Subject: German Regionals Report Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 11:38:13 +0200 From: Gregor Wernet Hi everyone. Last Saturday I played in the Baden-Wuerttemberg (southwest Germany) regionals. Being last year's regional champion, I forced myself to train a bit more and to prepare on the new format. I'd had a blue/green Tradewind Rider deck for quite a while when Stronghold came out, but it just wasn't tourney quality and I didn't want to make it 5CG, so it rested. Enter Stronghold. With Mana Leak, Wall of Blossoms and the most broken card in Stronghold, Awakening, I rebuilt the Tradewind deck, still mostly for fun, and played it. And it started winning. Against Sligh, against XCW and XCB, BottleNecro, Counterdecks. It had problems with 5CG and heavy discard, though. A lot of playtesting later the deck was tuned and probably tourney quality, although I had serious doubts. The deck was close to unbeatable on good days, but sometimes it just wasn't winning anything. I was also giggling uncontrollably whenever anyone got to the beginning of his upkeep :-). The deck in its final version is a combo- as well as a control-deck. It can start defensively and kill the traditional control way, 1 point at a time while the opponent can't do much, or it can leave your opponent with no permanents by turn 6 or 7. It stil had some weaknesses, but I really liked it, so I played it. I even convinced one of my teammates to play the same deck. For all who just want to copy the decklist, here it is. I have to warn you, however, you have to be quite mad to play this deck. :-) 4 Tradewind Rider 4 Wall of Blossoms 4 Uktabi Orangutans 3 Suq'ata Firewalker 2 Birds of Paradise 2 Wall of Roots 4 Awakening 4 Impulse 4 Counterspell 4 Mana Leak 3 Capsize 2 Skyshroud Forest 2 Reflecting Pool 2 Quicksand 10 Island 7 Forest Sideboard: 4 Hydroblast 3 Man'o'War 3 Disrupt 2 Scragnoth 2 Emerald Charms 1 Capsize At first glance, it must seem quite mad. Who else would play 4 Orangutans ? But in a deck with no artifacts, they really can't hurt. Sometimes Man'o'War would have been better, but sometimes not. The 'no Man'o'Wars main' decision was purely metagame, but they got sided often enough. Several times I was asked if you had to be sick to play this deck, so it obviously worked... Round 1: Marco ?, playing some r/g/b splash weenie deck with Sengir Autocrats and Gobbo Bombardment. Not a very solid deck. Game 1 I get out a few walls and a Firewalker that he can't ping. His weenies go down slowly and once he's at only 2 creatures I put down the Tradewind and ping/bounce him to death. He hasn't seen the Awakening yet, so I still have some surprses left for him. Game 2 I get a fast Awakening, bounce it all and he concedes. 2-0 1-0-0 Round 2: Maik Zimmermann, playing u/g/w Tradewind without Awakenings, but with Geddons and Man'o'Wars. This is quite funny; we played each other in last year's regionals in round 2, too. Game 1 we both play some walls, then, when he's tapped out, I play Awakening. He has to read it, which means I have won. :-) I bounce all he got and he concedes. Game 2 I'm even better prepared with Man'o'Wars and win the Tradewind race. 2-0 2-0-0 Round 3: Stefan Leppert, playing 5CG heavy on the Tradewind theme. Game 1 takes quite a while with me starting to Capsize without counters several times, him Geddoning several times, both of us building up again, and so on. I still can't draw a counter and and he Geddon/Tradewind locks me for the kill. Game 2 I get a third turn Awakening with counterbackup and bounce everything he has. We go into the third game with 10 minutes left, both of us hoping for a fast start. We both play several walls and he gets out some weenies. He Geddons with not much left in his hand, while I hold an Island, a Rider, and have 2 Wall of Roots in play, so it would have been interesting. Time is called, however, so we settle with a draw. I was quite lucky this round, normally this is the deck that kills me, especially the Grangers. 