That statement, along with many other memorable ones during our World Magic Cup run in Rotterdam, will forever stick in my head as one of the strangest Magic roller-coaster rides I’ve ever been on. Let the story begin….
November 14th
All packed up and ready to go. I spent the weekend packing my gear. Normally for Grand Prixs and Pro Tours, I would just pack a deck box with my deck plus a bunch of spare cards but this time around my inventory included:
- Five 100% complete Modern decks
- Three 80-90% complete Modern decks
- Six Twelve Booster Sealed Pools
- Another long box of additional modern cards. Amongst all the singles, I had on with me – 8 Liliana of the Veil, 8 Tarmogoyf, 60+ Fetch Lands, 60+ Shock Lands, 4 to 8 copies of every Modern staple.
- Three packs of brand new KMC sleeves
- Twenty of each basic lands
Total value of check in luggage (excluding clothes) – approximately USD10,000.
My travel insurance covers up to RM1,000 for lost luggage. Pray pray pray……
Team Malaysia arrived at the airport around 11pm to make the 18-hour journey to Amsterdam. Rotterdam was a further 50 minute train ride, so it was safe to say we weren't all too excited about the long trip ahead. The little reprieve we had was that we were flying Emirates, my airline of choice for European destinations, which has more comfortable seats and better “echornomie” food. Shawn insisted we took a team photo carrying the Malaysia flag at the airport and it did get additional unwanted attention (which Chye said it was a sign of bad luck) but we went through with it anyway.
Rick was flying in from Penang and we did our bookings separately. I managed to secure the upper deck seats on board the A380 and once we settled in, our excitement and spirits was definitely high. We were on our way!
Shawn and Chhhhh…. andra???
November 15th and 16th
We got into Rotterdam on Tuesday evening. It was several hours later than expected and we were all exhausted from the long travel. The apartment I booked in downtown Rotterdam was everything as advertised. The boys got a room on the 17th floor, overlooking the shopping district of Lijnbaan (pronounced Lin-Baan), and it did get rather cold after 5pm when you get close to zero degree wind blowing into your living hall.
After our first meal in a rather expensive Italian restaurant, we got back to the apartment around 7pm and went to work. Chye had set out a little timetable for last minute testing, but as Wednesday afternoon came, we were way behind schedule. At this point, Chye and myself were pretty much in agreement to lock in Black-Red Eldrazi (“BRazi”), Infect and Dredge. Coming into the Modern portion of the WMC, there were basically two distinct routes in deck selection.
1) Everyone pick a deck which they are comfortable/familiar with and just make sure the decks are in accordance with the Unified rules; or
2) Pick three great decks to pilot and test the heck of out it.
From the start we knew that Dredge and Infect were the two most powerful decks in the format. The third deck was likely going to be a Rock based deck (Abzan, Jund) and to no one’s surprise it was the general configuration most teams went.
Some teams, like the United States, went with Option 1, where they had Kevin Jones and Owen Turtenwald play their bread and butter Grixis Delver and Infect, respectively, and just putting together what’s left for the third deck. I wouldn’t say the USA sacrificed some power level for not playing Dredge, but they, and another half of the field, felt pilot familiarity was more important.
This left Team Malaysia in a slight quandary as well. Chye and myself were familiar with all 3 decks and we could easily move around. However Shawn and Rick were generally Rock players. It didn’t mean they were poor Infect pilots, but it meant both guys were slightly out of their element. I’ve been preaching that good Magic players are never determined by the type of player or the decks they like to play, but more like how flexible and prepared they are in shifting gears between archetypes and formats. Realising this, Chye came in with a backup plan – Sun & Moon.
This was the deck that almost made it to the lineup:
4 Blood Moon
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Anger of the Gods
3 Wrath of God
4 Lightning Helix
4 Simian Spirit Guide
3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Gideon Jura
4 Nahiri the Harbinger
1 Emrakul, the Aeon’s Torn
1 Journey to Nowhere
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Blessed Alliance
3 Gemstone Caverns
22 Other Lands
Sideboard:
3 Stony Silence
3 Rest in Peace
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Elspeth Sun’s Champion
2 Sudden Shock
2 Celestial Purge
3 Leyline of Sanctity
We discussed extensively and sleeved a few games with the Sun & Moon against our standard gauntlet. Dredge smothered it. Despite having Chalice and Anger, Infect sometimes got under it. But our sample size was relatively small and Chye decided to put it to a League to try that night. As midnight approached, we were left with 24 hours to finalise our lineup.
