Worlds has ended with the Japanese winning both the main event as well as the team event. ChannelFireball once again proved their dominance in the game by placing four members in the Top 8 with identical decks. Overall, this seems like a good ending for the last Worlds.
For myself, I managed a 45th place finish, which was about average, and I couldn’t ask for more since I 3-3ed the first day. I was fine with that. The thing that makes me really unhappy is the end of Worlds. Worlds has been the most memorable tournament for me throughout my Magic career, and this year marks the 8th consecutive year I had played in the World Championship. Yes, I couldn’t even believe it myself that I had played that many Worlds, but the fact is many of us grow together with Magic, and I happen to be one of the lucky players out there growing along with it. Let’s take a walk down memory lane:
Worlds 2003: 261th place
I was sixteen years old in 2003, and I started seeing results from various neighboring Grand Prix tournaments. 2003 marks my first step into the Pro Tour scene at the World Championship in Berlin. I remember I managed to get a 2nd place finish in the Singapore Grand Prix, which propelled my ratings high enough that I was qualified for Worlds. I was supposed to play Astral Slide for Standard, but after some last-minute deliberation I decided to switch to a post-Invasion Psychatog deck. Yes, I played Psychatog after Fact or Fiction had rotated out from Standard!
It was easily the worst deck I have played, and to be honest I had no experience with the deck at all prior to the night before the tournament. I was attracted to it, as two of the national members in Malaysia had decided to play it, so I decided to play ball.
In life, lessons are usually learned through the hard way before you can proceed to the next level, and this is one of the fundamental mistakes I learned from this tournament: always stick to your guns; last-minute switching is almost always a mistake. This tournament also acted as an eye opener for me that there were still a lot of things for me to learn in Magic, and this was just the beginning.
Worlds 2004: 6th place
The 2004-2005 season was definitely my prime season. Eternal Witness was my pet card, and it went into every deck that I played from Block to Standard to even Extended. I played extensively that season, and my skills and judgment were the finest ever. The GWr Slide that I piloted to a 5-1 in day 1, leading to a Top 8 at Worlds, was one of best decks I have ever played. Astral Slide + Eternal Witness provided inevitability, and the amount of gas in this deck was just sweet. For Block I played an anti-Affinity Red-Green Control, which was actually good against everything in the field but Tooth and Nail. In the end, I did not play against any Tooth decks, and I went 4-0 before drawing twice to secure my spot in Top 8.
Worlds 2005: 57th place
I played Gift Ungiven for Standard and ScepterChant for Extended in Worlds 2005. I did fairly mediocrely with both decks, going 3-3 each, but my strong performance of 5-0-1 in Draft carried me through to finish in the money bracket. I think both decks were fine; they were not exceptionally powerful, but I was familiar with them. In the end, I stuck to my guns and did mediocrely, but it could had been worse had I switched to something I was not familiar with. Also, this tournament taught me to diversify my sideboard plans to cover every possible matchup, just so you don’t auto-lose once you face your nightmare matchup. The Gift deck was very good against aggro, and I started 3-0 with it. The nightmare matchup was Enduring Ideal, as my deck was designed to kill creatures and not enchantments. Cranial Extraction was a key card to combat that matchup, but it was largely irrelevant against anything else. I decided to devote plenty of unnecessary sideboard slots for the aggro matchup, against which I didn’t even need the help. After going 3-0, I met an UrzaTron deck, and I lost. And guess what? My next two pairings were Enduring Ideal, and that brought me to a 3-3 record by literally donating the match to them by having no real way to interact.
Worlds 2006: 174th place
For Worlds 2006 I again played both control decks for Standard and Extended. My Standard deck was a U/W/R UrzaTron with Firemane Angel, and my Extended deck was ScepterChant (God, do I love that deck). It went 3-3 and 4-2 respectively. I noticed that I played control for most of the big tournaments during the early days, since control decks had an edge if you were the better player, and there were choices to be made. I don’t remember anything particularly special or any big mistakes I made in the tournament, but like any card game, Magic has variance, and you do well in some, not in others.
