Subject: Cards that you will see at Regionals Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 15:29:49 PDT From: "Vikram Sareen" To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com With everyone hyped for the upcoming Regionals, I thought it would be a good idea to list the cards that you should probably expect to see there. These are only educated guesses, but these cards are pretty dominant, so here goes: Definites: Cursed Scroll-My oh my, have these cheap wonders become popular! There are probably going to be four of these in every agressive deck, so keep some artifact destruction REAL handy. I have heard rumours that this card will be banned in TM/SH; with it's power, I don't doubt it. Wasteland-There isn't much you can say about these lands; they just rock. Drop four in yuor deck and see what happens. Whispers of the Muse-This is another one of those super-awesome cards. It belongs in just about every serious Type II control deck. This will probably be in Bounce and 5cU the most. Steel Golem-One of the best and cheapest creatures in the current environment, the Steel Golem's drawback has proved significantly easy to deal with. This thing will kill you damn fast, so watch out for it. Wall of Blossoms-One of the cheapest blockers (and a cantrip!), the Wall of Blossoms is the best of the Stronghold walls. The most abusive way to use it is in Bounce w/Tradewind Rider or in Wall of Stompy/Stampeding Wildebeasts, but it is also in 5cU as well. This thing really hurts Cursed Sligh. Mogg Fanatic-The most efficient creature in Sligh. Period. Tradewind Rider-Mr. Bounce is irritating on his own, but combine him with Awakening and he really gets bouncy. Ouch. Bottle Gnomes-Hmm, let's see....a three-mana 1/3 creature usable by any color that always give you three life and makes Jank and Sligh useless.....oh, yeah, THAT sucks. Mox Diamond-Oh, come on. It's a Mox. Nekrataal-See below. Ukatabi Orangutan-See below. Man-O-War-See above. Nevinyrral's Disk-Very useful in most decks, especially in Necro and Counter-Phoenix. Mana Leak-Much better splash Counterspell than Memory Lapse. Expect it in most control decks. Gaea's Blessing-The main reason to pack a Phyrexian Furnace or two in your sideboard. It needs no explanation. Necropotence-See Armaggedon. Armaggedon-As long as this card is tourney-legal, you'll see it around. Winter Orb-Stompy already uses it well, and Propaganda makes this card disgustingly deadly. Capsize-It's truly amazing how much WotC loves Boomerang, isn't it? Dismiss-Counter. Cantrip. Let's move on. Impulse-How many blue decks don't use Impulse? Multi-Mana Lands-A no-brainer, considering how many there are right now. Meditate-Zvi and Bloom really love this card. So do I. Maybes: Hermit Druid-This card is good on it's own as a land finder or in a combo with Haunting Misery, but with Gaea's Blessing it is just sick. Pursuit of Knowledge-Good in WW or with the Sylan deck, but not a definite yet. Maro loves these things. Sacred Ground-Excellent sideboard card, would be a definite if there was more LD in the current environment. Quicksand-Good card, but I haven't seen it all too often of late. This depends on how many creatures you expect in the tournament. Hammer of Bogardan-Cursed Scroll seems to have replaced this, but it is still an excellent card. There are probably others, but these are all I can think of for now. I hope this helps anyone prepare for the Regionals. Thanx :-) Send all comments/flames to: Vikram Sareen ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com