Erwin (Amstelveen) (138)

30-10-2011 14:04:00

Sneeking into my first Grand PrixBy Erwin Sneek


@magicprotourMagic Pro Tour
#gpams (Rich) For the first time since Paul Sligh played 'Sligh': Erwin Sneek played Sne(e)k Attack at the GP!! Good boy!!!

Friday 21 October I arrive at the tournament scene at 1 PM after a long and exhaustive journey (at least 10 minutes on my bike). Grand Prix Amsterdam was almost in my backyard, and I was ready to Rock the hell out of it! We did the deck-building, we did the play-testing and we did our research about the format. We were ready.
I met some of my friends in the main hall. They were already playing the GPT grinders and I too would stand in line for registration for the Trials.
Eight players from the Amsterdam legacy squad ADHD would be playing the GP. Two of them already had the full set of byes, and I got one based on my eternal rating, although I wasn't sure if they processed it on time. However, I was going for the full set. I entered my first GPT, and started to fill in my decklist. It was the same list I had used my last four tournaments. I top eighted all of them, including the Star City Games Invitational Qualifyer. Here's my initial list:

Sneek Attack, by Erwin Sneek



Main Deck
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Flooded Strand
3 Island
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
2 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Volcanic Island

4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Progenitus

4 Brainstorm
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Intuition
4 Lotus Petal
3 Misdirection
4 Ponder
4 Show and Tell
4 Sneak Attack
60 cards
Sideboard
3 Echoing Truth
3 Firespout
3 Spell Pierce
3 Trinisphere
3 Vendilion Clique
15 sideboard cards


The biggest problem with the deck was the sideboard. It's hard to board cards out because the main deck is really tight. I shall quickly explain the choices that we made.



- 3 Echoing Truth is an answer for cards like Peacekeeper, Humility and Ensnaring Bridge. Without it, this deck simply can't beat those cards.
- 3 Firespout is awesome against Merfolk and all the random creature decks like goblins and elves.
- You bring in 3 Spell Pierce against other combo or control decks. In those match-ups, Spell Pierce is almost all the time a 1 mana counterspell.
- Trinisphere is pretty good against Storm combo decks. After some playtesting we found out that TES and ANT were pretty hard to beat, and Trinisphere seemed like the best answer. Starting with a turn one or two Trinisphere on the play is pretty hard to recover from.
- Vendilion Cliques are also very good against combo and control. The only problem with the card is the double blue manacost.

So our sideboard was especially created against Storm combo and heavy control decks, the decks we feared most.

Round one I had to play against a deck I had played against a lot: G/W Maverick.

Game one was pretty interesting. I had a slow hand and my opponent went crazy with a Knight of the Reliquary, ofcourse searching for his one off Karakas. Now I had to win by Sneak Attack. At one point he takes 4 from his Sylvan Library, putting him to 14(He tapped his Horizon Canopy for mana twice). The turn before he can attack me for lethal damage I cast Sneak Attack with two Red mana open. He had 8 permanents, including a Knight of the Reliquary and an Aven Mindcensor. I activate Sneak Attack, he bounces my Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, I activate Sneak Attack again, and I attack. He thinks about it for a while, looks at my life total, and decides to sacrifice all but his Knight and Karakas. After that, he notices that he's at only 14 life, and he scoops. Yeey for mising!
Game 2 I keep this hand: Emrakul, Emrakul, Sneak Attack, Scalding Tarn, Lotus Petal, Force of Will, random blue card. He starts with a turn one Noble Hierarch. I rip an Ancient Tomb from the top(ding!), play my scalding tarn, and say go.
He plays another land, and casts two random creatures. I rip my second Lotus Petal from the top, play Ancient Tomb and double Petal, cast Sneak Attack, and Annihilate him with my topdeck skills.



Round two was against BUG control. Last tournament I played against it in the finals of a GPT, and lost 0-2.

