GP Madrid, part 3

In the previous parts, we learned that I, the hero of the story, made it to the second day.

All this glory comes with a hefty price though: I had to get up at the ungodly hour of something like 6.30 am.

There's a 6.30 in the am now?

With the GP starting at 8am (<3), I met up with Jurgen (Baert) in the hallway for our daily 45 min journey to the site.

I was going to look for my draft pod in the coverage of the GP, but I can't find them. Anyway, my first pod featured Frank Karsten and some randoms like my archnemesis Nestor Santos (who put a halt to my rise to the top at nationals a couple of years ago).

I first picked Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers. It's G and W, but I'm happy playing either of those colors. I stayed on track and after booster 1, I had mostly green cards. Including 2 Gloomwidows. I'm all about 3/3's for 3. 2/2's for 2 with extras are also totally my bag. after the first 2 packs, I had 2 Safehold Elite, 1 Safehold Sentry, 1 Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers and 3 (!) Gloomwidow.

Nice curve.

The Eventide booster was disappointing though. I figured I should be set up to receive lots of the green gems eventide has to offer, but I got the mix of deep packs and empty packs we all love to hate. I did manage to table a Savage Conception?



1 Duergar Assailant
1 Medicine Runner
1 Safehold Sentry
2 Safehold Elite
1 Woodlurker Mimic

1 Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers
3 Gloomwidow
2 Hoof Skulkin

2 Rune-Cervin Rider
1 Canker Abomination
1 Desecrator hag

1 Savage Conception
1 Old Ghastbark

1 Spirit of the Hearth

1 Viridiscent Wisps
1 Curse of Chains
1 Last Breath
1 Recumbent Bliss

9 Plains
8 Forest

Actually, this is not what my main deck was, but what it should have been. I chose to play a Strip Bare main deck.
It was a leftover from the couple of SSS drafts I did, were hybrid enchantments reigned, and where I didn't mind main decking Strip. Bare.

Round 10: Tony Martins
He had Kithkin Shielddare in his RW deck. I lold.

8-2

Round 11: Andreas Nordahl
Andreas was playing a BG deck, centered around Flourishing Defenses, which seems to have gotten a lot better with Eventide.
In the first game, I curved it up, since that's what my deck does. Curse of Chains on his Ashling kept up the pressure. but he somehow started to stabilize. Rune-Cervin Rider was about to deal the final points, when he showed me Gloomwidow Feast. No problemo though, I had more random dudes to seal the deal. Or not. Sturdy hatchling showed up, bringing along 4 tokens thanks to Flourishing Defenses. Andreas topdecked Tower Above to deal lots and lots of wither damage, for 8 more tokens, and that's how he took the first game.

In the second, I came out of the gates blazing, with turn 2 Woodlurker Mimic, turn 3 Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers. Andrekes first play was A farhaven Elf. On my 4th turn, I could either play Canker Abomination, with 1 counter and attack with a now 4/5 Mimic and the Cavaliers, or I could attack first and play my Abomination afterwards, as a 6/6.
The first option seemed like the best one, since there's hardly a difference between a 5/5 and a 6/6, plus I'd get more damage out of my Mimic this way.
On his fourth turn, Andreas played a Sickle Ripper and passed the turn with 3 mana up.

*insert foreshadowing music*

I got in there with all of my guys. The Sickle Ripper chumped my Cavaliers, making it a 1/2. Farhaven Elf traded with my Mimic. Canker Abomination turned into a 0/0 snake. What a blowout.
I was running out of gas, and another Snakeform later, it was all over but the crying.

8-3

I talked with Andreas afterwards. He was sitting on my right during the draft, and picked amost solely green cards. While he had the Flourishing Defenses theme going on, I managed to get a couple of good green cards in the first series of packs. But in Eventide, I had him to blame for the rather unfortunate outcome.

Round 12: Ricard Tuduri
Ricard had drafted himself a UB deck.
And he mulliganned to 5 in the first.
In the second, it seemed like I was winning, until he had Biting Tether. And then I drew Duergar Assailant.
In the third, Ricard was a little shy on spells. His Soul Reap wasn't helping either versus my monogreen army.

