Subject: 1998 Hawaii Regional Five-O Conspiracy Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 17:20:05 -1000 From: "Kristopher Lohman" To: Another season of U.S. regionals is over...and what a relief! From my own experience and from everything that is being said right now about type II, Standard is a very convoluted environment--its almost like playing Extended now; there are so many deck archetypes that are currently viable that it is very hard to determine the "metagame" and what you "should" play to deal with that particular environment. This is fairly long-winded so if you just want the report, go ahead and browse further down...you should be able to notice when it starts. Anyway, Team Five-O prepared for the month prior to the regionals trying to establish what the strongest deck in the field was. I came to my own conclusions (I said White Weenie & possibly Counter-Sliver; I also liked a Speed Black with some disruption) but as to what beat the environmental mainstays (Sligh, Big Blue, Donais 5cU or creatureless control, etc.) as well as the Foil decks, we weren't sure. Our problems were compounded somewhat by the fact that we had very limited time to playtest during this last week--it is finals week and as students...you get the picture: VERY LITTLE SLEEP AT ALL. At our last playtest session, however, I decide that Living Death is THE card that will rock everyone's world and on Friday, after waking up, I promptly build, test, and tweak a version based on my Tempest-Stronghold deck. The difference is that I get to use the incredible 187 creatures that Standard has to offer, in addition to the Machine Gun Crew (Granger & Shadow Guildmages), and the ever-lovable Quirion Ranger. Testing the deck that evening, I quickly decide that it is the deck I will play at the Regional, even if it is a little Jank. The only card that gives it trouble regularly is Armageddon--which (aside from Tradewind decks) is pretty absent. The cool thing about the Dojo and new "decktech" is that a lot of people refer to it. People read articles about how a white weenie with geddons loses to white weenie w/o geddon, but has Cursed Scroll instead, and decide to use the obviously "stronger" Cursed Scroll version--there seems to be very little tweaking done and compromises are rarely seen. I feel confident in my ability to take on any deck, with slight jitters at white weenie geddon (in fact I make some mana ratio adjustments and add my 3rd Ranger to be able to deal with an early Geddon). After playing against me, Desmond, playtesting buddy extraordinaire, decides that he wants to use the deck as well. Mark Rezendes hears about my success and decides to use it too. The next morning we wake up and get to the convention center early. We start deciding on exact Sideboard contents (I had written down a really long list of possibles) and after a brief discussion, we each vary the sideboard slightly to our individual tastes. I am missing my good luck charm though--a Charlie Brown squeeze toy my girlfriend had given me. I kindly ask another buddy, Chieh to drive me back home to get it--and he does. He's pretty cool that way. I buy him a chicken sandwich and soda on the way back to compensate him. Now on to the tourney...I'm feelin' pretty lazy, so forgive me for my cursory report of the matches Round 1 Tryon Yamaguchi Gypsy Pox I didn't know what he was playing so I try to play carefully. I'm thrown for a loop when he empties his hand on Turn 2 to play Mox: Diamond, Ensnaring Bridge and Pox. He kills one of my land and my River Boa in the process. I have remaining in my hand: Forest, City of Brass, Bottle Gnome; I think I have the game. Three turns later, a Sex-Monkey rapes his mox and its all over. Game 2: I side out my Nekrataals for three Tranquil Domains since I don't want Bottomless Pit ruining my day. Turns out to be a good choice. My Fairly small creatures beat him down--when he gets to 0 cards, the Guildmages start their Machine Gun action on him. Match 1-0 Games 2-0 Match 2 Eddie (sorry dude, don't know your last name) Game 1: I see a mountain and a Cursed Scroll first turn. YEE-HAW! My deck kills Sligh (though Mark lost his first round due to mana screw against Sligh). He gets a very quick start though and I wonder if I can survive the onslaught. When I have five land, its over...Living Death rocks his world. Game 2: More of the same...Sligh just DIES to this deck. Match 2-0 Games 4-0 Match 3 Some dude from the Big Island. Reap/Lace Game 1: His deck is really jank and his play skills are more than a little rusty but he still manages to give me a fairly hard time. Still, he uses his counters on my creatures and has none left when I decide to Living Death... Game 2: He's a little more prepared but a quick River Boa with Spike Counters spells his demise. Match 3-0 Games 6-0 Match 4 Mitchell Wilcox Blue Bounce Game 1: River Boa is too good sometimes =). Game 2: He is careful to counter my River Boas this time and starts setting up. He's too anxious though and soon he drops his hand to establish Tradewind