MTG Update - Extended Tournament - Deck Domain (Part 3)

With the second match over in a few minutes, I was actually feeling good (compared to what I felt like after the first round). So since it was over so quickly, I decided to pop about and look at how my friends were doing in their match ups. Right behind me was Tino and Alex. Tino playing a slightly tweeked from standard ‘Izzet’ deck and Alex playing a modified ‘Zoo’ deck. Tino had just won 2-0 and was just chilling till the next match.

Izzet’s strategy was beatdown/control burn deck. By using its insane spells that replicate and replicate to create more copies, they over whelm the opponents with 5 copies of each spells (due to replicate), more threats than any player can deal with. But there is a weakness. The mana required for replication is insanely high if you want to reap the benefits. So land destruction = death. Another fact is that with the amount of burn spells there is very little space of counter magic leaving me relatively safe when its casting my killer cards.

Zoo’s strategy is pure creature beatdown. With cheap casting cost cards like Watchwolf and Kird Ape’s, the ‘Zoo’ player can have 5 creatures by turn 3. In the current metagame environment, there is no deck that can deal with that many creatures which is why this deck managed a top8 in Honolulu. Pumping them with cards like Moldervine Cloaks and the deadly Umezawa’s Jitte, turn 7-8 kills are pretty normal. Unfortunately the weakness they have is similar to all beat down decks. If you can slow their advances, they will eventually run out of threats by the mid game and their creatures will be nothing more than mindless minions on the table.

Suddenly, tournament organizer calls out “Daniel vs Tino”. Needless to say we were both shocked. I knew his deck relatively well since I’ve had matches with it before and I knew his threats. Unfortunately for me, he knew mine as well. We sat down like civilized men, shook hands, and got out game face on.

Match 3

I knew I was quite evenly matched in this one. Due to his reliance on spells more than creatures, most if not all my defences are completely useless against him. But I could not sideboard anything out in the first match meaning that I’ll be at a serious disadvantage. Still I pushed forward and reminiscent of the Japanese cartoon ‘Yugioh’, ‘I trust in the heart of the card’ (utter bullshit).

Opening hand = 2 Forest, Swamp, Harrow, Collective Restrains, Cromatic Sphere, Tribal Flames

Turn 1 – 5 was just land dropping for me but because of his annoying fliers that kept hitting me for the 3 turns I was down to 15. It didn’t help that he had Pryomatics replicated 3 times directed at me. Turn 6 got me a Collective Restrains and slowled down my opponent a slight bit. Sadly it came too late, with all the damage I had taken I was down to 9 life and him still at 20. Short on cards I Allied Strategy to draw 5 cards and was tapped out. This was a mistake I won’t live to regret and was eventually hit for 3 from a replicate and another 7 from Wee Dragonauts.

Replicate is Evil against control decks

A flying common? Its amazing for the cost

Round 1 Domian 0 – 1 Izzet

My opponent was just laughing non stop and was obviously very pleased with himself but I had had more important things on my mind. I sided out my Collective Restraints for Oblivion Stones and an extra Void. This time I knew I had to counter Wee Dragonauts. I cannot counter replicate because according to Wizard’s rules (Replicate counts as a separate spell all together. Countering the first spell doesn’t counter the rest).

As usually Domain style, I was beaten down to 14 before I got Collective Restrains on turn 4. I had to hold out and slowly rid him of his threats, and on turn 8 cast a Legacy Weapon.

Ah my Precious

My opponent was obviously stunned because he had some slight mana screwed problems leaving him at a very vulnerable 3 lands. It was his turn and decided to pass. I should have know that something was wrong at this point. But I still preceded to use Legacy’s ability to remove one of his lands. Ability on stack, targeting his only island and suddenly RUDELY interrupted by a Reroute targeting my LEGACY WEAPON!

Of all the things that could happen

Removed from the game before I could even use it! Damn was I pissed at that move seeing that I had a counterspell in my hand. If that didn’t hurt enough, he seemed to have found a new stash of mana and was slowly proceding to lay lands and break my Collective Restrain. I had to slow him down and cast two Chromatic Sphere and using them to cast Allied Strategy proceded to draw 7 cards deep to find my Global Ruin’s. I was again replicated again during his turn reducing my life total to a shaky 5 life. I cast’ Global Ruin’s and blew all his lands and dreams to kingdom come. *Evil laughter ensues*

One of the ultimate kill cards

Now that I’ve gain back the control of the board I made some 5 1/1 flying tokens via Ordered Migration and started to chip away at his life total while casting Overgrown Estate therefore protecting my life total. At 5 life he conceded.

