Typhoon Matmo – known in the Philippines as Typhoon Henry, was a tropical cyclone which struck Taiwan. It is the tenth named storm and the fourth typhoon of the annual typhoon season.
Malaysia is blessed with year round tropical weather, with occasional monsoons showers or dry spells. We only read about natural disasters happening around the world such as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and typhoons.
Grand Prix Taipei was coming up and the few of us who decided to make the trip this time had chose to travel a couple of days earlier before the GP to catch the beautiful city and the delicious food which Taipei had to offer. Ironically, the Malaysian contingent, comprise Chye (Jhun), Joe Soh, Justin Teo, Rick Lee and myself, all decided to choose Wednesday 23rd July to arrive in Taipei for two days of sightseeing. The night before our departure, Matmo made landfall on Taipei city with windspeeds of up to 25kmph. Wearn Chong (Malaysian Head Judge) messaged me to expect delay for our 10am flight. True enough, while on the way to the brand new KLIA2, our flight was moved to 2:30pm. It was an exhausting start to our trip. Chye, Joe and Hari who were on the 9am MAS flight was also set back by a couple of hours.
We caught news that Matmo had already left Taipei on Wednesday morning. But while our early part of the flight was smooth, the last 40 minutes wasn’t as Matmo’s remaining winds rocked our plane wildly and even Justin, being a rather big and steady guy himself, was strapped to the edge of his seat. It was a heart pounding final descent and when the plane touched the ground, we could all breathe in relief and thanked our prayers. We made in safely into Taipei.
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Taipei is a beautiful city with lots of sights and good food. I did an amazing tour to Jiufen and Shifen, simply a must for first timers into Taipei. Street snacks are a specialty and a must try when you are here and I tried to soak in as much as I could for the first couple of days. See some photos below:
One of Taipei's famous brand at the corner of Xi Men Ding
Breakfast of champions in the making - eggs, meat and vege, all wrapped in grilled tortilla
Taipei's must - Panda Milk Tea
We could use something like this back home
Naturally, I did the obligatory visit to one of the worlds iconic building – Taipei 101. The structure was indeed majestic, rivaling to our own KLCC.
I got to the event hall on Friday evening to check-in for my sleep-in-special. I noted the large venue hall, much larger than GP Nagoya. The crowd looked sparse and the atmosphere wasn’t as exciting as a Japanese GP. But I did catch a group of people congregating at a corner of the event hall. Curiously I walked over to have a quick look and…...
Your Grand Prix Taipei Top 4 - (L to R): Deathpact Angel, Liliana, Emmara and Nissa:
Alright it was off to a good sleep and for some Grand Prix action the next day.
Day 1
We all arrived at the venue around 11am and dug into our pre-registered sleep-in decks. My pool was sub-par with 4 non-exciting blue rares with blue, white and green all lacking the prime playables such as Triplicate Spirits, Frost Lynx and Elvish Mystic. My black and red was slightly promising as I had two Lightning Strikes, Stab Wound and some other removal to go along with some early pressure in twin copies of Borderland Maurader and Krenko’s Enforcer. And to top my high curve were two copies of Shadowcloak Vampire and an Ob Nixilis, Unshackled . My sideboard included a copy of Blastfire Bolt and a Tyrant Machine which I agreed with Chye later on that I should have main deck over Necromancer’s Assistant. I ended up siding out the zombie every game. Three for 3/1 and a drawback ability wasn’t all that great.
The deck offered excellent curve and removal to clear the way and seems that it was M15 core fundamental to victory. Games that went long were decided by bombs such as the Soul cycle or Avacyn. But if you could tempo your opponent with aggressive creatures and removal/bounce, you had a good shot at winning before the bombs takes over.
