Subject: New England Regionals Tourney Report Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 00:13:40 EDT From: AceSmasha To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Here is a tourney report for the Almighty Team 36 Cheeseburgers from the New England Regionals which were held in Millis, MA. Our great team consists of:  Brian Lynch- playing Counter-Sliver(Blame it on Joules Haigh) Justin Polin(Me)- Playing Resources Denied, my twisted concoction Will Morgan- playing 5CB Jared Fernandes- playing 5CW We stayed at Brian's the night before and were up to all hours of the night playtesting and watching a South Park marathon. Will and Brian didn't get a wink of sleep, I got like 3 hours, and Jared got a decent sleep(lucky bastard). Brian had this really house Tradewind Lockdown deck that had been doing very well both at sanctioned tourneys at Rah-Coco's and The Dragon's Lair. However, he became increasingly nervous at night, and despite my reassurances he jumped to Counter Sliver when we talked to Joules Haigh at the Regionals. That was the start of a very bad day for him. Jared and Will had been getting good playtest results with their decks, so it looked that they were in for a successful day. My Resources: Denied had been doing fairly well, and I hoped that my dramatic Sideboard changes would remedy some of the deck's problems. Here it is for your viewing pleasure: 4 Wall of Roots 4 Wall of Blossoms 4 Eladamri's Vineyard 4 Creeping Mold 3 Winter's Grasp 4 Stampeding Wildebeests 4 Uktabi Orangutans 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Spike Feeders 3 River Boas 2 Lhurgoyfs 2 Arctic Wolves 10 Forests 4 Wastelands 4 Quicksands SB 4 Needle Storms 3 Desert Twisters 3 Maze of Shadows 2 Scragnoths 3 Bottle Gnomes First Round-Jared Fernandes... My own teammate!!! 5CW I could not believe this! But anyway, we had playtested, and his deck had beaten the piss out of mine, which motivated me to put the maze of shadows in the board(I'm not too crackbaby, am I?). The key thing to facing this deck was to save the creeping molds for the armors and the quicksands for shadow creatures. Game 1: We both got atrocious draws with way too much land. However, he did hit me once with the god armor before I could mold it. I took a few more hits from other sources and was at 10 before I established control. His last hurrah was a 6 point firestorm, but eventually a 13/14 lhurgoyf did him in. Game 2: Once again, we both get slow draws, but this time I have the early advantage. He manages to slow my assault and gets an armored creature and then geddons. However, time was running out on him and I managed to chump block enough creatures and get the feeder I needed to outlast him on time. It felt pretty cheesy to beat a teammate like that, though. Matches: 1-0; Games 1-0 Second Round- Chris Jarmak 5CU I had housed 5CU in playtesting so I was actually pretty confident about this matchup. It now appears that this was an incorrect assumption. I felt better at the end of the day when Chris made final 8. At least I lost to somebody good. Game 1: My early LD has no effect, and he beats me down with Whispers... Card advantage brings a Rainbow Efreet which kills me. Game 2: Once again, my early LD was ineffective, and he had control the entire game. This time he slowly and painfully decked me. Matches: 1-1; Games 1-2 Third Round- Steve Hyson Counter-Sliver Game 1: Steve gets a bad draw and I pretty much annihilate him with Land Destruction and then a Wildebeest. Game 2: The LD once again does him in. He sits on the other side of the table with a plains and 3 reflecting pools. The beatdown commences and proceeds easily. Matches: 2-1; Games 3-2 Fourth Round- Dave Darling- Volrath's Shapeshifter Deck Game 1: I won this one pretty easily. The only things I saw were counterspells and sage owls so I didn't really know what the deck was about. Game 2: Dave gets the combo with my my vineyard mana and beats me down with the phat 12/12 trampler. Game 3: I get 2 sex monkeys and save them for the inevitable phat daddy. After I destroy one I beat him down with the monkey and a boa. Matches: 3-1; Games 5-3 Fifth Round- Eric Hamilton- Sligh One thing I knew for certain is that the new changes in my deck absolutely house sligh. This game was complete domination from start to finish. However, it was a mistake that I even got paired with Eric, because there was a computer screwup which gave me 6 pts instead of 9. Plus, Eric plays at Rah- Coco's where I play and we play each other pretty frequently. Games 1 & 2: Not really much to say.... With feeders and gnomes, it isn't even close. I never go below 10 either game. Matchers: 4-1; Games 7-3 Things are starting to look up for me... If I can win two more, I may be able to draw into the final 8. So my hopes are high for round 6. Sixth Round- Chris DeRoche- Counter Hammer Game 1: It was deja-vu all over again as my early LD was ineffective and I got beat down by whispers. It seems that I was too confident about my ability to handle control. Winter Orbs are definitely going in the board. Game 2: I get a good start, and have him down to 4 when he finally establishes control. Card advantage kills me once again, in an amazingly frustrating fashion. Matches: 4-2; Games 7-5 Seventh Round- Mike Feuell AKA Elf- Two Pints Variant I'm staying in, both to get DCI points and to get the bragging rights of going 6-2(hopefully). This series was definitely the best of the day and was pretty fun. Game 1: He beats me down early, but I gain control of the board with critters and the vineyard mana does him in. Game 2: He gets the two pints combo out and I take lots of damage and lose. Game 3: This game went on forever, and had the unique distinction of him dying entirely to manaburn from the vineyard. We both had a lot on the table, but not enough to hurt each other. He never got the earthquake he needed and he died to the burn. HOORAY!!! Matches: 5-2; Games 9-6 8th Round- Ray Fucillo- Suicide Black Ray had beaten me down in T1 in Brighton, MA at a $1000 tourney to knock me out of Final 8 so this match had great sentimental value in the hope for revenge. Game 1: He gets first turn erg raider/unholy strength, then cursed scroll... He beats me down hard but I get the wildebeest/blossom combo working... I eventually draw the tang for the scroll, and control the board. I kill him with the wildebeest and vineyard. Game 2: He gets a quick shadow start, but I get the wildebeest combo working early. However, I was losing the damage race until... I topdecked the Spike Feeder... From there I rode to victory... and a 6-2 record! Matches: 6-2; Games 11-6 Not a bad day's work. I won the distinct honor of writing the tourney report since I did the best on the team. I finished 20th overall, which was one ahead of Darwin. Jared recovered from an 0-2 start and ended up 5-3, which is a huge tribute to him and his deck. He placed a respectable 33rd. Will started out 2-0, then everything went sour. He dropped at 2-2 for 97th place. Brian had the highest hopes going in but the roughest day. He not only went 1-2 to drop from the main tourney, but he also got beat down in the first round of a side tourney by a crappy necro deck. He was punished for betraying his tradewind lockdown deck. After the side tourney he went for a little golf, which Pete and Tom Guevin had a few good laughs about. But hey, we can all blame it on Joules, who told Brian to play counter sliver :) I spoke to Jamie Wakefield during the course of the day about my deck, and he especially liked the arctic wolves. He's a cool guy and I cheered him on to make final 8, but it just didn't happen, although he also went 6-2 but got a nice 11th place finish. All in all, I am pleased with the deck. It DEFINTELY needs mana control in the board so I don't get abused by whispers anymore, it was unbelievable. Anyway, this deck will be further played and there will more reports about it in the future. Props: Jared Fernandes, for going 5-3 after a bad start Jamie Wakefield, for some cool conversation Spike Feeders, for always being there when I needed them Mike Bregoli, a good player who certainly deserves nationals No slops today, Chumpstein ;) Later all, Justin Polin