life

what is there to fight for when everything you've tried to build crampled in pieces?

when do you know we need to give it one more fight?

when do we know if we know how to fight, we also need to know how to surrender?

despedida

i attended the despedida of a friend. she had it at Danny's Grill in Timog. All her buddies were there from elementary classmates, to former officemates.

i had a wonderful time.

then i had midnite snacks at burger machine. **

happy hour

well, my project group is sponsoring what we dubbed as Happy Hour. Project members are given stubs for alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks in the 12th floor. There will be bands playing as we hang out and spend time with our project mates outside of our cubes.

I am not yet sure if I'll join the fun and have some booze. Some of my family members weren't happy when they learned I have been trying to get some booze every now and then since they knew I hate drinking.

GPT Nagoya, Bacolod Chicken Inasal, August 1, 2004

Hello mages,

Here’s my small write up for team shogun in reference to the GPT we played yesterday.

A few noteworthy names playing here are:
1. Francis Profeta,
2. Perry Uson,
3. Michael Batac,
4. Williamson Ong,
5. Nomer Conrad Sison,
6. Bayani Manansala,
7. Rico Perez,
8. Joseph Basilio *the younger of the Basilio twins
9. Charles Basilio *the elder of the Basilio twins
10. Frederick Salazar
11. Richie Chua
12. Reynerio Estacio
13. Dio Delfino
14. Wendell Velarde
15. Anthony Cesar Martinez,
16. John Robert Santos,
17. Hernalyn Garcia
18. Joebert Pre
19. Bingo Monasterio
20. Paul John K Claviolo Jr

These are all ranked in the top 100+ in constructed here in the Philippines.

And again, NECromancer’s very own… (lakas ko na tsumamba) J

GPT Nagoya, Bacolod Chicken Inasal, August 1, 2004

Tournament: GPT Nagoya

Attendance: 60 Players

The Shogunate showed up and played strong.

Here are my 6 rounds prior to the cut to top 8:

1st round: vs Ravager Affinity (Wendell Velarde)

It is sad to face a team mate so early in the round specially that he was the reason why I was playing Affinity in the first place (*he was the one who lent me his affinity deck in my attempt to qualify at baguio regionals but placed 5th and did not make the cut to top 4. )

1st game: My Cranial Plating equipped Ornithopter made sure I win in 5 turns.
2nd game: Same story as the first game.

2nd round: vs Ravager Affinity (Hernalyn Garcia)

1st game: We have both explosive hands and the game took so long until the combination of the famous Raffi and the Disciples (which is my deck name) won me the game.
2nd game: We started off and his somber hoverguard made sure I do not last long. There is almost no time for the 3rd game and this seems to be going with a draw.
3rd game: Time is up and we started the last six turns.

Standing: 1W-0L-1D

3rd Round: Goblin Bidding (I forgot the name. He was a teammate of the Basilio twins)

1st game: he has no first turn while my first turn was nexus, arcbound worker, welding jar, and ornithopter. He ended up blocking my threats early on. He made a misplay by attacking on the 3rd turn with his men of goblin warchief and goblin piledriver. With no blockers, I played artiftact land, disciple, ravager and won with a shrapnel in hand.

2nd game: I was having a so-so hand and he has a so-so hand too and we ended up trading creatures. I got the upper hand when I already have an arcbound ravager with 4 counters, 2 frogmites, and a myr enforcer to his twosome of skirk prospectors. During combat, he blocked frogmite with one of his skirk psopectors and shattered my ravager, I then placed the counters on my myr enfocer to deal 10 damage and left him at 7 life. On his turn, he played bidding! What? Since I named “artifact creatures” and he called the judge and lectured artifact creature isn’t a creature type. A myr is but since my library are only arcbound ravager and arcbound worker, both have no creature types. He then passed the turn. Lucky for me, he has no goblin warchief yet on the graveyard so the power of the goblin sharpshooter is deemed useless for a turn. Im in kinda in big trouble, when I suddenly top decked “pyroclasm”. (george, I love you. Thanks for sending me the pyroclasms. Told you I’ll put it to good use.) I played pyroclasm. He used his goblins to kill my 8/8 myr and I passed the turn. My hand at this time is a shrapnel blast. And he is down to 7. I have nexus in play *grin. I top decked, arcbound worker?!!, I went on to declare nexus as an artifact creature and attacked, no blockers, I went on to blast him using the worker, for 5, moving the counter to the nexus to make it 2/2 for the final points of damage. Hmmm.. I think that was cool.

