Subject: South East Regionals Date: Sun, 17 May 1998 22:28:21 -0400 From: Al Sousa To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com My SE regional experience, Al Sousa from Miami, Florida -------------------------------------------------------------------- 5/15, 9PM: Well its Friday night and I'm on the plane to Atlanta. For three weeks my friends and I have practiced for this one. Mario Rubino, Rene Hidalgo, and myself, Al Sousa, have practiced and tested decks and variants. Analyzing what will be played and not played. Thinking about what is predominant and what wins. From my analysis about 50% the field will be weenie decks of some sort, 30% will be control, 10% will be lock/combo deck, and 10% other that we don't have to concern about. Rene has decided to probably play Steel Blue, he decided in the last week. Mario hasn't decided what to play but is favoring white weenie... Mario like not to have headaches in large tournaments, thus he never plays heavy control decks. I on the other hand have analyzed the field and am playing the odds. I am playing essentially a mono-blue control deck with green in it to compensate for blue's weakness, see below. The deck I made can handle weenie well and the unusual decks pretty good. Incredible as it may seem control decks give me the largest headaches. I am a creature based reactive deck and if control plays little or no creatures my deck becomes as fast as a turtle. Only 10% will be this field so I'm not worried. One other decks also gives me more headaches then control is counter sliver. I need some mass removal in my sideboard to deal with these decks, YUK! From what I've seen only 5 have ever been played around the world so what's my luck of encountering one? Well I won't sweat until the time comes. Tonight we practice and finalize our insidious creatures. We will meet with Adam Maysonet and Aaron Terry later. 5/15, 12PM: We practice. I'm not so sure about my deck and have this oogie feeling its going to get hosed. Adam Maysonet pounds me with his pox deck frustrating the shit out of me. I almost panic and change decks but decide that mine is still the best for the job. Later I ended up beating Adam in practice and felt better about my deck. Before he just got a super draw. Last minute modifications were made to the decks. Mario and Mark played white weenie, Rene played blue steel, Adam and Aaron played pox, and I played U/G tradewind deck, "The Great G'nu" as I call it. G'nu stands for green n' blue. Round 1 vs Sligh, WITH SLIGHTS!! "Kobe" excellent player Game 1: Mana screw 2 lands, he wins Game 2: I saw crap, all my late game stuff and he slowly burned me. no chills, no firewalkers, no counters, no luck Match 0-1, Game 0-2 Round 2 vs Scrub Stasis, "Terry" Scrub No need for comment, I felt bad for him though for it was his first tournament. What a way to start. He had a horrible deck. Match 1-1, Game 2-2 Round 3 vs Day of the Druid, "Paul" skilled player Game 1: he saw 1 mox and 1 scroll, I saw 2 orangutans and a tradewind, game! Game 2: Until now I didn't know what he was playing so when he got the combo out turn 4 or 5 I understood. Game 3: Had to play a slow control style to gain advantage till I could ping him to death. At one point he had a wildabeast out with wall of blossums combo, yuk! Match 2-1, Game 4-3 Round 4 vs U/G Tradewind, "Troy" skilled player Game 1: He got a double trade wind combo out fast but I got my silver wyvern, he, he. I also had 2 walls and a man-o-war, I win to shear firepower. He didn't see how to defend against it, or at least how to stall the attack with block bounce trick. Game 2: He got his wyvern out on me! I was smart and took the hits for a couple turns till I bounced all his blue land to his hand and finally the wyvern, double tradewind lock! Match 3-1, Game 6-3 Round 5 vs 5CU Donais "Arthur" excellent player I had nightmares about this deck since mine was a permanent reactive deck and he HAD NO PERMANETS! So I played my side board a different strategy that to most good player would be stupid. The thing is that they would not understand the simple concept of overwhelming numbers. Game 1: I conceded after 15 minutes when he dismissed 3 times and had 6 cards, 25 life, and I had no cards. Game 2: I tossed in every creature in my sideboard in the deck... simple I overwhelm him. Now I had 10 counters, 4 legacy allure, 2 disrupting scepter (key to victory), and 21 creatures. I also had 2 volrath stronghold. I let him counter creatures and wrath stuff as I slowly smacked him for 2 each turn. I saved my counter spells for critical things. When he was out of counters BLAM I dropped the scraggy and the scepter. Let the beatings begin. I won in the end but not after making a scrub mistake and orangutaning my own scepter, DOH! Game 3: More or the same strategy but now he was countering my legacys which he ignored before. Why do you ask, well I was stealing the walls. Match 4-1, Game 8-4 Round 6 vs U/G Trap "Nathan" good player I knew I should have beaten this deck but a little bad luck and ANOTHER dumb scrub mistake cost