Calling Singapore recap

Having read Jin Han’s recap of his run at the Calling Singapore inspired me to write my own recap of this awesome event that I participated in. It was truly amazing how many friends a game can bring together and the positive vibe throughout the entire community was simply fascinating.

Prior to the big event, I was deciding between <Uzuri, Switchblade> and <Dorinthea Ironsong>. Since the release of “Outsiders”, I’ve played <Uzuri, Switchblade> in my armouries and had decent success with it, be it the red liner version or the more mid-range contract version. Feels really good when people are not entirely sure what to do against her, but as time goes on and more and more people starting to dab into games with or against <Uzuri, Switchblade>, her damage cap per turn was quickly realised and people start to beat <Uzuri, Switchblade> to the race. <Uzuri, Switchblade> players started playing things like <Looking for Scrap> to increase their damage cap and the meta start to adjust once again. However, no matter the adjustments, <Uzuri, Switchblade> just folds to <Dromai, Ash Artist> which is something I’m not comfortable with. So I made the decision about a week prior to the Calling that I was rolling with <Dorinthea Ironsong>. Even though the match up against <Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity> is horrendous, it was winnable with a lot to finesse.

So I started searching for and fiddling with my <Dorinthea Ironsong> decklist and realised Joshua Lau recently released a newer version of <Dorinthea Ironsong> that looked very interesting to me on the first glance. It ran none of the 1 cost for 3 damage pumps, not even <Puncture>! Instead, the deck had 8 <Ironsong Response> and 8 <Overpower> as the attack reaction suite which immediately made sense to me. Due to the presence of <Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity>, the meta is relatively slow in that almost all deck run 3 copies of <Sink Below>. That means it’s relatively easy for players to react to a +3, and if I have to throw 2 cards to get over 1 <Sink Below>, it’s not a good deal at all. This is where yellow <Overpower> and yellow/blue <Ironsong Response> come in handy for either +5 or +1/+2. Another interesting tech by JL is that he packs <Valiant Dynamo> against <Dromai, Ash Artist> which makes so much sense as we are trying to build counters on our <Dawnblade> and 1 additional block per turn cycle is such a life saver, literally :P

Having settled on a hero and a solid decklist built by an amazing warrior player, I started testing out the different match ups on Talishar. Overall experience was, <Dorinthea Ironsong> still struggles against <Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity> but has a game against all other heroes.

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And so the Calling began!

On day 0, before anything else, I was made know that Luis Lasahido was selling <Steelblade Supremacy> playmats! So the very first thing I did when I reached the venue was to queue up for that and get my alpha <Steelblade Supremacy> signed by him. If there was nothing else I could take away from the Calling-Singapore, the <Steelblade Supremacy> playmat was definitely an awesome loot!

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Day 0, Sigil Event No. 1 Challenge the Monarch (2-2)

Before we open the packs, Hermann and Darrell who were sitting in the same table were joking that I was going to force <Boltyn> because they know very well I’m a warrior player. But instead of me forcing <Boltyn>, I was forced into <Boltyn> because my card pool was kind of disappointing. For <Levia> I had a total of 4 attack actions with more than 5 power including red <Out Muscle>. For <Chane> I had a total of 1 red attack action and for <Prism>, total of 2 red “Herald”. Cards for <Boltyn> was only mediocre in that I had 1 of each of rainbow <Take Flight> and 6 other “Charge” cards, a couple of <Courageous Steelhand> and a <Gallantry Gold>.

I went 2-0, defeating 2 <Prism> and got paired against Liam Bennett, who went top 8 in the Calling. Got duly dispatched and when he showed me his deck afterwards, I saw a total of 15 red cards including 7-8 “Herald” and 4-5 generic 6 powered attacks.

In the final round, I got paired against James White, but got defeated and so I failed the challenge that the Monarch put forward.

Having won only 480 prize tickets, I knew I had to do better at the next 2 <Sigil of Merlion> event to have a chance of acquiring something I want from the prize wall(just as heads up, I got exactly what I wanted from the prize wall at the end of day 2).

