December 10th – Eve of WMC
The eve of the WMC Day One, we all woke up rather early, got some full breakfast at Plaza Catalunya and headed back for more testing. Here were my notes:
1. Esper Dragons crushed GR Ramp (both pre and post board)
2. GR Ramp crushed Atarka Red post board
3. Abzan was 50/50 against both GR Ramp and Esper
4. Mardu Prowess got crushed by GR Ramp and Abzan
5. Esper Dragons was winning Atarka Red
6. Rising Miasma (in Abzan sideboard) wrecked Atarka Red. It didn’t bode well for the Red Mage whether you played around it or not.
7. Abzan vs 4C Rally was always determined by Anafenza and how much early pressure from Warden and Siege Rhino
As a result, few changes were made to our original list.
1. Dragonmaster Outcast was added to the GR Ramp sideboard
2. Rising Miasma was added to Abzan sideboard
3. Nissa, Vastwood Seer was added into GR Ramp main deck
On hindsight now, had we a little more time I would have:
1. Tested Dragonmaster Outcast a little more versus non Control matchups
2. Tested Monastery Mentor more in Esper Dragons (I didn’t like it after playing 4 matches with it, but should have played 10 more to really judge)
3. Tested Esper more vs 4C Rally. I had only 3 testing games (but plenty of video).
4. Tested Hardened Scales / GW Megamorph (with Evolving Wilds) as our Non-Fetch deck
5. Put some more thought into the Mardu Tokens manabase to really see if there was a way to make the deck work. When it curved (assuming lands were fine) it was unstoppable
What I didn’t regret doing / not doing was:
1. Agreeing to our final lineup of Abzan, GR Ramp and Esper Dragons
2. Asking Syed to pickup the challenge to play GR Ramp
3. Trying out 4C Rally (as opposed to Esper Dragons – similar to Denmark’s lineup) as I knew I needed more than just 1 week of testing
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By 4pm, we have set aside our standard decks and ready to head to the site for registration and a live interview. The tournament site was just 5 minutes walk away….
Malaysia’s own Backstreet Boys….
The registration process was quick, we each got 4 packs, a T-Shirt and a bottle. I was off to get a playmat for my playmat collection. It was a sweet one for this WMC – Eldrazi’s plundering Barcelona skyline while the Oath-walkers looks on.
So after that, we were asked to answer some questions for a live interview for WOTC Japan. It was a fun and interesting ten-minute interview session. I guess where we impressed the most that Ray, Wei Han and myself were existing teammates prior to WMC and we secured two of the three spots in the qualifiers. Other questions include our preparation and who we wanted to face and beat. It was a unified answer from Ray and Wei Han – USA! I can only shrug and whispered Malta, Bolivia, Estonia, Venezuela to myself…..
But the best laugh was saved to the end, when the host asked us to greet the viewers “Hello” in our own language. We looked at each other and in unison we said:
“Hello!”
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The day ended over a bowl of Udon noodles. Wei Han was catching a cold and some hot soup was required. It was not easy to find hot food in Europe when everything was either fried, baked, roasted or served between two slices of bread. So Udon it was and Wei Han drank every drop of broth from his insane Euro 12 (RM55) bowl of noodles.
December 11th – Game Day
I wished I could write a tale of joy and success. I wished I could express excitement and sense of achievement. But fate had other intentions for us (and 40+ other hopeful teams including powerhouses USA, Canada and South Korea). I’m just going to summarise our day into two parts – Sealed and Constructed.
Team Sealed - Deckbuilding
1. We opened 4 rare lands – Sunken Hollow, Ally Encampment, Shrine of Forsaken Gods and Lumbering Falls.
2. Our only Mythic was Part the Waterveil.
3. Our only two rare creature card were Oran-Rief Hydra and Fathom Feeder.
4. We didn’t have enough Allies for an Ally deck nor enough token makers for a token deck.
5. We did have plenty of removal – 2 x Gideon’s Reproach, 2 x Outnumber, Rolling Thunder, Stonefury, Grip of Desolation, Touch of the Void, Complete Disregard, Sheer Drop and Roil’s Retribution.
6. We ended up with three solid (but not great decks). I felt Raymond had the best deck (RW Aggro with plenty of removal), followed by Wei Han (UB Devoid). Mine was just all the green playables, splashing black for Catacomb Sifter and Painful Truths and splashing blue for Lumbering Falls (and to get value from my Truths).
Team Sealed – Matches
1. Round 1 we played Uruguay. Wei Han got blown out quickly versus a devoid mirror who had better cards and Brutal Expulsion.
2. I won game 1 and shuffled up for game 2 looking over at Raymond who was still in game 1 but had his opponent down to one life.
3. In midst of game 2, Syed informed me Ray lost. I was surprised but pressed to win my match, which I did with around 10 minutes left of the clock.
4. Raymond was in game 2, his opponent on 29 life and Ray had no board except 5 lands and chockfull of removal in hand. I urged to speed things up to salvage a draw. In the end, despite playing 10 odd turns in 10 minutes, we were out of time and out of luck despite being in a good position to take the game.
5. Round 2 versus Scotland, I had my head handed to me with a turn 4 kill. But I fought my way back in game 2 and brace for decider. Ray and Wei Han split their matches (Wei Han won and Ray lost) so it was up to me, on the draw, now mulligan to 6 seeing – Forest, Oran-Rief Invoker x 2, Catacomb Sifter and 2 more expensive cards. Much deliberation and we chose to keep, saw Evolving Wilds off the scrye. We had hope!
6. I drew land #3 on cue and curved out. Bodies traded, life exchanged. But the turning point is when I drew Bone Splinter. A Territorial Baloth was in the way of my crew and so far to this point, I had not seen anything bigger in his deck. I fired the removal, sacrificing an Eldrazi token and push for some damage.
7. My opponent untapped – tapped full into Omnath! And a land to boot. Uh-oh. At that point, the sinking feeling of 0-2 crept up…. It was the feeling of doom. My excited Scottish opponent (who was the team captain), decided to hold for a turn after I passed and played his next haymaker – Nissa’s Renewal – Gain 7 life, search for 3 basics and put them into play and get THREE 5/5 tokens. A 7 for 1. I had seen enough and shook his hand. We were 0-2.
8. China offered us some respite. Ray and Wei Han won quickly and I could have scooped it up. But I wanted retribution and took it on my Chinese opponent by playing Eldrazi after Eldrazi. It was a much-needed confidence boost for myself to head into the Standard portion.
End of Part 6
