The Full Cycle

Before Pro Tour Kaladesh, everyone went crazy over how busted Smuggler's Copter was. It wasn't long until the Pros figured out how to beat it. True enough, during the Pro Tour, despite flooded by Copters, the competition wasn't totally dominated by them. The players who went control won big as they next leveled their opponents, namely the Aetherworks Marvel decks who aimed to beat BG Delirium kind of mid-range that preyed on aggressive decks like RW Vehicles.

That was pretty impressive with Shouta Yasooka, the control master winning the whole event. But sadly, control players didn't enjoy much of their triumphant moments because the UW Flash deck, which was the best performing deck in Pro Tour,  found their way to nullify control's power. Soon, BG Delirium players found a way to win against control as well while having a decent game against UW Flash due to their access of "mother-spider" a.k.a Ishkanah, Grafwidow.

Soon, the metagame of Standard started to settle down with the 2 top decks having their backs against each other. This was how Standard looked like a month ago:

UW Flash:
> Favored: Control, Aetherwork Marvel
>Unfavored: Zombies

BG Delirium
>Favored: Aggro, Zombies
>Unfavored: Aetherworks Marvel

This is only a very simplified view of the match-ups of those 2. I might miss out something, but both Aetherworks Marvel and Zombie variants are the decks that preys on them at their extreme ends. However, UW Flash and BG Delirium co-exists because they cover each other, meaning trying to out meta-game them is useless if you run into the other deck which you really don't want to gun.

True enough, everyone thought that Standard is solved. BG Deliriums everywhere, and they even tried to push UW Flash out with dedicated sideboards and rely more on the raw power of Ishkanah.

The Golgari dudes is going tooooooooo ambitious this time around :/

Just when everyone thought Standard is boring and unplayable, some just don't give up and tried to crack that door open. The recent GPs and SCG events saw the return of Aetherworks Marvel that bested BG Delirium splendidly. They even went to the point of playing more Ishkanah of their own to fix the UW Flash matchup, and surprisingly, it worked.

There also people who tried to innovate their respective decks and made great success. RB Aggro now plays more Key to the City and Bloodhall Priest to improve their reach and resiliency. RW Vehicles playing Always Watching to force through Ishkanahs and friends, and BR Zombies going Mindwrack Demons and Key as well to add more attacking angles.

So, what's the point here? Standard is not SOLVED.

With this much decks make a sudden re-appearance, and BG Delirium being pushed back, rouge decks who find themselves overpowered by the raw consistency of BG Delirium now could see light and breathe once more. Let's look at the theoretical cycle of Magic archetypes:

Aggro > Control > Combo > Mid-range > Aggo

With the return of Aetherworks Marvel, we witness the resurgence of Standard's most aggressive deck: Mardu Vehicles, who looks to curve out very quickly and smash them hard. Not to mention the sideboard Ceremonious Rejection, which was played for the sole purpose of beating Marvel or heavy artifacts deck (Metalwork Colossus eh? Oh, is that you Aetherflux Reservoir~? )

If you aren't interested in playing any of those known decks, what about this one? Want a deck that beats both UW Flash and BG Delirium but not lose to aggro too? That's seems a bit greedy, but hey, it worked! Because decks now can't pack dedicated hates due to the field's diversity, which make room for a lot decks to be playable and competitive!

See the pattern? Kaladesh is now blossoming once again with a great diversity of decks! This is no doubt a good news to every players out there =)

Despite all the changes, I truly believe to be the Master of your own strength is better than Jack of All Trades at times like this. The one who knows well of to pilot his / her own pet deck will have an upper hand facing a diverse field of decks. I'm locked to BR Aggro this season and looking forward to take down tournaments with it before Aether Revolt strikes! Because Pia Nalaar deserves TRUE JUSTICE~

Until then, wish myself luck in the upcoming PPTQ @ Attilan Games if I'm making a trip there =)
Sadly, travelling is not fun when you are a Magic player but staying miles away from the heart of the community =(

Welp, that's life.

The Kaladesh Game Day

"Grand Prix Kuala Lumpur is around the corner."

I was glad that one of the greatest events organized by Wizards - the Grand Prix series had finally set its stage on Malaysia after some time. 

