GPT Singapore 26/4/2015

Last Sunday, I went for a Modern GPT to try to get my 2 byes.
I was invited by my friend to go to a place in the west (1+ hr from my place) to play in a small GPT (16 man with preregistration). Eventually the place had 19 players, 3 of them walked-in so it became 5 rounds swiss with t8.
I went there because it sounded like the odds of getting the byes were really good.

I settled for a deck hybrid of the Young Pyromancer deck and the Zombie Fish with reference to MTGO daily results.
I couldn't really figure out the sideboard so I jammed cards that I could find.

I played:
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Zombie fish (don't have my cards now)
2 Young Pyromancer
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

4 Serum Vision
2 Gitaxian Probe
1 Deprive
1 Stubborn Denial
2 Mana Leak
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Burst Lightning
1 BR Command
4 Terminate (changing 1 to Murderous Cut to control the yard better)
4 Thought Scour
1 Electrolyze
2 Spell Snare

4 Polluted Delta
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Steam Vents
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Watery Grave
1 Blood Crypt
4 Island
1 Swamp
1 Mountain

SB
1 Spellskite
1 Vandalblast
2 Blood Moon
3 Blightning
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Counter instant card
1 Stubborn Denial
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Dragon Claw
1 something

I went 4-0-1 in the swiss, and went to t4 before losing.
All my opponents made t8.

Round 1 vs Jund
2-0 with hyper aggressive turn 2 Zombie fish.
Delvers really require answers and Zombie fish is really tough to crack.

Round 2 vs Splinter Twin
Not sure if they run less combo pieces nowadays but having cheap answers plus disruption really went a long way. Kinda why it failed in Legacy.

Round 3 vs Tron
Game 1 I died to Wurmcoil Engine.
Game 2, Blood Moon plugged a turn 3 tron set and I managed to go all the way.
Game 3, he had a turn 3 Tron set and dropped an Oblivion Stone after which I played Blood Moon.
I was quite lucky to manage to control the board by killing my own stuff and forcing my opponent to wipe the board  to exile his Wurmcoil Engine. The exchanges after that were quite unusual as I was struggling not to fall behind Eye of Ugin. I ended up winning when my opponent searched up Kozilek and tried to bomb my Young Pyromancer and I cast Lightning Bolt at him, and had 2 elemental tokens.

Round 4 vs Ad Nauseum
Everyone thought that we would ID. I kinda wanted planeswalker points.
He came and thought that he could help his friend get t8 by controlling the top tables.
Aggro zombie fish really stressed out the opponent who ended up having to play Angel's Grace as to not lose.
Game 2 I disrupted what I could with Blightning, RB command hitting his Pentad Prism + discard and forced him to try go off on my turn but I had counter magic for his Ad Nausuem.
Round 5 ID (Splinter Twin)

Top 8 vs Infect
Game 1, I drop down to 12 lift and a Dryad Arbor gets pumped to 12 points, killing me.
I made a mistake by not casting a blocker although I suspected that that would be a possible hole.
Game 2, he went down to 1 and I topdeck a Blightning which dodges Spellskite.
Game 3, I find out that Stubborn Denial is a Negate and not a Counterspell.
My opponent doesn't have many infect guys and tries to press me down with normal damage but I have a Young Pyromancer horizontally protecting me so I slowly gain full control over the game and have counters to manage pump spells.

Top 4 vs Jund (from round 1)
I had quite weak draws game 1 and I had a very bad flow like having delvers facing an active Chandra and casting both and not managing to flip (so both eventually died).
Game 2 my opponent had Batterskull on a Tarmogoyf and drew a Bonfire of the Damned to miracle me out of the game.

Looks like I still have to go around to grind out byes.

GP Kyoto Recap

So GP Kyoto is in the books and I didn't do too well in it.

I played my NaoDelver deck:

My rounds were chronicled on my playmat because I was damaging the Swords to Plowshares playmat from the GP too fast and I wanted to play on a playmat that I could afford damaging all the while making it interesting with an idea I came up with.

Round 1 vs Miracles
Game 1, my opponent started with Plains, Plains, Island, Mountain and couldn't do much with a hand of Vendilion Clique, Dig Through Time and Counterbalance that all needed UU.
Game 2, the combination of Stifle and Wastelands really suppressed the game. He could have cracked both his fetches at once but he cracked them across two turns, when I had mana available.

