Guildmages' Forum Writers' Season 4 MIT Tournament Review

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

The main writer of this article is cephille. Most of the content comes from my own subjective notes over my two days of competing, combined with feedback from the other Guildmages’ Forum writers. The photos, Facebook fan page posts, and personal-account content used here have all been used with the original authors’ permission, but readers who want to repost further still need to confirm with the original authors.

Day 1

Like Seasons 2 and 3 of MIT, this time was again held by the organizer 遊戲平方 on the 8th floor of 台北微風廣場. Compared with the first season at 板橋中華電信 B1, moving to 微風 not only improves transit accessibility but also makes it much easier to find food nearby, and it’s convenient to catch a midnight movie or grab a late-night snack after the tournament, which is a big blessing for players.

On the first day, since I personally had no interest in the Modern prize event starting at nine, I only wandered over to the venue around ten o’clock. The vendors at the venue were again three stores: Taipei’s Acadamy Legacy Games (ALG) and CardMaster (CM), and Tainan’s 紙牌屋. Their booth positions weren’t very different from Season 3, but what felt particularly different was that, besides the usual singles, sleeves, deck boxes, and other accessories, ALG’s booth this time had many items related to this year’s World Championship and Magic Con, in response to the 29th World Championship that had just ended in Las Vegas in September. In the photo below, the top of the central shelf holds 11 pins corresponding to Wilds of Eldraine (WOE), and when I asked on site there were about three more pin blind boxes you could open. The 紙牌屋 and CM booths also had some cool things, but unfortunately I forgot to take photos at the time.

The Lord of the Rings pin set in the image below is also a Magic Con exclusive, and should be relatively rare in Taiwan.

The vendors on site also ran all kinds of prize draws, each pull costing roughly NT$400-500, with the prizes and rules varying by vendor: a simple single pull, drawing three playing cards and checking suits and ranks, drawing two balls and checking the numbers, and so on, a great variety of play. Occasionally passersby or on-site part-timers also jumped in to try their luck, which was quite fun.

Besides the morning Modern prize event and the afternoon Pioneer prize event, the other highlight of Day 1 was of course the single-elimination LCQ (Last Chance Qualifier), where each full 16-player LCQ awards two Day 2 MIT entries. Naturally, since the participants were all fighting for the right to play in the main event the next day, the atmosphere was relatively serious; meanwhile the organizer also held plenty of side events for other players to choose from, including the common small tournaments of each format that fire with eight players, Chaos Draft, and special playmat-prize drafts; and of course Commander zone events were not to be missed.

After wandering around the venue and finishing the in-person trades with the central and southern Taiwan players who came north, I also entered the afternoon Pioneer prize event. Unfortunately, in round five, a win-and-in match, I met a Rakdos Midrange deck, a very bad matchup for my Five-Color Omnath, and was run over by 韓勤曜 aka 韓同學 of 幻想遊戲世界, missing out on prizes. But I had joined the prize event with the mindset of a practice run before the main event; my reasoning was that prize events aren’t cheap to enter, everyone is spending real money, so focus and the will to win are higher, though that’s just my personal opinion XD

That’s right, in the week before the MIT main event, if you trade with players from central and southern Taiwan, there’s a good chance it changes from the usual store-to-store or mail to a limited-time “in-person trade at the venue”! It’s also a great chance to meet new friends, playing, trading, and chatting, which is another attractive part of playing paper cards!

Congratulations as well to Guildmages’ Forum writer Kappa, who took first place in the Day 1 Modern prize event with a self-built Esper Control deck. Kappa also generously shared his report and decklist from that day on his Facebook account.

Tournament report link

Day 2

I arrived at the main event venue at nine in the morning on November 5, 2023 to check in. I arrived a little early and took a photo of the playing area where we would battle through seven rounds today.

The players then arrived one after another and checked in to receive their player numbers. Since decks had to be registered on Melee before nine o’clock on Day 1, compared with the MITQ events everyone had played before, there was one less step of turning in a decklist.

After the 9:30 start, there were speeches by 郭子敬 of the organizer 遊戲平方 and head judge Muscle. 遊戲平方 has also written up a tournament review, and you’re welcome to click the links below to read it:

2023 MIT Season 4 Championship Highlights, Part 1
2023 MIT Season 4 Championship Highlights, Part 2

After seven preliminary rounds, these eight players finally made the top eight:

• 陳柏宏 aka 蹦蹦 - Rakdos Midrange
• zhi-mao - Lotus Field Combo
• 饒智墉 aka 冰諦 - Azorius Control
• 張正宇 aka 及人 - Izzet Phoenix
• 陳竑宇 aka 海貓 - Rakdos Sacrifice
• 曾正增 aka ZengZengZeng - Izzet Phoenix
• 方萃辰 - Golgari Devotion
• 林政勳 - Five-Color Humans

In the end, the Rakdos Midrange piloted by 蹦蹦 took the championship, and the Lotus Field Combo piloted by another Taipei player, zhi-mao, took second place. Both earned entry to the 2024 Pro Tour, and the champion also earned entry to the 30th World Championship. Let’s wish both players continued success in international events!

蹦蹦 also shared his MIT tournament report on his personal Facebook fan page, Jund Uncle’s Daily Life. Interested readers are welcome to take a look; I’m sure you’ll learn a lot whether or not you play Rakdos!

蹦蹦’s Season 4 MIT tournament report link

Tournament Reports and Thoughts from the Guildmages’ Forum Players

As it happens, all five writers who contribute articles to the Guildmages’ Forum website competed this time, and we each coincidentally recorded our reports in different forms. Interested readers can click the links below to read them:

• MiohitoKiri5474
• cephille
• T1BloodMoon
• Kappa
• jeffchen

Finally, I’d like to close with brief thoughts from the five writers, as a small snapshot of this tournament’s player community.

MiohitoKiri5474:
Making the main event for the first time is a milestone in my three years since getting into Magic. Although my performance wasn’t great, I hope to keep this experience to prepare for next year’s MIT #5.

cephille:
I’m very happy to gather with players from northern, central, and southern Taiwan in the hall of MIT and compete together; this is also probably the first meetup since the Guildmages’ Forum site was founded! I hope everyone keeps improving their play and enjoys the game in their own way. Enjoy!

T1BloodMoon:
After four seasons I finally had a chance to play the main event, and I’m very happy to have placed tenth and made the prize payout in my first time. Thanks to the friends who practiced with me, and I hope next time is top eight, by me, who is working hard to qualify with Yawgmoth.

Kappa:
As the only non-Taiwanese player among the five, I have limited time to keep playing Magic in Taiwan, and every event could be my last, so I hope to get better results next season.
Also, are we really not getting Soulflayer in Standard? I want to play it.

jeffchen:
This was my first time in the MITQ main event. I don’t expect to climb very high, but I at least enjoyed all of it, and every match can become a precious memory! I’m also very happy to have made the top eight of the Day 1 prize event with my favorite Dimir Control; as expected, when you play your signature deck, does the deck respond to you? There’s still plenty of room to improve, and I look forward to seeing everyone again at the Q5 finals next year!

Note: The photo was taken outside the venue of the five Guildmages’ Forum writers during round four of the Season 4 MIT main event on November 5, 2023. From left: T1BloodMoon, cephille, MiohitoKiri5474, Kappa, jeffchen.