Thursday, March 1st
We came back (Antoine, Oli, and I) from Dallas two days ago. I don’t think we actually tried to do anything specific to recover from the jetlag, as any efforts we may have made to catch a “normal” rhythm would be messed up as soon as we’d arrive in Singapore. I tried my best not to sleep last night, so I would be able to sleep the whole way on the plane, and thus feel like I were waking up in the morning when we arrive around 12 o’clock. Oli went to bed about 6 times within 2 days, waking up to say hi, play a couple of games on MTGO, and then going back to bed. Antoine repeated a couple of times that he had nothing to do in Singapore, and that he’d rather stay home had he not paid for the flight already.
After two days wandering around Aubervilliers like Scathe Zombies, we took off to our next stop. In Qatar, where we stopped to change planes, Olivier had the brilliant idea of forgetting his hand luggage, leaving it on the previous plane. It wouldn’t have mattered too much, if it hadn’t contained his passport and ticket for the next flight… Antoine and I thought we had lost our companion, but fortunately for Oli, someone fetched it back in time.
Friday, March 2nd
We landed in Singapore around noon, and had a pre-taste of what the weather was like: hot and super humid. This was quite a change, as we had to wear our jackets on the way to the airport in Paris. We met Frank at the hotel he booked, somewhere in Singapore’s red light district. It was nice to be welcomed at the doorstep by lovely ladies. We suspected Frank chose this place on purpose, but he denied it the whole time…
A rain shower stopped us from going outside for a couple of hours, so it was the perfect – and last – opportunity to get ready for the tournament. I was basically set on my deck and had thought on the flight about the changes I would make. Olivier had been testing his Tings deck for Dallas, and would play his tuned version. Frank was also playing his deck from Dallas, U/W Tron. Only Antoine wasn’t sure of what he would play. He was later convinced that he should play the same deck as I did.
Changes I made to the deck:
Sudden Shocks — Lightning Helixes:
The addition of the two Sudden Shocks, to go up to four main deck, was a last-minute change in Dallas. After I played the deck for more than fifteen rounds, I was quite sure that three Sudden Shocks were good enough against both Affinity (Arcbound Ravager) and Psychatog. Lightning Helix was better against the rest of the field. I wanted to free the two slots the Helixes were occupying, and find the right mix main deck. Three Sudden Shocks and one Lightning Helix seemed to be correct.
Kataki, War’s Wage — Jotun Grunt:
Kataki is only good against Affinity, but the matchup is already quite favorable main deck, and a lot more so after sideboard. The Grunts are always good against any matchup, but especially against any aggro deck or Loam. But as their upkeep cost is hard to pay in the early game, and it annoying when you draw too many of them in the “wrong” matchups (control decks) as you won’t be able to sustain them for too long, two of them was also the right number.
Stomping Ground — Sacred Foundry:
A little twitch on the manabase. I realised in Dallas that the second Stomping Ground was needed, rather than the second Sacred Foundry.
Armadillo Cloak — Umezawa’s Jitte:
I was really disappointed in the Cloak during Dallas, but didn’t want to remove them all. I wanted two slots against Boros or the mirror match, as taking both of them out would give anyone who took my list from Dallas a huge advantage in the mirror match. I didn’t want to replace them with two Jittes either, as it’s sometimes harder to play (cast and equip), and you don’t want to have two in your hand either (while having a mix of Cloak and Jitte in hand is fine). As no option is strictly superior, I wanted to have one of each.
Sideboard:
The worst matchup for the deck is Goblins. Fortunately, the Little Red (green) Men aren’t as popular as they were a couple of years ago. But they really give my deck a hard time. That’s why I added three Engineered Plagues to the sideboard. They give me a good chance to beat Goblins, and they are a fine addition against Elf Opposition. I would probably have given up the matchup if Jim Davis, who led his Goblins to the Top 8 in Dallas, had Blood Moon in his sideboard. Blood Moon, along with cards able to stabilize the board, is the absolute nuts against Zoo.
