Running Diary of the Top 8 Webcast for Worlds 2009

November 22, 2009 | Posted by Dee

2:50am CST — Looks like they’re a little late. The webcast was supposed to start at 2:45am CST but there’s no link yet on the webcast page.

2:56 — Ah, just got a tweet. It starts in 6 minutes. No problem. That gives me time to make some predictions.

David Reitbauer (Jund) vs Florian Pils (Jund) – The dreaded Jund mirror. Both decks have similar decks including a full set of Ruinblasters in the sideboard. I’ll pick David since he has Stag in the board which seems better than Florian’s Mind Rots.

3:03 — And we’re live. I’ll come back to my predictions. Rich Hagon goes over each of the matchups and talks a little about the players. Rich really does his homework. He knows the pro player community well.

Brian David-Marshall (BDM) likes William Cavaglieri to win his first match. His white deck is surprising because it has no Baneslayer but instead has Conqueror’s Pledge.

Randy Buehler likes Marijn Lybaert to win the whole thing. Marijn has the best results in the last couple of years.

3:12 — Camera goes to the White Tokens deck versus Boros matchup. Tokens probably wins here with Soul Warden and Conqueror’s Pledge.

3:17 — Turn four kill by Terry Soh. His Naya deck had the perfect draw against Manuel Bucher’s Bant deck.

3:22 — First Ranger of Eos in the match. Three 3/3 Steppe Lynxes, a 3/3 Skyfisher, and a 2/1 Bushwhacker enter the red zone and two 2/2 Knights take out one of the Lynxes.

3:27 — Anyone have a 3/4 Gargoyle token?

3:33 — Bram wins game one with a second Ranger Eos while William gets mana flooded.

3:36 — Back to my predictions while Bram and William sideboard. Even though William is down a game, I still like him to win the match.

3:38 — William has three Soul Wardens by turn two. Seems good versus Boros.

Marijn (Jund) and Andre Coimbra (Naya) are now tied. Marijn won game one but Andre’s Ruinblasters from the board helped him win game two. I like Marijn to win the match. Andre’s deck is powerful but the mana base is shaky. It doesn’t play Jungle Shrine so it only has 11 red sources for the 2RR of Ruinblaster.

3:48 — I guess 11 red sources is enough. Andre takes game three with double Ruinblaster.

It’s too late to make a prediction for the Terry (Naya) versus Manuel (Bant) matchup since Terry just went up 2-0. I am surprised though. I would’ve picked Manuel since his deck seems good against aggro with

3:54 — Marijn keeps a six land hand. Seems bad. But it’s hard not to be results oriented when you’ve been hit by Ruinblaster two games in a row.

3:59 — Bram gets the double Ranger draw again along with Elspeth. That’s enough to beat William, who got stuck on four land with Conquerer’s Pledge in hand.

Marijn’s six lander doesn’t work out. Andre moves to the semifinals.

Camera moves to the Terry versus Manuel matchup.

David wins the Jund mirror 3-0.

4:06 — Manuel has two 9/9 Knight of Reliquary and a 6/6 Baneslayer with Honor of the Pure. Terry has lands and a Bolt in hand and Uril, Bloodbraid, and Cobra on the battlefield. Looks like Manuel will win his first game.

4:09 — Manuel plays another Baneslayer and Ajani Goldmane. Terry scoops it up. He’s still up 2-1.

4:11 — William’s deck finally gets going. He casts Conqueror’s Pledge with two Honor of the Pure on the battlefield. The crowd goes wild. William is from Italy. Bram draws a card and scoops.

4:16 — Randy asks the audience to tweet if they are up and watching. My twitter feed goes crazy.

4:20 — Manuel takes game four with Brave the Elements and Ajani Goldmane.

4:21 — We’re back to the Boros versus Tokens matchup.

4:24 — Bram plays Baneslayer on his empty battlefield but William has Path. The crowd lets out a cheer. William tutors for two Soul Wardens with Ranger of Eos and bashes with the two other Soul Wardens on the battlefield and 2/2 knight.

William gets the full set of Soul Wardens on the board and then plays Conqueror’s Pledge on the following turn. He goes up to 63 life. Honor of the Pure would be sick right now.

4:32 — Here’s the current board. Bram has two Steppe Lynx and a Baneslayer. William has six 1/1 soldier tokens, two Steppe Lynx, two White Knights, and Ranger of Eos. But the main thing to look at is the life totals, 60 to 22 in William’s favor.

