Magic The Gathering - Malaysia

About two dozens guys showed up at USJ Summit to snag a spiffy launch party release promo Figure of Destiny, more cardboard crack (Eventide boosters), and of course, to play more Magic.

The event started off late at 12.30pm, half an hour later than advertised, no doubt to accommodate the latecomers. I immediately regretted rushing out of my house to get over here in before noon and not brining a deck to play in the process. Me and a friend whom I hitched a ride over with killed time watching people play random decks, including witnessing an infinite power / infinite toughness kill via the Quillspike + Devoted Druid combo. Wicked.

The minutes flew by and the time finally came for us to get our products and start shouting gleefully about his great luck or lament the lack thereof. I must admit, I’m a cardboard crack addict, and the sounds of booster wrappers torn apart is joy and music to my ears (although as someone who’s worried about the environment, the amount of plastic wrappers torn just to be thrown is a tad bit disconcerting to me, but hey, it’s not like there’s any better alternatives, right? I mean, paper wrappers?). I quickly tore apart my packs and tournament box, and then I remembered, ‘oh, I wanted to take pictures for the report I planned to write’, and I quickly shoved them into my bag and took out the camera I borrowed. As the pictures will tell you, I’m an awful camera man. I wanted a few shots of the whole crowd going through their cards all at once, so I took a few shots, curse myself for being such a pro at taking blurry pictures, and took a few more.



I quickly ran back to my table and started looking through my cards, worried that I might not have enough time to build my decks because of my silly antics, but from the Shadowmoor tournament pack Rhys the Redeemed and Wilt-Leaf Liege waved and smiled at me, and I happily showed them off to my table. I quickly flipped through the rest of the pile and I was overjoyed to find Scuzzback Marauders and Kitchen Finks in the pile. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any decent removals at all. I tore opened my Eventide packs and hurrah, removals (sort of, I guess) in the form of THREE, yes, three Snakeforms. One each from each pack, and a foil. And the bombs keep rolling in - Creakwood Liege (!), Spitting Image (!!) and a foil Sapling of Colfenor (!!!).

The deck practically built itself as I went for a green base with some white and black random cards to fill in the curve including mimics and random dudes. Happy with my deck, but sadness quickly followed as I sadly remind myself this is once again a time that I crack crazy stuffs for a release or pre-release tournament, but never for a PTQ or GP. The closest I got to good luck in a limited PTQ was this PTQ KL where I had a mediocre sealed narrowly squeaked into the top 8, drafted this awesome Merfolk deck, which I promptly rolled over to wicked, evil Fearies on the first round in the elimination rounds to the eventual winner.

Sigh.

Ah well, pairings’ up, and I’d head up to check it to find out that I’m playing…

Round 1 – Brendan Soo

…who was sitting next to me during deck construction and was shaking his head when I told him I’m playing him.

Game 1 started off with him taking a mulligan, and with a turn 1 Rhys, tokens from Rhys, timely Snakeform, Murderous Redcap, and I believe, some mana issues from my opponent’s side, I quickly took the game home.

Game 2 started with another mulligan from Brendan and with me starting of with another Rhys. Brendan quickly took me down to 10 with Wanderbrine Rootcutters and Glen Elendra Liege as my side of the board being green and grounded, looks on helplessly at the at-that-moment unblockable 5/5 and flying 2/3. I put as much pressure as I could, trying to put my opponent on the defense before he can kill me. The Marauders were extremely helpful, and with my Trow and Quillspike, and the evil combo that is Quillspike + persist creatures, I managed to steal that game for the match win.

We played 3 games for fun after that and he promptly beat me soundly all 3 straight games with well timed combat tricks and well placed spells. I guess we all know now who’s the better player. Thankfully only the first 2 counted for this tournament. Lucky me.