My new sideboard didn’t look as messy as it did in Dallas, as I sorted most of the matchups, and I would have between three and five cards against every deck.
I’ve been asked a lot of questions about why I’m playing so many one-ofs. Aren’t one-ofs bad for the deck’s consistency?
My answer, while arguable, is no. All the cards have a different use, and there’s a reason for every one of them:
1 Armadillo’s Cloak-1 Jitte: See above
1 Lightning Helix: See above
1 Firebolt: The deck’s proportions ask for one more burn spell. I really wanted a cheap removal spell, and Firebolt is simply the best. It’s arguable that, as I have only one in the deck, it’s very unlikely that I draw it in the first few turns. If I really wanted to kill a Birds of Paradise on turn 1, I would have played more of them. But it’s not actually the point. In the late game, or as late as the game can go, a cheap burn spell may come up handy as it leaves you more mana to cast other spells. And the reason why I don’t play another Lightning Helix or Sudden Shock instead is because having one of each in your hand is usually more efficient than having two of the same. You already have eight two-mana burn spells, and you very seldom reach four mana to cast two in one turn.
1 Brute Force: The fifth Gaea’s Might, and often the first card to be sideboarded out in most matchups. But still, it’s a cheap three-damage card, good against aggro decks to protect your creatures, and against control when you need to sneak as much damage as possible, as quickly as possible.
1 Loxodon Hierarch – sideboard: An expensive card that you really don’t want to have in two in your hand. When you play it, it usually has a huge impact on the game, as you board it in against matchups that really fear the elephant.
1 Savannah Lions: The fourth Isamaru.
To sum it up, in a control deck, the one-ofs are the cards you want to see in the late game. In an aggro deck, they are either cards that you would like more copies of (Isamaru / Savannah Lions), or cards that would add value in addition to your four-ofs, thanks to their diversity (Firebolt / Sudden Shock / Lightning Helix).
You also mislead your opponent with one-ofs. When you play a Lightning Helix in one game, he will usually think that you pack four of them, and play around it, while you only play one.
The deck eventually turned out like this:
Creatures (24)
- 3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
- 1 Savannah Lions
- 4 Kird Ape
- 2 Wild Mongrel
- 4 Grim Lavamancer
- 4 Boros Swiftblade
- 4 Watchwolf
- 2 Jotun Grunt
Lands (20)
Spells (16)
I was finally set, and I’d never felt as confident for a Constructed event as I did for this one.
We eventually adventured outside and tasted the Asian Monsoon, to register and walk around town. Soaking wet, we made it back to our nice hotel, turning down a few offers from local ladies, and went to bed — alone — to catch some rest.
Saturday, March 3rd
GP: Singapore, Day 1
None of us really had an idea of where in the world we were, nor what time it was at any point of the day. Fortunately enough, a full night’s sleep, while not really putting us in the local rhythm, gave us enough rest to overcome the jetlag.
Round 1-3: Byes
Round 4: Francisco, John Paul S. W/U Tron. 2-0
Round 5: Ong, Kok Seng. Elf Opposition. 2-0
Round 6: Jaro, Ogie. Affinity. 2-0
Round 7: Wong Pu Siong, Alex. Rock. 2-1
Round 8: Purnama, Erick. TEPS. 2-1
I had had a hard time on Day 1 in Dallas, when I won most of my matches 2-1, mostly due to my lack of experience with the deck. This time, there was no excuse. I played the deck better, had an easier time sideboarding. I basically knew what I was doing.
The day went smoothly, and I dropped only two games. Antoine, playing the same deck card for card, only dropped one game, and also finished the day undefeated. Olivier posted a 7-1 score with Tings, and Frank lost his last round for Day 2.
I learned something quite interesting in the last round…
I’m paired against Erick Purnama, playing TEPS: one of Zoo’s bad matchups. The problem is that your clock is usually one turn too slow on the draw, and that you have very few disruption spells, only Meddling Mage after sideboard. We are in game 2. I lost game 1, and I’m on the play. Erick lays a Lotus Bloom on turn 1. My hand served me a turn 4 kill, but I definitely needed to figure out my options. With the multitude of lands I could search for, the different creatures I could cast, and the burn / pump spells I was holding, I really needed some time, and some paper, to see how I could win the game.
