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So the day before the tournament I put a deck together. It was once again the crazy Necrotic Ooze combo (+ Phyrexian Devourer and Triskelion). I tried few games with it but lost every one of them. (Actually 3:0 against one deck and 0:3 against another one). After the 0:3 I decided to try a different deck...I decided to play good stuff once again but this time with blue.

After a very long talk with my flat mate I went to sleep early in the morning. At 8:45 I woke up for some reason and headed for the tournament.

Round 1
I wasn't entirely sure what I play against. At first I thought and hoped it would be some kind of GW aggro because against that I have a good match up but when Selesnya Signet showed up I was caught offguard. From this moment on I knew that I should be expecting anything and Sigarda was one of the cards I did not expect. Soon I was facing Advent of the Wurm token and some other creatures, Master of the Wild Hunt among them. There wasn't much I could do with it. In game three I tried as I could to gain tempo but I did not really manage it and it came down to a moment in which I should decide either I would be killed by Sigarda or Silverblade Paladin. I decided that getting rid of Paladin is easier but in the end it was vice versa because my next draw was Enlightened Tutor which could fetch Phyrexian Metamorph and thus get me rid of Sigarda. Timely Reinforcements and Snapcaster Mage were trying to keep me alive but in the end I was facing both paired Paladin with Eternal Witness and Sigarda. I lost 2 games (and obviously won one...) but at least I was forced to use my brain and think. This helped me quite a lot because I decided to win the remaining games. (it came true^^)

Round 2
In this round I played against Lukas. He has a burn deck and mono green but today he decided to play mono blue artifact deck. This deck can be pretty annoying but without the right mana acceleration it cannot keep up with the competitive highlander meta (Bitterblossom backed up by a counterspell and Sword of Fire and Ice did the job). I won the first game quite quickly and in the second game my opponent was stuck at 3 lands. We played a third game in which I let him live for 3 more turns then was necessary and he managed to beat me. But I have to admit that was he showed me was pretty impressive. But Creeping Tar Pit is still the number 1 card against mono blue (along with Bitterblossom that won me the first game).

Round 3
I played against some dark bant deck. It was surely less aggressive than my build. I don't really remember what was going on in the games. In the game two I mulliganed several times because I couldn't manage to have some lands. This lasted for another few rounds and Putrid Leech was dealing me 4 damage each round. I still had a chance to possibly win (if my opponent would not have more counterspells than me) but I did not draw a card that would help me. When my opponent played Restoration Angel I decided to play Remand and deal with it later. That was most probably a mistake because at that time I could still play Snuff Out and don't die from it (I was at like 7 life). A turn later I lost the game.

In game two I had relatively ideal hand (that means it had 4 lands, 2 creatures and a counterspell). It was my turn to be aggressive and it worked and Evasive Action worked wonders. I attacked as I could and countered what I could and won. In game three it wasn't clear who would win till the very end in which it was either me being faster or my opponent. In this game it was my turn to attack with Putrid Leech. It took my opponent down to 7 life but then he played Kitchen Finks and my poor Putrid Leech attacked twice and killed the Finks. I took 4 damage and had to counter Stifle in order to kill the annoying creature^_^. After this my opponent couldn't do much and lost the game few turns later.

Round 4
Next I faced a control deck. In game 1 I kept a hand with one land and it wasn't a good one either. So I played my Treetop Village. It was hit by Wasteland. Five turns later I still had no lands and Baneslayer Angel showed up. I had Dismember to deal with it but no land to kill to play it. I played Creeping Tar Pit. Ajani Vengeant took care fo that land. I drew another land - Island. I tried to play Dismember but it was Daze'd or something. (note that against this player I usually play without lands^_^ or completely mana screwed)

Game two was pretty quick. I started with a mana dork, followed by some 3 drop. I simply attacked and that sufficed (more or less). In game three it was quite tense but I kept my opponent under pressure from the beginning. He was facing two threats - from my creatures and from my manlands (fetched by Primeval Titan). He played Consecrated Sphinx, Jace TMS and Brainstorm but was unable to find a response to both of these. He managed to play Swords to Plowshares on my Tarmogoyf (I did not attack with Creeping Tar Pit to avoid the Sword or Path) and deal with the last creature. But still the unblockable manland was a problem. In the meantime I played Dark Confidant and hoped to draw some counterspells. I had Force of Will and Evasive Action so I felt quite safe. Wasteland would be a problem but still I was hardly dead.

Round 5
Adam Koska and Zoo. Kird Ape was the first creature he played. Then he added Goblin Guide and attacked. I did not hit a land and was incapable of dealing with those creatures...it was a question of time till I would lose. In game 2 I slowed my opponent by playing Timely Reinforcements. He couldn't attack till he played River Boa that simply went past my soldiers, Baleful Strix and Shadowmage Infiltrator (oh yeah I was playing Esper^^). I was attacking with Jon Finkel, drawing an extra card each turn. Later I played Lingering Souls and flashbacked them. I did not expect Maelstrom Pulse but I still could easily win. I just totally messed the game up^_^. I also had Maelstrom Pulse and with that I could deal with lonely blocker taking my opponent to 1 and I could deal the last damage by alpha strike if I would have played Arbor Elf. But instead I did not play anything...(because I chose to draw a different card via Sylvan Library.) Few turns later in which I managed to mess what I could and played yet another Timely Reinforcements I won.