9-3

My second draft featured Antoine Ruel to my left and some more randoms. Well, I did recognize the name Yves Sele from a couple of years ago.

My first pack had Midnight Banshee and Spectral Procession. I love white and I hate black in this format (KKK anyone?), but the Banshee is sooooo sick. Also, black decks are also able to cast Unmake and 2/4 withers for 4. My following picks were Glen Elendra Liege, Faerie Macabre and Wasp Lancers.
<3. plan. together.

In pack 2, I opened Furystoke Giant and nothing black or blue. I picked it, since I was mainly monoblack anyways... I followed it up with some more black picks.

Pack 3, was a complete disaster. Call the Skybreaker provided another bomb, but I just wanted solid playables. Which i didn't get. I also needed something cheap/some removal, but I picked Soul Snuffers > Soul Reap. I ended up with a lack of playables which made me resort to main deck Splitting Headache and Scarscale Ritual.



1 Oona's Gatewarden
1 Sootstoke Kindler
1 Sickle Ripper
1 Nightsky Mimic
1 Inkfathom Witch
1 Fang Skulkin

2 Faerie Macabre
1 Wasp Lancer
1 Rendclaw Trow
1 Gravegill Duo
1 Wingrattle Scarecrow

1 Soul Snuffers
1 Glen Elendra Liege
1 Desecrator Hag

1 Cultbrand Cinder

1 Rattleblaze Scarecrow
1 Midnight Banshee

1 Call the Skybreaker

1 Gloomlance
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Splitting Headache

13/5 or 14/4 Swamp/Island

However, again this is what my deck should have been. My deck consisted out of a lot of dorks. And Furystoke Giant is good with a lot of dorks. I also wasn't sure how good Inkfathom Witch really is, so the deck I registered had -1 Witch, +1 Furystoke Giant, with 5 Mountains. Obviously, I was never able to cast my Wasp Lancers on turn 3, never Furystoked and boarded to the UB version every time.

Round 13: Andres Madruga
He had a GW deck, that also didn't get there and featured cards like a 3/2 for 4 that gives blue creatures shroud.
I don't really remember any exciting plays except me activating Inkfathom Witch when my opponent attacked. Because his guys had -1/-1 counters on them from the Soul Snuffers I had cast a while ago.
I won 2-1

10-3

Round 14: David Magallon Martinez
David had a nearly monoblue deck, splashing for Incremental Blight.
Basically the Banshee took down both games. Even though he got to cast his Blight, Midnight Banshee is pretty good imo.

11-3
Antoine played him the previous round, so I asked him what my opponent in the finals was playing, which tricks he had etc... But Antoine knew the guy, so he wasn't going to tell me.

"You'll know what he's playing soon enough"
*wink*

Round 15: Yves Sele
"Soon enough"
Monored?
Monored.

In the first game, Ashenmoor Gouger recieved Fists of the Demigod, and I didn't draw my single out.
I boarded in a lot of cheap dorks like a 1/1 for 1, a 2/2 for 3. In the second game, Yves didn't have the uberbroken draw and was lacking some gas in the end.
In the third, he had another blazing start again, but without 4/4's for 3 this time. But I had turn 3 Wasp Lancer and played Soul Snuffers on turn 4, netting me a 3-for-0.
BAM.
I was at 12 at this point. Yves at 17, from 1 Lancer attack. My hand was lands and a Cultbrand Cinder.
Yves played a Noggle Hedge-Mage, dealing 2 to me and bringing me to 10. He missed another land drop (3 in play) and still had some cards in his hand.
I drew another land. So what's my play here?

Wasp Lancer is definitely attacking. I want to take advantage of the temporarily edge I have here. I'm at 10 versus the red deck and have only 1 spell. I probably want to play my Cultbrand Cinder this turn, to keep up the pressure. However, it might be kind of a waste, since I can kill of ton of his guys with it.
I could also just attack with the Lancer, keep back the Soul Snuffers to trade with his 2/2 and keep the Cultbrand Cinder in my hand to kill his next play?

