Magic The Gathering - Malaysia

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The quarterfinals were over.

Zac Hill, Chen Tze Kang, Mohd Hafiz Mokhtaruddin and Nur Effendy Shahabudin all made it through 6 grueling rounds of play and a brutal elimination round.

But only one can be champion.

PTQ Kyoto @ KL/PJ December 14 2008 – Semifinals
Zac Hill vs Chen Tze Kang

Game 1

Zac chose to draw first and both players were happy with their opening hands.

Chen led off with 2 tri-colored lands in a row but Zac led the action with a Cylian Elf. Chen had a Sprouting Thrinax however, forcing Zac to hold back his Elf and instead just build his mana base with an Obelisk. Chen dropped a Rhox Charger which allowed him to hit Zac for 4 with the now 4/4 Thrinax thanks to the Charger's Exalted ability. On the following turn however, Zac was quick to kill off the Charger with his Bloodpyre Elemental, sacrificing it immediately to use the ability on the Charger before attacking Chen for 2 with his Cylian Elf. Chen then strike back for another 3 with this Thrinax, taking Zac to 13 before adding to his hand a Skeletal Kathari and an Arcane Sanctum from the Gift of the Gargantuan he cast next. Zac then went the offense with a Bull Cerodon hitting Chen for 7 with the 5/5 and his 2/2 elf. Chen then played his Skeletal Kathari but held back his Sprouting Thrinax. Zac chose to hold back his army as well on his turn but Chen then started to chip Zac's life totals off from the air with his 3/2 flying Kathari, that took Zac down to 10.



Chen then added a Fire-field Ogre to his side of the board after which Zac cracked his 2 panoramas who have been hanging around on his side of the board for a while now before Chen dropped an Arcane Sanctum that caused some confusion from the players, as Zac thought that Chen has passed his turn after the Ogre, which was the reason why he cracked his panoramas but Chen asserted that he thought Zac was doing his actions in response to the Fire-field Ogre he cast.

Zac who seemed to be unwilling to drag the game down unnecessarily let the issue slide as he attacked on the following turn with his 5/5 alone which got blocked by Chen's Sprouting Thrinax that gave him 3 1/1 saproling tokens at it's death. Zac then took a little time to considers his options before playing a Fire-field Ogre of his own.



Chen then played Blightning on Zac to hit him down to 7 and forcing him to discard 2 cards before hitting Zac with his Kathari for another 3 damage to take him down to 4. Zac attacked on his following turn with his Cerodon again but all it achieve was to kill off one of Chen's saproling token. Zac then played his Elspeth, Knight-Errant and made a 1/1 soldier token but Chen has an Outrider of Jhess to allow his 3/2 Kathari flyer deal the lethal 4 damage to finish off Zac.

Chen Tze Kang 1 – Zac Hill 0

Game 2

Zac chose to draw again and both players again were happy with their opening hands.


Chen Tze Kang

Zac started off fast and furious with a turn 1 Wild Nacatl and turn 2 plains made it a 2/2 to take 2 damage off Chen to go down to 18. Chen took some time to consider before playing a Grixis Panorama and passed his turn. Zac has a Court Archers that allowed his Wild Nacatl to attack for 3 to take Chen down to 15 while all Chen could do was to crack his panorama for a swamp. Chen continued to build his mana base with an Obelisk of Naya which is taken advantage of as Zac continued his attack with his 1/3 Human Archer and 2/2 Cat Warrior who took Chen down to 12 before adding an Esper Panorama to his side of the board.



Chen played a Savage Lands and finally played a creature in the form of a Mosstodon to his side of the board. Zac cracked his Esper panorama for an Island, drew for his turn before playing a Forest and then attacked with just his 2/2 Cat Warrior, which became a 3/3 from the Archer's Exalted ability, went unblocked and took Chen down to 9. Chen takes a huge chunk off Zac's life totals as his 5/3 hit Zac for 5 to take him down to 15 before A Gift of the Gargantuan gave Chen a Stoic Angel that got cast immediately. Zac then played an Oblivion Ring to deal with Chen's Stoic Angel, sent his Cat Warrior to chip another 3 life off Chen to leave him hanging dangerously at 6. Chen then attacked for another 5 to take Zac down to 10 with his 5/3 but passed his turn without doing anything.



