Subject: Northeast Regionals Report Date: Mon, 18 May 1998 11:32:45 -0400 From: "Alan M. Newman" To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com NE Regionals Report - May 16, 1998 **************************************** Our work towards a team *name* began many months ago and our effort towards the Regionals only began after the last PT NY Qualifier. At least the shorter-lived effort has paid off. Erik Rodriguez and I are going to the US Nationals! Going back to late last year when someone (who shall go nameless) suggested "The Administrators of Anal Justice," we kinda knew that we would have difficulty matching the elegance of the name Pacific Coast Legends or the simplicity of the name East Coast Assassins. We have since gone from the Team With No Name to the Team Formerly Known As Prince to Team Long Island, without any name lasting more than one or two hours. Perhaps it is time we let the world vote on a name. Heck, maybe the world just doesn't give a shit. Oh well. It doesn't matter. We're having a great time. Although Erik is our net correspondent whose task is to educate the team on the state of the Dojo, I took it upon myself to analyze the Decks To Beat for both April and May, in order to determine what the field might look like. It didn't take long to comprehend that this environment could be truly unique in the history of the game. Of the 23 decks listed for April, the average deck came in at apx. 21 lands, 9 of which were non-basic. More than 40% were 20 lands or less! Of the 24 decks listed for May, the numbers were nearly identical, and both months displayed an unusual number of 3, 4 and even 5 color decks, with 5CU of course, being the current vogue deck. For the first time since early in the life of this game, land destruction stood out as a distinct possibility. With so many non-basic lands in evidence, Wasteland became an extremely good idea and Choking Sands became a *reliable* damage source. With this knowledge in hand, we all began working towards decks to "beat the field," but Erik and I took the assignment to see if we could come up with a workable LD deck. I built three decks, none of which worked. Using as many as 12 LD spells (including Wastelands), the problem was that these decks could play wonderfully or play *very* flat. Drawing LD when your opponent already has a Crystalline and Muscle Sliver on deck is tanatamount to a Time Walk for him. Even Erik, who typically has brilliant flashes of insight into how to solve a problem, couldn't find the key to a workable LD idea. The environment was still too oriented towards speed with low casting cost effective critters like Pups and Slivers etc. We nevertheless, maintained that in a field with so much color and so little land, mana screw and color screw was likely to be prevalent and some LD was not an option - it was mandatory. As a result, we were also inclined to think *less* color, not more color. With just a couple of brief weeks to go, Carl Li Bassi received a post from his buddy Mark Balabom, who was currently testing with Darwin Kastle for their Regional event. Mark described a mono-black speed deck featuring 4 Sarcomancys. I immediately liked the idea, having played a fun Auratog deck with 4 Sarcomancys (and Argivian Finds) some months back. A 2/2 for one black is about as good as it gets. Downside? Who cares? There was *no* LD in Mark's deck. Carl, Chris Donovan and Sergio Costanzo immediately built a version that included 4 Choking Sands and 4 Wastelands and initial testing showed it killed 5CU more than 70% of the time. It handled everything else *very* well, although of course, Sligh could win with a much better draw. As testing continued, we cut down on the Chokes, added Funeral Charms, mixed it up, mixed it up again, and mixed it up again, before settling on a final version used by 6 of our 7 members. Me, being the beefy old guy, ended up with a beefier version, cutting the Chokes for critters. Mine was a meta-game choice, fearing that the mono-black speed theme might have suddenly surfaced in the last few days and I did not want to be in the position of having dead cards against a similar deck on the other side of the table. So, the Chokes were replaced by D Marauders and the Terrors were replaced by Nekrataals etc. Also, the Hidden Horrors and Barrow Ghouls seemed to complement one another very well. In the end, speed and additional critters won over LD. The final deck: "RITUAL MADNESS" 17 Swamps 3 Wastelands 4 Sarcomancy 4 Black Knights 4 Dauthi Slayers 4 Dauthi Horrors 3 