Planar Chaos: In the Thick of it
January 21st, 2007 by monmacutay
January 21, 2007 – SM Megamall.
Today is day that most Magic players have eagerly anticipated. Well, it’s a half-truth. It was actually yesterday, Saturday. That’s day one of the worldwide Magic: The Gathering Planar Chaos Pre-release. This is when we try out all those funky cards we’ve all read at MTGSalvation and check to see if the guys at WOTC R&D were really into drugs when they designed the newest set and screw up the world of mana and tapping… sigh.
At any rate, I woke up early since my officemate/friends were already at the venue. Rain, Adrian and Jed couldn’t compete yesterday due to an RO event so I decided to play with them on Sunday.
Venue – SM Megamall. The
Mecca of middle-class shoppers and Pro Tour wannabees (like me… hee-hee but shhhh I do have PT points *wink*).
After watching a nice poker tournament (way into the early morning) last night on cable, I was late (as usual). Arriving at around lunch, I caught up with my friends already into round 1 and all the flights were damned closed! Rain dropped out of the tourney after bagging the hyped “green Ball Lightning”, Groundbreaker and the one-to-cast Splitsecond Lobotomy. Someone offered her to trade with the one of the most in-demand cards in the set, Damnation (2BB – Destroy All Creatures)… I wouldn’t blame her. That was a good call. Although, I would’ve loved to watch her cream those noobs and wannabies who’ll over-extend their drops just because she’s a “girl” (Sheesh, I hate it when boys assume that).
Anyways, being late, I was relegated to cheering
Adrian against a rated opponent. Egad! That didn’t work… we argued about alpha-striking but still, a lost is a lost. I’m confident in Adi’s skills and I know he’ll get through first-round jitters and cream the next opponent.
Good friend Francis Profeta appears out of thin air. Asks me if I was playing. I told him I was late and he whips up the LAST TICKET FOR THE LAST FLIGHT. He was beginning to look more like Gandalf and I was shrinking like a Hobbit.
The LAST TICKET… “Gimme… Gimme… Precious”
Although I’d “keep” my cards, I didn’t mind. Gandalf hands me a Time Spiral starter and 3 Planar Chaos boosters and off I went to make the list and make the deck. My flight-mates were already done and yammering about how “lakas” this, “lakas” that. Talk about pressure – there were 2 gay players discussing about deck construction while I was ticking off cards.
A red “Pestilence” and 2 Dead/Gone plus 2 Melancholies were enough to convince me that B/R was the color of this deck. A cursory glance of my creatures proved that I had tappers,a timeshifted Faceless Butcher plus a 3/1 that becomes a Deadly Insect and I knew I had to just delay the opponent and punch through with the land dudes. Stopping the suspends and the flyers were the job of the removal spells like Dead/Gone and Melancholy plus Rathi Trapper was assigned to take care of Whammos (Big Creatures) by tapping team and taking them out of combat.
FIRST MATCH – was up against a newbie player who was pumping +1/+1 into his 1/1 against my 3/3. He was W-G-R with no plans at all. 1-0. Gee, Rain’s big d20s were lucky.
SECOND MATCH – ahh. A worthy opponent, he knew how to play. R-W with a lot of suspends. Adjusted Timecrafting into the second game but didn’t draw it. I just removed all his mid-critters and punched through with a Fear Corpulent Corpse and the red pestilence for the win. 2-0
THIRD MATCH – almost a mirror match. This dude was playing Red-Black too and was even telling me about the Melancholy… dang… as if. By now I knew how to play my tech card, Browbeat and Timecrafting (XR – remove or add X time counters on any card). My swampwalking 4/3 Viscid Lemures plus my 4-to-cast 7/6 Waning Worm (the bomb!) was too much for him to handle. Swept both games. I was now casting Browbeat when my opponents were at 5 life or below to be assured of the 3-card draw. I think I didn’t make any mistake in this one (I was forgetting my first-turn suspends in the previous games). Rain’s BIG DICE really *are* lucky! 3-0
FOURTH AND LAST – Judge and friend, Gerald Camangon teleports in front of me and asks for a deck check… zowee… I knew I forgot to list a single card. Arggg… I wanted that shirt (well… win all 4 matches in a pre-release and you get a shirt). Good thing my opponent also failed to list a card and we were even. Judge tells us that we can play 1 match or best-of-three. Best-of-three it is. My opponent asked for the win (and the shirt) and I asked for the pack. Sweet! Deal!
· First game – mana flood. He had fast creatures and 1/1 life gainer. Fast game. Scoop. Him 1, Me 0
· Second game – my Dead/Gones and removals came to help. Plus Viscid Lemures meant it was my turn to beatdown. He scoops. Him 1, Me 1
· Third Game – He was stuck at 3 land while I rolled in for the beatdown. He tried to save some time by suspending a green 3/3 flyer. End of turn – BAM! Timecrafting – Suspend for 4 MORE TURNS BABY! He was shocked! 7 turns with 3 land was an eternity. That was good. (evil grin)
Beatdown kept me in the lead. He placed a green Sedge Troll (regenerating with White). I answered with Melancholy (2B – Enchant target creature. Tap. Doesn’t untap during untap phase. Pay B during upkeep). Forgot to pay the stoopid black mana in my upkeep and the judge throws my Melancholy in my graveyard!!!! My Noob mistake!!! Crap! Even though, My 3/3 (Fear) Lemure was pounding away at his life but he had a 5/4 flyer also chewing away at mine. Down comes my red pestilence and he decides to give me 3 cards for the Browbeat. We were both at 1. I could tie it any time with the Pyrohemia. A 3 card-draw Browbeat gives me Waning Wurm and Mana Skimmer (flying) to halt his flyer. Down they go. Stalemate except for my unblockable 3/3
His turn… a lot of people and judges were already watching our match. My opponent was staring at a 7/6 Waning Wurm and 3/3 fear Lemure. He takes his time… thinks… then extends the hand! Sweet! A perfect 4-0 record on Planar Chaos pre-release day. Boy, that was tough (and fun). But I guess I still knew how to play Magic and I had to prove that to myself…
I’ll blog about my unsolicited “review” about the set and the specific cards next time.
Thanks for reading!
