Chile
3 rounds won, 3 rounds lost. Winner here sweats out the tiebreakers to make it to Day two and guaranteed cash. Just a few hours ago we felt we were left for the dead, but somehow we clawed our way back thanks to some tight plays from Joe and a much needed first victory for Adwin over Carlos Ramao.
Now stood between us and Day two was Chile. My match versus 4C Energy was a very close affair. But in game 3, Nicol Bolas showed it horns and decimated the board giving the first game point to Chile. Joe took advantage of opponents stumbles and for the first time this weekend, we waited the result of the mono red mirror.
Adwin’s round had a rough start as he lost game one and was called for a random deck check. Later on it was discovered he had four marked sleeves and three of them were Earthshaker Khenras. The table judge issued a game loss on the spot which would spell our end, but Adwin wisely appealed as it was unintentional and a coincidence. Head Judge agreed with Adwin to our relief and it was reduced to warning. This somehow must have sparked Adwin as he crushed his opponent in the second game going into the decider. With now everything on the line, Adwin’s deck finally decided to churn his best opener.
Moments later Adwin turned all his attackers for lethal. As anticipated his opponent crewed up his Harvester and wanted to move to blocks. Adwin was stoic for just a moment before Joe and myself said in unison to announce a spell before blocks. Adwin finally said in his calm stoic manner: “Before blocks, Abrade your Harvester.”
The Chileans shook and congratulated us. Joe smiled and told us good job. But we were not out of the woods yet. Final standings awaited.
Twenty minutes later Joe walked over to the standings board. He turned around and smiled. We made it!!!
So after a roller coaster day, we let out a huge sigh of relief. I felt we were truly lucky looking how the entire day went. It gave us renewed hope for second day of play. So after a nice quiet dinner at a local family Italian restaurant next to our apartment, we tucked in early for the night.
2nd December – Day two
I wish I could elaborate a lot more. But nothing went our way the moment the day started. This time it was not due to variance, mana screw or mulligan fest. But every game, for all three of us, it just felt one play, or one draw step short. It was heartbreaking.
After losing to England for the second time this tournament, our backs were against the wall again versus Belgium. This time Joe could not save us as he fell early leaving Adwin and myself to battle it out. If there was any trend to this, it didn’t look good for us as all our wins came this weekend on the back of Joe’s match. Adwin managed to get the win and the attention was turned to my cluttered board in the final game 3.
When time was called, I had the lower life and the lesser board. In normal circumstances this would have ended up in a stalemate. But WMC rules are different. The Belgians drew more blood in this match, using his two Hostage Takers and used my two Longtusk Cubs against me.
We were very short on our targets entering the competition and I didn’t want to leave. But Joe accepted our fate and ended our tournament with a handshake and congratulations to our opponent.
The campaign was finally over. A Top 32 and a money finish. But it just ended a tad too soon.
Reminiscing what went wrong....
Overall recap and learnings
This is my third World Magic Cup and each trip I try pick up learning points, things and lessons that will help improve not just me, but Malaysia going forward in future WMCs. I looked back and compared the various aspects to the tournament from preparation, deck selection, communication, leadership and a host of other things of whether were there any aspects that were better between the years. So if I were to conclude and draw comparisons to my prior experiences, here’s what I think we did right/wrong and stuff we probably could have done better/differently.
1. The WMC date was very close to the completion of Nationals, so compared to previous years, we had lesser time together to prepare. While Adwin and myself did our runs at MTGO leagues, but unlike the 2016 team, we didn’t develop a specific gauntlet to crunch matches and get better statistics and sideboard plans.
2. Individually we did our own work, most of them online. Hence the team didn’t get together often enough as we would have liked. Work commitments and Joe had plenty of travelling in between got in the way of team meet ups and discussions. This was a far contrast from the 2016 team that got together two to three times a week for eight to ten weeks prior to the event. While the earlier point on the Nationals date being so close to the event didn’t help, but I think we could have intensify the number of meetings to get a feel of each other game and decks.
3. I personally played all three of our decks online. So I was rather familiar with how the games played out and what kind of hands we should be keeping. This helped the team a lot when I came over to help out both Adwin and Joe. However because of Joe’s intense schedule, he was focused solely on his own deck, not like that was a bad thing, but there were spots where he was unable to provide advise to me. Going forward it is quite important that the experienced members of the team should be familiar with every aspect of the team’s decks (as well as the format) in order to maximize the “advantage” of team discussion during game play.
