Subject: The Mad Greenius at Regionals Date: Sun, 17 May 1998 11:02:40 -0500 From: Chris Warren To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Hello to all, and here's what you all haven't been waiting for, but hopefully will enjoy anyway. Saturday, May 16 were all the US Regionals, and since I'm a Chicago Suburbanite, my location was pretty much predetermined, since I didn't relish a drive to Columbus or Lincoln, NE to play. Chicago, I think in large part due to last year's regionals, got a reputation as a big burn town, and the conventional wisdom said, you've got to beat the red weenie roasters to compete. Part I: Deck Selection Before I started play-testing for regionals, my Type 2 deck was "Puff" which is in the same family as the Donais U5C and Draw-go. A very reactive, late-game deck, that used Mist Dragon for the kill (or decking via Blessing Recursion) -- the main difference between Puff and the new U5C decks (besides that it was pre-ST) was that it was U/g and used Disks for the primary control. It was originally built as a Mix of Adrian Sullivan's extended "Baron Harkonen" deck and Turbo-Xerox. It performed pretty well, but like most decks of this type, it lost to weenie decks that could kill the Disk. I trotted Puff out to the side T2 event at the Stronghold pre-release, the only sanctioned T2 I've played since trying to qualify for Chicago last year and did pretty well, losing to Derek Rank, playing Draw-Go in the semis. When I saw the Donais U5C post, my reactions were (pre-ST) "hey, I made that deck" (or close enough), and (post-ST) "I like that, it's Puff with a Paint Job". So, I tested the piss out of the U5C and warped it enough to call it my 50% deck ... i.e., it was supposed to give me a 50% chance to beat everything. Basically, I upped the land total to 24, to include 4 quicksands, warped the mainipulation some, upped the basic land count, and swapped the kill cards to an Earthquake and a Shard Phoenix. All in all, an attempt to stop the weenie rush early, since the basic design of the deck will let me kill them late if I can survive to turn 8 or 9. I still think U5C might have been one of the best decks out there, if it had broken about 2-3 weeks later. There was too much time for everyone to see it, recognize it as a threat, and put in the cards to beat it. (Dwarven Miner anyone?) I was siding Sacred Ground, but I still was scared, so with about 2 weeks to go, started looking for other alternatives. I went back through a few old decks, and found the "Tree" deck I took to Gencon last year. Tree was bascially Stompy before stompy existed (or was known) and without Winter Orbs. I yanked the Ghazbans, threw in some scrolls, and went nuts. I ended up deciding that Uktabi Faeries worked REALLY well in the deck. I have a whole theory about that, but this isn't the place for it. Anyway, as regionals got closer, I was getting more and more certain that I would be playing a mono-green deck with 8 faeries. The deck was doing fine for me in testing, I saw it as about a 50-50 proposition against WW and Black Weenie, and pretty darn good against everything else. However, when I gave it to other people to test ... every report I got was like "well, it did ok vs so and so, but then all of a sudden, I lost 4 straight." I didn't know what to make of it, and I got really frightened. So, with the 50% and Athlete's Foot (it's fast and it's green -- yes, I know the name is disgusting) as backups, I went back to check some decks I'd considered. I looked at 2 the hardest -- my mono-green fatty deck "Moldy Whale" (it's fat, it's green, and it's good for the environment), and the HermitOrgGoyf deck. As soon as Stronghold came out, I went to work on trying to figure out how to break the Hermit Druid. I mean, it's a Walking Thawing Glaciers. If you can either toss in some recursion via blessings or use the cards in graveyard, you're in business. I tried it both ways, and eventually decided in this environment, that the recursion was too slow (I'm sure I'll try again later tho). The graveyard method used 4 Lhurgoyfs in the main deck, as well as a hammer, and I even toyed with Shard Phoenix (but decided to go with the Orgg instead). The deck was about 3/4 of a turn slower than Athlete's Foot, but it handled opposing weenies so much better. Plus, my lovely wife Suzanne approved of it in playtesting. To paraphrase "it doesn't have those retarded creatures like your green deck and it DOES something instead of those stupid sit-there-and-draw-cards decks. Play that one." So I did. Here's as good a time as any to show the deck, as I played it yesterday. HermitOrgGoyf Land [20] \ I really didn't have many mana problems, this is 10 Mountain \ Intentionally light, Crazy-Norwegian Style, but a few 10 Forest / (say 2-4) multis wouldn't have hurt Critters [30] 4 Granger Guildmage 4 Mogg Fanatic Die 1/1s! 4 Hermit Druid 2 Dwarven Miner -- yes, 2 maindeck. 