Subject: Salt Lake Regionals Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 02:23:07 -0500 From: Jack Lewis Stanton To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com SALT LAKE REGIONALS REPORT By Jack Lewis Stanton To say that the Salt Lake Regionals was fun is an understatement. It was fantastic. Not only did I get to see most of my Minions of Atog teammates, but I saw many who I haven't seen for quite a while. It's always nice to be surrounded by friends. My main preparation for this event took place during the course of the last two months. Along with teammates Tony Lau and Brad Cole, I managed to get in anywhere from 3-10 hours of type II a day, not including my time online. I had access to most of the top decks in the world through my participation at certain events such as the Junior Super Series and Pro Tours. Online, players such as Eric Tam, Lan Ho, and Alex Shvartsman exchanged ideas. These are just some of the things players are going through these days in order to have better showings (as this is as important as having the skill to play the decks you select). In the early stages, I was thinking of playing a 5CU Donais deck, 5CG, or a Sligh variant. In my testing, I really bonded with the Sligh and 5CG. Though I wanted to play exclusively with the Donais deck, I knew my teammate Brad wanted to play it and that I'd have to loan him some of the cards for it (eliminating it as a choice for me). So, I decided on the 5CG with a month to go before regionals, testing it extensively against the major deck types and some of the not so played decks to make it the best that I could. The Deck I decided to play: 9 Forest 3 Undiscovered Paradise 3 Cities of Brass 4 Gemstone Mine 3 Winter Orb 4 Armageddon 4 Birds of Paradise 2 Quirion Ranger 2 Sex Monkey 3 Joreal's Centaur 4 Tradewind Rider 3 Terror 4 Incinerate 2 Derelor 3 Mana Leak 4 Granger Guildmage 4 Wall of Roots Sideboard 4 Pyroblast 3 Hydroblast 2 Disenchant 2 Tranquil Domain 3 Propaganda 1 Terror The basic premise of the deck was to go about countering/burning/terroring threats while setting up Tradewind lock, Geddon lock, or Derelor beatdown. In this way, it played much like Winter Orb decks I've played in the past. In fact, the Winter Orb was used quite extensively to set up a near Time Walk situation when it was played. The sideboard allowed me to defeat many like decks, as well as those not commonly seen. To put it mildly, I was very confident with this deck. Friday, May 15th Tony Lau, Brad Cole, and I set out for the Salt Lake City Mountain Regionals after Tony got out of school. The 215 mile trip is spent pointing out sites of interest to Brad, who hasn't made the trip with us before. He gets to see the famous cow heard, as well as the Clan McCow of the Utah Highlands. Arriving safely in Salt Lake, we head over to the only game shop worth visiting in the Salt Lake Valley: Mind Games. Many are in from out of town. Testing (or scouting) is going on at a furious pace. Much trading is going on. Another typical pre-tourney night. After gathering our teammates David Jolly and Sammy Batarseh, we head over to our other teammates' house, Mike Callahan and the lovely Julie. Everyone except Julie and I practice, as we've decided on what we want to play already and really don't want to play. Julie gives me 14 Destroyer books I don't have, so I'm happy. Other than that, I pretty much loan out cards and don't get to bed until everyone else, despite my not playtesting. Wake up call is for 7am. Saturday, May 16th, Regionals Day Late to bed, early to rise, makes one very tired. The benefit of waking up early ahead of everyone else is that you get all the hot water, as Tony Lau found out after everyone had showered. David Jolly picked me up early so he could attempt some last minute sales. Dodging all the pre-Olympics construction, we somehow made it over to the hotel parking lot and went inside. Participants included players from: Montana, Utah, California, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, and Arizona (probably the most diverse group in the country). Many I have known for a while, enjoying their company at several of the larger events. This is what makes Magic tournaments what they are….the people. Anyway, registration took quite a while, as there were 148 players signed up. Right before pairings came up for the first round, an error was detected in the system, so the judges gave us 30-40 minutes for lunch. Better now than not at all. As we were right across the street from the Crossroads Mall in the downtown area, it was just a matter of crossing the construction to the land