Subject: Regionals - Lincoln, NE - 5/16/98 Date: Mon, 18 May 1998 23:31:49 -0500 From: "Jason D. Moungey" To: The Dojo Regionals at Nebraska - 5/16/98 HobbytownUSA approximately 220 players showed up for only 8 rounds of Swiss Chad & I were the only C&C players to attend. The rest went to Chicago. Bob Allbright qualified at Chicago with a Tradewind-Prison deck based on his own designed and modified over an extended period of playtesting (guess it paid off). Jeff Boldt (junior) also placed well (11th due to tie-breakers). As for the rest of them, I don't know yet. I don't have many specifics on Chad's match-ups. He went 3-3, due to some horrible pairings (how does a Suicide Black variant beat CounterChicken?) and some bad luck (ever Necro for 7 and not get a land?). Anyway, that happens. No big deal, although it was disappointing. Round 1 vs. Jason Schickli - DCI: 1943 - 5CW Game 1: I Paralyze (yes, Paralyze) his armored Shadow. Game Game 2: 6 Land and a Slayer tells me "Squander". I draw an okay hand with one land and never draw another. Game 3: Gloom & creatures and him without his red mana (2 Firestorms & an Earthquake in his hand). I Squandered twice 'cause I'm a good player, too. Round 2 vs. Brian Loynachan - DCI: ?? - 5CW Game 1: Paralyze his Shadow blockers and beat down Game 2: I waste his Aura with a Bad Moon and play 3 Glooms. I follow with my first Necropotence to resolve in a sanctioned tournament, and finish him with a big Drain. Round 3 vs. Brian - DCI: ?? - Living Death with the big dudes Game 1: He discards 3 turns in a row and I beat down Game 2: I should have played my Disk 4th turn (instead of 2 more dudes) as he Living Deaths and ruins me. Game 3: He's 1 turn behind. Ancient Tomb is a self-beating. Round 4 vs. Dave Lyon - DCI: ~1780 - Living Death w/ Fallen Angel Game 1: Living Death (unexpected) followed by some dudes hurts Game 2: I first-turn Necro and only play one or two creatures the whole game. I made some mistakes which may or may not have cost me that game. His deck was tight against me, though, anyway. Round 5 vs. Coy Jensen - DCI: 18754 - Tradewind/MOW/Ophid Game 1: Paralyze is a house Game 2: Paralyze is a hotel At this point I haven't screwed my DCI rating. I'm about 10 points up, actually. I'm feeling good although I have to go 3-0 to make it. Round 6 vs. WW Game 1: I Ritual 2 Sarcomancy and a Sewer Rats. He replies with a White Knight. I lose. Game 2: Ritual to Gloom is HOTEL! Game 3: We beat back and forth, with him taking the lead with Cursed Scroll. It comes down to him having to Scroll me to win. He has 3 land out and 2 cards in his hand. He untaps. At this point he has a 50% chance of ending the game. He decides he's a good player and can kill me with a 33% chance, so he draws a card before he attempts the Scroll. Oh, and he didn't have land in his hand, and I had a Gloom out, so it's not like he expected to cast anything... So I drop, because it's not worth it to try and make up for lost DCI points in a field that's so diverse, with a deck that's so flippy against certain decks. Too bad Spanky didn't make it. It's tough luck to go 6-0 and then scrub out! Sorry dude. Thanks to ACD for practically giving us the deck. It was tight. I don't know if it was the best choice, but this format is so screwed up it doesn't matter. It's all about match-ups. Good thing they qualified two guys at Regionals, besides the fact 2 of them were already qualified. I have to take this opportunity to say that I really should learn how to play a little better. I truly think there were some subtle mistakes that could have proved to be my undoing. It just goes to show that you can never completely master this game. One more dumb comment for those of you that care: Although I didn't manage to make top 8, if I didn't mangle my rating too bad, I should see you all at Nationals! I guess making top 8 at all those PTQ's and stuff did end up helping me... -- |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | TTFN jason d moungey | | check out my NEW homepage: | | http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~jdmounge/index.html | '~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~'