Finally got around to hearing Rich Hagon's coverage of GP Vienna. Only two real mentions of Wafo-Tapa.

- In 128/6 = 8, starting in minute 33, Ben Coleman gives a rundown of Wafo-Tapa's loss to Robert Darnhofer. From the sound of it all games were quick. Game one Guillaume drew no defense, game two Darnhoffer had just a Lavamancer, and game three Darnhoffer got enough creatures through early. Nothing huge.

- In X-10 Dead, startomg in minute 8, Marijn Lybaert talks about Guillaume's match against Jan Doise. He says mostly things Tobias Henke reported, plus he sort of stressed how bad the Faeries matchup is for TEPS.


Wafo-Tapa also got talked about on Starcity (premium) lately.

- Mike Flores writes about Wafo-Tapa's Heartbeat deck from Valencia, specifically about playing it at GP Philadelphia. His main thing about the deck is that three-drops are hard to counter, but he took out some Search for Tomorrows and Wish targets to put in extra Brain Freeze. Hopefully this deck shows up at more PTQs; it seems at least like a better budget choice than Affinity.

- Pat Chapin posted a Faeries list that uses some of the tech from Wafo-Tapa's build (Oona's Blackguard, Rune Snag, Peppersmoke). But he also threatens Wafo-Tapa Faeries by posting a deck with Pyrohemia sideboard and Cloudthresher main.


Three decks that probably just came from Wafo-Tapa’s evil Magic Technology Factory in the South of France (as all good Magic Technology does)…
-Chapin's description of his own article

I bet Wafo-Tapa doesn’t have to deal with this kind of stuff…
-- Chapin's punchline to a story about girl problems

Grand Prix Vienna was this weekend. Wafo-Tapa made 23rd playing a mono-blue Faerie deck.

Vienna Faeries
by Guillaume Wafo-Tapa

4 Mutavault
2 Riptide Laboratory
1 Tolaria West
2 Snow-Covered Island
15 Island

4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Vendilion Clique
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
2 Mistbind Clique

4 Counterspell
4 Cryptic Command
2 Force Spike
4 Spell Snare

2 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Ancestral Vision
2 Threads of Disloyalty
3 Vedalken Shackles

SB: 3 Annul
SB: 2 Deep Analysis
SB: 1 Venser, Shaper Savant
SB: 4 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3 Sower of Temptation
SB: 2 Threads of Disloyalty


Jakub Bakule (CZE/92nd), Gunnar Radzom (DEU/53rd), and Hendrik Brotzmann (DEU/128th) also played Faeries decks to day two. Their versions were not as good.


Here is Wafo-Tapa's round-by-round performance:

round 4 - D, 1-1-1, vs. Gunnar Radzom (Faeries)
round 5 - L, 1-2-0, vs. Christian Mauhart (Zoo)
round 6 - W, 2-0-0, vs. Thomas Schmalfeld
round 7 - W, 2-0-0, vs. Petar Milic
round 8 - W, 2-1-0, vs. Zbigniew Wichlacz
round 9 - W, 2-0-0, vs. Andras Suveges

round 10 - W, 2-1-0, vs. Helmut Summersberger (Zoo)
round 11 - W, 2-0-0, vs. Jan Ruess (TEPS)
round 12 - L, 1-2-0, vs. Robert Darnhofer (Tarmogoyf Red)
round 13 - W, 2-0-0, vs. Jan Doise (TEPS)
round 14 - L, 1-2-0, vs. Selim Creiche (Counterbalance)
round 15 - W, 2-0-0, vs. Joel Calafell (Ideal)

total matches: 8-3-1
total games: 20-9-1


The match against Jan Doise with TEPS was covered by Tobias Henke.

Both games, Wafo-Tapa hit with Vendillion Clique and Doise was left with a lot of Rituals stranded in his hand. In game two he played it in response to Seething Song and made Doise take five mana burn.

Another trick was to use Cryptic Command to bounce Sulfur Vents and Lotus Blooms.


