4th Nationals Qualifier Match Report

I slept on the bus somewhere along orchard road today. When i woke up, the next stop that the bus was stopping was Singapore Polytechnic. @#$%! Couldn't these people who see me alighting the same stop every weekday wake me up? Maybe i'm a little nondescript, not exactly flattering though..

I wouldn't have really minded walking back along the way for that couple bus stops, except that there was a certain amount of urgency in the matter, that i needed to relieve some anal pressure. It ain't fun trying to contain it, and when i've finished my end of the business, it was as if i've achieved enlightenment. A feeling of absolute relief.

A little about my game yesterday. Um... The following is highly related to the game magic the gathering. If you don't know the game, you can stop reading here or skip to Match Six where there is some non-magic stuff. Sorry, have a nice day : ) Y

Yesterday was the second last round of Magic the Gathering Singapore Nationals Qualifier. The next and last qualifier is next week, and it seems that i'm unlikely to be able to play in the Nationals tourney. The deck i used was the same for all other qualifiers, Tooth and Nail.

Tooth and Nail

Creatures 18
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Wood Elves
3 Eternal Witness
2 Iwamori the Open Fist
1 Kiki Jiki Mirror Breaker
1 Sundering Titan
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Molder Slug
1 Duplicant

Spells 21
4 Tooth and Nail
4 Reap and Sow
4 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Sylvan Scrying
3 Naturalize
3 Oblivion Stone

Land 21
1 Okina Temple to the Grandfathers
8 Forest
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Tower

Sideboard
4 Creeping Mold
4 Sun Droplet
2 Rude Awakening
2 Jester Cap
1 Duplicant
1 Boseiju Who Shelters All
1 Naturalize

Match One

My first match up was paired with Johnson, a friend of mine whose decklist, unfortunately, i've already gone through before the qualifiers began. He was playing old mono blue version, with Vedalken Shackles and all. The begining of round one saw not much play. He laid land and waited to counter the important stuff while i played Sakura-Tribe Elder, two Wood Elves and nothing else. The trio managed to beat him 10+ life for the round. He then played an Oblivion Stone with four mana opened. On my turn i tapped out to played an Oblivion Stone and placed a fate counter on it. His stone blew up first, and i followed up with Iwamori only to have it stolen by Shackles. Eventually, my weenies got enough damage through. Tooth and weenies...

Round two was much quicker. He got some counters, but wasn't enough. Tooth and Nail with entwine twice, and he didn't have Twincast in hand.

Johnson dropped from the tourney after losing his second match. I think this affected my tie-breaker badly as i will talk about in Match Six.

Round Score 2-0
Match Score 1-0

Match Two

I was paired with a mono red. Our table was due for a deck check, so i looked at the game next to me while the judges unshuffled my cards. The guy was playing Tooth and Nail too. But he had... Sword of Fire and Ice! Suprise suprise.

Round one i had land and more land, died to Slith Firewalker swining two Swords.
Round two, he got a Zozu and Slith Firewalker out, blockers were burned and Iwamori died to Shrapnel Blast.

Round Score 2-2
Match Score 1-1

Match Three

I was paired up with Yong Jian. Yet another friend, not a very good day it seems. He was playing Tooth and Nail too. We both had our Urza sets but i went off with the first Tooth and Nail with one Wood Elves in play. Kiki-Titan destroyed two of his forest and one of mine. He cast Duplicant, ate up my Titan, and destroyed my remaining forest. Untapped and passed the turn with Naturalize in hand. He did not attack, since i would block with a Wood Elves copy, and passed the turn back to me. End of his turn, copy Wood Elves and Naturalize Duplicant. My turn copy Wood Elves again and went off with second Tooth and Nail.

Round two, we went into land destruction. But i managed to pull a Jester Cap and go off with it. Jester Cap is really good. Removed his Kiki Jiki, Sundering Titan and one MindSlaver. And that was it.

Round Score 4-2
Match Score 2-1

Match Four

I was paired up with White Weenie. The guy seemed pretty pissed off with everything that i do. Like when i ended my turn and he suddenly looked at me, i thought he didn't hear me say i've ended my turn, and he went, "I know!!"...

Anyway, i managed to go off with a Tooth and Nail at five life. Kiki-Duplicant to eat his fliers with Molder Slug and couple chump blockers. It wasn't looking good for me, as i've run out of Sensei's Divining Tops to sacrifice for Molder Slug. Although i had Eternal Witness in play, i needed the blockers too. I would say it was a 50-50 chance for him. But he scooped in frustration.

Round two, i was looking down at scores of beaters with damping matrix and Hokori in play. Oblivion Stone became Oblivious Stone in my hand. Managed to pull a Naturalize and Reap and Sow for multiple Urza's Tower. Blew up his stuff only to run into another Hokori.

Round three, there was little i could do with turn three Damping Matrix, turn four Hokori.

Round Score 5-4
Match Score 2-2

Match Five

Another Tooth and Nail player. It seems Tooth and Nail players were all occupying the last few tables. Tooth and Nail don't seem to be the deck to beat in Singapore Qualifiers.

Round one began with little on his side. He had Viridian Shaman and Jitte while i had Iwamori and Naturalize. He played a Witness to recover Jitte. But the game wasn't really going well for him. I had Molder Slug in hand and enough mana to cast it. Brought him down to six life and he blew an Oblivion Stone at Iwamori and Slug. Tooth and Nail w/o entwine-Colossus-beat.

Round two again began with land destruction. I went off with a Jester Cap. Boy these things are good against Tooth and Nail. Removed Kiki Jiki, Sundering Titan and Mindslaver. And that was that.

Round Score 7-4
Match Score 3-2

Match Six

Match six was delayed as there was some hee hur hoo har between two players and the judges. I was paired with the Tooth and Nail player who had Swords. Sunny, who was beside me, began random chats to help relieve some of the tension. I was pretty tensed up as i might have a chance to qualify through tie-breaker if i won that match. Sunny said something about, "Look there, i think the girls in Bishan are nice." Which i kind of agreed and also does kind of explain why i am so enamoured with Bishan.

In the end, there was a re-pairing and i was re-paired with the same Tooth and Nail player. But i was feeling good about the matchup after having won all the other Tooth and Nails. I think i have alot more practice with the deck, having played it for so many qualifiers.

Round one saw my opponent screwed on forest. But i was screwed on the key card, Tooth and Nail. I had one Oblivion Stone and some WoodElves in play. Topdecked a Darksteel Colossus, cast it with mutiple Urzatron and attacked him once with it. He ran through his deck with Sensei's Divining Top and multiple shuffle effects to find a Sundering Titan as blocker. It really wasn't any use as i had the Stone in play and a Naturalize in hand.

Round Two was brutal. I managed to go off with the first land destruction. Creeping Mold his Tower, and he only laid another Tower to Creeping Mold. I managed to draw all four Creeping Molds and another Witness for the fifth Creeping Mold. Iwamori did the damaging. Fired off Jester Cap for Kiki Jiki, Sundering Titan and Eternal Witness. Didn't go for the MindSlaver though. Thinking back, i should have gone for three Eternal Witness instead, since he had only four forests in play. But going for Kiki-Titan was playing safe.

Round Score 9-4
Match Score 4-2

My tie-breaker brought me up to ninth place losing to eighth place by a 0.2%. Maybe if Johnson didn't drop from the tourney, i could have qualified. Oh well... life sucks anyway.