Where 64 others have failed, only one of the remaining 4 will succeed. Many great players have tried – but in the end, there can be only one National Champion. Win, and win the chance to achieve what so many others can only dream of doing. Lose, and all you can do is to fight for the rest of the scraps.
This is the 2008 Malaysian Nationals Semifinals.
Semifinals – Au Yong Wai Kin vs. Jason Yap
Jason Yap’s unique twists on the popular Mono-Red that’s burning up the metagame (sorry, pun intended) has proved to be very effective, as Disintegrate proved itself that it is worth the slots in the deck, having played quite a part in sending off Terry Soh’s nationals challenge. In fact, Jason showed brilliant mastery of the deck as he dispatches Terry in 3 quick games.
Player Name: Jason Yap
Deck Name: Jacob's Biscuit
21 Snow-Covered Mountain
2 Keldon Megalith
4 Figure of Destiny
3 Tattermunge Maniac
4 Skred
2 Magus of the Scroll
2 Disintegrate
4 Blood Knight
4 Incinerate
4 Flame Javelin
3 Ashenmoor gouger
3 Magus of the Moon
4 Demigod of Revenge
Sideboard -
2 Faerie Macabre
4 Sulfurous Blast
2 Pithing Needle
3 Martyr of Ashes
1 Disintegrate
3 Sulfur Elemental
On the other hand, Au Yong Wai Kin will be hoping the games will be long as he is playing a Reveilark Combo deck. A control deck at heart, the deck has a combo element that serves as it’s main threat. With 3 Aven Rfitwatchers, and a host of other control cards, Reveilark is one of the few decks that can confidently go into a fistfight with the aggressive but beefy Mono-Red decks out there in the field. However the deck is not easy to play as the options are many and the decisions you have to make while playing the deck, difficult. Au Yong has masterfully displayed his playing skills to many unfortunate opponents on his way to the top 8, including his opponent on the way to the Semifinals, a skilled veteran, Kok Kim Yin during the Quarterfinals.
Player Name : Au Yong Wai Kin
Deck name : Reveilark Combo
5 Island
3 Plains
4 Battlefield Forge
3 Vivid Creek
1 Reflecting Pool
4 Mutavault
4 Mystic Gate
4 Mulldrifter
2 Mind Stone
2 Prismatic Lens
4 Reveillark
3 Greater Gargadon
3 Body Double
3 Sower of Temptation
3 Rune Snag
2 Venser, Shaper Savant
2 Pact of Negation
2 Wrath of God
2 Bonded Fetch
3 Aven Riftwatcher
1 Momentary Blink
Sideboard -
3 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
2 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Wrath of God
2 Pyroclasm
2 Faerie Macabre
2 Condemn
2 Remove Soul
1 Kitchen Finks
Decklists are courtesy of MTG-Malaysia.com
Game 1
Jason makes the first play as he Incinerates Au Yong and plays an Ashenmoor Gouger. A strong start that spells doom for Au Yong, especially so when he misses his 3rd land drop. When the 3rd land did came, Au Yong puts it to work, evoking a Mulldrifter, digging for much needed lands. A Flame Javelin and an attack for the 4/4 Gouger sends Au Yong down to 7, and a Magus of the Moon threatens to seal the game for Jason. Venser comes into play to help stabilize the board position for Au Yong, but meets a Skred and when Jason plays his Demigod, Au Yong concedes in this blazing fast game.
Au Yong Wai Kin 0 – Jason Yap 1
In fact the game was so fast, the time both players used for shuffling between games were longer than the first game.
Game 2
Obviously hoping to continue his winning streak, Jason kept the tensions high has he drops a Figure of Destiny for the game’s first play after just a land from Au Yong. The Figures went into the red zone for 2 and after an evoked Mulldrifter, Jason’s Magus of the Moon threatens to lock the game up while the Figure goes in for another 2 damage, taking Au Yong down to 16.
After Au Yong passed the turn without doing anything with 4 mana open with two of the lands being Islands, it made Jason pause and think, after which he only sent in his Figure of Destiny into the red zone, and his intuition proved to be heads on as Au Yong plays Venser, giving him a better control of the board. On his fifth turn, Au Yong plays a Body Double, copying his Mulldrifter, and looks to be in a great shape with a fistful of cards and an unthreatening board. Jason would have none of that, and plays Ashenmoor Gouger and Blood Knight in quick succession. But it was all for naught, as Au Yong plays his plains, suspends his Greater Gargadon, plays a Reveillark, and it was enough to earn a concession from Jason as he understands how by using the sacrifice outlet from Greater Gargadon, Au Yong has access to infinite recursion of his two-powered creatures, and is able to bounce every permanent he has into his hands with Venser and draw enough cards with Mulldrifter to ensure than he will never have a fighting chance.
Au Yong Wai Kin 1 – Jason Yap 1
While Jason and Au Yong talked about how Au Yong managed to topdeck the plains he needed to ‘go off’ with his combo, keen-eyed spectators noticed how there was a lack of judges around the tournament tables. A quick whiff of the air however leads one straight to the answer – a sight to behold for the hungry – a table full of pizzas and the judges all around it.
Mystery solved.