4:37 — Bram plays Elspeth.

4:40 — William is still thinking about which creatures to attack to take out Elspeth.

4:43 — William finally attacks with a bunch of creatures. Elspeth dies.

4:45 — Honor of the Pure comes down. This game is over unless Bram draws another Baneslayer.

4:47 — Bram draws Ranger. Hm, that should buy him time. Wait, BDM says Bram has no more Baneslayers in the deck. I don’t think Bram can win this game.

4:52 — Journey to Nowhere off the top takes care of Baneslayer and William ties the match 2-2.

4:54 — We go to the deciding game between Terry and Manuel. Terry has a fast draw. Turn one Hierarch, turn two Cobra, and turn three O-Ring Manuel’s Emeria Angel.

Manuel elects to play Baneslayer instead of Emeria Angel and two 1/1 flyers. Terry has another O-Ring. Manuel plays a second Baneslayer with Brave the Elements backup, but Terry has O-Ring and then responds to Brave the Elements with Path for the win.

5:01 — BDM and Randy debate the Baneslayer versus Emeria Angel play. I think Emeria Angel was the better play because it draws out Terry’s removal, which allows the 2nd Baneslayer to stick.

5:05 — Back to the Boros versus Tokens matchup.

5:11 — Bram has the turn five kill to move to the semifinals. William looks like he made a misplay by not Purging Bushwhacker in response to Skyfisher’s ability. That would’ve slowed Bram down. It probably wouldn’t have mattered though since Bram had a bunch of burn in hand and drew a fetchland on the next turn for Steppe Lynx.

By the way, did you know that Skyfisher’s ability does not target?

Time for the one hour lunch break.

6:00 — BDM and Randy talked about getting a bunch of Twitter replies, so I’m searching for “@magicprotour” to find and follow other Magic players on Twitter.

6:15 — BDM and Randy are back. BDM says Mike Flores is not a believer in Brave the Elements but BDM likes the card a lot. Mike does not want to protect his Baneslayer lol.

Quick predictions: Boros and Jund beat the Naya decks.

6:20 — Camera is on the Boros versus Naya match.

Triple Steppe Lynx stares down Woolly Thoctar but Bram has no land to turn them on. He finally draws a land but it’s too late. Andre has another Thoctar, a Path to clear the blocker, and Ajani Vengeant for the last three life points.

Andre has notes with his sideboard plans. I’m surprised that the other players don’t use notes.

6:29 — Man, the pros shuffle a lot. That’s one of the things that separates them from amateurs.

Terry is up a game with Great Sable Stag + Colossal Might.

Austria and China are in the team final. Is China on its way to be a new Magic powerhouse?

6:32 — Andre pile shuffles very quickly. I need to learn how to do that.

There’s only 20 people that play Legacy in China. The Chinese Legacy player had never played Legacy before this tournament. He went 5-0 in the team rounds with Merfolk. That takes some skill.

6:38 — Andre is on the back foot as Bram has a fast start on the play.

David does some cascade shenanigans to even up the other match.

6:43 — Andre is at two life but looks like he’s stabilized. Still, any burn spell kills him. Bram topdecks Skyfisher but Andre topdecks Path.

6:49 — Bram finally draws a land to give his Steppe Lynx some power and then he attacks for the win.

6:51 — Camera goes to the Jund versus Naya match.

6:56 — Bloodbraid is sick. David plays the 3/2 and it looks like he’s stabilizes with the Thrinax from cascade. But Terry comes back with his own Bloodbraid that cascades into Ruinblaster to take David to exactly 0 life.

Randy talks about the Magic Online Championship (MOCS) final, which was Standard. Both players, Shouta and Anssi, ran Jund in the previous Standard rounds but they were allowed to change their decks for the finals. Shouta stayed with Jund but Anssi changed to Mono Red Aggro. Mono Red is very good against Jund and Anssi won 2-0 in 10 minutes.

7:06 — David has a fast start with a bunch of removal to win game four.

7:08 — Back to the Boros and Naya match. Bram has a slow start and Andre gets him down to five life with Oran-Rief, the Vastwood and two fully powered Nacatls. Bram starts a comeback by drawing Baneslayer and then Ranger. Andre has his own Baneslayer but Journey to Nowhere sends her packing. Bram draws a second Baneslayer to complete the comeback.

