“Do I attack here?” while pointing to my Bristling Hydra.
“If you attack and he blocks with his Hostage Taker and reanimates with his Scarab God you going to lose on the spot.” Joe responded.
Hostage Taker. Scarab God. Lose. All words of pain.
“But I don’t attack, we’re going to lose anyway” referring to the life score of 8 to 16 in his favor. Here’s where the “no draw” rule came in and the player with the most life won. I had fewer life. I had fewer creatures, fewer cards and zero time. It was time to call it a day and without any options of getting out of that situation, I extended my hand to ended Team Malaysia’s 2017 World Magic Cup campaign.
We ended 31st, short of our previous year accomplishment and short of our target of a top 8. I’m not about to point fingers of what went right or what went wrong. But I can for sure share what was different and what I probably would have done differently. Despite our disappointing exit, the trip was still quite pleasurable with an unplanned adventure towards the end. Here is my story.
29th November
We arrived in Nice on the Wednesday afternoon, a day and a half before Day 1. Adwin had a terrible cough and he wasn’t feeling all too good. Wasn’t the start I expected to the trip. After we got lunch, Joe told Adwin to just crash for the rest of the day and crash he did, not coming out from his room for the entire evening since 5pm. Joe and I started testing my Sultai vs a stock Temur Energy list. I was telling Joe that the matchup was atrocious but Joe needed to see it for himself. Game after game. Glorybringer, Vizer of Open Faces, Chandra Torch of Defiance, Whirler Virtuoso – any of these was basically better than whatever the entire Sultai deck threw at the Temur. Even a resolved Scarab God felt weak and a Sky Sovereign ate Abrade almost every single time. By the time he hit 30 games and the Sultai only winning 5 games, we decided the matchup was just too difficult and we only had to do what a normal person would do. Pray.
30th November
The eve of the competition is normally a very relaxing affair for the Malaysian team. I remembered in 2016, we were out having a roast chicken lunch and only light playtesting. Unfortunately this year it was slightly different. Unlike previous years, the team actually got together only twice before the trip. Our testing was basically in pods – me and Joe or me and Adwin. As a group we only didn’t do a practice sealed together so while we were all familiar with the format, we weren’t familiar with each others comforts and strengths especially in the limited section.
We still had time and we churned through three sealed pools that evening. There were very little disagreements in deck construction and our pools were generally good. So hopefully our “pool opening” luck would carry forward to the next day. The rest of the evening was spent testing mono red mirrors before we registered our final deck lists and called it a night.
The Decks
So our final configuration was:
Seat A – Adwin (Mono Red)
Seat B – Joe (UW Approach)
Seat C – PM (Sultai Energy with Bristling Hydra)
I think the configuration was pretty much a stock configuration most teams had. But for future reference, I shall narrate how we got to this set of decks, why and what would I personally would have done differently.
Preparation
The team agreed early on that Mono Red was a lock in the line up and the other decks would build around the best version of Mono Red. That quickly eliminated Temur Energy from the line up as clashes to Chandra Torch of Defiance, Abrade and Glorybringer. Was it incorrect to dismiss Temur so early on? The decision of course came not without deliberation but the alternatives to Mono Red with Temur in the lineup weren’t as attractive – Mardu Vehicles, Mono Black, GW Aggro.
However there were other Energy options – Sultai and 4c (no Glorybringer and Abrade). The first iteration of Sultai was good and bad in different spots and very inconsistent in my testing. Some teams found success with Seth Manfield’s build but I wasn’t particularly happy with its consistency. One thing that we didn’t do, which later on turn out to be one of my regrets, would be exploring the 4c deck further. Joe didn’t like the list as the mana seemed shaky and through his observations in Albuquerque, he wasn’t impressed on how the deck ran. It did play some powerful top end cards like Nicol Bolas to trump energy mirrors but the deck had its fair share of free losses due to stumbles. I took my captain’s advice on this and moved on to work on the best iteration of Sultai I could find.
