
14 Marijn Lybaert 21
16 Nico Bohny 20
17 Paulo Vitor da Rosa 19
18 Paul Cheon* 18
18 Yuuta Takahashi* 18
18 Mateusz Kopec* 18

* 2008 Event Winner

Player of the Year Race

An impressive tournament for our Top 20 in the PotY race, with half scoring at least one Pro Point at Grand Prix Madrid.  Mario Pascoli now has sole possession of second place, 7 behind Shuuhei Nakamura, who missed Day Two at Madrid. 

With another Top 8, Manuel Bucher is up to sixth and is right there with fellow countrymen Olivier Ruel, Guillaume Wafo-Tapa, and Raphael Levy.

Come on back next time, where we'll go over what happened during a huge weekend in Magic that will include our first look at the effect will have on constructed formats with Block at Grand Prix Kobe in Japan, and Standard at France, Italy, and US Nationals.