Round 1: Thomas Bisballe vs. Jörn Hajek

Craig Jones

Jörn Hajek vs. Thomas Bisballe

Round 1 saw Thomas Bisballe, a level 3 judge, playing in his first sanctioned tournament for four years, drawn against fellow Danish countrymen Jörn Hajek. They'd traveled down on the train together and by some freak of chance had somehow managed to draw each other in a field of over 880 competitors. Bisballe had a pretty good blue/green deck with a splash of white with lots of bombs while Hajek had a blue/white deck with a splash of black with Upheaval to reset the board.

Game 1

Bisballe won the die roll and made his opponent go first. In an environment where most are forced to play three-color decks the stability of the extra card can be important. Both players started by building up their forces. Hajek kept Bisballe's air force away with a Soul Scourge and a Hallowed Healer to ensure that the Scourge would always survive the fight.

Bisballe started dropping bombs by hard-casting Roar of the Wurm. Hajek didn't quite have the same power level of cards but was able to use a variety of tricks to stay alive. The first Wurm token was removed with a second thoughts and a speedy Repel in response to Bisballe summoning a Hydromorph Guardian got rid of the second.

Bisballe kept pushing some damage through on the overlap. Then Hajek looked to take control by reducing some of the pressure. Psionic Gift on a Cephalid Scout allowed him to ping a Werebear before Threshold would cause it to become a problem and a Patriarch's Desire removed a Wild Mongrel.

Hajek had an Upheaval in hand, it was just a case of seeing how long he could delay casting it. Another monstrosity came to Bisballe's side in the form of a Stonetongue Basilisk. Hajek had threshold and was able to block it and use his healer to kill it without loss.

Bisballe had knocked Hajek down to three but Hajek looked to have board control with a Hallowed Healer at threshold and a Gifted Scout to start pinging away at Bisballe's life.

Now seemed a good time for Hajek to take total control by casting Upheaval and then floating enough mana to bring the Soul Scourge back down straight after. This didn't provide the immediate victory as Bisballe bounced it with Aether Burst. Hajek still looked good. He had an unblockable Beloved Chaplain to nibble away and an active Healer that controlled the board. A Strength of Isolation on the Chaplain wound a six-turn clock down to three turns. Bisballe had summoned a flier every turn though, including a Mystic Enforcer, and was threatening an overlap through the air. Hajek got Bisballe to within one turn but then a Repel on his Healer in the end step made a threatened overlap become reality and Bisballe forced through enough damage to win.

Bisballe 1-0 Hajek

Game 2

Thomas Bisballe

Hajek chose to go first anyway but his Mystic Familiar didn't really match up to Bisballe's Wild Mongrel and Twigwalker. Likewise Stern Judge didn't really compare to Skywing Aven. Hajek got stuck on three land but was able to use Gallantry on the Judge to kill a Mongrel. Bisballe still pitched Roar of the Wurm to the Mongrel as four casting cost 6/6's are always pretty good.

Bisballe followed that with a Mystic Enforcer. He didn't have threshold... yet.

Again Hajek's Aven Flock didn't really match and it was time to start chump blocking just to stay alive. Morgue Theft provided some more Wurm food and a Pay no Heed bought another turn, but it was only delaying the inevitable.

Final Result: Thomas Bisballe beat Jörn Hajek 2-0