I love blue land destruction — or should I say “land destruction” — more than I normally care to admit. I have played more Glowing Anemone than anyone this side of Jon Becker and built a deck around Cowardice, the Anemone, Rishadan Cutpurse and Footpad, and Jolting Merfolk in that block season. I even own the original painting to the Cutpurse.

It was with no small amount of glee that I watched Andre Coimbra bring his opponent from five lands down to one over the course of one turn cycle playing with Mike Flores’ metagamed (sort of) monoblue deck.

Andre’s opponent cracked a fetchland only to have it Stifled into nothingness. Without his fifth land he passed the turn only to have another land bounced with Andre’s Venser. The Portuguese player — who had stocked his hand with Visions the turn earlier — then bounced two more lands with a pair of Cryptic Commands. He drew two more cards and was able to play a pair of free Spire Golems with his opponent bombed down to only one land.

Also on the right side of Day Two from the extended Top8Magic family is Andre Coimbra. Andre was playing a metagamed monoblue deck designed by none other than our very own MichaelJ. The deck is designed to beat up on a field full of combo and Zoo but did not take into account all the little green elves and insects that seemed to spring up in the metagame overnight.

Andre managed to dodge the Elfball matchup through most of Day One but not completley, resulting in one of his only two losses on the day. He also lost to Zoo but smashed it the three of four other times he had that pairing. With all the elves stampedeing into Day Two Mike’s deck could turn out be a Day One masterpiece and Day Two disaster.

I will check back on Andre and his pairings in the morning.