The round 11 match versus Jan Ruess was covered by Timm Gerber at PlanetMTG.de .


[Jan Ruess and Guillaume Wafo-Tapa. Image stolen from PlanetMTG.de.]

"January wins the cube throw and wants accordingly to begin."
-- Timm Gerber via BabelFish

Ruess got a slow start game one, and Wafo-Tapa got the Riptide Laboratory / Spellstutter Sprite combo up and running. Then he won game two with a Vendillion Clique in response to a Ritual. What a fun card.

For his ingenius deck-building and play skills, Wafo-Tapa gets $400 and two pro points. This bring him to 15 pro points, which locks down level three for 2009 - level four if he attends all the pro tours.

Rich Hagon said some nice things about Wafo-Tapa in his article today:

It's tempting to label players for ease of explanation, and when you've built plenty of world-renowned decks and have a Constructed Pro Tour win under your belt in the last year, it's understandable that people might call Guillaume Wafo-Tapa a Constructed Specialist. The simple truth is that Wafo-Tapa may be the best all-round Magic player currently playing. I accept that there are other candidates, but his relentless consistency is starting to achieve juggernaut proportions. Perhaps I should be careful using that word, since I don't intend to evoke memories of Kai Budde, the original Juggernaut, but with a small 'j' it's hard to argue with the Wafo-Tapa bandwagon. I'm pretty certain that nobody in Pro Magic tests more for events, and, in a shocking turn of events, it shows.

Had Wafo-Tapa won in Kuala Lumpur, with two dedicated Constructed Pro Tours ahead in Hollywood and then Berlin, it would have been a bold prediction to see anyone wresting Player of the Year from him. There are plenty of big names with their eyes on the prize who will have been very relieved to see GW-T bite the dust at the first hurdle.

To be fair, the Draft went pretty badly for him, with Ming Xu in particular taking key cards away from his chosen archetype. Finkel's Kithkin deck didn't really deliver in the quarter-final, and still managed a sweep over the Frenchman. With $11,000 and 12 Points in the bank, Wafo-Tapa confirmed his status as a premier contender for end of year glory.

I had to divide this into paragraphs myself -- Rich Hagon could write a whole essay about what it means to make fifth place. But I like the part where he says Wafo-Tapa is the best player. Between this and what Pat Chapin said last week, Wafo-Tapa should be a lock for the next Invitational.

Ben Peebles-Mundy put in a word for Wafo-Tapa Faeries on the premium side of StarCity:

Yuuta’s sideboard isn’t really built with the mirror match in mind, I feel. Many of the cards in it are obviously meant for other matchups (like Deathmark), or simply just don’t do what you want in this one. The only card I think that I would want to draw is Razormane Masticore, but that wouldn’t be too amazing.... If you’re looking for good cards to board in the mirror, then I suggest looking at Olivier Ruel’s sideboard. There you will find Peppersmoke, which is an extremely cheap, instant-speed, answer to most of the Faerie deck. The beauty is that it’s a two-for-one, which is relatively rare in this matchup.

My Bitterblossoms have gone up in value a lot this week. Thanks Guillaume!

Olivier Ruel was the only foreign pro at GP Shizuoka; he played a Faerie deck he got from Guillaume Wafo-Tapa. He came second but he kept saying the deck was weak. Tim Willoughby did coverage.


Wafo-Tapa Faeries
played by Oliver Ruel
2nd place at GP Shizuoka

4 Mistbind Clique
4 Oona's Blackguard
4 Pestermite
4 Scion of Oona
4 Spellstutter Sprite

4 Bitterblossom
3 Cryptic Command
2 Notorious Throng
4 Rune Snag
2 Unsummon

4 Faerie Conclave
1 Island
2 Mutavault
2 Pendelhaven
4 River of Tears
4 Secluded Glen
4 Snow-Covered Island
4 Underground River

SB: 2 Deathmark
SB: 4 Flashfreeze
SB: 2 Peppersmoke
SB: 3 Sower of Temptation
SB: 4 Thoughtseize

Link to draw sample hands.


