Subject: Washington Regionals - fish - 11th place Date: Sun, 17 May 1998 14:37:03 -0700 From: Kim Upper To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Kim Upper Washington Regionals, WotC Game Center, Seattle May 16th After testing lots and lots of decks, I finally settled on a merfolk deck. I like playing creature swarm decks and I didn’t think anything without countermagic would survive the current environment. The glaring vulnerability of the deck is Sligh, but Sligh was pretty much gone from the Seattle so I didn’t worry — and didn’t put anti-red in my sideboard. The other concern I had was counter-sliver which I expected to do well at regionals. The deck’s not a disaster against counter-sliver, it just doesn’t .The other problem is the deck has a lot of similarities to counter-sliver. Play a horde, and counter the mass removal. Use one creature (fish/muscle) to boost others. Anyone running an expressly anti-coutner-sliver deck is probably going to catch me in the loop. In the end, the decision came down to the fact that fish were solid. I knew how to play them. I couldn’t find a deck better against the field that I was comfortable playing. Better to play a good deck well than a perfect deck poorly. Deck 4 Manta Riders 4 Spindrift Drake 4 Tidal Warrior 4 Lord of Atlantis 4 Cloud Spirit 4 Man-o’-War 4 Suq’Ata Firewalker 2 Tradewind Rider 2 Waterspout Djinn 4 Counterspell 2 Legacy’s Allure 2 Disenchant 2 Winter Orb 1 Adarkar Wastes 1 City of Brass 3 Undiscovered Paradise 4 Wastelands 13 Islands Sideboard: 2 Memory Lapse 1 Needle Storm 2 Winter Orb 2 Disenchant 3 Null Rod 2 Legacy’s Allure 3 Propaganda Notes about the deck: No unstables. No illusionists. Propaganda is sideboard only — I’m going for speed kill game one. Turn one spindrift, turn two spindrift is very hard for any deck to beat. Spindrifts come out for orb and lapse if I go to a control sideboard. Cloud Spirits or Spindrifts come out for propaganda/allure depending on the deck if I need creature control — depending on how quickly in the game I’ll need mana for the creature control. Spindrift really mucks up the mana curve if you play the deck that way, so you have to be prepared to play merfolk behind the spindrift on the curve. Undiscovereds are for use with the orb. Adarkar is for disenchants. I used to run three adarkar for the disenchants, but I was getting mana-hosed by wastelands, so I dropped an adarkar for an island. Then I removed and Adarkar for a City of Brass is to support Needlestorm in the side. The city never hurt me. Showing the city and the undiscovered makes folks wonder what you’re playing. The deck evolved from an orb-lock deck which could sideboard to a speed configuration, to a fast deck with orbs and sideboard for a prop-orb lock. I think this is an important point. Speed will win you a lot of first games on total surprise. In most cases, you want the speed before the sideboard comes in to slow you down. Sideboard proved strong against white weenie, but otherwise a little weak. I should have had something against red — probably warmth since chill works best in multiples of four. Three null rod is too many. Winter orbs are equally effective against the scroll and disenchants equally effective against the disk. I think I’d leave two, maybe only one. Memory lapse is stronger than mana leak in orb lock conditions, but in the future I would play leak for situations where I wanted more counters, but not the winter orbs. The Needle Storm was a last-minute addition for use against counter-sliver. Jury is out. Were I do play this again, I’d certainly drop one null rod for a warmth and I’d find space for a second warmth. Round One: Flex Frazee: Game One: Turn one island-spindrift. Turn 2 island merfolk. Turn three island-lord. Flex looks like he’s playing something red-whiteish. I fear wrath, but he unloads a scorched earth to kill the spindrift. I top-deck a wasteland and continue to chew with the lord and merfolk until he does something about them. He keeps destroying my land, but his howling mines keep getting me to more. He wisdoms at some point, but I’m doing 5 or more per turn. I pull the game out. Game Two: I get some early merfok/spindrift. He plays two howling mines. He taps out for an 18 point Wisdom and I set up the orb lock. He plays three quick mox diamonds. I’ve got a lot of creature-damage on the table, but I’m worried about the wrath. We’re both churning our libraries. Between my orb hurting me more than him and the scorched earths, I’m having a hard time summoning creatures and staying counter-competent against the wrath. I have to allow a second 18-point wisdom. I know he’s got enough blue for propaganda, so