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Yowza! Hi guys! It’s my first time writing an article here. Hope you don’t mind my way of writing and making stuff up. Ever since I began entering sanctioned tournament, I have never, ever, not even once, stepped on the most coveted of places for an M:tG player, the TOP 4. Last saturday, October 17, 2009, as luck would have it, was my chance, and was given to me.

I wasn’t aiming to be on the top 4 (must have been the oh! so many times, I’ve tried and failed). I was piloting deck modeled after “Sphinx Control” edited and customed by Marco “Mao” Gonzalez to suit my taste of game play. I nicked it “4 Horsemen” because of the 4 Planeswalkers that are on the deck’s mainboard and sideboard. Here’s what happened:

Round 1: Michael “Nonoy” Semoria
G1 – Playing first, I got Lucky here, piloting a “Naya” deck, Nonoy mulliganed to 5 and played 2 lands for 8 consecutive turns, until Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker arrived. Nonoy Scoops and it’s a win
G2 – Sideboard was -3 Negate, +3 Essence Scatter, -2 Wretched Banquet, +2 Terminate. Controlling the board with pyroclasms and Terminates, with life total down to 2, Chandra Nalaar coming in at 5th turn eating away Nonoy’s life, Sphinx of Jwar Isle came at 6th, all I could do was play defensively and it was a win. Shake Your Opponent!

Round 2: Pete “Loxodon Heirarch” Faytaren
- Pete is a close friend of mine ever since college and a part of the pool. He conceded and gave this round to me.

Round 3: Marco “Mao” Gonzalez
- A member of the pool and good friend, he always challenges me to do better. Thanks to him, I learned alot about game plays and strategies. unfortunately, he wouldn’t give this round up without a fight and this is how I went down.

G1 – Mao’s turn 3 hurt me a lot by playing Blightning, and it turned out to be more painful when he played blightning at turn 4 and 5(talk about ouch!). Playing Bloodbraid Elf at turn 6. Scooping, time for game 2.

G2 – The usual, blend of sideboards came in, but as luck would have it, a combination of mana screw and Mao’s ruinblasters the game was over. Shake me!

Round 4 – Mark Anthony “Tonton” Co
G1 – Our game started slow, but since I had, Courier’s capsules to replenish my dwindling hand and boost my mana supply, I overtook him by playing Chandra shooting him slowly, and wasting away his lightning bolts. Also negating his Jaces and playing my own, card advantage was mine. Finally playing Sphinx of Jwar Isle at the Nth turn gave me my hard earned win.

G2 – all the Critter kills came out, in came the dozens of counter spells from the sideboard. The exchange was fierce, countering one spell after another and finally ton2 caught me with a cruel ultimatum at the Nth round. Luckily I had 4 cards and hand, and one of them was a cruel ultimatum itself, when my turn came, ton2 was tapped out and I answered a cruel of my own.

After a few turns, Ton2 played Thought Hemorrhage naming Cruel Ultimatum. having 2 in my graveyard, and one inside the deck, I take no damage but had to show him my hand and my life was in great perile. Lady luck was smiling at me again as the top card was a Sphinx of Lost Truths and I played it with kicker. Attacking the first time, I finally dealt damage to his once impregnable defense. His turn came and he played Ajani Vengeant, stupifying my Sphinx. A turn came around and he played identity crisis, losing everything I had on my hand and also my graveyard. I top-decked Chandra, played her and had Ajani under control. At that time, we were both wishing at our top decks. Luck gave me the first top, giving me Sphinx of Jwar Isle. Turns turned and I had Ajani Dead. Tonton, after eating away his life and causing it to fall to 9, he played Obelisk of Alara, gaining life and making my damage dwindle down.

After a Couple of turns, Tonton played a Sphinx of Jwar Isle of his own, causing me to lose what damage I would be making and stalling the battlefield. My top deck turned out to be quite lucky as Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker came out. Having 2 Countersqualls in hand, and Ton2 down to 4, I played Nicol, him answering wth negate and me playing Countersquall, twice. Shake Your Opponent!

Top 4 against Mao again
G1 – This time around Mao’s luck turned sour, dominating the game, we ended up 2-1.

Top 2: Ramon “Master” Alivio
G1 – I got unlucky here, Ramon swarmed me with birds from Emeria angel, couple of turns later. I was a goner.

G2 – Luck turned about as Ramon only had Lands and a few “easy to pick on” critter, playing Sphinx of Jwar Isle on the 6th turn. The game was mine. One highlight was a Mind Control on his Emeria Angel and playing a land for a free Landfall trigger.

G3 – Ramon playing Knight of the White orchid on turn 3 and me, answering with Pyroclasm. Kor Sanctifiers on turn 5 with Lightning Bolt as the response, the game crawled until I played Sphinx of Jwar Isle. Ramon played Baneslayer Angel on his turn, I answered with Mind Control on my turn, with out any answers to give, Ramon shook my hand. GG

Well, that’s what happened and i know i got you bored to death. So here’s the deck list and a little explanation of my own

4 Horsemen by Peter Franz Yap
(I’ll explain it in a little while why i gave it a nick like so)

Maindeck
// Lands
4 Mountain
4 Jwar Isle Refuge
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Island
5 Swamp
4 Crumbling Necropolis
1 Akoum Refuge

// Creatures
3 Sphinx of Lost Truths – Mulldrifter ain’t got nothing to say to this baby!
2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle – The Life Saver, Saving himself to save his master

// Spells
3 Wretched Banquet – for those little peckers who are just damn hard to kill
4 Pyroclasm – to many to handle? to little to waste a bolt? call Pyro
4 Lightning Bolt – big crits, little crits, when you got none, it’s yours
2 Chandra Nalaar – Codename: War; Eating away your opponent’s life, and having 6 loyalty points could prove difficult for your opponents to deal with.
3 Jace Beleren – Codename: Famine; Card Advantage is the way to go.
1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker – Codename: Plague; Eat away your opponent’s resources and give them hurt, a lot of hurt.
3 Cruel Ultimatum – Here’s the finishing touch! Paint the table red, black and blue!
4 Courier’s Capsule – Card Advantage, this guy’s an insurance policy
2 Terminate – kill em all!!!
3 Negate – Na-uh! no way!

Sideboard
SB: 2 Terminate – a bit more kill
SB: 1 Negate – additional charge
SB: 3 Countersquall – Counter with hurt
SB: 3 Essence Scatter – for those pesky little critters
SB: 1 Liliana Vess – Codename: Death; Let’s bring em back to life, shall we?
SB: 1 Twincast – I just placed it to counter Cruel Ultimatum and never had the chance to use it.
SB: 2 Double Negative – Pesky Cascade
SB: 2 Mind Control – Last Minute addition(and a damn good one) this guy saved my ass from Baneslayer Angel.

1. 

   Mao

   October 19, 2009 at 11:00 am

   nice read franz… win it again next time… =)
2. 

   louie

   October 19, 2009 at 12:33 pm

   congrats franz…nice artikulo…^^
3. 

   james

   October 19, 2009 at 9:36 pm

   nice insights from the master itself,congrats MR.ULTIMATUM.