Unofficial Magic the Gathering Indonesia site

Final match of one-day National Trial was quite exhausting for both competing players because the players had played for almost 8 hours against other players without any short break. The clock showed almost 8 p.m. and the final battle to decide the winner of Indonesian National Trial 2005 Champion was about to begin.

Due to complex life point switching up and down many times, thanks to one of the players sideboard card. For the life point table, the credit goes for Yung Yung on his well-noted life point score for both players.

This was another blood-bath battle where weeny creatures combated giant horde from Urza's plane. Simply put, Beatdown White Weenies versus BlueTron. The battlefield was readied to include only two finalists, myself and Yung Yung as a scorekeeper. Other spectators went outside the perimeter of the battlefield noting the massive battle between General Bern's armies and Wizard Welly's giant Urza's creatures. And … the long-awaited battle finally started …

Bern won the dice roll and decided to play first, he kept his initial 7-card hand. However, Welly mulliganed to 6 and kept the 6 cards although slight disappointment was seen from his face. A great start with Eiganjo Castle and Chrome Mox imprinting Lantern Kami. Leonin Skyhunter was quickly summoned. On Welly's turn, he dropped Urza's Power Plant and a Chrome Mox imprinting Thrist for Knowledge. The turn quickly passed to Bern.

Bern attacked with his Leonin Skyhunter and played a Blinkmoth Nexus, quickly passed the turn. I would have to admit that Bern's play is very, very fast that I was having difficulties taking note even with my unique notation system. On Welly's turn, he missed to draw a second land. Therefore, he had no option than to play a second Chrome Mox imprinting Mana Leak. Such a waste at this point to replace a valuable land with 2 cards! Before Welly's EOT, General Bern started to Raise the Alarm for his sleeping soldiers. Hence, the 2 soldiers marched forward, with proud and confidence this time. Next turn from Bern, he cried his armies to charge forward. Why was the Nexus not called to join the attack? There must be a good reason behind this. True enough, after dropping Plains, Hokori, the Dust Drinker was summoned to drink all the available mana sources should it resolve. Alas, Welly was ready for Hokori with Mana Leak.

Finally, Welly drew the second piece of Urza land: an Urza's Mine. After dropping the Mine, Welly passed the turn to Bern . General Bern ordered his armies to charge forward, this time the Nexus took part in the attack. With two mana available, General Bern disposed all his arsenal – or his hand – on the battlefield: Lantern Kami and Isamaru, Hound of Konda joined the force. Welly cast Thirst For Knowledge before Bern 's EOT, discarding a Chrome Mox. Welly then dropped an Urza's Tower, assembling his complete Urzatron. Since all Welly had was 9 mana, he chose to play Mindslaver and a Talisman of Dominance with the chance of using his Echoing Truth to buy time for his next turn Mindslaver activation.

General Bern with full spirit, yelled the battle cry for all his forces to charge forward, including the Nexus. However, the 2 soldier tokens were sent to nether void by Echoing Truth. Bern dropped a Plain leaving no card in his hand. Welly then activated his Mindslaver on his turn. A controlled Bern 's turn was a disappointment for Welly, because no disruptive spell could wreak havoc for General Bern's forces. Thus, Welly concedes and prepared for the next game.

Welly used the sideboard cards he already prepared against white weenies with flying creatures:

OUT: 1 Sensei's Divining Top, 1 Serum Vision, 2 Tidings, 1 Thirst for Knowledge, 1 Solemn Simulacrum, 1 Memnarch, 2 Mindslaver