Hidden Horrors 2 Barrow Ghouls 2 Nekrataals 2 Erg Raiders 2 Dauthi Marauders 2 Skulking Ghost 1 Morinfen 4 Dark Rituals 4 Unholy Strengths 2 Cursed Scrolls Sideboard was 1 Gloom, 1 Perish, 1 Cursed Scroll, 2 Deathgrip, 2 Nevinyrral's Disk, 2 Bottomless Pit, 2 Forsaken Waste, 2 Terror & 2 Wall of Souls. The deck was single minded. Lay as many things on the table as possible and kill, kill, kill you asap. In practice, the deck was truly explosive, with just a glimpse of the initial 7 cards affording a near guarantee of a win. This is what actually happened in the first round versus Scott Wilcox, who fell victim to "ritual madness." First turn Knight & Sarcomancy and next game's first turn Slayer, Horror and Scroll were sufficient to assure Scott's demise. At one point, Scott tapped an Island and cast a Mox Diamond w/o sacing a land and then attempted to use the Mox, saying, "Yeah, it's okay, it was ruled legal." I politely informed him that we would need a ruling which of course, went against him. He untapped the Island and picked up the Mox, which of course, you cannot do in this game unless there is a spell played that allows it. The Mox went to the graveyard and the mana was spent. I'm making this point for one reason. Don't allow take backs. Don't make takebacks. Don't expect takebacks. Scott played U & G and I have no idea what his deck was. In Round two, I faced Douglas Gutierrez and again the deck exploded for "ritual madness," spewing out Shadow critters left and right. When Doug's Repentant Blacksmith (!) hit the table, I knew the match was over. Round three brought teammate Scott Greenleaf and I to the same table. Bummer. I really thought my extra chunkiness would afford me the edge and it did. He couldn't handle the Hidden Horrors and I won in two straight. So far, 3 rounds, 6 games, all wins. No match more than 15 minutes! In Round four, the deck received it's first real test in the presence of Eric Kesselman, playing predominantly U Prop-Orb. As it turns out, the mono-black could handle 1 Prop pretty well, but 2 really threatened it. If the Orb hit the table it was goodbye unless a Disk could be triggered. In game one, Eric found 2 Props and slowed me down just in time for the Silver Wyvern to administer the kill. In game two, "ritual madness" displayed utter contempt, knocking Eric to zero in 6 quick turns, even with a Prop on board. Game three proved to be the best of the bunch. Once again a Prop hit the table, but the black's speed was too much to overcome. At one point, Eric had two Quicksands and an Armageddon and had the choice of either Q'ing two of my critters or killing all the lands. It was a very tough choice on his part and thinking that I had more land in hand, he chose to Q my guys. With Eric now at two mana, I had the time I needed to rebuild. Round five brough NY State Champ Jon Ho with another Prop-Orb, but this one was a 5CG with U for Props and Riders. In game one, I got my first tough draw with one Swamp, but elected not to mulligan (Paris is used) since the odds favored a land on the next two turns. With Ergs and Horrors, it didn't much matter whether it was a Wasteland or Swamp. Of course, the land didn't show up and Jon was able to administer the beatdown with relative ease, although I was later able to cut his life in half. Game two was "ritual madness" again, over before it began. Game three was by far the best of the bunch, a knock-down drag out battle won by all things, 2 Granger Guildmages. An early Sarcomancy token met a Jellyfish and proved ruinous, draining me slowly each turn. With both Prop & Orb on the table, I was helpless. My strategy turned to forcing him to use the Guildmages to poke my unblockable Shadow stuff faster than my life was draining away. Alternately, if I could just get ahold of a Disk, Jon would run out of cards before me. My luck ran out. Jon's held. First loss. In round six, I met Cory Weiser, also in UG mode, but with Slivers instead. I don't remember much, winning games one and three. At this point, it was win and qualify or lose and go through the meatgrinder at Origins. At my age, I much prefer to qualify and avoid playing at two in the a.m. in the US Open. Daniel Popkava was playing counter Sliver and faced "ritual madness" on the first turn in the form of a Hidden Horror. With no Jellyfish to be found, Daniel expired quickly. In the second game, it all went his way and the beatdown was most unpleasant. Second turn Crystallines and ample Muscle Slivers wrapped it up. In game three, "ritual madness" struck for