The chosen movie to start this new feature was Prince of Persia. Let's see what our commentators have to say about it, ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS are available right below each text.
Frederico Bastos
Este verão foi uma autêntica desilusão em termos cinematográficos e talvez a maior delas todas tenha sido este Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. É certo que as adaptações de jogos de computador não têm sido muito felizes, mas confesso que as participações de Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Kingsley e Alfred Molina sob a direcçao de Mike Newell me davam algumas esperanças que estivéssemos na presença de um sólido blockbuster de verão. Bem que me enganaram!
Para começar podia ter reparado que os argumentistas eram os mesmos de Dirty Dancing 2 e The Uninvited (um remake medíocre de um filme brilhante sul-coreano). Ficamos portanto a saber que eles sabem escrever sobre pessoal a dançar e que também conseguem fazer traduções asiáticas. Penso ser esse o grande problema do filme, o argumento. Nos dias que correm, devido ao elevado custo de produzir um filme destes, existe a necessidade de não correr grandes riscos e para isso tratam o público como se fosse um atrasado mental. Ora, este filme está cheio de momentos que me fizeram sentir como tal e um dos melhores exemplos disso é quando Dastan, o personagem principal, carrega acidentalmente no botão de um punhal e assistimos a uma elaborada sequência de efeitos especiais que nos mostra o tempo a voltar para trás com ele incrédulo a assistir a tudo isso. A seguir carrega outra vez, para percebermos mesmo que aquilo faz o tempo voltar para trás. Não sendo isto suficiente, ainda acharam necessário acrescentar uma fala em que Dastan diz: Wow! Se eu carregar aqui neste botão o tempo volta para trás!! Sigh… Claro que o meu ilustre co-participante nesta coluna do blog deve gostar deste tipo de coisas, visto ele achar que os filmes não são feitos para pensar, o que interessa são as explosões e as gajas boas….
Os actores bem se esforçam, mas o material não é brilhante, e tenho de dizer que se no papel parecia uma boa ideia ter Jake Gyllenhaal como herói de acção, a prática veio provar o contrário e penso que o realizador ou o director de casting a certa altura deveriam ter pensado melhor e contratado outra pessoa. Ele bem tenta, mas nota-se que não está à vontade neste tipo de papéis e falta-lhe um certo carisma para carregar o filme às costas. A actriz Gemma Arterton também não sai nada bem na fotografia. Quer dizer, na fotografia até se sai bem, mas no filme nem por isso. Mais uma vez aqui a culpa é dos argumentistas que confundem independência e feminismo com teimosia e estupidez, criando um personagem feminino completamente insuportável! Não só isso, como obrigam o pobre Dastan a apaixonar-se por ela, enfim...
Gostaria ainda de falar do excelente twist que nos aguarda no final. (SPOILERS) Pois a cereja no topo deste filme fantástico é o recurso a um truque de narração que eu odeio especialmente, o de que afinal era tudo um sonho. Neste caso não é bem isso mas é parecido, o que faz com que todo o impacto emocional que o filme podia ter tido se perca e tenhamos um happy ending totalmente absurdo. (FIM SPOILERS)
Em resumo, um filme que teve o dom de me irritar solenemente enquanto o via, mas que pareceu agradar ao puto de sete anos que veio ver o filme comigo e a certas pessoas que se julgam os melhores jogadores de Magic do mundo...
Nota na IMDB 3/10
Concerning movies this summer was full of disappointments and perhaps the biggest of them all might have been this Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. It is a fact that computer games adaptations haven't been particularly suceeded, but I must confess a casting composed by Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina directed by Mike Newell gave me hope that we might be in the presence of a solid summer blockbuster. I felt cheated!
To start I could have noticed that the screenwriters were the same of Dirty Dancing 2 and The Uninvited (a mediocre remake of a brilliant Korean movie). Therefore we know they can write about people dancing and can also do asian translations. I think this is the biggest problem of the movie: the script. Nowadays, due to the high cost of producing a movie like this one, there's the need of not taking big risks, and to accomplish that they deal with the audience like they're retarded. Now, the movie is full of such these moments that made me feel like one, and one of the best examples is when Dastan, the main character, accidentally presses the dagger's button and we are presented with an elaborated sequence of special effects showing us time flowing back. After that he presses it again, so that we can really understand that time flows back. Being this not enough, they still felt necessary to add a line where Dastan says: "Wow! If I press here, time goes back!!" Sigh... Of course my illustrious co-participant in this Blog's feature, should probably like this kind of things, since he feels movies aren't made to think, what matters are the explosions, the hot chicks, and he loves the king of this kind of movies: Transformers.
The actors make their best efforts, but the results aren't brilliant, and I must say if in theory looks like a good idea to have Jake Gyllenhaal as an action hero, in practice the contrary was shown, and I think the director or the casting director should have at some point reconsidered it and hired someone else. He does try, but it's obvious he's not confortable playing this kind of role and he lacks a certain charisma to carry the movie on his back by himself. The actress Gemma Artenton also doesn't look good on the picture. I mean, in the picture she's actually ok, but in the movie not quite. Once again, it's the screenwriters fault, who misunderstood Independence and Feminism with Stubborness and Stupidity, therefore creating a completely annoying female character! Not only that, but they also make poor Dastan fall in love with her, oh well...
I would still like to mention the excellent twist awaiting us at the end of the movie. (SPOILERS) Well the cherry on top of this fantastic movie is using a narration trick that I especially hate, that everything was a dream after all. In this case it isn't, but it's close, making all the emotional impact this movie could have had being lost and we having a completely absurd happy ending (SPOILERS ENDING)
In short, a movie that had the accomplishment of making me extremely annoyed while I was watching it, but it seemed to have pleased the 7 year old kid who came watch it with me, and also a certain person who considers himself the best Magic player alive.
Score Frederico Bastos awarded on imdb: 3/10
Marcio Carvalho
Então vamos lá prometi ao meu amigo Tiago chan que escrevia sobre o filme prince of pérsia, ao contrário do meu amigo Frederico bastos eu gostei do filme.
Achei que é daqueles filmes que tas em casa ao domingo e queres ver algo ligas a televisão e olha ta dar Múmia 2 ou something like that e pronto já ta passas uma hora e meia entretido e nem notas por isso.
Depois quando acaba apercebeste te que nao foi nada de espectacular obvio mas são umas 2 horas que passas e nem notas por isso foi isso que senti no prince of pérsia 1 filme que se vê bem mas que não te deixa de boca aberta ou nada parecido a parte de ele carregar no punhal e voltar atrás no tempo sei que nosso amigo bastos acha bastante estúpido por causa que ele tem que fazer aquilo repetidamente para se aperceber que tá mesmo a voltar atrás no tempo o que eu digo a isto e que o bastos pode não coompreender mas também vão crianças ao cinema e nem todos tem que ver filmes russos mudos a preto e branco como tu meu amigo portanto se votasse no imdb daria 6/10 ao filme e em resposta ao outro filme que tu gozaste comigo transformers 1 foi mesmo bueeee niceeeee pelo menos não adormeci como no No country for old men mas isso é historia para outra semana e com isto deixo vos aqui a minha opinião sobre o filme prince of pérsia.
So let's go! I promissed my friend Tiago Chan I would write about the movie Prince of Persia, well unlike my other friend Frederico Bastos I liked the movie.
I tought it's one of those movies when you're at home Sunday afternoon, and you want to watch something, you turn on the TV, and what you know, Mummy 2 or something like that is on, and there you go - you spend one and a half hour entertained without have even noticed it.
Then when it's over you realize it obviously wasn't so great, but 2 hours went by without notice, and that's what I felt with Prince of Persia a movie perfectly watchable, but doesn't leave you stunned.
The part where he presses the dagger and goes back in time, I know our friend Bastos feels it's really stupid because Dastan has to repeatdly perform that action so everyone can realize time it's really flowing back, what I say is this and Bastos may not understand but, there are also kids watching movies and not everyone has to watch Black and White muted Russian movies like you my friend, therefore if I voted on imdb I would award this movie 6/10. Regarding the other movie you mentioned Transformers 1, it was really sooooo nice at least I didn't fell assleep like in No country for old men, but that's a topic for another week, and just like that I leave you here my opinion about Prince of Persia.
Thank you Fred and Marcio, I hope this was entertaining and please vote on the Poll, who do you think it's right. If you wish to hear the opinion of our comentators about a movie, please specify which one on the comments, and maybe who knows, it will be the next one featured on "Movies with Fred and Marcio"
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
Mr X and the concept of Anonymity
As all my faithful readers know, the new feature Movies with Fred and Marcio is running late, and since it's nobody's fault except Fred and Marcio themselves I decided to, until they submit me their reviews of the chosen movie, I'll be telling funny stories about them to entertain my readers in this long wait.
Fred: Hey Marcio, I've heard you had a pretty wild time last night.
Marcio: Yeah, it was crazy, so stupid but still so crazy.
Fred: Care to tell me what happened?
Marcio: No man, I can't.
Fred: Come on, don't be a princess, just tell.
Marcio: I would, but, I'm sure the other guy who was with me last night doesn't want others to know.
Fred: You don't have to tell me who he is.
Marcio: Fine, I'll be calling him Mr. X.
Fred: Mr X it is, have it your way.
Marcio: So I go out with Mr X to this new club, meh it was ok, but at some point it kind of sucked, so I turned to Mr X and said: "Hey Mike let's get out of here!".
Fred: Ahahahahahahahahaha!
Marcio: What?
I already have Frederico's comment about the chosen movie, I'm only waiting for Marcio. So, next on my Blog either will be the debut of Movies with Fred and Marcio, or a story that happened in the summer of 2005, at the Kiss Disco Club involving a male transvestite. Your choice Kid!
Fred: Hey Marcio, I've heard you had a pretty wild time last night.
Marcio: Yeah, it was crazy, so stupid but still so crazy.
Fred: Care to tell me what happened?
Marcio: No man, I can't.
Fred: Come on, don't be a princess, just tell.
Marcio: I would, but, I'm sure the other guy who was with me last night doesn't want others to know.
Fred: You don't have to tell me who he is.
Marcio: Fine, I'll be calling him Mr. X.
Fred: Mr X it is, have it your way.
Marcio: So I go out with Mr X to this new club, meh it was ok, but at some point it kind of sucked, so I turned to Mr X and said: "Hey Mike let's get out of here!".
Fred: Ahahahahahahahahaha!
Marcio: What?
I already have Frederico's comment about the chosen movie, I'm only waiting for Marcio. So, next on my Blog either will be the debut of Movies with Fred and Marcio, or a story that happened in the summer of 2005, at the Kiss Disco Club involving a male transvestite. Your choice Kid!
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Movies with Fred and Marcio
Some of the best moments I had in Magic were watching Frederico Bastos and Marcio Carvalho exchange opinions and argue about the most diverse topics in life. Draft first picks, rating girls, discussung movies, life and philosophy. Doesn't matter what they argue about, every single time they start at it, they become really annoyed by what the other is saying, they laugh in each other's face, or refuse to talk to each other again, or at least they try their best to not laugh and pretend they want to end the conversation, tough they don't, they love every second of it.
It's gonna work like this, I'll be the host providing the topic, which will be movies for now, as I know zero about Mirrodin #2. Frederico Bastos and Marcio Carvalho will be my resident commentators, tough I might invite guest commentators ocasionally if I feel they can add lots of sillyness to the discussion (I'm thinking in Frederico Costa don't know why). So for now, let me introduce my resident commentators for this feature, and provide you with a little of their Magic and cinema backgrounds.