of food. 1st Round Opponent Kenny Atwood--Payson, Utah Kenny is the player who qualified for PT LA out of the Utah qualifier this year and I have respect for his playing ability. An ironic sidenote is that I talked to Kenny on IRC a few days before, telling him that I would squash him like a bug if we met. It's so nice getting to test your beatdown theories in person.:D 1st Game It appears that Kenny is playing a Living Death 5CG variant, much like the Peaches deck played by Joe Ellis at the same tourney. He gets down three lands and Peaches (Spike Feeder) during the course of his first four turns. My first turn I lay a Forest and Bird. Second turn I lay another land, a Wall of Roots, and a Quirion Ranger. Third turn I lay another Forest, tap it for mana, as well as my other sources, and Armageddon, returning a Forest to my hand. Next turn, a Tradewind Rider comes out to lock the game and Kenny conceeds. Three to four minute game. Not a bad start. 2nd Game Having no real idea what he's playing at this point, I decided not to sideboard against him. The second game comes down to a lack of creatures on the board for Kenny, while I have many. Creatures I had out at the end of the game included: 1 Derelor, 1 Sex Monkey, 1 Queer Ranger, and 3 Granger Guildmages. My Terrors scared things away quite a bit this game. Match 1-0 2nd Round Opponent Teammate Aaron Muranaka--Layton, Utah What can I say about Aaron, other than I've been his bitch for quite a long time, never having won a match of Magic against him. He has owned me, regardless of the situation. What's more, his brother had owned me for quite a while (including a semi-final PTQ victory over me when I was 7-0 at the time that kept me out of PTLA1). I broke the Robert Muranaka curse sometime last year at a PTQ, now I wanted some revenge on Aaron. 1st Game It is quickly apparent that Aaron is playing a Sliver deck, as he plays a few Slivers. Of course, he did tell me earlier what he was playing, so that was a giveaway as well.:D With Aaron unwilling to commit to the summoning of critters and tapping out (so that I could Geddon), I applied major Guildmage beatdown. The only damage I took the entire game was from my Guildmage getting mad at something and pinging it to death (Winged Sliver?). Sometime during the game, I get Tradewind Lock and Aaron conceeds. 2nd Game After siding in my 4 Pyroblast, I proceeded to get beat upon by some very untargetable slivers: 2 Winged and 1 Crystalline Sliver. It wasn't pleasant. Still, my Guildmage comes to play once again, beating Aaron down to 13. 3rd Game I manage to pull some Pyroblasts, keeping the Crystalline Sliver from becoming a threat. My beatdown consists of 2 Guildmages, 1 Centaur, an Incinerate, and a concession. Winning this match, I have finally broken the Muranaka Clan Curse that has plagued me for two years now. It shall now be referred to as the Stanton Curse afflicting the Muranakas. After all, fair's fair. Match 2-0 3rd Round Opponent John Carter (Not the Warlord of Mars)--Salt Lake City, Utah Having John as my opponent at this point means I've had to play three of the better Utah players right in a row. An interesting start. John was playing a Flagpole type U/G Tradewind of his own construction. Heavier on the counterspells (9-10) than the normal deck of this type. I felt confident, as my deck had more main deck threats than his as long as I could Geddon or slap down a Worb at one point or another. 1st Game First game has me getting out the Guildmage and many walls and Birds. On the other hand, John has brought out a couple of Man O Wars, and a Spike Feeder. I somehow get a Tradewind lock out with me at 5 life. John concedes at 18 life. 2nd Game In this game, it was all about the Mad Queer Ranger and her friend the Centaur. My Pyroblast prevented him from enjoying any kind of advantage. My three main Terrors didn't hurt either. Match 3-0 4th Round Opponent Keith Ouellette--Las Vegas, Nevada Keith is one of the nicer guys to come play in Salt Lake from the surrounding states. It's always nice to play against a person such as him due to his sportsmanlike behavior and attitude. I knew I was in for a battle, as he was playing some new tech that I wasn't aware of up till AFTER this match. 