Subject: HI Regionals Report *Top 9* Date: Sun, 17 May 1998 13:56:28 PDT From: "Siddarth Savara" To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Sid’s Tourney Report for the HI Regional or How I started 5-0 and then finished top 9 =( Mandatory Background Section A while back I built a 5 color extended deck using the best cards from all the colors, using no permanents except aura of silence (drop it only AFTER they have something out) and land, with my kill card being 2 KJ outposts, gaea’s blessings, and fireball. . Pretty much standard extended counterpost, helluva lot of fun to play, not a lot of fun to play against. So when I saw U5C, I decided that that would be my deck to play at regionals. I was already used to the playing style, so learning the deck wasn’t too hard. I spent about 3-4 weeks extensively testing the deck online, and built the sideboard to counter everything that had a good shot of beating the deck (read: sligh, other control decks, POX!!, The not-so-occasional don-geddon). I tweaked the deck, changing the mana ratio a little bit and trying new cards, and it was all good. The one deck that I did not fear at all was white weenie, because in playtesting I could beat that deck consistently (about 75-80% of the time) and after boarding the sacred ground just smacked it too well. I didn’t want to get my butt kicked by another donais, so I threw in 2 wastelands, which were crucial in that MY U5C could beat the regular one about 60-70% of the time, which is a pretty good ratio vs. almost the same deck. Anyway, on to the deck and sideboard choices! The Deck Land (21): 4 Adarkar Wastes 4 Reflecting Pool 2 City of Brass (Strong! Doesn’t die on me, and life is not an issue) 2 Gemstone Mine 1 Undiscovered Paradise (I HATE this land. Whenver u draw this and one other land and try to go impulsing or wall of blossoming for more land, u are unable to wrath or gerry turn 4. Hence only 1, it worked well) 1 Forest 1 Plains 2 Wastelands (VERY key. extremely useful) 4 Islands Creatures (6): 2 Uktabi Orangutans 4 Wall of Blossoms (I found this creature mix to be excellent, I edited and during playtesting found that the only slight improvement I could come up with was to add in a shard phoenix, but by the time that came down the game was locked up already, so I decided not to bother) Cantrips (15 + 4 wall of blossoms): 3 Gaea’s Blessing 4 Impulse 3 Dismiss 3 Brainstorm 2 Whispers of the Muse (19 cantrips is actually the exact same number that Donais used, I didn’t try to get it that way, it just happened after all the playtesting. Seems like the right amount, I didn’t have too much trouble getting the mana I needed to start whispers buyback, and the brainstorms were crucial, because there were a few games where I would draw 1 land, and a brainstorm, and boom search 3 cards down for my second land, grab it, go impulsing for a land next turn and just roll. Early game whispers stinks, by the time it is useful u have already cast it to draw 1 card, so u have to bless it back anyway. This way I just keep putting it back on my library with brainstorm and then blessing to shuffle) Other Spells (18): 3 Wrath of God 4 Gerrard’s Wisdom 2 Disenchant (metagame choice, expected LOTS of scrolls, Zvi, Prosbloom. More or less correct, I stand by my decision and I NEVER sided them out) 4 Counterspell 3 Dissipate 1 Earthquake 1 Fireball (earthquake is extremely strong, singlehandedly saved my ass vs. sligh) My Sideboard: 1 Phyrexian Furnace (never saw another Donais, altho I do think it warrants a space in the board) 3 Warmth (VERY key, I was scared shit of getting mana screwed vs. sligh and losing royally. Once I got 2 down, it was LOCK) 2 Pyroblast (I think these are the right number, as there are already 10 counters in the deck) 1 Aura of Silence (I think I screwed up here, shda been another disenchant maybe? I put this in because it beats a lot of Zvi decks, since some rely on lotus petals for mana, as well as the caddy bloom version, they hafta pay for the bloom. Still, it DID help give me more Empyrial Armor, cursed scroll, Dream Halls protection) 1 Mangara’s Blessing (OUT? Helped me one game vs. a couple of bottomless pits but then in that same game...) 1 Teferi’s Realm (this came out while I had mangara’s in hand...very key to beating bottomless pit, and, surprisingly, GLOOM!) 1 COP Black (I was scared shit of the mono black shadow decks!!! Didn’t see one, altho it did also help vs. necro. It’s korean =). Not sure whether this was a good call or not) 1 Perish (I didn’t really need this the one game I boarded it in. Still, vs. a mono-green stompy this card is HOUSE and 5 wraths is too good to pass up) 1 Disrupting Scepter (ok, this card sucked. No control = no need to put this in. Still, it is strong and I stand by my decision to keep it in the board. Was very good in deck testing) 1 Lobotomy (kills too many decks to not be in here. Won me only 1 game tho, but then I didn’t play all the decks I expected to play) 2 Sacred Ground (This card helped me one game vs. Geddon, BUT the 3rd game he knew it was there and I’m sure he boarded in enchantment control. Also, once people heard about it my next opponent kept enchantment control in his deck because he knew it was there even after seeing nothing the first game...that sucks when people know ur deck already =/) In retrospect I would make room for 2 Dreads of Night, or better yet TERRORS. You read right, TERRORS. I