More land > 4th Ponder.

Round 2 vs Lands
Game 1, my opponent managed to get out a quick Marit Lage token, Bob drew me lands and I had no answer to it.
Game 2, my notes tell me that my opponent had 2 Punishing Fires in hand. Seems like I dealt my opponent 2 damage a turn so I might have cast Deathrite Shaman or had a tiny goyf or somehow managed to deal with that.
Game 3, I had in play Bitterblossom against which he casts Jace (which doesn't really interact well with the faerie tokens). I managed to attack into Jace and also a Nissa Worldwaker. The Marit Lage combo was out but I had a triple barrier of Karakas and Wasteland and Faerie tokens.
 Life from the Loam helped me to maintain one Wasteland in play to prevent a wipeout from Tabernacle which ultimately secured the game. A Stifle stopped an Engineered Explosives set at 0.

Round 3 vs RUG Delver
Game 1, a Nimble Mongoose + burn managed to take the game while my cards hit all his counters (like Daze, Spell Snare). I was land-lite so I could not play around anything.
Game 2, I opted to draw first knowing that this would end up in an attrition match.
It did but I could not get my lands out and he managed to put down a Delver of Secrets which managed to go all the way vs my 0 lands.

Round 4 vs Jund
Game 1, Punishing Fires and Bloodbraid Elves took the game far away after my early Bitterblossom got hit by Thoughtseize.
Game 2, I had a landful hand that did was not able to interact with Jund. It did not help that my Life from the Loam did not see any Wasteland.

Round 5 vs Burn
Game 1 was just creatures followed by burn spells after burn spells.
Game 2, I managed to get a True-Name Nemesis down with an Umezawa's Jitte but was at a horrendously low life total. I ended up with 1 life and open to any burn spell but the last card in my opponent's hand was a land so I managed to climb out from there.
Game 3, I kept a 1 land hand that could handle some burn hands but I was stuck too long without my second land for me to do the plan to race the opponent.

Round 6 vs UR Delver
Both games I was pressed aggressively and I could not put up a strong enough defense and crumbled eventually.

Round 7 - No Show

Round 8 vs Ant
Game 1, I denied his mana and countered his rituals to prevent him from starting anything while Bob added more fuel.
Game 2, my opponent tried to go for it turn 1 ending with an Infernal Tutor but I had Force of Will.
I had to build up slowly to put some pressure but it wasn't particularly difficult from there.

Round 9 vs Enchantress
Game 1, I slowly attacked and countered components. The enchantments themselves did not do too much so I could slowly trade countermagic on the game changing enchantments.
Game 2, I was hit by the Rest in Peace + Helm of Obedience combo just after I had removed Enchantress' Prescence. There was quite a bit going on between some enchantments and Serra's Sanctum so I was taken aback when I did not have the window to react.
Game 3, my opponent had one of those slower hands and my creatures + counters took the game.

5-4

Super Sunday Series

Round 1 vs Miracles
Game 1, my life was chipped down by Bitterblossom and it looks like I took the game.
Game 2, I managed to disrupt his mana development and he had 2 Terminus and a Swords to Plowshares stuck in hand (versus my Thrun!). He managed to topdeck one from the top but I countered it and he soon scooped as his Top knew his fate and Stifle kept it like that.

Round 2 vs Esper Stoneblade
Game 1, I see a Batterskull unmolested and bashing.
Game 2, I had a timely Marsh Casualties for an open Vendilion Clique and True-Name Nemesis but my opponent had Force of Will for it and the game spiralled away since I don't have another proper answer. My own True-Name Nemesis doesn't help to race.

Round 3 vs Show and Tell (with black and red)
Game 1, my notes that my opponent's life total ended at 15. I think Show and Tell resolved and I had no answer.
Game 2, my notes showed that my opponent went down to 3 and I was at 14. I think Omniscience resolved and Emrakul came down and I did not any blocker on my side.

Round 4 vs Tezzerator
Games 1 and 2 look very one sided from the damage side. I recall Standstill messing up his Ensnaring Bridge and I know I managed to counter the key spells like Transmute Artifact / Tezzeret. His Chalice of the Void set at 1 did not affect me and I let him play his 1 mana card into it and told him that it was countered. Chalice users ALWAYS don't remember that it's 2-way.

