User blog:Haosking1234/Buddy Challenge 2014 – Philippines Regional - Champion and 2nd place interview

Hello all, as we all know during the Philippines Regional Qualifier Magic world managed to steal 1st,2nd and 3rd place. But i wanted to know so many questions so after doing some researching i managed to come across the Champion and the 2nd place runner up and had the chance to ask some questions. :)

Immanuel Nick R. Suarez - Champion
Question 1 :

Me :  How many people was there at the event?

Immanuel : I think 28.

Question 2 : 

Me : How was the experience of the whole event? Was the any issues with how the venue was run?

Immanuel : O rganizers ran it smoothly there were no issues at all.

Question 3 : 

Me : How many rounds did you have to play in order to get to the finals?

Immanuel : Five rounds then cut to top 8.

Question 4 : 

Me : How was sideboarding? Did it help you and did you think it was a good idea to introduce it?

Immanuel : It was a very good idea, because you can adjust to certain match-ups,

Question 5 : 

Me : Which matchup do you think was easier for your deck to handle?

Immanuel : I didn't really pay attention to my games except the mirror.

Question 6 : 

Me : How was the mirror matchs for you?

Immanuel : <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">Well, seems it was whoever inflicted the more damage quicker won.

Question 7 : 

Me : W<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">hat card do you think was your favourite the entire day and helped you to get 1st and why?

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">Immanuel : <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">Nice One! Because it allows me to gain extra card advantage.

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">Question 8 : 

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">Me : <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">Will you sticking with magic world at the continentals?

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">Immanuel : Currently that hasn't crossed my mind.

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">Question 9 : 

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">Me : What did you get for your 1st place?

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">Immanuel : <span style="white-space:pre-wrap;font-size:13px;line-height:1.38;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;">I got an invite to the continentals, <span style="white-space:pre-wrap;font-size:13px;line-height:1.38;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;">a medal made of plastic (I think), <span style="white-space:pre-wrap;font-size:13px;line-height:1.38;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;">cool sleeves, <span style="white-space:pre-wrap;font-size:13px;line-height:1.38;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;">promo card.

Marc Reuben K. Cuento - <span style="color:rgb(229,48,51);font-size:12px;line-height:1;">2nd Place
Question 1 :

Me : H<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">ow many people was there at the event?

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">Marc : T <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">he tournament's officially registered participants were around 30, I believe? there were some latecomers.

Question 2 : 

Me : <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;"> How was the experience of the whole event? Was the any issues with how the venue was run?

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">Marc : T <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">he convention that housed the tournament was messy. but the tournament itself was properly managed. time limits were strictly enforced, the judges were hands-on with answering questions (and knowledgeable to boot), and the top 8 to finals were tightly supervised. overall, it was an enjoyable competitive experience.

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">Question 3 : 

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">Me : <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">How many rounds did you have to play in order to get into the finals?

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">Marc : E <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">ight rounds, from preliminaries to finals. my quarterfinal and semifinal matches all went to three games.

Question 4 :

Me : How was sideboarding? Did it help you and do you think it was a good idea to introduce?

Marc : <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">Sideboarding is still a skill we're all still developing and discovering. And before the tournament, it was really a mad dash to figure out what would work, what wouldn't, what to keep main deck and what to move to side board in case we have bad match ups. On paper, sideboarding would really help, having played competitive Magic for a long time. But I guess because we only had a week since the announcement of a sideboard was made, we had little time to practice that. That, and the metagame was still unstable. Dragon World was rampant, but Magic was on the rise. Again, if we had at least a month in between the announcement and the qualifier tournament, it would have mattered more. But with what happened, we didn't have much practice with our sideboard choices.

Question 5 :

Me : Which matchup do you think was easier for your deck to handle?

Marc : H<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">mm. sounds like a trick question. I believe Magic World has no easy matchups. it just has many more options that other worlds don't have. just because i beat Dragon World four times during the tournament doesn't make it easy. i just had more options and outs against them.

<span style="white-space:pre-wrap;font-size:13px;line-height:1.38;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;">Danger World and Dragon World have raw power. They have topdecks that can change the flow of the game in one call. Magic World just doesn't have that. It has to play tightly and carefully from start to finish. Every card counts. It has few topdecks with immediate impact. Asmodai is one of those.

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">Katana World is a strange specimen though. I have good days and bad days against it. It's too unstable, so I cannot honestly comment.

Question 6 :

Me : H<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">ow hard was the mirror match and why?

Marc : T<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">he mirror match was DAMN HARD because i just didn't know what to do. even in the few practice games i had, i was just hoping to go second all the time so the damage tempo and extra card will go to me and hope for the best. yes, i will admit. at the time i just didn't know what to do. like a reindeer staring at the headlights of an oncoming Astaroth with two cards in the soul.

Question 7 :

Me : <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">Can I ask what card do you think was your favourite the entire day and got you where you placed?

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">Marc : <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">An Astaroth-sponsored Nice One!!

Question 8 :

Me : <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">Do you think you'll stick with magic at the continentals?

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">Marc :  <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">Highly likely. Like, 75%, but I have a soft spot for Katana World, and that is a well-documented fact within my circles <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;"> It will highly depend on what comes out in EB01 in June and TD05 in July. Quite a tight schedule and small window for changing Worlds before the Continental Championships!

Question 9 :

Me : W<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">as the prize pool decent for top 2?

Marc : <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17.940000534057617px;white-space:pre-wrap;">The champion, surely! He got the free plane ticket and hotel accommodations, and that is well-deserved. And we both got a pack of really rare and cool-looking bling sleeves. Aside from that though...pretty dry, haha. Oh and I won the raffle, so another pack of bling sleeves for me!

There it is guys! If your still reading this all the way to the end i must say thank you for sticking around and reading :)

Fun fact : Marc is actually a school teacher! ( Would love for my teacher to be one of the top buddyfight players haha ) <p style="margin-top:10px;margin-bottom:0px;white-space:pre-wrap;">