It's about the team finals between the USA and Canada, between the almost invincible Americans and the underdogs. Although the match-up for the Canadians was really bad, they managed to make these finals more exciting than any game I had seen before.

The finals worked like this:

The four players of each country's national team played against each other, what means:
National champion against national champion, second against second and so on…
The players had to use the same deck the played in the individual competition on Wednesday.

The matches were:

Jon Finkel (Tinker) - Ryan Fuller (Stompy)
Chris Benafel (Ponza) - Murray Evans (Stompy)
Frank Hernandez (Stompy) - Gab Tsang (Accelerated Blue)
Aaron Forsythe (Angry Hermit) - Sam Lau (Accelerated Blue)

(Some Decklists can be found at the bottom of this article)

At the beginning each pairing played their first round, the match Finkel-Fuller was broadcasted on the big monitors in the hall.

Finkel started and played a Sapprazan Skerry on his first turn, at end of turn Fuller played a Vine Dryad for free by removing a green card from his hand from the game. On his own turn, he played a forest and a Rancor on the vine dryad and attacked for 3 damage.
On turn 2 Finkel played an island, tapped both lands and played a metalworker, which is kind of a keycard in his deck. Afterwards Fuller attacked for 3 more damage and turn 3 started.
The American used Metalworker's ability, showed FIVE artifacts and gained 10 mana, played a Voltaic Key, used it to untap the metalworker, tapped it for 8 more mana and played:
Phyrexian Colossus
Tangle Wire
Phyrexian Processor (paid 5 life)
Fuller played a Pouncing Jaguar on his turn, but conceded on turn 5, because even a Uktabi Orangutan was to less to stop the raging Finkel.
1-0

Game 2:

Fuller started with a Treetop Village, Finkel took Mulligan and played a Sapprazan Skerry afterwards.
Turn 2: Fuller played a forest and casted a river boa, Finkel played crystal vine and, once again, a metalworker.
Fuller attacked for 2 damage, played forest and tangle wire to slow his opponent down, Finkel had to tap everything, but was able to play an island and a voltaic key.
On turn 4 Fuller rancored his boa and attacked for 4, Finkel tapped Skerry, Crystal Vein and an Island for the tangle wire, played another island, used the metalworker and the key and played a Grim Monolith, Crumbling Sanctuary and Phyrexian Processor (paid 7 Life)
Turn 5: Fuller played another boa, attacked and Finkel had to remove the top 4 cards of his library, put a token into play at end of turn and attacked during his own turn for 7(cards), played a port.
6: Fuller played Treetop Bracers on the second boas and attacked for 7, Finkel attacked for 14, played Masticore and killed the 3/2 boa.
7: Fuller played Uktabi Orangutan and destroyed the crumbling sanctuary. Finkel had only 7 life left. Than Fuller made a big mistake: He had 2 mana left and played a Rancor on his boa. He had a giant growth on his hand, and if he'd played it, Finkel would kill the Boa in response, if not, he wasn't able to make 7 damage. So he lost…
But Finkel would have been able to prevent the attack of the boa either way…

Wow, Finkel's deck worked perfect, the metalworker is really a killer card and brought the Americans a 1-0 lead.

The other 3 Americans on there first game, too, and so everything was working smooth for them.

The next match to be finished was Benafel vs. M. 'The Mauler' Evans.
Benafel won the first game with his Ponza against Evans' Stompy and was trying to get a 2-0 lead for his teammates. Evans wanted to win to give the Canadians at least a small chance to win the finals.

Game 2:

Evans went first and put a treetop village into play, Benafel did the same with a Ghitu Encampment.
On the second turn Evans played a forest and an Albino Troll, Benafel another Ghitu Encampment and a Seal of Fire.
T3: Evans rancored his Troll and attacked for 5, Benafel played a port.
Evans attacked again on turn 4 and Benafel played a Avalanche Rider and destroyed the Treetop Village with it.
The Avalanche Rider was used to block the Troll on turn 5 to prevent 2 damage, so Benafel was down to 7 and played a mountain and tectonic break for 2 on his turn.
Evans didn't mind and played another forest and a Elvish Lyrist, but didn't attack because Benafel had enough mana to activate the Encampment and could have sacrificed the seal to kill the troll. The American didn't play anything on this turn 6.
Turn 7: Evans played a giant growth on the Troll (8/6) and attacked, Benafel blocked with one encampment, but only played another port on his turn and lost.

1:1

After both players had taken mulligan on game 3, Benafel started with a mountain, the Mauler again with a Treetop Village.
Benafel played a port and used it to tap the treetop village during Evans upkeep. He played some cards, though: A Cradle, afterwards a Vine Dryad for free and than a Lyrist by tapping the Cradle.
3: Mountain from Benafel, a Rath's Edge, a Rancor on the Dryad and an attack from the Canadian. Benafel killed the Lyrist with a shock and took 3 damage.
On his next turn he played another mountain and a Masticore. Evans attacked with the Vine Dryad and his Treetop Village, though, Benafel thought about blocking for a while, looked at his hand and blocked the vine dryad, Evans played a giant growth, killed the Core and dealt 2 damage to his opponent (15)
On turn 5 Benafel played yet another Masticore and said: 'go'
Evans attacked with the Vine Dryad again and had enough mana left to activate the Rath's Edge to finish the Core. Benafel blocked, the Core and the Dryad died, Benafel didn't draw another creature or enough burn to get rid of the Treetop and the Rath's Edge and lost the third game, too.

