PT Hollywood (Sideboard Text)

13 Wafo-tapa, Guillaume [FRA] $5,000 8

He deserved top eight, but still.
Guillaume Wafo-Tapa shows again that he is the best.

round 1 - W, 2-1-0, vs. Eric Neilson
round 2 - W, 2-1-0, vs. Shougo Sunada
round 3 - W, 2-1-0, vs. Mandee Peralta
round 4 - W, 2-1-0, vs. Martin Juza (Doran)
round 5 - W, 2-0-0, vs. David Felske (GW Big Mana)
round 6 - W, 2-0-0, vs. Yuuya Watanabe (UW Reveillark)
round 7 - W, 2-0-0, vs. Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa (Faeries)
round 8 - W, 2-1-0, vs. Kenny Oberg (Faeries)

round 9 - W, 2-1-0, vs. Stan van der Velden (Faeries)
round 10 - L, 0-2-0, vs. Shuuhei Nakamura (Elves)
round 11 - D, 1-1-0, vs. Thomas Enevoldsen (Faeries)
round 12 - W, 2-1-0, vs. Nicolay Potovin (Faeries)
round 13 - L, 1-2-0, vs. Jan Ruess (Merfolk)
round 14 - L, 0-2-0, vs. Yong Han Choo (UWr Reveillark)
round 15 - W, 2-0-0, vs. Aaron Nicastri (Elves)
round 16 - L, 0-2-0, vs. Nico Bohny (Doran)

total matches: 10-4-1
total games: 24-16-0

I am pleased with Wafo-Tapa's day one finish.
His day two finish seems alright but a little suspicious.

The DCI must keep a closer watch on Shuuhei Nakamura, Jan Ruess, Yong Han Choo, and Nico Bohny. It is a good thing Charles Gindy kept them all from winning the Pro Tour.

Also Thomas Enevoldsen should be watched for stalling.



[All pictures in this post stolen from the Sideboard.]

Quick'n Toast
by Guillaume Wafo-Tapa

4 Wall of Roots
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Mulldrifter
3 Firespout
4 Careful Consideration
1 Oona, Queen of the Fae

2 Slaughter Pact
4 Rune Snag
4 Cryptic Command
3 Cloudthresher
3 Makeshift Mannequin

1 Dreadship Reef
2 Fungal Reaches
4 Yavimaya Coast
1 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Mystic Gate
2 Sunken Ruins
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Vivid Creek
4 Vivid Grove

SB: 3 Mind Shatter
SB: 1 Detritivore
SB: 3 Wispmare
SB: 1 Cloudthresher
SB: 3 Teferi's Moat
SB: 2 Primal Command
SB: 1 Shriekmaw
SB: 1 Murderous Redcap

This link lets you draw sample hands.
This link shows most of his opponents' decks.

I would talk a lot about this deck except Manuel Bucher made it so it is kind of boring. What is more interesting is the changes between ManuelB's list and Wafo-Tapa's:

- 1 Slaughter Pact
+ 1 Cryptic Command

- SB: 2 Riftsweeper
+ SB: 1 Cloudthresher
+ SB: 1 Murderous Redcap

These changes clearly made $1500 of difference. Wafo-Tapa wet 4-0-1 against Faeries; he doesn't need Riftsweeper. He needs Cryptic Command of course. ManuelB might have made a nice 72-card decklist, but only Guillaume knew how to make it sing.

Round 7 versus PV
covered by Nate Price



In game one Wafo-Tapa falls to eight early. He stabilizes with Cloudthresher but PV has Terror. Wafo-Tapa draws Oona the Queen on the last possible turn and PV runs out of gas.

The coverage makes him sound really lucky, but he probably would have won if he'd drawn Cloudthresher or Mulldrifter or Makeshift Mannequin.



In game two both players get slow starts and PV plays Spellstutter Sprite as a Bog Imp for some reason. Wafo-Tapa makes a nice play of Careful Consideration into Slaughter Pact to kill Mutavault to fizzle Spellstutter #2. Then he gets Oona for the kill again.

