Blog 2 09:00 - Round 7, Conor Harding vs John McCarthy
Craig Jones
It's the first round of day two and there are only two undefeated players left in the tourney. John McCarthy is quite some story. He hasn't played in around a year and a half, ground in on Friday at the fifth attempt and is now currently sharing the top position in the standings with Conor Harding.
This match should be interesting as McCarthy has a silly mono-green deck that features six copies of Surging Might. Harding is also running green, but has paired it with black for removal. If McCarthy gets an explosive start Harding could be in real trouble.
Harding won the dice roll and kicked off with Rimebound Dead. A Feast of Flesh killed a Bull Aurochs. McCarthy followed it with Sheltering Ancient. Normally this guy isn't that good, even if it is a 5/5 for 2 mana, but with a deck that can randomly turn it into somewhere anywhere between a 7/7 and 17/17 trampler it's very very scary.
Harding summoned a Zombie Musher and waited for the storm.
McCarthy stuck a Surging Might on it and …. whiffed. None in the top four cards.
After the miss it looked fairly bad for the mono-green machine. Harding had a couple of regenerators the Ancient was making even bigger. The Ancient was now a liability. Harding ate it to pay for the upkeep cost of a Phyrexian Soulgorger. But that couldn't hang around for long and was never getting through Harding's wall of regenerators. A second Musher added to McCarthy's headaches.
Now that the game was looking a little more in control McCarthy added a Gutless Ghoul and swung with 3/3 Rimebound Dead and 3/4 Zombie Musher. McCarthy had meanwhile built up his forces with Brooding Saurian, Frostweb Spider and Boreal Centaur. He gave Harding a potential scare when a second Surging Might rippled out all the remaining copies to make his three monsters much bigger
It wasn't that threatening however, none of the pumped monsters had trample and Harding had three regenerators to hold them off forever. A Phobian Phantasm put in an appearance and quickly finished McCarthy off.
Harding 1-0 McCarthy
McCarthy kicked off with a mulligan, but this was matched by a mulligan from Harding as he decided a hand with only a Ronom Hulk and Into the North wasn't cutting it in this matchup. Predictably, the tactical mulligan was then followed by an enforced mulligan as the 6 card hand had no land.
McCarthy opened with Martyr of Spores and then followed it with Bull Aurochs. Harding made a Rimebound Dead with snow mana open and waited in dread for turn three.
Six copies, but McCarthy had failed to draw one of his Surging Mights. Instead he made a second Bull Aurochs and a Boreal Druid.
Despite the miss, things were still very bad for Harding. He missed his third turn land drop. And although it was there a turn later, Harding's mana was currently tied up with the Rimebound Dead. He was able to make it bigger with Rimebound Infusion, but McCarthy had continued to summon monsters and was able to keep overlapping and not care about the monsters the regenerating Dead killed.
So now we go into the decider and ominously, McCarthy's deck still hasn't really "gone off" yet.
Harding 1-1 McCarthy
McCarthy had another tough choice. Feast of Flesh, Simian Brawler and five land. After the tactical mulligan backfired last time round, he decided to stick this time and was rewarded with a Rimebound Dead off the top.
Meanwhile McCarthy had opened with Martyr of Spores and then Sheltering Ancient.
We were approaching that critical turn three again.
Except McCarthy went straight to his draw step after forgetting to pay the Cumulative Upkeep.
It was another of those awkward situations for the judges to rule. After some deliberation they decided that the Sheltering Ancient had to be sacrificed.
This was a massive let off for Harding and kick in the knackers for McCarthy as he had the Surging Might in hand.
So we had a potential and effective turn three kill thwarted because a player forgot an upkeep effect. Coldsnap, such a great set.
A Frostweb Spider picked up a couple of Surging Mights instead, but was hardly a threat with two regenerators on Harding's side of the board.
Then the game got interesting as McCarthy found a Ronom Hulk just as we were about to go into extra turns. A Surging Might beefed it up and Harding sucked down 7 damage to drop to 9, and then another 7 to drop to 2. McCarthy made a Bull Aurochs. He had two turns in which to kill Harding. Only the Hulk mattered as it could sidestep Harding's snow-covered regenerators.
Harding had one non-snow monster, a Simian Brawler. That could throw itself in the way of the hulk for one turn. A Gristle Grinner gave him a second. That would be enough for the draw.
