:: Type 1 Tourney in Singapore , 1st Place ::

Hi all,

This is my first post on themanadrain as I've been pretty busy with exams and such and just ended yesterday. The tourney was held over the weekend of GP Melbourne though , so I played despite having back to back papers the next day.

Over here in Singapore the Type 1 support is rather poor. There are groups of people who peruse this site as guests , and some of us are members. The other people who play Type 1 are either casual players , or Type 2/1.X players who borrow cards to play. There is a "elitist" type feeling to Type 1 here , as many players are put off by the power levels and high entry costs that they assume come with Type 1.

The tourneys here operate under a 5 Proxy system , where you can proxy any 5 cards , not restricted to the P10 or Legends rares. This is especially helpful as some of the older players don't have immediate access to the newer chase rares such as the fetchlands and thus can proxy those. Having said that , the 5 Proxy system does make for a field of mono-coloured decks , as there aren't enough proxies to allow for power-intensive decks like TnT and Keeper. The use of proxies has also isolated a group of players who claim that playing against people with proxies is degrading to their hardwork as collectors.

We began testing for the tourney close to 2 weeks beforehand (yes , in between papers and late nights of mugging). Since we foresaw a field packed with Sligh with proxied Ruby , Lotus and Chain/Scrolls perhaps, we began work on a U/b Reanimator , very similar to that played in Houston , which allowed us to fully utilize Bazaar of Baghdad in the Careful Study role. Another friend of mine tested his version of the Full English Breakfast , but unfortunately the playtesting helped us figure out some of the deck's weaker points , namely being Strips and killing Moxen/Birds as the Shapeshifter will then be very vulnerable. As usual , I played Keeper , and came online and noticed the development of Paragon Keeper , and took an instant liking to the deck. The Brainstorms were phenomenal , and at first the C.o.P : Red seemed like an ideal card for my metagame.

On to the decks:

Paragon Revisited

4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
2 Brainstorm
2 Cunning Wish
2 Morphling
1 Misdirection
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Balance
1 Dismantling Blow
1 Circle of Protection : Red
1 The Abyss
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Mind Twist
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Fire/Ice
1 Goblin Trenches

4 Underground Sea
4 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
4 Flooded Strand
1 City of Brass
1 Undiscovered Paradise
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria
6 SoLoMoxen (sans Emerald)

Sideboard

1 Ebony Charm
1 Alter Reality
1 Shattering Pulse
1 Allay
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Fire/Ice
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Powder Keg
1 Pyroclasm
2 Dwarven Miner

U/b Ben-Zo

3 Mesmeric Fiend
1 Buried Alive
4 Entomb
4 Reanimate
4 Exhume
2 Animate Dead
4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk

1 Visara the Dreadful
1 Verdant Force
1 Multani Maro Sorceror

3 Bazaar of Baghdad

4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
3 Underground River
7 Swamps

Our sideboard was rather haphazardly put together on the day of the Tourney itself , so it involved such goodness such as Negators , a Phantom Nishoba , Back to Basics and basic lands.

So the four of us set off : Me with Keeper , Noel with Ben-Zo, my brother Chris with Sligh , and Keng Yin with FEB.

Round 1:

Chua Ywee Liang , playing UWB Goodstuff

Game 1 : I had initially heard he was playing Trix , so I was pleasantly surprised when he dropped an early Serendib Efreet , my favourite card! I Drained it , and followed up in typical Keeper Fashion with a Mindtwist for 7 , and set-up a huge YawgWin a few turns later , earning a concession from my opponent

Sideboarding :

-1 Cunning Wish , -1 Fire / Ice , -1 CoP : Red , -1 Brainstorm , 1 Force of Will
+2 Red Elemental Blast , +2 Dwarven Miner , +1 Swords to Plowshares

Brainstorm and Wish came out because of the relevant cards I boarded in , as well as the removal of dead cards such as CoP : Red

Game 2 :

Playing first , he resolves a Meddling Mage and thus chooses Force of Will. Holding a Drain , I grin and allow it , hoping to Drain a Serendib or something into the Morphling I am holding. The Mage beats me down , and he attempts a Mind Twist for 4. I Drain it , he Counters , I Misdirect the Twist to him , pitching the Morphling , my only Drain sink , he Forces , I Red Ele Blast the Force. Next turn i peel a FoF of the top of my deck , cast it , hit the Goblin Trenches and he dies to an unstoppable horde of Quinton Hoover Goblins.