The clock is ticking, we all know card advantage is good, but I had to kill him fast.
In hindsight, the play to make seems to play Cultbrand Cinder before attacking, turning his 2/2 into a 1/1. This way he can't trade versus Soul Snuffers and I have maximized the amount of pressure.
What I did however, was attacking first. A mashup between the aggro and card advantage plan, I'd give my opponent the chance to trade with my 2/2. If he did, I'd keep my Cultbrand Cinder in my hand, and just pass the turn. If he didn't, I'd play it anyway.
The thing is, I think I have to be the beatdown at this point. I can't just reduce my clock to Wasp Lancer and give him a chance to catch up again.

Yves didn't block, going down to 13. After combat, I played Cultbrand Cinder. Yves played a land, a 1/1 and passed the turn with 3 mana up. I know he his Fire at Will in his deck, adn with several cards in his hand, it was pretty likeley he had it right now.
So I drew another land, and just attacked with the Wasp Lancer, to avoid getting owned by Fire at Will. Yves is at 11 now and I pass the turn.
Yves doesn't do anything relevant and ships it back to me.
I realize I want to kill him faster and attack with more than just Wasp Lancer. I can't attack with both the Lancer and Soul Snuffers though, as Fire at Will kills them both. So I attack with Soul Snuffers and Cultbrand Cinder. He chumps them both with 1/1's and finishes the job with Fire at Will. Card advantage for me, but my board position suddenly seemed a lot worse. I think I should just have attacked with my Cultbrand Cinder and deny him the opportunity to trade his 2 irrelevant 1/1s + Fire at Will for my 2 bigger guys.
Yves plays Cinder Pyromancer. I draw another land and attack him to 9.
Yves doesn't do anything. I draw another land and attack him to 7. Yves pings me to 9.
Yves doesn't do anything. I draw a spell! I attack him to 7 and play Rattleblaze Scarecrow. Yves pings me to 8. Yves playes Smash to Smithereens taking me to 5. Yves pings me to 4.
He untaps and finishes the job with Burn Trail.

What an anticlimax. The game & match seemed to be mine after my fourth turn. But I drew land after land after land. And Rattleblaze Scarecrow is not that good when your opponent has been waiting for it with a Smash to Smithereens for the last X turns.

I opened the Soul Snuffers, passed it and was sure I could never beat the person who had it.
I never thought I'd win that last match, phew.

-Yves Sele


I never thought you'd win it either.

11-4, 41th

And that kids, is how Jeanke de Coster became the best Belgian at GP Madrid.

BONUS:
This should have been up half a year ago, but then I suddenly stopped writing. I was bored and my inner Kyle Sanchez got the upper hand.


Greggie McG:



Jan:



Marijn Bitching at the end of last PT season (when his hair was still longer):

Grand Prix Copenhagen observations

Hey boys, hey girls! I'm alive and blogging, here we go:

• I am the king of consistent mediocrity: ten gp day two appearances in a row, not a single quarterfinal played. I might stick to pre-releases and other single-day events for the future.


• Be careful when you’re running to the pairings board with a hot dog in your hand. You might end up at your table with a hot dog sans tasty sausage (a.k.a. dry bread).


• Frank Karsten and Stan van der Velden have shady ethics - I confronted them on their split with RvdM:
  “Then, would you buy stock in weapons industry if you knew you’d make profit?”
  “I guess I would.”


• Seeing Florian Pils made me think about my last name. Everybody agreed with me that being called Jan Pils would have been considerably worse than Jan Doise.


• On one hand, Denmark has really high taxes on alcoholic beverages, but on the other hand, streets, metros and even Grand Prix are filled with drunks. This made me wonder:
• I am a big fan of high taxes on alcohol: as I’m reminiscing after a heavy night I can always conclude that I at least supported the state financially. Maybe the Danish really like to help the state and have a little fun at the same time? No wonder their social system works so well.
• Then again, I wasn’t a big fan of the drunk that greeted me in the hotel lobby at 8 a.m. with “Hello, I didn’t sleep all night, mind if I breathe in your general direction?”.
• There were pros and contras to the drunken girls in the metro. Sometimes funny, at other times annoying.
Conclusion: support the state, but be cautious. Friends that put you in bed at the right time are a good to have around.