But the game wasn't over yet. Waiting on the top of McCarthy's library was a Surging Might. That went on the Aurochs and rippled into a second. This forced Harding into deploying the Grinner as a blocker earlier than he intended. Both non-snow monsters were killed in combat. McCarthy needed to draw a non-snow monster otherwise he was powerless to stop the hulk killing him on the following turn. He looked to his deck, but unfortunately only a snow-covered Ohran Viper was waiting for him.
If there's any R & D watching please take note as this match is a perfect example of everything that is wrong with Coldsnap.
John McCarthy beats Conor Harding 2-1.
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Blog 2 11:30 - Round 9. John Larkin vs John Delaney
Craig Jones
Well, after seeing his first Coldsnap card about 5 minutes before the actual draft, John Larkin has proved he's still the master by winning his first two rounds. It's going to be difficult to actually 3-0 this pod as his opponent, John Delaney, has drafted a green deck with 7 copies of Surging Might.
I'll try and bite my tongue about the whole ripple debacle, but I'm not making any promises.
Delaney went second, made a Bull Auroch on turn two. The first Surging Might missed but the second hit three other copies.
John did … actually it really didn't matter what John did.
Must keep mouth shut… Marketing people going to fire me…
Delaney 1-0 Larkin
Game two.
Delaney went second, made a Bull Auroch on turn two. On turn three the Auroch attacked for 10 courtesy of 4 Surging Might.
Biting tongue…
But it wasn't over just yet. On his 4th turn Larkin laid an island. The monster Auroch charged in for the kill only to find itself returning to Delaney's hand because of Surging AETher.
Yay, we actually get to play magic.
Except we didn't. It took Larkin a couple of turns to hit his fifth land for a Thermopod and by that time Delaney was menacing him with a Karplusan Strider and Simian Brawler.
Larkin had already lost half his life on turn three, there wasn't anything enough left to play with to try and pull him back in. Rimehorn Aurochs hammered home the last nail.
John Delaney beats John Larkin 2-0.
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Blog 2 13:00 - Coldsnap Recap
Craig Jones
Well Coldsnap is behind us (thank god!) and we have a new leader. The top draft table effectively collapsed and the players who tried to draft 'fair' were blown away by rampant ripple and 'kindle' silliness. The prospect of a non-Irish Irish National Champion looms ever closer as Matthieu Poujard, a French student, crept to the top of the standings on the back of a solid white weenie deck with multiple Kjeldoran War Cry.
On the same points is Mark McGovern. Just below them is the day one leader John McCarthy. Despite drafting an obscene mono-green deck featuring six Surging Might McCarthy didn't take full advantage as he picked up two draws. John Delaney did take full advantage of a similar deck and propelled himself to 4th place.
It wasn't all roses for the players. We won't have a repeat champion this year as Darragh Long was eliminated around halfway through the Coldsnap segment. Dave Kearney pointed out that he, Oli Bird, John Larkin and Alan Meaney - four of the best drafters in Ireland - couldn't muster a winning record from the format, going a combined 5-5-2. Throw in other players with Pro experience such as Darragh Long and Rob McKeon and the record gets even worse.
Not much more needs to be said.
And after drawing that line under the sand it's time to move onto the second standard portion.
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Blog 2 14:00 - Off to the loser's lounge.
Craig Jones
Well, not everyone's perfect. I was going to give Mark McGovern his first ever feature match against Matthieu Poujade. But then the laptop I'm borrowing went into hibernation, got confused and refused to wake up. Colin Smith finally managed to kick it into action at which point Microsoft Word popped up to say it had recovered the half-written article I was writing. No worries there. I finished it off and went to save it.
"Would you like to overwrite..." blah blah blah.
Yep, sure. Tick that option no problem.
Then I went to reopen it and a blank document was string back at me.
"So computer where is my article?"
"This is your article."
"This is a blank document, where's the recovered file? Did you save it?"
"Yes."
"So where's the article?"
"This is your article?"
"No, this is a blank document….."
…
…
Stupid Microsoft crap.
Anyway, there was another casualty as Dave Kearney picked up a 4th loss so he went off to join others in the 'Loser's Lounge' for Fat Frogs*
In the feature match area Matthieu Poujade continued to romp on as his Solar Flare defeated McGovern's Ghost Husk deck in a hard fought three-game match.