I hold the disenchants. I attack for 9, he’s at 11. End of my turn, he capsizes the winter orb. I gratefully allow it. He untaps fully. Summons Pendrell mists. I count my mana. Three islands and an adarkar untapped. Two disenchant and a counter in hand. I allow the Pendrell’s mists. He looks at me. He summons a propaganda. I allow it — he can still wrath. He doesn’t. End of his turn, I disenchant the mists. My turn I fully untap, disenchant the propaganda, summon a lord, boosting two merfolk, attack for eleven. Game. Turns out Flex was playing a Megrim land-destruction deck. I don’t know how he fared with it, but I sure am glad I didn’t try to play anything slow against it. Round Two: Sorry, I fogret the player’s name. I know the face, though. He’s good. He was playing a necro. I think he had shadow, but I don’t remember the for sure. Game one he rolled me and was up 18-3. I don’t recall what happened, exactly, but it involved Legacy’s allure, his black knights, a lot of merfolk fodder, and a countered drain life, and I won the game. I don’t know who was more surprised that I won. I thought he had me. He thought he had me. Key play was double-blocking a black kinght with a lord and a tidal warrior. He assigns the first strike to the lord. I ping the knight with a firewalker and get creature advantage. Game two, things just don’t go my way. I don’t recall exactly. He gets the necro going and puts out threats fast than I can deal with them. He necros a long way down. I botch a double-block on a black night. He edicts and kills them both. Suddenly he’s got creature advantage and I have nothing to trade damage with. He wins. Game three: Classic prop-orb lock on a necro with Legacy’s allure to add insult to injury. 2-0 matches. 4-1 games. Good start, but I’ve done this before. Round Three: Josh Lytle — seems like I’m getting matched against names all day. Game one: An amored soltari priest hits me for 6, but a top-deck man-o-war saves the day. Game degenerates into Suq-ata versus the knights. He summons a fleet of pump knights and brings the priest back. I bring out some merfolk and a lord. Mass attacks force me to fodder. I top-deck a Suq-Ata firewalker and it hits the table. He attacks and I’m hurting. Top deck a legacy’s allure. Eat more damage. Out comes another priest and a monk. I borrow one priest, and ping what monk and the other priest while throwing merfolk in front of knights. Eventually I’m able to counter-attack with the borrowed priest while killing knights with the firewalker. Josh takes notes. I’m sure he’ll write a report with exact details, but the prelimary total for the firewaker is 7 creatures in 7 turns. I summon some little stuff, counter something dangerous, and eventually turn the tim on Josh to win. Game two: Josh starts to roll me again, but a well-timed wasteland and a man-o-war turn the tide my way. I forget what else I got, it was either legacy’s allure or prop-orb or both. I summon my creature horde while remaining counter-competent against the wrath. Anyhow, Josh ends the game with 3 pyroblasts and 2 bolts in hand and four plains in play. Key play was my wasting that city of brass. In all honesty, Josh kicked my butt both games, but I won them both. 3-0 matches. 6-1 games. Pretty good for a scrub with a fish deck. I begin to wonder when reality will strike. Round Four: Jason who’s last name I should remember and always forget. Jason’s one of the better local players. He’s been to a pro tour or two. I know he’s playing bloom. He know’s I’m playing fish. It’s my speed against his consistency. Game one, I get a critter-poor draw and start beating on him with two tidal warrirs. I think a lord or cloud spirit got power sunk in there somewhere. He plays a squandered and says go. I disenchant the squandered. He’s got a gemstone in play with a bunch of islands. I don’t remember if he’s got a reflecting pool or if I wastelanded something. Anyhow, I start attacking with only one tidal warrior. During his upkeep, I use the other to make his gemstone mine into an island so he as only blue mana. This continues for five turns or so. I get creatures, he gets land. I counter something and my creatures roll through. Game two: I’ve got critters. Turn one spindrift. Turn two spindrift sunk, turn three merfolk. I’m sitting with two land available, one for the spindrift, and a handfull of expensive creatures. As a side effect, I look like I’m sitting on two blue and a counterspell. Jason keeps impulsing — three or four times. I figure he must have the combo. Eventually I get five damage onto the table. He’s at five life, with plenty of land and a handful of cards. I look counter-capable, but I’m holding nothing useful. I say go. I don’t counter the abeyance. He draws. He does something else to draw. Turns out he didn’t get the squandered and he can’t make the combo go. 4-0 in matches. 