Lock. The next turn I Living Death and get a whole lotta good stuff. Match 4-0 Games 8-0 Match 5 Gary Kamisato Big Blue Game 1: This is the third year in a row that Gary has played Big Blue at the Regional so I know what I am up against. The first game he royally kicks my ass. What the--? I've never lost a match to him, and I don't want to start now. Game 2: I get a pretty incredible draw and promptly beat him down. Game 3: He plays very defensive and manages to stop a quick offensive on my part. He slaps down disk and I wonder if I can pull this out. I put down my own creatures and force him to disk. He then casts Rainbow Efreet with only 1 blue mana available. I think YES!!! and proceed to Living Death the next turn--I now have seven creatures on the board including 2 Guildmages...Rather than try to go through his quicksands (he had three) I start the Machine Gun action and win on my very last turn when he allows me to have a Quirion Ranger. He was going to die the next turn anyway, but if he countered it, he would've gotten a draw. Matches 5-0 Games 10-1 Match 6 Tyron Yamaguchi White Weenie (and brother of the Pox player) Game1: Tyron is an extremely cool guy that had never beaten me in competitive Constructed Magic play...I offer the draw--he already has one so it is a risk for him and he declines. This game, he enforces Mana screw with a double wasteland draw. I don't recover. Game 2: I get some basic land (always good) and my Volrath's Stronghold. I put out the stronghold on the third turn as bait for a Wasteland and he bites...I put out a horde which he wraths. I put out more creatures to stall his geddon and it works (don't know if he actually had it though). He puts out some more creatures and I intuition. The next turn I living death and its over. Game 3: I am stuck with one land...I get run over. 'Nuf said. Matches 5-1 Games 11-3 Match 7 Dave Bull Counter-Sliver Dave is another person that has never beat me in competitive play so I offer the draw. His tiebreakers are on the lower end so its a risk for him. He accepts though. Matches 5-1-1 Games 11-3-1 I'm in the Top eight seeded 3rd. Dave Bull is seeded 6th. So we get to play out our draw match. Game 1: He gets mana glut, but I play carefully and it takes me a very long time to kill him. Game 2: He gets mana screwed and I promptly pound him. He did get up to four mana by fourth turn though...he stole my Bird of Paradise with a 3rd turn Legacy's allure. He Lobotomies me and sees Spike Feeder, Volrath's Stronghold, and Living Death. Without Wastelands or geddon, he has no way of dealing with stronghold--so that's what he took. He can't mount an offense and starts taking a beating from two spike feeders. Sorry Dude...I hate when that happens. you almost pulled it out though. Semifinal match Kwan Lau Game 1: Kwan is Tyron's good friend and they are playing similar decks. He beats me down while I am manascrewed. Game 2: I'm manascrewed again but manage to put up a fight. He tithes three times and I can tell he's looking for 'Geddon. Especially since he only plays three land on the board. When I intuition for 2 Knights of Mist and a Spike Feeder, he suspects an impending Living Death and plays accordingly. He starts chumpblocking everything and soon I have board control...I could hardly believe it. I Was trying to prepare for living death, but still needed one land (and I didn't get it for some time). He realizes that he is now losing and starts putting out his army of En-Kors. I blessing away his evasion creatures from his graveyard, draw a land and the following turn, I living death. It's all good. Game 3: I get one of the best hands I've ever had with this deck including lots o' land (TM). I am winning the creature war, so geddon is out of the question. He does put out a falcon with two empyrial armours though and gets me down to 5. He puts on the second armour because otherwise, I win the damage race with what is on the board. Anyway, I then Nekrataal it and beat the snot out of him. Yeehaw! Final match Tyron Yamaguchi We are both tired so I offer a 60/40 split of the money and bragging rights to the winner of one game. Odds are on him since he plays with enforced manascrew. However all he gets is land and geddons. I kill him with a whole lot o stuff. Bummer for him. I feel I would have beat him in five and felt robbed in our previous match, but we both got invitations so its really not that big of a deal. Since decklistings are gonna be public anyway, let me show it here with our official name: Five-O Conspiracy: 4 Spike Feeder 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Living Death 4 Granger Guildmage 3 Shadow Guildmage 3 River Boa 3 Intuition 3 Quirion Ranger 3 Nekrataal 3 Uktabi Orangutan 2 Bottle Gnomes 2 Gaea's Blessing 4 Undiscovered Paradise 3 City of Brass 2 Reflecting Pool 4 Swamp 9 Forest Sideboard: 3 Tranquil Domain 2 Pyroblast 2 Dauthi Mindripper 2 Null Rod 2 Anvil of Bogardan 2 Ebony Charm 2 Knight of the mists Hope you enjoy... --Kristopher Lohman questions or comments? Email me at lohman@hawaii.edu