Worlds 2007: 128th place
This Worlds was a little different from other Worlds, as there were only five rounds of Standards and five rounds of Legacy. I started out well with a 4-1 using Black-Green Elves. This time around, I didn’t choose to play control. Lorwyn block had introduced planeswalkers, and planeswalkers we one of the reasons the tide turned for aggressive strategies. In the past, control decks could afford to allow a threat to slip through, take a couple of damage, and deal with it later. With the introduction of planeswalkers, I am afraid that such concepts were no longer viable.
For example, the control deck can deal with everything, but if a Garruk Wildspeaker manages to slip through and starts churning out 3/3 Beasts each turn, it will change the game fairly quickly if it goes unopposed. My strong 4-1 vanished in the draft after going 0-3 in the first draft pod. I played Goblins for Legacy, since I had no clue, and I didn’t do too well either. I even had a BYE on round 1 of Legacy—if that reflects how bad my records were entering the Legacy portion on the day.
Worlds 2008: 109th place
This year was the year of Faeries, and it was very obvious that it was public enemy number one. I decided to play the best deck around (which was a unique decision of mine, as I usually don’t play the deck with a target on its head). Sure enough, I started 2-4, and it was pretty much over early in Day 1.
For Extended I played Zoo and went 4-2 with it. From that point onwards, I fell in love with Wild Nacatl and played with it in every possible format with her around. I was in the team that year, and getting into the team top 4 was pretty much the hope for the Malaysian team, as all of us had fallen off in the main event. We were very close to getting top 4 to play for Sunday, but we lost by a one-point difference in total and ended up 5th. It was very disappointing, as team Malaysia had never seen the limelight of Sunday, and I was so close in piloting the team to get there. We basically needed to go 1-1-1 to secure a lock, and in order for Australia to have any chance to take our spot, they needed to go 3-0, and boy they did.
We ended up 1-2, with me winning while both my teammates lost. It was frustrating, as one of my mates got to play Antonino De Rosa, who was a friend of mine. They were playing with nothing on the line, and I asked Antonino if he would settle for a draw, as that would lock us up for Top 4. For some reason, he refused, and there wasn’t much that I could do. I asked for a favor, and he didn’t feel like giving it, but for sure it felt like a bee sting.
Worlds 2009: 3rd place
I wrote a report on this one, so I won’t go too much in depth. Basically it was a last-minute event that I had planned to skip, as school was a higher priority, but in the end I managed to put things together, and visiting the historical city of Rome was actually my main priority. Turned out there was another Top 8 waiting for me. I played both aggro decks for Standard and Extended, both Naya colors (Naya Beats in Standard and Punishing Zoo in Extended). Seriously, this was probably the most undeserving Top 8 I’ve made, as I had very little practice in Standard, did about three drafts on MTGO, and played zero games of Extended. But I guess if you were once good at Magic and you still have some fundamentals, all it takes is some luck to get you there. Also, this was the period where I picked up poker, which definitely helped to sharpen my reading skills and put opponents on the few possible cards that they could have.
Worlds 2010: 67th place
Again, an aggressive strategy was my choice for the tournament, with both Red-White aggro in Standard and Mythic for Extended. I did fine in both Constructed portions, going 4-2 and 5-1 respectively. It was Draft that killed me, going 2-4. I feel that Worlds is a tournament of endurance. Playing an aggressive strategy gives you a little edge in that sense, as your games tend to end faster, and it makes sense that you are able to make more optimal decisions throughout the tournament. Of course, this could also be an excuse for me failing to find the perfect control deck for this tournament, which was definitely U/B Control.
Pro players are like marathon runners. They have plenty of stamina, and they run pretty fast. It is not easy to play control all day long and switch gears for three different formats across three days. Yet they manage to do it. I for one have yet to reach such a level, but I admire their enthusiasm and spirit.