(Photos will be posted later)
Frederico Bastos
- 2 Pro Tour Top 8 (when Magic cards were shaped triangular)
- National Champion 2000
- National Champion 2009 (bc I was in China and had to skip Nats 2008 and 2009)
- Bachelor degree in Cinema or movies or directing or something like that by the Modern University of Lisbon
- Watches all the movies because he made a membership card which allows him to watch for free any two movies a day in the Sporting Lisbon stadium cinema complex.
funny fact about Fred: before that cinema complex existed he still watched all the movies by buying a discount ticket on Mondays, and "maximizing" it's use so to say.
Marcio Carvalho
- 2 Pro Tour Top 8
- National Champion 2008 (both of you got your chance when I wasn't there)
- Grand Prix Lisbon Winner (50% money split, that's my kid)
- Graduated from the "University of Card and Board games of Lisbon", also known as "Devir Arena Tournament Center - Lisbon", where he is now a guest teacher on the subject "How to be Marcio at Magic".
- Watches all the movies in ways even more illegal than Fred old schemes, often with poor quality and no special effects, or missing the final ten minutes.
funny fact about Marcio: In Feb 2009 Marcio bet with me he would win Nats again since I wasn't playing. Marcio lost the bet because later he received a 6 months ban and couldn't play Nats.
The artists have been presented, the facts may speak for themselves, but let's hear their wise words on the next post. And yes, this introduction was a way to pressure you two for your F... answers I'm waiting!
It's gonna work like this, I'll be the host providing the topic, which will be movies for now, as I know zero about Mirrodin #2. Frederico Bastos and Marcio Carvalho will be my resident commentators, tough I might invite guest commentators ocasionally if I feel they can add lots of sillyness to the discussion (I'm thinking in Frederico Costa don't know why). So for now, let me introduce my resident commentators for this feature, and provide you with a little of their Magic and cinema backgrounds.
(Photos will be posted later)
Frederico Bastos
- 2 Pro Tour Top 8 (when Magic cards were shaped triangular)
- National Champion 2000
- National Champion 2009 (bc I was in China and had to skip Nats 2008 and 2009)
- Bachelor degree in Cinema or movies or directing or something like that by the Modern University of Lisbon
- Watches all the movies because he made a membership card which allows him to watch for free any two movies a day in the Sporting Lisbon stadium cinema complex.
funny fact about Fred: before that cinema complex existed he still watched all the movies by buying a discount ticket on Mondays, and "maximizing" it's use so to say.
Marcio Carvalho
- 2 Pro Tour Top 8
- National Champion 2008 (both of you got your chance when I wasn't there)
- Grand Prix Lisbon Winner (50% money split, that's my kid)
- Graduated from the "University of Card and Board games of Lisbon", also known as "Devir Arena Tournament Center - Lisbon", where he is now a guest teacher on the subject "How to be Marcio at Magic".
- Watches all the movies in ways even more illegal than Fred old schemes, often with poor quality and no special effects, or missing the final ten minutes.
funny fact about Marcio: In Feb 2009 Marcio bet with me he would win Nats again since I wasn't playing. Marcio lost the bet because later he received a 6 months ban and couldn't play Nats.
The artists have been presented, the facts may speak for themselves, but let's hear their wise words on the next post. And yes, this introduction was a way to pressure you two for your F... answers I'm waiting!
Thursday, August 19, 2010
2010 Hall of Fame
No need for lame introductions, these days I've been really short on time, so I'll jump right to the matter of the 2010 Hall of Fame vote.
I have something like 160 lifetime Pro Points, so yes I am Hall of Fame eligible. That itself is a huge honor for me to be on the same list of Magic the Gathering's all time greatest players. I wasn't inducted last year, very very far from it, I wasn't expecting to be. One time, Mike Turian told me I would probably need to win a Pro Tour to have a chance at being inducted, which I agree, but it's getting harder since I missed 9 of the last 10 PTs. So let's talk about the other candidates.
Who I will vote for:
Gabriel Nassif
Besides the Dragonstorm and the Cruel Ultimatum moments on PT Top 8, he also won the longest match in PT Top 8 history lasting more than 3 hours with his Martyr Proclamation deck. Must be.
Bram Snepvangers
It seems several communities are making a push to put Bram into the HOF, I couldn't agree more with them, its's about time.
Carlos Romão
I know what you're thinking.... "Tiago, so far you were being fair and unbiased but now you're turning to your friends"
Well, it doesn't matter my relationship with Carlos Romão, it doesn´t matter that he is one of the most respected players not only in South America, but also North America, Europe and Asia, or how good as player he is, etc.
His numbers are good enough for HOF, but here is how I see it, and why I will always vote for Carlos Romão: If Tsuyoshi Fujita was an auto vote for most of us because of being the pioneer of Japanese Magic, Carlos Romão is the Latin American Tsuyoshi Fujita, a community lacking the resources of Japanese Magic which has and keeps producing some of the finest players around.
Who I might vote for:
The following players have all good results, and I will be happy if any of them becomes inducted, so I will try and explain what I see different in them.
Patrick Chapin
I like his enthusiasm about Magic, how you can come up to him and talk about any Magic subject, he will listen to you and answer you back, no matter who you are or what you have to say. Plus all the writing, I think he's a good embassador of the game.
Antonino da Rosa
Last year we talked about the HOF, this year we haven't. When the conversation led to whether I was voting for him or not, I said: I won't say I will just because I'm face to face with you, but I'm also not saying I won't, if you want an honest answer, I will have you in consideration when I vote. I remember a time, when week after week it was Antonino's pictures holding trophies on the event coverage, so I was surprised his Pro Tour gold his somewhat short compared to other candidates. Last year I end up voting for him, this year I still don't know.
Willy Edel
Yes, now I'm being biased towards my friends. Willy has the numbers to back my hypothetical vote, 3 PT Top 8's in one year period. Willy is a more mature person than your average Magic player, but also insanely fun. He made the Pro Tour a much more enjoyable experience not only for me, but for all the other Latin speakers playing on the Pro Tour. Willy was the most supportive and influential person to a very young Magic player on his first Pro Tour, a kid which we all now know as "PV". When Willy Edel was accused, an entire community came on his defense, because they believed in him.
Anton Jonsson / Richard Hoaen
The two greatest drafters during my years on the gravy train. Never won a team draft against Rich, never lost a draft with Rich (ok, except that one time, can we please not talk about it). Unfortunately for Rich, Anton has much much better numbers, and is indeed a very serious candidate, or should be.
Tomoharu Saitou
Looking at the numbers, its undeniable that Tomoharu belongs in the HOF. He also happens to be a friend, a very funny and sociable person. He has welcomed me into Japan several times, I would do the same for him. The year he was POY, I conceded to him in the last round of a Grand Prix to give him an extra PT point, even tough I lost a PT point myself and money. Why am I unsureof voting for Tomoharu? Let's just stay I don't want to "buyback" old Pro Tour situations.
Shouta Yasooka
IN-SA-NE-LY good. When I was on the top of my game, Shouta was the best player in the World. A Player of the Year winner, both in real world and online, Shouta perhaps needs a little more charisma, or Top 8's to follow his Charleston win.
Who I won't be voting this year and why
Brian Kibler
I know nothing about Brian Kibler except his numbers, which are quite good by the way, but in the other candidates, I can see something else personal which makes me vote for them. However, the years which Kibler was absent of the PT happen to be the years where I was on the gravy train, and the years where I stopped playing happen to be the years where he made his comeback.
Chris Pikula
I never saw Chris Pikula in my life, except in a Meddling Mage. At least I played Kibler once so I know he exists, can't say the same of Chris.
Steve OMS
You see, the common point so far, is the time gap between gravy trainers of my generation and old timers, we weren't there to receive their influence.
To Brian, Chris and Steve: I recognize all of you as Hall of Fame caliber, if any of you gets inducted I will applaud, but as someone who had the previledge of personally knowing almost all the persons on the ballot, for some reasons other players I had a better acquaintance came before on my votes. I wish everyone mentioned here the best of luck, you are all some of Magic's greatest players ever.
I have something like 160 lifetime Pro Points, so yes I am Hall of Fame eligible. That itself is a huge honor for me to be on the same list of Magic the Gathering's all time greatest players. I wasn't inducted last year, very very far from it, I wasn't expecting to be. One time, Mike Turian told me I would probably need to win a Pro Tour to have a chance at being inducted, which I agree, but it's getting harder since I missed 9 of the last 10 PTs. So let's talk about the other candidates.
Who I will vote for:
Gabriel Nassif
Besides the Dragonstorm and the Cruel Ultimatum moments on PT Top 8, he also won the longest match in PT Top 8 history lasting more than 3 hours with his Martyr Proclamation deck. Must be.
Bram Snepvangers
It seems several communities are making a push to put Bram into the HOF, I couldn't agree more with them, its's about time.
Carlos Romão
I know what you're thinking.... "Tiago, so far you were being fair and unbiased but now you're turning to your friends"
Well, it doesn't matter my relationship with Carlos Romão, it doesn´t matter that he is one of the most respected players not only in South America, but also North America, Europe and Asia, or how good as player he is, etc.
His numbers are good enough for HOF, but here is how I see it, and why I will always vote for Carlos Romão: If Tsuyoshi Fujita was an auto vote for most of us because of being the pioneer of Japanese Magic, Carlos Romão is the Latin American Tsuyoshi Fujita, a community lacking the resources of Japanese Magic which has and keeps producing some of the finest players around.
Who I might vote for:
The following players have all good results, and I will be happy if any of them becomes inducted, so I will try and explain what I see different in them.
Patrick Chapin
I like his enthusiasm about Magic, how you can come up to him and talk about any Magic subject, he will listen to you and answer you back, no matter who you are or what you have to say. Plus all the writing, I think he's a good embassador of the game.
Antonino da Rosa
Last year we talked about the HOF, this year we haven't. When the conversation led to whether I was voting for him or not, I said: I won't say I will just because I'm face to face with you, but I'm also not saying I won't, if you want an honest answer, I will have you in consideration when I vote. I remember a time, when week after week it was Antonino's pictures holding trophies on the event coverage, so I was surprised his Pro Tour gold his somewhat short compared to other candidates. Last year I end up voting for him, this year I still don't know.
Willy Edel
Yes, now I'm being biased towards my friends. Willy has the numbers to back my hypothetical vote, 3 PT Top 8's in one year period. Willy is a more mature person than your average Magic player, but also insanely fun. He made the Pro Tour a much more enjoyable experience not only for me, but for all the other Latin speakers playing on the Pro Tour. Willy was the most supportive and influential person to a very young Magic player on his first Pro Tour, a kid which we all now know as "PV". When Willy Edel was accused, an entire community came on his defense, because they believed in him.
Anton Jonsson / Richard Hoaen
The two greatest drafters during my years on the gravy train. Never won a team draft against Rich, never lost a draft with Rich (ok, except that one time, can we please not talk about it). Unfortunately for Rich, Anton has much much better numbers, and is indeed a very serious candidate, or should be.
Tomoharu Saitou
Looking at the numbers, its undeniable that Tomoharu belongs in the HOF. He also happens to be a friend, a very funny and sociable person. He has welcomed me into Japan several times, I would do the same for him. The year he was POY, I conceded to him in the last round of a Grand Prix to give him an extra PT point, even tough I lost a PT point myself and money. Why am I unsureof voting for Tomoharu? Let's just stay I don't want to "buyback" old Pro Tour situations.