See y'all at Nationals.

P.S.: Leave your comments on the blog here, much more practical than the forum.

GP Madrid, part 2

Soo....


I had just built my deck. I was unsure though whether I did the best job I could. Another advantage of having 3 byes though (they keep feeling like cheating to me), is that you have lots of time play some games and discuss the job you did , building your deck.
You can also relax and take your time to have breakfast/lunch en get ready for the big show.

LET'S GET IT ON.

Round 4: Alberto
I was about to make a Samson & Gert joke to him, but since he was Spanish or whatever, it would have been a waste of my comical talent.
Oh, did I mention he was Spanish or whatever? And he had 3 byes. Yup, I was living the dream.
But of course Alberto crushed me for my arrogance. Both games were: turn 3 or 4 Augury Adept, followed by a Steel of the Godhead the following turn. Having outs doesn't make always make you a winner.

3-1

Crybaby as I am, I was immediately depressed. Losing to some random, because of Steel of the Godhead, while all the hybrid enchantments have gotten worse! I mean... Could I be any unluckier?

Round 5: Ivo Silva
I'm sure Ivo is a nice guy. But he was also pretty bad. He started game 1 with a Madblind Mountain.

Fo rizzle?
Fo shizzle.

Nuff said.

4-1

Round 6: Riccardo Bertellini
In the first game, he was manaflowed and didn't have Spitting Image. So he lost.
In the second game, I was manaflowed. But I however, did have Spitting Image. I had to bash through 2 Recumbent Bliss, but Spitting Image can do that...
The funny thing is that he sighed and complained every time I had another land. Starting from land # 7, all the way to # 14. Good times.

5-1

Round 7: Victor
He had what appeared to be a sick sealed deck. Nearly monored, splashing black for some nasty surprises.
In the first, I get completely demolished, by his Ashenmoor Gouger, RW Liege, Demigod of Revenge, Flame Jab, retrace, retrace draw...
To make things even worse, I had to mulligan to 5 in game 2, on the play. Victor kept his initial 7. Luckily, I went 2 drop, 3 drop, Noggle Bridgebreaker. Victor had the less impressive turn 4 Horde of Boggarts, turn 5 Beseech the Queen for Incremental Blight. I drew Sturdy Hatchling, and while I got 3-for-1'd, the untargetable Hatchling took it down.
In the third game, the villain had another subpar draw.

6-1

Round 8: Fabian
A chatty German, who assured me his deck was bad. But his opponents have been mulliganing all day long. So I went to 5 in the first game. But with a series of good spells, I was able to stablize: River's Grasp on his turn 4 play, discarding his Wickerbough Elder (since I had Recumbent Bliss in my hand). Gloomlance took out another fatty and his last card: Burn Trial. Recumbent Bliss swung the game in my favor. But a timely topdecked Wickerbough Elder # 2 later, I was shuffling for game 2. Which I won, since I drew the answers for his quality creatures like the previously mentioned Elder, but also guys like Wilt-Leaf Liege, Witherscale Wurm, etc...
In the third however, I didn't.

6-2

Fabian apparently felt bad for me.
"Do you want some candy?"
"Sure, I'll accept candy from strangers."
And then he gave me a cookie and some chewing gum. I declined an apple, since that's too healthy for a Magic tournament.

Round 9: Bruno
In the first game, Bruno got a decent start with some early beats. I was playing really tight to race his couple of fliers with my bigger creatures on the ground. When Selkie Hedge-Mage bounced one of his fliers, the game appeared to be in the bag. But Bruno had Hallowed Burial. I ran out of gas to win the game, so he easily dealt the last couple of points.
I won both the second and the third with a combination of draws a little less stellar on Bruno's side and me knowing that he has a Wrath in his deck.