Round 5 vs BUG Delver
Game 1, I think I had a True-Name Nemesis out and stopped his.
Game 2, I was on a mana problem and he flooded out his creatures. Couldn't come back from that.
Game 3, I managed to have the upper hand but his cards began to mirror mine and there was a slight stalemate. The game was decided when I drew Umezawa's Jitte and equipped. He scooped knowing that the tide of the game was tilted.

Round 6 vs Dredge
Game 1 starts out with LED, land, Breakthrough. I could not really do anything so I lost quite fast.
Game 2, my opponent had a very odd hand and I had multiple Deathrite Shamans in play as he played out 4 lands while I countered his discard spells, sealed with a Grafdigger's Cage.
Game 3, I cast a Deathrite Shaman and Firestorm blasts it away. My opponent slowly dredges against my Dark Confidant but I keep drawing into nothingness. I trade Dark Confidant with a zombie token to remove a singular Bridge from Below and hope that my opponent doesn't dredge into the goods. I eventually get Deathrite Shamans down and have to chump block. My opponent keeps his Narcomoebas in play and a sudden Grafdigger's Cage prevents him from sacrificing the Narcomoeba while I try to survive 2 points of jellyfish damage using Deathrite Shaman. Eventually, my opponent runs out in the deck and I win that way. I only had to be careful not to be careless to kill the jellyfishes.

Round 7 vs Elves
Game 1, my opponent had a few measly elves but 2 Deathrite Shamans in the mix. I had only one so he just simply ate all the sorceries and instants to knock out my life total. My counters simply added fuel to my eventual demise.
Game 2, my hand was Umezawa's Jitte, Abrupt Decay and Force of Will when my opponent cast Natural Order and I couldn't get back from an attack from the team plus Craterhoof Behemoth.

Round 8 vs Omnitell
Game 1, I had slowly chipped the opponent's life by 2 while disrupting the mana base and preparing for a counter war. A turn 2 Bob allowed the game to flow in my favor.
Game 2, Show and tell + Omniscience took the game.
Game 3, I had to Diabolic Edict myself to prevent an accidental death to Bob since it wasn't worth the risk to lose a game when I could probably win from an even footing. Eventually that plan panned out fine.

Round 9 vs Omnitell
Game 1, unfortunately for my opponent, I had 2 active Deathrite Shamans going on and I was chipping off his life and disrupting him with Wasteland but he ultimately managed cast Show and Tell off a Boseiju and he put out Emrakul. Our life totals were 6 to 19 by then. I cast Delver of Secrets and passed the turn. He attacked, I tried to Stifle but he cast Force of Will. I had Counterspell in hand but I looked at the board and decided that it didn't matter. I activated 2x Deathrite Shaman and brought him down to 1, sacrificed 6 permanents, kept a Deathrite Shaman and a Delver of Secrets and took 15, going down to 4. I untapped and attacked for the win. (The picture on the playmat illustrates this)
Game 2, I cast Thoughtseize to see 2x Dig Through Time, 2x Cunning Wish so I discarded Dig Through Time (as it is more annoying) and I have Extirpate in hand. I managed to Extirpate it later on to catch 2 Dig Through Time from hand (he drew 1 more) and I snagged up all 4 to my surprise (because I thought that one would be a Cunning Wish target. He didn't use his windows to cast Cunning Wish, perhaps trying not to lose life to Boseiju, but that allowed me to take full control over the game.

6-3

Pre GP Kyoto (T-1)

As of now, I have about a day to prepare for the trip itself.

I've set aside the exact amount for lodging so I need to plan money for traveling, food and spending.

I'm working on a spreadsheet with timetables, maps etc now.

Hopefully I get to finish it by today.

I'm reaching Itami airport in the morning of Thursday 9.10am.

For my lunch, I shall try out the Endo sushi  for their omakase (means leave it to you) which includes an Ootoro (fatty tuna that would make you forget that you're eating fish) and 4 other random sushi for JPY 1050.

Here's a guide to the place if you want to eat there too. (open 5am to 2pm, closed on Sunday and public hols - the next is Apr 29).

