Magic The Gathering - Malaysia

Semifinals – Hiew Chee Choong vs Stanley Sim

Sim won the dice roll but Hiew got the first play with a Goblin Guide chips off Sim’s lifetotals 2 at a time while giving Sim free lands as his opponent plays back to back Squadron Hawks. A Stoneforge Mystic fetched an Adventuring Gear and got geared up and took Sim to 11 while the Hawks double teamed to take out the GoblinGuide. Sim’s own Mystic found a Mortarpod along with another Hawk to to shore up his defences.

Arid Mesa pumped Hiew’s Mystic as Sim chump with his own Mystic before summoning an Ember Hauler. Gideon Jura forces Hiew to divert his damage to him as Sim used his Hawk to keep the damage to Gideon low as Hiew thought hard before adding another Hauler to the board.

Jace the Mind Sculptor saw a Plains on top of Hiew’s library which was left on top after much consideration as Gideon provokes all of Hiew’s creatures to focus on him yet again and cast the Mortarpod into the battlefield.

Squadron hawk helped Hiew reload his hand as Sim’s Germ chumped but Gideon goes down to 4 anyways. Desperate to hang on, Sim dug for an answer with Preordain and sent both cards down to draw a fresh card, after which Jace drew him another 3 and an answer was found.

A Day of Judgement prompted Hiew to send 4 damage to Sim with the Ember Haulers. Switching gears, Sim went on the offensive with his Gideon to send Hiew to 11. A Lightning Bolt with his last untapped mana during that turn to the dome got Mana Leak’ed and then on his following turn, Hiew thought long and hard before casting a kicked Burst Lightning to send Sim’s lifetotals tumbling to 3.

Sensing impending doom, Sim cast a Hawk and Oust it himself to gain 3 life to buffer himself while Gideon picked up a Sword of Feast and Famine to take Hiew to 3 and discard a hawk. Jace fetched the Hawk back from the library and it picked up the Mortapod and the Sword.

Visibly shaken, Hiew had to play defence as he summoned two Hawks and a Spike Elder. Jace unsummoned one of the hawks and when an Inkmoth Nexus tried to pick up the Mortapod, Hiew delayed his demise with a Burst Lightning but it was all for naught as Sim calmly animated his Gideon, wore the Mortapod and took away Hiew’s only flying blocker to clear the path to his Sword’ed Hawk to finish Hiew off.

Sim 1 - 0 Hiew

Game 2

Hiew starts off with yet another Goblin Guide who quickly got Oust’ed but not before chipping 2 off and giving Sim a land. Hiew revealed that he had a 2nd Guide which went to work on SIm’s life totals but first revealed a Condemn which would make short work of him a turn later. When the first Guide tried to return to the battlefield, he got denied by Sim who flashed a Mana Leak.

Jace the Mind Sculptor unsummoned an Ember Hauler but Koth of the Hammer from Hiew made short work of Jace. Sim is not done defending though as Gideon Jura shows up to put up a defence to the onslaught. A third Goblin Guide with Koth’s mountain dispatched of the roadblock as Koth threatened to go off on his ‘ultimate’.

Sim had a Stoneforge Mystic to make sure he doesn’t however, fetching a Mortarpod to send Koth to 4. Hiew continued working on Sim’s lifetotals again as Sim chumped with his Mystic to go to 8. A second Stoneforge Mystic brought a Sylvok Lifestaff to make a 2/2 Squadron Hawk with a Lifestaff and Mortarpod to knock Koth to 3.

Bonehoard then entered play as a 6/6 as Koth animates another Mountain to continue to pressure Sim. Divine Offering negates the Bonehoard and the attack as Hiew could only add a late Steppe Lynx into his side of the board. Sim tries to keep Koth in check with his well equipped Hawk and Mystic and added two more Hawks into his side of the board.

Ever wary, Sim used the equipped Hawk to kill off the Lynx to go to 11 thanks to the Lifestaff and eventually managed to kill off Koth with the seemingly never ending torrent of Hawks.

A Spikeshot Elder managed to resolve onto an empty board, and got himself killed by the Mortarpod’ed Hawk as he tried to take down the bird on his own.

“Finally killed off all the Hawks, just top deck lands for the rest of the game please,” quipped Hiew as he managed to resolve a Koth, paying the 3 mana for Sim’s Mana Leak.

A Mountain was untapped with Koth but Hiew elected to not attack with it. When the Mystic tried to pick up the Lifestaff however, Hiew sent a Lightning Bolt onto her.

Somehow Hiew’s curse was effective as Sim could draw nothing but lands and when Hiew could go ultimate with Koth on the next turn, Sim scooped up his cards to prepare for the third game.

Hiew 1 – 1 Sim

Game 3

Sim kept a sketchy hand with 2 Inkmoth Nexus as his only mana sources as Hiew took a mulligan but yet again started off with a first turn Goblin Guide. Sim’s draws were brutal as he failed to draw his crucial colored sources until it was way too late, as Hiew laid down Steppe Lynx, and continued the beat down.

A Plains finally came off the top of the deck as Sim laid down a Squadron Hawk to hope to stop the bleeding with 2 untapped mana representing Mana Leak gave Hiew pause as he shakes his head, taps 4 of his lands, slammed down his Hero of Oxid Ridge and asked, “Mana Leak?”

Sim shook his head, and packed his cards – sending Hiew into the Finals.

Hiew 2 – 1 Sim