1-1 2-0-1 Round 4: Wolfgang ?, playing a u/w Wrath/Disk/Teferi's Veil deck. Game 1 I start fast, Monkey several artifacts and get an Awakening out. I start to bounce some stuff and get into a counterwar over a Capsize which I win. I bounce everything and after a few turns he concedes. Game 2 he starts fast with Th. Seer and Fog Elemental, but he's still searching for the veil. I get some walls, play Awakening and start bouncing lands, then creatures. He concedes with me still having comfortable 10 life. 2-0 3-0-1 Round 5: Khan Quan Tran(no guarantees on the spelling), playing Druid Misery 5 colors with Slivers. He eventually got to the finals, but I couldn't stay long enough to see who won. Game 1 I get fast mana with a bird while he prepares for the combo using a Mana Leak. He finally goes for it and attacks with a Necratog. When I don't block he buries his library and pumps the 'tog. I search the library and see no more counters. I capsize the 'tog. He Mana Leaks, which I anticipated (who'd play 1 counter in a deck?). I Mana Leak back, but he counters with a Dark Ritual. Game 2 I just can't get any Awakenings, just counters, while starts playing Slivers (Crystalline fist, then Muscles). I'm colorscrewed with only 1 blue at first, 2 later, but he didn't even go for the combo. 0-2 3-1-1 I have to win the last two to be final 8 and qualify for the nationals. Round 6: Stefan ?, playing r/u counterburn with Hammers, Shard Phoenix and Snake Basket. Game 1 I draw 2 birds, a wall and a Tradewind. The bids, however, get roasted and the Wall is 'quaked. We both play more and more mana and I ping him a bit with a Firewalker, until he plays a Snake Basket. Where are those damn Monkey when you really need them? I get quite a beating and end at 3(not a good number). I play an Awakening and ping away at him, attacking wiht the Tradewind, too. Luckily he's out of incinerates for now and I ping him to death. Game 2 he's colorscrewed with just one Island. I play the almighty Awakening and he Impulses for a Caldera Lake. I have the Capsize to keep him at 1 blue and slowly draw the land to bounce it all. He concedes. 2-0 4-1-1 Round 7: Oliver Schmidt, also known as Caruso(don't ask me why). He's playing XCW, no Armors. We're both playing for the Nationals. He starts fast with three weenies while I only have one wall. I play an Awakening, but I don't have a Capsize. I quicksand a weenie and am at 2 with only a wall, a lot of mana and a counter in hand. I topdeck a Capsize and manage to turn the game around by bouncing the weenies, and slowly his lands, too. Game 2 he plays 2 shadows. I'm greenscrewed but feel quite confident as I play a Quicksand and a Firewalker. Little did I know. On his turn, he plays White Knight, Cursed Totem. ARGH!!! After I sideboarded all my Orangutans! I Man'o'War a shadow, quicksand the other. He makes a mistake in playing a Warrior en-Kor instead of the shadow (he had to use 2 U. Paradises last turn). Next turn I finally get green mana, play Wall of Blossoms and Mana Leak the shadow. Play two more Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Tradewind. I have quite a defense, but no more counters, but I'm still at 10. He incinerates me. Next turn he incinerates me. Next turn he incinerates me. I'm not THAT comfortable at 1. I play a few Awakenings so I don't have to discard(I'm holding two Man'o'Wars for a Shadow weenie and lands for a Geddon. I still can't get a Capsize, but at least I draw a Counterspell. Next turn he tries the fourth incinerate, so I counter. We both play lands a few turns until I finally get a Capsize. He has 2 Totems by now, so I go for his lands as I fear a disenchant on the Totem that would cost me the Capsize. He obviously hopes for Pyroblast, but I can bounce his lands before he can draw anything useful, so he concedes and I'm in. 2-0 5-1-1 I get in comfortable as fourth. My teammate with the same deck finished 4 1/2, so he didn't make the cut. Guess he was too sane for the deck! :-) Quarterfinals Stefan Leppert(the one from round 3). Well, this time I didn't get lucky. Game 1 he gets those damned Grangers and Geddons until I'm Tradewind locked. Game 2 I get few creatures and a lot of land. I play several Tradewinds, but they're all Mana Leaked. I can build a defense with Man'o'Wars and Scragnoths that can't be bounced, but he slowly kills me with a Cloudchaser Eagle and a Granger. 0-2 We have to play out the last places for prizes, even though 5-8 all get the same stuff...Strange. The epic battle for the places 5 and 6 (the others went home without their boosters): Harald Laiss, playing straight white weenie with Crusades, Scrolls and Knights of Dawn. Game 1 I get the lock, but I can't Capsize all his lands fast enough and a Knight of Dawn kills me. Game 2 I'm mana flooded and couldn't draw much to stop the crusaded horde. I got his Scrolls, though. (Btw, he was the only one in the final 8 to play Scrolls). So I finished 6th, a result that I'm happy with. I requalified for the Nationals, and I played a deck that I designed myself, and hey, I got 2 boosters(I'm soooo happy). Any comments on the deck are welcome, just email me. -- Gregor Wernet grwernet@med.uni-tuebingen.de