That was what exactly how things went in my day 1 of play, curving out to victory and taking advantage of opponent’s stumbles. Chye, Joe and myself were off to good starts and by end of round 8, Chye was 8-0 and Joe and myself were 7-1. Rick Lee and Justin had both fallen off earlier to mana issues and a weak pool. Chye’s deck featured double Siege Dragon, Ajani, Triplicate Spirits and some removal. You can see his deck here: http://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gptai14/day-one-undefeated-decks-2014-07-26
Joe was on green red strategy featuring a Siege Dragon, a strategy which he actually followed through for the entire weekend. When the Day 1 dust had settled, Chye was a perfect 9-0, Joe at 8-1 and I got crushed in the final round to end at 7-2.
Day 2
With M15 being released on MTGO only on the Friday before the tournament, I only managed to catch one practice draft the night before our day 2 play. Chye was an advocate for white and Triplicate Spirits was the defining card in any white archtype for M15 limited. Fortunately enough my pack 1 yielded the said premium common and I snapped it up instantly. I followed it up with a Raise the Alarm and a Dauntless River Marshall. Pack 2 I took another Raise the Alarm and the deck ended with three copies of the said instant. The deck I finally registered was as follows:
Two copies of Military Intelligence made to my main deck, a card that was absurd in the night’s practice draft, which I envisioned drawing early cards with my cheap creatures and with three Raise the Alarms and evasive creatures. But the enchantment didn’t show up in any game, and worse it had to make way to the sideboard for Mass Calcify (against hard to deal monsters), and Kithkin Skirmisher (which mistakenly got left out of the starting lineup). The deck managed to squeeze a 2-1 record, but there were several notable moments.
In a tight game 3 against eventual top 8 player Lyu Li Chiang, my board was decimated by trading blows with his red black deck. His creatures were of better quality and he was drawing live. When he tapped for his Nightfire Giant, he had four creatures on board against my Hushwing Gruff and a lone soldier token. He had five lands and a lone card in play. I had 7 lands in play and another in hand along with a Sanctified Charge and Mass Calcify. It was time to pull the trigger and the one sided Wrath of God netted a four for one advantage. When the dust cleared, my two creatures brought him down to 10 life. If he drew blank next turn, my next attack would bring him down to 7 and I could finish him off with the Charge. But his next draw was land #6 and he played his last card – Soul of Innistrad. Me drawing blanks in my next two draws didn’t help and he buried me with his animated monsters.
In Round 12, I was matched up against the player who was drafting on my left. I had cut white early on and was surprised to see him at black white. But when his first pick Spectral Ward sailed through my defenses in game two, I was at the ropes of picking up loss number four. On the play for game three, I flashed Raise the Alarm on turn 2 and Dauntless River Marshall on turn 3. On my turn 4, with him only playing a lonely Carrion Crow (tapped), I main phase another Raise the Alarm, tapped all 4 tokens and 2 lands to convoke Triplicate Spirits and swung in for 3 with my Marshall. My opponent starred at my board of 8 creatures on turn 4. He cast an Accursed Spirit and passed bracing for the tsunami of tokens. The tsunami rumbled in and he offered blocks leaving six attackers through and a Sanctified Charge dealt him the lethal 18 points on turn 5.
At 27 points after Round 12, I was out of top 8 but was still live for money. My second draft started with a Triplicate Spirits again (passing Ob Nixillis) but white dried up very quickly and I switched gears to a controllish red black highlighted with Scuttling Doom Engine. My deck below:
In Round 13 I was paired against a very animated Japanese player who was saying “Good!”, “Wow!” at every single play I made. I flooded out in Game 1 but Scuttling Doom Engine showed up in Game 2 and caused him havoc to allow me to even the match. He was no longer animated when we shuffled up for Game 3. I was stuck early on lands and trading blows with his creatures to preserve my life total. With both us down to 8 life, every draw was critical. He obviously needed gas and I needed lands with Cone of Flames and two copies of Rotfeaster Maggot in my hand. His deck had counterspells so I needed to be careful when I had the opening to run my spells. But when he tapped low for a Shadowcloak Vampire, the back breaking Cone of Flames ended the match.