Ancestral Visions is good, but not as good as Wafo-Tapa.

Round 9 versus Stan Van Der Velden
coverage by Ted Knutson



Ted Knutson starts the coverage by pointing out that Wafo-Tapa has probably just set a record, for best constructed rating ever. That sounds only fair.

In game one Van Der Velden gets a fast draw, but Guillaume has Wrath-untap-Wrath to get past the counters. Van Der Velden keeps getting Bitterblossom tokens so Guillaume has to Slaughter Pact a Mistbind Clique. He plays Careful Consideration but doesn't find any black mana so he has to die.

The coverage has an excellent paragraph about why Guillaume was making the right play, even though the play came back to kill him.

In game two the luck evens out and Van Der Velden draws no lands. Hooray!



Game three is weird for luck. Van Der Velden mulligans to four but gets Ancestral and Bitterblossom on the first turns. Cryptic Command and Cloudthresher are more powerful spells than Bitterblossom and Scion of Oona.

There are a few interesting things about this game. First is that Van Der Velden drew dead Rune Snags in the late game, when Wafo-Tapa had all kinds of mana. That might be because storage lands are so insane.

Second is that Van Der Velden was frustrated by Wafo-Tapa drawing Cryptic Commands. Maybe this is a sign that Guillaume Wafo-Tapa is a lucksack, but more likely it shows that he is a genius to put four Cryptic Commands in the deck. Manuel Bucher would not have won this match, but Guillaume did.

Round 15 versus Aaron Nicastri
covered by Tom LaPille



In game one Guillaume uses Firespout to kill all of Nicastri's mana. Nicastri plays Tarmogoyf, Guillaume plays a good card, and Nicastri scoops.

Game two they both get Kitchen Finks which means a long game which means Guillaume wins. Nicastri's deck had a lot of small creatures.

Round 16 versus Nico Bohny
coverage by Nate Price



In game one Guillaume got flooded and Bohny just played creatures and won.

In game two Bohny had a fast draw with Doran and spare Doran. Wafo-Tapa stabilized and Bohny resolved Bitterblossom and Profane Command.

It's kind of nice that by now everyone agrees that Wafo-Tapa is the best player. He's been the best player for a long time now, but up until this Pro Tour the reporters just said, oh, he's almost as good as Kenji.

148 Finkel, Jon [USA] 3
74 Tsumura, Kenji [JPN] 4
13 Wafo-tapa, Guillaume [FRA] $5,000 8

I'm writing this during GP Birmingham the next weekend, and Wafo-Tapa is 11th after day one. What a good player.

Brussels Podcast Highlights

Ben Coleman Interview Guillaume Wafo-Tapa during round three
[Around 14:00 of Episode II]

BC: I've caught up with Guillaume Wafo-Tapa. How are you today, and how is your sealed deck?

GWT: I'm fine. Thank you. My sealed is pretty good, I think. I have two bombs -- the angel, 5/5 flier, vigilance, persist, and Incremental Blight.

BC: Yeah, both very very strong. Black/white, I've seen a few people go for that colour combination. Is it strong generally or is it strong generally, or is it just the way your pool turned out?

GWT: It's just the way my sealed is. My good cards are white and black. It's the best way I can maximize the pool I have, so it's just a coincidence.

BC: Okay. Have you had much practice building sealed pools for Shadowmoor? Is it something you think is quite straight-forward as a set?

GWT: I've only done two previews, so two sealeds, and I think it's not too difficult if you -- you just have to realize you can play hybrid cards with only one colour. Then it's just a sealed deck.

BC: Yeah. So straight-forward, then.

GWT: Yeah. I would say that.

BC: Okay. What about the format as -- how does it play out, once the deck's put together? Is it a quick format, are we looking for lots of really swift games, or is it a much slower format?

GWT: I think it's much slower. So it's probably better to draw first, and maybe play eighteen lands.