Then came the third deck which started out as Jeskai Approach – very similar to the list in the top 8 of Pro Tour Ixalan. While the deck had access to Harness Lightning, but the constraint put on the mana base was too great. Joe added Evolving Wilds to smoothen the colour constraint but the card kept biting back later on when Joe needed the crucial 6th land for Torrential Gearhulk or 7th to cast Approach of the Second Sun. So Joe decided to trim the red and went with a much smoother and consistent blue white build.
So while the base decks were agreed upon two weeks leading to the event, the testing was far from perfect. The lack of meet ups resulted in a lopsided testing between mono red and energy and Joe didn’t get as many games as he wanted versus matchups aside from mono red. While end of the day I felt it didn’t really impact the final card selections, but it did impact the sideboarding plan later on.
Decks we didn’t play
In the blue white seat, we had two other decks to consider – gifts and cycling. Joe was not a fan of the gifts while I didn’t have good vibes on the cycling. Both decks made the finals so in a way Joe and myself got it wrong. However again it wasn’t without deliberation on the pros and cons. If we had more time to work together I probably think we may have ended up with cycling instead of Approach. I initially didn’t like the idea of the deck durdling early on and its late spell – Drake Haven, wasn’t as impactful as Approach. This point was agreed early on, but it turns out that the cycling did play out well and it was in fact Abandoned Sarcophagus, and not Drake Haven, that was the huge closer.
Coming back to the Four colour energy, I really felt we dismissed the deck too early. Cut/Ribbons was a straight replacement for Abrade and the deck rarely missed Glorybringer. However our Mono Red didn’t run Glorybringer and played 3 Chandra Torch of Defiance instead, and Chandra was key to the 4C. In the end the winning Japanese list played neither in their Mono Red (to load all the goodness in Yuuya's deck) and that worked out fine as well. The second point on shaky mana could have been worked on, perhaps shaving some colour hungry cards like Gonti and going with more tapped lands.
1st December - Day one
Day one started off with Team Sealed and unlike previous years, we were directly to our seats as opposed to play the guessing dance with Malta again. For those who are not familiar with this story, Malta and Malaysia shares the same deckbuilding table (Number 41). While the table number is fixed, pools were placed on the same table, one on the left and one on the right. In 2015, Malaysia arrived at the table first and we chose incorrectly, Malta the recipient of double Gideon Ally of Zendikar while Team Malaysia had 5 rare lands. In 2016, Malta arrived first and I clearly remember peaking their pool of Chandra Torch of Defiance and Nissa.
This year there were no more roulette shenanigans and we were assigned our seat and pool. Adwin was our designated pool breaker due but it was announced that our pools is to be broken into three to check the stampings and so Adwin broke our pools and we looked through. My stack was pretty good with 3 Bishop Soldiers and some nice black removal. Adwin flicked Vraska and a foil Settle the Wreckage. We both turned to Joe.
“How’s your stack Joe?”
“Bad.”
So our luck continued. To summarise our pool had not enough cards for neither a Merfolk nor a Vampire deck. We didn’t have a single copy of Pirate Cutlass, Annointed Deacon and River Herald’s Boon – all cornerstone cards for the main archetypes. So we ended up with three decent but unspectacular decks. Two wins was rather a reasonable expectation but poor draws and mana issues plagued us in the first three rounds. At one point Joe was playing mono green and I was playing mono blue. It didn’t end very well and we sat 1-2 going into constructed.
At lunch the mood was slightly above somber. We were still rattled to come out of the sealed portion at 1-2 and now our backs were pretty much to the wall to even make into Day 2. Joe still felt optimistic of our chances and we just tried to relax before the rounds ahead.
Romania
“Cartouche of Ambition on the Bristling Hydra, trigger targeting Earthshaker Khenra. Attack you for eight and gain eight life.”