Welly played first, dropping an Urza's Power Plant with a Sensei's Divining Top. Bern, this time not too explosive, played a Plain and a Savannah Lion. Welly's second turn was to play Urza's Mine and a Sun Droplet! This would ruin General Bern's plan to quickly kill his opponent. However, despite Sun Droplet protective aura, the Lion charged forward. Bern laid a second Plain and called forth 2 Suntail Hawks. Next upkeep, Droplet started to work for his master while Welly spun his Top to find the land or another Sun Droplet. Alas, no land was seen! Bern, seeing Welly's lack of Blue mana, quickly played the third Plain and cast a Damping Matrix to shut down the Sensei's Divining Top and other annoying artifacts – or should I say, shut down BlueTron deck. Another wave of attack ensued, putting 4 counters on Sun Droplet. Welly for the second time in a row missed his land drop, but played a second Sun Droplet. This looked annoying as far as General Bern concerned. General Bern's plan changed to maximizing the damage each turn so bad that the Sun Droplets could not help. This meant he must pressed more than 4 damage a turn to get past 2 Sun Droplets! All-out attack was ordered and a Lantern Kami and Leonin Skyhunter quickly joined the forces. Alas, bad news for Welly as he could not find an ISLAND nor a Chrome Mox to enable him casting out his blue cards in hand. Missing his third land drop, Welly passed the turn. This time, General Bern's attack was more painful than previous attack. Bern played another Plain and a second Damping Matrix, leaving him with 1 card in hand. Welly was in the top-deck mode to draw an Island or blue source he desperately needed, but could not find one. Missing the fouth consecutive land drop, Welly was way far left behind. Another 7-point of damage resulted from General Bern's weeny hordes. Another Savannah Lion joined its comrade. Disgusted, Welly missed another land drop and passed back the turn after discarding a Mindslaver. General Bern relentlessly yelled the battle cry for all his forces to charge forward. Suntail Hawk was added to add the beating power next turn. Finally, after 5 consecutive turn of missing land drop, Welly drew … an Urza's Tower. Although his Urzatron assembled, Welly lacked that precious Blue mana needed to cast all his blue cards in his hand! Well, next round's 8 damage from Bern's force would definitely ended the game, since the Droplet only raised Welly's life total to 7. Hence Welly conceded the game, seeing no possibility to survive the white weeny hordes.

Congratulation to General Bern for winning the great final battle of the realm! Bern Hendrawan is Indonesian National Trial 2005 Champion! Congratulation once again to him and wish him all the best for next week's the real 2005 Indonesian National Tournament. After the prize payout was handed out to the Top 8 Indonesian National Trial 2005, all participants went home after a tiring full-day tournament around 9 p.m.

Welly Hadiwidjaja, a senior and professional M:tG player, had been absent from M:tG tournament play for nearly 2 years. Welly is in fact Mark's elder brother. Welly had once been Indonesia M:tG champion back in 1999. He and I were once on the same team to represent Indonesia at the M:tG World Championship in Yokohama , Japan . In 1999 APAC Championships in Singapore , Welly was in the top 64 finishers, eligible for prizes. His record also scored in as top 8 M:tG Indonesia in 2000. He is one of legendary Indonesian players and his M:tG skill was still in top-notch condition until now. Welly got himself a BlueTron deck sponsored by one of his friends.

Daniel Andreas, whose name is known as Bro, is also a senior and professional Indonesian M:tG player. He had also experienced M:tG regional exposure to represent our country. This season, although having married, Bro would like to take the chance to be the M:tG Indonesian National Champion. It is his size and character that makes Bro lovable and fun to play M:tG with. Bro uses a Red Deck Wins (RDW) that features a vast array of fast creatures as well as cheap burn spells.

It is interesting to see that Blue mages had been sworn enemies of the Red mages for centuries. Unfortunately, Red lost Boil in the sideboard card against Blue since 9 th became eligible. But for BlueTron mage, Boil is quite an irrelevant card should it be reprinted in 9 th edition because only about 7 Islands were used in BlueTron deck!

This round of the match was out of my coverage because I covered the other semifinal battle between Mark and Bern (see my other article on “ Semifinals : UG Control vs Super-Beatdown WW”). However, the battle that I covered ended quickly in the favour of Bern Hendrawan. Therefore, I could continue my coverage in this battle. Well, when I got to the battlefield, the battle was just over with Bro on the winning side. Then the battle continued to the second round …

Welly chose to play first, laid an Urza's Power Plant and Sensei's Divining Top. Some confusion arose because all of Welly's Urza's land were in different graphic art and more importantly, the text were all in Japanese. Okay, Urza's Tower has 3 mana producing ability in the card text to distinguish from the other two. Hence, the confusion only appeared when Welly played either Urza's Mine or Urza's Power Plant since both produces 2 mana when all UrzaTron assembled. With nothing else to cast, the turn passed to Bro. Bro also only played Mountains on his turn. Welly's next turn was to set up EOT Thirst for Knowledge by adding Urza's Tower and a Chrome Mox imprinting Echoing Truth. Bro added Blinkmoth Nexus and resolved a Hearth Kami. Bro immediately sacrificed his Kami for the Mox. Welly responded by casting Thirst for Knowledge, discarding a Solemn.