BC: Okay. What makes you think that about the format? What is it about Shadowmoor that makes you think, yeah, this is kind of slow.

GWT: I'm not sure. This is ...

BC: Just more of a general feeling from the set.

GWT: Yeah, a general feeling. The creatures cost more, the good ones. But it's just a feeling. I have not done much sealed deck, so ...

BC: Excellent, excellent. Obviously you had an exceptionally good year last year. In today's Grand Prix are you looking to repeat last year's success? Obviously everyone wants to win it, but what are you hoping for? What are you expecting to get out of the weekend?

GWT: I just hope to get pro points. Two would be great.

BC: Okay. But top eight a possibly, and fingers crossed. You are known, obviously, as a more constructed specialist. I was talking to Manuel Bucher earlier who said he's going to be testing with you for Pro Tour Hollywood, coming up. Have you got something in the pipeline for that? Have you looked at Shadowmoor standard at all?

GWT: I've looked. But I've not found something yet that I like, so we'll see.

BC: Knowing you it's likely to be blue and slow. Are there any cards in Shadowmoor that have popped out at you, anything where you thought, ooh, that's quite interesting?

GWT: I would say Plumeveil.

BC: The 4/4 flash flying wall.

GWT: Yeah. I like it.

BC: Nice surprise in limited and constructed. What about the combo decks that have been floating around on the Internet, the Swans of Bryn Argoll deck with Seismic Assault, or the Enchanted Evening / Patrician's Scorn? Either of those tempted you at all?

GWT: No. I think both are really bad -- but maybe I'm wrong. I have not tested yet. But it looked bad, in my opinion, because you -- in this format there are Faeries and Merfolk, two blue aggressive decks that play countermagic. So it seems hard to have a combo deck like those.

BC: Okay, excellent. Good luck this weekend, and hopefully we'll talk to you tomorrow. Thank you.

GWT: Thank you.


Rich Hagon interview Guillaume Wafo-Tapa after round ten
[from 30:00 of The 39 Steps]

RH: It's a very good Sunday morning to Guillaume Wafo-Tapa of France. Guillaume, tell us about your day yesterday.

GWT: It was good. I opened a good Sealed deck with two bombs.

RH: What were they?

GWT: The angel -- 5/5 flier --

RH: Twilight Shepherd.

GWT: Yeah. And the black removal -- the uncommon. Six counters: three, two, and one.

RH: Yeah, Incremental Blight.

GWT: Yeah. It's incredible.

RH: It's how you teach people about three-for-ones.

GWT: Yeah, that's it.

RH: So 5 and 1 there, for yesterday. Who did you lose to?

GWT: I lost to Davy Loeb.

RH: Of Poland?

GWT: Yeah.

RH: So you're starting to get a little good at this limited thing, aren't you? Really, it's like Kuala Lumpur, top eight, only Jonny Magic takes you out there. Here we are, another limited GP, on we go. You're kind of the all-around -- right up there. Are we looking at player of the year this year?

GWT: Oh. I'll try. We'll see.

RH: Alright. Now I understand that you've been testing with Remy Fortier a little for Hollywood so far, but no big answers yet?

GWT: No. I have nothing yet.

RH: Well, there's still two weeks.

GWT: Three.

RH: Oh, of course, three weeks. Two weeks before we all go out there and then start probably testing. And then of course, four weeks from now, you'll be attempting to win Grand Prix Birmingham, presumably.

GWT: Sure.

RH: How difficult is it, truthfully, how hard is it, to deal with two different constructed formats back-to-back?

GWT: The Pro Tour is much more important than the GP, and the GP is after the Pro Tour, so we're not doing any testing for the GP before the Pro Tour.

RH: So you fly home, and then you play Magic for three days, and then you come with a deck.

GWT: Exactly.

RH: Tell us about the draft today, then. What have you drafted?