1st Game I brought out some early damage with a Guildmage, Sex Monkey, and Queer Ranger and tried for Tradewind lock early due to some early cards I had seen out of his deck. He let the Tradewind hit the table, but Firestormed it, along with two other critters and me at the end of my turn to clear the board. He had a Slayer out that was annoying me each and every round. Having the chance to kill it on my turn with a Winter Orb out (on his side), I chose for some ignorant reason to wait until his turn to Incinerate the Slayer, giving him the chance to Mana Leak it. Despite this mistake, I know I wouldn't have won due to my lack of playable cards and his hand of fat. After losing this game, I tried to sideboard in something that might help me, though I was very worried as I had no real clue the contents of his deck. 2nd Game In go the 3 Hydroblast and 3 Propaganda. Sideboard till it hurts I say. Anyway, this game hurt. I really didn't put any threats on the board, while a Dauthi Horror on his side of the board attacked over and over (despite my Propaganda). He had a Fellwar Stone (very strong, as everyone was playing Cities, Undiscovereds, and Gemstones) that allowed his Horror the mana to attack me. This wasn't pretty. Match 3-1 5th Round Opponent Travis Thomas--Salt Lake City, Utah Travis is a good player who has a little history against the Minions of Atog. He was a member of Team South Florida when we defeated them at the Duelist Team Invitational finals at Origins '96. A very strong player, who finished top eight in the US Nationals that year, as well. Very unique deck playing style. That is, he doesn't normally play something out of the field. 1st Game It quickly becomes apparent that Travis is playing a mono blue deck featuring Walls of Air, Walls of Tears, Glacier Walls, Man O Wars and Tradewind Riders. Okay. I can live with this. Dropping a Queer Ranger, I service for a while, until I can slip a Winter Orb out to counteract his counter magic. Eventually, Derelor shows up for some wall bashing. Taking out two Walls of Tears, Derelor is still around at the end. 2nd Game Something happened. I got my ass kicked bigtime. There was no reason to go on (I believe he got Counter/Tradewind Lock on me). 3rd Game I am able to get the counters out of his hand, allowing me to set up a soft Tradewind lock. Something happened which forced me to bounce a permanent other than the land each turn. This allowed him to shoot for a Disk a couple of times, so I was forced to bounce that. Eventually, I found a Mana Leak and countered the Disk on his turn, then drew a Winter Orb, followed by an Armageddon. It wasn't a pretty sight. Match 4-1 6th Round Opponent Eric Burwell--Las Vegas, Nevada Eric was another Vegas guy who turned out to be a very strong player, as well as a nice guy. 1st Game I deal no damage to Eric, while he deals damage with the following cards: Mogg Fantastic, Scalding Tongs, Fireblast, Fireblast. Good thing I Mana Leaked one of the other Fireblast! Can you guess what kind of deck he was playing? 2nd Game Hmmmm. Eric's Sligh was one of the tougher match-ups for me, as the artifact Sligh normally gave me more problems than the standard Sligh. In went the Hydroblast, as well as the three Propagandas. It didn't help much. He managed to get out a Cursed Totem which shut down my Tradewind Rider that came out too late. Nothing much else came out during this time other than a Wall of Roots. With Geddon in hand, I never pulled the mana to give me recovery time and I lost massive life to Cursed Scroll and Scalding Tongs. My only highlight of the game came when I was at two life and I told Eric, "I hate to have to do this" while tapping two mana. He looked at me kind of strangely as I Incinerated myself to death. No sense dragging it out. Match 4-2 7th Round Opponent Chris Hansen-Helper, Utah I had never met Chris before and didn't have a clue of what he was playing. A very soft-spoken 16-18 year old from what I could gather. 1st Game I start off strong by mulliganing down to five cards. Funny thing is, I draw lots of land while Chris draws lots of slivers, including the Crystalline and Muscle type. I die. 2nd Game In go the four Pyroblast. This would have to rate as my most interesting match of the day. With one land in hand, I decided to keep it, as I also had a bird and didn't want to possibly mulligan myself out of the match. So my first turn, I drop a Bird. Second turn, a Wall of Roots, Queer Ranger, and a reset of the Bird by using the Ranger's special ability. Third turn, I drop a Jorael's Centaur and reset so as to counter any threats Chris might throw down. I have him down around 6 life before I draw a second land. Such are the ways of Magic. 