From: "Carl Devos" <carl.devos@yucom.be>
Subject: [Report] Belgian nationals qualifier with Replenish
Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 19:58:00 +0200
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Status: RO

Hello,
Last Saturday was held the first Belgian nationals qualifier in the Outpost,
Antwerp.
I've done some playtesting, mainly with Pierre Cools and Dominic Symens.
The conclusion was that Replenish is the most regular deck.
I wanted to take Ped Bun's Sexy Rector, but to beat replenish I needed to
test more, so I turn to the dark side and play Replenish.
I meet a car full of Greeks and another car with Bernardo Gaivao who is
already accompanied by Hicham Van Borm, Wessel Carlier and Pierre Girodroux.
We lose the Greeks on the way to Dominic Symens, then head to Anwerp. We
arrive just in time to register.
85 players, 8 rounds, top 12 qualify for Nationals.

Decklist:

4 Enlightened Tutor
4 Opalescence
4 Parallax Wave
4 Replenish
4 Seal of Cleansing

4 Attunement
3 Counterspell
2 Miscalculation
4 Parallax Tide

1 Sky Diamond

4 Adarkar Wastes
10 Island
8 Plains
4 Rishadan Port

Sideboard
1 CoP Black
4 Erase
2 Wrath of God
1 Chill
1 Counterspell
2 Seal of Removal
2 Stronghold Machinist
1 Trade Routes
1 Defense Grid

The tournament starts a bit late (I think a bit more than one hour,
actually), but this allowed everybody to play.

Round 1: Serge Lamy - B/W anti-replenish
Serge has big monsters (Hidden Horror, Enslaved Horror), 4 Carrion Beetles
and 4 Planar Void in the main deck!
Game 1, he rituals out a Hidden Horror and beats me down to 4. I finally get
my 4th land, cast Parallax Wave, take
control and beat him to death.
Game 2, he mulligans down to 4 and has no land. I don't do much for some
turns either, then he casts Planar Void.
I get rid of it, counter the 2nd one and it is quickly over. He didn't draw
a single Plains to cast the Erase and
Disenchant he is holding. It turns out he mulliganed agressively to get a
Planar Void. I am not sure it was wise...
2-0, 3 points.

Round 2: Nicolas Debruge - Black control
I was first paired against Kurt Verbinnen who's playing accelerated blue,
but DCI reporter screwed up and so
we had repairings.
Game 1 is all Nicolas' as he gets turn 1 Duress and Unmask, turn 2 ritual
Negator.
I can't find anything to stop the bugger.
I sideboard CoP Black.
Game 2, is less spectacular: he gets turn 2 Skittering Skirge, turn 3
Phyrexian Negator. I don't get a 4th land,
so again I can't get rid of the Negator.
Nicolas told me he isn't surprised to win as he put some extra Rapid Decay
(1 main deck) and Parallax Nexus (not
that good IMO). So, we play 3 more games that I win of course.
0-2, 3 points.

Round 3: Christof Simons - G/R Food Chain
Christof is playing his own design, built around the mighty Food Chain. He
has mana acceleration (Birds of Paradise,
Vine Trellis) and big mean creatures (Crater Hellion, Thorn Elemental,
Silverglade Elemental.
I establish control in game 1 and combo him.
Game 2 is not that easy, as I can't stop his Multani. He then casts Harmonic
Convergence, and I am soon dead.
In game 3, I've got Opalescence, Attunement, Seal of Removal and Parallax
Wave out when he casts Crater Hellion. I
think for some time, then do the following:
Wave his Hellion, Attune and sac the Seal to bounce my Wave. He loses his
Food Chain and Thorn Elemental. Next turn,
he can't pay the Echo for the Hellion, I replenish for the win.
2-1, 6 points.

Round 4: Geoffrey Siron - Tangle Stompy
Game 1, he goes turn 1 Jaguar, turn 2 Llanowar Elf and Rancor. I counter the
Rancor.
Bad play as next turn he casts Tangle Wire. This buys him enough time to
finish me with Might of Oaks.
I side the Seal of Removal.
Game 2, he has a slower start, but he draws his 4 Tangle Wire, so I am dead
meat.
0-2, 6 points.

No a good position, I need 4 wins in a row to qualify.