After that, I'll be off to Denden town to buy some cards and stuff for the afternoon before settling dinner at somewhere cool (since I have options) and heading off to the dorm in Kyoto by 10pm. (Probably have to take dinner earlier to not be too late as travelling to Kyoto would take about an hour.)

Friday morning, I'll be playing in the Last Chance GPT in hopes of getting byes.

Registration starts at 10:00 and is cheaper if registered then.

Last Chance GPT Legacy

Entry fee: JPY 2,000 (JPY 1,000 if registered from 10:00~11:00)
Registration timing: 10:00~16:00
Format: Legacy, 5 round, Single Elimination
Prizes: 1st place gets 2 round bye
1~8th placing gets Dragons of Tarkir packs (Japanese).

Starts when 32 people sign up.

After the day is over, I will be going to a place called Kyoto Ninja, a ninja themed restaurant.

I've managed to rope a few people to go with me so we'll probably go together at the end of the day.

Saturday is the event itself. I will play all the way even if I end up not eligible for day 2 (to get some planeswalker points to work for byes). (Unfortunately, no shop has bothered making a GPT Lille and it's past the shop's registration period - I went to ask yesterday - so I'll be getting them to do GPT Seattle-Tacoma when the time comes) 

If I don't make it day 2 (which I haven't as of now), I shall be playing in the SSS event.

19 Apr 2015 (Sun)

Super Sunday Series Panda Cup Legacy

Entry fee: JPY 3,000

Registration timing: Saturday 09:00~21:00
Format: Legacy
Pax: 409

Prizes: 

1st gets a 10k point charged Hobby Station point card.

2nd~8th get a 3k point charged Hobby Station point card.

Top 4 get invite to the Draft Finals.

Top 16 get Dragons of Tarkir packs (Japanese) according to the tournament size.

The next day I shall be up reasonably early to make my way to the airport.

Unfortunately for me, I just found out that I have to make my way from Haneda (Tokyo) to Narita (Tokyo) as part of the transit. I was quite shocked this morning when I realized this but I guess I will just have to suck it up and rush over to the next airport.

I spent yesterday goldfishing a final change that knocked out #4 Deathrite Shaman in favor of a card that I have touched every season. I'm not certain how this goes but I somewhat disliked having multiple Deathrite Shamans hanging around so that evolved from that. I also came up with a plan to up my chances against Miracles so lets see how it all turns out at the event.

Road to Kyoto '15 - 7/4/15

I spent half a day thinking about Shorecrasher Elemental, thinking that its blink ability was similar to that of AEtherling, popping back in at the end of turn. I got really excited with the notion that I would have something to make life for Miracles more difficult but when I went to the shop and almost bought a foil copy, I read the text again and to my horror, it kinda just flipped down so it's still open to Council's Judgment and Terminus. =(

I wonder if it's still worth considering now.

Road to Kyoto '15 - 6/4/15

Yesterday, I played in the GPT Kyoto (Legacy) in an attempt to get the 2 round byes.
Unfortunately for me, I was on my alternate art Force of Will playmat (my serious playmat that I went 0-3 with last year in the local Legacy big event) and I carried on the lifetime losing streak of another 0-3 to a total of 0-6 before finally getting 2 wins (dredge and RUG delver), going 2-3 in the event.

Last minute, at the event, I changed the squid for Umezawa's Jitte to test whether or not that card belongs in the deck.

Round 1, I played against Miracles.
Miracles is tough because I do not have reach so this means that as long as my opponent is not at 0, there is a chance that I might just outright lose. (More on this later on)
The key point in the game was the last turn of game 3 where my opponent used Sensei's Divining Top to get to Pyroclasm which wiped my board which threatened lethal damage next turn.

Round 2, I faced a BUG delver deck.
The opponent was playing rather sloppily but my hands were not very good. He managed to stick down Dark Confidant protected by Deathrite Shamans vs my Diabolic Edicts in game 2 and in the last game he had 2 Force of Wills for my Marsh Casualties and my True-Name Nemesis. I had in play an Umezawa's Jitte (but no creatures - hoping that True-Name Nemesis + Jitte would go all the way) and had Redirect in hand but he misplayed early and locked himself out of green so he couldn't cast his Abrupt Decays. -_-"

Round 3, I faced Painter.
I won game 1 but I lost game 2 to a Sudden Shock off the Sensei's Divining Top on the turn before I would beat for lethal damage and in that game Bob hit both Dig through Time and Force of Will so I was trying very hard to manage the life totals. Game 3 my opponent had multiple Painter's Savant versus my plan to destroy the Painter in response to the Grindstone activation.