3rd Game In what amounts to a race (him-Crystalline, Winged, and Acidic Sliver, me-Guildmage, Centaur, Winter Orb, and some well placed Incinerates), I somehow manage to come out on top by one turn and one point. Match 5-2 8th Round Opponent Aubrey Persons-Phoenix, Arizona Aubrey proves to be one of the friendlier people at the tourney that day. There from Arizona with her boyfriend, she also proves to be a very intelligent and cunning opponent. However, she was playing a Flagpole type variant of the U/G deck for which I had very little difficulties due to my Worbs and Geddons. 1st Game As with many games before this, one of my Guildmages shows up to do a dance number before the star of the show (Derelor) shows up for the main act. With plenty of non-land mana sources out, as well as a Worb, Aubrey was only able to Man O War the Derelor a few times to prevent his rampage, not being able to counter due to the Worb and my own counters (Leaks). The main play came with her having two Man O Wars out to my marauding Derelor. I attacked, and after her block was declared, I Terrored one of the Man O Wars. It was over shortly after that. 2nd Game Allowing a Tradewind of hers to hit the table, I was able to keep all other creature cards from hitting the table or staying out long enough to give her some kind of a lock. A Geddon proved to be strong, as well as the laying of my own Tradewind after the Geddon. She conceded the game shortly after. Final Match Score 6-2 (10th Place Overall) Now, for some complaining about individuals during the tournament. During my last round match-up against Aubrey, a woman from I do believe Las Vegas turned to her and pointing at my teammate Brad (on the other table playing Rob Swarowski, GP San Jose Champion) said, "This guy over here is calling all the Arizona women bitches!" Knowing that Brad was mad at a male from Arizona who stalled him out of a match win, I could understand why he might say Arizona Bitch about the guy that that the woman heard him wrong. So, finishing my match, I went about trying to find out what happened. After discussing it with many people who actually heard what was said, I must say that this lady proved very unladylike in her accusations of Brad. First off, he called Rob Swarowski a bitch, not you. Second, when people around, including Rob told you that Brad didn't call you a bitch, you turned to Aubrey and made something up, trying to rile up the crowd against Brad by lying. Your husband came in and after hearing your side of the story (but not the truth) and an apology from Brad for something he didn't say to you, threatened Brad. Despite hearing the truth from Swarowski and others present, you continued to lie and interfere with an ongoing match which did not concern you until you took it upon yourself to jump in. A word of advice to you the next time you start getting everyone pissed off in a room by lying. Think about the consequences. You could have had a very nice time bailing your husband out of jail Saturday night if he'd carried through with his threats. I admire him in a way for his willingness to defend your honor. But think of what your lies could have cost him if he had acted. I'd be more than happy to hear your side of the story, but I'm afraid that what you were spouting off at the tourney wouldn't match the story of Brad, his opponent Rob Swarowski, the judge who was present, and the other spectators who heard what was said. So much for my rant. The final eight of the event and how they finished: 1st Steve Jarvis playing a 5cg deck with Walls of Blossoms instead of Walls of Roots. One of the funniest things I heard all day was when Steve, quite seriously, was discussing his favorite card of the tournament after his Semis victory over Brian Plumb. Pulling out a card, he said, "This has just kicked butt all day long! It beat the heck out of Sligh. Major card advantage!" What was he holding? A Firewhip! His second great quote was, "I almost played my Bligh deck today", referring to his Mono Blue fish deck. It's interesting to hear what some think of the metagame sometimes. I guess it's a good thing Steve wasn't able to find all his Bligh cards.:D 2nd Keith Ouellette playing his Six Pack, or as I refer to it, that Five-Color Forgotten Orb thing that kicked my butt. The deck, designed in part by Keith and Shannon Krummick, proved to be incredibly strong and intelligent. His listing of the deck appears on the Dojo. I suggest players study and prepare for it, as I see it being flexible enough to support several different versions. 