a Dauthi Mercenary and *two* Sarcomancys tokens on turns one. It is a good thing when your opponent is facing 7 damage on turn two. Dan laid out a Scroll (!) and a second turn Crystalline. I attacked with everything and he blocked one token, going to 12 with COB damage from before. Finally, he managed to get 3 land on the table and although he was now in the low single digits, if he managed to succesfully scroll the Marauders, it was conceivable I would run out of steam (no cards) and he might come back. With a crowd of onlookers around, Daniel offered his hand and named Muscle Sliver, targeting the Dauthi. He had 3 in hand of six cards. If I chose something other than the Muscle, I would again be qualified. I agonized briefly and chose.........something other than a muscle. I had qualified. "Ritual Madness" did pretty well that day. Erik also went 6-1 and qualified. Chris Donovan went 5-1-1 and just missed out at 10th place. Scott Greenleaf and Greg Bole both went 5-2. Sergio Costanzo dropped out after round three after losing to a "bad" burn deck and having no luck and Carl Li Bassi, who really is our best player, dropped out at 0-2, a hapless victim of the mana screw gods. Double mulligans are ridiculous. Paris may offer an alternative and I fully expect WotC to adopt it as "official" before the end of the year, but it is a totally inadequate solution, nevertheless. As the results and matchups for the top 8 were announced, for a few minutes it appeared that Erik and I might be destined to become co-champions. First, two of the top 8 players had to leave and we *both* were given byes. Not only that, but we were seeded in *different* brackets! All we had to do was win our respective semi-final matches and we would sit down, shake hands and *both* walk away as NE Regional Champs. Dreams are great. Reality is harsh. I sat down against Paul Ferker and drew decently, but the Impulses for Jellyfish proved to be too much to handle. Paul's first turn Spindrift kept on tagging me for two until I found a Scroll, but in the end, he had a Silver Wyvern and a Cloud Elemental to do 6 each turn. I still thought I was going to win as I had more coming his way via Shadow etc. Finally, with him at 6 and me at 8, he attacked to bring me to 2. What kind of craziness was this? Even if he played a blocker, I would now win. Paul then tapped five for a Warp! Blue's Relentless Assault. Oh well. In the second game, Paul simply drew better and I drew worse. I got him down to 8, but the Spindrift again did enough to lop away chunks of life I couldn't afford to be without. I played with Spindrifts before and really wasn't crazy about them, because there is really no way to build a proper curve with Blue if you use them. You simply have to hope to reach four mana for Ophids and Jellyfish faster than your opponent can develop. But I must admit, it worked well for Paul. In the other match, it was Eric Phillips (co-constructed with John Chinnock) brand of "ritual madness" against Erik Rodriguez and it went three games with Phillips besting my buddy on the strength of Paralyzes. Phillips and Chinnock's metagame choice of Paralyzes was something Chris Donovan and Carl Li Bassi had recently considered, but we had simply run out of time to test. If we had had more time, it might have swung that way. In any event, both Erik and I ran out of luck and are *not* co-champs but we'll certainly try again next year. We will both be at the US Nationals and intend to give our very best and with a lot of luck and effort (and the help of our great teammates), we hope to be able to represent our country at Worlds. Some pertinent observations and anecdotes about the Regionals: The field at 160 was not as good (IMHO) as last year's, missing a lot of qualified players such as Happy John, Finkel, Feming Chan, etc. David Bachmann was there to cheer on good buddy Aaron Kline, playing Shrieking Life against Erik. Next turn Aaron is set to gain a million life with the combo when Erik lays a Forsaken Wastes on the table. I only wish I could have seen their faces..... The proliferation towards multi-color and current Dojo backfired as the better players realized early on exactly what was going on with land distributions. Are you ready for this? Of the top eight decks, *all* eight were mono, 3 of the "ritual madness" variety. Once again, I have to thank the guys at Gray Matter for providing a wonderful gaming environment and good friends. Having fun is more important than winning when there is no money at stake. Al "Papa Bear" Newman