Magic The Gathering - Malaysia

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

GPT Singapore @ CCEGAMES January 18 2009 - Semifinals
Zac Hill vs Matthew Wong

Game 1



Matthew won the dice roll but immediately chose to mulligan – after taking some time to consider his 6 card hand, he decided to mulligan it as well to a 5 card hand.

Matthew started off the game with a Bitterblossom on his 2nd turn but Zac had a Spell Snare for it and as Matthew passed his turn; Zac cracked his Flooded Strand which is responded with Matthew cracking his own Flooded Strand, quickly followed by a Vendilion Clique which took away Zac's Vedalken Shackles.

Zac then followed up with just another fetch land before Matthew beat Zac to 16 with his Clique while his Polluted Delta took him to 15 while Matthew sat tight on 17.



A Mutavault entered play for Zac before Matthew sent his Clique into the red zone to take Zac down to 12 and passed his turn without any plays. Zac then played Thirst for Knowledge at the end of Matthew's turn which Matthew took some time to consider before allowing it to resolve.

Zac then played an Engineered Explosives for 3 which was allowed to resolve before another swing with the Clique took Zac to 9. Zac then played Life from the Loam, which allowed Zac to bring back his 2 fetch lands which allowed Zac to play one of them right away. When Matthew tried to attack with his 3/1 Clique again, Zac had enough of it and sacrificed and used his Explosives' ability, which caused Matthew to take some time to ponder before returning the faerie wizard to his hand with his Riptide Laboratory. Zac searched for another land with his fetch land before playing another, and then he followed it up by playing a Glen Elendra Archmage which resolved unopposed.



Matthew has nothing for his turn again while Zac played another Mutavault and the end of the turn, Matthew tried to replay his Vendilion Clique which is responded with a Spellstutter Sprite, which in turn met a Spell Snare, but Zac then sacrificed and used his Archmage's ability to make sure that the Clique gets countered by his Sprite.

Zac then went on the offense, sending his now 1/1 Archmage, and Mutavault into the red zone. Before blockers Matthew tried to play a Spellstutter Sprite of his own, but it got countered by Zac's Sprite of his own, but a Smother on Zac's animated Mutavault resulted in Zac taking down Matthew to just 13.



An Umezawa's Jitte is destroyed with an Ancient Grudge from Zac before Zac's army of 1/1s took 3 off Matthew to 10. Matthew then suspended an Ancestral Vision on his own turn before Zac played Gifts Ungiven which is used to find a Vedalken Shackles, Academy Ruins, Umezawa's Jitte and a Riptide Laboratory. Matthew took quite some time to consider before deciding to give Zac the lands.

Zac then sacrificed another fetch land, taking himself to 6 before playing his newly obtained Academy ruins and sending his 3 1/1s faeries to take Matthew to 7. Another Archmage entered play for Zac and with open mana from Zac, Matthew appeared to be further locked down. Matthew then played an Bitterblossom which Zac did nothing to before Zac's army of faeries took Matthew to 2.



Matthew then tried to play Mistbind Clique, Zac was ready with a Mana Leak. Matthew then dropped to 1 from his Bitterblossom, netting him a 1/1 Faerie, and when a last attempt to regain control of the game from Matthew as he played another Mistbind Clique got countered by Zac's Spellstutter Sprite, Matthew scooped up his cards to move on to game 2.

Zac Hill 1 - Matthew Wong 0

Game 2

Matthew started off the game with a untapped Watery Grave, paying the 2 life in order to Thoughtseize, to go down to 16 from the spell, forcing Zac to discard his Gifts Ungiven before an Extirpate from Matthew on his following turn took all of Zac's Gifts Ungiven away from the game.



Meanwhile Zac played back to back fetch lands while Matthew also spent his turns building up his mana until at one of Matthew's end of turn, Zac tried to push for a Thirst for Knowledge which got countered by a Mana Leak from Matthew. Zac then played his Glen Elendra Archmage on his following turn while Matthew has no counter magic mana available but Matthew also sneaked in a Bitterblossom while Zac was also tapped out.



Zac then transmuted his Tolaria West for an Engineered Explosives which is played immediately but it met a Spellstutter Sprite which countered it. Matthew went down to 12 from the Bitterblossom and got a 1/1 faerie token off it and when he tried to play his Umezawa's Jitte, Zac initially revealed an Annul from his hand in response to the spell, but hesitated, thought for a while, before casting the spell after all. Matthew's Sprite chipped Zac off for 1 to 17, before Zac played his Ghost Quarters. Zac then decided to go on the offense, animating two of his Mutavaults and attacked for 6 along with his Archmage, all of them went unblocked, taking Matthew down to 6 before his own Bitterblossom took him down to 5.

A Glen Elendra Archmage of his own fills up the board on Matthew's side while Zac went down to 16 from another Sprite's attack. Zac maintained pressure on Matthew with his own Archmage and a single animated Mutavault, which caused Matthew to stop and think before putting his Archmage in front of Zac's and both of his faerie tokens in front off Zac's Mutavault, sending all of the creatures in combat to go to the graveyard although the two Archmages returned back to play thanks to their persist ability. Zac then cracked his fetch land to put himself at 15 before playing another Glen Elendra Archmage.



Matthew went down to 4, chipped Zac for 2 with his Mutavault to take him to 13 before passing his turn. Zac sacrificed his Ghost Quarters to take out Matthew's Riptide Laboratory, which Matthew used to return his Archmage into his hand before it got destroyed and then Zac pushed in his creatures with his 2 Archamges and his Mutavault. Matthew could at beast only block in a way to put himself at just 2 life left, which at his upkeep became his last life point, and tried to play an Umezawa's Jitte to try to put himself back into the game but Zac was ready with a Spellstutter Sprite and Matthew's Spell Snare was for naught as Zac has the mana to activate his Archmage's ability which ultimately sealed up the game for Matthew, giving Zac the game and match win.

Zac Hill wins the Semifinals beating Matthew Wong 2-0

On the other bracket, Nazim who defeated Loco in the quarters defeated Kee ZiZheng who in turn defeated Ng Wei San in 3 quick red on red games.

Zac Hill meanwhile met Rajesh Ganesan during the quarters while Matthew Wong met Johan Jamal Yacob earlier.