Standing: 2W-0L-1D

4th Round: vs UB Death Cloud. (Bingo Monasterio)

1st game: I easily beat him down with my fast hand.

2nd game: I sided in 3x mana leaks because for sure he will have deathcloud. I also put in 2x annuls for his guardian idols hehehe. I had a pretty impressive hand but quickly lost my creatures with 2 dark banishing. But I wasnt able to put him to a very low life by that time. And when he cleared the frogmites and enforcer, I continued with an ornithopter with one counter to deal 1 damage at a time hehehe. When suddenly he played march of the machines the following turn! :I was not ready for that but then, my hand is composed of mana leak and… annul!!! Hehehe. He has access to mana with the talismans and the idols. So annul was just perfect! I thought for a while. Read the card. *as if hehehe, and played annul. He passed the turn. i got plating! With enough mana (6 lands) to play the plating and leave mana for a mana leak,.i aattacked with the ornithopter and dealt quite a hit. I can deal him lethal damage the next turn if he did not have access to kill the ornithopter. No he was access to 8 mana, and he can death cloud me for 2, and leave 3 mana to play the leak. Im in deep shit. He was contemplating really hard what to do. And then tapped for 3 mana… oh my. I thought and prepared myself for game 3. he tapped another 2 mana… im dead. But decided to deathcloud for 3!! With only 2 mana left in a talisman and a swamp, I thought for a while… pretended its hopeless. Looked at my hand, sighed… and played leak. He offered his hand and we said good lucks.

Standing: 3W-0L-1D

5th round: vs Tooth and Nail (Dante Dira)

I never had practice against this deck. But I defeated a TNN on my MD5 semifinal win against Charles Basilio.

1st round, he has access to trellis, baloth, and viridian shaman a land. I am lucky though that I have a first turn disciple and and a ragaver so I was able to put him to critical life. Another shaman hits and my ravager went to the graveyard. He played another shaman and targeted my seat of the synod, and I was left with disciple, a vault of whispers. I have a shrapnel in hand and he is at 6 life. His board was eternal witness and he already has an oblivion stone in play but no mana to activate it. I drew great furnace. *I’ve been getting a “wow” on top decking skills. But I call it shuffling skills instead. You can’t topdeck without a good old shuffle.

2nd round: he mulliaganed. Then he passed the turn. ??? what just happened? He is at 6 cards. Didn’t do a first turn play and passed me the turn? My normal draw was just to devastating with disciple and ravager in the mix.

Standing: 4W-0L-1D

I can now draw the last round to secure my place in the top 8.

6th round: vs Ravager Affinity (Jobert Santos)

Jobert was undefeated at this point with 15 points compared to my 13 points ranked behind him at second. I asked if it is ok to draw and he explained he need to win to pull his Perry Uson, a teammate, just in case Perry loses to Richie (my teammate).

He said there is nothing to lose anyway for both of us since I’m currently at second and it cannot happen that I can go far beyond the cut to top 8. I responded im not yet much familiar how everything works and im ok to play.

1st round: his 3rd turn hoveguard attack put me to 12 life. My attack placed him to 1 life. I am tapped out with shrapnel in hand. I counter his artifacts and I am safe with 2 life. I mis counted. He played ravager. Uhm, I have one life? And activated nexus. ?? uhm im down at zero?

2nd round: 2 disciples of the vault. I have one in my hand, but I have no access to black mana. He accidentally nudged the top 2 cards on the floow and it revealed, disciple! what?! Triple disciple? I called the judge. The judge, thons galano, asked jobert to just let me see what was on top. And indeed it was disciple of the vault. I bolted one of his disciples but it was not enough. A double DotV is just to strong against the mirror.

Standing: 4W-1L-1D

5 of us were in the top 16 and 3 in the top 8. The seeding for the quarter finals were:
1. Joebert Santos
2. Richie Chua
3. Frederick Salazar
4. Arvin Jay Cando
5. Dante Dira
6. Ian Paul Beatingo
7. ???? ????
8. Anthony Martinez

The quarterfinal results were:
1. Joebert Santos defeated Anthony Martinez
2. Richie Chua defeated ???? ????
3. Ian Paul Beatingo defeated Frederick Salazar
4. Arvin Jay Cando defeated Dante Dira

