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Well, well... Congrats, Jezze!

Jesse Zwaan had to play at least one Qualifier this season to be able to qualify for the CubeVitational 2012 on Rating. He took no chances however and simply ran the table on Qualifier #7 with Rb Aggro Mana-denial. Without even dropping a single game! I was a bit sad that Geert Bosch lost the finals with his Nightmare/Survival deck. The good news however is that if the Rating cut-off would be today Geert would make it in on the last Rating Invite, which means he's actually in okay shape to make it in the end. Good luck!

At the other end of the spectrum 2010 CubeVitational Champion Tijs de Kler finished at 0-3 with a Birthing Pod concoction. He is now 'not a fan' but admitted he misread the card at first. As a result his rating took a massive 52 point hit. He is no longer the #1 Rated player, that crown is for now claimed by (you guessed it) Jesse. No worries for Tijs however he managed to win Qualifier #3 so he is guaranteed a spot.

Things are really shaping up nicely right now. The Qualifer list is growing steadily and it's sort of becoming clear who can and/or will qualify on Rating. Also, I have a special surprise in the works for Wildcards. There would be 1 or 0 this year, depending on the Qualifier schedule, but I'm working out a way to guarantee Wildcards on top of 11 Qualifiers, 4 Rating Invites and The 2011 Winner! I'll keep you posted...

Qualifier #7 Pairings

Qualifier #7 Final Standings

Deckpix!

Jesse 3-0

Geert 2-1

Cedric 2-1

Thijs_H 2-1

Update #47 has been posted. Please check out the UPDATES section.

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Rob 'The Blacker Lotus' Beekman stomps all! He shipped the Red spells this time and his straight-up WU Control Deck proved too much for the entire pod. He Drained, Ancestralled and tokened himself an invitation to the CubeVitational 2012. Only dropping a single game along the way, he proved that Blue is still the best color in magic and that control is still a viable strategy in my Cube. A result I'm very happy with.

That said, and nothing against Rob, but I was sad to see Rene_N (this time with his trademark Nightmare deck) lose yet another Qualifier Final...

Pairings

Final Standings

Deckpix

Rob 3-0

Rene_N 2-1

Eef 2-1

Mattias 2-1

This is from the Mattias vs Thomas match... Oh, and things got even worse: JTMS showed up a turn later. Gross!! Thomas mulled to 5, but I think that his deck would've been in the same rut with a full 7.

The Mighty Merrin, shown here during a game of Fluxx (which is awesome), crushes the second Qualifier of last month's double Qualifier schedule, as he ramps and Rites all opponents into oblivion. The result is the 5th invite to the CubeVitational 2012. Congrats! Hope to see you then.

Pairings

Final Standings

Deckpix

Merrin 3-0

Gijs 2-1

Jan_H 2-1

Daan 2-1

Bonus deck!

Thomas 1-2

I apologise for this very tardy post and I promise that the post for yesterday's draft will not be so long iong in the making.

Update #46 has been posted. Please check out the UPDATES section.

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Lately I've been operating under the assumption that everybody on my mailinglist knows all about the CubeVitational. I've been receiving a lot of questions recently however. That's why I decided to write this little news-update.

A Bit of History

I assembled the first version of my Cube in 2007, just after the release of Lorwyn. Quickly after I wanted to track who were doing well and adopted the ELO Rating system. Near the end of 2009 I decided I wanted to run a regular 16-man tournament but I was unsure how to choose who to include and, more importantly, who to exclude. Then I came across the BramVitational's Qualifier structure and knew I struck gold. I chose to have 8 Qualifiers and add the rest through a Points Ranking, the Ratings Ranking and some Wildcards (I just had to be sure to include myself and an oldschool buddy). The CubeVitational 2010 was a full Swiss Tournament. We drafted on seperate tables, then played 7 rounds of Swiss and cut to a Top4 Cascade Draft. Tijs de Kler walked away with the title, beating Elmer van Eeghen in the finals.

The Points Ranking turned to be too much in favor of the regulars and was abolished for the 2011 Season. Instead there were going to be more Rating invites and more Wildcards. Because the 2010's Swiss had us playing people from other tables which was weird for most players the 2011 CubeVitational was an all Drafts tournament. Through an intricate system the best players of 2x2 seperate Drafts placed for a Top4 Sealed Deck. This year Elmer had his revenge and his insane Sealed Pool (inifiniturns anyone?) was too much for Tijs is the finals. Here's to hoping we have a different final this year, or maybe not: Three times in a row would be sort of epic.

The Present

One of the main problems I had with the 2011 Season was the fact that it was never really clear to the participators wether or not a draft was actually a Qualifier. It could be bacause I failed to communicate this well or maybe people simply didn't care, but why would they ask then...? As a result I chose to make all the monthly monday night drafs in De 2 Klaveren a Qualifier for the CubeVitational 2012.

The 2012 Season will feature somewhere between 10 and 12 Qualifiers depending on timing and scheduling issues. The remaining spots will once again be filled by players with high Ratings and some Wildcards. The CubeVitational 2012 will be held on a saturday just before the pre-release of the next big fall set. This year's format will be 2x2 seperate Drafts, maintaining Swiss standings and thus allowing draws. We will cut a Top4 once again where we will be playing Rochesterdraft.

Happy Cubing!

#PTDKA competitor Jan van der Vegt claims the 4th invite to the 2012 CubeVitational!
He did receive a little help from 2011 winner Elmer van Eeghen who scooped him into the finals:
"I'm already sure of a seat for 2012 and your deck was better anyway."
Jan joins Elmer and previous Qualifier winners Johan van der Beek, Michael Metternich and Tijs de Kler.

Well done Jan! Who will be next?

Pairings

Final Standings

Jan 3-0

Mattias 2-1

Peter 2-1

I forgot to snap a pic of Floris' 2-1 Rampdeck, but the man has a solid memory and mailed me his list:

Search for Tomorrow
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Kodama's Reach
Wall of Roots
Go for the Throat
Eyeblight's Ending
Terminate
Slaughter Pact
Sword of Light And Shadow
Bitterblossom
Mimic Vat
Strangleroot Geist
Green Sun's Zenith
Tooth and Nail
Chameleon Colossus
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Primeval Titan
Inferno Titan
Terastodon
Murderous Redcap
Bituminous Blast
Call of the Herd
Karn Liberated

Library of Alexandria
Rootbound Crag
Bloodstained Mire
City of Brass
Kessig Wolf Run
Fire-Lit Thicket
6 Forest
3 Mountain
2 Swamp

Sideboard cards of note:
Slagstorm
Loxodon Warhammer
Krosan Grip
Naturalize
Taurean Mauler

This week's bonus deck:

Elmer 1-2, but actually 2-1...

CubeVitational 2010 Winner Tijs de Kler, shown here on archive footage, drafted his beloved Grixis'ish Control deck today. Although he agonized over passing Nicol Bolas Planeswalker, he did manage to ace the 3rd Qualifier to claim his seat for the 2012 edition!

Pairings

Final Standings

Tijs 3-0

Thijs_H 2-1

Isoude 2-1

Eef 2-1

Thomas 0-3 ...

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