From: pierrecools@softhome.net
To: "Eric Hanuise" <ehanuise@hebel.net>
Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 09:50:36 +0200
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Belgian nationals (22,23,24 may 1999) tournament report.
Pierre Cools (6th)
pierrecools@softhome.net
OK, as you can see above, I didn,t totally screwed up this year (well,
except that I missed Worlds).
Last year, I went 2nd during the first day (standard) before I completely
broke down in the draft of the second day and finished 11th overall.
I didn't want this to happen this time and so devoted many wednesday nights
to draft at the Greenwich with the top players from Brussels.
The Nationals were divided into three days : first day 7 rounds standard,
2nd day 7 rounds rochester draft, 3rd day top 8 double elimination
(standard).
1st day standard
The deck :
4 ball lightning
4 shock
4 incinerate
4 fanatics
4 pups
4 flunkies
4 parch
2 viashino cutthroat
4 ironclaw orcs
15 mountain
4 scrolls
3 ghitu encampment
4 wasteland
3 pyro
3 price of progress
4 gnomes
3 shattering pulse
2 ankh of mishra
What else could I have played ? After three disastrous months of " DCI
ranking bashing " with death, tradegeddons and avalanche riders/oath decks,
I decided to go straightforward and play one of the only decks I can play
properly : red burn. This version is largely inspired by the one designed by
Seth Burn for the US Regionals but with a less expensive mana curve. It
proved to be really good at ruining necroplayers, hopes.
(I,m currently at work and forgot my notes in the car, so this is what I
remember)

1st round : Floris Raeschaat necro 2-0 3/3 (no problem)

2nd round : Kurt Foket MoMa/ stroke 1-2 3/6 (won first one, got chilled
out the two others)

3rd round : Bart Van Uffelen auratog/enchantress/rancor 2-1 6/9.
Pfeeew, didn,t expect that deck. He won the first. The second game, I
wastelanded two cities and he couldn,t drop his auratog, but it was cloooose
(1 turn and I was dead). Third game, he mulliganed at 5, which made things
easy. I expected worships but he chose chill instead. Bof bof.

4th round : Pierre Girodroux necro 2-0 9/12
First one without problems. Second one, he stalled at 3 lands, no gnomes.
When he finally tried a disk, I shattered.

5th round : Thierry Janssens tinker/colossus 2-0 12/15
Re-pfeeeew. First game, he went mountain, key, go, (me : pup), no more
lands, key, go, (me : some random creature), no more lands, no more lands,
no more lands..
Second game, he casted a colossus but had no key and was at 10 or something.
I attacked with creatures, sacrifing one at a time against the colossus and
finally managed to win. He never drew the key or a second mountain to
wildfiresecond lucky game of the day (after the auratog deck).

6th round : Hicham Vanborm necro 2-1 12/15
Won the first. He corrupts/will too much for me in the second game. On the
third, I manage to deal 13 points of damage in one turnwhich was enough J

7th round : Marc Dictus necro 1-2 15/21
My only necro loss. He topdecked a bottle gnomes in the third game and
recovered when I only had to deal one damage to win.
The deck was more than ok (especially against necro : the cutthroats and
encampments + shattering pulses and ankh were too much for this deck to
handle). I should have had one more pyro in the sideboard. The prices of
progress didn,t help as I never faced a death deck (except the ADN decks in
the finals).

So I finished 5-2 on the 8th seed. Not too bad but the worst had still to
comerochester draft.

2nd day rochester draft (7 rounds : 4 and 3)
I was sitting on the first table and drafted a black/white deck with two
pestilence, two skirge (skitter and ravenous), phyrexian reclamation, bone
shredder, one corrupt, one planar collapse, cessationbut no other decent
creatures nor enchantment removal (had to play with 3 skeletons and the 1/1
swampwalk + 2 disciples of grace).

8th round Bram Daelemans B/W 0-2 15/24
Humwhat can I say to stay polite and humble ? Let,s say that Bram drafted a
51 cards deck with angelic curators, spire owls, serra,s zealots and one
zephid embrace. He drew the embrace on the first game, casted it on a zealot
and won. He drew the embrace on the second game, casted it on a zealot and
won. He went 1-6 in the rochester part. End.
I guess I was playing that role at the last year nationals. But I went 2-4.