From a round five feature match against Ryuichi Arita:

Olivier Ruel has been declaring all day that he is very lucky. On being undefeated after seven rounds he said "If I keep being as lucky as I have been so far, then I will win this whole GP. But then karma will probably mean that my plane will crash on the way home."

In preparation for the GP, Olivier had done some last minute testing of his deck in the trials on Friday in Shizuoka. There he had come to the conclusion that he was highly favoured against Reveillark decks, because, in his own words "You start the Game 2 turns before they do."

"Message for Guillaume – play at least 26 lands in your deck... oh, and thanks for the deck."

So he lost in his amazing match-up, but he had mana-screw and mana-flood in the two lost games. Maybe there should be more man-lands?


From a round twelve feature match against Kenji Tsumura:

There was an Unsummon to get rid of the Cloudskate

Kenji tried to replay the Riftwing Cloudskate, only to see Rune Snag. He had a Rune Snag of his own, but when Olivier showed a second, Tsumura scooped it up.

Ruel wins the match 2-0 by always having a counter when he needs one. Unsummon seems like a tech card from Wafo-Tapa, and it even worked this time against a deck of 187 creatures.


From a quarter-final match against Akira Asahara:

All weekend Olivier has been talking about how good his matchup against Reveillark is. This top eight is a great place for him if he is correct. With the possibility of a Reveillark matchup every round, his faeries seemed a sound metagame call. Against Akira Asahara's build of Reveillark, which doesn't have Wrath of God until after sideboarding, he felt the matchup was even better than normal.

Having won the roll, Olivier kept and started things off with Oona's Blackguard, one of the cards he says he would remove from the deck if he were making adjustments.

Olivier won 2-0. Game one Notorious Throng was Prowled out but didn't really do much. Game two, Notorious Throng for the win got countered, but Olivier just won with regular Faeries.


From the finals against Yuuta Takahashi:

Unfortunately for Ruel, his opponent, Yuuta Takahashi, who beat Kenji Tsumura in the semi-finals, has already beaten Olivier once in the tournament. Also playing faeries, in the Frenchman's opinion Yuuta's build is better, especially in the mirror match.

An Unsummon on Sower was Olivier's response, and the Sower was then dealt with for good by a pair of Rune Snags.

Olivier is harsh on his deck, but the tech cards like Unsummon and Notorious Throng still work for him. If nothing else, Wafo-Tapa's deck got him second place this weekend.

Takahashi wins 2-0. Sower of Temptation does a lot of the work.


Updates from Zvi Faeries to Wafo-Tapa Faeries:

- 4 Cloud Sprite
- 4 Nightshade Stinger
- 4 Oona's Prowler
+ 4 Oona's Blackguard
+ 4 Pestermite
+ 4 Bitterblossom

- 4 Familiar's Ruse
+ 4 Rune Snag

- 1 Cryptic Command
- 3 Terror
+ 2 Notorious Throng
+ 2 Unsummon

- 2 Swamp
+ 2 Mutavault

- SB: 1 Pendelhaven
+ SB: 1 Sower of Temptation


Changes from Wafo-Tapa Faeries to Takahashi Faeries:

- 4 Oona's Blackguard
+ 3 Sower of Temptation

- 4 Rune Snag
- 2 Unsummon
- 2 Notorious Throng
+ 4 Ancestral Vision
+ 4 Nameless Inversion
+ 1 Cryptic Command

- 1 Faerie Conclave
- 1 Island
- 2 Pendelhaven
+ 2 Mutavault
+ 2 Swamp

- SB: 2 Peppersmoke
- SB: 4 Flashfreeze
+ SB: 4 Bottle Gnomes
+ SB: 2 Deathmark

- SB: 1 Thoughtseize
- SB: 3 Sower of Temptation
+ SB: 2 Razormane Masticore
+ SB: 2 Familiar's Ruse

Obviously Takahashi got these changes wrong and Wafo-Tapa Faeries is the best deck. Who plays the Faerie deck with 0 Pendelhaven?