Game 1 he mulligans to 5. I can cast Show and Tell on turn 2, and kill him with my Progenitus.
Game 2 he beats me because I didn't draw my 2nd creature in like 8 drawsteps after I Annihilated him with Sneak Attack+Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.
Game 3 I misplay and he wins. I decided to play my Show and Tell+Progenitus first, while I had a Vendilion Clique in my hand. He had no pressure on the board so that was really stupid. I got punished for it: He had a Diabolic Edict, and his Show and Telled Tarmogoyf kicks me all the way to zero.

Because the GTP's were single elimination, I was out. Luckily I made a mistake during the trials, so I wouldn't do it wrong during the Grand Prix.

I meet up with another friend of mine, I lend him some cards for his deck, and we register for another GPT, and I take a closer look at my sideboard. While I was playing, everywhere around me I saw Reanimator, BUG and Dredge, three decks I had big problems with. I really needed some Graveyard hate, and perhaps Magus of the Moon was not so bad against BUG, because they all play greedy manabases. I changed my sideboard into:

Sideboard
3 Echoing Truth
3 Magus of the Moon
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Spell Pierce
3 Trinisphere
15 sideboard cards

Relics weren't the best choice as graveyard hate, but it was the only thing I had with me that day. I cut the Firespouts because I had the feeling that all the match-ups where I wanted them were already pretty good match-ups. Vendilion Clique is awesome, but Magus of the Moon gives me free wins against some decks and we believed that both the storm combo and the control match-up were already pretty good after boarding.

I had to play against G/W Maverick again in the first round.

Game 1 he starts with a turn 1 Noble Hierarch. I draw a card and just go for it: Turn 1 Show and Tell into Emrakul. Ofcourse he has the Knight of the Reliquary at hand… I do manage to stabilize a little, but I get my Sneak Attack online one turn to late due to mana issues.
Game 2 is was not looking good for me. At one point I counter his 7th permanent, and I lucky topdeck my Sneak Attack in my next drawstep. I annihilate his board and he scoops.
Game 3 I board in Echoing Truths, to slow him down or bounce his knights after a Show and Tell. He gets a Gaddock Teeg + Sword of Feast and Famine online, and hits me with it once. I go down to 10. He also has a Choke in play. I topdeck my Show and Tell when I have 5 mana open, and Progenitus+Echoing Truth in my hand. I cast Show and Tell by using my Ancient Tomb and I go to 8. He puts a Tarmogoyf(5/6) on the battlefield. In his turn he equips Tarmogoyf with Sword, and tries to get in for lethal. Ofcourse I cast Echoing Truth on his Sword, and I rape the Tarmogoyf with a 10/10 protection from everything.
I kick him once, and pass the turn. He equips Gaddock Teeg with sword, cast his 2nd Noble Hierarch, and he kicks me to 1. I kill him on my next turn and he offers me his handshake.



Then the most silly part of my entire weekend happened: I got a match-loss for tardiness!
Together with a friend of mine, we were around the tables where we had to play, but we totally missed the announcement for round two to start. Once we went to check if our match had already started, we were 20 minutes late. That sure was a stupid way to end our Friday evening. They didn't fire up any new trials, so I had no way of getting my three byes.

We stayed a while after that though. I cheered for Merrin, one of my Team members, who was playing a semi-finale against Maverick. Too bad his Progenitus got raced by a Mirran Crusader+ 3 Noble Hierarchs.. If only he went for Big Daddy Emrakul!

We ended the day by entering the Friday night magic show, hosted by the one and only Rich Hagen. We finished 3rd, out of 21 teams, which was reasonable  We had to answer questions like:
- For each letter in the alphabet, name a card that's banned in legacy (except for K, P, Q, U, X, Z)
- Name each vampire from Innistrad, including transformed cards.
- Give the decklist from the reanimator deck that won GP Madrid 2010.
- Some weird questions, where Rich tried to express the art of an Innistrad card.
- The Dutch round, where we had to write the names of famous Dutch magic players. It was pretty darn hard, even for us!

After that I registered for the main event and received my bended Maelstrom Pulse !

