Last Sunday, 6 September, Tossa de Mar hosted the second Tossa de Mar Open at the Hostal Cruz.
The hostal is run by our LCOS Premodern colleague Telm Fàbregas, who set up a playing area with tables, cold drinks and a great atmosphere for the summer tournament of reference on the Costa Brava.
The deck
Once again I went with Diliz’s SummerNought build (blue, green and red) for this event, to keep getting practice piloting the deck — it will most likely be the one I take to Valencia to try to qualify for the European Masters.
This was the list:
[CREATURES]
4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
2 Quirion Dryad
[INSTANTS]
2 Daze
2 Fire // Ice
2 Fling
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Mana Leak
2 Naturalize
2 Opt
4 Stifle
3 Vision Charm
[SORCERIES]
4 Portent
[LANDS]
2 City of Brass
2 Flooded Strand
1 Forest
2 Gemstone Mine
7 Island
1 Mountain
1 Shivan Reef
2 Wooded Foothills
3 Yavimaya Coast
[SIDEBOARD]
2 Annul
2 Compost
3 Hydroblast
2 Pyroclasm
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Tranquil Domain
2 Tsabo's Web
The Swiss
Round 1 vs Ignasi (Moneyball)
Round one and I am already up against one of the hardest opponents in the tournament… Ignasi is a Magic veteran and a great player on top of that, so any game against him turns into a proper challenge.
In game one I manage to land a Dreadnought, he has no answer and concedes.
In game two, with sideboards in, Ignasi strips my hand, does his thing and beats me comfortably.
Game three starts like game two: I end up with a pile of red cards in hand and no lands that produce red, so Ignasi finishes me off without my being able to put up much of a fight.
1-2
Round 2 vs Dani (BW Control) — 0-1
Dani was one of the new faces at the tournament: he had played very little Premodern and turned up with a BW Control list tweaked a little to his own taste.
In game one I start as I did in the previous round, with a turn-two Dreadnought, and my opponent has nothing to answer it.
In game two I do the same, I play the Dreadnought, but this time he does have an answer. So it is the Mongooses’ turn, chipping his life total away bit by bit, until a Wrath of God I cannot stop takes them out and stops me dead. From there Dani recovers, I draw badly — very badly (it has to happen sometimes, that is Magic…) — and he closes it out.
In game three the mana situation is far too similar to my last game against Ignasi: Dani keeps punishing me and, in the end, an Exalted Angel and a Decree of Justice putting 7-8 soldier tokens on the table win it for him.
1-2
Round 3 vs Telm (Red-ish Elves) — 0-2
A game against the tournament’s host. If he is on the good version of his Elves deck this is going to be far too tough a nut to crack; luckily for me, he was playing a more tropical build, testing a few things out.
I do not remember how game one went, but I won it with a Dreadnought that found no resistance on its way in.
In game two he was able to develop his board a bit more, but I had already taken a fair chunk of his life total with Mongooses and Bolts. After he attacked with everything, both Mongooses got Threshold, and a Dryad I had on board had grown big enough to leave him within Fling range after combat.
2-0
Round 4 vs Josu (Speculus Oposition) — 1-2
Josu (a great friend) does not usually play typical decks, and this time was no exception. That does not mean it is any easier to play against him and win: every game is a challenge.
And just as I expected, once you let him develop his game, his creatures’ abilities make things very hard indeed. A Tradewind Rider keeps pestering me all game and in the end he wins without my being able to do much about it.
I do not remember game two, but his game plan took over again and he did not give me a chance to fight for the round.
0-2
And that was the Swiss: 1-3
I could say that luck was not on my side, that the deck let me down, that the pairings were bad… but no!
All I will say is that this deck is very ambitious with its mana base and that you are more than likely to come up short at some point. I already knew that, and it should never be a reason to give up.
Besides, once I got home I went back over some of the games and it was clear I had not played them at 100%, because the decisions I made were not the right ones. Remember: read your cards properly!
Top 16 vs Ignasi (Moneyball)
As something new we ran a Top 16, since the pairings software did not create a fifth round and this way we all got to play one more.
Ignasi again, who finished second in the Swiss. Again a deck and a pilot that are very hard to beat. And the result was the same…
Winning game one only meant history repeated itself: after sideboarding, Ignasi made it very clear that it was not SummerNought’s day.
1-2
Lunch and the raffle
At the end of round three we stopped for lunch and for a few raffles, where Yuse, Tuset and myself were the lucky ones.
I won the Pyroblast vs Hydroblast playmat, which I already had, so I came up with an idea… I asked every player in the tournament to sign it. Premodern is not only Magic: the gathering matters just as much, and what better souvenir of a great day playing cards with friends!
That is all for this report.
Thanks, everyone!
“Tossina” blends Tossa (de Mar) with tocino (pork): roughly, “a piggy experience”.