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Day 1, Calling-Singapore

On the night before, my son peed our bedsheet so we had to sleep in the living room under a fan and those staying in Singapore know how the weather was like these couple of weeks, man it was not pleasant. That plus the excitement of playing in a big event the next day made me only sleep for like 6 hours. So I took an early shower and drove to the venue. With not too much of a delay, round 1 was paired and an unfamiliar name was shown on my GEM account.

So I got paired into a <Briar, Warden of Thorns>, all I can say for this game was, <Dorinthea Ironsong> high roll is just as if not more devastating than <Briar, Warden of Thorns> high roll. So I won the die roll and choose to go second, opponent started with activation of <Grasp of the Arknight> and tanked for about 1 minute before deciding to arsenal and pass to me. I almost breathed a sigh of relief when I hear the “Arsenal, pass” because in my hand was <Steelblade Supremacy>, red <Warrior’s Valor>, yellow <Ironsong Response> and a blue. So I presented 8 with on-hit “Go again” and “Draw a card”, opponent blocked with 3 cards for 9 hoping for absence of “Ironsong Response” from me, but I pushed it to 10 and presented 6 on the second swing with the activation of <Braveforge Bracers> and opponent passed block allowing me to score a counter and drew a <Glistening Steelblade> which I put into my arsenal. My hand was <Steelblade Supremacy>, red <Warrior’s Valor>, <Ironsong Pride> and a blue. Opponent attacked me with his arsenal-ed <Command and Conquer> and I blocked with my <Crown of Providence> choosing to put my <Ironsong Pride> under my deck and drew into a <Twinning Blade>!! and I think I don’t need to go into anymore game details for this game :D

Round 2, I got paired into an <Uzuri, Switchblade> and this game was the first of the two major mistakes I made throughout the entire Calling-Singapore. I was having control almost the entire game until this critical moment in the late game. Opponent was at 6 and I was still at 14ish. My hand was <Singing Steelblade>, yellow <Overpower> and 2 blue, I also had a <Frailty Token>. So I attacked with <Dawnblade> for 2, opponent passed block, I pumped it with yellow <Overpower> opponent pass reaction. At this instant, I should just pass and bring him down to 1, arsenal my <Singing Steelblade> and kill him next turn because he will be forced into blocking there thereby activating “Reprise”, but greed got the better of me and I played out the <Singing Steelblade> for the LOSS, opponent swiftly reacted with his red <Unmovable> from his arsenal and the game just went down the drain from there because I was so tilted after that play and was handed my early loss which costed me eventually bubbling out of the top 24.

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Having thrown away a game in such a manner, I knew I had to clear my mind and regain my focus and do better, so I took a 5 minutes break seeing that there’s still 15 minutes to go until end of round and walked outside, not thinking about the game but just looking at the greens and it helped me tremendously in coming back and making day 2.

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Round 3 I was paired into a <Katsu, the Wanderer> and through careful blocks and timely power cards like <Ironsong Determination>, <Steelblade Supremacy> and <Glistening Steelblade> I was able to keep tempo. On the last turn of the game, I was able to maintain a 3 card hand, falling down to 1 life while opponent was also on 1 life. My hand was <Rout>, red <Ironsong Response> and a blue. So I presented naked <Dawnblade> swing for 3, opponent blocked 3 cards from hand and his <Mask of Momentum> for a total of 11, I played out my hand, returning a 3 block with my <Rout> and dealing 1 damage for the win.

Round 4 was against <Iyslander, Stormbind>, I was kinda worried when I see opponent flips his hero because in my list, there was exactly 0 “AB” and I was not playing any <Sigil of Solace> or <Oasis Respite> either. Opponent won die roll and chose to go first and chipping some damage with arcane and put a card down into his arsenal. On my turn, I was able to swing twice and land a counter. Then comes the first judge call for my Calling-Singapore. When I announced “passing the turn?”, opponent said “OK” and then I put down a card into my arsenal and as I went to draw up, opponent said he wanted to play the blue <Emeritus Scolding> in his arsenal, so I called the judge and of course he was not allowed to play it because he agreed to me ending the turn. I could see him somewhat tilted by that and wasn’t blocking properly against my attacks and eventually I won.