Saturday 22 October I arrived at the tournament scene and met my teammates from ADHD. I managed to borrow 3 Surgical Extractions, which would replace the {=relics of progenitus} in my sideboard. The rest was exactly the same as the second GPT from Friday. We started the Grand Prix with 1878 players.
My final decklist:

Main Deck
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Flooded Strand
3 Island
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
2 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Volcanic Island

4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Progenitus

4 Brainstorm
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Intuition
4 Lotus Petal
3 Misdirection
4 Ponder
4 Show and Tell
4 Sneak Attack
60 cards
Sideboard
3 Echoing Truth
3 Magus of the Moon
3 Spell Pierce
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Spell Pierce
15 sideboard cards


I was delighted to see that my rating was processed in time, so I was awarded with a first round bye. I played some Type 4 with Mattias and some other players who had byes. I felt relaxed and was ready to play!

Then round 2 finally started, and my adventure began!
R2 vs UW Stoneblade

Game 1 my opponents plays nothing but lands for the first 4 turns. I play my 2nd turn Brainstorm in combination with a Fetchland for maximum value. Turn 3 I Ponder a little, and Turn 4 I cast Lotus Petal, Lotus Petal, Sneak Attack and I have Force of Will backup for his Counterspell. I annihilate his board.
In: +3 Spell Pierce, + 3 Echoing Truth
Out: -3 Daze, -1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, -1 Show and Tell, -1 Lotus Petal

Game 2 my opponent goes land go, and I cast a turn 1 Ponder. My opponent casts a Meddling Mage. I think about it and I let it Resolve. He names Show and Tell. Luckily I got both Sneak Attack and Show and Tell at hand. S&T now is great FoW-fodder. I cast a turn 2 Ponder and pass the turn.
My opponent casts a Stoneforge Mystic, which also resolved. He searches for Sword of Feast and Famine, and hits me with his Meddling Mage. I can't do anything in my turn 3, and I pass.
Turn 4 my opponent rips a Karakas from the top and plays it. He cheats in his Sword, bashes for 4, and untaps his lands. I discard a land. I rip Ancient Tomb from the top, and cast Sneak Attack, and hit him for 10 with Progenitus.
In turn 5 he hits me again, putting me on 7. He passes the turn.
I draw a card, cast Intuition into Emrakul, and Annihilate him to his death.
2-0
2-0-0

R3 vs Mono Red Burn

Game 1: My opponent wins the roll, and decides to play first. I look at my hand:
4 land, Ancient Tomb, Lotus Petal, Show and Tell.
Every normal person would mulligan this bad hand, because it can't do anything if you don't draw your Big Guy, and if they have a counterspell you still don't have anything. Of course, I'm not a normal person. I keep my hand, and get rewarded for it.
My opponent starts with mountain into Goblin Guide. He attacks me, and I reveal Emrakul. Ding!
I draw my card, play Ancient Tomb, cast Lotus Petal into Show and Tell, and win because God wanted me to win this game.

I board in 3 Echoing Truth, in case he has Ensnaring Bridge.

Game 2 I see 6 land+Lotus Petal, and decide to mulligan into Land, Lotus Petal, Intuition, Misdirection, Force of Will and Daze.
My opponent starts with a turn 1 Goblin Guide, which I Force.
I draw some nonland, and pass.
My opponent casts 2 Goblin Guides, and kicks the shit out of me.

I board out Echoing Truth. I don't know why…

Game 3 I keep my hand: Emrakul, Show and Tell, Intuition, Ancient Tomb, Scalding Tarn, Fow, Misdirection.
I play my Scalding Tarn and Pass. My opponent burns my for 3 with Chain Lightning.
I draw a card. Now I could cast Show and Tell into Emrakul. If he has no Ensnaring Bridge, I win for sure. If he does have it, I can't win anymore. I decide it's safer to go for Intuition into Sneak Attack. I take a lot of damage from the Ancient Tomb, but Misdirection redirects a Fireblast, putting him on 15. Finally I get to cast my Sneak Attack + Emrakul, and he gets annihilated. I was at 3 life with Fow backup.
2-1
3-0-0

R4 vs Junk

Game 1 my opponent starts with Verdant Catacombs. I play Scalding Tarn and pass the turn. My opponent plays another Verdant Catacombs and passes again. I thought he might be BUG, but I had to try my turn 2 Show and Tell into Progenitus. He Shows a Tarmogoyf. On his turn, he scoops.