The last game was pretty quick. I played Geist of Saint Traft on t3 and Dismember'ed Lotus Cobra standing in the way. That dealt 6 damage to me (Ravnica dual land + 2 black Phyrexian) but it did not matter. In three turns my opponent was down to 0 as he couldn't deal with the spirit.

BUGw Good Stuff
1 Arbor Elf
1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Baleful Strix
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Dark Confidant
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Delver of Secrets
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
1 Eternal Witness
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Mother of Runes
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Primeval Titan
1 Putrid Leech
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Rhox War Monk
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Shadowmage Infiltrator
1 Shriekmaw
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Thragtusk
1 Tidehollow Sculler

1 Abrupt Decay
1 Ancestral Vision
1 Bitterblossom
1 Brainstorm
1 Counterspell
1 Daze
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Detention Sphere
1 Dismember
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Evasive Action
1 Force of Will
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Into the Roil
1 Lingering Souls
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Mana Leak
1 Memory Lapse
1 Mental Misstep
1 Miscalculation
1 Mox Diamond
1 Natural Order
1 Path to Exile
1 Remand
1 Snuff Out
1 Spell Snare
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Sylvan Library
1 Thoughtseize
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Vindicate

1 Bayou
1 Breeding Pool
1 City of Brass
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Flooded Strand
1 Forest
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
1 Karakas
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Savannah
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Scrubland
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Swamp
1 Treetop Village
1 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wasteland
1 Watery Grave
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills

So it was time to redeem my credit. The total being 950CZK (for the series) for which I could afford Thoughtseize. Along the way I got Urborg, Watery Grave (these were expensive at that time) and some other less expensive cards.

I wanted to participate in Legacy GP for quite a while but it was never close enough for me. So finally this time I got the chance to go to Strasbourg to play Legacy.

We were leaving Prague at 9am. I went there with Pavel Matousek and Jirka Rehak. We arrived at the site at 5 pm more or less. I could decide whether I want to play in a GPT or Legacy Warm Up tournament. I decided to give the Trial a chance.

I wrote down my decklist (BWg Stoneblade) and waited for a really long time till our Trial was announced. It took another ten minutes before we could start. The very first game I played was against BUG control. The player did not speak English so it was a bit difficult to communicate and I wasn't even sure if I should call judge to solve our Tarmogoyf problem. But no matter how the situation would be solved I would win by just attacking with my Batterskull. It seems that BUG Control is a good matchup. Waiting for the second round was even worse. We waited an eternity and then we were told that there are technical problems and that we need to wait even longer. When the judge came once again he told us that we would get new pairings and once again we had to wait. The third round was starting when the previous Trials were already in their fifth round. After I lost to a creature with creature type - Ally - I could go anywhere I liked. As the rounds took ages though I couldn't participate in the Legacy Warm Up and I was late even for another GPT. At 8 pm I wanted to participate in the Magic Game Show. After a nice walk with Jirka we came back to the site and headed for the Chandra banner where the Magic Game Show took place.

This GP's Magic Game Show wasn't that fun as the previous ones I participated in. Richard Hagon looked in a pretty bad shape. Not sure if that was a jet lag problem or anything else.

There were 6 rounds. Round 1 was about Charms. There are many charms in the Magic: The Gathering history. They all start with a certain letter of alphabet. There are 8 letters that are not used as the first letter of a charm name. We got 7 out 8 right and we won some KMC sleeves.

Round 2 was about Mythics. There are 14 Mythic Rares that have cmc 9 or more. So we started writing some down. I couldn't remember how Omniscience is named and we did not that Darksteel Colossus was reprinted in some core set. We managed to list 7 out of those 14 Mythics. That wasn't enough to win the round.

Round 3 was meh. Well there are always questions like this but it wasn't fun. We were told the names of the WMCQ winners and we were supposed to write down the countries they would represent at WMC. In this round we also got half of it.

Round 4 was even worse. The question was good but we had no idea what those cards were. We were supposed to name 7 0/0 cards from Standard. We came up with Evil Twin and Clone but we couldn't come up with all those creatures that work with counters or Cryptborn Horror. But we weren't the last^_^

In the fifth round we were asked to write down decklist (rather the cards fromt he deck) of Shardless BUG that won the last StarCity Games Open. We got 18 out 20 cards right but it wasn't enough to win the round.

In the sixth round Hagon showed us his own drawings of certain cards. Writing down the names was quite difficult for us. We managed to get some of the obvious ones right but the rest was mystery to us. (all the cards were from Gatecrash)

After the Magic Game Show we played some Legacy with Jirka and after that we went back to our hotel. We got lost on the way so I parted them and went back and retraced the same route we took to the site. I was pretty angry and felt pretty sick but I promised a game of EDH to Kumano so I knocked on their door.