Round 2 Domain 1 – 1 Izzet

Now with that freakish smile wiped off his face, I was finally back in the game. Making sure I do not fall for that cheap Reroute trick again, I was hellbent on blowingup all his permanent before he could ever get a threat out.

Turn 1-12 was pretty much Collective restrains and 3 Oblivion Stones. I was not getting any threat cards and get getting ‘land grabbers’ But turn 15 I had emptied my entire deck of its 21 lands. What’s worse was that his mana base was growing again (huge threat of an uncounterble replicate). Void came at a good time and I named “2” ripping out most of his replicate spells and managed to save myself a few turns at least. Void again the next turn naming 3 and removing some more replicate spells and a couple of Wee Dragonaut. However the main problem was that after casting 2 Global Ruin’s most of my lands and My opponents were in the graveyard leaving my top-decked Goblin Trenches almost useless.

Last chance, with time running out and only 6 lands in play with an Overgrown Estate with 4 life, I was desperate to find a game winner (my opponent is still at 20 btw). I top-decked a Yawgmoth’s Agenda. This ripped open a game winning situation. I had acess to all 4 of my counterspells, I could recast my 2 global ruins, my 2 oblivion stones and my 2 Collective Restrain’s, but the best thing of all was that I had access to my dead lands!.

Believe it or not, there is just one copy in my deck

3^rd and final Global Ruins came back to play, destroying all his lands this late in the game meant death for my opponent. I cast my Globin Trenches and finally started beating down him with 2 new tokens every turn (due to lands from my graveyard). With him at 6 life, he was definitely going to die and with my 4 counterspells still in my graveyard I was laughing all the way. I shall kill thou!

Then the Judge came and said time was over and that was that. A BLOODY DRAW ….. BAH

Round 3 Domain 1 – 1 Izzet

MTG Update - Extended Tournament - Deck Domain (Part 2)

I really wasn’t looking forward to the second match-up in the extended tourney after that disappointing defeat. Somehow I figured that with such a vulnerable mana-base in the domain deck, it is going to be very difficult to beat the majority of mono/dual coloured decks. Yet I still had to stuggle on. Next opponent, Tracy.

Tracy’s deck is nothing short of a monster. 156 cards in total, it was probably doomed from the start. Seeing that at lest 40% had to be lands, that’s60 cards of non-threats. The games were very straight forward but since I’m compiling a complete report, I’ll just go ahead and give you guys the low down.

Match Two

This was going to be a mirror match with the first as both decks used snakes and Sosuke’s Summons to make lots of snake tokens. I must say thought that I was very amazed that my Opponent managed to survive 4 round without a single hitch with his land drops. However it was a short match.

Turn 1-5

156 card deck (hereby known as ‘Monster’) was slowly gathering lands and more snakes while I raced around the clock to gather lands and by turn 5 dropped Collective Restrains with domain in play. Turn 7 and Legacy weapon took centre stage. Slowly but surely I eliminated every single land my opponent had and by turn 14 with no lands in play and me having 5 1/1 flying tokens, he conceded.

Round 1 Domain 1 – 0 Monster

Monster’s player was getting seriously pissed and I could see why. His deck was obviously just a joke and joined the tourney to have fun, mine wasn’t. Quite easy seeing that I’m going to win the match but still Magic is a ruthless game and I don’t see any reason why I should be nice to him.

This game didn’t start off as well as I thought it would because my Collective Restrains just didn’t come up at all and by turn 8 I was getting beaten down to 8 life with my opponent still at 20. I had no choice but to blow his dreams up in his face with 8 mana, I cast and blew an Oblivion Stone. Destroying all his hopes I some how managed to find a Collective Restrains and a Goblin Trenches. Things just got worse for Tracy as I top-decked a Global Ruins and blew his lands while getting myself tokens. Faced with just 2 1/1, I chipped away at his life points while countering his few threats and finally winning in 5 minutes.

Round 2 Domain 2 – 0 Monster

Now I’m not that bad of a guy so I got him a beer as consolation J. Hey, playing Magic is fun and not a chore.