In Round 5 I was paired into the first local player, Jin Han on his <Katsu, the Wanderer>. I was worried about this game, not so much for the match up but for my opponent. What I mean is if I get paired against a foreign player, I don’t know if they’re good unless they’re really well know in the FaB community world wide, so I’ll treat it just like any other game, but when I get paired against local players, I know who’s really good because I have a rough idea who’s been to the Pro-Tours and Worlds and stuff. We traded damage efficiently and on a critical turn, Jin Han decided to save his <Fyendal’s Spring Tunic> counter and blocked with cards from his hand and I was able to go over it with attack reactions to score additional counter. The swing back by him was not threatening enough for me to drop cards and so I ended the game with a full grip it was impossible for him for block me out at that point. Always nerve-wrecking to play against good players.

Round 6 was when I realised the saying “something something brings out the ugly in people”, game details don’t matter that much, what happened was, opponent played his <Channel Mount Heroic>, said “Arsenal, pass” and put down a card into his arsenal, drew up 4 cards and then put a die on his <Channel Mount Heroic> and putting away his pitched “Earth” card. I called judge there pointing out the improper sequencing, but judge ruled that the intention of paying for the “Flow” cost was shown so it was simply deemed as a short cut instead of a missed trigger. I was of course trying to get rid of the <Channel Mount Heroic>, properly or not, man I was trying so hard to win…. What ended up happening was opponent was able to <Force of Nature> and killed me with a 30+ damage turn. By the end of day 2, I approached my opponent, Hee Aun and apologised for what i did and he was cool with it.

Having a record of 4-2, the last round is now a must win. Opponent was a cool dude from Malaysia and he was on <Fai, Rising Rebellion>. The game was a pure race, as he was not blocking anything from me. I was able to make full use of my “Fridge” and cards from hand to stem the bleeding while building up counters on my <Dawnblade> to eventually win the game. Opponent was rather lenient with his <Mask of the Pouncing Lynx> as he cracked it with neither <Art of War> nor <Spreading Flames> and he was forced to use his first <Art of War> defensively because I was threatening lethal.

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So I ended day 1 with a 5-2 record, barely making it to day 2. What’s good to know was 4 regulars of Daimonji Collectible were able to make it to day 2. Shout out to Hermann, Darrell and Shi Rui!!!

Quite a large number of friends made day 2, but Keith bubbled out of it at standing 65, my condolences, not :P

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Sigil Event No.2, Monarch sealed

Having such a poor performance with <Boltyn>, I decided to join the dark side of <Prism>. With some luck and finesse, I was able to get 3-0 and spilt the prize ticket with my round 4 opponent who was a local and quickly agreed to my proposal seeing how the number work out.

So now I have 480 from day 0 and 1380 from day 1, I went for the <Spirit of Eirina> playmat.

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Throughout the day, since my games finished so fast, I was able to get all of my cards signed by the 5 artist present there, they are: <Surgical Extraction>, <Scar for a Scar>, <Down and Dirty>, <Tome of Aetherwind> and most importantly <Steelblade Supremacy> and my Hero cards.

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Day 2, Calling-Singapore

Bedsheet changed, A/C is back, I had a good night’s sleep and physically I was prepared for day 2. The moment I stepped into the event hall, a local deck innovator Fen Fei told me based on standing I might get paired against Chu Heng(don’t think much introduction is needed here), what a start to my first ever day 2….

Though not using his own sleeves, Chu Heng was wearing his “God T-Shirt” which was, honestly speaking, rather intimidating exactly because we all know how good a player he is. He was on <Dromai, Ash Artist>, an ok match up for <Dorinthea Ironsong> and my deck had a special tech for her - <Valiant Dynamo>. From the play pattern, I could tell Chu Heng didn’t get much practice into <Dorinthea Ironsong>(which was justified, who would spend time testing against a fringe hero :o) and I was able to build up counters and present damage he had to block or risking my <Dawnblade> becoming even bigger. At one point, I decided to let a hit from <Kyloria> to go through and as Chu Heng reached for his deck to draw, I pointed toward my coppers tokens and we both chuckled. On a critical turn where Chu Heng was trying to reset my <Dawnblade> counter, I had a timely yellow <Overpower> to get over his block and the gamed ended with me having 9 counters on my <Dawnblade>.