me the match and my chances, Game 1: He got the combo quick and I had no counters. Game 2: Forced his hand to get the double tradewind bounce routine, since he had no removal I didnt worry and ignored the propaganda. He sealed his fate when he plopped the winter orb and me having 2 tradewind bounce. Game 3: I had NO counters of 10. I had to expend a tranquil domain on 2 propaganda to ophidian cards to my hand. Still no counters and he cast 2 ancestral memories I finally got 1 counter, used it, a mana leak and at the critical time when he had 2 pendrall mists in play I forgot to pay the ophidian upkeep. He had the lock and a counter the next turn. The top 3 cards on my deck was counters and if I would have paid and attacked I would have had 2 counters and him no cards. Scrub mistake 2 cost me my chances. The worst part, besides the top deck counter, was the fact that I paid the upkeep for 5 turns. Only when he plopped the 2nd one is when I forgot to pay. Match 4-2, Game 9-6 Round 7 vs sligh "Mitchell" skilled player Game 1: Mana screw for him, he concedes after tradewind combo Game 2: chill, chill, game. Match 5-2, Game 11-6 Round 8 vs Big Blue "David" good player although he made a serious scrub mistake game 1 Game 1: I play legacy, he plays ophidian and I know what he is up to, the old man-o-war trick. I cant believe he thought I wouldn't have a counter to stop the man-o-war. Got some use of the ophidian and dropped bounce boy in play, eventually game by ping. In goes the scepter of death. Game 2: Big control battle as time is on my side with a scraggy in play. I drop 2 legacy allure and think I'm the shit as I can steal his trade wind and bounce his fatties. The bastard drops a stasis and screws up my whole game and kills me, A STASIS?! A little sideboard alteration is due. Game 3: Battle for control till I get a tradewind combo and bounce of the fatties begin. I end up with bounce scepter trick happening and overwhelm him on the ground with apes, man-o-wars, and ophidians. Match 6-2 Game 13-7 Round 9 vs slow R/W burn "Jose Cinto" excellent player, one of my friend. The last round and it seems I have the best chance of getting in because of my points according to a judge. The 7-1 player have to play since there are too many of them, 1 or 2 slots will be available for 7-2. Normally I should handle this deck well playing chills and counters to back it up since he is a slower sligh but... Game 1: Mana screw, 2 skyshroud, 1 forest and he strips the skyshroud. He was also mana screwed but when he draws 8 direct damage for 2 mana or less and I don't see another land for 8 more turns I die. Game 2: I have to mulligan to 5 cards. Then I saw 10 land and 5 play cards to add insult to injury. He scrolls me to death (no orangutan) with 2 scrolls and pops me with an orcish artillery. I saw 1 wall, 1 firewalker, 1 legacy (pyro blasted) and 2 counters. On top of that I only saw 3 blue. Match 6-3 Game 13-9 Here is the deck I played and the only reason why I lost is my own fault, and a couple rounds of mana screw. The only real deck that does clobber it is counter sliver. I can't stop flying, untargetable, 3/3s that can be sacked for damage, YUK! 4 Counter 4 Dissipate 4 Tradewind Rider 4 Wall of Blossum 4 Uktabi Orangutan 4 Legacy Allure 3 Opihdians 3 Suqata Firewalkers 2 Bottle Gnomes 2 Silver Wyvern 2 Man-o-War 1 Capsize 2 Volroth's Stronghold 2 City of Brass 2 Skyshround Forest (U/G land) 2 Undiscovered Paradice 3 Quicksand 4 Forest 9 Island SB: 2 Disrupting Scepter 4 Chill 2 Knights of the Mist 1 Man-o-War 2 Mana Leak 2 Tranquil Domain 2 Scragnoth If I had not been mana screwed the 1st or last match I could have made top 8. I can't blame anyone for I had the win in my hand when I forgot to pay the upkeep on the ophidian against the trap deck. Most of the game I allured walls to get them out of the way. I also saw so many goofy looking decks I the top positions. WHY COULDN'T I PLAY ONE! Oh well that's magic for you. Overall my deck worked its magic well holding up to anything. I know now what to take out and put in to make it better. Mario after not understanding how my deck wins only went 2-2. Mark ended at a 6-3 losing in the last round also. As for Adam and Aaron... well the drove up, lost twice each, and then headed back to Ft. Lauderdale, 9 hours away at top speed. I have to say that there were many different decks that appeared in the tournament and no one deck was dominant. Every deck had a weakness and a counter part. There were decks that worked for some players and some for others. Mark was going to play my deck but he is not a blue player and had trouble winning. While I considered the counter sliver deck but I'm not a weenie player. I think the counter sliver was the deck that had the best overall chance to win and it was proved in regionals. Of 5 counter sliver decks around the world 2 won their nationals and 1 got in the top eight, More then any other single deck in these regionals. It was not my type of deck so I played my U/G. My next stop is Origins and another 6 chances to qualify. See ya there.