Then it became the trip that almost didn’t get off the ground.
But it did and when the whole thing started, I started to question myself and my abilities.
Despite reeling near the bottom, I somehow redeemed and got a breath of fresh air.
The feeling of relieve was only temporary and back down I went again.
The remaining part of Bilbao was miserable and was looking forward to the next leg – Barcelona.
Through a near-miss encounter, I’m left wondering why I fell in love with this city the last time.
I may never return to Spain again.
That pretty much sum up my entire 9 day Pro Tour experience. It fell far short from my modest expectations in terms of results, and it was one of the most disappointing trips I’ve been on for a long time. Apologies for a very late report this time, as I wasn’t even sure this was worth writing a report. Not every story has a happy ending but in the end its all about life lessons and what we can gain from it.
This is was to be the THE event of the year. The one I’ve been waiting for and looking forward to since I earned my qualification six months or so earlier.
I qualified for Pro Tour Albuquerque via a Top 4 at Grand Prix Manila in June 2017. I wasn’t interested in going to the US, especially it being sandwiched between GP Hong Kong and World Magic Cup. The icing on the top was that the following Pro Tour was in Bilbao, Spain and it was Modern. Spain – check. Modern – check. My last experience at Barcelona was wonderful. Despite failing on the MTG department, the trip was lovely. The group was lovely. This time around, it was just going to be Emily, Joe Soh and myself. That would do.
Modern
You have to love Modern or hate Modern. Modern brings plenty of fond memories as I qualified to earlier two World Magic Cups via Modern (ala Fish). I was 99.9% sure I wasn’t going to play Merfolk for this PT. So I started on my usual trial and testing across the metagame. Unlike Standard, Modern rewards practice, familiarity and most importantly how you and the deck resonate with each other. Lantern control could be “the best” deck, but if it was something you couldn’t resonate yourself with, it was going to be a miserable experience piloting it. Ditto for decks on other end of spectrum like Burn or Affinity. Everyone’s feelings towards a certain deck were different.
My initial range of decks included – Grixis Death Shadow, Dredge, Titanshift, Eldrazi Tron, Storm and Burn. In that order. Grixis Shadow, Dredge and Storm were all good game 1. But I was losing too many sideboard games. Aside from reworking the tools in my sideboard, I tried altering some of my game play but I wasn’t getting the results I wanted. The more I played, the more I hated the deck. And shortly after, those decks stop resonating with me and I knew it was time to move on. Eldrazi Tron was a deck I championed two seasons ago with Team Decards. It was explosive, powerful and resilient to most decks in the metagame. It had some obvious flaws and weaknesses but the biggest weakness of all was Blood Moon. And the current metagame had Moons everywhere. Mindstone allowed me to cast spells, but it was too slow. And there were those clunky draws that felt weak.
Finally, there was Titanshift. Titanshift was previously championed by Francisco Sifuentes, captain of Team Peru and a member of Hareruya Hopes. We worked on the list a little and I went to work. While the list I ended up with was far from the version I started, I could see the progression in my wins and results. The deck had a good midrange sideboard plan and I was increasing my win percentages versus my tougher matchups like Storm, Grixis Shadow and Lantern Control. It was a deck I was happy playing and it was decided early on by early January that Titanshift was my weapon of choice.
Then it became the trip that almost didn’t get off the ground.
The news of the Australian Flu and Japanese Flu were swirling around across Europe. People were dying and more and more people were infected. We were worried. Was this PT even worth the risk? The heart of the pandemic was in the United Kingdom and we were flying British Airways right into London. I checked options of going via a different airline etc, but in the end nothing made sense. It was either we went or we cancelled everything altogether.
And to cap it up, Joe suddenly decided he couldn’t go due to work commitments. I was basically on my own this trip and that made the decision even harder. I had put a lot of time into Modern and I was already drafting Rivals of Ixalan like crazy. Less than 10 days to the trip, we were still undecided.
But it did and when the whole thing started, I started to question myself and my abilities.
In the end, I still braved the trip into wet and cold Bilbao. The weather was miserable. It rained all the time and it was cold. When we had a few hours of clear sky, I managed to capture this.
But that’s were all the nicest part of the trip ended.
Day One – Draft
After putting through 27 Drafts with 9 trophies and 70% win percentage I was feeling more confident than usual in a Limited format. My opening pack gave me a Captain’s Hook which I read and followed the signals to head into UG merfolk and ended up with this.