would drop the scepter and the COP Black for TERRORS. because TERRORS kill freaking empyial armored soltari priests. Dread of night is bad somtimes because then they can D-chant or something, but TERROR nets you the 2 card advantage you need, and no edict stinks because it’s not targeted. Terror is strong! Not only that, but when I was testing it on the net it kicked ass to kill stupid tradewinds too. I took it out of the board tho because I anticipated few tradewind decks, if any, and sure enough I didn’t see a single one. On to...the report!! I think there were about 70-80 players, altho I'm not completely sure. The field is diverse, as expected. My apologies if I don’t remember/mix up/mispell names, I’m tired. Round 1: Chris Jackson, ZVI! Game 1: This is funny as my buddy Joey playing Zvi is sitting right next to my opponent, and he’s going off while my opponent sits there since he is a little mana screwed. I waste his early mana and d-chant some lotus petals, keeping his mana low while I lay wall of blossoms and get so many cards in my hand that I have to discard. Stuff happens, I counter stuff, and pitch gerry to d-chant halls, he tates in reponse, I ditch something and counter....pretty repetitive game, he tries to do stuff, I deny, eventually he has 5 cards in library and he concedes...good player, but the early mana screw was bad. IN: Furnace, (maybe I can hit his kill card! 2 Pyroblast, Lobotomy, Aura, Scepter. OUT: 3 Gerry’s, 3 Wraths (kept the korean gerry!). In retrospect, I shd have boarded out the last gerry for the mangara’s blessing, because altho it didn’t matter at the time (and I don’t know if it would have mattered) if he went for a cadaverous bloom kill I could have kept myself alive by blessing in response to drain....but I don’t know what his kill was, and I still don’t know what it is...didn’t make a difference tho. Game 2: We have various counter battles, stuff happens, game ends with him casting intuition to toggle, I give him gaea’s, he has gaea’s in hand, a few turns later he has 1 petal untapped and I grab lobotomy and shazam he concedes. Very cool opponent, good fun to play against =). 1-0, 2-0 Round 2: Forgot name sorry. cursed sligh. Game 1: He gets lots of creatures out, I wrath em off, he gets 4 (!!!) scrolls on the board (DAMN!). He has 6 lands, including 2 sulf springs, I waste both springs so that he can’t scroll me twice a turn. Eventually i’m at 8, he has 4 scrolls out still, 2 cards in hand, been scrolling me for a while calling fireblast so I think either he is damn lucky or he has a pair of blasts...he’s tapped out from shocking me and activating scroll on his turn (?). I forget, anyway he’s tapped out with 4 mountains, and i’m at 8 with 5 lands, I think a 5 color land (gemstone or city), 2 lands and 2 Adarkars. I tap all but the gemstone, and go down to 6 with 2 white in pool, he fireblasts me twice (WOOHOO!) and I calmly go down to -2, gerry up to +10 as i’m not dead till end of phase, and after that stuff happens but yeah he has no mana, and I have 5 cards in hand, so I deck him. Game 2: AAAH!! Fast start. I quake and save my ass. I’m so happy that wasn’t a fireball =). I take control, eventually I have 2 warmths out and the judge goes 10 seconds, active player end your turn, and I toast him. DAMN that was close. Another cool opponent, altho I think he got a little frustrated when shocking my orangutan let me gain 4 life =). 2-0, 4-0 Round 3: Brian T. Steel Necro, with various changes. Game 1: I drop creatures, he drops creatures, I keep wrathing and countering and waste his strongholds, he concede’s eventually. IN: mangara’s blessing, Phyrexian Furnace, COP Black. Don’t remember what I took out. Didn’t put in realm because I didn’t want him to drop a necro, pay life, phase out enchantments...stupid error on my part. Game 2: More of the same, but I run out of steam and he rolls me with a phat ass nightmare. I feel bottomless pit beatdown and kick myself when I draw my aura as I could have had a realm. IN: REALM! Game 3: this game is insane, I get down to like 2 life, and eventually come back from 2 bottomless pits and 2 glooms thanks to my bomb teferi’s realm and him drawing mana over and over. He recursed creatures, I get rid of the annoying stronghold eventually. I gerry up to some safe life total. With 1 minute left I tap a bunch and quake away, he does somethig, my turn, untap. 10 seconds left in the round! Active player end your turn, fireball him out. DAMN that was close. he counted his library with a few minutes left and I freaked out and called a judge, altho now that I think about it he may have been tryig to figure his odds of drawing drain lfe and whether he should activate stronghold or try to draw drain since he has billions of mana out....still scared the hell out of me tho because I was calculating so that I would have enough mana to counter so that the timing would be perfect...still squeezed it out. I’m happy I drew my blessing and my realm AND my COP black that game. Altho COP black teferi’s realm is a pretty crappy combo =/. A cool opponent, very nasty deck, 3-0, 6-1 Round 4: Eric Flower, Meta-game Red-Blue phid/fireslinger beatdown. Kind of like Hovi’s MVW Sumu deck from WAY back, but not really. Hard to explain, pretty cool deck tho. Game 1: This game is ALL about me quaking, cuz his creatures are x/3 and below, and my walls are phat. Eventually I get out orangutan and serve beatdown after