Welly's third turn was an Island ready for another Thirst for Knowledge, searching the missing piece of Urza land or Sun Drople, either of which would be good for him. Bro missed his land drop, did nothing and passed the turn. Welly's EOT Thirst for Knowledge snatched a Sun Droplet, and discarded Condescend and Annul. Sun Droplet was cast after dropping another Urza's Tower, leaving 2 mana open for Mana Leak in Welly's 3-card hand. Before Droplet resolved, Bro responded with Magma Jet to Welly's face for 2 damage and pushed the two cards he scried to the bottom of his library, definitely not the Mountain he was waiting for. Bro then top-decked the awaited Mountain to cast Slith Firewalker. Alas, the Slith was Mana Leaked.

Sensei's Divining Top was spun at Welly's upkeep using a sole Island to find the missing Aztec land. And he did it, the long-awaited Urza's Mine hit the full Urzatron. Welly tapped out to cast and activate Mind Slaver right away. This did not look good for Bro. Welly tried to make the best play (or the worst play) for punishing Bro. He played a Mountain, activating the Nexus and use Sharpnel Blast to aim the Nexus at its master's head. Bro was down to 15. Welly then spun his Top using Urza's Mine during his upkeep to fetch an Island which he played. On Bro's turn, he dropped a Mountain and played Defense Grid. Welly responded by spinning his Top again to search for answer. Top is returned to the top library while Annul is drawn. Welly then cast Annul for Bro's Defense Grid. Seeing that the chances of winning this round is slim noting that Welly had full Urzatron, a Sensei Divining Top and a Sun Droplet already in play, Bro quickly concedes to try again his arsenal on the next round.

Bro played first, dropping a Mountain. Welly also followed by laying an Island . Bro then added Blinkmoth Nexus and cast Hearth Kami. Welly dropped the second Island to go for Sun Droplet, risking the Droplet to Hearth Kami. Bro set a Mountain and cast Shatter instead on Welly's Sun Droplet. Hearth Kami attacked for 2. Welly was only able to put Minamo, School at Water's Edge and passed back the turn. Bro played Mountain, attacked with his Kami and cast Vulshok Sorcerer. Welly, at 16 life, cast Thirst for Knowledge EOT to grab Triskelion, discarding Annul and Tidings. On Welly's turn, Oboro, Palace in the Cloud was laid and Solemn Simulacrum joined battlefield, fetching an extra Island . The Sorcerer pinged 1 damage, reducing Welly's life to 15. Bro played another Mountain and a Jinxed Choker. He activated the Nexus and attacked with the Nexus, putting Welly to 14.

Upkeep, Welly was choked for 1 damage, dropping his life to 12. Welly missed a land drop needed to cast Triskelion. He chose not to attack with his Solemn. This time, Bro got choked by his own Jinxed Choker for 2 damage. Alas, Bro drew and played another Mountain, he mana flooded like Nile Delta without serious threat by having 5 Mountains and 1 Blinkmoth Nexus in play. Bro attacked with his Nexus, reducing Welly's life to 11. At Bro's EOT, an Echoing Truth sent Jinxed Chocker safely back to its master's hand. Welly top-decked an Urza's Tower! However, Welly chose to attack first with Solemn, unblocked by Hearth Kami, reducing Bro's life to 16. After the attack, Welly played the Urza's Mine and summoned Triskelion he already held in his hand. Welly used 2 counters on Trike to take down Hearth Kami and Vulshok Sorcerer. Before dying, the Sorcerer managed to deal 1 last damage to Welly, putting his life at 10 points. Hearth Kami died wastefully (Bro forgot to sacrifice his Kami for Welly's Solemn Simulacrum!).

Bro top-decked a Vulshok Sorcerer. He planned to kill the Trike with the Sorcerer by luring the Trike to kill his Nexus with its last counter. The plan worked out as Bro wanted, the Triskelion died to Vulshok Sorcerer's lethal pinging damage. Welly also top-deck Urza's Mine, played it and cast another Triskelion. The Trike killed the Sorcerer with one of his counter, then Solemn Simulacrum attacked Bro for 2, taking Bro's life to 14. Again, Bro drew the sixth Mountain, played it and recast his Jinxed Choker. Welly tapped his last untapped Island to respond with Annul! Welly again top-decked the last piece of Urzatron: Urza's Power Plant. He pressed an all-out attack, reducing Bro to an uncomfortable 9 life. After the attack, Welly did not cast anything. Bro top-decked a … Sowing Salt. He cast it targeting Urza's Mine to remove all Welly's Urza's Mine from the game. When Bro first searched for Urza's Mine copy in Welly's hand, he found that the 2 cards in Welly's hand were 2 Mana Leak. Bro was like struck by lightning to discover this. Knowing that everything he cast the next turn would be countered by a pair of Mana Leak, Bro scooped up immediately.