In: +3 Magus of the Moon (still think he's BUG), +3 Spell Pierce
Out: -3 Daze, -1 Lotus Petal, -1 Ponder, -1 Emrakul

I keep a hand with: 2x Progenitus, 1x Emrakul, 1x Misty Rainforest, 1x Ponder, 1x Magus of the Moon, 1x Intuition.
Turn 1 my opponent casts Thoughtseize and chooses Ponder. I topdeck FoW, play my land and pass. Turn 2 my opponent tries to Hymn to Tourach me, but I cast Force of Will, pitching Progenitus. I draw Ancient Tomb like a pro, play it, and pass.
My opponent casts Knight of the Reliquary. I Intuition end of turn into 3x Show and Tell.
In my turn I draw FoW, and decide to cast Magus of the Moon. He hits me with his Knight and tries to cast a Dark Confidant with his basic swamp. I cast my Force of Will, pitching my 2nd Progenitus. Of course, I draw my basic Island, cast Show and Tell, and put my Emrakul on the Battlefield. My opponent calls my topdeck skills amazing, Shows a Tarmogoyf, and two turns later I win.
2-0
4-0-0

R5 vs Reanimator

G1 I cast a Fow on his Careful Study, making sure he doesn't get creatures in his GY. On turn 3 I cast Show and Tell into Sneak Attack+Emrakul, annihilating an Empyrial Archangel and 3 land. Two turns later I Brainstorm into Emrakul for the win.

In: +3 Surgical Extraction, + 3 Spell Pierce
Out: -3 Misdirection(I think, I'm not sure), -1 Ponder, -1 Emrakul, -1 Sneak Attack

I keep my hand: 2 Surgical Extraction, Ancient Tomb, Petal, Intuition, Fow, Ponder.
Turn 1 he casts Thoughtseize. I don't want to show him my Surgical Extractions so I FoW it.
In his turn 2 he casts Careful Study, discarding Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur and Sphinx of the Steel Wind. The turn after that he casts Exhume, and I cast my Extractions. The first one gets his Jins, the second one gets countered by a Force of Will. His Sphinx then hits me two times. At the end of his turn I cast Intuition into 3 times Show and Tell. I cast Show and Tell while I'm at 4 life, and put Emrakul on the Battlefield. He doesn't draw his out (Entomb), en Emrakul annihilates him.
2-0
5-0-0

R6 vs Tempo Thresh

G1 my opponent mulligans to 6. I play a fetchland and pass. My opponent goes Volcanic Island go. I play another fetchland and I pass. My opponent plays a Tropical Island. In his end step I'm baiting his Stifle (I had more then enough land in my hand). In my turn I play an Island and I say go. My opponent does nothing. My fetchland gets Stifled again.
On my turn 4, I cast Show and Tell. I win the counterwar, and I put Sneak Attack into play. The turn after that, it's Emrakul for the win.

In: +3 Spell Pierce
Out: -1 Sneak Attack, -1 Ponder, -1 Lotus Petal

Tempo Thresh has no way of beating Emrakul, so this Match-up should be easy.

G2 my opponent mulligans to 6 again. He tries to Stifle my fetchland, but this time I counter it with Spell Pierce.
A few turns after that we have a FoW battle for my Sneak Attack, but I win.
The turn after that I cast Intuition into 3 Emrakuls, with 1 red mana open. My opponent tries his last resort Surgical Extraction, targeting my Emrakul. In response I activate Sneak Attack. He calls for a Judge, because he's afraid he's going to lose this game. The judge confirms I can activate Sneak Attack in response to the Surgical Extraction. A few turns later I draw another Intuition, and I kill him with a Big Dude.
2-0
6-0-0

Right, 6-0! I only needed one more win to make it to day two! I looked at my pairing for round 7 and I was delighted to see that I was playing at table 1! That's not something that happens to you everyday

R7 vs Bant

G1 I start by playing a land and I pass the turn. My opponent goes Tropical Island into Noble Hierarch. I try to cast my turn 2 S&T Emrakul, but of course my opponent has a Knight of the Reliquary + Karakas. At one point though, my opponent gets greedy and taps out. Then, in my turn I cast Sneak Attack and annihilate him. I draw my Big Dude before he can cast a spell.