GWT: I drafted red/green. The draft didn't go very well for me. I have a lot of little creatures. I would have preferred to play mono-red, but I just didn't have enough red cards, so I'm red/green. I have just two removals and the Runes of the Deus.

RH: On the plus side, though, playing red and green means that Runes of the Deus, which you've got two of, is just incredible.

GWT: Yeah, but it's just as good in mono-red.

RH: It's the double strike that's key.

GWT: Yeah, but with red/green hybrid creatures -- you can cast them if you play mono-red.

RH: So it's the same benefit, yeah.

GWT: So I'm not too happy, but I won my first round, so I hope I can make 2-1 with this.

RH: There was a nice little trick there that didn't cost you the game, but going in -- at the end there -- it's good to know that you can learn even at the highest levels of the game. You're going in with your two Runes of the Deus 4/4 that's a 5/5 if you have a green creature. And he blocks your other green creature, puts first strike damage on, kills your other green creature. That loses the +1/+1 bonus and you get to deal 5, rather than the six that would have killed him. You get to kill him next turn anyway, but it's just another little thing that you storage away for another time, like, "Hmm... Yeah, I must make sure my green guy doesn't die if I need it not to."

GWT: Yeah, I made a lot of mistakes yesterday, too.

RH: But that's the way that the best are the best. When bad players make mistakes they just lose, and when average players make mistakes, most of the time they lose. And when good players make mistakes, sometimes they get away with it.

GWT: Yeah, maybe.

RH: It's something that Gab Nassif frequently talks about when he talks to us on the show. He says, you know, no one plays Magic properly -- nobody plays it actually perfectly. So, you know, it is a game of error.

GWT: Yeah, that's true.

RH: And this one didn't cost you, so that's fantastic. 9 and 1, many congratulations. Now, coming into the weekend, were you just looking for a money finish, or did you just have your sights on, for example, a top eight berth.

GWT: No, I was hoping just to score some pro points, and I'm in day two, so --

RH: We're on the way.

GWT: Yeah, we're on the way.

RH: Okay, many thanks, Guillaume.

GWT: Thank you.


Wafo-Tapa's second draft
[from Twenty-Four Boosters]

to his left: blue/black
to his right: Gaetan Lefevbre in lots of colours

1-1 Wicker Warcrawler over River's Grasp and Sickle Ripper
1-2 Tower Above over Scuttlemutt
1-3 Grief Tyrant
1-4 Scar
1-5 Crabapple Cohort
1-6 Sootwalkers
1-7 Gleeful Sabotage
1-8 Mystic Gate
1-9 Manamorphose
1-10 Wooded Bastion
1-11 Rattlblaze Scarecrow
1-12 Crimson Wisps
1-13 Inescapable Brute
1-14 Blistering Dieflyn

2-1 Jaws of Stone over Burn Trail
2-2 Cultbrand Cinder over nothing
2-3 Murderous Redcap over Burn Trail
2-4 Farhaven Elf
2-5 Farhaven Elf
2-6 Gloomlance
2-7 Raven's Run Dragoon
2-8 Foxfire Oak
2-9 Loamdragger Giant
2-10 Cinderhaze Wretch
2-11 Presence of Gond

3-1 Biting Tether over Crabapple Cohort
3-2 Power of Fire
3-3 Farhaven Elf over Heartmender
3-4 Crabapple Cohort
3-5 Wildslayer Elves
3-6 Foxfire Oak
3-11 Pili-Pala


Wafo-Tapa's mana curve in his deck

1 mana - nothing
2 mana - Pili-Pala
3 mana - 3 Farhaven Elf

"Talking to him off-camera, as it were, he was saying that he felt possibly that the format wasn't that slow, and although it wasn't lightning quick, he didn't really feel that you had games where there were lot of creatures on the board. He felt that the format was relatively creature-light, in terms of sticking around on the table, turning sideways and so on. But the deck that he's got there is absolutely about, 'Please don't run me over, Mr. Turn Two / Turn Three Here's My [inaudible] Turn Four and Five. Let's game to some kind of late game.' And it's not even like he's got fliers at the top end or evasion. It's just, 'Here's a 5/5, here's a 7/6, here's another 5/5. What are you doing?'
- Rich Hagon

