Subject: Regionals Date: Tue, 19 May 1998 15:11:00 EDT From: JCR6330 To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com I guess I'll start my report the same as always with the roster of Team Los Bastardos. Dave Lawson and I(Justin Rider) were on hand at the Northwest regionals at the Wizards of the Coast Game Center in SeattleWashington. Jeff Curry had to work, Jeff McElroy's sister was getting married and Lance Conrad's bandhad a gig to play. John Rider had chosen to retire from the team and stop playing magic to do other things in life. Well 203 people showed up to try there luck at getting one of the 8 spots to qualify for U.S.nationals. it was going to be 70 minute rounds, 8 rounds of swiss. The PT players and names from the area that showed up to play were Javier Garavito, Tim Kariel, Jeremy Fuller, Cy Cook, Eric Thompson, ScottDodson, Ty Holcomb, Bryan Petersen, Flex Frazee. To give you a little backround I did for regionals it started back at Pro Tour New York back in April. Scott Dodson, Flex Frazee, Ty Holcomb and I all failed tomake day 2. So we watched a lot of type 2 tourneys and playtested around 60 matches if not more. We all decided that the best deck at the time was draw-go with stalking stones instead of dancing scimitars. Thedeck also had jester's cap and rainbow's vs. donais 5cU which was popular at the time. Well the deck I played at regionals was counter sliver with my own sideboard. I only changed around two cards in the main deck. The Report Well most of the good Seattle players were playing Josh Lytle's 5 color white weenie. there was a lot of bloom but not many good players playing it. A fair amount of draw go, lots of sligh (it's a seattle thing). A lot of diverstity also from 5CG to the ensnaring bridge vineyard deck. Team Batcave was also on hand with like there 15 members. Round 1 - Dan Lundin - Mono Blue In game one the first thing he played was a sea scryer so I thought merfolk deck right away. I was wrong it was a wierd tradewind, intruder alarm, firewalker deck. he beats me down to 13 life with a firewalker and sea scryre's and i kill him with flying slivers. Game two was so broken for me he plays a third turn Ophidian I play a Legacy allure and take the ophidian counter everything he plays for the next three turns and draw 7 cards. I'd say this game was mine. Match 1-0, Game 2-0 Round 2 - Javier Garavito - Counter Sliver I don't know if you know who Javier is he was at Worlds 96, 6th at PT Columbus a good player. Javier starts the match by telling me he liked my quote I posted in a old tourney report posted on the Dojo. I quoted him as being the slowest magic player in the world, I still think he is. In game one I end up taking a total of 13 points of damage from my own city of brass, knocking me to 1 life. I win with a cursed scroll. In game 2 I end up taking 8 points of damage from my city of brass. Javier gets me in a tradewind lock and I break it with a 4 point firestorm. Then he plays another tradewind and kills me. We never finish the third game slow playing resulted in the draw in my opinion. Javier played counter sliver with impulse, wall of blossom, tradewinds. Match 1-0-1, Games 3-1 Round 3 - Scott Dodson - Draw-Go Well like I said earlier Scott, Ty , Flex and I thought this was the best deck but I new it only beat counter sliver about 50% of the time. In game two Scott gets to Whisper mode and I concede. In game one and three scott only draws one land and portent sure helped in one game. I'm such a good player whatever. But as Scott said if he had to lose to anyone better to lose to a friend. Scott drops out after this round along with Javier. Scott is a very cool guy and regular PT player. I ended up taking a paris mulligan every game in the first three rounds. Match 2-0-1, Games 5-2 Round 4 - Milo Locklear - The Bear ?- Black /Red Speed In game one he beats the shit out of me with a Nekrattal, Dauthi Horror, and 2 bottle gnomes. In the other two games I get good draws with muscles, crystalline, and legacy allures to take his shadow creatures. he was also playing two firestorms standard. Match 3-0-1, Games 7-3 Round 5 - Edward Lin - Draw-Go - Josh Lytle's deck Well in my opinion I think Josh is one of the best deckbuilders in the northwest. Edward needed a deck and Josh had just handed him this Edward was 4-0 at this point. All you need in my opinion against draw go is a few counter to stop the disk or the orangutan or disenchants. I get what I need and pull out game one. In game two he played a fourth turn disk I played a fourth turn armageddon. I quote what he said when I cast armageddon, "You've got to be shitting me." I win. Match 4-0-1, Games 9-3 Round 6 - Tim Kariel - Kariel Necro - Table 6 Tim is a PT regular and last years Northwest Regionals Champion. We have never played before but I know his deck well. In the first two games we both win one these games were the worst standard games either of us have ever played we drew nothing. In one game I took 13 from city of brass and he killed me with a bottle gnome. In the other I killed him with a winged sliver. In game three my deck worked Tim's didn't. I don't think Tim was very impressed with how I played since I was to fucking intimidated and made some mistakes, oh well. Match 5-0-1, Games 11-4 Round 7 - Kim Upper - Blue Merfolk - Table 4 In both of these games Kim played a fourth turn Waterspout and I survived with man-o-war's and winged slivers. I win a close game one with the help of a cursed scroll. In game two I get two firestorms and clear his side of the board once and kill him with the other firestorm. Wow firestorm rules! Match 6-0-1, Games 13-4 Round 8 - Andy Elovich - Counter/Hammer - Table 1 We draw we both have the same record and can make top 8. The top 8 by seed: Steven Stadnicki - Counter Sliver Chris Endes - Sligh Stephen McAdams - Counter Sliver Ben Yim - ??? Andy Elovich - Counter/Hammer (total old school like olle rade's) [Team Batcave] Alex Mitchell - Justin Schnieders Invasion Sligh Justin Rider (me) - Counter Sliver [Team Los Bastardos] Jason Dawson - Bloom (9) Bryan Petersen lost out to tie breakers (10) Chad Edwards (11) Kim Upper (12) Aaron Vanderburg (13) Gavin Kleinhen-Price (14) Ivan Royar (15) Keith Clerique (16) Jeremy Fuller Quarterfinals - Chris Endes - Sligh - Number 2 seed In game one I am playing and I mulligan down to six get two disenchants and four land. Chris whoops up on me with 2 puppies. Let the whining begin! In game two I am playing again I get six cards and a volrath stronghold, I show the crowd and mulligan. I draw my six cards guess what no land I show the crowd and mulligan. I get five cards they are 3 counterspells, 1 legacy allure, 1 volrath stronghold. I show everyone and mulligan. I sure felt like Don Gallitz last year at worlds! Chris is telling me he's sorry and so on but hey shit happens. I get three cards and a reflecting pool. I look at Chris and say if you have a wasteland your the man? Chris is THE MAN! I put my cards face up on the table knowing I am going to lose? I top deck an adarkar waste he wastelands that too. I get beaten to death by a puppy and two mogg fanatics. Steven Stadnicki beat Chris in the finals to win the Northwest Regionals! Later Justin Rider (Team Los Bastardos)