It was an epic match to witness. The finals between France and Hungary are to be considered one of the best games in the history of Magic: the Gathering gameplay. The early games favored team Hungary as they went up 1-0 with a win of Selesnya Aggro vs UW Control.

Hall of Famer Raphael Levy however balanced the scale with a Game 3 win with his nice brew of the Mono Green aggro against Hungary’s American Control.

The decider was a match between Jund mirror wherein France crawled back a win on game 2. Game 3 went very much in favor of France with the opponent land stall and them having Huntmasters and Thragtusk. Hungary though was looking to stabilize with an Olivia, killing creatures and got big enough & threatened to take the game. It was the last turn top deck card of France wherein they ripped a Rakdos’s Return to seal the win.

Big congratulations to Team France (Raphael Levy, Yann Guthmann, Timothée Simonot, and Stephane Soubrier) for winning the 2013 World Magic Cup.

The unified Standard decklists of the Top 8 countries can be found here.

Edit: Here is the video of the top decked Rakdos’s Return.

So it’s Monday again and it’s the first day of April. You’d better watch out for April Fools’ pranks and don’t believe right away any articles you might read or news heard. Anyhow, time flies so fast that it’s just a few days to go until the first World Magic Cup Qualifier (April 6th).

The team’s preparations were quite okay, and we were still holding local tournaments to test our deck builds. Last Saturday was the recent one, with 12 players in attendance. The number was quite the average since it was Black Saturday, and more of our Manila peeps were here for their vacation.

I’ve played Naya Midrange in that event and here is a summary of my matchups:

Round 1 vs Jund Midrange: Lost 1-2 because of severe mana flooding in games 1 and 3.

Round 2 vs Esper Control: Won 2-1. Game 1 was definitely in his favor due to lots of sweep cards and Sphinx Revelation. Games 2 saw him stumble on Mana while I got a fast aggro draw and was pressured early on. Game 3 also had me on a fast start but he got me stalled a while with a few spot removals and Azorius Charm. I just played it safe with Boros Charm in hand until he was forced to sweep the board. That time I got him.

Round 3 vs Bant Auras: Won 2-0. I was paired down to a friend so he just willingly conceded for me to get to 6 pts.

Round 4 vs RG Aggro: I was again paired with a teammate and since it was the last round, we just decided to talk about who’s favored to win the matchup. We checked the win percentage on the previous round and it was him who was ahead by about 11%. I deliberately gave him the win. Lost 0-2.

My final record was 2-2, which looks fine for a regular tournament. My friend whom I conceded to in the last round got 3rd in the rank and won a booster pack and foil promo Farseek. I’m glad the decision was correct.

My changes to the deck can be found in my previous post. The sideboards I am sure of including so far are:

1 Assemble the Legion
2 Boros charm
3 Centaur Healer
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Rest in Peace
1 Rolling Temblor

There are four more slots available and I am still checking for more references. Preferably I can find one from Japanese Mtg sites. Also, I need to playtest it more against popular matchups to know where the possible flaws are.

I guess this coming weekday evenings are to be spent on the drawing board. Until the next post.

Wizards just announced yesterday the schedule of the qualifier tournaments for the next World Magic Cup. The schedule announced for the qualifiers will be on the weekends of April 6–7, April 20–21, and June 1–2, in seventy-one countries. Participants are required to acquire the minimun no. of Yearly Award Planeswalker Points in his/her corresponding country.

As a bonus, players will get an alternate-art Vengevine for participating in each of these events. An exclusive playmat will also be given to the top 8 finishers.

All World Magic Cup Qualifiers will have the Standard constructed format as its type of event. The winners of the World Magic Cup qualifiers will earn an invitation and airfare to the World Magic Cup, to be held August 1–3, in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

As for the Philippines, the schedule of events will be on April 6, April 20, and June 2, 2013 on various locations and maybe facilitated by Neutral Grounds.

More info of the World Magic Cup Qualifiers can be found here.