So the standings after 2 matches was:

USA 1 : 1 Canada

Match 3 was Hernandez-Tsang, Stompy against Accelerated Blue and Hernandez hasn't had a chance:

Tsang used his Submerge to put creatures on the top of Hernandez library and to 'counter' the Rancors the same way, as they fizzled. On game 2 Tsang won with a somnophere, which was unblockable for Hernandez, and on game 3 with a Masticore, that killed all of the creatures the American controlled, so the Canadian won 2-1 and Canada had a 2-1 lead against the USA.

The Americans still believed in winning the finals, because they knew about their advantage in the match-up of the last game:
Forsythe's Angry Hermit was almost invincible against Lau's Accelerated Blue and it came how it was supposed to be:
Forsythe won the second game and evened the finals.

So the tiebreaker had to decide about the new Team Worldchampion.
And the tiebreaker was an additional match of the national champions, of Finkel and Fuller:

GAME 1:

Fuller started with a forest and Wild Dogs, Finkel with Island and Voltaic Key.
On turn 2 Fuller attacked for 2, played a port and used it on Finkel's Island, who wasn't able to play more than another Island on his turn.
T3: The Canadian played a forest and Rancor on his Dogs, attacked for 4 more damage and tapped Finkel's Island once again. Now it was time for a perfect turn for Finkel: He played Crystal Veins, sacrificed it to put a grim monolith into play, tapped it and the remaining island for a Thran Dynamo and tapped this card, too, to play a tangle wire.
Fuller wasn't able to play any more cards in this game, Finkel played a core, killed the dogs and Fuller conceded.

GAME 2:

Fuller started again and put a treetop village into play, Finkel played a Sapprazan Skerry.
On turn 2 the Canadian played forest and pouncing, Finkel Voltaic Key and Island.
Turn 3: Fuller played a Rushwood Legate for free, a Cradle and attacked with the Jaguar and the Treetop Village for 5 Damage. Finkel thought a while on his turn before playing anything and Fuller said something like: 'Now you are quieter…' Finkel's response was: 'No, I'm just thinking about killing you…' Said it and played an Island, a Grim Monolith, tapped it and an island for a Thran Dynamo and finally a Tangle Wire…
On turn 4 Fuller had to tap everything but the Jaguar and attack for 2 damage, bringing Finkel down to 13. Finkel tinkered the Monolith for a Masticore and killed the Pouncing.
Fuller didn't attack on the next turn because of the Core and Finkel played a Phyrexian Colossus, attacked with the core and played a port.
Fuller wasn't able to play anything on the next turn and Finkel won this match, too.

He kicked the Canadian Flag, which was standing on the table and raised the American one.

So the Americans finally won 3-2 against the brave Canadians who made the finals very difficult to win for the USA and showed great magic.

Congratulations to both teams for the great decks and games they played, thanks for the great time I had because of them and thanks to WotC for running this great event.

One more thing:
I'm sure that there were some of you watching the finals on ESPN2 or on the net, but you can't compare this to the feeling I had: We got headsets and were able to hear the same comment as it was on TV, but we were able to see everything from only a few meters away.
AND, I was sitting in the middle of the block where the American National Team was; I was sitting between Jon Finkel, Bob Maher Jr. and Aaron Forsythe. I heard them talking about the standings, the upcoming matches and such…
It was great!

DECKLISTS:

Team USA:

Jon Finkel (Tinker):

4 Voltaic Key
4 Grim Monolith
4 Thran Dynamo
4 Metalworker
4 Masticore
4 Phyrexian Processor
4 Tangle Wire
1 Crumbling Sanctuary
1 Phyrexian Colossus
4 Tinker
4 Brainstorm
1 Mishra's Helix
9 Island
4 Rishadan Port
4 Crystal Vein
4 Sapprazan Skerry

Sideboard:

4 Chill
4 Annul
4 Miscalculation
2 Rising Waters
1 Mishra's Helix

Aaron Forsythe (Angry Hermit):

4 Deranged Hermit
3 Skyshroud Poacher
4 Llanowar Elf
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Arc Lightning
4 Avalanche Rider
3 Yavimaya Elder
2 Roffelos
3 Masticore
4 Plow Under
4 Rishadan Port
11 Forest
2 Mountain
4 Karplusan Forest
2 Gaea's Cradle
2 Treetop Village

Sideboard:

4 Blastoderm
3 Reverent Silence
2 Lumbering Satyr
1 Cursed Totem
3 Uktabi Orangutan
2 Splinter

Team Canada:

Ryan Fuller/Murray 'The Mauler' Evans(Stompy)(This is Fuller's deck, but Evans' is very similar to this one)

4 Pouncing Jaguar
4 Wild Dogs
2 Elvish Lyrist
2 Albino Troll
4 River Boa
2 Uktabi Orangutan
4 Vine Dryad
4 Rancor
4 Giant Growth
2 Treetop Bracers
2 Wild Might
4 Tangle Wire
1 Crop Rotation
1 Rishadan Port
2 Treetop Village
3 Gaea's Cradle
15 Forest

Sideboard :

4 Rushwood Legate
1 Lumbering Satyr
2 Harmonic Convergence
3 Thran Foundry
2 Cursed Totem
2 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Treetop Bracers

Gab Tsang/Sam Lau (Accelerated Blue)(Tsang's version):

4 Grim Monolith
4 Powder Keg
3 Masticore
1 Annul
4 Miscalculation
4 Counterspell
4 Thwart
3 Morphling
4 Treachery
3 Stroke of Genius
20 Island
2 Dust Bowl
4 Rishadan Port

Sideboard:

3 Annul
3 Misdirection
3 Somnophere
2 Stronghold Machinist
4 Submerge

These were the most important decks that managed to win games in the finals.
Time to get some cards, eh?

Thanks for reading this article of mine, have a nice time, see you all in 2 weeks (holidays )

Christoph

__________________
Posted by Christoph, the trader in Germany with the most refs

Fooath you really need a lesson in humility!