Congratulation to Welly on his winning! Thus, the classic battle of Blue mage versus Red mage ended with the victory for Blue mage … for this time …

Bernhard Hendrawan, being 2nd on top-ranked DCI composite Indonesia , is surely a candidate for the Magic: the Gathering Indonesia's Most Valuable Person (MVP) this year. Being the co-owner and the moderator of the famous Indonesian-owned M:tG website: www.kartumagic.com (KMC), Bern (his call name) deserves the credit for reviving M:tG in Indonesia . Bern is active in every – I repeat, every – forum discussion in KMC's website. This signals a good website concern and it means daily updates for the website. Well, if not daily then frequently I suppose. With all this side-activities, his skill play in M:tG is once again proven when he qualifies for the Top 8 of Indonesian National Trial last Sunday, 21 August 2005 .

Mark Hadiwidjaja, after defeating Victor Hartanto in quarterfinals, was ready to give a good fight against Bern. This is another classic battle between control and beatdown wizards. Based on my review at the quarterfinals, the White Weenies beatdown from Bern was by far outpaced Victor's green beatdown deck thanks to the inclusion of Chrome Mox in Bern 's deck to spin the battle tempo faster. On the other side, Mark's control deck yields a tremendous card advantages should the game can last the mid-game.

Mark won the dice rolls and opted to play first, as supposed. However, Mark didn't seem comfortable with his opening hands and decided to mulligan to 6. Mark dropped an Island and passed the turn to Bern. Bern 's first turn was a quick Leonin Skyhunter enabled by Plain and Chrome Mox imprinting Savanah Lions. Mark's turn only laid Forest . Bern attacked with his Skyhunter dropping Mark to 18, and resolved an Isamaru, Hound of Konda and a Lantern Kami. At end of Bern 's turn, Mark used his Echoing Truth to return the Mox back to Bern 's 2-card hand to delay Bern 's quick tempo.

Unfortunately, Mark missed his third land drop and subsequently passed the turn back to Bern. Bern also did not play a land or anything. Instead, he pressed the attack on Mark's life, reducing Mark's life to uncomfortable 13 points. Mark was also unbelievable with his drawing, missed any land and gave the turn to Bern . On Bern 's turn, he pressed the attack with all his force. However, the Skyhunter was returned to Bern 's hand by Echoing Truth. Mark's life dropped to 50%. After the attack, Bern dropped Plains and recast the Skyhunter.

For three times in a row, Mark missed his land drop. He played Sensei's Divining Top while keeping 1 irrelevant Island open. With no threat from Mark, Bern gave an all-out attack reducing his opponent to 5 life. Not stopping there, Bern added more pain for Mark by playing Chrome Mox imprinting Paladin en-Vec. Subsequent casting of Hokori, the Dust Drinker earned the concession from Mark.

OUT: 1 Solemn Simulacrum, 1 Hinder, 1 Viridian Shaman, 1 Gifts Ungiven, 1 Crystal Shard

Bern decided to end the next game a bit faster (Is the first game not fast enough, General Bern?):

Mark played first with an Island . Bern 's turn was again explosive! He dropped Plains and Chrome Mox imprinting Isamaru, Hound of Konda. A quick Raise the Alarm followed in Bern's main phase to avoid Mana Leak in Mark's hand the next turn, should Mark had it. From my analysis, Bern 's playing Raise the Alarm over Isamaru, Hound of Konda only meant one thing: he had Glorious Anthem in his hand! This didn't look good for Mark as he only dropped Forest without anything to cast.

Bern attacked with 2 soldiers dropping Mark to 18. He gathered another Plains and resolved Lantern Kami after asking any respond from Mark. He chose not to give up his Anthem to Mark's possible Mana Leak. Safe play, smart move. Mark's third turn was Viridian Shaman after dropping a Forest . The Shaman took out Bern 's Mox. Mark hoped that Bern did not have Plains in his 3-card hand. Before Mark's end turn, Bern Raised the Alarm! The alarm sounded very loud that 2 soldiers immediately joined forces, confused of why they were called since there were no enemies attacking. To hell, soldiers are forbidden to question their General's right or wrong decision at all times. It was the next turn that General Bern's strategy seemed clear for the arisen soldiers. General Bern indeed had the third Plains he needed to gave a Glorious Anthem for all his soldier-spirit forces. The all-out attack soon was ordered, and one soldier died patriotically to the opponent's Shaman from Viridian forests. The victory lied ahead when Mark's life dropped to 10!