7-2

And since 3 byes really is like cheating, my tie breaks were good enough to make day 2.

Pukkelpop

Bonus: Fried's guide to Pukkelpop
This is how I'd spend my time at Pukkelpop if it was just up to me!

Thursday
15.15 - 15.55 Santogold: not my usual cup of tea, but kinda like it
15.55 - 17.00 Uffie & Feadz: No SebastiAn or Justice, but still Ed Banger and I'm curious...
17.00 - 18.30: DJ Mehdi : Ed Banger
18.30 - 20.00: Switch: got to know him this year, and apparantly he was responsible for some tracks I already knew
20.00 - 22.00: SebastiAn: unlike Uffie & Feadz, SebastiAn is SebastiAn (and his capital A in the middle of his name, is so badass)
22.45 - 23.45: Roisin Murphy: I was a Moloko fan, and Roisin on her own is still good. Although I have to be in the mood for it.

23.45 - 00.15: De jeugd van Tegenwoordig
00.45 - 2.00: The Subs of The Killers
2.00 - 4.00: Mish Mash Soundsystem

Friday
13.45 - 14.25: The Count & Sinden
16.00 - 17.30: Brodinski
17.30 - 19.00: Surkin
19.00 - 20.30: Diplo
20.30 - 22.00: Erol Alkan
23.00 - 01.00: Boys Noize

Saturday
13.00 - 14.30 : The Bloody Beetroots
14.30 - 16.00 : Crookers
En met pijn in het hart ga ik waarschijnlijk Kid Sister missen:
18.00 - 19.30 : A-Trak: zou geniaal moeten zijn, scratcht nog wat en laat eens zien wat hij allemaal kan in zen sets en heeft ook een hoop eigen remixes
Hij mag ook Kid Sister binnendoen.
20.05 - 21.05 : Bloc Party of Simian Mobile Disco, met een heel mooie clip
21.30 - 23.00 : 2manydjs
0.00 - 1.00 : Soulwax

GP Madrid, part 1

The only reason I play Magic is to ctrl+f my name in Rich Hagon's latest Starcity article. The one about Hollywood was titled "Yet More Disappointments", I was sure on of his disappointments was that I wasn't there. When in fact the search result in the article turned up to be "fried chicken", I knew it was time for action.

Madrid would be the big comeback. Summer Series, mo' money, mo' pro points. I practiced with daily modo drafts, went to pre-releases and even got together in Ghent for a whole day of drafting.

That doesn't mean I/we had a clue though. I "kinda liked" monored, but had no idea it was going to turn out to be everyone's pick for "best draft archetype" I read about in the coverage of various events on magicthegathering.com.
I also knew I'd like to draft a deck that was able to cast Unmake.
That's about it.

I somehow tricked StanV into buying a ticket to Madrid. His sudden rise in spellslingin' appetite quickly switched to

Man,
I hate

Spain
GPs
Spaniards
Magic
Spain

You can still be a racist when you're black, Stan!

But it was too late, he bought his ticket, so he was going. Only the legendary Gert Coeckelbergh had the balls to buy a ticket and then not go because "he didn't feel like it".

(true story)


Saturday
I absolutely hate it when people talk about the 'broken sealed deck they openened & registered, but then had to give away', so I'm not going to do that.

What I am going to do is list my card pool and try to go through my deck building process. But doing so in real life is hard enough, I have no idea how much you can learn from the textual approach. I think it's pretty hard to build a deck when you can't pick up the cards...

