Magic The Gathering - Malaysia

The writer is very apologetic about the really late reports, but a broken down PC has hindered efforts to release the reports as soon as possible. RM500 in replacement parts and many days later, the writer can finally publish the first of several coverage reports. He sincerely hopes that everyone will enjoy reading the top 8 coverage reports, late as it may be.

More to come as soon as possible!

In what looks to be the most prolific quarterfinals matchup, two very well known players goes heads up in the first of three brutal elimination rounds, where the loser gets only consolation booster packs that are worth next to nothing, compared to the return flight ticket to Pro Tour: Kyoto, or the 375USD prize money.



Vincent Gan, very well known local player, just came back from an unfortunately poor performance at Pro Tour: Berlin, is perhaps ready to make amends with yet another Pro Tour. On the other end of the table sits Nico Surindran, who's most recent highest profile finish was at the 2008 Nationals at 4th place. Vincent drafted an aggressive Jund based deck with many removals while Nico drafted an Esper-based deck headlined by a Scourglass and plenty of card drawing and other cards with card advantage generating effects.

PTQ Kyoto @ Manawerx November 9 2008 - Quarterfinals
Nico Surinidran vs Vincent Gan

Both players lament about the draft and their picks both thinking that they have little chance beyond the the quarters. Vincent Gan won the dice roll and chose to start first.

Game 1

Vincent starts off the game with a Dragon Fodder on his turn 2 and attacks for 2 with his 2 1/1 goblin tokens while Nico only has lands to play as Vincent doubles his number of tokens with another Dragon Fodder. A Knight of the White Orchid comes in for Nico, hoping to stop the bleed, but Vincent pushes damage through as a Resounding Thunder kills off the potential blocker and road bump for his offence, hitting Nico for another 4, taking him down to 14.

A deft duelist joins Nico's side of the board while Vincent adds a Skeletal Kathari to his side of the board. While Etherium Sculptor and Tower Gargoyle joins the fray for Nico as the brawl looks set to get ugly. But unfortunately for Nico, Vincent has a Bone Splinters to deal with the potentially game breaking 4/4 flyer. Vincent then plays a Thorn-Thrash Viashino devours a token and becomes a 4/4 while his 3/2 flyer attacks into Nico to take him to 11.


Vincent Gan

Things are not looking good for Nico but he calmly played a Scourglass forcing a desperation attack from Vincent as he attacks with all his creatures before they all get blown up, but taking down Nico to a very precarious 5 life. A lone Sculptor survived for Nico while a Fleshbag Marauder forces Vincent to sacrifice his Skeletal Kathari that he regenerated from the Scourglass while Nico gladly trades off his Sculptor.

The Fleshbag takes first blood from Vincent to take him to 17, while a Skeletonize tries to hit the Fleshbag but Nico bounces it with a Resounding Wave before a Grixis Battlemage joins Vincent's board. An Esper Charm draws Nico 2 cards before he replays his Fleshbag who eats up Vincent's Battlemage and itself. Nico then plays a Courier's Capsule and draws another 2 cards from it. Almost at the brink of defeat, Nico is now greatly refueled and a Vectis Silencers and Metallurgeon joins Nico and they attack Vincent for 2 while he's running on empty. A Dregscape Zombie from Vincent tries to deal with the Silencers but he Metallurgeon regenerates it. Vincent then unearths it, attacks for 2, to take Nico down to just 3, and tries to kill the Metallurgeon with a Bone Splinters but Nico has a Hindering Light to spoil Vincent's plan. A Blood Cultist and later on, a Court Archers shows up for Vincent as he tries to make a come back and steal the game.

Nico attacks with his Silencers and while Vincent blocks with the Arches, the Silencers gets regenerated by the Metallurgeon while the Cultist gets a +1/+1 token from using the ability on the dying Archers as Nico uses the Silencers’ deathtouch ability. A Tar Fiend joins Vincent's board and Nico is forced to lay his troops back as he fears of a sudden lose as his Executioner's Capsule can only look on helplessly at Vincent's black army.



A Sculptor is added to the board for Nico it doesn't change the board position until a Filigree Sages shows up for Nico, allowing Nico to attack with a creature while having more than enough creatures for defense and the option to untap the attacker. Another Grixis Battlemage for is played by Vincent threatens to topple Nico's board position, but Nico simply just presses on with the Silencers, taking another point off Vincent's life totals to 10 as he slowly is bled to death. Nico draws and then plays an Oblivion Ring getting rid of the 4/4 Tar Fiend, giving Nico more breathing space and he attacks with his Sages and Silencers while Vincent blocks the creatures with his Cultist and Battlemage but an Agony Wrap messes up with Vincent's combat math.



Nico then plays a Knight Captain of Eos and Vincent is slowly losing his grip on the game. A Rip-Clan Crasher joins his board which blocked the Knight Captain as Nico attacks with his whole army. Vincent rubs hard for an answer and slam the card hard for an solution to his impending doom but it was to no avail.

Nico 1 – Vincent 0

Game 2

Vincent Gan chooses to play and both players start off happy with their opening 7.

Vincent starts off the game with a Manaplasm while Nico has an Esper Battlemage which promptly gets killed by a Resounding Thunder which allowed Vincent's Manaplasm to get in for 4 damage taking Nico down to 16. A Silencers shows up for Nico's side while Vincent takes his time to consider his options before settling on playing a Grixis Battlemage and Executioner's Capsule to attack Nico hard with a 5/5 Manaplasm, but Nico opts to send his Silencers to block the monster despite not having the mana to activate his deathtouch ability and lays a a Tower Gargoyle on his following turn.


Nico Surinidran

A Blood Cultist comes for Vincent and his Manaplasm attacks again and this time Nico opts not to defend himself from the 4/4 with his Gargoyle. A Scourglass his following turn explains why Nico is reluctant to trade the Manaplasm with the artifact 4/4 flyer and Vincent now has a difficult decision to make. He decides to go for it playing a Rip-Clan Crasher, make the Tower Gargoyle being unable to block by his Grixis Battlemage, and attacks in for the maximum damage he can do before his board gets blown up by the Scourglass, which eventually does allowing Nico's Gargoyle to attack for 4, with Vincent now at 16 to Nico's 6. Vincent plays a Dragon Fodder and Elvish Visionary as he tries to rebuild and decides to use his Executioner's Capsule on Nico's newly played Knight of the White Orchid. A Skeletal Kathari tries to help Vincent stabilize but Nico cycles his Resounding Wave, bouncing off Vincent's 3/2 flyer and dissolving a token.

A Filigree Sages comes in and an Oblivion Ring deals with Vincent's Kathari and it seems all but over for Vincent but he as he draws his card for the turn, laughs, and chides Nico for leaving himself open at a very low life count.

He looks at his card, laughs and taps all his land...

and concedes, showing Nico the Rip-Clan Crasher he just drew.

Nico 2 – Vincent 0

Nico Surinidran wins the Quarterfinals beating Vincent Gan 2-0!