4. I quoted “advantage” for team discussion as I noticed the winning Japanese team hardly discussed at all. I think the complete faith you have in your teammates naturally relies on how good your teammates actually are and more often than not, we tend to have the urge to give our two cents worth. I guess its fine for training sessions but during live game play, I can see now the importance of trusting your teammate and his decisions to execute the game plan, which the team has agreed on prior. During the finals between Japan and Poland, Kenta Harane only consulted Yuuya ONCE in a complicated attack step. I reckon team Malaysia is still very distant of a caliber like the Japanese, but its something I would see being beneficial to play independently in team competition.
5. End of the day I think our deck choices were fine. Even I pointed out the earlier regret of not testing out the 4C energy I think the end 75 of all three lists were good. But had I re-do everything again and taking into consideration the amount of time we each tested and all the things I mentioned above, I probably would have ended with this configuration:
Seat A: Adwin (Sultai Energy)
Seat B: Joe (Mono Red)
Seat C: Me (UW Approach)
The Non-Magic Stuff
Alright that’s a lot to chew on. Time to get to some lighter moments of the trip. Here’s a quick recap:
1. Joe arrived at KLIA at 8pm on 28th November, the night we were supposed to fly out. After going home for a shower and pack, he was back in KLIA at 11:30pm just in time for check in.
2. This was Adwin’s maiden voyage for a MTG adventure. Being seasoned travellers, Joe and myself dashed around the airport to get between gates etc, but I then had to stop several times to look behind my shoulder only to see Adwin walking gingerly miles away. I didn’t want to leave my teammate behind so plenty of time was spent to make sure Adwin didn’t get lost.
3. We got to our AirBnB and met out host Jean Paul, who turned out to be an Asian looking guy who’s dad was a Malaysian. Small world.
4. We ate pasta almost everyday. I haven’t had pasta since.
5. We tried Socca – French version of Roti Canai and their national snack.
6. Will never try Socca again. Give me RM1 Roti any day versus 3 Euro Socca.
7. On Day One we left the apartment early at 745am. It was only roughly 20 minutes train plus walk to the site and Joe wanted to leave slightly earlier to get some breakfast and reach by 830am. At the bakery Adwin realized he forgot his wallet and decided to walk back for it. Joe and myself waited outside the bakery in chilly zero degrees wind for 15 minutes before Adwin showed up.
8. We found out later that Adwin forgot to wear his belt too.
9. On Saturday, we celebrated Ipank Aziz (Indonesia captain) birthday with a lunch at a really posh restaurant. There were eight of us and we ordered nine dishes. The waiter asked Ipank – “Are you sure?”
10. Ipank coolly replied – I’m a big eater.
11. By the eighth dish it was already too much food. And the kicker is when the ninth dish, the seafood pasta, arrived. It could feed a family of four.
12. Ipank surrendered and generously paid the bill like man admitting his mistake.
Monte Carlo
So with the Magic part of the trip over, Emily and myself planned for a day trip to Monte Carlo, only an hour journey from Nice. We had the company of Ipank and his wife Oya.
The views in Monte Carlo were breathtaking. We visited the famous Monte Carlo casino, the site where they filmed Casino Royale. According to Oya, I made Ipank break his personal record of walking for more than ONE kilometre non stop. Ipank also tried to prove his fitness by running up the hill to get to the look out point. He reached he top - severely out of breath but my heart was racing hard as well. Watching the goliath charge up the hill, my mind could only think and worry of him tripping and rolling back down. I wasn’t going to be able to catch the 100kg bowling ball downslope.
And finally…
Year in recap
I set three modest goals MTG wise for 2017.
- At least one Grand Prix Top 8
- Attend PT Kyoto
- Make it again for the World Magic Cup
Two out of three is not bad. Being National Champion was quite the nice medicine for just barely missing out Kyoto. But as always Magic to me was far more than just wins and achievements. I enjoyed the travel with my wife and being in the company of good friends. And of course good food. Here’s another photo of me and Chye in Singapore when we ordered too much food. Again.
What’s next for 2018?
- A decent finish at Pro Tour Bilbao
- At least one Grand Prix Top 8
- Attend the team Pro Tour in August with Chye and Joe
- World Magic Cup
Overall its been a great year and looking forward to do it all over again.
Till my next adventure - PM out.
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