"All my bags are packed all ready to go. Standing here outside your door….."
The all-familiar Leaving on a Jet Plane tune hummed in my head as Emily and I waited at the KLIA gate for our morning flight to Manila. We still had an hour to kill and I dug into my backpack and flipped open my deck box.
"Longtusk Cub. Bristling Hydra. Harnessed Lightning. Electrostatic Pummeler. Booyah!"
For two weeks I was suiting up Black Green Constrictor ala Shaun McLaren Grand Prix Montreal masterpiece. I was doing pretty well with it on MTGO but I couldn’t solve the Blue Red matchup. But on the last Sunday before the Grand Prix weekend, Chye asked me to try the stock GR Energy/Pummeler list.
"O.M.G. We found it."
"Combo deck that’s faster than Marvel? Check."
"Hell-of-a-sideboard plan? Check."
"Consistent mana base? Check."
"Glorybringer in Standard? Sign me up!"
The Pummeler list was no secret. It had been gaining some popularity online over the past week or so but Chye re-introduced an old key ingredient – Uncaged Fury. Over the next few days I did what I do best, tightening up the deck, adjusting its mana base flaws (yes the stock list was flawed) and tested Chye’s transformation sideboard plan. It was thing of beauty. I did very well on MTGO on the back of the deck’s sheer speed and great sideboard plan. If you felt Aetherworks Marvel was an oppressive play on turn four, wait until you are on the receiving end of an Electrostatic Pummeler on turn three.
We considered for a moment to splash a touch of blue for Negate or some form of countermagic. But after going through a lot of previous content, primarily from Brian Kibler, the blue splash made the deck very awkward postboard. The core strength of the deck has been its consistent mana base, something I didn’t want to sacrifice to play some off colour cards.
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The final 75-card list was finalized two days before the flight and though I brought extra cards, extra decks even, I knew I didn’t need anything else. The final list I ran with here:
Chye’s list and mine had one tiny (but was potentially huge) difference. I ran the 8th forest over his 3rd Sheltered Thicket. Throughout the entire weekend, I rarely had an awkward issue of having my land come into play tapped turn one with Attune in my hand. I didn’t mulligan as often except towards the end of the tournament and perhaps the only one minor edit I would have made was probably to the sideboard adding a third Manglehorn to replace the 4th Prowling Serpopard.
Sideboarding was rather simple. Against decks where you didn’t want the combo after game one (which was every deck except Aetherworks Marvel), you cut the Pummelers, Rampages and Fury for the midrange package of removals, Chandra and Glorybringers. Its not rocket science.
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Highlights of the Swiss Rounds:
- I started Day One with One (1) Round bye. It’s my reward for playing very little the past season. Think I haven’t had only a single round bye in a Grand Prix since 2012 when I had zero byes. Oh well.
- Played back-to-back zombie decks in Rounds two and three. Game three of Round three I fell to double Dark Salvations off the top. Salvation indeed!
- The Kame-hame-ha combo of Uncaged Fury and Invigorating Rampage ripped through numerous unsuspecting opponents. At one point my Mardu vehicles opponent on 10 life, casually crewed his Aethersphere Harvester with his only blocker and went up to 13 life. My unchallenged 4/4 Longtusk Cub (with 2 energy) couldn’t leap fast enough to the red zone, receiving an Uncaged Fury and another +1/+1 counter to take six from the initial double strike hit, getting another two energy for another +1/+1 counter and a lethal seven damage after. Boom!!!!
- I conceded to a grand total of only two Ulamogs throughout the weekend. I played against only two Aetherworks Marvel decks that went to three games each. So I’ll accept that 33% odds any day.
- I played Chye in round 9 of Day 1, both playing for 8-1. He mulligan, flooded out and tried to fling his extra basic lands at my Longtusk Cub. This only worked in our playtesting.
- Game 2 he slammed Rhonas, the Indomitable on turn 3 and yelled “Hello my friend!!” I responded with my own turn 3 Rhonas and yelled “Hellloooooo my friend!!!”
- Yuuki Ichikawa, who was seated beside Chye, looked over at our board and smiled. I looked over at his board and saw an Ulamog towering over everything. Magic is an awesome game when you have indestructible creatures.
- I was called for a Round 12 feature match with a local player (playing Zombies) only to find Tomoharu Saito seated at our feature match spot, already posing for pictures. There was some confusion with the feature match announcement being table THREE versus table NINE. Not sure how Saito got that wrong.
- Saito lost that match though.
- So did I.
- Chapman apologized for the earlier miscue and rewarded me with another shot at the feature match table. I ran there so fast to make sure Saito didn’t jump on me a second time.
- Close match versus Teruya Kakumae playing pseudo mirror (without Pummeler) powered up by main deck Hazoret and Glorybringers. Closest match of the weekend as the game swinged back and forth but secured the critical 11th win to put for a win and in for the top 8.
- Rewarded with a match with Ryoichi Tamada and his Blue White Flash. Didn’t pay much attention earlier with his games but I knew he was running hot. His draws were pretty flat and I had the right number of threats against his smaller board. Cruised to a 2-0 win and suddenly…. I was 12-2.
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Standings after round 14 were posted and I was 5th with 36 points. Chye ran through the numbers and it was a safe intentional draw. My final round opponent burst into tears as his friends hugged and congratulated his top 8. It’s these moments in the game that melts my heart and somehow I felt happier for him than thinking of my own top eight.
I signed the ID slip and went to catch a breather outside the hall with Emily. The Singaporean crew congratulated me, but I was still sweating a little on the tie-breakers inside.
"It’s all going to be alright dammit. Relax. You were so sure about everything all weekend, don’t doubt what’s coming. You did the math. Chye did the math. You’re going to be alright…."
