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?