We played a multiplayer game that turned pretty badly as we were overrun by elves. I played another game with Honza Jestribek as we were eliminated first. We went to sleep after that.

By some miracle I actually managed to fall asleep but I woke up early in the morning. I was going through my deck and wondering if I shouldn't be playing more dual lands and change my sideboard. I did that in the end. Michal and Jirka lent me their cards and my deck was complete.

Saturday

(I add this later hopefully)

Sunday

After the Grand Prix main event I wanted to play more legacy and thus I wanted to participate in the Legacy Championship. I got up early once again as I couldn't sleep. When I got really bored in my room I went downstairs to eat my breakfast. Some Czech players were there already so we talked about the day before and ate our breakfasts.

We arrived to the site few minutes before the end of registration for the Championships. I registered and waited for the first round to begin. There were about 230 players or so.

In the first round I played against mirror. I knew this after I played my first discard spell and got a peek at his hand. Unfortunately I played Inquisition of Kozilek and not Thoughtseize so I was incapable of discarding Batterskull. In the upcoming turns I still did not get Cabal Therapy or Thoughtseize so I could get rid of that Batterskull. It landed in play few turns later and I did not have any response to that. So I tried to survive. Lingering Souls were helping me in that. Finally Stoneforge Mystic showed up, I tutored Batterskull and put it into play later. I was at 6 life at that time. I equipped my only creature with the skull (Mystic) and started attacking as well. This allowed me to survive long enough till I managed to get rid of all the opposing souls. The last one was hit by Liliana's second ability and the opponent conceded the game. We did not have much time for the remaining games. The second game was quick though and it was not in my favor. We asked some judges when the round ends. We got few answers like 1 minute, 2 minutes or 3 minutes. So we signed the result slip and waited for round 2. By having a draw in the first round there was a pretty high chance that I would play against yet another stone blade.

In the second round my opponent mulled to five. I played Cabal Therapy on Force of Will as that's probably the most played card (considering all types of deck). I hit it. The remaining cards were Counterspell, Karakas, Island and Plains. I decided that this deck is most probably a miracle deck. I played Bitterblossom and hoped that it would suffice. It did. In the second game I sided in Pithing Needle, Enlightened Tutor and what not but it was not even necessary as I managed to discard all his counterspells, play Stoneforge Mystic, fetch Batterskull and kill with it.

In round 3 I ended up really badly. I played Inquisition of Kozilek as my first spell and peeked at a hand full of Bloodbraid Elves. I hoped to draw a Cabal Therapy but it did not show. On turn 4 the first Bloodbraid Elf ended up on the table and cascaded into Baleful Strix. The next one brought Scavenging Ooze and the last elf brought Brainstorm. I did not have any removal and my only chance was to block the creatures and kill them in combat. But my 1/2s were not capable of stopping the elves. In the second game my first discard hit Umezawa's Jitte. But still I was under quite some pressure from Shardless Agents and creatures they brought in play. I had Jitte in my hand and drew Batterskull. This card could have saved me but my opponent top decked Tower of the Magistrate and played it. My only chance of survival was thus doomed to fail and I conceded.

Round 4 - Stone blade. Not entirely sure what was happening in these games except that I played Dark Confidant after Dark Confidant and it was always hit by Swords to Plowshares. I was discarding equipments and Vendilion Cliques and I was getting rid of other cards by playing Dark Confidants^^.

Round 5 was really interesting. I looked at my opponent's hand and I had no idea what he was playing - Ethersworn Canonist, Pernicious Deed, Enlightened Tutor, Phyrexsian Tower, Verdant Catacombs, Forest, Scavenging Ooze and Eternal Witness. Later in the game Veteran Explorer ended up on the table that's when I realized what I play against (or at least I had an idea). A turn later Grave Titan showed up. I played Swords to Plowshares on it but still the little zombies beat me. In the second game I tried as hard as I could and tried to avoid Pernicious Deed. My equipments got hit by Harmonic Sliver and my sideboard cards did not show up. I really needed Rest in Peace or Grafdigger's Cage. Anyway everything looked quite ok when I managed to play Lingering Souls, flashback them and attack with them (and Jitte) but turn before my opponent's death he drew Pernicious Deed and swept the board. He played Sun Titan and Recurring Nightmare then. I did not drew graveyard hate and died few turns later.

My opponents hand in round 6 consisted of 6 lands and Life from the Loam. Unfortunately all the discard cards force to discard so the Loam ended up in graveyard. I won this game but I did not really know what I was facing. I did not see any creatures so I was siding out Swords to Plowshares. In game two my opponent sided in many cards. Not entirely sure what they were but the card that certainly killed me was Tarmogoyf. I got overrun by three of them and Jace TMS was yet another problem I couldn't deal with. Game 3 I reevaluated my sideboard but my opponent did the same and the game did not end up good for me. I could fight Jace TMS and discard some annoying Cliques but what killed me this time was Life from the Loam + Wasteland. I did not get the chance to remove Life from the Loam nor the land.