Quarters: I made quick work on Dante. But the second game play that I did proved gooood. I had 2 ornithopters, an arcbound worker, a ravager in play in the third turn. The he got online and played mindslaver on his turn. Uhum. I need to think fast, I need to get rid of my ravager or else I will be left with no permanents on board. I have 2 artifact lands and a nexus at that time, with one great furnace, and I was left with a shrapnel, myr enforcer and a plating in my hand. What should I do? I drew an artifact land. I untapped. Played the land, played plating and equipped ornithopter, and attacked with the team. Before damage, I sacrificed the worker to the ravager to make it 3/3, and added.. the great furnace on it. I stacked the damage. And on my end of turn, sacrificed the ravager to put is counters on the ornithopter without plating. Hehehe. On his turn, he played land. activated mindslaver. Then he played eternall witness and got the slaver back. On my turn he drew me a welding jar. He thought about it. He played the welding jar. He activated the nexus and attacked. Oops. He thought he can block with his witness, but the nexus had flying. He missed that. he gave himself another point of damage. He then conceded after my turn when he drew nothing and he can’t play and activate the slaver at the same time.

Semis: I am faced with Jobert Santos. He gave me a whooping back in the 6th round where it seemed I’m too much of a newbie compared to his playing with the affinity deck. I informed the people in the crown that since he beat me to a pulp in 2 games at the 6th round, I’m asking the gods to give me: “the law of averages” hehehe.

1st game: I won the die roll. He mulliganed. These are signs of good things to come. I put him in a very tight clock but we traded artifact creatures on the process. He bounced back and now has better board position ravager, disciple, and nexus. While I have disciple and plating in play. But he is down to 10 life and i am up 20. I have a shrapnel in hand. I drew into a chromatic sphere and played it. 9-19. I drew into plating. I played it. And I equipped the ornithopter. On his turn he attacked with the ravager. I did not block and im down to 17, he sacrificed the ravager and moved its counters to the nexus. 8-16. I drew into a land. I declared my ornithopter attacking. He activated nexus, and declared it as a blocker. I asked what is the total of the nexus with a counter and he said 2/2, I confirmed if both creatures will die and he said yes. 6-14, I played shrapnel for the win.

2nd game: He sided in furnace dragons and seething songs while I sided in mana leaks and electrostatic bolts. We were both slow but I have a turn one worker and turn 2 disciple. He had a disciple but my bolt made sure it wont see the next turn. He kept on playing creatures while I hold a mana leak and 2 shrapenl blasts. I got into a myr enforcer and an ornithopter join the disciple but the next turn he got a double thought cast and now he have 2 frogmites, a ravager, a worker, a nexus anda disciple. The life totals are 16-18 if there can be 5 artifacts to die, I can do the double shrapnel for the victory. On hist turn he attacked with the equipped frogmite, frogmite, and worker. I assigned the blocker as follows, myr against the equipped frogmite, (to make sure it dies hehe), ornithopter to frogmite, and disciple against worker. He stacked the damage and sacrificed the worker to his ravager, 15-17, his equipped fromite to his ravager, 14-16. I responded with the double shrapnel blast. He activated his chromatic sphere and drew nothing. *the myr enforcer and ornithopter will also die causing 2 loss of life (12-14, and the double shrapnel will do the remaining 12) even if he has access to sacrifice enough artifacts at that turn, since he is the active player, I will still win it because of the stack rules.

The semifinal results were:

1. Arvin Jay Cando defeated Joebert Santos
2. Richie Chua defeated Ian Paul Beatingo.

I then asked Richie to give me the win to give me a good back to back MD5-Standard 1st place and he generously agreed. It will make my DCI Rating break 1800+ in constructed (if I am lucky) and I am very thankful to Richie for allowing me to do it. Thanks Richie!! :)

All in all, the team took home more than one box of fifth dawn boosters. From yesterdays discussion, we were planning to sell it at 100 packs each so we can earn around Php3.6k and this is a lot considering this are now tm funds.

We were so ecstatic last night. I am so proud of the team. I can sense the other teams have been starting to notice us already. Just 4 weeks ago, I think they just perceived us to be a startup group but we proved we are helluva start up group. :)

Soon the team policy draft will be created and we hope to finalize it within the week. Wendell's inventory is almost complete too. :)

I welcome and appreciate that the team have decided to create 1-2 more affinity decks. The Affinity deck is really consistent and can win in both Standard and MD5 which makes it a very good team investment just like Tooth and Nail. Wendell came with this idea and Richie and the rest of the team agrees.

With Wendell having an extra set of Glimmervoid and JE having one set too, we only need to acquire 2 sets of Arcbound Ravager and we are good to go.

Go team shogun!!