In: +3 Echoing Truth
Out: -1 Lotus Petal, -1 Show and Tell, -1 Ponder

G2 He Vendilion Cliques me in response to a Show and Tell, and he takes away my Progenitus. I put Sneak Attack on the battlefield. He gets Jace, the Mind Sculptor online, together with 6 other permanents. (Including Vendilion Clique) When I'm at 10, I draw Emrakul. I choose to Attack him and not Jace(who's at 5), so even Progenitus would be lethal, and I don't die to Vendilion Clique. He uses Jace on me, and lets me keep my card for 6 times in a row. I die to Jace.

G3 I keep a bad hand, and his Vendilion Clique + Karakas locks me.



1-2
6-1-0

My first loss of the day, and it hurt. After this loss, I was starting to get afraid I would end up 6-3, and miss day two. Playing 6 rounds had been exhausting. I decided to take some fresh air, get some energy drink, and I was concentrating on positive thoughts.

R8 vs Tempo Thresh

Thank you, kind magic gods. Tempo Thresh was almost as good as a bye.

G1 I resolve a turn 3 Progenitus, which outraces 2 Tarmogoyfs and a Nimble Mongoose.

In: +3 Spell Pierce
Out: -1 Sneak Attack, -1 Ponder, -1 Lotus Petal

G2 he goes Delver of Secrets beat down, transforming it on turn two. After a Ponder and two Brainstorms, I finally find my Emrakul and I annihilate him with Sneak Attack!
2-0
7-1-0

I made it! My goal for my first Grand Prix: Make it to day two! Finally I could relax a bit.

R9 vs Dredge

Ugh, dredge. To all the dredge players in the world: Start playing magic!

G1 he casts Cabal Therapy on me on turn 2, correctly naming my Intuition. On my turn 3 I cast Sneak Attack. He does some crazy dredging in his turn. I topdeck Emrakul and finish him off.

In: +3 Surgical Extraction, +3 Echoing Truth
Out: -2 Progenitus, -1 Daze, -1 Ponder, -1 Lotus Petal, -1 Sneak Attack

G2 I was winning but he dredged the nuts with his Cephalid Coliseum and he Dread Returned his Angel of Despair, killing my Emrakul.



G3 I keep a bad hand with double Surgical Extraction. At one point I misplay which costs me the game. He knew my hand (Sneak Attack, lots of land) when he flashbacked Cabal Therapy. I Brainstorm in response. I find Emrakul, and Intuition. I put Intuition and Sneak Attack on top. I just should have kept all the card in hand. Of course he randomly correctly named Emrakul and I lost because he had 2 Putrid Imps and a Tireless Tribe for beat down.
1-2
7-2-0

That was the end of Day 1. Jan vd Vegt, who was also playing my list, went 4-2 with 3 byes. Merrin went 6-3 with Sneek Attack, he did not have byes.
Obviously I couldn't sleep that night, and since we had to be there at 8 in the morning, it was a short night, with only 4 hours of sleep.

Sunday 23 October Jan and I arrive at the tournament scene at 7.30, so we had some time to re-sleeve our decks. When we arrived, we couldn't enter the hall yet, so we didn't had time to sleeve. We met some of the other Dutch players who made it to day two, and we had a little chitchat.
Before round 1 started, we had to fill in some sort of form. After that we got our pairings for round 10. 225 players were left.

R10 vs High Tide

G1 my opponent is on the play. The first 3 turns I play draw-land-go. My opponent casts a turn 2 Preordain and a turn 3 Merchant Scroll into High Tide. Turn 4 he doesn't go for it yet.
In my turn 4 I play Ancient Tomb, Sneak Attack, and Annihilate him.