Round 7 was the best match I played^_^. I played against yet another Esper Stone Blade. In the first game I simply got rid of my opponent's Stoneforge Mystic and then played Lingering Souls and yet another Lingering Souls. These managed to win. In the second game it did not look good for me. I managed to play Pithing Needle forbidding Jace TMS but that did not stop my opponent dealing damage to me. When I finally managed to look at my opponent's hand it looked like this: Stoneforge Mystic, Jace TMS, 2x Supreme Verdict, Darkblast, Perish, Snapcaster Mage. That was even worse for me than I thought. My souls and Stoneforge Mystic would simply die to Supreme Verdict. It would take some time till I would draw more creatures and then it would get swept once again. Anyway I played the SFM and fetched Batterskull. My opponent then played Thoughtseize. I was ready to discard the equipment but my opponent decided to discard Liliana of the Veil while having four spirits in play. After that he managed to mess it up once again by playing Jace, the Mind Sculptor and thus losing one whole turn. His friend standing next to him seemed that he wants to kill him after such play but he didn't say anything. I pointed at my Pithing Needle and my opponent realized what he did. He passed me the turn. I drew Umezawa's Jitte and put it in play, equipped it and attacked. My opponent was down to 2 life. He had Stoneforge Mystic in play, 4 spirits and Jace TMS. He played Brainstorm and found Disenchant and Swords to Plowshares. Anyway he drew something and let me play. I expected him to play Snapcaster Mage and flashback Swords to Plowshares and then simply kill me. But to the surprise and entertainment of all present he did not do it. My draw was Wasteland, so I decided to destroy a blue source. I thought that he had Underground Sea untapped, but when targeting the land I realized that it was actually Scrubland. Anyway he tapped it for mana and played Disenchant on my already charged Umezawa's Jitte. After this my opponent's friend started yelling at him because this was already too much for him^_^. Me and Honza we started laughing so badly that I couldn't even talk for a while. I pumped my Mystic, killed the opposing Mystic and swinged for the win. My poor opponent was listening to his friend who just couldn't understand how he managed to mess the game so much. Judge came to us wondering what the hell happened so we filled in the result sheet and gave it to him.

Round 8 was not so much fun. But I've met a really cool guy. He came late and was given a game loss. But I knew that this would not stop him from winning the round. Japanese and German combined that can't be a bad player^_^. I looked at his hand and found 2 cards I did not like at all. Terminus and Moat. There was Repeal, Jace and some lands as well but those cards did not really concern me. Entreat the Angels was what would kill me and I knew I couldn't do a thing against that. I knew that this match up is rather unwinnable for me but I tried anyway. I played what creatures I could and attacked but after a third Terminus there was nothing I could play or attack with. Soon I was facing several 4/4 angel tokens. In game two I sided in all I could against this deck but I did not have Engineered Explosives in my hand. My opponent played the Entreat pretty soon where x was 3 and that was all he needed. I got rid of one angel and extracted the Entreat. But no decay, no sword, no liliana nor explosives for me. After the game ended we discussed my deck a bit. I had some free time before the next round for the first time during the tournament.

When I arrived to my table I was already too tired to take the game seriously. I did not even mulligan when I was supposed to. I played against Maverick. My top decks though were good and I won even though I certainly did not deserve that. In game 2 I had to mulligan to five. I managed to get two lands but one of them was Wasteland. This land was destroyed and I was left with one Swamp. I couldn't do much. In game 3 my hand was quite ok. But my opponent wrecked my plan with Pithing Needle on turn 1. The card I couldn't use was Liliana of the Veil and that was a problem. I needed to get rid of the needle so I could destroy Knight of the Reliquary. But my opponent was one turn ahead of me and played one more creature. So I decided to play Abrupt Decay on Knight of the Reliquary and hoped to draw something that would help. Unfortunately my following draws were only lands.

After the tournament I wanted to play more legacy and I decided that this deck is what I like. I should have played more Scrublands than Bayous but it did not kill me during the tournaments anyway. Having more duals though was ok except for the game against Life from the Loam + Wasteland. Also I was lacking more Pithing Needles.

We left the site about 9 or even later. We arrived to Prague round 3am and then we went to some Nonstop Bar. The first bar was closed. The second one as well...the third though was open. So we ordered some drinks and had some fun. This time finally I had the chance to play against Kumano. We played EDH till 6 am and then we left and parted our ways.

I'm really glad that I went to Grand Prix Strasbourg even though it cost me a lot of money that I would need now. It is something I really needed to get some energy and will to continue surviving in this madness of a world. This GP felt small and it was pretty expensive. Other GPs I went to where far better. For the money you paid you got something extra, could play in many different events and there was always something to do. Here it was rather meh, but as I spent the day playing Legacy anyway it was fine.

After preregistering and sending 45USD to the organizers I really need a deck that I like to play.