Worlds 2011: 45th place
This year was a little different, especially for Standard. The format was evolving at a hyper rapid speed, and I decided on G/W pretty much the day Martin Juza won a GP with it. Sadly, I did not do too well with it and went 3-3 in Day 1. My draft record was okay, going 4-2. I 3-0ed my first pod using G/W, and I drafted another awesome G/W deck in the second pod, hoping for a 2-1 or better. I ended up splitting the first two rounds, and the last round was simply unbelievable. I mulliganed to four cards, TWICE. Yup, you read that right. The one game where I kept my seven cards, I crushed my opponent. It was truly unbelievable that happened. I mean, I couldn’t even consider keeping the hands that were dealt to me. They were either no-landers or one-landers. For a brief moment, I suspected my opponent had been manipulating my library as he shuffled, but as I observed, he wasn’t really looking at the deck, so he couldn’t have been stacking them. This was the first time in my life I actually mulliganed to four twice in a match. That was a heartbreaking loss.
The interesting part of my Worlds report though is Modern. Going into Modern, I really liked my choice for the tournament: Punishing Zoo with Snapcaster Mage. I didn’t even bring a second deck with me. I just knew that I was going to play Zoo, and I was comfortable with that. Normally, Punishing Zoo puts you on top of the conventional Zoo matchup, and now with the addition of Snapcaster Mage, you are one step further ahead, even against opposing Punishing Zoo decks. I also had a few expensive singletons such as Elspeth, Gideon, and Batterskull to come out on top of the Zoo mirror as well. It turned out Zoo was a big portion of the metagame, and that wasn’t surprising, as Zoo has proven over time to be foolproof, and you can actually get away with minimal testing.
This is the list I ran to a 4-1-1 finish in Modern:
Creatures (19)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (24)
Spells (15)
Sideboard
I won’t go through card by card as I usually do, as Zoo has been around for a long time, and I don’t have to tell you how awesome Wild Nacatl is. Instead, I will go through some unusual choices that I made and what changes that I would likely make.
First of all, I regretted the configuration of shock/fetchlands that I made. The 4 Arid Mesa/4 Misty Rainforest were a lock, but I had two other spots for the remaining fetches. Initially I had 1 Marsh Flats and 1 Scalding Tarn, and it worked fine. Then as I thought about combating opposing Blood Moons, an idea struck me. Basically, the best way to play around Blood Moon is getting a Forest into play. Nothing else matters, as 16 of your guys requires a green mana to cast, and getting completely locked out by Blood Moon is one of the few ways your opponent can cheat a win against Zoo.
Figuring out that 4 Misty Rainforest might not be sufficient to accommodate the search-Forest plan, I decided the two remaining fetches should be Verdant Catacombs. At the end of the day, I did not face a single Blood Moon, and having too many green fetches restricted my ability to fetch the appropriate shocklands. The second Stomping Ground was also missing from my list, and I found myself was short on red many times due to Punishing Fire requiring multiple red to get online.
Two Scalding Tarn is definitely the better choice to round up the remaining fetchlands. I also missed out on Kessig Wolf Run, which would be a better replacement for Horizon Canopy. Although Canopy is like a cantrip, in reality you don’t want to be setting yourself behind a land to cash in for a card, as the deck does require a lot of mana to operate, in between Punishing Fire recursion and casting the expensive singletons.
I ran 24 lands in this deck, a slightly higher land count for Zoo, but it worked fine. After all, this was more like a Control Zoo than anything else.
On the singletons of Gideon, Elspeth, and Batterskull, I just couldn’t decide on which was best in the mirror match. Initially I had a Baneslayer in the place of Batterskull, but I felt Batterskull was more resilient, in the sense that it doesn’t die to Path in the mirror. Well it does, but if you’re in a spot to lose to a Path, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. But other than that, Batterskull gives you a renewable source of lifegain, and sticking one to a Knight is pretty sweet.
Gideon was fine, as it acts as pseudo removal for both Goyf and Knight, which are usually the last men standing, and Gideon can also put you far ahead if you have a Goyf or Knight that sticks around to eat up their smaller critters by forcing them to attack.
On the other hand, Elspeth was a little disappointing. Somehow making 1/1s felt a little underwhelming in this current metagame, and I think a second Gideon or Batterskull would have been better than Elspeth.