Game over. We evened the match one a piece after Adwin fell. Eyes were on Joe now in a very tight game three. The matchup versus black blue midrange seemed to favour Joe, but Joe was trying to draw more lands. He had the Approach in hand for the win, but didn’t have enough lands to protect the big spell twice against what we both knew were at least two Disallows in the Romanian’s hand. Joe maneuvered well but the 11th land didn’t come and he had to fire the Approach across the lethal board. As expected the Romanian answered with two copies of Disallow and Malaysia were now 1-3.
It was heartbreaking. Throughout the first four rounds today, the draws didn’t break well our way. We did have our way with the French in Round two, but every round felt like a struggle to break out of our own shell.
Netherlands
It was win or go home once more. Once again I raced to a quick finish and sat between Joe and Adwin. We were up a match but that lasted only a few minutes before Adwin got overwhelmed by his more experienced Temur opponent. So once again our fate rested in Joe’s hands and it came down to how he would “Approach” (no pun intended) the matchup. With the weight on his shoulders once more, he wasn’t to be denied. I gave Joe breathing space to let him think and not interfere and Joe navigated a save for Malaysia and knocking out the Netherlands from the competition.
For the first time today, we had a reason to smile. Adwin was still feeling dejected, not having to contribute yet to our scoreboard, but little that he knew, greater things were yet to come.
Brazil
3 Pro Tour champions.
1 Hall of Famer and probably Top 3 overall.
Rich Hagon was humble enough to at least recognize “David’s” achievements with the multiple Grand Prix top 8’s on our side, but it dwarfed the colossal combined resume that Brazil the Goliath brought to the table. So if Malaysia were to walk out of the tournament, it would be either losing with honor or sending the best team in room home. Either way it was going to be epic.
However epic was a far cry of my match versus Paolo Vitor. My deck refused to cooperate and I lost two quick games due mulligans and Paolo curving his nuts. I abandoned my deck and rolled my seat over between Adwin and Joe. Both were up a game and it seemed we had hope. But my relief came crashing down as Carlos Romao (on UW cycling) played two Authority of Consuls on his first two turns and there was no recovering for Adwin. Joe stumbled on mana in his game two as well and suddenly both matches went to the decider.
Once again, I let Joe do his thing and focused on Adwin. He mulligans to six and his opener produced 3 lands, Rampaging Ferocidon, Earthshaker Khenra and Abrade. It was slow. Adwin didn’t like it and a turn one Authority would spell the end very quickly. I pointed to the Ferocidon and whispered to Adwin to say this will need to take you to victory and we kept. Carlos also mulligan to six and had his own lengthy discussion with Paolo before deciding to keep as well. Both scryes went to the bottom and off we went.
Adwin played his Mountain and pass. We held our breath as Carlos played a turn one tapped land and pass. Adwin cast his Earthshaker and dealt the first blood to Carlos and passed.
Carlos tapped for white on his turn. Cycle Cast out.
Pass.
Adwin took a deep breath and untapped his permanents, his hands visibly trembling.
“We got this, just relax. Breathe.” I whispered to him.
Earthshaker went in again and followed up with a Ferocidon.
Carlos untapped, cycled again on his main phase and played an Ipnu Rivulet.
Pass.
Adwin draws and plays a 2nd Earthshaker and swung with his team. Carlos paid a life to cycle again.
He drew for his turn, shook his head and packed his permanents!
Adwin slumped back to his chair and trying to soak in what just happened. I didn’t waste a moment and went to Joe who was in a thick of things with Lucas Esper.
You can read the full match report HERE (Brazil vs Malaysia)
Though what you read seems to be clearly straight forward from Joe, but every play required deliberation on our side as we needed to consider Lost Legacy before firing out the remaining counterspell against the Scarab God. But once we were committed to “Stop-the-God” plan, there was no turning back.
And once the coast was clear and Joe cast his Approach the Second Sun, Paolo’s eyes rolled back and sat back to his chair. Lucas Esper turned around and look at his teammates and offered his hand to Joe.
OMG.
Suddenly, from starting out 1-3 we were now 3-3. Joe felt we could string one more. And I believe him.
One more.
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