Subject: Scottish Championships (UK Regionals) Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 16:34:05 +0100 From: Graham Thomson To: "'Frank Kusumoto'" The Scottish Championships 17th May 1998 First the background, we are playing for: 1) Pride, the right to call ourselves Scottish Champion for 12 months. 2) Trophy, the Scottish National Magic Champion Juled Wurm. A two foot high Celtic Dragon, sculpted by Scottish artist Julian Haigh and without a shadow of doubt the most impressive magic trophy I have ever seen (you can keep your glassware). 3) Team, a place in the Scottish National team to represent our country at the Worlds - NOT! The Scottish Championships are not a National qualifier for the worlds, they are a regional qualifier (12 places) for the UK Nationals. To quote our National Anthem, Flower of Scotland: O Flower of Scotland When will we see Your like again, That fought and died for Your wee bit Hill and Glen And stood against him Proud Edward's Army, And sent him homeward Tae think again. Those days are past now And in the past they must remain But we can still rise now And be the nation again That stood against him Proud Edward's Army And sent him homeward, Tae think again. We are a proud nation with generations of history, not some state or country invented in the last century or millenium for that matter, but to WOTC we are merely a region of the UK. The competitors: 61 of Scotland's best. Because of the hard nosed attitude to Magic being exhibited by more and more competitive players in the UK, very few fun players bother turning up to tournaments in Scotland now (which I believe is a loss to the sport as a whole but others would probably come out with something like "if it is too hot in the kitchen ...). As currently the highest ranked player in Scotland, I am one of the favourites, but I have not played in a Type 2 tournament in Scotland in over a year. Other Pro Tour players are there as well: Gary "Can't Win" Campbell; Dougie "Back Door" Anderson, Silas "Skinny Puppy" Bath and Ben "Hair Golem" Sanders (if you saw him you would understand, he is hairier than ZZ Top). Local favourites like Barry "Ferrari" Brown from Aberdeen, Clark "Greet" Swan from Dundee and David Hughes from Glasgow are present as well. The deck: I have not played Type 2 since the UK Nationals 1997, 11 months ago and panic was starting to gently set in. Whilst in New York, I discussed this with fellow Pro Tour drop out Rob Salmon and he told me about a stupid black deck they had thrown together for a friend, who had then qualified for the English Championships with it. So we worked on the idea, refined it, asked Mike Donais for his advice on it and playtested in the local clubs in England and Scotland. The Steaming Pile: a black speed / control deck, an obvious contradiction and very unlikely to work, but it did! The tournament: Round 1 v David Chapman This match started oddly enough, David called over a judge and insisted that the judge shuffle David's deck as the last time we had met in a tournament (over 2 years ago) I had 3 pile shuffled his deck and he had got mana screwed. David was playing a Counter Burn deck built for him by Barry "Ferrari" Brown, game 1 it came out like a train and I stalled. Games 2 & 3 were more predictable and the speed black took him down before he could get going. 1-0-0 Round 2 v Scott Macpherson Scott was playing an interesting Black/Green/Red deck, but its lack of focus meant a quick 2-0 victory. 2-0-0 Round 3 v Alasdair Bryce The first duel was close, but the speed black was faster that the White Weenie. The second duel, my first draw was a Gloom with a Dark Ritual in hand and just when he was one mana off disenchanting the Gloom, I laid a second one. His opening hand had a Light of Day in it, Dark Ritual rocks. 3-0-0 Round 4 v Dougie "Back Door" Anderson (Feature Match) Dougie is playing 5CB a favourite of the Dundee players. Game 1 I get a fast start and win fast. Game 2 he gains control of the board and finishes me off. Game 3 is the closest, we are both low on life but I have a Cursed Scroll on the table. I have to use the scroll on his creatures to prevent him killing me and he has to constantly use his Volraths Stronghold to stop me finishing him off. After the match we look at the top card of his library, which has sat there for several turns, Disenchant, which would have taken out the scroll and given him the game - unlucky. 