On Mark's turn, he assembled an Island and played Oblivion Stone to demolish everything on General Bern's side the next turn. General Bern once again ordered an all-out attack, leaving no one to guard the camp. The “desperate” last attack (that's what Mark thought) resulted in Mark's 2 life points left. Luckily for the General, either he top-decked it or he had it in his sole card on Bern 's previous turn, Damping Matrix foiled Mark's last attempt to mess with his forces. Seeing no possibility to win, Mark conceded to the well-timed Matrix.

Nice fight, those soldiers (and spirit) were lucky to have a legendary General Bern fighting on their side. Good game! General Bern would bring his troop to the last bloody battle in the Final. Keep tuned to this site for more match coverage.

Quarterfinals : Echoing Witness Calms Green Agro?:

Mark Hadiwidjaja vs. Victor Hartanto

by Jonsen Sulaeman

21 August 2005

Mark Hadiwidjaja, being a dormant player for almost 2 years, suddenly stands up the challenge to be Indonesian National Champion 2005. He has been absent from Magic: the Gathering community since the downfall of Indonesian Magic hit us 2 years ago. Now, when the Magic: the Gathering in Indonesia starts to rise again, he believes that his skill still proves to be sharp. This is proven when he qualifies for the Top 8 of Indonesian National Trial last Sunday, 21 August 2005 .

“I got this deck sponsored by one of my closest friends. At first, I have no idea how this deck would play out. And although the sideboard cards seemed to be incomplete, I will play my best,” exclaimed Mark.

Victor Hartanto, like you all know, is one of the most active players that ultimately contribute to the rising of M:tG in Indonesia . He and his best friends create the first Magic:the Gathering Online Shop, namely www.kartumagic.com (a.k.a. KMC) – a great website, I admitted. Here, you could purchase M:tG singles from Mirrodin Block up to the current 9th Edition as well as order box of certain expansions, complete sets, etc. He also co-owned the UTOPIA Hobby Centre, a M:tG and Comic store located at Jl. Sultan Iskandar Muda (Arteri Pondok Indah) No. 7 – next to MORELLIE.

Victor plays a mono-green beacon aggro deck , which he hopes can win the damage racing with Tooth and BlueTron decks. We'll see who plays out the best in this classic battle between control and aggro decks.

Despite several technical set up for tournament coverage, I managed to get special coverage privilege and cover this first round as detail as I could. Thank you for the upload of my first match coverage article to make available publicly on the net. – may our Indonesian Magic: the Gathering awake from their long-time sleep!

Mark wins this round with his combo control cards: Eternal Witness – Triskelion – Crystal Shard – Echoing Truth. This loop can go on and on and on as long as the mana permits. To speed up mana base, Mark uses Solemn Simulacrum. With counter back up, his force is something to be reckoned with. All his deck does is adding card advantages turn by turn.

Mark started with a Forest , Victor did the likewise. Turn 2, Mark played Sakura-Tribe Elder (STE) which he sacrificed to get an Island at end step of Victor's turn – in order to enable a third-turn Solemn. Victor played Viridian Zealot on his turn 2. Mark indeed summoned Solemn Simulacrum on his third turn, fetching an Island . Victor then cast Viridian Shaman to destroy Mark's Solemn and drew the first blood with his Viridian Zealot. Mark then summoned a replacement Solemn.

On Victor's turn, he destroyed the Solemn with his Zealot's sacrifice and attack with his Shaman, reducing Mark's life to 16. After combat, Vic cast STE. Mark played Sensei Divining Top and chose to stay reactive. Vic's Beacon of Creation met Mark's Hinder, but Vic's attack with STE and Shaman brought Mark to 13. Mark then put Eternal Witness into play returning his Solemn and recast the Solemn, meanwhile Vic fetched Forest with STE end of turn (EOT). Mark managed to deal 2 damage to Victor using his creatures, reducing Vic's life to 18. Several countering ensued, Troll Ascetic met Hinder.

