Subject: Northern California Regionals Report Date: Mon, 18 May 1998 17:33:41 EDT From: Epicfork To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Hello all, here is a taste of what the Northern California Regionals were like here at Neutral Ground SF. For the first time in a while, the whole FlipSide crew could attend a tournament together. In case anyone cares FlipSide looks like this: Myself, who can predict the meta-game to the tee but can't play and therefor sucks, Brian "I win 'cause I can" Rovegno, Austin "IMM" Harless, and finally Paul, our lastest addition. I don't know much about his playing skills, but he can juggle like no other, and that has to be useful (He's juggled machetes before!). The main reason I am writing this is to tell you about Brian's performance. I knew the field was going to be large amounts of White Weenie, which took 2 of the top 4 slots in a recent $1000 tournament. On Wednesday Brian doesn't have a deck, so he comes up to me: Brian: I need a deck Luke(me): Well, what do you want to play? Brian: I like Winter Orbs. Me: Okay, that's a little broad. Brian: I like Bad Moons too, and I just happen to own four of them. Luke: You know, I think a Black Weenie deck could do well against a White field because: a) Every one with white (at least around here) is so scared of red they play Priests and Freewinds instead of their pro: black counterparts. b) No one plays Light of Day, while black has Gloom (awsome card) and Dread of Night. Brian: Yeah, whatever. I get to play my Bad Moons', right? Me: Sigh. Unfortunatly, I can't find the exact deck list but I do remember: We only had one Sarcomancy. We played no cards over casting cost two, because we played three Winter Orbs The Side Board looked like this: 4 Cursed Scrolls 3 Gloom 2 Dread of Night 1 Winter Orb 2 Forsaken Wastes 3 Bottomless Pit When we get there we meet these cool guys who can skate pretty good and hang out with them for the rest of the day. The judge guy informs everyone that is will be 8 rounds of swiss with no lunch break. Lovely, we have a long day ahead of us. Here is my last minute advise for Brian: Me: Remember, when you use a Kaervek's Spite, use that "Burly Protector" joke. Brian: (blank stare) Me: You, know Al Tran and all those guys? Burly Protector? The Magic Dojo? Brian: The Magic what? Me: Sigh. Here is Brian's Report (as told by me, I don't think he has a way to e-mail). Neither of us thought we were going to write a report, so no names. Sorry. Round One: Counter Sliver Game one: Brian plays an early Orb, and his opponent plays back-to-back Propaganda. Ouch. Game two: Scrolls come in and, to being able to touch the Slivers, kill him instead. Game three: Bad Moons plus many black creatures = win. 1-0 Round Two: White Weenie Game one: Brian draws multiple Black Knights for the win. Game two: 1st turn Ritual, Sarco, Bad Moon, followed by and 2nd turn Bad Moon. They start to play a second game for fun, but Brian goes Ritual Gloom, 2nd turn Dread and the other guy concedes. 2-0 Round Three: White Weenie (what I tell yah?) Game one: White Knights plus Crusade means game. Game two: Turn one Dread of Night followed by lots of Ergs and Black Knights. Game three: A creature battle for a while, then Brian drops a Gloom, then topdecks another one next turn for the win. Now an interesting thing happens. I am outside now, but the guy Brian just beat trys to bribe him for the win saying things like: "I need to go to the Nationals" and "I'll give you anything." Brian doesn't know what to do and comes out to me. I get real mad and say. "Tell the guy to piss off and he's lucky you won't get a judge to disqualify his sorry self." Brian of course is really polite about it and simply tells the guy no. I keep an eye on him, however. 3-0 Round Four: Black Weenie Game one: This guy has a lot of dead cards like terror and Nekrataal, but manages to win the first one. Game two: Scrolls show up and do their thing. This guy has colored mana for some reason yet unclear. Game three: Goes back and forth for some time. He has some colored mana out and cards he isn't playing so Brian suspects Mana Leak. The guy is at eight and tapped down to a Reflecting Pool (can produce blue) and a Swamp. Brian is holding a Spite and can attack for three. He draws: Wasteland. Kill Pool, attack, Spite, game. 4-0 (At this point every one is 2-2, except for me who is 3-1. Little do I know I will not win another game the entire day) Round Five: Black Weenie Game one: Brian only draw Bad Moons, and his opponents draws creatures. Game two: Scrolls come in and apply beatdown. The highlight is when he double charms a Black Kight. Game three: More Scrolls show up. 5-0 Round Six: Black Weenie (seemed to be the deck to play) Game one: Brian loses. Game two: Half way through the game the judge asks his opponent if he can speak with him. It turns out he only registered 59 cards in his deck. Brian wins. 6-0 So, Brian, being the slacker that he is, draws the next two and ends up 6-0-2 and in 3rd place. He gets his invite to the Nationals and goes: "This is it? Where's my money?" Sigh. I would have been stoked to go to Ohio, but, oh well. The day wasn't a total loss. I did manage to trade for: 3 BB Birds of Paradise, 4 BB Black Knights, Beta Glooms, Portal Wrath, tons of foreign cards (my whole deck is BB now, except for 3 Cities of Brass) and other things. Plus I got to meet Brian Wiessman, which was pretty cool. Props: Those cool guys we met who asked if the could be one our team. Six people now! Everyone at the tournament who played fair and came to have a good time. Slops: The guy who tried to bribe Brian. Get a life! People who mis-regestered their decks. I'm sorry, but if you spend $20 bucks to go to a big tournament take a little time to write your deck down before hand. It's not that hard. -Luke "Ender" Chamberlin Team FlipSide