I like my deck so far but I'm not sure if it should stay the way it is. At before last GPT I terribly died (it was the only match I lost) because I couldn't deal with Grove of the Burnwillows and Academy Ruins can be pretty annoying as well. So I was wondering if I actually should play Wasteland. I decided not to play too many dual lands and thus have better match up against anything tempo and other disruption decks. This worked wonders but still there are some lands I need to get rid of and Vindicate does not sound that good either. Anyway I almost made it to Top 8 (due to my missplays I just did not make it but it wasn't the deck's fault).

During the short period during which I play with the deck I made few changes. I added one more Umezawa's Jitte because many people are simply playing more than one and there are Decays everywhere. I cut Oblivion Rings and added 3rd and 4th Deathrite Shaman. But after last two tournaments I decided to go back to 3. The Shaman was actually one of the cards I usually sided out. Instead of that I added one more Lingering Souls and it 's quite ok.

My sideboard more or less consists of 15 random cards and I will most probably change the discard cards. I should play Thoughtseize as I need to deal with Jace TMS and Batterskull for example and play less Cabal Therapies as I will be playing against people I've never seen in my life and I won't know what they play thus. So 4 Thoughtseizes (I don't have those...so we'll see if I can get them) and 2 Therapies should be the right number. I was also wondering if I should run Pernicious Deed or Engineered Explosives. There are times in which I would really appreciate a card like this and match ups as well.

Anyway if you have any ideas that could help me or some feedback just comment underneath this post. I'll appreciate it. The decklist follows.

I came back home and started wondering what my sideboard should look like. That took me about three hours of mindlessly roaming my room. Later I lay down to sleep and an idea showed up in my head - Skullcrack, Nephalia's Drownyard and Rakdos's Return are not cards I would want to be hit with. So at least two cards in my SB were decided - Witchbane Orb. Along with some Negates and random cards. I put also Planar Cleansing in my SB because this can take care of annoying Planeswalkers and there's no Vindicate I could use on them in this format.

In the morning I managed to wake up (I was already awake when my alarm clock started to ring). I ate a bit and ran for the tram. I arrived on time, bought 2 copies of Witchbane Orb and waited for the first round.

Round 1 was against Matej Maly who completely devasteted me with his combo deck. Well, in the first game he killed me with Nicol Bolas. I had Detention Sphere in my hand, but Bolas took care of my white sources so I was pretty much screwed up. In the second game I couldn't do anything and did not have the counterspells I needed. So Omniscience + Enter the Infinite ended the game.

Round 2 Mariusz and his UB Mill deck. I showed him that I can mill faster^^. He was playing Consuming Aberrations and Lazavs in his deck and I was able to take them down one by one. His deck ran a lot of removal spells and such which was pretty much useless against my deck that hardly played a creature. So I milled him faster and won.

In Round 3 I played against Patrik Fiala. The only person I played before the tournament so I knew what to expect. The question was what would happen after he and me sided. He kept a bad hand (obviously) and lost. More or less the same happen in the second game. But I have to admit that I was milling the best cards I could so there wasn't much he could play any way.

Round 4 was the toughest. I was already pretty tired and hardly concentrating. When someone by accident noted that we are going to play a mirror match I knew that this round would take ages. I dropped Nephalia's Drownyard early so I started milling soon. This helped me a lot as I managed to hit all the lands that my opponent needed. After really long game we started a second one. I waited a bit and then played Witchbane Orb when it seemed to be more or less safe. After that I was hoping to draw Nephalia's Drownyard so I could mill my opponent but it never showed up. During that time my opponent went through his whole deck and finally killed me with Snapcaster Mages, Dissipates and Restoration Angel. I knew this would happen but my hands consisting of 5 lands could not provide any answer to that. I could have maybe saved one more turn but still there was no way I could win this. My Planar Cleasing was countered so I couldn't get rid of my opponent's Orb so I could play Psychic Spiral. Getting rid of the previous Dissipates was difficult enough. There weren't so many threats I could actually play (except Drownyard and Supreme Verdict which can't be countered)

Round 5 against Boros aggro. Augur of Bolas showed to be a good blocker^_^. It cannot do anything with Boros Reckoner but it can stop 1/1, 2/1 etc from attacking. Enough time to draw Supreme Verdict and then take care of occasional Hellkite or Hellrider or whatever is in the deck. My opponent wasn't lucky and died quite soon. My hand containing 3x Sphinx's Revelation was too much to handle.

Round 6...I rather not talk about that. I won the first game easily. I played against Jund. Dreg Manglers, Deathrite Shamans, Strangleroot Geists, Ghor-Clan Rampagers etc...In the second game I did not kill Hellrider when I had the chance and was then killed by 2x Bloodrush saying +4/+4 Trample. In the third game I managed to do even 'stupider' thing by playing Restoration Angel and forgetting to block the one and only creature in play on the other side of the table - Falkenrath Aristocrat. This sealed the doom. I managed to draw six lands straight then but even if I would draw something I deserved to lose^_^. Such plays should not be happening at all. I lost two games I practically couldn't lose....What a shame. My won Firemane Avenger will remind me of this Restoration Angel/Falkenrath Aristocrat combat for quite some time^_^ I guess.

