Subject: South Regionals Report (Texas) Date: Tue, 19 May 1998 10:14:56 -0500 From: "JMCRider" To: The title for this South Regionals report is: How a scrub can go 6-2 while enduring dehydration and possible death by inferno. Another Team TGC (thats Texas Game Company for those that don't know, we just formed and we will be on the rampage in Texas...) report. 266 participants endured the friggin 85+ degree playing room in the Ramada Inn for the South Regionals. Our team showed up in force each towing their respective deck. In that mix was 3 steel necros, 3 counter-slivers, 1 tradewind-geddon, 1 counter-shard and 1 counter-lobotomy. We were anticipating alot of sliver decks along with sligh, a generous portion of prosbloom and tradewind geddon, and a splash of control. We were pretty dead on, except for the presence of white-weenie. Of the few that I saw, they were all doing pretty well. At one point one of my teammates, J.T. saw 2 slighs to the left of him, 2 slighs to the right of him and his opponent was playing guess what? Yeah, you know. 266 people meant 9 rounds of swiss...oh joy. I had pretty much decided that I was gonna go with steel necro about a month ago. There was nothing in the environment that staggered me. I knew against prosbloom I was doomed unless god draw came to help me, but I felt that the disruption element could help me eliminate the control decks. So with a TON of help from my teammates, I played this: 14 swamp 4 wasteland (why any mono-color deck would'nt play with 4 escapes me) 3 quicksand 1 stalking stones 1 volrath's stronghold 4 dark ritual 4 drain life 3 necropotence 1 infernal tribute 4 disco de nevinyrral 4 steel golem 4 diabolic edict 4 funeral charm 4 stupor 2 coercion 3 spinning darkness bored 3 ebony charm (anti-recursion) 2 evincar's justice (anti-sliver/weenie) 2 dread of night (duh...) 2 perish (duh...) 1 stronghold taskmaster (last minute decision...only used him twice and never saw!) 3 mana web (secret sideboard sauce vs. lame control decks like DONAIS 5CU!) 2 touchstone (anti-worb) The deck was probably not the best for the environment, but like I said if I get my disruption early enough I felt I could take anyone down. I almost didn't play it because I had so much trouble with control. But at the last moment my teammates and I were debating on the issue of adding LD to the board for the control decks when it hit me. Mana Web. Donais plays with all the funky land. If he ever gerrys or blessings, he most certainly will have to tap out under the web. My teammate Curtis tested it and BINGO! He slammed donais up and down. He would tap out for gaeas. Bang! Stupor, Coercion, Ebony Charm. GAME OVER! I saw some posts on various web sites for a suicide black deck and as a quick 'fill a spot in my board to make 15 before I register my deck' the taskmaster was brought in. Round 1 vs. Rick Burton playing B/R beatdown with winter orbs. I should be brief here: He schooled me hard. If any deck was geared up for mine, this was it. I had played Rick before in other tournments. I believe he's from Houston. Anyhow He had the fanatic/acid sliver/barrow synergy working under worb tech kicking both games on me. First game all my disruption does is fill his grave full of barrow ghoul 'happy meals.' and he runs over mr. 3/4 golem who provides a mere speed bump for mr. ghoul. I didn't see worb in the first game and I looked at my touchstones but I figured he would go with sandy golems. I open up with the first turn ritual, coercion. He has a couple critters and the dreaded forsaken wastes. Ugh! Please get rid of that. He goes ok. Fanatic. I go lay a land and charm da fantastic. He goes and lays acid sliver. I say ok and lay my golem, tapping out. BANG!!! Worb. Ow! Anyhow I keep him on defense for all of about a turn and a half after which I stupor him and drop more critters into his grave and he kindly throws down mr ghoul. I let it beat on me early. Then he drops more fanatics and then mr ghouls brother comes out and its a tag team affair. After much fuss and around 15 minutes later, my first round is over. 0-2-0 game, 0-1-0 matches. Oh happy happy joy joy...now I have to run the gauntlet to even have a friggin chance. Well at least I lost to a decent player with a nice deck. It's gonna be a LONG day. Round 2 vs. Tim Dryden (can't be sure on the last name) playing R/W Maniac/Kor combo. Tim was a cool guy and we had a cool match. Unfortunately for him I had just come from my first loss and was still seething from it. I killed everything that hit the board, necro'd for about 3,000 and just outdrew him and killed him with golem beatdown. Second game was much of the same with me getting a disk out, killing all on the board, dropping a dread of night and delivering with golem. To his credit, he was kinda mana screwed and the match-up was bad vs. his deck. With 28 billion ways to kill critters, even pro. black ones, no critter based deck has a chance vs. steel necro (except maybe slivers.) 