Pro Tour Qualifier (Singapore) - San Diego (backdated)

I just managed to rush out this disgusting title that has been plaguing me since the day I stepped into the company. Anyhow, it's on its way to the printers and now everything is (as Jo says) 'sales' problem'. LOL.

As such, I've decided to spent the last few minutes of my time at work blogging about my weekend...I'm already too tired of staring at anything work related. I shall start again tomorrow morning. =)

Disclaimer: The following post is highly technical, and should only be read by fellow Magic: The Gathering players, or individuals are familiar with the game on a fairly technical level. You have been warned, so proceed at your own risk. PS: If you wanna learn to play, contact me ok? :)


So...last Sunday, I spent close to 8 full hours playing Magic! It was a qualifier event, and what was at stake was a return air ticket and invite to Pro Tour - San Diego in 2010! As you all may know, playing professional Magic at a world stage is one of the things on my bucket list, so I was very excited when I chanced about this opportunity over the local MTG forums.

So I made my way down to the venue which was a condominium on Braddell Hill. It's quite remote, or at least I've never been there before, so I was quite amazed to see such a beautiful old estate. It's ALMOST self-contained...I say that because they have everything in the estate EXCEPT a place for food or groceries! Hard to imagine right?

So yesterday, 81 Magic players crammed themselves into this function room to play Zendikar Sealed Deck. It was fun man...my card pool was pretty amazing, although it was 'worth' a lot. In the end, we conducted a deck swap and I had to build a deck from cards of the player opposite me.

Basically, I built the following deck:

9 Swamps 7 Mountains 1 Teetering Peaks 2 Plated Geopede 1 Goblin Guide* 1 Goblin Shortcutter 1 Goblin Ruinblaster 1 Ruinous Minotaur 1 Bladetusk Boar 1 Vampire Lacerator 1 Surrakar Marauder 1 Vampire Hexmage 1 Vampire Nighthawk 1 Gatekeeper of Malakir 1 Hagra Crocodile 1 Heartstabber Mosquito

2 Burst Lightning 1 Magma Rift 1 Zektar Shrine Expedition 1 Hideous End 1 Disfigure 1 Explorer's Scope 1 Adventuring Gear 1 Eldrazi Monument*

*Rares
 This R/B deck was quite fun to play, and as you can see, I had tons of creature removal AND burn spells. Sadly, I made some bad plays which resulted in my less than stellar performance. In fact, I think I made too many bad plays, which really cost me...a lot. I have a lot to learn about mulliganing, and deciding what type of hands to keep, both on the play or on the draw.

My Best (and most Risky) Play
I was facing down Sphinx of Jwar Isle (5/5, Flying, Shroud), a Vampire Lacerator (2/2), and an untapped Gatekeeper of Malakir (2/2). My Heartstabber Mosquito had just died from blocking the sphinx, and I had nothing on my board. Here's what I did:

I played the Goblin Ruinblaster without kicker from my hand and attacked. My opponent blocked (to my glee) with his Gatekeeper. I proceeded to burn his Vampire Lacerator with a Burst Lightning, and then cast my own Gatekeeper (KICKED of course) to take out his Sphinx! Wootz! Needless to say, I won that one.

The Best (and most surprising) Play Against Me
I was facing a G/B mid range deck. And I was slowly soaking up damage, but I thought my life total could take it. I was at 15 life, and the current attack would bring me down to 6. I did some math, and decided to take the damage to spare my creatures.

Just when I thought it was safe to untap and start on my turn. My opponent stopped me and announced that he was not done with his combat phase. He tapped two Swamps and showed me two copies of Vampire's Bite for an additional (and lethal) blow to my life points. I was amazed by that play and congratulated him of course. =)


I can't wait for the next event on the 6th of December. I'm definitely going to be there competing again, and this time, I hope I get to build an amazing deck!

Wish me luck!