A good start to day 2 quickly turned into a nightmare, I was lucky to dodge all <Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity> up until this point, but my first and only <Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity> game was against one of the rising stars in the game in Brodie Spurlock!! Game details don’t really matter that much, I was pushed into the corner rather quickly and was not allowed much time to set up. I had 3 <Energy Potion> in the arena and my pitch stack was coming up but Brodie played a <Rouse the Ancients> into a blue <Macho Grande> to finish me off.

Having played against big names, rather new players, good match ups and bad match ups. Round 10 was what I consider the closest game I had throughout the entire Calling-Singapore. It was against <Viserai, Rune Blood> piloted by Lane Thomason of the Vietnamese team. I was blocking his <Mauvrion Skies> efficiently with cards from hand and equipment while he was trying what he could to stop my <Dawnblade> from becoming too big. The game went to the point whereby I was relying on him not blocking properly on a critical turn because I went down to 1 life. I present a 8 attack and he threw his whole hand while in fact I only had a blue <Ironsong Response> in hand. Had he kept a blue and blocked for 9, I’d have died there and then. But due to this block decision, I was able to kill him with a red <Overpower> in the next hand. Going down to 1 against <Viserai, Rune Blood> was such a anxiety inducing experience…

Round 11 saw me paired into the defending Champion, Jason Zhang. We were in the same draft pod during Calling-Singapore 2022 and we were paired in round 1 last year. I recognised him because he made it all the way and won it all and he remembered because I was the only Singapore player in our draft pod, lol. Game details are a blur to me now, but the critical turn was when I played <Spoils of War> and swung for 5, he blocked for 6, I had 1 resource floating, <Singing Steelblade> and a yellow <Overpower> in hand. The correct play would have been to play <Singing Steelblade> looking for another <Singing Steelblade> and with the second one, search for a <Twinning Blade> to both threaten damage and second swing, or simply search for <Twinning Blade> with the first <Singing Steelblade> to definitely ask for 1 more card from him. What I did was searched for a red <Ironsong Response> and got duly stoned by a red <Reinforce the Line>. By then Jason had 3 items set up and I was forced to block with 3 cards each turn until I conceded seeing no way out. This was the second of my 2 critical decision made that costed me games during Calling-Singapore.

Having 3 losses now, top 8 is definitely out of reach, but I still had a chance at cash finish which is top 24. So the last game is a must win for me and pray tie breaker is in my favour. I got paired into my first ranger, a local player nonetheless, Lu Wei. I was able to threaten cards from him because I had my <Steelblade Supremacy> and <Glistening Steelblade> early. So I was able to maintain counters on my <Dawnblade> throughout the game. What gave me a surprise was Lu Wei had <Poison the Tip>(a tech by afore mentioned local innovator, Fee Sen Sei :P> in his deck as the pivoting play. If not for my <Courage of Bladehold> and <Refraction Bolters> and arsenal-ed red <Ironsong Response>, I’d be done for due to the discards. But eventually I was able to maintain my counter and continue to pressure cards from him and win my 8th game of the Calling-Singapore.

Having a record of 8-4 gave me a chance at top 24 and $225 USD. But tie breaker got me and I was placed at 29th along with 4 other local players around that standing. Had I not made the 2 critical decision mistakes I would be paired into different match ups, which might have gone either ways, so over all I consider it a good run like many of my friends told me, especially with <Dorinthea Ironsong>!!

Side note, there were 14 <Dorinthea Ironsong> players showed up for Calling-Singapore and only 2 made day 2, both were local players!!! Shout Out to Dawcious Chen!!!

