the day after redang trip. bonus: richie profitt memorial

i've been away for nigh a week now

and i can't say it's great to be back

see, the thing about holidays is that it drives home the point that you can only run away from your responsibilities for so much time before they all start catching up to you

enough

i had a great time and even the numerous minor faults could detract from what was overall a great trip.

now that i'm back
tis time to write about some stuff that's been nagging me for a long time

cat

i'm still single
though it's not for a lack of trying

more work needs to be done

it could be due to the fact that i am nowhere near cool
i am a geek
and proud to be one

i obsess with stuff that has no bearing on reality, and i spend so much time on my hobbies that i even think i can get chummy with people who i know nothing about except what they write in their forum posts

for instance
richie profitt (a.k.a. polarbeargod on mtgsalvation forums) died sometime this month (june 9th i think, but i can't be sure) and i was actually sad to hear it
i live on the other side of the globe from him,
have never met him in person

yet i was still participating in the spamming of the forums over the next 2 weeks in a torrent of (digital) grief

i know i miss him
and not getting to read his posts or see his amazing artwork anymore is something that i still can't get to grips with

it's just kinda sad

but somehow it just goes to show how many geeks there are like me out there
who idolise geeks who are geekier than us

by the way, he died of diabetes

on june 29
starcitygames is hosting a richie profitt memorial tournament
details here

i should just quote some of the lines from the article


"Matter of fact, this is such a huge outpouring of love and support, what about the idea of holding a yearly tournament? Richie Proffitt ultimately lost his life due to a fight with Diabetes. Diabetes kills millions each year and while this year the funds we raise are going directly to Richie’s family, what if next year we raised money for the American Diabetes Association?

This would give Magic something akin to Child’s Play, the awesome yearly Christmas project run by the guys at Penny Arcade. While we certainly can’t match their scale, I believe we can definitely show the world that Magic players are not all math nerds who only worry about the next foil Mythic rare. Magic is a game of friends, good times, and fantastic experiences, and I try to show that every week. To allow us to do some good with our fun, that sounds like a win-win situation to me."



now you must excuse me

i have been sleep deprived for the past week

need a recharge of souls

cat

charles gindy wins pro tour hollywood

sad
green black elves won pro tour hollywood

congratulations to charles gindy
beating merfolk in the finals
oh well, jan reuss
at least you tried






decklists from the finals


Charles Gindy
Pro Tour-Hollywood Top 8
View a sample hand of this deck

Main Deck

60 cards

3 Forest
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Mutavault
1 Pendelhaven
2 Swamp
4 Treetop Village
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

23 lands


1 Boreal Druid
3 Chameleon Colossus
4 Civic Wayfinder
4 Imperious Perfect
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Wren's Run Vanquisher

24 creatures
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Profane Command
4 Terror
4 Thoughtseize

13 other spells


Jan Ruess
Pro Tour-Hollywood Top 8
View a sample hand of this deck

Main Deck

60 cards

4 Adarkar Wastes
1 Faerie Conclave
4 Mutavault
11 Snow-Covered Island
4 Wanderwine Hub

24 lands


4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Silvergill Adept
3 Sower of Temptation
3 Stonybrook Banneret
2 Sygg, River Guide
2 Tideshaper Mystic
2 Venser, Shaper Savant

28 creatures
2 Ancestral Vision
3 Cryptic Command
3 Sage's Dousing

8 other spells


pro tour hollywood

i so so so hate finals
keeps me away from playing magic

well day 2 of pro tour hollywood is done

seen a lot of innovation but not much has changed since shadowmoor was added
a few decks got a few cards but on the whole not many things have changed and the metagame looks similar to what we had after morningtide

oh by the way
the top 8 includes a dude from

singapore

18 year old choo yong han

playing uwr reveilark combo (don't worry. if you don't understand, you're not meant to)

complete profile of the top 8 can be found here

Yong Han Choo
Pro Tour-Hollywood Top 8
View a sample hand of this deck

Main Deck

61 cards

4 Battlefield Forge
2 Faerie Conclave
4 Mutavault
4 Mystic Gate
2 Reflecting Pool
4 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Plains
2 Vivid Creek

23 lands


2 Aven Riftwatcher
2 Body Double
2 Greater Gargadon
4 Mulldrifter
4 Reveillark
4 Sower of Temptation
2 Venser, Shaper Savant

20 creatures
2 Careful Consideration
4 Coldsteel Heart
2 Mind Stone
2 Momentary Blink
2 Pact of Negation
4 Rune Snag
2 Wrath of God

18 other spells


pretty standard uwr reveilark maindeck
beats just about everything except faeries

other top 8 decklists here

just a random aside
the merfolk deck of jan reuss looks so .....random

only 2 ancestral visions?
and random 1's and 2's in the sideboard?
at least it worked out for him

i'll be rooting for you jan!