eating his deck. A very fast game, probably the fastest all day. My deck is almost totally anti his deck pre-sideboard. IN: 2 warmths, 2 pyroblast. I have no idea what I took out. Game 2: Key play is when I have 5 mana, tap 4, gerry, he taps out to whispers in response, I tap my last land and pyroblast. That about sums up where he got locked down. Not much he could do about that, altho his deck was good, it just can’t deal with 4 Gerry, 3 Wrath, Quake, Fireball, Wall of Blossoms, and C-spells. I got out 2 warmths and started drawing all burn. He had like 5 cards in his hand and he cast em all at me, and I gained life =). Burned him out, that was pretty lucky that I got both warmths. Another cool opponent, very polite as we both called each other sir throughout the match, that was cool =). Sidenote: Round 5, Eric faces my friend Jerry...jerry’s deck is too fast for him =(. Eric had a nice deck too, unfortunate that he went up against 2 decks I a row that totally killed his. 4-0, 8-1 Round 5: Desmond Siu. Top Secret Team Deck. I won’t go into details, it seems that their team came up with this original deck. Suffice to say, it beats a lot of stuff, but my deck beat it 2-0. I don’t think they expected anyong to play Donais, as it is so well known and the cards are hard to get. Either that or they expected everyone else to be so prepared for it that it would lose, I dunno. Or maybe their deck just had a crap draw, I really have no idea...but I didn’t have any real trouble either game. 5-0, 10-1 Round 6. Kwan Chee I think. WW Game 1: He kicks my butt. I forget how. I’m pretty sure it involved soltari priest. In: SACRED GROUND! Something goes out Gane 2: I kick him back =). We have 15 minutes left in the round, and I find out that he has to win to be able to draw next round to make top 8, if he draws now then he’ll have to win his next match. He’s a cool friend, so with 15 minutes left I burn him out in hopes we can play game 3, and if he wins great, if not then I dunno. Normally in this situation (I had him locked up) I would have waited till they said like 4 minutes and then killed him... Game 3: We play fast. I draw 1 wateland and 1 pool. Empyrial Armored Nomads beat me down. He geddons for fun =). Damn cool opponent, we were talkin and stuff the whole time. 5-1, 11-2 I can draw in =). Round 7: Tyron ... something. Original Deck. He refuses to draw so we play =(. He says i’ll still make top 8 even if I lose, but he thinks I’ll win. I won’t share the details of the match as it is an original deck and he may not want me to share the contents, suffice to say first game I draw cards like mad but I ended the game with billions of mana on the table and more in my hand =/. Game 2 sees him mana screw me and then get off a geddon. He beats me up. 5-2, 11-4 Standing come up, I’m 9...DAMN =(. Oh well, they award prizes for top 4 juniors, I bust a mox diamond and some other stuff...not bad for 20 bucks =). Dunno who won and stuff, I had to leave prior to top 8 starting, and i'd share what comprised the top 8 but 3 of them are original decks and i'll let the creators of those decks share if they want to. that and i don't know all of them, maybe someone who stuck around for top 8 will write a report. Post-Tourney Analysis: Real short, as I mentioned a lot of stuff earlier and I’m sure you can get a feel for it too by reading the match by match stuff. The deck is strong, but shadows, flyers and especially pro-red shadows kick it’s ass as you have only 5 spells to deal with them (3 wrath, 1 quake, 1 fireball). You NEED terrors or dreads for priests, I think terrors are good because they also help vs. tradewinds. For some bizarre reason nobody else I know of played this deck, altho I think everyone is just figuring everyone else will play it so they're preparing to beat it, and the smart guys are playing decks which will beat the decks meant to beat this and...i don't know but yeah I think I was the only guy playing this deck there, and after round 5 I heard some guy yell "How the hell is 5 color blue undefeated?" or something to that effect, which was pretty cool =). And then i get mana screwed 3 out of 5 games and get my butt whooped =(. Props: The deck for serving up the goods the first 5 rounds All my opponents, they were cool and polite Brainstorm. This card kicks ass and combos well with blessing =). My team who deck-tested with me, and all the guys on APPR. Mike of course. The tourney organizers. The tourney ran really fast and I didn’t notice any problems or arguments come up. Jerry for taking a goblin deck 5-2. Slops: The deck for NOT servin up the last 2 rounds My mana for screwing me the 3 of the last 5 games...that stunk. EMPYRIAL ARMORED SOLTARI PRIEST. AUGH! Ryan’s Pox Deck for kicking everything’s ass consistently in playtesting and then dying on him at the tournament by serving up mana screw. Adam’s Deck for more of the same. Joey’s Zvi deck for running smoothy the first round and then choking on him =/. Not sure if the deck is to blame or joey’s shuffling skills. That guy who cut across 2 lanes including mine when I was driving home...what the hell you could have hit my car dumbass. Well that’s it, I’m out! Sid #1 Ranked player in his house Guy who finished ninth in half the big tourneys he has entered Shmuck who lets people spinning darkness his barrow ghoul...and then do it again to his necratog ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com