Subject: regional report.. DC Date: Mon, 18 May 1998 13:05:38 -0400 (EDT) From: "Bill the Cat" To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Hello. Here's my report from DC regionals, or better titled: "How I went 0-2 and scrubbed out and then went to play draft and made anoints fizzle." So, night before regionals, I head up to Fairfax to meet up with John Shuler, Chris Yates, Scott McCaughey, and like 3 or 4 other people from Parlor.. we end up going out to a diner, get some food, and head back to Chris's to test decks, etc.. I already know I'm playing squandered kitty (Static Orb/squandered/howling mines/props, deck list at end).. Scott plays Sligh, Yates plays Black weenie, John plays JoeBlue as does Joe, and Chris plays countersliver. What happens is me and Shuler end up playing street fighter all night, with me getting win streaks of like 19 and 17 and 17 in a row.. he gets in a few good swings with some character who has a bat, and beats me around a bit, but I completely dominate him with the stun moves.. w00. This turned out to be about the only thing I dominated all day, at any rate. So, me and Shuler are the only 2 who don't sleep, we wake everyone else up, and drive up to regionals. We register decks, talk to some fish (Tuna), we all yell at Yates until he makes his deck better (Scott yells repeatedly at him to play banishing over Terror), I agonize over my SB and make some minor changes, but keep basically everything the same. So.. here we go. Round 1 - vs. Sligh. I play first, drop a land, he drops mountain, pup. whee.. I drop a howling mine, counter his turn 3 ball lightning, then drop turn 4 humility. I drop a static orb a couple turns later to slow down the creatures/mana, but never see a wisdom, and ended up getting double shocked and fireblasted. side in 3 hydroblasts and 2 abeyance. I draw mad walls.. I have 3 walls out by turn 3 or 4 (2 blossoms, 1 roots).. he has a mogg and a pup out, plays a ball, and attacks.. I decide to take the ball on the chin (as I have a wisdom and 6 cards in hand), and go down to 14. Next turn he plays a havoc.. I decide not to counter, as I have an aura. I go down to 11 to play the aura (pain land) as I don't want to see a 2nd havoc hit the board. His turn (he has like 4 cards in hand) and goes incinerate, fireblast, fireblast (i counter), pyroblast. damn. Round 2 - vs. Sligh. I go mulligan. I redraw. I get 1 land. He goes pup, flunkie, ball lightning. I simply concede. Side in 3 hydro 2 abeyance. I have 2 land in opening hand. I play adarkar wastes. He goes wasteland. I go reflecting pool, he lays a mountain. I go, draw no land, done. He plays an ankh. I look at all my walls and counters and everything that costs 2 in my hand, and ask my deck to produce. The deck laughs as I draw a wisdom. He plays a ball, then a lava hounds, I finally get a land and try to start hydroblasting, but he draws at least 2 pyros (maybe 3) and just pounds me. So I'm unhappy with that round, especially since Justin Schneider apparently lost the first round, and Shuler started a dead pool up.. whoever crushed Schneider's dream was gonna end up winning like 20 bucks or so, but I never got to play him. ohwell. Chris is very unhappy and goes 0-2 with his countersliver, since 2nd round he played some sliver deck with more slivers and got run over. Yates is cursing since he lost to STEEL NECRO (and looked at his terrors in hand).. first round, then a 5 color sliver deck with BASIC LANDS and sliver queen (that the opponent got out 5th turn with harrow vs. him).. Scott ends up like 3-2 before dropping with Sligh, Shuler goes UNDEFEATED yet does not make top 8 (4-0-5).. Joe was rocking at 5-1 before I left, but I didn't see his name in top 8 in another report... :( not a good regionals. Until I enter the booster draft at the end of round 2. I draft a type 2 white weenie/red deck. Highlights: *2* soltari priests, 1 foot trooper, crusader, warrior en-kor, nomads en-kor, disenchant, change of heart, safeguard, shock, aftershock, 2 canyon wildcats, searing touch, master decoy, conviction, giant strength, and some more shadow beatdown. Round 1 - B/U .. I get out some quick shadow and run him over pretty quickly.. he was a bit mana screwed I think, which helped. Game 2 he drops Rootwater Matriarch right after I put a conviction on my creature.. I like the conviction bounce ability. :) He ends up playing a torment on my decoy which was wrecking him and steals it.. the shadow goes all the way though, as I hold my conviction and giant strength in hand. Silly matriarch.. Round 2 - W/R.. This guy. Has almost a mirror of my deck it seems.. Trooper, Searing, good WW shadow, shock, etc.. but he has