I lost Round 14 to Spirit Bonds on turn 2 both games and ID the last round to finish in the money at 41st placing.
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My campaign was over but not for Malaysian team. Chye fell short and finished 9th but Joe was running hot and cruised into the top 8. Joe hung on to the archetype that carried him the entire weekend – red green. While he had good green beats and some tricks (Titanic Growth, Ranger’s Guile), Joe lacked a true gamebreaker.
You all read his top 8 coverage here: http://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gptai14/quarterfinals-hao-shan-huang-vs-joe-soh-2014-07-27
But what you didn’t read was our own Malaysian Top 8 coverage by live commentators of yours truly and Chye. We narrated play-by-play to my wife, who for the first time sat through a complete match of Magic. Joe had applied early pressure and made a curious turn 4 play to Chord of Calling out a Forge Devil to take out a Bronze Sable. We all didn’t know how Huang Hao-Shan deck turn out, but Joe wasn’t taking chances and wanted to close out early before Soul of Ravnica ala Star Destroyer showed up. Oddly enough, my wife didn’t know what was a Star Destroyer so Chye had to change his analogy to Melaka pirates with their swords (Joe) against a fully armed Navy battleship (Huang’s Soul of Ravnica). But despite its heavy artillery, this battleship was swarmed and the pirates went around it for Joe to steal game 1 after the Soul went for an attack and Joe finished the game on the counter attack.
In Game two, the battleship (Soul of Ravnica) showed up again and this time, Joe haven’t applied early pressure. Huang showed his second bomb rare in the draft – Spirit Bonds and with the spirit giving divining shield to Huang’s battleship, Joe’s ground monsters were severely outclassed.
In the final game, Joe had to mulligan to six and kept a two mountain hand. Joe had a second turn Borderland Marauder but Huang matched him with a Bronze Sable. Joe didn’t get a third land and could only enchant his Marauder with Inferno Fist and refused to move into the Sable. Huang upped the ante with a Spirit Bond and passed. Joe managed to draw a Forest didn’t want to crack the Fist at the Sable for fear of Ephemeral Shields but he did keep a one red open and played a vanilla bear. Huang had a Sungrace Pegasus with a Spirit token and things started to look grim. Joe went into the tank and fired the Fist anyway at the Sable, untapped, still missing a land and cast a Goblin Roughrider before swinging with his Marauder and Bear. The Spirit and Pegasus jumped in front of the Bear, but Joe convoked a Crowd’s Favor for first strike to clear Huang’s board. Huang untapped for a Nimbus of the Isles but soaked up the next wave of attack but Joe was still on stuck on 3 lands and only tricks and four casting cost creatures in hand. Huang played land number 6 and powered up his Nimbus with a Marked by Honor and hit for five (Vigilance). Joe went in for the counterattack and a Titanic Growth finished the Nimbus. On turn 7, the Soul of Ravnica once again made its appearance with a Spirit token. Joe slumped back pondering his options and finally playing his 4th land, he swung with his team. Huang put his battleship in front of the 3/2 Roughrider and Joe played a post combat Hunt the Weak on his Bear to take down the Soul. It was a necessary 3 for 1 as if Huang untapped, things would have gone out of hand. But Huang had one last trick, he played his eighth land and Haunted Platemail equipping his lone Spirit token. And with that play, Huang stabilized the game at 6 life and Joe’s hot run was over.
Recap – M15 limited isn’t as skill intensive as Theros limited and its bombs (Soul cycle) are not Elspeth quality that could simply take over games. But unlike Theros limited, M15 is about consistency and having good tempo. I had great time enjoying sights of Taipei and this is probably my only M15 limited tournament for season. Join Chye, Joe and myself as we get set for Khans of Tarkir and planeswalking again in October to Grand Prix Shanghai!!
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