Shouta Yasooka
IN-SA-NE-LY good. When I was on the top of my game, Shouta was the best player in the World. A Player of the Year winner, both in real world and online, Shouta perhaps needs a little more charisma, or Top 8's to follow his Charleston win.
Who I won't be voting this year and why
Brian Kibler
I know nothing about Brian Kibler except his numbers, which are quite good by the way, but in the other candidates, I can see something else personal which makes me vote for them. However, the years which Kibler was absent of the PT happen to be the years where I was on the gravy train, and the years where I stopped playing happen to be the years where he made his comeback.
Chris Pikula
I never saw Chris Pikula in my life, except in a Meddling Mage. At least I played Kibler once so I know he exists, can't say the same of Chris.
Steve OMS
You see, the common point so far, is the time gap between gravy trainers of my generation and old timers, we weren't there to receive their influence.
To Brian, Chris and Steve: I recognize all of you as Hall of Fame caliber, if any of you gets inducted I will applaud, but as someone who had the previledge of personally knowing almost all the persons on the ballot, for some reasons other players I had a better acquaintance came before on my votes. I wish everyone mentioned here the best of luck, you are all some of Magic's greatest players ever.
Friday, July 23, 2010
10th at PT Nats - part 1
I've been intentionally delaying for a while writing about PT Nats because I don't have my draft decks with me at the moment, and I don't want to write about PT Nats without the decklists I used for 50% of the tournament am I right? But since I'm not going home for a while I did the clever thing of start writing and then make a break when the draft part comes, how clever is that.
The week preceding Nationals I was spending my free time preparing for the Draft portion, since I was already set on playing Jund. However, the Draft Challenge, which was a preview for Nats went awful, which left me wondering, what was I doing wrong.
Basically, here is my approach for ROE drafts:
1- Don't draft Green. In any format, Green just auto scoops to a turn 1 Island, so why would you want to be on the wrong side of the table? The whole game is gonna be agonizing for you, it might even seemed close, but in fact, it never was.
2- Don't draft awkward color combinations, which in this format are BW, WR, UG, WG and on a personal note also RB. I mean, RB tokens is fine and can be very powerful, but I don't like it, and the traditional all removal BR decks just don't seem to work in this format no matter how good they look on paper, the creatures are just better than the removal.
3- Don't draft aggro decks, please you are better than that!
After crossing these rules, what's left? UB, UR, UW (classic control, not levelers)
Of course, it's not a perfect world and more often than I would like I find myself playing Forests.
At the end of my last post, I mentioned I accepted Marcio Carvalho's invite to drop by his place sometimes. We exchanged some point of views, I watched him play a couple of drafts, and he also followed some of mine and we discussed them AFTERWARDS, I repeat AFTERWARDS no comments during draft or game play.
I come to realize I wasn't doing so wrong, I had some correct notions, and while not being a great drafter Pro Tour quality, I was good enough to have a decent performance at Nats.
I made one change in the main deck and one change in the sideboard of my winning list of the PTQ, because I wanted to improve a little the deck against UW. I consider my irl drafting friends to be all of them contenders for the National Title. When 6 out of 7 are going to play UW, I knew that if I made it alive to the last 3 constructed rounds, I would have to get past some of them. I changed one Broodmate Dragon for 1 Malakir, and in the sideboard took out 1 Consuming Vapors for one extra Doom Blade.
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Terminate
3 Lotus Cobra
3 Putrid Leech
4 Blightning
4 Sprouting Thrinax
4 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Siege-Gang Commander
2 Bituminous Blast
1 Malakir the Bloodwitch
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Savage Lands
4 Raging Ravine
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
3 Dragonskull Summit
2 Rootbound Crag
2 Mountain
3 Forest
3 Swamp
Sideboard:
2 Duress
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
3 Cunning Sparkmage
3 Doomblade
1 Malakir the Bloodwitch
PS: The raw power of this deck still amazes me, how come people don't like it?
I would like to thank Mauro Peleira for lending me all the cards of the deck. One of these days, I'll be writting one post about him.
You might not realize, but the impact of adding one Malakir to the main, is much bigger than adding for example one Sarkhan main vs Jund. Jund vs UW matchup should go long enough to give you some chances of seeing that Malakir, not like you need to lucksack your Sarkhan on turn 5 vs Jund. Besides, just the simple presence of him in your deck, can give you more options during your gameplay, and after sideboard you have 2 copies instead of one like before.
I think the matchup of Jund vs UW is an amazing one, the games take long enough that you actually have to plan, and there is a lot of strategy going on. I could write a whole article about the Jund vs UW matchup, but it's not relevant now, or at least it's not going to be until we reach round 11 of Nats. For the same reason, now that M11 is around, no use for my sideboard plans, no one's playing these decks anymore.
The day before Nats Paulo Carvalho came to Lisbon to stay at my place. He and all his test buddies from his city were going to play his version of Jund, like the one he used to win the PTQ the week before I did. It's almost the same, except they don't have the 3 Lotus Cobra, and have the 4th Leech and 2 Sarkhans instead.
His argument is he doesn't want to Cascade into Lotus Cobra, and Sarkhan is good on the mirror, but I already explained that I'd rather have Malakir main against UW than Sarkhan main versus Jund, the tempo and the variance in those matchups are totally different that is better to tech against UW rather than Jund.
Round 1: Jund, 2-1
A very tough and intense round, I lost game one, but was fortunate enough to take the other two, with absolute no skill involved.
Round 2: UW, 2-0
My easiest win of the tournament, my draws just crushed his, pretty much no decisions to make again.
Round 3: Jund, 0-2
This round I remember because of Paulo Carvalho.
Game one I force some damage to put him at exactly 3 life, and then I sit back on a stalled board waiting to topdeck the last 3 points of damage. But he drew Sarkhan and killed me from close to 20 life in 2 or 3 turns, which is fine, since he actually played with Sarkhan, drew it in a situation where he wasn't very behind on board or already winning, yeah it was a game breaker.
Game two we are racing, I topdeck Bloodbraid Elf, and cascading into any spell wins me the game here, or any creature which wasn't Lotus Cobra would win me the game next turn. Of course cascaded into Cobra, and my following attack could only put him at one, and I lost shortly after.
Just because I lost with both ways Paulo Carvalho said it would happen, doesn't mean that he's right.
The difference from 2-1 to 3-0 is so huge, in these events where they fragment the tournament in 4 parts, you have to 3-0 one of them, and the best one is indeed to first part. Of the whole Top 8, at least 5, FIVE of them started 3-0 in Constructed, while 2-1 you are alive, but playing the rest of the tournament against all the other regulars.
I went to my draft pod with other seven 2-1 players. When I got there, it was a very difficult to evaluate Draft Pod. Since all the other seven players were not from Lisbon, and I wasn't even in Portugal for the past two years, can't really tell who's playing hot lately. I actually kind of knew all of them, from the ocasional chat outside of a tournament, all of them cool guys, but other than knowing that they all had zero Pro Tour experience, and most likely even zero Grand Prix experience, it was very hard to tell their currrent draft skills. So it was like an online queue, playing in the machine, and not with the players.
I'm making a forced break here, I will resume writting when I grab my draft decks. I will continue from the first pick, first pack, until the end of Nationals. Stay tuned!
Thank you for reading!
The week preceding Nationals I was spending my free time preparing for the Draft portion, since I was already set on playing Jund. However, the Draft Challenge, which was a preview for Nats went awful, which left me wondering, what was I doing wrong.
Basically, here is my approach for ROE drafts:
1- Don't draft Green. In any format, Green just auto scoops to a turn 1 Island, so why would you want to be on the wrong side of the table? The whole game is gonna be agonizing for you, it might even seemed close, but in fact, it never was.
2- Don't draft awkward color combinations, which in this format are BW, WR, UG, WG and on a personal note also RB. I mean, RB tokens is fine and can be very powerful, but I don't like it, and the traditional all removal BR decks just don't seem to work in this format no matter how good they look on paper, the creatures are just better than the removal.
3- Don't draft aggro decks, please you are better than that!
After crossing these rules, what's left? UB, UR, UW (classic control, not levelers)
Of course, it's not a perfect world and more often than I would like I find myself playing Forests.
At the end of my last post, I mentioned I accepted Marcio Carvalho's invite to drop by his place sometimes. We exchanged some point of views, I watched him play a couple of drafts, and he also followed some of mine and we discussed them AFTERWARDS, I repeat AFTERWARDS no comments during draft or game play.
I come to realize I wasn't doing so wrong, I had some correct notions, and while not being a great drafter Pro Tour quality, I was good enough to have a decent performance at Nats.
I made one change in the main deck and one change in the sideboard of my winning list of the PTQ, because I wanted to improve a little the deck against UW. I consider my irl drafting friends to be all of them contenders for the National Title. When 6 out of 7 are going to play UW, I knew that if I made it alive to the last 3 constructed rounds, I would have to get past some of them. I changed one Broodmate Dragon for 1 Malakir, and in the sideboard took out 1 Consuming Vapors for one extra Doom Blade.
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Terminate
3 Lotus Cobra
3 Putrid Leech
4 Blightning
4 Sprouting Thrinax
4 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Siege-Gang Commander
2 Bituminous Blast
1 Malakir the Bloodwitch
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Savage Lands
4 Raging Ravine
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
3 Dragonskull Summit
2 Rootbound Crag
2 Mountain
3 Forest
3 Swamp
Sideboard:
2 Duress
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
3 Cunning Sparkmage
3 Doomblade
1 Malakir the Bloodwitch
PS: The raw power of this deck still amazes me, how come people don't like it?
I would like to thank Mauro Peleira for lending me all the cards of the deck. One of these days, I'll be writting one post about him.
You might not realize, but the impact of adding one Malakir to the main, is much bigger than adding for example one Sarkhan main vs Jund. Jund vs UW matchup should go long enough to give you some chances of seeing that Malakir, not like you need to lucksack your Sarkhan on turn 5 vs Jund. Besides, just the simple presence of him in your deck, can give you more options during your gameplay, and after sideboard you have 2 copies instead of one like before.
I think the matchup of Jund vs UW is an amazing one, the games take long enough that you actually have to plan, and there is a lot of strategy going on. I could write a whole article about the Jund vs UW matchup, but it's not relevant now, or at least it's not going to be until we reach round 11 of Nats. For the same reason, now that M11 is around, no use for my sideboard plans, no one's playing these decks anymore.
The day before Nats Paulo Carvalho came to Lisbon to stay at my place. He and all his test buddies from his city were going to play his version of Jund, like the one he used to win the PTQ the week before I did. It's almost the same, except they don't have the 3 Lotus Cobra, and have the 4th Leech and 2 Sarkhans instead.
His argument is he doesn't want to Cascade into Lotus Cobra, and Sarkhan is good on the mirror, but I already explained that I'd rather have Malakir main against UW than Sarkhan main versus Jund, the tempo and the variance in those matchups are totally different that is better to tech against UW rather than Jund.
Round 1: Jund, 2-1
A very tough and intense round, I lost game one, but was fortunate enough to take the other two, with absolute no skill involved.
Round 2: UW, 2-0
My easiest win of the tournament, my draws just crushed his, pretty much no decisions to make again.
Round 3: Jund, 0-2
This round I remember because of Paulo Carvalho.
Game one I force some damage to put him at exactly 3 life, and then I sit back on a stalled board waiting to topdeck the last 3 points of damage. But he drew Sarkhan and killed me from close to 20 life in 2 or 3 turns, which is fine, since he actually played with Sarkhan, drew it in a situation where he wasn't very behind on board or already winning, yeah it was a game breaker.