* It's an Irish drink thing, don't ask.
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Blog 2 14:30 - Round 11, Stewart Shinkins vs Cormac Smith
Craig Jones
It's the penultimate round and the sheer number of inadvertent draws at the top of standings has thrown off most people's calculations. Both Stewart Shinkins and Cormac Smith have 22 points. The thinking is the winner here could possibly ID into top 8 in the next round, or possibly not. It's all a little confusing and I probably drank too much last night.
Stewart Shinkins is playing a funky Greater Good deck with AEthermage's Touch while Cormac is on the short end of the matchup with a Ghazi-Glare deck.
By the way this is Cormac Smith with an 'i' and not to be confused with the legendary Cormac Smyth with a 'y'. Or maybe he is a legend of his own right in the making.
Okay, enough waffle and onto the game.
Smith zipped out of the blocks with a Birds of Paradise and then a Watchwolf. Both players were tight on land. Smith needed to fetch one with Wood Elves while Shinkins went digging with his Tribe Elder.
Then both decks found their stride. Court Hussar fetched a fourth land and Shinkins added his own Birds of Paradise. On the other side of the table Smith was in no mood to hang around as he committed a second Watchwolf and Selesnya Guildmage to the board.
"So if I have a Wrath you're dead," Shinkins said.
"I may have over-committed," Smith replied.
Shinkins didn't have a Wrath of God and instead summoned Yosei. Smith charged his forces into the legendary dragon anyway, sacrificing the Guildmage to drop Shinkins to 9. Smith had a replacement and was trying to end the game quickly before Shinkins gained control.
Shinkins summoned a second big dragon, this time Keiga, and a second all out attack looked less inviting. Smith summoned a second Wood Elves and passed the turn.
That was pretty much his last shot. Shinkins summoned a second Yosei. Both went to the graveyard. Smith was tapped down for two turns and defenceless to stop Keiga clubbing him to death in two blows.
Shinkins 1-0 Smith
Smith again zipped out of the blocks with a Watchwolf only for Shinkins to drop a Carven Caryatid. None shall pass, indeed.
There was slight confusion when Shinkins dropped a Miren and said go. A spectator pointed out there were now two Miren in play. With that knowledge Stewart wanted to back up. Miren was there as defense against a surprise attack with Jitte. It was ruled he couldn't, but it didn't matter as although Smith had the pointy stick of doom, he didn't have the fourth land required to cast and equip.
A Tribe Elder gave Shinkins an alternate way to stop it gaining counters. Smith had a better play and went for Glare. This prompted the Wrath of God from Shinkins to clear the board.
Smith had the perfect follow up to Wrath as the 'one man army'. This picked up the Jitte and headed into battle. Shinkins attempted to ambush with AEthermage's Touch, only for it to cough up the rather uninspiring Court Hussar. The Guildmage put counters on the Jitte, but surprisingly Smith didn't use one to kill Shinkin's Birds of Paradise. Because of this Shinkins was able to summon Yosei. The board state was still tricky as Smith summoned a Kodama of the North Tree. This forced a second Wrath, tapping Smith down for a turn.
Both players recovered quickly - Shinkins with a Yosei, Smith with Arashi. Smith's Glare was giving him the edge as he could tap Shinkin's giant monsters. An Arashi was forced through and pumped to put Shinkins at 3 as Smith added Watchwolf and then Loxodon Hierach of his own. Shinkins tried to keep pace with a Protean Hulk and then Hierarch and Loaming Shaman.
It held Smith off for a turn, but a combination of Jitte counters and Glare tappings at the end of turn removed all of Shinkins blocking and the game was level.
Shinkins 1-1 Smith
Game three started off similarly to game two. Smith's Watchwolf was stymied by a Carven Caryatid. Throw in a Court Hussar and the green beatdown would need to wait until the fatties arrived to make any progress.
A second Court Hussar found Compulsive Research, giving Shinkins more juice to rifle through his deck. With so much Solar Flare kicking around Court Hussar is looking like one of Dissension's most important contributions to Standard.
Wood Elves put Smith up to five mana and it was time to start cranking out the fatties. North Tree was first out of the gate but an army of annoying utility creatures meant Shinkins could probably bring it down with a gang-block.
