The Na'Vi player knocked out ThijsNL in one of the most tense matches of the tournament.
In the first game of the series, ThijsNL brought forth his Dragon Priest, and Ostkaka Patron Warrior. Thijs' starting hand looked strong, having three 1-drops. He also drew an [card]Ysera[/card] early, which enabled all the Dragon combinations Thijs needed. As the game progressed, Ostkaka managed to build a board and fill it with [card]Grim Patron[/card]s. Thijs felt it needed to use his only [card]Lightbomb[/card] to clear the board, which allowed the Dutchman to rebuild a board of his own. It was Ostkaka who managed to take the board avantage however, and with the help of a [card]Flametongue Totem[/card] which a [card]Piloted Shredder[/card] dropped, he built a fearsome wall of Patrons. Thijs' Ysera finally came down on board, but the green dragon couldn't avoid a loss, and Ostkaka took the first game.
For the second game Ostkaka picked his Oil Rogue, and ThijsNL his Freeze Mage. Ostkaka managed to take full advantage of his [card]Violet Teacher[/card] and swarmed the board with 1/1's. In the meantime, Thijs developed his secrets and slowly gathered more combo pieces, as is Freeze Mage fashion. Using a lot of cheap cards Ostkaka put an 8/8 [card]Edwin VanCleef[/card] on board, which posed a big threat to Thijs' defences. The downside of that play was that the Swede's side of the board was now filled with minions, and Thijs spotted the opportunity. He set up his opponent's board so it could get wiped away by a [card]Flamestrike[/card] next turn. And he would have succeeded, were it not that Ostkaka used an [card]Eviscerate[/card] on his own minion, so that he could play his own [card]Loatheb[/card] and prevent Thijs from wiping his board. From here on it went steeply downwards from Thijs, as he couldn't recover from this. In his last attempt to survive Thijs freezed everything on his opponent's side, but Ostkaka had cleverly saved his [card]Blade Flurry[/card] and sealed the game.
Ostkaka now only had his Freeze Mage left, but this deck didn't have as much success as his others. Thijs first picked his Patron Warrior to oppose it, which proved to be an apt choice. The game dragged on for a long time, with Thijs building up more armor and Ostkaka searching for more burn spells. As is usual for the match-up, it went in the Warrior's favor and Thijs managed to get his first win. The Dutchman continued his comeback by using his Freeze Mage in a mirror match. Thijs, a well known Freeze Mage player, displayed his skills by making the right choices and keeping a double [card]Fireball[/card], [card]Frostbolt[/card] [card]Ice Lance[/card] combo until the right moment, and tied up the series to a 2-2 score.
It then came to the last series, which held a Freeze Mage for Ostkaka and a Dragon Priest for ThijsNL. Contrary to Ostkaka, who had awful draws, ThijsNL had a near perfect curve and quickly filled the board with strong minions. Through the trigger of a [card]Doomsayer[/card], Ostkaka managed to stabilize quickly, and started to fight back. Despite the board clear ThijsNL came back quickly and built a strong board, but it didn't matter in the end. Following the awful draws he had earlier, Ostkaka picked up an [card]Alexstraeza[/card] at the exact right moment. Combining it with the exact right amount of burn spells, Ostkaka advanced to the finals.
