Quartefinals: Eric Salazar vs. Mark Baeyens

Eric Salazar and Mark Baeyens are both veteran players who attend Nationals every year and each one hopes to bring home the title this year. They always qualify on their high ratings although they don't play as many tournaments as some of the other annual competitors.

Two-time Grand Prix finalist Frederick Salazar has been to the top eight of Nationals before but he has yet to take the top prize and this is his big chance. His Standard deck of choice is White-Blue-Red Blink (without Touch) and he's had six rounds playing it to learn the cards that he has barely seen while he was away from competitive play. Sharp skills in drafting got him this far and now he has to trust in his Standard deck to get him to the semifinals.

Mark also specializes in Limited Magic and he plays on Magic Online and most of the major sealed-deck events in real life. Just a few years ago, Mark went home from day one of Nationals with an excellent record but he failed to wake up in time to reach day two in Alabang. This year he can make up for that missed opportunity by winning this match so he can go to New York. Mark's Angelfire deck has the same colors as Eric's deck and many of the same cards but the strategy is very different. With no Momentary Blinks, Mark depends on the card drawing of Aeon Chroniclers and Compulsive Research to take control of the game.

While the judges make the final deck checks, the deck lists are revealed. Eric has deliberately obfuscated his handwriting, or so he claims jokingly, and Mark makes sure that Shivxxxxx is in fact supposed to be Shivan Reef. Some cards in Mark's sideboard are unfamiliar to Eric and he asks for their exact wording. Both players are already thinking of how they will use their sideboards in this five-game match.

 

Game 1

The players shuffle up quietly, showing little sign of excitement or nervousness. Eric wins the die roll with a 20 and both players draw their opening hands. With the initiative in game one, Eric takes a look at his first seven cards, but he is surprised to see eight and quickly puts them down. A judge makes a ruling and Eric has to mulligan to six cards. After another shuffle, Eric carefully counts out six face down then he looks at them. He sees only a single land and has to mulligan again. Eric counts five cards, which he keeps.

Two turns pass with two lands and a signet for each player and both of them have all three colors of mana available right away. Eric plays another land, having no mana problems with his double mulligan. Mark plays a Compulsive Research, discards Plains, and plays a tapped Steam Vents. Eric plays an Island for his fourth land and passes with five mana up.

Mark gets up to five mana and suspends Aeon Chronicler with one counter. Eric plays a land and passes. Mark then draws a card from Chronicler, which comes into play as a 7/7 creature. The draw step makes it 8/8 and it attacks with haste. Then Mark lays down Court Hussar, Urza's Factory, and Azorius Signet. At the end of Mark's turn, Eric aims Lightning Helix at Court Hussar and goes back up to 15 life.

Eric's plays Izzet Boilerworks and passes. Mark attacks with his 7/7 Chronicler and plays a land. Nothing but more land for Eric with a useless Momentary Blink in hand. The next attack brings Eric to 1 life and Mark has Lightning Helix to end the game.

Sideboarding

 

Eric -3 Lightning Helix -3 Court Hussar -1 Numot, the Devastator -1 Lightning Angel +3 Cryoclasm +2 Detritivore +2 Akroma, Angel of Fury +1 Molten Disaster

Mark -3 Faith's Fetters -1 Demonfire -1 Wrath of God -1 Bogardan Hellkite +3 Flashfreeze +3 Detritivore

Game 2

The players sideboard their decks and shuffle up for game two. Eric plays first and he counts his seven cards for sure this time. Both players have lands and signets for the first two turns but Baeyens loses 2 life to his second Steam Vents and shows only blue and red mana when he plays Izzet Signet.

Eric targets a Steam Vents with Cryoclasm, which takes Mark to 15. Izzet Boilerworks comes into play for Eric while Mark plays Sacred Foundry. Another land, go, for Eric 's turn. Azorius Signet from Mark gets returned with Eric's Venser. Mark then plays his Izzet Boilerworks.

Venser attacks and Eric uses a Momentary Blink to return Mark's Izzet Boilerworks and pays the Flashback cost to return Izzet Signet, leaving Mark with only one land in play. Mark has to pay 2 life for his Sacred Foundry so he can cast Azorius Signet and he still has to discard Izzet Boilerworks. Eric has a commanding lead in this game and he suspends a Detritivore with 3 counters after he attacks Mark down to 9 life.