The Game Day was fun. I was afraid that it would be a torture as I'm still ill, but it was really enjoyable. Thanks for the games!

Esper Control
stsung
Type II

Main Deck:
4 Augur of Bolas
2 Obzedat, Ghost Council
3 Restoration Angel
2 Snapcaster Mage

4 Azorius Charm
2 Devour Flesh
2 Dissipate
1 Dramatic Rescue
3 Sphinx's Revelation
4 Supreme Verdict
2 Terminus
4 Think Twice

4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Godless Shrine
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Isolated Chapel
3 Nephalia Drownyard
4 Watery Grave

Sideboard:
2 Blind Obedience
1 Detention Sphere
1 Duress
1 Jace, Memory Adept
2 Negate
2 Planar Cleansing
1 Psychic Spiral
1 Rest in Peace
2 Ultimate Price
2 Witchbane Orb

Last time I played standard was at RTR Game Day which I managed to win and the time before that it was the before last Game Day in which I came out second because mono white was too fast and killed me on turn 4 so no wrath could safe me (played Solar Flare). At the RTR GD I played Bant Control. The deck was slow as hell but was capable of beating quite a lot of decks. I had problems with resolved Rakdos's Return and really fast aggro decks. Zombies and RDW were giving me a hard time. I could deal with UWx and something slower. But true control still beat me. The deck needed to be rebuild and I did that. Played with it few times just for fun (winning) but not playing at a tournament. What helped the deck was more Azorius Charms against fast decks and Nephalia Drownyard for the really slow ones^^. Anyway I wanted to build something like one of these decks.

The colors should be - White and Blue for certain but not sure about the other color. So I wrote down some cards by color. (cards in bold are the ones that would make it to main deck)

Blue-White
Supreme Verdict
Detention Sphere
Azorius Charm
Feeling of Dread

Blue
Dissipate
Snapcaster Mage
Augur of Bolas
Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
Jace, Architect of Thought
Jace, Memory Adept

White
Terminus
Restoration Angel
Oblivion Ring
Blind Obediance

Black
Lingering Souls
Forbidden Alchemy
Obzedat, Ghost Council
Merciless Eviction
Dimir Charm

Red
Searing Spear
Aurelia's Fury
Pillar of Flame

Green
Thragtusk
Farseek
Centaur Healer

After looking at this I realized that there is Dimir Charm and Obzedat and Lingering Souls at one place. Thus the third color was chosen - Black.

So what the deck needs? Something to survive early threats. For that there is Ultimate Price, Dimir Charm or Azorius Charm. In Dimir Charm's range there's quite a lot of creatures so it seems to be pretty valid. It also helps milling or looking for a card and can counter a sorcery spell. Azorius Charm slows down or draws a card and Ultimate price does just one thing and I decided to drop that card. I should be able to play some Wrath effect if this works and won't be useless because of Boros Charm I can play my win con in this case that would be Obzedat. I was trying to figure out what it should be and I almost missed this!

This deck can mill via Nephalia's Drownyard and could possible use Memory Adept to its advantage. I think that there are many annoying cards that can slow down and if that means surviving till 6 lands there's Merciless Eviction that can deal with indestructible creatures or annoying walkers. Obzedat and Jace, Memory Adept are both cards that can win a game at this point. It will take time but it should work. Not to mention the fact that we still have here Lingering Souls and we all know the power of this card.

Tomas Gottwald offered the Gatecrash prerelease participants to draft his magic cube. There were 12 players that were divided into two pods.

There was a lot of chaos before the draft but after a really long time we finally managed to settle on something and draft.

My first pick was Thragtusk so I hoped for something like BG or BGW. In the first booster I also picked Tooth and Nail. I was picking BIG creatures including (white) Akroma, Avenger of Zendikar and I even got Progenitus. I wasn't really sure what I would be doing with all those creatures. The rest of the cards were mostly removal - Terminate, Go For the Throat, Damnation. At that time I was at GWb. I wasn't really picking lands but City of Traitors was passed to me so I immediately went for it.

The second booster was all Boros. My pick was something relatively mediocre like... Staggershock. Later on I was picking more starting with Burning Tree Shaman and continuing with more removal Breath of Darigaaz, Devil's Play, Chaos Warp (against annoying walkers) etc. I also got Defense of the Heart so playing all those big creatures was relatively possible. A lot of 'small' aggressive creatures were in the second boosters and I had none of those...except for Jackal Pup and Stormblood Berserker.
I also got my hands on Badlands and Ancient Tomb and I was really sorry to pass Verdant Catacombs.

The third boosters brought some awesome cards - Primal Command, Fire Covenant and Deranged Hermit. I was happy with those but I was still not ready to play red. I just did not want it.

When I started building my deck I realized that the original idea is not going to work so more and more cards were replaced by red cards and I even played Violent Eruption and Akroma, Angel of Wrath. Triple red in a color I wanted to splash o_O. Something was certainly wrong.

My deck was light on creatures and I did not have much acceleration except for my two awesome lands (and Fyndhorn Elves).