2-2-0 games, 1-1-0 matches Well thats more like it. At this point my whole team is like 2-0 except for 2 of the necro players. Gosh us necro players suck... Round 3 vs. Kevin Bemefield (can't be sure on the last name) playing G/W spiked goodness. This round I am faced against a wall. This guy has no emotion whatsoever. No response to my humor. I want to reach over and check his pulse. Kevin, if you see this post, I hereby dub thee, "The Iceman." Anyhow we start and he drops some spike feeders, I think I saw muscle slivers and green guildmages too. He beats on me early making me go defensive prematurely. Finally a disco shows up. Thank goodness I coercion'd his monkey the turn before. I blow the disco up, drop my fat golem and let him earn his paycheck. Somewhere in there Kevin decides the man upstairs must call down the 'thunder' on golem and he wraths. Then decides that real estate prices suck and geddons. I have to ritual, necro and dig for land. Drain him, tribute the disco and recall mr golem via stronghold. He drops a fat lhurgoyf but luckily I had an edict and threw louie off the damn boat. I board in the perishes. This game there isn't much to say, I ritual out golem and deliver as he was mana screwed at one land. He actually speaks to me and complains about the mana screw. I feel his pain but I'll take it. 4-2-0 games, 2-1-0 matches. Close first game, but mana screw the second. I'll take that little bit of luck. Round 4 vs. Kent Bridge playing Donais 5CU with shards. I sit down and wait for my opponent. 5 minutes tick by. Hmmm...FREEBIE! Of course that sucks as far as tiebreakers are concerned. Come to find out, dork blind fool that I am, I read the wrong seat. Opps...thank god that they were cool and we quickly got underway. First game goes relatively quickly as I get zero disruption. He monkeys a golem and after he gets his 8th land with 7 cards in hand and starts whispering I quickly concede so as he doesnt draw the match out until infinity. In with secret sauce of mana webs. I get my dream draw. 2 rituals, 1 necro, 2 mana webs, 1 swamp, 1 wasteland. I do the first turn necro and grab five cards. He lays a pool I think. I lay the wasteland, dust his pool, ritual out the web. A few turns later he drops a monkey, tapping out for it. I drop the other web. Cha Ching! You say, "So you won right?" I respond, "No, you see..." I had necro'd myself down to 1 life. Thats 19 cards without golem, disk, tribute. I drain him for 5. Then necro for 5. None showed up then either. I drain him for 5 again. I necro for 5 AGAIN. Nothing. Let's do the math...29 cards + 7 in hand = 36 cards. 4 golem, 2 disk (post-sideboard), 1 tribute. That's 7 cards. Thats 43 cards in which nothing appeared. A few turns later, fireball for 1. GAME. Well let's not say I had a laugh at the irony of it... 4-4-0 games, 2-2-0 matches. At this point I would normally drop, but since my teammates were doing well, (2 were 4-0, 1 was 3-1) I decided to stick it out and try and buffer my rating. Round 5 vs. Vincent Johnson playing Prosbloom. I know Vincent from Game Chest here in Dallas. We aren't formally introduced but we have seen each other on occasion which lead to a nice match. First turn I lay a swamp and he does the same. I know the reputation of those who play a Game Chest. They are all a bunch of Bloom lovers. So I say to Vincent, "If you lay a forest and a squandered, I think I might cry." He smiles and proceeds to just do that. I groan. I really didn't hit him with enough disruption and I know he is gonna go off. I have a golem in play however and I lay a disk. He goes off on his following turn. You say, "Bummer, so you lost." I respond, "No, you see..." He goes off and dumps everything into a 22 point drain. I sigh in relief as I respond with spinning darkness on my golem for 3. I'm at one. My turn? He decides to try for the deck but after I wasteland his next land he concedes. So what exactly can I board for prosbloom. Uh nothing. I do however put some mana webs in there. They never mattered. Vincent got a poor draw, tried to go off but just couldn't pull the cards. Whew! He said that all prosbloom players got those draws all day. Can't really say I'm sorry cause I can't wait for the tempest block to replace the mirage block cause I hate the mirage block. Broken wisdom, broken blessing, broken armor...thank god you are gone in a couple of months. 6-4-0 games, 3-2-0 matches. It doesn't really matter since it's all for fun for me now. But hey I'll keep going and get some points hopefully. Game 5 vs. Jeff Fink playing The Trap. Fink was from Team Oklahoma. Anyhow I get the first turn coercion and see he has 3 diamonds, land and a pendrell mists. Oh joy. Trap. Just what I need some recurring deck nightmare. Fine I say. I pull the mist. I get a disk out. He blesses for his mists back. I say fine and we play on while he puts out 3 diamonds while I have my disk sitting there waiting for any enchantment to hit the board. I have another disk and I was just about to cast it, then in response blow the other disk so I could slow him down when I hear FIRE! The stench of burn comes from somewhere. The lights go out. My opponent and I gaze the hall and people are running for the exit. Apparently a friggin lamp in the room caught fire or something and people bolted for the exit. My opponent GLADLY scoops his cards up as they announce there will be new pairings. GRRRRR....Oh well. A few minutes later we were