2:30pm
We just hit a milestone. We still had some Magic to play and a mission to accomplish but this point, I have to admit that I felt the team was finally rolling. When we got on the bus this morning, I knew we were just living on a prayer. We did get some wind in our sails at last and we felt that the tides were finally shifting our way. Shawn was feeling pumped and confident coming in, taking Rick’s place for the final stage of the day. We were facing the Greeks first. Our scouting notes had nothing on the Greeks but I was pretty positive they knew what we were playing.
The moment the starting bell rang, the wheels started falling off our carts. I glanced over across the table and we were staring at a triple-header of bad pairings for us. The Greeks had employed the similar Rock-Paper-Scissors strategy as us, but their seating lined up to our nightmare scenario. We never stood a chance and once again our backs were against the wall. It was not the first time we took notice of this, but Chye reckoned maybe we play our best when we had nothing to lose. Well in fact, there was plenty to lose, but we knew that we could somehow climb back out of this hole. We did it before. Three times today.
Lithuania was next and we gave no quarter. Despite Lithuania’s experienced Gaudenis Vidugiris best effort to try and slow me down with double Grafdigger’s Cage, the Dredge was relentless and multiple Stinkweed Imps flew across to finish the match. Ironically the Seat B match was against another poor matchup in Abzan, but the Abzan player gave too many open signals and Shawn went for the throat. We were now one match away. An hour ago we were wiping our injured wounds inflicted by the Greek and now, we were off to another victory pee and one more win away from the Top 8.
I knew we were playing the losers of the Greece and Finland match. I didn’t know what the Finnish were playing, but again pretty certain they knew what we were on. I thought to myself that I prefer my chances against the Finnish than to tempt our luck against the Greeks again. But fate had other ideas and the Greeks lost.
So it came down to this. For all the marbles. For a top eight. The ULTIMATE win -and-in. I guess we all know how it ended. I couldn’t draw a red source, Shawn couldn’t keep a creature in play and Chye had 4 Prized Almagams palmed to his face in the crucial turn before he had lethal. The winds were behind the Greeks sails and the Malaysian Team was swiftly blown out of the water. The Greeks won their return trip back to the Top 8. We shook hands and Shawn walked off the table, leaving Chye and myself stunned. We were reeling a little in defeat after getting so close. So close.
I previously watched how the Scottish team so narrowly squeaked into the top 8 in the 2015 WMC. The joy and exhilaration was what I really wanted to feel, what we really worked hard for this year. Chye put an arm around my shoulders as he knew what this return trip to the WMC meant to me. I’ve won and lost in numerous high level competition, whether in Magic or sports, so I knew how painful it felt coming this close. However if there were any tear in my eye, it wouldn’t shed. The entire day we were threading the needle, walking on thin rope, dancing with death…. Basically all the famous lines you can think of. But fate decided it had given us enough lifelines. Enough extra draw steps. Enough looks. We wanted to win bad. But the Greeks were just the better team.
The 2016 campaign was finally over.
Day 2 summary
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While the WMC part of Rotterdam was over, we all settled down for a quiet dinner at our second visit to NRC (Nieuw Rotterdam Café). Normally there was much to decompress after a long day of Magic, but tonight all we could do was stare our phones, speaking words of near miss.
Despite all that, Rotterdam was just much more than Magic. It had some great food (just not many kinds of it) and some sights. The weather was very cool and wet at the same time. Of all my trips around the world to play Magic, Rotterdam offered the least in terms of sights, but that allowed us the few extra days to really dig in and focus. Here’s some photos.
So with my six month campaign drawing to a close, here’s my final props and regrets for the WMC and the year as a whole:
Props:
- Three GPs – a top 16, one cash and another near cash, sums up a pretty decent GP outing for me in 2016
- WMC Top 16 – broke Malaysia’s Top 32 jinx, got my redemption for 2015
- Captain Jhun Hoon (aka Chye) – perhaps the best (and the worst) sparring partner you can possibly have. Just need to suck in the constant badgering and (more than) occasional Rain of Salt. But all things considered, our WMC Top 16 was never possible without Chye leading the way.
- Team Decards - for a great year leading up to WMCQs. It was an awesome two-year run.
- Magic Online - I kept a promise and disciplined myself to stay on course to use MTGO as my main practice platform for the most of 2016. It has been an expensive experiment but the results have been somewhat rewarding. While I'm going to miss the physical cards in my hand and the bantering with the guys, I feel MTGO fits better with my schedule and my style of preparation for events. 2017 will be an interesting year for me.
- CnH – for hosting the WMC team testing venue again. Can’t thank you enough.
Regrets:
- Missing out top 8 for WMC and GPKL. Too close… too close
- Losing so many mirror matches with Dredge. It was an issue I took note of earlier in the process, but I failed to take the time to iron it out properly and relied on just theory going into the WMC. That one or two extra wins may have made all the difference.
- Sun & Moon – What if we took the risk for WMC.
- Didn’t practice my dice roll skills for WMC. I lost 13 out of 14 dice rolls. At least half of them would have a made a difference. I’m not kidding.
Epilogue:
Losing Win-and-In’s can be one of the worst feelings ever. Chye mentioned to me it was something he was pretty accustomed to so I should shake it off and look forward to our next opportunity. While it stings, I know he’s right and after all it has been a great year Magic-wise for me. But I can’t help looking back at Scotland’s triumph video in 2015, and many would probably fail to notice that the Scottish win on camera was against a very familiar foe.
The Greeks.
Bill Chronopoulos and his men came back strong in 2016 to win it all. I’ll get my shot again one day.
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Final note:
This is the final entry to my diary for 2016. Qualifying for PT Dublin would have set a clearer path for my plans for next year. So right now without it, I’m still contemplating if it’s worth going through another full year of grinding. To be honest, I didn’t really play as much (on paper at least) compared to the previous year, but I’ve been reaping better results through being slightly smarter with my use of time and resources. Aside from blogging about my adventures to Grand Prixs next year (I have confirmed Shizuoka and Beijing lined up), I may actually start a separate segment on a different side of playing the game that not many people actually see. That segment may not actually help you play better to win a PPTQ or do well in a Grand Prix, but I’d like to share what makes MTG more fulfilling to me (from my perspective) rather than just the hard life of a weekly grind or waiting to make a few bucks on certain cards from movements on Starcitygames. It’s quite sad that some players with a set disposable income, is forced to abandon the game as its getting too expensive to keep up. What’s worse if you don’t actually do well and you get hit by a double whammy of spending money and time for something you get very little back. I’ve heard feedback from LGS (Local Game Stores) on how tough the economy is right now with the Ringgit getting hammered and decreased attendance. Sure money is tighter for everyone and players came and go, but no one really ever quits MTG.
So thanks everyone for supporting me and Team Malaysia on our little journey across the last five months. I’ll be seeing you guys in the LGS soon for a PPTQ.
“Hahahahaha…. We missed top eight!” - Chye
End Diary
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