Pro Tour Hollywood

Hooray for Hollywood

Welcome to The Highlight Reel and Pro Tour Hollywood. In the second Pro Tour event of the 2008 season, 371 players gathered to do battle in the first big-time constructed event to include Shadowmoor. The last standard event, GP Shizuoka, was dominated by the Faeries deck where the final between Yuuta Takahashi and Olivier Ruel featured a mirror match that saw Bitterblossoms, Ancestral Visions, and Cryptic Commands flying everywhere. Coming into Hollywood, Faeries was still the deck on everyone’s radar, with many Pros believing it would comprise as much as 40% of the field. And the big question facing the Pros was: Are you just going to play the best deck in the format, or are you going to pack the hate to beat it and play something else?     With 25 Pro Points going to the winner, this event was sure to shake up the Player of the Year race and reveal who will be contending for the title during the long summer season of GPs and Nationals. Find out which new decks emerged from the addition of Shadowmoor, and whether or not any of them could beat Faeries. Follow along for sixteen rounds of Swiss and a compelling Top eight to see who reigned supreme at Pro Tour Hollywood.

Colors	Deck Name	Number	Day One	Day Two
	Faeries		27%	22%
	Elves		12%	10%
	RDW		11%	11%
	Doran		8%	11%
	Merfolk		7%	11%
	Reveillark		4%	6%
	Aggro		4%	5%
	Big Mana		4%	5%
	Rock		2%	1%
	Tokens		2%	3%
	Ramp		1%	3%
	Elves!		1%	3%
	Juniper Order		1%	1%
	Quick'n Toast		1%	3%
	Kithkin		1%	0%
	Gargadon		0.8%	2%
	Kitchen Finks Control		0.8%	2%
	Aggro		0.5%	2%
	All Creatures		0.3%	1%
	Other		5%	0%

 - Made Day Two   - Made Top 8

As expected, Faeries were the deck of choice, making up just over a quarter of the Day One field. And behind Faeries, we find a lot of Elves, Doran, Merfolk, Burn, Reveillark, and various takes on Big Mana, which were all present at GP Shizuoka. There was really only one Shadowmoor-enabled deck and it was the story of Day One. The “Quick’n Toast” deck was designed by Manuel Bucher; and played by himself, Guillaume Wafo-Tapa, World of Warcraft World Champion Guillaume Matignon, and the Ruel Brothers. You can watch a Deck Tech by the designeer and member of the 2007 Swiss Worlds Team Championship, but I must warn you that it’s difficult to hear him. Anyway, here’s the deck all five used, and which Guillaume Wafo-Tapa played to a perfect 8-0 record on Day One.

Quick'n Toast

Guillaume Wafo-Tapa Pro Tour Hollywood

Creatures 3 Cloudthresher 4 Kitchen Finks 4 Mulldrifter 1 Oona, Queen of the Fae 4 Wall of Roots Other Spells 4 Careful Consideration 4 Cryptic Command 3 Firespout 3 Makeshift Mannequin 4 Rune Snag 2 Slaughter Pact

Lands 1 Dreadship Reef 2 Fungal Reaches 1 Grove of the Burnwillows 2 Mystic Gate 4 Reflecting Pool 2 Sunken Ruins 4 Vivid Creek 4 Vivid Grove 4 Yavimaya Coast Sideboard 1 Cloudthresher 1 Detritivore 3 Mind Shatter 1 Murderous Redcap 2 Primal Command 1 Shriekmaw 3 Teferi's Moat 3 Wispmare

The deck is designed to beat Faeries, and does so pretty efficiently with three maindeck Cloudthreshers and three maindeck Firespouts. At the core, it’s a control deck with card advantage and counters that wins the game with a Cloudthresher or the single Oona, Queen of the Fae. Yup, the win conditions have either or in their mana cost. And at its extremes, it’s a 5-color “solutions” deck that uses the best answers in each color. This is made possible by the interaction between the Vivid Lorwyn lands and Reflecting Pool which gives its pilot limitless access to as long as he keeps at least one counter on the Vivid land. The mana base is surprisingly consistent, but the deck seems like it rolls over to Magus of the Moon if you can’t find a Firespout to reset the board. Four of the big names playing this deck did well enough to come back and play some more on Saturday. They said they were able to win a number of games on Day One simply due to the fact that their opponents had no idea what they were playing and therefore didn’t know what to play around. The real test would come Day Two when everyone had a chance to look at how this deck worked.

At the end of Day One, 133 players achieved the 15 points required to see Day Two with a number of big names near the top of the standings playing a wide array of decks. Besides Wafo-Tapa with the Quick’n Toast deck, we also had Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa and Kenji Tsumura with Faeries, Hall of Famer Rob Dougherty with aggro, 2006 World Champion Makihito Mihara with Reveillark, and Shuuhei Nakamura with Elves all in position to make a run at the Top eight.

