Vincant Gan Opened the Vaults and Found Free Flights and GP Manila 2010 Byes at Cardmaster GPT Manila 2010!
GPT Winner, Vincent Gan
Perhaps hampered by the high entry fee, or a reluctance to spend money before the Pre-release, Cardmaster's Grand Prix Trial Manila received lukewarm support and only 5 rounds was played to determine the top 8. The top 8 of the last high level local event consisted of 3 Jund decks, 3 U/W Tapout decks, 1 Grixis Control and 1 Open the Vaults.
GPT Top 8, From Left to Right - Eddy Ng, Hiew Chee Choong, QJ Wong, Chye Yian Hsiang, Yii Terh Kuen, Mohd Hafiz, Vincent Gan, Uzair Faruqi
Top 8 Decklists - here
Top 8 matchup reports written by GPT Top 8 regular, Chye Yian Hsiang is posted below, taken from the MTG-Malaysia.com forums.
QUARTERFINALS
Eddy Ng (U/W Tapout) VS Uzair Faruqi (U/W Tapout) , Winner Uzair Faruqi
QJ Wong (Jund) VS Camlok (U/W Tapout) , Winner QJ Wong!
Chee Chong (Jund) VS Vincent Gan (Open the Motherfukin' Vaults), Winner Vincent Gan 2-1
Yian Hsiang (Grixis Discard) VS Md Hafiz (Jund)
I managed to do coverage of this match because....I was in it
Game 1 - I win the die roll and Hafiz starts off with a mulligan, I congratulate him for being my first opponent of the day to mulligan against me whereas I was mulliganning almost every round. Happy with his 6, I begin the game with a Crumbling Necropolis, Hafiz follows up with a Raging Ravine. I promptly Spreading Seas the Ravine and draw into another Seas. I follow it up with a Slavering Null which manages to survive as Hafiz only has a tapland and doesn't have the Black mana required to Terminate it. Two Spreads later, the rest of Hafiz's manabase gets turned into the Lost city of Atlantis and he's forced to discard to multiple hits from the Null and blightning.
Game 2 - I mulligan a hand consisting of 2 Duress, 2 Gatekeeper of Malakir and an assortment of U/B lands, into a 1 lander hand, and finally into 1 Duress, 1 Gatekeeper, and 3 lands of the U/B variety Hafiz starts applying early pressure with multiple Thrinaxes and a timely Blightning from him limits my options. I'm forced to Gatekeeper his Thrinax and chumpblock his tokens with Slavering Nulls and Ruinblasters while I annoy him by locking him out of Green mana with Spreading Seas. Finally with about 2 turns left to live (or 1 turn if he draws a bolt), I'm forced to make a decision as to whether I should terminate his attacking thrinax or lone saproling token (I'm on an empty board with 5 lands) or risk taking 4 damage putting me down to 3 life, but may potentially turn the game around if I draw into my only out, Slave of Bolas. I finally chicken out and terminate the Thrinax, and Lady Luck promptly kicks me in the nuts and gives me Slave of Bolas as my next spell. I die to a swarm of tokens 2 turns later, with my final two draws being a Swamp and a helpful Creeping Tar Pit.
Game 3 - I keep an iffy hand on the play of 1 Island, 1 Crumbling Necropolis, 1 Spreading Seas, 2 Ruinblasters, Chain Reaction and Slave of Bolas. I probably should have shipped it back but I guess I got greedy with the potential for double Ruinblasters on the play. Two draw steps later I've yet to hit a land but I'm saved with a timely Swamp enabling me to cast the Sedraxis Spectre I drew earlier. The Spectre is promptly bolted during its next attack phase though and I draw another U/B source, missing out on my chance to cripple Hafiz's manabase. Hafiz follows up with a Bloodbraid cascading into an unkicked Ruinblaster, I draw and cast a Slavering Null to chumpblock, Hafiz casts another Bloodbraid and cascades into Lightning Bolt taking out my Null and crashing in for another 8, I follow up with Gatekeeper of Malakir, he follows up with Bituminous Blast into Bloodbraid into Blightning into Win. Bleh.
SEMI-FINALS
Vincent Gan VS Uzair Faruqi , Winner Vincent Gan (2-0)
Nothing in U/W tapout can disrupt the Vault combo game 1, and game 2 Khairul?Khalid? didn't draw into any negates (or draw spells for that matter).
QJ Wong VS Md Hafiz , Winner Md Hafiz (2-1)
FINALS
Vincent Gan (Open the Motherfuckin' Vaults) VS Md Hafiz (Jund. Just Jund)
Game 1 - Hafiz wins the roll but ends up having to go to Paris twice. Both players don't have much early action but I recall Vincent casting Sphinx of Lost Truth twice (discarding double Journey to Nowhere instead of one of the Oblivion Rings in hand) and Hafiz following each Sphinx up with a Bloodbraid cascading into a Terminate(or some other removal). Vincent clears the board with a Day of Judgement but is forced to prematurely cast Open the Vaults bringing back an Architect of Will, Glassdust Hulk and....2 Journey to Nowhere which ends up taking out the Glassdust Hulk hmm... He architect's Hafiz's library but is dismayed to find Siege Gang Commander, Bloodbraid Elf and some gas waiting for him. Can't really remember the next few turns in detail, but I recall a Filigree Angel or two hardcasted by Vincent to cushion his life total to 38, the Angel then dying to removal, Vincent casting a DoJ on Hafiz's lone Putrid Leech which he promptly follows up with Siege Gang Commander which takes out Vincent's Jace the Mindsculptor but is cold against Celestial Colonnade dealing the last few points of damage for the win.
Game 2 - Vincent mulligans into a relatively weak hand and draws dead, Hafiz's Jund engine does what its supposed to do and seals the game in about 5 turns.
Game 3 - Hafiz is the aggressor in the deciding match with an early Thrinax providing relatively early beatdown but he's kept a land heavy hand. Vincent is more than happy to discard a Filigree Angel and a land to Hafiz's turn 4 Blightning as he has an Open the Vaults in hand, but Hafiz follows up with a turn 5 Bloodbraid Elf which cascades past another 2 Bloodbraid Elves into....Duress! Both players are threatened with a sudden lack of oxygen as all the spectators suck air. Hafiz is literally one turn away from winning when Vincent topdecks another Open the Vaults which he promptly casts, the double Filigree Angels boosting his life total to 40 and all but sealing the game. A Malakir Bloodwitch provides Hafiz with a glimmer of hope, but he gets baited into blocking a Filigree Angel with it which is shortly returned by Shaarum of the Hegemon. A couple swings later from the Esper flying army seals the deal for Vincent.
Vincent Gan wins 2-1!
- Chye Yian Hsiang, MTG-Malaysia.com forums
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