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“Ladies and gentlemen. We have your top eight announcement..... In sixth place – Pang Ming Wee!”
"YESSSSssssssssssssssssss!!!!!"
Chung Wye and Hafiz Hamidon gave me a high five and wished me all the best. I took a deep breath and walked towards the feature match stage. I knew I have been playing well, especially on Day 2. I caught a glimpse of the championship trophy as I made my way to an empty table where some paperwork awaited.
"You got this. You got this. You got this."
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"Back in the feature match area again. I’m starting to like it here. Oooh smile for the camera."
I sat across my quarterfinal opponent - Vehicles. It’s his first top eight and his very first Grand Prix. I congratulated him and shook his hand.
"It’s ice cold."
A judge came over and brought over our decklists and he explained the proceedings. His voice somehow was drowned within my own thoughts of how the upcoming matchup was going to play out. I had one hand on the decklist and eagerly curious to find out how many Walking Ballista and Fatal Push he was running. The judge finally stopped talking and I went into the tank.
"Harness Lightning, Unlicensed…. No fatal push? Where’s Ballista? Oh Spell Queller. Hmmmm….. Two Fumigates and two Radiant Flames in the sideboard. Wow you must hate Zombies. What’s with this one each Planeswalker sideboard plan? Doesn’t matter, its all the same. Let’s get to work."
Mulligan from each side but he stalled on three lands. I didn’t waste my chance and closed it out with a Rampage on the Pummeler when he tapped out.
"Pummel. Pummel. Pummel."
Game two he gets his crazy Mardu opener. My deck plays defense. It was good at playing defense and Glorybringer towered over everything on the board. Heart of Kiran decides to bring the board back to parity but Glorybringer got a boost from Blossoming Defense and when the dust settled, the path was clear.
"Got ya!"
Second Glorybringer joined the party and the party animals of double dragons and double hydras rumbled into the red zone for the full twenty. Game over.
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"Top four. Breathe. You’re one step closer. It’s only Tamada. You beat him before. Should be a walk in the park. Yea his draws were kind of flat earlier. But who knows, you can get lucky again."
Ryoichi Tamada sat across me and smiled. The judges brought over our decklists and Tamada asked for my deck instead as he could read little to no English. Without a second thought, I obliged and flipped open my deck box.
"No!! Don’t let him touch it…… too late."
I scanned through the list. It was very stock Blue White Flash. I paid attention to the Dusk to Dawns in the sideboard. I worked out his possible sideboarding plan and got ready to battle.
Tamada broke through the gates curving out hard and had the Spell Queller ready for my Bristling Hydra, following up with a Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. It was going to be over very soon.
Rhonas entered the battlefield tapped and the Longtusk Cub stood in front of a rubbling Gideon to prevent lethal. Tamada left a Glory Bound Initiate to hold ground against Rhonas and a Pummeler with only three energy in my reserve.
"One card left. 3 mana open. Two Invigorating Rampage in hand. Five lands. There’s 21 damage here. Exactly lethal. Let’s take a draw first..... Uncaged Fury. Doesn’t change the math. Here we go…."
The Pummeler felt an Invigorating Rampage and charges its fist and while looking at Rhonas, all ready for the final onslaught. But out of the sky came the blinding cover of a Stasis Snare, binding the Pummeler while Rhonas lay helpless. Tamada appeared to have left the door open for me to sneak the win, but I should have known better. My heart sank and paused for a few seconds before I scooped up. I took a peek of the next card.
Blossoming Defense.
"Shake it off. I can feel the force behind him. It’s getting stronger. Tamada had you at the edge and he still needed one extra boost to not let you steal the first game. He’s breathing lucky. Vengeance! Let there be vengeance!"
Mulligan.
And mulligan again.
"Does it end here? Does it need to end here? If we are going to fall here, let’s give it everything we have."
Despite starting with five cards, I gave Tamada a real sweat. He needed to crack two of his three Dusk to Dawns early to keep parity. I eeked out whatever resource I could and saved my trump for the very end – Chandra, Torch of Defiance to bring Tamada to one life. But his final card in hand, which I assumed all along was Negate, was in fact a Cast Out. Chandra was whisked away into oblivion and the light I once saw started to fade a little.
I was left with an active Voltaic Brawler but with his trample ability, I was still threatening lethal. Tamada held back his forces and I draw a second Brawler and traded Brawler for Selfless Spirit. But Tamada drew his THIRD Dusk to Dawn and extinguished the Brawler to clear the way for his troops.
Chye looks hard at the board from a distance, sensing this could be the penultimate, if not the final play of my tournament.
So despite double mulligans, despite playing from behind the whole match, despite facing a great competitor like Tamada, I still have FOUR outs.
"Glorybringer. Glorybringer. Glorybringer. Chandra, Torch of Defiance."
I repeated my outs in my head once more.
"Here we go. This is his weekend or yours……"
"Dejavu. One card too late again. His force is too strong. You did what you could. Lay down your weapons. We’ll come back another day."
I looked hard at the board and back at the card in my hand for a few more seconds, refusing to relinquish my grip. Tamada, with his usual tiny eyes, widened a little in anticipation of a dramatic twist to a game he was clearly always ahead.
"Let it go. It’s over now."
I put the card down and extended my hand to congratulate the eventual GP Manila champion. Tamada smiled and accepted my handshake. My Manila campaign was finally over.
"You top four a Grand Prix! Breathe...."
I let out a little smile walking out from the feature match area as Chye pat my shoulders like a proud father. I did what I came to do. It wasn't perfect but I'll gladly take this one as a success. And finally, for the first time in the entire weekend, I felt great.
"I’ll be back".
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