Round 5: Guy Laenen - Squirrel Prison
Game 1, he geddons with a lone Elf on the board while I have an Attunement,
I come back faster than him and replenish.
Time to scoop.
Game 2, I start with mulligans, Guy with a turn 3 Hermit. I wave the tokens
away. He gets another Hermit out. I can't
get rid of his 3/3 tokens and die.
Game 3, he casts Harmonic Convergence at the end of my turn. I've got 6
enchantements out:
2 Seal of Cleansing, 1 Parallax Wave, 1 Parallax Tide and 2 Attunement, so I
phase out my tapped lands, kill my 2
Parallax enchantments with the seals and use the 2 Attunement.
So Harmonic Convergence doesn't return anything on my library. Guy tries to
geddon, but I have a Counterspell handy.
Next turn, I replenish and Guy concedes.
2-1, 9 points.

Round 6: Michaël Rolies - Bargain
In game 1, I get 2 Seal of Cleansing out, so he can't go off. I also keep
tapping his Phyrexian Tower with a port,
so he can't get BB from his Rector.
I take control of his creatures via Parallax Wave, he gets me to 2 lives
with the Rector and a Skirge followed by
2 Soul Feast. He renounces for 14 to live one more turn, but doesn't have
the Yawgmoth's Will to come back.
I side in 2 Seal of Removal.
He goes turn 2 Negator, but I had a Seal of Removal. He is stalling at 2
lands, I drop a Opalescence, block his
negator with the seal, he puts the 5 damage on it (I don't get why he
doesn't want his Negator to trample), then I
bounce his negator. He sacrifices his tapped Grim Monolith, leaving him with
2 lands and Tooth of Ramos.
I drop 2 Parallax Wave to kill him.
2-0, 12 points.

Round 7: Marino De Veirman - Accelerated blue
Marino has a lot of counters: Attunement, Parallax Tide, Parallax Wave, all
go to my graveyard. He drops a
Morphling, I Parallax Wave #2, I have to waste to counters to get rid of the
Morphling since Marino is
making him untargettable in response.
I then bait him with an Opalescence which he counters, but he can't stop the
Replenish after. He concedes.
He has to mulligan in game 2 (as he did in game 1), but this time he is mana
screwed. My Rishadan Port
doesn't help him, nor does the Parallax Tide coming later. I combo him
without problem.
2-0, 15 points.

One win away from the Nationals.

Round 8: Kurt Verbinnen - Accelerated blue
This time we don't get repairings, so it's for real.
My third turn Attunement is annuled. I am baiting him until a Parallax Tide
gets through.
I phase 5 of his untapped lands. He takes mana. I declare an attack phase,
he untaps his Grim Monolith.
He still has an Island untapped, so he can stop me if he has a
Miscalculation. He has drawn already 2
of them, so I go for the throat: Replenish. He smiles at me and scoops.
Phew!
I side in 2 Stronghold Machinist, the 4th Counterspell and Defense Grid.
I cast a turn 4 Machinist, he lets it go. Next turn he treacheries :(
That's basically game. I wait some more (beatdown with the 2nd Machinist),
but Superman does his quick and
dirty job.
Game 3, I keep a hand with 2 lands (Island and Adarkar Wastes), Attunement
and business spells. I don't get a 3rd
land for several turns (have to discard a Tide), he gets out a Masticore. I
get a third land, cast Attunement, which
is countered. Then a 4th land, so I cast a threat a turn and Kurt counters
each of them. The Masticore gets me down
to 4, Kurt has 1 card in hand, I've got 5 lands and 1 Parallax Wave. Things
should look good, but I only have 1 white
mana available, so I prey and top deck the Plains I need so much.
Kurt let it go, pays for his Masticore, draw then attack. I wave the
Masticore away. In my turn, I play another
Parallax Wave (I am holding a Opalescence). Kurt Strokes himself for a lot
in response, but I have a Counterspell
ready. Next turn comes Opalescence. I hit for 8. Kurt doesn't do anything on
his turn. I cast a second Opalescence
he can't stop and gets him down to zero.
2-1, 18 points.

I am qualified :)
I finish 6th and get 3 Nemesis boosters. Three? :(
The winner is Jan Doise with Accelerated Green (he gets 8 boosters for
winning the whole tourney).
Thanks to Glen Monica for head-judging another Outpost event and to the
Outpost for giving away 1 whole booster
box as prize for 85 players.
If you are interested in the decks breakdown and Top 12 decklists, have a
look at
http://www.multimania.com/cdevos/magic/RegAntwerp2000.txt
See you at Nationals,
Carl