Not as good as Pernicious Deed but its cheaper in terms of Price.
Always good for the budget gamer

MTG Update - Extended Tournament - Deck Domain (Part 1)

The MTG Extended scene is sometimes even more deadly than the normal Standard one. With cards from sets long past their prime, Jonny (Combo Players) can have any pick they want and bring back deadly decks like Affinity, Madness, Threshold, Psychotog, Fires, Ninja, Goblins, Tooth and Nail, as well as the new Greater Gifts, Red Deck Wins, Grull, Zoo, and so on.

I'll be playing a Domain deck design by Kai Budde (Magic's highest paid Pro Tor Champion). Design to lockdown and control the game from the mid game, the Domain deck was used to win the 2001 London Pro Tour so its only fitting that it makes its reoccurance in London.

Deck analysis of Domain

Str-
- Able to cope with huge creatures with hardly any problems
- Able to cope with enchantments and combo decks
- Able to deal with top game metagame decks such as Greater Gifts and Heartbeat

Threats-
- Vulnerable to fast decks such as Goblin, Elves, White Weenies
- Vulnerable to decks with more land destruction than Domain
- Vulnerable to milling decks that remove threats from Domain

Match 1 Domain vs Green Weenie

My opponent David was playing an un-tuned Green weenie deck which I though I could pass through with no problems. The first steps of the match was normal as he build creatures and I struggle to get mana. I was beaten down with weenies and Collective Restrains came too late and got burned to death

Round 1 Domain 0 - 1 Green Weenie

Second round started much better with search lands and 3 basic lands in opening hand. Turn 2 counterspell helped kill a War Elemental and by turn 4 Domain was achieved and by turn 5 Collective Restrains was on the table. Turn 8 saw a Legacy weapon and by turn 13 my opponent was land-less. Green Weenie was by then defenceless and conceded to 5 1/1 flying tokens.

Round 2 Domain 1 - 1 Green Weenie

Third round caused Domain to mulligan down to 6 and kept a hand with 2 Forest, 2 Swamps, Collective Restrains and Chromatic Sphere. This was a hand that was doomed from the start, but with 12 mana fixers I thought I could survive at lest 3-4 rounds before dropping the Restrains. Unfortunately all I top-decked were 3 more Collective Restrains to lose by the 8th round.

Round 3 Domain 1 - 2 Green Weenie

Match Analysis - A very bad start seeing that Domain was working fine and even with the sideboarded Oblivion Stone it didn't help. Hopefully the future matches will be much more eventful.

Part Two will be up soon :)


Anti-weenie and creature lockdown




A card that came more than once thanks to the multiple copies of snakes in David's deck

The Long Birthday (Part2)

So after a good night’s rest I’m now fully energized (behold my new found grammatical correctness). It 7am and the sun is shining like its at noon and I’m late to meet a mate at his place for some MTG madness. So I clear up the house and pack up my stuff and Wiz off to Kingston. Now I know you guys would have love to see more of the English country side but I’m afraid I cannot post them. This is simply because the area which he stays in is private and his landlord doesn’t enjoy any form of publicity. Well that and because he has a shotgun in his bedroom. (UK doesn’t allow handguns but apparently assault weapons are fine).

So it was a simple match where I found out Hungarian pancakes are mixed with a lot of jam and chocolate powder (making our Roti Bom seem like diet sugar tablets). Halfway though, it becomes apparent that he spends a lot on cards that don’t seem to make his deck better. In other words fellow magic players, ‘Timmy alert’.

I had to rush off home halfway though the match because cooking takes longer when you’re doing it alone but it was fine and I manage to catch a bus right outside *Thumbs up for British Transport, but thumbs down for not having change for a 5 pound note* Made it back just in time to oven bake the bread and get the cheese and pâté out.

Guest start streaming in and it was chaos with everyone trying to help out in the kitchen that was only built for one, but still we managed and soon dinner was ready!

Magic Mates and M'sia mates Great combo!


Strawberries with cream and melted Chocolate Bailey's with Venette
Alex couldn't wait to finish his

And finally, freshly squeezed lime with orange and vodka with blended strawberries.
I can say for certain it makes you drunk
Hic!

The Long Birthday (Part 1)

April 15th 1800 Hours

I have officially turned 21 (according to Malaysian time) and I’m still working. Not exactly the best time to celebrate whiles I’m attending the huge flow of customers wanting to do their last minute ester shopping. A holiday I was told by Brits that was to celebrate the re-birth of Christ. Yet from my experience is that Ester is an excuse to eat lots of chocolate eggs.