0-3

Round 4, I faced Dredge.
This is a rather bad matchup (traditionally) but I somehow won game 1 on the back of Deathrite Shaman doing its best to control the graveyard, joined by 2 more.
Game 2, I had Extirpate for Bridge from Below and Stifled a Narcomoeba trigger along the way.
2x Ichorid was beating me down.
I eventually managed to get Deathrite Shaman to deal with his Ichorid but he had a 8/8 Golgari Grave Troll beating down. However, his deck was really small by then and I easily chumped all the way to the last card.

Round 5, I faced RUG delver.
Game 1, the RUG king didn't play around Stifle so that and Wasteland went a long way.
Game 2, the game came down to a creature faceoff and my opponent down to 3, I had Abrupt Decay for his flipped delver so I managed to win.

2-3

Eventually, the top 8 split and gave the byes to a friend who is also going to Kyoto so I'm happy for him.
(I was quite happy to finally get out of the losing streak of the Force of Will playmat.)

After that I playtested against Miracles to get a feel of how to beat the deck.
I concluded that I would want to have 1-2 threats pressuring my opponent and that Jace would wreck me.
In the end, I found myself wanting to replace Spell Pierce (maybe 2), Daze (1 copy) for hard spells like Counterspell since Spell Pierce doesn't do anything against many decks in the format (like what is it supposed to hit vs BUG or Stoneblade). Ultimately, I am faced with the same line that made me go away from Divert in that people do not have to do anything too special to naturally play around it so I might as well play a hard version.
I know that that weakens my combo matchup so I'm not sure how I want to approach it.
I do know that if I do, my deck would look really different from whatever is currently being played.

I also need to figure out whether or not to use my playmat. Maybe I should just use what I get from the event. =/ Or did I exhaust all its bad luck already?
I play rather well in my own understanding but I don't have the luck to get through any serious events and that boggles me to no end.

Road to Kyoto '15 - 1/4/15

Went 3-0 split last night, winning Esper Stoneblade, Omnitell and Lands with a split for first place.

The maindeck Diabolic Edicts and sideboard Life from the Loam really shined, with Edict beating Iona on blue, stoneblade's Tasigur and it was an out vs both the really hard to beat Emrakul and Marit Lage.

I tried a Dig Through Time over Dark Confidant #3 and it was really good, providing threats vs an active Punishing Fires lock and it provided very high quality cards. I have to say that they are good in very different parts of the game just like how Standstill and Ancestral Vision were so I think as much as they have dis-synergies with each other, I think that they can coexist well.

That said, Redirect was rather bad against Stoneblade when I was hoping to Redirect a Swords to Plowshares. That made me rethink what I want to play in that slot or how many I should even have since technically the first (if it catches anything) is already a very huge blowout. Perhaps I can free up an additional sideboard slot for something else.

In the middle of the tournament, I bought a foil Thoughseize (since the shop didn't have normal Thoughtseizes anyway) so I can finally replace the Duress slot.

I was also considering running Extirpate in place of Surgical Extraction since the Split second makes blue unable to react to a secret attack like Extirpate on nonbasic land or can break through soft answers like cycle land to save loam.

I have also decided to travel to France for GP Lille (Legacy) right after GP Singapore and I will take 2 months of French lessons prior to the trip (while not expecting to be able to use anything).

My tentative schedule is as follows:

5th April - GPT Kyoto
16th April ~ 20 April - GP Kyoto

Originally wanted to go to GP Chiba at end May for Modern Masters but my friend isn't going (I'm already headed to Kyoto alone) so I can't really bring myself to so I decided to go to Lille instead since it doesn't cost too significantly more.

26th June~28th June - GP Singapore
29th June - Travel to Paris
3rd July~5th July - GP Lille
7th~9th August - GP Hong Kong (Limited)

I've never made day 2 at a GP yet so I hope to do so sometime this year.
I pray that I'll have the luck to make it through the bigger events as I have terrible "serious" luck.