Remember Bram only has two Baneslayers. Better lucky than good, huh?

7:17 — We go to the deciding game in the other match. Terry is stuck on two land while David has five lands with all the right colors and a bunch of good cards in hand. Terry doesn’t draw a land for three more turns and David goes onto the finals with two Leechs, Master of the Wild Hunt, and Oran-Rief.

7:23 — Back to the other match. Andre looks like he has the advantage. He has 21 life and the only non-land permanent on the board, Ajani Vengeant.

Of course, Bram has Baneslayer Angel. But Andre has two burn spells to kill her.

I agree with Randy. Andre should’ve traded the creatures instead of trying to race the Boros deck.

Bram topdecks Elspeth to get the advantage in the race. Andre has to attack with most of his guys to kill Elspeth. Bram has the win with his second Ranger if he fetches Bushwhacker but he has no more Bushwhackers in the deck! He boarded out his second Bushwhacker.

Andre comes back and stabilizes with Ranger and Bloodbraid. Then, he seals the deal with Baneslayer and evens the match 2-2.

7:51 — I wonder if Bram is bringing back the second Bushwhacker. If he loses this match, he will definitely regret taking it out in game four.

7:56 — Harm’s Way keeps Goblin Guide alive and redirects two damage back to Andre!

8:00 — Andre comes back with Celestial Purge, Woolly Thoctar, and then Ajani Vengeant to Lightning Helix Bram’s Ranger. Bram has Celestial Purge for Thoctar and takes Andre to 10 with Goblin Guides and kills Ajani with Bushwhacker.

8:05 — Goblin Guide shows a Baneslayer on top. Bram needs Path or Journey or he will die to Baneslayer.

8:15 — Andre gets his third and fourth Noble Hierarchs with Ranger and then sends Baneslayer in the air as a 9/9!

8:20 — Bram tries a desperate attack but Andre makes the correct blocks to win the match and go to the finals. Congrats to Mike Flores, who created the Andre’s deck. Mike dubbed the deck “Naya Lightsaber”.

Ten minute break but I’ll be taking a longer break (about an hour) to finish some work.

9:47 — Here we go with the finals to determine the Individual MTG World Champion of 2009. I think most people probably want Jund to lose since it’s been dominating in Zendikar Standard. But as a Jund player, I want Jund to win

Slow starts by both players. David makes the first play with Garruk making a 3/3 beast. Andre kills the beast with removal and then has Bloodbraid to kill Garruk and cascade into Thoctar. Seems good.

David has his own Bloodbraid, which cascades into Leech. Andre plays Baneslayer but David has Terminate. David draws another Garruk. Andre attacks with his guys and Bolts Leech before it can trade with Thoctar. The Bloodbraids trade with each other.

Andre played Ranger and fetched Scute Mob, but David found Blightning from Bloodbraid and killed Scute Mob with Burst Lightning. Andre countered with a second Ranger and fetched two Nacatls. David killed both Nacatls with Pulse and Terminated Thoctar.

Andre topdecked Bloodbraid but cascaded into a useless Path. David had Master of the Wild Hunt but Andre draws a third Ranger to fetch a Noble Hierarch and his last Nacatl.

Andre has another Pulse to kill multiple Rangers but Andre has a topdeck that trumps his previous ones, Baneslayer. David draws and scoops. 1-0 Andre.

10:10 — Cutting all the Rangers and bringing in Ajani Vengeant seems loose. I don’t think Ajani Vengeant is that good against Jund. It doesn’t trade favorably with Jund’s creatures. Rangers are good against Blightning. I could see cutting two since you take out Nacatls since they’re poor against Jund.

10:18 — It’s about turn five. Only creature on the battlefield is Baneslayer but David has Terminate and Garruk to make a 3/3 beast.

Andre has a huge turn by Bolting the beast and then playing Bloodbraid into Stag. His creatures get bigger because of Oran-Rief. He takes out Garruk.

David has two dragons on his turn. Stag trades with the red dragon. Andre Purges the other dragon and plays Ruinblaster. David has removal to clear the board. Both players are topdecking. Andre draws Stag, which goes all the way since David draws Bit Blast.

10:28 — I wonder if David brought in Ruinblaster.

10:35 — Turn four Ruinblaster by Andre keeps David mana screwed. Andre is your new 2009 Worlds champion. Congrats to him and Mike Flores!

Filed Under Miscellaneous News, Standard