Magic The Gathering - Malaysia

PTQ Kyoto @ Penang November 23 2008 - Semifinals
Wearn Chong vs Mohd Afiq Mohd Nasir


The top 8 draft

As the accomplished veterans battled for a seat in the finals, Wearn Chong and Mohd Afiq Mohd Nasir triumphed over their respective quarterfinals and now have to play against each other to see who gets to fight against Mun Yip for the ever elusive invite.

Game 1

Wearn wins the dice roll and elects to start first. Wearn mulls over his hand, and saying that he's tempted but decides to mulligan. Mohd Afiq decides to mulligan as well but ends up with a 5 card starting hand after being unhappy about his 6 card hand..

Afiq misses his 2nd land drop while Wearn plays a Jund Battlemage that meets a Magma Spray immediately. A Naya Panorama comes in for Afiq and it goes for a forest while Wearn plays a Scavenger Drake. A Rip-Clan Crasher comes in for Afiq, but he missed another land drop, as he hits Wearn for 2 to take him to 18, while Wearn's Drake hits Afiq for 1 after which Wearn adds a rarely played Minion Reflector to his side of the board. Afiq plays a Dragon's Herald that invoked some chatter among the spectators who discussed about the possibility of Afiq having the Mythic rare that the herald can find.



Meanwhile, Wean plays a Drumhunter who triggers the Minion Reflector, which allowed Wearn to attack Afiq with the 2/2 Drumhunter token and Drake, taking Afiq to 16 after which Wearn's Drake gets a +1/+1 from the token who has to be sacrificed at end of turn. Wearn plays a a Cavern Thoctar, triggering the Minion Reflector again, allowing Wearn to attack Afiq into 9, pumping his Drake by another +1/+1 counter and drawing a card from Drumhunter at end his turn, pulling the game further away for Afiq. When a Mosstodon comes in for Wearn, Afiq goes down to 1 from the resulting attack and the game was as good as over despite him having double Resounding Roar to kill off Wearn's 5/5 beast. Afiq could not draw anything and is forced to just scoop up his cards for game 2.

Wearn Chong 1 – Mohd Afiq Mohd Nasir 0

Game 2


Mohd Afiq Mohd Nasir

Afiq is on the play and he cracks his Panorama on turn 2 for a Rip-Clan Crasher on his following turn, getting in for 2 while the only action from the other side of the board was only an Obelisk. An Elvish Visionary followed the Crasher while it swung in for another 2 to take Wearn down to 16, while adding a Goblin Mountaineer. All Wearn has is a Viscera Dragger and Afiq untapped and attacked with all his creatures, and Wearn chose to block the 2/2 Crasher with his 3/3 Dragger, it meets a Resounding Roar, giving it +3/+3, killing off the Dragger while his remaining 2 1/1s took Wearn down to 14.

Wearn untapped, took some time to consider his options, and decided to play a Jund Battlemage after which he unearthed his 3/3 Dragger who took Afiq to 17 who just cracked his panorama and untapped before sending all of his creatures into the red zone. Wearn's Battlemage took care of Afiq's Elvish Visionary but took 3 to go to 11. Afiq then plays a Thorn-Thrash Viashino who preferring to keep his mountain-walker alive, just devours his Rip-Clan Crasher to become a 4/4.


Wearn Chong
Wearn passed his turn doing nothing while Afiq lays a Lightning Talons on his 4/4 Viashino before attacking with both his creatures - a 1/1 mountain-walker and a 7/4 Viashino with first strike and trample if he activates his viashino's ability. Wearn takes some time to consider his play and after some deliberation, chose to block the 7/4 first striker with his 2/2 Battlemage. With first strike damage on the stack after Afiq assigned 2 damage to the Battlemage, and 5 to Wearn after giving it trample, Wearn played a Jund Charm to put 2 +1/+1 counter on the Battlemage, surviving first strike combat damage, and killing of the 7/4, took 6 damage from Afiq's attack but killed off his most dangerous threat with a brilliant play.

The Battlemage made a 1/1 saproling token at the end of Afiq's turn and forged ahead as he goes to the offensive, taking both his creatures into combat knocking his opponent down to 12 with his 4/4 Battlemage and 1/1 token despite sitting dangerously low on health at 4 before a Carrion Thrash joins his growing army. Afiq found and played his Necrogenesis which causes Wearn to pause to consider again before pressing on anyway, taking another 5 life from Afiq to drop him to 7 from the 4/4 Battlemage and 1/1 token again while Afiq used Necrogenesis's ability to make a 1/1 token who chump blocked Wearn's 4/4 Carrion Trash. Wearn continued to pile pressure on Afiq with a Skeletal Kathari as Afiq kept pushing his Goblin Mountaineer into combat to try to steal the game from Wearn before bolstering his defense with a Cylian Elf and Goblin Deathraiders.



Another critical possible combat phase causes Wearn to consider the possible combat outcomes again but he presses ahead anyway, and all Afiq could do was to prevent his death by sending his creatures into the way of Wearn's 2 4/4s but could do nothing about the flying 3/2, who takes him down to 4.

Afiq was barely hanging on despite being just 2 life points short away from victory with a 1/1 mountain-walker, untapped his cards, and drew what he hope to be a game winner...

...but failed to find anything useful or capable to delay his inevitable demise and thus conceding the game and match to Wearn.

Wearn Chong 2 – Mohd Afiq Mohd Nasir 0

Wearn Chong wins his semifinals match to advance into the finals beating Mohd Afiq Mohd Nasir 2-0!