3 River Boa \ These were originally 4 Wall of Blossoms, but I felt 1 Spike Feeder / I needed a quicker kill vs control 3 Uktabi Orangs 3 Suq'Ata Lancer -- Red to help guard vs perish (over Centaur) 4 Lhurgoyf 2 ORGG -- really fun, really fat, red is a bonus Support [10] 4 Incinerate -- this is enough bolts with the 8 pokers 2 Shock 1 Hammer -- if I'd had a second, maybe. was awfully good 1 Sylvan Library -- ehh, only drew it once or twice all day, was ok. 2 Jokulhaups -- the big red reset button. I felt I needed SOMETHING that was big enough to stop the tide of a game going badly in sweeping motion. This is about as big as they get since Disk does nothing against tradewind riders. Sideboard 4 Pyroblast -- control and tradewinds 1 Uktabi Orang 1 Null Rod -- let the monkeys get orbs and moxes while the null rod shuts down scrolls and disks. 2 Spike Feeder -- vs burn or hyperquick weenies 2 Lifeforce -- game vs mono-black if you can stop a disk 1 Dwarven Miner 2 Tranquil Grove -- I love this card 2 Emerald Charm -- multiuseful as always, I think I've killed more creatures than enchantments with these by like a 3:1 margin, it's incredible. Part 2: Midwest Regionals. The regionals themselves are being held at "Olympia Plaza" in Chicago Heights, IL. If any of you know Chicago, you know there are no real hights anywhere (there's a suburb called Mount Prospect with no mountain within at least 50 miles), so, as to be expected, Chicago Heights is a trek from Chicago, it's far south, and nearly in Indiana, so it's a little over an hour drive for me, from the NW suburbs. I give Suzanne a kiss and wish her good luck. I'm abandoning her for the bridge tournament this week, so she's going to play with her dad in the evening. I pass the Keebler Cookies factory and the giant Elf on the building silently scolds me for abandoning him. Shut up, Ernie. I arrive at the location early, a little after 8 am and I'm not really surprised to see what it is. Olympia Plaza itself is just a strip mall. The actual location for the tournament is the now disused offices of Qunell, Republican for Congress. Todd Hansen, the Great Lake Games Marketing Director (or whatever title he uses) is pretty involved with local GOP politics, so I can't say I'm shocked. The place is still plastered with posters, but a good-sized room has been set up with tables, and, thank heavens, the computerized pairing system. This thing is really a godsend, it posts the seatings for each round, and from about round 5 on, before the round, shows the standings, down to tiebreaker 3. I'm expecting to meet my fellow Team #wackychan loon, Adam Carlton (IRC nick: Alchemize), but he doesn't show up. I know he'd had an accident and hurt his foot Thursday night, it may have been acting up on him. Actually, that removed my option to play U5C effectively, since I was short 8 or so rares, and I didn't really have the time or inclination to trade for them. I do however find the 3 Lhurgoyfs I need. Zac Guastaferri (I hope I spelled that right) is also missing some teammates, and by extension, Cursed Scrolls, so I lend him a couple. I run a few games against him, Alvin Lau, playing a nice Tradewind deck, and a familar-looking guy (who I believe went 7-1-1 and made top 8) playing swamp gas, and took them all 2-1 without sideboards. Feels good. Let's get rocking and rolling. I actually know who I played this time, since I wrote it down. About 400 entries, nine rounds of swiss. Round I: Mike Bernat, Plainfield IN Mike seems like a really nice guy, he's playing a 5C tradewind type thing, with Winter Orb. Game 1, I draw 1 land and decide to risk it. I topdeck a second and go to town. I basically kill all of his mana creatures, he