In: +3 Surgical Extraction, +2 Spell Pierce
Out: -3 Daze, -1 Progenitus, -1 Ponder

G2 he plays a Turnabout on my land at some point. In response I searched FoW with my Intuition. I still had Lotus Petal open for my Spell Pierce.
He has Candelabra of Tawnos in play, and tries to go off. He casts High Tide. I Spell Pierce it. He Casts Pact of Negation and I let it resolve. He then makes a lot of mana with Candelabra. After that he tries to cast Preordain, but in response I Surgical Extraction his High Tide. I look at his hand and see Time Spiral and Pact of Negation. With Preordain still on the stack I cast my other Surgical Extraction, targeting Pact of Negation. Of course I still had FoW and a blue card to counter his Time Spiral.



2-0
8-2-0

R11 vs G/W Maverick

Game 1
My opponent wins the roll and starts off with Noble Hierarch. I have the opportunity to cast a turn 1 S&T into Emrakul and I go for it. There is a 40% chance he has a Knight of the Reliquary. My opponent then, of course, crushes me with his Knight.
Why can't I ever get a Progenitus in my hand when I try to S&T turn 1?



In: +3 Echoing Truth
Out: -3 Misdirection

G2 my opponent is kicking the shit out of me, but I topdeck Sneak Attack just in time and I annihilate him. Only because he was to greedy and he didn't search Karakas right away. (although I would have won the turn after that if he would not have been greedy)

G3 my opponent is going beat down with 3 Noble Hierarchs and a Scryb Ranger. At one point, he casts a Mirran Crusader precombat, his 7th permanent. I Force of Will it and go to 5. I have 4 lands, including one fetchland in play. If he would have attacked me with Scryb Ranger, I would be at 1 and couldn't fetch. I had Sneak Attack and Lotus Petal in hand, and Intuition to search Emrakul. Somehow, he forgot to attack! In my turn I cast Sneak Attack and annihilate him. He scoops.
2-1
9-2-0

R12 vs Elf combo

Game 1
I lose because my S&T into Emrakul is one turn too late. He already had 8 permanents and I was at a low life total because of my Ancient Tomb and his aggro hand.



In: +3 Trinisphere, +3 Echoing Truth
Out: -3 Misdirection, -3 Daze

Where are those Firespouts when you need them?

G2 I cast a Turn 3 Trinisphere, followed by a Sneak Attack and Big Emrakul.

G3 I lose because I didn't find Sneak Attack after Pondering and Brainstorming like 4 times.
1-2
9-3-0

That sucked. I was out of contention for top 8. But whatever, I was having fun! My goal was to get a Pro Point and go top 64. With 4 rounds left, all I had to do was going 2-2.

R13 vs Tempo Thresh

It's always nice to get byes during round 13

G1 I take the risk believing he plays Tempo Thresh. I get rewarded and I annihilate him with S&T into Emrakul.

In: +3 Spell Pierce
Out: -1 Sneak Attack, -1 Ponder, -1 Lotus Petal

G2 I Ponder and Brainstorm a billion times to find S&T. He beats me down with a 3/4 Tarmogoyf. I manage to resolve S&T into Progenitus at 6 life. He Shows in a Delver of Secrets. He doesn't reveal an Instant or Sorcery, and casts a second Delver of Secrets. I'm getting in there with Progenitus and I pass the turn. He smashes his card on the table: Delver of Secrets. He kicks me to one, and offers his handshake.
2-0
10-3-0

Only 3 rounds left…

R14 vs UR Trinket Burn

G1 I cast Sneak Attack on turn 3. In response he cast Vendilion Clique. I let it resolve, and he chooses to put my Force of Will on the bottom of my library. I draw a card. Then he tries to FoW my Sneak Attack, but of course I had a Misdirection from the Clique.
The turn after that, I annihilate him.



In: I have no idea. Perhaps 3 Spell Pierces
Out: No clue

G2 I keep a hand with 2 land, Show and Tell, Progenitus and some counterspells.
On my turn 3 I have to discard because of manascrew.
On my turn 4 I draw Ancient Tomb, I win the counterwar over S&T with FoW+Misdirection backup, and Progenitus crushes him.
2-0
11-3-0

I was running pretty well. T32 was still possible from the looks of the standings.