Glare provided an answer to that. Shinkins was left with only 3 power worth of guys to block with. That block didn't seem so fair so Shinkins took 6 damage instead.
Smith tried the same again on the following turn. This time Shinkins was waiting in ambush with AEthermage's Touch. That hit a Hierarch as a nasty surprise, but fortunately Smith could sac his own elephant and lose that rather than his more important Kodama of the North Tree.
Shinkins looked troubled but was really only faking. He'd been holding Wrath of God for ages and was waiting for the moment when he could get maximum value.
When a second Hierarch showed up it seemed like a good time to Wrath.
Both players recovered very quickly - Shinkins had a Hierarch, but Smith went one better as Congregation at Dawn restocked the top of his library with two Yosei and Kodama of the North Tree.
Smith tried to set up the double Yosei tapout to end the game as Shinkins had beat him in the first. Shinkins had a Yosei of his own and was able to break that up and buy a bit of breathing space.
Time was called and they went into extra turns. Smith had the advantage with a Glare of Subdual in play, but Shinkins had cast three elephants to gain a lot of life. Not enough it seemed as Smith put the second Yosei into play. Any hope of winning for Shinkins was gone as he passed the fourth turn. Even a draw looked unlikely as Smith had enough men to tap down Shinkins forces and attack for the 11 points of damage he needed.
Normally this should be a good matchup for Greater Good, but it does actually need to draw its Greater Good.
The win should put Smith in the top 8, but Shinkins now needs a win and a prayer.
Cormac Smith beats Stewart Shinkins 2-1.
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Blog 2 16:00 - The last round
Craig Jones
Usually I have a good idea of what's going on, but for some reason I've been picking out the feature matches that go to time with unerring accuracy this weekend. One thing that is certain is that we'll probably have a top 8 with fresh blood this year. Most of the guys I know as semi-regular competitors on the Pro Tour are having a rough time.
John Larkin found the current standard environment a little too hostile for Zoo and is gone and both AJ and Stewart Shinkins are probably out of contention after picking up losses last round. Shinkins has an outside chance with a win, but in all probability is playing for 9th.
The last round of the English Nationals was a straight up bloodbath as only the top table could safely ID. Today it's more complicated. It seems that the cut off point is 25 points and the top three tables have all ID'ed. Current leader Matthieu Poujade considered trying to play to try and engineer his matchup in the top 8, but it was simply two complicated to calculate. The end result is Poujade, Cormac Smith, Mark McGovern, Gareth Middleton, John Delaney and Ben Rhys-Davies are all in.
This leaves two tables to watch. On table four the early leader John McCarthy was unfortunate enough to be paired down and now has to play against Diarmuid Verrier. On table five Roger Grealish and Adrian Byrne get to battle for the last spot.
The table four clash looks like a straight-forward slugfest between Vore and Solar Flare. While this feels like it should be fairly good for Vore, I've been told that the opposite is the case.
When I glanced at table five I initially assumed a Flare mirror. Grealish was just using an Angel of Despair to remove a Confiscate from a Kokusho.
Confiscate, does Solar Flare play that?
Byrne's deck also had forests and a Life from the Loam in the graveyard. Hmm, I rifled through the graveyard. Hello, what's going on here? Gifts Ungiven, Debtor's Knell. Aah, Enduring Ideal. Very interesting.
Unfortunately it wasn't good enough to save him game one as the Angel and Kokusho was joined by a second Kokusho Zombified from the graveyard to drain Byrne for the win. I missed game two but it seems like not much is stopping the march of Solar Flare at the moment.
Roger Grealish 2-0 Adrian Byrne.
Table 4 had an epic first game. Both players were down to around ten cards in their library. Thanks to Condemn McCarthy was up to around 60 life and as the Magnivores were close to being on their way back, he probably had a good shot. Not close enough though as even 60 life is assailable when three 5/5 fliers are attacking every turn.
Game two was equally hard fought and I joined it at the death. McCarthy had battered Verrier's mana base close to oblivion. His Magnivores were all gone, but a lone Keiga was doing the business as Verrier had no white source for the two Condemn in hand. Unfortunately he was just out of time and could only get Verrier to 3 life in the 5th extra turn.
Diarmuid Verrier beats John McCarthy 1-0.
Unfortunately that puts 5 Solar Flare decks into the top 8. So we might actually get a result by Monday, next week.
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