plays an Orb but never gets above three mana, I beat him up with a bunch of guildmages and light burn. Game two is turn 2 druid, turn 3 land, turn 4 lhurgoyf, by the time he's rolling, he's enormous and that's game. 1-0/2-0 (Matches/Duels) Round II: Chris Hilmoe, Milwaukee WI Another nice guy, this one's playing mono-black weenies with volrath's stronghold, moxes, scrolls, Unholy Strengths, no bad moons, tho. Game 1 I again draw one land, mulligan to 6, get one land, keep it, and it's too late, when he crypt rats away my granger and druid, I know I'm toast. I let him kill me to see more of the deck. Game 2, I get an early Miner out and keep his land total low, then drop a Lhurgoyf after burning off his early weenies. Lifeforce the next turn seals the win although I have to take 6 or so damage (OOF!) from a wall of souls as the goyf eats it. Game three, he has the same start as every game, swamp, mox diamond. I lay something turn 2, and since he didn't lay land on his second or third turn, lay the monkey. The disk goes poof, I drop a lhurgoyf, and after killing off his 3 creatures, I kill him with 1 swamp on the board and a dark ritual and nekrataal in hand. 2-0/4-1 Round III: Cliff Wallach, Buffalo Grove IL Cliff's one of the better T2 players in the area, I don't know if he's ever pushed through to the PT or not. Cliff's playing a countersliver type deck, though I don't know how much permission he had. Game 1, he takes me to about 10, and taps all but one land to lay a crystalline and victual sliver or something. So, I attack with a couple of creatures (he's now got about 5 out and 2 cards in hand, I've had hermit druid rolling since turn 3 so I have 3-4 land plus 2-3 other cards) and Jokulhaups, then go -- forest, granger, mountain, mogg, forest, lancer, and go boom. Funny play from game 2. He goes first and lays a gemstone, I lay a mountain, he worldly tutors for a Crystalline Sliver. untaps, draws it, lays a plains -- pyroblast. The next crystalline sliver he sees is being tossed as a chump blocker under one of my lancers. 3-0/6-1 Round IV: Kurt Kost, Wisconsin somewhere Kurt's playing a deck that looks superficially like the last deck, I get to see a little more of it. Game 1 is the same as the last set, pretty much, and dwarven miner is all game 2 writes. I poke/bolt his birds and he dies with a forest on the table. 4-0/8-1 I feel good. I am a FORCE, of course, I want to play slivers all day. The rumor mill has started... team ACD is running counterbolt with Shard Phoenix. Derek Rank is playing Bloom and is undefeated. There's some confusion over the elimiation rounds. For some reason, last year, GLGA cut to a top 16 instead of a top 8, and because of that, the promos sent out say the same thing. Head Judge Ken Roth decides to overrule it and go back to SOP with a top 8 and makes the announcement. They post the rankings for the first time and... I'm in first place. That's really, really sweet. So naturally, I must be deflated in... Round V: Glenn Molitor, Madison WI Glenn's playing 5CU, pretty close to the original donais version. Game one, I get the quick beating going and squish him. Didn't see a Dwarven Miner, but didn't need it. I side in the third. I get him close to death, pyroblasting an impulse as he's only got 3 mana... unfortunately, he topdecks his 4th two turns later and wraths. gerry, gerry ... now here, I make an error, not in play, but a strategic error. I know when 5CU has the game, I've played the deck enough to know the point where it's just waiting for the fireball, and I'm thinking, well, I didn't see any miners this game either (it's about turn 25 or so), but I have a good shot in the next game, especially if I can drop one. So I concede. Which is a good idea, except I should have done it with about 10 minutes in the round, not 30. I get a slow start in game 3 and don't see a miner until about turn 20, when I double-pyroblast one through only to have him drop a Cursed Totem. He gets out a cop: red and a warmth, and over the course of the game, I have to remind him to gain 8-10 life. he gets his torch and taps down to kill me with about 15 seconds to go. Had it been one card lower, we would have drawn. 4-1/9-3 Round VII: Dan Stevens, Freeport IL Dan's playing an interesting B/W deck with TONS of creature removal. 