Zac noted that his opponent had 7 mana open and 4 cards in hand before drawing for his turn and thought for a while before attacking with his 3/3 Cat (with exalted). Chen tapped 3 mana, played Grixis Charm, choosing to just bounce his Wild Nacatl instead of attempting to kill it with the -4/-/4 ability, perhaps fearing a pump spell from Zac. Before ending his turn however, Zac decided to play his Agony Wrap to kill off Chen's Mosstodon before replaying his Wild Nacatl. A Skeletal Kathari came into play for Chen and had to face an attacking 2/4 Court Archers from Zac that went unblocked as Chen went to 4.



Zac then added a Carrion Thrash to his side of the board to maintain pressure on Chen. Chen then played another tri-colored land before playing an Archdemon of Unx as he held his Kathari back, fighting to survive. A Grixis Charm from Zac killed off his Kathari and when Zac decided to attack with his whole army, Chen just scooped up his cards for the 3rd game.

Chen Tze Kang 1 – Zac Hill 1

Game 3

As Chen chose to draw this game and both players took some time to consider their openng hands before decided to keep.


Zac Hill

Zac opened the game with another Wild Nacatl, quickly took Chen down another 2 again with a Plains on turn 2. The Cat Warrior took Chen to 16 while all Chen did was to play lands for 3 straight turns. On Zac's next turn, he cracked his panorama for a Mountain to make the Cat Warrior a 3/3 but Chen has a Resounding Thunder to stop the bleeding. Zac simply passed his turn while Chen dropped a Fire-Field Ogre into play. Zac decided then to play an Oblivion Ring to remove the 4/2 first striker from the game after which Chen followed up with a Carrion Thrash. Zac played a Carrion Thrash of his own which died blocking Chen's Carrion Thrash when it attacked on Chen's following turn, but not before Zac took a little time to check that Chen's graveyard was empty. Chen however cycled his Jungle Reaver, then paid 2 mana to get it back as it hit the graveyard with the Thrash's ability. Zac played a Necrogenesis, but Chen has enough mana to play his Jungle Reaver. Zac made a 1/1 saproling creature token before devouring the 1/1 token with a Tar Fiend, making it a 6/6, forcing Chen to discard a card. Chen attacked with his Jungle Reaver, and Zac moved his Tar Fiend towards the Reaver but hesitated, took note of Chen's open mana but then decided to block the 5/6 anyway. Chen then played Infest to finish off the Tar Fiend before playing a Skeletal Kathari.

Zac simply played Blightning on Chen forcing him to discard the Stoic Angel he had in his hand. Then, Chen's 3/2 flyer attacked Zac for 4 damage, thanks to the newly joined Rhox Charger, dropping Zac to 16 as Zac played his Qasali Ambusher for free but chose not the block with it and made 2 1/1 saproling creature tokens. A Grixis Charm killed off the Charger and Zac attacked Chen for 4 with his 2/3 and 2 1/1 tokens. Chen untapped, drew for his turn, took a look at his graveyard, and took some time to think his play through before playing a Scourge Devil.



Zac made another 2 1/1 tokens as Chen passed his turn before mulling over his options. He then played and sacrificed his Bloodpyre Elemental to kill off Chen's Devil and his 4 saproling tokens attacked Chen taking him down to 6 as Chen's Kathari blocked a token before Zac removed his Devil from the game with his Necrogenesis for another 1/1 saproling token.



Elspeth comes in for Zac and he used the +3/+3 and flying ability on one of his saproling tokens and attacked with all of his creatures, taking Chen down to 3 as he blocked the flying token with his Skeletal Kathari and the Ambusher with his newly cast Outrider of Jhess, sacrificing the Outrider to regenerate his Kathari but when he knew he had no answer for the incoming onslaught from Zac, Chen conceded the match giving way to Zac to advance into the finals.

Chen Tze Kang 1 – Zac Hill 2

Zac Hill advanced to the finals winning the semifinals defeating Chen Tze Kang 2 - 1!