November 17th
That league test never happened. Chye and myself talked about Sun & Moon over breakfast and decided that all the work into Infect, especially in the last two days preparing Rick and Shawn, shouldn’t go to waste. That morning decision over a dozen home cooked sausages will probably be remembered as a decision that may have actually cost us the top 8.
However at that time, Infect’s strengths couldn’t be ignored. We tested Infect extensively before we got to Rotterdam and we (basically everyone as well) knew it was the top two (next to Dredge) in Modern. And outside the Golden Triangle of Dredge-Infect-Rock, I personally didn’t think there were any other fringe decks that could comfortably beat two out of the three decks. Between itself, Rock beat Infect, Dredge beat Rock and Infect beat Dredge. Classic Rock & Scissors game. Realizing this, we upped the power level of our decks a little – BRazi had main deck Relic of Progenitus, Dredge ran a Darkblast and Collective Brutality in the main deck (with 2 more Brutalities in the sideboard) and our Infect ran the full set of Blossoming Defense and Vines of Vastwood.
It was now too late to turn around. Despite playing more than 100 matches with Dredge and roughly a dozen Modern Leagues, I haven’t 5-0 a single MTGO league which was slightly concerning. I knew Chye was slightly worried as well, despite his continuous words of encouragement. Compared to previous decks I’ve played in the past one year, the Dredge was one that I felt was the most difficult to pilot and it felt short of 100% confidence for the next day's main event. I repeatedly remind myself of all the work I've put in and learnt throughout this process and hopefully it would be enough to carry me through the weekend.
So while we agreed on the decks, then came the dreaded seatings…. Last year we were punished for having our seatings incorrect and once again, we chose to defy luck and chose logic by putting our fastest deck – the Infect, in the middle as Player B, BRazi in Player A while Dredge in Player C.
“Can I have your number?” – Shawn
We ended the day with a bowl of Vietnamese noodles. The weather was rainy and wet, so hot bowl of soup after days of burgers and sandwiches was a pleasant change. The Vietnamese place called Pho Hanoi was managed by an authentic Vietnamese Mama-san. She called this young and shy Asian girl to take our orders and could clearly see she was blushing the whole time. She was being very polite and kept asking if she could get us something else. Shawn had other ideas running through his head and the Mama-san, who was seated at the counter directly opposite our table, picked up on his unpure intentions, therefore sent the waitress downstairs (to another dining area) and never to be seen again. Shawn’s constant whimper of “Can I have your number?” never met its target. So we all left the restaurant, full from dinner, but Shawn left with an empty heart…. Well at least until he got back to the apartment and rang his wife.
November 18th – Game On
6:30am.
I woke up feeling slightly exhausted. I did sleep through the night for roughly a good six hours of rest. Chye made us shut down by 11:30pm the night before so we each got mandatory rest. I knew it was going to be a long day for me, but what I didn’t expect was really how long it was going to be….
The Sealed portion came and went very quickly. We had one great Red Green energy deck (piloted by Shawn), a solid BW deck (piloted by me) and an almost train wreck Temur Energy Module deck (piloted by Chye).
I’ll sum up my Day 1 record here:
Sealed: 1 win, 2 losses
Modern: 0 wins, 3 losses, 1 incomplete (which the team ended up winning so my outcome didn't really matter)
Here’s a little table on how Malaysia did (S: Sealed, M: Modern)
Looking from my perspective, it was a total disaster. One match win overall and losing three mirrors in a competition where I had months of practice was not what I had in mind coming in. I was seriously in a hole. What could go wrong did went wrong – Dredge fizzling, Amalgams hiding in the bottom 20 cards of the deck, mirrors curving out Faithless Looting into Catharic Reunion. All I could do was just stare and look beside me to Rick’s match as my opponent went about his business. And to make matters a whole lot worse, I lost every dice roll that day, and I’m sure everyone knows how crucial winning the dice roll is in Modern, especially for Dredge.
Shawn did an awesome job in Limited, sprinting to a perfect record for Day 1 which helped us crawl out of the Sealed portion with a 2-1 record. Chye was rock solid as always and Rick just did enough with Infect to allow us for another day of game play. I felt very unfortunate how Day one ended, as I could have gotten at least a couple more wins to put us into a better position for Day 2. I knew the start of Day 2 was going to be brutal, as it was a do-or-die elimination match. So the first round of Day 2 meant (1) a chance to play the rest of the day and guaranteed money of USD1,000 or (2) go home early and catch the 10am bus back to the apartment.
I didn’t want to go out so soon. Not like that.
Me and my Prized Almagams were going to have a little chat that night…
End of Day One.
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