9th round Alexander Schrijvers G/R 2-0 18/27
Wow, I drew the cards in the right order during two games, with all the
scrap lying in the bottom of the deck. Probably a lucky win.

10th round Mark Dictus (again) G/B 0-2 18/30
Never managed to get control of the game as Mark,s creatures proved to be
too fast. Logic.

11th round Kurt Foket (again) B/R 0-2-1 18/33
Kurt went 4-0 with his deck. Strange pairing though (I was 1-2). Couldn,t do
anything but a draw (two pestilence in play).

Ta daaaaaa..I went 1-3 (the nightmare goes on and on and on.). 19th place.
Third table. Back to scrubland ( Carl Devos, Domien Symens, Jochen Van
Cauwenberghe, Hicham) J . No top 8 anymore. Or so I thought.
I drafted mostly white in US as no one except Domien wanted it. Got 3
custodians, 1 disenchant, two realists, one elite archers, one charger, one
drake, one halo, radiant,s dragoons. And blue in legacy : vigilant drake, 2
slow motions (which proved good), 2 king crabs,.Hum, seemed to be a strong
deck, but I didn,t really realized it until I played with it.

12th round Hicham (again) G/B/W 2-0 21/36
I ate my Cheeseham pizza and my mousse au chocolat while drawing everything
I could to respond to Hicham,s threatsand more. Couldn,t play everything.
Mmmm, hey, is this deck good or what ? ? ? ?
We looked at the rankings and realised that 1-3 27/42 could enter the top
8Geeeeeez, could it be possible, with The Deck, to go 3-0 ? ? ? ?

13th round Jochen Van Cauwenberghe B/G/U ( ?) 2-1 24/39
Jochen won the 2nd game with two skirges and an embrace but the two other
games he never succeeded to put enough pressure. He seemed convinced he
couldn,t win (far more than me). So long Jochie.Hey btw, do U want to team
for the PTQ,s ?

14th round Dominic Symens B/W 2-0 27/42.
Well, I think we were both really stressed, as the winner could make top 8.
If he had more resistance than the winner of the match Gert Coeckelbergh /
Idontknowwhoanymore.
I won rather easily (Domien, correct me if I,m wrong on this one) despite
the fact that the match lasted quite long (Domien, correct me if I,m wrong
on this one) J .
Gert and I were the two 27 points guys who could make 8th place, and I got
more resistance than him (thanks Jochen). Sorry Kid. Bet you,ll be there
next year.
Heeee haaaaaa..I,m in ! ! ! ! ! ! Back from the dead (again).

3rd day Top 8 single elimination (and the winner is..)
Standings before finals :
1. Vincent Gieling (Lobotokyo)
2. J-L D,hondt (Lobotokyo)
3. Dominic Coene (Hatred)
4. Michiel Horemans (G/U oath)
5. Kurt Foket ( MoMa)
6. Evan Van Lissum (Necro)
7. Alexander Schrijvers (Weenie white)
8. Pierre Cools (burn)

finals Vincent Gieling 1-3
Well, this was a bad matchup, especially after sideboarding. Some close
matches though. But I couldn,t really handle animated verdant forces.
finals losers Evan Van Lissum 3-0
Pfeeew, because of a mistake in the pairings program I was to play Kurt and
his Moma deck with 8 chills. After a bit of discussion, Wessel changed the
pairings and I played Evan, the only necrodeck in the top 8, and probably
the best matchup for me.
Well, the cutthroats and encampments did their jobSave the Viashinos.
finals losers Jean-Louis 1-3
Sad. I had the terrible task of kicking Jean-Louis out of the World,s team.
Had he won against Dominic Coene (who eventually won the title, end of
suspense), I would have played against a suicide deck with no bad moons
I won the first game after he mulliganed and drew 3 cities as only lands.
He won the 2nd rather easily (animated forces)
The third game, he topdecked an intuition for living death with no cards in
his hands and a certain death next turn.
The fourth game I started really strong but he played well (except for the
intuition during my main phase/time walk trick) and grabbed the win and the
plane ticket. The best player won, no regrets.
OK, I finished 6th and qualified for Berlin, which was more than I could,ve
expected after three terrible months. This year nationals were really
pleasent, lot of fun and nice play. And I guess the worlds team is one of
the strongest we could have had
THNXXXX to all the cool guys for being cooland see U in Berlin.
Pierre
First, we take Manhattan.