Network DOWN!

Yes, folks, I apologise to anyone who has been unable to contact me during the past weekend or so, as my phone is kaput. Yeah, I managed to drop it into a toilet. No kidding.

Due to lack of funds, I've 'stolen' my mum's phone temporarily in order to maintain connectivity with the world. Problem is that I have quite a lot of phone numbers stored in that phone. So, apologies as well for not calling up some of you!

I have started to recollect all missing phone nums, so bear with me.

The sad thing is I've lost a lot of special messages... :(

Champions League finals !!!

Yesterday I watched a final, but not the one the rest of the world was watching. ESPN showed a rerun of the 2005 CL match between Liverpool and AC Milan. It was interesting to relive those feelings, from wanting to strangle Traore, the frustration of watching Baros, Liverpool's comeback, the double save of Dudek, and of course, the penalty shootout. The commentary was darnright broken too! At 2-0, Liverpool 'needs a minor miracle', at 3-0, there's 'no way back for Liverpool', after half time, it's 'Hamann in, hopefully to ensure Liverpool aren't remembered as the team that got thrashed 7-0 at a CL final'. And look where we are now....

I didn't watch the Barca-Arsenal match, but I understand Jens Lehmann got sent off on the 18th minute, which was appropriate, but apart from that the refereeing was shite, which is pretty sad, esp. at this level. Sympathies go out to Sean ..

Tonight: Draft, anyone?

P.S: I don't seem to be having any luck lately with my shoutbox/tagboard/flooble however you wanna call it. Works for a while then decides its temporarily unavailable (read: screwed)..

P.P.S: My favourite person in the office isn't happy today. Must try to cheer her up...

GP KL part 4: Drafting Blue

I admit it. I've had a tendency to draft blue in RGD lately which borders on obsession. Last night, I drafted twice, Blue-Black-White, followed by Blue-Black-Red.

My leanings to blue has been due to the Simic Guild which to me is not only powerful, but tends to get underdrafted due to it not being on the so-called RGD drafting path chart. Last Wednesday night helped solidify that opinion when I ended up with THREE Simic RagWurms and TWO Ocular Halos.

So I entered the first draft with Shamsul on my right, and Loco on my left. My plan was to suck the green dry, sending a clear signal to Loco. If green wasn't around, I'd go for blue, leaving my 3rd colour option open. I opened my pack, which was devoid of any true removal, and went for Civic Wayfinder, passing a Drift of Phantasm. Shamsul proceeded to pass me Last Gasp, followed by Disembowel. Unfortunately, my green this turned out to be a mistake, as I did not get any quality green. Yet somehow, I stuck to my guns in Ravnica, taking sub-optimal green cards.

I ripped Guildpact and found a Pillory AND Mortify looking back at me. I figured I could splash the Mortify. Then Loco proceeded to pass me another pillory, and I decided then and there to dump green, effectively going Black-White-Blue. This turned out to be a correct decision, as Shamsul was in heavy green on my right, and ended up passing me Pride of the Clouds, two Azorius Nightwings among others.

Unfortunately, my deck suffered from a shortage of creatures, not to mention flyers, turning my Pride into a mediocre card. I was forced to play.. FOUR Eidolons, 2 White and 2 Blue ones. As a result, I was cornered into situations where I had a couple of magemarks on 1 creature against a horde. Needless to say, it wasn't pretty.

I went 1-2, losing to Andy and Zul, and winning against Shamsul. One thing that pleased me about this draft was that all the players were fast, including this new dude from Sweden, Tobias. (Sorry, Mattias I guess we can't call you Swedish now... !) As such, we proceeded to have another draft. Zul, Shamsul and Hafiz departed, and were replaced with Johan, Ida and Zach.

Once again, I had Loco on my left, and this time Ida on my right. My 1st card was Drift of Phantasms, and Ida's first act was to drop me a Disembowel, so once again, it was black blue and I'm off to the races. For some reason, I failed to notice a dream leash passing through, which astounded Loco, as he realised he was getting cut off from other blue cards.

Come Guildpact, Loco starts building a deck for me, passing two Torch Drakes, two Izzet Chronarchs and a Repeal. So 3rd colour is red. This works out really well for me in Dissension, as I draft Wrecking Ball, followed by THREE Demon Jesters, signaling a HellBent strategy. Everything else fell into line...

My first build had two Induce paranoia's, which I soon removed as they were counterproductive to the hellbent path.

My deck somehow managed to work, despite one signet and an almost equal colour distribution. As usual, I was helped by the odd opponent mana/colour screw, always useful! Won against Johan, Raj, and Andy, scoring a Stomping Ground and my fourth Infernal Tutor. It was a late night again, but fortunately it had a happy ending!

Research continues though...

13th-14th May 2006 Weekend!!!

The weekend was one to remember for several reasons:

1. The wedding of Ja Ja and Saleem. It's always lovely to see two friends get married to each other, esp. two who are part of the WGS community. As par usual, we got a bit lost, but arrived just in time to follow the bride and groom into the reception area! At first, we pretended to be part of the procession, but half-way in, we chickened out and faded into the shadows...:P Gamers take note: Saleem got some gaming miniatures as part of his 'hantaran'. Could this become a trend? Will take note for future planning...