Game on the table next to us
Me: “I hate complex board positions.”
Guy on the left: ”I love complex board positions. :D”

Round 2 – Alvin Chan

Alvin started off with a mulligan and was unfortunately playing a not so well tuned deck which in my humble opinion that wasn’t the best colors in his cardpool. Game 1 was quickly sealed in by my Kitchen Finks and Creakwood Liege and his army of yucky worms. On Alvin’s side, all he had was a Somnomancer on his side of the board who took 2 points off my life.



Game 2 was more or less the same thing – another mulligan from Alvin, a mimic who took 2 life from me, and from my side, an early dude with Creakwood Liege packing it in. I took some time and looked through his cardpool we had a bit of a discussion with him on what colors might be better to play and talk over some cards choices.

Round 3 – Kelvin Han

It was my turn to mulligan, and when I lost the die roll and had to mulligan, I had a feeling I’m going down into some hard times despite sealing in a win on the first game quickly with again another early dude and the Creakwood Liege. Game 2 however was a quite an epic affair with both of us trading dudes and life points with plenty of power on the board. It almost seemed to be a stalemate with me having the upper hand with Creakwood Liege (again) until an Incremental Blight totally destroyed my side of the board, and although I tried to mount a defense, there was little I could do against a Deathbringer Liege and plenty of black spells from Kelvin to send my guys marching into the graveyard.



Game 3 was unfortunate for me as Kelvin drew and played both his Deathbringer Liege and Demigod of Revenge while I was flooded, even though Sapling of Colfenor showed up on my side to help me draw guys, but all I saw was lands after being stuck on 2 lands for a couple of turns. I managed to drop a lot of 4 and 5 casting cost dudes early however, thanks to Devoted Druid. But the game is not to be mine as Demigod of Revenge quickly sent me packing in a few swift blows while Deathbringer Liege sent my only chance of defense – my attempt to go on the offensive, crumbling into ashes.

Round 4 – Mark

Dejected and still stinging from the last lost with what I felt was a monster of a deck; I sat down to play Mark as we battle for the extra booster. (Prizes are given based on points won after 4 rounds.) Game 1 was a quick brutal affair as his red blue monsters stormed in and whacked me silly. Riverfall Mimic with multiple triggers and the almost unblockable Noggle Bandit both enchanted with double Clout of the Dominus = a very soon to be dead opponent.

Game 2 was a slow and steady affair for me. I played threat after threat as I drew them slowly over the turns as Mark drew few business spells and I slowly but steadily took the game.

Game 3, interestingly enough, felt like a mix between game 1 and 2, with Noggle Bandit enchanted with Clout of the Dominus and me playing slow but steady threats. Eventually I managed to put enough pressure on the board to force Noggle Bandit to stay home and play defense, and eventually enough sneaked damage though as a timely removal took away Mark’s blocker for the win while Noggle Bandit was trying to seal up the last 2 swing to finish me off.

There was an interesting story about this new player who didn’t really understood how sealed deck is supposed to be like, but I think I slacked off long enough at work and I really should get back to it before my boss finds out, and I’m almost breaking 1,500 words as it is.

At the end of the day, I came here to grab some free packs, the Figure of Destiny, play Magic and have some fun, which I sure did. However as the block comes to an end, I find myself really hating the 4 set-block and I didn’t quite enjoy Shadowmoor-Eventide as much as I did Lorwyn-Morningtide, despite loving Shadowmoor’s setting way more than Lorwyn’s happy-cheerful brightly colored land. Hope I didn’t bore you guys too much and enjoyed reading my experience playing the Eventide launch party. Hopefully you guys don’t hate my writing too much, and I’ll actually be not lazy about writing a report on the upcoming PTQ Berlin and Malaysian Nationals.

My apologies to all my opponents if I messed up the details and/or your names, I’m sorry if you didn’t like to be mentioned in the report or have your pictures posted. Please contact me at QJ.wong@gmail.com and I’ll remove them as soon as I can. Feel free to send any other forms of complaints over as well. Comments are very appreciated.

Until next time,

Good luck, have fun.

QJ Wong