The Pool
Artifacts
1 Cauldron of Souls
1 Thornwatch Scarecrow
2 Shell Skulkin
1 Wingrattle Scarecrow

Lands
1 Sapseep Forest

White
1 Strip Bare
1 Pale Wayfarer
1 Barrenton Medic
1 Rune-Cervin Rider
1 Armored Ascension
2 Recumbent Bliss

Blue
1 Deepchannel Mentor
1 Put Away
1 Cerulean Wisps
1 Ghastly Discovery
1 Whimwader
1 Merrow Wavebreakers
1 Parapet Watchers
1 Dream Thief

Black
1 Ashenmoor Cohort
1 Blowly Infestation
1 Disturbing Plot
2 Meroow Bonegnawer
1 Gloomlance
1 Syphon Life

Red
1 Intimidator Initiate
1 Bloodmark Mentor
1 Power of Fire
1 Boggart Arsonists
1 Knollspine Dragon

Green
1 Tilling Treefolk
1 Monstrify
1 Flourishing Defenses
1 Viridiscent Wisps
1 Hungry Spriggan
1 Aerie Ouphes

UW
1 Worldpurge

GW
1 Medicine Runner
1 Shield of the Oversoul
1 Raven's Run Dragoon

UB
1 Gravegill Duo
1 Helm of the Ghastlord
1 River's Grasp
1 Wasp Lancer

BR
1 Emberstrike Duo
1 Fists of the Demigod
1 Manaforge Cinder
1 Murderous Redcap

GR
1 Scuzzback Marauders
1 Morselhoarder
1 Manamorphose
1 Giantbaiting
1 Runes of the Deus

RW
1 Fire at Will

UR
2 Inside Out
1 Clout of the Dominus
1 Noggle Ransacker
1 Noggle Bandit
1 Noggle Bridgebreaker

UG
1 Fable of Wolf and Owl
1 Favor of the Overbeing
1 Spitting Image
1 Shorecrasher Mimic
1 Selkie Hedge-Mage
2 Sturdy Hatchling

BW
1 Restless Apparation
1 Nip Gwyllion
1 Beckon Apparition
2 Nightsky Mimic

Should be 75 cards, if it isn't, an irrelevant card is probably missing.

I'll go through the steps I took to build me deck. Maybe you can learn something that way. Or maybe you can teach me something, if you point out my mistakes!

1) I sort my cards by colors because the dumbass who registered my pool didn't. I think he gets a warning or whatever if I call a judge and I might get some extra time. But I'm not sure about this, so I just quickly sort the cards...

2) I cut the crap.
I make one 'if I really have to' pile, which contains crap that might make the deck if certain conditions are met (eg. I want to make a 2 color deck and need an extra 'playable': cards like Pale Wayfarer, ...). The hybrid aura's without enough ways the get there also find their way quickly in this pile.
I sort my other cards by color, and thanks to the hybrid card this means a lot of piles. I seperate the really good cards, cards that draw my attention, from the other playables in that pile.

3) I try recognize the most powerful cards in my pool. I'll be trying to play as many of these as possible, as long as they are supported by a solid base of other playables.

4) I eliminate at least 1 color, but I keep in mind possible splash options (for example, if your red is clearly not going to make the deck as a main color, you might still want to play that Puncture Blast).
This step reduces the number of piles, since you will also rebuild your hybrid piles (say you remove red, you can put you can merge your UR pile with the blue cards, etc...).

5) I stare at the cards still on the table for 10 minutes, until I can 'see the matrix'.
Well maybe not for the whole 10 minutes, but I see the people around me already building, when I'm still sitting there, staring. I try to see which colors are deep enough to be a base color of the deck, I keep in mind the cards that 'excite me' and keep in mind possible options for splashing.
Obviously removal is crucial, but also some plan, the way your deck will be winning.

6)I iterate through a couple of builds and hope I made the right decisions when I start writing down my deck with 5 minutes left on the clock.

In practice, for this pool, it means something like this:
(exciting cards get tagged with a *)
The Pool, filtered

if I really have to
2 Shell Skulkin
1 Thornwatch Scarecrow
1 Pale Wayfarer
1 Put Away
1 Ghastly Discovery
1 Blowly Infestation (might be good in the right deck, not a bad per se, more kind of a possible flagship -to use the Floresian term)
1 Intimidator Initiate
1 Bloodmark Mentor
1 Tilling Treefolk
1 Flourishing Defenses (again, possible flagship. I underrated this card, and it seems to have gotten better with Eventide).
1 Gravegill Duo
1 Helm of the Ghastlord
1 Manaforge Cinder
1 Manamorphose
1 Giantbaiting
1 Runes of the Deus
1 Noggle Ransacker