Game two we are racing, I topdeck Bloodbraid Elf, and cascading into any spell wins me the game here, or any creature which wasn't Lotus Cobra would win me the game next turn. Of course cascaded into Cobra, and my following attack could only put him at one, and I lost shortly after.
Just because I lost with both ways Paulo Carvalho said it would happen, doesn't mean that he's right.
The difference from 2-1 to 3-0 is so huge, in these events where they fragment the tournament in 4 parts, you have to 3-0 one of them, and the best one is indeed to first part. Of the whole Top 8, at least 5, FIVE of them started 3-0 in Constructed, while 2-1 you are alive, but playing the rest of the tournament against all the other regulars.
I went to my draft pod with other seven 2-1 players. When I got there, it was a very difficult to evaluate Draft Pod. Since all the other seven players were not from Lisbon, and I wasn't even in Portugal for the past two years, can't really tell who's playing hot lately. I actually kind of knew all of them, from the ocasional chat outside of a tournament, all of them cool guys, but other than knowing that they all had zero Pro Tour experience, and most likely even zero Grand Prix experience, it was very hard to tell their currrent draft skills. So it was like an online queue, playing in the machine, and not with the players.
I'm making a forced break here, I will resume writting when I grab my draft decks. I will continue from the first pick, first pack, until the end of Nationals. Stay tuned!
Thank you for reading!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
2000€ Portuguese Draft Challenge
Looking at the title, it seems today I'll be talking about draft, so draft it is.
After winning PTQ Porto i thought most of the questions I had about picking a deck for Nationals had been answered. However, draft is still worth like 35% of your Nats if you're planning to go all the way, and for most of the people, it represents the bigger parte of what they play, since very few reach the last 3 standard rounds alive. Now let me start by stating something that is going to be controversial.
I like to draft Swiss Queues.
I come from the Limited school of the "Draft and Play". Sure, your deck may seem amazing, but is it really? Sometimes, it's hard to evaluate the power of a draft deck since you cannot compare it in an abstract, the power is relative to the card pool of the draft pod. I've had very crappy decks, which were solid 2-1, just because no one could put a good deck together with the card pool of those 24 boosters. Also, I don't like single elimination drafts rounds. In constructed, your deck will always be deck "X" in the same format, with the same cards available, but in Limited, your deck is always different, as well as the other decks. So, you may think you drafted perfectly, and then you lose screw, screw and you can't take conclusions other than assuming. Or the opposite, you draft the worst deck ever, but you just lose quickly round 1, and then shrug and join another queue. The thing is, GP's and Nats have 3 rounds with the same deck, if you have a bad deck, you will suffer the agony of having to play 3 rounds with it.
Anyway, I'm not saying swiss draft is a better tool to practice, but it covers for some flaws of single elimination. However, I noticed that everytime i drafted swiss I ended with 27 playables while drafting 8-4 I had troubles assmbling 18 playables, let alone 22. (I may or may not be exagerating on these numbers, up to you). I ended up doing some sort of mix between the two kinds of drafts, more swiss in the beginning when I was focusing on playing with the cards, and more on the 8-4 when I was testing draft archtypes, lesson here is, don't be so dejective with swiss drafts.
Between the PTQ Amsterdam and Nats there was a weekend with an LCQ for Nats on Saturday and a 2k euros Draft Challenge on Sunday. About the Draft Challenge:
It was an initiative which came from a Portuguese card dealer who attends all the Pro Tours. He saw there was always a Draft Challenge on Sunday for a high amount of money, so he bought lots of booster cases and decided to try that in Portugal. I tought it wouldn't work, despite his optimistic views, and here's why.
At the Pro Tour there are at least 500 players gathered in a single place, who don't have anything to do on Sunday, and didn't bother to bring an extra deck, and who are confident on their draft skills, so it's no surprise it easily reaches the 128 players required.
But at local stores, for my experience, people don't really draft. They just play their own and the same constructed decks everyday, against the same decks and persons, and they thing draft is a waste of time and money. If they don't give 12 euros to draft, no way they would be paying 35 euros to join a tournament likely to attract all the sharks in Portugal. It was no surprise to anyone that the first ever Portuguese draft challenge only had 4 draft pods, sme of them with 7 players. But let me say, this was for sure the tournament in Portugal with the less EV, as all the good players from the Lisbon area had come.
However, it is silly that some players opted not to go just because they thought attendance would be low, while some players who actually showed up, waited until the end of registration to see how many players had joined and then decided not to join. If all of these potential players had joined, I believe the number could reach 50, which is still somewhat shy. Reflecting the low attendance, prizes were cut down from 2000 to 400 euros.
My first draft pod was in theory the strongest of the 4, which made things more interesting and challenging.
7 players pod:
Seat 1: Márcio Carvalho
Seat 2: Gonçalo Pinto (Márcio's Apprentice for like 6 years)
Seat 3: Narciso Ferreira (who I beat in the PTQ final the previous week and would become vice-champion on the following week)
Seat 4: a local "good kid"
Seat 5: Me
Seats 6 and 7 I didn't recognize
My first pick was Enclave Cryptologist, which is probably the best uncommon of the set.
Second pick I took Narcolepsy from a pack missing the rare.
Third pack still had the nuts, I don't remember exactly what, but I took Staggershock.
Fourth pick I took Mnemonic Wall over Forked Bolt.
Fifth pick I took a risk and drafted Kiln Fiend, because I remember packs 1 and 2 had a Distortion Strike, which I hoped to table. I got them both, and at that point, I thought my deck was going to be ridiculous.
Unfortunately, in the rest of the draft no one else opened a single Kiln Fiend, and the player to my right had indeed first picked Sphinx of Magosi, and as I tought it might happen, the Forked Bolt, despite being a weaker pick, by passing him, it send wrong signals. The problem is, some players have wrong card evaluations, some players here consider Forked Bolt first pick quality, so seeing one late they take it as a clear go red signal. I ended up with this deck:
1 goblin arsonist
1 Lavafume Invoker
1 Goblin Tunnerler
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Grotag Siege-Runner
1 Emrakul's Hatcher
1 Valakut Fireboar
1 Magmaw
2 Enclave Cryptologist
1 Mnemonic Wall
1 Kiln Fiend
1 Lust for War
3 Fleeting Distraction
2 Wrap in Flame
1 Traitorous Instinct
1 Narcolepsy
1 Staggershock
2 Distortion Strike
9 Mountain
8 Island
For me, this deck is quite acceptable, 2 cards short of being very good, which are 2 Kiln Fiends. I won the first two rounds against the local kid and Narciso Ferreira. I lost the final round to Márcio's Apprentice, we both screwed one game, and he got the third thanks to a sideboard card, whenever Enchanted creature attacks or blocks he gains 4 life. I make an aggressive attack with Strike, which puts him at 2 the following turn, which will give me enough time to find something, I think, as his board was reduced, and he had to stay back with everyone in case I had something. Problem was he played that aura, so the turn he was supposed to be at 2, he went up to 10 instead, so he never had to stay back, and kept attacking me.
2-1 was a fair result, but there were lost of people being dejective on my deck and how lucky I must had been in order to 2-1 with this deck, which was annoying me a little. Of course, Distortion Strike, Fleeting Distraction, Kiln Fiend, Wrap in Flames are sub optimal cards on abstract in Limited, but... well no matter what I said, I still had to battle some extra games just to prove my point that this deck wasn't bad, and I would be happy to skip the second draft and just play the remaining 3 rounds with it. I wish that could be done, as my second draft was just horrible.
Funny curiosity, I was 2-1 (Win/Win/Loss) and I went to Draft Pod 1 with all the 3-0 and Portugal regulars, I believe everyone on that pod had Pro Tour experience, and Márcio Carvalho with 2-1 (Loss/Bye/Win) went to pod 3 of 4, with 6 players I didn't recognize whose scores were 1-2.
The cut for Top 8 was 4-1-1, so Márcio ID his first round of the second pod against one of our friends, the other 2-1 of the Pod. By Round 6, all the other players from that Pod dropped, which meant both Márcio and his friend had Byes for Top 8. So Marcio's score for Top 8 was 2-1 plus one ID plus 2 Byes Must be!
Enough with lots of Byes for Top 8, back to draft Pod 1. I opened a pack with absolutely nothing except Kozilek Butcher of Truths, and very unhappily took him, as I hate, hate drafting Green,it just auto loses to Islands in Limited, why would you do that to yourself. Second pick another dry pack, just Overgrown Battlement, which happens to be a great start for a Green Ramp deck. I went for it, but it just didn't happened, so I was stuck with the worst deck ever.
2 Overgrown Battlement
2 Wildheart Invoker
1 Grotag Siege-Runner
1 Stomper Cub
3 Vent Sentinel
1 Dreamstone Hedron
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Ulamog's Crusher
1 Emrakul Hatcher
1 Might of the Masses
1 Kozilek's Predator
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Lavafume Invoker
1 Aura Gnarlid
1 Nest Invader
1 Soulsurge Elemental
2 Lagac Lizard
10 Forest
8 Mountain
I lost the first round to a Red/Black, it seemed very very weak, but he played 3 rares in both games, Drana, Conquering Manticore and Lord of the Shatterskull pass.
Then I lost to a BLue/Red/Black all good spells deck. Never had a chance, it was for sure his easiest win of the tournament. Actually one game, I had turn 4 Crusher on the play, thanks to 2 Overgrown Battlement. He Deprived it. Then turn 5 Wildheart Invoker, he also Deprived it. Then turn 6 I had 4 Forest and 2 Wall in play, my hand was all Red. I passed. He played Consuming Vapours, and I went from 8 mana back to 4, and his life up to 28. Not nice! However, I think I lost well, had we played 8 games, I think my deck would be able to win 1, and it was probably this one.
Not surprisingly, the same persons who tought my first deck was awful and couldn't understand how I went 2-1 with it, they tought this second draft was solid, and couldn't understand how I went 0-2 with it. In their own words, all these cards are solid, not running bad cards like in the other, you have ramp and creatures.
First, I think their card evaluation sucks, as this second deck is full of mediocre cards. Second, it has absolute no sinergy, or solutions. However I agree with them saying I had one good deck, and one bad deck in this tournament, we just disagree which one's the good and the bad. LOL
But yes, with Nationals coming in one week, I wanted to improve my Limited game, so I accepted Márcio Carvalho's invite and I went to his place a couple of times during the following week for some draft sessions and exchanging points of view.
With the PTQ and the Draft Challenge behind, I had already tried my hands in Standard and Draft in real live tournaments. Keep following my blog, until we finally reach the big prize, Nationals!
And... Big Congratulations to Gonçalo Pinto Madcat, winner of the First Ever 2k Portuguese Draft Challenge!
Thank you for reading!
After winning PTQ Porto i thought most of the questions I had about picking a deck for Nationals had been answered. However, draft is still worth like 35% of your Nats if you're planning to go all the way, and for most of the people, it represents the bigger parte of what they play, since very few reach the last 3 standard rounds alive. Now let me start by stating something that is going to be controversial.
I like to draft Swiss Queues.
I come from the Limited school of the "Draft and Play". Sure, your deck may seem amazing, but is it really? Sometimes, it's hard to evaluate the power of a draft deck since you cannot compare it in an abstract, the power is relative to the card pool of the draft pod. I've had very crappy decks, which were solid 2-1, just because no one could put a good deck together with the card pool of those 24 boosters. Also, I don't like single elimination drafts rounds. In constructed, your deck will always be deck "X" in the same format, with the same cards available, but in Limited, your deck is always different, as well as the other decks. So, you may think you drafted perfectly, and then you lose screw, screw and you can't take conclusions other than assuming. Or the opposite, you draft the worst deck ever, but you just lose quickly round 1, and then shrug and join another queue. The thing is, GP's and Nats have 3 rounds with the same deck, if you have a bad deck, you will suffer the agony of having to play 3 rounds with it.
