5:30am.
I couldn’t sleep. Yesterday's underwhelming performance kept replaying in my head. No matter how many times I apologised to Chye (and the same number of times he told me to shake it off), I still couldn't let go the sinking feeling of letting the team down. I spent months working on Unified Modern, analysing every single tactical edge we could get. I spent as much time as I could on Dredge, while balancing testing on other decks in the format. But yesterday I was trounced by three mirrors, and our scouting showed plenty of Dredge in Seat C so there were high chances of me meeting mirrors again. I didn’t want another repeat from my Day One 0-3 so something needed to change. I re-looked back at my notes, re-read my emails with Steven Mann (who was gold throughout this process in helping me prepare with Dredge) and also squeezed in three matches on MTGO. A whole years work was on the line in the next couple of hours. I was going on all in….
The mood on the bus was somber as we made our way to the venue. Everyone knew what was on the line. Chye was still trying to keep our spirits up. Chirpy and making fun of Shawn. Shawn wanted to start day with the elimination match, but Rick insisted to press on from yesterday. He did feel he had some momentum and Chye felt Shawn was better at spotting gaps. So Chye chose for Rick to start the day, with everything on the line in our elimination match.
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So this was it. By 9am we were seated just moments from game time. As expected we were matched against Ecuador. It was a rematch from last year for me and against the very same opponent - Francisco Cedeno.
I knew Francisco was probably Ecuador's best player. Although he wasn't the captain for the second year in the row, his teammates often turned to him last year and he played the best/most complicated deck on the team last year - Rally the Ancestors. I didn't expect anything less from him this year, so I wasn't too surprised of the matchup - another Dredge mirror. Game one was over for me in 5 minutes and wasn’t even close. I looked over to Chye and told him I was down a game. Rick haven’t even started shuffling as he got a random deck check. It was another awful start to the morning. I shuffled up for Game two and picked up my opening hand. Finally something good. Like a well-tuned engine, the deck started to purr into motion and finally, after a dozen games, it went to work and didn’t let go of the pedal. Tie game. For game 3, my opening hand revealed – Land. Leyline. Leyline. E.T.C.
It didn’t matter. This was for the marbles. Turn zero Leyline times two. He answered the first Leyline with an opening Nature's Claim. But the second one continued to eat his precious resources as he dug furiously for an answer. And I knew from so many games in the that very spot yesterday, it was a futile attempt. Game set match. I closed out the most important match of the weekend. We were finally through. My jinx was broken and it couldn’t have come at a more crucial time. We breath a sigh of relief and that’s when Chye said it:
“Victory pee.”
So off we went.
The win bought us US$1,000. It bought us at least another 2 rounds of play and a chance for Malaysia’s first top 16 in the World Magic Cup. By some sheer “luck” we were paired against Turkey once again. Basically we had one mirror, one favourable and one unfavourable matchup. If things were go to according plan, it would come down once again to the mirror. Sadly, I lost once again in quick fashion and our team never stood a chance. Back to the brink of elimination. Again.
What made matters worse were we were going to play the losers of the USA and France matchup. Deck for deck, we were actually rooting for the USA though I could imagine the awkwardness of Rick Lee vs Owen Turtenwald mirror matchup. But USA triumph and that set up an elimination match once again versus the French. Raphael Levy and his Dredge made quick work of Chye while I went down a game versus Affinity after he made a monstrous Etched Champion. For Game 2, Etched Champion appeared once against and he turned it into a two turn clock. But that exposed it to my Ancient Grudge and Nature’s Claim so we were off to the decider with Rick up a game versus Bant Drazi. I knew if I took this game 3, we would seal it. The Dredge answered my call and fire on all cylinders, answering everything the Affinity could put in front. And as I shook my French opponents hand, Rick finished off his match with an uncontested Kame-Hame-Ha!
The French were out. One more match stood between us and Top 16. It was our friends, the Turkish. By now we were laughing it off. We shared our table at the cafeteria talking about Magic back home and they were the neatest guys I’ve met during the weekend. So we sat down once again on Table 16, losing twice earlier, and probably having the match decided by a single outcome of the mirror match. My earlier two contests with my Turkish opponent were non-games. As Chye put it, I had the nuts, but he won the dice roll and went "nuttier". But this time, I flipped the script. I still couldn’t win the dice roll by the way but it didn’t matter. My Dredge was on point, and my Narcomoebas and Prized Almagams travelled hand in hand. Game two was no different as a Turn zero Leyline followed by another blitzing start meant Team Malaysia was up a match. I rolled over to Chye, facing Infect and I knew that was “the” matchup we needed to win. In his crucial Game 3, Chye and myself considered every single play. The Turkish captain was no pushover but the combined experience from our side cornered the Infect player and reducing him to playing pump spells on his Noble Hierarch. Valiant but futile. We finally crossed the hump and drop our heavy burdens on the ground.
Top 16!
“Victory pee!” – Chye.
The Turkish obviously felt disappointed. I would be if I were in their shoes. They knew they had Malaysia’s number. However putting aside our little rivalry over the weekend, they were overall great guys and I’ll probably be visiting these guys one day.
But we still had some work to do.....
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Group photo with the cool Turkish team. Can you spot Chye?
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