Replaying a signet is not enough to get Mark back in this game. A Riftwing Cloudskate forces the concession. Eric ties the match 1-1.

Mark was holding a Flashfreeze the entire game, but tapping out on turn two made him vulnerable to Cryoclasm and he couldn't recover from Eric's disruption.

Game 3

Before game three, Mark goes back to his sideboard and brings in two Disenchants, taking one Flashfreeze and one Wrath of God out of his deck.

The game begins with mirrored Hallowed Fountains and Sacred Foundries on each side, although Eric's Fountain was a Vesuva copying Mark's land. Mark has a turn-three Flagstones of Trokair and he passes with three mana up. Eric lays Plains and a Morph creature which is obviously Akroma, Angel of Fury, but Eric still bluffs that it is a Vesuvan Shapeshifter though both players know Eric's deck has no other Morph cards.

Mark startles Eric with a Lightning Helix on the facedown Akroma. Eric shakes his head as he puts the 6/6 angel in his graveyard. He thought that Mark had sideboarded out Lightning Helix. Marks says that it's needed to disrupt Momentary Blink. Eric passes the turn and Mark plays Plains and Azorius Signet. He asks how many cards are in Eric's hand, five, and passes the turn.

Eric drops a fourth land and taps out for Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, enabled by blue mana from Vesuva. Mark lets Arbiter resolve and takes his turn. He pays three mana for another Azorius Signet and taps it and two lands to play Lightning Helix on Augustin. Eric has another Arbiter and a Forbidding Watchtower.

Mark has no land to play and he taps out to suspend Aeon Chronicler with two counters. Eric plays land and a Lightning Angel and attacks for 5 damage, taking Mark down to 21. Mark tries to play Izzet Signet and taps two lands but then he remembers Augustin's effect. He has no choice but tap one more land. Eric has another land and attacks Mark down to 16 life. On Mark's upkeeps he draws a card and pays one mana to play Aeon Chronicler. He draws and attacks for 6 damage and leads Eric 16-14. Still no land for Mark and he suspends Detritivore with two counters.

Eric attacks for 5 and passes. Detritivore takes out Vesuva, Chronicler attacks, taking Eric to 8. Mark tries a Wrath of God which Eric Remands. Mark misses his land drop again and passes the turn. Eric plays Venser, Shaper Savant on his own main phase and targets Aeon Chronicler. An attack puts Mark on 6 life. Mark's Wrath of God is delayed by a Momentary Blink on Venser with mana left over to pay Flashback. Mark concedes and Eric leads 2-1.

Game 4

Mark leads with Tolaria West, Flagstones, Izzet Signet. Eric has Hallowed Fountain, Shivan Reef, and a suspended Riftwing Cloudskate for his first two turns. Mark plays Court Hussar and selects Lightning Helix. He plays Steam Vents and passes. Eric plays his own Steam Vents.

Court Hussar attacks for 1 and Compulsive Research goes on the stack. Eric has Remand. Mark drops Plains and passes. Eric plays Shivan Reef for his fourth land and takes one damage to play Lightning Angel. Mark counters with Flashfreeze.

Compulsive Research resolves for Mark, discarding Azorius Chancery. Court Hussars attacks and takes Eric to 17. Mark plays Flagstones of Trokair and passes. Eric's Riftwing Cloudskate resolves and bounces Mark's Steam Vents then attacks for 2. Eric passes without a land drop.

Mark attacks again and keeps the lead in life, 18-16. He plays Azorius Signet and Adarkar Wastes. Eric has Izzet Boilerworks. An attack ties the life totals at 16. Mark attacks for 1, plays Ghost Quarter, and suspends Detritivore with two counters, leaving two mana untapped.

Eric replays Plains, taps four mana, pauses to check how many cards Mark is holding, then plays Lightning Angel. Mark has a Flashfreeze, Eric has Remand. Angel and Cloudskate attack, bringing Mark to 11.

