Wizards asked us to be there early for social media day on Wednesday. Even though they only needed each of us for a few minutes, it was nice to have a day to just relax and hang out with the other players before the big show. The entire week, we had access to a lounge with a big screen TV to watch the Invitational stream, computers with Arena, and food catered twice a day.
I ended up spending most of my time there in between rounds or on my days off. I spent Thursday watching groups A and B play out and supporting my teammate. On top of that, Ken Yukuhiro and Yuuya Watanabe, two of the strongest players in the field, also failed to advance, which was a bit worrying as they were running the same combination of decks we were. The three of them had gone a combined in matches, but I guess there was nothing I could do about it except hope they were on the wrong side of variance, and that things would go better for me on Friday.
Wizards planned a party for Thursday evening. They had reserved a lavish downtown Boston club for the first part of the evening, and pulled out all the stops: photographer, open bar, cocktail waiters, a DJ, and goodie bags. I was playing the next day, so I decided to be reasonable and stick to water, but everyone seemed to have a great time even though it did take almost two hours for people to really start hitting the dance floor—probably a record, given that drinks were free.
As I mentioned, jetlag worked in my favor all week and I was able to get about eight hours of rest every night, waking up between 6 and 7 a. It was also nice not to have to worry about physical cards or last-minute deck list changes. My first opponent was Brian Braun-Duin. Leading up to the tournament, there was a lot of talk about the die roll being critical, but given the decks I had picked, getting the right matchups was paramount.
I eventually dealt with it, but the damage was done. I decided to play it out and lost a minute game 1. Game 2 between my Esper Acuity and his White Aggro deck went much better, and we had about 15 minutes left on the clock for game 3. I decided to go with Esper Acuity since it had a good matchup against White and I thought I might be able to cheese a win against Esper Control despite the matchup being unfavorable.
As draws were not an option for this tournament structure, the rule was that whomever had the highest life total when time was called and the five extra turns were played won the match.
Ultimately, I just outdrew him and was extremely far ahead when time was called. Huey won his round 1 match against Shoota Yasooka, which meant we had to square off in round 2 of the upper bracket. Huey was playing the same combination as BBD, and despite me getting the favorable matchups once again, Huey was able make it to game 3 after his White deck ran over my Esper.
This time around, I randomized my deck choice for the decider using a GTO approach. Something fairly embarrassing, and very fortunate, happened. I thought Temur Reclamation was the slightly better choice so I weighted my choice towards it.
I would play Acuity if I rolled a 1 through 40 and Temur on a 41 through If I had been coherent, my 19 would have meant picking Temur Reclamation and who knows what would have happened then. I was featured against John Rolf in the upper bracket finals, and not only did I get favorable pairings for the third time in a row, but John also had subpar draws. Just like that, I had made it out of the group stages and into the Top Seth Manfield was the other player with a clean while Reid managed to survive despite dropping to the lower bracket right away.
Janne Mikkonen, a. Savjz, surprised most as the fourth player making out of the group of death. Group D saw Kowalski, Depraz, Glogowski—a.
Kanister, and Nguyen—a. Variance, etc. We all found out what the bracket looked like on Saturday morning and my round 1 opponent was the other French player in the tournament, Jean-Emmanuel Depraz. He was on Gruul and Esper Control, and the good runs continued as not only did I get the right matchups, but Depraz had to take a mulligan in both games.
He had a few more relevant cards in his Acuity deck and a third Niv-Mizzet, Parun in his version of Temur. The algorithm paired Acuity vs. Temur and Temur vs. Acuity, and with slightly better draws and solid game play, I won both games. I did make one mistake that almost cost me the game when I was on the Acuity side. A second Spinerock Knoll came down for him and it seemed he was very near going off. Nassif had but a mere Snow-Covered Mountain before shipping the turn back, and Patrick began counting.
Slowly placing each card from his hand onto the table and tallying numbers and storm counts in his head, he tried to see if it was a good time to go off. Nassif had nearly a full boat, and Chapin went back to cranking numbers. Not coming up with any he liked he simply suspended Rift Bolt and passed the turn. Nassif had an opening. If he could manage to go off with his four lands making up to six mana they were on to Game 4; if not he was surely going to be killed as Patrick went off thanks to his suspended Bolt on the following turn.
After doing some math Gabriel moved to his end of turn phase. Chapin stopped him to charge his Molten Slagheap , then Nassif discarded a Bogardan Hellkite and passed. Both players tensed for the critical turn. A Rite of Flame gave him an extra mana and a storm of two.
When Patrick revealed a Grapeshot with four copies, each worth 3 damage, Nassif nodded and moved back to his board. Chapin thought for a moment then confirmed. Nassif went back to shuffling while tsk-tsking his circumstances. For the Frenchman it was all down to Game 4. Gabriel quickly looked at his opener and sent it back. Chapin, hands still shaking, rubbed his head and covered his eyes.
The Frenchman considered his second hand for a long time before making the obvious choice. Nassif and Chapin listen for the crowd After a slight delay for the message to reach the monitors in the viewing area a roar erupted from the peanut gallery.
Chapin seemed unfazed, leading with Fungal Reaches after Nassif had finished with his first turn. Why would you play that land first?
Gabriel continued trying to get there by drawing a Spinerock Knoll and a Lotus Bloom. He started charging his Molten Slagheap , but Pat was still ahead on the board and Tarfire d his opponent in an effort to prepare for going off. The banter and play continued to go back and forth. Patrick managed a Spinerock Knoll of his own but took some time to decide what card to put underneath it. Afterwards he ominously suspended a Rift Bolt before passing the turn.
It looked like now or never for Nassif. The crowd held its breath. He then made Rite of Flame taking storm to two. His mana count quickly climbed to eight, then a Tarfire and a Grapeshot put his opponent to 9. With only five mana left, what was Pat going to do? Instead he revealed Ignite Memories for five!
The first roll revealed Grapeshot 7. The second revealed Grapeshot 5. The third revealed Grapeshot 3! The crowd went wild in the background at the possibility that Nassif might squeak this one out.
The next-to-last copy revealed The feature match area had gone absolutely silent. The last copy revealed The crowd absolutely exploded from outside the feature match area as Chapin exasperatedly passed the turn. Nassif quickly untapped and resolved his Rift Bolt and Lotus Bloom , then began counting. Content with the answer of one, he began. A Rite of Flame of his own made the storm count three.
A Grapeshot put his opponent to 13 and made the storm four. Ignite Memories came down for a total of five spells. Then the unbelievable happened. No matter what combination of cards Nassif flipped, Chapin would be dealt lethal damage. Just like that, Gabriel Nassif had managed to win perhaps the most unbelievable World Championships game in the history of Magic: The Gathering.
Both players opted to keep their openers. Chapin opened on Fungal Reaches and Lotus Bloom. The crowd let out a gasp of surprise and Chapin sank a little bit in his seat. The pressure was on for him to combo the turn his Bloom came into play.
Failure to do so almost certainly meant his opponent would. Aiding him in that fight was a missed land drop by Gabriel.
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