In the first round I played against Zdenek who showed me pretty annoying Vraska and Sorin (Lord of Innistrad, I had the other one^^). The little vampire was attacking with Sword of Feast and Famine equipped and I couldn't do much about it. My burn spell was incapable of killing it and Go For the Throat simply did not work. I hoped for Devil's Play or Chaos Warp but none came and I lost. In game two I sided in Crucible and more burn spells. Crucible because Zdenek showed me not only Strip Mine and Wasteland wrecking my mana base but also Sinkhole and burn spells against the walkers I couldn't really deal with.

I wasn't really playing anything except lands and one (obviously as there is each card only in one copy) Phyrexian Rager. My opponent was losing life from his own mana base and Necropotence. That was good for me. Because I knew that Devil's Play would do it sooner or later. Triple red was quite a problem but anyway Devil's Play did the job. The last game was rather similar even though my opponent was a bit more catious.

Round 2 and I played against Pepa. He had a nice GW aggro deck that. It was difficult to keep up but all that removal I had I managed to survive till the point I played Thragtusk and Akroma. In the second game I had Snuff Out, Defense of the Heart and I thought that this would be good enough. Too bad that on T2 Gaddock Teeg showed up and I was unable to deal with him. In game three I tried to survive the attacks of 3/3s equipped with Bonesplitter. Fortunately it was JUST a bonesplitter. It came down to me being at 8 life trying to survive another Treetop Village + Bonesplitter Attack. I thought I would play Fire Covenant killing it but I managed to play a wrong land. Hopefully my top deck showed Primal Command and I could play Tusk later and gain 7 life. And all the time I was losing 2 life from Ancient Tomb - the only land that saved me from ANNOYING Thalia. I played Fire Covenant. Tusk a turn later and won few more turns later via Avenger of Zendikar + Devil's Play.

In Round 3 I knew that it might get difficult. There was Force of Will, Miscalculation, Spell Pierce and maybe even more counterspells that I've seen passing through my hands. A control deck should be able to deal with my deck quite easily. I hardly played more than 3 creatures per game ^_^ and was usually killing my opponents with Devil's Play. My opponent though was playing about the same number of creatures. The first one was Baneslayer Angel that I killed the first turn it showed on the table. He was all tapped out so I played my Deranged Hermit. Magister Sphinx followed but I did not really need to care about her. All I needed was to deal damage with the saprolings (+ Staggershock). I lost game two due to Gideon locking my poor Akroma but I won the game three which featured Batterskull and Magister Sphinx again. But still my only creature (be it Avenger of Zendikar or Deranged Hermit) was capable of dealing quite a lot of damage - putting my opponent once again into Devil's Play range.

I won the cube draft (winning a nice Spanish Wurmcoil Engine). It was really nice. Thanks everyone!

For quite some time I wanted to build some blink deck. But I wanted it to be either Bant or UW and that is probably the reason why I was unable to build such deck. I always wanted to add some black and sometimes even red (but I usually drop the color as I usually want ot play 1-3 cards). I always abandonned the deck and tried something else.

Today though my flat mate started building Grand Arbiter Augustin deck so I tried a deck of my own. I did not care about general but rather filtered all cards with comes into play abilities. I put those creatures aside. There was about 70 creatures that seemed good to me. I cut down all the cards with 'draw a card' effect except Wall of Blossoms and Baleful Strix and then started eliminating cards with mana cost like xRR or xBB. In the end I came up with 100 cards that seemed relatively ok. I wasn't sure if the deck would work especially when I did not take much time looking at the mana base. I just picked some lands I had on the table and put them in (that wasn't a good idea).

Anyway I played with the deck and had quite some fun even though my opponent could hardly enjoy the game as he was playing an aggro deck that could hardly deal with my creatures. I'll need to test this deck against something more disruptive than his deck. Anyway there are cards that will have to go and my deck will have to change its manabase. Cards like Puppeteer Clique were almost impossible to play and I hardly managed to get all five colors. Deadeye Navigator is a card I like but is too expensive. Not sure if I'll keep it. I'm not entirely fond of Wrath of God or Oblivion Stone either but I had to try those. I have to say that Oblivion Stone saved me in one game today already.

So here's the first decklist without any changes made to it. I need to change the mana base. I need the dual lands to be fetchable and be a forest if possible. And cards that need 4 colored mana should be also replaced...^^

There is an EDH Tournament Series in Usti nad Labem. Honza asked me if I would be interested in playing and I said yes. We would go there have some fun and participate in the tournament. For that we needed some decks that would not play the same cards. We both play The Mimeoplasm normally so one of us had to play something else. Honza got Niv-Mizzet (the new one) from me and he made this card his general. Thus some blue cards had to go from my deck (like Force of Will and Jace, the MInd Sculptor) and some stayed as I had better chances using them recursively. I was supposed to be the one playing threats and Honza would be backing me up with counterspells and such.

We arrived at the site early (oh dreadful place...) so we had some time to chat with other players. I wasn't introduced to anybody but everyone seemed quite friendly and no one made bad remarks or anything which used to be the usual in Prague or well other places I went to (won't name).