To view the decks from Day One that didn't make the cut, you can see them here and here.

When Shuuhei Nakamura handed Wafo-Tapa his first lost in round ten, he took over at the top of the leaderboard and didn't look back.  With his Elves deck, Nakamura went 7-0 on Day Two before intentionally scooped in round sixteen so that fellow countryman and 2006 World Champ Makihito Mihara would make Top eight.  Joining them in the Top eight were Marijn Lybaert of Belgium, Jan Ruess of Germany, Choo Yong Han of Singapore, Charles Gindy from the USA; all on 37 points.  The final spot went to Brazilian sensation Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa, who was the only player to make it in on tiebreakers with a 12-4 record.  This set up a marquee matchup for the Quaterfinals with da Rosa facing off against Nakamura.  To find all the Top eight player profiles look here.

If you take a look at the Top 8 Decks, you'll see quite a diverse field.  We've had two Elves, two Reveillark,  Big Mana, Doran, Merfolk, and ONLY ONE Faerie deck.  As the consensus "Best Deck," Faeries was the defining deck of the tournament; and those that did their homework and figured out how to beat Faeries were the ones that succeeded.  This Top eight is a very good representation of the metagame, with it only missing the mono  and  aggro decks, which just couldn't make there way onto the top tables this weekend.  At this point and time , it looks like the burn based  just don't have enough reach to deal with the threats in this format.

 

Reveillark Gargadon

Makihito Mihara Pro Tour Hollywood Top 8

Creatures 3 Body Double 3 Bonded Fetch 3 Greater Gargadon 4 Mulldrifter 4 Reveillark 4 Sower of Temptation 2 Venser, Shaper Savant Other Spells 3 Coldsteel Heart 3 Mind Stone 2 Momentary Blink 2 Pact of Negation 4 Rune Snag

Lands 1 Adarkar Wastes 4 Battlefield Forge 2 Faerie Conclave 4 Mutavault 4 Mystic Gate 1 Reflecting Pool 5 Snow-Covered Island 2 Vivid Creek Sideboard 2 Aven Riftwatcher 3 Crovax, Ascendant Hero 2 Kitchen Finks 1 Pyroclasm 1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir 2 Teferi's Moat 1 Vesuvan Shapeshifter 1 Wispmare 2 Wrath of God

On the other side we had Marijin Lybaert, who was one of many Pros this weekend saying that they had to sacrifice their Reveillark matchup in order to beat Faeries. Game one, Choo had a Wrath of God to clear the early pressure applied by Lybaert. Lybaert continued to attack with a Kitchen Finks and Treetop Village, but it wasn’t enough as Choo assembled the combo with a Aven Riftwatcher and gained a million life. For Game two, Lybaert had access to Magus of the Moon, and his only real hope for dealing with the combo deck. He was able to play said Magus on turn four. This stalled Choo for several turns as Lybaert build his board with fatties. But Choo found two white mana sources through his artifact enablers to cast Wrath and regain access to all his mana. Without the Magus causing trouble, Choo assembled the combo to take Game two. Again in Game three, Lybaert was beating down with Cloudthresher and got Choo all the way down to one life, but a Wrath reset the board. A Reveillark off the top of Choo's library allowed him to get a Sower of Temptation and steal Lybaert’s freshly played Chameleon Colossus. Eventually Greater Gargadon unsuspended, and Lybaert had to chump block for several turn before falling to Choo 3-0.

Makihito Mihara ( Reveillark ) vs. Jan Ruess ( Merfolk )The architect of Yong Han Choo's deck faced off against Jan Ruess and his Merfolk. Merfolk was a very under played tribe during Lorwyn, but as you can see from the list below, the addition of Morningtide cards such as Sage's Dousing and Stonybrook Banneret has made this tribe a force to be reckoned with. Besides the eight lords in the deck, the real hero is Sygg, River Guide which causes all kinds of problems for your opponent’s removal spells and combat math.

 

Merfolk

Jan Ruess Pro Tour Hollywood Top 8

Creatures 4 Cursecatcher 4 Lord of Atlantis 4 Merrow Reejerey 4 Silvergill Adept 3 Sower of Temptation 3 Stonybrook Banneret 2 Sygg, River Guide 2 Tideshaper Mystic 2 Venser, Shaper Savant Other Spells 2 Ancestral Vision 3 Cryptic Command 3 Sage's Dousing

Lands 4 Adarkar Wastes 1 Faerie Conclave 4 Mutavault 11 Snow-Covered Island 4 Wanderwine Hub Sideboard 4 Burrenton Forge-Tender 1 Cryptic Command 2 Reveillark 2 Serrated Arrows 1 Sower of Temptation 3 Sunlance 2 Unsummon