allowed back into the reeking hall. So in reality it was.... Round 5 vs. Patrick Ockershauser (sp?) playing U/w tradewind geddon control. Come to find out this guy is a teammate of Jeff Fink, my opponent under the fire event. Also unknownst to me was my round 4 opponent who was playing the Donais 5CU was his teammate too. We were chatting about the decks that we saw today when I mentioned that I ran into a Donais 5CU being played by a 'scumbag.' I didn't mean to call the guy that. I was merely releasing my frustration. He was an ideal opponent. I guess I just meant only a frustrating scumbag would play that deck. Either way I hope Patrick and Kent were not offended. First game he comes out with early allures and a ophie that I edict. A tradewind hits and I am holding 3 golems. Joy. I wait for a disk, then cast all my disruption at him. He taps out and I kill his tradewind. He kindly taps 4 mana and puts out another. I wasteland one of his two untapped lands and drop disco. He armageddons. Ok...no problem. I draw a wasteland and disk it all away. Next 2 cards are swamps, golem comes out and beatdown ensues. Mana webs make their way back into the deck. This game isn't really much to tell. Wastelands keep him mana shy. I get my web, tribute and disk out. He lays 2 allures. Damn. I sit there for a few turns building up my hand size with necro/tribute combo, all the while disrupting his hand. Then I disk. Drop golem and again he goes the distance. 8-4-0 games, 4-2-0 matches. Well the web actually did pretty good vs. control. It forces the tap out and allows my disruption to totally rape my opponent. Note to self: Maybe mirage block isn't that bad after all... Round 7 vs. Tom Lafleur playing 5CG Hermits/Misery/Revenent goodness. Tom was the ideal opponent for me. We both talked and had a great match. If only all opponents were more like us. I mean usually I get opponents like the ones that have never heard of 'running water' or deodorant, the 13 year old with a mouth like a sailor, or "The Iceman." Anyhow Tom starts off with stardard birdies and elves which I charm or edict away, after a few turns I get a disk out and he drops a tradewind. I decide to keep the disk out and edict the tradewind, lay a necro, gain some cards while he lays another Captain Dee. Kaboom...I nuke the world. Drop my fat golem and he goes the distance even thou revenents made cameo appearances. (I threw them off the boat too...) Second game is pretty much the same except I remember he was light on mana and I was able to disrupt him early enough to prevent the misery combo. I believe a x2 ritual'd drain finished it. 10-4-0 games, 5-2-0 matches. Wow revenants are even more ugly than lhurgoyfs...thank god for edict. Wizards R&D, I humbly thank you for edict. Round 8 - vs. Eli Hainzipta (sp?) playing B/U/R Goodstuff. Another player from Oklahoma...geez they are out in force too. Eli had just about everthing in his deck. Ophies, lobotomy, 187's, incinerate, quake, whispers, and a bunch of nastys. I know cause I did a first turn coercion. It was kinda scary playing him cause I never knew what he was gonna do. He layed a furnace early in our first game and gave him kudos for playing it standard. He did lobotomy my drains and I was lucky to win the first game with golems. Second game I disrupt him early and keep his hand size low. Wastelands keep his mana low as well but somewhere in there he lays a forsaken wastes. YOUCH! I quickly drop a disk and wait a while since I had higher life. He goes into burn mode. I blow the disk, drain him for good measure and finally win via big drain. 12-4-0 games, 6-2-0 matches. Eli was a cool opponent. Man don't ya just hate when people play decks like that? Ya never know what goodness is gonna sprout out. After checking the overall records I conclude that my entire team and I have no chance for top 8. Actually I knew that my day was over in round 4, but ya can't blame me for trying. Some of my other teammates were doing well and somehow lost to sligh. We had a 5-0 player and a 4-1. Both lost to sligh, the 5-1 guy coming back and winning his next match, then dropped another game to sligh. That's just horrible. You can dedicate 8 slots in your sideboard to destroy sligh and still lose. Ain't magic just so much fun. I hung out for a while afterwards and found out that some players were complaining about Team Oklahoma cheating in the team event. I played 3 of them, (4 counting the fire drill) and they were all pretty cool and didn't seem to be the cheating kind, however if they did then that really blows. If a team has to resort to that to somehow 'salvage' their tournament experience then perhaps it's time for me to quit playing. (Who am I kidding? I'm like a mad drugged out crack head for this game) Anyhow I had a great time and with all the craziness Ed Fox ran a nice tournament. Just a hint of advise, next time get a hotel with like mad air conditioning. Sitting cramped up with a bunch of sweaty guys around ya really has to go. I'd like to congratulate my new teammates and sponsor Texas Game Company on a fine first showing. All the hard work testing really paid off. Watch out for us...we'll be out there. Keith Williams Member of Team TGC