8-1 in games. I begin to have delusions of grandeur. I’ve never done this well in a tournament. I’m playing a fish deck, for heaven’s sake, and going into the tournament, I’d have told you I’d be happy with four wins. I’m afraid I have this stupid grin on my face and a small case of arrogance. What worries me, though is butterflies and overconfidence. Round Five: Another name I should remember (sorry folks, I’m horrid with names). We’re seated at table one. I’m having a hard time breathing this rarified air. The deck is a white weenie a lot like Josh’s from round three. Mox diamonds/tithe is a good combo when it works and I think he’s got more white than Josh does. I don’t see a man-o-war in time for the armored priest in game one, though. Games two and three, allure and firewalker prove there worth. Once again, wastelanding the multi-lands proves critical. Very tough match. Ends up much like the match against Josh. He kicked my butt all three games, but I won two of them. 5-0 matches. 10-2 games. What’s this layer of air doing between my feet and the ground. Round six: Alex? I don’t remember the name. My nightmare matchup. A strong sligh deck played by a smart player. Game one, I can’t do anything against two ball lightning and a scroll. Pathetic. I’m a total goldfish. Game two. I hate to go prop-orb against sligh because it’s not that strong. I spend a lot of time on my sideboard and decide I’ve got to absolutely stop the scroll to have a chance. Null rods, orbs, propaganda. Out got the spindrifts and cloud spirits. It’s a chess match. He does a beautiful — I mean beautiful — job of bolting the lords and fire-slingering the little merfolk. One tradewind dies to a bold/fanatic combo. The other dies to a fireblast. I’ve got a slight life lead. He sacs to mountains to fireblast. He’s got a life lead. I counter the second fireblast. He fireslingers us both from 7-5 and wins 2-0. I lose the game, I lose the match, but I feel good I can do this to a sligh deck. 5-1 matches. 10-4 in games. Ok, I knew sligh had the potential to do that to me. Still hope for Ohio. Fireslingers make the matchup worse for me than the sligh I tested against. My opponent ended up in the final 8. Even so, the bubble is burste. Rounde Seven: Justin Rider Counter-sliver with scrolls. I’ve got to think hard and I’m getting tired. Game one: I don’t remember. I think I made a playing error and he rolled me. Game two: He rolls me, but the deck makes the same comeback it’s been making all day. I’m up 4-2 in life. He has four land — two cities of pain, and island and something. I have enough islandwalk I win next turn if I block so I let two damage through. He thinks for about five minutes and moves a lot of cards around. Obviously trying every attack combo. He ends up casting a firestorm for two, using a city of brass. he’s at one. He pitches a fireball and something and removes blockers so he can get four points of damage through. I got the needlestorm this game. It would have been a game winner, but I got 10 islands in 20 cards and no multi-lands. I don’t know about needlestorm as a sideboard card. 5-2 matches. 10-6 games. Justin makes the final eight. Great day. I can lose my last match and still do better than I’ve ever done before. Ohio looks bleak, though. It looks like it will take 19 points for the final 8, but there’s a chance — a very, very small chance — one player with 18 points will get in and I’ve got the best tiebreaker among those with 15. I think I’m playing for pride, but I might be playing for nationals. Round Eight: Someday I’ll get smart and take notes about names. Black deck with the 2/2 Dauthi, black knights and lots of multi-lands. Game One: I can’t stop the shadow. I can’t stop enough of the black knights. Fireslinger’s not nearly as efficient against 2/2’s as it is against 2/1’s. My flyers get incinerated or funeral charmed or something. Sad story. Games two and three: In come the propagandas, orbs, and legacy’s allure. He starts faster than I do both games, but prop/orb wasteland and borrowed creatures come through. 6-2 matches. 21-7 games. The perfect set of wins and losses at the top tables doesn’t happen. One player with 19 points fails to make the cut and my opponent from round five passes me in opponent’s match record. I end up eleventh on the day. Not bad at all for a scrub with a fish deck. Final Eight: Two sligh, two counter-sliver, one flagpole-sliver, one counter-hammer, one black-blue something, and one bloom.