Game one saw Mihara steal Sygg on a tapped out board via Sower of Temptation. When Mihara stole a Merrow Reejerey, it was the combo player attacking with an unstoppable army of Merfolk for the win instead of the guy with the Merfolk deck. The second game was a totally different situation. Ruess got off to a quick start and Mihara couldn’t force a Wrath of God through all of Ruess’ counterspells. Match tied 1-1. Mihara got stuck on two lands, giving Ruess time to build a dominating board position and counter any of Mihara’s later threats to take Game three. Then in Game four, Ruess returned the favor by getting stuck on two lands himself, meaning we would see a decisive Game five. Ruess had a quick start and Mihara came out with a Bonded Fetch to provide a little defense and improve his card quality. It looked like a swarm of 1/1’s would do it for Ruess, but Mihara fournd a Pyroclasm to reset the board. Ruess kept attacking with a Mutavault then countered a Body Double and evoked Reveillark by Mihara. On the last turn, Ruess dropped Lord of Atlantis, making Mutavault a 3/3 islandwalker so it could swim in FTW, and give Ruess the 3-2 victory. 

Nico Bohny ( Doran ) vs. Charles Gindy ( Elves )In Game 1, Bohny had to mulligan to six and was stuck playing a couple of Riftsweepers which are pretty useless in this matchup. On the other side, Gindy played some elves, then a couple Tarmogoyfs and a Chameleon Colossus. Bohny got a Doran, the Siege Tower online, but that was removed with a Profane Command giving Game one to Gindy. For Game two, Gindy just had too much gas. Bohny had a Colossus but that only traded with Gindy’s, as the Elf player still had a second Colossus and a Tarmogoyf. A Doran traded with the Goyf, and again Gindy used a Profane Command to clear the way for the Colossus. With a quick start (i.e. turn two Doran) in Game three, it looked like Bohny might be able to crawl back into the match, but Gindy had Wren's Run Vanquisher to trade with the tree. Profane Command got Doran back and let Bohny get Gindy down to four life. But a Profane by Gindy got the Vanquisher back to hold Doran off. Then Gindy top decked a Goyf followed by a Primal Command allowing him to get out of danger range and find a Colossus. Bohny drew a Colossus of his own, but Gindy had the eight mana for a double pump giving him the win. Gindy defeats Bohny 3-0.

Shuuhei Nakamura ( Elves) vs. Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa (Faeries)

Ah, this is what feature matches were made for. Level seven mage vs Level seven mage, facing off with the two most played decks of the weekend. PVDR had to mulligan to five in Game one, giving Nakamura the chance to get a Tarmogoyf on the board followed by a little Thoughtseize action to fill up the bin. The Goyf plus Mutavault and Treetop Village put Nakamura quickly up 1-0. Game two, da Rosa had suspend Ancestral Vision on Turn one and Turn two,  while out of the sideboard Nakamura had double Bitterblossom. PVDR had the Damnation to stop the Faeries, then played his sideboard tech: Razormane Masticore. With Nakamura losing two life a turn to the Bitterblossom, da Rosa had Cryptic Command to tap all Nakamura’s creatures. The Masticore and double Mutavault alpha-struck FTW. Nakamura started Game three off with a Thoughtseize to remove the only good card in da Rosa’s hand, Bitterblossom. Nakamura, seeing PVDR’s slow start, dumps a Goyf and Wren's Run Vanquisher onto the board. PVDR gets stuck on four lands so he can’t play his Masticore, and without Damnation soon finds himself down 1-2. No action in the early turns of Game four. PVDR plays a Masticore, then champions a Mutavault to get Mistbind Clique into play, and we’re tied 2-2. In the decider, Nakamura gets the perfect draw and by the end of Turn two has two Llanowar Elves, Wren's Run Vanquisher, Bitterblossom, and an Overrun-primed Garruk Wildspeaker. PVDR had his own Bitterblossom to chump for a couple of turns, but without a Damnation, he just couldn’t catch up. Shuuhei Nakamura advances 3-2.