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Sigil Event No.3 Classic Constructed Double Down

Having a left-over of 120 prize tickets, what I wanted from this was to get 3-0 and split the last rounds to secure 1380 tickets which will be just nice for a RF adult hero card from the prize wall, but the development of this Sigil Event got me by surprise and I had to adjust a bit by the end of the day.

Round 1 I got paired into a local player, Brandon on <Rhinar, Reckless Rampage>, who’s got a side event coming up in 15 minutes so he was playing very fast and didn’t block any of my attacks. Compounded by the fact that he was on a <Berserk> build, I was able to block efficiently and kill him with 3 counters on my <Dawnblade> to quickly release him to go and play in his side event :)

Round 2 of this event was probably the most fun I had this entire weekend. I got paired into Kang Sen on <Kano, Dracai of Aether>, a very familiar face and long time friend. Since I was packing 0 AB and no life gain, face is the only place <Dawnblade> was going at and all my cards serve only 1 purpose, to add damage!!! I won the die roll and went first, I was lucky enough to draw <Steelblade Supremacy> and <Ironsong Determination> in my starting hand and presented dominated 6 into dominated 7 for my first counter on <Dawnblade>. Uncle activated his <Kano, Dracai of Aether> and revealed <Aether Wildfire>, so in turn 0, I did 13 to him and he did 12 to me. He then went for his first turn and did some damage to me, I was able to maintain counters on my <Dawnblade> and get his life total even lower. Before his <Fyendal’s Spring Tunic> was able to generate a resource for him, I presented lethal and him having neither an arsenal nor enough resource for multiple hero activation means the game was ended there and then. The funny thing was, when we were done killing each other, the players on our left and right were still setting up their decks and equipment, lol

Round 3 sees me paired into another <Uzuri, Switchblade> and a long time player from Australia. My deck gave me quad red twice in a row and quad blue twice in a row right after, so he was having the tempo lead almost the entire game. But deck decided to help me out by aligning my <Steelblade Supremacy> with my attack reactions and when opponent didn’t have his defence reaction, and once <Dorinthea Ironsong> gets the ball rolling, there wasn’t much opponent could do to stop me.

Having won 3 games, I quickly checked who my opponent was in round 4 and approached him for a proposal of splitting the prize tickets but opponent declined as he has nothing to do for the next hour, so we played. He was on <Azalea, Ace in the Hole>. I was kind of taken aback by the declination to split so was a bit distracted and missed my first <Fyendal’s Spring Tunic> counter which almost costed me the game because later down the stretch I was facing a block of 12 when I had 4 resources available to me but my hand was <Rout> and red <Overpower> which would have brought it to 14, but instead I had to lose my <Dawnblade> counters in that turn. I was able to continue pressure and block out a 14 damage arrow followed by a 13 damage arrow with hand and equipment. Opponent bricked on a blind <Azalea, Ace in the Hole> flip and conceded thereafter.

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So I ended up having 1920 tickets, what I did was spent 900 on a CF <Gold Token> and sold 1000 to our local whale Gary for some cash and passed the remaining 20 to Hermann to help him out a tiny bit.

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What I gained during the weekend: 

Alpha <Steelblade Supremacy> signed x 3

Alpha <Scar for a Scar> signed x 3

<Surgical Extraction> signed x 3

<Down and Dirty> signed x 3

White border <Tome of Aetherwind> signed x 3

<Steelblade Supremacy> playmat signed

<Sigil of Merlion> x 3

<Spirit of Eirina> playmat

<Gold Token> CF

Purchased alpha red <Unmovable> x 3

Purchased alpha red <Sigil of Solace> x 2

Purchased alpha <Energy Potion> x 1

*A lot of friends made or re-connected 

**Invaluable gaming experiences earned 

***Laughters, joys, memories

****Shamelessly putting myself as the best performing <Dorinthea Ironsong> player in Calling-Singapore

What I lost during the weekend:

6 games

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I couldn’t be happier than I am with the list above, what an amazing event, what an amazing game!!

See you in Calling-Taiwan??

Warriors, keep fighting!!!!