Playing competitively and finding myself the way into Pro Tour has always been my dream, because I felt that monetary commitments have been made to get into this hobby, might as well go all the way and fight to be the greatest. Moreover, Grand Prix is known to be the best way, but also the hardest way to get yourself into Pro Tour.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that the Grand Prix was held at my homegrown country, I had no choice but to miss it. October was the first month of my internship and I was still in the process adapting to my new lifestyle. What's more, the event entry is also super expensive. Unless I cashed out, else the whole trip is going to be a waste of time, money and effort. That's the price of going competitive. Its cruel, but I admit I wasn't ready financially. It held me back. Yes, gaining exposure is good, but at that cost, I thought I was paying too much, maybe it was just me, because all my friends from Kampar joined.

Fortunately, Kaladesh Game Day was about the same time as well. At least, I was offered an affordable option. The week before GP KL, I made up my mind and tell myself I'm going to try my best to win this, because I'd won none, only made good finishes.

The Deck Decision
Moving forward, the meta-game from Pro Tour gave us an idea on the meta-game structure. Well, if we look closer at the overall Standard constructed performances, UW Flash is the one that actually making a strong finish despite having the Top 8's dominated by control decks. This gave me an idea of how the format will look like eventually --- its "creatures matters" format all over again, only without the oppressive Collected Company. Maybe the control decks were well positioned given the number of Aetherworks Marvel decks presented during the Pro Tour,  we never know, but for now, those were the winning decks that I needed to pay attention to.

Finding a way to beat UW Flash and other aggresive, creature based decks while having a game against control is a puzzle for me to solve. I dislike mirrors, so i automatically moved away from UW Flash and other popular choices. I looked through my collections and these bumped me up an idea.

To beat instants is to have the better instants. Spell Quellers hits your stacks, Reflector Mages bounces and Avacyn zips right through at the worst time you wanted. YOU WISH AVACYN HADN'T GONE MAD !!!

Heck, what if I avoided the stacks, and play stuffs that don't care about whatever UW Flash does?

Zombies, they come from Hell, not Heaven. Abominates? Let's not talk about it ...

The card combinations was very interesting and I'd always wanted to play decks with a lot surprise and flexible synergies. Your graveyard becomes your 2nd card library and everything you discard has 75% relevance most of the time. The threats are very resilient if they don't pack the hates. Zombies fills my bank, but I needed a shell to pull them together. Then, I remembered the brew I made and posted on Magic: The Gathering Facebook group (Sadly it didn't got much attention...). It was BR Zombies, very much similar to what this guy played on Pro Tour.

7-3 was a solid finish, and this sparked my interest and I quickly take the deck to play-test at Cockatrice.

I was sold.

The deck was nuts! Taking over the UW Flash matchup completely while having game against RW Vehicles despite being slightly unfavorable against BG Delirium due their main board Kalitas. The important I was missing was that 4 Smuggler's Copter, but I believed I could mitigate the set-back of losing the MVP card of the format by replacing them with:
- 2 Tormenting Voice
- 2 Perpetual Timepiece

I went again with the budget version of mine. Surprisingly, it still did well, only to pick up defeats that would have been won if I'd Smuggler's Copter to race because I durdled to make my Zombie engines work via the replacement cards. Anyway, that's the price I needed to pay for not playing the Choppa.

The Game Day
Guess I was lucky to made the correct deck choice. My positioning was very good on the fieldwhich helped me cruised my way to win the Game Day.

Game 1: vs. UR Dynavolt Tower 2-0
Game 2: vs. Temur Energy Aggro 2-1
Game 3: vs. RW Vehicles 2-0

Sadly, only 3 matches were played due to the small number of participants as a lot of players already went for GP KL. But, three rounds were equally stressful and losing a match could mean the end of my attempt to win the whole event.

Me (on the right) and the 2nd place finisher, Shawn (RW Vehicles).

Final Thoughts
Cryptbreaker over-performed for me. An early Turn 1 Cryptbreaker is very game deciding as it sets the pace of the game and helped to further my aggressive game plan while setting up for my graveyard shenaningans. Voldaren Pariah is also one of the key to the deck, as she fills up the slot to be the "boardwipe" to keep opposing creatures and board state under control. The fact that you can reanimate your Amalgams and Haunted Dead again after the sacrifice is a huge blow out to any decks trying to claw back into the game. Moreover, the deck naturally dodges sorcery speed board wipes and the decline of Emerge variants make the deck's positioning even better. Cathartic Reunion and Smuggler's Copter too are unarguably the best new additions for the zombies. They helped to mitigate the issue UB Zombies had: Hand size maintenance and clock-speed.

