翻訳予定、どちらにしよう

ＧＰインディアナポリスのURGデルバーｖｓハイタイドか

SCG Open DallasのANTｖｓゴブリンか

どちらにせよ翻訳予定。問題は順番。


GPインディアナポリス

Semifinal Roundup
by Nate Price

Colin Chilbert vs. Kenny Castor

"You are the match that I was hoping for the most," Castor admitted as the players studied each other’s decklists before their semifinal bout.

"That’s probably because I’m your only positive matchup left in the Top 8," Chilbert laughed.

"I guess we’ll see about that," Castor coolly replied. "If nothing else, we both made a little more money next round."


Colin Chilbert and Kenny Castor study each other’s decks before starting their Semifinal match.
Both players kept their opening draws, and Castor started first. Scalding Tarn became Tropical Island became Ponder. Chilbert matched Castor’s Ponder and liked what he saw. Castor tried to Stifle a Scalding Tarn activation, but Chilbert had a Flusterstorm to actually get a land. Castor got some aggression on the table with a Tarmogoyf, and the Goyf immediately went to town on Chilbert’s life total. It was a race, but one that ironically looked in Chilbert’s favor at this point.

Chilbert kept sculpting, well aware of the amount of time he had. Ponders, Merchant Scroll, and a Cunning Wish for an Intuition carefully set up his hand in anticipation of his big turn. His Intuition fetched a set of High Tides, signaling an imminent end to the first game. Castor had a pair of 3/4 Goyfs in play and Chilbert at 12 life, but it looked unlikely that he would be able to finish the job in the turn he appeared to have. He swung in, knocking Chilbert to 6. Then, he dug a little deeper with Sensei’s Divining Top, Brainstorm, and some Scalding Tarn action. With the motions gone through, he passed the turn, probably his lase to Chilbert.

Chilbert opened with a High Tide. Then he used Turnabout to untap his lands, leaving four blue mana in his pool. Castor used Force of Will to try and stop the Turnabout, but Chilbert Forced back. Chilbert’s lands untapped. At this point, he did what his deck does, drawing an absurd number of cards and generating an absurd amount of mana through cycling Turnabouts, Time Spirals, Meditates, High Tides and the like. Before the first Time Spiral, Castor used one of his two remaining untapped Volcanic Islands to Lightning Bolt Chilbert down to two. Then they drew their new cards.

Using the extra blue mana from High Tide, Castor got to use his Top with his new hand. He looked like he might be able to at some point potentially win this game. Chilbert only had enough life to use one more Force of Will, though he did have access to Pact of Negation. When Chilbert went for a Merchant Scroll on his next turn, Castor used his last volcanic Island to Spell Snare it. Chilbert aimed a Pact of Negation at the Force of Will, which was re-Forced by Castor. Chilbert had a Flusterstorm to force through his Merchant Scroll, and he went and got a Cunning Wish to fetch a Blue Sun’s Zenith, which he used to draw a bunch of cards. These cards were used to set up an eventual Brainfreeze for Castor’s entire deck. After that, he used a Merchant Scroll for a Blue Sun’s Zenith for one to finish the job.

Colin Chilbert 1 – Kenny Castor 0

In the second game of their semifinal match, Castor got off to a strong start with a Delver of Secrets and a Counterbalance, sure to be good against Chilbert’s hand-sculpting engine, not to mention High Tide. When Castor added a Tarmogoyf to his team on the next turn, while Chilbert didn’t have another land, Chilbert gave up a race he was never going to win.

Colin Chilbert 1 – Kenny Castor 1

This final game of this Semifinal Match went very interestingly. Castor once again got off to an early start, getting a Delver of Secrets and a Sensei’s Divining Top to flip it. Chilbert made the unorthodox decision to cast Meditate when he wasn’t in the process of going off, just to fill up his hand. Since it was so unorthodox, the unnatural turn of events led to both players forgetting to skip the turn for Chilbert, resulting in a long drawn out judge ruling. Eventually, when word finally came back to the table, Chilbert replaced a random card from his hand on top of his deck to replace the card he had drawn for his turn, and the turn passed back to Castor, its rightful owner. With that turn, Castor turned his two Insectile Aberrations sideways , giving Chilbert one more turn to go off. When Chilbert tried, however, Castor was ready with a series of Force of Wills, Red Elemental Blasts, and Surgical Extractions to prevent Chilbert from getting there. With lethal on the board, Chilbert conceded.

Colin Chilbert 1 – Kenny Castor 2

SCG

Round 6: Timothy Thomason vs. James Lance

At the top of the standings, Timothy Thomason was looking to continue a hot run with his Goblins deck. Standing in his way was Standard Open Top 8 competitor Lance James armed with a combo deck.

Tim started with a Rishadan Port, an Aether Vial and a nod as James fetched up an Underground Sea for Preordain. The Aether Vial ticked up and a second Rishadan Port helped lock down the dual land on James’ upkeep.

An Island powered Chain of Vapor to bounce the Aether Vial which met no response from Tim, but James could only shrug as Tim replayed Aether Vial off of a Badlands and continued to lock down his mana. Ponder dug for action, but he was forced to pass the turn back to the ticking Goblin Bomb.

Aether Vial charged up and Goblin Piledriver jumped into play naturally. It was soon joined by a vialed up Goblin Lackey as James was stuck on mana due to Tim’s Rishadan Port. The pair crashed in on the next turn and a free Goblin Matron dug up Goblin Warchief. A second Goblin Lackey joined the party and Tim was set to finish the deal with one more attack. He got it on the back of James’ bottlenecked mana, and we were off to game two.

Tim 1, James 0

Both players kept after some deliberation and Tim’s Leyline of the Void zoomed into play, followed by a flurry of cantrips and goblins. Preordain, Goblin Lackey, Ponder, Chain of Vapor, a missed Cabal Therapy, Brainstorm, Ponder, Goblin Piledriver, Mogg War Marshal and another missed Cabal Therapy after Grim Tutor were all fired off in rapid succession, but it was Tim who was stuck on mana this game and James’ hand was stacked despite the Leyline of the Void.

Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual and Cabal Ritual powered out Ad Nauseum for a boatload of rituals and the Tendrils of Agony that Tim knew about ended it in a hurry.


Timothy Thomason is focused on herding his Goblins.
Tim 1, James 1

Tim was back on the play for the deciding game, but he was forced to mulligan his opener while James got to keep his. Tim kept his six after tanking for a bit, but Goblin Lackey was too good to pass up.
He played the powerful one drop and passed the turn, losing Goblin Piledriver to Thoughtseize, but he found a Rishadan Port to buy him time as his lackey put a clone of itself into play. Now any Goblin Matron or Goblin Ringleader would likely net him a boatload of free cards, but he was without any action besides attacking for two.

He kept James’ Swamp locked down, but James kept digging deeper into his deck with blue spells and his demeanor showed that he was ready to go off soon despite the complete lack of pressure on Tim’s side. A second Rishadan Port locked down an Island and a Swamp, but James just spilled three Lion’s Eye Diamonds and an Underground Sea into play before cracking all of his artifacts in response to Infernal Tutor. He dug up Past in Flames to rebuy his entire graveyard and immediately went for a full-power Cabal Ritual with Infernal Tutor, followed by another tutor for a lethal Tendrils of Agony.

James Lance wins the match 2-1