Detritivore eats Eric's Izzet Boilerworks. Another Court Hussar from Mark fetches a third Court Hussar from his library, putting Urza's Factory and another land on the bottom. Court Hussar number one attacks and Eric lets it through to fall to 14 life. Mark plays an untapped Steam Vents and drops to 9 life. Lightning Angel receives two Lightning Helixes. The Angel suffers an overdose of electricity and gives up its life. That takes Mark up to 15.

Eric plays Steam Vents and attacks for 2. Mark untaps, takes out Hallowed Fountain with Detritivore, which comes into play as a 2/2 creature. Court Hussar number three joins the first two and Mark's Lightning Angel tries to join the party. Eric has Venser to return the Angel. Two knights and Detritivore attack and Venser blocks one knight. The attack and one point from Shivan Reef bring Eric down to 10.

Eric plays an Island and Cryoclasm to tie the life at 10. Cloudskate attacks for the lead, 10-8. Mark's Lightning Angel comes down and all of his creatures attack. Venser trades with Detritivore, and the other four creatures take Eric down to 4 life.

A second Riftwing Cloudskate bounces Mark's Lightning Angel, which doesn't seem to mind bouncing up and down and attacking every turn. The two Cloudskates stay back to block.

Everything on Mark's side charges into battle. Two Court Hussar get in for 2 damage, taking Eric down to 2. Eric is out of answers and Mark wins game four to force a deciding game five.

Game 5

 

The players keep their opening hands. Eric's hand has a Riftwing Cloudskate and Momentary Blink but only Plains, Vesuva, and Azorius Signet for mana. A second Plains off the top allows Azorius Signet to come into play on turn two. Mark's first two lands are Sacred Foundry and Ghost Quarter. Before he passes the second turn, Mark plays Disenchant on Eric's signet.

Eric shakes his head and declines a land drop on his turn, still holding Vesuva. Mark uses an untapped Hallowed Fountain to play Azorius and Izzet Signet on his turn. Eric copies Hallowed Fountain with Vesuva and passes back.

Mark has Lightning Angel and attacks to take the lead, 18-17. A tapped Steam Vents is his land for the turn. Eric finally suspends Riftwing Cloudskate on his fifth turn while muttering "Disenchant." That turn-two play had cost Eric a lot of tempo, and Mark successfully stole the aggressive role in the match despite playing second.

Lightning Angel attacks and Mark transmutes Tolaria West to fetch Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion. Eric removes a counter from Cloudskate and has nothing play, still stuck on three lands and no signets in play.

Mark goes for an attack with double strike and takes Eric to 8 life. Eric draws and plays Izzet Boilerworks and has to discard Numot, the Devastator. Lightning Angel attacks again with double strike and puts Eric at 2 life.

Riftwing Cloudskate resolves in Eric's upkeep, bouncing Lightning Angel. Eric replays Plains and passes. Mark replays Lightning Angel and Eric has Remand. The judge points out that Mark has tapped two colorless lands, so the players rewind the game state and tap the proper lands. Mark drops Izzet Boilerworks and passes with six cards in hand.

Eric attacks for 2 with Cloudskate. He says "discard" and Mark responds with a Ghost Quarter activation targeting Izzet Boilerworks. Eric fetches an Island. Mark reminds Eric to descard down to seven and a Cryoclasm gets trashed.

Mark plays Compulsive Research discarding Azorius Chancery. A second Compulsive Research is targeted by Venser. Mark Remands Venser and begins to resolve Compulsive Research. He doesn't remember if he has played a land but a judge points to the foil Urza's Factory now in play. Mark discards two lands and end his turn.

Eric attacks for 2 and passes without playing land. Mark untaps and tries to play a game-winning Lightning Helix, using Sacred Foundry and Hallowed Fountain. Eric has another Remand. Lightning Helix is played again and Eric has Remand number three. Mark tapped too many white sources and he can't replay Helix with his available mana. He tries a Court Hussar without white mana to find a white-producing land. He finds nothing. Extra mana from a signet causes a point of mana burn to Mark, taking him to 15 life.

Eric attacks one more time. He is holding the fourth Remand but it won't stop Lightning Helix or Urza's Factory or any threat Mark still has. Eric concedes and Mark advances to the national team!