We were let in finally by the owner I presume. Some time later we registered and waited for the pairings. The TO then recapitulated rules for 2HG EDH Series - 45 life, free French Mulligan, 1 of 1 game, 60 minutes, no sideboard. After this there was a note about banlist. So we checked it once again (because the one on the internet wasn't the same as the one on the paper I received at the tournament) and found out that Intuition is banned. I put in Victimize that I bought earlier. I really like the card, should be some fun with it. Pairings followed soon afterwards.

We - Plazmadrak (meaning Plasm - Dragon) - were pitted against team named Selesnya (probably the player who named their team this way is a Selesnya Guild member - at least PWP site says I beat Selesnya member in round 1). They played Teysa and Jhoira. My opening hand features Bitterblossom and Sword of Feast and Famine so I decided to keep that hand. Turn 2 Blossom wins the games, ain't it right? Well, I did not play it on T2 because Jhoira player was untapped so it was T3 when I played it. Jhoira died to Lightning Bolt and Teysa player also played his general. I was attacking with my fearies and was wielding the sword. Teysa player was the one active. He played Shrine of the Loyal Legions. Later he played Liliana of the Dark Realms and was fetching some lands. We decided to ignore her and attack the player instead. Gideon Jura was played later but that did not ruin our plan. The card was bounced and turn later Time Stopped and my flyers could be attacking the player all the time. Jhoira player tried playing his general again but Jhoira was sent to Command Zone once again. Honza also played Vendilion Clique to see what cards he has on his hands. Nothing much - Foil, Counterspell and many cards he could not even play. The path was clear and I could play more or less anything.

In Round 2 both are deck decided to be on strike. Honza was unable to draw lands and I was on the other hand drawing just lands and mana producing creatures. Our opponents (Ustecti luckeri) were playing Kiki-Jiki and Teferi. The red deck was full of land destruction and most probably Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon. None showed up to wreck my mana base but I think that I wouldn't care. I was drawing fetch lands all the time and got all my basic lands in play. Kiki-Jiki player thus decided to start torturing Honza destroying him his Volcanic Island. Honza's hand was good and we would be alright if he could draw one more additional land in four turns. But this did not happen and later we were killed by Detritivore whom I feeded quite a lot with all those fetch lands (and destroyed lands). I tried my best playing Go For the Throat 3 times, Honza used Pithing Needle on Kiki-Jiki but this wasn't enought and we lost (two Detritivores were just too much). (Zealous Conscripts and Gilded Drake took care of my attempt of at least blocking)

Round 3 was the epic failure of all times even though we managed to win in the first additional turn after the round ended. This time we played against a team called Philipe Morris. One player played Oona and the other one Cpt. Sisay. The Oona player started with Isochron Scepter + Counterspell which was not good for us. I tried playing Sylvan Library so I would have better chance drawing Krosan Grip, Honza tried finding an answer as well but we were not lucky. Library was destroyed and we were in top deck mode waiting for a miracle. Hopefully we feeded the counterspell from Isochron Scepter with something and then played Venser bouncing it. But the Sisay player was already developing his board and we were facing Sigarda, Karmic Guide and Yosei. Not to mention that there was Sword of War and Peace and Umezawa's Jitte equipped to Sigarda. We were so focused on trying to deal with Sigarda that we forgot that we can kill them in one turn. Anyway we were producing flyers that could chump block Sigarda and when she could finally go through the player decided to attack us instead of killing Jace TMS or Garruk Wildspeaker. This was a pretty big mistake as that's what killed them two turns later. Time Stop was one additional turn for us and Cryptic Command allowed us to attack with Overrun (allowed me as I was the one with creatures) for 35 damage (lethal).

Round 4 was the fastest game. It was either us or them as we both decided to win via combo. Our opponents were playing Sygg and Grand Arbiter Augustin. The both played signets on their second turn followed by their generals. We tried countering GAA but the spell was Force of Will'ed. Later we tried killing the Augustin and we managed that. But tutor was played on Sygg player's side followed by Buried Alive into Triskelion + Phyrexian Devourer + Necrotic Ooze. Reanimate followed and we could just shake their hands.

Fifth round was relatively uneventful. Or at least we were not under constant pressure even though the decks showed us that they can actually do that quite easily and in one turn. One player was playing Damia and the other one Sigarda (our favorite^^). In this game the wierdest play ever happened. Damia player played Liliana of the Veil because he probably wanted to get rid of my Thrun (the only annoying creature in play). Liliana was Commandeer'ed. She survived the attack from the otherside of the table. Each of us discarded a card. In my case it was Woodfall Primus. I played The Mimeoplasm destroying a land with it (and one more land was destroyed by wasteland). I started outracing Sigarda but later we killed the opposing team via Lord of Extinction + Triskelion combo.

We ended up third and won some booster packs in which was 'nothing worth noting'. But the tournament was nice. We played 5 games, had some fun, made silly mistakes, won majority of the games...well it was nice. I'll try not to miss another tournament of the series.

Our decklist for those interest.