Anyway, I'm not saying swiss draft is a better tool to practice, but it covers for some flaws of single elimination. However, I noticed that everytime i drafted swiss I ended with 27 playables while drafting 8-4 I had troubles assmbling 18 playables, let alone 22. (I may or may not be exagerating on these numbers, up to you). I ended up doing some sort of mix between the two kinds of drafts, more swiss in the beginning when I was focusing on playing with the cards, and more on the 8-4 when I was testing draft archtypes, lesson here is, don't be so dejective with swiss drafts.
Between the PTQ Amsterdam and Nats there was a weekend with an LCQ for Nats on Saturday and a 2k euros Draft Challenge on Sunday. About the Draft Challenge:
It was an initiative which came from a Portuguese card dealer who attends all the Pro Tours. He saw there was always a Draft Challenge on Sunday for a high amount of money, so he bought lots of booster cases and decided to try that in Portugal. I tought it wouldn't work, despite his optimistic views, and here's why.
At the Pro Tour there are at least 500 players gathered in a single place, who don't have anything to do on Sunday, and didn't bother to bring an extra deck, and who are confident on their draft skills, so it's no surprise it easily reaches the 128 players required.
But at local stores, for my experience, people don't really draft. They just play their own and the same constructed decks everyday, against the same decks and persons, and they thing draft is a waste of time and money. If they don't give 12 euros to draft, no way they would be paying 35 euros to join a tournament likely to attract all the sharks in Portugal. It was no surprise to anyone that the first ever Portuguese draft challenge only had 4 draft pods, sme of them with 7 players. But let me say, this was for sure the tournament in Portugal with the less EV, as all the good players from the Lisbon area had come.
However, it is silly that some players opted not to go just because they thought attendance would be low, while some players who actually showed up, waited until the end of registration to see how many players had joined and then decided not to join. If all of these potential players had joined, I believe the number could reach 50, which is still somewhat shy. Reflecting the low attendance, prizes were cut down from 2000 to 400 euros.
My first draft pod was in theory the strongest of the 4, which made things more interesting and challenging.
7 players pod:
Seat 1: Márcio Carvalho
Seat 2: Gonçalo Pinto (Márcio's Apprentice for like 6 years)
Seat 3: Narciso Ferreira (who I beat in the PTQ final the previous week and would become vice-champion on the following week)
Seat 4: a local "good kid"
Seat 5: Me
Seats 6 and 7 I didn't recognize
My first pick was Enclave Cryptologist, which is probably the best uncommon of the set.
Second pick I took Narcolepsy from a pack missing the rare.
Third pack still had the nuts, I don't remember exactly what, but I took Staggershock.
Fourth pick I took Mnemonic Wall over Forked Bolt.
Fifth pick I took a risk and drafted Kiln Fiend, because I remember packs 1 and 2 had a Distortion Strike, which I hoped to table. I got them both, and at that point, I thought my deck was going to be ridiculous.
Unfortunately, in the rest of the draft no one else opened a single Kiln Fiend, and the player to my right had indeed first picked Sphinx of Magosi, and as I tought it might happen, the Forked Bolt, despite being a weaker pick, by passing him, it send wrong signals. The problem is, some players have wrong card evaluations, some players here consider Forked Bolt first pick quality, so seeing one late they take it as a clear go red signal. I ended up with this deck:
1 goblin arsonist
1 Lavafume Invoker
1 Goblin Tunnerler
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Grotag Siege-Runner
1 Emrakul's Hatcher
1 Valakut Fireboar
1 Magmaw
2 Enclave Cryptologist
1 Mnemonic Wall
1 Kiln Fiend
1 Lust for War
3 Fleeting Distraction
2 Wrap in Flame
1 Traitorous Instinct
1 Narcolepsy
1 Staggershock
2 Distortion Strike
9 Mountain
8 Island
For me, this deck is quite acceptable, 2 cards short of being very good, which are 2 Kiln Fiends. I won the first two rounds against the local kid and Narciso Ferreira. I lost the final round to Márcio's Apprentice, we both screwed one game, and he got the third thanks to a sideboard card, whenever Enchanted creature attacks or blocks he gains 4 life. I make an aggressive attack with Strike, which puts him at 2 the following turn, which will give me enough time to find something, I think, as his board was reduced, and he had to stay back with everyone in case I had something. Problem was he played that aura, so the turn he was supposed to be at 2, he went up to 10 instead, so he never had to stay back, and kept attacking me.
2-1 was a fair result, but there were lost of people being dejective on my deck and how lucky I must had been in order to 2-1 with this deck, which was annoying me a little. Of course, Distortion Strike, Fleeting Distraction, Kiln Fiend, Wrap in Flames are sub optimal cards on abstract in Limited, but... well no matter what I said, I still had to battle some extra games just to prove my point that this deck wasn't bad, and I would be happy to skip the second draft and just play the remaining 3 rounds with it. I wish that could be done, as my second draft was just horrible.
Funny curiosity, I was 2-1 (Win/Win/Loss) and I went to Draft Pod 1 with all the 3-0 and Portugal regulars, I believe everyone on that pod had Pro Tour experience, and Márcio Carvalho with 2-1 (Loss/Bye/Win) went to pod 3 of 4, with 6 players I didn't recognize whose scores were 1-2.
The cut for Top 8 was 4-1-1, so Márcio ID his first round of the second pod against one of our friends, the other 2-1 of the Pod. By Round 6, all the other players from that Pod dropped, which meant both Márcio and his friend had Byes for Top 8. So Marcio's score for Top 8 was 2-1 plus one ID plus 2 Byes Must be!
Enough with lots of Byes for Top 8, back to draft Pod 1. I opened a pack with absolutely nothing except Kozilek Butcher of Truths, and very unhappily took him, as I hate, hate drafting Green,it just auto loses to Islands in Limited, why would you do that to yourself. Second pick another dry pack, just Overgrown Battlement, which happens to be a great start for a Green Ramp deck. I went for it, but it just didn't happened, so I was stuck with the worst deck ever.
2 Overgrown Battlement
2 Wildheart Invoker
1 Grotag Siege-Runner
1 Stomper Cub
3 Vent Sentinel
1 Dreamstone Hedron
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Ulamog's Crusher
1 Emrakul Hatcher
1 Might of the Masses
1 Kozilek's Predator
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Lavafume Invoker
1 Aura Gnarlid
1 Nest Invader
1 Soulsurge Elemental
2 Lagac Lizard
10 Forest
8 Mountain
I lost the first round to a Red/Black, it seemed very very weak, but he played 3 rares in both games, Drana, Conquering Manticore and Lord of the Shatterskull pass.
Then I lost to a BLue/Red/Black all good spells deck. Never had a chance, it was for sure his easiest win of the tournament. Actually one game, I had turn 4 Crusher on the play, thanks to 2 Overgrown Battlement. He Deprived it. Then turn 5 Wildheart Invoker, he also Deprived it. Then turn 6 I had 4 Forest and 2 Wall in play, my hand was all Red. I passed. He played Consuming Vapours, and I went from 8 mana back to 4, and his life up to 28. Not nice! However, I think I lost well, had we played 8 games, I think my deck would be able to win 1, and it was probably this one.
Not surprisingly, the same persons who tought my first deck was awful and couldn't understand how I went 2-1 with it, they tought this second draft was solid, and couldn't understand how I went 0-2 with it. In their own words, all these cards are solid, not running bad cards like in the other, you have ramp and creatures.
First, I think their card evaluation sucks, as this second deck is full of mediocre cards. Second, it has absolute no sinergy, or solutions. However I agree with them saying I had one good deck, and one bad deck in this tournament, we just disagree which one's the good and the bad. LOL
But yes, with Nationals coming in one week, I wanted to improve my Limited game, so I accepted Márcio Carvalho's invite and I went to his place a couple of times during the following week for some draft sessions and exchanging points of view.
With the PTQ and the Draft Challenge behind, I had already tried my hands in Standard and Draft in real live tournaments. Keep following my blog, until we finally reach the big prize, Nationals!
And... Big Congratulations to Gonçalo Pinto Madcat, winner of the First Ever 2k Portuguese Draft Challenge!
Thank you for reading!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
PTQ Amsterdam 19/6 Porto
As most of you probably know by now, I recently won a PTQ for Amsterdam playing Jund. Due to my absence from the competitive scene in the past years, I don't have the oportunity to write about it for a strategy site, so today I will be using my blog to share the tournament and some considerations about standard with you.
When I first come back to Portugal, I had a lot to catch up. I didn't knew cards from Shadowmoor, Eventide, M10, Zendikar and Worldwake, except for the ocasional Baneslayer or Jace. But as soon as I saw decklists I decided I would only play UW control for Standard if I ever needed. (as a side note, I actually had to qualify for Nats playing Mythic at Regionals, because it was the deck my friends gave me. At that point I had just came back from Asia and I was clueless).
Enter GP Lyon. I travelled to Lyon with a UW control on my bag because there was a PTQ on Day 2, which I ended up playing. I played 3 or 4 rounds, before losing twice to strange combo decks with Howling Mines and lots of extra turns. I couldn't do anything to disrupt them, and I lost lots of faith in the deck. Monday at the airport, we were told we couldn't travel back to Portugal because Lisbon airport was closed thanks to some unfriendly Icelandic Volcano. Fortunately, TAP Air Portugal paid for all our expenses during the extra days we had to stay in Lyon. I saw these days as an excellent opportunity to playtest and catchup in constructed, as we were stuck in the airport or the nearby hotel with 2 Junds and 1 UW. During these days we played dozens of games, and I learned a lot about two of the most important decks of the format.
I also found myself atracted to the Jund deck. Why? Because I think the Jund deck was something new to me which I was not sick of playing with or against it unlike most of the other players, so I liked the raw power of the deck, and it seemed silly to me NOT to play it. Back from Lyon I also discovered that it was much easier to assemble a Jund deck online rather than a UW with Baneslayers, Elsepths, Jaces, etc. I played some 4 rounds Daily events when time allowed me to (I'm kind of working now) and I did 4-0 once, 2-2 twice, and 3-1 all the others, which showed that Jund was indeed a powerful and consistent deck. I actually never played a tournament with the same 60 cards Jund maindeck, tough the sideboard stayed more or less the same since the beginning until now.
My first real live tournament with Jund was a PTQ where I missed Top 8 by an inch. I was 5-1 and ready to ID myself into the Top 8, but my opponent had to play and I lost against NL Bant game 3 with 3 lands in play and all the good stuff in hand. But at this point I was set on playing Jund for the remaining PTQ's and for Nats, since I was happy with my maindeck, sideboard and gameplans for all matchups. I still think UW is the best choice for t2 now, but I had experience playing Jund, something I couldn't say with any other deck in t2.
For the PTQ Amsterdam in Porto which I won I sleeved the following 75 cards:
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Terminate
3 Lotus Cobra
3 Putrid Leech
4 Blightning
4 Sprouting Thrinax
4 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Siege-Gang Commander
2 Bituminous Blast
1 Broodmate Dragon
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Savage Lands
4 Raging Ravine
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
3 Dragonskull Summit
2 Rootbound Crag
2 Mountain
3 Forest
3 Swamp
Sideboard:
2 Duress
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
3 Cunning Sparkmage
2 Doomblade
1 Malakir the Bloodwitch
1 Consuming Vapors
People at the tournament asked what did I cut to include card X or card Z. The answer is, I don't know, because I didn't start with an existing decklist. I came very late into this metagame, so I saw a bunch of Jund decklist, and I start building what I wanted for mine, so I never had to cut, but add instead, until I had this Jund list.