Round 2:

Charles Koh , playing Stone Keeper

Charles recently got into competitive Type 1 , and as with any avid Type 1 fan , built Keeper right away. His experience playing the deck was somewhat limited , and showed in our games.

Game 1:

We play draw-go for awhile , and I break the deadlock by Vamp Tutoring at his end step. He lets it go through and I go for LoA. I lay the Library , and gain massive card advantage off it. I bait him into a counter war with an end step FoF , Drain a Force and set up a huge YawgWin the next turn , earning yet another concession from my opponent. Who needs Morphling?

Sideboarding:

-1 Cunning Wish , -1 The Abyss , -1 CoP : Red , -1 Fire/Ice
+2 Red Elemental Blast , +2 Dwarven Miner

I leave the Brainstorms in as I like the card quality which they offer Keeper , and which is very important at times in the mirror , especially if you are setting up for a counter-war.

Game 2:

Charles outresources me like 10-1 as I draw what seems like 4 business spells while he casts Ancestral Recall , Fact or Fiction. I slowly claw back and begin to gain an advantage , as I deplete his resources by countering some of his card advantage spells and wasting his Library. We enter a counter-war over his Morphling , and he wins. I cast Balance , and we both go down to 2 cards in hand. He peels Recall, ditches his hand with the Drain Mana , and proceeds to go nuts. So lucky!

Game 3:

He gets a pretty good start with Land-Mox-Timewalk , Land-Merchant Scroll-Ancestral Recall , but I put an end to his masturbation with a Force of Will , Pitching a Morphling. My hand consists of Dwarven Miner , Red Ele Blast , and a Drain , so i plan to drop Miner with Blast backup , seeing as he has depleted quite a bit of his resources. Unfortunately , my Miner decides he'd rather commit suicide than help me mine some lands , and my Blast isn't enough to make him change his mind. However , I manage to Tutor for my LoA again , and draw 1 card off it before Charles decides to Tutor for a Wasteland (!!) and off it. By then , he is really low on resources , and all I need is a kill condition. The ensuing Fact or Fiction nets me a Goblin Trenches , and I seal the win in 3 turns.

Round 3:

Noel Neo playing Ben-Zo

Never nice to eliminate your friends in the Swiss rounds , and since he is playing a deck we built together , it would be rewarding to see him in the Top 8 as well.

ID

Round 4:

Christopher Huang playing Fetchland Sligh

WTH , first it's Noel , now it's my brother. Once again , it is one of our playtest partners and we ID , and Noel ID's , so we consider going to an Internet Cafe to get in some games of Warcraft.

ID

The Top 8 is as follows:

1. Noel Neo with Ben-Zo
2. Benjamin Huang (that would be me) with Goblin Keeper
3.Melvin Quek with TnT
4.Lee Keng Yin with FEB
5. Christopher Huang with Sligh
6.Franky Wydianto (pardon my spelling) with Greener Keeper
7. Charles Koh with Stone Keeper
8.Chris Chew with Worldgorger

Quarterfinals:

Franky Wydianto playing Greener Keeper

Franky is a long time friend of mine , and almost always plays Keeper with Green in it. He was introduced to the joys of Sylvan Library by me , and I worry as the Sylvan resolved in the Mirror is really devastating.

Game 1:

Franky plays first , and gets a pretty decent draw. He is quick to waste any of my lands , hoping to attack my mana-base. He then proceeds to capitalize on a missed land-drop on my side to Mind Twist me for 3. Problem is , I intentionally missed a drop to draw out the last Wasteland I felt was in his hand , and my hand had 3 business cards , and 3 lands , including a Library. He manages to twist away my 3 business cards , so I am left with just 3 lands.He burns his 3rd Waste on my land , but assumes that I have alot of counter-magic in hand because I lay a 2nd land , and don't lay anymore (weird , but hey , i'm not complaining) As he ramps up to FoF+Drain protection Mana, I decide to lay a Lotus from my hand to fake being able to cast 2 Drains , and this succeeds in keeping Franky from pressing his advantage. Meanwhile , his Sylvan is active but he chooses not to draw more than a card from it (!!). Perhaps he fears Flaming Gambit. His overly cautious play lets me build up 8 in hand , laying the Library , and proceeding to work it overtime to draw all my counter-magic. By the time he attempts a YawgWin , I have enough resources to prevent it , and go for a huge one of my own on my turn. Once again , all Morphling did was feed a Force of Will.