anoint. for now. game 1 - he beats me down as I draw no mountains and look at my canyon wildcats, shock, and searing touch. his crusader goes all the way, even though he makes a lot of playing mistakes and could have killed me like 3 turns earlier with his searing touch, but opts to kill my creatures that are just sitting there instead. so, on to game 2. I draw all mountains. I curse at my deck. I get beaten down to within an inch of my life, (4 I believe) topdeck a plains, and start dropping creatures to block. I get searing touch action going to get board control, and a couple priests end up going all the way for me. game 3 - my deck seeks forgiveness for the partial mana-screw in games 1 and 2 and gives me 5 land in opening hand. eek.. I draw ok stuff, but get beaten down to 5.. I know he has a shock left in his library, and a searing touch in hand, so I must kill quick. However, my only creature on the board is a warrior en-kor. I also have a safeguard out, his permanents are a metallic sliver and some other random creature that is not hurting me due to safeguard. (he also hasnt drawn his disenchant).. Note: I am a SCRUB. I do not really know damage prevention rules very much, and the below is not me trying to cheat, it is plain ignorance. He attacks with the sliver and some other random creature. I block the sliver with the warrior, and safeguard the other damage. He anoints the sliver like I thought he would, and I disenchant in response so I can make the anoint fizzle. Little did I know that this isn't legal, since we are in DP (and anoint wouldn't fizzle anyway..). He is confused by this, and calls the judge over. I explain the situation to him as does he, the judge examines and ponders, and rules that the anoint fizzles and the metallic sliver is toast. Yates, who was sitting next to me, looks on in complete and utter shock, as I'm sure anyone else did who saw that. A turn or 2 later, he draws and plays a mogg bombers. I curse. I draw .. and realize I am going to die, since I can't stop the bomber damage, as I'm sure he will topdeck a creature soon. Since he's been playing sloppily, I decide to try and get him to make a mistake. I play a clergy en-vec, take the bomber damage, and go to 2. He has the searing touch IN HAND, with enoughto buyback and kill me. He searing touches the clergy. I searing touch it in response to make his searing touch fizzle. woo.. he grumbles and places his touch in the graveyard, and the warrior en-kor goes.. ALL... THE... WAY!, and takes his life from 22 to 0, with a little help from conviction and searing touch. Chris now brings up the fizzling anoint, me and the opponent both are like "oh.. oops." and the judge has the same look on his face. I feel bad, but I honestly didn't know.. and the judge was called over, I thought he would have caught it if something was going on wrong.. Chris then shakes my hand and calls me a good player, since I can make anoints fizzle. I exchange several more handshakes, and move on to finals. Finals - G/R with spikes, wall of diffusion, and just plain FAT. game 1 - I get an insane draw. 1st turn foot soldier, 2nd turn priest, 3rd turn priest, 4th turn master decoy and shock. He's dead in no time flat. game 2 - he runs me over with fat before my shadows get enough beatings in. game 3 - i drop 2 priests, he drops wall of diffusion. priests win. He natural springs and starts beating me with fat, but I'm able to en-kor his warrior damage to my priests, and smite one of his spikes, while taking a point or three of damage here and there.. it comes down to him topdecking at the end, and doesn't pull it off.. priests go all the way. I get 6 packs of tempest for my troubles, and am happy that I won something at regionals. Not much else happens.. I play wolfensberger and his bloom deck with my static orb deck and take him to school 2-0 with mad auras of silence.. :) Below, the static orb deck, and changes that are going to be made. 4 Howling Mine 4 Howling Mine 2 Squandered Resources //cut 3 Mox Diamond 4 Counterspell 4 Counterspell 2 Power Sink // -1 1 Power Sink 1 Lobotomy 1 Lobotomy 3 Gerrard's Wisdoms 3 Gerrard's Wisdoms 1 Wrath of God 1 Wrath of God 3 Humility 3 Humility 2 Impulse // +1 3 Impulse 3 Wall of Blossoms // +1 4 Wall of Blossoms 2 Wall of Roots // cut 4 Tithe 2 Gaea's Blessings 2 Gaea's Blessings 1 Scroll Rack 1 Scroll Rack 2 Armageddon 2 Armageddon 3 Static Orb 3 Static Orb 3 Propaganda 3 Propaganda 2 Aura of Silence 2 Aura of Silence 21 land 17 land it looks janky, but it works. well. the orig. version had too many non-basics and got hosed by wastelands, the new version has like 6-7 basics, tithes, and moxes.. much more consistent.