Magic The Gathering - Malaysia

The writer can be contacted for feedback at qj.wong@gmail.com or here.

GPT Singapore @ Decards January 11 2009 – Finals
Alex Kuan vs Ong Joe Lin



Alex is playing All-In Red, a deck to be feared for the ability to produce a really frightening board on the first or second turn. Not many decks can deal with a first turn Deus of Calamity – most decks are better off to simply concede the game rather than to reveal the contents of the deck.

Meanwhile Joe Lin’s Elves have been tearing up the metagame in the storm which was Pro Tour Berlin, a massively successful creature-combo deck is probably the fastest combo deck in the format today, relying on Heritage Druid or Birchlore Ranger and Nettle Sentinel to generate vast amounts of mana to keep churning out elves while being fueled by Glimpse of Nature which would more likely than not provide the player with even more elves to play, ultimately finishing players off with a Grapeshot or a similar storm spell riding on the number of spells casted, Predator Dragon to make a huge attack in one go, or Mirror Entity to make the player’s army grow into the size big enough for a lethal combat step.

Game 1


Ong Joe Lin

Alex won the crucial dice roll for the format and chose to start first with his All-In Red playing against Joe Lin's Elves.

Both players checked out their opening hands with trepidation – as whichever deck to ‘go off’ first are more likely to win, when both decks’ nature are put into consideration. Alex is unhappy with his first 2 opening hands but decided to keep his 5-card hand. Joe Lin cringed as he took mulligan to go down to 4 cards settling with a Forest, Glimpse of Nature, Cord of Calling and Elvish Visionary.

As Alex played his 2nd land, Joe Lin shouted out “Chotto!” which meant 'wait' or 'slow down' in Japanese, begging Alex in jest to not ‘go off’ just yet, which fortunately for Joe Lin, was the case.

Alex himself shouted out the same word as well as Joe Lin played his second land, a Horizon Canopy, before playing an Elvish Visionary who drew him a card.


Alex Kuan

A 3rd turn Blood Moon from Alex rendered Joe Lin's Horizon Canopy useless as Joe Lin played a Nettle Sentinel before attacking Alex for 1 with his Visionary. Alex however has nothing for this 4th turn except another Mountain, but a Glimpse of Nature fueled turn allowed Joe Lin to churn out a long chain of elves all while drawing a card with a Heritage Druid, Wirewood Hivemaster, Llanowar Elves, Birchlore Rangers, got Insect tokens through the Hivemaster, before he played Chord of Calling to get a Wirewood Symbiote, which was used immediately to return the Elvish Visionary into his hand while untapping another elf to do more mana generating with the Heritage Druid and drawing more cards.



A second Glimpse of Nature is played and Joe Lin then draws 3 cards off the Visionary with the 2 Glimpse effects and from the Visionary itself, before another Birchlore Ranger hits play for more cards for Joe Lin. A Summoner's Pact searched up another Wirewood Symbiote which is played to draw another more cards and more return into hand and replayed for more cards shenanigans.

Joe Lin then however ended his chain of spells, mana burned for 1 before attacking for 2 with Nettle Sentinel while Alex quickly played a Arc-Slogger before passing his turn.



Joe Lin untaps his massive army of elves and insect tokens, made sure that he paid for the Summoner's Pact mana he 'owed' earlier before untapping his elves, played a Mirror Entity, attacked with almost all his creatures, made all of his creatures 1/1 elves with his Mirror Entity before making them 6/6 with the Entity along with many of the now elves insect tokens contributing mana via Heritage Druid's ability.



Ong Joe Lin 1 – Alex Kuan 0

Game 2

Alex, choosing to go first, started off the game with 2 mountains in a row without doing anything, which gave Joe Lin quite a surprise as he led off with a Llanowar Elves and a Burrenton Forge-Tender. A Wirewood Symbiote from Joe Lin is quickly killed off with a Dead // Gone, using the Dead part of the card from Alex. The Llanowar Elves and Forge-Tender hits in for 2 before an Elvish Visionary entered play for Joe Lin drawing him a card, while Alex had nothing for his following turn. Right after that however, Joe Lin attacked with all 3 of his 1/1 creatures, taking Alex down another 3 before playing an Wirewood Hivemaster, followed by a Nettle Sentinel.

The Alex has a big turn that he started off by removing Simian Spirit Guide from the game for an extra red mana, tapped his 2 mountains, played two Seething Songs, followed by a Flamebreak which Joe Lin responded by sacrificing and using his Forge-Tender's ability to prevent the Flamebreak's damage ability, but Alex has a second Flamebreak to kill off all of Joe Lin's creatures.



Joe Lin attempted to rebuild with another Burrenton Forge-Tender and a Nettle Sentinel before another Dead // Gone from Alex killed off the Sentinel. Alex followed up with a Chalice of the Void for 1 before Joe Lin sacrificed his Horizon Canopy to draw a card before attacking Alex with the Forge-Tender setting up a 9-turn clock that threatens to kill off Alex 1 damage by 1.



Meanwhile, Alex, unhappy with the cards he's drawing, showing the audience a Rites of Flames from his hand. The Forge-Tender kept chipping Alex's life totals down point by point before he finally drew another land to hit 4 mana to play his Empty the Warrens for 2 1/1 Goblin tokens before an Arc-Slogger showed up the turn after as Alex found his 5th land.

Alex attacked with his army, making Joe Lin take 6 before playing a Chrome Mox, imprinting a Rites of Flame with it, storming out an extra 2 1/1 tokens with his Empty the Warrens.



With a Chord of Calling, Joe Lin managed to sneak in a Nettle Sentinel under the Chalice of the Void's effect before playing a Summoner's Pact to search and play a Viridian Shaman, destroying the Chalice of the Void which allowed him to play a Wirewood Symbiote. Alex hits Joe Lin for 2 with his Arc-Slogger's ability, removing the top 10 cards of his library from the game before attacking with all this creatures and despite all the creatures Joe Lin has to block the tokens, Alex has enough cards left in his library and the mana to finish off Joe Lin with the Arc-Slogger.



Ong Joe Lin 1 – Alex Kuan 1

Game 3

Joe Lin, opting to go first, cringed at his opening 7 before settling on 6 but Alex is also unhappy with his opening 7, and had to settle for his 6 card hand.

A Birchlore Ranger led off the game for Joe Lin followed by a Wirewood Symbiote who gets killed off by a Dead // Gone immediately, using the Dead side of the card. Alex drew for his turn, and after spending some time thinking about his options, which was surprising, as for almost the entire match it has always been his opponent who spent a lot of time thinking between taking action.

The reason became clear as Alex was considering whether or not to go 'All-In' on that very turn as he played out his entire hand with a Rites of Flame, Seething Song, Chrome Mox and a Chalice of the Void for zero, setting up for 10 1/1 Goblin tokens with Empty the Warrens.



Undaunted, Joe Lin played a glimpse, draws some cards with with a bunch of elves and Burrenton Forge-Tenders before ending the streak. Alex then attacked Joe Lin to just 4 life left before Joe Lin played a Chord of Calling for a Mirror Entity at the end of Alex's turn.

The Mirror Entity proved would then be Alex's undoing as the following turn, Joe Lin attacks with his creatures, hesitating as Alex Kuan paused and thought before moving into the damage step, but makes all of his creatures large anyway which Alex could do nothing about, giving Joe Lin the game and match win and the 3-round byes for GP Singapore.



Ong Joe Lin 2 – Alex Kuan 1

Ong Joe Lin wins the GPT, defeating Alex Kuan 2 - 1!