Magic The Gathering - Malaysia

Here is the last of the GPT Taipei @ Decards top 8 coverage report. Sorry for the really late report. The PTQ Kyoto Top 8 reports are in progress, the writer is really sorry about the delays and how late the reports and can only offer 'busy with other more important commitments' as a shameless excuse.

Decards @ USJ Summit GPT Taipei 2008 - Finals

Clement Lim vs Johan Jamal Yacob



Game 1

Clement wins the dice roll and decides to start first and while he is happy with his opening seven, Johan was not, choosing to mulligan.

Clement makes the first play on his 2nd turn with a Cylian Elf while Johan quickly follows up with a Dregscape Zombie, and although it seems that Johan is ready to trade the 2/2 elf for the 2/1 zombie, Clement clearly is not as he plays Guardians of Akrasa, allowing his elf to attack Johan for 3, taking him down to 17. Johan then plays Dragon Fodder, and using one of the tokens to play Bone Splinters, killing off Clement’s Guardians of Akrasa, clearing the way for Johan’s Dregscape Zombie to attack Clement for 2 taking him down to 18. Clement's elf attacks Johan for another 2, taking him down to 15 while Johan strikes back with his zombie and goblin token, making it even at 15 and plays a Courier's Capsule. An Angelic Benediction joins Clement's side of the board, allowing him to even up the damage race, attacking for 3 with his elf. Johan attacks for another 3 as well, sacrifices his Capsule to draw two card and plays a Grixis Battlemage.



Clement, although light on plays whole game long, just keeps attacking for another 3 taking Johan down to 9, tapping the Grixis Battlemage on it's way with the Benediction, before adding a Rakeclaw Gargantuan to put pressure on Johan. Johan has the solution however, and he plays a Bloodpyre Elemental which gets sacrifices immediately to kill the Gargantuan, before attacking Clement down to a threatening 7. Unperturbed, Clement simply plays a Court Archers, and takes Johan down to 5 with his 4/4 elf, thanks to Exalted.


Clement Lim

Facing imminent defeat, Johan fights back, drawing and discarding a card with Grixis Battlemage, before playing Caldera Hellion, sacrificing all of his creatures to make a 6/6 Hellion, while clearing Clement's side of the board. All Clement could do was to play a Wild Nacatl with just one card in hand as his passes his turn. But Johan has an Agony Wrap to deal with the potential blocker, and he unearths his Dregscape Zombie to have enough lethal damage to put the game away along with the 6/6 Hellion, and Clement with nothing useful in the hand, could only scoop up his cards.

Johan 1 – 0 Clement

Game 2

Clement chooses to start again and both players are happy with their opening 7 and they're off to what Johan would hope to be the last game of the tournament.

After several turns of land-go, Clement tried to Excommunicate Johan's Swamp before realizing his mistake, inciting a round of laughter from all around. Johan then made the first real play of the game with a Death Baron, which promptly gets Excommunicated, as Clement's aggressive deck struggles to get the action started. Johan simply replays the Death Baron, which is followed by a Guardians of Akrasa from Clement. A Corpse Connoisseur from Johan builds up pressure for Clement as Johan searches and puts a Dregscape Zombie into the graveyard. Clement simply passes his turn doing nothing.



Johan trying to take advantage of Clement's inaction, unearthed his 2/1 Zombie, and plays Scourge Devil before attacking with his pumped up army, but the Corpse Connoisseur meets a Resounding Silence, putting away any further unearthing shenanigans Johan might have. His Guardians blocks the Baron, fearing the zombie's deathtouch ability given by the Baron. Clement passes his turn again, and Johan attacks with his Devil and Baron before playing a Dragon Fodder, taking Clement down to 14 to Johan's 20. A Bloodpyre Elemental takes away Clement's sole blocker, and Johan attack further criples Clement, taking him down to 7. Clement only plays a Thoctar (5G 5/5 1R abilty)for defence, but all it takes for Johan to seal the game away was a Bone Splinters, giving him a clear path to victory.

Johan 2 – 0 Clement

Johan Jamal Yacob wins the GPT Taipei beating Clement Lim 2-0!