Semifinals

Shuuhei Nakamura vs. Jan Ruess

Up to this point in the tournament, Shuuhei had only lost one match, and that was to Jan Ruess’ teammate Jim Herald, who was playing the same Merfolk deck as Ruess; an ominous sign for Nakamura to be sure. In Game one, a Turn two Imperious Perfect makes Nakamura’s Elves all bigger than Ruess’ Merfolk, allowing Nakamura to attack Ruess all the way down to one life over the next several turns. But then Ruess finds Sygg, River Guide, and with plenty of white mana, is able to make any attacking by Nakamura unfavorable. Ruess also makes some of his guys Pro-Green on his own turn to start forcing damage through. Cryptic Command to tap the blockers and double Lord of Atlantis allows Ruess to alpha-strike for the win. Next game, Turn two Imperious Perfect by Nakamura gets Sunlanced, then two Lord of Atlantises by Ruess get removed by Nameless Inversion, and Terror. Out of Ruess’ sideboard comes Reveillark (we don’t need no stinkin’ infinite combo). In a nice play, Ruess uses a Cryptic Command to tap out Nakamura’s blockers and bounce the Reveillark, triggering the leaves play ability. Double Lord of Atlantis reenters play, and Ruess attacks for the win. Nakamura tries to get things going in Game three with a quick rush of Elves. Ruess doesn’t have much gas in this game, as he plays one Merfolk a turn which are time and again removed by either Shriekmaw, Terror, or Profane Command; on to Game four. Ruess gets the all important Turn two Sygg, River Guide, which Nakamura is unable to immediately remove. This gives Ruess the opportunity to protect what and when he sees fit. Unable to force a tap out by Ruess, Nakamura can’t deal with Sygg and Ruess advances to the final of PT Hollywood 3-1. 

Charles Gindy vs. Yong Han Choo

Game one saw Choo mulligan to five and a Turn one Thoughtseize gave Gindy the tempo to plow past his opponent and take the early lead in the match. Both players mulliganed to start Game two. Eventually, Choo had a Reveillark on board, which caused some problems for Gindy when he attacked with his Chameleon Colossus, setting off some graveyard shenanigans that got Choo a Mulldrifter and Sower of Temptation back. Gindy tried a Squall Line, but Venser, Shaper Savant stopped that and Choo attacked for the win. Gindy had to mulligan to start Game three and had no plays for the first three turns of the game. This gave Choo the time to get Greater Gargadon suspended, find the pieces, and go infinite combo. Game fout started Wren's Run Vanquisher into Sower of Temptation into Cloudthresher into Wrath of God, reset. Choo plays Teferi’s Moat, but Gindy has the answer in the form of Primal Command to put the Moat on top of the library, and then shuffle the library (expensive Naturalize). At that point, a pair of Treetop Villages was enough for Gindy to tie the match at 2. Choo had to mulligan to five AGAIN to begin Game 5. Turn three Chameleon Colossus, Turn four Garruk Wildspeaker, Turn five Overrun ability, and Charles Gindy advances 3-2.

Finals

Charles Gindy vs. Jan Ruess

These two has already seen each other once this weekend in Round 15 where Gindy won 2-0. To start Game one, Ruess gets out both Sygg, River Guide and Lord of Atlantis, but Gindy Terrors Sygg while Ruess is tapped out. Profane Command removes the Lord as Gindy adds Elves and a Garruk Wildspeaker to the board. Some trading occurs as Ruess tries to take out Garruk, but a Thoughtseize shows Gindy that Ruess is in top deck mode. Ruess does draw another Sygg, but Gindy has another Profane Command which clears the way for his team to take Game one. Gindy has a quick start with Wren's Run Vanquisher into Imperious Perfect; Ruess has double Sower of Temptation to steal the Perfect, but the first got Terrored, and the second Shriekmawed. Now with the 3/3 elf, Tarmogoyf, and Garruk Wildspeaker on the board for Gindy, Ruess has to use an offensive Cryptic Command so he could use his men to remove Garruk. A second Goyf and second Garruk comes down for Gindy while Ruess waits for an Ancestral Vision to unsuspend, but that never happens as Gindy attacks for lethal. 

Just one game from the title, Gindy gets aggressive early and sends his Turn one Llanowar Elves against Ruess’ Stonybrook Banneret. Ruess calls the bluff, and the two trade. Ruess has a second Banneret, but without his mana elf, Gindy has no play on the next two turns, and only lays out a couple Mutavaults. Ruess finds Sygg, River Guide and Gindy Chameleon Colossus, the puzzle for Gindy now is how to get rid of Sygg. Gindy attacks with the Colossus and mana up to pump, Ruess double blocks with a Mutavault and Sygg. Gindy does not pump the Colossus, and Ruess spends 1 with damage on the stack to save Sygg with Protection from Green. Ruess doesn’t spend his last 1 to

Congratulations to Charles Gindy, Winner of Pro Tour Hollywood!

save the Mutavault and it trades with Colossus. In his second main phase, Gindy shows why he didn’t pump the Colossus when he pays full prize for a Shriekmaw targeting Sygg. Now Ruess spends his last 1 to save Sygg, but in response, Gindy has a Slaughter Pact and Sygg is binned. Both players tried to rebuild, but Gindy’s army was bigger due to two Mutavaults. With an Imperious Perfect in play for Gindy, there was a gasp from the crowd when Gindy Terrored a fresh Lord of Atlantis from Ruess that would have made Gindy’s Mutavaults 4/4 Islandwalkers. But in the end it didn’t matter; the 3/3 smashface variety were enough to take down the army of 1/1 and 2/1 Merforlks. Charles Gindy defeats Jan Ruess 3-0 to win Pro Tour Hollywood 2008.