I think this is a pretty standard Jund decklist, no tech cards like Eldrazi Monument or Sarkhan the Mad, and playing with all the obvious cards. Generally speaking, this list is like 50-50, or 40-60, 55-45 etc against everything, with all the matchups improving slightly against sideboard (except the mirror obv).
The more intriguing choice is Lotus Cobra. I wanted this card to fight the abundance of Spreading Seas, and it can ocasionally give you some nut draws. I know people claim turn two Putrid Leech is a must, but if you're playing 3 Lotus Cobra, you don't have room for 4 Leeches.
4 Lightning Bolt are a must because of all the Green decks and Mono Red. Together with your 4 Blightnings and oposing fetchlands, it means you probably only need to actually deal 10 damage, because if the stabilize the board you are in a position where you can defend and wait to topdeck a third copy of one of the package 4 Bolts and 4 Blightnings.
For the cards costing 4 mana or more, the bigger threats, if you take Bloodbraid Elf as an automatic inclusion, I would say that 6 is the right number to have them. In every tournament I played I believe I never had the same 6, it was always a mix and match of Siege-Gangs, Sarkhan, Malakir, Master of the Wild Hunt, Broodmate.... tough now I believe the right combination to be 3 Siege-Gangs, 2 Bituminous Blasts and a sixth one.
I will say again that UW control or that Jund with Eldrazi monument to be better decks than this "regular" Jund, but I was really comfortable playing this list and especially this sideboard. I will talk more about the sideboard and give you the sideboard plans in my Nationals Report, since it will have an updated sideboard. Now, I will restrain myself to the PTQ.
Round 1: Jund, Win 2-1
Round 2: Mythic, Win 2-0
Round 3: Jund, Win 2-1
Round 4: Jund, Win
Round 5: Grixis, Win 2-1
Round 6: Jund, Loss, 1-2
Round 7: ID
Quarter-Finals: Jund, Win 2-1
Semi-Finals: Bye
Finals: Monument Jund, Win 2-0
I'm sorry if I'm unable to give you a round by round description, but those Jund vs Jund games they kind of all look the same, so it's quite confusing to actually recall details from the matches.
For my experience, the worst Jund matchup is White Weenie, with Mythic being the second, but I remember my opponent probably mulliganing and being forced to keep some sup- optimal draws, and in game one I had the nuts opening thanks to Lotus Cobra.
Against Grixis I was demolished in Game one, but after sideboard I put a better fight.
I had a bye in the Semis, I was going to play against Márcio Carvalho, he had already won his
Quarter-finals and waiting for mine to end. As soon as I finished he offered to concede, since he's Level something which gives him one invite to a Pro Tour of his choice, and he doesn't want to pay to go to Worlds in Chiba, so either he makes National Team or not. Which means, that free invite he has, he will cash it in Amsterdam.
About Jund matchups, what can I say, I'm a miser! In a matchup which can't be better than 5-0-50 I did a 5-1 score. I cannot control my draws, so here's what I do when I face the mirror match to try to get some edges.
- Understand that pre and post sideboard are two diferent matchups, and your plans and mulligan decisions are also diferent, is the most important thing you can control.
- You shouldn't keep a hand which doesn't have access to all the colours.
- You also need a good feeling of the game you are currently playing to know when to attack when and how to block, do you chump, take or trade, which cannot be taught, you have to "feel" each game independant from the others.
- Broodmate and Siege are game breakers pre sideboard, but worse cards after because of Ruinblaster.
So here's how I sideboard for the mirror.
+ 4 Goblin Ruinblaster
+ 2 Inquisition of Kozilek
- 4 Maelstorm Pulse
- 1 Broodmate Dragon
- 1 Siege-Gang Commander
After sideboard the crucial turns are turns 3 and 4. Most of the games will have a winner by then, so Inquisiton of Kozilek really shines because it deals with 3 of the 4 most important cards after sideboard (Gob Ruinblaster, Sprouting Thrinax and Blightning), the other being Bloodbraid Elf. I would've bring in more copies of Inquisiton of Kozilek, but I need some of them to be Duress for the UW matchups.
To give you an idea of how crucial turns 3 and 4 are, if you're on the draw, you shouldn't play Lotus Cobra on turn two if your opponent has untapped mana, unless it can potentially give you a turn 3 Elf or Ruinblaster. The reason is, if they kill the Cobra at the end of your turn, and follow it with a turn 3 Thrinax and 4 Gob Ruinblaster, you just lost right there.
But if they tap out for Thrinax on turn three, and you play your Cobra on turn 3, you have protection against Goblin Ruinblaster, since they cannot Ruinblaster your land and kill the Cobra on the same turn. If they didn't play Thrinnax or Blightning turn three, then even if they Ruinblaster you, your clock is much smaller.
Despite all of this, the real skill of the matchup is to out draw your opponent.
The funny curiosity about winning this PTQ was, that in January 2009 I took a month of holidays in Portugal, which allowed me to familiarize myself with Shards of Alara and Conflux and I won a constructed PTQ during that month, exactly in the same city (Porto) and venue of this one.
This time, in 2010, I came to Portugal to renew my passport and apply for a new visa. I arrived not qualified for Nats, and totally unfamiliar with the cards once again. After a week, I had to battle Regionals for a Nats slot, and somehow, not even knowing the new M10 rules I managed to do it. At the time, I wrote for a Portuguese website about playing Regionals and said my goal for Nats is to put a good performance, I wouldn't say a Top 8, but at least to be in contention for it until the last rounds instead of an early drop.
Then came Rise of Eldrazi and 3xROE drafts. That was sweet, suddenly I was even with all the players in the world for Limited play. Together with the experience with the Jund deck, I put the bar much higher for myself at Nats, without being arrogant or afraid to fail. Even tough many preview articles doubted about my chances for Nats, I was sure I had the conditions to be a tough opponent for anybody at this Nats.
Keep following my blog to check how I did in the first ever 2000 Euro Portuguese Draft Challenge the week preceding Nats, and at Nats itself, where I'll give you my most updated list and all the sideboard plans.
Thank you for reading!
When I first come back to Portugal, I had a lot to catch up. I didn't knew cards from Shadowmoor, Eventide, M10, Zendikar and Worldwake, except for the ocasional Baneslayer or Jace. But as soon as I saw decklists I decided I would only play UW control for Standard if I ever needed. (as a side note, I actually had to qualify for Nats playing Mythic at Regionals, because it was the deck my friends gave me. At that point I had just came back from Asia and I was clueless).
Enter GP Lyon. I travelled to Lyon with a UW control on my bag because there was a PTQ on Day 2, which I ended up playing. I played 3 or 4 rounds, before losing twice to strange combo decks with Howling Mines and lots of extra turns. I couldn't do anything to disrupt them, and I lost lots of faith in the deck. Monday at the airport, we were told we couldn't travel back to Portugal because Lisbon airport was closed thanks to some unfriendly Icelandic Volcano. Fortunately, TAP Air Portugal paid for all our expenses during the extra days we had to stay in Lyon. I saw these days as an excellent opportunity to playtest and catchup in constructed, as we were stuck in the airport or the nearby hotel with 2 Junds and 1 UW. During these days we played dozens of games, and I learned a lot about two of the most important decks of the format.
I also found myself atracted to the Jund deck. Why? Because I think the Jund deck was something new to me which I was not sick of playing with or against it unlike most of the other players, so I liked the raw power of the deck, and it seemed silly to me NOT to play it. Back from Lyon I also discovered that it was much easier to assemble a Jund deck online rather than a UW with Baneslayers, Elsepths, Jaces, etc. I played some 4 rounds Daily events when time allowed me to (I'm kind of working now) and I did 4-0 once, 2-2 twice, and 3-1 all the others, which showed that Jund was indeed a powerful and consistent deck. I actually never played a tournament with the same 60 cards Jund maindeck, tough the sideboard stayed more or less the same since the beginning until now.
My first real live tournament with Jund was a PTQ where I missed Top 8 by an inch. I was 5-1 and ready to ID myself into the Top 8, but my opponent had to play and I lost against NL Bant game 3 with 3 lands in play and all the good stuff in hand. But at this point I was set on playing Jund for the remaining PTQ's and for Nats, since I was happy with my maindeck, sideboard and gameplans for all matchups. I still think UW is the best choice for t2 now, but I had experience playing Jund, something I couldn't say with any other deck in t2.
For the PTQ Amsterdam in Porto which I won I sleeved the following 75 cards:
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Terminate
3 Lotus Cobra
3 Putrid Leech
4 Blightning
4 Sprouting Thrinax
4 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Siege-Gang Commander
2 Bituminous Blast
1 Broodmate Dragon
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Savage Lands
4 Raging Ravine
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
3 Dragonskull Summit
2 Rootbound Crag
2 Mountain
3 Forest
3 Swamp
Sideboard:
2 Duress
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
3 Cunning Sparkmage
2 Doomblade
1 Malakir the Bloodwitch
1 Consuming Vapors
People at the tournament asked what did I cut to include card X or card Z. The answer is, I don't know, because I didn't start with an existing decklist. I came very late into this metagame, so I saw a bunch of Jund decklist, and I start building what I wanted for mine, so I never had to cut, but add instead, until I had this Jund list.
I think this is a pretty standard Jund decklist, no tech cards like Eldrazi Monument or Sarkhan the Mad, and playing with all the obvious cards. Generally speaking, this list is like 50-50, or 40-60, 55-45 etc against everything, with all the matchups improving slightly against sideboard (except the mirror obv).
The more intriguing choice is Lotus Cobra. I wanted this card to fight the abundance of Spreading Seas, and it can ocasionally give you some nut draws. I know people claim turn two Putrid Leech is a must, but if you're playing 3 Lotus Cobra, you don't have room for 4 Leeches.
4 Lightning Bolt are a must because of all the Green decks and Mono Red. Together with your 4 Blightnings and oposing fetchlands, it means you probably only need to actually deal 10 damage, because if the stabilize the board you are in a position where you can defend and wait to topdeck a third copy of one of the package 4 Bolts and 4 Blightnings.
For the cards costing 4 mana or more, the bigger threats, if you take Bloodbraid Elf as an automatic inclusion, I would say that 6 is the right number to have them. In every tournament I played I believe I never had the same 6, it was always a mix and match of Siege-Gangs, Sarkhan, Malakir, Master of the Wild Hunt, Broodmate.... tough now I believe the right combination to be 3 Siege-Gangs, 2 Bituminous Blasts and a sixth one.
I will say again that UW control or that Jund with Eldrazi monument to be better decks than this "regular" Jund, but I was really comfortable playing this list and especially this sideboard. I will talk more about the sideboard and give you the sideboard plans in my Nationals Report, since it will have an updated sideboard. Now, I will restrain myself to the PTQ.
Round 1: Jund, Win 2-1
Round 2: Mythic, Win 2-0
Round 3: Jund, Win 2-1
Round 4: Jund, Win
Round 5: Grixis, Win 2-1
Round 6: Jund, Loss, 1-2
Round 7: ID
Quarter-Finals: Jund, Win 2-1
Semi-Finals: Bye
Finals: Monument Jund, Win 2-0
I'm sorry if I'm unable to give you a round by round description, but those Jund vs Jund games they kind of all look the same, so it's quite confusing to actually recall details from the matches.