4-0-0 Round 5 v Doug Nelson Dougie borrowed a xerox 5CU on the morning of the tournament and played like he had designed it. Game 1 was tight, I kept him on the ropes, so that he could never gain complete control or fill his hand up. He cast Gerrard's Wisdom three times for 6 life each time! Eventually I over ran him. Game 2 sideboarded was much quicker (4 or 5 turns) and I admitted that the deck was designed to take down 5CU. 5-0-0 With 61 competitors and my opponents match percentage, I was now likely to make the last 8 even if I lost the next two matches. Round 6 v Sylvain Lauriol (Feature Match) Sylvain (a Frenchman attending a Scottish University) recently appeared on the Magic scene in Scotland, I had never played him before and made a grave mistake of underestimating him. He was playing his own designed aggressive 5CG. After a garbled conversation half in French and half in Scots, Sylvain who thought I was trying to persuade him to id, offered me a draw, which I declined. Game 1 he appeared to top deck all the cards he needed to deal with each threat I produced and won easily. I knew my sideboard should cope with 5CG but overconfidence led me to sideboard out sub optimally. Game 2 was closer, but in hindsight, he did get the god draw against me and I crashed 0-2. As a sub note Sylvain and I played several duels with the same decks the next night in a local club and the results were very different, but it is what happens on the day that counts. 5-1-0 Round 7 v Reynolt de Vos van Steenwijk Reynolt, also a foreign student, has been on the Scottish Magic scene for a while. All 6 top players are definitely into the last eight if they id and they all do. Reynolt and I play our match for fun and I take his Cad Bloom deck down 2-1. I then spend the next 30 minutes analysing my deck and deciding on exactly the right sideboarding to do against Sylvain (probably why I did so well against him the next evening, but unfortunately I did not meet him again that day). 5-1-1 The last sixteen are announced and there are two ranking prequalified players (myself and Ben Sanders) in the top 12. So the top 14 and the other 2 prequalified players (Silas Bath and Clark Swan) all qualify for the UK Nationals. The last eight (in no particular order) consisted of Sylvain, Reynolt, Doug Nelson, Bob Horne (aka Rob Lowe on the DCI database), Eric Fulford, David Hughes, Neil Jones and me. Quarter Final v Eric Fulford Lady luck had been with me all day except the first duel of the first match and the fact that Sylvain's luck was just an order of magnitude better than mine, now she left me completely. Game 1 I get a slow start and he has three bugs on the table: Jackal Pup and 2 Mogg Fanatics by turn 2. I take a risk and lay a second turn Kezzadrix. He kills his own bugs and the only other creature he draws all game is Ball Lightning, I die to Kezzadrix plus severe burn. Game 2 I get a better start and ask him to discard a card, he responds with double incinerate followed by double fireblast, but can't finish me off. Game 3 I get two land in my opening hand but don't draw another until it is too late. Eric's deck is interesting, similar in concept to the one that won the Welsh Championships: Red, heavy on burn, light on creatures. 5-2-1 and Fifth (best opponent's match percentage) Which will lose me approximately 32 ranking points :-( Semifinalists were Eric Fulford and Doug Nelson, finalist was David Hughes and Scottish Champion is Sylvain Lauriol. Congratulations to them and everybody who qualified for the UK Nationals. Curiously all four of the losing quarterfinalists practised together the weekend before. Props The good sportsmanship of everybody I played, one of the most pleasant tournaments I have had the pleasure to compete in. Excellent location, lots of space, easy parking, cheap bar on site! Organisation, slow but methodical. Slops The lack of Scottish representation at the Worlds (see above). The lack of Scottish representation at the UK Nationals: Reynolt, Bob Horne and Neil Jones cannot make the UK Nationals because they clash with University exams. WOTC have decided that places will not drop down, so we will only be sending 9 players from this tournament to the UK Nationals, plus the 4 Scots who are in the top 25 UK ranked players. Postscript for WOTC Do not call it the world championships if you decide which nations can and cannot compete based upon financial or numerical considerations. If you want a genuine World Championship with representation by National teams, then base your decision on what constitutes a nation on the most popular world wide team sport: Soccer (which is difficult to admit being a staunch rugby man). The Olympics are not valid for a variety of reasons (mostly political), not least the small island off the coast of Scotland which has in the past fielded its own Olympic team. Cheers <<...>> Dipso Gnome