After a moment, I managed to figure out the best play, allowing me to kill him on turn 4, before he could play his Lotus Bloom. I acted confident in my ability to pull out the play, and my opponent got the information. On his turn 3, the turn before the Lotus hit play, feeling he was very likely to die on next turn, he sacrificed one of his lands, drawing from a Chromatic Sphere, just in case. He was not ready to go off, and passed the turn. I proceeded to kill him on my turn 4.
What’s the deal with this situation?
I usually keep a blank poker face when I’m playing, revealing as little info as possible. In this case, I needed to write everything down for my maths, and it was quite obvious that my results were satisfying, giving away that I would kill him before he could go off on turn 4. So he tried to go off on turn 3, just in case he would succeed… but he probably compromised his chances, at least a little bit, to secure his kill on turn 4 had he got another turn. If he had actually pulled a turn 3 kill, that would have entirely been my fault, as I don’t think he would have even tried if my math proved that I wasn’t able to kill him on my turn 4.
What I should have done was to try to show him that my math didn’t work, and that I would have to draw into something really good to win. This way, he would have felt more confident in the fact that he was winning on his turn 4, and wouldn’t have tried a turn 3 kill.
Had I not had the turn 4 kill, I should have clearly showed that my math were correct, forcing him to try to go off on turn 3, and hopefully compromising — a little bit — his chances to go off on turn 4.
But then again, what I did could have been a double-bluff. Trying to make him think that I could kill him, so he could think I was bluffing, but that in fact I wasn’t bluffing…. but would he have thought that far ahead?
Anyway, the point is, when you’re playing against TEPS and you can’t put a clock fast enough to win before he goes off, try to make him think you have the perfect math that would kill him in just one or two turns (when you can’t). The more convincing you are, the more risks he will be willing to take to win. In the best-case scenario, he will sacrifice all his resources and fizzle, and you’ll win what seemed to be, on paper, an unwinnable game.
We left the site around 8pm. Compared to the 11pm exit in Dallas, which had one more round, that was a big difference. Yeah, three hours for one extra round is quite insane. But they seem to do everything smarter in Singapore. I was actually amazed on how everything there was so perfect. The streets were incredibly clean, and people were normally nice, including cab drivers (I have countless stories about scumbag taxi drivers from other countries). The idea of moving there one day hit my mind, and I’ll probably give it a second thought at some point. Apart from my 8-0 record today, I’m definitely glad I made the trip and discovered such a fascinating place.
End of Day 1
Score: 8-0
Sunday, March 4th
GP: Singapore, Day 2
Starting the day, I had the feeling nothing bad could happen to me. I remember a time, not so long ago, when I always started Day 1 with perfect scores (or close) only to scrub out on Day 2. That happened a lot in Pro Tours, but not so much in GPs (as I always made Top 8 in the GPs in which I had a perfect Day 1 record. This time is now behind me, and for some reason I’d never felt as confident in my ability to win again as I did on this morning. I knew I had the best deck, I was well-rested, I’ve been playing quite tight, and I knew I could bring those 8 PT points back home. I would only need a 3-3 record for Top 8.
Round 9: Tomoharu Saito. U/W Tron (rematch from Dallas). 2-1
Round 10: Leung, Sze Lok. Five-Color Zoo — Mirror. 2-1
Round 11: Shingo Kurihara. Tings. 1-2
Round 12: Dela Cruz, Ramon. Boros. 2-0
Round 13: Olivier Ruel. Tings. 0-2
Round 14: Ootsuka, Koutarou. Aggro Loam . ID
A couple of things about my Day 2 rounds:
Round 11: I had tested the matchup Zoo versus Tings against Olivier quite a lot. I believed the matchup was heavily in his favor, as the results of our matches showed. Olivier’s version was tuned to beat aggro. Shingo’s version was a lot weaker against aggro. I played just like I would have played against Olivier, and therefore made a wrong judgement call, playing around cards Shingo wasn’t even playing (the situation is far too hard to explain in any depth). That leads you (and led me, in that particular case) to wonder whether you should trust what you learned in testing, or whether you should go with what your intuition tells you. A wrong judgement due to “too much practising,” the topic I talked about a couple of weeks ago.