but the way the lots were drawn he won't have to face the only faerie deck in the top 8 until the finals

strange fact: only 1 faerie deck in the top 8 (paulo vitor dama rosa)

a breakdown of the top 8 stands like this

Round 16 Standings



Rank Player Points OMW%
1 Nakamura, Shuuhei [JPN] GB Elves
40 62.9650%
2 Bohny, Nico [CHE] Doran
39 57.5521%
3 Lybaert, Marijn [BEL] RG Ramp
37 64.3229%
4 Ruess, Jan [DEU] MERFOLK!!!! yay
37 61.0677%
5 Mihara, Makihito [JPN] UWR Lark
37 59.9001%
6 Choo, Yong Han [SGP] UWR Lark
37 58.4635%
7 Gindy, Charles [USA] GB Elves
37 57.4219%
8 da Rosa, Paulo Vitor D [BRA] Faeries
36 61.8490%


so as we can see
even though going into the tournament faeries was the best deck/ deck to beat

it just barely made top 8

9 Yurchick, Adam [USA] 36 60.9375%
10 Petric Maretic, Grgur [HRV] 36 58.3333%
11 Scheel, Brandon [USA] 36 56.9754%
12 Kopec, Mateusz [POL] 36 55.5804%
13 Wafo-tapa, Guillaume [FRA] 34 64.3973%

4 more players were on 36 points and PVDR just got in on better tiebreakers

the other sad part is wafo tapa
(love these weird names)

he was undefeated day 1 but a couple of unintentional draws and a loss in the last round saw him knocked out of contention

still, he brought a very innovative deck to the tourney designed by manuel bucher

video is here



oh poor wafo tapa

you can get his decklist here


or for your convenience

Guillaume Wafo-Tapa
View a sample hand of this deck

Main Deck

60 cards

1 Dreadship Reef
2 Fungal Reaches
1 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Mystic Gate
4 Reflecting Pool
2 Sunken Ruins
4 Vivid Creek
4 Vivid Grove
4 Yavimaya Coast

24 lands


3 Cloudthresher
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Mulldrifter
1 Oona, Queen of the Fae
4 Wall of Roots

16 creatures
4 Careful Consideration
4 Cryptic Command
3 Firespout
3 Makeshift Mannequin
4 Rune Snag
2 Slaughter Pact

20 other spells

maybe i made a mistake by saying not much has changed
shadowmoor made the manabases of preexisting decks much better

so much better in fact that you can play cards like this

and this
both with insane colored mana requirements in the same deck
when lorwyn was first released we thought that these would only go in monocolored decks
funny how much the format has changed

can't wait to see how the top 8 turns out

soooo much magic

holidays.....

played too much magic if that is at all possible
been out with melvin, win, mohan (thanks for the ride man)
friday comics corner
saturday cce in old klang road
wednesday manawerx

sooo many

at least the fish deck is doing well enough
still undefeated against any decks with islands

red decks though...
problem...

any ideas?

FNM report 21/3/07 part 1

another dismal performance.



at least this time i had koo and melvin to accompany me instead of being the 'only one' there. having friends is not so bad you see.

on to the report.
Round 1 i was paired against kevin playing monogreen elves.
bad news.
very bad news.

so far i have never managed to take a game from him while playing uw merfolk.
the raw speed and disregard for conventional big spells make for very hard times for my deck which relies on cheap creatures which beat while i handle whatever you throw my way with counterspells.

bad news.

game 1 was a rather boring affair.
he got out a wren's run vanquisher early with a lot of little guys for backup
i get out double silvergill adept and a lord of atlantis, trading my adept for his vanquisher.
i then try to swing to try and kill garruk which would be active for an overrun next turn.

then he drops the hammer.
maindeck cloudthersher.
let me repeat that.
maindeck cloudthersher.

he blocks the adept with his cloudthersher.
i knock down my life total to 17.
next turn i am tapped out.
he casts overrun and activates kill garruk's overrun, letting him bash in for 20+ damage off just his cloudthersher and a boreal druid.
i scoop up my lands and move to game 2.

sideboarding makes things interesting as i bring in 4 moat effects, 1 teferi's moat and 3 magus of the moat, as well as 4 flashfreezeflashfreeze for rune snag's and sunlances.

game 2 i get an aggro hand and dump out 4 merfolk in 1 turn on turn 4, killing off his garruk, and a cryptic command off the top of my deck on my next turn tapping all his blockers and swinging in for lethal damage seals a blazing fast game 2 even though he casts lignify on my lord of atlantis.

i made a possible misplay in this round.
instead of dumping all my merfolk on the table, i should have left a tideshaper mystic in hand to use it to tap down blockers on my next turn since i had 2 merrow reejereys on board.

no changes to the sideboard and off to game 3.
now this was probably one of the most embarrassing games of magic that i have ever played.
numerous brain farts
just the highlights then
resolving turn 4 magus of the moat should have been gg.
but he plays lignify on it and swings.
i take 5.
next turn i cast cryptic command tapping his creatures and bouncing the magus to my hand, making the lignify fall off.
then i recast the magus, hoping to ride it to a win eventually

then, a second lignify
lignify
yes
i died to lignify


of all the undignifying things
almost makes me want to quit magic
so so embarrassing.



screw politcs

shadowmoor preview images are UP!!!! (monkeys use caps when they want to, so there)

on the mothership www.magicthegathering.com there is a sample booster pack with the art, mana symbols, name etc but no text. except for the rare demigod of revenge which is a 5/4 for 5 mana with flying and haste and some sort of graveyard interaction thrown in for good measure... seems like a good deal
and lurebound scarecrow! a friggin artifact creature!! yay

preview images of the art available at magicdeckvortex.com and mtgsalvation forums as usual
keep up the good work guys.












why am i not asleep?

why indeed, i'm overworking the monkey