Magic The Gathering - Malaysia

There was 8.

But now only 4 remain – out of the surviving 8, another 4 has fallen and only 2 other players will be standing in the way of the for all 4 players from the chance to play in Pro Tour Kyoto 2009.


The view of 1-Stop Midlands Park, Penang from the 4th floor near the tournament venue

Both Vincent Gan and Yau Mun Yip are veterans of the game and well known amongst the PTQ regulars. With numerous Pro Tour appearances and countless PTQ top 8s between the two of them, there is no bigger match-up possible among the top 8 players of the tournament. Both players dispatched their quarterfinals opponents with great ease within minutes in a couple of quick and brutal games.



Vincent Gan has drafted a very aggressive Naya deck with a great mana curve, chocked full of quality creatures with double Steward of Valeron and Drumhunter who can accelerate Vincent into his double Mosstodon, double Jungle Weaver and double Rockcaster Platoon along with double Naya Battlemage to support and mess up combat steps for the opponent while quality removals like double Branching Bolt, Oblivion Ring and Resounding Silence rounds up Vincent's deck's highlights.

Yau Mun Yip might have been initially unhappy with his draft deck, but after easily dispatching Mohd Ikmal in his quarterfinals match with monsters after monsters, he might be having second thoughts how his wild 4-color concoction could be quite the monster after all as Realm Razer, Mycoloth, Rafiq of the Many prove to be extremely loyal to him as they keep showing up game after game to put his opponents away with ease.

PTQ Kyoto @ Penang November 23 2008 - Semifinals
Vincent Gan vs Yau Mun Yip


Vincent Gan

As the two players shuffled up their decks in preparation for their semifinals match, 4 other players still battle on around them in their quarterfinals matches. A sound testament about the two players' playing skills and their decks' raw power.

Game 1

Yau Mun Yip won the dice roll and choose to start. A first turn Akrasan Squire was quite a surprise for Mun Yip's spectators as his first creatures for the last two games were a turn 4 Rafiq of the Many and a turn 5 Mycoloth. The Squire hits in early for 2 turns, taking Vincent to 16, while all Vincent had was a Naya Battlemage on his 3rd turn, prompting Mun Yip to hit for another 2 to 14 before the tapper comes online and adds a Cloudheath Drake to his board. Vincent adds a Steward of Valeron to his board and passed his turn while Mun Yip draws a Bull Cerodon which got tapped immediately during the combat phase by Vincent's Naya Battlemage, while taking Vincent down to another 4 to 10 with the Cloudheath Drake. An Oblivion Ring from Vincent deals with 5/5 beast for the moment, leading to an attack from Mun Yip's Squire after his Drake got tapped by Vincent's Battlemage that results into a trade with Vincent's Steward, after which both Yau and Vincent both passes their turns without doing anything.



When Vincent chose not to tap Mun Yip's Drake - Yau throw caution to the winds, and after a moment's consideration, decided not to attack with his 3/3 flyer. A Jungle Weaver comes into play for Vincent and when he passes his turn, Yau quickly cycles his Resounding Wave, targeting Vincent's Jungle Weaver and Naya Battlemage, but upon realizing that he could have bounced Vincent's Oblivion Ring to take back his 5/5 tries to change his targets, but gets a judge call from Vincent instead. Terence ruled that since Mun Yip has clearly announced his initial targets, he can't take it back.

Yau's Drake attacked, takes another chunk off Vincent's dangerously low life totals, and adds a Sighted-Caste Sorcerer and Knight of the Skyward Eye to his board while Vincent only play a Naya Battlemage. Mun Yip sends his army into the red zone, a Resounding Silence takes away the Knight of the Skyward Eye and Vincent plays his Jungle Weaver during his turn but it was all for naught as Mun Yip plays a Naya Charm tapping all of Vincent's potential block at the end of his turn, prompting Vincent to just scoop up his cards and concede.

Yau Mun Yip 1 – Vincent Gan 0


Yau Mun Yip

The players talked about Mun Yip's mistake during the choosing of targets for his cycled ability which led to Mun Yip apologizing to Vincent for wanting to change his targets. The players shuffled up for their next game and soon it was time for what Mun Yip must hope to be the last game of his semifinals.

Game 2

Vincent chose to start first but had to mulligan his opening hand. Another turn 1 Akrasan Squire starts chipping life from Vincent early and he plays a Sacellum Godspeaker to hopefully accelerate into a more explosive start but it meets a Magma Spray immediately to put a end to any possible explosive turn for Vincent. The Squire takes Vincent down to 16 while a Steward of Valeron comes in for Vincent. Choose to keep his Akrasan Squire around, Mun Yip chose not to forge on and instead just adds a Cloudheath Drake to his side of the board. Mun Yip's plan to press on with the Drake however is delayed as Vincent plays Excommunicate on it while building up his board up with a Naya Battlemage and Rockcaster Platoon. Mun Yip as fat of his own as he plays a Yoked Plowbeast while his Drake is kept locked down with Naya Battlemage's tapping ability.



A freshly cast Court Archers allows Mun Yip's Plowbeast to trade with Vincent's Platoon after the 5/5 becomes a 7/7 from his two creatures with exalted while Vincent pumps his Platoon with his Naya Battle to also make it a 7/7.

Having two exalted creatures, Mun Yip, convinced that he has a lead in board position, plays his Realm Razer to hopefully steal the game away from Vincent. He takes him down to 9 but Vincent found a plains to stem most of the bleeding from Realm Razer as Naya Battlemage's tapping ability comes online. Mun Yip's Drake keeps getting locked down as Mun Yip held back Realm Razer to fearing to lose it to Vincent and giving him back all his lands. He slowly chips Vincent down to 6 with his Archer who attacks as a 3/5 all of the time thanks to double exalted. Meanwhile Vincent keep drawing his lands and soon Realm Razer's ability did more to affect Mun Yip more than Vincent.



When Yau pressed on again with his Archers however, a Branching Bolt kills off his Drake and Archers with exalted on the stack to turn the tables around. Now that the Realm Razer can be locked down by Vincent's Battlemage, Vincent pressed on as hard now that he has the better board position as he keep drawing lands after lands, negating the effect brought on by Realm Razer while Mun Yip fail to draw into his mana sources. Vincent's Drumhunter piles up the damage while Mun Yip is forced to trade his Squire with Vincent's Steward. Vincent adds a Sight-Caste Sorcerer to hasten Mun Yip's clock with him just standing at only 11 life left. Mun Yip finally found a land, and plays a Knight of the Skyward Eye off the land and his Obelisk which ended up trading with Vincent's Drumhunter.

With Yau at 5 and Vincent at 6, it could be anyone's game now as Yau finally finds his 2nd land and 3rd mana source along with his Obelisk but he simply passed his turn doing nothing, even as Vincent's Battlemage tapped his Realm Razer while Vincent's Sorcerer his him for 4 with the Battlemage's +2/+0 ability and exalted to take Mun Yip to 1, and it was as if the match was about to go into game 3.



But as Vincent passes his turn, Mun Yip bounces his Realm Razer with his Resounding Wave, getting back all his lands, untaps, plays a Rafiq of the Many and a Bull Cerodon, attacking for 12 damage with just one creature to win the game at just a single life remaining.

Yau Mun Yip 2 – Vincent Gan.0

Yau Mun Yip advances into the finals beating Vincent Gan 2-0!

In the meantime, Mohd Afiq Mohd Nasir and Wearn Chong won their respective quarterfinals matches and now have to play each other in their own semifnals to decide who will be playing against Yau Mun Yip for the tournament title and the invite and return flight ticket to Pro Tour: Kyoto.