ITALIAN NATIONALS: little report
Daniele Monterisi
Championship.
It was type II, 6 Swiss rounds (by match, not duels) with first eight
players going to quarter finals.
The decks were the usual , for the majority, many W/G Ernhamgeddon and
Black Necro. A few exceptions: W/R with 4 Howling Mines, 4 Icy, Winter
Orb (similar to Justice's deck in the Pro Tour I) by Ivan Curina,
former Italian Champion, and a 5-color Pox deck which was playing the
3rd place final when I went away to get my train.
I travelled 900 KM from Bari with other friends who qualified, we were
4 and our youngest "team member", Raffaele "Lello" Intini (just 16
years old!) has achieved the great success of being second in Italy!!!
He played a Necro (mono-black) deck heavy on creatures, with 8 pump
knights, Vampires, Ihsan Shades (2) and the risolutive Walking Wall.
He lost the final to Andrea Paselli, who had a W/G/r/u deck with Land
tax/Sylvan combo, and the "surprise" Power Sink, Control Magic and
Strombind.
Overall a slow deck, I've played against it in the swiss rounds (one
of my 2 games lost) and I think it wasn't unbeatable. Both me and my
friend experienced a shortage of mana in the games against this guy,
at least in one of the games.
I had a Necro, too, but with Blue for Sleights and Power Sink coming
from the sideboard. I think I have made some errors in choosing the
sideboard on Sunday Morning, after having slept only 3 hours because
Saturday there was the Pro Tour 3 qualifier. Had I laft Meekstone in
the deck and Vampires in the sideboard, things could have gone
differently...
The funny thing is that when I played with the friend of mine in the
last month, it was me who played the mono-black while he played a
Black/Red deck with lightnings and Jokhulhaups. Then we both changed
our minds just a couple of day before the finals... boh!
My experience is, all in all, good, as I have missed the quarter
finals for a point in both tournaments (12 points when 13 were
needed), and most of all, I've seen that altough we're far from the
main Magic Scenes in Italy, our level of play here in Bari is really
high.
Thanks,
bye
Daniele
--- For when the Great One Scorer comes to write against your name ---
--- He marks not if you won or lost, but how you played the game ---