The end result? 0-3. Every match ended 2-1 but every match I had to deal with Form of the Dinosaurs, Tetzimoc Primal Death and Profane Procession. In that order. I was not feeling good at all and feeling of regret started spiralling in my head. Suripat Makhtu, who was on the same trip in Pro Tour Vancouver 2015 also ended 0-3 with a clunky midrange Black red deck. Pro Tour is hard.
Despite reeling near the bottom, I somehow redeemed and got a breath of fresh air.
So here I was sitting at 0-3 and ready to battle Modern. I shuffled up and thought of nothing except just playing lands and dealing a bunch of damage. And that was exactly what happened.
Win #1 – Mirror
Was on the play in game 1 and he stumbled in game 2.
Win #2 – Eldrazi Tron
Was on the play game 1. Game 2 he turn 5 Ulamog. Game 3 was interesting. My opponent had just cast a turn 3 Thought-Knot Seer and plucked my Primeval Titan leaving a Scapeshift and a mountain in hand with 6 lands in play (they came into play tapped earlier). I untapped with 6 lands, drew another land, played my 7th and went into the tank with him on 20 life and 5 cards in hand.
My options – Scapeshift him now for 18 and finish the job next turn, fearing a second Thought-Knot Seer which I sense he had. But I also sensed he had a Ghost Quarter or Basilisk Collar which will mean I would lose right there. Second option, do nothing and pray.
I chose the latter. He did in fact had the Collar AND the Ghost Quarter. But he was not stopping my 8th land and Scapeshift the following turn for the win.
Win #3 – Burn
The trick versus burn is to be discipline and go slow by not hurting yourself. I did the exact opposite when I was on the play game 1 and I was a gut feel he was on Affinity and played a fetch to get a Stomping Ground for a turn 1 Search for Tomorrow. He was on Burn and I lost having the 2 extra life points mattered. Games 2 and 3 I was disciplined and refused to take any damage on my own. He had Skullcracks for both my Baloth and Thragtusk, but the two beasts mowed him down in two turns in game 3.
Win #4 – Tron
Needed to draw Scapeshift after he cast his Ulamog. Drew it, got there.
So after 0-3 start, I somehow made it across the line to day 2 at 4-3. I could have ended the day at a sweet 5-0 for Modern, but Kentaro Yamamoto had other ideas with his crazy Goblin Lore deck and swept me 2-0, both one turn before I could finish him off.
It was a good feeling to swing back from the bottom. I certainly did expected to see myself at least 1 or 2 notches higher, but after starting out 0-3, I’ll take the Day 2 for now and hope to come swinging the following day. It was a good feeling.
The feeling of relieve was only temporary and back down I went again.
I really felt I just got abit unlucky in draft #1. I was happy with the Merfolk deck and did look forward to draft again today. Despite starting 4-4, there was some hope for me to at least 2-1 the pod followed by another 4 wins for modern. Sounds realistic especially after I got my first win of the day.
The second draft didn’t look as good as the first, particularly after later I found out that there were three BW vampire drafters on the table, all opening Legion Lieutenant in their opening pack. I got demolished in round two to a very good Black Red deck only to have a miserable draw in round three when the black white vampire mirror couldn’t break the stalemate. I wasn’t feeling too optimistic as compared to a few hours earlier and when I started the Modern rounds with double mulligans, it felt apart from there. I lost round 12 and round 13 and at that point I had enough. With nothing left to play for, I called it quits, said goodbye to Suripat and left the hall. It was over.
I guess to sum up the Magic part of the trip is that even how prepared you feel you are, both limited and constructed, there are days when things just don't go your way. I rarely blame outcomes to how unlucky I was as normally games would come to a one or two crucial decision points. But this weekend, I really felt I was on the wrong end of the stick. The only consolation would probably is making my third consecutive PT Day 2, but that obviously is not what I was here for.
The remaining part of Bilbao was miserable and was looking forward to the next leg – Barcelona.
I booked a Sunday train to head to Barcelona, the city which Emily and I fell in love with few years ago. It was going to be a long train ride but felt it would be worth it. On Saturday night, our Airbnb neighbours upstairs decided to throw a party and they were basically stomping around the entire apartment. We couldn’t sleep and woke up Sunday extremely restless. We had a long journey ahead and this wasn’t a good start.