4 Terror, 4 Banish, 4 Edict, spirit links, nekrataals, stronghold, cloudchasers, scrolls, scalding tongs, and a few fatties (like 3 or so). He was even running at least one Divine Offering in the main deck (which I saw when he was scrolling me game 1). Game 1 he kills a zillion creatures, but I have land up the yinyang and draw the hammer, so start rotation and just zorch him to death. He sees me spending 8 mana a turn and sides in Static Orb. Turns 1-5 are all him killing my creatures, I emerald Charm away a cop:red. I drop a lhurgoyf, which gets one shot in before it's spirit linked, so I drop another, and backed by a lifeforce, it goes all the way, even under the orb. 5-1/11-3 Round VIII: Ray deGuzman This is NOT what I wanted to see. Ray got a trophy today for Midwest Player of the Year or something, and he's been on a tear. He's an EXCELLENT player, and he's playing the ACD CounterChicken, which I expect will give me trouble. Game 1, it does just that, I can't push enough across, he counters, starts whispering like crazy, and finishes me. Game 2, I draw a ton of burn early, throw creatures at him like mad, but at 1-2 cards, he manages to start whispering. My hammer is dissipated on its second go. I know in UR he's not going to have lifegain, so I keep plugging away. I draw a pyroblast, but he's now got cards again and won't tap out to double-whisper at 1 life. I draw a second pyroblast, and hold it. Next turn comes a shock. I let him whisper, and in response, shock him. 2 pyroblasts take care of his two counters. An amazing game. In game three, I pull my spike feeders, because I realize I need to kill him fast, if I don't, 20 or 28 life won't really matter. I add monkeys back for his disks. Again, I draw healthy burn and toss it at him early. I throw out a haups about turn 7 -8 just to get him to burn a counter, I don't need it to resolve (and it doesn't). He's getting low, I've seen no artifacts, but I have 2 monkeys in hand. I draw an Orgg... no counter. He's at 7 life. He draws, has 2 cards in hand. Thinks long and hard. Tosses his whispers to topdeck -- Hydroblast. D'oh! I'm not done yet, but I still need to do SEVEN and I've just got monkeys I draw a shock. so I lay a monkey. it resolves (he has a quicksand out). I shock him to take him to 5. He draws. I draw-- Hammer. Oh, YES. The monkey goes under the sand. I hammer him. he's at 2. I lay the other monkey. it resolves. He draws. Thinks...counts my land, I've got 7 on the board and one in hand ... just enough to recurse the hammer. He shocks the monkey (cool, eh? Shock the Monkey?), I untap, recall the hammer, lay land #8, and take away the rest of his life. His next card -- Dissipate. All absolutely amazing games. 6-1/13-4 I'm almost shaking. Ray's about as tough as you get. I need one more win, then I can draw in. I figure if I draw someone I know and fear -- Brandon Rutter, Derek Rank, whoever, I'll draw now and fight in round nine. However, I don't know... Round VIII: Aaron Smith, Oshkosh WI Unfortunately, he doesn't much care if I know him or not as he mulligans BOTH games and just demolishes me. Game 1, I can't outrun his WW with crusades (he draws two both games) and game 2, I have a bad draw, get no early defense up, and even a turn 6 Jokulhaups can't save me. 6-2/13-6 Aww, crud. I stick around for round 9 to shoot for some prizes in the top 16, but I hit Round IX: Brandon Rutter, somewhere in IL he's playing BR weenie and he has more answers to my pokers than I have for his game one (plus some juicy Acidic Slivers), and Game 2, his Barrow Ghouls keep my Lhurgoyf manageable and he squashes me in a rush. 6-3/13-8 Rather anticlimactic, don't you think? I did, so I watch the end of Adrian Sullivan's 9th round match... he wins it to end at 5-4 I believe, but it's an interesting deck to see operate. That's enough for me, and I pack up the bags and go home. I get back about 12:15 am, some 17 hours after I left home with nothing besides the remnants of a booster draft deck someone didn't want and left behind (hey, I needed a 4th shock). Thanks to the #mtgwacky gang for not killing me as I went insane over deck selection, to my wife for just telling me what to play, and to a ton of terrific opponents all game. Look out, I'll be back again next year. --Chris Bugbind on Efnet IRC "The Mad Greenius"