For my experience, the worst Jund matchup is White Weenie, with Mythic being the second, but I remember my opponent probably mulliganing and being forced to keep some sup- optimal draws, and in game one I had the nuts opening thanks to Lotus Cobra.
Against Grixis I was demolished in Game one, but after sideboard I put a better fight.
I had a bye in the Semis, I was going to play against Márcio Carvalho, he had already won his
Quarter-finals and waiting for mine to end. As soon as I finished he offered to concede, since he's Level something which gives him one invite to a Pro Tour of his choice, and he doesn't want to pay to go to Worlds in Chiba, so either he makes National Team or not. Which means, that free invite he has, he will cash it in Amsterdam.
About Jund matchups, what can I say, I'm a miser! In a matchup which can't be better than 5-0-50 I did a 5-1 score. I cannot control my draws, so here's what I do when I face the mirror match to try to get some edges.
- Understand that pre and post sideboard are two diferent matchups, and your plans and mulligan decisions are also diferent, is the most important thing you can control.
- You shouldn't keep a hand which doesn't have access to all the colours.
- You also need a good feeling of the game you are currently playing to know when to attack when and how to block, do you chump, take or trade, which cannot be taught, you have to "feel" each game independant from the others.
- Broodmate and Siege are game breakers pre sideboard, but worse cards after because of Ruinblaster.
So here's how I sideboard for the mirror.
+ 4 Goblin Ruinblaster
+ 2 Inquisition of Kozilek
- 4 Maelstorm Pulse
- 1 Broodmate Dragon
- 1 Siege-Gang Commander
After sideboard the crucial turns are turns 3 and 4. Most of the games will have a winner by then, so Inquisiton of Kozilek really shines because it deals with 3 of the 4 most important cards after sideboard (Gob Ruinblaster, Sprouting Thrinax and Blightning), the other being Bloodbraid Elf. I would've bring in more copies of Inquisiton of Kozilek, but I need some of them to be Duress for the UW matchups.
To give you an idea of how crucial turns 3 and 4 are, if you're on the draw, you shouldn't play Lotus Cobra on turn two if your opponent has untapped mana, unless it can potentially give you a turn 3 Elf or Ruinblaster. The reason is, if they kill the Cobra at the end of your turn, and follow it with a turn 3 Thrinax and 4 Gob Ruinblaster, you just lost right there.
But if they tap out for Thrinax on turn three, and you play your Cobra on turn 3, you have protection against Goblin Ruinblaster, since they cannot Ruinblaster your land and kill the Cobra on the same turn. If they didn't play Thrinnax or Blightning turn three, then even if they Ruinblaster you, your clock is much smaller.
Despite all of this, the real skill of the matchup is to out draw your opponent.
The funny curiosity about winning this PTQ was, that in January 2009 I took a month of holidays in Portugal, which allowed me to familiarize myself with Shards of Alara and Conflux and I won a constructed PTQ during that month, exactly in the same city (Porto) and venue of this one.
This time, in 2010, I came to Portugal to renew my passport and apply for a new visa. I arrived not qualified for Nats, and totally unfamiliar with the cards once again. After a week, I had to battle Regionals for a Nats slot, and somehow, not even knowing the new M10 rules I managed to do it. At the time, I wrote for a Portuguese website about playing Regionals and said my goal for Nats is to put a good performance, I wouldn't say a Top 8, but at least to be in contention for it until the last rounds instead of an early drop.
Then came Rise of Eldrazi and 3xROE drafts. That was sweet, suddenly I was even with all the players in the world for Limited play. Together with the experience with the Jund deck, I put the bar much higher for myself at Nats, without being arrogant or afraid to fail. Even tough many preview articles doubted about my chances for Nats, I was sure I had the conditions to be a tough opponent for anybody at this Nats.
Keep following my blog to check how I did in the first ever 2000 Euro Portuguese Draft Challenge the week preceding Nats, and at Nats itself, where I'll give you my most updated list and all the sideboard plans.
Thank you for reading!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Football and Religion
The World Cup has started, for the delight of all football fans out there including me. This may seem like a good thing, but is it actually?
The TV is all about the World Cup, showing all games of the competition, and when it's not games it's still talk shows or debates about it. And what about the overall quality of the matches so far? Yes I know that Portugal - Ivory Coast as by far the worst match, but still, your life would have to be pretty iddle if you manage to find time in your schedule to watch Slovakia - New Zealand. (Obv this doesn't apply to Slovakians and New Zealanders).
Indeed, nowadays football truly is the people's religion. Check out Portugal's example. In Portugal we have 3 major clubs, FC Porto, SL Benfica and Sporting CP. In 100 years of Portuguese League these three have won 98. I'm not sure if there have been 100 Leagues, but they have won everytime except 2 editions. We can safely say everyone supports one of these 3 teams and absorbs their influence.
The president of FC Porto is nicknamed "the Pope" , it can only exist one, and he his the highest figure in the power of football, local politics, courts, laws, etc.
SL Benfica supporters have started wearing t-shirts saying: "I have finally seen Jesus! - He was in the SL Benfica subs bench". Let me explain. In the last 15 or so years Benfica had only won 1 time the League. This season they appointed Jorge Jesus as their coach. In his first press conference, Jorge Jesus promissed the miracle of multiplication, but he wasn´t talking about bread. He promissed to multiply the productivity, the attacks, the goals and the show of Benfica's football. One year after, he won Benfica their second League in 15 years.
Sporting CP's president also seems to have a weird obssession with religion, because one year ago he declared Bento Forever! (In Portuguese Bento = Benedict, so Papa Bento XVI = Pope Benedict XVI).
At the time, Sporting coach was none other than Paulo Jorge Gomes BENTO who lead the team from 2005 to 2009. However, one year and a miserable season later, Sporting fired coach Paulo Bento. Sporting's president always devoted to Benedict XVI didn't want to be seen as a liar when he said "Bento Forever" so he proceeded to appoint coach Paulo Sergio BENTO Brito as the new Sporting coach.
Leaving Portugal aside and going just next door to Madrid, we can find our very own Cristiano Ronaldo, who some believe to be a football god (except when playing for the National team). But also in Real Madrid we find a special coach, who claims to be better than God, because God haven't won the Champions League twice.
After analyzing these facts, I see how close football and religion can be. Enjoy your World Cup matches, and as for Portugal vs North Korea, come on God, one time!
The TV is all about the World Cup, showing all games of the competition, and when it's not games it's still talk shows or debates about it. And what about the overall quality of the matches so far? Yes I know that Portugal - Ivory Coast as by far the worst match, but still, your life would have to be pretty iddle if you manage to find time in your schedule to watch Slovakia - New Zealand. (Obv this doesn't apply to Slovakians and New Zealanders).
Indeed, nowadays football truly is the people's religion. Check out Portugal's example. In Portugal we have 3 major clubs, FC Porto, SL Benfica and Sporting CP. In 100 years of Portuguese League these three have won 98. I'm not sure if there have been 100 Leagues, but they have won everytime except 2 editions. We can safely say everyone supports one of these 3 teams and absorbs their influence.
The president of FC Porto is nicknamed "the Pope" , it can only exist one, and he his the highest figure in the power of football, local politics, courts, laws, etc.
SL Benfica supporters have started wearing t-shirts saying: "I have finally seen Jesus! - He was in the SL Benfica subs bench". Let me explain. In the last 15 or so years Benfica had only won 1 time the League. This season they appointed Jorge Jesus as their coach. In his first press conference, Jorge Jesus promissed the miracle of multiplication, but he wasn´t talking about bread. He promissed to multiply the productivity, the attacks, the goals and the show of Benfica's football. One year after, he won Benfica their second League in 15 years.
Sporting CP's president also seems to have a weird obssession with religion, because one year ago he declared Bento Forever! (In Portuguese Bento = Benedict, so Papa Bento XVI = Pope Benedict XVI).
At the time, Sporting coach was none other than Paulo Jorge Gomes BENTO who lead the team from 2005 to 2009. However, one year and a miserable season later, Sporting fired coach Paulo Bento. Sporting's president always devoted to Benedict XVI didn't want to be seen as a liar when he said "Bento Forever" so he proceeded to appoint coach Paulo Sergio BENTO Brito as the new Sporting coach.
Leaving Portugal aside and going just next door to Madrid, we can find our very own Cristiano Ronaldo, who some believe to be a football god (except when playing for the National team). But also in Real Madrid we find a special coach, who claims to be better than God, because God haven't won the Champions League twice.
After analyzing these facts, I see how close football and religion can be. Enjoy your World Cup matches, and as for Portugal vs North Korea, come on God, one time!
Monday, June 14, 2010
Marcia???
I'm going to assume that a large portion of this blog's readers play (and by "play" I mean play, played, know how to play, trade, judge, whatever) Magic. If you do, it is very likely that you're familiar with the name Márcio Carvalho, especially if you're Portuguese. Márcio is a big name in Portuguese Magic, one of the greatest ever of this country. Moving on to a little of Portuguese grammar.
Like the other latin languages, Portuguese has a funny little curiosity. Our nouns can be classified into Singular or Plural, but also classified into Male or Female, just because our grammar says so. For example:
Carro (car) is a male noun.
Mota (moto) is a female noun.
Does this mean that cars are for men and motos for women? No, it's just grammar, male nouns and female nouns need diferent pronouns and articles, and the adjectives have to be slightly modified in order to have 100% perfect grammar.
Usually, the rule is, if it ends in "a" it's a female noun, if it ends in "o" it's a male noun.
Take a look at these names: Tiago, Márcio, Paulo, Eduardo, Hugo, João, Pedro. They're all names for guys, and they all end in "o".
How about these names then? Joana, Paula, Claudia, they end in "a" they are girls names. If you guys happen to mistype PV's name into Paula (I saw it happen one time, and it didn't seemed an inoccent mistype), he will feel a little offended, because you are calling him a girl.
Which brings me back to the topic, why is the title of this post "Márcia" if i started talking about Márcio Carvalho?
Yesterday it was local holiday, Saint Anthony's day, Patron Saint of Lisbon. Me and my friends went out to the street to join the excitement, music, dance, parades, grilled sardines and peppers. During the evening Márcio called his sister Joana Carvalho to meet up. I've seen pictures of her before, and I have her as a friend on some social network, but seeing her again side by side with Márcio, I really had to make a terrible effort in order not to call her Márcia Carvalho (or Márcia Carvalha, for emphasis).
I was unable to get a picture of Márcio's female clone, but next time you play against him, think of Márcio Carvalho with long hair and boobs.
Like the other latin languages, Portuguese has a funny little curiosity. Our nouns can be classified into Singular or Plural, but also classified into Male or Female, just because our grammar says so. For example:
Carro (car) is a male noun.
Mota (moto) is a female noun.
Does this mean that cars are for men and motos for women? No, it's just grammar, male nouns and female nouns need diferent pronouns and articles, and the adjectives have to be slightly modified in order to have 100% perfect grammar.
Usually, the rule is, if it ends in "a" it's a female noun, if it ends in "o" it's a male noun.
Take a look at these names: Tiago, Márcio, Paulo, Eduardo, Hugo, João, Pedro. They're all names for guys, and they all end in "o".
How about these names then? Joana, Paula, Claudia, they end in "a" they are girls names. If you guys happen to mistype PV's name into Paula (I saw it happen one time, and it didn't seemed an inoccent mistype), he will feel a little offended, because you are calling him a girl.