R15 vs BWG Junk with Veteran Explorers

G1 I go land, petal, petal on turn 3, and annihilate him with Emrakul. Progenitus gets there 3 turns later.

In: + 3 Spell Pierce
Out: -1 Daze, -1 Progenitus, -1 Ponder

I get manaflooded, but my opponent gets colorscrewed. I counter his Green Sun’s Zenith for x=0. Somewhere around turn 8 I topdeck Sneak Attack and I annihilate him with both Emrakul+Progenitus.
2-0
12-3-0

Nice, another win! By now, Jan vd Vegt was the only Dutch player at 13-2. To bad his tiebreakers were horrible. He had to win the last round for top 8.
I was ranked 25th. If I won my last match, I would probably be somewhere between 16th and 18th. But it was unlikely that I could still go top 16. I decided to split the money with my opponent, and we played for honor and glory.

R16 vs BUG control

Game 1
I go for it: Turn 1 land petal, petal, petal, S&T. Opponent thinks about it but lets it resolve. I reveal Emrakul. He reveals Phantasmal Image.
If I hadn't played 14 rounds already, I would have said OK, explained to him that Phantasmal Image can't copy Emrakul because Emrakul is not on the battlefield yet at the time Phantasmal Image wants to copy something, let the Phantasmal Image die as a result of State-based Actions, and say go. Instead I sacrificed Emrakul and shuffled it back. 6 turns later I realize my mistake. We talk about it for a moment. My opponent agrees with me that we both made a dumb mistake, and that we couldn't rewind anything. I was in no position to ever win, so I scooped up my cards.
Stupid stupid stupid.

In: +3 Magus of the Moon
Out: -1 Emrakul, -1 S&T, -1 Ponder

G2 I go turn 2 S&T into Sneak Attack, and I annihilate 2 lands with Emrakul. He scoops.

G3 we both mulligan to 6 cards. At turn 3 I try to resolve a Magus of the Moon. He has FoW. I cast my Fow on his FoW. He casts Spell Pierce on my FoW. I then cast Misdirection, redirecting the target of his Spell Pierce to his FoW. Magus resolves and he scoops. "Can't beat that card". We chat a little, exchange some data, and I try to find Jan, who's playing his feature match for top 8.



2-1
13-3-0

Too bad, Jan lost his final round, and he missed top 8. All we could do now was waiting for the final standings.
After about 10 minutes, we walked to the scoreboard:


Fuck yeah! Jan and me, two members from ADHD, 15th and 16th at our hometown Grand prix! $500,- and invites for Pro Tour Honolulu! We started the road to this Event together, and we'll be able to continue it on the Pro Tour together.
This weekend has been one success to another. Finishing 16th at your first GP is something you can be proud of no matter what.
After the final standings, I went home as fast as I could. I was tired, and needed rest. 15 rounds of magic is exhausting. Also I had to take an Exam psychology the next day…

Well, this was my story about how I Sneeked my way into my first GP top 16. I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it.

Pro's
- Going 13-3 on my first GP with only 1 bye.
- Having two top 16 results with my deck.
- The support from ADHD, Team Nijmegen and the other Dutchies. Thanks!
- Special thanks to team ADHD for playtesting and preparations for this event!
- My topdeck skills
- Having a Grand Prix 10 minutes away from my home.
- The atmosphere. Everyone I met was totally relaxed.
- Merrin, Joost and Anne Chris for bringing us some refreshments!
- www.nedermagic.nl, because of their great support and cards.
- Dustin for the moral support, high fives after each winning round, and his enthousiasm!

No's
- Jan losing his final round.
- The other members of ADHD who did not end well. They could have avoided this by playing Sneek Attack!
- Almost everyone I knew went 6-3 on day one.
- Playing 15 rounds is really exhausting.
- The awesome deckboxes were sold out at the end of day two.
- I had to take an exam the day after the Grand Prix.
- Playing against Dredge.
- I got a turn 1 Emrakul for three times. My opponent had Knight of the Reliquary + Karakas every single time!