Alas! Zombies finally set foot into Standard, planeswalking all the way to ... Kaladesh ?! Well, that's a little off place ... Considering a 1/1 Spirit or 2/2 Zombies crewing a Choppa ... That must be in our dreams xD

Although the 3 pillars of standard are no doubt GB Delirium, UW Flash and RW Vehicles, I believe BR Zombies come very close to occupy the 4th spot, being the "underdog" of the format.

Looks like I'll need to save up and buy those damn Copters ... Time to break the bank ? lol

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Opponent:"Surge Reckless Bushwacker, attacking for 20."

Adrian: *1 Spirit, 1 Haunted Dead and a Copter ... (5 untapped mana)*

Adrian:"Before blockers ...*Crews Copter* Declare blocks, Copter block Bushwacker, trigger draw and discard. *Madness Pariah* Sacrificing 3 creatures (Spirit, Haunted Dead, Smuggler's Copter), transform Pariah."

Opponent:"... (Attacks no longer lethal)"

Adrian:"End of 2nd Main Phase, activate Haunted Dead, triggering 2 Prized Amalgams during end step. (15 power on board)"

Opponent: *Looking at 14 life ...* *Scoops*

Lesson: DON'T MESS WITH ZOMBIES.

Guts

Often in life, we are covered with fear and guilt. Fear of losing our loved ones, fear of losing money, fear of losing our jobs and so on. The fear we faced will eventually build up some kind of guilt. Some kind of feeling in which we dreamed to achieve something yet we couldn't, and many of us choose to give up when it comes to the hardest part of life - to make choices.

When it comes to reality, there is always something that keep us from stepping ahead, be it any kind of valid reasons, there are just too many reasons for us to give up. Once a friend of mine said this,"It's not how much knowledge you accumulated, it's about the guts you got."

Yeah. It's true.

My dad could be the best example in life, someone that had been pushed by the ups and downs of this cruel reality. What he need is just that little "guts" to change, but that's just what he lacked off.

3 years had gone since his admission to a local private specialist hospital because of artery damage which almost costed his life and my family's future. Thank God he survived, but months later after his recoveries are done, things changed. I felt my dad had lost his only hope in life. He used to be a site-engineer, someone who watches over a construction project. After the surgery, he was left with a pair of blurred sights and a body that couldn't hold for long time exposure to heat and mental pressures. And that made him lost his career. He had lost what he treasured most in his life - his job, because that was the only source of income we could rely on. From what I had seen, I felt that emptiness deep inside his soul. There was the cold and shivers inside him. He rejected any social activities that would need just that little "guts" to take part. What he did was watching televisions all day long, eat, sleep, repeat.

Although my mom tried hard to persuade him to start all over again, he rejected and choose to stay and remain what he was, which he could never turned back to.

And yeah, that's how things had gone. I was too young to have the power to change.

We might have heard many stories of successful individuals, and those who came out to be so much different and success after their life's biggest fall. We might also heard of stories regarding geniuses or prodigies that never claimed their life's trophy and ended up in slumps of life, getting trapped in the Rat Race or whatever vicious cycle that caged us in the usual, boring and repetitive life.

There was once I heard of the story of a cricket which was trapped in a bottle, and of course, capped. The cricket was supposed to have the ability to jump higher to get itself out of the bottle, and yes, it tried. But over and over again, it just kept on hitting the aluminium cap. After three days had gone, the cricket never jump again. The person who caught that cricket then opened up the cap and found out a very surprising observation - the cricket never jump, and when it does, it never jump higher than the bottle, which it could.

We all have wings and will to fly. It just happen that we already been injected some kind of "fear" that prevent us from flying, "guilt" that trapped us in our own cage, which I call the "other people's reality".

Just like the cricket, it had been injected the "fear" of never able to jump out of the bottle. Even it tried, the "guilt" strikes in which the cricket is doubting itself. Like humans, we are long been told that we should play safe in our life and never take risks. And when we fail on something, it means we just happen to become better at what they want to be. Life is never a bed of roses. We need to work and sweat to make the crucial change in our life.

It's all about guts, the courage that we need to face our fear and guilt. The courage which everyone needs just to step ahead and chase their dreams.

#frey4all