If I replaced Elspeth with another four-drop, I would rather have Ranger of Eos, as that card is very swingy when both sides are trading furiously. When the ground is gummed up, go for two Noble Hierarch to break the parity. When both sides are empty, two Wild Nacatl will be the way to go.
The sideboarding plan was simple; I configured the deck in a way that all the good cards in the Zoo mirror match were in the maindeck, and to compensate for the control/combo matchup, I had a heavy counter plan as well as several Ancient Grudges against Affinity.
Take a look at my maindeck. Is there any card that you would want to board out against Zoo? Absolutely nothing. You want to keep all your removal. Same with your creatures, since none of them are bad. My rationale was that, if there isn’t a single card that you want to side out, it is pointless to have sideboard cards to bring in. Sure, I can pack a few Kitchen Finks or Ranger of Eos in the sideboard, but that would be inefficient. Instead, I’d rather shore up my percentage against combo/control, which I definitely needed help with from the sideboard.
Basically, you side in the Teegs/Pridemages and counters against every combo/control deck out there and take out redundant planeswalkers and an assortment of burn. The cheap creatures replace the expensive threats, and the counters replace the burn. You are pretty much a Bant deck with Wild Nacatl after sideboarding, as you tend to get there by countering their key spells rather than burning them out.
Against Affinity, I would remove Snapcasters and planeswalkers for Ancient Grudges, Pridemages, and Shatterstorm, as I would much rather be fetching basics in comparison to shocklands, as protection from Blood Moon and basic lands also save me a ton of life against Affinity. By removing Snapcaster, I no longer have to search for blue, helping my plan to go for basics and save precious life points. The singleton Shatterstorm acts as an out to Etched Champion, as you are cold to multiple Darksteel Citadel + Champion or multiple Champions. It is hard to burn everything to disable metalcraft, so while Shatterstorm might not be as good as the fourth Ancient Grudge, it gives you an out against Etched Champion.
The Arena is a last-minute inclusion for the Splinter Twin matchup. Put it this way: as long as you have an Arena in your deck and you manage to resolve a Knight of the Reliquary, it is very difficult for you to lose the game. Arena also does not require both creatures to be untapped in order to activate fight mode, which means that your Knight can start applying pressure once it has searched out an Arena. I think it is worth the one slot to have a shot of possibility getting a “free” win against Splinter Twin. After all, the more “I win” cards that you have in your deck, the better your deck becomes.
A Farewell to the Gravy Train
I ended up 45th in the event, and that usually meant I’d get an invite to the next Pro Tour. This is how I rolled for the last couple of years. But due to the recent changes, I no longer have that chance, as Worlds Top 50 no longer earns you an invite to the next Pro Tour. Also, PWP points are essentially a US-centric system that creates a massive wall for non-Americans in entering the Pro Tour.
By virtually having most of the GPs in the US, that creates a massive advantage for Americans to climb to the Top 100 PWP points. Well, I guess you can say that I can always travel to the US to play some GPs, but that is a very unrealistic option. PTQs were also reduced to one per season in Malaysia, but I guess that wasn’t the worse yet, as some countries got completely cut. I have a Malaysian friend who is actually trying to grind PWP points through entering multiple FNMs every week. He is trying to prove to Wizards that people can actually qualify for Pro Tours through FNMs, and as it stands today, he isn’t too far from the Top 5 spots awarded to the Asia-Pacific to qualify for Honolulu. I hope he gets there, and this sends a message to Wizards that they need to do something.
The end of Worlds also makes Nationals largely an irrelevant tournament now. What is the point of being a National Champion if you don’t get to represent your country at Worlds? Nationals might as well become some sort of Open Series.
Looking into 2012, the Pro Tour will definitely be a lot different from what it is today, be it good or bad. Playing on the Pro Tour was definitely one of the most exciting experiences in my life, and I have met countless friends from all around the globe. If it weren’t for Magic, I doubt I could finish my Masters degree as well as have the confidence to face the world. All I can tell you is, this kid from Malaysia has matured alongside all the Pro Tours he has attended, and now, it is time to bid farewell.
Goodbye Pro Tour and Worlds, but I’ll be back.