Abando Train Station Bilbao
The train was running late. Initially we expected to get to Barcelona around 10pm but we arrived close to 11 instead. I had planned to eat in the hotel when we arrived but the restaurant closed at 10:30pm and had only sandwiches and fries. We headed to… McDonalds. It wasn’t a good end to our leg in Bilbao but at least the bed was comfortable and we slept well. The next day….rain, rain and more rain. We still managed to get ourselves to the famous market for a nice seafood lunch. Unfortunately for some reason, the food didn’t taste as good as the first time we had time. It didn’t help that the area was packed with people seeking shelter from the rain (the market was indoors) so as soon as we finished our meal, we left and headed back to the hotel.
Through a near-miss encounter, I’m left wondering why I fell in love with this city the last time.
To be honest, the trip hasn’t been all too exciting up to this point. But it quickly took a big 180 and I’m sharing what I hope to be just a once in a lifetime experience. Here goes…
The skies were clear on Tuesday and we got out early for some city sightseeing. We walked along the famous streets of Passeg de Garcia and admired the architecture works of Gaudi sandwiched between a host of branded stores. It was a mix of old and new, classic and luxurious all at the same time. By 2pm we decided to head for lunch and I had planned to visit the best seafood paella in town, just a short 10 minute train ride away from where we were.
We were waiting for the train, something we always done countless of times on our trips. There was nothing out of the ordinary, the train came and we boarded. The train wasn’t overly full but there were people standing around as we got on. Roughly 5 seconds after I boarded, a bald Spanish guy (lets call him the Dude) dropped his sunglasses on the floor and lunged at my feet, grabbing my ankles with each hand. For a split second I thought he was making me avoid stepping on his glasses. Despite being pinned down hard on the ankles, I had the lower body strength to pivot my right foot away, dragging him along with me. Now things started to feel weird.
2 seconds later, just seconds before the train doors were about to close, the dude stood up and walked calmly out of the train – as though nothing had happened. That precise moment, I touched my right pocket and felt the emptiness, quickly turned to Emily and told her that my wallet been taken and dashed through the train doors as it was about to close. I saw the dude, his back facing me and roughly five steps in front of me. I took two big steps and started to swing the hook end of the umbrella which I was holding on my left hand. The hook caught the guy’s coat and I yanked him down as I shouted in anger at him. I clenched my right fist and was a second from socking his face. The dude was visibly stunned – either in pretence or truly shocked that I caught up with him and raised his hands to say – No No No…
And at that precise moment, as though this was a scripted movie, another guy appeared flashing his police badge and claimed he was an officer and tried to break us apart. I refused to relinquish my grip but he kept telling me to calm down and repeating that he was a police officer. His female partner suddenly appeared as well, showing her badge and only that moment I realised Emily was standing behind me.
The dude, now on the ground, spoke in Spanish with the male officer and I was yelling to say that he took my wallet. Then at that point I heard some chatter behind me as other commuters pointed to the ground behind me. My wallet was on the floor and I picked it up to check. Everything was there except for the cash. The officer asked me how much and I said 300 Euros. The officer yanked the dude off the ground and got him to sit next to another suspicious looking guy, which turned out to be his accomplice and the guy who actually swiped my wallet from the back during the commotion in the train. The officers continued hard on the two perps and the second guy finally surrendered a stack of cash, which was obviously mine as there were a few hundred Malaysian Ringgit sandwiched between the Euros. Tips to you guys, the Ringgit was there in my wallet for this exact reason so that there isn’t a dispute on who the cash belongs to. So while the ownership was clear, there was a lengthy process of making a report and filling up paperwork – all in the train station.
So in a matter of 30 minutes since the start of the ordeal, everything was resolved and I got my money back. Emily and I spent the next few days just contemplating the event as it unfolded and while we were relieved of the outcome, it sort of left a scar on us about the city in general. I somewhat credited my basketball reflexes in this situation, but I guess this is the rare stroke of luck that was in my favour this trip.
I may never return to Spain again.
We sat waiting at the gate of the international terminal on Wednesday, waiting for our flight. Emily had caught a food bug and wasn’t feeling too well. It was a miserable end to our trip and left me thinking what went wrong. Before we flew out here, I had the best vibes of this trip. I was ready – Magic wise, I had everything planned out for a great getaway and looked forward to some nice Spanish cuisine. Unfortunately the Magic part crumbled, I couldn’t control the rainy weather, and while the food was still great, the last straw had to be my unforgettable experience in the train station.
Spain – I love you but I’m not sure if I’ll ever see you again. Perhaps World Magic Cup 2018 (Barcelona) will change my mind, but until then, this was going to be the last time I speak of my experience in Spain.
Signing off from Barcelona
-PM out-
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