3rd Sammy Batarseh (Minions of Atog teammate) playing Sligh. Sam will be listed as coming in fourth on wotc records, as they had him sign the wrong spot (he was the highest placing swiss finisher out of the top three), but in reality, he did finish 3rd. Sam has a weird bloodline as far as his Magic career is concerned. While I worked the summer of 96 for Mark Justice, Sam did as well. Knowing on that first day of work that Sam was the type of kid who one could joke around with, I told him (a notorious sportscard collector and hater of Magic) that he'd have to learn how to play Magic that summer or I'd have Mark kick him out. So within three days, he had a 3200 count box of cards and was playing just as hard as anyone else. The strange thing is, Mark and I taught this kid from his very first Magic day. Now he's going to Nationals. Can't argue that! I gave him my Sligh deck to play for the tourney, but he changed five or six cards to suit his playing style. I guess it worked, as he went 6-0-2 during the Swiss portions of the show. Not only that, he went 5-0 against other Sligh decks on the day. Not bad. Now if he could only go to the Junior Super Series next month in Orlando. 4th Brian L. Plumb playing Sligh. I have no idea who Brian is, as I've never met the kid. He was playing an artifact Sligh with Mogg Flunkies during the course of the tourney. In his Semis match against Steve, it appeared that he had some problems with the Flunkies not attacking due to others not willing to attack. Such are Flunkies. 5th Josh Napper playing Sligh. I'll take a risk and say that Josh was the man from Denver who lost to Sam in the Quarterfinals. One hell of a nice guy. Sam played him twice and had nothing but good things to say about him. It'll be good to see him play at Nationals. 6th Eric Burwell playing Sligh. Another of the two players who beat me and ended up in the top eight. I do believe Eric had to play Brian Plumb in a Sligh on Sligh match-up in the Quarters. Not a nice thing. Another who deserved to go to Nationals. 7th Eric Gonce playing Tradewind 5CG. I don't know Eric. I think he's from Vegas. Um, that's about it. 8th Joe Ellis playing Peaches (see his Dojo Tourney report). A great player out of the Bay Area, now of Provo while his wife attends college. Sporting one of the top two decks of the finals, it was his misfortune to play the other top deck in the quarters. Having him in the Provo area should prove a boon to their Magic scene in the future. I look forward to events with Joe in them in the future. Props Julie and Mike once again. They get props every time I go down to Utah due to their putting the team up, as well as putting up with the team. Julie a second time for getting me 14 Destroyer books I didn't have. I know I already mentioned it earlier, but hey, it's Destroyer books! She actually risked Utah traffic to drive up to Ogden to get them. Trust me, that's something special. Brad for lots of entertainment during the contest. Sam for qualifying, even though the Lakers got their asses handed to them by the Jazz. Boy, was that a beating. Shannon Krummick, Keith Ouellette, and Eric Burwell. The boys from Vegas did some major stomping. Too bad Shannon didn't make it, but he still provided some great conversation. Dees Restaurant in Salt Lake City (too many to count). I gotta prop their Lumberjack Breakfast. 2 Eggs, 3 Pieces of Bacon, 2 Sausage Links, 1 big-ass piece of ham, hash browns, and three pancakes! All for $4. Was it on special? I don't know and I don't care! It kicked ass after the tourney at 3am! Dave Jolly (teammate) for loaning me cards. Hell, not only did he loan them to me, he got extras (more than four) just to make sure we had what we needed. Slops To the woman who butted into Brad's and Rob's match. Get your facts straight before you start flinging accusations. And when you do get the facts, don't start spreading lies. First, you think he calls you a bitch. Everyone says he didn't. So then you tell Aubrey and all the Arizona crowd that he called the Arizona women bitches, even though it wasn't true. Why? That's just ignorant. You made yourself look like the word you were never called. Husband of woman. Though I respect that you stuck up for your wife, I suggest that you get the facts straight before rushing in next time (hopefully there isn't a next time). Brad apologized something like five or six times for something he didn't say, yet all you could say was that you wanted to step outside with him or that you were going to kick his ass. BTW, I have spoken with some of the Arizona people and they told me they were very upset at Brad…….until they found out the truth. Good thing, otherwise it might have got ugly. I can't think of any other slops, as everything was pretty much professionally run once again. The Utah judges have nothing to be embarrassed about (other than some of their players). Take care all, Jack Lewis Stanton Minions of Atog Team Player Contributor to The Duelist Sideboard