Ben Coleman's Summary of Wafo-Tapa vs. Nassif (round 13)
[still from Twenty Four Boosters]

Wafo-Tapa mulligans.
Nassif gets Briarberry Cohort.
Wafo-Tapa gets Pili-Pala.
Nassif gets Gravegill Duo and attacks.
Wafo-Tapa gets Presence of Gond on Pili-Pala.
Nassif gets Faerie Swarm.
Wafo-Tapa attacks with some Gond tokens.
Nassif flashes Plumeveil to block.
Nassif attacks with fliers.
Wafo-Tapa builds up to eight tokens.
Nassif wins the fliers versus tokens race.

Nassif mulligans.
Nassif gets Cemetery Puca.
Wafo-Tapa gets Wildslayer Elves.
Nassif gets Briarberry Cohort.
Wafo-Tapa tries Murderous Redcap.
Nassif counters with Spell Siphon.
Wafo-Tapa gets Foxfire Oak.
Wafo-Tapa takes the lead 12-11 on life.
Nassif starts chump-blocking Foxfire Oak.
Nassif keeps attacking in the air.
Nassif wins the race.


"One awesome play, though, from Guillaume Wafo-Tapa in defeat, the kind of thing that, really, we could all learn a lot from. He gets to two mana, and he has Manamorphose to generate two mana of any colour, and he uses it simply to draw a card because he wants to try and get to a third land. He sees a land off the top, great, he lays his land. He has in his hand Gleeful Sabotage. Ritzka has in play a 2/1 Tatterkite. Guillaume Wafo-Tapa burns for two, decides not to kill the Tatterkite. Why? Because three turns later, a Scuttlemutt's on the board. You think, is he going to kill that? No. Three turns later, Reaper King comes down. 'Thanks, I'll kill that.' Well worth two extra life.

"When you're on twenty life, right up against a mulligan to four, to then deliberately take two mana burn you don't have to -- that's forethought under pressure."

-Rich Hagon


One other thing that came up sometimes in podcasts was Wafo-Tapa's testing group for PT Hollywood. It contained Remi Fortier before GP Brussels, and and it contains Manuel Bucher and the Ruel brothers after the GP. Plumeveil might go well in the Olivier Ruel Turbo-Dandan deck.

Brussels Day Two

Day two of Brussels, Wafo-Tapa made 11-1 but hit a bad draft.
He ended up 36th for $200 and 1 pro point.

round 10 - W, 2-0-0, vs. Jan Ruess [DEU]
round 11 - W, 2-0-0, vs. Jakob De Sio [CZE]
round 12 - W, 2-0-0, vs. Peter Dun [ENG]
round 13 - L, 0-2-0, vs. Gabriel Nassif [FRA]
round 14 - L, 0-2-0, vs. Simon Ritzka [DEU]
round 15 - L, 0-2-0, vs. Nikolay Michnev [DEU]

day two matches: 3-3-0
day two games: 6-6-0

total matches: 8-4-0
total games: 17-11-0


[Image stolen from Sideboard.com]

The round 14 match with Simon Ritzka was covered by Huy Dinh on the Wizards site. Unfortunately it was kind of boring, a mulligan and then a triple-mulligan mean Guillaume just gets run over.

Cards from Guillaume Wafo-Tapa's second draft deck:
- Farhaven Elf
- Wicker Warcrawler
- Manamorphose
- Murderous Redcap
- Gleeful Sabotage
- Crabapple Cohort

If Guillaume Wafo-Tapa lost six straight games with these cards, then imagine how badly you or I would lose with them. Murderous Redcap should not be played in decks again.

Another thing is that the decklist from Guillaume's first draft was posted on PlanetMTG. Here it is.