Sideboarding:

Similar to against Charles Koh in Round 2

Game 2:

Franky plays first again , and he proceeds in typical fashion with his cautious game of land-go. I attempt a Miner , which draws a Force from Franky , which i Blast. He proceeds to peel Fire/Ice , and thus my little Miner guy once again fails to kill any land. He resolves Sylvan again , and decides to draw 2 per turn with the Library (I later find out he wasn't running any Zuran Orbs anywhere , hence his cautious Sylvan'ing in Game 1 , but still..) He builds up his cards and all I can do is look on helplessly. I rebuild with an Ancestral , and a FoF , but Franky gets the Morphling past my counter-wall. I attempt a Goblin Trenches , and amazingly it sticks. Seeing the opportunity, I go for a Balance , and he once again has no answer. I make tokens over the course of the next 3 turns , and they punish him for his liberal Sylvan'ing. He later shows me 3 counterspells he drew over the course of those 3 turns. So unlucky!

Semi-finals:

Charles Koh playing Stone Keeper

Game 1:

I choose to draw first , and am rewarded as my hand consists of a Library. Charles is running Dustbowl , so he is visibly pleased when he draws it and lays it. He makes a mistake in laying it without mana to activate it , and I scurry to find a Waste , and render his Bowl as effective as my Miner. I gain massive Library advantage , and out-resource him to the win , finally killing him with Morphling

Current Score: YawgWin 3 , Morphling 1
Goblin Trenches 3 , Morphling 1

Game 2:

Charles keeps a gutsy land-light draw playing first. I pick up on his missed landdrop and waste his lands. He has some Moxen so I don't have a chance to run away with the game. He Scrolls for Ancestral Recall , and I Vamp for Misdirection instead of my planned Library , hoping to further press my advantage, as well as being bitchy. However , he does not play into my hands and he manages to rebuild by backing up his ancestral. I , on the other hand , am being made to pay for my attempt to be cute, and continue to flood.He gets his Library machine going , and draws multiple cards off his draw spells. The critical moment comes when he attempts a huge Geyser , only to be Drained and then Red Blasted my me. I drop Goblin Trenches , he attempts to Force, thus rendering his Library useless. I Drain it , and begin my token making spree. In the course of this , he discarded an excess Tundra during his discard phase a few turns ago. As I beat him down with tokens, I know the only card he has that will save him is Balance. He taps out EoT for a Fact or Fiction , and I let it go through and he nets Drain and Force. He proceeds to Dismantle my Trenches , so the next turn is Balance or no. I waste his only Tundra , and hope to punish him for his mistake in discarding. He Strokes for 2 the next turn , hoping to draw a Pearl , or his last Tundra. Being the lucky bugger that he is , he gets the Tundra and Balances. Damn. We go into topdeck mode and I feel that I have the advantage with alot of business spells left in my deck , as well as a YawgWin. He decides that he's had enough of this game and slams down Morphling with no U open. I grin and show him Edict , and thus have eliminated both his Morphlings from the game. He checks his RFG pile , seeing Recall and YawgWin , and proclaims he can't win , and then scoops. Morphling is really no good!

At this point , it is all good times as my brother , Noel and myself have made the Top 4 , and me and Noel advance to the finals , Noel having beaten my brother (who doesn't win with Nishoba AND Verdant Force?)

Finals:

Noel Neo , playing Ben-Zo

Noel concedes to me as we split the prizes and head off to play some WC3 , a somewhat anti-climax , but I was afraid of the disruptive capabilities of the deck in any case , so I was eager to split.

Any comments on the cards we played , or some of the passages of play would be most welcome. I am always eager to hear how I can improve upon the deck and my standard of playing. That is all.//