So seeing that I’ve got a party tomorrow (April16^th UK time), I needed ingredients. So in goes the Bailey’s and ice cream etc etc. I will not spoil the fun because I’ve got pictures to back it up, but since it was only tomorrow I decided to celebrate my Malaysian birthday with style. During my break I went to get 3 packets of Magic the Gathering. I know the chances of me getting something really good is 10000/1 but still I figured bugger it. On the way back, a lottery ticket.

Anyway to make a long story short, I went back home and grabbed some food from the local Chinese restaurant.

And that my friends is the Malaysian dinner. I’m way too sleepy to write but I’ll do so later today once I had my coffee

A Disappointing Defeat at the Hands of a Master

Drafting in Magic is probably one of the hardest skills to master. For those of you who haven’t played it, it is about taking one card from one of your three packets and passing it around. The skills involve knowing which card is best and analyzing what your opponent is playing. Now I’m by no means an expert, so I as all other newbies started reading up on all the help and tips the pros give on www.magicthegathering.com.

So the scene was set, and I stand in a queue of 15 anxious people just itching to open a few new packs. All with wishful dreams of owning a foiled Ravnica Dual land that is signed and has a miss-print (not like that ever happens). Eventually the time comes for us to take our seats and after a brief talk with the tournament organizers were quickly ripped our first pack of brand new Ravnica.

Now I know I’m suppose to be thinking “Hrmm what cards shall I use? I need to find one that is fantastic and able to be used in numerous situations”. But I could not resist listening to my inner “Timmy” (Timmy = a term used by magic players to describe a player that like BIG creature or BIG spell effects). With a card like this in your pack, you really cannot afford to pass it on.

So that pretty much set the pace and colour I’ll be playing for the evening. Along the way I received a more Golgari cards such as …

But the one card that really locked down the opponents was

With one life every turn and flying it easily pinched little pieces of his fleshed and gobbled it up like it was satay. Unfortunately I didn’t win as much as I expected. The first match was pretty much an all out assault but thanks to the stalling efforts of my opponent, I only drew with him. His slow playing cost me a match point, plus he didn’t want to continue even though I had the upper advantage.

The second match was between a friend and unfortunately for him, I crushed him. 2-1 win with tons of life to space. It was an unfair competition seeing that I specifically designed my deck to beat decks like his. Still a points a point.

Third and final match. This was one of the most disappointing matches of my life. I just had to fight a deck specifically designed to fight mine. Loaded with loads of creature removal and tons of walls, it was a race for me to kill him first and his job to slow things down. Needless to say I lost, but at lest I lost to the guy who won first place.

All in all it was a learning experience. Surely I could have argued that he was just lucky and got much better cards, but in reality I know that it was my lack of skill at analysing people were all going on full offensive when I should have like my final opponent focused on controlling the board.

Hopefully there will be more Magic exploits in the near future, Thank you and good night.

Honda Jazz for Proton price, Lelong Lelong.

Car prices are absolutely INSANE in Malaysia. If you’re like me (which I highly doubt so) you will look in awe at the prices for second hand cars overseas. You will think to yourself “I can buy a Merc for the price of a brand new Kancil!” so why exactly is our countries cars so expensive? The answer ladies and Gentleman is Proton, well Dr M to be precise.

Want to know how cheap Japanese and Continental cars are? Just check out the National Treasury at http://www.treasury.gov.my/index.php?ch=36&pg=125&ac=1500

Just a little sample of what is what, this are some of the most popular cars today.


BMW Mini Cooper Car 1598 64,662

CHERY QQ S11 Car 812 17,000

HONDA Jazz 1.5 I-DSI Car 1497 38,487

TOYOTA Alphard 2.4 MPV 2362 91,260


These prices in Ringgit Malaysia are the actually declared prices of the cars when they arrive at customs. Imagine that, a Mini Cooper cost about RM 120 – 140k and it only comes in at RM 64k !Remember what I said about you buying a Jazz for the price of a Proton? Well a Proton Wira 1.5 is only RM48,157 so the Jazz is even CHEAPER. Now I know you all are saying that yes it’s the excise duty that hurts the price but that’s besides the point here.


What should be the main issue of concern is that we’re paying RM 48k for a car that has technology 20 years old. In fact the car was originally a Mitsubishi Lancer so just what did Proton engineer or design themselves? One really has to think how much money Proton has put into R&D to justify this. Because Honda is making the Jazz which has a new engine, a new gearbox, new chassis, new interior, new safety features and so on. And their car STILL COST LESS!