When the board stalled, Mark opened way for his attackers by playing Triskelion, eliminating two blockers to reduce Vic's life further to 14. Vic added Troll Ascetic, equipped it with Blanchwood Armor, making the Troll a giant 11/10 – unfortunately, no trample. Thanks to his mad topping, Mark got what he's looking for: Crystal Shard – reusable Triskellion, anyone?! Mark attacked with 3 creatures including counterless Trike. Mark's Witness died to the mighty Troll, while other reduces Vic to unpleasant 11. Mark then cast another copy of Triskelion for blocking Troll's way while damaging Vic with its 3 counters and returning the Trike using Crystal Shard – well, that was the plan. And Vic fell for Mark's plan, so Vic's down to 8 while Mark got his Trike back. Having seen that winning the game was quite impossible, Vic quickly concedes, and the game moves on to the next round …

Both players keep their opening hands. Victor opted to play first of Forest . Mark draws and play Island tapped for Sensei Divining Top. Victor's 2 nd turn was Sakura-Tribe Elder, activating at end of Mark's next turn for a Forest . Mark sets up a Mana Leak trap with his newly added Forest .

Turn 3, Victor drops another Forest and cast the dreaded Beacon of Creation, which as guessed, met Mark's Leak. Mark sets another trap for Hinder with another Island he played. Next turn, Victor missed a land drop, play his Umezawa's Jitte – permitted by Mark to enter play. Mark unfortunately also misses his fourth land and passed the turn back. Victor then cast newly drawn Llanowar Elves, equipped it with Jitte. This doesn't look good for Mark if the Elf got a chance to hit, therefore he played Viridian Shaman to destroy the Jitte and dropped an Island .

On turn 6, seeing the opportunity of his opponent tapped out but one Island , Victor dropped Forest and sneaked Troll Ascetic and Swords of Fire and Ice (SoFI). Luckily, Mark has another Shaman although again missed his land drop, tapped out but an Island for the Shaman to destroy the SoFI – Victor is a little bit frustrated when both of his key cards sent out of play. Viridian Shaman, not blocked, ate Vic's life to 18. Fortunately, Victor drew SoFI, cast it and equipped his Elf then went to attack. At this point, Mark seemed a bit confused of what the SoFI does. (he destroyed the previous SoFI without knowing its ability?! *shrug*) After Victor's brief explanation, he decided to chump block the Elf with one of his Shamans, taking 3 from the Troll. Mark again missed his land drop, but thanks to Solemn he cast to generate more mana for Mark to use next turn. Mark attacked with Shaman again, taking Vic to 16. Vic added STE to his force, attacked his Troll and equipped Elf again only to be chump-blocked by Solemn. Mark took 3 from Troll, down to 14. Mark dropped the newly drawn Forest and cast STE.

On turn 9, Vic attacked with everything, Mark's STE block Llanowar Elves then self-sacrificed into Forest . Mark's down to 10. After combat, Vic cast Kodama Reach, fetched Forest and played Forest . EOT Vic, Mark Naturalized SoFI. Mark's next turn was Forest , Solemn getting Island and Eternal Witness getting Solemn in the graveyard. Unbelievably, Vic topdecked the third SoFI, cast it and equip to STE and attacked with Troll and STE. Mark's Solemn chump-blocked incoming STE, taking from Troll down to 7. Mark cast the Solemn in his hand to fetch Forest , and send his Witness to beat Vic down to 14. Vic grabbed freshly drawn Forest and played it, then attacked with the Troll, again only to be blocked by Solemn.

Mark next move was casting Witness for Solemn, and attack with the other Witness (Vic down to 12), leaving 7 mana open. Vic's next turn dumped the threats he had: Forest , STE, and Kodama of the North Tree which was Hindered. Vic again attacked with Troll, blocked by Witness which was Echoing Truthed. Mark recast his Witness returning Shaman, then recast Shaman destroying SoFI, leaving 4 mana open. EOT Mark, Vic sacrificed his 2 STE for 2 additional Forest .

On turn 13, Vic played Forest and Beacon of Creation, making 12 token 1/1. Mark's turn was explosive, he played Forest, Witness (returning Echoing Truth), Viridian Shaman (killing SoFI), and Solemn (putting Island ). Echoing truth on the token removed all Vic's 1/1 token from the game. Next turn, Vic entered top-deck mode, and passed the turn to Mark. Mark spun the top during upkeep to pick up Meloku the Clouded Mirror for Victory. When Meloku and Crystal Shard hit the table, Victor scooped.

Mark will advance to Semifinals. Congratulation to Mark with his card-advantage control deck. I traced that card advantage occurences during this round between Mark and Victor to be 16 : 4 !! How can you beat a deck that “had” 12 more cards!