Which brings me back to the topic, why is the title of this post "Márcia" if i started talking about Márcio Carvalho?
Yesterday it was local holiday, Saint Anthony's day, Patron Saint of Lisbon. Me and my friends went out to the street to join the excitement, music, dance, parades, grilled sardines and peppers. During the evening Márcio called his sister Joana Carvalho to meet up. I've seen pictures of her before, and I have her as a friend on some social network, but seeing her again side by side with Márcio, I really had to make a terrible effort in order not to call her Márcia Carvalho (or Márcia Carvalha, for emphasis).
I was unable to get a picture of Márcio's female clone, but next time you play against him, think of Márcio Carvalho with long hair and boobs.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Technical problems so to say
So here's what happened a couple days ago.
I'm staying at my parents place these days as I'm helping them with business. I didn't bother bringing my laptop since it's not so new, and I don't have wireless. Besides, their home computer, from where I'm typing now has a pretty good internet connection. Earlier this week, I switched it on, but Windows didn't load. Neither starting windows in security mode, or last mode that was working well, nothing, nada, niente, rien, meiyou! Ups!
I don't have any computers know-how, other than using them, I also don't have much interest in computer related stuff. Unlike most of my friends, I actually never played any online video game (online card games don't count OBV), probably the only computer game I've ever played was Football Manager. I'm not a computer master, but usually I can solve whatever problems I encounter as most of the stuff are intuitive to find a solution, and formatting is a highly-eficcient last resource tool.
Since I couldn't turn it on, that eliminated asking for support through the internet to my friends. Luckily Paulo Carvalho on my cellphone contacts proved to be the key for a troublesome door. Oh, and did I forget to mention that all the procedures I had to make were with software in Chinese language? Obv it would be too easy if could fully read what the computer was saying. So here's what I had to do.
- Open the computer, take out the hard disk check if it looks in good conditions, plug all wires again - Failed
- Boot from the Windows CD - Failed
- Install Windows again - Failed, but from what my limited chinese could read apparently the hard disk was damaged.
- Buy a new hard disk, install it.
- Not find the motherboard CD, so open the computer again to check qhich model and download the corresponding drivers.
- Realize that most of the software is still not running well, update whatever I needed.
- Try to find and install all the software that the old disk had, in Chinese of course.
Other than the lost data from the old disk, which I will still try to recover when I go back to Lisbon, I did what I could to put my father's computer operational again. I was in a bit of hurry since he's coming back tomorrow. Despite my efforts, I'm pretty sure I will still be scolded, and it wasn't even my fault.
Anyway, big thanks to Paulo Carvalho for all the help and patience. I'm going to link to his blog as soon as possible, where you can watch some live stream drafts, altough the comments are made in Portuguese I'm afraid. And remember, if you're able to read new posts these days, it's in great part thanks to him!
I'm staying at my parents place these days as I'm helping them with business. I didn't bother bringing my laptop since it's not so new, and I don't have wireless. Besides, their home computer, from where I'm typing now has a pretty good internet connection. Earlier this week, I switched it on, but Windows didn't load. Neither starting windows in security mode, or last mode that was working well, nothing, nada, niente, rien, meiyou! Ups!
I don't have any computers know-how, other than using them, I also don't have much interest in computer related stuff. Unlike most of my friends, I actually never played any online video game (online card games don't count OBV), probably the only computer game I've ever played was Football Manager. I'm not a computer master, but usually I can solve whatever problems I encounter as most of the stuff are intuitive to find a solution, and formatting is a highly-eficcient last resource tool.
Since I couldn't turn it on, that eliminated asking for support through the internet to my friends. Luckily Paulo Carvalho on my cellphone contacts proved to be the key for a troublesome door. Oh, and did I forget to mention that all the procedures I had to make were with software in Chinese language? Obv it would be too easy if could fully read what the computer was saying. So here's what I had to do.
- Open the computer, take out the hard disk check if it looks in good conditions, plug all wires again - Failed
- Boot from the Windows CD - Failed
- Install Windows again - Failed, but from what my limited chinese could read apparently the hard disk was damaged.
- Buy a new hard disk, install it.
- Not find the motherboard CD, so open the computer again to check qhich model and download the corresponding drivers.
- Realize that most of the software is still not running well, update whatever I needed.
- Try to find and install all the software that the old disk had, in Chinese of course.
Other than the lost data from the old disk, which I will still try to recover when I go back to Lisbon, I did what I could to put my father's computer operational again. I was in a bit of hurry since he's coming back tomorrow. Despite my efforts, I'm pretty sure I will still be scolded, and it wasn't even my fault.
Anyway, big thanks to Paulo Carvalho for all the help and patience. I'm going to link to his blog as soon as possible, where you can watch some live stream drafts, altough the comments are made in Portuguese I'm afraid. And remember, if you're able to read new posts these days, it's in great part thanks to him!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Catching Up
I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t want to know what I’ve been doing these years, so I’ll just jump straight to the present. I arrived back in Portugal two months ago, It’s not a permanent return, at some point in the near future I will go to China again, this time for working, I already have an employment letter. What I do not have is a new Electronic Citizen card to replace 5 other old paper cards, I don’t have a Passport with enough time left, and I do not have a working Visa. Because I missed graduation day, I also didn’t had my diploma which was useful for the job formalities, but that I already took care of, gotta start somewhere.
What’s delaying me so much is that I’m not in my hometown of Lisbon, which is also the place where you take care of your burocracy. Right now, I have a temporary job, helping with the family business, which takes me most of my free time, sometimes 10 hours a day, 7 days a week. It’s not fun, but I’m needed where I am now. This point of my life is not an optimal situation but I should be able to handle it.
Meanwhile I discovered for the first time in 10 years I wasn’t qualified for Portuguese Nationals. How did that happen? After skipping Nats since 2007 I found it sad that the one time that I had a chance to attend I wasn’t holding an invite. After no other options available, I had to play Nats Qualifiers, managing to qualify (fist pump!!!), but you can read about that in another post. Point is, I’m qualified for Nats, I’ll try to playtest a little to fight for a Top 8 slot, even if I fail, being in contention until a couple of rounds to end won’t be bad. However I would like to know whether we’re drafting 2x Roe or ZZW + ROE. I can’t just say “meh whatever it is, I’ll just draft” since I need to read the cards before the tournament to prepare, but I don’t want to waste my little free time reading cards unnecessarily.
Thanks to my workload, nothing exciting is going on, but things will change in the future.
What’s delaying me so much is that I’m not in my hometown of Lisbon, which is also the place where you take care of your burocracy. Right now, I have a temporary job, helping with the family business, which takes me most of my free time, sometimes 10 hours a day, 7 days a week. It’s not fun, but I’m needed where I am now. This point of my life is not an optimal situation but I should be able to handle it.
Meanwhile I discovered for the first time in 10 years I wasn’t qualified for Portuguese Nationals. How did that happen? After skipping Nats since 2007 I found it sad that the one time that I had a chance to attend I wasn’t holding an invite. After no other options available, I had to play Nats Qualifiers, managing to qualify (fist pump!!!), but you can read about that in another post. Point is, I’m qualified for Nats, I’ll try to playtest a little to fight for a Top 8 slot, even if I fail, being in contention until a couple of rounds to end won’t be bad. However I would like to know whether we’re drafting 2x Roe or ZZW + ROE. I can’t just say “meh whatever it is, I’ll just draft” since I need to read the cards before the tournament to prepare, but I don’t want to waste my little free time reading cards unnecessarily.
Thanks to my workload, nothing exciting is going on, but things will change in the future.
Again? Why?
That’s right, my blog is back again. I’ve decided to create a new blog for a fresh start, and anticipating some questions that you might have, i’m gonna explain some stuff.
1- The real reason why I stopped updating my old Blog was because I moved to China, and there among many other sites, blogspot is blocked. I couldn’t even read other person’s blogs, so I guess some of my potential readers who happen to live in china atm will not be able to read this, but on the other side I will be able to say whatever I want about them and they will not know (not that I’m thinking of anyone in special, don’t worry Iche and Somm). Btw, these two are real persons, they’re not Hanna Barbera cartoons, and you'll be hearing more about them at some point I promisse!
2- Why in English? Well, I just realized that (way) more than half of my social networks contacts are not Portuguese speakers. The only non Portuguese guys who could read my blog if I wrote in Portuguese would be Raphy from France (Hi Raphy!) and Raffy from Brazil (Hi Raffy!). Besides writing in English allows me to use the lame “you now it’s not my native language” excuse for all the grammatical assassinations that I’m going to commit. I just couldn’t have this kind of excuse for writting bad Portuguese, could I? However, those of you who already read some of my Portuguese writting know that it will be impossible for me to have the same level of sarcasm, fun and sillyness in English. “But don’t you worry about me, cause I’ll be fine!” – did that sound funny? Not a little bit! But I can assure you would be dying laughing if I wrote that in Portuguese. Oh well, you gain in readers, you lose in expression...
3- Creating a new blog was really the only option left to write again. You see, Magic website readers are very demanding. They don’t have time for crap, so it’s less talking and more strategy, and as much as I love swinging with an Eldrazi as much as anyone else, I don’t feel I have any useful advices, I mean even I wouldn’t want to read a strategy article written by myself.
4- As for my old blog, it started as an anonymous blog, with somehow some bits of my provate life ended up in there. After some other players like Paulo Carvalho, Gonçalo Pinto and the most visited portuguese Magic website start linking to my blog, it wasn’t too dificult to figure it out who was behind it. I’m not exactly the same person I was 5 years ago, lots of things changed, and I do mean lots. On to a fresh start.
1- The real reason why I stopped updating my old Blog was because I moved to China, and there among many other sites, blogspot is blocked. I couldn’t even read other person’s blogs, so I guess some of my potential readers who happen to live in china atm will not be able to read this, but on the other side I will be able to say whatever I want about them and they will not know (not that I’m thinking of anyone in special, don’t worry Iche and Somm). Btw, these two are real persons, they’re not Hanna Barbera cartoons, and you'll be hearing more about them at some point I promisse!
2- Why in English? Well, I just realized that (way) more than half of my social networks contacts are not Portuguese speakers. The only non Portuguese guys who could read my blog if I wrote in Portuguese would be Raphy from France (Hi Raphy!) and Raffy from Brazil (Hi Raffy!). Besides writing in English allows me to use the lame “you now it’s not my native language” excuse for all the grammatical assassinations that I’m going to commit. I just couldn’t have this kind of excuse for writting bad Portuguese, could I? However, those of you who already read some of my Portuguese writting know that it will be impossible for me to have the same level of sarcasm, fun and sillyness in English. “But don’t you worry about me, cause I’ll be fine!” – did that sound funny? Not a little bit! But I can assure you would be dying laughing if I wrote that in Portuguese. Oh well, you gain in readers, you lose in expression...
3- Creating a new blog was really the only option left to write again. You see, Magic website readers are very demanding. They don’t have time for crap, so it’s less talking and more strategy, and as much as I love swinging with an Eldrazi as much as anyone else, I don’t feel I have any useful advices, I mean even I wouldn’t want to read a strategy article written by myself.
4- As for my old blog, it started as an anonymous blog, with somehow some bits of my provate life ended up in there. After some other players like Paulo Carvalho, Gonçalo Pinto and the most visited portuguese Magic website start linking to my blog, it wasn’t too dificult to figure it out who was behind it. I’m not exactly the same person I was 5 years ago, lots of things changed, and I do mean lots. On to a fresh start.
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