It doesn’t help that our cost of standard living (the article is below this) is so high and we’re still forced to pay more. The only good thing about this is that Malaysian second hand car value is very high and you should be able to get back at lest 50% after depreciation. If not 40% which is a heck of a lot more than other countries.


Also if we didn’t need another reason not to buy Chery (China made car) just look at how cheap it is to bring it here. I’m guessing its not just the labour that’s cheap.


Anyway I’m too tired to continue blogging. This is just another expansion on the cost of living in Malaysia and how horrid it is. Hopefully the next article will be more insightful when I touch upon the question of Housing.

Is Malaysia spiraling out of control?

Month in and month out all of you readers have been reading about how I bitch the UK is crappier than Malaysia and how if we ruled the world it would be different. Well today I’m going to discuss how the UK is better than my homeland. Yes you are reading correctly, I am actually looking down at Malaysia for once.

The one think I have learned here is that a Great Britain Pound (GBP) goes a long way. I can buy a Big Mac meal for just 1.99 GBP and I can buy a load of vegetables at the market for a measly price of 1 GBP. So at this point your probably bringing out your calculators and going 1.99 GBP multiply by 6.5 = RM 12.935, I can get a Big Mac meal for RM 9.99 here. As for the vegetables I ‘m sure I can get a lot for RM12 as well. Well give yourself a pat on the back, yes it is cheaper in Malaysia, that is if you are comparing it to Britain prices.

Think about it, if you were a fresh graduate from a local university working in a job for example the media industry, your basic pay would be around RM 1,600.00 to RM 2,000.00. But fresh graduates from the UK working in the UK get GBP 1,600.00 – GBP 2,000.00 as well. If you haven’t already caught onto the dilemma, the cost of living in Malaysia is just imbalanced.

Now back to my first example. I am a fresh grad working in the UK. I buy a Big Mac for GBP 1.99. Now if you are a fresh grad in Malaysia you’re paying RM 9.99! So even though we earn the same amount of money, mine last longer than yours. As you can see, it is a very serious issue.



- Big Mac GBP 1.99, RM 9.99 -

As kids we fail to understand just what inflation is. Our parents are always telling us “It only cost RM 0.05cent for a Laksa last time”. We would just laugh it off and spend out Rm0.50 (this is back in 92) and buy our own. Well look at it now, with bowls of Laksa all around PJ skyrocketing to a staggering price of RM3.80 a bowl you can’t help but notice it. The problem has always been that our paychecks have not risen along with the inflation.

Having big numbers is not bad as long as we have the money to buy it. Japan for example uses HUGE numbers. 100 Yen for a teddy bear? Now that’s wrong you say. But in Japan, 100 yen is just a coin. Its like what RM 0.10 is to us. It doesn’t hurt them because the average Japanese earns close to a million yen if not more a year (Channel 5 UK 2005).

So just how bad are the things in Malaysia? Well sadly, things are looking pretty grim. Lets just look at how much a part-time worker is paid. A friend who works in a cybercafe during the evening shift gets RM 5.00 an hour. Assuming he works 20 hours a week that is only RM 100. Multiply by 4 and you get RM 400 a month. With the average price of mix rice (chap fan) with 2 vegetable and 1 meat = RM 3.40 and we factor in 3 meals a day for a 30 day week. That comes to a staggering RM 306 a month. Leaving this part-time worker with just RM 94 to pay the bills, transport, rent and entertainment.

However in Britain, a student is working for Tesco. He earns GBP 6.00 an hour and works 20 hours. He gets GBP 120 a week and GBP 480 a month. With the price of a cheap frozen food meals at GBP 1 and he takes 3 meals a day, that comes up to GBP 180 just for food. That leaves him with GBP 360. Rent is GBP 200 inclusive of electricity and heating, transport is GBP60 leaving our British student GBP100 as extra spending money.

It should be rather clear now how this issue of inflation can effect us all and unless we start to do something about it soon, we’ll never move out of our parent’s houses or own a car or a house until we’re fifty. If you think that is bad, try imagining how hard it will be for our children? They always say that our children are our future, but how can our kids expect to achieve what we have done when we only did it at 50? And with rising inflation rates would it even be possible to send to them college or university? Or are doomed to spend the rest of our lives cooking and cleaning for our grand kids while they go out trying to make a decent living?

Please comment your opinions on this issue