As soon as it was announced that the 2006 Worlds would be in Paris, I began to take particular interest in them. When James suggested he was thinking or organising a trip to Worlds I jumped at the chance. This is my day-by-day account of the biggest event of the Magic calendar.

Day 1 (Thursday) "Pardon Mademoiselle, je cherche le musee de Louvre"

Worlds was already in swing by the time James, Mustafa and I rendezvoused at Heathrow airport. All of us had been checking out the internet before setting off: Japan was storming ahead, although Wales (!) were hot on their heels! The flight was a little late, and we didn't arrive at our hotel until 10.30pm or so. We decided to check out the tournament hall anyway, for a look round and to make sure we got the directions right for the following day. The tournament was being held at the Louvre which, being a world famous tourist attraction, would have to be easy to find. Of course not. Fortunately a combination of James and Mustafa's map reading and my conversation with some locals gave us the way. Luckily the way was "tout droit, tout droit et tout droit!" or I might have been out of my French depth. Even when we got to the Louvre, but struggled to find the entrance, only sure that we were on the right track when we passed Randy Buehler (Head Developer of Magic) on the escalator! Appetites whetted, we couldn't resist playing some Magic back in our hotel room. The game of choice for this - and other interludes on the trip - is the "Mindmaster" one pack game, which I can heartily recommend. Mustafa won it by caning everyone with an Avatar of Woe.

Day 2 (Friday) "Players in the black PTQ, that's time on the round!"

My original plan had been to play in the 4pm Legacy tournament, but in the end we all decided to play in a Time Spiral sealed deck PTQ. Arriving to register at 8.30am (and actually getting to the front of the queue at about 9.15am!) left plenty of time before the 11am start. I decided to try and sell one of my indulgent Magic purchases of yesteryear (i.e. it cost £125 in about 2003) - an Unlimited Mint condition Timetwister. After James and I had awed a number of traders, I finally let it go for Euro180, which my mobile phone calculator translates to £124.75. A loss, but a good 25ps worth! Almost 500 people had turned up for the PTQ, so they split it into two lots of 239 people (oddly codenamed black and purple)! So it was 8 rounds of Swiss in "PTQ Noir" for me. I had a decent deck; mostly red/black but splashing blue for Psionic Blast and Errant Ephemeron. The early rounds went well for all of us: I started 3-0, James went 2-1 and Mustafa 1-1-1. At that point we all I think felt like we had a shot at the 125-1 odds of making the Pro Tour. But then it went pear-shaped: James lost, and at 2-2 retired to the hotel for a rest and to renew acquaintance with some mates from his time in Japan. I also lost and at 3-1 was sorely tempted to drop and play Legacy, but several people told me to stick in because my deck was good, so I stuck in. In the 5th round The board got really complex (~12 creatures for me, 6 for him), and I knew my opponent had a lethal flying attack next turn, so I just attacked all out. Alas he still had 1 life left when the dust settled. So I conceded. Failing to notice that (1) he blocked with a creature that can't block non-flyers and (2) his lethal flyer would cost 1 life to attack with, so he couldn't in fact win at all. In other words, all I had to do was say "Go" and I draw the match 1-1 - as it was I said "Concede" and lost 2-0! Rubbish. I think that in a 32K event, that one slip cost 16 rating points! I had some rotten luck in the 6th round with a double double mulligan, then lost both the remaining rounds to finish 3-5! Lots of fun, though, and some close games. Mustafa, however, excelled and finished in the prizes at 5-2-1. It had been a long day, though - Mustafa collected his prize at 11.30pm; remember we had begun queuing at 8.30am! There were not really enough staff to cope with all the players - according to one WotC employee I spoke to about 3000 turned up over the 5 days compared to a high of 1650 before. That said, the quality of judging and administration was outstanding, and credit is due to all the volunteers and semi-professionals in attendance. James spotted a particularly good example of judging, where some players could not agree on the number of suspend counters on two cards that had been suspended for about 4-5 turns. The judge unwound the whole game 5 turns to solve it! If there is going to be a problem then the game being more popular than expected is a good one. Mustafa and I finished the day with omelette and chips at a cafe, that seemed cheap at the time, but the following day we realised it had cost about £9 a head.

Day 3 (Saturday) Giant killing and mouse spotting

Mustafa and James headed for another early PTQ, but I needed a lie-in to recover from the previous day's 15 hour 8 rounder. I decided not to set my alarm......and woke up at 11.15am. Oops. Having missed the hotel breakfast I swung by a sandwich shop before playing 8-man single elimination all day. I put my name down for Legacy but after an hour and a half they still only had 5 players! So I pleaded to switch to Extended (using Affinity) where I reached the final, knocking out 2007-rated John A Sittner from Salt Lake City, the 13th best player in the USA on Composite rating, on the way!! Oddly (I thought) in Game 2 Mr Sittner kept a one land hand - that obviously did not work out as he'd hhoped. I tried my luck at Extended again but went out to a Frenchman in the first round 2-1 in 3 tense games (and having been 1-0 up; boo!). Lots of sideboard hate for affinity was beginning to be annoying, so I tried some drafts. Many thanks to Crawley MTG club for the vouchers, all were used! Unfortunately I lost 2-1 in the first round of all 3, having been 1-0 up in two of them. Annoying! Lots of fun though, and I ended up with lots of cards and in the colours I like (I basically drafted red/black every time!!). James and Mustafa enjoyed another black/purple-split 8 round PTQ, along with Rob Wagner from Brighton who had now put in an appearance. Rob made a good point to me and James though about not always playing it safe - if the chips are down (particularly against a better player) or if you have a weakish sealed deck then take some risks - there is little to lose and a potential upset to gain! Obviously doesn't always work, but sometimes it's the right move. James heeded some of his advice and this time he went 5-3 and won a prize. I wonder if that was what John Sittner was trying with his one land hand? As the day drew to a close we headed to McDonalds. It had shut. So we headed back to the cafe/sandwich shop for more food and beers. Having eaten a hearty dinner to add to the two sandwiches I bought there earlier, I was alarmed to see a mouse running behind the sandwich counter!! We did not eat any more food there.

Day 4 (Sunday) The end of the Worlds

For the respective top 8s this was the day of most heated competition. For us, it was the most relaxed day. James and I played in a draft together, while Mustafa set off to get some cards (and his folder) autographed by some artists. My first round match against an Irishman lasted over an hour (single elim games are not timed!) and I then met James in the semi-final! James's awesome sliver deck rolled all over me and he went on to win the event, netting me 4 packs (since we had agreed at the start to split our prizes). We finished our time by watching the team event final on a big screen (with inaudible commentary from Randy Bueheler together with unintelligible commentary in French) and, in my case, doing some Xmas shopping in the Louvre's posh galley of shops.

So overall a great time was had! I went 2-2 in Constructed and 4-9 in Limited, which I think reflects my skill at each. Between the three of us we came home 29 packs of Time Spiral richer in prizes. The standard of play was high. My only regret is that I didn't get to play Legacy - I think with hindsight I should have dropped from the PTQ even at 3-1 as I would have enjoyed Legacy more and I never could have reasonably expected to win the PTQ even from 3-1. Oh well, c'est la vie (as they say in France).

I can certainly recommend trying to attend a Pro Tour or large Magic event at some point. It is quite a different experience to a local FNM but will be a fun-packed day. My eye is now on next July's "Magic Festival" in Birmingham, with a Grand Prix and Nationals. Hope to see some of you there!

Scott Latham 15.12.06

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