3 Intimidator Initiate
3 Mudbrawler Cohort
1 Devoted Druid
1 Safehold Elite
2 Hungry Spriggan
1 Boartusk Liege
3 Mudbrawler Raiders
1 Crabapple Cohort
2 Foxfire Oak

1 Scar
1 Viridescent Wisps
1 Crimson Wisps
1 Puncture Bolt
1 Firespout
2 Runes of the Deus

8 Forest
8 Mountain

This deck went 6-0 in games and it is a very good template to build something super-aggressive in triple Shadowmoor. Wafo-Tapa is the best aggro player!

The extra pro point ties Wafo-Tapa for fourth in the Player of the Year race, right next to the semi-finalists and finally ahead of the Grand Prix winners. Only Finkel, Pascoli, and Joel Calafell still need to be passed.

GP Vienna Update

Guillaume Wafo-Tapa lost round five of GP Vienna. This was unusual. His opponent Christian Mauhart explained in the StarCity forums how it happened:

Then he missed his manadrops and I was able to Vindicate his lone Island. Then 2nd Vinidcate on the Island he dropped on his last turn. He dropped another land and I made 3rd Vinidcate + Lavamancer. Then I drew a 4th Vindicate. After having destroyed 4 Islands with 4 Vindicate and having 2 Fanatics and a Lavamancer on the board he conceded. My apologies Guillaume.

Don't worry, Christian Mauhart, insane luck is a legimate part of Magic. But the next time you play Wafo-Tapa, you should concede to him, just to even things out.

Brussels Day One

Grand Prix Brussels is this weekend. Wafo-Tapa is at 8-1 going into day two.

Guillaume's record:

round 4 - W, 2-1-0, vs. Dmitry L Olenin [RUS]
round 5 - W, 2-0-0, vs. Jan Doise [BEL]
round 6 - W, 2-1-0, vs. Olaf M Koster [NLD]
round 7 - L, 1-2-0, vs. Davy Loeb [POL]
round 8 - W, 2-1-0, vs. Márcio Carvalho [PRT]
round 9 - W, 2-0-0, vs. Lukas Tajak [DEU]

total matches: 5-1-0
total games: 11-5-0

Excellent job by Guillaume, X-1 in a new format proves he is still the greatest. Thumbs down to Davy Loeb, who probably cheats.

The round seven match with Márcio Carvalho was covered by André Coimbra. Here is what it looks like:


[Image stolen from Sideboard.com]

Game one Márcio gets quick fliers and Biting Tether.
Game two Guillaume gets Incremental Blight and Twilight Shepherd.
Game three Guillaume gets Murderous Redcap and Incremental Blight.

The slow good cards are clearly superior to the fast blue/white deck. Wafo-Tapa defeats Carvalho.

André Coimbra writes good coverage and he points out Wafo-Tapa chose to play first instead of drawing first in Sealed. This isn't what I would have chosen, but Wafo-Tapa is a genius and he is probably right. From now on I will always choose to play first.

Some quotes:

Guillaume Wafo-tapa drew a card from Elsewhere Flask, which works as a "mana fixer" and a "cantrip", helping him to play his color intensive spells, as well as increasing the chances of drawing the best cards of the deck.

Márcio played Kinscaer harpoonist, which got tapped at his end of the turn by Niveous Wisps, showing once again how highly the French player values "cantrips" in the Sealed Deck format.

This makes perfect sense. I was never sure about cantrips in Sealed, because of potential mana-flood, but now they seem like a really good idea. Wafo-Tapa played cantrips early and then he drew all his good cards in time for the late game. Also it helped his three-colour mana base a lot.

Cards from Wafo-Tapa's sealed deck:
- Prison Term
- Wanderbrine Rootcutters
- Safehold Elite
- Steel of the Godhead
- Mistmeadow Skulk
- Incremental Blight
- Twilight Shepherd
- Elsewhere Flask
- Niveous Wisps
- Murderous Redcap
- Corrupt