Round 12: Before Dallas, I thought Boros was a mediocre Matchup. Now I believe that it’s a good matchup. The only thing you should be afraid of against Boros, and the only I was afraid of when I played round 12 for Top 8, was that my opponent was playing Blood Moon in the sideboard. He wasn’t.
Round 13: Being 90%+ to make Top 8 if I lost both rounds, I scooped to Olivier, putting him in a position to draw the last round to make it.
Score after the swiss:
11-2-1
Antoine, Olivier, and I made it. Quite an achievement when you know that we all travelled together. On Friday, before deciding to play the same deck I would play, Antoine didn’t want to register for the GP. He was feeling too down after his poor result in Dallas, and didn’t even know what to play. Olivier played Tings in Dallas, presuming he would be able to play the deck perfectly in Singapore and tune the deck well enough.
After being grumpy for four days straight (from the day we left Paris till the GP’s Day 2), Antoine finally smiled again. Olivier’s plan worked out as well, as he was satisfied with the deck he ended up with, and he achieved what he’s been anticipating for seven months: getting back into the game at the highest level after his suspension.
The Top 8 brackets seemed quite favorable for me. The only thing that really mattered was that I would avoid Olivier until the finals. I didn’t mind playing anyone else.
Quarterfinals: Ryo Ogura
I really thought I would lose game 3 of our match, and actually thought I had until the very last moment. He had Counterbalance out, and I lost a whole turn to Krosan Grip it at the end of his turn, with no pressure at all on the board, and with him having no cards in hand and me having a Lavamancer and a Mongrel. He picked up his Counterbalance to put it in the graveyard, but before making that crucial move, he decided that it was worth trying to counter it. He revealed a Psychatog, which was the card at that point. A couple of turns later, we exchanged a couple of attacks, with me checking his draw by carefully playing the cards I drew. He took care of my Mongrel, sat at four life, with a Grim Lavamancer active on the board. I played the last card I was holding, Gaea’s Might, with him still cardless. The top of his deck revealed… a Sensei’s Divining Top. He countered my Might, and I just had to hope he wouldn’t draw one of his outs in the next… three cards. His Psychatog could only deal nine damage, with me on eleven life, so a removal spell to take care of my Lavamancer or a Thirst for Knowledge would have been lethal. He attacked, I thought for a while, and didn’t block. He activated his top, and I thought he had the Thirst right there for the kill. I was about to shake his hand when he revealed his top card: a Counterspell. It took me a couple of seconds to realise I had actually won…
Semifinals: Antoine Ruel
For everyone that thinks the deck isn’t consistent, just check both Antoine’s stats and mine: in two GPs, I lost a total of three matches. Antoine had lost two in twelve rounds, including a mirror match. I’ll let you guys reach your own conclusions there…
I knew I would win this match. I had “the eye of the tiger,” while Antoine felt he wouldn’t win. Maybe the spirits we both had when entering the match had some influence on the outcome… who knows?
Finals: Shingo Kurihara
Sitting down at the table, I asked Shingo how he felt about the matchup. He said, “If I play first… it’s okay…”
I finally got a look at his decklist, and I realised at that point that the matchup was far from being as bad as the matchup against Olivier…
It was incredible. I had waited nine years to win a second GP title, and it took me less than a week to capture a third. I’m starting to think that my success is because I have to write interesting reports for StarCityGames.com!
I’ve decided to hang around Paris when I get back from Singapore, before heading to GP: Amsterdam. I will fly back to Toulouse as soon as I’m in Charles De Gaulle, to assist my ill mom, who really needs some support at the moment. If you can, spare a thought for her. [We all wish her well, mate. — Craig.]
Until next time,
Raph