Game 3
Au Yong has to brace himself as Jason takes advantage of starting first with a Magus of the Scroll right out of the gates. The Magus attacks, and Jason plays a Pithing Needle, naming Greater Gargadon, hoping to keep a blowout game for Au Yong like the last out of his reach before adding a Magus of the Moon into his side of the board. Au Yong calmly plays a couple of Mind Stones and then an Aven Riftwatcher, giving him a much needed life-gain cushion against the scorching heat of Jason’s burn spells and monsters. Aven Riftwatcher would also serve as a valuable roadblock to Jason’s monsters, or at least, that would have been what it was to be if Jason didn’t send a Flame Javelin to it. But thanks to the Riftwatcher, even after another attack, Au Yong was still on a healthy 19 life left. Sacrificing one of his Mind Stones, Au Yong found a valuable Island, plays it and plays a Prismatic Lens, lessening the disruptive effects of Jason’s Magus of the Moon.
Au Yong’s manabase consisted of an Island, a Plains, a Prismatic Lens, a Mind Stone and two ‘Mountains’.
When Jason continues to push for damage with his Magus of the Moon, it met a Condemn, easing Au Yong’s mana issues, but Magus of the Scroll deals 2 damage to Au Yong as Jason is determined to not let up the pressure on Au Yong. A Reveillark for Au Yong threatens to change the role aggressor between the two players, but Jason fires off an Incinerate on Au Yong, along with a bolt from Magus of the Scroll’s ability taking him down to 12. A Javelin gets temporarily delayed by Venser, which Jason responded with another Magus of the Scroll ability that takes Au Yong down to 10. Au Yong continues to dig for cards with an evoked Mulldrifter while he attacks with his Reveillark and Venser. With damage on the stack, Au Yong Condemns his own Reveillark, which lets him get back a Mulldrifter and a Riftwatcher, further solidifying his board position with more life and cards. Not willing to let the game slip past him, Jason plays Sulfurous Blast, clearing the board, and making the life totals lower for both players, with Au Yong back up to 14, and Jason 9. Looking to play the long game, Au Yong suspends his Greater Gargadon into an empty board.
He then plays a Body Double, copying Mulldrifter again. Meanwhile, Jason tries to play a Figure of Destiny, but it seems it’s destiny came sooner than it expected as Au Yong as a Remove Soul for it. Au Yong evokes a Reveillark targeting Venser (so that he can bounce the Needle and go off) and Riftwatcher, but Jason is not ready to hand over the game yet as he uses Fearie Macabre to remove those two cards from the game. A Flame Javelin takes Au Yong down to 10, and when Au Yong attacks with just with a Mutavault and his Mulldrifter, Jason was goading Au Yong to attack with his second Mutavault too. Experience and skill taught Au Yong to do otherwise and he was awarded for his intuition when his attackers really met a Sulfurous Blast. When Jason plays a Tattermunge Maniac, Au Yong doesn’t seem to want to take any chances as he kills it off with a Wrath of God. Au Yong has a Mulldrifter, casting it for full effect, which led him to a Reveilark and an Aven Riftwatcher and it spelt game over for Jason as he concedes knowing that he has no way out.
Au Yong Wai Kin 2 – Jason Yap 1
In the meantime the other two Semifinalists battle to see who gets to be a Finalist. (And walk away at least US$800 richer)
Game 4
Jason fires off the gates again as he plays a turn 1 Figure of Destiny. The Figure took 2 and then took 4 before taking another 4 life from Au Yong again as all Au Yong did was lay lands, play a Mind Stone and evokes a Mulldrifter. A Flame Javelin threatens to end the game soon as it puts Au Yong down to just 6 life left, but he calmly plays a Riftwatcher. Jason refusing to let it stand in his way quickly casts Sulfurous Blast for 3 damage across the board. However, the Blast means that the Figure cannot attack because Au Yong has the mana and an untapped Mutavault.
A Wrath of God sends Figure of Destiny to his destiny and Jason decides to go for it as he Disintegrated Au Yong for 3, leaving him with just 3 life left. Au Yong knows that his time is up if he doesn’t do anything, and the suspends a Gargadon and plays a Body Double copying Riftwatcher, gaining him 2 life, and the access to another 2 if he needs it, which immediately elicits a groan from Jason. It turns out that Jason does have a second Disintegrate and was hoping to finish Au Yong off with it. Instead, Jason has to make do with Disintegrating Au Yong for 4 damage, leaving him at 1 life.
Still in a very precarious situation, Au Yong sacrifices his Mind Stone and dug for more options. Jason, worried about a Reveillark, asks Au Yong whether or not he has it. Au Yong chose not to play it if he had it, and plays another Body Double copying the Riftwatcher again, bumping Au Yong’s life to 3 while his last Body Double / Riftwatcher attacks Jason to 15.
A Blood Knight from Jason meets a Remove Soul but a Magus of the Moon makes it through the countermagic only to find himself being taken away by Au Yong’s Sower of Temptation thanks to his Islands and is promptly sacrificed to the Gargadon, paving the way for Au Yong’s Mutavaults to attack Jason along with his ‘Riftwatchers’, taking him down to 9. Jason plays a Tattermunge Maniac and an Ashenmoor Gouger as a last-ditch attempt at throwing Au Yong off his game, but as Au Yong sacrifices enough permanents to put the Greater Gargadon into play, Au Yong’s forces were too numerous for Jason and Jason’s blazing trail towards being National Champion was doused and stopped in it’s tracks by Au Yong Wai Kin and his Riftwatchers who just refused to let Jason win.
Au Yong Wai Kin 3 – Jason Yap 1
Au Yong Wai Kin wins the Semifinals match defeating Jason Yap 3-1!
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