2. Liverpool-West Ham FA Cup Final. As planned, after the reception a number of us headed off to Riz's abode in Mutiara Damansara. During the short trip, my dad, (who is at home watching the match) decides to do me a favour and messages me when West Ham scores. First one, fine. SECOND goal, I get upset, and fire a message back to my dad telling him NOT to sms me bad news! Then, as we are stopping for snacks along the way at 7E, I find out Liverpool have pulled one back through Cisse. Surprise surprise, where's my SMS!!!! :lol:

We get to Riz's just in time for half-time commentary. After seeing the review, I admit to being a bit upset at not getting to watch the apparently eventful 1st half. Fortunately though, the 2nd half was just as good to watch! In short, Liverpool came back twice courtesy of Captain Marvel, Stevie G himself, and the scores were level at full-time, 3-3.

Extra-time yielded no goals, with both teams visibly exhausted. It went to penalties, and Reina saved 3 shots for the win! All-in-all, a great match for the neutrals, but for the team's fans, it was one heart attack after another!

3. Gaming time!!! Yeah, it was pretty late I know, but it didn't stop us as we played first Hold-Em, followed by The City of Tea (which went for 6 hrs min????!!!) I pretty much came out on positive figures, although I never finished first... A few hours of sleep, then it was off to WGS for Raw Deal, which I somehow managed to scratch 2 wins out of 5 despite a hastily built deck!

Overall, a great weekend, despite the lack of rest (which is typical anyways...). Ah well, back to work...

Random observations and commentary

1. The Tottenham Hotspurs food poisoning debacle. Regardless of the fact Spurs request to have the match replayed have been rejected flat-out, I can imagine the scenarios (read: paranoia) popping up for future important matches. Next up: Liverpool vs West Ham. Could Harry Kewell possibly resist that Aussie meat pie that suspiciously gets made just for him on the eve of the FA Cup? Juicy steak, Sissoko? Would you like fries with that, Reina? Or are they gonna head to Cardiff with their own homecooked pasta, or better yet, canned baked beans?

2. Ja Ja and Saleem's wedding this Saturday. It was from the wedding invitation card I found out that Ja Ja's real name is Shazatul Hafiza. Pretty nifty name too! Hmm, I'm beginning to wonder if I hadn't made a mistake in choosing the guest to bring, it might create some minor commotion. Even better (or worse), I might bump into my brother, causing a whole different ruckus altogether.

3. Liverpool FA Cup. Incidentally at 11pm after the wedding. Rizal's offered to hole us up in his joint after, which is apparently on the map shown in the invitation card!!! As tempted as I am to follow suit, there's still the matter of my guest to consider... not sure if she'd be interested in joining the bunch of us at Rizal's....

4. GP KL part 3. Yeah, I drafted last night. Again. This time I drafted U-G-b, and this time went 2-1. Lost against Andy when his U-R-B deck went into stall mode, and milled me to death. When will I learn to draft those bloody signets higher!! Still, Simic Ragwurm + Ocular Halo = good times...

5. Lack of sleep. After I finished drafting (around 2:15am), we were off to the mamak. What was on? The UEFA Cup Final. I decided I couldn't be bothered sleeping, as, knowing me, I'll end up late to the office. So I watched, then went back (around 5am+), showered, watered the plants, warmed up an engine, then drove back to office, and slept in my parked car till 8. Right now, only the expectations of seeing someone during work is keeping me up...

Back to work... Laterz...

Road to GP KL Part 2: Double draft

Courtesy of WGS, I had the chance to participate in not one, but TWO drafts Tuesday night!

I went into the drafts with a plan to experiment with one colour which I seldom drafted, green. I have to admit I don't get much success with green in draft. Maybe I prefer slim, sleek creatures to big fatties. But the U-G cards available in Dissension looked to be downright broken if used properly, and my plan was to find a way towards drafting that Guild, which basically meant I was

First pod I eventually went B-W-g. The green just wasn't coming, and any preconceptions I had about green being underdrafted went out the window as far as my local environment is concerned. As for the blue, I didn't get anything worthwhile in Pack 1 and 2, and when an Ocular Halo drifted by me in pack 3, and I resisted greatly picking it up. On hindsight, I should've picked it up, coz the only green i had in my deck was a Wurm, a Watchwolf (which I threw out), and a Seeds of Strength (which I pretty much sideboarded out all the time). I had a quite powerful B-W deck, with only one problem, it was too slow, mainly due to my earlier notions of green. As such, it got run over by the fast decks. I also learnt a harsh lesson of the value of signets. I went 1-3.

Second pod worked better, at least where the draft was concerned. Mark of Eviction is the BOMB in the right deck, works extremely well with the U-G in Dissension, esp. the graft mechanic. I just need to remember to build my deck around it if I get it early. I ended up U-G-W, but although I had a strong solid deck, critical play errors, a distinct lack of removal and the draft going on for FAR too long ended up giving me a record of 1-3. Again.

Still, I learnt a lot of R-G-D draft, which is essentially what all this drafting is about. GP-KL I am on target.

C'mon WGS!!!

Note to self: If draft is starting late and players involved are certain individuals, withdraw instantly to prevent irritation and lack of sleep...

Road to GP KL part 1

Last Sunday was the 1st GP KL trial for the month.

I posted a 4-3 record with my R-G-B splash-one-plains-for-Mortify deck, a good result considering my relative freshness, but not good enough for the GP. Definitely have to turn up the power...

One problem I have is my current tendency of not being able to restrict my deck to 2 main colours splash one colour. Despite being a Barry disciple, I cannot afford to take unnecessary risks when the GP comes around.

Target: Day 2, Top 16

Very lofty ambitions, I admit. But one needs to think high before he can finish high.

P.S: I actually brought my old schoolfriend Ashraf along last Sunday. He was keen to see how Magic was played, and it definitely perked up his interest. Him working as a Doctor in JB could pose issues to a potential magic career though...

Let's draft people!!!