White
1 Barrenton Medic
1 Rune-Cervin Rider
*1 Armored Ascension
*2 Recumbent Bliss

Blue
1 Cerulean Wisps
1 Whimwader
1 Merrow Wavebreakers
1 Parapet Watchers
1 Dream Thief

Black
*1 Gloomlance
1 Syphon Life

Red
*1 Power of Fire
1 Boggart Arsonists
*1 Knollspine Dragon

Green
1 Viridiscent Wisps
1 Hungry Spriggan
*1 Aerie Ouphes


GW
1 Medicine Runner
1 Shield of the Oversoul
1 Raven's Run Dragoon

UB
*1 River's Grasp
1 Wasp Lancer
1 Wingrattle Scarecrow

BR
*1 Murderous Redcap

GR
1 Scuzzback Marauders
1 Morselhoarder

RW
1 Fire at Will

UR
2 Inside Out
1 Noggle Bandit
1 Noggle Bridgebreaker

UG
*1 Spitting Image
1 Shorecrasher Mimic
*1 Selkie Hedge-Mage (only when you play enough Islands)
*2 Sturdy Hatchling

BW
*1 Restless Apparation
1 Beckon Apparition
2 Nightsky Mimic

So now the pool is somewhat filtered and easier to grasp.

The UG package was a clear standout, I would be trying to play at least one of those colors.
White has 2 Recumbent Blisses, Armored Ascension + Restless Apparation. The latter two require a heavy white commitment though, and it's clear that this pool coudln't really pull that off.
Red has Power of Fire, Murderous Redcap, Scuzzback Marauders and a Dragon. But pretty shallow and no real splashing options, except for maybe Power of Fire.
Blue is pretty deep and a fine candidate for a base color.
Green has the UG cards and a couple of really solid guys.
Black has Murdurous Redcap and Gloomlance, but again, pretty shallow.

So I started with a Blue base. The easiest next step, was adding green. Splashing 2 Recumbant Bliss was kind of a no brainer for me. That was the deck I had when 15-20 minutes of the 30 we had for deck building, had passed.
The deck looked ok, but didn't have a lot of removal. And I still had a couple of good cards in my sideboard, which I'd love to play: River's Grasp, Gloomlance and Murderous Redcap.
I looked at the green cards I was about to play, and noticed that they were mostly 'just guys', except for Aerie Ouphes, which is way more.

So I tried UBw. I wasn't really satisfied, but it seemed better than the UGw deck.
Here it is:



The Deck
1 Beckon Apparition

2 Nightsky Mimic
1 Shorecrasher Mimic

1 Wingrattle Scarecrow
1 Parapet Watchers
1 Dream Thief
1 Noggle Bandit
1 Selkie Hedge-Mage
1 Wasp Lancer
1 Syphon Life
2 Recumbent Bliss

1 Noggle Bridgebreaker
1 Murdurous Redcap
2 Sturdy Hatchling
1 River's Grasp

1 Merrow Wavebreakers
1 Whimwader
1 Gloomlance

1 Spitting Image

The mana is a little icky, and I'm not really sure what the optimal configuration is. 3 lands for 2 splashed cards has always been my rule of thumb, so 3 Plains. I chose for 9 Islands and 6 Swamps instead of 8/7, because I although I don't need a lot of blue, I'll need at least one every time. 6 Swamps for a couple of BB cards, seemed reasonable to me, since they're still good late game (although Redcap is a much bigger beating on turn 4).

Another thing I wasn't sure of, is Syphon Life. It seemed decent in testing, but this isn't an aggro deck that needs somethign to deal the last points. Also, I already had something to do with my spare lands. This should probably have been a Cerulean Wisps or Inside Out, and I boarded it out most of the time. When Peter Vieren pointed out that 'it's just an Urborg Syphon-Mage without the body', I felt pretty awkward. I hadn't thought of it that way.

That's it for part 1...